first mover they follow its motion thus it is with the unregenerate part of a man it hath proper ends of its own pride and flesh-pleasing and the like contrary to the ends of the spirit but in obedience to the regenerate part the Christian leaveth the former ends and follows the ends of the latter Bonum est mihi si Deus me uti pro clipeo dignetur Bern. The honour of Christ is exceeding dear to a true Christian It is dearer then his name Lord saith a Father use me for thy shield to keep off those wounds of dishonour which would fall on thy majesty Let the reproaches wherewith they would reproach thee fall upon me Prorsus Satan est Lutherus sed vivit regnat Christus Amen And Luther is called a Devil saith Luther in an Epistle to Spalatinus but be it so so long as Christ is magnified I am well apaid nay the honour of Christ is dearer than life to a believer Paul as one saith of him stood a tip-toe to see which way he might glorifie Christ most whether by life or death Neither count I my life dear unto me so I may finish the Ministry I have received of the Lord Jesus Act. 20 and 24. I come now to the second thing promised and that is to manifest wherein the christian that hath Christ for the principle pattern comfort and end of his life shall be a gainer by death And truly Reader in speaking of this gain I shall acknowledge my self at a losse though my tongue were as the pen of a ready writer it could never expresse it and if my pen were as the tongue of a ready speaker it could never describe it The land of Canaan notwithstanding all the helps we have is still for the most part terra incognita an unknown land The sights there are light inaccessible as to mortal eyes 1 Tim. 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. quod fando explicari à quopiam homine non potest Beza â—rasm ita eo ponunt and the sounds there are words not audible as to mortal eares 2 Cor. 12.4 words which may not or cannot be uttered or both One being asked what God was answered that he must be God himself before he could know God fully I am sure it is requisite that that Christian should be in heaven first who would know heaven fully Fame which in other things is too free and prodigal in this is too sparing and penurious and that in so great a degree that Reader after thou hast heard it set forth by the holiest heavenliest man alive though of the greatest capacity and oratory yet if ever thou gettest thither thou wilt finde cause to speak as the Queen of Sheba did in another case 1 Kings 10 6 7. It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy glory and thine excellency Howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told me the delight and happiness exceedeth the same which I heard There it is indeed that God doth more for the believer then he is able to ask or think As the losse of the damned will be beyond the most melancholy mans fear so the gain of the saved will be above the strongest christians faith The eye of a man may see much good the ear of a man may hear more the heart of a man may conceive most of all but yet neither hath eye seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 They which have written most of this subject might have added at the end of their books as in other Treatises some have done Desiderantur nonnulla or plurima desunt More is desired or more is wanting It is as easie saith one to compasse the Heavens with a span to contain the Ocean in a nutshel as to relate heavens happinesse Reader I shall speak to this subject but briefly Set the Holy Land before thee as it is in a Map in a little room yet by what I shall speak in this place and in the the last use as the spies by the clusters of grapes thou maiest gather the land is good it floweth with milk and honey and this is some of the fruit of it Numb 13.27 The christians gain by death will appear in these two particulars He shall gain a freedome from all evil the fruition of all good and is not this man a gainer Ademptio omnium malorum First he shall by death be freed from all evil the immediate and full presence of the chiefest good which the believer shall enjoy after death will cause the absence of all evil The influences of that Sun will scatter every mist and disperse all clouds which now darken the conditions of pious souls The day of a christians dissolution will be the day of his redemption Luke 21.28 this may be the reason why the Apostle placeth redemption last saith an Expositor 1 Cor. 1.30 Now we have Christ made into us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification but then redemption When the Saint is passed through the red Sea of death and landed at the true Canaan he shall then see all his bodily and spiritual enemies dead on the shore In the middle Region there are storms and tempests and so here below but above all is calm and quiet While the christian is upon earth evils like Jobs messengers follow him one upon the heels of another but when he leaveth the earth every evil will take it's eternal leave of him Therere are two evils which are indeed the onely evils though the first is by much the worst the evil of sin or defilement and the evil of suffering or chastisement Now a believer by death shall be freed from both these First from the evil of sin and in this take notice that death will deliver the christian both from the commission of it and from all suggestions tending to it First Death will free the Saint from the commission of sin In hell there is nothing but wickednesse In heaven there is nothing but holiness The unregenerate man is never so wicked as after death now sin is in its minority then it will be in it's maturity now it is but the sinners evening but then iâ— will be a perfect night of blacknesse oâ— darknesse The godly man is never so holy as after death grace is now in its infancy then it will attain to its full age now it is as the morning light then it will attain to its noon-day brightnesse Sin is now by a spiritual life mortified that it doth not raign but then by death it shall be nullified that it shall not so much as remain in a believer The ungodly after death shall be perfectly like the Divel the Indians some write have a conceit that death will transforme them into the ugly shape of the Divel and
the Christian to a Kingdome which cannot be shaken But it commeth to the unregenerate as Ehud to Eglon And Ehud said I have a message from God unto thee and what was his message Judges 3.20 21. And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into Eglons belly It is a messenger from God with a mortal wounding killing stabbing message to a sinner The pale white horse of death rides before and the red fiery horse of hell follows after The people of God pass safely through this red Sea of death which his enemies assaying to do are drowned are damned There is a great dis-agreement in the lives of the holy and unholy but O what a vast difference is there in their deaths they are like two parallel lines how far soever they go together they never touch in a point Their wayes differ and therefore their ends must necessarily differ Every mans end is virtually in his way their ways differ as much as light and darknesse and therefore their ends must differ as far as heaven and hell The one walketh in his own wayes Prov. 14.14 in the wayes of his own heart Eccles 7.9 in the broad way of the flesh and the world Matth. 7.13 and so his end is damnation Phil. 3.19 his latter end is that he shall be destroyed Fine discernuntur improbi ab electis Moller in Ps 37 for ever Numb 24.20 The other walketh in the way of the Lord Psal 119.1 in the way of his testimonies ver 14. in the narrow way of self-denial mortification and crucifying the flesh Maâ—t 7.14 and so his end is peace Psal 37.37 Such as the seed is which is sown such is the crop wich is reaped the unregenerate man soweth to the flesh and of the flesh reapeth corruption The sanctified soul soweth to the spirit and of the spirit reapeth life everlasting Galat. 6.6 7. The blind world indeed as it seeth not their difference in life the life of a Saint is an hidden life Col. 3.3 the Kings daughter is all glorious but 't is within Psal 45.13 the jewels of her graces are laid up in that privy Drawer the hidden man of the heart so it beholdeth not the difference in their deaths As dieth the wise man so dieth the fool to the eye of sense and they want the eye of faith Eccles 2.16 We see no difference say they betwixt the death of them you call prophane and your precise ones they die both alike to our judgments But this conceit Reader if thou art such an Athiest proceedeth from thy blindnesse and unbelief Thou art probably in the chamber when a drunkard a swearer or a civil moral yet unsanctified neighbour departeth this life thou seest his body trembling panting groaning dying but thou doest not see the ten thousand times worse condition his poor soul is in thou seest his kindred or relations weeping but thou doest not see the infernal spirits rejoycing thou dost not see the greedy Devils that waited by the bed-side like so many roaring lions for their desired deserved prey thou doest not see when the soul left the body how it was immediately seised on by those frightful hell-hounds in a most hideous horrible manner and haled to the place of intolerable and eternal torments thou doest not see the shoutings of those legions in hell at the coming in of a new prisoner to bear a part in the undergoing of divine fury in their blasphemies against heavens Majestie and in their estate of hopelessnesse and desperation Men saith a modern writer like silly fishes see one another caught and jerkt out of the pond of life but they see not alas the fire and pan into which they are cast who die in their sins Oh it had been better surely for such if they had never been born as Christ said of Judas then to be brought forth to the murtherer that old man-slayer to be hurled into hell there to suffer such things as they shall never be able to avoid or abide On the other side thou standest by a scorned persecuted Saint when he is bidding adieu to a sinful world thou seest the struglings and droopings of his outward man but thou seest not the reviving cordial the Physician of souls is preparing for his inward man thou doest not see those glorious Angels which watch and wait upon this heaven-born soul That waggon or chariot which the son of Joseph sendeth to fetch his relation to a true Goshen Never Roman Emperor rode in such a Chariot of Triumph as the Saint doth to heaven the inheritance of the Saints in light is as invisible to thee as those chariots of fire on the mountain were to the servant of the Prophet When the soul biddeth the body good night till the morning of the resurrection thou doest not see those ministring spirits sent down for the good of this heir of salvation presently solacing and saluting it Thou doest not see how stately it is attended how safely conducted how gladly received into the bosome of Abraham into the fathers house into that City whose builder and maker is God Thou doest not see the soul putting off with the cloathing of the body all sin and misery and putting on the white linnen of the Saints even perfect purity matchlesse joy and eternal felicity When thou canst see these things with the eye of faith thou wilt easily grant a vast difference between the death of the gracious and gracelesse Reader if thou art dead in thy sins and unacquainted with this spiritual life which I have before described nothing of that endlesse gain which the godly shall enjoy at death belongs to thee none of that fulnesse of joy of those rivers of pleasures of that eternal weight of glory shalt thou partake of I may say to thee as Simon Peter to Simon Magus thou hast no part nor â—â—t in this matter for thine heart is not right in the sight of God Thou mayest like the mad-man at Athens lay claim to all the vessels that come into the haven but the vessels of the promises richly laden with the treasures of grace and love do not at all appertain to thee If like a dog thou snatchest at the childrens bread thou art more bold than wel-come and wilt one day be well beaten for thy presumption Reader if thou art unregenerate and so diest look to thy self for thy lot must fall on this side the promised Land Thou mayest like a Surveyour of Land take a view of anothers Mannor and bring a return how stately the house is how pleasant the gardens how delightful the walks how fruitful the Pastures how finely it 's seated how fully it 's woodded how sweetly it is watered how fitly it is every way accommodated but as long as the Pronoun is wanting it can be but little comfort it is none of thine So thou mayst read and hear much of that comfort joy and richnesse of that incomparable
