2 Sam. 23.5 Mark how the pious King draws all the Wine which made his heart glad in one of his last hours from this Pipe Death is one of the sowrest things in the World and such things require much sugar to make them sweet David found so much honey in the Covenant that therewith he made Death it self a pleasant a desireable Dish If you observe the beginning of the Chapter you will find that his end was near Now these be the last words of David But this this was the quiet and ease of his heart that Gods Covenant with him was everlasting and without end As Death is famous for its terror being King thereof so also for his power it brings down the mighty Princes and Potentates of the Earth Cant. 8.6 Samson was but a Child in Deaths hands hence we read when Scripture would draw strength in its full proportion and length As strong as Death but as strong as Death is David knew it could not break in sunder the Covenant between God and him nor dissolve the union betwixt his Saviour and his soul The firmness of this Covenant being sure footing for faith to stand on is that which puts life into a dying Christian As Death though it parted the soul and body of Christ parted neither of them from the divine nature they were as a Sword drawn by a man the Sword is in one hand separated from the Sheath in the other hand but neither of them separated from the man so though Death break the natural union between the beleivers soul and body it cannot break the mystical union between Jesus Christ and the soul therefore Saints are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 And truely by the vertue of this Cordial this Covenant they are so far from flying back at the sight of their Foe Death that they can look him in the face with courage and confidence See how they triumph over him as if he were already under their feet O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 58. The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Hark they speak as Challengers daring their disarmed enemy to meet them in the field and they speak as Conquerors being assured through the Captain of their salvation of the victory before they fight Epiphanius faith Epiph. lib. 1. cap 33. that Adam was buried in Calvary where Christ was crucified Sure it is that Christ at Calvary did somewhat which made the Christians bed soft and easie that whereas it would have been a bed of Thorns he turned it into a bed of down and thereby the beleiver comes to lye on it so contentedly and to sleep so sweetly and comfortably By this time Reader I hope thou understandest the necessity and benefit of this relative change With this Covenant thou art armed Cap a pe with armour of proof with the righteousness of Christ which is law proof death proof and judgement proof and leavest Death wholly disarmed and naked Without this thou hast no Weapons and findest Death a man of War In the forequoted place thou seest that sin is the sting of Death and the strength of sin is the Law The Law binds the soul over for disobedience to its precept to its malediction and punishment passeth a sentence of condemnation already upon the creature and beginneth its execution in that bondage and fear as flashes of the unquenchable fire which seize on men in this life Rom. 7.6 John 3.18 Heb. 2.14 And as sin hath its strength from the law the law making it so powerful to curse and condemn so Death hath its strength and sting its venome and vertue to kill and damn to destroy soul and body for ever from sin Sin makes Death so deadly that its the poyson in the cup which makes it so mortal and loathsom a draught Thy work and wisdom therefore is as the Philistinos when they heard that the great strength of Samson the destroyer of their Country lay in his hair were restless till they had cut it off and became weak so now thou hearest wherein the strength of Death the great destroyer and damner of souls consisteth to be unquiet night and day to follow God up and down with sighs and sobs strong cries and deep groans for pardon of sin and to give thy self no rest till thou attainest an interest in this Covenant through Jesus Christ Pious Job though not in thy case was for this cause exceeding importunate for a sense of this pardon And why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my trasgressions for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Job 7. ult He cryeth out as one fallen into a deep dirty ditch or one whose house is fired Water Water for the Lords sake to clease this defiled soul and to quench this scorched conscience Lord Why doth the messenger who useth to come post to me a poor condemned Prisoner with a pardon lingring so long Alas I wish he may not come too late But what is the reason of this importunity for expedition Why Job in his own thoughts was going to appear before his Judge and he durst not venture without a pardon in his hand for now shall I sleep in the dust The child did not dare to go to bed at night till he had asked his Father Blessing and begd and obtained forgiveness of his disobedience in the day Nothing in the whole creation can pacifie the conscience awakened with the guilt of sin and frighted with the fear of death but a pardon in the blood of this Covenant for want of this it was that the Heathen were either desperate or doubtfull in their deaths and their Orator ingeniously confesseth that notwithstanding all the Medicines they could gather out of their own Gardens the Disease was still too strong for the Remedy But a plaister spread with the blood of Christ and applied by faith to the sore is a soveraign and certain cure Faith in Christ is such a Shield that under its protection a Christian may stand in the evil day of Death keep his ground and secure himself from all the shot which the Law Satan or conscience can make against him I am the resurrection and the life He that liveth and beleiveth in me shall live though he dye Joh. 11. Willet Hexapl. in Levit. c. 11. The Death of the King of Saints is the onely comfort and help against Death the King of Terrors It s a strange property which some report of the Charadrion that if any man have the jaundise and look on the bird and the bird on him the bird catcheth the disease and dieth of it but the man recovereth Christ took mans disease and dyed that all who look on him with an eye of Faith might recover and live
are ever Hooded within doors Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit Cypr. de mortal blind at Home and never use their eyes but Abroad to the hurt and censuring of others The Egyptian slaves drank Wine freely and wrapt their heads in Vails that they might dye without sight or sorrow I know many drown the thoughts of their future mourning in carnal pleasure and present mirth but such mirth like Nabals will last no longer then while they are drunk with ignorance and senslesness for they no sooner come to themselves to understand the state they are in but their hearts dye within them Besides hereby they put themselves upon a necessity of perishing for alas how will they do to dye who consider not before hand of their latter end Naturalists tell us of a Cockatrice that if men see it first that dyeth if that seeth a man first the man dyeth It s most true of Death if we see it first by an holy preparation for it we kill it it cannot hurt us but if Death see and seise us first it kills us eternally O believe it sirs It s another manner of thing to dye well then the sleepy World dreams of The lustiest of you all must expect that ere long Death will trip up your heels and give you a fall Ask your souls whither you are ready for it Will it not prove your downfal When Death throweth you will it not be your eternal overthrow It s possible ye think of preparing for Death hereafter but why not now Do any of you say To morrow I will repent What if God say Thou Fool this Night thy soul shall be required of thee Where are you then It s one of the greatest stratagems of the Devil whereby he hath undermined millions of souls by prevailing with them to delay till it was too late O Consider Death like Thunder and Lightning blasteth the green corn and consumeth the strongest buildings Job 21.23 24. One dyeth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet His breasts are full of Milk and his bones are moistened with Marrow The Cock in the Arabick Fable having overcome another Cock in a Battel thought now that he had no Enemy Vide. Locmu and therefore got to the top of an House and began to crow and clap his Wings in token of Triumph When behold on a sudden a Vulture cometh and snatcheth away this braging Champion and Conquerour If nature in any of you have mastered one distemper it gives you not leave to be secure for an outward accident or inward disease will on a sudden Master you It is observable in the days of Solomon when Israel enjoyed the greatest peace