farther objected It was a good Woman And what then must not good Women dye If Death would spare the Gracious Heaven would be empty for no other shall go thither Was she too good to be the Child of God the Spouse of Christ an Inhabitant in Heaven a Companion for Angels and Glorified Saints But was not her Goodness freely given her by her Husband She had it not by Nature she was beautiful with the comeliness he put upon her and all this was in order to fit her for her Marriage But was not her Goodness your Comfort as well as her Reward Had that been wanting there had been more cause of Sorrow than now there is But she could not be spared For that it is best to let God alone with the Government of the World which he hath so wisely managed for above Five Thousand Years and never was yet put to a strait for want of Instruments for he that of stones can raise children to Abraham never wants Instruments to do his Work 'T is he that took her hence best knows whom he can spare doubtless he can raise Instruments as well as in former times and qualifie whom he pleaseth for the Work his Vineyard shall be drest or he will send Labourers in at the eleventh hour she is call'd out by the Owner of the Vineyard to receive her Wages who can send in more if he want Had she had more Work to do she had had more time to do it in her Father that loves her knows the World is infectious and he hath taken her out of the Corrupt Air lest she should take the Infection But she was in the Prime and Flower of her Age and 't is pity such Blossoms should be nipt but God best knows when his Roses are ripe and when they should be pluckt and when 't is the best Season to gather his Flowers and if he pluck this Rose in the bud to put into his Bosom what need this Complaint He takes not his People hence till they are ripe for Glory Though we know not the reason of his doings doubtless he hath wise and gracious ends in all his Actions 't is not necessary for us to be of his Counsel yet he condescends so far to us as to tell us All things shall work together for good to those that love God Rom. 8.28 And why may nor this dark Providence do you good Sometimes the righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 And this may be the present case and haply you may have more cause to mourn that you are alive than that she is dead we know not what Cup may be put into our hands haply such as you would not desire to see her drink However Troubles and Afflictions are so common to Men of all Ranks and Conditions that the Holy Ghost tells us That blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Rev. 14.13 To dye in the Lord is a Happiness to dye for the Lord saith Latimer is such a Priviledge that is not granted to the Angels in Heaven Mors privare potest opibus non operibus Death may deprive us of our Wealth except we have sent it before us to Heaven but not our good Works But this your Daughter was your first-born and was it not fit she should have the Precedency in her Death as well as in her Birth The first-born hath no Priviledge against Death more than the rest When Death knocks all must open yea God seems to claim a greater Interest in the first-born than in the rest Exod. 13.2 Our Saviour Christ was the first-born yea the only Son of his Father and as well beloved as your Daughter could be yet suffered Death for us And shall we think a Son or Daughter or our own Lives too good for him Abraham did not deny his Son his only Son when God required him yea was content to kill him with his own hands And till there be a through resignation of us and ours and all we enjoy to God's dispose till we are content to be what he would have us be and do and suffer what his Will is we are not in a Christian Posture and God if he love us will bring us to this and if one blow will not do it more shall Our stout Stomacks must stoop and we must bend or break the best way to get from under the Rod is Submission for we can neither grapple with God nor struggle out of his hands Let us now sum up all that is in Controversie between God and you and let us see whether it will be a considerable Charge God took away your Daughter without your consent and against your will laying more claim to her than you can and brought her out of a state of Misery which you had involved her in out of the Devil's Slavery from under the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God and Eternal Damnation and that by the precious Blood of his own Son and by Regenerating her and Adopting her for his Child changing her Nature and giving her the disposition of a Child cloathing her with the rich Robes of Christ's Righteousness and decking her with the Graces of his Spirit Espousing her to his Son providing an Inheritance for her and when she came to Age hath transported her thither and gave her Possession of the purchased Inheritance those Mansions of Glory provided for her from all Eternity wip'd all Tears from her Eyes and all Sorrow from her Heart and all Sin from her Soul married her to his Son who lodged her in his Bosom gave to her the largest Fountain even a Kingdom of Glory And for this you mourn and will mourn and think you do well to mourn and like Rachel refuse to be comforted because she is not This is the wrong that draws Tears from your Eyes and sorrowful Sighs and Sobs from your Heart And may not God call Heaven and Earth to Witness against you that your Complaints are causeless and your Tears needless Had he taken her in her sins and cast her into Hell he had wronged neither the one nor the other though her condition had been deplorable but now he may say of her as sometimes of his Vineyard Isa 5.3 What could I have done more for her than I have done And what Reason can you give why you sorrow as one without hope for one that sleeps in the Lord Were it a deed of Charity could you prevail to wish her out of those Coelestial Enjoyments back again into a World of Troubles Vexations and Dangers and that only to bear you Company Do you think that all the Glory Splendour and Magnificence all the Riches Honours and Promotions the World ever saw would be a Temptation to her to leave the Beatifical Vision and those Rivers of Pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore Alas these are no more to those Coelestial Enjoyments
Crosses Pains Sickness c. 5. They shall enjâ—y God Heaven and Happiness for ever Fifth Lesson If all must dye how little Certainty wicked men have of their Happiness 1. At Death they must leâ—ve behiâ—d all their Riches 2. They must bid 〈…〉 to all their Pleasures 3. They must lose all their Pomp Glory and Honour 4. After Death they â—hall lose their God their Soules their Heaven and Happiness 5. They shalâ— be thrown into endless â—aseless Torments Sixth Lesson If all must dye then we should prepare for our own Death 1. Consider seriously we muâ—t die 2 â—e have a great deal of Work to do ere we die 3. Many men as worldly-wise as we do miscarry 4. The dangâ—rous condition we are in while unprepared 5. Preparation for Death and our Evidences for Heaven can do us no harm Directions to Die well 1. Get an Interest in Christ and a title to Glory 2. Be sure to see Sin dead before you or your Souls will die 3. Mortifie and Crucifie the World and subdue it 4. Be sure to live well if you would die well 5. Learn to die daily have death always before your Eyes Seventh Lesson If all must die bring your minds to be willing to die 1. Consider Our Life is not at your own dispose but God's 2. The many miseries Death frees us from 3. 'T is unbeseeming a Christian to be unwilling to die when God calls 4. If we resign our selves to God we shall die to the best Advantage 5. The Joys of Heaven may sweeten Death itself The Conclusion DEATH Improved AND Immoderate Sorrow for Deceased RELATIONS And FRIENDS Reproved In a LETTER Consolatory to the Vertuous and truly Religious Lady Wilbraham of Weston in the County of Stafford at the Death of her Daughter the Lady Middleton of Chirk Castle MADAM LET it not be thought Presumption in me though the meanest of a Thousand if I make bold to give my Advice in the midst of so many much abler Counsellors and to prescribe you Physick when you have so many Learned Physicians at hand for haply I have more experienced that Distemper under which you labour than many of them and can write a Probatum est upon my Receipts Others may speak more of the Disease than I can yet few have felt the working of it in their own Bowels more than I even from my Youth up and I am at present making up a Dose for my self who am in daily expectation of paâ—ting with my Eldest Son as you have done with your Eldest Daughter he being one in whom I took no small content and from whom I expected much Comfort in my Age the Lord grant I may take the same Counsel I give to others When first I heard of your great and as I think unexpected Loss and how soon your Joy that a Man-Child was born into the World was turned into Sorrow that a Woman was taken out of the World I confess I was suddenly surprized with Amazement and cryed out How vain a thing is Man whose breath is in his Nostrils and how vain are all these transitory