said of it is but like the painting of the fire to the eye which expresseth not the pain and anguish that is in it unto the Senses For if we understand by Death a Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Death I may allude to what the Psalmist saith of the Power of God's Anger Who knows the Power of thine Anger So who knows the dreadfulness of the Horror and Pain that is contained in thee O Death according to our Fear of thee So yea and much greater is the Misery which the wrath of God by thee inflicts upon all those that live and dye in their sins But though Death be thus terrible yet is it the more common acceptation of it that chiefly affects the generality of Mankind for as for Spiritual Death or Death in sin because of the present pleasures and Delights which bewitch the Senses this they are insensible of And as for Eternal Death that is looked upon by many as a Dream or Notion as a thing that may never be or if among some it be credited for a Truth yet is it looked upon as that which is a great way off and if the terror of it doth startle the Consciences of some yet are they soon quieted with such thoughts as these Christ dyed for all and God is a merciful God and so they hope all shall be well with them But now for Temporal Death which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body this is so much Death to them that they think there is no other but that at least they apprehend none so prejudicial to them This is a Truth so evident that which way soever they go or turn objects of Mortality present themselves before their eyes in the Death of Friends Relations and others whereby the reigning Power of Death over all is visible sweeping away all Men before it into the Grave the place of silence and rottenness yea themselves are not without some symtoms of their approaching dissolution diseases and distempers as well as business and employments wasting and consuming their bodies dayly whereby they may be convinced that they also are made of the same Mould and must shortly be crumbled into the same Dust with others Thus Death meeting with them so often and staring them so frequently in their faces gives them to understand that there is no way for them to escape its stroke the thoughts whereof cannot but now and then make them fear and tremble But though nothing be more certain than Death yet nothing is more uncertain than the Time of Death For though all shall dye yet all do not dye at the same time nor after the same manner To some God gives long Warning Nature wasting and consuming in them by lingring Distempers with others God is more quick shooting them with an Arrow as it were and suddenly they are wounded unto Death and Destruction Some their hoary Heads are found in the Way of Righteousness and they come to their Graves in a good old Age others arise early to that height of Impiety that the Earth groans under the burthen of their great Wickedness and God is so provoked thereby that he causeth the Earth to swallow them up quick to some the Promise of Long Life made for an Encouragement to Obedience and Holy Walking is turned into a Performance God satissying them with length of days and then leaves them to depart in peace shewing them his Salvation others God cuts off in the midst of their days and of their sins also and they go down quick into the Grave and into Hell too Though the days of a good Man at the most are but few yet because of some special Goodness they are often prolonged so though the days of a wicked Man at the most are but few yet because of some special Wickedness they are often shortned The Wise Man proves this Assertion Prov. 10.27 The fear of the Lord prolongeth or adds to days but the days of the wicked shall be shortned As every Man because he is a Sinner shall live but few days so some shall not live half their days because they are Notorious Sinners The short of it is this Death doth not always give Warning how many rise in the Morning that make their Beds in the Grave before the Evening How many go well to Bed at Night whose Sleep is their Death and they arise no more until the Morning of the Resurrection How often have we seen many projecting for themselves and theirs great things in the World laying house to house and land to land that with the Fool in the Gospel they might eat drink be merry for many year when on a sudden or in that very Night their souls have been taken from them To presume therefore of Long Life and thereupon to neglect to prepare for Death is the great 〈◊〉 piece of Folly imaginable for scarce is 〈…〉 Week passeth over our heads wherein we may not hear of some or other that are suddenly gone into another World and that which hath been the Case of others may be ours also It is the sad Condition of a wicked Man let him dye how and when he will he dies miserably if Death cut him off suddenly then he goes down quick into Hell that Gulf of all Woe and Misery If Death gives him long Warning by a succession of many years distempers yet all this while he doth but pine away in his Iniquity and encreaseth his Misery when Death shall cut him off and throw him into that place of Torment the pain and anguish whereof is so great that it cannot be sufficiently expressed no not by them that feel it But now it is the happiness of a godly Man let him dye never so suddenly yet he always dyes happily because he is in a state of Peace and Reconciliation with God it is true he may dye without a sence and feeling of that Peace and so his passing thorow the Valley of the Shadow of Death may be terrible to him but still God is with him and though the eye of his Faith be held so that he cannot discern him to be his God though his Rod and his Staff do not comfort him yet they do support and strengthen him and as soon as Death hath opened his eyes he beholds the face of God to his everlasting joy and satisfaction Doth Death then come certainly and sometimes suddenly It is thy Wisdom O Christian always to be prepared for it and then let it come when it will tho' this Night thou maist bid it welcome But as Mans Life is short and frail so is his Death sure and certain for it is the common lot 〈◊〉 Men. Man saith Job that is all Men are good 〈◊〉 dye it is the way of all the Earth it is the end of all Men. Who is he that lives and shall not see Death No Man can redeem his Brothers no nor his own Life from Death that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption
such a sufficient Ransome no man can give to God Christ is indeed become a Ransome for Believers but it is to deliver them not from the first but from the second Death for as to the first Death it is appointed unto all Men once te dye Some have a longer time in this world and others a shorter but all dye one goes before and another follows after one Man rots in the Grave and makes it empty that he which is yet alive may have a place to lye down therein We all dwell in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust which will shortly tumble down into it Earthly Tabernacles we have that must be dissolved and laid in the Earth here we have no abiding place Death and the Grave will shortly take all for all go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Eccles 3.20 Some are sent before and others follow after but all go the same way some have a long Race to run others but a short but Death is at the end of both To him that is old Death is certainly near and to him that is young Death is not far off He that dyes not till he is old travels a long way before he meets with Death whereas he that dyes young hath but a short way to his long home Death meeting him betimes but still whither young or old all must dye the decree is gone forth and there is no reversing of it There is an appointed time to Man upon Earth as Job speaks and when that is expired Death cuts him off and throws him into the Grave the house appointed for all living Death is inexorable it spares none and the Grave is in atiable it is not satisfied with any when it hath the Husband it gapes for the Wife when it hath the Parent it gapes for the Child when it hath one Generation it gapes for another one Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh and the latter crowds the former out of the world No Man hath a dispensation against Death there must be a dissolution of all things and therefore a dissolution of all Men. No Man hath more Priviledge than another against the Sentence of Death the greatest Prince dyes as soon as the meanest Peasant Neither Power nor Wisdom neither Strength nor Riches neither Beauty nor Honour nor any outward Excellency whatsoever can protect any against the stroke of Death these things can do much among Men yea every thing but they avail not against Death powerful Death despiseth them all Power can do nothing to ward off the stroke of Death from any where is Alexander and Casar and all the Great Conquerors of the World why they and all their Greatness and Power are gone down into the Grave and after all their Conquests over others have yielded themselves up as conquered by Death There is no Title can be given unto Man which sets him farther off from Death than to call him God and this high Title God himself hath honoured some Men with Psal 82.6.7 I said ye are Gods but least they should be lifted up with Pride with the same Breath he adds an humbling Consideration to take down all proud and lofty Thoughts but ye shall dye like Men. Kings and Princes that are the greatest for worldly Power and have the priviledge to be called Gods yet have they not the priviledge of God not to dye like men No Mans Wisdom can save him from dying Death will be too hard for the most cunning Politician Wisdom is an excellent Gift of God and renders a Person lovely in the Eyes of all it makes a mans face to shine it sets a Glory and Beauty upon a Mans Person and Actions a Man can hardly give a greater Commendation of any Man than to say he is a Wise Man and yet of Solomon not only the wisest of Kings but the wisest of Men it is said than he stept with his Fathers as well as others and though he tells us Wisdom excells Folly as far as Light excells Darkness yet we know wise men dye as well as the foolish and bruitish person We read indeed of a poor Wise Man that by his Wisdom delivered a City but we never read of any that by their Wisdom delivered themselves or others from Death no for as there is no work no levise in the Grave whither we are going so is there no Knowledge or Wisdom that can keep a man from going into the Grave Eccless 9.10 No Man by his strength can overcome Death Bodily health and strength are no defence at all against Death It is true they are great Mercies where God gives them unto any a sickly weakly Man is burthensome to himself and others though God heaps upon him other Mercies in abundance as Wealth Honours and Relations yet he takes little delight in them the want of Health imbitters all whereas a Man that is hcalthful and strong takes delight in every Comfort and Enjoyment though it be even poor and mean in comparison of what others have but though health and strength be so great a Mercy yet can they not withstand the Power of Death they may make a man dye with strong pains upon his bed but they cannot defend him against Death If God bestow upon any of us a strong healthy Body it is a great Mercy and we ought to be thankful for it but we may be soon laid in the Grave for all that Death should not be a stranger to us because sickness and distempers are strange things to us for we have not long Life much less can we escape the stroke of Death because we are bealthy and strong for in the fullness of our strength we may be in Death one dyeth in the fullness of his strength when his Bones are full of Marrow As for the strength of any Man though he be a Sampson yet this great Leviathan Death counts it but as straw and the soundest and purest health but as rotten wood David complains that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him But there are none such that are too hard for Death Death stays not to take men at advantage when they are weakned with age and sickness as Simeon and Levy did the Schecemites when they were sore Gen. 34.25 No Death can do its work as easily and as speedily in health as in sickness in strength as under weakness No man by his Riches can protect himself against Death all the Riches in the world are too low a Value to ransome any from Death and the Grave Solomon tells us Money answers all things and indeed rich Men can do great things by their Wealth many seek the favour of such their Riches make them many Friends The Wise Man tells us The rich mans wealth is his strong City Prov. 18.11 by reason whereof they trust to their Wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches thinking they are well provided for against all Evils What made
and he cannot go beyond it But Job further explains it in the next Words Are not his days as the days of an Hireling Now an Hireling is one that hath days or time prefixed or set which he must fulfil and then he is discharged from his Employment And so it is with Man God hath set him his Time which when he hath accomplished Death by God's Appointment comes and dischargeth him from his Work so in Job 14.5 Job tells us Mans days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds beyond which he cannot pass And all the days of my appointed Time saith he will I wait till my Change shall come Mans Life is appointed and fixed by God his days are determined by him We know not how long we shall live but God doth he gives us out our days and our months by Tale the number of his months are with thee Whatever Man is Lord of he is not Lord of his Time We cannot dispose of one minute for our selves or â—thers We live not by our own Wills if we did who would dye Nor do we live at the Will of others for who of us then would live or at least â—ive long But we live at the Will of God Tenants we are at his Will he gives us the Lease of our Lives and for what Years he pleaseth He is Lord of Time and therefore he hath Power to appoint to one man a greater to another man a lesser measure of Time as seems good unto him David therefore when his Enemies were taking Counsel against him to take away his Life bears up his Spiris with this as a comfortable Consideration My Times are in thy hands O Lord Psal 31 15. The Jews we know design'd the Death of Christ a long time but they could not accomplish it till his hour was come and therefore when he was brought before Pilate to be judged says Pilate to him Knowest thou not that I have Power to Crucify thee and have Power to release thee No says Christ thou hast no such Power of thy self neither couldst thou have any such Power except it were given thee from above What Christ said of himself is true of every Man he lives not after nor dyes before his hour is come Our Friends cannot lengthen our days nor can our Enemies shorten them no it is God that holds our Souls and Lives in being and when he pleaseth and not before we return unto our Dust. God hath determined our days to us and God keeps the reckoning of our days for us and if as our Lord tells us That a Sparrow falls not to the ground without our Father and that the very hairs of our heads are all numbred Surely then the days of our Lives are numbred The hairs of the head are the meanest part of us and indeed but a stringy Excrement and there are such numerous multitudes of them that it is a kind of a Wonder that they can be numbred or any Account kept of them but yet to shew that the Providence of God extends its self to the least things it extends to the numbring of our hairs much more than to the numbring of our days But. Though Death observes the Order and Appointment of God yet it observes no Order among men It fears none for their greatness nor spares none for their goodness nor despiseth any for their lowness Though Christians are Souldiers and in a continual Warfare with their Spiritual Enemies obeying the Commands of the Captain of their Salvation while they live yet do they observe no Order nor keep to any Rule in dying The Old go not always before the Young nor the Rich before and the Poor following after Death hath no Master of Ceremonies but it takes promiscuously here a Child and there a Man here a Rich Man and there a Beggar here a strong Man and there a weak Man here a Master and there a Servant The Law of Nature saith that a Man in his full strength is not so likely to dye as one that is wither'd with Old Age it sets Death further off from one whose breasts are full of milk and their bones moistened with marrow The Law of Nature saith O Death go to the wrinkled face to the dry bones to those the Infirmities and Weaknesses of whose Age are so many and so afflictive that they seem to have no Pleasure in their Lives but are desirous of thy presence and company O Death for their ease and relief But O meddle not with this gâ—odly young Man or that beautiful Woman alas they are but now in the flower of their days and in the prime of their years and therefore spare them But Death will not Answer nor Regard these Requests for Death observes not the Law of Nature but the Appointments of God who is the Lord of Nature We see it therefore daily Death knocks as often at the young Man's door as at the old Man's and as frequently carries the strong and healthful Man Prisoner to the Grave as the weak and sickly And as there is no Order observed in Death so is there none in the Grave Death and the Grave are the two great Levellers of Mankind While Men live there is and there ought to be distinctions among them God hath appointed it so and Men ought to observe it acknowledging the power and greatness of those that are in high Places For as the Scripture observes as there is one Glory of the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in Glory 1 Cor. 15. and 41. And as there is difference in the Celestial Glories so also is there in the Terrestrial there is a Glory belonging unto Kings there is a Glory belonging unto Noble-Men and a Glory belonging unto Common People all have not nor ought to have the same Glory but one Man differs from another Man in Glory But when Death comes there is an end of all these distinctions the Grave mingles the Dust and Pones of the one with the other We cannot there distinguish the rich Man's Dust from the poor Man's nor the Bones of Kings from those of their lowest Subjects Rich Men indeed descend with greater Pomp into the Grave and are buried in more eminent Places and under more stately Monuments But though great Men's Tombs differ from their Inferiours yet their Bones do not but the Worms feed upon all alike While Men walk upon this Dust their distances are many but when they lie down in the Dust they are all alike Civil Differences then all cease and Moral Differences only take place and according as Men have been or done good or evil here so shall they be differenced for ever hereafter If it be demanded now how Man came to be notal I answer Not by Creation for he was created as in a holy so in a deathless State Immortality was a part of God's Image at first
to the Soul 's everlasting Comfort and Consolation when Death shall bring it to appear before him Thirdly Would you be prepared for Death get sin pardoned and labour much after the Assurance of it Sin is the cause of death the means by which Death came into the World had there been no sinning there would have been no dying but sin coming into the World death came along with it Rom. 5.12 As by one Man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned By sinning against God Man is come under a necessity of dying The wages of sin says the Apostle is Death nay sin is that which gives Death its sting so we read 1 Cor. 15. and 56. The sting of Death is sin This is it which gives Death its power and makes it so dreadful and because of Guilt lying on the Soul makes it unfit to die But now where the Soul is sprinkled with the Blood of Christ the Guilt of Sin taken away by an Act of Pardon and Forgiveness that Soul is prepared to receive and entertain Death whensoever it comes and though it make not that Death shall not be yet it makes that Death shall not hurt for Sin is pardoned Sin is that which makes the Soul cry out bitterly under the Apprehonsions of Death and of the Wrath of God Oh that I had never committed such and such Sins Why know O pardoned Sinner thou hast thy wish for God when he pardons Sin makes it to be as if it had never been committed Things forgotten are no more to us than as if they had never been Why now says God I will forgive their Iniquities and I will remember their Sins no more And doth God O fearful Soul make thy Sins to be as if they had never been by his pardoning Grace and Mercy and shall not thy former fears of Sin and of Death by Reason of Sin be now as if they had never been Thou need'st not fear O trembling Soul that thou shalt ever be questioned again for those Sins that God hath once forgiven thee God's Acts of Oblivion can never be repealed for the Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance Guilt binds a Sinner over unto Punishment no wonder then that an unpardoned Sinner who is unfit to die is afraid of Death for whenever Death comes to such a Soul it comes with a deadly incurable Sting Death to an unpardoned Sinner is Death with a witness for it is Death and Hell in to the Bargain But now to a pardoned Sinner let Death come when and how it will he is prepared for it his Condition is safe he cannot be miserable Death may kill him but it cannot hurt him and therefore what need he fear it Now if you would know the Safety and Happiness of your Condition labour for an Assurance that your Sins are pardoned Your future Happiness depends upon the pardon of Sin but your present Comfort depends upon your Assurance that Sin is pardoned He whose Sins are pardoned dies safely but he who knows his Sins are pardoned dies comfortably Pardon of Sin frees from Condemnation but it is Assurance of Pardon that brings Peace and Comfort That Man is not so ready to die nor in such a prepared Frame of Soul for Death as he ought to be in who though his Sins are pardoned and thereby he hath a Right and Title unto Heaven yet walks in the dark and is at Vncertainties whether his Sins are pardoned or not for as our pardon of Sin is necessary to our dying happily so the Assurance of our Pardon is necessary to our dying comfortably Take a Man that is at a loss and under Doubts and Fears that his Sins are not pardoned if Death should come to him while he is under those Doubts and Fears with what difficulty would he make a shift to die How hardly would he be brought to it What Pretences and Excuses would he make Alas says he I know not where I am nor what Death will do with me and though I am so sick that I cannot live yet I am so afraid I dare not die for I know not whither I am going nor where my Dwelling shall be for ever whether in Heaven or in Hell O what shall I do therefore But now he whose Sins are not only pardoned but he walks daily under the comfortable Assurance thereof it being sealed and witnessed to him by the Spirit of God which Spirit as the Apostle saith witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God If Death comes to him he rejoiceth for saith he I know that if my earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved I have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens The Sum of all is this Pardon of Sin is very good for it is our Safety for they that are pardoned shall certainly be saved but to have Sin not only pardoned but to have the Assurance that it is pardoned this is much better For God to love us so as to pardon and accept us is the ground of our Hopes for Heaven hereafter But to have God manifest his Love and to assure us that he loves us is our Heaven on this side Heaven And the more we have of this Assurance the more joyfully and comfortably shall we be able to pass through a dying Hour Fourthly Would you be prepared for Death labour for Hearts and Affections crucified to the World and all things here below It is impossible we should ever be willing to leave the World when God calls us hence till we have first learned to use the World as if we used it not 1 Cor. 7. and 31. For if our Affections are set upon worldly Things and our hearts engaged in an eager prosecution of them it will be as Death to us before we die to think of parting with them and much more unwilling shall we be to take our everlasting Farewel of them when Death comes to us in good earnest This is commonly the Temper or rather the Distemper of most Men the Delights and Accommodations that God affords them for their more comfortable passage through this World and to encourage them with greater Chearfulness to serve him have got such an Interest in their Hearts and Affections that they prize and value them above measure The Love of the World and the things of the World is grown so prevalent with many that if they might have their Desires they would not care for nor trouble themselves with any other Heaven but would be content to live here always saying Let us build Tabernacles nay let us have a continuing City here But O Lord forgive them for they know not what they say They never experimentally tasted the Excellency and Sweetness of Heaven and heavenly Things and that is the Reason they are so in love with Earth and earthly Things Now what wonder is it that those who place their Happiness
Souls after the enjoyment of God and Christ both Martyrs and others O cryeth one the Love of Christ in my Heart casteth a mighty heat he knoweth that the desire I have to be with him paineth me I have sick Nights and frequent fits of Love Fevers for my well-beloved Nothing is so painful to me as the want of his presence but it is a sweet pain O that he would cool my Love-Fever for him with real enjoyment of him O Great King says one why standest thou aloof off why remainest thou among the Mountains O well-beloved why dost thou pain a poor Soul with delays A long time out of thy Glorious Presence is as two Deaths and as two Hells to me we must meet I must see him hungring and thirsting for Christ hath brought on me such a necessity of enjoying him that cost what it will I cannot but assure Christ to my Soul one smile of his Face to me is a Kingdom a sight of him is worth a World of Worlds Sweet Jesus crys one out wilt thou let me see Heaven to break my Heart and never give me leave to enjoy it O fairest where dwellest thou O never enough admired and adored Godhead how can Creatures of yesterday be able to enjoy thee O what pain crys one is it that Time and Sin should be as so many thousand Miles between a loved longed for Lord and a pining Love-sick Soul Hell and as I now think all the pains of it laid on me could not put me off from loving of him I would refuse says one no condition not Hell excepted reserving always God's hatred to buy the possession and enjoyment of Jesus Oh closed Doors and Vails Curtains and thick Clouds crys one that hold me in pain while I find the sweet burnings of his Love within me which many waters cannot quench O Death do thy utmost against us O Torments O Malice of Men and Devils bring Hell to help you in Tormenting the Followers of the Lamb we will defie you to make us too soon happy and to waft us too soon over the water to that Land where that Plant the Plant of Renown grows O cruel time that Torments us and suspends our dearest enjoyments that we wait for when we shall be bathed and steeped Soul and Body in the depth of this Love of Loves I half call says one his absence cruel and that Mask and Vail upon his Face a cruel covering that hideth such a fair fair Face from a sick Soul I dare not challenge himself but his absence is a Mountain of Iron upon my heavy Heart Oh when shall we meet What do we here but sin and suffer Oh when shall the Night be gone and the Shadows fly away and the morning of that long long Day without Cloud or Night dawn The Spirit and the Bride say come Oh when shall the Lamb's Wife be ready and the Bridegroom say I come also O Time be not so slow but run yea fly away swiftly O Sun move speedily and hasten our Banquet O Heavens cleave asunder that the bright Face and Head may set it self through the Clouds O that the Corn were ripe and this World prepared for his hook How long is it to the dawning of the Marriage day O sweet Lord Jesus take wide steps O my Lord come over the Mountains at one stride cut short Years and Months and Hours shovel time and days out of the way post post haste our desired hungred longed for Meeting love is sick to hear of till too Morrow fly O my beloved like a Roe or a young Heart upon the Mountains of Separation O that thou wouldst remove says one the covering and draw aside the Curtain of Time that thou wouldst rent the Heavens and come down O that the Shadows and Nights were gone that the Day would break and be that feedeth among the Lilies would cry and call to his Heavenly Trumpeters make ready and let us go down and fold together the four corners of the World and Marry the Bride the Lamb's Wife since he hath looked upon me my Heart is not my own But I shall not proceed farther herein though the Subject be exceeding delightful but notwithstanding what hath been said herein I am far from thinking that these holy pantings and longings of Soul are to be found in every Godly Man or that none are truly Godly but those that find and feel in themselves these pantings and longings of Soul after the enjoyment of God in this vehement and ardent manner no I dare not say so for I believe multitudes yea the generality of Believers through sloathfulness never attain to this high pitch of Grace and Assurance of the Divine Love and Favour who yet go to Heaven very safely but where there are any that do attain unto this plerophory or full assurance such Souls live as it were on the very Suburbs of Heaven it self And by this we may see what is the Duty of a Christian to labour after and what sweet peace joy and delight we all lose who do not come up to this frame and temper of Soul even such as passeth our understandings to conceive or our expressions to make known which made a Godly Man once cry out in a holy pang of love unto Jesus Christ If I can get no more O let me be pained to all Eternity with longing for him the joy of hungring for Christ should be my Heaven for evermore CHAP. V. Death terrible in its self It is a dreadful Enemy Wherein its Enmity doth consist This Enemy shall be destroyed though it be the last Enemy that shall be destroyed Christ by his Death hath overcome Death for Believers and how far he hath done it Of the fear of Death and the Causes thereof How the fears of Death may be Conquered and overcome It is very uncomely for Christians to be afraid of Death It is possible for Christians to live without the fear of Death How Christians may die with Courage and Joy THo' death as it brings Holy Souls to the Eternal Fruition of God is desirable yet considered in its self it is dreadful being accompanied with Diseases and Distempers the fore-runners of a Dissolution and Separation between Soul and Body causing all the Actions and Operations of Life to cease in which State the Body quickly turns to Corruption and Putrefaction and in time to common Earth Now though this be dreadful unto Nature yet is there more of Terror in death unto Impenitent sinners because to them it is not only a Gate to let them into the Grave but a Gate to let them into Hell the first death transmitting them unto the second death And yet how great is the folly of Men that they fear death for that which is least formidable in it but do not fear it for that which renders it justly terrible Could death do no more to us than what reacheth to pains and distempers on the outward Man and the dissolution and destruction of
fearest God thou needst not be so foolishly fond of this Life for what is there in it that should make thee coat upon it Is it not a Life full of cares and troubles Have not thy Sins made it so The Wise Man tells us that all that is in this Life that can be outwardly enjoyed is nothing but Vanity and vexation of Spirit Hast thou not by experience found it so Thou shouldst therefore with Holy Job bless God not only for giving of Life but for taking of it away also God gave it thee for a time and but for a short time too and if thou wert so wise as thou shouldst be thou oughtest to count it thy felicity that it is so short for it is a Life of sorrow and who will complain because his sorrows are so short It may be thou hast met with some pleasures here that gratifie thy sense but are they comparable to what thy Soul hath tasted in the enjoyment of God unto which God by Death is calling thee to the enjoyment of with himself in Heaven to all Eternity Darest thou say that Earth is like Heaven Is Christ in those dark and dim discoveries he makes of himself in the Gospel like to Christ in the full and open manifestations of himself in all his Glory in Heaven Canst thou say thy Soul is so like him in Wisdom Holiness Joy and Peace here as it will be above when it comes to be enrolled among the Spirits of just Men made perfect If thou wilt be in love with Life be in love with Eternal Life and henceforth fear not to die at God's call for the obedience that thou owest unto God binds thee and the gain that Death will bring should both invite and encourage thee Though Death ends this Life it begins another and though thou may'st rot under ground in one part of thee yet it is in thy vilest part thy Body and even that will spring up and flourish again shortly And in the mean time thy Soul thy better part shall live a more noble and excellent life Think well therefore of Death for as it ends thy Life so it ends thy Sin and thy sufferings also In these particular Instances O Christian thou feest how little cause there is for thee to be afraid of Death I shall now in the next place endeavour to discover how unfit and uncomely a thing it is for Christians to fear Death and for this consider First A Christians fearing of Death brings a reproach upon Religion as if there were not that in Christianity that could lift up a Soul above the fears of Death For a Papist that professeth no Man can in an ordinary way be assured that he shall go to Heaven when he dies to tremble at the thoughts of Death this is no great matter it is but to act according to what his Religion teacheth him but for one that professeth the knowledge and assurance of Salvation and a future happy State to stand amazed at death the way and passage through which God hath appointed we must enter into Heaven where this happiness is to be enjoyed shews if not a want of Faith yet at least a great weakness of Faith and gives occasion to those that speak evil of the good ways of God to reflect disgracefully upon Religion Secondly To live in fear of Death is that State of Bondage and Slavery which wicked Men are under and from which Jesus Christ came to deliver his People And therefore for a Believer to live dejectedly under the fears of Death is a very uncomely thing Indeed the fears of wicked Men are so great that they cannot think of Death without horrour and when they come to die they are compelled to it for of all things in the World they dread Death most and could they but be assured that they shall live here always they would desire no other Heaven Fearfulness and amazedness under the apprehensions of Death is the proper State of wicked Men that Slavery and Bondage unto which they are always subject for upon good grounds they can have no hopes in Death but are full of fearful expectations of Wrath and fiery Indignation that shall Torment them for ever But now for true Believers God hath made your state and condition very unlike unto theirs as to the issues of Death because you have good hopes of Eternal Life even in Death so says the Wise Man Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his Death Now since there is so great an unlikeness between you and them both in Death and after Death let there not be a likeness between you and them as to your fears of Death let a Faelix tremble at the hearing of Death and Judgment but let not the Godly hang down their Heads but lift them up with joy and rejoicing because the day of their Redemption draweth nigh Thirdly Consider this to be afraid of Death is to fear that which is but the Shadow and semblance of Death For to speak strictly a state of Sin and separation of the Soul from God for Sin this is Death properly but the separation of the Soul from the Body only is but the Shadow of Death But O how seldom is it to see Men trembling because of a spiritual Death because they are dead in trespasses and sins though this be infinitely more dreadful than any temporal Death can be And therefore to shew how full of Woe and Misery this Death is it is called Damnation which is the extremity of all Misery This is that now to which this spiritual Death tends and in which it will terminate Hence therefore Wicked Men are said to be condemned already and the wrath of God abides upon them and that they shall have their Portion in that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death This shall as certainly be their Portion as if they were there already Therefore O Christian if thou wilt fear Death fear not that which is the shadow and the appearance of it but fear that which is Death indeed fear Sin that is the cause both of the first and of the second Death also for if thou art spiritually alive and raised from the Death of Sin as all true Believers are how uncomely a thing is it for thee to fear the Shadow the appearance of an evil which cannot hurt thee when thou art delivered from the evil it self Fourthly Consider for a Christian to fear that which is both common and certain is an uncomely and unsuitable thing Afflictions in general are the common lot of all God's People in this World but Death is that which is more common because it is that which befals all both good and bad from other outward Afflictions there is a possibility that some may be free or if they befal them they may be delivered from under them again but no Man can escape Death What Man is he that liveth saith the Psalmist and shall not see Death shall he
deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave No he cannot Now God hath in Mercy made that to be most common which is most grievous and afflictive that he might thereby abate the terrour of it to us and for any one to strive against that which no Man can avoid or shun argues that Man to be guilty of great folly It is therefore very unbecoming thee O Christian to fear Death which is the common way of all Flesh yea the way by which all the People of God enter into Heaven and Happiness But to proceed a little farther in this subject I shall in the next place endeavour to discover that the fears of Death may not only be overcome for a time but that it is possible for a Christian to live without them or above them which though it be a high attainment yet is it that to which Grace may reach and that which many of the People of God do daily experience the comfort of Now by a Christians living without the fear of Death I mean a holy quiet ation and satisfaction of Soul as to his future State of Happiness founded upon the knowledge of his Interest in Christ who hath overcome Death for all Believers whereby the thoughts of it approach doth neither distract nor disquiet his Mind so as to bereave him of that Peace and Tranquility of Soul that he enjoys is his Hopes and Expectations of Heaven and Glory but that he can with a holy Contentation and Satisfaction resign up his Soul unto God whensoever he calls for it Now that such a State as this is attainable I need say no more than that this was one of the ends for which Christ died that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who by reason of the fear of Death were all their life-times subject unto Bondage So that we being delivered out of the hands of all our spiritual Enemies whereof Death is one we might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our lives In this Heavenly frame was Holy David when he said though he walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death he would fear no evil And so was St. Paul when he tells us he was perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come should be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No wonder therefore that he could say I desire to be dissolved though it was by Death that he might be with Christ Thus to live above the fears of Death will cost much pains with our own Hearts great diligence and circumspection over our selves in all our thoughts words and ways much watchfulness against all Sin and Temptations for if we be remiss and through carelessness much more through presumption we fall into Sin or neglect Duty we shall soon be brought into Bondage and Slavery by the fears of Death If therefore O Christian thou art one who hast overcome the fears of Death and canst live above them thou may'st then die with courage and leave this World though Death carry thee out of it with joy and rejoicing And that thou may'st be able to do so let me briefly lay down two or three Directions First Have a great care of blorting thy Evidences for Heaven Darkness is an uncomfortable thing And when Christians have been tampering with the works of Darkness I mean some known Sins blotting their Evidences which should discover their Title to Heaven so that they cannot read them what wonder is it while they are thus in the dark that they are afraid to leave Earth though it be to go to Heaven because they know it not for which they may thank themselves God would not only have his People go to Heaven certainly but joyfully and therefore he hath made ample provisions for their Peace and comfort both in Life and Death so that they may not only have good hope but strong consolation through Grace yea may with a holy exultation of Soul cry out Thanks be to God who always causeth us to Triumph in Christ But now if when God hath spoken Peace they will turn again unto folly by venturing upon Sin they hereby create their own sorrows Fear and Consternation of Soul under the apprehensions of Death come from themselves they are their own Tormenters and the hinderers and disturbers of their own Peace and Joy And now if instead of being able to read their Evidences for Heaven which should comfort them they can only make wounding reflections upon their Sins that have blotted those Evidences so that they walk in darkness and the fears of Death continually afflict their Souls they must thank themselves for where there is the apprehensions of guilt lying upon any Soul unpardoned there the thoughts of death will be terrible This made David when in his own apprehensions he was drawing nigh to the Grave beg so importunately of God that he would spare him a little longer that he might recover his strength before he should go away from hence and be seen no more If therefore when you come to die you would leave this World cheerfully you must live in the World conscienciously Exercise your selves in all things to keep Consciences void of offence towards God and towards all Men. Take heed of those black Fiends thy Sins which will fright thy Soul in the dark night of death If thy Conscience be kept clean thy Evidences for Heaven will be clear and the thoughts of death comfortable Many be venturing upon Sin wound their Souls and when death approaches O then they start back and sain would they be spared a little longer If Conscience be raw with the guilt of any one Sin a very light affliction much more death will make a Man kick and fling and very unwilling to bear it but where the Spirit is sound and the guilt of Sin taken off from the Conscience by the love of Christ death it self will be embraced with courage and joy Secondly Deaden your Hearts and Affections to the World and all the comforts thereof The inordinate love of worldly enjoyments and the imperfect love of God makes Men afraid to die He whose Heart and Affections sit loose to the World a small matter will make him willing to leave it but where the Heart is fastned to it in love and affection there will be no parting from it without much reluctancy He that hath laid up his Heart in Heaven can comfortably think of laying down his Body in the Grave Prize therefore Heavenly things above Earthly Place your Happiness in spiritual things count them not only your Food but your Feast yea make them your recreation Were Heaven and Heavenly things the continual solace and delight of our Souls with what joy and rejoicing should we leave Earth to go to Heaven Thirdly Familiarize the Thoughts of Death
Therefore says God when thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee they shall not overflow thee and when thou walkest thorough the Fire thou shalt not be burnt Esai 43.2 Take Courage therefore O Christian be not afraid of any Affliction be not afrighted no not at the sight of death it self though thou see'st it is a narrow passage a way beset with Briars and Thorns though it be a strait Gate for Flesh and Blood to pass through yet fear not for it is the Gate of Heaven the way that leads unto Glory Be not afraid therefore to walk in the valley of the shadow of death though love of Friends and strength of Body fail thee yet fear not for God will be with thee his Rod and his Staff will support and comfort thee he will be your God and your Guide not only unto death but for ever and ever for he will never never never leave his People nor forsake them till he hath brought them to the eternal enjoyment of himself in Glory Secondly Wouldst thou O Christian be comforted and supported against death then much and often meditate upon the Lord Jesus Christ Now though every thing in Christ and every thing done by Christ be exceeding sweet and precious for unto them that believe he is precious Christ and whole Christ is precious for there is nothing in him or done by him that we can tell how to want But yet I shall instance in some few things more particularly which may be of great Use unto a Christian to meditate upon for his support against the hour of Death As First Meditate often upon the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Now though in general these were so great that they exceed all our Expressions and Apprehensions yet how willingly and patiently did he undergo them all both from God and Man in his Body and in his Soul His Body was racked and tortured in all the parts of it but especially in those parts wherein the sense is most quick and therefore his Pain and Anguish was most afflicting They digged or pierced my hands and my feet saith the Psalmist of him Psal 22.16 He suffered in his Soul also for he conflicted with the wrath of an angry God which was impress'd upon him in such a dreadful manner that had he not had the strength of the Deity to support him it had certainly overwhelm'd him and ground him to Powder For it was pure Wrath without the least mixture of sparing Mercy the great God bated him nothing That 's a sweet Scripture Rom. 8.32 God spared not his own Son And it was well for us that he did not for had he spared him he had not spared us His Death was not common and ordinary but a Death by Crucifixion he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross which was a violent death considered in it self and therefore he is said to be cut off out of the Land of the Living though in respect of himself it was voluntary and therefore he tells us I lay down my Life of my self John 10.18 And indeed Christ must either die a voluntary Death or none at all partly because there was no Sin in him to deserve Death and partly because otherwise his death had not been a Sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory unto God for us for that which died of it self was never offered in Sacrifice but that which was slain in its full force and strength This death of Christ was also full of exquisite Pain and Torture and therefore when he was going to encounter with it he screws up his Request to his Father to the highest pitch Matth 26.39 Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me It was also a death full of shame than which nothing is more cutting to an ingenious noble Spirit And truly in this respect the Thieves that suffered with him fared better than he for they had no Taunts Reproaches and Sarcasms cast upon them they only encountered with Pain But Christ had Pain and Shame also for the Souldiers the Jews the Thieves all scoffed and flouted at him And therefore says the Apostle he not only endured the Cross but he despised the shame Heb. 12.2 But this is not all for the death of Christ was a cursed death Pain was bad and Shame was worse but the Curse is worst of all for he that is hanged on a Tree is accursed of God and therefore Christ that he might shew the greatness of his Love to his People redeemed them from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for them Gal. 3.13 Now though Christ knew that all these Sufferings and this death should befal him yet so great was his Love to Believers that he underwent all willingly and patiently What godly Man on Earth what Saint or Angel in Heaven can read or hear those Words of his in Luke 12.50 without Astonishment where speaking of his death and sufferings he saith he had a Baptism to be baptized withal which was a Baptism of Blood And how am I straitned till it be accomplished Indeed it is said when the time of his sufferings drew near that he began to be sorrowful that he was sore amazed and very heavy My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Not that Christ repented of his Undertaking when he was to suffer no for when the time of his suffering was come the Holy History tells us he not only went to a place that Judas who betrayed him knew of that so he might be the more readily taken but when his Enemies came thither to apprehend him he went forth to meet them and asked them Whom seek ye And when they told him Jesus of Nazareth he tells them I am he upon which they fell to the ground and as if they were more afraid to apprehend and bring him to his sufferings than he was to suffer he speaks to them again and by his Words Oh how willingly blessed Jesus didst thou go to suffer he doth as it were strengthen and encourage them to go on in their work of laying hold of him he said therefore unto them a second time Whom seek ye They said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered them I have told you that I am he if therefore you seek me behold here I am He was a Volunteer in his dying and offering up of himself His death was a Free-will Offering and this made him to become a Sacrifice Psal 40.7 8. Then said I loe I come In the Volume of thy Book it is written of me I delight to do thy Will O God yea thy Law is within my heart As if he had said my very heart is ready for the shedding of my heart-blood Therefore says he I lay down my life no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up John 10.17 18. As if he had said if
PRACTICAL DISCOURSES CONCERNING DEATH AND HEAVEN DISCOVERING The great Necessity of a speedy Preparation for Death with the danger of neglecting or delaying such Preparations ALSO The Excellency Glory and Happiness of Heaven opened and explained as the Portion of all true Believers after Death By Nathanael Ranew late of London Bookseller London Printed for N. R. and sold by J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat. 1694. TO THE READER Christian Reader THE Desire of all Men is to be Happy and the Design of these Discourses is to bring Men to the Enjoyment of the highest Happiness The former Treatise being a Discourse of Death and the Grave which are as a Way through which all must pass to the attaining of this Happiness is that which is not acceptable but grievous unto Flesh and Blood The Dissolution of the Union between Soul and Body a turning to corruption and rottenness in the Grave where Worms shall gnaw and feed upon those Bodies that now are the Beauty and Comeliness of this lower Creation as quickned and animated by Rational and Immortal Souls that inhabit in them this is that which Nature dreads and of all things in the World most abhors and where there are in any no higher Principles to act from than what is founded in Nature to such Death must needs be very terrible because it is that which tends to its ruine and destruction Now it being the State and Condition of all Men by Nature since their Apostacy from God to have a prevailing Principle and Inclination in them unto the Creature and to take up with the Enjoyments of this World for their Happiness when Death comes to break asunder the Bonds of Life such Persons are of all Creatures most miserable and no wonder then if Death be formidable unto them If now upon this or any other account there be any thing in the pale face of Death that makes it have a grim and ghastly Aspect so that the thoughts of it are frightful and amazing to thee and thou startest back as one that is afraid to die yet be not discouraged from studious Meditations of Death for though at the first they may be terrible yet when thou hast accustomed thy self unto such Contemplations thou wilt find them very profitable and such as will by the Blessing of God work thy Heart into such a serious frame and put thee upon those Endeavours and Practices as have a tendency in them to fit thee for the approach of Death which will much abate the fears and dread thereof unto thee And as a farther encouragement unto so beneficial an employment take into thy most serious thoughts the Glory and Happiness of Heaven unto which Death brings all those that are prepared for it which is the subject of the second part of these Discourses and truly this is a State of so great Bliss and Happiness as may well lift up thy Soul above all the discouragements of the pains and torments of Sickness the horrours and fears of Death in the separation of Soul and Body thereby and the loathsomeness and corruption of the Grave and fill thee with vehement longings and desires after the possession and enjoyment of it I need not I hope make any Apology for the publishing of that which may be helpful to prepare Christians for Death and Heaven and such is the design of the following Discourses and that they may be so read them over attentively meditate on them seriously pray over them fervently and practice what is contained in them diligently and constantly and through the Blessing of God they will be effectual to bring thee unto the Happiness of Heaven which is the earnest and hearty Desire and shall be the daily Prayer of the Publisher If thou reapest any benefit hereby give God the Glory for his Assistance herein and let him have thy Prayers who desires nothing so much as the Honour of God and the good of Souls Farewel An Introduction Practical Preparation for Death CHAP. I. Of Death in general Of the sorts and kinds of Death mentioned in Scripture Death befalls all Men there is no withstanding of it nor any priviledged from it The time of Death urknown unto us yet Fixed and Appointed by GOD. Death makes all equal Sin subjects unto Death DEATH is a Subject every Christian should often have in his thoughts because it is that unto which he is lyable every moment of his Life neither the hearing thinking nor speaking of it can therefore be unseasonable at any time And tho' Considerations of Death to living Men are usually most unwelcome yet are they as profitable to promote the Interest of a Christian as any other for no Man can live well till he can dye well and no Man is so prepared for Death as he who frequently imploy's his Thoughts in the Consideration of his own Frailty and Mortality Indeed Custom hath made it become almost an improper thing either for a Minister to Preach of Death without the Representation of a Funeral or for one Christian to speak unto another of their Latter End without it be in the House of Mourning where an Example of their Mortality is before their eyes But if the Mouths of Christians were more frequently filled with Discourses of Death and the Grave to which all are hastening but know not who shall get thither soonest they would find such Benefit and Advantage thereby in the quickning and hastning their Preparations for their dissolution that they might always be in a readiness when Death shall come as would infinitely make amends either for the unaccustomariness of the Work or whatever pains and labour they had taken with their hearts to render them fit for the coming of their Lord. What Death is is as little known unto some as it is consider'd by most many take it to be nothing but a Cessation of Life and all actings in this World and it were well if there were not too many to be found who think this to be all that Death doth and when they are thus dead there is an end of them making themselves no better than the Beast that perisheth Happy were it for all wicked Men if Death were no more than this But though Death be a Cessation of Natural Life and so of all Natural Motion and Action yet is it more properly a Separation between Soul and Body whereby the Body becomes a dead unactive thing because the Soul which is the Principle of Life and Operation hath forsaken it but yet Death as it reacheth not the Soul at all for that lives after its Separation from the Body so it shall not for ever keep Soul and Body asunder but only until God's appointed Time and then shall the Body be raised again out of the Grave by the mighty Power of GOD and united to the Soul to live together in a state of Blessedness or Misery for ever according to what they have both been and done together in this World
the rich Man in the Gospel else so confidently say to his Soul Thou bast Goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry But Death would not be put off so for that Night was his Soul taken from him notwithstanding all his great Possessions It is in vain to cry out on a Death Bed with that wretched Cardinal Beauford in Henry the Sixth Time Wherefore should I dye being rich will not Death be bribed Will Money do nothing No truly it cannot for as Riches profit not in the day of Wrath to pacifie the Justice of an angry God so neither will they profit in the day of Death to bribe that King of Terrors Beauty is another outward Excellency that many glory in and indeed it is a great Ornament a Gift of GOD and no small one it is a taking thing We delight in things that are beautiful Beauty to some is a Portion among men to others a favour from God It is a silent Eloquence a tacite Perswasion and works much upon some What is said of the Church Psal 45.11 So shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty I know it is spoken there of Spiritual Beauty the Graces of the Spirit of God which beautifie and adorn the Church in the eyes of Christ for it is said the KING's Daughter is all glorious within But yet it is true also in some me sure of outward Corporeal Beauty it is a desireable thing and may duly be an attractive of Love it is that which draws the Eyes and Hearts of many tho' often it is an incentive to Lust both to great Men and to good Men. Solomon loved strange Women the Scripture saith and they turned away his heart from God and having smarted severely for it as a fruit of the sincerity of his Repentance and to prevent so great wickedness in others he hath left us many Excellent Cautions and Counsels in Sacred Writ against the ensnaring Temptations and powerful Charms of Beauty But though Men are deluded and deceived by beautiful Objects and Persons yet Death is not A beautiful Face is as mortal and as soon yea sooner many times turned into duct and corruption than a face that is deformed Death regards a goodly well favoured Joseph or Absolom no more than a leprous Vzziah or Gebazi nor doth it spare a beautiful Rachel more than a blear ey'd Leah Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain in this respect for they profit none in a dying hour the beautifulest Person and the most lovely Complexion is quickly turned into Paleness and Corruption when once the time of their dissolution is come Death soon making those that for their Beauty and Comeliness were most admired by others become most loathsome and intolerable and they most desirous with Abraham to bury such dead out of their sight By what hath been said it appears that all Men notwithstanding all their great Attainmen's in Worldly Excellences are not exempted from dying And as no outward so no inward-Excellency and Perfection can priviledge any from Death no not Grace it self Grace is as Salt to the Soul to preserve it from Moral Corruption for ever but it cannot preserve the Body from Natural Corruption in this World In Heaven where there shall be nothing but Grace and Holiness in the Soul in perfection there there shall be no dying but here on Earth where Grace is insperfect being mingled with Sin and Corruption there is a necessity of dying Death is become domestical to us we have the Seed of it within us we carry it daily in our bosoms I mean in the body of Sin as the Apostle calls it that we carry about with us which will never be extirpated and destroyed till the death of the body All our Prayers and Tears cannot prevent Death Prayer can do great things to instance in particulars of its Prevalency would be endless Our Lord himself tells us That whatever we ask the Father in his Name he will give it us John 16.23 That is an Astonishing Scripture Esay 45.11 Thus saith the Lord The Holy One of Israel and his Maker Ask me of things to come concerning my Sons and concerring the Works of my hands command ye me As if saith one God was as ready to do them service as if they had him at their Command There is a kind of Omnipotency in Prayer and therefore it is said of Jacob that as a Prince he had power with God and prevailed Gen. 32.28 And the Apostle tells us The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much how much the Apostle could not tell us but leaves it to every one to make Observations from their own Experience But though Prayer can do such great things yet it cannot prevent Death We read indeed that the Prayer of Faith doth save the Sick but though it can even restore from a sick-bed yet it cannot raise from a Death-bed Nay Christ himself hath not so Redeemed us that we should live for ever and not see Corruption he hath Redeemed us that we shall live for ever in Heaven but he hath not Redeemed us that we should live for ever on Earth and not dye no it was the Priviledge of Jesus Christ the Redeemer that he should not see Corruption and therefore of him only it is said Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption But may some say this necessity of dying seems not to be unalterably imposed upon all Men for some have lived who never dyed and some shall live hereafter that shall not dye I Answer It is true the Scripture makes mention of Two and but Two that lived here oâ— Earth and by special Grace and Favour were exempted from Death ascending up unto God leaping over Death and the Grave as it were in their passage to Heaven and they are Enoch and Elias concerning Enoch it is said That by Faith he waâ— transtated that he should not see Death Heb. 11 5â— He was a Person eminent for Holiness for it is said That he walked with God three hundred years and obtained this Testimony before his Translationâ— that he pleased God Gen. 5.22 And being such an Eminent Proficient in Grace as that there waâ— none that we read of like him at that time he obtained such Grace and Favour from God as none did for it is said He walked with GOD and he was not for GOD lock him O the Excellency of Grace and Holiness how highly doth it ennable and advance a Man Enoch walked with God and God thinks the Earth not good enough for him and therefore he takes him to himself into Beaven nay this is not all so much was God taken with the Holiness of Enoch that he shall not go to Heaven in the ordinary way as other Saints do by Death but he shall be translated from Grace to Glory without so much as looking into the Grave The like we read of Elias another eminent and zealous Servant of God 2 King
2.23 That he was taken up in a siery Chariot by a Whirl-wind into Heaven So great was his Zeal for God and his Glory and so highly did God esteem it and him for it that he must not abide any longer on Earth but be taken up into Heaven and that in no other way but by a fiery Chariot a Passage to Heaven that did bear some Resemblance to his Zeal for God while he was here on Earth The Apostle also tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 That at the last Day we shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and 1 Thes 4.17 We that are alive and remain shall be caught up with him in the Clouds to meet the Lord and so shall we be ever with the Lord. These Exceptions of some few that have not dyed nor shall not dye do not at all make void this general Truth that all shall dye but rather make for the Confirmation of it The general Rule or Law saith all must dye none escape but by special Grace or Priviledge and though the Saints that shall be found on Earth at the Resurrection of the dead dye not yet they shall undergoe that which is equivalent unto Death for they shall be changed Death is call'd a Change so saith Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come And they that are alive at the Last Day undergoe a Change also The Change of Death is a putting off of our Mortality but the Change at the Last Day is a putting on of our Immortality The one is a Change by being uncloathed the other is a Change by being cloathed upon but both is a Change And thus all dye or shall be changed By what hath been said it is very evident That Death befalls all men one time or other sooner or later But for the Manner how or the Time when any shall dye this is unknown unto any The Living may and do know that they shall dye but they know not when they shall dye What our Lord saith of the day of Judgment is true of the day of Man's Death of that day and hour knoweth no Man Many a Man hath been mistaken concerning the purpose of God I said says David in my prosperity that I shall never be moved but he was mistaken for he adds in the next words almost But thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Much more may we be mistaken concerning the Time of our Death I said says Hezekiah in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the Grave I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the Living I shall no more behold man with the Inhabitants of the World Good Hezekiah thought there was no way for him to escape Death but he was mistaken for afterwards he tells us God had in Love to his Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption and he Lived fifteen Years longer after he had given himself over for dead A Man may have the Sentence of Death in himself when as to that particular time God hath given out none against him So on the other hand the Rich Man in the Gospel reckons not of Death till many years hence and he is very liberal to his Soul because God had been bountiful to his Body he had got a great Stock of Riches and he gives himself a rich stock of Time even many years he resolves to make his Life larger as he had done his Barns and because they are full of Corn he also will be full of Days whereas the Word came out against him from God Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee and he that before resolved to Live many years could not now Live till the next Morning It is our Wisdom always to be prepared for Death but it s more than belongs to us peremptorily to determine the Time of our Death or the Length of our Days But though the Time of our Death be unknown to us yet is it known to and fixed by God he hath determined not only the Time when but also the Place where and the Manner how we shall dye with all the Circumstances relating thereunto It is God that turns up the Giass of our Time and puts such a Measure of Sand into it and no more such a Measure that it may and shall run so long and no more that it shall run no longer than his Appointment God speaking after the manner of Men is said in Scripture to have a Book wherein is written down not only the Number of our Sins but also the Number of our days and as we cannot commit a Sin but it is written down in some Leafe of his Book so can we not live a day or hour that hath not our Name written down upon it in Gods Book That some have the Time of Life confined only to the dark Cell of the Womb and never see the Light that others are strangled in the place of breaking forth of Children and are only Causes of Grief to them that bear them that others dyâ— in their Infancy without the Knowledge of good or evil and leave only sad Remembrances to their Parents that once they were that others grow up to years of Discretion but are cut off in the prime of their days and in their full strength and that others live to extream old Age till Nature is wholly spent and consumed in them All this is from the Appointment of God they all fill up the Number of those Days and the measure of that Time that God hath allotted to them and then they depart according to his Will How many have we seen cast upon sick beds whom God hath there visited with strong pains bringing them so low that their Lives seem'd to be brought unto the Grave and themselves numbred with them that go down into the Pit free among the dead and as the slain that lye in the Grave given over by themselves and all others for such and yet even these God hath raised up again shewing Wonders as it were to the dead as the Psalmist speaks causing them to arise and praise his Name What 's the Reason of all this Why God's appointed Time was not come and so Diseases could have no further Power over them And what is true of Sickness is as true of Men who are but like Diseases Executioners of God's Decree upon Man even they have no Power to lengthen Life or to hasten Death but what is given them from above God hath not only set us the bounds of our Habitations but the bounds of our Living also Job speaks much to the stating and determining of this Case Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed Time to Man upon Earth Now in an Appointment of God there must be a Certainty or else we make him like unto a mortal Man that is changeable which cannot be Therefore Man having an appointed Time by God upon Earth he must reach to it
