as a dried leaf my life passeth away as a Weavers Shuttle and withereth like the grass the Ax or Halter can onely hasten what my study and labour is sure to produce in a little time if Death could not otherwise destroy my being these instrmuments enforced by mens cruelty should never do it but it is an easie matter to break a bruised reed and to force a dying life to breath out its last breath My soul my bodily constitution doth not more dispose me to dye then Gods determination doth bind me unavoidably to undergo it By Gods determination Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men and so to me once to dye The conclusion God made with man in Paradise when he made with him a Covenant of life was Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest of this fruit thou shalt surely dye the sin was committed the covenant was violated this condition was judicially denounced and duely executed Rom. 5.12 by one man sin hath passed on all men and death by sin the severity of God hath by a most righteous sentence subjected all men to the stroke of death am I a man and expect to be exempted from the common fate of my nature Immortality in the estate of innocency Immortality not natural was of grace not of nature created compounded man was capable of dissolution that grace was once forfeited never restored nature therefore returned to its course will inevitably work my ruine and resolve me into the nothing or the dust out of which I was first made The Lord Jesus Christ hath indeed Christ redeemed not from the stroak of death undoubtedly redeemed me from death but it is from the sting not from the stroak of death he doth secure me from the curse the consequences of death but he stayeth not the returned course of nature from passing on my being hunger cold neakedness sickness sorrows the assaults of violence with all other man-destroying-accidents did befal himself and are incident unto me and are as certainly as effectually destructive to my being since as before Christs death and resurrection I do most certainly believe Some may be changed yet not I. 1 Cor. 15.51 at the coming of our Lord in glory all shall not dye some shall be changed but I have no assurance that I am of that number nor is it probable for though I live in the last and worst days of the world that last day is not so near me as my lives end the great things which must be accomplished before that great and terrible day of the Lord come cannot be effected in those few days nature will permit me to live nor is it probable in this present age I will not envy the Saints then living the happiness of never dying but my soul I see no reason of hope that I should partake thereof Nature disposing me unto death God having determined death to pass upon me I cannot avoid it it will with certainty overtake me at the last It may overtake me sooner then I am aware or look for it I have not the certainty of one days exemption from this most certain condition I am subject to many casualties as well as diseases a tile from an house or a fall from my horse might soon kill me if I were abroad Death commeth on me where ever I am as an armed man whom I cannot resist and come to me the worst that can come it is but death which I can no way shun or long avoid My Soul be wise make a vertue of necessity stoop quietly under that stroke from which thou canst not stir Startle not in sence of that state from which there is no starting Whether I consume my self or be cut down by others it is but death this estate doth unavoidably attend me Let me be content chearfully submissively to bear the evil I am no more able to divert then to desire shall I stomack to entertain the guest whom I daily expect and who commeth with command and irresistable power whose coming I cannot prevent or delay who being come will not be dismissed or sent back for one moment I will bid welcome the certain unavoidable event though hastned by an uncertain unexpected stroak SECT II. DEath is not more certain to me Death is a common state then common to men this is the lot of all men the man liveth not who shall not feel the stroak of Death strong or weak rich or poor noble or ignoble good or bad must all die Great men die The power of Princes may precipitate and hasten the death of others but it cannot protect themselves from the stroak of death no not for a moment as for those who have riches Ps 49.7 8. there is not one of them can redeem his brothers no nor yet his own life from death when I die I shall rest with Kings and Counsellors of the earth Job 3.13 14. with Princes who had gold who filled their houses with silver Death hath subdued the most dreadful Conquerors of the world and devoured the most puissant Armies Strong men die Where are now the Sons of Anack what is become of the Giants of whom we read are they not dead could Sampsons strength repel or Davids Worthies stand under and against the stroke of death Best men dye Piety is no priviledge against the arrest of death John 8.52 53. are not the Patriarcks faln asleep where are the Fathers of old do the Prophets live for ever the best that ever lived died death is an high way a beaten road this tract is trodden Abel Adam Enoch Noah Abraham David Daniel Peter Paul James John yea the Lord Christ himself are all dead these with multitudes of all sorts ranks qualities languages and degrees have gone this way before me why then do I fear to follow after them Death is not more common in its general nature The kind of death is also common then in its special kind Violent death by all ways of ignominy and instruments of cruelty are common to men especially to Martyrs and Gods most faithful Ministers this way Gods Prophets Vrijah Isaiah Zechariah and others Christs Disciples Peter Paul James John and others The Primitive Fathers of the Church Polycarpus Ignatius Justinius and others And our first Reformers from Popish blindness and abominations Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Rogers Bradford Taylor Saunders and many others went out of the world What day returneth without the death of men what age of the world hath passed not stained with the blood of Martyrs or violent death of holy men what kind of death peculiar to malefactors hath not Gods Ministers and Martyrs the zealous reprovers of publick sin been subjected to and undergone My Soul be thy condition what it can thou must conclude there doth no temptation befall me but what is common to man 1 Cor. 10.13 yea to the best of men and to the cheif of Martyrs what if the way
though dark quietly shut your doors about you the wise God is willing to hide you for a little moment until his indignation be past My soul and body are dear companions it is not strange to see these two parted with dread and greif and yet nearest relations dearest friends must shake parting hands each with other in this world brethren that have lived long together and love most dearly must leave each others company at their Fathers pleasure and for their future good this is my case in death my soul be contented take chearful leave of thy body thou art returning to the father of spirits My body consent willingly to shake hands and shut out thy soul thou must for a time be shut up by God from falling under those desperate dangers and deep distresses which are more dreadful and intollerable then is death it self The design of death in dividing my soul from my body was to divide both from God but this is impossible for union with Christ and with God in him is inseperable no case will make them cast me off no condition can cut me off from them whom they love once they love to the end forever Joh. 13.1 Christs union is with me my self my whole self the whole not any single part of man no part of me can therefore be by the power of death dismembred from him death may militate against Christs body it may rend and mangle his members but it cannot destroy his body his mystical body it cannot divide any his members nor any part of his members from him death shall ere it be long by the sound of the last triumphant trumpet at the glorious and general resurrection know and prove that the union between Christ and the bodies of his people is as real as inseperable as the union between him and their souls Christ will not lose any part of his purchase he paid a price for man for whole man for our bodies and for our souls both are his all enemies that interrupt the union that intercept the communion which is between Christ and his members must be destroyed and the last enemy to be subdued is death when the Grave the Sea and Hell shall give up the dead bodies which are in them as in repositories for a time I shall then find the design of death in dividing my soul from my body is failed disappointed and become frustrate it never could divide either of them from God my Father or from Jesus Christ my Redeemer nor shall it be able long to keep these parts of me asunder and at distance each from other for my union with God and Christ doth necessitate and will most powerfully irresistably effect the re-union of my soul and body at the resurrection that I whole I my self out only part of my self may enjoy them for ever Let my God and my Saviour do with me what they please so they will but please to be with me in life and in death whilst I am and with my divided parts when I am not I will then perswade prevail with my self contentedly to enjoy them in my divided parts until the time return that my parts reunied my whole self may be placed in an inseperable possession of them in perfect glory world without end SECT XVIII VVHen I am dead my body will be covered with worms Worms will eat me when dead but conscience will not bite me and will feed upon me but it is no matter I shall not see their scrawling I shall not feel their gnawing of my flesh and if I did yet that is nothing whilst my soul shall escape the gnawings of an accusing conscience that worm which never dieth there is more mercy in being freed from this one worm then from many thousands of those silly weak dying wormes Why should it trouble me to become the companion of wormes must not I say unto the worm thou art my Mother Job 17.14 and my Sister what am I my self but a worm a weak creeping worm Psa 22.6 David did apprehend himself a worm a King and yet a worm and Bildad Jobs friend noteth of man in general Job 25.6 that he is a worm whilst I then am my self but a worm let the worms