things we so much dote upon And how little can they do for us when we have most need And how foolish are we to spend our time and money for that which is not bread and our labour for that which satisfieth not When I saw so fair a Flower so lately budded and not fully blown so soon withered and dead and what need we had especially that were much older to stand upon our Guard not knowing the day nor hour wherein our Lord and Master comes When I had spent some time in these Considerations and bewailed the Publick Loss I began to consider your Condition who by reason of your tender and haply too tender Love and Care of your Children especially as I imagined of her who was your First-born and the beginning of your Strength and one who by reason of her Age and Maturity more fit for your more intimate Society I was afraid your Burden would not be easily born for I conceive you are better qualified to bear a heavy Burden of another Nature than this strong Affections many times breed strong Afflictions but God will have us hate Father and Mother Wife and Children and our own Lives for his sake These things considered I could not but sympathize with you in your Suffering and put my Soul as it were in your Soul's stead and so bewailed and condoled your Condition having many times my self felt the weight of your Burden I thought then with Job That to those that are afflicted pity is to be shewn by his friend Job 6.14 But barely to pity and not to endeavour to help is but a poor kind of Charity but it was out of my reach any other way to help than by Counsel and Advice and this I knew you needed not yet not willing to be altogether silent I resolved to communicate to you my own Experience and what it was that hath once and again calmed those tumultuous Thoughts that raged in my Breast But could I but imagine that your Sorrows were over your Griefs supprest your Trouble buried and your Burden eased I should not be so uncharitable as to take them again out of the Ashes or blow the fire that is too apt of it self to kindle but I fear the Flame is too great to be so soon extinguished and your Distemper too deeply rooted to be so easily removed and the Wound too great to be so easily healed Or that I could but imagine your Sorrows were moderate and no more than your Duty I should not put you to the trouble of Reading nor my self of Writing these following lines But I not only fear but also hear that you are a Woman of a sorrowful Spirit drench'd in Sorrow over-power'd with Grief and like Rachel weeping for your Daughter and will not be comforted because she is not And fearing as others of your Friends do what the event will be in parting with this dear Pledge or rather Piece of your self especially when I read Godly Persons have sometimes been strangely transported with Passion upon such Occasions as Jacob at the supposed Death of Joseph Gen. 37.33 when he refused Comfort and resolâ—â—d to go down to the Grave with him but he should have learned to bury his Children and Friends when alive by acting their Death to himself afore-hand He shewed his Fatherly Love to his Son but not his own Obedience to his Father The next that offers himself to our consideration is David a man after God's own heart yet not without his Faults and Failings we find him excessively mourning for the Death of rebellious Absalom that had kill'd his Brother Amnon forc'd his Concubines rebell'd against him and sought his Life yet when he was cut off by a deserved Death partly by the hand of God he mourns and over-mourns till he was soundly chidden and threatned by Joab and wish'd he had dyed for him 2 Sam. 18.33
my design and desire is to prevent immoderation which will hinder and not further you in the Work and unfit you for your Duty you may you ought do mourn but not as those without hope for those that sleep in the Lord 1 Thess 4.13 Ingenious Children when one is beaten the other will cry but they must take heed of murmuring and repining against their Father Lute-strings when one is touched the other sound and 't is one of those Dues which we owe to our deceased Friends to lament at their Funeral 't is those usually that live undesired that dye unlamented It was a Judgment threatned against Jehoiakim that when he died he should not be lamented Jer. 22.18 But we must not Water our Plants so as to drown them and that Sorrow that disables us for our present Duty in our general or particular Calling is doubtless our sin Our chiefest care for our Relations should be while they are living and that is to make provision to our power for Soul and Body but for the Soul especially for alas what is a moment of time to Eternity But when God manifests by his Providence that 't is his Will to transport and transplant these Flowers into a better Soil though we should not be insensible of the stroak we should not murmure or repine under it or accuse the Hand that gave it but submissively resign them up to him who gave them or rather lent them to us David did what he could for his Son while he was living but ceased mourning for him when he was dead Our Tears though they may be shed upon other accounts yet 't is pity they should run profusedly in any other Channel but for sin It being the true penitential Tears that are the Holy Water that God affects and the Devil hates for if any â—oss or Cross that befalls us deserve one Tear our Sins deserve a thousand for sin is the cause of all our Losses and Crosses that befal us and without Repentance will be the destruction of Soul and Body and when we see such direful Effects and tast such bitter Fruits we should bewail the Cause and root up the Tree If our Sin lay heavy our Crosses would seem light if we bathed our Sins in our Tears we should not have so many left to pour out upon these Occasions Sin is the occasion of the Death of your dear Daughter and will be of your own Death for had it not been for sin she had not dyed By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed ever all for as much as all have sinned the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Nay sin it was that put our sweet Saviour to death these were the Nails that pierced his Hands and his Feet the Spear that pierced his Side his Betrayer Accusers Judge and Executioners and can your Daughter be more dear to you than God's only and beloved Son was to him He laid down his Life for her and her Life is not too good to lay down for him he laid down his Life to purchase for her a Mansion of Glory and she laid down her Life to go to take Possession for there is no other way to enjoy it Madam In my present Address to you there are two things designed by me The first is to abate the swelling Tide of your Sorrow and to bring those Waters within their proper Bounds and Banks which I shall endeavour to do by giving you some few Considerations to Meditate upon that so when the violent Storm of Passion shall be allayed Reason may be spoke with which cannot many times be heard when Passion is raging and after that my intention is to point you out some of those many profitable Lessons which this Providence seems to hand out to us which if we can learn doubtless we shall gain by this loss or our gains will be greater than our loss for God's Rod hath a Voice and 't is our Duty to hear it Micah 6.9 Nay 't is like Jonathan's Rod 1 Sam. 14.27 it hath Honey at the end and if we taste of it it will open and enlighten our Eyes If God with Correction give Instruction we may well say as David It was good for me that I was afflicted before I was afflicted I went astray but now I learn to keep thy commandments Psal 119.67 Quae nocent docent is a Proverb and that Lesson is best learnt that is set on with whipping and best remembred Correction is seldom a sign of God's hatred many times of his love For whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son that he receiveth If we endure chastening God dealeth with us as with sons for what son is he that his father chasteneth not And if we be without chastening then are we bastards and not sons Heb. 12.6 7 8. Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for your iniquities God will be sure to plow his own Ground whatsoever becomes of the wast and to weed his own Garden though others are let alone to grow wild the punishing Angel must begin at God's Sanctuary Ezek 9. And it was no sign of Love when God said Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hosea 4.17 Since he hath made a match with Mischief let him have his belly full of it When Ignatius was thrown to the Wild Beasts to be devoured Now saith he I begin to be a Christian for Afflictions are the Gemms and Jewels with which God doth adorn his best Friends they are Pledges of our Adoption and Badges of our Sonship so that they are no signs of his disinheriting us and though he may seem to hide his Face yet 't is no sign of his forsaking us But now for the quieting your Spirit under your present Suffering and this dark Providence I beseech you ponder well these few following Considerations which well weighed may through God's Blessing quell those tumultuous Thoughts that swell in your Breast and I desire the Lord to bless them to this end 1. Consider who it is that hath done you this supposed Injury to take away your Daughter without your consent And here you may consider not only who it is but also what Interest he claims in her and then consider whether your Plea will hold good against him Is it not the great God of Heaven and Earth whose Power no Creature is able to resist whose Will is his Law and whose Glory is his End Is it not he that is called Omnipotent that doth what pleaseth him in Heaven and in Earth and none can resist him And is he a fit Match for you to grapple with Is it not he that measureth the water in the hollow of his hand and meteth out Heaven with his span and comprehendeth the dust of the earth in a measure that weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance To whom all