they made strong preparation for War 1 Kings 4.25 26. And Israel and Judah dwelt every man under his own Vine and Fig-tree And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of Horses for his Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen Iphicrates the Athenian General in times of peace entrencht his Army ordered his outworks set his watch kept his guards and observed all Martial Discipline as if he had been in the height and heat of War And being asked the reason by one of his Familiars and what he feared He answered to be surprised and least it should so fall out that he should be constrained to say I thought not on it O that we were as wise who are Listed under the Captain of our Salvation for that War wherein there is no discharge Beloved friends Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh Mat. 25.13 The Brachmanni had their Graves before their doors The Sybarites at Banquets had a Deaths-head delivered from hand to hand by every guest at the Table The Emperour Ferdinand had one appointed at certain times to salute him with Vive memor Lethi Ferdinand O Ferdinand live as one that is mindful he must dye Joseph of Arimathea had his Tomb in his Garden When the blessed Saviour was in his glorious transfiguration in Company with those heavenly Courtiers Luk. 9.31 they spake to him of his decease Could you think but one quarter of an hour every day what a searching trying day the day of Death will be Ah how holy would you live how exactly would you walk Were death at your doors at your tables in your gardens in your shops present before your eyes in all your projects and pleasures how would it deaden your hearts to these sublunary vanities and quicken your affections to celestial felicities I have read of one that prayed six times a day and being asked the reason said no more but this I must dye If any argument in the World will disswade from wickedness and perswade to godliness and abounding in the work of the Lord Death will They who steer the ship aright sit in the hindermost part of it They who order their conversations aright dwell in the thoughts of their dissolutions When our time is short we must work the harder It s reported of the Birds of Norwey O Laus Mag. Hist Septentrion that they flye faster then the Birds of other Countries not because they have greater nimbleness of wing but by a natural instinct they knowing the day in their Climate to be very short not above three hours long say some make the more hast to their Nests Your time is little your accounts will be great your work must be done now or never O work the work of him that sent you into the World while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 I am bound to tell you that God hath committed many Talents into the hands of several amongst you ye are higher in place and power ye have more opportunities then others to serve the interest and honour of Christ and therefore God expecteth that you should do more for him then others Indulge the Drunkenness and Swearing and uncleanness and Sabbath breaking of others least ye should be counted busie-bodies or precise persons and you destroy both your own and their souls There is no such cruelty to mens souls as clemency to their sins He loves his friend best who hates his lusts most Besides the wrong your sinful compliance doth to others whilst ye bear the Sword as Women wear their Artificial teeth for shew onely not for service ye treasure up wrath on your own heads against the day of death for as a reverend Divine now with God said truly Nothing more sads the heart when one comes to die then his neglect of those opportunities which Gods providence or his own place have put into his hand of doing or receiving good Neither is there a sharper Corrosive then the reflection upon those days and times which have passed over him male aliud nihil agentem It s Cronicled of Philip the third King of Spain that though he never committed gross sin Val. Max. all his life time yet when he came to
breakfast every morning and the table was covered with sackcloth and furnished with the same bitter herbs both at Dinner and Supper For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning vers 14. Nam quicquid adversi accid t aut carni accidit aut animo Muscul in loc Now the weight of this burden was so great pressing his body and oppressing his mind that without an Almighty power it had broke his back His flesh and his heart failed him 3. Others take the words in a natural sence as if the Prophet did neither intend by them his fault Sunt quibus praesens tempus plaâ—et aliis futurum magis arr det Marl. in loc as some who take them in a spiritual sence nor his fear as those who take them in a civil sence but onely his frailty as if he had said My moysture consumeth my strength abateth my flesh falleth my heart faileth or at least ere long my breath will be corrupt my days extinct and the grave ready for me how happy am I therefore in having God for the strength of my heart Deficit consumâ—tur caro mea cor meum Mollerus Ainsworth reads the words Wholly consumed is my heart and my flesh I shall take the words in this sense as being most sutable to this occasion So far the Thesis now to the Antithesis Robur cordis Calv. But God is the strength of my heart Though my flesh fail me the Father of spirits doth not fail me when I am sinking he will put under his everlasting arm to save me The Seventy read it But God is the God of my heart because God is all strength God in the heart is the strength of the heart Petra cordis Moller The Hebrew carrieth it But God is the rock of my heart e. i. A sure strong and immovable foundation to build upon Though the winds may blow and the waves beat when the storm of death cometh yet I need not fear that the house of my heart will fall for it s built on a sure foundation God is the rock of my heart The strongest child that God hath is not able to stand alone like the Hop or Ivy he must have somewhat to support him or he is presently on the ground Of all seasons the Christian hath most need of succour at his dying hour then he must take his leave of all his comforts on earth and then he shall be sure of the sharpest conflicts from Hell and therefore its impossible he should hold out without extraordinary help from Heaven But the Psalmist had armour of proof ready wherewith to encounter his last enemy As weak and fearful a child as he was he durst venture a walk in the dark entry of death having his Father by the hand Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear none ill for thou art with me Psa 23. Though at the troubles of my life and my tryal at death my heart is ready to fail me yet I have a strong cordial which will chear me in my saddest condition God is the strength of my heart And my portion It s a Metaphor taken from the ancient custome among the Jews of dividing inheritances whereby every one had his allotted portion as if he had said God is not onely my Rock to defend me from those tempests which assault me and thereby my freedom from evil but he is also my portion to supply my necessities and to give me the fruition of all good Others indeed have their parts on this side the land of promise but the Author of all portions is the matter of my portion my portion doth not lie in the Rubbish and lumbar as theirs doth whose portion is in this life be they never so large but my portion containeth him whom the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens can never contain God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Not for a Year or an age or a million of ages but for eternity Though others portions like Roses the fuller they blow the sooner they shed they are worsted often by their pride and wasted through their prodigality that at last they come to want Quicquid praeter deum possideas non poteris dicere quod pars tua sit futura in sâ— ulum De deo solo dicit fiâ—â—lis Pars mea deus in seculum Muscul in loc and surely death always rents their persons and portions asunder yet my portion will be ever ful without diminution and first without alteration this God will be my God for ever and ever my guide and aid unto death nay Death which dissolveth so many bonds and untieth such close knots shall never part me and my portion but give me a perfect and everlasting possession of it The words branch themselves into these two parts The parts of the Text. First The Psalmist Complaint My flesh and my heart faileth me Secondly His Comfort but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Or we may take notice in them 1. Of the Frailty of his Flesh My flesh and my heart faileth me 2. Of the Flourishing of his Faith But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever According to the two parts of the Text I shall draw forth two Doctrinal truths Doct. 1 1. Doct. That Mans flesh will fail him The