Turky or India or in Spain and Italy where the tree of knowledge is forbidden fruit where they may not read their fathers mind in their mother tongue but is it possible that in England where the will and word of God is more powerfully preached more practically applied more clearly discovered than in any nation of the world there should be any ignorant persons Alas alas We finde by woful experience that there are many very many Indians and heathen for ignorance in England Men and women that know as little of God and holiness of Christ his natures offices of true faith and repentance as if they had been born and bred up all their time in Turky or India I am ashamed to write what I know of the sottish stupid hellish ignorance of many and some that are aged too that are going to dye and yet never knew what it was to live either to God or their souls The good Lord affect my heart more with the danger and dreadfulnesse of their eternal conditions O how sad is it that so many precious souls should lie lazing on their beds of security and idleness and though the Sun shine brightly in upon them they will not draw their curtains and open their eyes to behold it That in a valley of vision a Goshen a land of light thousands should live and dye in worse then Egyptian darknesse that the Bible should be a sealed book to them and almost every one have the dark side of that glorious pillar towards him Reader To cure this soul-murdering distemper I have endeavored according to the trust committed to me and the grace bestowed on me to discover in this Treatise the life in Christ or true Christianity with the matchless endless felicity that accompanieth it as also the nature and danger of unregeneracy with the means to come out of it by which thou mayst see that many cozen their souls with counterfeit coin false evidences for heaven instead of true which will not abide the touchstone of Scripture and so like Uriah they carry those letters about them though they know it not which will at last cost them their lives and cause their eternal deaths That there is no fool like the sinner who selleth his soul for a song his Saviour his eternal happiness the unspeakable pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore for the perishing empty profits and base brutish pleasures of sin which are but for a season Though sin be delightful in the act to carnal wretches yet it will be bitterness in the end It will be a bitter-sweet to all its lovers when for their momentany pleasure they shall be recompenced with eternity of intolerable unconceivable pain That it is not for nothing that Ministers call so loudly and earnestly to thee to kill those lusts which would kill thee and to follow after holiness without which no man shall ever see the Lord Heb. 12.14 It will teach thee that God and Christ heaven and hell thy soul and eternity death and judgement are not things to be dallied with believe it thou wilt one day find that it is bad jesting with such edged tools Surely the greatest seriousness that is imaginable is too too little for them O hadst thou but the thousandth part of that seriousness about them which they deserve and call for at thy hands surely thou wouldst have other manner of thoughts of them and carriage towards them then now thou hast Well I have four special things at present from the living God to commend to thee and leave with thee in order to thine eternal good I known not how soon I may be taken from thee If thou lovest thy soul practice them faithfully if not answer the contrary when thou and I shall meet in the other world at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus First do thou labor for the knowledge of God and his Son thy self and the duty which thou owest to thy Maker and Redeemer hast thou not read the doleful consequence of ignorance and doth it not nearly concern thee to get out of that damnable condition Without this thou canst never be Religious notwithstanding all thy pretences that thou meanest well and hast as good an heart as the best If thou knowest not the God of thy fathers thou canst never serve him with a perfect heart 1 Chron. 28.9 All thy worship will be but wild and wandering from God all thy services but the sacrifice of a fool The foundation of obedience must be laid in knowledge Mal. 1.8 till then thou offerest up to the Lord the lame and blind which he will not accept God expecteth reasonable services Rom. 12.1 such for which thou canst give a good reason out of his word which must be the warrant of thy worship Be not therefore in shape a man a reasonable creature and as NebuchadneZZar in heart a beast be not as the horse and mule which hath no understanding Psal 32.9 Without knowledge thou canst not be saved If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. 4.4 Wilful ignorance is a sad sign that thou art in Gods black bill If God will ever have thee to be saved he will bring thee to the knowledge of this truth 1 Tim. 2.4 When Hammans face was covered his execution was near Do not delude and destroy thy soul by presuming that thy ignorance will not damne thee for if thou art without knowledge he that made thee will not save thee and he that formed thee will shew thee no mercy Isa 27.11 Mark Reader but this one place Psal 95.10 11. where the God of truth confirmeth it by an oath that they which do not know his ways shall not enter into his rest One would think that a prisoner should be both earnest and diligent to learn his neck verse who knoweth he must be hanged if he cannot read and dost not thou read in broad Characters in the word of God that thou must be an eternal monument of divine fury in hell if thou dost not learn to know the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent doth it not then behove thee to be diligent for knowledge 1. How shouldst thou wait on the word of God which enlightneth the mind and maketh wise the simple Auditus est sensus disciplinae Psal 19.7 8. David had more understanding then the ancients because Gods word was his meditation Psa 119.98 99. Watch at wisdoms gate with an humble hungry soul and God may fill thee with good things God maketh manifest the favour of his knowledge by his Mnisters in every place 2 Cor. 2.14 If thou wouldst see go where the Sunne shineth 2. Ply the throne of grace with uncessant prayers Bene or assc est bene studuisse that God would enlighten thy mind in the knowledge of his will If any man lack wisdom or knowledge let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not Jam. 1.5 Intreat him to open thine
eyes that thou mayst see the wonderful things contained in his law Psal 119.18 If thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Prov. 2.3 4 5 6. 3. Take heed of sinning against those commands which thou knowest Hold not the truth in unrighteousness Do not wanton away the light least God give thee up to judiciary darkness Thou knowest thou shouldst pray with thy family and in secret make conscience of the Lords day instruct thy children forbear drunkenness swearing lying uncleanness and the like be sure thou do not shut up this knowledge in thy conscience and deny it in thy conversation lest as a candle pent up in a dark lanthorn it swail out quickly If any man will do my will he shall know my doctrine whether it be of God or no John 7.17 To practice what you know is the way to know what to practice Knowledge is the mother of obedience it breeds it and obedience is the nurse of knowledge it feedeth and nurtureth it if thou improvest thy little stock well doubt not but God will adde to it and encrease it leave no means untried for the obtaining this purchase I have if thou belongest to our Parish offered thee to instruct thee to my power in the mysteries of Christ appointed also days for that end it may be thou art one of those many that ate too old to learn that scorn to be taught I would ask thee one question and think of it Art thou not too old to be saved Dost thou not scorn to go to heaven Surely thou dost by contemning the way thou scornest the end Well take heed thou dost not die without knowledge for if thou dost all the world cannot keep thee one quarter of an hour out of hell and then thou wilt have time enough to befool thy self for refusing a good offer and willfully rejecting through thy pride those things which concerned thine eternal peace I shall conclude this head with the words of that eminent and pious writer Mr. Gurnal Arm 1 part p. 239 240. How long saith he may a poor Minister sit in his study before any of the ignorant sort will come upon that errand i. e. to learn the knowledge of God themselves Lawyers have their Clients and Physicians their Patients these are sought after called up at midnight for counsel but alas the soul which is more worth then raiment and body too that is neglected and the Minister seldome thought one till both these be sent away Perhaps when the Physitian gives them over for dead then we must come and close up their eyes with comfort which were never opened to see Christ in his truth or else be counted cruel because we will not sprinkle them with this holy water and anoint them for the Kingdom of heaven though they know not a step of the way that leads to it Ah poor wretches what comfort would you nave us speak to those to whom God himself speaks terror Is heaven ours to give to whom we please or is it in our power to alter the laws of the most High and save those whom he condemns Do you remember the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the blind to wander out of the way Deut. 27.18 What curse then would be our portion if we should confirm such