imprinted upon Man God's Image being defaced by Sin Mortality took place Man never had an Impossibility not to die but he had a possibility not to die and that was the State of Man's Immortality In his State of Innocency his Life was made as long as his Obedience In God's dealing with our first Parents he back'd his Command with the threatning of Death Gen. 2.17 Of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Our first Parents disobeyed this most righteous and equitable Command of God and thereby brought Death upon themselves and all their Posterity For though God formed Man as the Holy Story tells us out of the Dust of the Earth yet so long as Man stood he never said to Dust thou shalt return but only put in a supposition or threatning that in case he did fall he should surely die But when by Sin he had fallen from God then he hears what he must be Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return So that the Justice of God stands engaged to inflict Death upon every Transgressour And to this the Apostle ascribes it Rom. 5.12 By Sin Death entered into the World and so Death passed upon all because all have sinned Death therefore seizeth upon us not as we are Men but as we are Sinners To die is a penalty inflicted upon Man for Sin If Man had not sinned he had not been under a necessity of dying but by sinning he became mortal Sin therefore is not only the Sting of Death but the Cause of Death It is that which gives it not only its Terror but it s very Being and therefore it is somewhat remarkable that among all the Creatures in the World Man only is termed mortal It is certain other Creatures decay and perish as well as Man yet among all perishing things Man only hath the wretched Denomination of being mortal and there is good Reason for it since he alone of all perishing things being created immortal voluntarily subjected himself unto Death and by his own default brought upon himself the Name of Mortal as a brand of perpetual Infamy CHAP. II. Thoughts of Death ought to be laid to heart by all It is a Christian 's great Wisdom and ought to be his greatest care to provide for Death The great folly and danger of neglecting or delaying such Preparations upon hopes of long life Sickness a very unfit time for such a work Men very prone to put off thoughts of Death and Preparation for it with the Reasons thereof Time short though long enough for our great work if diligently improved Excellent Essects that the Consideration of our latter end would produce It is a very comfortable thing to have all things set right between God and the Soul before a dying hour Time ought therefore to be valued and our days wisely to be numbered THough the Life of Man be very short frail and uncertain though Death hath nothing of a peradventure in it but is that which will most certainly over-take all Men none being able to withstand it nor any priviledged against it Yet how strangely besotted are the generality of Men in putting far from them this evil day as if because God hath not told them the exact time when they shall die they were not bound to take any notice that they shall die But doubtless this is as great a piece of Folly as most we can be guilty of For why doth God so often visit us with Pains and Distempers upon our Bodies which threaten Death Why are we so frequently called to the house of Mourning to accompany others unto their long home Is it not that hereby we might reflect upon our own Mortality with the most serious thoughts by beholding the Death of others Doubtless much of a Christian's Life should be spent in the thoughts of Death and in a right numbring of his days so as to lay to heart his latter end It is not that which should be forced upon us by some unexpected Providence of God in snatching some away out of the World by some sudden stroke by the hearing whereof we are amazed and by whose Funeral the thoughts of Death force themselves into our Minds but we should make it the Matter of our daily Meditation the thoughts of which we should accustom ourselves unto and that not only when with old Barzillai we have not long to live when by Reason of Age our Strength is departed when Infirmities and Distempers upon us are so many that we can taste no sweetness in any outward Enjoyments but even with Joseph of Arimathea who made his Sepulchre in his Garden a place of Pleasure so should we in the midst of all our Delights and Recreations and when we are best able to relish what sweetness there is in them even then should we check all such Inclinations in us by accustoming our Minds unto the frequent serious awful thoughts of our latter end For this we have the practice of our blessed Lord who when he was transfigured before his Disciples the Glory whereof was so great that St Peter's weak Eyes were not able to behold it yet he then thought no Subject so fit to be discoursed of as that of his Death which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem Luk. 9.31 It is therefore a wicked Proverb that is frequent in the Mouths of many They thought not of such a thing no more than they thought of their dying Day Alas poor foolish Man what not think of thy dying day Dost thou know what thou sayest Is the day of thy Death of no more Concernment to thee than so What not so much as to think of it Dost thou not know Oh vain trifling Man that thy dying day will be to thee the beginning of a state of Happiness that shall never cease or an entrance on a state of Misery that shall never know an end And what is it not worth thy bestowing a thought upon it For Shame O foolish Man for I scarce know how to call thee Christian thy talk is so profane and thy Life so loose that it savours little of Christianity to be sure not of the power of Godliness if thy ways be according to thy Words It is said of the Old World that they eat they drank they married and were given in Marriage until the day that Noah entred into the Ark and they knew it not till the Flood came and swept them away What was the Old World destroyed because they knew not of the coming of the Flood No Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness and doubtless he had told them of it many a time but yet it is said they knew it not till the Flood swept them away that is they knew it not so as to consider and make Provision against the Deluge came so they knew it not So is it now with many in this Case they are not undone eternally by not knowing they
shall die for there are none how profane and Atheistical soever but will own that they must die but this ruines them for ever that they consider it not so as to make timely provision for a dying hour The Care and Wisdom of a Christian discovers it self much by his Preparations for Death The Prudence of a Man appears in nothing more than in making a good choice for himself Now there are two Estates that do abide all Men a State of Happiness in Heaven and a State of Misery in Hell and these are both of them eternal Life is the time of our choice Death which comes at the close of our days discovers what our choice hath been The daily Improving of our Time in the preparing our Souls for our Dissolution is a good Evidence of a wise and happy choice Job complains of some that die without Wisdom the Reason is because they live not wisely that is they do not with Care and Wisdom prepare themselves for Death This Wisdom is wanting in most Men in regard whereof we may say of them as the Psalmist Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the Beasts that perish That is though in their Lives they be Men of great Honour and Excellency yea though wiser in their Generation as our Lord speaks than the Children of Light Yet they perish like a Beast for he that dies unpreparedly dies foolishly For the Wisdom of a Man discovers it self much in serious Meditations of and diligent Preparations for his great Change This was that which God so passionately wish'd for his People of old Deut. 32.29 Oh that my people were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And the truth of it is it is a great piece of Wisdom and a high attainment in a Christian with Care and Prudence to consider of and prepare for his latter end yea so great is it that it is too wonderful to be gained by Art or Study we must get it upon our knees by Prayer Holy David therefore as one convinced both how necessary and profitable this Wisdom would be and being sensible also of his own inability for to attain it makes it his earnest Prayer unto God that he would instruct him herein Psalm 39.4 Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am As if he had said Lord I have taken this and that and the other thing into my thoughts for possibly his mind had been in the dust and he had been handling the Clay out of which he was taken yet by all these Considerations of the Natural Constitutions of my Body and my Subjection thereby unto Death and the Grave being a poor feeble Creature I cannot bring my Heart to be so thoroughly sensible of my frailty as I ought Lord therefore do thou make me to know it The same Holy desire we find breathed out by Moses in Psalm 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom as if he had said Lord I have been at the work my self I have endeavoured to number my days to count over the time of my life but by what I can do I cannot tell how long or how short my life will be it is true I can tell to threescore or fourscore years which usually is the longest term of Man's life and I can tell no farther but yet for all that I cannot apply my heart unto Wisdom this I must have from thee therefore O Lord teach me Though we need but little Arithmetick to number our days Naturally yet we need a great deal of Grace to number them Spiritually Dying is a great work and requires great care and circumspection We can die but once how careful should we be then that we die well Man had need be very exact in doing that which he cannot do a second time and such is the work of Dying An Errour in Death is like an Errour in War which we cannot commit twice O what Reason have we then to be careful that we do not Err at all where it is impossible of Erring again Actually to Err twice is more sinful but not to have a possibility of Erring twice is most dangerous We transgress the Laws of living a thousand times over but the Laws of dying no Man ever transgress'd a second time And that we so often transgress the Laws of Living is an aggravation of sin upon all Men and that we can transgress the Laws of Dying but once is the Seal of Misery upon most Men. How should we then cry unto God for Wisdom to make us careful always to live so that we may be prepared for a dying hour If now the Wisdom of a Christian consists in making preparations for Death then those Persons are guilty of great folly and run desperate hazards who upon hope of long life neglect such Preparations Yet if a Minister in a great Congregation should go from Man to Man and ask them whether they are prepared to die would not must not most if they will speak the Truth be forced to say they are not if upon this you deal faithfully with them and shew your selves a true Friend to their Souls laying before them their great folly and danger herein by such Strong and Powerful Convictions that their Consciences are forced to yield to you and themselves brought with Tears to confess their foolishness hereupon what Resolutions do they take up and what Promises do they make binding their Souls to God by many Vows witnessed with many Prayers and Tears that they will make it the business of their Lives for the time to come to prepare for Death but alas how soon do these seemingly strong Resolutions die and come to nothing and Death that under those Convictions they feared was ready to seize upon them every moment is now as far from their Persons they hope as he is from their thoughts He threatens them not as formerly and therefore they fear him not as formerly Distempers of Body which sometimes frighted them into an awe and fear of Death are now departed from them and so is Death with them at least as to their Apprehensions They have now a Healthful strong Constitution of Body and what doth this Prognosticate but long Life and many days yet to come they hope Doth not the Word of God say that the Age of Man is Threescore years and Ten and many times by Reason of Strength which they feel no want of it is Fourscore and for their parts they have not lived above Thirty or forty years as yet and therefore surely they have a great deal of time still to come and then they will bethink themselves of dying and that will be time enough But O foolish Man what vain confidence is this in which thou trustest who gave thee this Knowledge of thy Life and Time that thou art thus strangely bold and
presumptuous as if thou hadst the Lease thereof in thine own hands and at thine own dispose Indeed we read of good Hezekiah that upon his recovery from a fit of Sickness God gave him a Lease of his Life for fifteen years but who ever had the like Scripture and Experience speak of nothing more plainly than the Frailty and uncertainty of Man's Life It is therefore compared to the Wind to a Leaf to a Flower to a Shadow to a Vapour by all which the Spirit of God sets forth to us the Frailty Brevity and uncertainty of Man's Life endeavouring hereby to take us off from all foolish conceits and vain hopes of long life for what is our Life but a Vapour that appeareth for a while and then vanisheth away a little breath turned in and out by the Nostrils a narrow passage that is soon stopt and we are gone We have no Assurance of our Life no not for a moment Death lies in Ambush every where for us We have a Proverb that the young Man may die but the old Man must die whereas Observation will inform us that incomparably more die young than old And did we but seriously consider by what small pins this Frame of Man is held together it would appear no less than a Miracle that we live one day or hour to an end so many dangers so many Casualties do we pass through every moment and are the thoughts of Death and thy preparation for Death and that Eternity that follows it to be put off to such uncertainties Are not all thy days on Earth few and thou hast spent some of them already and possibly those few days of thine that are already past and gone are all the days thou hast to pass say not then to God to thy Conscience or to others that put thee upon a present preparation for Death and Eternity I will do it to morrow or hereafter boast not thy self O vain Man of to morrow for thou knowest not even what this day may bring forth to thee possibly this day may bring forth thy death and where then will be thy to morrows preparation for it But suppose Death should not cut us off suddenly but give us warning of its approach by Sickness and Distempers of Body yet how unfit a time is that to prepare for dying for Diseases sometimes come with that Violence that they quickly take away Mens Senses and Vnderstandings and having lost the use of their Reason they are fit for nothing And hast thou O presumptuous sinner that trustest to a Sick-bed preparation for Death and Eternity and Assurance that this shall not be thy State and Condition then nay thou hast just cause to fear that thus it shall be because in the time of thy Health and Strength when God called after thee to look towards himself and to mind thy Everlasting Concernments thou wou'dit not therefore now that thou art come to lie upon a Death bed and thy Conscience is awakened with horrour because of thy former negligence and the prospect of thy future Misery that now the Violence of thy Distempers should be so great as to render thee uncapable of such a Work Or if God should be so merciful to thee which thou hast no reason to expect as to continue to thee the use of thy Reason and Vnderstanding so that being apprehensive of the approach of Death and Conscience also be awakened and terrifying thee with the fears of a strict account that thou art going to give unto the Great God of all that thou hast done in the Body whether it be good or evil dreading also what the Consequences thereof may be by reason of thy negligence and carelessness in the time of thy Health and Strength to make preparation for thy Eternal State It being thus with thee and thine Eyes being opened to see whither thou art going thou art very desirous it may be now to set thy Soul in order because thou fearest thou shalt die and not live Yet thy Sickness may be so sharp and pains may come upon thee with that Extremity that all thou canst do will be little enough to mind thy Body God may visit thee with such strong pains upon thy bed as may make thee cry and roar with such horrours as may make thee a terror to thy self and to all that come near thee so that all thou canst do for thy self or what others can do for thee may not be able to give thee any ease or relief And is this the time thou choosest to prepare thy self for Death and Eternity in What when thou canst hardly tell how to turn thy Body upon thy Bed for a little ease Dost thou think this a fit time to turn thy Soul fron Sin unto God in Suppose thou wert now cast upon a Sick-bed and thy Body full of pains if any one should come and put thee in mind of some Worldly Business wouldst thou not think it a good excuse to say Pray trouble me not now because I am Sick Speak to me of these things when I am Well again And dost thou think it Reasonable to be excused from Worldly Business because thou art Sick and yet dost thou Judge it the best time for thee to be employed about thy Spiritual concerns when thou art sick yea when thou art dying Surely desperate folly and madness is in the hearts of these Men who thus live and thus think to die Alas the time of Sickness is a time of spending not of getting it is not a time to gain Evidences for Heaven but to use them and to take the comfort that flows from them Alas poor Man thou shouldst now be solacing thy Soul in God as thy Father reconciled to thee in Christ and having made it the business of thy life to serve and please him sincerely though not without weaknesses and imperfections thou shouldst now be able to say thou hast through Jesus Christ received the Atonement and art continually rejoycing in hopes of the Glory of God the comfort whereof should be so great as to swallow up all thy Bodily pains and distempers and carry thee chearfully through the Pangs of Death so as that thou shouldst be able to say Blessed be God I am not sick for mine Iniquities are forgiven me This should be thy State and Condition upon a dying bed But if thou hast thy work to do thy Preparations for Heaven and Eternity to make when thou art upon thy Sick yea thy Death-Bed Oh how miserable I had almost said how desperate is thy Case How many Gracious Souls have found it work enough upon a Death-bed to attend the Pains and Distempers of their Bodies and believe it O Sinner who ever thou art thou wilt find it a great truth that to suffer and be sick is work enough for any Man at one time But suppose God should be so Gracious to thee as by some lingering and gentle sickness for many days yea months together give thee warning of thy
approaching Dissolution and thy Conscience also should be awakened to stir up in thee some serious thoughts and endeavours to prepare thy self for thy departure hence yet since thou hast so often turned thy back upon God and refused to hearken unto those many Calls that he hath vouchsafed unto thee in the time of thy life to be Wise for thy self by considering thy latter end but thou wouldst not how justly may he now reject thee at the time of thy death though thou follow'st him with never so many earnest cries yea and Tears also That is a most dreadful place of Scripture Oh that it were Engraven with a Pen of Iron and with the Point of a Diamond upon the heart of every careless negligent sinner Proverbs 1. from 24. to 31. Because I have called and you have refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded But you have set at nought all my Counsel and would none of my reproof What then O dreadful O Soul confounding words I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh When your fear cometh as Desolation and your Destruction as a Whirlwind When Distress and Anguish cometh upon you Well but what follows upon this will not God be Entreated cannot Prayers and Cries do any thing with God No for it follows in the next words Then shall they call upon me but I will not Answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me for they hated Knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord They would none of my Counsel they despised all my Reproof What 's the Conclusion of all this why that we have in the next words therefore shall they eat the Fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own Devices Whoever thou art that Readest these Lines if through thy carelessness this should ever come to be thy Case because thou wilt not take warning I have only this doleful Word to leave with thee for thy serious thoughts and meditations and from my Soul I wish it may do thy Soul good this State that I am speaking of will be a State so full of dismal anguish and perplexing horrours that no words are able to express the misery of it Moreover a sick-bed Repentance and Preparation for thy Eternal State is very questionable How hard a matter wilt thou find it then to satisfie thy own Conscience or to convince others that what thou now dost is done in the uprightness of thy Heart and not in Hypocrisie Alas the present feeling of the wrath of God and the future expectations of fiery indignation in Hell may constrain thee unto all that thou dost It was a very sad Relation and I wish the reading of it may do some Soul good which once I received from the Mouth of an eminent Godly Minister of many years standing in the Ministry I have says he been called to visit abundance of Persons upon their Death-beds who reflecting back upon the wickedness of their lives hav professed a great deal of grief and sorrow and made many Promises what they would do and how they would live if God would restore them to their health again but among them all says he thus dying I could never yet meet with one that could give me good ground to believe the Happiness of their future state and condition in another World O let the consideration hereof cut thee to the Heart O thou slothful and delaying Sinner But if thou shouldst be sincere then in thy turning unto God and thy Preparations for Death and Eternity such as are sound and not hypocritical and feigned and God should be graciously entreated of thee in this last and greatest hour of thy distress yet will it not wound and pierce thy Soul to consider what Peace of Conscience what joy in believing what comfortable testimonies of God's loving kindness to thy Soul thou hast lost the sweetness and delight whereof would have born up thy Soul in a dying hour and have carried thee triumphantly through the gloomy valley of the shadow of Death so that thou shouldst have feared no evil But now instead thereof by reflecting upon the former course of thy life which hath been a continual trade of Sin and Wickedness whereby God hath been dish moured and provoked by thee all thy days he now appears to thee as thy dreadful Enemy visiting thee with nothing but terrible Rebukes of horrour and wrath in thy Conscience And though God may have mercy upon thy Soul eternally and the state of thy future Happiness may be sure and certain in it self yet thy passage to it may be very uncomfortable insomuch that as to thy sense and feeling thou art but leaving Earth to go to Hell God's bringing thee to Heaven being by the Gates thereof But though delays in this case are dangerous and sick-bed preparations for Heaven and Eternity at best but uncomfortable yet how prone are most Men to put off the thoughts of Death and their Preparations for it Solomon tells us Eccles 7. That it is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting for this is the end of all Men and the living will lay it to Heart We ought indeed daily to familiarize Death to our Souls by frequent thoughts and meditations of it but when we go to the House of Mourning to see any laid in the Grave this is a special proper time and season for the living to lay Death to Heart and it is probable if Men will at any time lay Death to Heart surely they will do it at such a time as that is for when will Men think of Death if not when they see it before them It is true some do lay Death to Heart when they are called to such Solemnities O then they have a fit of grief upon them but as soon as they have vented their Passion the fit is over and so is their thoughts of Death with it And though Solomon seems to promise for the living that in the House of Mourning they will lay it to Heart yet there are very many that have been so often there that they are grown familiar with Death but in a bad sence for the frequency of such occasions have worn off all impressions of Mortality from their Hearts so that now they can go to the Grave again and again and not be affected with it they look upon it as a matter of Custom and Formality for Men to die and be buried and when the solemnity of the Funeral is over the thoughts of Death are over with them and as soon as they can get out of the sight of the Grave their Preparations for the Grave are out of their Mind The Holy History tells us in 2 Sam. 10.12 that when Amasa was slain by Joab and lay wallowing in his Blood in the midst of the high way every one that came by stood still being astonished to behold so dismal a Spectacle But afterwards
we read that Amasa was removed out of the High way into the Field and a Cloth cast upon him And what then why the Holy Text tells us All the People went on after Joab So is it with us if we behold a Person lying upon a death-bed gasping and bleeding and with dying groans ready to expire his last breath here we make a stop and pause with some astonishment at so sad a sight but let a Cloth be thrown over the Dead and the Corps drawn aside into the Grave and covered with Earth presently we go to our employments and trading and possibly some to their sinful Practices again as if the last Man that should die were now buried Now the Reasons of this stupidity and carelessness may be such as these First The great Love and Affection Men have to the World and the things thereof These take up all the thoughts and time of some Men so that they have no leasure nor desires to think of Death or to make Preparations for another Life The Pleasures Honours and Profits of the World are fine things in their Eyes they please their Fancies and so possess their Minds with a fond desire of long Life that they may delight their senses in these earthly things and these ardent earnest desires of theirs will let them think of nothing less than many days to satisfie their sensual part in these delightful enjoyments If we should look abroad into the World we may easily perceive which way the Inclinations of most Men carry them How eagerly do some pursue the Pleasures of the World How unweariedly do others follow the Profits of the World And how impatiently do others thirst after the Honours and Preferments of the World as if their Happiness were wrapp'd up in these outward Accommodations Whereas our Lord tells us that a Man's Life consists not in the abundance of the things that he enjoys here in this World And by these things the thoughts of Death are not suffered to come into Men's Minds and if they will crowd in upon them sometimes they are soon cast out again as unwelcome Guests that come to disturb their Peace Secondly Men put off the thoughts of Death and Preparation for it because they generally look upon it as that which is afar off And this is the greatest sottishness in the World If you go to those that are young and tell them that they must die it is true say they and Old Men ought to consider it and prepare themselves for it but surely for us there is no such hast yet Alas they think they must of right and course live till they are Aged If you go to Old Men and tell them that they must die alas their Age tells them so they cannot deny it but though God visit them with weakness and infirmities the Companions of Old Age which impair their Health and waste their strength continually yet they Hope these decays are not so great nor so violent but that they may yet weather out a few years more those that are healthful and strong think they need not prepare for Death till they have warning given them of its approach by Sickness And those that God doth summon to the Grave by Sickness and Diseases they have a secret hope that because they have formerly escaped from other distempers therefore they may do so again Thus now most Men thrust Death from them and put the evil Day afar off And it is a true saying that usually the hopes of a long life is the cause of an evil life for because Men hope they shall live long therefore they are careless how they live at present presuming they may have time enough to repent and amend all hereafter Thirdly Men put off the thoughts of Death because such apprehensions bring a great deal of Fear and Terrour with them Death is that which Nature abhors to think of it cannot endure the thoughts of Separation between those near and dear Companions of Soul and Body Oh to think that this Body that is here pamper'd and made so much of should become vile and loathsome in the Grave laid in a Bed of stench and rotteness covered with Worms mouldring away into the dust of Oblivion This is a sad and melancholy subject for our thoughts to muse upon O this King of Terrours Death How unâ—â— come is he unto the thoughts of most men especially considering him as having his sting in him which is Sin O then it is no wonder that those whâ— are Conscious to themselves of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—ing guilâ— dare not think of standing before the dreadful Tribunal of God whither Death God's Serjeant will bring them but cry out with Horrour Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire Who among us can dwell with everlasting Burning 〈◊〉 it is no wonder that such put far from them thâ— thoughts of Death because they know that day whensoever it comes will be to them â—n evil day But if Men would seriously consider how shouâ—â— their time in this World is the hazard and dangerâ— they run by their delays would be prevented Surely they that have a lively sense of the things of Eternity upon their Hearts that know their time herâ— to be but short and believe that upon the improvement of this short time their misery or happiness for Eternity doth depend will not be so foolish as to put off their Preparations for Death and Eternity till hereafter when they have no assurance of their lives no not for a moment This is so weighty a consideration that if it were laid to Heart would prevail with all Men that have the right use of their Reason and Vnderstanding Our time in this World is short and uncertain yet is our work very great We are but of yesterday and possibly before to Morrow we may not be and the Great God hath suspended Eternity upon the improvement of this moment a few days or a few hours nay possibly a few minutes will determine our everlasting State and condition and according as we are in spending of them so shall our Doom be either to Eternal Happiness or to Eternal Misery and why Oh why should our precious and immortal Souls be so vile in our Eyes as to lose them by sloth and carelessness Why should any of us be such Fools and Mad-men to hearken to the sollicitations of the Flesh or to the allurements of a flattering deceitful World so as to put off and neglect our everlasting concerns Should we not rather say to the World or whatever it be that would hinder us in our great work Stand off for we are working for Eternity an Eternity that is but a few days it may be but a few hours hence a boundless a bottomless endless state and condition into which we know not how soon we may be cast and therefore we have no time to dally in or to trifle away But though our Time be short yet is it long enough for our great Work if diligently
improved We have so much time allotted us as will serve to do our real business in and to answer the ends of living A Christian's Work in this World is not to incumber himself with many things or to vex himself about the accomplishing of great designs for the World to get a great Estate to abound with Pleasures to grow great in the esteem of Men these things are as much below a Christian's Work as they are below his Reward And whoever thou art that designest these things for thy self thou maist not have time enough for the attaining of them but yet Heaven may be got in that time that the World cannot thy Salvation may be wrought out God may be made propitious to thee through Christ the one thing needful the better part that shall never be taken away from thee these may be obtained by thee and secured to thee as thy Portion in that time that God hath given thee if thou art diligent in improving of it Do not sigh and mourn therefore that thou canst number no more days do not murmur and complain at the shortness of thy Life What wouldst thou do if thy days were more What use wouldst thou make of thy time if it were longer Is it that thou mightest save thy Soul and make thy Peace with God that thou desirest more time Why thou needest not more time for these purposes than God hath allotted thee already thy Life is long enough if thou didst use it aright It is not a little time that we have but it is a little that we use God hath not given us a little but we throw away much Our Portion is not small for what we are to Trade but our mispence is exceeding great God is not niggardly and sparing in wha◠he hath given us but we are prodigal and profuset foolishly wasting away our hours they that have abundance of time given them through their Imprudence and Mispence are utterly undone and then they whine like Beggars as if they had had no time whereas those that have less time than others that make these Complaints have so improved that little that Thanks be to God they are rich in good Works and say it is enough let God call for them when he pleaseth If now upon the serious Consideration of the shortness of time any shall be stirred up and provoked to a diligent Improvement of it so as to prepare themselves for their latter end they shall find such Benefits as these redounding to their Souls thereby First It will be a great means for the Prevention of much Sin He that shall seriously consider with himself I must shortly die how soon I know not will presently reflect upon himself under a Temptation to Sin and say Why should I commit this or that Evil which if it be not a means to hasten my end yet will certainly make it more uneasie and uncomfortable when I come to lie upon a Death-bed and consider what I have done amiss Possibly I may die to morrow for who knows what a day may bring forth O why then shall I venture to commit that evil to day which will be as Gall and Wormwood and like Bitterness and Vexation to my Soul then Would I do it did I believe that I were to die to morrow Why should I then do it to day that know not whether I shall live till to morrow for it is possible this may prove the last day of my Life Secondly He that shall seriously consider his latter end and shall diligently employ himself and his time accordingly shall find his life most comfortable and contentful and his Death most easie and peaceable As for the Contentment of Life if you look abroad among Men in regard of their outward Estate and Condition you shall find that that Man who by his Industry hath got to be aforehand in the World hath much more Peace and Quietness in his Life than he that is behind-hand or gone back and is continually struggling with Necessities and Wants So is it in Spirituals also he that hath been wise in improving the Opportunities that God hath vouchsafed him for the getting of Grace and making his Peace with God through Christ he that hath done thus a great part yea a chief part of the business of his Life is done he is prepared in some measure for all Conditions the wise Providence of God may dispense to him be it Sickness or Health be it Life or Death for he is aforehand as it were in the business of his everlasting Concerns so that if God lengthen out his Life in this world he carries on his great work and business unto greater degrees of Perfection not only without Trouble and Disturbance but with great Ease and Pleasure Or if God see good to cut short his days and call him to give an Account of his Talents his great business is not now to go about but his Accounts are ready and he in some measure prepared to give them up unto his Lord and Master and O blessed is that Servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing But this is not all the frequent considering our latter end brings Ease and Peace in Death it abates if not removes the fears of it Death in Scripture is called the King of Terrors and many times the fear of Death is more terrible than Death it self Now that which makes Death thus terrible to us is the knowledge of our Guilt and the Apprehensions of God's Wrath and Displeasure justly deserved thereby this gives Death its Sting and Terror Now he that makes it his business to live in constant Preparation for Death by Acts of Repentance for former Sins and by frequent Applications of the Blood of Christ to his Soul by Faith he removes both the Sting and the Fear of Death at once For how can he be afraid of Death whose frequent Thoughts and Meditations of it make it familiar to him And as for the Sting of Death that cannot hurt him neither for where Sin is truly repented of it is really pardoned and Sin being pardoned the Power and Sting of it whereby it hurts and wounds others is taken away as to him so that though others are held in Bondage under the fear of Death all their lives and feel the deadly Sting of it when they come to die yet he fears not either the suddenness of its Approach nor the power of its Sting Now dying being a work of great weight and difficulty it is not only of great Concernment but it will be full of Sweetness and Comfort to us when we come to lie upon a 〈◊〉 had to be able to say that all things are set straight and right between God and our Souls Such Persons are no small Proficients in Grace and Holiness but are strong in the 〈…〉 CHAP. III. The State of Man considered under Death What it is to wait for Death with Reasons why we must prepare for it Dying is an important
