comfortably say Surely the bitterness of death is past while others say of Death and the Grave as Jacob said of Luz at first How terrible is this place He may say of them This is none other than the House of God Thirdly 3. Cons Consider the wicked ungodly and unprepared Sinner can have no hopes in his death Isa 57.2 There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked every pain and sickness that befals him is like the ratling of the wheels of the fiery Chariots and the prancing of the horses of the terrible ones that come to fetch away his soul and now he hath no hope nor life left in him Job 8.13 The Hypocrites hope shall perish he can expect no other but that his soul and body must shortly be pluck'd asunder never to meet together but in Hell That we be habitually prepar'd 2. Direct First Let us get an interest in Christ without him there is no peace with God and without peace with God there can be no peace in the latter end Job 22.21 Acquaint now thy self with God and be at peace Whence once we have got an interest in Christ we may die in peace As Simeon when he had got Christ in his arms could say Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace O be perswaded to receive and embrace Christ to believe in him and resign up your selves to him as you desire to die in peace and to be happy for ever If you were now upon your Death-beds and your Physician should turn Preacher and your Doctor become a Divine and tell you your Sickness is incurable there is no more hopes of your life you are not like to be men of this world you must prepare for another world you had best make your peace with God and get an interest in Christ I can do no more for you and so the Lord have mercy upon your souls Oh! what would the Blood of Christ be worth in such a day how welcome would he be in such an hour Secondly Be sure that ye be in a Regenerate and Converted state Except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven And lastly Repent of all your sins Sin like Jonahs Gourd will eat up the comforts of life and devour your peace in death therefore said the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A good and holy life prepares for an happy death Deal with sin as the Lords of the Philistines advis'd concerning David 1 Sam. 29.4 Who though he had liv'd peaceably amongst them yet when they went down to fight against Israel would not suffer him to go down to the battel along with them lest he should turn his hand against them So though sin hath been a pleasant Companion with us all our life yet when we go down to encounter death we must take heed that sin don't go along with us for it will certainly turn its hand against us and put a sting into Death and deadly teeth into that Lion Secondly That you may be actually prepar'd First 1 Direct Let every day be well fill'd Days well fill'd with the works of Righteousness will make souls well fill'd with the fruits of Righteousness which are Peace and Joy Let every days work be well done examine your selves every night whether your work be done and what is done amiss and ask your souls every night upon doing this whether it can willingly pass from this day into Eternity Job 5.26 it is said concerning that upright man Thou shalt come to thy Grave in thy full Age Diu vixit qui bene vixit like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season which implies two things First That he shall come willingly to his grave as a man that hath done his work goes willingly to his rest so is he a Volunteer to Death that his soul need not be forc'd out of his body as Lot was out of Sodom nor need he be drag'd out of the World as the rich Fool in the Gospel Secondly That when the Upright man dies he goes as one ready and prepar'd as a Shock of Wheat in its season this Saint goes like the Ox in the Emblem that that stands betwixt the Altar and the Plough with this Motto Ad utrumque paratus as ready for the Sacrifice as for the Yoke and thus Paul saith of himself Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better betwixt two i. e. betwixt Life and Death In a Strait that is as a City that is Besieged and straiten'd or as Iron between two Loadstones loth to leave the Philippians and loth to stay any longer from Christ and therefore after he had stood a while in Aequilibrio at last he inclines rather to be with Christ who is altogether desirable 1. His Common Presence is the preservation of the World 2. His Spiritual Presence is the very joy and life of Saints 3. His Glorious Presence the Eternal happiness of Believers and Oh! how did the heart of our deceased Friend breath after this highest of enjoyments Secondly 2 Direct Let your accounts be always ready The careless Steward can't bear the news of his Lords coming before his Accounts be ready and adjusted There is a secret fearfulness in all persons negligent of their Accounts to hear of Christs coming Every one of us must give account of himself to God and the sleepy soul fears to hear this Voice Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward and having