blind souls as are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging them to go on and expect to reach heaven at last when God knows their feet stand in those paths that lead to eternal death No 't is written we cannot God will not reverse it you may read your very names amongst those damned souls which Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on 2 Thess 1.8 And therefore in the fear of God let this provoke you of what age or sex rank or condition soever you be to labor for the saving knowledge of God in Christ whom to know is life eternal John 17.3 Secondly Do not rest in bare knowledge but endeavor to get thy will affections and heart renewed a clear head must be accompanied with a clean heart saving knowledge is ever a sanctifying knowledge Content not thy self with any thing short of regeneration and the power of godliness Master Robert Bolton Mr. Boltons life â—y Master â—gshaw when dying told his children That he verily believed none of them durst think to meet him at the great tribunal in an unregenerate estate So I am confident that none of you can with any comfort nay without unspeakable horror and sorrow meet me at the Bar of Christ in your natural estates O how sad will it be for thee that art now asleep in sin to awake like the Jailor at the midnight of death and to find this inward change this new creation this life in Christ missing what an heart quake will possess thee how pale and trembling wilt thou spring into the presence of Christ in the other world for thy particular judgement Consider thy profession will not serve turn the storm of death will wash out all colours of profession that are not laid in the oyle of renewing grace Mat. 25.8 Thy priviledges will not do it circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6.15 Thou mayst enjoy Scripture and Sabbaths and Sacraments and many seasons of grace and hell at last Nay the higher thy exaltation in regard of these priviledges if thou diest unconverted the greater thy condemnation will be None go to such Chambers of utter darkness as they that are lighted thither with the torches of Ordinances Heathen will keep holy day in hell in comparison of those that are now lifted up to heaven and perish If the sweetest wine make such sharp vinegar and the cold lead when melted be so hot and scalding how pure and weighty will that wrath be which shall be extracted out of abused love and mercy Grace is the sweetest friend but the bitterest enemy If thou waste the riches of grace God will recover out of thee riches of glory Thy performances also can be no infallible evidence of thy good estate The Pharisees prayed fasted did many of them abound in outward acts of charity righteousness and holiness which are commanded by God and must be minded by all that will be saved and yet Christ telleth us expresly That except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 5.20 There was in them aâ— in the young man one thing wanting and that was the regeneration of their natures the actual predominancy of the interest oâ— God and Christ in their hearts above all interest of the flesh and world I beseech thee therefore make sure of the new
were handled The Contents will make full satisfaction for that error My absence from the Press hath occasioned also some few mistakes in the body of the Book the most considerable of which I have observed and request thee to amend The Greek and Latine are mangled in the Margine but I intending not the Treatise for Scholars medled little with them and am the less troubled for the mistakes about them Errata PAge 7. line 21. r. is p. 20. l. 10. r. there p. 23. l. 21. add iâ— p. 37. l. 8. r. shall p. 41. l. 3. r. Demarathus p. 81. l. 23. r. such p. 116. l. 6. r. life p. 123. l. 2. add shall p. 159. l. 25. 1. whos 's l. 26. r. mayst p. 192. l. 24. add for p. 198. l. 20. add years p. 278. l. 4. for Christ is a co-heir r. Christ is heir Margine Pag. 4. r. an p. 35. â— adeptio p. 39. r. cummo Phil. 1.12 For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain IT is a memorable observation of that Christian Heathen Vivere tâ—ta vita discendum est quod magis fortasse miraberis tota vita discendum est mori Sene. ad Paulin. cap. 7. as he hath been sometime called That the two great lessons which every man hath to learn in the whole time of his life are how to live and how to dye how to live vertuously and how to die valiantly These two weighty questions are clearly and fully answered in this Text. It declareth and delivereth such directions about life as could never be learned in the school of nature improved to the utmost It prepareth and provideth such a cordial against death as could never be extracted out of all the creatures distill'd together And indeed herein the excellency of the Christian Religion appeareth above all Religions in the world None enjoyneth such pious precepts none subjoyneth such precious promises none sets the soul about so noble a work none satisfieth it with such an ample reward The scope of the Apostle in this Epistle is first to confirm the Philippians in the faith of Christ against the scandal of the Crosse And secondly to exhort them to such godlinesse as might be answerable to the Gospel In this first Chapter Paul encourageth them greatly to be constant in Christianity 1. From the nature of God who never doth his works by halves but performeth what he promiseth and perfecteth what he beginneth ver 6. 2. From his own prayer which was for their increase and perseverance in grace and that inoffensively to Gods glory verse 9.10 3. From the happy fruits of his sufferings for the faith The Rod wherewith he was scourged like Aarons Rod blossomed First The Gospel was the more propagated verse 12. The more the Husbandmen were dispersed the more the seed of the Word was scattered and the deeper the ground was ploughed it took the better root and brought forth the greater fruit Secondly The Ministers of the Gospel were the more emboldned ver 14. True zeal like the fire burns hottest in the coldest season and sincerity like the stars though it may be hid in a warme day yet it will be sure to shew it self in a frosty night Thirdly Eveniunt mihi ut mi hisâ—ut salutaria Trem. in Phil. 1.19 Paul himself should be much advantaged verse 19. which latter he amplifieth by acquainting them with the reason of that hope namely the assistance of the Spirit of Christ verse 19. and the assurance God had wrought in him from his experience of what God had done for him that his Saviour should be honoured and his salvation furthered both by his life and death ver 20.21 The Text considered relatively contains the ground why the Philippians should not be troubled so much at Pauls trials For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain i. e. If I be a gainer in all conditions why should you be discouraged by my afflictions If sufferings advantage the Pastor why should they dishearten the people The children may well enjoy a calm in their spirits when their spiritual Father is safe nay a gainer in the greaâ—â—st storme Take the words absolutely and they include first the character of a Christian while he liveth To me to live is Christ and secondly the comfort of a Christian when he dyeth and to die is gain Or you may take notice of the piety of a Saint in life To me to live is Christ and his profit by death to dye is gain For the meaning of the words To me To me who am the mark at which hell and the world shoot their arrowes of persecution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To me whose life hath been a ring of miseries ever since my conversion To me who am set to undergo both mens and devils opposition yet to me there are spiritual and inward consolations For to me to live is Christ To me to live is Christ To me who am in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nam mihi vivere Christus est i. e. Tota meavita ad hoc ordinata est ut per meum ministerium perque meam vocationem verbis factis promoveam pro mea virili regnum Christi Au non hac res bona cuique fideli optanda Zanch. in loc to me to live is Christ I live not only the life of nature but I live also the life of grace I have not only a being from Christ as a man but likewise a well-being in Christ as a Christian as I did receive my life from Christ so I do improve my life for Christ his honour is my utmost desire and my greatest endeavour And to die is gain i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodate to this purpose I having had no other object no employment but Christ and his service in my life shall certainly have an eternal advancement at my death Or Christ is my life here by grace and hereafter by glory He is both the Authour and the end of my life I live for him I live to him I live in him I live by him and if I be put to death that shall no way endamage me but rather bring me great advantage in regard that thereby I shall gain heaven for earth an happy eternal life for this miserable mortal life So our larger Annotations sense it a Atqui Christus in utroque membro subjectum esse debet Christus vita in vita Christus lucrum in morte Cal. in loc Mihi enim est Christus in vita in morte lumen Beza Some indeed read the words Christ is my gain both in life and death and therefore the Apostle was little troubled at but rather indifferent to all conditions There is a certain truth in this Exposition though b Sic haec sententia non cohaerebit uâ— râ—tiocum praecedente quod tamen postulat conjunctio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namaliud â—st gloria Christi aliud salus Pauli Piscat in loc
