but by dying and my Saviour hath dyed for me and he that believes in him shall never see death He lives who was once dead yea he lives for evermore and hath promised that I shall be with him to behold his Glory He hath the Keys of Death and Hell He is the Resurrection and the Life he hath removed the sting of Death and I need not fear a conquered Enemy If I dye this Year I must quit the Company of all my dearest Friends on Earth but I shall go to better Company above and if they are the Friends of Christ we shall shortly meet again and love one another in a better manner than now and never more be parted I may dye this Year my Friends and Enemies may dye too Let me enjoy the one as mortal dying Persons that must e're long leave me or I them and not fear the other who may so soon Perish and quickly be uncapable of doing me or others Mischief I may dye this Year let me not then think much of Temporal Sufferings of any Evils which may so soon be over Oh what would condemned Sinners in the other World give to be able to believe and say so of their Sufferings I may dye this Year and can I wonder that I am sometimes Sick and in Pain and that my Body is out of order Am I not Mortal and dwell in an house of Clay which must shortly moulder into Dust and is it any thing strange that such a crasy Building doth sometime shake and need repair and threaten a dissolution 'T is a greater wonder I am any time well That such a Body compounded of so many little parts and so easily disordered by innumerable accidents should be in Health is hardly less to be admired than that an Instrument of a thousand strings should be kept in Tune I thank thee O Heavenly Father for the many advantages of Sickness to weaken the power of Sin to humble my Pride and cure my Worldliness and Sensuality to reduce me from wandering to empty me of Self-conceit to awaken the consideration of Death and Judgment to impress the Thoughts of the Vanity of this World and the Eternity of the next to assist me to mortifie the Flesh to rule my Passions to exercise Patience and quicken Prayer and try my Faith and Love and excite my diligence to redeem Time and convince me of the Worth and Uncertainty of it and thereby promote my Preparations for my final change The Great Apostle by dying daily had as many victories over this World as he lived Days Oh that I might so far walk by the same Rule as every day to think of providing for my last and in Health to do that which in Sickness I shall wish I had done I may dye this Year It may be by some tedious painful Sickness some troublesome and loathsome Disease But God hath promised his Grace shall be sufficient he will make my Bed in my Sickness and put under his everlasting Arms for my support and not suffer me to be tempted above what I am able he will encrease my Patience and carry me thro' the pangs of Death and the dark valley and when Heart and Flesh fail be the strength of my Heart and my Portion for Ever I may dye this year What if it should be by an hand of Violence if for Righteousness sake in defence of the Truth for a good Cause and a good Conscience and my Peace be made with God and I am accused for doing well or innocent of the Evil which is laid to my charge there is ground enough for encouragement and support Thousands of my Betters have met with the like whose names are precious and renowned Innumerable Christians have dyed by the Sentence of a Judge with more Chearfullness and Joy than others or it may be than they themselves would have done by the sentence of the Physician The Torture of many Diseases is unspeakably more formidable as to the meer Pain and for all else the Righteous Lord who loveth Righteousness will clear my Integrity if it may best subserve his own Great and Holy ends at least he will stand by and help me when all forsake me and if he speak Peace and give inward Consolation who can speak Trouble and his final Judgment which is near at hand will distribute rewards and Punishments to all according to their works Suppose farther that I should want a Sepulcher after Death There is nothing I could better be without If God receive my Soul and will raise my Body at the last day whether it putrifie and consume under ground or above it is no great matter They who are alive will be more concerned in that than I shall be Graves are for the sake of the Living rather than the Dead The Sun the Rain the Air Birds Beasts Worms will all contribute to give me Burial if Men deny it The only difference is that it will be a little longer ere I am buried If my Soul rest in the Bosom of my Saviour and by persevering in the love and practice of the Truth I have secured my Reputation with wise and good Men I need not be sollicitous what become of my Body My Almighty Judge will raise me a glorious Body like his own and reunite it to my Soul As easily as certainly as for any of those whose Bodies were preserved in Caves and Vaults in proud Sepulchers and under stately Monuments I may dye this Year and shall not then have the satisfaction to see my Children or nearest Kindred educated and provided for setled and disposed of But is not the Everliving God the same cannot he as well take care of them when I am gone as now answer all my Prayers after my decease and exercise that Fatherly Care Wisdom and Love which shall dispose of their conditions save them from Temptations and supply all their wants and exceed all my desires in reference to them and fulfill his Covenant promise from Generation to Generation to the Childrens Children of them that fear him O how weak is my Faith that cannot trust God in so common and plain a case Lastly I may dye this Year and not live to see the ruin of the Antichristian Kingdom and Interest and the accomplishment of many Excellent Promises which concern the Rest and Peace and Purity and Glory of the Churches of Christ on earth in the latter days But have I not deserved by my provoking Unbelief Ingratitude and Disobedience to dye in the Wilderness and not behold behold the promised Land or see the Peace of Jerusalem and will not the struglings of Satan to support Babylon infer a dismal night of darkness and distress before the expected Morning of Deliverance so that it may now if ever be truly said Henceforth Blessed are the Dead who dye in the Lord. And if God will take me to himself in the other World I cannot possibly be a loser tho' I should not see the Beginnings of a
are intended to direct and assist him in I am perswaded he will thank me for putting him in mind at least of so seasonable an Exercise The greatest part of these Meditations were begun on a New-years day tho some others are thought fit to be inserted as tending to promote the same design But knowing how much easier it is to stir up other Mens Devotion than to command and keep alive my own 't is desired that the most devout Thoughts contained in these Papers may be looked upon as what the Author aims at and would perswade to rather than what he hath already attained as what he knows he ought to be and do and doth seriously endeavour rather than what he is and hath been heartily lamenting wherein he hath been Faulty or defective in such duties as these and the like Reflections do oblige to and enforce upon All who shall read them and therefore much more upon himself That they were Penn'd at several times and in occasional Retirements for Spiritual Exercises will with the difference of the Subjects be a sufficient excuse that some are larger and others shorter and that the Style is in some places more neglected than in others If I may hereby render any Service to the Souls of Men if any secure Sinner any Self deceiving Hypocrite or backsliding Christian be hereby awakened or any serious Believer's Devotion be quickned and advanced I hope God will accept it To his Blessing I humbly recommend it for those Ends. THE CONTENTS THE Introduction which shews from what time the Jews reckoned the Beginning of their Year of the difference between their Sacred and Civil Account The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the Year its Institution Nature and Design the Traditions and Customs of the Jews respecting that Day pag. 1 Sect. I. Of the changeable State and short Duration of Earthly Things especially of Man how little it is considered and believed how necessary it should be pag. 15 II. Of the Change in Mens Inclinations Opinions and Actions which one year shews How observable it is in Others how much more discernable in our Selves Honour and Reputation c. how uncertainly preserved and how easily blasted p. 21 III. Of the Uncertainty of Living to the Period of another Year The Vanity of this Life The Swiftness of Time and how to be improved p. 28 IV. Of the seeming Difference between so many Years Past and the same number of Years to come p. 34 V. The little Portion of our Time on Earth considered by a Computation of the Life of Man from the number of Years and Hours p. 36 VI. Of the Redemption of Time how precious and valuable a Treasure it is and will be thought to be when 't is too late p. 40 VII Of the Ordinances of Heaven Day and Night Summer and Winter Seed Time and Harvest their order and succession establisht by God is the effect of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness What they may teach us p. 45 VIII Of Evils to be expected in this Year the Wisdom and Mercy of God in concealing from us the knowledge of future Events p. 50 IX The supposition of dying this Year should be improved the consequence of redeeming Time and providing for Eternity farther prest The Folly of Elder Persons is condemned and checkt from the Example of Children 'T is adviseable to familiarize the Thoughts of Death and to imagine before-hand what Apprehensions of things we shall then have p. 54 X. The Brevity of Life considered as the fruit of Sin. There are but three ways of leaving this World as Abel Adam or Enoch A diligent improvement of Time farther prest and the neglect of it bewailed p. 59 XI Of the Expectation of Another Life The Vanity and Misery of Man in his Best Estate if there be none The satisfactory removal of that supposition by the Thoughts of God and of Eternal Felicity in his Blessed Presence p. 63. XII The consideration of the Death of others especially of Relations Friends and Acquaintance how to be improved What instructions we may learn by the fight of a dead Carkass or a Deaths-Head and the usual Motto on it and what by the death of Holy Persons to quicken our desires to be as they p. 70 XIII What Influence the consideration of Eternity would have upon our Hearts and Lives if soundly believed and considered Especially if the supposition of Dying this Year be annexed to it p. 77 XIV How a good Man may improve and encourage himself under the Supposition of dying this Year even in the most uneasy and undesirable Circumstances p. 82 XV. Of dying in a Foreign Country and of dying Young. Considerations proper to Reconcile the Mind to both p. 89 XVI The contemplation of our approaching Change may assist us to mortifie the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and Pride of Life to cure Ambition and promote Contentment p. 96 XVII The same Argument considered farther as disswasive from Worldliness and Earthly mindedness and as proper to confute the vanity of long Projects and great Designs for this World. p. 100 XVIII The consideration of the certain near Approach of an Everlasting State amplified and prest to inforce an Holy Life p. 104 XIX The Punishments of the Damned considered as Intolerable and Everlasting and as unquestionably Certain What the Reflection upon Hell-Torments may and ought to teach us p. 112 XX. The Eternal Blessedness of HEAVEN considered as the Perfection of Holiness to quicken our desires and endeavours after greater Meetness to possess it p. 125 XXI A devout Meditation upon the 73. Psalm 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee p. 140 XXII The Glorious Appearance of Christ to Judgment considered as Certain The Terror and Astonishment Confusion and Despair of Wicked Jews and Christians to behold their Judge and bear his condemning Sentence to EVERLASTING Destruction p. 149 XXIII Meditations of the Glory of Christ in his Glorified Saints and of the thankful Admiration of Believers when He shall come again from Heaven which shall be continued to all Eternity p. 159 XXIV Concerning the Examination of a Man's Heart and Life the Reasonableness Advantages and Necessity of it Some Direction and Advice concerning the Time and Manner That we may know in what Preparedness we are for ETERNITY p. 171 XXV How Christans ought to examine their Decays of Grace and Piety The greatness of their Sin and of their Loss under such a Declension God's Displeasure and departure from them considered to awaken endeavours of Recovery In what manner the Faith of Adherence may be acted by one who hath no Assurance p. 183 XXVI Confession of Sin Humiliation and Repentance must follow upon Self-Examination Advice concerning Repentance of some particular Backsliding The great Perplexity and Distress of a Penitent Sinner represented as a Caution against returning to Folly. p. 196 XXVII The necessity of Christian Resolution to Vpright
it and the Damned have no advantage by it And no Endeavours can be certain of Success For People will talk of us as they please and their Opinions very often change from one Extream to the other But he who hath the loudest Fame shall only be talkt of a little longer than his Neighbors and that by a few dying Men that must themselves be ere long forgotten And how small a part of the inhabited World is acquainted so much as with the Name of the greatest men in Europe And how different and contrary are mens Opinions and Discourses of them where they are known and talkt of And how many holy excellent Persons are buried in Oblivion or mis-represented as unworthy to live on Earth whose Names will be found in the Book of Life Our Life is yet as mutable and uncertain as any of theirs The Time is hastning when we shall be too old to Live but at any time we are old enough to Die. Our Breath is in our Nostrils and though there be room enough for it to go out we have no assurance that we shall have power to draw it in again III. Of the Uncertainty of Living to the Period of another Year The Vanity of this Life The Swiftness of Time and how to be improved I Now begin another Year But what Assurance have I to out-live it I cannot say how soon my Sovereign Judge may call me hence and summon me to appear before his Righteous Bar. O let me not defer my necessary Preparation for Death which may be nearer than I imagine Let me mind the Great things first which are of absolute necessity to be done some time or other before I dye This perishing Body which I have pampered and indulged at the expence of so much Cost and Time may be putrifying in a silent Grave before half this Year be past Lord bless this thought to awaken my diligent endeavours to secure the Blessedness of Eternity to mortifie the Desire of Great things for my self in future Years by the considered possibility of dying before the end of this Let me look into the Graves of others and consider that this may quickly happen to me and must ere long be my own case Let me think what this Body will shortly be when it hath been six or eight days separated from my Soul how vile how loathsome that I may despise the Beauty and be dead to the Pleasures of the Body which so easily so suddenly so strangely may be changed For no Glass is more brittle no Bubble more vanishing no Ice more dissolving no Flower more fading no Shadow less substantial no Sleep or Dream more deceiving no Sound more transient nothing more vain and more uncertain than Life on which all other things in this World depend My days are as nothing saith Job though they lasted above two Ages There is hardly any thing very Frail and Fading Mutable and Uncertain but the Spirit of God in Scripture sets forth the Vanity of Life by as if he would teach us by it from the Light of every perishing Object which our Eyes behold to reflect on our own Mortality We sleep every Night in the outer Chambers of Death And in some Diseases Sleep which is the image and Picture of Death is taken away to give place to the Original and make way for death And every year every week every day are hastening to our final Change which may overtake us ere we are aware Every day we lose some part of our Lives in our very growth from Infancy to Manhood our Life decreases and grows less Every Pulse and Breath doth tell us we are hastening to the End of Time and calls upon us to dispatch our Work. Every Word we speak is formed of that Breath whereby we live and we may not live to pronounce another Sentence but the Lamp of Life may be extinguisht and blown out by a sudden Blast Every thing we do carries away some Sands of our little Glass of Time and how little may remain Or how soon may the Glass be broke Our Souls are in our Bodies as a little Air inclosed in a thin Bubble how easily is that broken and where are we How many who are now alive in health and vigour who deliberate on their Meat and Drink and are curious of Air and Exercise to maintain themselves in Health and please themselves with the Dream of Years to come shall never see another New-years-day It may be not another month or week or morrow Many have promised themselves great things on the morrow but dyed before Night Let me not say I shall not dye this Day when I may this Hour and 't is but once for all there is no amending an ill Death by another Tryal When I lye down to sleep I hope to rise stronger and fresher and fitter for work but I know withal I may rise no more And may not my Name be on the Roll of those who shall next be called at least some time this Year Let me not then neglect or foolishly delay my Principal Business to provide against a Change which is inevitable but the time of it altogether doubtful Ought not my first and chiefest Care be imployed to make my Peace with God He alone can be my Happiness to his final Judgment I am hastening His Favour alone can give me support and Joy in a dying Hour To his Mercy I must trust when I leave this World and can have no advantage more by any thing in it that he may mercifully receive my Soul at Death and be my Everlasting Portion Do I know my Life is thus vain and transient and shall I not seriously improve it to such a Purpose Shall these Thoughts leave no Impression upon me Do I breath continually in this Element of Vanity and yet forget where I am and remain insensible of so near a Change Shall these Thoughts pass away as a vanishing Cloud and distil no softening drops on my Soul Shall the Image of Death which meets me every where be only like an appearing Ghost or Phantasm that startles and scares a little but is presently gone and no more considered O! let me now remember to make God my Friend and secure an interest in his Eternal Mercy while the Day lasts yea while my Reason and Understanding are free and not disturbed and clouded by Fear and Pain and the Disorders of the Body as commonly they are in Sickness if God should vouchsafe me that Warning which yet I may not promise my self to have for I may be cut off by a Sudden Stroke before the end of this Year I now begin And how great and necessary a Work have I to do in so short and so uncertain a Portion of Time endless joy or Misery will be the consequence of spending this present Time. My ignorant Soul must be instructed my carnal Heart renewed many false Opinions must be unlearnt and sinful Customes changed and powerful Lusts mortified and strong
