THE Pathway to Eternal Life BEING The Last SERMON of that Eminent Divine Mr. T. WILLIAMS B. D. lately deceased Licensed according to Order Printed for A. Bettesworth at the Red Lyon on London-Bridge Heb. chap. 9. ver 27. And it is appointed unto Men once to die buâ— after this the Judgment MY Beloved feeling my own decay I have chosâ—n this serious and seasonable Text which perhaps maâ— be my last to mind you of your latteâ— Ends that you may reflect on the shortnesâ— of Life and the uncertainty thereof as to its continuance and to prove it short and momentary we find it in many respectâ— compared to things of the least duration things that as it were only appear and then suddenly fade away and vanish from our sight Holy David says Thou hasâ— made my lise as it were a span long and minâ— Age is nothing in comparison of thee In other Places it is compared to Smoak that vanisheth away to the Flower that fadeth and to Grass that is cut down and withereth and St. James who spake by an excellent Spirit says Our Life is but a vapour and yet this short momentarâ— Life is by the Creator of all things in hâ—â— Eternal Wisdom given us as a Talent to improve on this side the Grave that in doing well we may purchase Crowns oâ— Glory and Immortality and a Life that never shall have end in which we shaâ—â— enjoy â—leasures pure and unmixed with â—orâ—ows Joys that fade not away but abide â—or ever though here we are Strangers â—nd Pilgrims and have no tarrying City out travel through a Wilderness and Vale of Tears yet beyond the Grave when Time shall be with us no more we shall have fixed and durable Habitations Mansions not made with hands in the highest Heavens shining with Honour and sparking Glory which Christ who laid down his precious Life and shed his rich Redeeming Blood for mankind is gone before to prepare for all those that love his Name and obey his Gospel That Death is the certain Lot of all Mankind daily Experience shews us by the dropping off of our Friends and nearest Relations one where or other unto the Grave adding a new Cause of Sorrow to mournat their Funeral and spread doleful Cyprus over their Herses till it comes to our own â—urns when matured by time to follow â—hem lie down within the Chambers of Dust there to remain till the Morning of the Resurrection when the loud Arch-Angel's Trumpet shall rouse us from our long silent Reâ—oâ—e to meet the Lord of Glory coming in the Clouds of Heaven to judge us and accordingly pronounce the Sentance of Reward or Punishments as we have done Good or Evil in the Flesh Death is intailed on us for the Sin and Disobedience of our first Parents and there is no Pledge nor Reprieve from it nor do we know any certain limit of time when it will snatch us hence The tender Blossoms as often fall as the ripe mellowed Fruit the Lamb as soon as the aged Sheep goes to the Slaughter and however it falls out we must at one time or other all pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death Now some who have heard of the unspeakable Joys of Heaven may say I am desirous to depart and be with Christ but yet the grim King of Terrors standing between startles and amazes them into this farther Consideration how to come to the blessed Shore where there is so great a Gulf between them and it as to be lead Captive unto his gloomy Chambers and in their fright say with the Psalmist My Heart is sore pained within me and the pains â—f Death are fallen upon me fearfulness and â—â—embling are come upon me and horror Psal 〈…〉 4,5 I see the Shore where I willingly would be out of the Troubles Sorrows Cares and Vexations of this tempestuous World which is at enmity with me but Oh! here is a great Gulf between me and that â—lessed Elizium I must be tossed on a boiâ—terous Sea and be wrecked by dreadful Waves and Tempests Is there no way to Canaan but through the desolate Wilderness Must I go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death to the Land that flows with Milk and Honey the new and heavenly Jerusalem which is above These are things contrary to Flesh and Blood and such as will make the stoutest Courage faint and tremble Yet certain it is say what they will the way to true Life lies through the Gates of Death it is irrevocably appointed unto Man once to die and therefore to antidote our selves against the Fears and Horrors of Death and the Confusion and Perplexity of a Dying State is so to live always as if we were knocking at the Gates of the Grave and then the Grave shall never have power to prevail against us to our hurt always considering when we come to die it is the determinate Order and Appointment of God in whom we live and move and have our Being he places our Souls in these earthly Tabernacles of Clay and we are only here Tenants at Will liable to be dispossesed at Pleasure it is appointed for all Men once to die and that it is an irrevocable Decree of Heaven that we must all walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death Why should we like Men without Hope fear any Evil For the Lord is with the Righteous and will guide them safely through the Terrors and Affrightments that they are naturally attended with Then shall they rest from their Labours and their Works shall follow them to crown them with everlasting Joys and a peaceable Serenity to all Eternity then shall they look back on the Dangers they have past with Joy and sing Praises and Hallelujahs to him that liveth for ever and ever Let us not then look upon Death as some strange unexpected Accident befel us for may we not hereupon say with the Apostle St. Paul That no man should be moved with thâ—se Afflictions for your selves know that we are appointed hereunto 1 Thes 3.3 It is an undoubted Mitigation of any Sorrow or Affliction to know that God hath appointed it as an unavoidable Lot and Portion of all Man Living so that on this Account we may say with the Psalmist I â—ill fear no Evil for thou art with me for â—ertain it is all the Evil in Death proceeds only from an evil Life For a good Life â—akes away the Sting of Death and makes his cold Embraces easie and tollerable but 〈◊〉 bad Life gives him double Arms against us Power over us here and hereafter in a more terrible and fearful second Death a Death to all Eternity though living to bear the unspeakable Terrors of it excluded for ever from all that is God except his Anger and fiery Indignation the Consideration of which made the Prophet cry out Who can dwell with the everlasting Burnings and such must do it who taste of the second Death by falling into God's Displeasure by sinning and