Kingdome which the holy shall immediately upon their deaths enter into but what is all this to thee when thou must be without it for ever thou mayst see Abram afar off and Lazarus in his bosome but between him and thee there will be a great gulf As a stranger thou mayst hear the last Will and Testament of Christ read and therein the fair rich and large portions which he hath bequeathed to his children John 17.24 Luke 12.32 but not the least mention made of any good for thee look from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation and see if there be one good word spoken to thee whil'st thou art in thy natural estate Moses like thou mayst by the prospective of Scripture have a Pisgah sight of Palestine of that good Land flowing with milk and hony but as God is true if thou diest in unregeneracy thou shalt never enjoy one foot of it The worst of a Saint is past when he dyeth but thy worst O sinner is to come there are some dregs in the bottome which thou art yet to drink down thou hast thy good things here and he his evil things but at death he is comforted and thou art tormented He hath all his hell upon earth his heaven is to come thou hast all thy heaven on earth and thy hell is to come when thou passest into another world the hell of a Saint is an easie hell But ah how hot is that hel in hel how fiery is that furnace how how terrible those torments I may conceive somewhat the damned feel most but no tongue can expresse them But it may be Friend thou art one that thrivest in this world and therefore dost not trouble thy head much lesse thy heart with the things of another world thou art unwilling to put a spoonful of those thoughts into thy sauce least it should make thy meat unsavory it would mar thy mirth and spoile thy sports As Sigismund the Emperor did not love the pronunciation of the Greek Zeta because it represented the gnashing teeth of a dying man so thou art resolved to banish such enemies as thou thinkest out of thy coasts and like a bear to go down that steep hill of death backward But know thou O man that whether thou wilt consider of thy death before-hand or no it is hastening upon thee though thou puttest it farre from thee whether thou wilt or no it draweth nigh to thee the ship moveth not so fast in the waters nor the Sun in the heavens as thou art hastening towards thy long thine everlasting home and then death will bring thee up a reckoning for all thy sweet morsels merry meetings time and talents whatsoever believe it then thou wilt have sowre sauce for all thy sweet-meats thy presumption will prove but like Hamans banquet before execution What advantage then will thy suni-shiny morning of common mercies bring thee when as on Sodome it will be followed with flakes of fire and brimstone before night Dost thou not know that when the wicked flourish it is that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92.7 The higher thou ascendest on this ladder the greater thy fall when death turneth thee off thou art but ripening for ruine and fatting on earth to fry in hell all the while thou art flourishing in a course of sinning nay thou mayest be much nearer hell then thou art aware of The mettal when it shineth brightest in the fire is nearest melting thou like a candle mayst give a blaze when thou art going out of the world into blacknesse of darknesse for ever The Hawk flieth high and is as highly prized being set upon a Pearch and set out with the gingling bells of encouragement and carried on his Masters fist but being once dead and pitched over the Pearch is cast upon the dunghill as good for nothing The Hen scrapes in the dust nothing rewarded while she liveth but being dead is brought as a choice dish to her Masters Table Thus wicked men in this life are set in high places godly men lie groveling with their mouths in the dust but being dead the former is cast into hell the latter brought to Heavens Table But that I may awaken thy conscience O secure sinner and make thee look about thee whil'st there is time and hope if the gracious and powerful God please to assist I shall give thee an estimate of the sinners losses by death by which thou mayest see what a difference there is between the death of the titular and the real Christian And here Reader thou must help me with thy conceptions for I shall come infinitely short in my expressions As none can endure it so none can declare it for who knoweth the power of Gods wrath Psa 90.11 The oratour when he would describe the violent death of the Crosse doth it by an Aposiopesis What saith he shall I say of the death of the Crosse Quid dicam in crucem tollere Tull. much more cause have I to speak so of this death What shall I say of this eternal death 1. By death thou shalt lose all thy earthly delights and carnal contentments The table of thy life possibly is richly spread with variety of outward enjoyments riches relations honours pleasures beauty and bravery but death will come in with a voider and take all away It is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.4 and indeed it wil strip thee naked of all such garments and ornaments Thine eye shall no more see good Job 7.7 i. e. the good things of this life they will all die with thee as to thy use and comfort It is a doleful expression of Abram to Dives Thou hadst or thou receivedst thy good things in thy life-time Luk. 16.25 O what a cutting word was that to his heart when he was passed into another world Remember there was a time when thou and they were joyned together but now ye are parted for ever to have been happy Miserum est fuisse felicem was no small aggravation of his misery It is with thee while in this world as it was with the Jews in the Vineyards and fields of their Neighbours pluck and eat they might while there but pocket up and carry away they might not Deut. 23.24 25. Death is the great thief which will rob thee of all thy riches The wealthiest Emperor the next moment after death hath no more than the poorest beggar As thou camest forth of thy mothers wombe naked thou shalt return to go as thou camest and shalt take nothing in thy hand of all thy labour Eccles 5.15 That gold which thou lovest and trustest more than God these pebbles which thou valuest above the pearl of price that treasure on earth which thy heart is set upon more than on the true treasure in heaven will all leave thee when death findeth thee In his Treatise of love Mr. Rogers telleth us of one that being nigh death clapt a twenty shilling piece in his mouth saying Some
restest quietly but O friend God hath * Job 8.14 15. a besome of death which will sweep this down This and all the rest as nigh as they seem to be to heaven will prove but a Castle in the air whether any or all these or something else be the Pillars by which thy hope is upheld in life they wil fail thee at death and then the rotten props being taken away the house of thy hope wil fall These are all but a sandy foundation and therefore when that great storm comes they will down to the ground Matth. 7.26 27. It is possible thou mayest hope all the time thou livest but thy life and hope wil depart together like thy neighbours thou mayst be ful of hope even when thou art going into the pit of despaire and die in peace though thou art going unto the place of eternal war but the next moment after death thy hopes wil take wings and flie away Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dieth his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth He died perhaps with his head ful of hopes and expectation as those seemed to have done that came bouncing at heavens gate with Lord Lord open to us but soon were their hearts filled with desperation when they heard Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Etiam spes valentissima periit as some read that fore-cited place His great hope shall be little worth A false heart and false hope can never hold out in such a real hardship Job 27.8 What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God shall take away his soul An Expositor glosseth on it thus The anchor of a wicked mans hope entereth not within the vail as a godly mans doth closing with God himself in Christ Hebr. 6.19 which anchor in all storms is sure and stedfast but is cast upon false and loose ground and therefore when the storm comes his Anchor drives and is unstedfast and so his hope and heart fail together The stoutest unregenerate man alive wil drop at last when God cometh to take away his soul then his crest falls and his plumes flagge The wicked is driven away in his wickednesse Prov. 14.32 He being arrested by death as a cruel serjeant in the divels name is hurried away and hurld into hel as Syrens are said to sing curiously while they live but to roare horribly when they die so thou that art high in hope on earth wilt be lower in grief in hel when thou shalt see all thy hopes like Absoloms Mule to fail thee in thy greatest extremity We say if it were not for hope the heart would break what wilt thou do then when thy hope shall depart and thy heart continue How sad wil thy condition be when thou shalt fall from the high pinacle of thy presumption into the bottomelesse gulph of desperation surely thy raised expectation disappointed wil prove a sore vexation how extreamly wilt thou be perplexed when thou shalt fall as low as hel whose hopes were raised as high as heaven If hope deferred make the heart sick Prov. 13.12 then hope of such happiness wholy frustrated wil kil it with a thousand deaths ImprobiduÌ„ spirant sperant justus etiam cum expirat sperat When a gracious man dieth his hope is perfected in the fruition of all and ten thousand times more then he hoped for when a graceless man dieth his hope perisheth in an utter disappointment of all that he though with little reason so much expected 5. Thou shalt lose by death thy precious soul this wil be a losse indeed the price of this pearl is not known to thee on earth but it wil be fully known in hel this one head Reader didst thou but understand what is included in it would stab thee to the heart and the thought of this one losse would be enough to imbitter the comforts of thy whole life The soul of man is called the man Job 4.19 though not in a natural Quia animaest principalior pars hominis unumquodque autem consuevit appelâ—ari id quod in eâ— est principalius Aquin in Job 4.19 yet in a moral consideration saith one upon that place it being the most noble the most excellent part of man and 't is usual to denominate the whole from the better part The body is but an house of clay its foundation is in the earth but the soul the inhabitant in this house is of an Angelical spiritual nature The generation of this was from heaven Zachariah 12.1 The operations of this are most noble the Redemption of this cost the blood of God Psal 31.5 Acts 20.28 this is that part of man which is capable of the Image of his Maker Col. 3.10 Ephes 4.24 the working out the salvation of this is the whole of a Saints care and labour Phil. 2.14 't is upon the welfare of this that the body dependeth for its unchangeable estate what a losse then wil the losse of this be Faciâ—is jactura sepulcri An Heathen can tel us that it is an easiy matter to beare the losse of an earthly house for our bodies when we die but certainly it wil be hard to beare the want of an heavenly habitation for thy soul Let him that bought this ware speak to its worth and thy losse What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Matth. 16.26 Behold what an incomparable what an irreparable losse is here It is such a losse there is none like it The gain of the whole world cannot ballance the losse of one soul If a temporal life be more worth then meat and the body then rayment what is an immortal eternal soul worth Couldst thou set thy soul to sale for all the world yet for all that thou wouldst be a loser nay as the rich man a beggar This is an irrecoverable losse If thou losest one eye thou hast another if thou losest one limb thou hast more if thou losest thine estate thou mayst recover it again if thou losest thy life thou mayst be a gainer by it thou mayst find it again Matth. 16.25 but if thou losest thy soul at death thou hast no more there is no second throw to be cast no after-game to be play'd thou art gone thou art undone for ever Here is a losse man that may make thy hair stand an end thy head yea thy heart to ake when thou readest or thinkest of it do not thine eares tingle and thy loines tremble to hear of it When God would smite the rich fool under the fifth rib as it were and strike him so home as that there need not a second thrust he doth it in these words Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Luke 12.20 Ah! sad sentence wherein every word speaketh wo every syllable sorrow and sighs Had it been Thou wise man