is confest what Accusation will you form against this Omnipotent God seeing he hath meddled with nothing but his own Creature the work of his own hands and one that he hath a greater Interest in than ever you had What Arguments will you use to defend your Cause against him Job indeed had a good mind to quarrel him and as good a Cause for ought I know as any Man living for God himself commends him above all the Men upon the Earth for a perfect and an upright man one that feared God and eschewed evil yet holdeth he his integrity saith he to Satan although thou movedst me against him to destroy him without a cause Job 2.3 Oh saith he that God would answer me Job 31.30 But when God accepted the Challenge and posed him with some hard Questions he cries out I am vile what shall I answer I will lay my hand upon my mouth Once hâ—ve I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further Job 40.4 5. Yea we find him at the loss of his seven Sons and three Daughters the loss of all his Cattel blessing the Lord The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. â—1 We find him not cursing at the Chaldeans or reviling at the Sabeans as many would have done he knew whoever was the Rod God's Hand held it and whoever was the Instrument God was the Author This Consideration quieted David when that dead Dog Shimei railed upon him and cursed him The Lord saith he hath bid him curse David 2 Sam. 16.7 This quiered good Old Eli when the sad Tidings of the death of his two Sons and the ruine of his Family was fore-told 'T is the Lord saith he let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3.18 This Consideration also silenced Aaron when his two Sons Nadab and Abihu were both slain with fire from Heaven Levit. 10.3 And Aaron held his peace He bridled his Passion and submitted his Will to God's Will And how then dare we dispute the Point with God that have neither Might nor Right on our side that are but frail yea sinful Dust and Ashes poor Worms that if he tread upon us he leaveth us dead behind him Who are we that we should be discontent with his dealing while we have no wrong done us or think to struggle out of his hand when we have no Power or be sullen under his Rod when 't is for our own good God is not engaged to give us any Account of his doing but sure it may suffice us when he tells us All shall work together for our good if we love him Rom. 8.28 And then why not this Providence We take bitter Pills and unsavoury Potions upon the Word of a Physician when he Sugars them with the hopes of Health And shall we mistrust the great Physician that cannot deceive nor be deceived Yea how unsuitable is it for Christians to repine under such Dispensations of Providence who daily pray Thy will be done in â—arth as it iâ— in heaven chearfully readily and willingly and yet murmure when his Will is done and prefer our own Wills before his Nay further consider if you are not Accessory to this Cross that you now lye under Or have you not a hand in making the Rod wherewith ye are beaten There are two ways we may be Accessory to the Death of our Relations The one is by lodging them too near the Heart even in that Room which Christ hath reserved for himself This makes God like a Jealous Husband remove that Servant out of the Family which he sees his Wife dotes upon as a Father takes away the Knife for fear of Danger or the Meat for fear of a Surfeit for many times we grasp those Thorns so hard till they prick us to the heart and then like Children we cry when we have hurt our selves Some on the other side through Carelesness or Covetousness neglect the necessary means of preserving or restoring the Health of their Relations But if you can clear your self of the former I think all that know you will clear you of the latter for the hand of God was so evidently seen in this Visitation that no Providence no Câ—â—â— no Cost nor Pains could prevent or remove it God denying a Blessing to all the means that were used and did immediately dispute his own Right and claim his own Interest and silence all Gain-sayers Oh how good is it for us to hang loose to all Creature-Comforts and not set up any Idols in our Hearts but leave all our Relations to be at God's dispose for many times we our selves weave the Spider's Web out of our own Bowels with which we are intangled and twist the Snare with our own fingers wherein we are held Let us therefore in the first place consider who 't is that hath done this supposed Injury and the serious Consideration of it will do much to allay the Storms of our Passion and quell and suppress those tumultuous Thoughts that rage in our Breast and do much towards the calming of our Spirits 2. And as we have considered who 't is we contend with even the Mighty God of Heaven and Earth in the next place 't is not amiss to consider who we are that thus quarrel him even Dust and Ashes Worms-meat poor frail indigent Creatures we are that thus oppose the Will of this great God and find fault with his Government of the World What King saith our Saviour Christ going out to make war against mother King sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand Or else while the other is yet a great way off he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions of peace Luke 14.31 32. And this is our Wisdom to do when we see we cannot grapple with him to lay down our Arms and submit and sue for Peace before the Contention grow too high for doubtless we may easily see we are not a meet Match for him our Original is but from the Earth The Lord formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 and ere long we must be resolved into Earth Dust thou art and unto dust thou shall return Gen. 3.19 And is such a despicable Worm able to contend with the Almighty Yea all of us high and low rich and poor noble and base were bewen out of the same rock and digged out of the same hole of the pit Isa 51.1 And all had the same Original and are poor frail contemptible Nothings Is my strength saith Job the strength of stones or are my sinews of brass Job 6.12 And what if it were Were our Flesh of Brass and our Sinews of Iron could we then grapple with the Almighty Was ever any that hardened himself against God and prospered Dust we are by Creation sinful
to resist I know not Now though in plain words we do not say God doth wrong us yet our murmuring at the Providence yields some suspicion that these are our thoughts for if God will not at our Request alter his Eternal Decrees to please our Humour we are discontented and in effect we seem to quarrel him that he did not receive us into his Counsel when he made his Decrees and seem to say as Alphonso King of Arragon did affirm That if he had been of Counsel with God in the Creation he could have ordered things better than they were And we seem to think it was not well nor wisely done of God to determine the Death of our Relations without our knowledge or consent especially to call them out of the Vineyard so long before Night though it be but to give them their Wages Now if this be not the state of the Controversie between God and us I acknowledge I know it not and in such a case what Advocate shall we find to take our part or plead our Cause But let us for once suppose a possibility that we were able by fair means or soul to perswade God to altâ—r his unalterable Decrees that they might be more mutable than the Laws of the Medes and Persiâ—â—â— that altered not And suppose he should hang the Keys of Life and Death at our Girdles a Priviledge which no Man living ever yet enjoyed Suppose it were left at our dispose when and how and where our selves and Relations should dye do we verily believe we could manage the business better than he doth in whose hands it is And could we determine of a fitter time and know better their Work is done when they could be spared and when they are ripe for Glory This were presumption in us to think so doth not the chief Husband-man better know when his Corn is ready for the Barn and his Roses for his Bosom We should think it Presumption in a Son or Servant that should follow the Dictates of his own Will and prefer it before our just Command But were such a Priviledge granted us which is impossible that it ever should be we might be the first that repented it how oft-times have we seen an over-desired