so many Debts and Talents to account for he knows not how to set upon that work yet he that will be always ready must keep his accounts even and must often ask how the case stands between God and his soul and he need not be afraid though he hath never so many Talents Debts and Arrears to account for beyond his ability having the Blood and Righteousness of Jesus Christ to ballance the account Thirdly 3 Direct take your solemn leave every day of all the World that if God should call you the World may not be found hanging on your hearts to make you unwilling to go at his call Every night say to your Friends and to your Estates farewell as being willing to leave them This is to die daily and by this means you will die comfortably and willingly Fourthly Let your Graces be all in a readiness active vigorous and abounding that when Christ comes these Graces being in you 2 Pet. 1.11 An entrance may be abundantly ministred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Faith Hope and Love must stand always expecting the Lords coming and be renewing Acquaintance with God and making a fresh application of the Blood of Christ that the soul may have a clear sight of his interest in the Righteousness of Christ and his right to Divine favour Lastly 5 Direct Familiarize Death to your souls we are afraid of Death and remain unprepar'd for Death because we and Death are strangers When you lie down let Death lie down with you when you awake let Death talk with you when you walk let Death be your Companion Make a more serious improvement of your spectacles of Mortality Funeral occasions than you are wont to do that if God bid you die as Num. 27.12 He bad Moses go up to Mount Abarim and die there You may be as ready to go and die as to go to your Beds Only let Faith give you always the fair Prospect of Christ of Heaven and Glory that your hearts may be possest with this assurance 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens FINIS
Visibles or things seen as what they have of Invisibles or things not seen nor by what they have of this World in their present possession as by what they have of another World in futurition nor by what they are but what they shall be not according to the occurrences of Life but their happiness in Death which he thus demonstrates from his own observation and experience in the Text and context In the 35. v. of this Psalm he shews us the Wicked in all their pomp and grandeur I have seen the Wicked in great power and spreading himself as a green Bay tree or as in the Margin a green Tree that groweth in his own Soil And what is this goodly shew in the 36. verse he saith Yet he passeth away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found And why could he see no more of him He gives a reason in the 38. verse The Transgressors shall be destroyed together the end of the Wicked shall be cut off But is it so with the Saints No Though they be like a dry Tree yet mark the Perfect man trace him through all the troubles of life Behold the Upright for the end of that man is Peace The Text is a description of the Life and Death of a Pious man First his Life that is Perfect and Upright Secondly his Death and that is Peace The conclusion arises out of the Premises Mark the Perfect man and behold the Upright c. From the doubling of the terms we may learn these three things as intended thereby First to mark him with a curious eye of observation and serious consideration to mark how he carries it toward God towards man how he is at home and abroad how he deports himself in every condition of Life mark him exactly in all his Natural Civil and Spiritual actions observe him Inside and Outside the more you know him the better you will love him and the better you love him the more you will look upon him Behold his Life and if there be no comliness in the outward appearance yet there is comfort enough in his Death The end of that Man is Peace Even Balaam did wish Oh that I might die the death of the Righteous that my latter end may be like his Secondly Mark him and behold him with an eye of imitation let the Upright man be the Copy after which you write Though we cannot safely follow Man in all things because the best Lights out of Heaven are but Moon-lights at best and have their blemishes yet we may safely follow them in their Uprightness and 't is our duty to follow them as they are followers of Christ Jesus especially in these three Specimens of their Uprightness First the Purity and Singleness of their heart having the testimony of a good Conscience that there is no way of Wickedness in them but they are like the followers of the Lamb in Rev. 14.5 In whose mouth was found no Guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God Secondly in the Beauty and Purity of a spotless life whose Conversation as well as Conscience is without spot and blame abstaining from all appearance of evil according to that Exhortation in Phil. 2.15 That ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the World Thirdly In a faithful perseverance in the ways of God to the end as in Prov. 4.25 26 27. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee Ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established Turn not to the right hand nor to the left which implies these two things especially First That there must be no decays nor faintings in the way and work of Holiness but a continual increase as in Prov. 4.18 The path of the Just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day lest it be with us as it was charged upon Ephesus as in Rev. 2.4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love As some understand she had left Christ who was the Object of her love or as others She left that degree and measure of love wherewith she at first loved him We must not only keep up the same heat of love and heighth of affections to Christ but love to Christ being a Divine fire must increase more and more till the Soul ascend in a holy flame into his Bosom Secondly There must be no diversion or turning from the ways of God neither to the right hand nor to the left i. e. either to avoid the frowns on the one hand or to enjoy the smiles of the world on the other hand Or else First Not turn to the right hand by any excesses or doing more than God hath commanded for God will say to men â—hat do so Who hath required these things at your hands Or charge us as he did the People Jer. 7.81 That they did that which came not into his heart Their hearts can never be right with God that is only right in their own eyes Secondly Turn not to the left hand by any defects or neglect of what God hath commanded but go straight on as the Kine that carried the Ark 1 Sam. 6.12 They went straight on and turned not as they went Let it be your aim to be thorow-pac'd in Religion throughout with God that though you cannot do all the good and shun all the evil you would yet you may be able to say as in Psal 18.21 I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God and in the shutting up oâ— our days appeal with good Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Thirdly It implies To behold the Upright man till he comes to the Grave Mark the Perfect man observe his Life behold him till ye see his latter end till ye see how he comes off the Stage the end of that man is to be considered as well as his beginning see him in Life see him in Death Death is said to be a mans End in several respects 1. As it puts an end to all the actions of his life when death appears it shuts the Windows binds up or breaks the Working-instruments Eccles 9.10 Solomon tells us Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest 2. 'T is the end of man because it brings man to the end of his Journey therefore when man dyeth he is said to go to his Long home Eccles 12.5 the Grave is said to be his Long home not his last home for the body must not lodge there for ever nor is it said to be his long home because he is long
did he deal with that holy and upright Man Job read the History of his Patience and you shall see If the Devil be at any time silent the World will make an out-cry If the World with-hold its rage for a little space the Devil will invade their spirits It is said of him that when he accosted the Lord Jesus Christ himself and had spent all his Arrows against him Luk. 4.13 When the Devil had ended all the temptation he departed from him for a season If he left him but for a little while in whom he could find nothing to fasten one temptation upon as Christ says in John 14.30 The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Will he ever leave his Saints who have too much matter in them for his temptations to work upon He will not suffer them to be a moment quiet 1. He is continually striving against the very Being of Grace this Abaddon would utterly destroy it and maintains a War against it the Flesh lusting against the Spirit but that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 2. He is disturbing the exercise of Grace his posture you shall see in Zach. 3.1 And he shewed me Joshua the High Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him I have often thought in my solemn retirements of Anselms Bird fastned to a stone by a thread often striving to flie up but the weight of the stone as often pull'd him down again A true Emblem of a gratious Soul who many times endeavours to get up into the Divine Presence but as oft as he attempts it the Devil is at hand to hinder and pluck him down again Verse 2 Vse 2. If the Perfect and Upright mans end shall be Peace then the days of the Upright man shall have an end the Psalmist says Psal 39.5 6. Verily every man at his best state is altogether Vanity Surely every man walketh in a vain shew There is an Emphasis in every word Man is Vanity every man is Vanity every man at his best state is Vanity he is altogether Vanity verily it is a certain truth surely every man walks in a vain shew his life is but the shew or shadow of a life That Sentence is unto all Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return and there is no exemption from that general