highest the holiest mans heart will not ever hold out The Prophet was great and gracious yet his flesh failed him Doct. 2 2. Doct. That its the comfort of a Christian in his saddest condition that God is his portion This was the strong water which kept the Psalmist from fainting when his flesh and heart failed him I begin with the first The 1. Doct. man is mortal That mans flesh will fail him Those whose spirits are noble will find their flesh but brittle The Psalmist was great yet death made little yea nothing of him like the Duke of Parma's sword it makes no difference between great and small this Cannon hits the great Commanders as well as the Common Souldiers like a violent Wind it plucks up by the roots not onely low Trees but also tall Ceders They who lye in beds of Ivory must lye down in beds of earth Some Letters are set out very gaudily with large flourishes but they are but Ink as the other Some men have great Titles Worshipful Right Worshipful Honourable Right Honourable but they signifie no more with Death then other men they are but moving earth and dying dust as ordinary men are Worship Honour Excellency Highness Majesty must all do homage to the Scepter of this King of Terrors When Constantius entred in triumph unto Rome and had along time stood admiring the Gates Arches Turrets Temples Theaters and other magnificent Edifices of the City at last he ask'd Hormisda what he thought of the place I take no pleasure in it at all saith Hormisda for I see
thy immortal soul against the coming of the bride-groom When thou diest thou throwest thy last cast for thine everlasting estate thou shalt never be allowed a second throw An Error in death is like an Error in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second Where thou lodgest that Night thou dyest thou art hous'd for ever That work which is of such infinite weight and can be done but once had need to be done well God hath given thee but one Arrow to hit the mark with Shoot that at randome and he will never put another into thy Quiver God will allow no second Edition to correct the Erratas of the first therefore it concerns thee with all imaginable seriousness to consider what thou doest when thou diest One would think thou shouldst take little comfort in any creature whilst thy eternal state is thus in danger Augustus wondered at the Roman Citizen that he could sleep quietly when he had a great burden of debt upon him What rest canst thou have what delight in any thing thou enjoyest who owest such vast sums to the Infinite Justice of God when he is resolved to have full satisfaction either in this or the other world When David offered Barzillai the pleasures and preferments of his own royal Palace he refused them because he was to die within a while How long have I to live that I should go up with the King unto Jerusalem Let thy servant turn back that I may dye 2 Sam. 19.34 35 36. i. e. Court me no courts I have one foot in the grave my glass is almost run let me go home and dye Without controversie thou hast more cause to wink on these withering comforts and to betake thy self wholly to a diligent preparation for death The Thebans made a law That no man should build a house before he had made his grave Every part of thy life may mind thee of thy death Mortibus vivimus Senec. The Moralist speaks true Thou livest by deaths thy food is the dead carkasses of birds or fish or beasts thy finest rayment is the worms grave before t is thy garment Look to the Heavens the Sun riseth and setteth so that life which now shineth pleasantly on thee will set how much doth it behove thee to work the work of him that sent thee into the world while day lasteth that thou mayst not set in a cloud which will certainly prognosticate thy foul weather in the other world Look down to the Earth there thou beholdest thy mother out of whose womb thou didst at first come and in whose bowels thou shalt ere long be laid The dust and graves of others cry aloud to thee as Gideon to his Souldiers Look on us and do likewise O trim thy soul against that time If thou risest up and walkest abroad in the streets thou seest this house and that seat where such a woman such a man dwelt and lo the place which knew them shall know them no more they are gone and have carried nothing with them but their godliness or ungodliness If thou liest down thy sleep is the image of death thou knowest not whether thou shalt awake in a bed of feathers or in a bed of flames but art certain that shortly thy body shall lye down in the grave and there remain till the resurrection Look on thy companions thou mayst see death siting on their countenances its creeping on them in the deafness of their ears in the dimness of their eys nay it s posting towards them in the very heighth and Zenith of their natural perfections Look on thy own house of clay death possibly looks out at thy windows however it looks in at thy windows thou wearest it in thy face thou bearest it in thy bones and doth it not behove thee to prepare for it Naturalists tell us that smelling of earth is very wholesom for consumptionate bodies O Reader a serious thought of thy death that thou art but dust would be very wholsom for thy declining and decaying soul Hard bones steept in vinegar and ashes grow so soft that they may be cut with a thread Give me leave for one half hour to steep thy hard heart in such a mixture possibly it may be so softned through the operation of the Spirit with the Word Drexel Eternit that thou mayst become wise unto salvation It s reported of one Guerricus that hearing these words read in the Church And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he died And all the days of Enos was nine hundred and five years and he died And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty nine years and he died Gen. 5.5 He was so strongly wrought upon by those words And he died And he died that he gave himself wholly to devotion Friend if thou hast any dram of true love to thy soul and its unchangeable condition in the other world the consideration of death would make a deep impression upon thee But that I may awaken and rouse thee while there is time and hope and then help and heal thee I shall in the prosecution of this Exhortation First Speak to somewhat that may be perswasive Secondly Offer to thee somewhat that is Directive First I shall offer thee some thoughts which may quicken thee to a diligent provision for this time Motives 1 Death will come certainly First Dost thou not know that Death will come certainly As the young Prophet said to Elisha Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head to day 2 Kings 2.3 Reader Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy soul out of thy body and send it to the unknown regions of the other World where thou shalt see such things as thou never sawest hear such things as thou never heardst and understand such things as thou didst never understand Possibly thou wilt answer me as Elisha them I know it hold your peace But truly I am ready to urge it again being assured that thy knowledge is as Cicero speaks of the Athenians like artificial teeth for shew onely thou dost not yet know it for thy good Therefore give me leave to inforce it still Dost thou know that God will bring thee to death and to the house appointed for all the living Dost thou know that thy ruddy countenance will wax pale thy sparkling eyes look gastly thy warm blood cool in thy veins thy marrow dry up in thy bones thy skin shrivel thy sinews shrink nay thy very heart strings crack And hast thou provided never a cordial against this hour Dost thou not read in the writings of God himself That no man hath power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war Eccles 8.8 No man hath power either to resist deaths force or to procure termes of peace The greatest Emperor with the strength of all his