or over-cockered Child to be a Scourge to the Parents and to bring their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave Sometimes by their vicious and lewd courses which hath made them wish they had buried them in their Childhood sometimes by continual Sickness Weakness Pains or other Affliction Parents have been scourged for their inordinate desires Rachel so earnestly desired Children that if she had them not she must die in a pet God gave them to her but it cost her her Life There are many that by reason of Pains or other Afflictions long for death and dig for it as for hid treasures and rejoyce exceedingly when they can find the grave Joh 3.21 22. and their Friends are as willing to part with them as they are to go and long for their death as much as they desired their lives But can we indeed think it fit that our Wills should be the Rule of God's actings or that we are really wiser than he is God forbid haply we are loath to speak out that these are our desires but doth not our reluctancy make it out When a Child murmures and repines and cries and snubs when his Father Commands him to do a thing doth it not shew that if he durst he would disobey and that there is not a full resignation of his Will to his Fathers Will He that gives us our lives and the lives of our Relations is ever fittest to dispose of them Were Death at our dispose Heaven would be long empty our Friends should nor come there yet and our Enemies never our Friends should live too long and our Enemies die too soon But these things whatever we think or say to the contrary are determined by wiser Counsels yea an irreversible Decree 'T is appointed once to doe and after death the judgment Heb. 9.27 And we our selves shall ere long know by Experience that we are not secure from Death's Arrest and happy will it be for us if this Pursevant fetch us into Glory and not force us into Hell To prevent this 't is good to subject our Wills to God's Will in all things for we shall never have content or satisfaction in our mind till this be done but fears and jealousies what if this or that happen you see how vain it is to oppose our Wills to God's Will and think to resist him or struggle out of his hand 't is a thousand times easier to resist the Tide and keep it back when 't is coming in or to resist the universal Darkness that follows the setting of the Sun You have heard who 't is we contend with and that is God that can do what pleaseth him and who we are that oppose him those that cannot fetch one breath or move one finger without his assistance and what the issue of such a Contest will be is not hard to Divine 3. Cons We have already considered the Parties engaged in the Quarrel it remains that consideration be had of the wrong that is done that if it may be the Controversie may be ended In this Quarrel you are the Plaintiff and God the Defendant who hath done the supposed wrong and 't is much if the Judge of the whole Earth should do wrong and God seems to be willing to have it brought to the Tryal and to say as sometimes to his own People Micah 6.3 Oh my people what have I done unto you and wherein have I wearied you testifie against me God need not to give an Account of his Actions being a free Agent whose Will is his Rule yet is willing to put the Matter to an indifferent Judge as he doth the Controversie which he had with his Vineyard Isa 5.3 4. And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge I pray you betwixt me and my Vineyard What could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done in it c. He is willing the World should judge whether his ways be equal or no he desires a Bill may be drawn up by the Plaintiff against him and his Charge may be known that he may answer for himself The like we read of Job 32.35 c. Oh that my adversary had written a book I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown unto me I would declare unto him the number of my steps c. Can you say be hath been a hard Master or a dry and barren Wilderness to you I know you will not you cannot but God may better say to you than Themistocles to his ingrateful Country-men Are you weary of receiving so many Courtesies from one man Or as Christ to the hard hearted Jews Many good works have I done among you for which of these do you stone me Why is it
the ground of your Grief The more Gracious the more Glorious the more Holy the more Happy the better she was the fitter for Heaven There are two things which may trouble us at the death of Relations the one is when we can see no Evidence of Grace the other when we have neglected our Duty to them especially to their Souls in their life-time The reason why David did so wofully bewail the Death of Absalom is imagined to be one or both of these When our Relations are fitted for Glory I think 't is no uncharitable wish to wish them out of a troublesome World in those Coelestial Enjoyments Paul did desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which was best of all But to wish those out of Glory that are in were both an unprofitable and uncharitable desire and argues more Passion and Self-love than well grounded Charity Now there is no going to Heaven but through the Gaâ—es of Death and 't is through Death's Portal that we must enter She hath paid the Debt we all owe and would you have her endure these Pangs and Pains over again You came not into the World together and it was unlikely that you would go together out and when ever a parting was it was like to be with grief She hath changed her Husband but 't is for the better an Earthly for an Heavenly she had a large Joynture before but 't is much amended 't is now advanc'd to a Crown and Kingdom She hath left her Relations behind but she hath better there Saints and Angels the Souls of Just Men made perfect There she can serve the Lord without distraction and sing Hallelujahs to Eternity without weariness here Corruption attended her best Duties there sin and sorrow shall be no more here she was troubled with Satan's Temptations there he cannot come to throw one Dart or shoot one Arrow at her here she was liable to Pains Aches Griefs and Troubles all these are there removed here she could scarcely open an Eye or an Ear but it let in sin or sorrow there all tears shall be wiped away and a sad or sorrowful thought shall never enter And what cause hath she to complain of wrong And if neither of you be wronged why is this wast Why so many sighs so many sobs so many sorrowful tears which might better run in another Channel Had she liberty â—o speak for her self it might probably be in such words as these which Christ upon the Cross spake â—o the Women that bewailed him Luke 23.28 Weep not for me but weep for your selves and for â—our children c. those that are yet in the Vale of Tears 't is the Church-Militant that deserves â—ity not the Church-Triumphant Lament raâ—her the condition of those that survive for you know not what their Sufferings may be the other are out of harms-way and safely landed in the Port of Heaven Now is there such a wrong done you or her that God takes her to himself before you were willing to part with her though he had a better Interest in her than you could pretend and made her fit for Glory and translated her thither You agree both in the thing but the Quarrel is about the time and the Controversie is whose Will must be obeyed or whose Judgment must be preferred which is the best time Many of the wiser Heathens have submitted with less contradiction Anaxarchus when told of the death of his two Sons answered I knew that they were Mortal Et stultus est qui mortem mortalium deflet Now in the present Controversie may not God say to you as sometimes he did to his People What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone from me What wrong have I done that you thus complain One of us must submit and must it be me Must I alter my Eternal Decrees for your sake or will there be no Peace to be had The Lord may say as Jacob did to Laban when he so fiercely pursued him Gen. 31.36 What is my trespass What is my sin Declare it before the world that they may be our judges Nay hath not God in this very Affliction sugared your Pill which might have been much bittered she might have been taken away in her younger years before you had such hopes of her Integrity or at least denyed you such Evidence of her Conversion then might you have feared she had been lost indeed or instead of one he might have taken all your Children when as yet two survive oâ— by the same stroke he might have taken away your dear Husband better to you than ten Sons as Elkanah said to Hannah 1 Sam. 1.8 Or he might have suffered your Children to be a heart-breaking to you as too many in these days are by their vicious Lives and Conversations who bring their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave which makes them with with Augustiâ—â— that they had never married or had dyed childless These are not such rare Examples in our days but too frequent She dyed a Natural Death many now adays as well as Job Eli Aaron David and others in former times were not so happy as to say so of theirs Neither