the person that had but gained this good and the first could not have been without this The eternal death of the soul consisteth in its farthest separation from that God whose favour is far better than life This is the lowest round in that ladder by which thou shalt descend into the bottomless pit This is the foot of this black bloody account the head of that arrow which pierceth the hearts of the damned This is the worst effect and fruit of sin that it is privative of our union with and fruition of God Vines on James 4.8 pag. 23. Depart from me is as terrible a word as everlasting fire Ah whether do they go that go from him when he alone hath the power of eternal life how dismal how dark must that dungeon be where this Sun will not shine in the least degree with the light of his countenance well may it be called blacknesse of darknesse for ever Jude 15. the hell of the hypocrites which will be hottest of all is set out by this Job 13.16 the hypocrite shall not come before God Couldst thou have all the mercies that the world can give yet in this want of God thou wouldest be compleatly miserable Ten thousand words cannot speak a soul more unhappy than those two words Without God Ephes 2.12 Thou mayest be without riches without friends without health without liberty nay without all outward blessings and yet blessed but if without God thou art cursed with a curse When God would couch all arguments in one to perswade to duty this is instead of all Obey my voice and I will be your God Jer. 7.23 when he would disswade and drive them from iniquity Sicut Sole recedente succedunt densae tene brae sic Deo recedente succedit horribilis maledictio Paraeus in â— Hos this is the stinging whip Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6.8 When he would strike Israel dead with a blow this is it Wo unto them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 How sad a saying is that of Saul I am sore distressed and well he might the Philistines are upon me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28.15 If a partial Eclipse of the Sun cause such a drooping in the whole Creation what will a total Eclipse of this Sun cause how mournfully doth Micah bemoan the losse of of his dunghil deity Ye have taken away my gods and what have I morâ—e and what is this that ye say unto me what aileth thee Judg. 18.24 surely the damned as they will have infinitely more cause so they will with more horrour and anguish bewail the losse of the true God though all the tears in hell are not sufficient to bewail the losse of this heaven If the body from which the soul is parted be such a deformed sad spectacle what shall the condition of that soul be from which God is parted for ever How unable are the children of God to bear the absence of God in this life though it be but in part and for a short time take Heman Psal 88.14 15. Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Observe the good man is at deaths door and no wonder when as to his apprehension the life of his soul had left him for though no man can see the essential face of God and live yet no Saint can live unlesse he see the providential face of God Consider Job a man of courage one that had entered the list against Satan and foild him The Sabeans and Chaldeans were too hard for his servants and captivated his cattel but Job was too hard for them he conquered them the winde that blew down the house on his children could not blow down the tower of his confidence his hold on Christ yet when this valiant Warriour comes to encounter with the withdrawings of God how exceedingly is his courage withdrawn Job 13.24 wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Why Lord are all the appearances from heaven so black and lowring Why is it that I see not the former smiles of thy face O what is the cloud that hindereth the light of thy countenance from shining on me What sin is the mist which is gathered about the true Sun impeding my fight of thee Behold our Lord Jesus himself that could bear the spiteful buffetings of some the bloody scourgings of others the scorn and derisions of many that could suffer the treason of one Apostle the denial of another and the unkindnesse of them all without complaining yet when the Deity did but withdraw it self for a time that the humanity might suffer for our sins how mournfully doth he sigh out that expression My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth 27.46 It was not his torturing from men nor the terrours of devils not the presence of all the powers of darkness that Christ complained so much of as the absence of God Now meditate O sinner if the departure of God though partial and temporal were so terrible to his Saints to his Son how intolerable will the losse of God be to thee when it shall be total and eternal Do they mourn so bitterly when for a small moment he forsaketh them though with great mercies he gathereth them when in a little wrath he hides his face from them though with everlasting kindnesse he hath mercy on them Isa 54.7 8. How bitterly wilt thou complain when he shall forsake thee to eternity when he shall hide his face from thee for ever and not bestow on thee the least mercy or the smallest kindnesse This will be a woe with a witnesse Suffering may be the portion of Saints but separation from God the punishment of Devils As the face and comfortable presence of God is the greatest felicity of the saved Summa mors animae est alienatio à vita Dei in aeternitate supplicii Aug. de civit Dei lib. 6. so the full withdrawings or absence of God will be the greatest misery of the damned Now thou doest not value the enjoyment of God thou thinkest often that he is too neer thee the coming of God to thee is as to the Devils a torment Matth. 8.29 If he draw nigh to thee sometime in a Sermon in a private Instruction in a motion of his spirit or in a conviction of thy conscience thou wishest him farther off with his precise laws that thou mighst have more liberty for thy fleshly lusts The voice of thine hellish heart unto God is Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21.14 Well thy petition shall be granted to thy destruction and God will take thee at thy word and give thee thy wish to thy woe when thy doom shall be to depart from him Luke 13.27 Matth. 25.41 and then thou shalt know the incomparable worth of him thy understanding shall
be cleared though not changed that thy knowledge may increase thy sorrow Thou art now wilfully ignorant of him and his Will some never look up to the Sun but in an Eclipse but then thou shalt know so much of him to grind thee with tormenting grief for thy losse of him As a prisoner through the grates may see the costly apparel the precious liberty the pleasant and plentiful provision which others enjoy whâ—lest he is vexed with hunger nakednesse cold and bondage So thou shalt see bread enough in the Fathers house and the children sitting round about his table eating bread and feasting in the Kingdom of heaven while thou art perishing with hunger Thou shalt see those Rivers of pleasures wherein the godly bathe their souls those soul-ravishing delights which they enjoy in God the fountain of all good whilest thou art sentenced to an eternal separation from him Now tell me whether the sinful wretch be not a loser by death when he shall lose all his wealth friends and opportunities of grace the company of all the Saints all his false hopes of heaven his precious soul and the ever blessed God tel me whither sin how sweet soever it be in the commission will not be bitter in the conclusion whether in such an hour the Devil will not pay thee thy full wages for all thy wicked works whether it be worth the while to continue in thine unregenerate estate though thou couldst gain never so much when it will certainly end in such inestimable losse In a word answer me whether the greatest pleasure thou canst gain for thy flesh the greatest addition thou canst gain to thy estate by a sinful irreligious life can countervail the everlasting losse of God and thy soul But this is not all sinner I have not done with thee yet I have told thee a little of thy losse for the whole of it no tongue can tell no pen can write I will now tell thee thy gain by death and then do thou cast up the accompt and tell me whether thy wickednesse will not end in woe First By death thou shalt gain a cursed perfection of sin if it may be called a perfection Upon earth the most notorious sinner is a lion chained up and kept in but in hell he will be let loose and then his ravenous nature and cruel disposition will appear to purpose Gurnals Armour Part. 1. p. 257. Thou yet standest in a soil saith that accurate Writer not so proper for the ripening of sin which will not come to its fulnesse til trans-planted unto hel Thou who art here so maidenly and modest as to blush at some sins out of shame and forbear the actings of others out of fear when there thou shalt see thy case as desparate as the Devil doth his then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stufft with the same malice that he doth The vilest man in this world Is like a swine in a fair meadow but in the other world there wil be the wallowing in the mire Thy heart now Is like the Sea which cannot rest but is ever casting up mire and dirt of sin foaming out thy own shame yet still it is shut up with bars and doors of restraining grace hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shal thy proud waves be stayed but then the doors wil be opened the banks broken down and the flood-gates taken up and ô what a deluge what an overflow of sin will be there Here if God should not put a bridle into the mouth of these unruly beasts and hold them in there would be no living for a Saint among them but then when the good shall be parted from them the reins shall be laid in some respect on their own necks and then they wil run to the same excesse of riot and sin with the very divels Voluntas morientis confirmatur in eo statu in quo moritur All the weeping in hell will not wash thee a whit the cleaner and all the fire there wil not consume the least of thy drosse He that is filthy at death will be filthy still and he that is unjust then shall be unjust for ever Rev. 22.11 Arcem omnium turpitudinum Hell may fitly be called as Tertullian called Pompeys theatre the glory of old Rome a stye of filthinesse Every bottle of wickednesse wil be there filled with those bitter waters thou that now makest a match with mischief shalt then have thy belly full Here sin is thy sin and defilement but there it wil be thy hel thy punishment Here thou sportest with it but there thou shalt smart for it now it is thy pleasure but then it wil be thine everlasting pain Sin is ugly to a Saint on earth notwithstanding all her gaudy attire and painted face but O what a deformed monster wil she be in hel when she shall be stript of all her ornaments of pleasure and profit and when all her paint shall be washt off with Rivers of brimstone I thus preach and thus think saith Chrysostome that it is more bitter to sin against Christ then to suffer the torments of hell And holy Anselm saith that if the evil of sin were proffered to him and the torments of hell he had rather choose hell then sin Thus odious sinne is to a godly man in this world and surely it will not be amiable to a wicked man in the other world but they who now glory in their shame will then be ashamed of their glory and find their lusts more burthensome to them how lightly soever now they go with them then ever Prisoners did their chains and fettets If thy soul be so unhealthy in so pure an air as this comparatively is among the Saints of God how diseased will it be in that misty Region of darknesse in that Pest-house among Divels and infectious spirits 2. Thou shalt gain by death a fulnesse of sorrow when thy sins come to their highest degree then will thy sorrows likewise both in regard of intention and duration 1. In regard of intention and how great this will be I am not able to tell thee When one was desired to paint the Spanish Inquisition he took a Table and besmeared it with blood implying the torments were so cruel and bloody that his pencil could not delineate them Sure I am Phaleris Bull Low-countrey wracks and all out-landish tortures whatsoever are but plays and bug-bears to the sufferings of the damned There are no sorrows like to their sorrows wherewith the Lord afflicteth them in the day of his fierce wrath Unum guttula malae conscientiae totum mare mundani gaudij â—bsorbet Lu If the wrath of God be kindled but a little and a spark thereof light into the conscience of a Saint what a work doth it make there is no rest in his flesh nor quiet in his bones when the arrows of the Almighty stick within him the poison thereof soon