Majesty of Heaven condescends so low as to entreat us with more Earnestness and Affection to pity our own Souls and accept of a Pardon then Guilty Condemned Sinners desire to obtain it but when this Life is at an end there shall be no more Offers of Mercy but the Blood of Christ shall then be a Spring shut up and a Fountain Sealed that none can wash in it and be Cleansed Death Seals up the State of a Sinner for ever You know what Abrabam tells the Rich Man in Hell in Luke 16.26 Between us and you says he there is a great Gulf fixed so that they that would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence The State and Condition that Men enter upon after Death is fixed and unalterable Therefore O Sinner what thou dost for God for Heaven for thy Soul do it quickly for this is the only Time and Season for thee to work in and as thou now Sowest so thou shalt Reap for ever The State of Man under Death being thus it greatly concerns all Men to wait for Death Job tells us it should be his Practice Job 14.14 All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change comes Now waiting as it relates unto Death may include three things Meditation Expectation and Preparation First Meditation He that waits for the Accomplishment of any Worldly Business especially if it be of Concernment to him how busie will his Mind and Thoughts be in musing upon it He now that is waiting for the coming of Death considering both the certainty of it that it will come and the uncertainty of it when it will come and believes withal that Eternal Happiness or Eternal Misery will be that State to which Death will bring him cannot but have his Thoughts much taken up about it This will make a Soul Truly and Spiritually Wise and therefore the Psalmist Prays Lord teach us to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom He that is truly Wise will Meditate of Death and he that Meditates of Death will be truly Wise The more we number our Days and think of our Time the fewer Sins we shall have to number for as a Copy is then safest from blotting when dust is thrown upon it so are we from Sinning when we remember we are but Dust Secondly Waiting includes in it Expectation That which we wait for we are in Expectation of and that Man may be said to wait for Death that in every Action of his Life in every Alteration of his State and Condition saith to himself well I must Die when though his Bones are full of Marrow though Riches come in upon him like a Flood yet saith he I must die I have no abiding Place here I am but a Stranger and Sojourner in this World as all my Fathers were I have now Wife and Children Friends and Lands but I cannot enjoy any of these for ever no nor my Life it self for I have but a Lease of it and that but a short one too which will soon expire I expect Death daily even in the midst of all my Enjoyments I am but a Steward of all that I have here and I must shortly be called to an Account such and such are gone before me and I am following after The other day Death snatched away such a dear Relation from me this day it hath seized upon such a Friend and Acquaintance and to morrow the same Messenger may come for me It is that I expect and therefore I wait for it Thirdly Waiting includes in it Preparation He that waits for Death ought to be preparing for it This now is exceeding Requisite because it is above the reach of Words to express how much depends upon this Preparation it is that our whole Life should have respect unto every thing that we do ought to have a tendency in it to make Death Comfortable But of this Preparation for Death I shall speak more hereafter in its proper place This waiting for Death by way of Meditation on it by way of Expectation of it and by way of Preparation for it is very necessary considering what an Important difficult Work the Work of dying is and this will appear if we consider two things First what Death is Secondly what Death doth First what Death is and here are three things considerable Death is a Deprivation Death is a Desolution and Death is a Destruction All which make Death terrible and the Work of dying difficult First Death is a Deprivation It strips us of all those Comforts that in this World did Refresh us Friends Relations Lands Houses these have often delighted us while we live yea it may be too much by setting our Affections inordinately upon them and now what Grief of Soul doth it create to us violently by Death to be torn from them but part we and they must whether we will or no and that for ever Job tells us We came naked into the World and we shall return naked out of it The Apostle indeed seems to intimate as if some Men in our days could scarcely believe it and therefore to beat Men off from such a conceit he tells them 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing with us into this World this is true and all Men will grant it and says the Apostle it is certain we shall carry nothing out of it Death makes all lie equal in the Dust Secondly Death is a Dessolution In Life Soul and Body are united and live lovingly together there is a near union between them a union which because of their long Acquaintance and Co-habitation together is become so dear that no union can be more desirable as to the continuance of it nor no union more dreaded as to the Dissolution of it except it be the Spiritual union between Christ and the Soul There are several kinds of unions and generally Love is the ground of them all There is an union of Friendship between one Friend and another whom Love hath united so strongly that they seem to Act as if one Soul animated them both so Jonathan loved David even as his own Soul This is a strong union There is also a Relative union between Parents and Children so Jacob loved Benjamin so that it is said his Life was bound up in the Life of the Lad This is a stronger union than the former There is also a Marriage union between a Man and his Wife and this is a stronger union than either of the former Man and Wife making but one Flesh as the Scripture speaks But yet there is a union that is stronger and nearer than any of these Vnions and that is the Vnion between Soul and Body for these two make but one Person Now all dis-unions are uncomfortable and some dis-unions are dreadful and as some dis-unions are dreadful so those dis-unions are most dreadful which rend that from us that is nearest and dearest to us
For Friends to be parted never to see the Faces of one another again this is sad And therefore when St. Paul was taking his leave of the Saints in Macedonia in Acts 20.38 it is said They fell on his Neck and kissed him sorrowing most for the words that he spake that they should see his Face again no more But it is sadder for Parents and Children to be disunited David found it so when he cryed out so Passionately for his Son 2 Sam. 18.33 O Absalom my Son my Son would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son It is yet more sad to have a dis-union made between a Man and the Wife of his Bosom when God shall take away with a stroke the desire of his Eyes one that hath been a meet and fit Yoke-fellow in the Lord whose Eyes can refrain from weeping or their Hearts from bleeding under such a sad stroke of Providence But yet there is a dis-union that comes nearer than all these and that is a dis-union between the Soul and the Body those two Old Sweet Intimate Companions born together into the World and who have lived in sweet Society together all their Days for Death to come and make a Dissolution between two so near and so dear together by a violent rending and tearing the Soul and Body asunder Oh this is exceeding sad and dreadful indeed and that which must needs make the Work of Dying hard and difficult Thirdly Death is a Destruction So David calls it Psal 90.3 Thou turnest Man to destruction That Excellent Frame of Man's Body which David tells us was fearfully and wonderfully made in secret and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the Earth by God himself and that with Infinite Power and Wisdom Psal 139.14 15. Sickness will not only stain its Glory and make the Beauty of it to consume like a Moth But Death will Demolish and pull it down to the ground turn it into Corruption and Putrefaction yea into Dust it self utterly destroying it so that it shall not be any more until by the Power of God it shall be raised up again at the last day Death now being so destructive a thing unto Man that nothing will content it less than his Annihilation in the Grave dying must needs be a hard and difficult thing unto Flesh and Blood Secondly Dying is an important difficult Work if we consider what Death doth now this I shall explain by opening these two things First Death occasions our Spiritual Enemies to assault us Secondly It awakens Conscience against us First Death occasions our Spiritual Enemies to assault us most fiercely Now these Enemies are two Sin and Satan First Sin When doth the Guilty Prisoners Crimes come into his Mind but when he hath a Summons to appear before his Judge And when doth the Guilt of Sin fly in the Face of a Sinner but when Death hath him under his Arrest to carry him before God the Great Judge of Heaven and Earth Multitudes of Sins that before lay hid and seem'd to be quite forgotten now shew themselves and come fresh into a Sinner's mind as so many Witnesses against him which upon the Review he cannot but Remember though formerly he had forgot them Oh what a number of horrid Wickednesses do now haunt his Thoughts with dismal apprehensions in the dark night of Death walking up and down like so many Frightful Ghosts scaring and terrifying his Soul Well may an Impenitent Sinner say then unto Death hast thou found me O mine Enemy art thou come O Death to call my Sins to Remembrance and to slay my Soul Secondly The Devil will then be very fierce and furious in his Assaults His Time now is but short and therefore his Rage is great This is his hour yea his last hour and therefore the Power of the Prince of Darkness is now most put forth he knows he hath but a few hours more to wait and if he can but keep the Sinner so long he is then his for ever Assure thy self therefore O Sinner he will be diligent in watching thy Sick-bed both by night and by day and if all the Power or Policy of Hell can prevent it neither Cordial shall benefit thy Body nor Counsel and Advice profit thy Soul The Devil is the great Enemy of Souls and because he is miserable himself he therefore labours that all others may be as miserable as he is now the ways by which he expresseth his Enmity against Souls that he may keep them from Eternal Life are these Sometimes by obstructing the Work of Grace in the Souls of Men and thus he works with all his might by all his Wiles and Devices that he can to draw men unto and keep them in a way of Sin that they may not set their Faces towards Heaven much more that they may not with earnest endeavours of Soul seek to obtain it It is true God always hath the Devil in a Chain and can if he pleaseth restrain and hinder him in all his Malicious Attempts against his Children and many times he doth manifest his Power and Grace towards his Servants in a dying hour by curbing in the Malice of that Evil one that he shall not be able to trouble and molest them in their Passage into Heaven But yet sometimes God doth then permit the Devil to shew his Malice against his People and then how fiercely and furiously doth he make his Assaults upon them Then it is they meet with the sorest Trials and because he could not prevail upon them formerly as a Tempter now he turns to be their Accuser charging all their Sins upon their Souls with all the bloody aggravations of them upbraiding them with all their Profession as if they had been but Hypocrites in all that they had done This God sometimes permits him to do that their Grace being exercised the Trial thereof may appear to be more precious than Gold that perisheth being found to the Praise and Glory of God and the Shame and Reproach of their Adversary the Devil in a most Glorious Conquest over all his Temptations for through the Grace and Strength of Christ they overcome him in all his Accusations and notwithstanding all they go not only quietly but sometimes Triumphantly into Heaven and Glory Secondly Death awakens Conscience The Practice of a Sinner is to lull Conscience asleep that he may the more quietly and undisturbedly go on in Sin but when Death comes usually the Conscience of a Sinner is awakened if the Sinner be not past feeling given over to a reprobate sence Conscience hath its Times and Seasons of stirring in the Souls of Men as sometimes under the Preaching of the Word Conscience begins to stir within a Sinner and tells him that those Duties that have been laid before him by the Minister are the Commands of the Great God and therefore ought to oblige him to Obedience Here Conscience is an honest Informer Sometimes when a Sinner is taking the
Word of God into his hand and falls a Reading of it where he meets with some things Commanded by God which possibly through ignorance or heedlessness he did not take notice of before to be his Duty Conscience at such a time takes part with the Word of God and by its Admonitions helps forward the Convictions of the Word upon the Heart of a Sinner that so there may be an Obediential Conformity thereunto Here now Conscience is a Faithful Monitor At another time when a Sinner hath not only through carelessness but through wilfulness and presumption fallen into the Commission of some great and horrid Sin possibly at such a time some Friend comes to him and deals plainly and freely with him by reproving him sharply and severely for his Sin Conscience now joyns in with the Reproof and becomes as true a Friend unto the Sinner as any he hath if he will but hearken unto him here now Conscience thunders out both the Threatnings of the Law and the Vengeance of the Gospel telling the Sinner that they that do such things are worthy of Death nay that they deserve Hell for because of these things sake says Conscience cometh the Wrath of God upon the Children of Disobedience Conscience here now shews it self an exact and upright Reprover But then there is another Office that Conscience hath and that is to be an Accuser and this Office it commonly makes use of when it is throughly awakened upon a Death-bed for when a Man comes to lie upon a Sick-bed and sees the Visions of Death and the Grave before him the Charges of Conscience at such a time upon a Sinner are most quick and smart for Conscience being just as it were a going to give up its Accounts unto the Great God the Judge of all Flesh where it will speak nothing but the Truth begins now to give the Sinner some Account of what it must and will say before the Tribunal of God then And this is one Reason why Conscience is so strict and so severe in its Charge against the Soul that it will let nothing pass that comes into the mind of a Sinner without leaving some stinging Remembrances of its former guilt even such as are more bitter than Death it self This now makes Dying to be so hard and difficult a Work O happy Souls are they who at such a time have their hearts sprinkled from the Evil of an Accusing Conscience by the Blood of Jesus Christ for they only can have Peace and Comfort in the hour of Death This Work of dying though it be so hard and difficult a Work yet is it that we must all undergo for Death is continually hastening towards us The Blessed Apostle St. Paul thought Death always to be near it made such speed to him that he lookt upon himself always as a dying Man and therefore he tells us That he did die daily 1 Cor. 15.31 and in Rom. 8.36 For thy sake says he we are killed all the day long we are counted as Sheep for the Slaughter And if we make Hezekiah's Reckoning to be our own though he was under a fit of Sickness when he said it but we are in Health yet we shall not be much mistaken in the Account when he tells us From day even unto night says he thou wilt make an end of me What though Death hath not laid his cold hands upon us by some Mortal Disease yet may he not lie in Ambush for us and cut us off suddenly Time hath Wings and flies away swiftly from us and truly Death doth not creep but with the same swiftness posts towards us Man is wasting and consuming every day his Body wastes his Strength wastes his Parts waste his Time wastes yea his very Life wastes and whither tend all these Consumptions and Wastings but only to the hastening of Death neither will these end till they terminate in Man's Dissolution But though Man in this Life is always hurrying on unto Death yet how few are there that consider how suddenly themselves or others may die we easily and slightly pass over the Thoughts of Death and the suddenness of its approach because it is that we have no mind to We would not yet die our selves and therefore we will not think we shall Guests that are unwellcome to us we either keep them out of our Houses or turn them out as soon as we can Such are the Thoughts of Death either of our own or others and therefore if possible we endeavour to keep them out of our minds altogether but if sometimes they will thrust in upon us we turn them out again as soon as we can filling our Thoughts with some other things But alas this will not do always for the Thoughts of Death will return again upon some occasions or other God by some Providence may be will awaken Conscience and stir up Thoughts of Death in our minds let us do what we can to hinder them yea though we do what we can to stifle them but this is no thanks to us for of our selves we will not be brought to think of or regard how suddenly others do and our selves may die till by some sad Providence we are brought to the Sick bed of some Friend whom Death hath bedewed with cold Sweats and rackt with Convulsims so that he lies gasping and dying before us till our Eyes be brought thus to Affect our Hearts our Hearts are seldom Affected as they ought with the Sence of our Mortality Now as Death comes suddenly upon many so commonly it comes violently upon wicked Men their Souls are not surrendred or delivered up unto God but they are rent and torn from them by Force and Violence A wicked Man cannot commend his Soul into the Hands of God when he is dying Indeed we have a form of making the Wills of dying Men wherein the Person that lies upon his Death-Bed says I commend my Soul into the Hands of God which in the Judgment of Charity because we have nothing to do to Censure Mens Eternal State in the General we must not wholly Condemn yet it is to be feared that few that say those words do it heartily and sincerely and upon such Grounds as God will accept and receive when they leave their Bodies There are some who have lived in Sin all their Days yet have strong presumptions of the Mercy of God upon their Death-beds God is a merciful God say they and therefore with boldness and confidence they commend their Souls unto him relying upon his Mercy for Salvation But such are strangely Ignorant of the method of God in saving Sinners and by Custom in Sin and the Judgment of God upon them for it they are become insensible their Consciences are seared and asleep and so neither their Sin nor the misery they are liable to for Sin doth in the least trouble them But otherwise the Death of a wicked Man is violent he doth not resign up his Soul unto God but it is
at all for the Great Judge of Heaven and Earth before whom thou and I are now going to appear knows all these things that I have now told thee of to be true and will quickly undeceive thee whatever thy hopes are now and make thee know these things unto thy everlasting confusion unless out of the infinite Riches of his Grace and Mercy he give thee Repentance presently which thou canst have very little hopes of now at Death since thou didst not turn to him in thy Life Secondly Consider when thou comest to die thou wilt then have to do with God himself immediately It is true while we are here in the Body we have to do with God and all our Affairs whatsoever are transacted under his Eye and in his presence therefore we read in Heb. 4.13 That all things are naked and open unto the Eyes of that God with whom we have to do There is no Prayer we make no Sermon we hear no Holy Duty we perform no Mercy we enjoy no Affliction we lie under nor any Action we do in our whole lives but we have to do with God in it But when we come to die we have to do with God in another way and manner than what we have to do with him in this World here we have to do with God in Duties and Ordinances but it is in such a way as is becoming our present state of distance from him of which I may say as the Prophet doth in another case it is neither clear not dark insomuch that Faith it self hath much a-do sometimes to discover God unto the Soul and no wonder then if a Carnal Eye cannot discern him But when as the Wise Man speaks the Soul shall return to God that gave it the Soul then goes into the immediate Presence of God having to do with him in such an immediate way and manner that there is nothing in the Eye of the Soul to obscure or hinder the sight of the Divine Presence no vail of Flesh between God and it but naked Majesty and Glory discovers it self to the Soul with the rays of its own light which is so full of wonder and astonishment that we know not now how to conceive of it much less to express it And if a holy Prophet seeing but a Vision of God crys out Wo is me I am undone for I am a Man of unclean Lips and mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Host Isai 6.5 O how much more may it overwhelm a Soul when stripp'd of its Body to see not only a Vision of God but to see God himself as it were face to face But this is not all for the Soul is not by Death barely brought before the Great and Glorious God but it is brought before him to be judged to an Eternal State In this Life we come into the presence of God upon a Treaty of Peace between God and our Souls God is now in Christ reconciling Sinners unto himself and is willing not to impute their Sins and Trespasses unto them and if they will accept of his terms they may make Peace with him for he saith now unto Sinners let them take hold of my strength and so make Peace with me and they shall make Peace with me but if Sinners will not throw away the Weapons of their Rebellion out of their Hands I mean their Sins out of their Hearts whereby they fight against God but Death comes and strikes them dead with their Weapons in their Hands I mean in the embracements of their lusts God and they must treat after another manner not upon terms of Peace but upon terms of Judgment for away they go immediately after Death before God as a Judge the Spirit then returning unto God that gave it to receive a determinative sentence of Happiness or Misery for ever And who would not then be always prepared for the stroke of Death that carries the Soul into the presence of such a Judge who hath power to and who will determine its everlasting State Thirdly As a farther Argument to perswade Christians unto a preparation for Death Consider the misery of those who when Death comes upon them are unprovided for it And this I shall do in these following particulars briefly First An unprepared Sinner at Death loseth all his outward comforts and enjoyments In this Life it may be Providence did abound towards him with variety of outward enjoyments as Riches Relations Pleasures Profits and the like but Death is now come and hath swept away all of these things that were desirable It was a doleful expression of Ahraham unto the Rich Man in Hell Luke 16.25 Son remember thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things Oh what a cutting word was this to his Soul when he was passed into another World And will it not wound thy Soul as deeply O Sinner who hast not made thy Preparations for Eternity when thou comest to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death to consider thou hast received all thy good things already yea and having received them if thou couldst always live with them and keep them always with thee it might be something to thee but alas thou canst not for when Death comes it will turn thee out of all thy possessions and enjoyments when thou diest thou shalt take nothing in thy hand with thee of all thy labour as the Wise Man speaks Eccl. 5.15 The things of this World will not go one step with thee beyond this present Life and think O Sinner if thou canst what a doleful thing will it be for a poor Soul to be 〈◊〉 down naked upon the vast Ocean of Eternity having nothing to relieve and support it self with all its Riches and Treasures being left behind it in another World Secondly The Misery of an unprepared Sinner for Death appears in this that then he shall be deprived of all the Seasons and Opportunities of Grace It is no mean Mercy to thee O Sinner hadst thou a Heart to improve it that thou now enjoyest the Ordinances of Life and Salvation that thou hast the tenders of Mercy the entreaties of Ministers the motions of the Spirit invitations to come unto Christ leave and liberty to cast down thy self at the Feet of God and by Prayer and Supplication seek his Face and be as earnest and fervent as thou wilt or canst be for Mercy But let me tell thee at Death the door of Mercy will be for ever shut there will be no Praying or Preaching or Hearing in the Place whither thou art going no declaring this loving kindness of God in the Grave nor this faithfulness of his in Destruction Now the Ordinances of God though precious to others yet are they tedious and irksome unto thee the Church of God to thee is little better than a Prison the Sabbath-day is the longest day in the Week in thy Account thou wouldst fain be rid of it the Commands of Christ which to a Gracious Soul are
such The Happiness of those that are in Christ lies in the Manifestation of the Divine Love and Favour unto their Souls now this Death cannot hinder them of I know many of God's People have not the Light of his Countenance liftted up upon their Souls in Death but their passage to Heaven is dark and uncomfortable God loves them though they know it not yet by this darkness and uncomfortableness which Death brings upon them by their passage through it Death is but bringing them to the most clear Discoveries of the Love of God to their Souls in Heaven with which they shall then be filled and satisfied to all Eternity Our Comfort in Death lies in the Knowledge of our Interest in Christ but so doth not our Happiness that lies in our Interest in Christ whether we know it or not Our Consolation in a dying hour springs from our Assurance that Christ is ours and we are his but our safely and security in that hour ariseth from the certainty of our Interest in Christ Indeed our Ignorance that we are in Christ when we come to die may prejudice our present Peace and Comfort in Death but it shall not prejudice our future Happiness after Death They that are in Christ are always in a safe Condition they may die uncomfortably indeed but they cannot die miserably they are built upon the Rock of Ages and therefore though they fall by Death into the Grave even as others yet they perish not with others Death may kill them but it cannot hurt them He that hath an Interest in Christ being united to him by Faith need not fear what Death can do unto him True and thorough Conversion from Sin unto God is a sure Foundation for Peace and Safety both in Life and Death He that is interested in Christ is built upon a Rock that is Impregnable the Gates of Death and Hell shall not prevail against him To behold a Man dying that is in Christ this is Comfortable for such a one dies that he may live for ever and changes only a Temporal for an Eternal Life To behold a Christless Person but not in a dying condition this is something tolerable for who can tell but that the next Sabbath or the next Sermon God may make it a time of Love to his Soul even such a day of his Power and Grace towards him as thereby savingly to draw him unto Christ But to behold a dying Man and a Christless Man also this is dreadful yea even intolerable for such a one dies from Earth to be Damned in Hell It was a sad and doleful Complaint and Oh that it might startle and awaken some secure Sinner to look after Christ that was once uttered by one upon a Death-Bed being just a dying Oh I want nothing now but a Christ to Save me O miserable State and Condition indeed for in having him the Soul hath all that can do it good or make it good but in wanting of him the Soul hath nothing that can do it good here or make it happy hereafter Interest in Christ is the only true Preparation for Death This now is the general Direction for our Preparation for Death without which there is no dying happily or comfortably But the more particular Directions are these that follow First Wouldst thou be prepared for Death then die unto Sin by daily and constant endeavours to mortifie and subdue the Power and Strength of it in the Exercise of a Holy Life The Apostle tells us in Rom. 6.23 That the wages of Sin is Death By which he means Temporal and Eternal Death This now is the Fruit of Sin for Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death But is there no way to escape this Death yes from Spiritual and Eternal Death there is a deliverance and therefore the Apostle tells us in Rom. 6.13 That if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body that is the deeds of the Body of Sin then we shall live and not die that is we shall live Spiritually and not die Eternally and as for a Temporal Death though we cannot scape the stroke of it yet we shall be free from the Curse and Sting of it Wouldst thou therefore O Christian be prepared for Death when it comes then take from it now its Power and Strength When the Philistines saw Sampson was too strong for them they labour to know wherein his great Strength lay and when they found it was in the Hair of his Head they would not be quiet till they got his Hair cut off Every Christian hath to deal with a dreadful Enemy unto Nature and that is Death Assault he will all of us at one time or other yea and be too hard for us If now we would overcome him we must find out where his great Strength lies the Spirit of God now tells us that the Power and Sting of Death is Sin so we read in 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin And the Power and Sting of every Mans particular Death lies in his own Sins Death cannot hurt any of us but by that Power and Strength that our sins put into its hands Christian the way how thou mayest overcome thine Enemy Death is set open to thee his Strength is discovered to thee that thou mayest have thine Advantage against him to weaken him and to take away his Strength and that is by dying unto Sin this will be the Death of Death Yield not therefore at any time to its Solicitations for this is but to make Death the more strong and Powerful to wound thy Soul and Conscience When therefore thou art tempted unto any Sin though it may seem pleasant and delightful yet before thou yieldst unto the Temptation say to thy self O my Soul how will this relish with me when I come to lie upon a Death-bed and my Soul sits trembling upon my Lips ready to take its Flight unto the Tribunal of God What Peace and Comfort will it procure to my Conscience then Will not the Remembrance of it prove more bitter than Gall and Wormwood and the grating Reflections of Conscience more stinging and tormenting to the Soul than a thousand Deaths could possibly be Wouldst thou not have Death bitter then let not Sin be sweet now Part with Sin betimes get that removed that is the troubler of a Death-Bed and the Sting of Death and that is Sin Make it your daily business to be dying unto Sin Now this dying unto Sin implies our constant endeavours to subdue the Power and Strength of Sin and this is done by daily Mortification It is true in the People of God Sin doth not Reign and that is Comfortable to consider Sin in the Work of Conversion hath received such a Wound as is incurable but yet wherever Sin is in any Soul it doth not use to lie dormant but where it cannot Reign it will molest and struggle yea and it