is there any guilt upon you as upon some that have cause to mourn for neglecting any means for the preservation of her Life when some be wickedly Accessory to their Childrens Death If there were any fault which yet I cannot accuse you of it was in the excess of your Love which I the more fear when I see the excess of your Sorrow and this is a fault which Indulgent Mothers are apt to run into But you 'll say you could more easily have born any other Burden or suffered any other Cross Why then it seems God hath let you Blood in the right Vein as he did the Young Man in the Gospel that was willing to do any thing Christ commanded but part with his Riches but Christ will have a full resignation of our selves and all that is ours or he will not own us No beloved Delilah must be retained the Cross that Christ appoints we must bear and must not pick and choose our own Burden Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother wife and children brethren and sisters and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple That is if he prize any of those before him or will rather part with Christ than with any or all of these he deserves not the name of a Christian for all we have in the World is given to us as Love-Tokens from God to signifie his Love to us and to oblige our Love to him and sometimes God calls back some of these Gifts to see whether we love him or his Tokens better God gave you liberty before she dyed to let her and you see the Fruit of her Womb a Son which though he soon called off the Stage yet at the Resurrection be shall stand in his lot But 't is
Grapes may be gathered from these Thorns and some Figs from these Thistles some Honey may be lick'd off these Briars for God's Rod like Jonathan's hath Honey at the end Sensible we must be of this Providence as doubtless Aaron was at his two Sons deaths but discontent we must not be God complains that Righteous persons perish and no man lays it to heart and merciful men were taken away and no man considers it Isa 57.1 Some use of such Providences we should make and get some benefits by these Tryals Now among the many Lessons this Providence holds out to us I shall only point out these seven following which if you and I can learn by it it will be happy for us Lesson 1. From this Lecture of Mortality your dead Daughter we may learn the cursed Nature of sin which was the cause of her Death and how little beholding we are to it that thus rends one Friend out of the Arms of another for whatever Distemper our deceased Friends dye of sin lies at the bottom and sets the Disease on work but for sin 't is probable we had never dyed For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life By one man's offence sin came into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all for as much as all have sinned Now shall we love the Tree and hate the Fruit Love the Cause and hate the Effect Shall we be like foolish Children that hate the smarting Plaister and consider not the Ulcerous Sore that makes it necessary We would have the Wound cured and yet not have the Weapon drawn out for fear of a little smart Had not Sin gone before Death had not followed many Men love the Drunkenness and hate the Surfeit But did we see sin in its own Colours it would be worse than the Effects for 't is the only Object of God's infinite hatred for he hates nothing but sin or for sins sake and yet sin seems lovely when we behold it in the Devil's Glass or through his Spectacles If we could strip the Devil himself of his vicious Qualities he would return to his former Angelical Glory yea into God's Favour for he hates nothing he hath made Man in his first Creation was made Holy and Happy and had Power given him so to continue and though by his Constitution he was Mortal yet by God's Blessing he had been Immortal for ought we know â—s the Soul is But by eating the Forbidden Fruit Gen. 2.17 in all probability he had suddenly dyed had not Christ interposed and become a Surety to his Father and so gained a longer Lease and paid the Fine however Man became obnoxious to Death and dye he must See how dangerous it is to play at the hole of the Asp and to ask Counsel at the Devil's Mouth for so Eve did and for that Offence all her Posterity must eat bread in the sweat of their brows till they return to the dust out of which they were taken No Greatness can excuse us no Wisdom can prevent it but the most dangerous Death is to dye in our sins Sin it is that makes us uncurable otherwise we had been so armed Death could never have entred or pierced the heart Rom. 5.12 And shall we hug this Viper in our Bosom that will sting us to Eternal Death For sin is the very sting of death without which Death were not so formidable Adam's Offence diffuseth it self to all his Posterity as Poison doth to every part of the Body and shall we love the Work and hate the Wages Actual Sin is the Fruit of Original Corruption and springs from this bitter Root and 't is the cause of all our Misery and shall we like the foolish Dog bite the stone and let the Passenger that threw it go free Let us turn therefore all our sorrow into sorrow for sin for all is little enough to run in this Channâ—l And let this be your Motive though not one of the greatest sin was the cause of your dâ—ar Daughter's Death and will ere long be the cause of yours also and happy will it be for you if this bitter Pill have this Operation upon you to make you hate sin with a perfect hatred 2. Nay 't is not only Death but also all the Miseries that accompany Life and are the fore-runners of Death which are the direful Fruits and Effects of Sin Could we see Sin in its own proper shape it would appear most hateful and detestable but the Devil hides its Deformity from us what he can and to this end lends us his Spectacles in which it appears lovely and amiable but we may best see it in the Effects It was this that turned Angels out of Heaven Adam out of Paradice and many thousands into Hell and can the Tree be good that brings forth such unsavoury Fruit This raced out the Image of God and engraved upon the Soul the very Image of Satan The Devil knows well enough that if we saw Sin in its own Colours we must needs hate it for who can fall in Love with Deformity it self And therefore misrepresents it as a deformed Hag paints her Face and covers her Deformity thereby to take her Prey and allure unwary Youth So the Devil deals by Sin and represents it in Vertue 's Colours but the Glass of the Word would shew it in its own shape Indeed there is nothing in the World that can fully resemble it yet in the Scripture 't is represented by the foulest things imaginable to filthy Ulcerous Sores James 1.21 To the Mire that Swine wallows in the Vomit of a Dog to filthy Rags Menstruous Cloathes deadly Poison a fretting Cancer or Gangreen 't is so infectious none can escape the Infection it infects the whole Man like the Leprosie in the Head the Thoughts Words Desires Affections and Actions are all polluted and unclean and smell of the Cask and stink in the Nostrils of God our Eating Drinking Buying Selling Trading yea Plowing is sin Prov. 21.4 And all our Religious Duties if not performed with the Incense of Christ's Righteousness are defiled Isa 1.11 c. and 66.3 Why Those Duties though commanded by God yet proceeding not from a right Principle directed to a right End and done in a right manner must needs be faulty Now sin though looked upon as a harmless innocent thing and when Men have put a fair Mask upon its soul Face looks lovely and the Devil hides its soul Visage as 't is said the Panther doth his deformed Head purposely to take his Prey yet still it remains ugly Pride covers it self with the name of Cleanliness Drunkenness is taken for Good-fellowship and Covetousness for Good Husbandry c. But the Effects are not so lovely let the Devil and his Instruments say what they will to the contrary for 't is the occasion of all the Miseries that ever befel Mortal Man We had never had aking Head or aking Heart or Loss or