Body an Hair a Feather a Vapour a Breath hath done it and when the Apostle James asks the Question What is your Life He answers It is even a Vapour that appeareth a little while and then vanisheth away VI. Of the Redemption of Time how precious and valuable a Treasure it is and will be thought to be when 't is too late IS the Life of Man so short and fleeting our Days on Earth so few and so uncertain how careful should I be to manage every Hour endeavouring to match the Swiftness of Time by my celerity and diligence to improve it I can have no Business of greater or of equal Moment to mind than to secure the Happiness of my Soul in another World. And shall I lavish my Time and lose my Pains about things unnecessary What will all other Business signifie in the end if this be neglected Is there any Interest more weighty that calleth me from such work Is there any thing else that so well deserves my Time That may be put into the Scales or weighed in a balance against this Shall Eternity which comprehends all Time have the least share of my Time allotted for its concernments How little a part of my Time hath been hitherto employed in such work How reasonable how necessary is it to redeem the little Inch of Time that yet remains but hastens to a Period For as there is no Covenant to be made with Death so no Agreement for the Arrest and Stay of Time it keeps its pace whether I redeem and use it well or not The greatest part of our Life is designedly employed to avoid Death we eat and drink and sleep and labour and rest that we may not die and yet even by these we hasten to Death Every Breath every Pulse every Word leaves one less of the number which God hath appointed me and carries away some Sands of the Glass of Time and yet how little care is taken to employ it well We seldom value it till we can no longer use it to any advantage and though we know it can neither be retarded in its motion or recalled when past yet of nothing are we more prodigal Yea how many complain of it as a Burden and know not what to do with their Time are exceedingly at a loss wherein to employ it what to do to be rid of it But alas how near is that Change when they shall think nothing too dear to purchase some few Grains of that Sand which now seem too many while they are passing through their Hour-glass How sad will be the review of our lost and ill-spent Time How different an Opinion of its Value shall we have on a sick-Bed or when our Time and Hope is gone How many Weeks and Days and Hours O my Soul have I trifled away in Sloth and Idleness in foolish Mirth and hurtful Company in vain Thoughts and impertinent Discourse in excess of Sleep and needless Pastimes Feastings inordinate Care to adorn the Body or gratifie the sensual Appetite All that which is past is irrecoverable and the little remainder flies apace How quickly will it be gone How soon how suddenly may an unexpected Stroke of Death conclude it And yet this is all the opportunity I shall ever have to make my Peace with God and prepare for the everlasting World. Did we consider it as we ought we should not foolishly throw away so much of it in Trifles and things impertinent or what is worse How much more might we redeem than commonly we do To how much better purpose might we husband it How much more work might we do were we never idle or did not loyter We might walk far did we not often stand still or go out of our way We see it plainly by the great and excellent Effects of some few mens Industry in every Age. Art hath found mean to set Spies and Watches as it were on the Sun that he cannot look out but they take hold of his Shadow and force it to tell how far he is gone that day and yet while we are curious in making Time give a just account of it self to us how little do we consider the account of our Time which we must shortly give to God Oh that such a Thought might effectually persuade me to redeem it that I may not tarry till the end of Time to know the worth of it Let me not undervalue it while t is given me to be used that I may not eternally regret my Folly when Time shall be no more God calls me to Diligence and Labour the Work he calls me to is excellent and the Reward glorious to know and love and serve and obey him in order to eternal Life and shall I yet be idle Is this the Use and End of all my Time And do I know it and believe it Do I indeed believe it and yet delay and loyter and waste my precious Hours in vanity Am I going into Eternity and entring into another World and know that I must be in Heaven or Hell for ever and have I Time to throw away Am I fit to die and to appear before my Judge or am I not Am I made meet for Heaven by pardoning Mercy and sanctifying Grace Have I the Earnest of the Spirit to witness and assure me of it Is my Interest in the Promise of Eternal Life as firm and my Evidence of it as clear as it may be made Am I not conscious to my self that much of this necessary Work is yet to be done And shall such an unprepared Soul as mine be careless and indifferent how I spend my Time VII Of the Ordinances of Heaven Day and Night Summer and Winter Seed Time and Harvest their order and succession establisht by God is the effect of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness What they may teach us WHen I consider the beginning of another Year I can hardly avoid reflecting of its several parts Summer and Winter Spring and Fall Day and Night and their alternate Turns This calls me to observe and admire his Eternal Power and Godhead Wisdom and Truth who is the Great Author of this admirable variety Who hath fixed the Earth whith his Foot and hanged it on nothing and setled the Luminaries of Heaven for Excellent Ends The Sun to Rule by day and the Moon by Night thereby to distinguish Times and Seasons to seperate Day and Night Winter and Summer and consult the convenience of Man and Beast by their due succession The Day is thine the Night also is thine thou makest Summer and Winter How wonderful is their Order Beauty and constant course that when the Sun withdraws and the shadows of the Evening cover the Earth with darkness to conclude the Day the Moon and Stars supply the place of the absent Sun during the Night and that tho they differ in length yet gradually lessen till they are both equal at the years end and have made the same Circuit How excellent a work of God is
by a particular decree of Providence Prepare me Lord and every of those in whose Felicity I more especially take part for all the Calamities and Sorrows thine infinite Wisdom shall think fit to exercise us with this following year and by thy merciful Providence and gracious Conduct cause them to work for Good Furnishing us with suitable strength and wisdom to acquiesce in thy good Pleasure and obey thy Will. Let me follow thee as the Father of the Faithful ' tho I know not whither thou wilt lead me Knowing the wisdom and faithfulness of my Pilot let me therein be satisfied though I know not particularly what course he will steer I thank thee O Heavenly Father that thou hast reserved the knowledg of future Times and Seasons to thy self and hid Events from Men Lest by considering them Certain we should presume in case they are Good or should despairingly afflict our selves by foreseeing the Evil we know to be inevitable Did we certainly foreknow the Good that would befal us we should not Trust in thee to bring it to pass or heartily implore thy Care and Conduct Did we foresee the Evils we shall suffer before they overtake us we should be overwhelmed with diffidence and Despair Many a Mother who rejoiceth at the Birth of a Son would mourn to foresee what a Man what a Son he will prove Such an increase of Knowledg would increase our Sorrow such a Prescience would transport and discompose us by unseasonable Joys and Sorrows born out of Time make us remiss in our Duty to Thee and weaken our Dependance on thine own unerring Wisdom Truth and Power IX The Supposition of dying this Year should be improved the consequence of redeeming Time and providing for Eternity farther prest The Folly of Elder Persons is condemned and checkt from the Example of Children 'T is adviseable to familiarize the Thoughts of Death and to imagine before-hand what Apprehensions of things we shall then have THe longest Life is but a day multiplied and who can certifie or assure me which will be my last He only who was God as well as Man could say Mine Hour is not yet come Is all my Life given me to resolve this Question Whether I shall be in Heaven or Hell for Ever And have I any time to lose and squander away as superfluous have I any more than needs T is no impossible or unreasonable Supposition to make that I may dye this year Let me admit that Thought and imagine my self on a Bed of Sickness wearied with Pain and ready to leave this World the Physicians gone despairing of my recovery my Friends about me weeping and all things in a doleful melancholy Posture suited to such a state feeling within my self the presages of Death expecting the final stroke in an hour or two more What is then the value of sensual Pleasures can I then relish or savour them what then is Honour to me who shall never go abroad more to receive it till carried to my Grave will it then comfort me to have lived in Reputation and Applause if my Heart was not humble under it and the Honour of God promoted by it can Riches and a great Estate support me when I am just packing up for a removal to the other World in that hour will it be any satisfaction to have made a stir and noise for a few years upon Earth to be talkt of for a while longer than other Men are these the things my dying thoughts will be most concerned to reflect on These dignities pleasures and possessions offered to a dying Man would rather upbraid than tempt him they come too late as a Princes Pardon to a Man whose Head is off Die I must and appear before my Judge to answer for all that I have received and done in the Body Fool that I was shall I then too justly say to my self not to have considered this much sooner not to have provided for it at a better rate my Sins stare me in the face my Conscience tells me I am not ready for such a Trial I have lived a stranger to such thoughts as now I cannot refuse and which should have been admitted sooner But if to such a state any hope of Mercy may be granted tho it be unspeakably little yet I cannot promise my self any such warning by sickness The sleeping Virgins were called at Midnight and so may I. Where can I pitch my Tents on Earth to be secure against a sudden remove Lord make these Thoughts effectual to prevent my loss of precious Time which at such a season will be esteemed precious though now it be not O how swift how short is my Time of Trial in order to Eternity how difficult how important a work is it to prepare for an Everlasting State What is all this World how little how meer a nothing to a departing Soul and shall I after such Reflections continue to pursue shadows and please my self with empty dreams when being so near my final Judgment the common wisdom of a Man requires me to mind it in good earnest and be more sollicitous about it than for any thing Temporal O in what manner will Death open my Eyes by shutting the Windows of Sense How shall I then see the nothingness of what is but Temporal and the reality of what is Eternal We sometimes laugh to see the vanity of little Children who are greatly pleased with painted toys and busily imployed about trifles It extorts a smile to see them eager and industrious and mightily concerned in their childish sports to see them fight or weep for little things which we despise to observe with what sollicitude and care they 'l raise a little fabrick which three Moments after they themselves pull down or would otherwise tumble of its own accord We laugh at these but should weep over our selves as the greater and elder Fools who are every whit as silly yea infinitely more so that considering we know the frailty of our present Life and can look beyond the Grave to another World should yet mispend our precious time on things which cannot profit and please our selves with what is so unsuitable to our Age and State and suffer our Passions to work with violence for a thing of nought and our greatest diligence care and zeal to be exercised on things impertinent and vain that are perishing in themselves and can contribute nothing to our Eternal welfare And is it not thus with reference to all that Men toil and labour for with the neglect of an immortal State The voluptuous Sadducee will not refuse the present gratification of his sensual Appetite because he is uncertain of another day Let us eat and drink for to Morrow we dye Should not the same motive quicken my Diligence in a better work and because my Lord may come suddenly as a Thief in the Night immediately prepare to meet him Let me now therefore O my Soul look forward to the end of Life and
Time and so let me esteem and seek and choose and do every thing in the first place which then I shall wish I had Let me do nothing now which I verily believe I shall then be ashamed or sorry to reflect on that by thinking what a condition I shall then wish to have my Soul in I may now provide my self much better than I have done hitherto That while I am in the greatest probability of living I may suppose my change to be near and so not dare to do any thing but what I would or might do if I were in the present expectation of death To this end let me go down to the Potters house descend to the consideration of my Mortality and dwell among the Tombs remembring the Aegytians built themselves better Tombs than Houses because they were to dwell longer in them Let every Nights repose serve me as a memorial of my last sleep and let my Bed stand for the model of my Coffin This is the only way to be dead to this World to be able to judge of things now as we shall do after Death according to immutable Eternal Truth X. The Brevity of Life considered as the fruit of Sin. There are but three ways of leaving this World as Abel Adam or Enoch A diligent improvement of Time farther prest and the neglect of it bewailed THE shortning of our Days is the fruit of Sin. All the Funerals that have ever been in the World have been caused by Sin. We dye because we have sinned and yet we should not sin as now if this were not forgot that we must dye From the first Transgression of Adam we derive our death and therefore some of his Posterity lived longer than he Which proves that the lengthning of our Days is the peculiar Gift of God and yet 't is such a Gift as was more desired formerly than since the appearance of Christ for we read of none in the New Testament since Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel who desired a long continuance here on Earth Were we delivered from Sin the sting of Death by having made our Peace with God in the Blood of Jesus Death would not be frightful or put on such a ghastly Vizor as to most it doth But we are uncertain of our Justification we waver between hopes and fears as to our final Sentence and are conscious to our selves that we are not ready for our great Account This makes Death so terrible Considering with all that it is inevitable the way of all the Living For tho' the curse be removed and the sting be taken out by our B. Saviour so that the Souls of Believers are safe and shall not be toucht by the second Death yet God hath not taken away the stroke of it from the Body Tho' a Christian is assured of deliverance from Hell he is not exempted from the Grave as his passage to Heaven Prepare me Lord by the free Remission of all my Sins and make me meet for the Blessed Inheritance by sanctifying Grace and then thy Time is best Thy holy Will be done No matter then whether my Death be violent or what we call Natural It will be one of the two for I can't expect to be Translated by a miraculous change as Holy Enoch was and as they shall be who shall be found alive in the World when our Glorious Judge shall come again There are but those three ways of leaving Earth and the Three first Men of whose departure we read in Scripture are Instances of all Three Abel of a violent Death Adam of a natural one and Enoch of a Translation The variety and order of their Departure as one observes is very admirable and deserves to be considered For all Mankind must follow one or other of those three Examples Every Man or Woman that is born into the World must leave it by one of those three ways Either be cut off by a violent Death as Abel the first Man who dyed or dye a natural death as Adam did who was the second or be translated as Enoch who was the Third we read of But tho' I know that within a few years at farthest I must leave this World by one or other of these ways tho' I have been dying ever since I began to live am Dead to the last year and to all the preceding Portions of my Time and know withal that what remains will quickly pass and be gone after the same manner yet how have I overloved this Body as if I should never live out of it and set my Heart and Affections on this World as if I should never remove to another and trifled away my precious Time and Life as if a change would never come That few do seriously admit such thoughts is too evident by the general course and practice of their Lives For to what hazards do Men expose themselves what pains will they take what Inconveniences will they bear with what unwearied Industry will they toyl and labour to get a little Money or Honour in this World tho' they know not but they may be called out of it before the end of this Year And yet the same Persons are remiss and slothful about a future Life negligent and unconcerned about an Eternal state careless and indifferent yea sottishly stupid about the welfare of their Immortal Souls Henceforward O my Soul whatever other others do let me resolve to live in the expectation of a Change which I know is certain and may be very near XI Of the Expectation of Another Life The Vanity and Misery of Man in his Best Estate if there be none The satisfactory removal of that supposition by the Thoughts of God and of Eternal Felicity in his Blessed Presence LET me retire a little O my Soul and bethink my self what a World this is what Men design and seek and do and suffer with what false and feigned Joys they are pleased being only happy by comparison and with what real Sorrows they are afflicted what innumerable disappointments sicknesses and as troublesome remedies dangers labors pains and calamities of all sorts Multitudes groan under and loudly complain of and what little unworthy ends are pursued by all that do not seriously seek Eternal Rest and how often frustrated And withal consider the Cares that disquiet us the errors that deceive us the many Temptations that assault and overcome us how busie we are about Vanities how often dejected and melancholy for the breaking of a Bubble how eager and industrious to pursue a Shadow active and in earnest to destroy our selves and one another and then reflect on the Malice and cruelty the Filthiness and Impiety and great Corruption which abounds every where whereby God is dishonoured and provokt to Anger After this what a Theater of Tragedies must this World appear what an Hospital of sick and diseased or rather distracted Persons How should I be tempted to say Lord why hast thou made all Men in