may be prevail to a Victory sometimes even over those over whom it shall never prevail unto Condemnation This now calls for a constant work of Mortification Every day there are corrupt Inclinations and Propensions to be kept in sinful thoughts to be contended with Evil motions to be supprest and it is not the meer Habis and Principle of Grace received in our first Conversion without the vigorous and constant Exercise of it in a way of Mortification that will overcome all these Though Regeneration hath given Sin its Deaths wound yet Mortification must daily weaken and subdue its Power and Strength and according as the work of Mortification is successful in the Soul so will be our Peace and Purity in Life and our Joy and Comfort in Death Secondly Keep Conscience clear that it may not have the guilt of any known sin to charge you withal Now Conscience may then be said to be clear when it is pure and when it is a Peaceable Conscience that is peaceable must be pure and a pure Conscience usually is a peaceable Conscience When Conscience is free from all known and willful defilements and not justly burthened with the guilt of Sin then is Conscience clear If it be possible do not wound Conscience and if you would not have a care of Sin he that is not watchful to avoid Sin cannot have a clear Conscience It is impossible for us while we are surrounded about with Infirmities and oppressed with a Body of Sin and Death which the Apostle complains of to keep our selves free and unspotted from all Sin for in many things we offend all Those Sins now that are Sins of weakness and Infirmity as they are usually small Sins and so hardly discernable many times by our selves nor others so they do not break our Peace with God nor obscure the clearness of our Consciences but they are known and willful sins that waste and wound the Conscience and they that are not careful to keep themselves from sinning thus can never have a clear Conscience nor be in a prepared State for Death for how can Conscience speak Peace unto the Soul upon a Death-bed with the guilt of any known sin upon it If you wound Conscience by sin now Conscience will wound you for sin hereafter Any known sin committed against Conscience will exceedingly discompose and trouble the Soul in a dying hour Reader doth thy Conscience reprove thee for living in any sinful way or for being careless and remiss in looking after Heaven and Eternity hearken unto Conscience now that Conscience may hearken unto you another day O Sinner when thou shalt come to lie upon a Death-bed and begin to examine thy Conscience how things are with thee and how it is like to go with thee for ever thou wouldest then be glad to have Conscience give thee a comfortable answer and say all is well and all shall be well with thee to Eternity thou hast been Faithful in following my Counsels and Reproofs that from the Great God according to his Word I delivered unto thee and now I will be as Faithful in declaring to thee the Truth of things as to thy future State fear not therefore for it shall certainly go well with thee for ever Wouldst thou now have Conscience speak thus comfortably to thee at Death hearken to what Conscience saith to thee now for if thou dost not hearken unto Conscience in thy life time when it Faithfully Admonisheth and Reproves thee Conscience will not hearken unto thee at thy Death to excuse and acquit thee but will prove thy great Accuser and Condemner Guilt lying upon the Conscience makes the Soul ashamed and afraid to come before God even in this Life much more at Death A Guilty Sinner chooseth rather to run away from God that if it were possible God might not find him Thus we imitate our Grand-Father Adam who as soon as he had sinned endeavours to hide himself from God among the Trees of the Garden And who of us is there but may observe the same by himself what slavish fear what dejection and sinking in our Spirits doth seize upon us when we come before God in the Performance of a Duty after we have provoked him by some known sin with what Doubtings with what Fears and misgiving of heart do we come into his Presence as if we were not willing that God should take any notice that we are before him and if we are not in continual pain while we are performing the Duty yet we would willingly enough that the Duty were done and over And if we cannot tell how to engage in Duty with a guilty Conscience how shall we be able to contend with Death with a guilty Conscience If the Presence of God in Duty be so dreadful and terrible unto the Soul under the Apprehension of some known sin committed by it and not pardoned to it that it makes it quake and tremble to come before him what then will the Presence of God in Death and Judgment when Conscience shall be awakened to make terrible Reflections not upon a particular sin but upon the sins of a whole Life if not Repented of Oh with what horrour and amazement with what Consternation and Confusion must such a Soul be filled withal But now he whose Conscience is clear Oh how doth he Rejoyce to draw nigh to God how glad is he to go up unto the House of the Lord as David speaks with what delight doth his Soul hasten unto God in Duty that it may taste how good the Lord is that it may see the Power and Glory of God so as it hath sometimes done in his Sanctuary O with what Peace and Contentment of Mind shall I say alas these are Expressions of too low and too mean a Signification to represent the workings of such a Soul towards God rather with what Joy and Rejoying with what Triumph and Exultation doth such a Soul make its abode and stay with God in Duty where it enjoys the sweet and refreshing Smiles of his Countenance and sits under the delightful Banner of his Love Thus it is with a Christian in Duty that hath a clear Conscience And if it be thus with him in Duty and Conscience continue to keep its clearness and inoffensiveness in an upright walking with God daily it cannot be bad or ill with such a Soul at Death A Conscience kept clean and pure in Life will be quiet and peaceable in Death nay let me say more he who hath made it his care and business to walk continually with a clear and inoffensive Conscience in his Life shall certainly have much boldness yea and usually a great deal of Joy and Rejoycing in Death and though the Devil may and will labour to disturb such a Soul's Peace and Comfort then yet a Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ shall be too hard for him And what Conscience doth in God's Name on good grounds upon a Death bed God will confirm and enlarge
in the Things of this World should be unwilling to die that the Thoughts of Death which parts them and their Happiness should be bitter and unpleasant This now is naturally the Temper of all Men till God opens their Eyes and discovers to them more excellent Things even Things of a spiritual and divine Nature which as they are more suitable to their Souls so are they more durable and satisfying and having once tasted what present Sweetness Peace and Joy there is in God and in ways of Holiness besides what is laid up for them hereafter in Heaven their Hearts and Affections are now become dead to the World and all worldly Things so that they have no relish and savour of these Things upon their Spirits But as St. Paul saith of himself so it may be said of them they are now crucified unto the World and the World is crucified unto them The World sees no Glory or Beauty in them and they see as little in the World How easily now can such take their leaves of it when God by Death calls them to it The Apostle tells us for his part he did die daily 1 Cor. 15. and 31. And did we die daily in our Desires and Affections unto the World and the Things thereof it would not be so hard for us to die when we come to it in good earnest When Death comes to a Man whose natural strength and vigour hath been wasting and consuming a long time by lingring Sicknesses and Distempers his Death is not so hard and strong as that Man's Death is whom a few day's Sickness cuts off in the midst of his strength and Vigour Nature being strong in him to make resistance against it whereas in the other the strength of Nature is wasted and consumed and so Death to him is more easie So is it here the Christian whose Love and Affection to the World and the Contentments of this present Life hath for many years been consuming and dying will more freely and readily part with them at Death than he whose Love and Affections are strongly and eagerly bent upon them such a one must be rent and torn from them by force and violence in the hour of Death When our heart 's set loose from all things that are desirable under the Sun and there is nothing upon Earth that insnares and intangles our Affections towards it one Difficulty yea and a great one too in our way of dying is then removed Death will rend and tear that heart that is glued in love to any thing in this World Therefore O Christian as to all thy worldly Enjoyments possess them as if thou possessed'st them not rejoice in them as if thou rejoicedst not and use the World as not abusing of it for the Fashion of the world passeth away How dreadful will Death be to one who as the Apostle saith minds earthly Things and how easie will Death be to one whose Mind and Conversation is in Heaven It is good therefore for us to consider that we are but Strangers and Pilgrims here Heaven is the proper Place and Dwelling for holy Souls Make provision therefore by a holy weanedness of Heart and Affections for your departure bence send your best things to Heaven before-hand that is your Heart your Love your Delight and then you your selves will the more readily and willingly follow after them Fifthly Would you be prepared for Death live every day then as if it were your last doing nothing therein but what you would be willing to be found doing at Death and Judgment He that shall every day seriously consider with himself for ought I know this may be my last day The shadows of Death may stretch themselves over my Life before the shadows of the Evening overtake me I have no Assurance of my Life here no not for a moment How is it therefore with thee O my Soul as to Eternity what is thy daily Work and Employment Is it that wherein if I should meet with Death at the end of it I can comfortably give an Account thereof unto the Great God If I knew this to be my last Day would I be thus employed as I now am If not why do I venture upon the doing of that which I would be loath Death should find me a doing since I know not but Death may overtake me before I have finished what I am about Reader whoever thou art possibly thou mayest be guilty of no very great mistake if thou shouldst think with thy self as healthful and as strong as now I am yet there may be some secret invisible Hand of Death stretched out towards me possibly this very day I may feel some Symptoms and some Fore-runners of it some mortal incurable Disease may seize upon me before Night and cast me upon a sick Bed which to me may prove a Death bed Supposing now that this were thy very Case and that thou hadst received the Sentence of Death though not as Hezekiah did by a Messenger sent immediately by God unto him as he had but by the Violence of some Distemper accompanied with those Signs and Tokens that usually are and have been presages of Death unto others How then wouldst thou spend those few small Moments of Time that thou hast yet left thee on this side Eternity How would thy Thoughts work What would thy Words and Discourses then be Surely thou wouldst not be so abominable stupid and secure so wretchedly careless and negligent of thy Soul and of thy eternal Interest and Concerns when thy Soul is as it were sitting upon thy Lips and looking over into Eternity being ready to take its sudden flight thither as to be plodding and contriving in thy Thoughts how to enjoy the Pleasures Profits and Delights of the World which you now find to be nothing but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit nor yet would you be so desperately mad and bold as to send then for your vain and wicked Companions with whom you have consumed so many Days and Years in Sin and Wickedness that you and they might now laugh and waste away your last Hours together also No certainly there is no relish and savour now in any of these Things unless it be that which is bitter yea surely the Remembrance thereof will then be more bitter to the Soul than Gall and Wormwood Oh now the Consideration of the Wants and Exigences of the Soul begin to thrust and force themselves into the Mind and Thoughts of a Sinner O the sight of a righteous and a severe Judge of a strict Account and of a dreadful Tribunal Oh the bitter Vpbraidings and Terrors of an accusing Conscience the fearful Reflections upon past Sins and the Expectations of future Torments the Fears and Thoughts of these Things do now fill the Mind and perplex the Soul and make a Sinner cry out O what shall I now do to be saved Were you never in all your Lives by the Death-bed of a careless negligent Sinner whose
Conscience was then awakened under Horrors and Desperation If you have not others have and what hath been their dying words Oh that God would pardon their sins that he would Sanctifie and Save their Souls that he would spare them a little space that he would grant them a little time longer that they might recover their Strength that they might Repent of their Sins and Reform their Lives or else that he would graciously manifest his Love and Favour to their Souls and receive them to his Mercy This is the Language these are the Thoughts and Cares of Men upon a Sick bed when they see death coming near them and staring them in their Faces And if this were thy Case and Condition O Sinner that thou didst now lie tumbling and tossing upon a Sick-bed yea upon a Death-bed would not these things be in thy mind would not the same Thoughts and Cares possess thy Soul and the same words and discourses fall from thy Mouth why let the same Care the same Thoughts the same words take up some part of every day and hour of this Life now for thou knowest not but that this moment thou art as near death as if thy Friends and Relations yea and thy Physicians also despaired of thy life and had given thee over for dead O if we could thus spend every day as if it were our last we should then hardly be brought to the doing of any thing but what we would be willing death should find us doing and how exceedingly would this further our Preparations for a dying hour Sixthly He that would be in a readiness for a dying hour must frequently meditate of his own death and of the death of Christ To Meditate of our own death will make us Studious to prepare for it and to Meditate of the death of Christ will Arm us against the Fears of our own Deaths He that by frequent Meditations of his own death and of the death of Christ hath made death familiar to his Soul is not only prepared for death but in a great measure also freed from the fears of death As to the considering of our own death the Scripture is often in calling upon us to lay the thoughts of it to our hearts Oh that my People were wise says God that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And though a Man lives many years and rejoyces in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many Eccle. 11.8 By days of darkness we are to understand death or the State of death during the abode of our Bodies in the dark Grave or in the darkness of the Grave He that frequently ponders of his ways will at length be brought to turn his feet unto God's Testimonies as David speaks of himself So he that often thinks upon death will by the serious thoughts of it be stirred up to make some timely preparation for it this being the end to which the Contemplations of death doth tend This is that Wisdom which Solomon tells us the Living gain by going often to the House of Mourning even so to lay to heart the thoughts of death so as to make preparation for it It is sad that the Goodness and Mercy of God should occasion our forgetfulness of him and of our selves and yet it is commonly so with us When God lays his Afflicting hand upon us especially under some smart stroke we are then brought to seek God as the Prophet speaks In their Affliction they will seek me early There is some tendency in Afflictions to make us mindful of God and of our own Interest and Concerns which is the design God aims at in Afflicting us But when God is pleased to open his hand towards us as the Psalmist speaks and fill us with his Blessings then we are very prone to forget both him and our selves we forget God because when we are full we are ready to deny God and say who is the Lord and we forget our selves because we return not that Duty and Obedience which such Goodness and Mercy should engage us to And because the Streams of Mercy now run pleasantly about us we consider not how many the days of darkness are that will overtake us shortly but put far from us the thoughts of death and the Grave and this is the Reason why when death comes it finds us so unready and unprepared and we so troubled and discomposed in our Spirits and under so many fears and doubts as to our Spiritual and Eternal concerns Frequently therefore O Christian make thy private Retirements Commune with thy self alone visit Death and the Grave in thy thoughts take a walk now and then in the Valley of the Shadow of Death suffer not thy thoughts to be estranged from such Meditations If thou findest thy self shy and unwilling to engage in such a work yet bring thy heart to it inure thy self to the thoughts of Death in general and of thine own death in particular And that thou mayest not be afraid of it to the Meditation of thine own death joyn the Consideration of the death of Christ who hath Conquered death took away its Sting By dying he slew death was the death of death as it was Prophesied of him in Hosea 13.14 O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Victory He now that by Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is interested in his death may say when ever the time of his departure comes thanks be to God through Christ I am ready and prepared for it Muse therefore much upon the Death of Christ for herein lies thy support and comfort O Soul against thine own Death Seventhly He that would be prepared for death must labour for an assurance of a better life always living by Faith in the Contemplation of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven He that is assured of an Eternal Life in Heaven need not nay will not much fear a Temporal death here upon Earth Christians the time is coming when you and all things and persons in this World must take your leaves one of another and part for ever what then O Christian will bear up thy Spirit at such a time why nothing less than the sense and hopes of the love of God and of thy Interest in Christ some Evidences of a work of Grace upon thy Soul which is an earnest and foretaste of Heaven and Glory These are the only things that will bear up thy Soul in a dying hour When a Man hath attained to some well grounded Assurance of his Interest in God and Christ and thereby of his Right and Title unto Heaven then are things in a good posture with him and he in a readiness for Death and the Grave And how light will that Soul make of death that hath the assured hopes of Heaven and Glory to encourage him to go through it He that by Faith lives in the daily Contemplations of the Glory and Happiness of
Heaven walking in the Light of God's Countenance and is able to say I know that my Redeemer lives and that when this Earthly Tabernacle of his Body shall be dissolved into dust that he hath a Building of God an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens which death will bring him unto and this is all the hurt death can do him he that hath such an Assurance as this is cannot but welcome death and embrace it not only with Contentment but with Delight and Joy and even then when his Soul is struggling and striving to get loose from his Body with what Holy Longing and vehemency of desire will he cry out and say come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. IV. Of willingness and unwillingness to Die Difference between Christians in reference unto Death Whether it be lawful to desire Death In what cases it may and in what not A willingness to Die may be even in Wicked Men and sometimes they may Die peaceably and quietly though Death is never comfortable and happy to them In the Best there may be an unwillingness to Die though a Saint as a Saint is always desirous of Death Reasons that should encourage the People of God always to be willing to Die Believers should not only desire to Die but they should long for Death DEath in it self is not desirable nor can it be Nature not only shuns but abhors it nor is it possible that Nature should be reconciled to that which seeks its Annihilation and Destruction as Death doth And accordingly as these Fears are either strengthened and increased by Sin and Guilt or conquered and overcome by Grace so are we more or less enclined towards or averse from Death To be willing to Die when God calls us to it is a thing greatly to be desired and argues no small attainment in Grace when we do it upon good grounds And yet sometimes to be unwilling to Die is not to be condemned as evil and sinful To be willing to Die that we may be with Christ when God calls us to it is a frame of Soul in which the People of God should always be desirous to be found but yet to be desirous to Live when either the Great Work of a Christian is not finished or when his Life may tend to the Glory of God and the Good of his Church is that which is not sinful or unlawful we may see this Truth both in David and Hezekiah in David in Psal 6.4 5. Deliver my Soul O Lord spare me for thy Mercy-sake for in Death there is no remembrance of thee David at this time being troubled in Mind under the apprehensions of God's Wrath and so wanting the assurance of his Love as you may read in the Psalm prays that he might be spared And so Hezekiah Isai 38.2 prays for a longer time of Life as for other Reasons so for this as one because having begun a Reformation in the Church of God he was desirous to live that he might carry it on farther to the Glory of God and the Good of his Church A Christian ought so to live not only as to be prepared for Death but so as to be willing to die but yet he is a true Christian who though he doth not die so willingly yet dies preparedly he that dies preparedly and willingly dies most comfortably but yet he that dies preparedly dies safely and happily In reference unto Death there is a great difference between Nominal Christians and Real Christians and also between one true Christian and another There is a difference in reference unto Death between those that are called Christians but yet are not truly so Some there are whose Consciences are so awakened upon a Death-bed setting their Sins before their Faces with such horrible bloody Circumstances and withal representing the Wrath of God and the Everlasting Torments of Hell as due unto them for their Sins that they cry out in Horrour and Despair their Sins are greater than can be forgiven and feeling a Hell in their Consciences here they die under Desperation of ever escaping Hell hereafter or of obtaining Mercy and Pardon from God This was the case of Judas who under Horrours of Conscience despairing of Mercy endeavours to ease his Conscience by laying violent hands upon himself and is as the Scripture saith gone to his own place Others there are who though they would be called Christians yet are not so indeed but yet are so bold and confident in Death that Heaven is theirs as if they were in the possession of it already Our Lord tells us of some in Luke 13.25 who had such strong presumptions of Heaven that with a confident boldness they knock at Heaven's Gate crying Lord Lord open unto us as if there were no more to be done but only the opening of the door and letting them into Heaven but you know what Answer our Lord returns them I know you not depart from me ye workers of Iniquity Both these sorts of Persons the despairing Sinner and the presumptuous Sinner are alike miserable in their Death though they differ vastly from true and real Christians for they die neither happily nor comfortably for they die under the guilt of their Sins and so perish for ever which no true Christian doth And as Hypocrites and sincere Christians differ in their Death so also do true and real Christians differ in the manner of their dying some when they come to lie upon their Death-beds God is pleased to withdraw the light of his Countenance and the manifestations of his Love and Favour from them and in their apprehensions God seems to have cast them off and will be favourable to them no more and though their Life draws nigh to the Grave yet their Soul is full of trouble they are so in the dark and can see no light in such a State of desertion that God seems to have forsaken them their Sun is as it were setting in a Cloud and in this State of dismal darkness they die not knowing what shall become of their Souls for ever which yet go safely to Heaven being built upon the Rock of Ages the Lord Jesus Christ against which the Gates of Death and Hell shall never prevail Some again there are who though they are true Christians yet are weak Christians though they have the Grace of God in Truth yet they have it not in that growth and strength that some have their Faith is true but they are not strong in Faith they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity but not with that fervour and ardour that some do they have a good Hope towards God but their Hope is not lively and operative Such Christians as these now though they take Death patiently yet they would willingly live they go indeed when God by Death calls for them but they could wish that it would please God to stay for them a little longer they have some good Hopes of Heaven when they die but they desire a little
above others may be one Reason to encline them to a willingness to die not out of a discontented mind because they are weary of or impatient under their sufferings This was the Sin of Moses Numb 11.15 when he prayed unto God if thou deal thus with me I pray thee kill me out of hand if I have found favour in thy sight and let me not see my wretchedness This is a great Sin in the Wicked and sometimes an Infirmity that the Godly fall into but the Scripture allows it not in any Faith and Patience under the afflicting hand of God is very becoming a Christian but Impatience and Discontent is to be abominated Though a Christian knows that it is better for him to die than to live yet out of a Fit of Impatience and Discontent because of Affliction we ought not presently to wish for Death St. Paul knew it was far better for him to die than to live He tells us so Phil. 1.21 yet durst not he desire it absolutely though a Man subject to many and great Afflictions but was in a strait what to do as himself saith and therefore submits himself to the Will of God Yet is it not utterly unlawful for a Christian to desire Death that he may be free from the Miseries of this Life because these Things occasion the drawing forth of Sin and Corruption whereby God is dishonoured his Spirit discomposed that he cannot serve God with that Freedom and Chearfulness of Soul as he might and as he desires Every day a Christian must look for Crosses and Afflictions and sufficient to every day are the Evils thereof Luke 9.23 And therefore a Christian may upon good grounds desire to be loosed from those Miseries and Afflictions if it be the will of God But in the mean time till he can have his desires in this Case let him in patience possess his Soul Secondly Another Reason that may make the People of God willing to die may be in respect of the wicked that they may not be always Spectators of those abominable Wickednesses whereby God is daily dishonoured his Name blasphemed This made Rebekah desirous of Death for when Esau had taken ungodly Wives it is said they were a grief of Mind to Isaac and Rebekah because they knew that God was greatly dishonoured thereby therefore says Rebekah unto Isaac I am weary of my life because of the Daughters of Heth and if Jacob take a Wife among them such as those that are of the Daughters of the Land what good will my life do me Gen. 27.46 O who can express what grief it is to those that fear God to live in the midst of a wicked and ungodly Generation that are continually provoking God by their wicked lives What godly Man's heart can but bleed to hear the Name of God rent and torn by cursed Oaths and Hellish Blasphemies to behold the Vncleanness the Drunkenness the Lying the scoffing at Godliness the corrupt filthy scurrilous idle Talking that overflows in all Places so that those that fear God had better be any where almost than in the Company of most Men This was a grief and vexation to the Soul of righteous Lot for in seeing and hearing the filthy Conversation of those wicked Sodomites they vexed his righteous Soul from day to day by their unlawful Deeds This made the Prophet David cry out in Psalm 120.5 9. Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kedar No wonder therefore that those whose Souls are affected with the dishonour of God are desirous to depart out of this World and cry out Oh that they had the wings of a Dove for then would they flee away and be at rest Thirdly Another thing that may make the People of God willing to die is freedom from the Temptations of Satan The Devil is the great Enemy of Mankind miserable he is himself and envies that any should be otherwise than himself is and therefore he makes use of all his Craft and Subtilties against Man And herein Christians are much endangered and hereby he frequently manageth his Temptations with Success for many are his Wiles and Devices that he makes use of to draw the People of God into Sin What unwearied Assaults from Satan do many Christians labour under not only for Days and Weeks but for Months and Years whereby he allures and enticeth them with restless Importunities to the Commission of some Sin or other which they are no more able to fly from than they are to out-run themselves Now to any that have tasted the Sweetness of Holiness what can be more hateful than daily Instigations to Sin And to such who understand the Blessedness of Communion with God what can be more bitter than to find themselves chain'd as it were to a Devil who makes such Applications of vile Objects to their Fancies continually that they cannot in the least turn themselves from Oh how irksome must it needs be to a gracious Heart to be always haunted with the Spectacle and Image of some Sin even as black as Hell Now this being the Case of the People of God to be uncessantly followed with the Temptations of Satan how willing should they be to die because never till then shall they be out of the reach of his fiery Darts For as it is in Heaven only that there is no Sin so it is in Heaven only that there shall be no Temptations unto Sin Fourthly Another thing that may make the People of God always willing to die is a perfect freedom from all Sin While they are here they sin and are in continual danger of falling from God and no Man can tell how far any of them may fall for though it be admitted that they cannot fall totally and finally yet they may fall dreadfully and fearfully as we read of some in Scripture who have lain long sighing and groaning under broken Bones and wounded Consciences Our Natures are so polluted with the Leprosie of Sin that we shall never be perfectly cured of it while we are in this World Under the Law we read that when any earthen Vessels were defiled they could not be sufficiently purged till they were broken in pieces Lev. 11.33 The spiritual Improvement whereof is to teach us that we can never be perfectly cleansed from the pollution of our Natures till we are broken in pieces by Death The best Man's Sanctification is not perfect here the holiest Man is not thoroughly cleansed while he lives but hath much of Filthiness remaining in him The wise Man in Prov. 20.9 silences all Men with this Question Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my Sin Who can say so Why none can We may do much in the work of Mortification in the use of Means as the Spirit of God directs us in the Word we may by the strength of the Spirit keep Sin from reigning in our mortal Bodies Rom. 6.10 But though it Reign not as a King
yet it may Rule as a Tyrant and we be brought into Captivity by it and by force kept in Bondage under it sometimes How willing therefore should a Christian be to die that he may be free from Sin for he that is dead saith the Apostle Rom. 6.7 is free'd from Sin Death only will free us from the danger and possibility of offending God any more for then we shall come to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Heb. 12. 23. Why then O Christian shouldst thou desire to linger long here upon Earth and to spin out a miserable Life in this VVorld whereof Sin and Sorrow will have the greatest Share Here the best Christians are engaged in perpetual Conflicts between Sin and Grace Sin will not yield and Grace cannot yield Corruption compels one way and Grace commands another Haste therefore O Christian out of this troublesome Contest yea make haste to Heaven for there and there only it is that this Controversie will be ended for there we shall no more live in fear of new Sins nor in sorrow for old Sins but all Sorrow and Sighing shall cease all Tears shall there be wiped from our Eyes and which is better all Sin shall be rooted out of our hearts for ever Upon this Account now Death is not only necessary in it self but it is that which the People of God should embrace with the greatest willingness and chearfulness that may be But this is not all for the People of God must go one step higher and it is what the VVord of God doth require and that is not only to be content or willing to die but long for Death To be contented to die is a good Temper of Soul and may be an Argument of the Truth of Grace for it is seldom or never found in a wicked man to be sure not from a right Principle But truly Christians this is no such great Matter in comparison of what we should labour to attain unto Muse seriously upon it a while O Christian Is it not a strange kind of Expression to drop from the mouth of a Saint that he is content to be happy that one that professeth all his Happiness lies in the hopes he hath of enjoying God in Heaven and that it is the End and Design of his Life that he may attain unto this and that yet when he comes to speak of Death he should only say he is contented to die that he may be happy in the Enjoyment of God We use not to speak thus concerning the World here Men are not said to be content to be rich but covetous after Riches not willing to be advanced but ambitious after it And why then should it be said only of a Christian that he is contented to be with God and contented to be in Heaven Why Oh why should not the Soul the more noble excellent Part of a Man be carried out with vehement and earnest longings after its proper and full Happiness as well as the Body that vile Part of Man is carried with restless Appetite after Health Safety and Liberty Why should a Soul alone be contented to be happy when all things in the World do so ardently court and so vehemently pursue their respective Ends and several Perfections Truly this is not that Frame and Temper that Christians ought to content themselves with but their Souls should be raised up to a higher pitch even to a holy longing after their being ever with the Lord. It is the Duty of a Christian to look out after so much Enjoyment of the blessed God as we are now capable of and because we cannot fully and perfectly enjoy him in this Life to long after the time of our departure hence and with holy Pantings of Soul breath forth earnest Desires that we may be fully and eternally happy in the Enjoyment of him Be not therefore O my Soul contented only but be holily covetous and full of vehement longings after an Eternity of Blessedness in the Enjoyment of God and because this Body is that which hinders this desired and longed for Happiness though thou may'st not dissolve and break it into pieces thy self yet with Submission to the Divine Will wish it were broken desire that it may be dissolved And though thou must be contented to live God's time yet henceforth be desirous of and long to die To set this a little home upon thy Conscience O Christian consider that this Frame of Soul is that which the Scripture makes the Temper and the Duty of all Believers Indeed there are few Professors that are of this Evangelical Temper of Soul yea but few that are willing to believe they ought to be so But yet this Frame of Soul is made the Character of a sincere Christian the Scripture abounds with Expressions of this Nature Luk 21.28 Our Lord speaking concerning the day of Judgment for the encouragement of Believers bids them look up and lift up their Heads for their Redemption drew nigh by with our Lord means not a bare speculation but a beholding with joy and longing for that day and time 2 Tim. 4.8 The Lord shall give a Crown of Righteousness to them that love his appearing And in Tit. 2.13 we are commanded to live godly in this present World as those that are looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ So in 2 Pet. 3.12 What manner of Persons says the Apostle ought we to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hastning to the coming of the Day of God By these Scriptures it appears what is the nature and temper the disposition and inclination of a Godly Man even to look to love to long and to hasten unto the enjoyment of God for that which is of God in any Soul must needs carry the Soul after God But here I am afraid least some weak Christians should be troubled because they cannot find these ardent desires and holy longings of Soul in themselves after their dissolution and enjoyment of God Now that I may not discourage any weak Believer nor make the Hearts of those sad whom God would not have made sad I shall add a few words though not for encouragement unto sloathfulness yet for support against fears and despondency Therefore O Christian search thine own Heart and see how it is with thee and if thou findest it is so as the objection intimates see then if thou canst find out the cause thereof possibly thou art grown careless in thy spiritual watch or thou givest too much liberty to thy self in things that are lawful the World it may be is got too near thy Heart thy Affections run out too much after it And no wonder then if while this frame and temper continues and things are thus out of order with thee thou dost not long after Heaven nor art willing to die though it be the only way by which thou canst come to the enjoyment of God