Sin was Witness of his Sorrow also But did our Lustful Gallants pay as dear for their stoln Waters as he did they would take more heed God hath various ways to embitter the World to his People when they let out their Affections upon it he whips them home when they are playing in the Dirt. Some lye long languishing under Bodily Distempers yea in much Tormenting Pain as the Cholick Stone Strangury Gout and such like the best of Men the choicest Ministers are not always free this makes them weary of their Lives and with Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and to cry out Come Lord Jesus come quickly How many may we hear crying out Oh my Head Oh my Heart my Back my Bones my Bowels c. These Bodies of ours are subject to a Thousand Infirmities Diseases Distempers and Casualties and by which Door Death will enter we know not And some poor Creatures have few waking hours free from pain for Grace it self cannot prevent Bodily Distempers though it enables Men better to bear them Yet all this is but a needful Potion prescribed by a loving Father and a tender-hearted Physician Oh Sin how dreadful a Distemper art thou that needest such bitter Pills and unsavoury Potions And how bewitching a Hag is the World that needs so much Gall and Wormwood to wean us from it and needs so much whipping before we are willing to leave it These dusty crazy Bodies of ours are tender Pieces soon out of Order and like curious Instruments soon out of Tune or like a Clock or Watch if one Wheel be out of Order nothing is in or like brittle Glasses they are soon broken then the Water of Life runs out at any little hole There are multitudes of tender Veins and tender Membranes Fibres Muscles Arteries Bones and Sinews in the Body of Man and all obnoxious to Obstructions Dislocations Extentions Contractions Hurts or Dangers all which will cause Pains Aches Griefs and Troubles to the whole Body and were it not that these were preserved every one in its proper place and enabled to do their appointed work by an Omnipotent God 't is wonder that one day passeth and not many of them out of order but however many are the wearisome Nights and Days many poor Creatures endure and are like to do till Death put a period to their Miseries These Pains are but Death's Darts and how soon he will hit us at the Heart we know not and then Death it self shall be swallowed up in victory And yet how loath are most Men to take Death's Receipts though it be an Universal Cure of all Maladies Now if we have some lucid intervals 't is but like as in an Ague-Fit to enable us to bear the next Fit In these Earthly Tabernacles there are so many Doors that some of them will be left open to let in Distempers and Death it self but in Heaven they can never enter Here is a mixture of Joy and Sorrow like Chequer-work of black and white but the most part black but there will be unmixed Joy and pure Comforts Heaven is an Healthful place and no Sickness a Joyful place and no Sorrow a Happy place where will be no Cross a Holy place where will be no Sin Holiness to the Lord will be writ upon the meanest Subject Death at his coming will cure the Blind and the Lame Mephibosheth shall not be lame nor Leah blear-eyed But Death cures not only Bodily but Spiritual Distempers also which are much more dangerous than the former as Hardness of Heart Blindness of Mind Stubbornness of Will Disorder in the Affections c. These cost good Men many a Prayer and many a Tear and many an aking Heart these Sons of Zerviah are too hard for them and these Anakims dwell in their Land these rise up and lye down with them and they cannot be quiet for them they cannot go into God's Presence but they enter with them and spoil their Duties But in Heaven the whole Soul and Body shall be made conformable unto God's Will and no Distemper shall be found in any of our Faculties In this World also the sins of others as well as our own are our Trouble and help to add to our Grief we can neither open our Eyes or our Ears but we see or hear something that offends God and therefore should trouble us We may daily see and hear God's Commands broken the Gospel slighted his Messengers abused his People persecuted and all manner of Wickedness committed Here may we hear the Sacred Name of God blasphemed his Worship scorned all manner of Ribald Bawdy Lascivious and Wanton Discourse promoted Wickedness defended pleaded for tolerated and practised and is this no Trouble to a Gracious Soul The Stews it self is fuller of obscene Discourse than many Companies are with whom yet we have necessary Converse and Commerce This made David's Eyes shed rivers of tears Psal 119.136 it clouded his Countenance furrowed his Cheeks and grieved his Heart and vexed Lot's righteous soul 2 Pet. 2.7 every Wicked Man was an Hazael to his Eyes an Hadadrimmon to his Heart cause of weeping and lamentation for Guilt and Grief are all we are like to get by such Company but the Lord will take notice of those that are mourners in Sion Ezra 9.4 But in Heaven there is no cause of Sorrow because there is no Sin the Laws of God there are never broken Here Relations sometimes prove Thorns in our Eyes and Goads in our Sides some Yoak-fellows that should prove Helps prove Hindrances not only in Heaven's way but as to the World also Oh what a Grief 't is to see a Wife or Husband prove a Drunkard or a Debauch'd Person Yet many a Godly Person hath been thus yoaked The like I may say of Children or other Relations Or were it but Bodily Pains and Tortures which our dear Relations groaned under it must needs be a Corrosive to our Hearts to see them under Tormenting Distempers Some also prove like Job's Wife Tempters So Holy David may have a scoffing Michal and a Wise Abigail a churlish Nabal Children often-times prove Crosses good David may have an incestuous Amnon or a rebellious Absalom Many good Children have bad Parents and this is a trouble to see them going out of the World before they knew why they came into it Good Servants many times have bad Masters and likewise good Masters bad Servants and all this administers cause of Sorrow But in Heaven these Tears will be dryed up for all the Inhabitants there will be perfectly Holy and Righteous and no Wicked Man among them Many in this World are pinch'd with Poverty and know not how to maintain their Families with Bread their continued labour and daily pains moiling toiling carking caring rising early and lying down late is all too little to provide for a numerous Family and to satisfie an oppressing cruel Landlord ready to drink up not only their Tears and Sweat but their very
a Title to Glory cleared up to us can do us no hurt but will do us good and is worth all the Pains and Cost we can be at about it but the neglect of it is as you have heard dangerous and deadly Our Pains and Cost which we are at about it will not be lost but well recompensed and never any one was made miserable by it when Ten thousand times ten thousand have been undone by the neglect Death comes never the sooner when 't is expected or to those that with the Apostle dye daily 1 Cor. 15 31. neither will it spare men the more because they put it out of their sight And they put far off the evil day Amos 6.3 no no the Lord of such servants shall come in a day they know not of and in an hour they are not aware of Death is not blind though we wink he that is fit to dye is fit to live and truly no other for the same Qualifications serve for the one and for the other He that is prepared for Death needs not to fear it and he that fears not Death needs fear no Enemy no though the whole Creation were turned into Lyons and Bears yea incarnate Devils about him kill him they may hurt him they cannot the worst they can do is to send him to his Father's House the sooner If we are prepared Death may strike us but cannot sting us for the sting is taken out 1 Cor. 15.55 and if it take us away by the Hand of Violence Twenty years in Heaven will make amends for Twenty years upon Earth which we might possibly have lived and if we receive as much Wages for half a day as other for the whole what cause is there of Complaint When our Debt to Nature is paid our Work is done and our Rest follows when we have been threshed fifted and winnowed and the Chaff blown away we shall be laid up as good Corn in our Father's Grainary when the Tares shall be bundl'd up Swearers with Swearers Drunkards with Drunkards and one Adulterer with another and cast into unquenchable fire when we have Oyl in our Vessels as well as Lamps in our Hands then we shall enter in with the Bridegroom when the rest shall be shut out Mat. 25.10 c. but he that comes in without a Wedding-Garment on his Back shall not go out without Bolts on his Heels Mat. 22.12 Take him bind him hand and foot and cast him into outward darkness He must go from the Table to the Tormentor But many other are the Benefits that flow from a right Preparation for Death yea more than can be numbred for our Evidences cleared up will be a Heaven upon Earth and will sweeten every Condition how bitter soever in it self and hold up the Head above Water and the Heart from fainting under the saddest Providences that can befal us and makes a Christian see Light in the darkest Cloud and read Love in God's Face in his saddest Frowns for Grace in the Heart and unblurred Evidences thereof without which we cannot be prepared to dye will be such an Antidote to keep the Heart from sinking that the World it self cannot make up such a Cordial nothing can come amiss to such a Soul for he knows the same Love that elected him and sent Christ into the World to redeem him is now on work for his good If he meet with Afflictions he can suck Sweetness thence and gather Arguments of God's Love from it and conclude thence that he is not a Bastard but a Son for God correcteth those he loves and scourgeth every son that he receiveth and those that are without correction are bastards and not sons Heb. 12.7 8. Afflictions are the Gemms and Jewels that God adorneth his best Friends with He had one Son without Sin but none without Sorrow and it be those that suffer with him that must reign with him If a prepared Christian meet with Prosperity he can read Love in this also and take every Mercy as a Love-token and