feed sweetly upon their fellow when I am dead I can do man no good why should I not be glad any creatures can fare the better for my death the wormes cannot cover me from the sight of God they may crawl upon my body but it is not thereby made loathsom to the Lord. They may devour my flesh but the worm which never dieth shall not distress my soul I will not therefore appear so weak as to afflict my self with the apprehensions of the power and prevalency of those silly creatures to which I must be subject but of which I shall not be sensible SECT XIX IN Death I shall see corruption In death I shall corrupt but rise again my body will corrupt be covered with dishonour consume away to dust moulder away to nothing this I cannot deny for it was peculiar to the holy one the Lord Christ and to him onely to dye and not to see corruption but yet I do beleive the resurrection of my body God can preserve my dust and make my dead bones to live my body is united unto Christ death cannot destroy that union my body united to Christ shall by the power of his resurrection be most certainly raised up at the last day that I may sit with him in heavenly places God is the God of Abraham Isaac Mat. 22.32 and Jacob he is the God of the living and not of the dead though therefore the bodies of Abraham Isaac and Jacob be dead and buried and have seen corruption and be dissolved into nothing yet they shall live again they retain in the grave an animating principle which will produce its effect they shall be raised up and exist in their individual specifical persons and subsistencies this was the Lords Argument to convince the Sadduces of the resurrection of the body this priviledge was not peculiar to those Patriarchs for I also beleive that my redeemer liveth and that he shall at the latter day stand upon the earth Job 19.25 26 27. and though after this skin wormes destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God him I shall see for my self whom mine eyes shall behold and not anothers though my reins be consumed within me My present life doth witness the first Adam to be a living soul my resurrection from death and the grave must witness the second Adam to be a quickening spirit My body is part of my self it must not it cannot be lost its seperation from my soul maketh me cease to be this seperation continued would continue me a nonentity for ever my self is redeemed and related to the Lord and my soul or my body is related to him but as parts of my self these divided must be reunited that my self
DEFENCE Against the Dread of Death OR ZACH. CROFTON'S Meditations and Soliloquies concerning the stroak of death sounded in his ears in the time 〈◊〉 his close Imprisonment in the Towâ— of London Anno. 1661 and 166â— Digested for his own private satisfaction and support in the vale of the shadow of death AND NOW Made publique for the advantage of such as abide under Gods present Visitation in London by the Pestilence Printed in the Year 1â—â—â— To the serious dying Christian Reader Especially those in and about London subjected to Gods visitation by the present Pestilence and under a daily exspectation of an arrest by death Christian and beloved Friends WHat was lately mine is now become your sad estate viz. the dreadful expectation of deaths stroak in the multitude of my thoughts within me the consolations of God did refresh and revive my soul the kind of death which threatned me is different from what impendeth you but the object of dread was to me and you the same viz Death and the same apprehensions of its nature which did affect me must affect you with fear and hope the ensuing meditations ministred a check to my passions and comfort to my spirit by these I perswaded my soul to be willing and contented though not desirous to part from my body and to let me cheerfully lye down and dye these were digested on my personal account for my private support and encouragement under the fears of death they having done their work were by me condemned to death at least to present darkness but are now by your sad condition animated and restored and the publication thereof is extorted by the importunity of some special friends who had formerly seen and perused them and in an affectionate sence of your sad condition subjected to the terrors of night the Arrow which flyeth by day the Pestilence which walketh in darkness and the destruction which wasteth at noon-day calling more loudly for Antidotes to the sting then to the stroak of death have restlesly sollicited these papers to be put into your hands The dread of death is as common as natural to man as is the stroak thereof it never appeared with its pale face to any subject of â—â—â—ht reason or true religion but with a terrifying aspect the Heathen accounted it of terrible things the most terrible they could no way render it comfortable but by representing it the sum the completion and so the period of evil and misery Cold comfort The Scripture calleth it the King of terrors which of Gods Saints have not feared to dye David was beset with the terrors of death Paul could not desire to be unclothed The onely begotten Son of God had his soul heavy unto death and in a fearful agony deprecated the stroak thereof the Saints never cursed the day of their birth and cryed out for their death but in the extremity of their perplexity and in the prevalency of their passion evidenced by this very character men exempt from phrensie and not miraculously extraordinarily acted by a divine spirit as were the three Children and other Martyrs must be the subjects of stoical Apathie senseless stupidity strong delusions or a reprobate sencâ— if they fear not the stroak of death I envy not some who havâ— I thought dyed too stoutly in suâ—h a cause their courage and conâ—â—dence in out-facing death But this I must say to all Christianun agere is not hominem exucre Christians cease not to be men nor is it fit they should so do Bernard well noteth of Peter the Apostle Bernardi Tract de gratia Libero Arbitrio that his sin was not in the simple fear of death Mortem evadere voluit quid istud criminis fuit voluit mori inculpabilis est To be unwilling affraid to dye is lawfully humane and not blame-worthy in a Christian It is equally monstrous in nature and a judgement from the Lord not to fear to dye and not to mourn for the dead I must say with the holy Greenham They are as well to be liked who fear death as those who joy at it And I for my part fluctuating on the waves of violence and uncertainty in an evil age and world must say as this good man Greenh work p. â— Notwithstanding my many crosses which hinder the comfort of my life I do not I dare not desire to die Death is in its nature most terrifying to the soul yet it s dreadful circumstances and concomitants do ordinarily more affect the sence and provoke the passions Seneca placed the most dread in the Scaffold the Ax the attendance the spectators the executioners and march to execution that pompa mortis These were no meanly affecting circumstances to me in my expectation of a violent death to you the suddenness the solitariness the certainty of the stroak by an inevitable noisom contagion may appear most grievous He who dieth in due course of nature meeteth with dread in death but he that dieth by some special kind of death as by sword or pestilence hath his dread aggravated and more eminently needeth the defence of a lively faith to repel the terrors of a lively sence which can and must be the result of a rational and Christian apprehension of deaths changed nature and quality with the sequels thereof through Christ the Lord of life these will alleviate the burden abate the strength abstract the sting and alter the countenance of death of any kind of death Familiarity breedeth contempt and casteth out fear the Fox by frequency playeth boldly with the lion We read of an Hungarian Prince who affected his youthful brother rebuked his daily meditations of death with an unexpected summons to execution Men little think of dying therefore are the terrors of death so stinging Plato perswading to thoughts of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defined true Philosophy to be a meditation of death Certain it is that they who will truly Christianize must be much in consideration of death and careful to dye well When men are every moment obnoxious to the sudden and certain stroaks of death it is time if ever they will be wise to labour to represent death lovely to their souls funeral Sermons â—ound best in the ears spectacles of mortality is the most pleasing sight and meditations of death the most delighting study not only to the mortified Christian but also to the dying man Croesus the rich King of Lydia when captivated stript and tyed alive to the stake which must make his funeral pile could affectionately cry out O Solon Solon and preach to Cyrus his Conqueror Solons Dictates of Mortality which in his prosperity he had despised And Seneca declining in Neroes favour and drawing nigh to his violent death did best discern and most clearly declare that mans felicity was after death The prophane men which in health neglect and despise Gods Ministers and cannot endure to hear of death or Jesus Christ can on a sick bed send for them gladly hear
