encourage them yea to make them rejoyce Do they sometimes Mourn with a godly sorrow yet may they still rejoyce since to consider the end and effect of that sorrow will give it a mixture of Joy And even their penetential tears do but clear their eyes to look up to Heaven with delight and comfort and enable them the better to read a pardon And here it were easy to shew how their Faith and hope and love how their humility meekness and patience their contentedness with God's allotment their resignation to his Will their satisfaction in his Choyce their well pleasedness with his Order their preparedness for every Condition their diligence in their callings their moderation in the use of lawful things and their innocency and harmlesness in their carriage and behaviour towards others do all contribute to a chearful and a joyful life Therefore well might the Psalmist tell us that the Righteous shall be glad in the Lord Psal 64.10 and all the upright in Heart shall Glory And well might our Lord advise his Disciples not to be lifted up with the gift of Miracles but rejoyce rather that their names were written in Heaven Luke 10.20 And well might the Apostle command Christians to rejoyce not by an Ironie as Solomon here speaks to the Young Man but in the most real and proper sense Rejoyce in the Lord always yea and again I say rejoyce Thus much for the first General 2. Let us consider in that the Wise-man directs his discourse to the Young Man in perticular we have thence a plain intimation that of all others young persons are most apt to neglect the fear of God and be unmindful of their Maker through the temptation of sensual pleasures and youthful lusts Tho' God demand his right as soon as we are capable of understanding it and to serve the Lord from our youth is but just and reasonable considering that so great a part of our life is already cut off by our Infancy and Childhood tho' the longer we delay the greater difficulty shall we meet with when ever we set about it tho' our whole life at longest as soon as we are capable and as long as we did live should be devoted to God and 't is all little enough if we consider its relation to our Eternal State tho' the sooner we begin the more welcome we shall be and the more acceptable our Obedience yea tho' an Early piety be the only hopeful method to prevent the hazard of a sudden death and the terrible reflections of old age and the intolerable pangs a death bed remorse yet such is the power of Original Sin in young persons such and so many are the snares of youth and those so agreeable to their vicious inclinations such the force of prejudice Such the artifices of the Devil and so prevalent the perswasions of evil Company they are usually so proud ignorant and unexperienced so rash hasty and unadvised and so easily infected with Sadducism and the principles of Infidelity so loth to assent to any such premises whose conâ—lâ—sion will infer the nessessity of changing their present course that they of all others do most need a serious admonition to remember their latter end and final Judgment least through the temptations of Sensual mirth and pleasure they put the evil day far from them For alas how seldome do we consider in Youth what we are and why we were made or what is our business in the World and what will be the end of our present course Whereas one thought of God and our last Judgment methinks should be enough to drown all other thoughts as the noise of a Canon doth that of a Whisper Sense is so prevalent and Reason so weak we are so much inclined to the one and so unwilling to be led by the other that roys and trifles sports and recreations and the vanities of fools and Children possess our hearts and employ our time not looking behind us to what we have either done or been nor before us whither we are going and what in all likelyhood will be the period of our present mirth and the sad Catastrophe of our Youthful lusts Young persons will hardly be convinced but that Now is their season to be brisk and Jovial having time as they count to command and the World before them that it is time enough to think of Death when they are arrested by sickness or wither'd by old Age let them be concerned about another World who are leaving this their bloed now is warm and their Spirits nimble their senses are quick and their passions strong they will walk in the way of their own hearts and in the sight of their eyes and ordinarily split upon that Rock of Evil company where so many thousand Vessells at their first launching out have dasht in pieces Besides their Age is most inviting to the Devil to bend his chiefest forces against them rather than against Children or Aged persons the former not being capable of making a choice and the latter being fix'd and resolv'd in their way his principal endeavours therefore are levell'd against Youth to draw off their hearts from God and Holy things and to divert their thoughts from the consideration of Death and Judgment which would otherwise restrain and check them in pursuit of their lusts And this brings me to the Third General to consider 3. That for all these things God will bring us to Judgment And therein what Arguments the thoughts of a future Judgment may rationally suggest to damp the carnal mirth of young persons and persuade them to remember their Creatour in the days of their youth And to inforce this Argument I might here mind you of the mischief you will do to others by an ill example and of the aggravation of your sin by employing the best of your time in the service of the Devil which must needs make judgment more terrible in that your final doom the consequences of it will be more severe I might tell you the sooner you repent the more hopeful is your case in reference to a pardon I might largely describe the happy influence of an early Piety with respect to the future part of our lives to direct our choice and govern our actions and prevent a great deal of Sin and shame sorrow and repentance I might mention the comfortable reflections in Old Age upon a well-spent life our capacity of greater Service to God now and our assurance of a weightier crown of Glory hereafter with all the other considerable benefits that have respect either to a safe and happy life a comfortable Old Age and a peacable Death or a joyful Resurrection and a blessed Eternity all which will come under the Argument in the Text and what I shall say of it may be compriz'd under the following particulars 1. Let young persons consider that notwithstanding their present mirth and jollity yet the Judgement of God is infallibly certain It is an