admire the Goodness of God to such a poor Wretch If he read or hear the Word of God he can suck Sweetness from every Passage whether Precepts Promises or Threats his Meditation of God of Christ of Heaven of Glory will be sweet his Morning Thoughts and Evening Meditations also many a Cordial can he fetch from the meditation of those invisible things which others have no Converse with no Desire after and this bears up the Heart from sinking in the worst of Times as it did the Martyrs Hearts in Prisons Losses yea at the Stake it self for how can it be but a serious thought of God and Christ and Heaven and Glory and a firm believing that he hath an Interest in them but it must cheer up the Heart And will not the reading the precious Promises of God and knowing also that they are their Father's Legacy to them chose but warm the Heart Yea the thoughts of Death as 't is a Messenger sent from God to bring us to Glory and set an end to all our Miseries will hardly be much sweetned for many dismal Apprehensions may an unprepared Soul well have of Death but to the other the Sting is taken out 1 Cor. 15.55 In a word happy is the condition of a prepared Soul and therefore 't is our Interest to prepare for it Thus Madam having shewn what improvement we may and ought to make of such sad Providences as are now under our consideration the last I mention'd was preparing for our own Death And oh that my self were effectually perswaded so to do by the convincing Motive I have laid down I shall add some Directions in reference to Preparation 1 Direct If we design and desire to dye happily and comfortably let us get an Interest in Christ and a Title to Glory clear'd up to the Soul for those that must cheerfully and willingly leave all their Earthly Enjoyments Comforts and Relations had need of assurance of something better than the World is for who would leave a certain Good for an uncertainty one Bird in the Hand they say is worth two in the Bush 'T is true a man may have a Title to Glory when Assurance is wanting and this man may dye happily though not comfortably for Death to him must needs look ghastly Till a man can look upon Christ the Rich Pearl as his own how can he part with all for him But when he hath Christ and Heaven and Glory in his Eyes he matters not what he parts with for them he knows 't is a good Bargain who will not part with Pebbles for Pearls with Earth for Heaven and the Creature for God such and such alone can look Death undauntedly in the Face Till a man find the Condition of the Covenant within him what Comfort can he have in the Covenant it self Though the King grant Pardon to a thousand Malefactors if I be a Malefactor and cannot prove that I am of this number what
easier to part with Poverty than Plenty Pain than Pleasure Sickness than Health and a Prison than Liberty but these Blessings were never given us to cross our Maker's Will Oh Death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at ease in his Possessions and hath prospered in all things And yet the thoughts of Heaven may sweeten this also And that I may add some Sugar to this bitter Pill I add these Considerations 1. Consider our Life is not at our own dispose neither indeed is it fit it should be for God is absolute Lord of all the Works of his Hands he is the Potter we are the Clay if he dash us with his Foot who can call him to an Account For whose is the Pot but the Pot-makers And he made us for his own use and may do with his own as he pleaseth and we must hold our Tongues and say nothing if he do it Never had any Man such absolute Dominion over any thing he called his own as God hath over us yet we imagine those Beasts we call ours though we have but a subordinate Right to them yet we do them no wrong if we take away their Life we neither did nor can give it to them and hath not God a greater Propriety in us We let him alone with greater matters than our Lives and contradict him not He upholds the whole frame of Nature in Being the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth from returning to its Primitive Nothing and we seek not to take the Work out of his hands He maintains the Sun Moon and Stars in their incessant and unerring Motions who pour their Influences upon the Earth he hangs this huge and massy Globe upon nothing and we let him alone with this work he made those Glorious Lamps of Heaven for times and for seasons and for days and for years and the Sun knows his going down He it is that sets Bounds to this great and wide Sea yea Bars and Doors and saith Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves cease Job 38.10 11. He forms the Light and he creates Darkness and he it is that hath the Keys of Life and Death at his Girdle He kills and he makes alive and doth whatever pleaseth him in Heaven and in the Earth Can all the Kings of the Earth with all their united Force repel the Universal Darkness that over-spreads the face of the World when the Sun is set or retain the Light while they have it And should they attempt it would they not proclaim their Folly Is it not he that provides Food for every living thing yea for thousand thousand of living Creatures Man takes no care of And shall we leave all these things at his dispose And why because we cannot take them out of his hand And are we exempt and must not our Lives be in his Hand or Power Shall he that Governs the whole World by his Power and Wisdom not be best able and fittest to dispose of us and of our Lives as well as others We have not a bit of Bread to eat but he gives it nor a Breath to breathe but he puts it into us and are we like to maintain our Lives without him or keep them against his will Is it not he that pulls down Kings and sets up Kings and disposeth of Kingdoms to whomsoever he will even to the worst of men Dan. 4.17 And doth not he best know when our Work is done and when 't is the fittest time to take us hence without advising with us or asking our Counsel Or would we only be excluded Or would we have all others have the like Priviledge If the first how came we from under the Law It is appointed unto all men once to dye and after death the Judgment If all Men must have the Priviledge of dying when they please the World will be too numerous to subsist Hell will be empty and Heaven will have few in it for most Men will live a miserable Life before they will dye though to go to Glory And is not it best to refer all this to Divine Wisdom that only knows the best time Were our Lives in our Enemies hands we should dye too soon if in our own we should live too long 't is best as it is in God's hand who best knows when our Work is done and when his Flowers are ripe and when we are fit for Glory Let us then with such Considerations as these quiet our selves under Divine Dispensations and with Paul say I am willing not only to be bound but to dye at Jerusalem for Christ And let us breathe out Come Lord Jesus come quickly Even so Amen 2. Consider also the several Evils that Death frees a Believer from which none else can the thoughts of this may make a Christian more willing to dye yea with the Apostle to desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 There is in every Man and Woman by Nature a Principle which cannot be obliterated to desire to be Happy and a cessation of Misery and though every Man living desire it yet few attain it for the greatest number whether through Ignorance mistake the way to it or through prevailing Corruption will not walk in the way that leads to it but grope after it where it never was nor can be found and seek it where it never grew and ten thousand times ten thousand have been thus deceived and undone in embracing a Cloud instead of Juno and adoring Riches Honours and Pleasures instead of Father Son and Holy Ghost and these have run themselves out of breath but all in vain and at Death have found they had mistaken their way when it was too late Some few indeed have sought after Happiness in a way of Holiness and these have it in sight and these meet with a Viaticum something to stay their Stomack in the way but their Feast their Wedding-Supper is prepared for their Journey 's end even the Marriage of the Lamb. For whatever conceit may possess the Heart of Man to the contrary true and compleat Happiness was never enjoyed by meer Man on this side Death for here we are Pilgrims and Strangers and this is not our Rest we are under Age and our Inheritance elsewhere This Life is cumbred with a thousand Miseries which cannot consist with compleat Happiness which cannot be found on this side the Grave and few find it beyond Now one part of our Happiness is to be freed from Misery for while we are under Affliction our Happiness is not compleat but till Death we cannot be freed from Suffering this alone must ease us of our Burden the thoughts of this might make us have gentler thoughts of it and look upon it through other Spectacles For that Messenger be unwelcome to a Prisoner that comes to knock off his Shackles and restore his Liberty Death is sent to tell us our Warfare is accomplished the Field