is exceeding sorrowful unto death Mat. 26.38 39. and once again and a third time to pray Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Shall I exspect to be exempt from Shall I be afraid or ashamed to express the passions which were existent in all Gods Saints and from which my Lord and Master himself was not freed I am a Christian but yet a man I am a Minister but yet a man if I dye as I now fear I dye innocently Lord thou knowest I dye for righteousness sake I shall be a Martyr though of the lowest orbe this may mitigate dread but it maketh no change in me or in death yet terrors attend it and passions abide in me The most resolved Paul was so far from being ashamed 2 Cor. 1.8 9. that he was desirous the Church should know he was pressed above measure when he despaired of life and received in himself the sentence of death and 5.4 the most desirous to be cloathed with their House from Heaven could never yet desire to be uncloathed of their earthly Tabernacle nature can be much more content to be changed then to dye Death draweth me out of the bosome of the Wife of my delight divideth me from my Children the glory of my youth driveth me from my Kindred Acquaintance Friends and all humane society Can I part from these with dry eyes can men think I bear to these a natural affection and expect I should bid adiew to them not affected with natural passion doth nature and religion direct me to love them and will they not allow me to grieve when I leave them Death doth discapacitate me for the service of my God and his Church the grave cannot praise him Death cannot celebrate him They who go down into the pit cannot hope for his truth will not Christianity true Piety teach me with dread to discern this estate am I perswaded my life is more profitable for the Church can I then avoid St. Pauls strait Phil. 1 21 22 23 24. and be easily resolved what to choose though to me it is more profitable that I dye Death doth destroy my being when I am dead I am not can dissolution choose but dictate dread to sensible much more to rational beings Death is the wages of sin the witness of Gods wrath and the curse of the Law and by its circumstances made such with an emphasis can then a man of Religion receive the same without reluctancy and great remorse Death is the inlet of mine immortal soul into the Ocean of eternity can I apprehend it without amazement and great astonishment Let malefactours outface out-dare this King of dread and obtain to themselves the name and honour of Martyrs by their only abandoning the fear of death I dare not imitate I must not justifie I cannot I will not follow them these fig-leaves will not hide their sin from the face of God My soul keep thy passions within bounds then fear not to give them vent and to express the same before God and Men impossibile est hominem exuere Christianity doth not require thee to turn stoick and cease to be a man Let the fear of Gods casting thee into hell have the preheminence then cease not to fear mens killing thy body sell not thy self to save a natural life and then spare nothing to redeem the same from death by the exception of this one thing thy self make the Devil a liar as did Job and then be not troubled to set thy seal to a truth spoken by the father of lies viz. that all that a man hath he would give for his life Let not the dread of death transport thee to accept deliverance on terms of sinning against God then be not afraid or ashamed to let men observe thee subjected thereunto mourn not as without hope then spare not to mourn that thou must part from them whose duty it is to mourn over thy grave I bless God I see in nature much in Scripture more abundant reason to make me willing none to make me desirous to dye I look for those things and that estate which I will not exchange for my natural life but I could be glad to enjoy my life and them The cup of death is bitter my stomach riseth at and against it I cannot but pray Oh my Father If it be possible let this cup pass from me If it be possible let this cup pass from me Good Father Let this cup pass from me yet I hope I shall never want grace to subjoyn not my will but thy will be done not my will but thy will be done not my will but thy will be done whilst Death is Death and I a Man I cannot but dread it I cannot desire it I will therefore endeavour to defend my soul against the dread thereof and check my passions by contemplating what may make me content to undergo and cheerfully to stoop unto what I cannot I dare not desire any more then I can avoid or dare decline it when directed by a righteous yea a gracious God to arrest me my soul silence support thy self considering SECT I. DEath is of all things most certain Death is most certain most sure to overtake me to befall me dust I am and to dust I must return my life may be a while prolonged but nothing is more certain then that death will ere long put an end unto it man that is born of a woman is but of few days My natural constitution is corruptible In mans natural constitution not onely obnoxious to the assaults of violence from without but also subject to innate corruption principles destructive to it self my body is at best but an earthly Tabernacle always out of repair and ready to fall patched up by daily bread which will not be able to sustain its being when the grinders begin to fail the Keepers of this my house do already tremble my strong men begin to bow many diseases now grow upon me these are the Harbingers of mine approaching death I do already bear in my back the stone which will ere long most crrtainly batter in peices the earthen vessel of my body this Pitcher may a little while go to the Well but it will at length come broken home The contrary elements and qualities whereof my body is compounded and by which it doth now subsist do conclude the certainty of my death heat and cold moysture and draught are enemies each to other by their opposition my being is upheld and yet the militation of these in me tend to the annihilation of me The hand of violence may indeed hasten on me that estate which nature will most certainly most speedily effect the Plumb which is not plucked will fall the Grass which is not cut will wither the stoutest Oak of longest growth will at last come to dust if it be not consumed to ashes my strength is not the strength of stones nor is my flesh â—rass I am
him shall at death be utterly and for ever discharged My soul shall then indeed be holy as God is holy and perfect as God is perfect it shall not only have perfect qualities the principles of union but also those degrees of perfection which shall capacitate it for full communion with my God Christ and his Holy Angels and glorified Saints even the utmost degree of perfection such a creature is capable of and an estate of so glorious communion doth call for and require The faculties of my soul shall be enlarged unto the perfection of knowledge and affection I shall after death be able to pry into the deepest mysteries of mans fall and salvation of the glorious unconceivable subsistency of the Trinity in unity three persons in one undivided essence of the miraculous hypostatical union of the two natures God and Man in one person of the blessed incarnation and whole work of redemption which is nothing but a Cabal of mysteries I shall then comprehend incomprehensible glory without the least defect doubting or difficulty I now know but in part I shall then know perfectly knowledge righteousness and true holiness those parts of the new man shall then attain to a perfect virile strength and stature the divine nature whereof I here partake shall then be in me compleat I shall then know all things fully and with full content mine affections will then most freely close with and take full complacency in those glorious objects mine understanding shall then know comprehend my mind shall not know more of God and Christ then my soul shall admire mine affections imbrace unto the fulness of my comfort forcing out the loud halelujahs and acclamations of joy and thanksgiving to God for ever the imbicility of the natural man which could not the enmity of the natural man which would not discern and savour the things of God shall now be discharged destroyed for ever for now the natural man it self shall expire and cease to be Such shall be the changed estate qualitie and endowments of my soul that the things which were to it tiring dulling difficult because supernatural irksom greivous and hateful because contranatural shall become easie and encouraging lovely acceptable and delightful because connatural the very proper and only element in which my soul can live and enjoy it self in this respect nothing could be so dismaying afflicting and tormenting to my soul as interruption intermission or expiration of enjoyment by the return of time Oh folly to dread Eternity which must exist in the exercise and enjoyment of these glorious qualities of my soul the disparity and disproportion which keepeth my God and me at a distance shall now be discharged and quite removed can I desire the time in which they shall again return upon me hath not the loss of Gods image in me and thereby the loss of his presence with me cost me dear enough already I cannot enjoy God for ever unless I be like God for ever my perfect proportion to God must fit me for perfect possession of God welcome then Eternity in conformity to God my only capacity of eternal communion with God 4. My future life is eternal Though I dye I shall dye but once my death shall be mine entrance into life and my life shall be eternal the second death shall have no power on me seeing I must once dye oh how happy am I that I do not live to dye the second death the first death divideth my soul from my body but the second death would have dividid my soul and body from God and that for ever but this death shall not befall me for there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 the Lord hath justified me who shall condemn me he hath delivered me from the dread of the first by redeeming me from the power of the second death I may be of good comfort I shall not dye but live I shall live in death I shall pass through death to life and whilst life is the subject who would not desire to have eternity the adjunct My soul canst thou chuse but joy to know that thy life is eternal life do I dread to die and tremble to think of Eternity in life O strange contradiction the result of a weak faith and of a clouded reason nature hath taught me to desire and endeavour the preservation and if it were possible the perpetuation of my natural sinful sorrowful life shall not grace much more make me to rejoyce that my holy happy life endureth for ever that I shall eternally live in the salvation of God to enjoy mine inheritance among the Saints and Angels in light to attend on contemplate and have communion with God and Christ were not eternal life affixed to these enjoyments what would they avail me what should I delight to tantalize in the waters of life Eternity abstracted I do but catch at the happiness I cannot hold I do fall under Moses his chance Moses his curse he led Israel to the banks of Jordan to the borders of Canaan he went up to mount Nebo and saw the goodly land but he entred not into it he enjoyed it not he died in the mountain I have preached Eternal life I have perswaded men to pursue it to press after it I have led them to the brink of the grave and am ready to lye down and dye now I dread the eternal life that attendeth me O my folly but blessed be God he hath not been provoked he will not be by me perswaded to blot my name out of the book of life but having purposed purchased for me and promised to me salvation an inheritance an estate of glory he hath secured me my life in and unto the possession thereof and made eternity the blessed inseparable property of them all My soul where art thou what art thou lanched into lost in eternity before out of my body return recover thy self before thou go hence and be no more seen look back on thine own thoughts survey the land which the prospect of thy faith hath descried in the ocean of eternity O the immensity O the depth of eternity this is an astonishing ocean an amazing sea whilst I stand on the banks of a temporal life how do I tremble to look upon eternity in its abstracted nature but stay my soul let us be wise let my faith follow this flood and deliberately observe how it streams it self in the Paradise of God into eternal salvation oh wonderful Eternal inheritance O this is desirable how do I long for it Eternal glory that is delightful the rayes thereof ravish my heart And Eternal life O the emphasis the excellency of all the rest shall I dread to shoot this gulph of death shall I fear to lanch out into the depth of this eternity can these blessed desired never enough desired things be abstracted from be enjoyed without eternity if they could would they be so good would