Spear he counts thy strength but as Straw and thy youth but as rotten wood he maketh a leak in a strong new Vessel and it presently sinketh though thy body be never so strong a Fort Death to take it needeth not besiege or block it up with lingering diseases Maximum vivendi impedimentum est expectatio quae pendet excrastino Senec. de brevitat vita cap. 9. but can undermine it and blow it down in a moment Think therefore with thy self this day may be the last day that ever I shall see this hour may be the last hour that ever I shall spend these words may be the last words that ever I shall speak O what a fool am I to live thus contentedly without fear next door to the eternal fire there is but one step betwixt me and Hell and for ought I know the very next step that I take may be thither and then Wo and Alass I am gone for ever Surely this consideration like an Hectick Feaver might cause an irrecoverable Consumption of all thy carnal joy Death is called War Eccles 8.8 thou knowest not but orders may come from the Lord of Hosts for thy sudden march thou mayst not have an hours warning to put on thy Armour or prepare thy self Invasions are judged far more dangerous then pitcht Battels because those are sudden and usually take men unprovided I must tell thee that when ever Death cometh t will be dreadful and dangerous for continuing as thou art t will surprise thee unprepared and unable to make any resistance O how t wil tear thy soul like a Lyon renting it in peices whilst there is none to deliver it No Chapman comes amiss to him whose shop is ever furnished but every Enemy will foil him who goeth always unarmed and naked Death to a sinner is always sudden They go down quick into hell Job 21. Thirdly When Death comes too late to prepare Thirdly Dost thou not know that whensoever Death comes t will be too late to prepare for it The Ship must be Rigd in the Harbour t will be too late to do it in the main Ocean in a storm Probably enough though now thou canst spend thy days delightfully without Christ and grace yet when the Bridegroom cometh by Death thou wilt as the foolish Virgins talk of getting Oyl because thy lamps will be then gone out but alas then t will be too late onely such as are ready enter in with him I have read of a Woman in Cambridge who lying on her death bed was visited by persons of Worth and Piety and heard much Heavenly discourse from them but they could hear nothing from her save this Call time again Call time again But time runs swiftly and being once past is irrecoverable Time saith Bernard were a good commodity in Hell if it could be bought up at any rate Ah when thou comest to dye a Week a Day nay an Hour would be more worth to thee then all the World But t will be impossible to put off the Tryal which Death hath with thee for thy soul till another time till another Term. When Death calleth at leisure or not at leisure ready or unready willing or unwilling thou shalt not deny but must go the way whence thou shalt never return The Tide will not stay for the greatest Merchants goods they must be shipt before or left behind Death will not stay for any man to fraught his heart with grace he must do it before Death cometh or it can never be done If our spiritual change be not before our natural change we are miserable unchangeably Petronius speaks of one Eumolpus who in a desperate storm was composing Verses and when the Ship split upon a Rock and they called to him to shift for himself He Answered Let me alone till I have finisht one Verse which I perceive to be lame Death will not wait whilst thou finishest the most serious works It is said of Demetrius after that though he lived a slave all his life time yet when he lay on his death-bed he earnestly desired manumission that he might descend into his grave in freedom Reader I doubt not but though thou livest a slave to sin and Satan yet thou wouldst dye the Lords freeman but God himself tells thee that if thy life be in bondage to thy lusts when Death comes there is no getting thy liberty Eccles 9 10. Either now mind thy soul and ensure thy salvation or it can never be done there is no doing it in the place whither thou art going Life is Deaths seed time and Death is lifes Harvest Expect thy Crop both for quality and quantity answerable to thy seed which thou now sowest Cicero saith of Hercules that he had never been enrolled among the Gods in Heaven if he had not layd out his way thither whilst he lived Neither canst thou live with God hereafter unless thou livest to God here Friend think of it seriously Thy preparation for Death must be now or never Bees work hard in Summer flying over this and the other field sucking this and the other flower and all to lay in Provision against Winter at which time else they must starve no honey being then to be made The Shell Fish opens and takes in moysture whilst the tide floweth in upon them that they may be supplyed when the Waters ebbe And wilt thou like a Drone now sleep and then starve Let thy reason judge Is it a fit time to dress thy soul for the Marriage feast of the Lamb in the dark night of Death Or what canst thou think to do in that dismal hour conscience will tell thee thou hadst thy candle of life set up to have wrought by and that is burnt to the snuff whilst thy work is still undone The day is past thy soul is lost because thou unworthy wretch didst defer it till it was too late Wilt thou call to the Sun of thy life as Joshua did Stand still for one hour that I may be avenged of these fleshly Lusts which hinder me of the Heavenly Canaan Alas alass it will not hear thee it cannot obey thee for time shall be no more with thee thou art entering upon thy eternity Remember that thou art warned of it and do not as Cesar being warned by Artemidorus of a conspiracy to slay him suddenly Pocketed up the Paper and was very busie in saluting the People till at last he was slayn so trouble thy self with trifles as to complement away thy soul and salvation CHAP. VI. Three Motives more A Dying Hour will he a Trying Hour The misery of the unprepared The felicity of the prepared FOurthly Fourthly Dost thou not know that thy Dying Hour will be a Trying hour When Grapes come to the Press they come to the Proof The Marriners skill is seen in a storm The Souldiers courage is known when he comes to the Combat while he lyeth in Garrison he may boast much but then he fighteth onely
with his words but in a Battel t wil appear how he can handle his Sword Many flourish with their colours when they know their enemies to be far enough off woh change their countenances when they meet them in the field In thy life time thou art walled in and lyest warm in the confluence of creature-comforts no visible Enemy appeareth against thee but when this Champion sheweth himself bidding thee defiance and offering to fight with theef or thy soul and Saviour and Heaven and happiness at the sight of whom the hearts of Kings and Captains have melted like grease before the Sun then then thou wilt perceive what mettle thou art made of whither thou hast the faith and spirit of a David and canst encounter him in the Lord or no. Now thou art a Vessel in the Harbour and so art kept above Water though several things are wanting but when thou launchest into the Ocean the boysterous Waves and tempestuous Winds will soon discover thy leaks and tell thee what is lacking It s like enough thou hast some armour with which thou hopest to defend thy self against the stroaks of death but know for a truth that Death will stab thee through all thy Paper Shields of profession priviledges and performances since thou art a stranger to Christ and the power of godliness Thy life is like the letting down a Fishermans net thy death as the drawing up of this Net while the Net is down a man cannot tell certainly what he shall catch for the Nets may break the Fish may escape whilst thou livest it s not so evident what thine aim is or what thine end shall be but at thy Death when the Net shall be drawn up then thou wilt see what draught thou hast made Though godly men at their Deaths may look up to the Lord of life and say At thy word we have let down our Nets and caught abundantly we fished for holiness and have caught happiness fished for grace and have caught glory and honour and immortality and eternal life yet when the Net of thy life cometh to be drawn up thou mayst say with Peter Lord I have fished all Night all my life time and have caught nothing I fished for honours and pleasures and riches and I have caught nothing but the Weeds of wrath and damnation I blessed my self many a time like the vain confident Husbandman in the goodly shew which my Corn made on the ground but now the threshing time is come I find nothing but Straw and Chaff vanity and vexation It must needs be a trying hour upon this twofold account 1. Because all thy temporal mercies will then leave thee When the hand of death shakes the tree of life all those fair blossoms will fall off We brought nothing into the World and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out of this World 1 Tim. 6.7 The Hedghog gets to a pile of Apples and gathers as many as she can up upon her prickles but when she comes to her resting place her Hole she throweth them all down and carryeth not one in with her Thus men walk in a vain shadow and disquiet themselves in vain heaping up riches which die with them naked they come into the World and naked they go out of the World Plutarch wisely compareth great men to Counters which one hour stand for thousands and the next hour for nothing Hermocrates being unwilling that any man should enjoy his estate after his death made himself in his Will his own heir Athenaeus reports of a covetous Wretch that on his Death-bed swallowed many peices of Gold and sowed up others in his coat commanding that