enough of lust and lasciviousnesse when he shall imbrace deformed Devils and lie down in a bed of fire instead of feathers surrounded with curtains of frightful fiends In thee it is that the drunkard wil have enough of his cups when a cup of the pure wrath of an infinitely incensed God shall be presented to him and he forced to drink it all up though there be eternity to the bottome In thee it is that the Sabbath-breaker shall have enough of disturbing Gods rest when he shall be tormented and have no rest day nor night for ever and ever Revel 14.16 In thee it is that the Atheist in his family shall have enough of his prayerlessness and regardlessenesse of God when he shall be ever ever praying with his whole heart for a drop of water to cool his tongue and God shall never never shew the least regard towards him In thee it is that the hypocrite wil have enough of putting off God with a painted holinesse when he shall find a real Hell In thee lastly it is that the covetous worldling that like Corah is swallowed up of earth alive and yet hath never enough shal have fire enough pain enough and wrath enough in Hel. Consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces when there is none to deliver you Psal 50.22 Good God! whether is man fallen what desperate hardnesse hath seised on his heart that he should be every moment liable to such a boundless bottomlesse sea of scalding wrath and yet as insensible of it as if it did no whit concern him Ah did but the seduced world believe thy word they would mind other works than now they do But Reader what is thy judgment is not the mirth of every sinner that maketh a mock of sin worse than madnesse Should not the sting in sins tail deterre thee more than the false beauty of its face allure thee Shalt thou look hence forward upon the most delightful sin as any better than Claudius his mushrome pleasant and poison Well whoever thou art that readest this Use be confident all this and ten thousand times more is thy birth-right thou art by nature an heir to this estate that lieth in the valley of Hinnom All this is the wages due to thee for thy service to sin sin payeth all that die its servants in such black mony and shouldst thou go out of this world before thou art new-born thou shalt as certainly find and feel more than all this in the other world as there is a God in heaven and as thou art a living creature on earth The God of truth hath spoken it and who shall dis-annul it Matth. 18.3 Matth. 5.20 John 3.3 though thou art not actually under it yet then art every moment liable to it this cloud of blood hangs night and day over thy head and thou knowest not how soon it may break and showre down upon thee The decree and sentence is already pass'd in heaven that thou who turnst not in time shalt burn to eternity and thou canst not tell how soon God may seal the warrant for thy execution Bellarmine is of opinion that one glimpse of hel-fire were enough to make a man turn not only Christian but Monk and to live after the strictest order Drexelius tells us of a young man given to his lust that he could not endure to lie awake in the dark and on a time being sick he could not sleep all night and then he had these thoughts What! is it so tedious to lie awake one night to lie a few hours in the dark what is it then to lie in everlasting chains of darknesse I am here in my house on a soft bed kept from sleep one night O to lie in flames and in darknesse everlasting how dreadful will that be this was the means of his conversion O that Reader what I have written might work such an effect upon thy soul how abundantly should I be satisfied for all my pains how heartily should I blesse that God who by his providence call'd me to this task Shall I entreat thee as thou hast the least spark of true love to thy dying body to thy immortal soul to thine eternal peace to break off thy sins by repentance and flie all ungodlinesse as hell for dost thou not perceive out of the Word of the living and true God that though thy lust may be sweet in the act yet her end is bitter as worm-wood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell Prov. 5.4 5. And in order hereunto I desire thee to observe faithfully those directions I shall give thee in the third use for I would not only open the sore and shew its danger but also by the help of the Physician of souls prepare a plaister the Lord enable thee to apply it for thy cure Take a man that is most addicted to his pleasures and bring him to the mouth of a furnace red hot and flaming and ask him How much pleasure wouldst thou take to continue burning in this furnace for one day he would answer undoubtedly I would not be tormented in it one day to gain the whole world and all the pleasures of it ask him a second time what reward would you take to endure this fire half a day propound what reward you wil there is nothing so precious which he would buy at so dear a rate as those torments and yet how comes it to passe O God that for a little gain and that vile for a little honour and that fugitive for a little pleasure and that fading men so little regard hel-fire which is eternal By this time I hope it is day in thine understanding Drex of etern third consid Rhododaphne and thou seest clearly that there is a difference between the death of the righteous and the wicked that as the same perfume which is mortal to the ravenous vulture is refreshing to the true Dove that as the same hearb which cureth men stung with Serpents killeth beasts so the same mortal disease which cuteth the Godly of all their spiritual and bodily distempers killeth the wicked they are killed with death Rev. 6. Heavinesse to a Saint may endure for the night of this life but joy wil come in the morning of death whereas the freshest streams of sinful delights wil end in a salt sea of sorrows and tears I come now to a second use and that will be by way of examination If it be so that they who have Christ for their â—ife â—â—ll have gain by their death then examine whether thou art one of them to whom to die will be gain Like a Merchant cast up the accompts between God and thy soul and see how much thou art worth for another world It is good husbandry to know the state of thy flock Prov. 27.23 but there is a greater necessity of knowing the state of thy soul of communing with thy own heart Psal 4.5
every messenger welcome for his sake that sendeth him thou needst not fear any servant can night or day knock at thy door with ill news how willingly wilt thou go to duty and with what alacrity perform them knowing the God whom thou drawest nigh to is thy loving Father the Christ in whose Name thou approachest is thy lovely Saviour nay how joyfully maiest thou think of death as the portal through which thou shalt go into thy Masters joy and endlesse life Believe it thy life will be an heaven upon earth And shouldst thou find thy estate lost will it not be an infinite mercy to thee that thou didst know it before it was too late how will it awaken thee out of thy security and affrighten thee upon the apprehension of thy misery how will it quicken thee to mind thy duty in loathing thy self in leaving thy sins and in flying to thy Saviour Sound conversion begins at self-examination First we search and try our wayes and then turn to the Lord Lament 3.39 The way to have our sores cured is first to have them throughly searched I considered my wayes and turned my feet to thy testimonies Psal 119.59 If thou wouldst have thy face clean look into the glasse of the Law and view thy spots He that knoweth not that he is in a wrong path will not turn back though the farther he goeth the greater is his deviation and danger Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed or after I was made known to my self I repented As Abigail said to David if thou hearken to thy servant it will be no grief of mind hereafter to my Lord that thou art kept from shedding of blood so say I to thee If thou wilt faithfully examine thy self it will be no cause of sorrow hereafter to thee that thou wert thereby kept from a further shedding the blood of thy soul Bish Halls Meditat. Vows Cent. 2. Meditat. 4. I will conclude this motive with the meditation of the learned and holy Bishop now with Christ That which is said of the Elephant that being guilty of his deformity he cannot abide to look on his face in the water but seeks for troubled and muddy channels we see well moralized in men of evil conscience who know their souls are so filthy that they dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquity with the excuses of good fellowship Whence it is that every small reprehension galls them because it calls the eye of the soul home â—o it self and makes them see a glimpse of what they would not So have I seen a foolish and timerous patient which knowing his wound very deep would not endure the Chirurgion to search it whereon what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body so have I seen many prodigal wasters run so far in books that they cannot abide to hear of a reckoning It hath been an old and true Proverb Oft and even reckonings make long friends I will oft summe my estate with God that I may know what I have to expect and answer for neither shall my score run on so long with God that I shal not know my debts or fear an audit or despair of pardon I come now to the touchstone by which thou must be tried whether thou art true gold or counterfeit it is likely thou presumest thy estate is good well art thou willing the Word of God that must whether thou wilt or no judge thee for thy eternal life or death at the last day Ad bunc librum ut judicem ad alias ut â— judex divenio saith Melancth of tâ— â—ble should try thee at this day If thy wares be right and good thou wilt not be afraid to bring them out of thy dark shop into the light If thy title be sound and good I know thou wilt be ready for a fair Trial at law even at the Law of God I shall try thee two wayes though both will lead to the same place I must first intreat thee to put those four particulars to thy soul which in the beginning I told thee were included in that expression To me to live is Christ 1. Ask thy soul what is the principle of thy Religious performances what is the spring of thy obedience men indeed judge of others principles by their practices because they cannot discern the heart whether it be right in a duty or no but God judgeth of mens practices by their principles as we may see by his speech of Paul Behold he prayeth Act. 9.11 Paul was a Pharisee one of the strictest of them and they were much in prayer but God who knew his heart was wrong in former duties takes not any notice of them now behold he prayeth he might say a prayer before but he never pray'd a prayer til now when he had a right principle being regenerated by the holy Ghost then and not till then he made a right prayer Til the Tree be good the fruit can never be good Matth. 