thee I relye thee I embrace with all my soul to be my Lord and my King refuse reject me not O God of my salvation I have resigned up my whole man to thy most holy word and will and desire to walk in thy most holy ways thy love shed abroad in my heart hath enflamed me with a love to thy name to thine ordinances thy people and thine house the zeal of thy house hath consumed me I have through thy spirit embraced esteemed thy truth in the love thereof and thy people for the truths sake which is in them For thy sake I have denied all outward comforts I have taken up my cross and followed thee Consider remember O Lord my present bonds for thy sake I am killed all the day long I am accounted as a Sheep for the slaughter the reproaches of them who reproach thee are fallen upon me all this is come upon me yet have I not departed from thee nor dealt falsly in the Covenant in which thy glory is concerned § These things O Lord I do reflect not as matters of merit in me or as engagements on thy justice to do me good for I well know they are not mine own and if they were and were perfect yet I must when I have done the best I can acknowledge I am an unprofitable servant all I can do is due to thee the best of my actions are but the debt I ow thee but alas my best actions are full of sin my righteousness is as a filthy rag a menstruous garment which needeth thy propitiation and thy fathers pardon and must be perfumed by the incense which is on the censer in the right hand of thee my high Priest Yet O my Savour I reveiw these things in me as the effects of thy grace to me of thy spirit in me and as infallible evidences of thine union to me for flesh and blood could not reveal nor work these things in me by thy grace sanctifying my nature my soul is and shall be saved ô refuse me not deny me not to be thine O let thy spirit of adoption seal up my relation to thee and mine interest in thee let me not remain in the dark or be deceived in a matter of so great concernment to me clear up to me by certain premises the truth the realty of mine inseperable union with thee else I am undon have said nothing to my soul in all that I have said against the dread of death § Grant unto me O Lord the remission of all my sins the sence of the guilt thereof doth sting my soul under the apprehensions of mine approaching death Whatsoever doth befall me in this life I beseech thee suffer me not to dye in my sin Oh convince me of humble me for and turn me from all iniquity and every reigning lust but graciously cast it behind thy back blot it out of thy remembrance that in the day it is sought for it may not be found against me sin hath passed on me and death by sin but deliver me O my Saviour from falling by under the second death from which there is no possibility of redemption Secure unto my soul thy sufferings as the full ransom of my soul and the satisfaction to thy fathers law and justice for mine offences and for my many great trangressions so shall I be able to meet death with boldness I shall then insult over that King of terrors with on O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory I shall then triumph over death and him who hath the power of death the Devil If my heart deceive me not I would not sin that grace â—hould abound but now blessed Saviour that I have sinned I do I dare not but earnestly beg thy grace may abound that I may in my death through the pardon of sin sing unto thy praise thanks be unto God who hath given met he victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. § O thou the only high Priest of my profession thou canst be touched with mine infirmities thou knowest the power the prevalency of my natural passions under the apprehensions of mine approaching death thou ever livest to make intercession for me graciously rebuke my passions restrain my fears revive my faith renew my hope and establish my heart under and against all those amazing affrighting apprehenfions of death which nature dotâ— conceive sence doth dictate or Satan doth suggest unto my dread Compassionately grant me the comfortable supports of thy presence grace and spirit whilst I walk in the vale of the shadow of death that I may with all patience and meekness lie down and receive that stroak of death which I cannot avoid and yet cannot be willing to receive That I may with submission drink that bitter cup thou puttest into my hand concerning which my nature not corrupted with sin could not but pray Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me give me an heart groaning to be clothed on with my house from heaven whilst I cannot desire to be uncloathed of this earthly tabernacle and seeing my presence in the flesh is mine absence from thee O Lord perswade me to be willing to be dissolved that I may be with thee which is best of all § As a man I cannot desire I cannot but fear to die be pleased O my Savior to convince me of and afflict me with the happy sequels of my death that the sence thereof may make me contrary to the power property of my nature desirous to die let not the dread of death drive me to accept on sinful terms the deliverance from the most violent and shameful stroak thereof enable me to live the last breath of this my dying life in the ways of thy truth and holiness to the praise of thy grace and in this last act to play the man couragiously evidencing my self affected with a clear sence that all the evils of death are discharged and assured that I am united to thee who art the resurrection and the life through whom though I die I shall live again and having fought the good fight of faith and finished my course of nature I shall escape the curse of death and be received into eternal life and glory with thy self thy blessed Saints and Angels for ever guide me all my days by thy counsel and at last receive me into thy glory Into thy hands I commit my spirit it is thine own thou hast redeemed it and thou wilt keep it until thy glorious appearance blessed Jesus my Lord and my Redeemer Amen Amen Amen FINIS
the Doctrines of Mortality and cry out I must die O Chist save me O Christ save me Nor is it marvell for every Balaam ready to curse Gods Israel on the sence of deaths appraach cannot but wish to die the death of the righteous I would willingly hope those who have now the charge of your souls are tender of you as Nurses and careful for you as Parents and that with due affection and fidelity they labour to fit you for and encourage you under the stroaks of death Never I am sure had you more need never were you more likely to hear the Charmer and to receive instruction then in so sad a day of visitation from the Lord. I wish I were without any grounds of fear to the contrary I lately travelling about my rustick affairs met many Ministers from your City among other Citizens withdrawing from that place of danger their recess I could not but observe with grief and anger thinking who must minister to you ghostly councel now your souls are in the shadow of death how must it sting your serious hearts to see your lovers and friends stand at a distance and your Prophets all gone I am not so uncharitable as to conclude the recess of any not specially bound to stay in infected places to be sin I beleive men that flye from the Pestilence are no more Atheistical or to be blamed as such then those who flye from the Sword I judge the recess of many may be a prudential serving of Gods providence unto the withdrawing of the contagion naturally communicating it self in vicinity but I cannot but judge Magistrates to keep order Physitians to help nature and Ministers to prepare for and encourage against death are bound to stay and in the discharge of their duty to trust God with their lives I cannot secure Ministers their lives in contagious places I well know that Histories tells us some of the Ministers and Deacons which ministred to the Saints in Alexandria Euseb Hist l. 7. c. 22. in the great Plague which there raged dyed thereof And that the Families of Bullinger and Beza were herewith infected yet themselves escaped and were preserved yet God hath ordinarily saved the lives of those who in love to immortal souls have adventured to loose them Mr. Sam. Fisher whose meditation on death in the time of the Plague in Salop we have publique among us is yet alive to tell unto Gods praise how himself and Reverend Mr. Blake were preserved in their Ministration to that place in the time of a raging Pestilence If despised I might be so bold I would desire your present Ministers to consider the late Bishop Halls advice in this very case he having justified the receâ—â—â—f private persons thus conculdeth concerning Ministers You urge the instance of your Ministers how unequally Bp. Halls Epist Dec. 4. Ep. 9. there is not more lawfulness in your flight then sin in ours you are your own we are our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly lose nor hazard by staying we with all their souls which to hazard by our absence is to lose our own we must love our lives but not when they are