they should be buried with him but who doth not laugh at such folly In that storm of death all thy glory and riches which thou hast taken such pains and wrought so hard for must be thrown overboard As the Great Sultan hath an officer to search all persons that come into his presence and take away all their Weapons so the great God by his Messenger Death will search thee and take away all thy wealth In that day the Crowns of Princes and Shackles of Prisoners the Russet of Beggers and Scarlet of Courtiers the Honours and Offices of the Highest the Meat and Drink and Sleep and Mirth of the Lowest must be laid by As it was said of Sarah It ceased to be with her after the former manner so the time will come that it may be said of thee It ceaseth to be with him after the former manner Now thou canst relish thy food and delight in thy friends ravish thine Ears with melodious sounds and thine eyes with curious sights rejoyce in things of naught and be Titled with vanity and nothing but when Death comes t will cease to be with thee after the former manner Now thou pleasest thy self in thy lovely Relations and pridest thy self in thy stately possessions these weak props preserve thy spirit from sinking at present but Ah what will become of thee when they shall all be taken away from thee when thou shalt bid thy Wife and Children and Friends Farewell for ever and say to thy House and Lands and Credit and Sports and Pastimes Adieu to Eternity or as dying Pope Adrian did O my soul the loving Companion of my body thou art going into a solitary place where thou shal never never more take pleasure At the hour of Death thy most costly jewels and most pleasing delights will be as the Pearl in an Oyster not thy priviledge or perfections but thy disease and destruction When those carnal comforts are gone thy spiritual comforts if thou hast any will be known When the hand which held thee up by the Chin and kept thee above Water is taken away thy own skil in swimming will be discovered When the vertue of those Cordials which supported thy spirits for a time is spent t will appear whither Nature hath any strength or no. 2. Because thy spiritual enemies will then assail thee Those Adversaries which before were hid and lay lurking as it were under the Hedge will then appear openly and wound thee to the very heart Thy sins will then assault thee When the Prisoner appeareth before the Judge then the Evidence is produced and the Witnesses which were never before thought of shew themselves When thou goest to stand before the Judge of the whole Earth thy sins will bear thee company In the Night of Death those frightful Ghosts will Walk Thy Lusts which are now Lyons Dormant will then be Rampant Thou mayst say to Death as the Woman to the Prophet Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my Son Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my soul While the Hedgehog walketh on the land she seemeth not so uncomly but when she sprawleth in the waters her deformity appeareth Whilst men walk up and down they usually look in false glasses and judge themselves fair because some may
be found who are more foul but Death will pluck off their masks present them with a true glass in which all the spots and dirt and wrincles in the faces of their hearts and lives will be visible Men flatter them often but Death never flattered any It is observable that Haman the day that he died was called and named according to his desert the Adversary and Enemy is this wicked Haman Hest 7.6 Haman probably had many a Title given him before Some had stiled him Haman the Great Haman the Magnificent Haman the Prince Haman the Vertuous all before nick-named him but when he comes to dye t is Haman the Enemy t is wicked Haman then he is called by his proper name Since he was born he never heard his right name till now The Enemy and Adversary is this wicked Haman So it may be in thy life time thou art stiled Great or Gracious because in place higher then others but when Death comes those gaudy colours will be washt off and thou shalt hear Not the King of Heavens Favourite but his Fool when thou art nigh thy execution as he was it will be not the Worshipful but the Wicked Haman Satan will then play hardest upon thee with his biggest gâ—ns when his time is but little his rage is greatest This is his hour and the power of darkness As the Turkish Emperour when he hath blunted the edge of his Enemies weapons and wearied their arms with thousands of his ordinary Souldiers then falls on with his Janizaries the pride and power of his Kingdom When thou through pain of body and perplexity of mind art least able to resist then the Devil cometh with his fiercest assaults If on thy death-bed thou shouldst think of turning to God he hath a thousand ways to turn thee off from such thoughts When there is but one battel for a Kingdom what wounds and work what fighting and striving is there When the Devil who knoweth thee to be his own already hath but a few hours to wait on thee and then thou art his for ever be assured he will watch by thy sick bed night and day and if all the power and policy of hell can prevent it neither cordial shall benefit thy body nor counsel thy soul Will not this be a trying hour to thee when the cloath shall be drawn and thy bodily comforts all taken off the Table will not death search thee to the quick when those Theives in their frightful vizards all thy sins in that Night will break in upon thee As the Elders of Samaria said of Jehu when he sent to them to prepare and provide to fight with him Two Kings stood not before him and how shall we Adam and Angels could not stand before sin it laid them both low and how wilt thou Beleive it those that have been Lions in peace have carried themselves like Harts in this War Brutus whose blood seemed as warm and to rise to as great a degree of courage as any since the Roman Consuls yet when Furius came to cut his Throat he cryed out like a Child Heathen who saw nothing almost in Death save rottenness and corruption accompanying the body who lookt no farther then the Grave have esteemed Death the King of Terrors The Terrible of Terribles and have been frighted into a Feavor upon the sight of its forerunner But Death is not half so terrible to a moral Heathen as t will be to thee O wicked Christian thou knowest that thy Deaths-day is thy Dooms-day that the Ax of Death will cut the down as fuel for the unquenchable fire that as soon as thou art carried from the Earth thou art cast into Hell Thou presumest that thou shalt behave thy self like a man in the onset with this Enemy but I dare be the Prophet to foretel that thy courage will be less then a Womans in the issue for man man dost thou not know as Pilate said to Christ that Death hath power to kill thee as well as to release thee it can send thy body to the grave and thy soul to the place of endless misery and desperation Fifthly The misery of the unprepared Fifthly Dost thou not know the misery of every carnal man at death In thy life time thou doest the Devils work and when Death cometh he will pay thee thy wages sin at present is a Bee with honey in its mouth but then the sting in its Tail will appear and be felt now thou hast thy savoury Meat and sugered draughts but then cometh the reckoning Some tell us that sweet meats though pleasant to the taste are very heavy in the stomach Sure I am the sweet morsels of sin which now thou feedest so merrily on will then lye heavier then Lead on thy heart and be more bitter then Gall and Wormwood Thou mayst see now and then in this World through the floodgates some drops of wrath leaking in upon thy soul but when Death cometh the Flood-gates will be all puld up and then O then what a torrent of wrath will come pouring down upon thee Here thou sippest of the Cup of the Lords fury but then thou shalt drink the dregs thereof The pains which thou sufferest here are onely an earnest penny of thy eternal punishment It was a cruel mercy which Tamberlane shewed to three hundred Lepers in killing them to rid them out of their misery but Death will be altogether merciless and cruel to thee for it onely freeth thee from the Goal to carry thee to the Gallows t wil deliver thee from Whips but scourge the with Scorpions its little finger will be infinitely heavier then the loyns of this miserable life When God saith to Death concerning thee as Judas to the Jews concerning Christ take him and lead him away safely who can tell the mockings buffetings piercings scourgings the cursed painful and shameful eternal death which will ensue Suppose for thy souls sake in earnest as Turannius did in jest Componi se in lecto velut examinem a circum stante familia plaugi jussit Senec. de Brevit vitae cap. ult who would needs be laid in his bed as one who had breathed out his last and caused his whole family to bewayl his death that thou wert ascending up to thy Chamber whence thou shouldst never come down till carried on mens Shoulders betaking thy self to thy dying bed Thou lookest on thy body and beholdest deaths Harbinger Sickness preparing his way before him O how thy colour comes and goes at the sight of this Ax which the hand of death hath laid at the root of thy tree of life Like the Locust thou art ready before hand to dye at the sight of this Polypus Now thou art laid down on that bed whence thou shalt never rise more Thy next work is to seek for some shelter against this approaching storm thou lookest upward and seest that God full of fury whom thou didst many a time dare to his very face and