7.17 Now Friend what is the principle of thy duties is it fear of men hope of honour desire of gain or mearly the stopping the mouth of conscience or custome are these the weights that make thy Clock to go and if these were taken off would thy devotion stand still then thy heart is not right in the sight of God intreat him for the Lords sake that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Or do thy pious actions flow from a renewed will and renewed affections Doth the outward correspondency of thy life to the Law of God proceed from an inward conformity in thy heart to the nature and Law of God from the Law written within if it be thus thy condition is safe for the deeper the spring is from whence the water comes the sweeter the water is and thy services the more acceptable to God Speak thy self whether thou prayest readest hearest singest from the Divine nature within from love to the infinitely amiable God from the delight thou takest in communion with him in duties O how sweet is that hony that drops of its own accord from the comb and how pure is that Wine which floweth freely from the grape So grateful and acceptable is that sacrifice to God which is season'd with sincere love Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandments Psal 128.1 Or dost thou worship God from the same principle the Sadduces do who deny the Resurrection only from a desire it may go well with thee in this life or from the same principle from which the Persians do the divel only from fear least he should do thee hurt surely that service will be sowr which like verjuice is squeezed out of the crabs To serve God with a filial fear is commendable but to serve him from a servile fear is unacceptable The upright Christian worketh from an inward principle the new Creation within and
others will be the comfortable of comfortables to thee Thou needest never fear ill news in thine ears having Christ and grace in thy heart others shall not be such unspeakable loosers by death but thou shalt be as great a gainer When thou liest on thy death bed where all thy friends and riches and earthly comforts will fail thee this spiritual life is the good part which shall never be taken from thee Thou maist look upward and see as it were God smiling on thee in the face of Christ and hear him call to his angels to go and fetch thee his childe who hast been all this while at nurse home to the fathers house Thou mayst look downward on thy relations and with much faith and chearfulness commit thy fatherless children to God and bid thy weeping widdow trust in him who will be infinitely better to them than ten thousand of the richest tenderest fathers and husbands in the world Thou maist look without thee into Scripture and behold it as a garden full of sweet flowers comforting cordials refreshing heart-reviing promises and though it be an inclosure to others its open and free to thee thou maist pick and choose cull and gather where thou pleasest and needst not fear to be chidden In the multitude of those perplexing thoughts which at that time may be within thee thou mayest finde choice comforts there to refresh thy spirit If thou look within thee thou shalt not have thy conscience like an unquiet wife frowning on thee and scolding at thee but thou shalt hear a little bird singing merrily and sweetly in thy breast Lord Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seeen thy salvation How joyful maist thou leave thy dearest wife to go to thine infinitely dearer husband How willingly maist thou forsake thy lovely children to go to thy loving God and Father How freely maist thou part with all thy friends honors and pleasures to go to the Congregation of the first-born those rivers of pleasures and eternal weight of glory How chearfully maist thou bid adieu to nothing for all things to stars and streams at best for a full immediate eternal enjoyment of the Sun himself of an immense Ocean of happiness With what a lively colour in thy face and true comfort in thy heart maist thou behold that pale-faced messenger death the thought of whom though a far off is death to others entering into thy Chamber and coming up to thy bed-side how heartily welcome maist thou bid him as knowing that he cometh purposely to give thee actual possession of fulness of joy unspeakable delights a Kingdom of glory that is eternal in the heavens O the gain of godliness the profit of piety surely the price of this pearl is scarce known in this world A Merchant will in a morning gain five hundred pound by a bargain whereas poor people work hard a whole day for a shilling such a rich trade driveth the godly man godlinesse brings in thousands and millions at a clap when the moral and civil yet unsanctified man may work hard and yet earn but some poor businesse some outward blessing God may give them and his eternal wrath at last Now Reader consider if here be not abundant encouragement for thee presently and diligently to labor for this spiritual life Is it not the gainfullest calling that ever was followed the richest trade ever was driven Why dost thou spend thy strength for what is not bread and thy labor for that which will not satisfie Hearken to me and eat thou that which is good and let thy soul delight it self in fatnesse As Saul said to his servants Hear now ye Benjamites will the son of Jesse give you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds 1 Sam 22.7 So say I to thee hearken O friend will a sensual fleshly life give thee such honor as to be the son of the infinite God such comfort as to drink of the pure rivers of Gods own pleasures and will it make thee bold at death and confident at judgement an heir of heaven and so happy in every condition Can it do this Can it give thee as godliness can so much in hand and infinitely more in hope If it can I will give up my cause and leave thee to thy choice but if it cannot as doubtless thou art convinced so unlesse thou art an Heathen among Christians why dost thou labour so much and so eagerly for the pampering and pleasing thy flesh for the food that perisheth and so little and so lazily for this food which will endure unto everlasting life It was an excellent answer of one of the Martyrs when he was offered riches and honors if he would recant Do but offer me somewhat that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ and you shall see what I will say to you Reader Could the world or the flesh shew thee any thing that were equal nay that were but ten thousand degrees inferior to Christ and godliness thou mightst have some colour for thy gratifying the flesh and unwillingness to walk after the Spirit but when the disproportion is so vast that the one is not worthy in the least to be compared with the other when the difference is as great as between a sea of honey and a spoonful of gall a whole world of pearles and a little heap of dirt an heaven of happiness and an hell of horror Is it not unconceivable madness and inexcusable folly to choose that life which is after the flesh and refuse that which is after the Spirit Reader if thou wouldst be truly honorable in the esteem of God himself who is the fountain of all honor If thou wouldst have those spiritual consolations which can warm the heart in the coldest night of affliction If thou wouldst be profitable to thy dear children to thy own soul be a reall gainer in prosperity in adversity while thou livest when thou dyest If thou wouldst when thy wealth and friends and flesh and heart shall fail thee have God in Christ to be the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever If thou wouldst in thy greatest extremity when thy soul shall be turned naked of all earthly delights out of thy body escape the fury of roaring Devils and unquenchable burnings If thou wouldst in that hour of thy misery find mercy and be received into the place of endlesse blisse then get this spiritual life this true wisdom to fear God and depart from evil Get wisdom get understanding forget it not above all thy gettings get wisdom Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand
riches and honor Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to all that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 3.13 14 15 16 17 18. ANd now Reader I have done this large Use of Exhortation which is of such infinite concernment to thy precious soul but what thou wilt do or what use thou wilt make of it I know not Could I have told what other holy bait to have laid which had been more likely to have caught thy soul it is probable I should have laâ—d it I appeal to thy conscience whether tâ—ere be not unspeakable weight and unquestionable truth in the particulars which are laid down Well what sayest thou to them and what effect have they wrought upon thee Art thou resolved through the help of heaven speedily and diligently to practice the directions which I have from the Almighty God injoyned thee Is it not a thousand thousand pities that such endlesse matchlesse happinesse should be so gratiously offered by God and so unworthily neglected by men that an empty perishing world should be so eagerly pursued and heartily embraced when the unsearchable riches in Christ the Image of the blessed God eternal weight of Glory are basely undervalued and wretchedly despised Good Lord what teares of blood are sufficient to bewail this monstrous unthankfulness Friend if thou art truly resolved to obey the counsell of God thou wilt have cause to blesse that Providence which called me to this task and I may rejoyce in thee and thou in me at the day of Christ But if thou either delayest the work till thou art more at leisure or dalliest about it doing it as if thou didst it not I am sure the greatest wrong will be to thy self for behold thou sinnest against the Lord and be confident thy sins will sooner or later find thee out I come in the next place to my last Use which will be of consolation If they who have Christ for their life shall have gain by their death what comfort is here to the new born Creature Here is wine indeed to make glad the heart of every one that is holy Reader art thou sanctified and alive in Christ then thou art freed from all the misery which is mentioned in the first Use as the portion of the ungodly I may say to thee as Gryneus when he had been reproving and threatening sinners would turning to the Saint say Bone vir hoc nihil ad te Good man all this is nothing to thee Though they are losers thou shalt be a gainer by death Come but with the mouth of faith and thou mayst suck much honey from this combe thou mayst draw much milk of consolation from this breast to thee to die shall be gain Surely here is enough to ballast thy soul and keep it steady in the most tempestuous condition and to ballance and weigh down the greatest the heaviest affliction Hierom comforted the Hermite that was in a wildernesse sad and pensive Meditare coelum tam diu non eris in eremo If thou hadst hope only in this life thou wert of all men most miserable but because thou hast hope beyond this life thou mayst be of all men most comfortable Should such a man as I fly Nehem. 