rivals with our souls or with others how much better is it to be dead then negligent then faithless if some bodies be contagiously sick shall all souls be neglected to run away from a necessary and publique good to avoid a doubtful and private evil is to run into a worse evil then that we would avoid c. Whilst worthless I am dead as to my Ministry I hope I may be alive as to my Meditations And freely by an harmless Pen Minister them to you especially on a subject so innocent so necessary as is Death It s Dread and the Defence against it I beseech you receive these as ministerial suggestions for the good of your souls they were indeed onely spoken to my dying self Put your souls in my souls stead and they will speak to you the special kind of death which I dreaded may make some things seem improper to your present state but the general matter and scope of them is to obviate death as such in its general nature and so they are applicable to any kind of death I beseech you prepare your selves to dye and thereby perswade your souls to be willing to dye you and I must dye it mattereth not what kind of death we dye be we careful to dye in the Lord and for the Lord so shall death consummate our misery and conveigh our fouls into the fulness of felicity Austin well noteth Quid interest an Febris Let us say Pestis an ferrum nos de corpore solverit noli qua occasione Aug. Epist 122. ad victori sed quales ad se exeant dominus attendit inservis suis It mattereth not whether Sword or Plague kill us Saints are subject to any to every of them God doth more regard the disposition of his Dying Servants then the means of their death the change of quality in us changeth the quality of death unto us Now that God may fit you for death familiarize to you that King of fears fix your souls on Christ who is life in death and so fill your hearts with those comforts which may prevail with you to dye willingly untill he please to accept an attonement and call back the destroying Angel is and shall be the most affectionate and constant prayer of Yours in the Lord foâ— the good of youâ— souls whilst he is Z. C. July 20 th 1665. A DEFENCE Against the Dread of DEATH OR Z. C. his serious Soliloquies and Meditations of Death under the alarms thereof sounded in the time of his Imprisonment in the Tower of London An. 1661. The PREFACE THe wrath of the King is the messenger of death O sad messenger O evil tidings what is more unwelcome to man what is more distasteful to nature can it chuse but dismay my soul and affect my spirit is not Death that which nature hath determined to be of Terrible things the most Terrible doth not the Scripture denominate it Job 18.14 The King of Terrors doth not the sence of death daunt the courage of the stoutest men of War damp the comforts of this World doth not this discompose the most composed Christian and most serious Saint were not the snares the sorrows the shade of Death the things which David that good that stout man did so passionately bewail Ps 18.4 5. 116.3 and pray to be delivered from the fear of Death made upright Hezekiah Isa 38. To chatter like a Crane and mourn like a Swallow The Devil well knew what he said Job 2.4 when he said All that a man hath he would give for his life The Lord of life entred not the List to encounter Death without an heavy spirit he needed some comfortable companions to watch with him under this conflict he was not ashamed to profess My soul
which have all my days stung my soul and battered my body My soul take courage unto this last encounter herein my willingness to dye is the victory my fall is the fullest conquest that I ever did or can make be herein the more couragious considering Death is though an enemy yet a conquered and disarmed enemy Christ that Captain of my salvation hath tryed the strength of death and subdued it he by dying did overcome death and him who had the power of death viz. the Devil herein Satan was out shot in his own Bow and caught in his own snare what gained the Philistines by bringing forth Sampson to make them sport and to be insulted over in the house of Dagon but their own destruction the very same hath death and the Devil gotten by bringing the Lord of life to dye on the Cross and to the Grave which could not hold him these by getting have lost the victory O blessed Paradox by this my faith and my soul can out-face out-brave death whilst my nature and my body doth dread the assaults and stroak thereof Death struck the Lord of life with its sting and lost its sting by striking him and in him all that are his do ever since insult over death with an O death 1 Cor. 15.55 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Since this foil death is befooled of its conquest over them whom it most insultingly strikes with success and cutteth down with power for it prevailing looseth its design The design of Death is to seal man under indelible guilt to set him under the curse of the Law and at everlasting distance from the Lord vers 56.58 The sting of Death is Sin the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be unto God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord for hereby death doth to all that are in Christ Jesus effect what is directly contrary to its design it dischargeth that guilt under which they greived all their days and releaseth them from those curses of the Law by which they were chastened in this life and it transmitteth their souls unto the immediate and eternal enjoyment of God and Christ and although it holdeth the body for some time yet it divideth it not from Christ to whom it is inseperably united and by whom it shall be raised up to be reunited to the soul and perfectly possess God for ever My Soul why art thou afraid of a Bee which hath lost its sting why dost thou dread an enemy vanquished to thy hand and sprawling at thy feet Hath David kill'd Goliah and shall not trembling affrighted Israel up and pursue the Philistines hath the Lord Christ gotten and given me the victory over death by discharging thy guilt and bearing the punishment thereof in his own body unto the satisfaction of the Law and wilt thou fear to encounter the fiercest assaults thereof What shall a conquered enemy disanimate the Conqueror My Soul in the world thou hast tribulation in death thou hast terror but be of good comfort thou art now engaged in the last encounter with both and the Lord Jesus hath overcome the world and conquered death Triumph in death for thou shalt by dying be made triumphant over Death the World and the Devil Thy warfare is now accomplished let me now in my last act play the man and shew the valour of my Faith and Patience unto the due restraint of my now provoked fear and passions Then this shall be the matter of mine eternal happiness and honour that I have warred a good warfare I have fought a good fight I have kept the Faith SECT V. DEath is a curse The cursed nature of death is changed the punishment of mans sin the expression of Gods wrath and the execution of the Law and dreadful sentence pronounced against man It is so in its nature and of it self But it is not such to all that are thereto subjected the voyce from heaven hath proclaimed them Blessed Rev. 14.13 who dye in the Lord and hath rendred two reasons of the blessed state of their death First they rest from their labour they then reap no punishment Heb. 4.10 but are indeed blessed for he that is entred into his rest ceaseth from his own works of sin and sorrow as God ceased from his Secondly Their works follow them unto their acceptance with and recompence from the Lord. The nature of death is changed to such who are in Christ Death to Christs friends is a sleep and to such who die for Christ the friends of Christ do not dye but sleep Job 7.21 I account sleep a special blessing of God for the refreshment of nature my sleep is the image the similitude of death Death is the truest the onely sleep of a true Beleiver when I sleep I am as dead and when I dye I shall but sleep I shall indeed sleep longer in my grave then in my bed but I am sure I shall sleep more quietly without affrighting fancies or disturbing dreams and I shall at length awake and arise when my weary day is ended how willing am I to lye down and sleep My Soul art thou not willing thy weary body should have rest to dye is to a Saint no more then to undress and go to bed to lie down and sleep Joh. 11.11 Let what will become of Dives our friend Lazarus sleepeth The righteous when they dye are taken from evil to come Isa 57.1 2 and 26.20 death is their defence from danger distress and dread their grave is Gods pavilion and receptacle into which they his jewels are gathered Mal. 3.17 lest they should be left in the commotions of the world in which they his trusty friends and confederates are secured from the storm and blast of the terrible ones raised up by the Lord to shake terribly the earth my Soul what though the Chambers of death be dark wilt thou deem it a curse to be gathered into them by Gods special grace that thou mayst not feel hear or see the evil which his wrath and vengeance is about to bring on the places of thy present abode The just by death enter into peace when the whole world is full of Wars they rest in their beds when the house is all in an hurly burly and unquiet tumult Death is the Saints cessation from labour and travel their security from lamentation and trouble their estate of quiet and ease and their entrance into rest and glory The very wicked who with Balaam are ready to curse them whilst they live would gladly share lots with them in their death The worst of men are so apprehensive and affected that their latter end shall be exceedingly good that they cannot but wish to dye the death of the righteous Death is indeed a curse to sinners but the course of nature unto Saints The direful executioner of Gods wrath and law to all who die in their sin