calamity cursed the day wherein he was born and the Messenger that brought tidings of his birth and desired to dye rather then to endure it whom wilt thou curse or rather whom wilt thou not curse when under the sense of eternal misery surely thou wilt seek for death but not find it dig for it but t will flee from thee Though Judas could make himself away out of the Hell he had on earth yet he cannot out of the Hell he hath in Hell When thou diest thou art stated by God himself and there is no appeal from this Judge nor reversing of his judgement It is the observation of the School-men that what befel the Angels when they sinned that befals every wicked man at Death the Angels upon the first act of sin were presently by God himself stated in an irrecoverable condition of misery so wicked men upon the last act of their lives are fixt as to their eternal woful estates It is appointed for all men once to dye and after Death the judgement Sixthly The felicity of the prepared Sixthly Dost thou know the felicity which upon thy death thou shouldst enter into if thou wert prepared for it As the Good House-wife looketh for Winter but feareth it not being prepared for it with double cloathing so thou mightest expect Death but not fear it being prepared for it with Armour of proof Syrens some write screech horribly when they dye but Swans sing then most sweetly Though sinners roar bitterly when they behold that Sea of scalding Lead in which they must Swim naked for ever yet thou shouldst like the Apostle desire to depart wish for that hour wherein thou should lose Anchor and sail to Christ Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solvere Anchorum A Metaphor from a Ship at Anchor importing a sailing from this present life to another Port So the Syriack Chrysostom Beza Erasmus and others take it as the word signifieth Thy dying day would be thy Wedding day as the Martyrs called theirs wherein the fairest of ten thousand and thy soul now contracted should be solemnly espoused together As frightful a Lyon as Death is to others that their souls are fain to be torn from their bodies thou mightest like a weary Child call to be lay'd to bed knowing that t wil send thee to thine everlasting happy rest Bene mori est libenter mori Seuec. Epist 61. If it be an happy Death to dye willingly as the Moralist affirmeth thou shouldst give up the Ghost and be a Voluntier in that War Nature teacheth that Death is the end of misery but grace would teach thee that Death would be the beginning of thy felicity it could not hurt thee Death among Saints drives but a poor Trade it may destroy the body and when that is done it hath done all its feats like a fierce Mastiff whose Teeth are broken out it may bark and tear thy tottered coat but cannot bite to the bone This Bee fastened her sting in Christs blessed body and is ever since a drone to his Members Though the wicked are gathered at Death as the Rabbins sense that place Gather not my soul with sinners let me not dye their deaths Psa 26.9 as sticks that lye on the ground for the fire or as Grapes for the winepress of Gods fury yet thou shouldst be gathered according to the Hebrew Isa 57.2 as Women do cordial flowers to candy and preserve them Nay Death would exceedingly help thee Plutarch saith that strong bodies can eat and concoct Serpents Thou mayst like Samson fetch meat out of this Eater and out of this strong Lyon sweetness Death ever since it walked to Mount Calvary is turned to beleivers into the gate of life Nihi non à diis im nortalibus vita erepta est sed mors donata est Cicer. lib. 3. de Orat. An Heathen could say Life is not taken away from me by the immortal Gods but Death is given to me meaning as an act of grace and favour Much more may a Christian esteem Death which puts an end to his trials and sins and troubles a priviledge rather then a punishment Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 When sickness first gives thee notice that death is at hand thou mightest make the servant welcome for bringing thee the good news of his approaching Master Thy heart may leap to think that though thou art like Peter now bound in the fetters of sin and Imprisoned amongst sinners yet the Angel is coming who will with one blow on thy side cause thy shackles to fall off open the Prison Doors and set thy soul into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When this Samuel is come to thy gate thou needest not as the Elders of Bethlehem tremble at his comming for if thou askest the Question Comest thou Peaceably He will Answer Yea Peaceably I am come to offer thee up a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour acceptable to God in Jesus Christ the pale face of death would please thee better then the greatest beauty on Earth When thou lyest on thy dying bed and Physitians had given over thy body Christ would visit and give thy soul such a Cordial that thou mightest walk in the valley of the shadow of Death and fear none ill How willingly mayst thou part with the militant Members of Christ for the Triumphant Saints How chearfully mayst thou leave thy nearest Relations for thy dearest Father and Elder Brother how comfortably mayst thou take thy leave of all the riches honours and pleasures of this life knowing that though Death cometh to others with a Voider to take away all their fleshly comforts and carnal contentments nay all their hopes and Happiness and Heaven and hereby when they break at death they are quite bankrupts for ever yet it is to thee onely a servant to remove the first course of more gross fare of which thou hast had thy fill and to make way for the second which consisteth of all sorts of dainties and delicates When thy soul was ready to bid thy body good night till the morning of the resurrection thou mightst joyfully commit thy body to the grave as a bed of spices and shouldst see glorious Angels waiting on thy soul and carrying it as Eliah in a Triumphant Chariot into Heavens blessed Court. There thou shouldst be saluted by the noble Host and celestial quire of Saints and Angels welcomed by the Holy Jesus and gracious God in the fruition of whom thou shouldst be perfectly happy for ever and ever If there were so much joy in Heaven at thy repentance when thou wert but set into the way what joy will there be when through so many hazards and hard-ships thou art come to thy journeys end Thus friend wert thou but prepared Death would be to thee a change from a prison to a Pallace from sorrows to solace from pain to pleasure from heaviness to happiness Thy Winding-sheet would
cap. 56 Pliny tells us that amongst the Romans when M. Acilius and C. Porcius were Consuls it rained blood but what is that to fire and brimstone Observe 1. the extremity of pain which will be caused by this portion Vpon the wicked he shall rain fire and brimstone Fire is dreadful to our flesh though it be but applied outwardly What miswerable torment did Charles the second King of Navarre endure Heyl. Geogr. p. 42. when he was burnt to death in a flaming sheet steeped in Aqua vitae but much greater torment will it cause when taken inward Fire in the belly in the bowels will pain the creature to purpose The inward parts are more tender and so more liable to torture But this drink like poyson will diffuse it self also into all the parts that none shall be free from pain It was an unknown punishment which the drunken Turk underwent when by the command of the Bashaw he had a cup of boyling lead poured down his throat who can think what he felt but sure I am as bad as it was it was but a flea-bite to this cup of fire which the Lord hath prepared for the sinner fire and brimstone Fire is terrible of it self but brimstone makes it to burn with much greater violence besides brimstone added to the cup of fire will make it of a most stinking savour The sinner now burneth in lust but then in a flaming fire now he drinketh his pleasant julips but then his loathsome potion Fire is the most furious of all Elements nothing in this life is more dreadful to nature but our fires are but like painted ones to true in comparison of this rain of fire in hell Nebuchadnezzars