can you think when you are capable your interest by your Parents can avail you any thing against your own personal rejection of God No not tho' Abraham were your Father if you should finally shew your selves rather a generation of Vipers Which we have great hope God will mercifully forbid But if Englands Youth should generally tho' not all at once as they come not to be such all at once against their Baptismal Vow cast off God here is an intercision of the line and an end of the relation between God and us If therefore you love your Country you will love God and study to please and serve him with your whole heart If you love your Prince you will do so for would you have him to be yea would you make him the Head of a destitute People forsaken of God And how would you propose to your selves to live your days and spend your time in the World without God What in eating and drinking and pleasing your Flesh till you dye would you not take it for a scorn and ignominy to you if one should tell you you were born for no higher purposes and are capable of no higher But how dare you think without knowing and becoming specially related to the God of your lives of dying and passing into an unknown World Peruse seriously the ensuing discourse that we longer detain you from it 〈◊〉 if it signifies any thing to your better preparation for Death and Judgment and in Order thereto to your holy and more useful comfortable life on Earth It will answer the Authors Design and with his the desires and prayers of Your Affectionate Friends and Servants in our Lord. JOHN HOW V. ALSOP ERRATA PAge 6. l. 2. r. grateful p. 11. l. 9. r. have right p. 12. l. 29. dele did l. last r. of a p. 17. l. 15. l. differences p. 19. l. 23. ad ye p. 21. l. 16. r. younger years p. 24. l. 29. add to p. 31. l. 2. dele and p. 3. l. 7. r. exquisite p. 32. l. 5. r. montentany A Funeral-Sermon Ecelesiastes XI 9. Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment NOtwithstanding our manifold advantages for serious Religion in our younger years and the contrary inconvensences of deferring it to old Age or an indefinite hereafter our frequent warnings by the death of others to provide for our own and the unspeakable hazard of a sick-bed Repentance yet how apt are most persons in their youth and strength to forget their Creator and themselves too to indulge to carnal mirth and sensual delights as supposing by a fatal prejudice and mistake That obedience to God would introduce melancholly destroy the chearfulness of conversation and spoil the sweetness of human life and thereupon refuse to bestow a serious thought about Religion and another World till God by sickness or an hasty death summon them to appear before his Bar Upon which account it cannot be thought unnecessary or unseasonable upon all occasions to mind young persons of their sin and duty their snares and dangers their latter end and final judgment What at this time directed my thoughts to such a subject is not unknown to divers present viz. The death-bed Repentance of a young man lately deceased who for some time past attended this Lecture I hope at length with some seriousness and profit tho' at first he came only with a design to carp and sooff as with great remorse he told me in his last sickness And therefore if there be any now come hither upon the same errand and with the same thoughts I pray God command their attention for otherwise it would be in vain for me to beg it and accompany his own Word with a powerful efficacy to their hearts to convince their judgments and perswade their wills and awaken their Souls that they may go away with other apprehensions and resolutions than they came hither as this deceased Penitent once did whose Repentance and Funeral calls loudly to us all to consider this Apostrophe of the Wise man in the Text Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heant chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment For the coherence of these words with the preceeding Verses we need only observe that Solomon in the former Chapters having given many excellent rules for the quieting of our minds and the comfort of our lives under all that vanity which he pronounc'd upon this World he comes in this Chapter to exhort us to prepare for another For when all is done that can possibly be effected in order to a contented and a happy life yet he tells us that our life it self is vain and transient our death inevitable and that the days of darkness will be many vers 8. and then confutes that unreasonable inference which the young Epicure is too prone to make from such premises deriding his foolish pretence and plea by an Ironie and yet endeavouring to awaken his Conscience by declaring the certainty of an after-reckoning and by a solemn citation of him before Gods Tribunal For to this purpose we may suppose the young sensualist to retort the Argument Are all things vain Is life uncertain and death and darkness near let me then enjoy the light as long as I can let me indulge my appetite and please my sences and gratify my lusts and make the best improvement of this vain this short uncertain life Have I but a a little time in which to enjoy this world Let me not make it shorter by a Stoical reservedness lot me not lose this day least I never have another but eat and drink for to morrow I may dye To which suppos'd Objection the Wise man answers in the Words I have read Rejoyce o young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth q. d. Let it do thee good and bring thee joy be as merry as thou canst and take all the satisfaction thy lusts can procure if thou think it best and most adviseable to do so Walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes q.d. Being resolved upon a short life and a merry baulk nothing which thy lust doth flictate deny thy self no thing thy foolish heart can wish or thy senfual appetite may crave But know for certain a day of reckoning is at hand when God will call thee to an account for thy sensual lusts and youthful follies However now thou maist stifle the convictions of thy Conscience by repeated debauches and lewd company however now thou maist make a shift to drown the sentiments of a reasonable Soul by the noise of riot