but a messenger of divine favour to all who die in the Lord an harbinger of peace to all who walk in uprightness A grim Porter to fetch home to their fathers mansions all that are Gods children Death is indeed a dismal doom on the sons of the first Adam but the discharge of all sin sorrow pain and travel to all the sons of the second Adam death is in its nature vile and odious Ps 116.15 but precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints death is exceeding dreadful to such who are obnoxious to its sting but the stroak of death is desireable to all such who are acquitted from and armed against its sting Death by violence containeth in it a curse A good cause and conscience make death a blessing with an emphasis and increase yet a good conscience righteousness towards God and the testimony of Jesus being the cause procuring the same maketh the most base ignominious and cursed death a condition of glory and blessedness the blessing of them who dye in the Lord doth most certainly eminently and especially appertain to such who dye for the Lord. Phil. 1.29 It is a singular gift to beleive in Christ but to suffer and that unto death for Christ is a peculiar gift of special grace all Saints share not in it attain not the honour of it Stephen stoned for enforcing the truth of Religion by the strength of reason Act. 7 55 56. not to be resisted by the adversaries saw Heaven open to receive him at his death The slain for the Word of God and testimony which they held are lodged under Gods Altar in glory Rev. 6.9.10 11. and before the Throne of the Lamb they are cloathed in white robes to attend the Lamb the most cursed and ignominious death is changed and made glorious to just men by having passed on Gods best servants most zealous and faithful Prophets yea the only and beloved Son of God the Lord Jesus our Savior hath made death every any kind of death the blessing of his people My Soul mistake not the nature of death unto the increase of thy dread mind the condition make sure of the qualification which changeth its nature and then death will loose its affrighting vizard and have another aspect in thine eye and thou wilt incline to give it a more free acceptance am I in Christ I am then redeemed from the curse of death can I dare I desire to divert the course of nature Beware O my soul who am I Shall the earth be removed for me Job 18 4. shall I think to alter Gods purpose or to change the course of Gods providence towards men shall I not be satisfied to be saved from the sting unless I escape also the stroak of Death God never purposed Christ never promised to free me from this why do I presume to dream of it to look for it Shall my dread of the stroak darken the glory of Christs love or damp mine apprehensions and esteem of the unspeakable undeserved mercy of being saved from the sting of death God forbid God hath extracted the poyson shall my stomach nauseate and rise against this cup onely because it is bitter Oh no I will rightthankfully take it as the cup of salvation and dismiss my dread and dutifully submit my self to the Will of God onely wise my most gracious Father O my God not my will but thy Will be done God hath accounted poor weak worthless me worthy of the Ministry of the glorious Gospel of his dear Son he hath at this time culled me from among my brethren to bear a special Testimony to his truth to the power plainness purity and simplicity of Christs ordinances worship and officers and to those degrees of reformation in this Church and Nation which have been protested and solemnly sworn to the most high God herein I have beleived for these I have spoken written and disputed and shall I now fear to suffer shall I now dread death the crowning act of all my zeal diligence and fidelity is not this part of the cross of Christ and so the glorious crown of a Minister of the Gospel have I any thing wherein to glory save the Cross of Christ and shall I fear to be seen in my Masters Livery the honour of my now expected death is an high favour a peculiar priviledge an effect of special grace and therefore sufficient to perswade me to be not onely willing but desirous to be offered up by death to and for him who accounted not his life dear for me Death in and for this cause is not more my duty then my dignity the more ignominious it is the more glorious it shall receive the due recompence of reward 2 Tim. 2.12 If I suffer with Christ I shall be glorified with him and raign with him I have all my days wandred in this world like a Pilgrim in a strange Country it is now my Fathers pleasure to call and send for me home shall I refuse to go in the hand of a grim Messenger because of his gastly look and affrighting countenance may not the same bloody hand conduct me to my Fathers House which doth cut down mine and my Fathers foes what though the stroak of death be the same to good and bad the sequels of Death are not the same to both the Red Sea may pass Israel into the land of rest and yet ruine the Egyptians the same Sheriff who doth execute Traytours and malefactours doth put good subjects into the possession of their proprieties though he be dreadful in the one his very posse comitatus is desireable to the other Shall I foolishly draw back fear to be possessed of mine inheritance incorruptible and undefiled because I must be brought and put into it with Halberts Bills Swords and the Sheriffs train and power My Soul chear up reflect on thy self Christ his love and Gods grace notwithstanding my many slips falls and infirmities I will presume to say I have lived the life of the righteous the Covenant of God is on my flesh with God I have desired and endeavoured to walk though I have sometimes wandred and gone astray like a lost sheep I have embraced Christ my Lord and to him I will cleave as to my deer Redeemer I shall therefore dye the death of the righteous although I may be struck I shall not be stung by death Death may pass upon me as the course of nature and as an expression of humane rage but not as the curse of God or execution of his Law Let me make it my care to see my quality changed whilst I live and then I am assured God will change the quality of my death when I dye SECT VI. IF I now dye as mens rage doth threaten mine enemies desire and hope my friends fear and deprecate and my self have cause to expect I dye as a Malefactour and by the sentence of a righteous Law
entertain such an exchange of objects to mine understanding is not my loss great and greatly to be lamented by which I onely loose the knowledge of vanity which would not make me happy and iniquity which would make me miserable but gain the knowledge the perfect knowledg of good much good true and substantial good only good without the least mixture of evil and that in an estate in the enjoyment of perfect glory SECT XII AFter death there shall be no remembrance of me No remembrance of me after death nor of my sin but it s no matter a great name foolishly purchased by the great precipitacie of some in the world is nothing but a great bubble of vanity which will wear out at last time will eat it out of the strongest Cities or marble Monuments and I hope when I am forgotten my sin shame will also be forgotten serious thoughts suggest unto me content the little good I have done should be forgotten so that my folly and wickedness may not be remembred and yet My soul be not dismaid the Scripture doth declare the memory of the just is blessed Psal 10.7 112.6 and the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance God hath provided that his peoples names shall live when their dead bodies shall consume in the grave the Lord hath used me whilst I lived as an instrument of his truth and honour can I dye and be forgotten in his Church or among his people shall not my works follow me shall not my works praise me in the gate can the sinners by me reproved or the Saints by me converted to or confirmed in the truth remember themselves their sin or duty and forget me God hath blessed me with many lasting memorials of nature a fruitful progeny I need not build tombs or Cities and call them after my name for when I am dead my sons will preserve the memory of my name the rotting of the name is a curse entailed on men of rotten lives and is ordinarily effected by Gods cutting off the budding race and hopeful progeny whatever hath befallen me in this life God hath not suffered this cause procuring or producing this effect to be my lot I will not therefore torment my self with a fear that it should follow me when dead Notwithstanding my sinfulness my care shall be that my life and death may make it legible that my name is written in the book of life and therein I have cause to rejoyce more then if the devils weâ—â— subject to me Luk. 10.20 I have laid hoâ—d on Gods Covenant he hath given me a place in his sanctuary better then a name of sons and daughters my name can never be blotted out of that book mine interest and relation by that covenant shall ever be acknowledged and remembred I therefore cannot possibly be buried in oblivion SECT XIII DEath will remove me from my place Death wil remove me from my place but it is movable that it shall know me no more it will so but shall this dismay me am not I a pilgrim in this earth as all my fathers were the Patriarchs passed their time on earth in moveable tents Looking for a City whose founder and maker is God Heb. 10.10 the houses in which I have lived have seemed to be more lasting structures yet they never were to me any durable stations I have not indeed removed my tents but I have been often removed from my tents I have ever been in a shifting state moving from one house unto another from one place to another and this hath been to me very tedious and irksom my Father did indeed raise many stately structures In Dublin in Ireland not one of all his sons possessed them or any of them the brick walls may bear his name none of his children do or can inhabit them God hath made constant motion my condition he hath wisely moved me from place to place that I might be in love with no place under the sun if I have liked mine house place never so well I have by one means or other been forced to leave it and that either because it was none of mine or else mens persecuting rage would not suffer me in peace to possess it or because my Masters work hath been done in that place and called me to another How often have I been forcibly removed from people whom I have dearly loved and from places where I thought I had pitched my tent and resolved to rest I digged a grave for my children wherein I intended to have been intombed my self and yet my dead babes are dispersed their graves are at a distance each from other and t is very unlikely my grave should be with any of them If Death remove me from my place it doth nothing but what hath been common to me all my life I will not therefore think it strange once more to remove my place but will readily