heaping up wrath against the Day of Wrath for our God when he is angry is a consuming Fire nay if his Anger be but a little kindled in his Breast blessed are all they that trust in him and if Sin makes the first Death so uneasie it must necessarily render the second infinitely more intollerable For indeed the Sting of Death is Sin and no Terror is in this State like that which doth redound to us from a guilty Conscience which has got us under hold and will chastise us for though in our Health anâ— Jollitry we may pass it over lightly yet oâ— our Sick-Beds when Death stares us ghastly in the Face then the pains of Hell as iâ— were gets hold on us we are in Troublâ— and Heaviness our Souls are as restless and uneasie as our Bodies then as the Propheâ— Isaiah says We are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up dirt and mire and again there is no peace saith my God to the wicked for in such a State when we come to die the greatest Melancholly that shall then seize our Spirits will be from the heavy Load and Burthen of our Sins that will be ready to oppress and sink our Souls Then we shall find that Threatning verifi'd in us Psal 50.21 I will reprove thâ—e and set them in order before thine Eyes and what Grief or Anguish can be comparable to that which redounds from this when we are going hence and when God by visiting Sickness as his Messenger gives us warning to remove Must it not concern and afflict us beyond all Thought and Expression to consider in such a Case what Danger our Sins have brought us to They hide God's Face and Mercy from us and in our greatest need of Comfort and Support threaten us with utter Ruin and Destruction and nothing now can be so sharp and intollerable as the Thoughts of a displeas'd and angry God and well may that be so to us which was the greatest of our Saviour's Troubles for at his Dying Hour the Guilt of all our Sins pressing heavy upon his Soul occasioned a bitter Agony and that bitter Exclamation viz. My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me And most certainly at the Dying Hour of all wicked Men and Women the Sense of Guilt will be the bitterest Potion and the very Dregs of the Cup of trembling their Hearts will faint and their Souls will sink within them it will be with them as with Felix when Baul preached of Judgment to come his Guilt through the fear of it made him tremble They shall shake and fear and cry mightily and have on them such passionate Concernment as is inexpressible from the dismal Apprehensions of the Divine Wrath and Indignation which their Sins have kindled and provoked against them even to cry out with Cain Their Punishment is greater than they can bear Then whilst it is to day Let us hear God's Voice Calling to us to repent Let us be up and doing his Will least the night of Death suddenly overtake us in which no Man can work for in the Grave there is no Repentance as the Tree falls so it lies as Death leaves us so will Judgment find us Which is the next and last thing pursuing my Text I propose to treat on viz. After this the Judgment We have a sure word for it that after Death there is a Judgment I am saith the Lord the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dâ—ad yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die St. John 11.25 26. And Holy Job says I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flâ—sh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Job 19.25 26 27. This plainly proves that after Death the Soul shall descend and unite again with the Body and both at the sound of the last Trump shall arise together to receive their Rewards for the works done in the Flesh whether it be Good or whether it be Evil for St. Paul says 1 Cor. 15.52 53. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality The Earth Sea and Hell shall be compell'd to give up the Dead that are in them â—nd they shall be gathered from the Four Winds under Heaven and be caught up to meet the Lord Coming in the Air accompanied with Ten Thousand Angels to â—udge the Inhabitants of the Earth at whose Presence its Foundations shall tremble and â—t shall be dissolved the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Stars shall fall â—he Sun be darkned the Moon turned into Blood and the Heavens rowled up togegether like a scrole in that great and terriâ—le Day when the Book shall be opened wherein all our Actions shall be written â—nd we shall be judged out of it according â—o the things that are written therein then â—appy is it for him who has well improved â—is Talent in this Life he shall enter into â—he Joy of his Lord with Praises and clad â—n shining Robes crowned with Glory and Honour in everlasting Life where all Tears â—hall be wiped away from his Eyes and he â—hâ—ll see the abundant Recompence of his â—â—bour in his Spiritual Warfare for he â—â—at is faithful has promised it But those that have been sâ—oathful and unprofitable Servants shall call in vain to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the Face of the Lamb and from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne but no hiding Place shall shield them from his Wrath and fiery Indignation which shall pursue them to Eternaâ— Torments upon pronouncing Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels where shall be woes and lamentations anguish and gnashing of teeth where the worm never dieth and the fire iâ— not quenched From which Torments God of his infinite Mercy deliver us all by giving us Hearts for a timely Repentance before we go hence for the sake of his well-beloved Son Jesus Christ who shed his precious Blood that redeemed us from Sin and eternal Death that we might live and reign with him evermore Amen His last Speech or pious Exhortations to his Parishioners on his Death-Bed Exhorting them to a Godly Life AT the Close of this Sermon a faintness seized this good Divine and as he had predicted it proved his last and served as a Comfortable Mourning-Dress for his Funeral for being led home he found his Illness increase and in a Day or two perceiving his Dissolution drew nigh he sent for the chief of his Parishioners who standing about his Bed he made the following Speech or Farewel Exhortation to them My Beloved Parishioners Finding by my Age and more by