If upon Examination of thy Heart thou dost not find it thus with thee why then consider though this frame of Soul be Characteristical of a true Christian yet you must consider also that the same Character of a Christian that is a cause of joy and rejoicing to some yea to a Man 's own self sometimes at another time may be a cause of fear and doubting to him not but that that which distinguisheth a true Christian from a Hypocrite is the same at one time that it is at another only we cannot see nor discover so clearly the State of our Souls towards God by it at one time as at another And this is the Reason why some are so lifted up with joy yea with holy longing of Soul in hopes of the Glory of God when others are cast down under fears and doubts as if they had no hopes of or at least no present Interest in or title unto any such thing But farther Art thou fearful O Christian of thy self because thou canst not feel this ardency of desires in thee after thy dissolution and the Glorious appearing of Jesus Christ so as to look and long for the coming of these things Why know O troubled Soul that every Character of a Christian is not discernable by all Christians at all times and in all conditions Thou mayest have that in thee which is the cause of these longing desires in others though at present it doth not work so strongly in thee that thou mayest sensibly feel the power of its operations thus drawing forth thy Heart and Affections in this ardent and vehement manner Grace though weak and in the seed hath a tendency in it and is making out after this holy longing and rejoicing of Soul in hopes of the Glory of God though there may be the intervention of some time before there be an attaining to it If there be the remainders of the Spirit of Bondage in thee to fear in this case Grace in thee is not come to that perfection that it is in others but yet it will be growing and encreasing in thee and as thy Grace grows stronger and stronger so will thy fears of Death and Judgment grow weaker and weaker Furthermore O troubled Soul though thou canst not feel thy Soul breathing forth it self in these holy longings desires after thy Dissolution the beholding of the face of God and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ yet dost thou believe that it will be incomparably better for thee to be with Christ than to abide here on Earth and therefore though Death be dreadful to think of in it self yet seeing it is the only passage through which God hath appointed our entrance into Heaven though thou canst not say that thou longest for it yet art thou willing to entertain it if God sends it and though the fears of Death sometimes discourage thee yet doth not thy belief of and hope in a future State of Happiness abate those fears considering the advantages that will follow it And though it be an amazing thing in thy thoughts to think of coming before the Great and Holy GOD yet except when Temptations make thee fear that God will condemn thee for thy Sins hadst thou not rather come to God by Death than not come to him at all the enjoyment of whom is thy Soul 's utmost Happiness And though the sight of Christ's coming in the Clouds at the Day of Judgment in the Glory of his Father and of the Holy Angels will be very terrible to behold and the thoughts thereof strike thee with fear and trembling when thou considerest thine own sinfulness and therefore canst not think of that Day with so strong a Faith and Consolation with such earnestness of desires and holy longing as some Christians do yet be not discouraged though thou dost not long for yet dost thou love the appearance of Jesus Canst thou say thou wouldst not take all the pleasures of this World for thy hopes of the happiness of this Day And couldst thou attain to that full assurance that some of God's People have thou wouldst then with earnestness of desire and holy longing of Soul cry out as the Church doth Come Lord Jesus come quickly Is it thus with thee O Soul why then be not troubled nay be comforted for that which at present is Faith Hope Desire and Love may in a little time be vehement longing and assurance yea the riches of the full assurance of Faith Rest not therefore in any weak desires but labour for this holy longing of Soul after God and the Eternal Enjoyment of him in Glory that in Life and Death your Soul may part and breath after immediate and everlasting Communion with him This is that frame of Soul that the People of God ought to labour after and which many have attained unto the earnestness and vehemency of whose desires have been so great that they have been as it were under sweet and delightful agonies of pain and their Souls even breaking with longings after the presence of God and Christ in Glory Examples of this Nature that might be instanced in are many I shall mention one of which I was an Eye and Ear Witness the Person was one of a middle rank and quality in the World but of great eminency in Grace and Holiness while living and full of Joy and Peace when dying It pleased God who appoints us the bounds and place of our Habitations to cast my lot into a Religious Family where this Godly Person lived whose Memory to me is and ever shall be very precious after I had been there some time it pleased God to lay this Person upon a sick bed which proved a death-bed whose Mouth was always full of Holy and Heavenly Discourse and as Death approached nearer and nearer those Heavenly Expressions were with greater earnestness and frequency repeated the last Day of whose Life as long as speech continued was spent in uttering continual expressions full of holy longings and desires after the enjoyment of God and Christ in Glory Methinks the sweetness of the Melody revives my Spirit still when I call to remembrance in my serious thoughts what I then heard and saw Oh with what Joy and Desight of Soul was the thoughts of Death entertained Surely nothing was or could possibly be more welcome to such a Soul except it were the immediate fruition of God in Heaven whose Soul in the delightful much longed for and panted-after Happiness in the enjoyment of God breathed forth continually such expressions as these for many hours together Come Lord Jesus when shall I come and appear before thee Oh Lord when Lord when Oh come Lord Jesus come quickly And thus this Holy Person died changing a frail mortal Life on Earth for an immortal Life in Heaven where to be and to be most happy is all one I could fill up many sheets with wonderful expressions of the loves longings pantings and breathings that I have read of Holy
the Body in the Grave it were then a tolerable evil but when we shall consider death as a punishment for sin as that which puts us into an unchangeable Estate this is that which makes it dreadful and terrible indeed While we are in this World which is the time of our preparation for an Eternal State of Strangers yea of Enemies we may become Friends but when death hath once seized upon us it is impossible our State should then be changed We cannot now say of the vilest Sinner in the World that there is no hope of him we must not write desperation upon the fore-head of the wickedst Man on Earth but if he dies in that State then he is lost and undone for ever for as the Tree falls so it lies as death leaves Men so Judgment will find them And this Judgment is such as is conclusive and never to be Repealed Hence it is therefore that take the most hardned Sinner one whom Custom in sinning hath made past feeling yet when he comes to die if Conscience be but awakened it is impossible for him to look death in the Face without great fears and horrours Nay it is a sight so amazing and confounding that were it not for the Righteousness of Christ and that Satisfaction he hath made unto the Justice of God by his death it were utterly impossible that any Believer should bear up under it but Blessed be God the Blood of Christ then speaks Peace and so Believers are not only supported but carried comfortably unto Heaven through the gloomy Valley of the Shadow of death Death being thus terrible now it must needs be looked upon as a dreadful Enemy unto Man An Enemy now is one that when he comes against us always comes Armed to do us a mischief such an Enemy now is death for ever since the Fall of Man death hath been Armed with a deadly Sting now this Sting of death whereby it becomes hurtful unto Man is sin so saith the Apostle The sting of death is sin Now this Sting reacheth not only to the Body but to the Soul also as to the Body it takes away all those Contentments and Comforts wherewith it was here Refreshed and Delighted Death rends the Husband from the Wife and the Wife from the Husband it divides Children from their Parents and Parents from their Children death spoils us of whatsoever is desirable in this life strips a Man of all and turns him naked out of the World But this is not all death not only bereaves us of all that is good here but it brings many Evils along with it Sickness pains on the Body Grief and Anguish upon the Mind and Spirit It is a terrible Enemy to wrastle and contend withal it will make a Man sweat and bleed no Man can Encounter with death but he shall feel great Anxiety and Vexation both of Body and Mind unless he have strength from above to enable him to go through the Contest Death in its own Nature is so furious an Enemy unto Sinners that it will not cease till it hath pulled the Body down into the Grave and dragg'd the Soul into the Presence of God and from his Tribunal into the Torments of Eternal Fire where the first death terminates in the second death and the Torments exceed not only all our Expressions but all our Apprehensions also where death that is now such a dreadful Enemy would there be counted an unspeakable Mercy for there they shall seek death but shall not be able to find it But more particularly the Enmity of death appears in these particulars First The Fears of death do much abate our desires after the Enjoyment of God in Heaven It is true every Believer is one that loves God above all and looks upon Heaven as that which shall be his dwelling place for ever and accordingly sincerely desires and longs after it and in his daily Conversation walks with his Face thitherwards but when he sees death stands in the way between him and Heaven and that there is no coming for him to that place of Bliss but he must pass through that dark Valley this puts him to a stand and makes his desires weak and low The best Christians I believe have sometimes felt such workings as these within their Souls for tho' the Regenerate part discovering it self in the work of Sanctified Affections would be soaring upwards towards God and Heaven in whose presence the Soul would fain be but seeing death standing in its way how are the desires of such a Holy Soul kept down by the fears of it and he turned back as one that was afraid to come into his Father's presence Where is the Christian the Eye of whose Faith is so steadily fixed upon Christ in Heaven whose Soul is sometimes ready to cry out I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better yet withal when he sees the rude hand of death stretched out to undress him and that there is no coming unto Jesus Christ for him but by first suffering a Dissolution and laying down of his Earthly Tabernacle in the Grave though he would fain be with Christ that he might enjoy him whom his Soul loveth yet seeing this dismal Enemy death in the way doth not shrink back and cry out O I dare not venture O what a dreadful Enemy is this and what dreadful Enmity doth it put forth in the obstructing our desires though after God and Heaven causing us to run from God as it were at that time when we truly and dearly love him Happy Souls are they in whom Faith and Love work so powerfully as to conquer and overcome these fears Secondly If death as an enemy prevails so as to abate our desires after the Enjoyment of God in Heaven it will be apt to endanger our falling in love with this present World and so make us miserable by causing us to take up with the men of this World who have their Portion in this Life Take a Christian whose desires after Heaven are weak though true because blunted by the apprehensions of some frightful difficulties that must be gone through for the attaining of it how apt is such a one to be tempted to think that it is best for him to take up with those delightful pleasures that may be had here without such dangerous adventures but now if that which darkens the Blessed Vision of Heaven and our unspeakable Happiness in the fruition of God there and which also deadens our desires after this blessedness be once removed which usually is the dreadful apprehensions of death with what ease can such a Soul with a Holy Scorn and Contempt despise all the trifling Vanities of this World as things not worthy to be regarded Thirdly The Enmity of Death manifests it self in obstructing a Christians endeavours towards Heaven A discouraged disconsolate Soul moves but slowly be it towards Earth or Heaven Difficulties that should stir up greater diligence usually are great
Corruption and rottenness which their Bodies must turn to when they are dead But admit what thou sayest O Christian should be true that thy pains in dying should be great yet hast thou not sinned and thereby deserved that what thou fearest thou mayest feel let me tell thee There is not the most Righteous man on Earth but hath sinned and the least sin merits more pains than any man in the first death ever yet endured If therefore thy pains in dying should be great it is just with God what thou sufferest and it is of his mercy that thou sufferest no more for there is no comparison between thy pains and thy sins between what thou mayest suffer and what thou deservest to suffer let thy sickness be what it will and thy pains as great as well thou canst imagine they are no more nay they are not so much as thou hast deserved If God should deal with thee according to the demerit of thy sins it is not the most smart and severest pains of a Temporal death that are ended by dying but easeless and endless Torments in Hell to all Eternity that would be thy Portion Fear not therefore O living Christian complain not O dying Christian though thy pains in death should be great for it is but the punishment of thy sins nay let me say to thee O Christian be thankful and rejoyce for it is the last punishment thou shalt ever endure for thy sins either here or hereafter But further Is it the corruption and rottenness that thy body must be subject to in the Grave that terrifies and afrights thee Let me say this unto thee It is no very great matter what becomes of thy Body when it is once dead though it were burnt to Ashes at a Stake tho' it rot in the Fields as Dung upon the Ground tho' in the Bowels of the Earth it become a Feast for Worms and turn to corruption and rottenness this will then be of no more concern to thee than if it had with the greatest Cost and Charge been Embalmed and Buried by thy dearest Friends The State of death knows nor feels no difference between the one and the other And what if thy Body lies in the Grave for a while it will not there be miserable for it feels no pain but rests quietly in its Bed sweetly sleeping away time until the Morning of the Resurrection when thou shalt awake out of the Dust again and shalt die no more And in the mean time thy Soul if thou art a true Believer for unto such only there is Peace and Comfort in death upon its departure out of the Body is advanced unto unspeakable Happiness in Heaven among the Spirits of Just Men made perfect in the Eternal Enjoyment of the infinitely blessed God the Fountain of Light and Life where thou shalt have as much Delight and Satisfaction as thou canst possibly contain and more than now thou canst conceive And why then art thou so afrighted with the fears of Death when this is all the hurt it can do thee O but Death is that which will take me from all my Friends and Relations and deprive me of all that Comfort and Delight that here I enjoy in their sweet Society To this I Answer Suppose it be so that by Death thou art taken from a dear Yoke-fellow that is now the Delight of thine Eyes suppose thou losest all thy Friends and Kindred in the Flesh whom thou lovest even as thy own Soul not knowing certainly whether ever thou shalt see them or at least so as to know them any more again for ever If this be all thy trouble how easily can God make it up unto thee Alas when Death hath once opened thine Eyes and let thee see what blessed Society thou shalt enjoy in Heaven thou wilt not thou canst not be troubled for what thou hast left behind thee here when thou art come to the Heavenly Jerusalem the City of the Living God to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly of the first born to God the Judge of all to the Spirits of Just men made perfect to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and where the blood of Sprinkling speaks better things than the blood of Abel will it then grieve thee that thou hast left thy Friends and Relations on Earth Why this is the State thou expectest this is the Company thou hopest to enjoy hereafter why then let the believing joyful expectations of this Association bear up thy Soul under thy Fears by Death of losing thy Friends and Relations here But thou mayest say possibly they may want me when I am dead and gone though I want not them whilst I am with them I see their â—ants and take care to suppy them and when they are going into any evil or sinful way I Councel them I Reprove them and I pray for them and endeavour to instruct them in the fear of the Lord. But when I am gone I know not who will do any of these things for them and what then will become of them To this I Answer canst thou say in good earnest that this is thy strait that therefore thou desirest to live that thou mayest be a means if God saw it good to further and promote their Souls Happiness why then let me say this to thee is it not a time of health with thee now doth God lend thee the sweetness of such Relations and Friends shew that thou lovest them indeed by taking hold of the present opportunities thou now hast to Admonish to Reprove and to Correct so far as it is thy place Oh double and treble thy diligence in all Respects wherein thou mayest be advantageous to their Souls multiply thy Prayers and Tears thy Sighs and Groans unto God follow him Night and Day and give him no rest until thou hast some good ground to hope that God is not only thy God but the God of thy Friends and Relations also and when thou hast done thy utmost and God by Death calls thee away hence so that thou canst do no more quietly resign up thy Soul into his hands and commit them to the care and kindness of thy God who is the Great and Vniversal Father that takes care of all his Creatures but is by special Relation a Father to them that fear and serve him But may some poor Soul say when I come to die the change that I must pass through by death is so strange and so amazing that I know not how I shall be able to bear it death will both change my place and company here I converse with Friends and Relations and Acquaintance whom I well know because I have lived so long among them but when I go hence O what a strange place and company shall I then see such as I never saw in all my life full of dazling and astionishing Brightness and Glory the thoughts whereof may justly fill my Soul with fear and amazement To this I
Answer art thou a Christian indeed and dost thou talk after this manner as if thou wert a Stranger to God to Christ to Heaven and the Happiness of Glorified Saints there whom is it thou callest Father every time thou Prayest is it not the God of Heaven What dost thou make of Jesus Christ thy Professed Lord and Saviour whose love to thee was so great that he would manifest it in no other way than that by which he might most endear himself unto thee and most strongly engage thy Love and Affections unto him and that was by laying down his Life and shedding of his Blood a a Ransom for thy Soul and a propitiation for thy Sins whom thou professest also to believe that he is Aseended up into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God presenting his Blood and Sufferings before the Throne of the Majesty on high that both thy self and thy Services that are Impure and Imperfect in themselves may yet be accepted through him Is it not through his Righteousness alone that thou hopest for Justification unto Life and Happiness and through his Strength that thou art enabled to perform all thy Duties and yet dost thou not know him what a strange thing is this But alas sayest thou it is very little that I know of him never did I see him in all my days But what if thou hast not beheld him with thy Bodily Eyes yet canst thou not say with the Apostle whom having not seen yet thou hast and dost believe in him and sometimes it may be so as to rejoyce with that Joy that is unspeakable and full of Glory and tho' thou hast not known him after the Flesh yet thou hast known him after the Spirit though thou hast known him but a little and what thou dost see and know of him Spiritually is but through a Glass darkly yet be not dejected fear not for he knows thee perfectly and hath separated thee and set thee apart for himself from Eternity and hath effectually called thee in time Justified thee by his Grace yea he knows thee by Name and now in the approach of Death he is coming to take thee to himself where thou shalt see him as he is and know him as thou art known of him And as for those Glorious Creatures the Angels and Saints in Heaven methinks it should even Ravish thee to think how those Noble and Excellent Creatures will flock about thee and bid thee welcome into Heaven as one greatly beloved of the Lord saying unto thee not as the Angel once said unto the two Mary's Mat. 28. come see the place where the Lord lay but come see the Throne where thy Lord sits in all his Majesty and Glory But may some say I may well be afraid to die because it is that which puts an end to my life and being here and who can without fear look upon himself and see his Body withering and decaying and not be troubled at it is not Death the great Dread and Terror of the World Job therefore calls it The King of Terrors O how doth the Expectations of Death appale the Faces weaken the Hands shake the Hearts imbitter the Pleasures and damp and cool the Spirits even of the Mighty ones of the Earth Should God say unto many that they should set their Houses in Order for they shall die and not live should they see a Tekel written upon their Walls their days are finished this night shall their Souls be taken from them what sad Lamentations would most Men make Life O how sweet is it to them all that they have would they give for their Lives doth not Nature it self teach us to seek the Preservation of our Beings and abhors whatever tends to its Dissolution as death doth To this I Answer because of this abhorrency of Death which is implanted in the Nature of all Men living there may be even in the best of God's People a fear of Death and an unwillingness to die Our Lord himself who was without Sin discovers something of this who though to shew his great willingness and readiness to die for Sinners said I have a Baptism to be Baptized withal which was the Baptism of his Blood and how am I straitned till it be accomplished thinking long for the coming of the day of his Death whereby the work of our Redemption was in a great measure to be accomplished yet when Death came to him see how his pure and innocent Nature was put to it when he cry'd out Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me It is true in his Case there was more than Death in it there was wrath there was a curse there was all the Sins of the World wrung into that Cup to mingle him a bitter draught but this was also something of it for there was Death in the Cup. It will therefore be the Wisdom of Christians to whatever measure of confidence and assurance they may have attained so as upon good grounds to have overcome the fears of Death and to look upon their dying day as the most joyful day in their lives yea though in this confidence their Hearts may sometimes pant after the coming of that day and they ready to cry out make haste my beloved come Lord Jesus come quickly yet will it be your wisdom to buckle on all your Armour to get all your Evidences and Experiences ready for the conflict of that day and hour may be such as that you may stand in need of your utmost Preparations for you know not how the Flesh may shrink in the day of Trial. But if it should be so yet be not discouraged O Christian for possibly this very instance of our Lord may be left upon Record for this very end to comfort his People when they shall be overtaken with the same fears and troubles And as for the sweetness of this present Life the losing whereof makes thee to fear Death let me ask thee this Question Who art thou that art so fond of this present Life Art thou a Christian indeed and in truth or dost thou only make a profession of Religion without the life and power of Godliness If thou art only an outward professor I wonder not that thou shouldst set so high a price and value upon life and art so unwilling to part with it because all thy happiness is terminated in things that are enjoyed on this side Death and the Grave for as for those great and glorious things that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can possibly enter into the Heart of Man to conceive that God hath prepared for them that love him and which are to be enjoyed beyond time in Eternity thou hast no lot or portion in those matters What wonder therefore if thou mourn and sigh even to the breaking of thy Loyns when Death comes to put an end to thy Life for then it separates between thee and thy happiness for ever But if thou art one that truly
unto your Souls by frequent Meditation Dost thou dread this King of Terrours give not way to thy Fears but bring Death often into thy thoughts there is no such hurt in it as thou imaginest nothing that should terrifie a Christian Consider a little what it is that Death can do against thee and what it is Death shall do for thee and then tell me if thou hast any cause to fear it nay tell me what cause thou hast to rejoice in it What is it death can do against thee It may part thee and the World thee and thy Friends yea it will part between thy Soul and thy Body bringing it down into the dust for a time to become a Feast for Worms and this is the worst that Death can do against a Believer But then consider withal what Death shall do for thee why it shall bring thee to a Happiness so great in the enjoyment of God as is unutterable for thee to express and unconceivable for thee to imagine and this not for a time but for ever this death shall do for thee O Christian and surely if thou believest these things with a lively active Faith thou canst not any longer set death at a distance from thee as an Enemy that thou art afraid of but converse with it familiarly as a Friend yea as thy best Friend next unto Jesus Christ Job was thus familiar with death Job 17.14 I have said unto Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worms ye are my Mother and Sister and Brother Accustom thy self therefore O Christian unto the thoughts of death and often think what a happy change thou shalt thereby undergo even an entrance into Heaven and Glory And then though the thoughts of death be full of horrour unto others yet such thoughts unto thee will not only be profitable but exceeding delightful Fourthly If you would die with Courage and Joy then often meditate upon the Death of Christ It is a common Argument and in the Mouths of most Persons that all must die all that have lived before us have gone this way But who is there that takes courage to follow others into the Grave because multitudes are gone thither before them No it is but a poor encouragement to die because other Men like our selves have died before us But when a Christian shall believingly remember and consider that Jesus Christ died and was laid in the Grave not only before us but for us and that he hath there conquered the King of Terrours even upon his own ground this makes a Believer die with a holy courage and descend into the Grave with an undaunted boldness But because Christians so seldom meditate on the Death of Christ therefore are they so afraid of their own death He that hath often conversed with death in the Meditation of the death of Christ as Believers do or should do cannot be afraid to die if he knows what the death of Christ means which he hath meditated upon Savingly to know that Christ is gone before us in death is not only enough to make us cheerful but to make us alive in death He that by Faith contemplates that Christ is gone before him by dying and that in dying he died for him and that he also is alive and lives for him with what abundant joy and consolation may he depart out of this World CHAP. VI. Objections against Death and Vnwillingness to die answered Consolations against the Fear of Death in general Comforts against the Death of Friends and Relations in particular The Saints great Gain by Death propounded as a Motive and Encouragement unto Christians against the Fears of it THough it be the Duty of Christians to die willingly yea with Courage and Joy to commit their Souls into the hands of God yet are there many who cannot overcome their fears of death so as to be willing to die and the Reasons thereof are such as these First say some We could be content to die had we but attained unto sixty or seventy years as some Men do but alas we are young in the prime of our years and in the strength of our Days The Sun of our Life hath not been long up and must it go back and decline yea and set also already We are willing to die hereafter but O that God would spare us a little longer To this I answer these are foolish pityings of thy self For if it please the Great God in whose Hands thy life is thy breath and all thy ways that thou must die young hast thou any Injustice to charge him withal What wrong hath he done thee in cutting short the thread of thy life Thou hast forfeited thy life into his Hands long since and if sparing Mercy hath continued the Forfeiture and given thee a space and time of Repentance though not so long as thou desirest yet more than thou deservest yea and more than he owed thee Thou shouldst therefore rather be thankful for it and with all diligence improve it than repine that it is so short or be unwilling to part with it so soon For though long life may be a Blessing yea is promised so yet if thou art a Believer a short life shall be no Curse unto thee To a pardoned Soul all things are Blessings yea Death it self for the bitterness of it is taken away Righteous Abel though young dies and dies by Murder whilst wicked Cain the Murderer of him lives some hundreds of years after When God who is the great Lord of Time and measures out to every one what number of days they shall live hath appointed unto thee the day and hour of thy departure though the days of thy life be but as a span long compared with the lives of others yet is it in vain to contend with God thou may'st trouble thy self and make thy life uncomfortable but thou can'st not alter God's Decrees for he is of one Mind as Job speaks and who can turn him That is none can and therefore chearfully yield up thy self unto his Will But possibly thou wilt say I would live longer that I might serve and honour God more If thou art sincere in what thou sayest it is well but if God will take the Will for the Deed and accept of what thou hast done already and reward thee with the eternal Enjoyment of himself immediately hast thou any Cause to complain What if thou gettest to Heaven twenty or thirty years before thy Father or Brother or many other of thy Acquaintance that are travelling with their Faces Heaven-ward and have been so many years already Will it grieve thee that thou art got to Heaven too soon where if thou art a Christian thou always hast a desire to be I assure thee thy Friends and Relations though they may not envy thy Happiness yet if they had but once tasted the Sweetness thereof their longings after it would be so great that they would continually cry out Oh Time hasten and flee away that