contentedly pack up and be gone for this remove shall be my last remove for this remove shall be my best remove for this remove shall move me from Earth to Heaven and there I have an house of mine own a better house then any this world affordeth an house not made with hands an eternal house whose builder and maker is God a Mansion house prepared by Christ my precursor for to entertain me and wherein I must and shall abide for ever an house which time cannot waste or ruine nor humane force pull down or raze an house most pleasantly scituated accommodated with all conveniencies exempt from all annoyances and amply furnished with what may make it to me an happy habitation an house it is for which I shall pay no rent or taxes in which I shall not live a tenant at will but I shall possess this house fully freely and for ever being once settled in it I shall not desire to leave it I shall not be sequestred out of it and that which is worth all this house is mine own house mine inheritance purchased for me by my Saviour and passed unto by the gift of my gracious Father none can dispute my title or by an Ejectione firma force me out of my house My soul Shall I not be willing to go to and live in mine own house and that being so well scituate so conveniently formed so well furnished rather then in a strangers inconvenient house Shall I not prefer an house of Gods building before the best of mans shall I not chuse an eternal rather then a decayed falling ruinous habitation My soul be not troubled at this remove thou beleivest in God beleive also in Christ he hath said in his Fathers House are many mansions John 14.1 2. if it were not so he would have told us he is gone before to prepare a place for his removing people shall I not up and after such an harbinger to possess the glorious mansions of his most gracious provision Why is my remove by
death my terror my trouble this remove will transmit me into a station not more permanent then glorious I am removing to a better house yea to possess a KINGDOM A Kingdom not like the Kingdoms of this world not a narrow empty envied distracted divided shaken sinful transient and temporal Kingdom not a Kingdom subject to wars tumults fire famine pestilence ruine and desolation and yet with ambition men do seek with joy they remove into with difficulty and danger they obtain these miserable earthly Kingdoms but my Kingdom to which I shall pass is a spiritual heavenly unshaken united ample abundant undefiled undisturbed peaceable and everlasting Kingdom not subject to any invasion or usurpation to any confusion or commotions to any mutations or violent revolution to any alteration or danger Seeing it is the will of my heavenly Father to give me a Kingdom such a Kingdom and my Kingdom is not of this world why should I be unwilling to leave this world and to go to my Kingdom will any Prince desire to live out of that Kingdom to which he is heir Since O my God! thou hast given me a Kingdom give me a spirit fit for and desirous of this thy Kingdom Let me live and dye worthy the hopes of thine heavenly Kingdom let not this beggarly and these base appendants make me draw back when called to pass into my Kingdom Up my soul enter this strait gate into thy royal Mansion stoop under this cross that thou mayst receive the crown of righteousness and life the incorruptible crown of glory ambition maketh men whose portion is in this life most desperately daring to adventure their all for a poor Cottage-Kingdom subject to commotion shall not grace make me much more willing to put off my natural life that I may put on this living immarcessible Crown which cannot sit on a mortal head and to pass from an house of bondage through a red Sea to a land of rest and pleasure a station permanent and to a Kingdom of glory I will cheerfully remove this once seeing I shall remove to so great advantage and after this I shall remove no more SECT XIV DEath will take me from off my work Death wil end my work yea and my day after it Christs Church shall enjoy no benefit by my Ministry I must now no longer labour in the Lords Vineyard It is very true and this cannot but reduce me to a strait and put me to a stand what to chuse for if I live in the flesh the Church will reap the fruit of my labour that I abide in the flesh is for them more profitable Phil. 1.22 23. nevertheless for me to dye is gain I shall be hereby eased of the charge and care of immortal souls of the pains and burden of my Ministry of the fear and dangers which attend my duty of the toil and travel of all my labour and of the tiring brunt of my working day all which have made me often wish my day were enden and that my night were come There are twelve hours in the day Joh. 11.9 wherein men work and then commeth the night wherein no man worketh My day is not measured by my work but my work is proportioned to my day though I could by my natural strength I cannot work longer for lack of time when my day is done my work is done and shall I not be content with the end of both if my Master ease me of my burthen by ending my day have I any cause to murmur and yet The hinderance of my work shall be no hinderance to my wages Wages shall be sure my two talents well improved for a little time may approve me faithfull when my master commeth Matth. 25.22 23. and 20.9 and so will pass me into my Masters joy as certainly as if I had traded with ten talents and for a longer time he who worketh in my Lords Vineyard but one hour shall receive his penny as well as he who hath endured the heat and brunt of the day I have all my days stretched forth my hands to a stiffnecked and stuborn generation who would not hear mens obduracy hath made my ministry a work of difficulty and danger I have in it been often tyred and willing to lye down and rest yet I never durst look back nor take my hand from the Plough on which my God hath layed it but I shall now find my recompence is with the Lord and my reward is with my God shall I repine to go to him to receive it I will rejoyce I have been so long serviceable in Gods Church and an instrument to glorifie him on earth and it shall be my joy that I must now cease from my labour go home to my Master and be glorified with him in the heavens I shall when dead labour no more in the Lords Vineyard but I shall now drink my self drunk of the fruit of his Vine with himself in his Kingdom I shall no longer serve God on earth but from henceforth I shall sing praises to him for ever in the heavens though the Church militant must loose my labour it shall not loose my masters care he will thrust forth other labourers into his Vineyard and the Church triumphant will enjoy my company to enforce their cry Rev. 6.10 How long Lord before thou wilt avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth come Lord Jesus come quickly I have done the work of my generation what can I do or desire to do more I have dispatched the business charged on my hand shall I be unwilling to sit still and take mine ease I have delivered the embassie to me committed shall I not willingly return at my Lords command My soul bless God that he would employ weak worthless me and that I have done so much and such work in his house as I have done Let me be no less willing to rest and take my ease then to work at my masters bidding SECT XV. DEath will dissolve my being Death dissolveth my being and dischargeth my burden when I am dead I am not but it will also discharge my burden when I am not I am not greived my self my sin and my sorrow shall all cease together and at once better therefore is the day of my death then the day of my birth through all my life I have found little very little that is desireable but much which I may well spare very much whereof I may desire to be eased for the discharge hereof I may well bid death welcome What hath been my whole life but an estate of sin sorrow of pain and travel a condition full of cares fears greifs temptations afflictions crosses losses persecutions reproaches dangers and great distresses sicknesses and sinful weaknesses and soul-perplexities man that is born of a woman Job 5.7 is born unto trouble aâ— the sparks flye upward these are so natural to me and inherent iâ— me that they exist in
shall now lose the sent the grave shall be my burrough in it I shall be quiet I shall then be out of the reach of lust care trouble sorrow sickness temptation and persecution I shall now no more be heard to grieve or groan I will therefore be willing to cease to be that I may cease to be the subject of so bad so sinful qualities SECT XVI DEath will destroy my body Death destroyeth the body but not the soul be it so that is all it can do it hath nothing to do with my soul that remaineth immortal it shall be saved and set in Abrahams bosom â—n eternal happiness as soon as it is out of my body it shall be associated to the spirits of just men made perfect What need I care how it goeth with my worser whilst I have secured and it goeth so well with my better part my soul is an immortal being out of the reach of humane rage and the stroke of death What if men and death kill my body if God will not cast my soul into hell I escape well and much better then I deserve for sin had shipwracked me both soul and body I had forfeited both to divine Justice my soul being saved I live in death O blessed paradox oh happy state I not to dye in dying My body is but an earthen vessel I need not be much troubled if this be broken so that my heavenly treasure be secured and preserved my body is onely the cabinet I see no great cause to be troubled if that be lost whilst the jewel of my soul is safe Paul might well call on the Marriners to be of good chear in the tempest which tare their tackling and sunk their ship being able to assure them Acts 27. no mans life should be lost but the ship onely I travel with my soul through briars and thorns shall I wonder that I am pricked and that my cloaths are rent off me My soul is of such value that all is to be adventured and thrown over-board for its salvation What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Matth 16.26 my body is dear to me I will do what I can to preserve it but my soul is much dearer this must be defended by exposing my body to danger and destruction skin for skin riches honours pleasures peace all my natural comforts and outward blessings I would give for my life but these and life and all will I give for