which they enjoyed first in faith and hope and afterwards in fruition Yea they passed through the dark valley and so must we Their Earthly tabernacle was dissolved and so must ours be We must expect to go the same way to Rest and Glory and wait Gods Time for our admission We must finish first the work which God hath for us to do and suffer and then all Tears shall be wiped from our eyes we shall grieve no more we shall sin no more but be as the Angels in Heaven or as the Spirits of the Just made Perfect XIII What Influence the consideration of Eternity would have upon our Hearts and Lives if soundly believed and considered Especially if the supposition of Dying this year be annexed to it WIth what Humility Mortification and Self-denial what Seriousness Watchfulness and resolved Constancy would every Christian live on Earth did he act alwaies under the influence and power of a confirmed Faith concerning the Life to come We should not then grudge at a little labor or boggle at a few difficulties in our way What tho' I meet with injuries and affronts hadships and inconveniencies Being now in a Foreign Country and every day I live one daies journey nearer my Eternal Home Shall I not patiently bear momentany Sorrows while I believe I am hastening to Eternal Joys Did I look more to the Everlasting World should I not make the pleasing of God in order to my Eternal welfare the great business of my Life Should I not serve the Lord with more fervency of Spirit and be better fortified against the fears of man who can but hurt and kill the Body nor that neither without the permission of God Should I not order all my affairs answer all Temptations mortifie inward Lusts live in the Exercise of Grace and in circumspect persevering Obedience in order to it Should I not watch more over my Heart and Lips and Ways be more diligent to trim my Lamps more crucified to this world more careful to call my self frequently to an account and renew my Repentance Would not my converse be more useful and edifying my discourses more savory and full of Religion my Prayers to God more humble and earnest my Charity to men more unfeigned and extensive and my preparations every way more suitable to such a Faith and to such apprehensions of an Everlasting State Could we carry the thoughts of Eternity about with us every day and often admit them in our civil and secular affairs did we repeat it frequently to our selves at least every Morning as soon as we are awake that we are near Eternity this grain of Incense would perfume the whole Temple and be an Antidote against inward Lust and impure Thoughts against the Infection and defilement of bad Company and the snares of worldly Business and do much to prevent vain and sensual actions and to cure vain affections Did we believe it and believe it near should we not take as much pains to secure Eternal Life as we see Men do to get Riches Should we not use the same diligence care and circumspection the same prudent foresight watchfulness and perseverance to prevent Everlasting destruction as others do to provide against Poverty and to live in Plenty a little while on Earth Should we not rejoyce as much in the promise and hopes of it as others do in the prospect and expectation of some Earthly Advantage Lord I confess and bewail the weakness of my Faith. How often have I concluded and said that Heaven alone is the place of Happiness and yet my carnal Heart is too much affected with Earthly Things How often have I resolved upon the conviction of the certainty of the Eternal World to mind this less and to affect and seek it no more as I have done and yet my foolish Heart is hankering after it still O crucifie my affections to things below and let the believing Thoughts of the next Life render me victorious over all the Temptations of this Pardon and cure the staggering trembling Thoughts of an unbelieving Heart by greater measures of a lively Faith. That my desires may be strong and urgent and my diligence and stedfastness in the way of Truth be some way correspondent to this important Article Let me live only for Eternity hope for nothing but Eternity design and intend nothing as my chief end but Eternity and seek and mind nothing in comparison with Eternity Did we believe it how would every thing in this World be lookt upon as eligible or fit to be refused as it is like to be an help or an hindrance with reference to Eternity we should then endeavour to do nothing unbecoming such an Expectation Considering this World as our Passage and the invisible future World as our abiding Country where we are to dwell for ever whatever we meet with here whether sweet or bitter easy or troublesome pleasing or ungrateful we should not much matter but as it relates to hereafter And were I certain I should have no longer time of Trial in order to this Eternal State than this one year which is now begun if a Messenger from God should convincingly assure me of it what would I not do to prepare for Death and secure the interests of Eternity With what remorse and deep Repentance should I reflect on the Follies of my past Life With what importunate cries should I beg Forgiveness How patiently should I bear Calamity for so short a time How little should I value the favours or frowns of Men How circumspect to improve every Season of doing and receiving good How careful to avoid Temptation and how resolute in resisting it Did I verily believe I had no longer time to live on Earth than this one Year at most how insipid would be the offer of carnal Mirth vain Pastime sensual Diversions idle Company c. how should I value every Hour every inch of my little Time under the apprehension that Eternity is at hand O my Soul shall I make no provision against the possiblity of such a case Is not my change as certain as if it were this year as if it were to Morrow tho' I am not certain it is so near nor certain but it may be Let me then seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness let me fix it well and make it clear that I have secured my great Concern and am ready for a sudden summons XIV How a Good Man may improve and encourage himself under the Supposition of dying this Year even in the most uneasy and undesirable Circumstances I May dye this Year then all my Cares and Fears if I am Rich all my Sorrows and calamities as to this World if I am Poor will die too I may dye this Year then I shall have no more Enemies no more Sickness and which is infinitely better I shall Sin no more I must shortly die it may be this Year but there is no other way to come to a blessed Life
spend my whole Life in Diversions from the main business of it Have I nothing else to do but to gather Shells if they were Pearls the absurdity were still the same and pile them upon heaps till I am snatcht away past all recovery Shall I be regardless of an Eternal State and run the hazard of being undone for ever by sollicitous care about pretended Necessaries for a long abode on Earth Much less for Superfluities when I am not certain of the Possession this one Year Shall I magnifie and admire what is so soon to be parted with Value my self upon these things so as to despise those that have less and envy such as have more and suffer my Mind to be distempered and my passions immoderate on every Change of these things Tho' I know besides my own Mortality that to inforce the Argument there is a principle of Corruption in all these things that our very Manna here in a little while will stink and Bread which is the staff of Life moulder our richest Garments wax old and rot Silver and Gold rust and the greatest Beauty wither and every thing that is Earthly decay and perish And shall not this teach me to sit loose from all such things Can I imagine that in my last hour it will be easier to part with much than little or better in the day of Judgment to have a great Estate to answer for than a lesser one We read concerning the Patriarch Abraham who rightly understood the transitory nature of Riches and his own mutable Condition that the only purchase he made with his Riches was a Grave chusing to take Possession of the Land promised him rather by a mark of his parting with it than of his possessing it Did I think oftner and more seriously O my Soul of tarrying here but a little while I should more easily be perswaded that a little of this World were sufficient to carry me through it I should consider more that my Heaven-born Soul is made and designed for another an endless World and therefore should not so far forget his own People and Fathers House as eagerly to pursue and seek what is suited only to the Body for a little while and whereof a little with Contentment will be sufficient The same Reflection may be useful to contract our Thoughts to present Duty that we may not perplex our Minds with long designs and Projects which if we dye this this Year will come to nothing Our great Business in this World is adapted to the little portion of Time which is allowed us Not that good Designs for the publick Benefit may not be begun by one and finisht by others or that we are not obliged prudently to provide for those who shall come after us by attempting many Things of probable Advantage to Posterity But considering the shortness and uncertainty of Life not only should the most necessary Things be first minded and not put off by prosecuting such designs as may signifie somewhat to others when we are Dead But we should not now omit that which we may hope to compass our selves to begin such things whose accomplishment must depend on the Pleasure of our Successors Consideration and faithful Counsel would in this case have prevented the fruitless Expence of many Mens Time and Money which if otherwise imployed might have turned to good account to themselves and others And this heightens our Folly that while we pursue great Projects in reference to this World and dye without effecting them our preparations for Eternity are neglected and so we are suddenly cut off in the midst of our Folly and all our Thoughts perish How easily how soon may they do so The difference and distance between Death and Life being no more than that of a Candle lighted from its being blown out and if it is exposed to all Winds how quickly may that happen XVIII The consideration of the certain near Approach of an Everlasting State amplified and prest to inforce an Holy Life IN this World we begin a Year and quickly come to the end of it and ere long the little number of our Years and Days will be expired But when Death conveys us into the World of Spirits the day of Eternity shall never be closed with an Evening Of how fearful consequence is that Death by which an Eternity must be decided What attention what seriousness what diligence what care doth the dicision of so important a matter call for ETERNAL what will be the next word O my Soul how much am I concerned to know it will it be Blessedness or Misery will it be Life or Death This one word is the Joy of Angels and the Horror of Devils the unspeakable delight of blessed Saints and the confusion and despair of condemned Sinners At the Creation of the World Time got the start of us and was five days elder then we but our Immortal Souls shall endure beyond the utmost limits of Time and last as long as the Everlasting Father of Spirits of whose duration there is no end Shall I then exist and live though my Body perish and see corruption Shall my Soul my Self exist beyond the Grave in Felicity or Misery and that for ever and according to my present Actions What am I then most concerned to mind What am I to chuse What am I most to fear to wish to do What is a shadow of Honour and Reputation among dying Men What are a few drops of fleshly Pleasure for a Moment to eternal Rivers of Pleasure at God's right hand What are the sufferings of an hour or two to the pains and anguish of Eternity What can the World Flesh or Devil give me comparable to eternal Life What can I suffer in the way of Holiness that may be set in the Balance against an Everlasting Hell And yet how often O my Soul how boldly how unconcernedly how foolishly do I hazard the one and forfeit the other for the Sins and Vanities of this World Whereas one prospect of Eternity should make every thing that is Temporal appear little in my Eyes the highest elevation of earthly Greatness abundance of Riches the great Affairs Business and Imployments of the World Pomp and Splendor and Reputation and all that now flatters the Senses and the vanity of Mankind Oh that I could but live as believing and expecting an Eternal State as having it in my Eye managing all my affairs with a visible reference to it discovering to all the World by my Behaviour and Deportment that I do in earnest believe it certain for be it never so Certain if I do not apprehend and consider it as such it will no more affect me than a Fable Neither is it enough to consider it as certain but as near for the most weighty the most terrible things apprehended as at a great distance will little move Thinking of the long Interval between the advantage of being exempted from such Evils for so long a time will please me
of God for ever and all the impressions of his holy Image and likeness and to know that this is the fruit of my own choice that I lost it by my own Fault and Folly that I deserved to lose it that the Sentence is as Just as it is irrecoverable Who can fully imagine the dismal despair of a condemned Sinner under this anguish of a Guilty self-accusing Mind while under the stroke of God's Almighty revenging Justice with a distincter view and knowledge than now of God and his Excellencies of himself and his own vileness and malignity which must greatly increase his rage and Torment Add to this his being inraged by the accusations and cries of wicked Acquaintance and Relations and his being mockt and insulted over and tortured by malicious damned Spirits with a clear understanding of that glorious Felicity he despised refused and forfeited with a deep sense of his former Madness in preferring the sinful Pleasures and Advantages of this World and this after so many warnings and invitations and calls from God to have prevented it never to be diverted one Moment from the consideration sense and feeling of his Misery and the duration of it to have all his Passions let loose with the greatest violence and nothing to satisfie them and continually to preserve an Hell of wickedness and Horror in himself and to endure the reproaches convictions regrets and stinging Reflections of Conscience the gnawing Worm which shall never dye who can conceive the unspeakable misery of such an accursed State So great Calamity and yet Everlasting How long doth one Day or Night now seem to a Man under some violent racking Pain in any one part of his Body tho' he be under the means for Cure and have his Friends about him to pity comfort assist him with the hopes of Ease in a little while and the certain knowledge that it cannot last long Oh what then will be the dismal state of tormented (h) Vide Mr. Baxter's Saints Rest part 2. chap. 4. Sinners in Hell How infinitely must it exceed the most terrible Idea we can now frame of it to languish out a long Eternity in that Gulph of Darkness and Despair under unpitied intolerable Torments without Intermission or hope of End Miseries without measure Judgment without Mercy Pains and Sorrows intense and yet endless without the least succour or relief relaxation or remedy diminution or change without a drop of Comfort without a moments Rest without the smallest beam of Light or the least glimmering of Hope Perpetually dying and never dead under unsufferable Wrath which yet will be for ever Wrath to come seeking Death and never able to find it but Eternally to endure all that Calamity which the Conjunction of Death and Life together can render dreadful What Groans and Cries will these Thoughts and these sufferings wring from their Hearts But no refuge will then be found no excuses admitted no Prayers no entreaties will then prevail no Tears move Pity He that made them will shew them no Mercy and he that formed them will shew them no favour 'T is Never Never that is the killing word that breaks the Heart of those hopeless Prisoners in the place of Torment When once deliver'd over to that Prison of Gods Wrath they shall no longer be prisoners of Hope Judgment shall be brought forth unto final victory and the Redemption of the Soul shall cease for ever The vain hopes of Sinners shall then be ended in eternal desperation Hell will be full of those who did once hope they should never come there and full of those who despair of deliverance from thence but shall suffer exquisite Pains that cannot be numbred or measured or endured but that every Minute of an hour will seem an whole Year and yet must eternally be endured by miserable Sinners who will not be wise in time to prevent such an intolerable Portion Let me therefore O my Soul descend into Hell by Meditation whilst I live that I may not descend thither when I dye and be shut up for ever in that Prison the place of endless Torment Might we but suppose that one of those Miserable Souls did let fall but one Tear in an hundred thousand years and if after he had by this means wept so much as that his Tears would equal the drops of water in the whole Sea his Misery should have an end this were Hope this were Comfort But alas after that Period his Misery will be as far from an end as when he first began to feel it It will then be but the Beginning of Sorrows which will never never never End. Think O my Soul that this is the Portion of the Sinners Cup this is the wages of Sin and the certain doom of final Impenitence and Unbelief 'T is no politick Cheat or melancholy dream but the express repeated word of God and Christ the holy Prophets and Apostles and the voice of Reason too supposing but the Immortality of the Soul and the power of self-Reflection the punishment of Sinners must needs be Everlasting as carrying continually an Hell within them unless God work a miracle to prevent it which there is no ground to imagine he will or shadow of reason why he should God hath pawn'd his Truth and his (i) Deut. 32. c. 40 41. Eternity to execute this Sentence of his threatned wrath He is a God of infinite Mercy 't is true but he hath told us how far his Mercy shall extend He will not exercise one Attribute to the dishonour and the disparagement of the rest That obstinate and impenitent Sinners shall thus perish is not because the goodness and mercy of God are not infinite but because his other Perfections are so viz. His Holiness Justice Truth Soveraignty and Wisdom Was it Wisdom and Goodness to annex such a Penalty to the violation of his Law and can it be inconsistent with them to inflict his threatned wrath Shall we suppose God to uphold his Dominion and Government by a Falshood to keep the World in awe by the menaces of such Punishments as shall no where never be executed Is it unlikely that God should exercise so much severity and is it not as improbable that his repeated Word and Oath should prove false Is it not a righteous thing with God as the Governour of the World thus to punish the obstinate Despisers of his Grace who slighted his Authority disobeyed his Law affronted his Soveraignty derided his Power denied his Truth contradicted his Holiness and joyned Issue with the Devil to pull him from his Throne who abused his Patience and Long-suffering and scorned all his threatnings who thrust away their own Happiness and would not take warning who burst all his bands asunder and broke through all obstructions and would not be stopt in their course of Vanity and Folly or so much as consider their danger who rejected his calls to Repentance and refused his Mercy when it was offered and preferred a