we may come to the full Enjoyment of our longed for Happiness Hath God cast thee O Christian upon a Bed of Pain and Sorrow and is it likely to prove thy Death-bed Are there such Symptoms of thy departure that God seems to tell thee plainly thou shalt die and not live O do not reply and say It is too soon yet thou art too young to die and go to Heaven What though God call thee to Glory and Blessedness sooner than thou expectest yet shame not thy self grieve not others that behold thee much more disparage not the Happiness of Heaven nor of that God who is to be eternally enjoyed there by thy unwillingness to go thither Secondly May some say we shall have so many Evils to encounter with that will create us so much fear and trouble and withal so many Pains will befall us in a dying hour that we cannot tell how to think of Death we are so affrighted at it To this I answer It is true a Christian cannot expect to die without Assaults of Enemies nor without the Pains of Death but yet a Christian need not fear nor be unwilling to die for all this First One Discouragement may be the Apprehension of the guilt of Sin which they then fear will stare their Consciences in the Face and how to bear up under it they know not But know O Christian if Sin hath lost its Throne in thy Soul if it hath no Interest in thy Affections so that it is not embraced with any Love or Delight it shall never ruine or condemn thee For it is a certain Truth where Sin doth not rule there Sin shall never damn He that by the Grace and Spirit of Christ is enabled to mortifie his Sins and all sinful Affections and Inclinations thereunto and by a penitential Conversion of Soul from Sin unto God hath forsaken his sinful ways all his former Provocations though never so great lose their damning Power For where Sin is once in the Exercise or godly Sorrow confessed unto God it is by him graciously pardoned Nay the Apostle tells us in 1 John 1.9 If we confess our Sins God is not only merciful and gracious but he will be just and righteous to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness And what greater security can a Christian desire for his support than the Truth and Faithfulness of that God who is Truth it self and cannot lie Secondly There is another thing that may startle a Christian's Confidence and make him unwilling to die and that is the fears of the Assaults of Satan who will do what he can not only to hinder our future Happiness but to interrupt our comfortable passage through Death It is true the Devil will be very active in a dying hour But be not discouraged give not place to his Temptations For where Sin is pardoned as it is to all Believers What hath the Devil wherewith to shake a Christian's Confidence or to undermine his Hopes and Expectance but what is built upon Lies and Falshood If therefore you will give Credit unto this Father of Lies when he endeavours to weaken those certain Assurances the great God hath given you of his resolved Designs to save such as you are and so come to be disturbed and confounded in your Thoughts about your present and future State you must blame your selves Till therefore it can be proved that Sin may be repented of and not pardoned that Sin may be pardoned and yet the Soul perish and undone till God or Christ prove either forgetful unable or false be not dejected It is the great Comfort of a Christian that the Devil hath no other Arguments to disquiet a Believer with in a dying hour but what are bottom'd on these gross Absurdities And though Satan may be furious in his last Assaults yet O Christian remember when thou art walking through the Valley of the shadow of death thou walkest not alone In that dark and gloomy Valley God hath his Rod and his Staff in readiness for thy Assistance and Encouragement and know further O believing Soul that Christ our compassionate High Priest knows what it is to die and hath been acquainted with the Subtilties and Fury of the Tempter by smart Experience and his sympathy hath taught him pity and because he is our Head he will not forget his Members under their afflicting Temptations in that hour For though he be in Heaven he retains the same Bowels and Affections now in his glorified State which he had here upon Earth and doth continually improve his Intercession in Heaven for the benefit security and relief of his afflicted People in their greatest dangers and Extremities If any poor Believers shall here object the pains of Death as being so great and to their apprehensions insupportable and therefore they are unwilling to die Let them consider that they are but short and suddain and though they are made by God our necessary passage into Glory yet they shall soon be over and forgot when the Soul by death is set free from the Body and takes its flight into the Presence of God in Heaven And alas what are the dying pains and groaning gasps of departing Saints compared to the Gripes and Stingings of an awakned Conscience for sin and the horrid fears of the Wrath and Vengeance of God which though they are not seen by others because inward yet are they the frequent and daily Tormenting Exercises of sinners both in Life and Death And though the pains of the Godly in a dying hour may sometimes be afflictive unto Sense yet it often happens through the Goodness and Mercy of God to them that their Fears in Life exceed their Pains in Death and this King of Terrors doth not gripe so hard nor stab so painfully as we are apt to think and if he doth God many times comes in with such strong Consolations upon departing Souls in the Manifestations of his Love to and Presence with them as turns their Fears and Sorrows into Joy and Rejoycing But if God should not manifest himself thus Comfortably unto some for their Support but leave them to the feeling of their Fears by undergoing great pains in Death yet as soon as the stroke is given the pains are gone and their fears are over How quickly do the first openings of that Eternal Morning swallow up all the Remembrances of our dying sorrows O when the Joys and Visions of our God invade and Exercise our departed Souls then comes the great and welcome Pledge of our Eternal Conquest of this last Enemy and after a short sleep of Bodies in the Dust whilst Souls return to God the Trump will sound the Lord will come the World shall perish or be refin'd by Flames and the Dead shall rise and die no more and then as the Apostle speaks shall we be ever with the Lord. But some may say we could willingly die but that we know not what will become of us hereafter we cannot tell
what our future State will be and therefore we are afraid of Death The desires we have of our Eternal Happiness puts us upon hoping the best but our doubts and fears are so many we cannot but tremble to think of our departure because we are under such uncertainties whither we shall go when Death takes us hence To this I Answer who art thou that makest these Objections Either thou art a wicked Man or one that truly fearest God If thou art a Wicked Man under the guilt of thy Sins and in an unpardoned State I cannot wonder that thou art afraid of Death nor can I blame thee that thou art unwilling to die Thou hast cause enough to make thee fear and tremble For there is nothing in Death or what is to come after it if thou understandest thy danger aright but what might fill thee with the greatest Terror and Consternation imaginable Whatever thou fearest is to come and may come quickly for ought thou knowest is infinitely far greater and worse than what thou canst now imagine what thou feelest or fearest are but the beginning of thy Sorrows nay all the Miseries thou canst meet with in Life and all the pains that thou canst suppose to be in Death fall infinitely short of those unconceivable Horrours and Miseries that are the Portion of Sinners in the next Life And for any Comfort or Relief against Death whilst thou art in thy Sinful State there is nor can be none Thy work therefore must be speedily to get into Christ labour to have thy Sins Pardoned Follow God with earnest Cries Tears and Importunities of Soul that thy sinful Nature may be changed and Sanctified and then let Death come when it will though thou die under never such fears and uncertainties as to thy future State yet Eternal Happiness attends thee and when Death hath once closed the Eyes of thy Body the Eye of thy Soul will quickly be opened to thy everlasting Joy and Consolation If thou art one that truly fearest God but yet art unwilling to die because thou art uncertain how it may go with thee as to thy Eternal State Why then examine thine own heart whether these fears do not proceed from thine own carelessness God hath vouchsafed to thee many means and opportunities for the encreasing thy Knowledge for the strengthening thy Faith for the enlarging thy Love for the confirming thy Hope for the establishing thy Soul in the ways of God and to provoke and stir thee up unto the continual Exercise of Grace that hereby thou mightest grow up into some Knowledge and Assurance of his Love towards thee through Christ and so mayest groundedly conclude the certainty of thy future Happiness But thou hast been sloathful not putting forth thy self with all diligence in the improving the Helps and Advantages God hath put into thy hands and therefore thou art so in the Dark and under fears how it may go with thy Soul for ever if this be thy case go humble thy Soul before God lie low in his presence beg earnestly the manifestations of his Love and Favour towards thee And for time to come put forth the endeavours of thy Soul unto the utmost in the use of all the means God vouchsafes unto thee for the removing thy Fears satisfying thy Doubts encreasing thy Knowledge confirming thy Faith and Hope in a future State of Happiness provided for thee and how soon God may come in whilst thou art thus humbling thy self before him and manifest his loving kindness unto thy Support and Comfort thou knowest not But however if he should for some Reasons thou canst not at present apprehend leave thee to walk under thy Doubts and Fears still yet if thou art sincere one that hath the Grace of God in Truth in thy Soul I would say thus much that these Fears and Jealousies about the attainment of the Happiness of Heaven if it be a Distemper as it is become so natural to us all that it is with much difficulty cured in this present State but yet it may be with great diligence and industry of Soul But for thy Comfort O doubting Believer know though these Doubts and Fears are sinful and thou dost thereby provoke God yet they shall not prejudice thy future Happiness though they may and do often hinder thy present Peace and Comfort For certainly God will never Damn a Believing Soul let such a one think what he will of himself For though thou art not assured that thou art his yet God knows all those that are his and not one of them shall Eternally perish Suppose therefore that thou shouldst die under Doubts and Jealousies and thy Soul should go out of this World sitting in a Cloud of Tears this hinders not but it may arise in a fair morning of Glory Heaven only is a place privileged from Tears and Fears But may some Soul say I am not willing to die because I fear I have no Grace or at least it is but little that I have for when I compare my self with others the most I can say of my self is this that all my Grace and Holiness lies in a Love to Grace and in a desire after Holiness I hope through Grace I can say that there is nothing in all the World if I might have my choice that I desire more than to be like my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ But O how short do I fall both of my Rule and of my Desires my walkings in the ways of God are very uneven and unconstant the corruptions of my heart are so great and so frequently breaking forth by Fleshly Affections and Worldly Desires that if there be any Grace within me it is very hard to diseern it by reason of the sin that doth accompany and go along with it and how then should such a one as I dare to think of dying Were Grace strong and vigorous could I sensibly find the strength encrease and growth of it in a tendency towards perfection I could then think of dying with some courage But the weakness and imperfection of Grace much discourageth me that I cannot with any willingness and chearfulness entertain the thoughts of it in my Soul To this I Answer let not the thoughts of Death discourage thee O weak Christian for Death can no more shall no more hinder the Happiness of a weak Believer than of a strong Believer It is true a strong Faith may carry thee more comfortably to Heaven but a weak Faith will carry thee as truly to Heaven For Faith saves not as it is strong or weak but as it is true and a weak Faith is true Faith as well as a strong Faith Grace and Holiness is of Absolute necessity for every Christian for without them it is impossible to please God or to enjoy him For as the Apostle saith Without Holiness no man shall ever see the Lord. But yet all Christians are not equally Holy there is a measure or stature to which all Christians are
Comfort that many of God's People have languished a long time under the want of assurance and some of them most part of their lives yea and in their last Sickness and almost to their last gasp and then God hath Graciously come in and Sealed up his Love and Favour to their Souls whereby they have been filled will Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Never fear death therefore for want of assurance for that is the most usual time when God doth bestow it upon his People But if he doth not then give thee this assurance yet he will put under his Everlasting Arms that shall bear thee up notwithstanding all thy fears and doubts and carry thee safe through the pains of Death into Glory where thou shalt have as much of the Love of God and of the Assurance thereof as thou canst wish or desire But may some say were we prepared to die we could willingly embrace Death whensoever God sends it But alas our State and Condition is such that we fear we are not fit for Death and how then can we Comfortably think of dying I Answer if this be the true case of thy Soul as thy Fears suggest that thou art not really prepared for Death thy Condition is sad and dangerous and if Death seize upon thee in this State thou art irrecoverably miserable and all the Comfort that can be given unto thee is this that yet there is a possibility of Salvation as yet there is some hope because thou art not actually under the power of Death God is yet waiting time is yet lengthened out space is yet granted to you to prepare to meet this King of Terrors And in the Improvement of these lies all your Hopes for Heaven and Eternity You have hitherto been great loiterers in your great work spent much of your precious time to little purpose neglected many opportunities lost many warnings vouchsafed to you Now therefore be diligent What was the whole time of your Life given you for but to prepare for Death and have you lived so many years in the World to prepare for your last hour and are you still both unwilling and unfit to die What have you been doing wherefore is it that you have lived have you had any business of greater concernment to mind than to be prepared for your latter end O foolish Souls and unwise who else would run such desperate hazaras God hath frequently told you that you must die how often hath Death by God's appointment come among your Acquaintance and Relations and sometimes into your own Habitations and snatched away many before your Eyes how often hath it been told you such a Friend is dead in such a place and such an Acquaintance in another place and such a Relation in such a Family And by all these warnings will you not believe that you are Mortal and shall shortly die as well as others If you do believe it where is the prepartion you make for it when you are still crying out O you are not fit to die was not this your Language long since how many years hath it been heard from you When God hath visited you with Sickness not once but often and you were going down into the Chambers of the Grave in your own apprehensions did you not then cry out Lord I am not ready O spare me yet a little longer that I may recover my strength yet once again before I go away from hence and shall be seen no more and God was nigh to your Voice and heard your Cry and granted your Request and tried you once and again a little longer and what are you not yet fit to die whose fault is it surely your own And if Death take you away in this State you will justly bear the blame and punishment of it for ever Whoever thou art into whose hands these lines may fall presently put thy self upon the Trial how it is with thee and endeavour to put the Question out of doubt think not that God must wait upon you whilst you dally and trifle away your time hast thou been careless and negligent formerly be so no longer O search and examine thy Soul and follow the search close and home to thy Conscience till thou come fully and clearly to discern how it is with thee idle not away thy time one moment longer but begin this day delay not thy Preparations for Death until to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth What is requisite to make thy preparations such as may render Death Comfortable in thy thoughts and Expectations I have already laid down in the third Chapter of this Treatise to which I refer thee But notwithstanding what hath been spoken because there may yet be some fears arising in the hearts of some troubled Christian 's which they cannot get the Victory over so as readily and willingly to submit unto Death I shall in the next place propose some Consolatory Considerations for their Encouragement and support against a dying hour As First Consider that Gracious Promise God hath made unto his People in all Ages that he will never leave them nor forsake them And this is a Cordial so full of Divine Consolation that if Christians did but believe and live up to the Comfort that might be drawn from it they would not fear much less sink under any Affliction that can befall them It was no small Trial St. Paul was under when after his being rapt up into the third Heavens where he heard things that were unspeakable or impossible to be uttered he had given him a Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to Buffet him upon which he makes his Prayer thrice that it might be removed from him What Answer now doth he receive from God why the Thorn remains in his Flesh still and the Messenger of Satan continues to Buffet him but yet he hath a better return to his Prayer even the making good of this Gracious Promise to him that God would not leave him nor forsake him for says God My Grace shall be sufficient for thee my Strength is made perfect in Weakness And therefore the Apostle orys out in the deepest of his Afflictions with Transports of Joy most gladly therefore will I Glory in my Infirmities that the Power of Christ may rest upon me yea says he I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake for when I am Weak then am I strong for I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Thus for God to stand by his People and to strengthen them under their Afflictions is more than for God to deliver them out of them and he always doth the one or the other if he deliver not his People out of afflictions he always strengthens them under them and the greater the Afflictions of any of his People are the more is his Power seen in supporting them because they then most need it
it were not my pleasure to part with it all that Men or Devils could do they were not able to wrest it out of my hands Now though Christ by his death and sufferings accomplished several ends as the satisfaction of the Justice of God the procuring Pardon and Remission of Sin and the obtaining Heaven yet this also was one end of his death and a very comfortable one too and that is the overcoming of death for Believers Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory hath by his death spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross By his death he hath not only destroyed death but him also that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lives-time subject unto that bondage The Blood of Jesus Christ hath slain death's Enmity not that death is so destroyed that Believers shall not die but it is unstung It still wears its Dart by which it strikes all Men but it hath lost its sting by which it hurts Is death therefore riding upon its pale Horse and making haste towards thee O Believer fear it not be not dismayed at it though there may be much of pain in it yet there is nothing of the Curse in it it is as a Serpent without a sting thou mayest take it into thy hand yea into thy bosom without danger Death poured out all its Poison upon Christ when he was made a Curse it fastned yea it lost its sting in his blessed Side And who would fear an Enemy that is conquered Death to a Believer is not only an innocent harmless thing but it is one of his best Friends death is yours says the Apostle speaking to Believers It is theirs as a special Privilege When Christ was upon the Cross there was a Contention between him and death and as it was prophesied of him he was then the plague of death and the destruction of the Grave for he swallowed them up in Victory So that now death drives but a poor Trade among Believers all that it can do is but to destroy the Body and to afright some that are weak in the Faith but it cannot hurt them Victory over death is as sure to them as if they had already overcome and therefore says the Apostle speaking of Death and the Grave Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Meditate upon the Resurrection of Christ This is a great Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion that upon which the Faith the Hope and Happiness of a Christian for Eternity is built for as Christ died for our Sins so he arose again for our Justification And if Christ had not risen the Faith and Hope of a Christian is but vain If Christ be not risen a Christian shall not rise and if there be no Resurrection there is no Life everlasting If Christians have hope only in this Life they are of all Men most miserable But blessed be God Christ is risen and therefore the Faith and Hope of a Christian stands firm for it is built upon the Rock of Ages against which as the Gates of Death did not so the Gates of Hell shall not prevail That Christ is risen the Scripture is clear an Angel declares it Matth. 28.6 He is not here he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay Holy Men who were Eye-witnesses hereof give their Testimony to this Truth when our Lord shewed himself alive to them by the space of Forty Days in nine several Apparitions and once was he seen of five hundred Brethren together 1 Cor. 15.6 And says the Apostle Acts 2.24 He was raised from the dead the pains or bands of death being loosed because it was not possible he should be holden of them It was possible Death should seize upon him and so it did he willingly yielding himself up unto it because as our Surety he owed a death by way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins which he had taken upon him and accordingly he paid it otherwise Death could not have taken hold of him But though death did take hold of him yet could it not keep it though it had possession of him in the Grave yet it could not keep him there no that was impossible partly because he is life essentially life so himself tells us I am the Resurrection and the Life Now it is not possible for death to hold life it self longer under its power than he who is life it self pleaseth And then partly it was not possible Christ should be held under the power of death in â—espect of us for having undertaken the great work of restoring us unto life if his life had been subdued by death if he had been held down a Prisoner under the power of death and the grave we had been lost and undone for ever for as the Apostle argues if Christ be not risen then our Faith is vain we are yet in our sins But Christ being to carry on the work of our Redemption to perfection though he submitted himself to die yet was it impossible Death should have Dominion over him for ever Christ therefore is risen and he is risen as a publick Person in the behalf of all Believers who are therefore called the Children of the Resurrection and said to be risen with him Eph. 2.6 Christ's Resurrection is not only the Cause of a Believer's Resurrection but the security of his happy Resurrection therefore he is said to be the first fruits of them that sleep Now as the first fruits did both assure and sanctifie the whole Harvest so doth Christ do for Believers by his Resurrection he assures them of their Resurrection and sanctifies it also that it shall be a blessed Resurrection even unto an Eternity of Happiness And therefore it is with respect to Believers that Christ is called the First-born or the first begotten from the dead who are in their time and order to be born from the dead the Resurrection giving New Birth or Being unto those bodies which while they were in the Grave seemed to have none For as certainly as the whole Harvest follows the first Fruits so doth the general Resurrection of Believers at the last day follow the Resurrection of Christ For as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. and 12. If Christ be risen from the dead how can it be but that there must be a Resurrection from the dead If we acknowledge the Body of Christ is risen we cannot rationally deny the Resurrection of our own bodies because Christ's Resurrection is not only the Exemplar of our Resurrection but the Cause of it for because Christ and Believers are but one Mystical Body he the Head they the Members and the Head being risen the Members shall not always lie rotting in the Grave but shall in due time arise also For the Spirit of Life that is in Christ
of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his Life For certainly he is able to save unto the utmost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Christ hath not lost his Love and Affection to his People by his Advancement Harbour not therefore O Believing Soul any suspicious thoughts in thy Heart concerning him as if by his Exaltation into Heaven he were now become forgetful of any of his Members here below groaning under Sin or Misery for though the days of his Passion are ended yet so are not the days of his Compassion He retains the same Temper and Disposition of Soul now he is in Glory his Heart is not changed though his Condition be but he still bears the same Respect to his People now that he did when he was on Earth for indeed he there Lives and Acts upon the account of Believers so says the Apostle He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Doth God O Believing Soul by Diseases and Distempers upon thy outward Man cause thy Beauty and Comeliness to consume and wither hath long and tedious Sicknesses almost wasted and destroyed thy Body and by all art thou brought so low that thou despairest of Life Doth Death seem to be written upon all thy helps to Life And do all the means that are used for thy Recovery seem rather to further thy Dissolution than any way to hinder it Why yet fear not Death but Remember as God hath Glorified and highly Exalted Jesus Christ whose Form and Visage as the Prophet speaks was marr'd more than any Mans so he will Exalt thee also not to an Equality of Glory with Christ for in Heaven he shall be the Light and the Glory of it but yet there shall be some likeness and Conformity in all the Members of Christ unto him who is their Head Fear not therefore O Christian the worst that Death or the Grave can do unto thee for assure thy self as because he lives Believers shall live also so where he lives there Believers shall live also Thirdly Another Consideration for the removal of the fear of Death is frequent Meditation of the Happiness of the Soul in Death and of the Resurrection of the Body after Death As for the Happiness of the Souls of Believers in death it is exceeding great the Body at present suffers loss for though once it was an excellent Fabrick the Workmanship of God's hands yet being forsaken by the Soul it is become loathsome and turns to Corruption and rottenness so says the Wise Man The Body returns to the dust from whence it was taken there to consume and moulder away this is the State of Man's Body in Death procured by Sin and inflicted by God But now for the Soul that returns to God that gave it either to partake of Eternal Blessedness or to receive Eternal Punishments Now that the Happiness of Believers in their Souls is great at Death will appear if we consider either the Evils they are freed from or the Blessedness they attain unto as for the Evils that accompany our present State in this Life Death frees Believers from them all at once during this Mortal Life indeed Sufferings are annexed to the State of a Christian as a necessary Appendix to his very Being for such is our condition while we are here that Afflictions are almost become as needful for the Soul as Food and Raiment is for the Body therefore saith the Apostle if need be you are in heaviness through manifold Tribulations 1 Pet. 1.6 God sees it needful that Afflictions should be and in his Wisdom and Mercy he proportions the Afflictions of his People to their necessities This Life is a Life of Suffering unto the People of God it is their appointed Path and Way through which they must walk to Heaven therefore says the Apostle We must through many Tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God It is appointed for us so to do And indeed as Job speaks Man is born to trouble as the sparks flyupward he comes into the World crying and all the rest of his time between the Cradle and the Grave he is not much Happier for his Life is made up of Sin and Suffering the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Suffering there is a kind of a continual Chaining or Linking together of one Misery or Affliction to another a mixture of Pain and Sorrow or Succession of Evils and Troubles that runs through all his days as one Wave falls upon the neck of another so one Evil is no sooner gone but another comes in its room One depth as the Psalmist speaks calls upon another Floods and Storms of Miseries and Afflictions daily pass over our heads And if Troubles and Afflictions come not of themselves nor are caused by others we can Mint and Coin them our selves by our Sins Our Lord tells us That sufficient to the day that is to every day are the Evils and Troubles thereof but as if they were not enough we can create Troubles to our selves before hand and Anticipate in our Fancies and Apprehensions for our greater Vexation and Trouble Evils that are to come though we know not whether we our selves shall live till they come And herein we are more cruel to our selves than the Devil is to himself for that Evil Spirit cares not to be Tormented before his time whereas we antidate and bring Evils that are at a distance from us nearer to us by unquiet Apprehensions and sinful distracting Vexations entertained in our minds and so the fears of Miseries to come make us far more miserable than when those miseries are come upon us and by the Apprehension of an imaginary Evil we make it become a real Affliction and an unfeigned Torment to us in our resentment of it Thus Sin and Sorrow Afflictions and Temptations divide our days and time while we are here until Death comes for a Believers relief and then there shall be an end put to all his Sorrows and Sufferings because there shall be an end of Sinning After Death there shall be no Cries nor Tears under any Miseries or Afflictions no fears of future Evils nor no grief for past sins the causes of them no Poverty or Distress shall come near that Holy place the Habitation of Holy Souls all the Inhabitants there are become Kings possessed of Riches and Glory without value Fear not therefore O dying Believer whose Soul by Death is getting free from thy Body for thou art but removing from Earth to Heaven where thou shalt instantly be with thy dear Lord and Saviour thou art but going to thy God and Father and the Father of Spirits to visit those Mansions of Glory that are there prepared for thee Chearfully therefore take thy leave of thy Body and let it know that thou art taking thy flight to Heaven during the time that it shall sleep in the dust of the Grave until the morning of the
Resurrection where thou shalt be out of the reach of all Afflictions and Sorrows and where thou canst not be endangered by sin the Tempter or any of his Temptations And concerning the Resurrection of the Body it is not only one of the most Excellent Mysteries of the Christian Religion but it is also one of its Glorious Advantages It is that which the Heathens with all their deep Reasonings could never attain to the understanding of but though Humane Reason be blind and cannot find out this Glorious Mystery yet we who are Christians have the sure and certain Knowledge of it discovered to us by Divine Revelation and when Reason is once savingly enlightned from above O how the Justice and necessity of the future Resurrection of the Body is not only acknowledged but admired I confess when a Believer is cast upon his Death-bed and his Soul ready to take its leave of the Body in its passage unto Heaven it is no small cause of Joy and rejoycing to consider that as soon as it hath cast off its Earthly Tabernacle it shall be immediately admitted into the Glorious Presence of God himself where it shall view and contemplate his Face with infinite and unspeakable delight and satisfaction But yet that Holy Joy and that Heavenly Sweetness which sometimes is so Powerful that it Ravisheth the Soul of a Believer on a Death-bed whilst it Contemplates that Happiness to which it is going may be disturbed and imbittered by the Consideration of the poor Bodies being cast into the Earth there to become a Feast for Worms to feed upon But be not troubled at this O Believing Soul for this seeming Destruction of thy Body shall not be Eternal though it fall into the Grave by Death where it seems at present to be lost and forgotten yet shall it have a certain Resurrection and then the Ignominy and Disgrace under which it lay in the Grave shall appear not to have been so great as its Resurection out of it shall appear Glorious for it is sown in Corruption but it is raised in Incorruption it is Sown in dishonour but it is raised in Glory it is Sown in weakness it is raised in Power it is Sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body in 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Fear not therefore O Believing Soul but commit thy Body with Confidence unto the Earth and let thy Heart rejoyce let thy Tongue be glad and let thy Flesh rest in the hopes of a blessed Resurrection for assure thy self thy Body shall not always lie rotting in the Grave neither shall in there see Corruption for ever but there shall come a time when God shall shew it the path of Life again when thy Soul shall descend from Heaven to assume its new raised body out of the Grave to become a most glorious Body even like unto the glorious Body of Jesus Christ being made more spiritual and so more suitable to the Nature and Operations of the Soul that it may become a fit Partner with it in the Blessedness and Happiness of Heaven for evermore Fourthly Consider the Familiarity that Believers have expressed towards Death Ordinarily indeed Men put death into such ugly shapes and represent it to themselves under such terrible and afrighting forms that they pass their lives under slavery and bondage through the fears of it all their days The visage of Death appears so grim and full of horrour to the minds of some that the serious forethoughts of it seem to them to be a tormenting them before their time O how vastly different are the thoughts of a wicked and a godly man concerning Death and the Grave the one looks upon death as full of Dread and Horrour the other looks upon it as a Messenger of Peace and Joy and how can it be otherwise For to the wicked it comes as a dreadful Enemy armed with the wrath of an angry God which burns to the lowest Hell But to the Godly it comes as a peaceable loving Friend sent with Tydings of Peace and Reconciliation from him who is the God of Peace and Love Natural fear of Death in a wicked Man is great but when natural fear is encreased by guilt lying upon the Conscience and staring a Sinner in the face Oh what dismal Horrour and Confusion must seize upon such a Soul under the Apprehensions of Death Well may such a one look upon the Grave as a Dungeon and Death as Hell it self an awakened Conscience representing to his view nothing but the Fiends and Furies of that Infernal Pit that wait to be the Executioners of the Wrath and Vengeance of the great God upon him in the Woes and Miseries of everlasting Burnings Who wonders therefore to hear such an one crying out upon a Death-bed with Horrour and Anguish of Soul Oh I am so sick I cannot live and yet I am so sinful I dare not die and yet die I must Oh would to God that the serious Thoughts of these things might be laid to heart by all profane Sinners What a happy means might it possibly be to prevent the Horrours and Consternation of Soul in many upon a Death-bed But if Sinners cannot bear the Thoughts of these things in their Minds now for fear of Distraction how will they bear the sight and presence of them then If the thinking and speaking of them now be dreadful the feeling of them will be far more tormenting But now a godly Man thinks and speaks of death after another manner for if he thinks and speaks of death as a godly Man may and ought to do he is so far from being terrified with the thoughts of it that he thinks of it comfortably speaks of it familiarly As it was wont to be the speech of a very Holy Person now with God who was pretty well stricken in years I hope it will not be long before I shall be in Heaven for few live above sixty or seventy years and I am now a good many above fifty certainly therefore it cannot be long before I shall die Thus this Holy Soul being desirous of death did use delightfully to reckon how little time there was to pass between it and Heaven and with a holy longing of Soul reaching after death as one that was troubled that it was so long a coming Thus certainly did holy Job look upon death not as an Enemy nor yet barely as a Stranger but as one of his Friends whom he was well acquainted with took a kind of Deligh and Contentment in it See with what an unusual but yet sweet and familiar manner he salutes and welcomes death and all its Retinue in Job 17.14 I have said to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister The Holy Man makes no more of Death and the Grave than as if he were going to be embraced by a compassionate Father or a tender-hearted Mother or Sister whose Bowels were full of love and pity to him Thus St. Paul also