Statute-law Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die and after death the judgment Heretofore to the Fathers of old their Lives were like a long Summers day but as sin at first brought in death so as sin multiplied it shortned mens days and now our Lives are like a Winters day in all respects cold cloudy dark and short 't is no sooner Morning but the Night approacheth Jer. 6.4 I may allude to that place The day goeth away the shadows of the Evening are stretched out Two things may be deduced from hence First Here is comfort for the Perfect and Upright man though his life be trouble yet his end will come and bring him peace the great Devourer the Grave that swallows up others shall give him meat and the strong Lion Death that feeds on others shall yield him sweetness When Abraham had fought hard till the going down of the Sun and rescued Lot that was taken Captive Melchizedeck met him with Bread and Wine for his refreshment who was King of the City of Peace So when the upright Saint hath been in his hot disputes to deliver his soul from his Spiritual Enemies our Melchizedeck the Lord Jesus Christ will refresh him with Bread and Wine for his Flesh is Meat indeed and his Blood is Drink indeed and will lead him into the City of Salem a Land of Peace as the Apostle 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and after many a terrible shock and dangerous storm the perfect and upright Saint through the wise conduct of his Pilot shall arrive safely at his desired Port of peace For there remaineth a rest to the People of God Heb. 4.9 Secondly If the Perfect and Upright man doth die then here is matter of serious consideration and lamentation for the living the life of Saints is to be desired and their death to be lamented unless we will incur that censure Isa 57.1 The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come 1. Consider what resentment the people of God had of old of the death of the Saints how they mourned and wept for them when they left their Society Jacob died and Israel wept Moses died and all the People mourned for him thirty days and when Stephen died Act. 8.2 Devout men carried him to his Burial and made great lamentation over him 2. Consider the great usefulness of living Saints especially in these three respects First As they are Supports Props and Pillars for so they are called Psal 75.3 The Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved I bear up the Pillars of it They that take this to be the Psalm of Asaph do understand these words to be the words of God that he preserves and upholds his Saints which are the Pillars of the Earth They that take the Psalm to be a Psalm of David for Asaph do understand them as the words of David that he would countenance and encourage the people of God who were the Pillars to uphold a shaking Kingdom If a Moses be removed out of the gap what should hinder why the Judgment should not break in upon the people Isa 1.9 The Prophet tells us that the people acknowledge Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small Remnant we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah If God gather up his Jewels and takes them away he seems to be removing Himself that is a great truth Isa 57.1 Merciful men are taken away from the evil to come and an old saying many times true That they are taken away that evil may come Thus the Lord is said in Psal 78.50 He made a way to his anger When he had secured Lot he let down the fire upon Sodom and when he had Hous'd Noah in the Ark what could the wicked World expect but an over-whelming Deluge Thus they observed of old that the death of eminent Saints was the forerunner of some great Calamity as that long-liv'd Methuselah whose name doth signifie a Messenger of death died the year before the Flood came upon the whole World Augustine the year before Hippo was Sack'd Pareus a little before Heidleberg was taken Luther a little time before the Wars in Germany Ambrose a little before the Ruin of Italy What
in Psal 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me 2. In your civil commerce take heed to your spirit that you may be Perfect Just and Righteous in all your dealings shall Religion suffer among them that seem to love and own it Shall Piety be accounted a piece of Pageantry and Profession be esteemed no better than a Religious Cheat by the world through your unjust practices and so Religion have cause to say under all her Reproaches These be the wounds that I have received in the House of my Friends To Lie Dissemble violate Faith to break Promise and to break in Trade with design to defraud others and raise their own Families shut up Shops to shut out Creditors from their just dues is become a most prodigious practice a common and Epidemical sin both in City and Country the more is the pity if any such be concern'd that should have a better regard to the honour of Religion He that will be a compleat Christian must observe Second-table-duties as well as First-table-duties lest the World say of us that we are like Gods in our Meetings and Devils in the Market