Lust before his favour and the Pleasures and Profits of this World before the Heavenly Glory and notwithstanding all the methods of his Grace and the checks of his Providence and of their own Conscience they will go on they will Dye Let me O my Soul adore the Soveraign Justice of God in all his Judgments and tremble at the threatnings of that Eternal Wrath which so few consider or believe till 't is too late Let the foresight and the fear of such an intollerable endless Punishment be a means to save me from it Let me herein read the evil of Sin and learn to abhor and avoid it Let me pity and warn and counsel and pray for those of my Relations and Acquaintance who live in Sin and run the hazard of this Eternal Ruin. Let me not envy the foolish Mirth and momentany Prosperity of the Wicked whose present joy must ere long expire and an everlasting Destruction succeed in its room (k) Joh. 20. ch 4 5. How short is the Joy of the Hypocrite and the triumph of the Wicked is but for a Moment Let me fear and dread every thing that leads to this dismal issue and improve every thing that may help me to escape it And by consequence let me less value all the Good and Evil of this present Life judge of all things by this light be patient under temporal Calamities and thank God that it is not Hell and thank him more that present sufferings do help to save me from Eternal ones Whatever I can suffer in this World let my condition be never so dark and sad and afflicted it is not it cannot be such but that every one of the Damned would think it an infinite Happiness to exchange with me and be as I am Let me think of those exquisite and eternal Flames to cure my Impatience under the sharpest Trials and Afflictions I may now suffer Did I believingly consider an Everlasting Hell * Qui non expergiscitur ad haec Tonitrua jam non dormit sed mortuus est S. Augustin I should not think much of any thing that is required to prevent it The severest exercises of Religion the strictest Temperance the nicest Chastity the largest Charity the greatest Self-denial all the hardships of Repentance and Mortification and continuance therein to the Death tho for many years more than I am like to live would be reckon'd easie as well as just if set in the ballance against the Eternal Mischiefs of the Damned What will not men do and suffer to prevent a Temporal Death They will endure a painful course of Physick tear out their very bowels by Purges and Vomits and are content to be cut and scarrified and to suffer any thing almost to save their lives But how little will they do to be saved from the wrath to come One would think they should have no Rest or Peace or be able to live a quiet hour till they had made some Provision against the hazard of this Eternal Destruction and look upon all men as their Friends or Enemies according to the help or hindrance they received from them in reference to it But the direct Contrary is every where apparent Men are careless and secure jovial and merry in the way that leads to Hell and esteem and love and chuse that Company that will help to bring them to this place of torment Yea such is their stupidity and strange perverseness that they will not suffer to be told of their Danger If you tell them that by such a Course or such an Action they will lose so much Money or their Lives will be in danger they reckon it an obligation will take it kindly and return you thanks But when they are told by such Courses and Actions they will lose their Souls and the Favour of God and the Hopes of Heaven and must Perish for ever this they will not receive they despise the message and scorn and hate the Messenger are displeased and angry at such faithfulness O bless the Lord O my Soul for any good hope through Grace of escaping this Intolerable and Endless Misery And let all that is within me bless his holy Name I have deserved the same endless and unsupportable wrath which Thousands are now under and shall be under to all Eternity but he did not suffer me to fall into it To be delivered out of those Torments after many years misery would be thought an admirable unspeakable kindness And is it not a greater favour never to be thrown into Hell which I have so often deserved How grateful would a damned person be to be freed from those Flames and plac'd in the same condition I now am in What a Life of serious self-denying obedience would he lead And hath not God done more for me Am I not more indebted to his Goodness He hath kept me out of Hell and offers me the Heavenly Glory upon reasonable honourable and easie Terms Blessed be God I may yet escape the wrath to come Let me heartily compassionate the delusion of those multitudes of deceived perishing Souls whose eyes are blinded by the God of this world who will not believe it till they are convinc'd by the light of that Fire which shall never be extinguisht Yea when I read or hear of Ten or Twenty thousand men slain in a War whteher of Infidels or Christians let me think of it with other apprehensions than formerly I was wont to do Considering that many it may be the most of these shall never have any Comfort or Mercy more fearing lest the same Sword or Bullet that gave them their mortal wound hath fixt them under God's Everlasting Wrath and that by dying they are undone for ever In very many other cases the Faith of this Article would rectify my Opinion and direct my Actions if seriously considered and improved This would make me think of Death under another Notion than 't is commonly considered For without the consideration of Hell annexed to it it is not so very formidable but that Heathens have been able to despise it The most contrary Sects among them on different grounds have been able to do it but consider Death as a passage to Eternal misery as the Gate of Hell as the end of all Comfort to a wicked Man and the beginning of an endless Calamity and nothing can be imagined more dreadful to a Guilty unholy Soul. Some of my Acquaintance it may be who died this last year are now among those Hopeless Despairing Wretches who expect the final Judgment of God to consummate their insupportable Misery If they were permitted to come and tell us what they suffer and what they know what a terrible consuming Fire God is what Vanity Lust and Folly brought them to this place of Torment what diligence they would advise us to while in a State of Hope to prevent the like if we have any love and and kindness for our selves any Bowels of Compassion to our own Souls what
implied in them What matter of rejoycing may it now give me to admit the Hope that my Blessed Saviour will say such words as these to me and bid me stand upon his Right-hand among his Sheep O what an exulting frame of Soul will such Expressions raise How shall all my Doubts and Fears and Sorrows be scatter'd in a moment and cease for ever O Glorious Day when my blessed Lord shall thus publickly acknowledge me for his own and plead my Cause against all the Accusations of Satan and the malicious Calumnies of all his Instruments when I shall be able to say of all my Sins and Sufferings as my Lord upon the Cross It is finished it is finished My warfare being accomplish'd being more than Conquerour over all through him who loved me and died for me and now is come to wipe away all tears from mine eyes as it were with the Napkin that was bound about his Head when laid in the Grave all being the fruit of his meritorious Death Then shall I have nothing more to fear or wish or beg I shall offend provoke and dishonour him no more or by my folly and scandal discredit his holy Name and Gospel but by consummate Holiness be fitted to rejoyce in his Presence and Love and celebrate his Praise for ever I shall never more lament his Absence or complain of his Anger never see a cloud on his Face or a Frown in his Look any more Now I must wait and pray struggle and strive labour and suffer desire and expect believe and hope c. but then perfect Rest and Holiness Love and Joy Vision and Fruition Bliss and Glory unutterable and everlasting shall take place All the Attributes of God all the wonderful Perfections of Christ will then be glorified in Believers and admired by them His invariable Truth will then be honoured which they trusted to and waited for for now they shall know and find they did not wait in vain They hop'd in his Word and ventur'd their Salvation upon it and now they shall receive the end of their Faith and Hope infinitely beyond what they ever expected or believed The Glory of Divine Wisdom will then appear when the Constitution Administration and Design of the Mediator's Kingdom shall be fully known in the admirable Order and Beauty of every part of it with the exact tendency of all the particulars to one Glorious End and the whole Undertaking crown'd with so blessed an Issue What is now a Mystery even to Believers themselves and hath a Veil upon it shall then no longer be so all the Riddles of God's Grace and Providence shall be plainly understood O how transporting a View must it needs be when the Glory of all the Divine Attributes which God intended to accomplish in and by Christ shall be manifest to his Redeemed Saints The whole method of our Salvation will then appear to be the fruit of unsearchable Wisdom when we shall all see the Reality and Substance and entire Scheme of all that God designed in and by him all that was typified of him and foretold concerning him in the Old Testament How will it all appear to be the manifold Wisdom of God! Ephes 3. c. 10. As in uniting Heaven and Earth together in the Person of our Mediator fulfilling the Truth of a terrible threatning in his Death and by the same way accomplishing * Vid. Mr. Charnock of the Divine Attribute Wisdom many gracious Promises satisfying Justice and at the same time shewing Mercy manifesting infinite Grace and Kindness by shedding of Blood conquering Death by dying and disarming the Law by Obedience to it c. afterwards subduing the world to the Faith of the Gospel by the foolishness of Preaching making men wise to Salvation by the knowledge of the Cross and spreading that Faith the more by all the opposition made against it c. How wonderfully will a clear View of these things discover and glorifie the Wisdom of God. But the Love and Grace of Christ the infinite Goodness and Compassion of God will then be magnified in an especial manner What but Soveraign Love in the whole Contrivance and Counsel of God about our Redemption What admirable Love and Grace in the whole management of that design What unparallel'd kindness in the accomplishment of it by the Sacrifice of the Son of God And how Glorious will this Love appear when he shall come again to give us the full Harvest of all his Purchase With what admiring Thankfulness shall Believers then contemplate the unsearchable Riches of his Grace In all the Parts and Instances of his Humiliation from his Conception to his Crucifixion and Burial in all the Evidences and Discoveries made of it from the first Promise to its Completion yea from before the Foundation of the World in the Covenant of Peace between the Father and the Son until his second Coming to Judge the World and deliver up the Kingdom to his Father How shall we then admire and adore his Powerful Grace which snatcht us as Firebrands out of everlasting Burnings that effectually shin'd into our minds by heavenly Light conquer'd the Opposition of our stubborn Wills Sanctified our carnal Hearts rescued us from the Tyranny of Satan and the Dominion of Lust giving cherishing and preserving the holy Seed of Grace and making it Spring up to Eternal Life defeating the malicious and subtil Endeavours of the Devil to destroy it inabling us to indure Tribulation and persevere to the end giving us Victory over Death conducting us through the dark Valley raising our Bodies reviving and reuniting them to our Souls and rendring them glorious like his own Body and at length rewarding our imperfect Services with Eternal Life Yea tho our best Services were mixt with Sin our holiest Duties spotted our most couragious Sufferings mixt with unbelief yet rewarded with a Blessedness that hath no alloy of Evil but all the ingredients of a Perfect Felicity and nothing to lessen and interrupt it How shall we then admire the Bounty of our Gracious Lord the Freeness Tenderness Riches and the exceeding Greatness and Glory of his Infinite Goodness and Grace to poor Believers With what Extasies of Joy and Gratitude may we imagine that our Lord will be then admired by all his Redeemed ones Saying This is He who made our Peace with God and reverst the Sentence of Damnation which we were under who bought us with the price of his most precious Blood bore the Wrath of his Father and submitted to an infamous and cursed Death for us He assumed our Nature that we might partake of his became the Son of Man that we might be made the Children of God for our sakes he became poor that we through his Poverty might become Rich He stoopt to bear the greatest Ignominy and Reproach to confer Honour on us He was for a time forsaken of his Father that we might not be so eternally He felt the stroke of his Anger against Sin that
Temptations overcome and many Graces to be obtained exercised strengthned and preserved to please and serve and gratifie an Holy Omnipresent God my Soveraign and express the Thankfulness of my Heart and Life to Christ my Saviour and is all this nothing Is not all my little hasty Time too little for such a Work to prepare for a safe and comfortable Death in order to a blessed Eternity IV. Of the seeming Difference between so many Years Past and the same number of Years to come WHen I look back on the preceeding Years of my Life how easily can I grasp them all at once they are even as Yesterday when 't is past But so many Years to come hath something great and vast which fills my Thoughts and affects my Mind after another manner Such is the difference between past Injoyments and the Expectation of future Let me suppose the same term and duration of Years and yet how different are my Apprehensions of what is past and of what is yet to come Things past by a remembrance of some remarkable Passages when they happened seem to be present with me But not knowing what may happen in the same number of Years to come I have nothing whereon to six my Thoughts Or the Reason of this Difference may rather be that Men in this degenerate necessitous State with unsatisfied Desires reaching after Happiness and sensible nothing present can afford it and knowing by Experience that nothing past could have done it are eagerly desirous of Felicity and because we know not but what is to come may procure it we hope it will which makes the Time seem long by reason of our Expectation and Desire of Good. Whereas the foresight of Evil and the Expectation of that some years hence makes the Time rather seem short and near at hand So many years to come in the expectation and desire of Good are long and tedious such Hope deferred makes the Heart sick even tho' 't is of that sort as must needs fail our expectations Prepare me Lord for what thine unerring Counsel shall please to order as to the remainder of my time on Earth and suffer me not to count upon a great number of Years to come since this for ought I know may be my last neither let me expect Rest and Happiness in this World which nothing Temporal can afford This is not the state or season wherein by any promise of God I am encouraged to hope it And if fifty or threescore years to come be thought so great a matter and really is so as to our stay on earth Oh what apprehensions ought I to admit concerning an endless everlasting State especially being as certain of the latter after Death as I am uncertain about the former whether so many Years be yet to come before my Death Let me not herereafter be so preposterous in any Solicitude Cares and Fears as to be anxious for to Morrow and yet be thoughtless of Eternity V. The little Portion of our Time on Earth considered by a Computation of the Life of Man from the number of Years and Hours THink O my Soul how short is that Life at longest made up of Years and Months and Days such little parts and yet in number few Well therefore may it be exprest as I find in Holy Writ by Years of number That is such as may soon be numbred When a few Years are come saith Job (d) 16.22 12. Ezek. 16. Isa 10.19 or the Years of number as in the Original I