speaks of Death as that which he was daily familiar with being in Deaths often frequently thinking thereof for said he I die daily Thoughts of Death was that which he accustomed himself unto and that was one Cause why he was so willing to embrace it And thus it should be with all of us were our hearts rightly affected and we so familiarly acquainted with death as we ought Those of us who have the most lively Faith would not only not be afraid of death but we should even court it as that which is better than life But I would not here discourage any weak Believer for I dare not say that they are no true Believers who are not come up to this frame of Soul Though it is true Grace is the same in all Believers one Believer hath the same that another Believer hath yet all that are Believers do not attain to the same degrees of Grace There are some and it is their sin and ought to be their Humiliation that Death and they are little acquainted they seldom descend into the Grave by frequent Meditations of their Mortality they look not into the Pit out of which at first they were taken and into which they are shortly to return now their comfort in the thoughts of death is little if any at all because death and they are such Strangers to one another These may be true Believers but they are weak and faulty But now others there are who are so advanced in Grace above their Brethren that by a constant Familiarity with death are so composed in their Spirits that they fear it not nay they rejoice in the thoughts of it not because they think they shall not taste of death for they know that death will overtake them as well as others they are sensible that the time of their departure draws nearer and nearer daily These things they believe but they do not afflict themselves therewith so well are they acquainted with death both in the Nature and in the Effects of it And were they to die presently this would not much trouble them for they know the bitterness of death is past though death it self be not the Gall and the Wormwood is taken out Christ hath been there before them and therefore the sting of death which is sin is gone the dangers yea and the difficulties also in dying are removed out of the way This they believe and therefore they are not afraid though by death they descend through the Grave into Heaven for their Jesus their Saviour is there and they know that till they die where he is they cannot be wherefore they say though we die nay therefore will we die that we may see him Wouldst thou therefore O weak Believer attain unto this sweet frame of Spirit accustom thy self then to a holy familiarity with death conceive of it under the fairest and easiest Notions this is that the Spirit of God in Scripture delights in when it speaks of death with respect to the People of God it always makes use of the most comfortable Expressions to represent it to them by So sweetly is death enamell'd and so richly is it cloathed in the holy Language that it seems to have a kind of Lustre and Beauty upon it to draw the Hearts and Affections of Believers to be desirous of it Look a little therefore O Believer into the Sacred Oracles and see how the Spirit of God teacheth us to cloath Death with delightful Expressions sometimes it is called an undressing or uncloathing And what Man that hath worn a Suit of Cloaths till it is become filthy and nasty would not be glad to put off his old filthy Garments that he might put on Change of Raiment And why should not a Christian be willing to lay down the Earthly House of his Tabernacle though it be in the Dust of the Grave that he may be cloathed upon with his House which is from Heaven Sometimes Death is compared to Rest they shall rest in their Beds says the Prophet and Job speaking of the state of Man in death tells us there the weary are at rest Now when a Man hath wrought hard and taken great pains and labour all the Day how desirous is he to go to Bed and take his Rest And is not Death the same to thee O Christian Doth not the Spirit of God call it so Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And surely there is no rest like to that rest that a Christian obtains after his spiritual labours and conflicts with Sin Satan the World and his own evil Heart when the Soul is set free from the Body and takes its flight at once from all these into the Bosom of God that place of Rest and Happiness which remains for the People of God As there is no Yoke like unto the Yoke of Christ when a Christian suffers for him for it is a Yoke lined with Love My Yoke says he is easie and my Burthen is light So there is no Rest and Happiness like that which is with Christ for the same Happiness that he enjoys his Children and Servants enjoy also Sometimes death is called a Sleep so says our Lord our Friend Lazarus sleepeth it is spoken of his death now who of us when the day is spent and the night hath overtaken us is afraid to go to bed and sleep And why then should a Christian when his Days are finished and the Night of Sickness is come upon him be afraid to fall asleep though he sleep the sleep of Death By such Considerations as these and the like that the Scripture holds forth to us Christians should endeavour to allay the bitterness beautifie the deformity blunt the edge and take out the sting of death that all hard thoughts of it might be buried and instead thereof there might grow up a sweet Familiarity and Acquaintance between them and death Oh how would this facilitate the work of dying and cause holy Souls to exult with joy and rejoicing when death is approaching towards them And here I cannot but make a little Digression to reason the Case with some weak Believers whose unwillingness to die is very great because their fears of death are so many But why should the fears of Death so amaze and terrifie thee O weak Believer Hast thou not the same Grace in thee with others Hast thou not the same Faith the same Hope the same Love acting and working in thee Dost thou not serve the same Lord Hast thou not the same God for thy Father the same Jesus for thy Saviour the same Spirit of Consolation for thy Comforter Art thou not going to the same Heaven nay art thou not going to the same Heaven in the same way that all the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Saints of God in all Ages have gone before thee Death was the Gate through which they all entred into Heaven and why then shouldst thou be so unwilling to go to Heaven
in the same way Oh how unlike to Christians do they shew themselves who are so loath to die that they will not come but must be dragg'd to the Grave yea to the very thoughts of Death Oh how unsuitable is this Temper to those who desire that God's Wills may be done who profess themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims here upon Earth and to look upon Heaven as their Country and their Fathers House The life of a Christian should be a life of Faith now the Excellency of the Life of Faith in a Believer with relation unto Death lies in this that it makes him not only submissive but chearfully to come to that to which another must be dragged by force I mean Death and the Grave To a Believer when his Faith is on the wing Life as St. Paul says of his is not dear and Death as he speaks of his is desired It was as hard to make St. Paul patient when he thought of living as to make another patient when he thinks of dying a most sweet and Blessed Frame of Spirit but where is it to be found now how rarely is it be to seen the most of Men shall I say nay the most of Professors and would to God there were not just cause to complain and say whom we hope are real Christians their Hearts and Affections are so much set upon the World even as if their Portion were not in Heaven but they themselves were among the Number of those whose Names are written in the Earth The Lord humble us that so much of this Evil frame of Spirit is to be seen in the best of God's Children as appears by their backwardness and unwillingness to die O Christians if Jesus Christ had gone as unwillingly to Suffer and to Die for us as we go to Pray to him and to hear from him not to say as unwillingly as we go to die that we may enjoy him what had become of our Salvation but blessed be God he did not And surely Christians if it was Christs desire to die for us as it was it should then be our longing to live with him though it be by Dying Oh what a strange unseemly and unbecoming thing is it for a Christian to hear his Saviour crying out I have a Baptism to be baptized withal though it was the Baptism of his bloody Death and Sufferings and oh how am I straitned till it be accomplished And that a Christian reflecting upon the thoughts of his own Death should say I have a Baptism to be baptized withal though not a Baptism of a bloody Death by the hands of Violence but the Baptism of an easie quiet and peaceable Death and how am I straitned and full of fears lest it should be accomplished Certainly Christians a willingness in Christ to die for us that we might live by him should cause in us a willingness to die that we might live with him Would to God O Christian Reader that what hath been said might be a means to work in my self and thee not only a readiness and fitness for Death though that is very good and that in which the safety of a Christian lies and happy are they that have gone so far for Heaven is sure to them whether they know it or not but Oh that we might go further that Grace might attain to a greater Perfection in us even that we might come to a Holy willingness and desire yea to a Holy-longing of Soul after Death This is that Holy covetousness of Soul that God allows of There are two things wherein a Christian cannot be too insatiable in his desires after them one is that he may Honour God the other is that he may enjoy God that he may honour God as much as he can while he is on Earth and that he may enjoy God as soon as it may be in Heaven this is the most commendable and desirable life and this will end in the most Happy and Comfortable Death Death did I say nay it is Life in Death it is Death swallowed up of Life even in a Life of unconceivable Glory and Happiness in the enjoyment of that God who is all Life all Love all Peace all Joy and all Happiness in the utmost and highest Perfection I am sensible I have made a Digression in this particular but the desire I had Christian Reader to stir up my own Soul and thine also unto a Duty so full of Sweetness and Delight hath put me upon it I now go on to what yet remains Having laid down some Consolations against the fear of Death in general I shall in the next place endeavour to propound some Considerations for the support of Christians under the loss of Friends and Relations in particular which unto many is a sore Trial and hard to be born for it is as common for Christians to exceed in their Grief for their dead Friends and Relations as it is to exceed in their Love and Delight in their living Friends and Relations and in both it is very hard for Christians to keep their Passions and Affections within due bounds The blessed Apostle therefore gives us Excellent Counsel how we should carry our selves under the enjoyment of Relations and outward Comforts whilst we have them and how we should bear up under the loss of them when God takes them away from us we have the Direction for both 1 Cor. 7.29 If we have Relations or Worldly Enjoyments why then saith he Rejoyce in them as if you rejoyced not If you want them or have lost them then says he weep for them as if you wept not and he lays down a very cogent reason for what he says for the time is short and the World is passing away and so are you and all your Relations and Comforts passing away with it As if the Apostle had said if God hath Blessed you with dear and sweet Relations with pleasant and delightful Comforts yet consider it is but a little time that you shall enjoy them they and you shall quickly part again therefore rejoyce in them as if you rejoyced not And if God hath seen good to take away those sweet Pledges of his Love and once the Objects of your Delight and Joy do not much Afflict your selves under the loss of them for it is but a little while that you shall continue here without them the time is short and the World is passing away and ere long it will not be yea you your selves are passing away with it yea before it also weep therefore as if you wept not these things are not your great Concerns your Happiness lies not in the Enjoyment of them nor your Misery in the loss of them but it lies in something higher and of greater Worth and Excellency even in God himself it 's the Enjoyment of him only that can make a Soul happy and the loss of him only that can make it miserable Therefore with a Holy Moderation and Indifferency of Affection carry
your loss in your Friends and Relations be what it will let your Condition be as bad as it can be yet is it better with you than it would be in Hell whither your sins deserve God should have sent you who hath only laid this gentle Affliction upon you under which you now groan Thirdly Consider your Friends and Relations that you grieve and mourn so for if they were good they are not lost they are but gone before taken from the evil to come Thy Friend or Relation whose loss thou bewailest was either God's Friend or not if he was God's Friend as well as thine why should not God have his Company rather than you and if God hath him thou canst not say he is lost no he is safe only he hath got the start of thee being got to Heaven before thee and surely if thou lovedst him as by thy mourning thou pretendest to do thou canst not grieve because he is Happy The World is not so pleasant a place neither have the Godly in any Age found it so that any of us should so eagerly desire it either for our selves or our Friends Happy are they that are got safe out of it into Glory If thy Friend for whom thou now grievest was bad thou shouldst have mourned for him whilst he was here on Earth when by thy mourning thou mightst have made him better then was the proper yea the only time for thy Prayers and Tears to have done him any good but now that he is gone though thou shouldst weep and mourn never so much it is altogether in vain and unprofitable But if thy Friend were a good Man to grieve for his departure seems to argue that we have but hard or doubtful and misgiving thoughts concerning him for how can we mourn for one that is Happy besides thy Friend is but taken from the Evil to come The Grave becomes a hiding-place for some and God sees it better for them that they should be under ground than above ground in such evil days that they may not behold the Evil that is like to come upon others so says the Prophet The Righteous are taken away from the evil to come and certainly it is far better for us to desire to go to them that we may partake of their Happiness than to wish that they should come to us to partake of our Miseries Fourthly Grieve not immoderately for thy dead Friends and Relations for there is hope of their Resurrection and Eternal Happiness It is for them to mourn without measure who mourn without hope which no Christian should do We are not to look upon the dead because at present they are turned to Corruption and Rottenness as a lost Generation of Men for Death hath not nor cannot Annihilliate and destroy them A Believer may say of his dead Friends and Relations what the Disciples said unto Christ when he told them Our Friend Lazarus sleepeth Lord say they if he sleep be shall do well John 11.12 the same may Believers say of their Friends and Relations that are asleep in their Graves they shall do well for they shall awake again so says the Church Isaiah 26.19 Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of Herbs and the Earth shall cast out the dead Now we do not use to weep and mourn for our Friends and Relations when they lie down at night to take a short sleep in their Beds because we know they use to awake and arise again in the morning And why then should we be grieved and troubled when they come to lie down in the dust and make their Beds for a while in the Grave sleeping away time by Death until the morning of the Resurrection when they shall as surely nay more surely awake and arise out of their Graves than they were certain in the morning of any day to awake and arise out of their Beds And therefore the Apostle brings it in as a Cordial for the support of Believers under the loss of their Friends and Relations by Death 1 Thessal 4.13 14. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as those that have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him And so he goes on proving the Doctrine of the Resurrection and conludes with this so shall we be ever with the Lord wherefore says he Comfort one another with these words When Believers die tho' their Bodies seem to perish in the Earth yet even then is their very dust precious in his sight for he takes care of it and preserves it in the Grave and he will certainly raise it again at the last day unto a most Glorious State of Happiness and even then at that instant when their Souls leave their Bodies they ascend up into Heaven into the Presence and Enjoyment of God in Glory As our Saviour therefore said unto his Disciples when he was going away from them into Heaven in John 14.28 If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I go unto my Father The same may dying Believers say unto their Friends and Relations that they leave behind them if ye loved us ye would rejoyce because we are going unto our God and Father weep not therefore for us but weep for your selves who are forbidden for a while to follow us unto that State of Blessedness which we are now a going to take Possession of for ever Now for a Conclusion of this Subject I have but one thing more to add which may be an Argument of great force and strength to prevail upon the Spirits of Christians not only to make them willing and contented to die but to stir up in them a Holy longing of Soul after Death and that is to consider the Saints great gain and advantage by dying Now here I shall not branch out this Head into several particulars relating to the Happiness of Believers in Heaven because I intend a particular Discourse of the Happiness thereof by it self all that I shall say now concerning the gain of Believers by Death shall be only in General And so let all such know that when they die they shall be perfectly freed from whatsoever is Evil and Afflictive and shall have a perfect Enjoyment of whatever is beneficial and good they shall be perfectly freed from whatsoever is Evil and Afflictive there shall then be no more sorrowing or weeping for Heaven whither Death brings all Believers is the place of the Joy of their Lord where Tears are wip'd away from all Eyes and Sorrow from all Hearts for thither the Ransom'd of the Lord are come with Songs upon their heads and obtain Joy and Gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isaiah 35 and the last Where they live without fear which here makes the lives of many burthensome unto them for all cause of fears
are there for ever abolished and taken away There are no Deformities upon the Body to render it Contemptible nor no Reproaches upon the Name to make it Scandalous there is no Sickness or Distempers upon the outward Man nor no Desertions or Darkness upon the inward Man there are no Temptations from Satan to vex the Soul nor no Weaknesses and Infirmities to annoy the Body there 's no more Death or dying but Life for evermore Mortality is now swallowed up of Life Corruption hath put on Incorruption and Mortality hath put on Immortality and Death and Hell are cast into the Lake of Fire and which is more than all this there that is in Heaven we shall no more sin nor offend God to all Eternity Earth and Hell are the places both of sin and Suffering but Heaven is a place of perfect Joy and perfect Holiness nothing enters in there that is either Afflictive Polluted or Defiled When Death parts Soul and Body for a time then Sin and the Soul part for ever Here we are continually sinning and offending of God and it is the constant grief of a Godly Man that he doth so here our Righteousnesses are no better than filthy rags and Grace it self hath its defects when we believe most strongly we must cry out Lord help our unbelief but now in Heaven there are none but the Spirits of Just Men made perfect In a word there is nothing there that may in the least be an Allay or Diminution unto the Happiness of that blessed State that is there enjoyed to Eternity But this is not all Death doth not only free Believers from all that is Evil and Afflictive but it brings them to the perfect Enjoyment of whatever is beneficial and good Death being the means and way by which they enter into Heaven where Blessedness and Happiness is to be enjoyed in such fulness of perfection as exceeds not only our Apprebensions but our Imaginations For there it is that the infinitely great and blessed God discovers himself in all his Glory to be enjoyed by the Saints as their Portion to Eternity There it is that they shall behold their once bleeding and dying but now Glorified Redeemer Cloathed in their own Nature who loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood who was dead but is alive and now lives for ever more and because be lives they shall live also There they shall Enjoy that which was the great desire of the Apostle and theirs also to be with Christ which is best of all and how much blessedness is included in those few words to be with Christ the enjoyment of Heaven only where Christ is can make known to us There it is that Believers fully understand the meaning of that Article of our Christian Faith even the Communion of Saints here it was that they placed their Delight in the Saints the Excellent ones of the Earth and there their Delight shall be in great measure in the Saints some of the Excellent ones of Heaven There shall then be no mixture of sin and Corruption with our Graces which here is an Allay to the Lustre and Brightness of them but they shall Shine forth in their full Glory and Beauty Grace there shall be in its full Perfection nothing shall then be wanting in our Knowledge nor any thing imperfect in our Love our Obedience shall then flow from us with all readiness and chearfulness of Soul and our Joy and Delight in God shall not admit of the least Diminution or Disturbance to Eternity This O Soul is that in general which the Happiness of Heaven is made up of and to the Enjoyment of this Happiness without Interruption or Cessation for ever is that to which Death brings all Believers And surely if ever those words have any Truth in them they are here verified so that a Saint may truly say The lines are now fallen to me in a pleasant place I have a goodly Herit age O Blessed and Glorious State indeed who is there that knows and believes this infinite unconceivable Happiness that would not willingly die to enjoy it Unto which State of Blessedness God of his infinite Mercy bring us all to the Enjoyment of for the alone sake of Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer Amen FINIS
forced from him whether he will or no. But though a Sinner's Death be violent yet no Man dies before his time though some in Scripture are said so to do Hence we read that Caution of the Wise Man Eccles 7.17 Be not wicked over much why shouldst thou die before thy time And God threatens Psal 55.23 Bloody and deceitful Men shall not live out half their Days And it is a common saying among us that such a one is cut off in the midst of his Days To all which I shall only return this short Answer That simply and in it self considered it is impossible but that the whole tale of Days that God hath appointed to every one must be fulfilled according to the Number of them They are set down by God and no Man can die before God's time It is true a Man may die before his time that is before he is prepared by Grace or before he is ripened in the course of Nature Such expressions as these denote no more than either that God cuts them off in their full strength and in the vigour of their years when yet they might according to humane probability have lived much longer or else comparing the shortness of their lives with the length of others God seems as it were to break it off in the very midst before he hath finished it And is Death the lot of all Men sooner or later Though all die not the same way and after the same manner nor at the same time yet is Death the end of all Men Doth Death pass upon all because all have sinned Why then let every one prepare for Death The Spirit of God tells us that all flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field which soon withers and dies And is it so with these Bodies of ours that they are frail and dying The Wisdom of a Christian then should manifest it self not in labouring to avoid the stroke of Death for that is impossible nor yet in spending too much time in daubing over a House of Clay or in repairing and propping up of an Earthly Tabernacle which when we have done all will at length crumble into dust but seeing the Body is appointed for and will turn to dust to be sollicitous that when it dies it may die happily and comfortably Christian whoever thou art into whose hands these lines may fall know that I am come to acquaint thee with a message from the True and Faithful God that cannot lye that the Lease of thy Life is almost expired and that the time of thy departure is not far off What habitation hast thou provided for thy precious and immortal Soul that it may not at its departure out of thy Body take up its dwelling with Devils and damned Spirits for ever It may be thou hast provided well for thy Wife and Children heap'd up much Silver and Gold together for them added House to Land that they may dwell upon the Earth it may be thou hast settled thy Estate so as to prevent all disputes and quarrelings when thou art dead I cannot say but thou hast done well and that these things ought to be done I condemn thee not But what hast thou done for thy Soul all this while Hast thou not laid out much more care and pains for thy never dying Soul than thou hast for thy perishing Body If not let me say unto thee O careless Sinner as the Mariners said unto Jonah in the Storm What meanest thou O Sleeper What meanest thou O drowsy stupid Sinner Arise for God's sake and for thy Soul's sake and bestir thy self look about thee Whither art thou going What will become of thee Is not Eternity before thee And must not thy State and Condition be for ever hereafter as thy Preparations are now O that God would open thine Eyes that thou mayest see what will make for thine Eternal Interest before Death open them when it will be too late Now that I may press this Exhortation the more home upon thy Conscience I shall lay down two or three Reasons for thy more thorough Conviction that it will be much for thy Interest and Advantage to be ready and prepared for Death First Consider Conscience will then be very busie and active in reviewing thy Life Now if for the most part thereof thou hast walked uprightly with God Conscience will then give thee some measure of boldness towards God But now if at such a time when Conscience is reflecting back upon thy former Life it cannot but say if it will speak the Truth as usually upon a Death bed it doth I have been considering thy former ways and the Account that I can give of them in general is that they abound with multitudes of Sins and Provocations which no Man can number to particularize them would be endless but if it may tend any way to thy Repentance before it be too late Remember O Sinner for I do how long God hath lengthened out thy Life how many tenders of Christ and Salvation by him he hath made unto thy Soul which thou hast rejected How many years of Sabbaths hast thou enjoyed How often hath the Spirit of God moved upon thy Soul and stirred up holy motions in thy Heart which thou hast resisted and quenched What multitudes of mercies wherewith God would have drawn thee to himself hast thou slighted and abused How many corrections and afflictions hath God laid upon thee wherewith he would have imbittered Sin unto thy Soul that himself might have been more sweet which thou hast despised and grown more hardened in Sin under How hath the Patience of God been even wearied with waiting upon thee whilst thou hast pressed him with thy Sins even as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves and yet thou wouldst not forbear thy wicked ways Doest thou not remember the particular times and days the several seasons and occasions wherein it hath been thus and thus with thee Surely says Conscience thou canst not forget it these things are all down in my Book though thou thoughtest I took no notice of them and I am now a going to open this Book to shew it to thy Judge where I shall justifie them all to thy very face for I do very well remember every one of them O that for thy Soul's sake I could say I do as well remember thy praying thy hearing thy reading thy Meditation of holy and heavenly things with the sincerity yea the fervour and earnestness of thy Soul expressed in all these that I could bear Witness to thy Faith to thy Humility to thy Patience and Self denial to thy Repentance and Godly Sorrow for Sin to the daily longing and breathing of thy Soul after the being rid of a Body of Death that thou mightest never offend God any more but I cannot say these things of thee and I dare not now flatter thee and tell thee that I can when I cannot and if I should it would do thee no good
Death by the Merit of his own Death and hath declared his Victory over it and our deliverance from it by raising up his own Body from the Grave Christ by his Death did meritoriously conquer Death for Believers but he did not actually conquer it till his Resurrection but then he did the Day of his Resurrection was the Day wherein Grace did triumph thorough Christ towards believing Souls for on that Day Christ did openly shew to Heaven to Hell to Earth that Death was not only conquerable by Believers but that it was actually conquered for them thorough him Blessed Souls in Heaven believe it to their everlasting Consolation and are thereby fully confirmed in the Resurrection of their own Bodies because their Head is already risen for them The damned in Hell have the Knowledge of it to their greater Torment because they now know their sinful Bodies shall be raised to suffer for ever with their Souls in that Place of Torment and therefore they believe and tremble The Saints on Earth also know it and therefore they rejoice in the believing Expectations of it being assured that as the Bonds of Death were loosed by which Christ was held in the Grave for the space of Three Days but could not possibly be held by them any longer so neither shall it be possible for Believers always to be held under them But there is a time coming when all that are in their Graves shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and shall come forth Joh. 5.28 And if we believe says the Apostle that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him in 1 Thes 4. and 14. for says the same Apostle Christ is risen and become the first Fruits of them that sleep in 1 Cor. 15.20 And as Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him So the time will not be long before Believers shall also be raised from the Dead and shall die no more for there shall then be no more Death nor Sorrow nor Crying nor Pain no more Diseases or Fears of Death or the Grave for behold all former things are passed away and all things are become new Rev. 21.45 But though Christ hath overcome Death yet is there still a Fear of it in most And indeed Death is an Object of Fear neither is all Fear of Death to be condemned as sinful Now for the better understanding of this that Death is an Object of Fear and when it may be lawful to fear Death and when the Fear of it is sinful I shall consider Man in a threefold Respect As he is a meer Man as he is a sinful Man and as he is a true Believer First I shall consider Man as he is a meer Man compounded of Soul and Body and so the Nature of Man abhors Death and if it were possible as it is not to find out a Man in the World that were free from all manner of Sin yet would he fear Death were he liable to it because it is that which tends to his Dissolution and Destruction Thus our Lord Jesus Christ himself though he was perfectly holy and free from all Sin yet in this sense he feared Death and therefore he prays Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me Thus now to fear Death as it is evil and destructive unto Nature is not sinful or unlawful Secondly Consider Man as he is sinful and unregenerate and so Death is an Object of Fear and full of Horror For to all such Death comes armed with Power not only to make a Separation between Soul and Body for so Death rules over all but it comes to kill and to destroy Soul and Body for ever for to such it is not Death alone as it is to the Godly but it is Death and Hell together Rev. 6.8 And I looked and behold a pale Horse and his Name that sat on him was Death and Hell followed with him It is no wonder if Death be dreadful and terrible unto such but it is rather a wonder that such can take any rest in the night or enjoy any quietness in the day that under the Fears of Death they are not distracted But here is the Misery of such they are so afraid of Death that they will not let the Thoughts of it come into their Minds but do what they can to banish the Thoughts of that evil day far from them But know O foolish Sinner though thou sleepest and art secure in Sin yet thy Death and thy Damnation slumbers not for Death and Hell are riding on Horse-back making haste towards thee and will soon overtake thee to thy eternal Ruine and Destruction and then thou shalt know by sad Experience that the Fears of the first Death which now thou labourest to stifle yea to drive away from thy Thoughts were not so full of dread and horror as the feeling of the Second Death will be for ever Death therefore unto wicked Men is an Object to be feared and the fear of Death in them is not only lawful but commendable and that upon which their Thoughts should much dwell because it is that which will prevent much Sin in them while they live and may possibly render Death more comfortable to them when they come to die Thirdly Consider Man as regenerate and become a true Believer yet so he may and often doth fear death For let a Man be never so much a Saint yet he will be still a Man and therefore as death will be death so nature will still be nature and therefore death as death will be abhorred Neither is there any necessity that the fear of death should be wholly conquered and subdued in the Godly so as that if should not be because it may and often doth turn to their Benefit and Advantage for hereby they are made to walk more humbly with God and more watchfully over themselves for while they consider that they are poor frail dying Creatures subject unto death continually and that they must pass from thence unto Judgment to give an Account of what they have done in the Body by this means they are kept from falling into many Sins that now would wound their Consciences and break their peace and hereafter make their death more dark and uncomfortable By this fear of death also the Godly are quickened in their preparations for Heaven and Eternity for because death is so certain that it will come and withal so uncertain when it will come the Godly are hereby stirred up unto a speedy and diligent preparation for it that so they may be ready for their departure whensoever God by death shall call them hence And death now is an Object of Fear in general so are there Reasons why Christians fear death in particular as First Some are afraid of death because of the extremity of those pains which they must undergo when they are dying and because of the