my soul 1 Pet. 1.18 My soul is redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ Christ laid down his life to redeem my soul and shall not I willingly lay down my life to keep my redeemed soul O thou the Shepherd and Bishop of my soul keep it within thy sheepfold untill thou shalt lead it unto thy glory I will not then be solicitous what may befall or become of my body seeing I am under a necessity of suffering loss I will rejoyce that my loss is not greater such as might have undone me for ever welcome death to my body temporal death which consisteth with the life and immortality of my soul and passeth it into the fruition of eternal life my soul may be saved by and under the loss of my body but my body could not be saved if my soul were lost Oh strange Oh blessed trade the loss I am like to sustain is mine infinite gain this loss of my body shall save my soul for in the cause of Christ and his Church he who would save his life must lose it Mat. 16.25 SECT XVII DEath will seperate my soul from my body Death seperateth soul and body but not me and God it will so but it cannot seperate me from God and that was the design of death it cannot seperate either the one or the other from the love of God in Christ Jesus I am perswaded neither life nor death nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present Rom. 8.38 39. nor things to come nor any other creature shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Chrict Jesus our Lord shall not this inseperable love to me meet with an answerable return of love from me and make me with confidence and resolution conclude tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor peril nor sword shall not seperate Christ from me as it is written for thy sake are we killed all the day long and accounted as sheep to the slaughter love is a principle of union it cleaveth to and looketh after its object in its most low estate and lost condition Death shall not make me to be despised or forsaken by my God This God is my God Psa 48.14 my God for ever and ever and he will be my guide unto death yea in and through the vail of the shadow of death his rod and his staff shall comfort me and 23.4 the Lord his esteem of and relation to my soul and body abideth as well and as much though not by the same acts and expressions of affection now they are seperated from as whilst they were united each unto other God doth triumphantly observe the faith and patience by which I endure the tearing of them each from other for the testimony of his truth he doth dispatch his Angels to attend my death and to conveigh my soul into Abrahams bosome to the immediate enjoyment of himself nor doth he disregard my body when divided from my soul or disesteem the dust thereof he causeth it to be mourned over by my friends and natural relations and to be buried with the greatest solemnity poor they can observe yea he loveth it and looketh on it as united to Christ though laid in the grave or dispersed on the earth all my members are written in Gods book Ps 139.16 not one of them must be lost or miscarrie they shall not be neglected my dust is precious in Gods sight not a grain of it shall be lost after it is sown in the earth it shall most certainly spring up as precious seed watered with the dew of heaven the word of the Lord to Zion and all her sons doth assure them and me that her dead men shall live together with his dead body they shall arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Isa 26.19 for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead My body remaineth Gods Jewel when it hath lost that lustre the soul did give it God locketh it up in the grave as in his cabinet God well knoweth my body is liable to danger in the day of his wrath against the inhabitants of the earth the grave is the receptacle from distress whereinto he doth gather it know my soul and body you when divided do abide objects of Gods compassion complacency and care enter into your chambers
they be such things is not eternity the very formality of them is not eternity that massie substance affixed to the exceeding weight of glory which counterpoiseth weigheth down and witnesseth the levity of those afflictions which we now suffer for a moment Eternity is the sting of sorrow but the strength of joy the horror of damnation but the honour of salvation the dread the dolor of the reprobate but the desire delight of the Elect the plague the sting of the gnawing worm and tormenting not consuming fire but the pleasure the lustre of the wedding garment and of the cooling refreshing streams of the waters of life My soul Christ my Savior hath redeemed me from the one and sealed me to the other of these conditions fear not therefore to go out of this body to pass through this red Sea this dark dreadful dismaying gulf into the Ocean of thine Eternity remember consider thy Lord long since declared strait is the gate and narow is the way which leadeth unto life I will by Gods grace stoop at this strait gate I will press through this narrow way seeing life so rich so glorious so blessed life is the end thereof to be enjoyed for ever The Conclusion § MOst blessed Jesus thou art the Lord of life and glory of thine own good will in compassion and pity to lost man thou didst leave the delights of Heaven and of thy fathers bosome and wast cloathed with mans mortal nature Thou hast subjected thy self to death to the most violent shameful and cursed death that thou mightest sweeten and sanctifie this cup in which all thine elect and Saints must pledge thee thou hast tasted death for all men Thou having felt the sting and encountred the strength of death didst conquer and triumph over the grave thou hast gotten thou hast given all that beleive in thee the victory over death thou art in thy Church and to thy Saints the first fruits from the dead thy glorious resurrection is our pledge and assurance that we shall not be always held under the power and dominion of death but that we shall be raised up to raign with thee for ever § I thy weak and worthless servant am under the expectation of death and if thou restrain not the wrath that is in man it may be a violent and shameful death under the dread hereof I look unto and desire to encourage my self in thee the captain of my salvation Be not far from me my God and my Saviour in this hour of my temptation but let thy grace support me under the stroak and save me from the sting of death strengthen my faith unto the full apprehension due application of thy death and resurrection to the curbing of my passions and check of my fears that I may willingly cheerfully follow thee through the vale of the shadow of death O be my God! my God and my Guide unto under death § Death is natural to man common to all men but its nature is changed unto some and but to some of the sons of men this dreadful Executioner of thy vengeance on the wicked is but a grim messenger to fetch thy children home this thy Sheriff executing Malectours putteth the heirs of salvation into the possession of that inheritance thou hast purchased for them and appointed to them the wicked dye when thy friends do but sleep and rest in their beds Be pleased O my Redeemer to know me and make me know my self to be one of that number to whom the nature of death is changed to whom it may not it cannot be apprehended or appear so dreadful evidence and cleer up to my soul and conscience that real supernatural change of quality in my self which may convince me of and secure unto me the contranatural change of the nature and quality of death to and upon me § Union with thy glorious self can only secure against the sting and encourage under against the terrifying apprehension of the stroak of death unite me O Lord unto thy self communicate to me thy grace that only evidence of my union with thee that assurance that only that full assurance that death shall not divide between thee and me death shall not seperate my soul from thee death shall not seperate my body from thee but my dust shall be regarded by thee my death shall be precious in thy sight make O my God the graces of thine holy spirit so legible in me that I may thereby make my calling and election sure and read readily that name that none can read but he who hath it and that I may be certainly resolved in my self that my name was written in thy book of life before the foundations of the world was laid § Thy grace O Lord hath been extended to me make me to see it teach me seriously to reflect it unto thy praise and the encouragement of my soul under and against the terrors of the dread of death I am through thy grace and abundant mercy called by the name I have been born within the pale of thy Church and under the Covenant of thy salvation I was dedicated to thee and thy service as soon as I was born thy covenant was then set on my flesh by baptism and I now bear it on my flesh I dare not with prophane Esau despise this my birth-right but must and by thy grace I will rejoyce that I pertake of the fatness of the Olive and that I am a branch from an holy root sanctified by and unto God Thou didst bless me O Lord with Christian nurture and education I have known thy word from my childhood thou hast seasoned me with and sanctified me by thy truth thy word is truth it hath been the delight of my soul and the direction of my life and faith Thy spirit hath been and is in me the spirit of conviction and of burning by it I see the finfulness of sin and possess with grief shame the iniquities of my youth and the evil of my ways and doings it lusteth against my flesh and draweth disposeth my mind to serve the Law of God when my flesh is forced to serve the Law of sin Thy glorious Gospel thy gracious spirit O Lord hath convinced me of and affected my soul with mine own guilt thy fathers wrath and justice and the salvation wrought out by thee and by thee alone I do beleive there is no name by which men can be saved but thy name most blessed Jesus thou art the true Messiah the only Mediator between God and man the all-sufficient Saviour of all that come unto thee unto thee O Lord I come weary and heavy loaden with my sin Oh give me easie pressed with a dread of thy fathers wrath plead my cause satisfie for me his offended justice be the propitiation for my sins oppressed with my lusts Oh save me from my sin subdue corruptions in me change my nature be to me a perfect Saviour for to thee I run on