shall go the way whence I shall not return By the years of an Hireling which were not above three Is 16.14 We usually compute Threescore and ten Years to the Life of Man Let me suppose four score The Bed with most imploys one half and hardly one in thirty doth reach the Age of Seventy Years And (e) Winter-Evening Conference Conf. 1. they who live to such an Age do yet complain how soon 't is done Ignorant Child-hood and heedless Youth and infirm old Age may be supposed to take up a third part of that Time. In either of them very little of the great Ends of Life are answered We ordinarily begin to reckon our Lives from our Birth whereas for a good while after we know not whether we are alive or no but are beholding to others to make the account for us When we first come to the steady use of Reason or what we call the Years of Discretion how few are there but from the Prejudices of Education from the Corruption of Human Nature from the want of Experience from the Infection of bad Company how few I say but spend their younger Years in those things which afterwards they are ashamed of when Experience hath taught them the Wisdom of Men How great a part of our remaining Time is taken up in the Necessities of Nature about Food and Rayment and in lawful Cares to support the Body and how much more than needs in pampering dressing and adorning it Out of the small remainder how much is imployed in the concerns of a Family and near Relations in particular Callings in necessary Civil Business and in getting keeping or improving an Estate Besides all the Time that is spent in Recreations Visits unprofitable Discourse impertinent Thoughts Journeys Sickness and innumerable other Occasions some allowable some unavoidable and many needless After this how little Time remains wherein to cultivate and improve our Minds by Languages Arts and Sciences or the knowledg of a Trade c. How little then after all may we say is left for the matters of Religion for Devotion to God and serious preparation for another World Alas how small a number of Years make up the Life of Man and how small a Portion of that is imployed about the Principal Business for which we were born and for which we live We divide Time into Past Present and Future But the Past is not now ours the Future is not yet and the Present now is past ere the sound be pronounced And yet this is all the Time allotted us wherein to secure the Blessedness of Eternity How many Hours more of our little Time might be improved than commonly are by the Best In every Year there are 8775 Hours If we allow the greatest half for Sleep and necessary attendance on the Body and take but 4000 Hours for our Work and Business of consequence How poor an acconut can most Men give of all these 4000 Hours in every Year not one hour in seven not one in ten is ordinarily devoted to God and the purposes of Religion Should it not affect us seriously to consider this especially if we remember at what an uncertainty we are how small a number of Days and Hours do yet remain This Year this Month this Week this Day or Hour may be my last What an unsuspected Accident or a suddain Disease may do I know not But this I know that there is scarce any thing that hath not killed some
that quick succession to one another The supposition of a perpetual night is a dismal gloomy Thought O what will the Everlasting Darkness of the Infernal Prison be The Sun by day enlightens the Earth directs our motion guides our way governs our Travail assists Conversation awakens Industry warms the Earth and Air gives life and vigor and fruitfulness to all things under the Sun and makes the whole Inferior Creation to rejoyce An Emblem of God's universal Goodness who is kind to all his Creatures How admirable is its Lustre how glorious is its Light how loudly doth it proclaim his Power and Wisdom who made this and the other Lights of Heaven his powerful Word and preserves them hitherto by his daily Providence If God be now so glorious contemplated in his works considered in the lustre of the created Sun viewed only through the Windows of Sense how much more glorious will he appear hereafter when we shall see him face to face and nothing interpose btwixt us and his incomparable Light If mine Eyes dazle to look upon the meridian Sun in what inaccessible Light must he dwell who is the Father of Lights If this lower World the common receptacle of his Friends and Enemies have so much of his Glory vouchsafed them by the Heavenly Bodies O what a place will Heaven be where shall be no Sun or Moon nor need of any but the Glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb be the Light thereof While I thus consider the Sun and the Day I must not think the Night is useless which discovers another part of the Heavens not discernible by Day viz. the Stars and Planets refreshing the Earth cooling the Air giving necessary Rest to the Creatures c. their order motions aspects oppositions influences are all useful and instructive The agreeable mixture of Light and Darkness the regular succession of Day and Night within a few hours are exceeding wonderful and advantagious In other parts of the World where the Sun beams are more direct and its Heat excessive God hath made amends by the length of the night under the Equinoctial Line it is always Twelve hours and in the more Northern parts where the Influence of the Sun is weaker the days are proportionably longer So good is God to all his Creatures in all parts of the world As the Morning and Evening answer to the day of Twenty four hours so doth Spring and Autumn to the Twelve Months of the Year that we may not pass immediately from one extreme to another but gradually be disposed for so great a change as is between Summer and Winter and Winter and Summer So merciful and gracious and infinitely wise is God in all his Works so that we cannot say one part of the Year is more necessary than another The winter is as useful for the good of the Universe as the summer In this we are supplied with what is necessary to maintain us in that and the admirable situation of the Sun most probably in the Center of the World seems much to contribute to it If it had been at a farther distance from us our earth would have been in a manner desolate be cause the influence of the Sun could not have been considerable And if it had been nearer the Stars above would have wanted Light and this Earth under been burnt up The Excellent order which it hath now obeyed for above six Thousand Years is also wonderful The Sun never stood still but once and that by a miracle Tho much inferior to that of its daily Progress What a subject is here to admire the Power Goodness Wisdom and Faithfulness of God Lord what is Man for whom thou dost all this And because I find every year that the Day dies into Night the Summer into Winter and herbs and plants lose their beauty and verdure and shed their blossoms may I not hence learn to consider and prepare for my own approaching Change In prosperity health and ease and life to expect and make provision for trouble sickness pain and Death as every wise man in Summer would do for Winter and work all my might while it is called to day while the Light continues because the Night of darkness is at hand when none can work VIII Of Evils to be expected in this Year the Wisdom and Mercy of God in concealing from us the knowledge of future Events NOt only few and uncertain but Evil likewise are the days of the Years of my Life may every one say with the Patriarch Jacob. A sufficient portion of Evil for every year may well be expected when our Lord tells us there is a certain measure allotted for every day Sufficient to the day is the evil of it Not only is our Life short but troublesome full of vexatious Mixtures We cannot sing a Requiem to our Souls when one great Calamity is past for we know not in this Region of Changes but another a greater may be at hand One Messenger of ill News may succeed and out-do another as it was with Job We come weeping into the World in a most helpless forlorn state and if we escape the dangers of Infancy and the casualties of Childhood and after that out-live the Snares and Follies of Youth We are tost upon the Pikes of Time and Chance and sadden and disquiet our selves with a thousand Griefs and Sorrows by inevitable and unexpected occasions though we increase the number of needless Cares and Fears and Discontents Till at length a sudden stroke arrests us we fetch a groan and die Who can give a Catalogue of the Afflictions and Calamities Perplexities and Disappointments Incumbrances Crosses and evil Accidents of Humane Life By means whereof Millions are disconsolate and sad mourn and complain weep and sigh and from day to day are fed with the Bread of Affliction and the water of Adversity Not to mention mens fluctuating restless Thoughts of Heart importunate Desires baffled Projects defeated Purposes which suppose or bring vexation A good share of these is not to be avoided and yet very few can be particularly foreseen Who could prognosticate a year ago the Mercies or the Evils which have happened since Publick and private personal and relative to the Countries Cities Families and Persons we are concerned for And who can certainly foretel the Events of this ensuing Year God hath intermixt Good and Evil in the Life of Man He hath set Prosperity against Adversity saith Solomon to the end that Man should find nothing after him Eccles 7.14 that he may not know what shall come next whether a Prosperous or a Calamitous Event What a change may be made in a year by the meer Casualty of humane Events by the treachery of Friends or the malice of Enemies or the more immediate Hand of God We know not what shall be on the Morrow much less what a twelve Month may produce Because whatever may be disposed to happen from natural causes or civil counsels may be altered
vain If I could not look from this Sea of troubles to the Haven of Rest from this dark Prison to the Region of Light from this deceitful troublesome and defiling Earth to a Blessed Everlasting Heaven For verily if there be no World but this every Man in his best Estate in this World is altogether Vanity Selah Psal 39.5 'T is a certain undoubted Truth the prefixed verily tells us so and that it deserves to be well considered we learn from the concluding Selah Every Man is Vanity Not the Inferior parts of the Creation only But Man the Lord of all And Every Man every Adam from himself to the last Man that shall by ordinary Generation descend from him Not the Ignorant Poor or Wicked only but all the Individuals of this Species Young or Old strong or weak beautiful or deformed rich or poor high or low good or bad in respect of the Body and this present Life every one is vanity and this is true suppose him in his Best Estate not only in helpless Infancy and Childhood or in decrepit old Age not only in pain and poverty and disgrace but in his most setled most flourishing most envied and admired condition upon Earth in the midst of strength and wit and honour when at best as to body and mind and outward Circumstances when he looks fairest when he shines brightest in the height of all his Glory with the greatest likelihood of a Continuance yet then he is but vanity In his frame in his temper constitution inclinations actions and imployment he is a meer Shadow an empty mutable inconsiderable thing and not to be accounted of His Heart his head his imaginations reasonings desires purposes projects hopes and fears are all Vanity and altogether Vanity in all the parts and kinds and particulars of it He not only may be but he is so in his best Estate if this World be his Best if this be our All and nothing more to be expected after death And how should such a Reflection strike me to the Heart to suppose that after a few years are ended I must return to my first Nothing and my very being be (f) Vid. Mr. How 's vanity of Man as mortal swallowed up of Eternal Death what satisfaction can I then take in any present Enjoyments if an Eternal Annihilation be at hand when I must bid adieu for ever to all that I now possess What delight can I have in the ordinary comforts of Life with this Belief that within a year or two it may be to Morrow I shall sink into the dust and exist no more What Pleasure in any thing with this dismal Expectation The more flourishing my condition is in this World the more should I dread to lose it if nothing better nothing at all can be injoyed after Death Some Philosophers have ignorantly urged such a consideration as an Antidote against the fear of death but the admission of it may rather deprive a Man of all the comfort of Life What then is the advantage of a Wise Man above a Fool the exercise and improvement of our noblest Faculties would render us more miserable than others if nothing be expected and certain when this Life is over Not only sensual but intellectual Pleasures would be disturbed and destroyed by such Thoughts that very shortly the next Year or Day I must disappear and all my Injoyments and Hopes be utterly and for ever lost with my very Being Were the case thus which such Consequences evince it is not it were better for most Men they had never been Born whether their condition here be Prosperous or Afflicted For what Comfort or quiet can any Man have in Plenty and Prosperity when this frightful apprehension of an approaching end is ever present and what consolation can it yield a Man who is afflicted and Calamitous and yet loves his Life above all things to think that he shall not cease to be miserable but by ceasing to be And what is become of all Religion if such a thought be entertained All devotion to God is thereby extinguisht all the restraints of vice removed the Flood-gates of Impiety opened the encouragements of Vertue the rewards of Holiness the Foundation of Tribulation and suffering for Righteousness sake all at once taken away Lord confirm my Belief of the invisible future state of Rewards and Punishments and let not Sadducism and Infidelity damp my zeal in thy service or rob me of the comforts of this Life which if I have any solid ones must suppose the hopes of a Better Let others therefore O my Soul who expect not an Everlasting Heaven beyond the Grave place their affections on Earthly things and mind this World as if there were no betrer no other Let them who doubt or disbelieve the promised rewards of Eternity take up with what they must shortly leave and labour for the Bread that perisheth But since I profess to believe and seek the Life Everlasting let me daily entertain my self with the hopes of it and let all the flattering dreams of what is desirable upon Earth give place to nobler and better thoughts Let me derive my principal Joy from the promise and expectation of that future Felicity and endeavour nothing more than a meetness to partake of it O my God my God! thou art my Life and Joy and Portion in thee and in thy love all my desires and hopes are answered and all my wants supplied However Evil this World is made by Sin yet thou art the infinite and supream Good. How mutable how uncertain how perishing soever are all sublunary things yet thou art the rock of Ages the fountain of everlasting Life and hast appointed another World and another Life when this is ended wherein thou wilt be better known and loved and served and honoured and communicate thy self more abundantly than now to those the desire of whose Souls is towards thee that believe and love thee that partake of thine Image and are devoted to thy Fear The assurance of this and nothing else will answer the objection of the present vanity and misery we are subject to XII The consideration of the Death of others especially of Relations Friends and Acquaintance how to be improved What instructions we may learn by the sight of a dead Carkass or a Deaths Head and the usual Motto on it and what by the Death of Holy Persons to quicken our desires to be as they HAth divine Patience added one year more to the number of my Days when so many others were removed by Death the last Year Others whom a few Months since I knew in vigorous health wiser stronger more likely to live and to answer the ends of Life than me some of them my near Relations and useful Friends in whose converse I took delight and promised my self advantage by their Company and Examples But they are taken and I am left Thy Holy Will O Lord is done and they who were prepared are infinite Gainers by this