furnace Damnati exquiâ— tâ—ssiâ—â—os dolores sen◠〈◊〉 quâ— buâ— mâ—jâ—râ—s nec dari nec cogitaâ—i posâ—unt Gerh. loc com though heated seven times more then ordinary was cool to this fire O who can fry in such a flame as the breath of an infinite God doth kindle Fire and brimstone Three drops of brimstone saith one lighting on any part of our bodies will make us cry and roar out for pain what then will befall the sinner when he shall both ever drink and ever live in this lake of fire and brimstone when he shall drink this cup of pure wrath of poysonous dregs of fire and brimstone though there be eternity to the bottom Who can dwell in everlasting burnings Isai 33.14 Observe secondly the certainty of the punishment Videtu significare veniâ—s urâ—ntes q ales illi in Africa qâ—i arenas ardâ—ntes calore solis excitant hoâ—ines involutos ita adurunt quasi â—d ignem corpora essent tosta â—â—ii vertun spiritum procellarum ceâ— turbinum quiae procellosis vâ—ntis excitantur tempestates quas postea sequitur fulminatio cujus hic est descriptio Moller in loc vide Calv. in loc Upon the wicked he shall rain an horrible tempest Some read it a whirlwind a horrible blasting whirlwind which carrieth all before it but it s properly saith Ainsworth a hideous burning tempest named by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 27.14 It is an allusion to the boysterous wind Turbo which casteth down and overthroweth all that is near it which as it is hot and fiery is named Prester and burneth and layeth along whatsoever it toucheth and encountereth The sinner thinketh that he is sure but this horrible tempest will overturn him His squeazie stomack used to rich wines nauseates this loathsome nasty water When God puts this cup into his hand O how his heart will rise against it but he shall be forced to drink off this cup of fire and boyling brimstone whether he will or no. Observe thirdly the suddenness of this plague and potion Upon the wicked he shall rain snares when they are asleep and little dream of it then this horrible tempest stealeth them away in the night What a doleful screech and dreadful cry will this cause as amongst the Egyptians at midnight Exod. 12.29 Job 27.20 Snares take men at unawares The sinners woe shall come without warning As the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it cometh suddenly upon them Eccles 9.12 The fish looks for a good bait when it is caught by the hook the bird expects meat in the snare in which it is taken and murdered When Abner expected a kisse a kind salute behold then he meets with a sword which kills him When Belshazar was carousing in his cups and his head full of wine then the cup of trembling is given him by the hand-writing on the wall When the sinner like the Dolphin is leaping merrily then he is nearest his endless misery Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares When it rains he expects silver showres to refresh him but loe gins and snares to intrap him The wicked mans cloud drops not fatness but fury and fire Now let us cast up the account and see what the worldlings portion amounts to and how much he will be worth in the other world The liquor in his cup is most painful and loathsome fire and brimstone All his estate lyeth in the valley of the shadow of death Scalding lead were a wonderful favour if he might drink that instead of boyling brimstone No heart can conceive what a terrible potion that is which a God boundless in wisdome power and anger doth prepare yet though it be dreadful if it were doubtful the sinners grief would not be so great but as the liquor is most loathsome so the cup is most certain God will poure this dreadful drench down his throat He cannot abide it neither can he avoid it Infinite power will hold his person whilst infinite anger gives him this potion And it is not the least aggravation of his sorrows that they shall come on a sudden This rain of fire and brimstone which will cause such matchless mourning will come as on Sodome when it is least expected after a sunshiny morning But there is one thing more in the cup which beyond all the former makes it infinitely bitter and that is this It is bottomless Luke 8.31 The sinners fire is eternal Trimâ— mors animam dolentem pellit de corpore secunda moâ—â— animam â—olenâ—â—m tenâ— in corp â—e Aug de civit deâ— lib. 21. cap. 31. and the smoak of his brimstone ascendeth for ever and ever Jude 7. Revel 14.7 If a purging potion which is soon down and in some few houres out of his body go so much against the hair with him what wry mouths and angry faces will he make when he shall come to drink this bottomless cup of fire and brimstone His cup is like the Ocean which can never be fathomed this rain may well be called wrath to come for it will be ever to come and never overcome His darkest night here may have a morning but there his portion will
to comfort thee oyl to chear thee joy to refresh thee raiment to cloath thee the jewels of grace to beautifie thee and the crown of glory to make thee blessed nay all the wealth of this and the other world If all the riches in the Covenant of Grace if all the good things which Christ purchased with his precious blood nay if as much good as is in an infinite God can make thee happy thou shouldst have it If David were thought worth ten thousand Israelites how much is the God of Israel worth This one God would fill up thy soul in its utmost capacity it is such an end that when thou attainest thou couldst go no further shouldst desire no more but quietly rest for ever The necessity of the creatures number speaks the meanness of their value but the universality of good in this one God proclaims his infinite worth As there are all parts of speech in that one verse Vae tibi ridenti quia mox post gaudia flebis So there are all perfections in this one God What a portion is this Friend Fourthly God is an eternal Portion 4. God is an eternal poâ—tion The pleasures of sin are but for a season a little inch of time a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a season is a very short space Hebr. 11. but the portion of a Saint is for ever God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever The greatest estate here below is a flood soon up and soon down but if God once say to thy soul as to Aarons I am thine inheritance Numb 18.20 neither men nor devils can cozen thee of it The Lord knoweth the dayes of the upright and their inheritance shall be for ever Psal 37.18 The Prodigal wasted his portion and so came to poverty the Glutton swalloweth down his portion burying it in his belly the Drunkard vomiteth up his portion the ambitious person often turneth his portion into smoak and it vanisheth in the air those whose portion continueth longest will be turned out of possession when Death once comes with a Writ from Heaven to seal a Lease of ejectment for all these portions are dying gourds deceitful brooks and flying shadows But ah how contrary hereunto is the portion of a believer God is an eternal portion If he were once thy portion he would be for ever thy portion When thy estate and children and wife and honours and all earthly things should be taken from thee He is the good part which shall never be taken from thee Luke 10. ult Thy Friends may use thee as a suit of apparel which when they have worn thredbare they throw off and call for new thy Relations may serve thee as women their flowers who stick them in their bosomes when fresh and flourishing but when dying and withered they throw them to the dunghill thy riches and honours and pleasures and wife and children may stand on the shore and see thee lanching into the Ocean of Eternity but will not step one foot into the water after thee thou mayst sink or swim for them only this God is thy portion will never leave thee nor forsake thee Hebr. 13.5 O how happy wouldst thou be in having such a friend Thy portion would be tied to thee in this life as Dionysius thought his kingdome was to him with chains of Adamant there would be no severing it from thee The world could not thou shouldst live above the world whilst thou walkest about it and behave thy self in it not as its champion but conquerour He that is born of God overcometh the world 1 John 5.9 Satan should not part thee and thy portion thy God hath him in his chain and though like a Mastiffe without teeth he may bark yet he can never bite or hurt his children I have written unto you young men because ye have overcome the wicked one 1 John 2.13 Nay it should not be in thine own power to sell away thy portion thou wouldest be a joynt heir with Christ and co-heirs cannot sell except both joyn and Christ knoweth the worth of this inheritance too well to part with it for all that this beggarly world can give Rom. 8.17 The Apostle makes a challenge which men nor devils could never accept or take up Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword nay in all these things we are more then conquerours through him that loves us Rom. 8.35 36 37 38. Nay at death thy portion would swim out with thee in that shipwrack death which parts all other portions from men will give thee full possession of thine Then and not till then thou shouldst know what it is worth yea even at the great day the fire which shall burn up the world shall not so much as singe thy portion thou mightst stand upon its ruines and sing I have lost nothing I have my portion my inheritance my happiness my God still Other portions like summer-fruit are soon ripe and soon rotten but this portion like winter fruit though it be longer before the whole be gathered yet it will continue Gold and silver in which other mens portion lieth are corruptible but thy portion like the body of Christ shall never see corruption When all earthly portions as meat over-driven certainly corrupts or as water in cisterns quickly groweth unsavoury this portion like the water in Aesculapius his well is not capable of putrefaction O Friend what are all the portions in the world which as a candle consume in the use and then go out in a stink to this eternal portion It is reported of one Theodorus that when there was musick and feasting in his Fathers house withdrew himself from all the company and thus thought with himself Here is content enough for the flesh but how long will this last this will not hold out long then falling on his knees O Lord my heart is open unto thee I indeed know not what to ask but only this Lord let me not die eternally O Lord thou knowest I love thee O let me live eternally to praise thee I must tell thee Reader to be eternally happy or eternally miserable to live eternally or to die eternally are of greater weight then thou art aware of yea of far more concernment then thou canst conceive Ponder this motive therefore throughly God is not only a satisfying portion filling every crevis of thy soul with the light of joy and comfort and a sanctifying portion elevating thy soul to its primitive and original perfection and an universal portion not health or wealth or friends or honours or liberty or life or house or wife or childe or pardon or peace or grace or glory or earth or heaven but all these and infinâ—tely more but also he is an eternal portion This God would be thy God for ever and ever Psal 48.11 O sweet word Ever thou art the crown of the Saints crown and the glory
heart of man Isai 32.24 Is thy body sick thy soul is sound and so long all is well The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Is thy life in danger If thine enemies kill thee they cannot hurt thee they will do thee the greatest courtesie they will do that kindness for thee for which thou hast many a time prayed sighed wept even free thee from thy corruptions and send thee to the beatifical vision When they call thee out to die they do but as Christ to Peter call thee up to the Mount where thou shalt see thy Saviour transfigured and say Let us build Tabernacles O 't is good to be here Though Saul was frantick without a Fidler and Belshazar could not be chearful without his cups yet the Philosopher could be merry saith Plato without musick and much more the Christian under the greatest outward misery What weight can sink him who hath the everlasting armes to support him What want can sadden him who hath infinite bounty and mercy to supply him Nothing can make him miserable who hath God for his happiness Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. O Christian thou maiest walk so that the world may know thou art above their affrightments and that all their allurements are below thy hopes In particular the Doctrine is comfortable against the Death of our Christian Friends and against our own deaths First It is a comfort against the death of our friends God is a godly mans portion therefore they are blessed who die in the Lord without us and we are happy who live in the Lord without them It s a comfort that they are happy without creatures what wise man will grieve at his friends gain In the ceremonial law there was a year of Jubile in which every man who had lost or sold his land upon the blowing of a trumpet had possession again The deaths-day of thy believing relation is his day of Jubile in which he is restored to the possession of his eternal and inestimable portion Who ever pined that married an Heir in his minority at his coming to age and going to receive his portion Their death is not paenall but medicinal not destructive but perfective to their Souls It doth that for them which none of the ordinances of God nor providences of God nor graces of the Spirit ever yet did for them It sends the weary to their sweet and eternal rest This Serpent is turned into a rod with which God works wonders for their good The Thracians wept at the births of men and feasted at their funerals if they counted mortality a mercy who could see death only to be the end of outward sufferings shall not we who besides that see it to be the beginning of matchless and endless solace A wife may well wring her hands and pierce her heart with sorrow when her Husband is taken away from her and dragd to execution to hell but surely she may rejoyce when he is called from her by his Prince to live at Court in the greatest honours pleasures especially when she is promised within a few days to be sent for to him and to share with him in those joyes and delights for ever Some observe that the Egyptians mourned longer for they mourned 70 dayes for old Jacobs death then Joseph his own Son and the reason is this because they had hopes only in this life when Joseph knew that as his fathers body was carried to the earthly so his Soul was translated to the heavenly Canaan I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others that have no hope 1 Thes 4.12 As they are happy without us for God is their portion so we are happy without them We have our God still that stormy wind which blew out our candles did not extinguish our Sun Our Friend when on his or her death-bed might bespeak us as Jacob his Sonnes I die but God shall visit you I go from you but God shall abide with you I leave you but God will find you he will never leave you nor forsake you Reader If God live though thy friends dye I hope thou art not lost thou art not undone May not God say to thee when thou art pining and whining for the death of thy relations or friends as if thou wert eternally miserable as Elkanah to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten Sons Am not I better to thee then ten Husbands then ten Wives then ten thousand worlds O think of it and take comfort in it 2. It s comfort against our own deaths Secondly It is comfortable against thy own death God is thy Portion and at death thou shalt take possession of thy vast estate Now thou hast a freehold in law a right to it but then thou shalt have a freehold in deed make thy entry on it and be really seised of it It s much that heathens who were purblind and could not see afar off into the joys and plesures of the other world the hopes of which alone can make death truly desireable should with less fear meet this foe then many Christians Nay 't was more difficult to perswade several of those Pagans to live out all their daies then 't is to perswade some amonst us to be willing to die when God calls them Codrus could throw himself into a pit Plut. in vit Vtic. Ca. that his Country might live by his death Cato could against the intreaty of all his friends with his own hands open the door at which his life went out Platinus the Philosopher held mortality a mercy that we might not alwaies be lyable to the miseries of this life When the Persian King wept that all his army should die in the revolution of an Age Artabanus told him that they should all meet with so many and such great evils that they should wish themselves dead long before Lysimachus threatened to kill Theodorus but he stoutly answered the King that was no great matter the Cantharides a little flie could doe as much Cleombrotus having read Plato of the Souls immortality did presently send his own Soul out of his body to try and taste it The bare opinion of the Druides that the Soul had a continuance after death made them hardy in all dangers saith Cesar and fearless of death Câ—s lib. 6. de bell 6. Christians surely have more cause to be valiant in their last conflict and it s no credit to their Father that they are so loth to goe home The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe Heaven to be so glorious a place as they talk of for if they did they would not be so unwilling to goe thither It may make the world think the child hath but could welcome at his Fathers house that he lingers so much a broad certainly such bring an ill report upon the good land Christian