saith Luther look to the Salvation of it A Child that hath a precious Jewel cannot put it safer than in his Father's hands the like we may say of our Lives and Souls if we 'l have the keeping and disposing of them our selves the Devil will rook us out of them but what is committed to God cannot be lost our Lives though laid down for Christ cannot be lost in him 't is but as the Seed sown Life eternal will spring up in the turn when temporal Life expires eternal Life begins My Father saith Christ is greater than all and none can pluck them out of my Fathers hands Joh. 10.29 There is nothing we can expend in God's Service but he can make satisfaction we may lose all we have for him but shall lose nothing by him if we deny to honour God in letting God dispose of our Lives as to the time and manner of our Death we shall lose them for nothing To live saith Paul is Christ and to die is gain he was in a strait whether to chuse life or death yet he knew to die was best for him Phil. 1.21 c. Janua vitae est porta coeli saith Bernard Christians should be so indifferent whether they lived or died as to submit their wills wholly to God's will to die for Christ is the way to a Crown of Martyrdom and the way to reign with Christ is to suffer with him a Self-resignation can do us no hurt but much good for if we are never call'd to suffer we shall not lose our Reward God takes the will for the deed as in Abraham's case And if we do suffer for him we shall reign with him and have white robes with palms in our hands and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Rev. 12.11 7.9 And shall not we suffer something for this Honour or shall we after all this Profession of Religion declare to the World that all was but Hypocrisie and that we have more love to Sin and the World than we have to God Is not this the way to dishonour God discredit Religion harden Wicked men in Sin and endanger our own Souls 5 Cons In the last place to make us more willing to dye or to submit to God's Will whether for Life or Death are the Joys and Delights and Pleasures which believing Souls shall have in the Presence of God for ever and for ever and that immediately after Death for as then all tears shall be wiped away and sin and sorrow shall be no more so our Joys and Pleasures shall then commence 1 Joh. 3.2 Now we are the sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Great things we have in Hand but greater in Hope much in Possession more in Reversion our Happiness then will be in seeing and enjoying him which we cannot do on this side Death but what our Enjoyments shall be there no mortal man can come to know not the Apostle who was caught up into the third Heaven and heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter 2 Cor. 12.4 Yet he tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for those that love him Yet he reserves not all for the Life to come some clusters of Canaans Grapes are bestowed in the Wilderness some Pisgah-sights of Glory on this side Jordan But 't is no wonder we cannot describe the Joys of Heaven when we are such strangers to many Secrets in Nature In the World Believers have such joy as no stranger shall meddle with Prov. 14.10 The Cock on the Dunghil knows not the Worth of these Jewels they are unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 they are a Harâ—â—el of Heaven and a Fore-taste of Eternal Life yea such as passeth all Understanding fitter to be believed than to be exprest to which all the Comforts which the World affords signifie nothing for what shall we compare with the Peace of a good Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost And yet this is but a small tast a branch of Canaans Grapes and nothing compared with what is behind to be eternally enjoyed But if the Saints Enjoyments so darkly resemble Heavens Glory what will the Epicure's Delights do which they chose for their Portion Not so much resemble it as a Muckhil doth the Sun in his Splendor The Drunkard delights in his Cups the Adulterer in his Queans and this they look upon to be the chiefest Happiness the covetous man makes Gold his God the ambitious man makes choice of that empty Bubble Honour and the voluptuous man contents himself with Pleasure these are the Syren Songs the Devil lulls them asleep with while he ruines their Souls these are the Circe's Charms which transforms them into Swine and makes them take up with Husks and Swill and to neglect that Nectar and Ambrosia which the Saints feed upon Have I need to shew that Happinese consists not in these things Is any so blind upon consideration as to affirm it Where is their Happiness then when their Cups and Queans are snatch'd and all other their Enjoyment leave them 'T is true Meat is delightful to the Hungry and Drink to the Thirsty Health to the Sick and Strength to the Weak but what is this to an hungring thirsting panting weary Soul Christ is better to it than all the World Stately Buildings curious Gardens pleasant Walks and the rest of the Delights of the Sons of Men mentioned by Solomon Eccl. 2.8 c. how little satisfaction can they yield they will prove but empty Husks if we feed upon them what are those to those Mansions of Glory provided for the Saints and the Rivers of Pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore Yea I dare say many a poor Believer hath more solid Joy more Hearts Content more true Satisfaction in his poor Cell than many of those in the midst of all their Enjoyments What then will their Enjoyments be in Heaven when they shall receive their Portion Human Learning also is desirable and more beautiful saith Aeneas Sylvius than the Morning or the Evening-Star What hard Labour and Pains have many a man taken to find out Nature's Secret and at best have but groaped in the dark And many all 〈…〉 Mystery there is in the Book of God which no man living understands the Scripture being like the Waters of the Sanctuary Ezek. 47.2 c. where a Lamb might wade and an Elephant might swim but there our Ignorance shall vanish and all those difficulties disappear and we shall know as much of God himself as finite Capacities can comprehend Now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now we know but in part but then shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3.18 Here we can see but by reflection for how can our Eyes behold God that cannot view the Sun in its splendor Moses himself could but view his Back-side and Paul was blinded with the Sight but the Beatifical Vision will not disturb us Now we behold the Works of God with admiration the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Host of Heaven the Earth also hanged upon nothing beautified with all Varieties the Sea bounden and barr'd by him and generally the whole Creation these are beautiful Objects and many inscrurable Mysteries we understand not but there we shall see and know far greater Mysteries in the Fabrick of Heaven it self His Works of Providence many times puts us to a puzzle how he governs all the World and preserves Peace among so many disagreeing Creatures especially how he preserves his own Church amidst their numerous Enemies and makes Provision for all the works of his Hands but when we are better acquainted with his Wisdom and Power these Wonders will cease The Work of Redemption and the manner of contriving it that he let fall the Angels irrecoverably without hope of Redemption the reason of his Electing Love and why he made a difference the Price that was paid the Blood of his only Son may cause admiration but when we know the whole Contrivance we shall admire his Wisdom Oh who would not long to be in that estate of Blessedness where these and all things else shall be made known to us which cannot be till Death Thus Madam I have made bold haply too bold to communicate to you my own Experiences and with what Arguments I have quieted my self under such sad Dispensations of Providence as at present you lye under and to shew you what improvement I have made or at leastwise desire to make of them and I hope I may truly say it was good for me that I was afflicted and I wish you may experimentally say the same I think I have learned more in the School of Affl ction of the sinfulness of Sin of the Vanity of the Creature of Worth of Grace the Miseries of the Wicked and the Happiness of the Godly than ever I did in any other School whatsoever And I wish you and all your Relations that are concerned in this Providence may gain as much as I yea terque quaterque manifold more I do not write these things to you as if you were ignorant of them no I am too well acquainted with you to be guilty of this Error but the best of us especially when under a Cloud and overpower'd with Grief have need of a Remembrancer to put 〈◊〉 in mind of what before we knew My humble Desire is and my Prayer shall be that you and your Relations by this Providence and these Oâ—servations upon it may be brought nearer to GOD weaned more from the World and your selves fitter to live and fitter to dye that when you come to dye you may have nothing to do but to dye and resign up your Souls into the Hands of God These are the unfeigned Desires of Madam your humble Servant Edward Bury Eaton Apr. 16. 16â—5