my loss Quicken my preparations by following their Piety to meet them in thy Heavenly Kingdom Let thy long-suffering lead me to Repentance and suffer me not to slight thy warning by the Death of others to expect my own Lord cure my Earthly-mindedness and practical unbelief and by all such admonitions of thy Providence teach me to possess and use this World as knowing I must shortly leave it and let not the thoughts of my Mortality wear off assoon as the Funeral of my Friends is over Every year some or other of our Acquaintance drop into the Grave we attend them thither and lament it may be for a few days their departure and removal but consider not that others will e're be long do the same for us it may before this year is ended Oh how soon do we forget our deceased Friends and our selves who are likewise dying and count upon a long Life which we cannot reasonably expect and hug the enjoyments of this transitory World as if our present state would last for ever Will nothing but our own dissolution effectually convince us of our mistake and folly in this particular Though the Arrows of Death flye continually round about us sometimes over our Heads when Superiours are taken away sometimes fall at our Feet when Children and Servants and Inferiours die sometimes on our Left hand when an Enemy is cut off and while I am pleased with that in that very hour it may be another Arrow on our Right hand strikes the Friend of our Bosom and Delight And can we see all this that great and small high and low friends and foes are all Vanity and drop down dead round about us and shall we not consider that we are as Vain as they and must shortly follow Shall we not by a Christian Chymistry extract Spirits out of these dead Bones and by these Examples learn the End of all Men and lay it to Heart Whenever I see the Funeral of another let me think thus with my self why might not I have been that Man or Woman that is now carried to the Grave If we had been compared a few days since 't is probable I should have been thought as likely to have been his Monitor by dying first as he mine By such an improvement of these warnings the request of the rich Man to Abraham were in great measure granted for 't is a call from the dead that speaks loudly to us to consider our selves and prepare in time for so great a change and say as the Prophet to Hezekiah Set thine house in order for thou shalt dye Can we look upon a Deaths Head and not remember what we shall shortly be may not much be learnt from its common Motto Sum quod Eris Fueramque quod Es. I am that which thou shalt shortly be and have been that which thou art now that is I have been as gay and jocund as brisk and merry as proud and vain as rich and great as careless and secure as honourable and as much esteemed as beautifull and as well beloved as witty and as learned as Thou art or canst be now I valued my self as much upon my Estate and Trade and health and beauty upon my Education Profession Imployments Parts Friends Family c. as thou hast ever done or canst do I lived in ease and pleasure in mirth and jollity I minded the World as much and indulged my self as much in sensuality and was as careful of my Body pampered and pleased my Flesh as much as thou and thought as little of a sudden Death and prepared as little for such a change as thou dost but now my dry Bones are lookt upon with contempt and scorn but thou shalt shortly return to dust and be as vile as I am It cannot but affect us did we consider it to see divers snatch'd away in their Youth and outward Prosperity and in the midst of their Sin and Folly without any visible signs of true Repentance Or in terrible anguish and horror for their past crimes And yet how few do take the warning carefully to prevent the like unhappiness O Lord preserve those strong Convictions those serious Thoughts those holy Resolutions those lively Apprehensions of the Life to come of the Evil of sin and the Terrors of thy wrath which the Sight of dying persons hath at any time awakened in my soul O the Eloquence of a dying Sinner to persuade to Repentance Even when he hath lost his Speech and lies gasping and trembling on a bed of sickness breathing out his last faint breath and passing into the other world to answer for the crimes and follies of a wicked Life Lord revive these thoughts upon my soul and let me feel the power and influence of them in the hour of Temptation and in every time of need And let the consideration of the death of Believers the Blessedness they are thereby entred into and the Holiness they are possessed of quicken my desires and diligence to prepare to follow When I think where they are and what they are doing what is their work and what their state what their continual imployment and what their Injoyments and how different from ours I cannot but wish to be with them to be as they are and do as they do to know and love and praise God as they They are not hindred by such a clog as this Body is to us or tempted by their senses appetite and fancy to sin against him they complain not of a seducing flesh unruly passions low and disordered thoughts of Temporal Afflictions spiritual Desertions the snares of the World and the malice and subtility of the Devil We who are Pilgrims and Travellers are exposed to these difficulties and storms which they are freed from They are now rejoycing in the light of Gods countenance and shall never question his love more while we are in Tears and Sorrows groaning to be delivered But think O my soul that They were lately such as We are now They were members of the militant Church before they entred into Joy and Triumph They had their conflicts and difficulties their hour of Temptation and time of trial as we have ours They were slandered and persecuted and sadned and disappointed as their Followers are They went to Heaven the same way and got the victory after the same manner by Repentance and Faith and humble persevering Obedience They were once imperfect as we are now and complained of the Body of Sin and Death and struglings of unmortified lust as we do And were sometimes in the dark about their interest in the promise and walked heavily by the hiding of Gods face and indured Temptation even as we And as we have nothing to do or suffer but what they met with we have the same encouragement that administred to their support the same God and Saviour the same way and rule the same assistance by the aids of his H. Spirit offered to us the same promises and the same rewards proposed
New Heaven and a New Earth in this However I rejoyce in Hope and pray incessantly for the Resurrection of the Witnesses and the rebuilding of Sion and the more plentiful effusion of the H. Spirit the great comprehensive Promise of the later Times to effect a glorious Kingdom for Christ on Earth and my Faith assures me I shall hereafter see the Son of God revealed from Heaven cloathed with Majesty sitting on a Cloud leading the Heavenly Host raising the Dead by his powerful Voice summoning all the World to appear to Judgment gathering his Elect and finally destroying Death and him that had the Power of it the Devil condemning the wicked to Everlasting Destruction but acquitting honouring and rewarding his poor Members with infinite and Eternal Blessedness XV. Of Dying in a Foreign Country and of Dying Young. Considerations proper to Reconcile the Mind to both I May not live to the end of this Year God in his Providence having called me abroad I may never see my Native Country more Let me still remember O my Soul that wherever I am I am travelling towards the Grave and passing to another World that I may live in all Places as a Pilgrim and Stranger here on Earth with Affections suited to my condition becoming one who is travelling in a Strange Land. Let me bear the Inconveniences I may meet with in this World as Strangers in their Travels are wont to do Let me not repine at the ill accomodations of an Inn where I am to lodge but a night or two but encourage my self with the assurance of better Entertainment at home when my Pilgrimage is ended and my Journey over One of my dearest Holy Friends and Fellow Travellers whose memory will be ever precious (g) Mr. Thomas Bent who dyed at Geneva May 10. 1683. with those who knew him quickly arrived to his Journeys end and is entred into Rest betimes Which of his Companions shall next follow we know not or how soon Lord make me apprehend the nearness of my change in every place and if I am prepared for dying no matter where it be There is no one Country farther from the Presence of God than another The whole World may be considered as one Great House and the several Kingdoms and Countries of it but as different Apartments in the same House and they who tarry at home are no more exempt from Death than they who travel abroad The Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof I can go no where to be out of his Territories I shall still tread upon my Fathers's Ground I had rather be an Israelite in a Wilderness with the Presence of God than a Courtier in Idolatrous Aegypt Abraham the Father of the Faithful and the friend of God was banished from his own Country and should I never set foot again on my native Soyl there is no reason of murmuring against my God who hath dealt thus with many of his Favourites And while I have been in a strange Land he hath not suffered me to feel the wants and necessities and heart of a Stranger Among a People of a strange Language he can and doth provide for me all things richly to enjoy I may set up my Ebenezer Hitherto hath God supplied all my wants The Presence of my Gracious Father is every where the same in some measure Blessed be my God I have hitherto found it so And may I not rejoice in God in a Desert though all the World should forsake me though all the World should be against me Should I have no other Friend or Helper is not God an infinite God Enough and without his Favour and Presence what can all this World do for me If I am sick and in danger of Death among my Relations and Friends if the comforts of the Almighty do not refresh and delight my Soul they cannot and if I want not these in my last Agonies no matter in what part or corner of the Earth I breath my last If the word and promise of God be my Foundation an holy Hope my Anchor Christ my Pilot and Heaven my Country I shall not fail of being landed there at last Suffer me not to forsake thee O Heavenly Father while I live and do not thou forsake me in my last Hour and let it come when and where thou wilt If my blessed Saviour will receive my departing Soul at Death I am not sollicitous in what Country or part of the Earth it be And that I may not be unwilling in the flower of my Age and Time in Youth and Strength to leave this World let me think often that no one age or part of Life is more priviledged against the stroke of Death than another If I have done my work betimes as my deceased Fellow Traveller had is it not better to receive the Blessed Recompence than to tarry longer in a World of Sin and Suffering absent from the Lord Shall I not thereby escape a multitude of Temptations Sins and Sorrows which others by living longer are exposed to If my Peace be made with God what should make me willing to live at this distance from him What should render this World so desirable where God is so dishonoured where I am so often tempted to displease him and so often yield to such Temptations And may I not fear lest I should fall into such scandalous and grievous sins that may bring a publick reproach on the Gospel of Christ and sadden the Hearts of all my Acquaintance who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity By dying early I shall contract less guilt and commit less Sin and see and feel less Sorrow than others who live longer And tho' I should maintain my Integrity yet in this World my highest love and obedience to God and my sweetest Communion with him is but imperfect How many impediments and Diversions do I daily meet with that deaden my Heart to Heavenly Contemplations and Affections What disappointments and sorrowful disasters to convince me that this is not the place of Rest and Happiness What smart afflictions may some of my Relations prove What dangerous Snares may attend me in the remaining Portion of my Time What Opposition and Hatred from Men may the stedfast professing of the Truth and fidelity to God expose me to What publick national Calamities may I have my share in c. But if I consider old Age it self which we do desire to reach what and how many are the Infirmities and Griefs and troublesome Circumstances which attend that State which dying young will prevent Are not most Men who reach a very great old Age helpless objects of Pity A Burthen to themselves and to all about them And which commonly happens may I not then be as unwilling to dye as at present As loth then to leave the World as now tho' in a manner it will have left me For how many old Men past the relish of sensual Pleasures are yet inordinately fond of a longer Life Have
I not been told by Heathens as well as Christians that 't is not the length of time but its improvement that doth really make a Long Life If I have answered the ends for which I were born 't is not too soon to dye No Man ever miscarried as to his Everlasting Interest because his Life was short but Evil. He that is prepared for Death he that dies in the Lord hath lived long enough and should thank God for a speedy call to the possession of that Felicity which the Holiest Saints on Earth desire and breath after Gideon lost nothing by returning from Victory while the Sun was yet high He hath fought long enough who hath gained the Victory If I have wrought but a few hours in a Vineyard and done but a little Service for my Lord and Master and yet am dismist and rewarded before the rest of my Fellow Labourers shall I repine and think my Lord doth not befriend me If he hath any farther Service for me he will prolong my days and make me diligent I hope and contented Otherwise I pray he would make me ready to dye and make me willing and desirous to depart this Life For to be only content to dye that I may be perfectly Holy and fully Blessed is methinks too low for a Christian who acts like himself believing the Certainty of his avowed Principles and Hopes and knowing that while we are present in the Body we are absent from the Lord. XVI The contemplation of our approaching Change may assist us to mortifie the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life to cure Ambition and promote Contentment ALL that is in the World saith the Apostle is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life The Dust and Ashes of our own Mortality duly considered and applied will help to deaden and extinguish each of these By Pride of Life we lift up our selves against Heaven and despise our Maker by the lust of the Flesh we overlove and indulge the Body and study to gratifie the sensual Appetite by the lust of the Eyes our Desires are immoderate after Temporal and External Goods the thought of our approaching end hath a tendency to oppose and mortifie these Lusts to humble us before God to take us off from the inordinate love of the Body and to moderate our Passions to Earthly Things It may help us against Pride by shewing us the infinite distance between the Eternal self-sufficient God and such poor Dust as we who are but of yesterday and if he uphold us not and maintain our Souls in Life shall be laid in the dust to morrow It will mind us of his Justice against Sin the Parent of Death and of all the miseries of our mortal State and convince us of our weakness to resist his Will or avoid his Wrath. As to our fond Affection to the Body it may instruct us that it deserves not to be so much accounted of it will open our Eyes to discern the Preference of our immortal Souls and what concerns them to the interest of a perishing Body It may convince us that we are Cruel and unkind to our very Bodies by overloving them because we thereby contribute to their Eternal Sufferings and so teach us to love and use our Bodies as Servants to our Souls in this World and as expecting to share in Glory with them after the Resurrection It may also help to moderate our Desires after Earthly Good and so cure the Lust of the Eyes by letting us see the vanity uncertainty and short duration of these things and their insufficiency to make us Happy and give us true Content The Thoughts of an approaching Change may if any thing will do it damp the mirth of the Luxurious Epicure and strike him into a fit of trembling as did Belshazzar's handwriting on the wall It may discover the distraction of living in Pleasure and of care to please the Senses and the fleshly Appetite when the End is so near It may likewise check the folly of Ambitious Designs that Men should make so much ado to get into slippery places from whence they may so easily fall Where being puft up with vain applause they forget themselves and their latter end till their Life and Glory expire together Where are now the Great and Mighty and Honourable who have made such a noise in the world What is now the Difference between the Dust of an Alexander or Caesar and that of their meanest Slaves or Captives Could their Dignities and earthly Glory preserve any of them from the stroke of Death or the Judgment of God or without Repentance from his condemning Sentence Think O my Soul how little it will shortly signifie whether I have been known and honoured among Men or no any farther than God may be glorified by it How should it suppress vain Glory to think of being one day esteemed and worshipt reverenced and applauded by dying Men and laid in the Grave the next Let me rather seek that Glory and Honour to which Immortality is annext and labour to be accepted with God at whose Bar I most be judged endeavouring to keep the testimony of a good Conscience and then it is not much whether I pass through good Report or evil Report no contempt or frowns or threatnings of Men need then discourage me Tho' I should be trampled on by the foot of Pride while others are happy in a dream for a little while and it may be have a prosperous passage to damnation I 'le rather thank God for delivering me from their Temptations and giving me the opportunity and call to hasten my Preparations for a better World. Let God dispose of my Condition here and Reputation too as best shall please his Sovereign Will only be pleased to keep me upright and to preserve me from everlasting Shame and Confusion of Face after the general Resurrection and final Judgment Vouchsafe me a Portion now in thine approving Love and own me for Thine at last in the Great and terrible Day of Reckoning that then I may hear the Blessed Euge and enter into my Lord's Joy XVII The same Argument considered farther as dissuasive from Worldliness and Earthly mindedness and as proper to confute the vanity of long Projects and great Designs for this World. ARE the Years of my Life but few and they hastening to a Period and may this be my last Let me not then greedily covet Riches and abundance and waste my little time to scrape together large Provisions for many years to come when I have no assurance to see the end of this Is it becoming such a belief to toyl from day to day that I may lay up that which I must so soon leave as if I were to spend an Eternity here on Earth and in the mean while neglect the one thing necessary Am I not upon the shore of Eternity May not the next Tide carry me off And shall I