6.11 Should sucha a man as thou fear that art heir to a Crown to a Kingdom Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom In thy greatest losses this may support thee that death will be thy gain by giving thee possession of a life which will make amends for all If an heathen could say It is unbecoming a Roman spirit to cry out I am undone while Cesar was safe sure it is more uncomely for a Christian to complain as if he were undone when his soul is safe his eternal estate is secure For thy help I shall digest this Use into this method briefly First to shew thee against what it is comfortable Secondly wherein it is comfortable For the first It is comfortable first against the opposition of the world The world will hate thee because thou art not of the world John 15.19 She is a Paradise to her children and lovers but a Purgatory to aliens and strangers Whilst thou art in the stormy sea of this world thou art a ship bound for the Streights He that goeth towards the Sun shall have his shadow following him but he that goeth from it shall have it flie before He that goeth towards the Sun of Righteousnesse shall be sure to have these shadows these afflictions at his heels Infinite Wisdom seeth fit to imbitter the breasts of the creatures to wean thee from them Trouble upon earth is one legacie which thy Saviour hath left thee In the world ye shall have trouble John 16. ult The Souldiers were to have his garments Joseph was to have his body His Father was to have his soul He had his crosse left and that he bequeaths to his Disciples But be of good chear he did not only leave thee his crosse but hath also made thee heir to a Crown He never lookt over the threshold of Heaven Bish Hall Heaven upon eâ—rth Sect. 14. that cannot more rejoyce that he shall be glorious than mourn in present that he is miserable Oppose thy future felicity to thy present misery thy happinesse at death to the hardships thou meetest with in life thiâ— will be the way to counterpoise the temptation and to keep thee from fainting in tribulation whilst thou lookest not at the things which are seen which are temporal but at the things which are not seen which are eternal 2 Cor. 4. I have read of one Giacopo Senzaro an Italian who having been long in love and much crossed about his match filled a pot full of black stones only one white stone among them and being asked the reason answered There will come one white day meaning his marriage day which will make amends for all my black dayes So whatsoever poverty nakednesse hunger cold pain shame losses thou undergoest here in this world how many soever thy black dayes are of trials and troubles of persecutions and opposition thou mayst say there is one white day of death one long day of eternity coming which will make amends for all It was a brave speech of Luther when he was demanded where he would be when the Emperor should with all his forces fall upon the Elector of Saxonie who was the chief Protector of Protestants He answered Aut in coelo aut sub coelo either in heaven or under heaven Why shouldst thou be discouraged at any losse considering thou hast a treasure in heaven a more enduring substance At any disgrace considering thou art heir to a Crown of glory At any pain or sorrow when thou art entitled to fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore No storm should disquiet thee that shall shortly enjoy an everlasting calm What a
of Jesus Christ at death will quite dry up that issue of corruption Death will give thee a Writ of ease from all those weights and sins which do so easily beset thee Thou shalt be without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 Will it not indeed be a brave world with thee in the other world when thou shalt have as much holiness as thy heart can wish or hold If God should grant thee such a request upon earth that thou shouldst have as much of his Image and of his Spirit as thou couldst desire wouldst thou not think thy self the happiest man alive I am confident thou wouldst and also that nothing lesse than perfect purity would be thy prayer Well death will help thee to this When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse Psal 17. ult Now thou hast enough to stay thy stomack but then thou shalt have a full meal When the Israelites went out of Egypt towards Canaan there was not one feeble person among them When the Christian entereth into the true Canaan he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David nay as the Angel of the Lord before him When thy frame of nature shall be ruined thy frame of grace shall be perfected and raised to the height of glory 4. It is comfortable against thy dissolution To thee to die is gain death will be thy passage into eternal life Thou needst not fear death as a foe it will be one of thy best friends How did this hope of happinesse at death hold up the Martyrs heads above water and carry them through those boistrous waves of violent and cruel deaths with the greatest serenity and alacrity of spirit Xenophon Agesilaus King of Sparta used to say that they which live vertuously are not yet blessed persons but they had attained true felicity who died vertuously What is there in death that thou art so afraid of it Wilt thou fear a Bee without a sting Dost thou not know it had but one sting for Christ and Christians and that was left in Christ the head whereby now though it may buz and make a noise about their ears yet it can never sting or hurt the members The waters of Jordan though tempestuous before yet were calm and stood still when the Ark was to passe over If thou hadst been banished many years from thy dear Relations whom thou lovedst as thy own soul and from thy rich possessions and comforts which might have made thy life pleasant and delightful into a place of bondage a valley of tears a prison where thy feet were fettered with irons and thy face furrowed with weeping Mors non vitamrapit sed reformat Prudentius wouldst thou be afraid of a messenger that came to knock off thy shackles and fetch thee out of prison and carry thee to those friends and comforts And why art thou afraid of death which cometh to free thee from thy bondage to Satan sin and sorrow and to give thee present possession of the glorious liberty of the sons of God Art thou afraid to be rid of thy corruptions of Satans temptations of the worlds persecutions Art thou afraid to go to â—aints where are no sinners to Christ without his cross to the full immediate eternal fruition of the blessed God then why art thou afraid to dye and dost not rather desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ knowing that while thou art present in the body thou art absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Calvin in loc Jâ—el was offended at one that in h s sickness prayed for his life Well the best of it is thou art more afraid then hurt It is well observed by a judicious expositor that the Periphrasis of death mentioned John 13.1 where it is called a departing out of the world and a going to the father doth belong to all the children of God it is to them but a going out of the world to their dear and loving father And questionless this was that which made the Saints so desirous of death Basil when the Emperors Lieutenant threatned to kill him said I would he would for then he would quickly send me to my father to whom I now live and to whom I desire to hasten Calvin in his painful sickness was never heard to complain but often lifting up his eyes to heaven to cry out How long Lord How long Lord Plutarch in vit It is reported of an heathen Epaminondas that when he was wounded with a dart at Mantinea in a battel against the Lacedaemonians and told by the Chirurgions that when the dart was drawn out of his body Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo c. he must needs dye he called for his Squire and asked him Whether he had not lost his shield Non est timendum quod nos liberat ab omni timendo Tertull. he told him no whereupon he bade them pull out the dart and so died Surely Christian thou hast more cause to dye with courage when thou hast not lost thy God nor thy soul nor any thing that was worth the keeping 5. It is comfortable against the death of thy friends and relations which dye in the Lord. To dye is gain if it be their gain why should it be thy grief nature will teach thee to mourn but grace must moderate that mourning We may water our plants but must not drown them We may sorrow but not as they which have no hope least we sin When Anaxagoras was told that both his sons were dead he boldly answered the messenger I knew that I begat mortal creatures The people were enraged and perplexed at the death of Romulus but were afterwards quieted and comforted with the news which Proculus brought That he saw him in glory riding up to heaven So when thou art sorrowing for the death of thy child or husband or father or mother or brother or sister that sleep in Jesus thou shouldst hearken to the news which faith brings that it saw them filled with joy mounting up to heaven and there enjoying rivers of pleasures and a weight of glory and surely if after such news thou shouldst continue weeping it should be for joy Friend this text containeth choice sweet meats for thee to feed on at the funeral of thy dearest godly friend Lugeatur mortuus sed ille quem gehenna suscipit quem Tartarus devorat Hier. I suppose if thy relation died out of Christ thou hast not a little cause of sorrow and probably that was the sharp edge of the sword which wounded the soul of David for the death of Absolom that he died in his sins his fear was that his son died not only in rebellion against the father of his flesh but also against the father of spirits But when thy relation dyeth in the Lord thou hast surely more cause to rejoyce that thou ever hadst such a friend or relation who shall to eternity be employed in the chearful