Saints at Church and Cheats in the Shop and on the Exchange These loose and unjust dealings of Professors are the things that hurry the World into Atheism this is one of those great Evils of our times that makes God angry and Men Atheists 2. Direct Principle your hearts with a true love to and fear of God 1. A true love to God and then you will serve God for God not as poor Tenants serve their Rich Landlords out of force or servile fear or as Lactantius said of the Graecians That they did worship their Gods alios ne noceant alios ut prosint their black Devils or mischievous Gods that they might not hurt them as well as their white Devils or more favourable gods that they might receive good from them 2. With a true fear of God without which we can never be true to God or Man As Constantius once tried his Courtiers when he publickly declared that those of them that would not forsake Christianity and the Worship of the true God and turn to the Idol-worship should be Banish'd his Court and when he found that many for Court-honours forsook their Religion he discarded them and entertain'd those only that did adhere to the true God saying They that will not be true to God will never be true to Man 3. Let Love and Fear go together Love will make us serve God willingly and true Fear will make us perform our duty to God and Man faithfully Let these two be as Aaron and Hur that held up Moses hands steddy to keep our hearts stedfast and upright with God Thirdly Direct Remember the Eye of the Lord is upon all your ways a Deus videt Angeli testantur God beholds and his Angels bear witness is enough to make any man cautelous and upright in his walking He sees us whose Eys are ten-thousand times brighter than the Sun in Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Psal 11.4 The Lord is in his holy Temple i◠Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes behold his eye-lids try the Children of men as a Judge who tries the cause and matter by the ear and observes by his eye the Malefactors countenance I have often told you and now tell you again Man may deceive Men but he cannot deceive God 1 King 22.34 Though Ahab disguis'd himself and girt on his Harness never so close yet could he not keep off the fatal 〈◊〉 So though the Hypocrite disguise himself he cannot hide from the eyes of God nor escape his Righteous hand Lastly Mind seriously Death 4 Direct and Judgment to come Jeroms Sive edo c. Semper vox illa terribilis sonat in auribus meis Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Rise ye Dead and come to Judgment would be a dreadful and awaking peal in the Ears of all sleepy and careless Sinners 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad and in Eccles 12.14 For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil When Death comes it draws aside the Curtain then all your false and vain pretences will be exposed to publick view Death plucks off the Sinners Vizor and unmasks the Hypocrit and then though he lived in honour and esteem in the world comes off the Stage like a Fool and dies with shame The second Use of Exhortation is to prepare for the Perfect and Upright mans end 2 Vse of Exhort there must be an habitual and actual preparation First consider 1 Consid no man knows how soon he may die Death is a slie and impartial Messenger who is deaf to all intreaties and arguments and cannot be bribed 't is not greatness nor goodness nor youth nor age nor riches nor interest can supersede it wherefore as Christ saith Luk. 12.35 36. Let your loins be girded about you and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. If Death delay its coming it is the Bridegrooms favour that the Bride may make her self ready But when God cuts down the sound and fruitful Trees that are all spine 't is a wonder he spares the rotten unsound and barren Trees that cumber the ground There be three things one of which we shall never escape First There be sudden unseen Occurrences or Providences of God by which men are taken off and of these they say Casus nunciat mortem latentem these accidental strokes of providence do shew us that death lies in ambush Some men die at Land sometimes at Sea sometimes they go forth well in the Morning and in a moment are dead Secondly There be Sicknesses and Diseases of which they say Morbus nunciat mortem appropinquantem every pain and distemper in the body is a real warning of deaths approach if we should escape both these there is Thirdly That which will certainly take men off Old age of which 't is said Senectus nuncia◠mortem praesentem Decrepit infirm Old age is Death begun in the body so that Nil habet quod speret senectus Old age can hope for nothing but Death Secondly Consider 2 Cons He that is prepared for Death before it comes shall not be afraid of the King of Terrors when he comes Though Death be in it self terrible yet I may allude to that in Isa 11.8 The prepared Saint shall play on the hole of this Asp and put his hand on the Cockatrice-den and not be afraid What Agag proudly and presumptuously said he may truly and