more than such distant Calamities will affright Let me therefore endeavour to impress the consideration of Eternity as at hand more deeply on my Heart that I may walk and live discourse and pray and demean my self in every thing as near an unchangeable State. Am I not convinced that this is certain from the nature and operations of my Soul from the reflections of Conscience from the Righteousness of God in his Government of the World from the present unequal distributions of Good and Evil by his Providence and from the plain and frequent assertions of his Revealed Will I have nothing to object nothing to reply but I find a necessity of inculcating and urging the consideration of it in order to its influence I find it needful to reflect often how near I am to such an endless State that in one Instant by Death I enter upon it and that this Instant may be as near me as my next Thought That the holy Scripture describes the two contrary Conditions after death and every Man and Woman in the World shall share in one of them as both Everlasting the one by Eternal Life Eternal Glory an incorruptible Crown that fadeth not away an incorruptible Inheritance an House Eternal in the Heavens c. the other by unquenchable Fire a Prison whence no escape Eternal Damnation Everlasting Burning everlasting Punishment everlasting Destruction a Worm that never dies wrath that is ever to come blackness of darkness for ever ever c. Think O my Soul that in one of these two contrary States I must abide for ever In endless Joy or Sorrow Blessed in the Presence of God or for ever banished from it And whoever thou art that readest this apply it seriously to thy self 't is thine own case Yea I tell thee from God that Holiness of Heart and Life is absolutely necessary to the former and that without it thou shalt never see his Face but be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of his Glory Is this an unquestionable Truth O let me consider it till I feel the Power and Efficacy of so important a Principle let the Impression be deep and lasting let it pierce and enter into my very Soul to cool the heats of Lust to quench sensual and earthly desires and to mortifie all inordinate affections to this World and fix my resolutions to mind and seek Eternal Life with all my Heart These are not difficult and perplexed Niceties which wise and holy Men differ and disagree about They are not Metaphisical Subtleties which few can understand but the express Word of God and the daily dictates of my own Reason and Conscience which all Christians and almost all Men in their Wits except in an hour of great Temptation confess and own or whether they will or no are forced to expect and fear if they are not in a condition to consider them with a joyful Hope Lord cure the unbelieving doubts concerning these Great things which notwithstanding the plainest Evidence the Devil may at any time suggest let a confirmed Faith be the Reality of what is thus future that my Soul may be influenc'd by them as it is wont to be by things present Let it be the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things unseen and as yet at a distance as if the Day of Judgment were already come and there were no intermediate Time to pass between this and that O Eternity Eternity the more I consider it the more unfathomable still I find it Vnchangeable Blessedness or remediless endless Torments An Eternal blissful Day or everlasting Horror Darkness and Despair Life or Death Glory or Destruction to last as long as the immutable Living God! None of the Patriarchs who lived longest arrived to the period of a Thousand years which in comparison of God's Everlastingness is set forth but as one day But strictly considered millions of Years and Ages have no proportion with it because no multiplication of them will amount to Eternity Whereas one hour hath some proportion to an hundred thousand years Because a certain number of Hours will amount to so many years But no number of Years or Ages never so often multiplied will make up Eternity as no substraction of Millions of Years will lessen it and entire Eternity will be still to come and will ever be to come When innumerable myriads of years are past Eternity shall then seem but to begin because when as many more are over it shall be as far from an end Oh that the thoughts of Eternity may be powerful and prevailing above all others that I may Judge of every thing by its relation to it by its influence upon it Chuse now my Soul whether Everlasting Joys or Miseries shall be thy Portion but consider well that thine Eternity is concerned in thy present choice and that this choice must be pursued with stedfastness and constancy as long as I live And what are a few years to prepare for an Eternal State were we obliged to spend several hundred years in serious humble preparation for it with the greatest strictness and severity of Life during all that Time it were infinitely less than to spend an hour or two in preparing for the greatest Dignity and Imploy on Earth which can be enjoyed but for a few years at longest For to these an hour hath some proportion but an hundred or thousand years have none with an Everlasting Duration Therefore to consider how many years of toyl and pains and diligence many bestow on the probable prospect of some Temporal Good should reprove and shame my negligence and remisness in providing for Eternity XIX The Punishments of the Damned considered as Intolerable and Everlasting and as unquestionably Certain What the Reflection upon Hell-Torments may and ought to teach us THE Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom the entrance into the way of Life as it is ordinarily one of the first means to awaken the Soul to a serious concern for Eternity Let me therefore first consider the Endless Punishment of the wicked in the other World before I enter upon the ravishing Prospect of the Blessedness of Heaven promised to the Righteous And with what serious trembling should I think of the Terrors of an Everlasting Destruction which our Lord shall be revealed from Heaven to render to All who know not God and obey not the Gospel When the wicked shall go away into Everlasting Punishment as the Righteous into Life Eternal The dreadfulness of that Punishment the endless Duration of it joyned to the consideration of its unquestionable Certainty deserves the most attentive Thoughts of every Man who loves his Soul and would manifest he doth so by securing his greatest Interest The description of that Misery under insupportable and Eternal Torments demands more than a transient view because no words can sufficiently express the Horror of that State. What is it O my Soul to be banished from the Blessed Sight and presence
this forget my own Experience and run from God and Heaven to imbrace or seek a perishing Toy Shall I hide my self with Saul among the Stuff and Lumber of this World when God is calling me to a Glorious Crown Art thou O my Soul a King's Son an Heir of Heaven an expectant of such great Felicity and yet stoop so low Hope for Heaven and yet grasp this Earth and hug the vain Appearances of earthly Good Hope to be like to God and oh how Glorious an Hope is that to partake of his Image and live Eternally with him and yet be sollicitous anxious and disquieted about Honour and Money and a Temporal Interest And mightily concerned about the momentany Gratifications of the Flesh and the Injoyments of this World Art thou a Pilgrim and Stranger here and travelling home to the Heavenly Country and yet eager and passionate about earthly Things Should an Heart that is set upon Heaven or may be so and ought to be so should it burn with such Kitchin such common Fire And neglect the unconceivable Riches and Pleasures and immortal Honours of the other Life and the dawnings of that Glory upon my Soul by the foretasts of it in this How great is the disproportion between the Heavens and the Earth How vast the Circumference of the one and how small a Point the other How many thousand Miles doth the Sun travel in the Heavens while it passeth but one Inch upon a Dial Oh that my Affections were carried to heavenly Things with a swiftness somewhat answerable to the glorious Object And let their motion to earthly Things be rather slow and insensible like that of the Sun on a Dial. Since I profess to believe and wait for the heavenly Glory should I not live as seeking such things as expecting such a Glory And are careless and indifferent Thoughts sleepy heartless Prayers faint and weak Endeavours becoming in such a case Shall I not mend my Pace and double my Diligence in my preparatory Work When I can believingly foresee the blessed Recompence waiting for that Everlasting Light of the Sun of Righteousness which no Eclipse shall ever darken or obscure for that Eternal Glorious Day which shall never be closed with an Evening When I shall see the Face of God in Christ and be like him participate more of his Image rest in his Love and dwell for ever in the Light of his Countenance according to the Prayer and Promise of my Blessed Saviour And ought not such a prospect to sweeten the Bitterness of all our intermediate Sufferings We are now oftentimes in Heaviness and Sorrow but Eternity will be enough for an interrupted Joy. When we shall exchange all our Troubles for everlasting Rest our Prisons for perfect Liberty our Poverty for the Riches of God Darkness for Light discord for Love Deformity for Beauty our Weaknesses and present Languishings for Strength and Vigor Folly for Wisdom Disgrace for Glory Sickness and Pain for eternal Ease and Health the Animal for the Angelical Life Imperfection and Pollution for consummate Holiness our Sighs and Tears and Sorrows and Complaints for triumphant Everlasting Praise our Losses Affronts Disappointments Perplexities Fears Groans and Death for Crowns and Scepters Hymns and Hallelujahs Light and Life and Bliss unutterable and such great things as are fit for us to hope but too great to be now particularly understood and talkt of while we know but in part and see through a Glass darkly yea it seems as if it were not lawful to utter 'em 2 Cor. 12.4 and now they cannot be exprest or fully known for Eye hath not seen or Ear heard or can it enter into the Heart of man to conceive that prepared Glory XXI A devout Meditation upon the 73. Psalm 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee WHat is there in Heaven or in Earth O Lord but thy Presence to be valued loved desired chosen sought or delighted in There is nothing in either World desirable without Thee nothing certainly above Thee nothing in Comparison with Thee In Thee alone I trust on Thee I depend in Thee I repose my Confidence and Hope from Thee I expect all my Felicity and Salvation What ever I can lose yet with the continuance of thy Favour which is my Life I have still Enough With that I am Rich without it I am Poor and Miserable And if I want the Love of God all that Heaven and Earth can give besides will not make me Happy In Thee therefore I would terminate all my Affections all my Devotions There is nothing of Heaven to be had on Earth but in thy Favour Image and Love and the reviving Sense of it And all the Heaven I expect hereafter 't is in the more full and immediate Communications of these in thy blessed Presence I can desire nothing upon Earth I can injoy nothing in Heaven but Thee both here and there thou art and shalt ever be my all-sufficient satisfactory Portion my Everlasting All None else can be the Portion of my Soul. Nothing else can fill up all its Wants answer all its Cravings be suited to all its Capacities appease and charm all its restless Motions and give complacence to all its Desires and be the proper Object of all its Affections What is there else can justly claim my Love or pretend to my supreme Affection in comparison with God Thou art alone the proper Center of it Thine infinite and incomparable Excellencies who art Love it self deserve my choicest Love and thy numberless Mercies and Benefits challenge it as a just Debt as a piece of Homage due from all and of special Gratitude also from me Oh that I could love thee above all things who alone art worthy of all my Love O that Divine Love might be the ruling Principle within me to inspire all my Thoughts to regulate all my desires to set all the Powers of my Soul on Work O that it might take the full Possession of my Heart and so animate and order all my Actions to please him whom my Soul loveth If as yet I cannot say with thine Apostle Lord thou that knowest all things thou knowest that I Love thee Yet I can say Lord thou knowest that I would Love thee Thou hast provided for our Happiness by that first and great Command of loving thee with all our Hearts and Souls and Strength But alas how backward is my sluggish carnal Heart to this delightful Exercise Tho I have so oft been told that God is Love and that he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him O shed abroad thy Love into my Soul that I may feel the vital Power and Influence of it and live continually in the Love of God and that nothing may ever be able to separate me from it Whom have I in Heaven or Earth to Hope in but Thee I expect more from Creatures than they can or will perform but God
than Ignorant Heathens who never heard of Christ never saw his Miracles or were inform'd of his Doctrine How shall we escape For he will come again as a Conqueror and a Judge and not as a sufferer and a surety as he came at first and tho he was numbred with Transgressors and made his Grave with the Wicked at his first Appearance he shall hereafter be attended with the shouts of Angels who excel in strength and the joyful Acclamations of his Saints glittering as the Light and paying Homage to him as the Judge of Quick and Dead He whom we have despised shall then be encompast with a dazling Glory that will confound us He whom we have affronted will be clothed with a Majesty that shall astonish us He whom we have offended shall be armed with Power and with Wrath to punish us and all that continue to lift up the Heel against him shall then be made his Footstool all that refuse to kiss the Scepter of his Grace shall be broken in pieces by his Iron Rod. The holy Scripture doth frequently and expresly assure us that he will thus come again and for these ends He is exalted and gone to Heaven as the Head of his Church and the King of Glory and when he foretold his Ascension he gave a promise of his Return The Heavens are to contain him till the restitution of all things By his Providence and by the Holy Spirit he now carries on the designs of his Death and when these are accomplish'd he will appear to the Joy of Believers and the Confusion of the Wicked He is entred as our * Heb. 6 c. 19 20. 10 c. 10. Forerunner within the Veil to prepare Mansions and to take possession for us and will not always leave us in this dark and defiling World. He knoweth our Sorrows and heareth our Prayers and bottles our Tears takes notice of our Groans and in all our Afflictions he is afflicted Being reconciled by his Death at his first coming we shall be saved by his Life since he lives to make good his word of coming again How comfortable is the News of it how joyful will be the Meeting to such as expect and prepare to see him when the Sea and the Graves shall yield up their Dead and all the Prisoners of Hope lift up their heads arise go up and meet the Lord in the Air and ascend with him to the Heavenly Glory But who can express how dismal a sight this will be to the Secure and the Impenitent to all who die in their sins to behold their Judge who formerly offered to be their Saviour upon a glorious Throne and all the Children of Adam summon'd before his Tribunal to have nothing to answer against his Charge and no way to escape his condemning Sentence they despised him as a Lamb offer'd in Sacrifice to take away the sins of the World but shall no longer do so when he comes as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to devour and destroy the Enemies of his Cross Now they will not own him for their Lord but shall then find he is so by the Vengeance he will execute As a Jesus as a Saviour they rejected him making light of his Salvation despising his Mercy refusing his Grace but the neglected Gospel will then be a more killing Letter than the Law. He who by his Ambassadors doth now intreat Sinners to be reconciled will then be as deaf to their Intreaties as they have been to His Because they would not turn at his Reproof hearken to the Call of his Word and obey its Voice they must hear the Sentence of Condemnation and feel the Execution of it whether they will or no yea the Blood of his Cross will upbraid accuse and plead against them And whatever foolish Evasions they now make to continue in security they shall then be Speechless and Self-condemned Nothing will be able to hide them from the amazing Presence of their Judge or from the Wrath of the Lamb. He then will inflict an intolerable and righteous Vengeance an Everlasting Destruction upon all the ignorant and ungodly World the Greatest the Stoutest the Boldest of them shall then be humbled and stand before Christ's Tribunal upon an equal Level with the meanest seized with horror filled with guilt anguish and despair and find to their eternal Confusion that the Judge is no respecter of persons but every man shall receive according to his works The Mighty shall not be spared for his Greatness nor the mean man for his Poverty O Fool O Wretch that I am shall many then say who now brave it out in Pride and Vanity unconcern'd about a future Judgment not to be persuaded by the terrors of the Lord which I was so often warn'd and foretold of What Refuge of Hope can I now flie to What can I say for my self What can I do to escape to die to exist no longer I would have no compassion on my own Soul I would not so much as consider its danger I shall now find none from Christ I can expect none His Mercy is gone and gone for ever I am lost undone tormented and must eternally be so O the Amazement Horror and Despair of self-condemned Sinners in that day of Vengeance O my Soul what is there of greater consequence or of greater certainty from the Word of God than that I must appear to Judgment when Christ shall come again Lord teach me to believe it firmly to consider it often to lay it seriously to heart to act under the Influence and Power of it as long as I live that at the Great Resurrection from the Dead I may lift up my head with a joyful Hope and find the Judge to be my Friend my Advocate my Jesus and not my Enemy and Destroyer XXIII Meditations of the Glory of Christ in his Glorified Saints and of the thankful Admiration of Believers when He shall come again from Heaven which shall be continued to all Eternity THE terror of our Lord's Appearance to Judgment cannot be greater to the Wicked than the Comfort and Joy of it will be to the Saints When they shall see Him whom their Souls love ascend with him to Heaven and be welcom'd according to his promise with those endearing words * Matt. 25. Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the World. 'T was for your sakes I assumed Flesh lived on Earth and died on the Cross to purchase this Glorious Kingdom for you which I now come to give you the Possession of 'T was for this I praied and suffered on Earth for this I interceded ever since in Heaven I was heard in that Prayer accepted in those Sufferings and my Intercession granted that where I am you may be also to behold my Glory Come therefore good and faithful Servants enter into your Lord's joy O what ravishing words will these be What an Extasie of Love and Kindness is
another Thing than most imagine it When their aggravated Sins shall beset them behind and before be placed in order before their eyes and set in array against them 'T is always a work of Difficulty as well as Importance to crucifie corrupt affections to tear a beloved Lust from the Heart with self-indignation to abhor and cast away what before you lov'd and delighted in How did David's Sin stare him in the Face it is continually with me it is ever before me saith He. It haunted him like a Spectre or like Belshazzar's hand-writing on the wall it still appear'd before him in some horrid shape However Sin may smile in its first address and bespeak us in flattering language and promise Pleasure and Profit and great Advantages and Satisfaction these are but fair Appearances This is but the outside of the Cup and the colour of the Liquor it will prove Gall and Wormwood and a mixture of deadly Poison if ever God set it home upon the Conscience and awaken us to a true sense of it And the Continuance of dayly Repentance for Sin which all Christians are called to is no such easy matter neither Constant self-abasement and Humiliation before God from a sense of his Majesty and Holiness and of our many Sins and pollution thereby The imperfection of our best duties continually to be bewailed inordinate affections to be still mortified always resisting and opposing Sin in its Root and and Branches conflicting against the whole Interest of the Flesh the World and the Devil seeking after more Holiness to be deriv'd unto us by the Grace of Christ to be wrought in us by his Spirit and maintain'd by his Power and making dayly applications to the Fountain of all Grace for spiritual strength to continue our warfare against Sin in all Instances of outward duty and inward Actings of Grace even as long as we live all this is included in it Due Apprehensions concerning Repentance as so comprehensive and difficult a Duty would teach us to beware of Sin. XXVII The necessity of Christian Resolution to Vpright Persevering Obedience how full and extensive it ought to be and yet humble by what means we may be assisted to perform that which we resolve HAving acknowledg'd my transgressions unto God and begg'd forgiveness and experimentally learnt the Evil of Sin by the bitterness of Repentance I resolve for the future to watch against it more narrowly and against every thing that leads to it endeavouring to please and honour my God and Saviour by an upright obedient Heart and Life And for the remission of my former contracted Guilt I trust to Jesus Christ according to the Revelation made in the Gospel of what he is hath done and suffer'd and continues to do in Heaven for the Salvation of repenting Sinners who desire to come unto God by Him. But how often O my Soul have I mock'd God and deceiv'd my self with formal and faint Purposes of Amendment My good Resolutions have been all of them as the morning Cloud and the early Dew which quickly passed away One fresh assault of Temptation hath swept away all my good Purposes as a Spider's Web. I have falsified so many and broke my word so often that I dare not trust to any thing I now resolve or rely on any promise I should farther make Succor me therefore O Lord by thy powerful Grace that what was defective in my former fruitless Resolutions may be now rectified Let me be more humble in the sense of my weakness more dependant on thy Grace and more heartily seek it from time to time Strengthen me with Strength in my Soul with Might and Power in my inward man that I may so resolve and purpose as to perform that I may not be one day hot and the next cold zealous in the Beginning but faint and lukewarm in the Progress fervent and serious only in Resolving but weak and impotent in the Execution Having chang'd my Master my End and my Hopes by returning unto God from whom I had gone astray I firmly resolve through the assistance of his Grace to change my Course of Life that Old things being done away all things may become New that * Rom. 6. c. 22. being made free from sin by pardoning Mercy and become the servant of Christ I may have my fruit unto Holiness that my End may be Eternal Life In the interim whether I live or die let it be unto the Lord resolving both in Life and Death to be absolutely His. And to that purpose O my Soul let me seek for continual supplies of Grace from Christ my Head to enable me to yield ready Obedience in the most difficult hazardous painful and humbling Duties In vain do I resolve it without the assistance of his mighty Power to strengthen my Heart and Hands whenever I am called to such a trial of my Sincerity Without it I shall never recover my Liberty or break asunder those Bonds and Cords wherewith I have formerly been held Captive as the Servant of Sin and Satan Such is the Weakness and Treachery of my own Heart the influence of ill Examples and the subtlety and cunning of the Tempter that otherwise I shall quickly change my mind and return to Folly as the Dog to his Vomit The Spirit is so weak and the Flesh so frail the Snares of the World so many the Power of remaining Corruption so strong and of my self I am so unsettled and wavering fickle and unsteady and prone to backsliding that all my strongest purposes will not be sufficient without daily strength from above My Senses are so deceitful my Passions so ungovernable the Rule and Law I am to walk by so strict and spiritual and extensive Criminal Omissions may be so frequent and so easily overlook'd so many several and difficult Duties are to be performed and by every change of my Condition or of God's Providence so many new Dangers and new Duties may arise that I fear the issue of my firmest Resolutions So strict a Watch must always be kept such Humility and Caution is every-where to be practis'd such speedy Repentance requir'd after every fall with thankfulness and contentment in every State under all Calamities be they never so many or never so pinching and perseverance herein absolutely necessary though never so many Stratagems be used to discourage me from proceeding or to entice me to go back or turn aside to some other Path insomuch that if God had not promised me his continued Presence and that his Grace shall be sufficient for me and that I shall not be tempted above what I am able to bear I should utterly despair of making good what I now resolve But besides these Promises to encourage my Resolved Obedience he hath left upon Record in his Word many glorious Examples of his assisting and rewarding the Courage and Resolution of his Servants to continue faithful as in the case of Joseph Daniel and his Three Friends c. If Christ stand
to witness this day That I own and avow this to be my Mind and the setled Prevailing Purpose of my Soul. This I again ratifie and confirm without any Clauses or Exceptions So help me O my God. Glory be to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit XXIX Practical and Consolatory Reflections on the preceding Self-dedication or Covenant with God. I Have this day solemnly avouched the Lord to be my God to walk in his ways thereby to fortifie my Resolutions that I and my Deut. 6. c. 17 18. House and All that I can persuade to be of my mind will serve the Lord. I intend desire and hope never willfully to violate the Faith which I have now plighted in the presence of God but to continue stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord c. Should I undertake any new Imployment or enter into any new Condition or change the place of my Abode where I might see more of God's dishonour and meet with more and stronger Temptations to Sin and be called to the performance of more difficult duties greater watchfulness and self-denial c. I would hope hereby to ingage the presence of God with me and his Blessing on all my Affairs on which depends the success of all that I undertake and would hope the better to preserve my Integrity not only This Year but in all the remaining portion of my Time by the abiding sense of my Covenant with God thus seriously renewed This is the method I have been often advis'd to for Peace of Conscience under doubts and scruples concerning my spiritual State to put the matter out of doubt by again accepting the offered mercy and Grace of the Gospel and heartily consenting to the new Covenant giving up my self to God in Christ to be ruled and saved by him Blessed be God I have now done so Lord say Amen to thy part of the Covenant that Thou art and wilt be my God as I desire unfeignedly to do to mine that I will be thy Servant But beeause Articles are sooner consented to than made good tho I seriously intend never to disown this my solemn Act and Deed but firmly to adhere to it as long as I live that having sworn I will endeavour to perform it that this shall be my Everlasting Choice never to be recanted or alter'd yet considering the sad Instances of my former weakness and the vigilance and subtle malice of my Great Adversary I again implore the succour of Divine Grace to keep it for ever in the purpose of my Heart that it may be as the Laws of the Medes and Persians never to be reversed I have given up my name to be Thine O put thy fear into my Heart that I may never depart from Thee Imprint thy Laws upon my Heart that my obedience may be uniform and universal unwavering and perpetual suitable to so honourable and near a Relation to Thee I am sensible I want Wisdom and Strength to that purpose but thou hast bid me ask it of Thee who givest liberally to All without desert and upbraidest not with present unworthiness or former faults O lead me not into Temptation but deliver me from Evil. Stand by and Strengthen me in the Hour of Trial lest I forget my vows and deny Thee O that my Soul may never draw back lest Thine have no Pleasure in me I can serve no better Master O let mine Ears be bored to the door of thine house as the Token and Assurance of my being thy Servant unto Death I know 't is my Duty I am sensible 't is my Privilege and Honour I am convinc'd that 't is my Interest and Felicity my Soul my Life my present and everlasting Welfare and All depends upon it that thou shouldst be my God for ever O conduct me by thy Holy Spirit of Grace that I may walk and act as having heartily consented he should be so and direct my Heart into thy Love and the faithful keeping of thy Commandments That when so many Professors make shipwrack of Faith and a Good Conscience and discredit the Religion of my Lord by their shameful Falls thou mayst make me to stand and improve the warning of their Examples to walk humbly and while I stand to take heed least I fall Having thus surrendred my self to God what is there O my Soul that is ever like to prevail with me to go back and revolt from him Is the gratification of a Lust the securing of an Estate compliance with a Friend the pleasing of a Superior living in Ease and Honour and outward Prosperity for a little while the saving my Body from Suffering or my life from Violence or what ever else be the Motive of my unfaithfulness to God and Apostacy from Him Is Any is All of these any way considerable compared with the Blessedness of having God to be my God For thereby I have the forgiveness of all my Sins and the Assurance of his Favour the certainty of present Protection and Provision all Creatures reconciled to me and to be imployed for my Good as the Friend of God All things to work together for my Advantage and by the evidence of my Adoption a well grounded Hope of Eternal Life God as my Sun and Shield will give Grace and Glory and with-hold no Good Thing So unspeakably Comprehensive are the Privileges of so near a Relation to God in Christ O happy are the People who are in such a case Blessed are the Persons whose God is the Lord. Do I resolve to abide by my Choice and to trust in Christ for persevering Grace and shall I not ought I not to take Comfort in it Shall I not give God the Glory of his infinite Goodness by adhering to him and rejoycing in him notwithstanding all Temptations to the Contrary Casting all my Care upon him and quieting my self in the Alsufficiency of my Heavenly Father having a God in Covenant who will supply all my wants and take care of me as his own Shall I not give him the glory of his Truth and Power by trusting him in every Condition By confidence in his Promise Dependance on his Word Faithfulness to his Interest and Constancy in his Service to the end Is it not a most encouraging Thought That God doth never Abandon any who do not first forsake him And after such strict Engagements as I have laid upon my self shall I ever strike the fatal stroke with my own Hand Shall I be off and on say and unsay promise and retract And after I have proceeded thus far shall I forsake the Fountain of Living Waters and turn again to broken Cisterns After I have examin'd my self consider'd my ways confest my Sins and upon serious Deliberation am come to a Resolve and in pursuance of it have devoted my self with such solemnity to be the Lord's shall I ever after this forsake Him and my own Mercies and lightly esteem the Rock of my Salvation Now I have
learn'd in some measure what Sin is by the sorrows and anguish of an Hearty Repentance now I have discovered so much of the Snares and Devices of Satan whereby I have formerly been betraid now I am sensible of the dangerous and powerful influence and infection of bad Company the Treachery of fleshly Lusts the bewitching Temptations of the World and have tasted a little by my own Experience of the Pleasantness of Wisdom's Paths the Peace and Satisfaction of Devotedness to God by the present Rewards of a calm Conscience the communications of Divine Grace and the Encouragement of an Holy Hope c. and am persuaded of the Stability of his Word and the Certainty of Eternal Life to all who continue in well-doing shall I after all this ever break with God again Shall I ever cancel this Engagement violate this my Vow and falsifie so many repeated Promises and Resolutions Oh that his Power may rest upon me and his Grace work in me both to will and to do that this God may be my God for ever and my Guide unto Death Let me never reassume this Gift and Surrender of my self or defraud God of his Right and Propriety His I am and Him I will serve living wholly to Him using all I have for him being willing he should do what he list with his own and consequently dispose of me and of all that any way belongs to me as shall seem Good in his Eyes I am Thine O Lord save me Command me my work appoint me my Duty direct my Station order my Condition Let me be Thine tho imployed in the meanest service and the most laborious self-denying work Tho I should be but a Doorkeeper in thine House an Hewer of Wood or a Drawer of water Tho I must pinch the flesh and swim against the Tide and renounce what before I valued yet This God shall be my God for ever By this means when I come to Dye if God should add more years to the little number I have past besides this I have now begun I may be able to say with Upright Hezekiah Remember Lord how I have walked before Thee in mine Integrity That in the face of Death and the Grave in the view of another World and the near prospect of Eternity I may be able to Rejoyce in Hope and Say Lord Jesus Receive my Spirit Thou art my Saviour and I have waited for thy Salvation I have sought Thee with my whole Heart I have chosen thy Favour rather than Worldly Grandeur and Prosperity I have prized thy Love and endeavour'd to obey Thee as the best Expression of my own tho with many Imperfections which I bewail I have delighted more in thy Service and Presence than in the Pleasures of Sin and vanity thy Testimonies have been the Joy of my Heart I took no delight in the Company of the ungodly after I was devoted to Thee O let me not have my Portion with them in the other World Fortifie me now against the King of Terrors strengthen me in this my last Conflict enable me to triumph over Death by the Cross of Christ my victorious Redeemer and carry me through the dark valley at the divorce of Soul and Body and grant me an abundant entrance into thine heavenly Kingdom Let me be numbred among thy Chosen and my Body wait in Hope 'till the general Resurrection that I may then see thy Glory and dwell with Thee for ever I gave up my self to Thee and do not Repent my Choice acknowledg me now for Thine and do not lose that which is thy own Lord Jesus Thou hast paid my Ransom to deliver me from Satan and from Eternal Wrath oh do not now reject me and cast me off Is it not thine Office and Covenant to save those that Trust in thee Oh remembr thy Word unto thy Servant wherein thou hast caused me to Hope when I ventur'd my Salvation on thy Promise and trusted to thy Gracious Word for Eternal Life Thy Love hath already overcome the greatest impediments of my Salvation 'T is as easie now to receive me as to Love me Thou hast prepared Glory for thy Redeemed ones and hast bid me believingly to follow thee and wait for thy Salvation Thou hast begotten me to a lively hope by the Incorruptible Seed of the Word Let me not now be depriv'd of the Inheritance Can that Love that pitied me in my Blood and fetcht me from the Gates of Hell now suffer me to fall into it Oh Crown thy Grace and perfect thy Preparatory Mercy with Everlasting Mercy By voluntary Consent and Choice thou art my God and thy Presence in Heaven my ultimate Felicity I have trusted to thy Gracious Promise to prepare me for it and bring me to it O fulfil thy Word unto thy Servant wherein thou hast caused me to hope and mercifully receive my departing Soul that seeks Thee that loves Thee that breathes after Thee and desires nothing but to know Thee better and love Thee more and be more entirely conform'd to thine Image and live always in thy Blessed Presence Thou hast called me out of the World plac'd thine Image upon me enabled me to make it my Business though with many Imperfections to serve and please and honour Thee Oh Receive me to the fulness of thy Love and Grace and present me faultless before the Presence of thy Glory with exceeding Joy. Amen Holy Father be it unto me according to thy Word through the Merits and Intercession of my Alsufficient Saviour Jesus Christ the Faithful and True Witness in whom all thy Promises are Yea and Amen XXX Thanksgiving to God for his Innumerable Benefits and Mercies particularly in the Year Past with some Direction and Advice concerning it HOW precious and delightful are the Thoughts of thy Benefits O Lord how great is the sum of them Should I count them they are more in number than the Stars Shall I not observe and consider them maintain a grateful sense of them and publickly acknowledg them on all occasions that I may Bless the Lord at all Times and his Praise be continually in my mouth More especially should I conclude and begin the Year with solemn Praises to my Great Benefactor and Preserver I ought to begin and close every Day with it thereby to make the outgoings of the Morning and the Evening to rejoice in God. Every Year every Day every Hour every Moment offers me an occasion to praise Him because he is every minute gracious and hath been so ever since he gave me my Being Almost one half of my Time hath been spent in Sleep when I remember not God nor my self yet doth He who never slumbers or sleeps remember me in Mercy and watch over me for good Yea though in the other half by Day I have forgotten him in a worse sense by casting off his Fear and not remembring that his Holy Eye is upon me yet hath he not forgotten to be Gracious Therefore I will praise the name