unquestionable undoubted truth that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment 2. Consider that this Judgment is near at hand and will shortly take place 3. Consider your summons may be suddain before you are aware 4. Consider that Youth and health is the fittest time to prepare for this Judgment of God 5. That if through the temptations of carnal mirth and youthful lusts you neglect your preparation it is more then probable your passage by death to this Judgment of God will be very uncomfortable and full of horrour 6. That this Judgment it self and its immediate consequences will be intollerably dreadful to unprepared Sinners whether Young or Old 1. Consider that notwithstanding your present mirth and jollity yet this final judgment is infallibly certain What is here affirmed concerning persons is asserted likewise concerning things in the next Chapter Eccl. 12.14 that God will bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whither it be good or whither it be evil Methinks I need not tell you that the Doctrine of this final Judgment is declar'd in Scripture with the greatest plainess confirm'd by the strongest Evidence and prest upon the Conscience with the most cogent and inforcing and Arguments espicially since the pretended Objections on the behalf of the Sadducee and the sensual Epicure are so weak and trifling that if their lusts were not stronger than their arguments they themselves would be ashamed to offer them For whoever disbelieves a future Judgment must either conclude that the Almighty God cannot or that the Righteous God will not call us to an account for what we have received and done tho' his absolute Omnipotence doth assure us that he can and his invariable truth having declared his purpose that undoubtedly he will And do we think that all the assurance of this Judgment of God which the Scripture gives us that all those plain assertions concerning the Judge himself and the persons to be Judged and the consequence of the Judgment and the certainty of it that they are only terms of art to affright the world and not real intended truths which will take effect according to their natural meaning that the whole account is perfect fiction and meer Romance contriv'd on purpose to keep the World in due Decorum and so to prevent some bad effects only in reference to the present State of things which would probably follow if this belief did not obtain Whereas is it not necessary that there should be a Judgment day for the conviction and condemnation of great Sinners that scorn the Legislative authority of God and trample on his Government and are above the check and conroul of humane laws to manifest the Righteousness of God as Ruler of the world in rendering to every man according to his works and to uphold the honour of his wise Government whereof Judgment is as necessary and essential a part as Legislation the latter without the former being little else than shew and mockery is it not necessary for the vindication of Religion from that contempt and scorn that is powr'd upon it Is it not necessary to unriddle the mysteries of Divine Providence and disclose the secret wickedness of Hypocrites and put a difference between those that serve him and those that refuse to do so As likewise to rectify the mistakes and false opinions that are abroad in the world concerning God and Christ and Holiness and Sin to put an end to controversies and determine the difference concerning what is Truth and what is Error These and such like things considered besides the Authority of Divine writ do morally assure us that there will be an after-reckoning and a final Judgment And methinks one thought of the certainty thereof should give a check to your câ—rnal mirth and cast a damp upon your Sensual joy and abate your heat and vigour in a course of Sin For did we but believe that for all these things God will bring us to Judgment how could we so readily entertain the temptations of the Devil and fall such an Easy prey to his devices How could so many unhappy Youths invade their own Damnation and snatch it as it were out of the hands of Justice thrust away their present and future happiness and fly into the Devils arms in the persult of their youthful lusts tho' they have been told so plainly and warn'd so frequently of a Future Judgment How could these things be if they did but believe the certainty of this final judgment and how dreadful will be their case who are not awaken'd till they find it to be so who will not acknowledg this Judgment of God till they know the dreadfulness and terrour of it by being brought to their Trial who will not believe that God will ever call them to an account till a final Impenitence joyn'd with their Infidelity bring them under his condemning Sentence 2. Consider that this Judgment is near at hand and will shortly take place As Death will consign us over to God's Tribunal so childhood and youth manhood and old age are but several stages that hasten us to Death Yet a little while and we must go the way of all living Job 16.22 How concern'd and thoughtful soever now we are about this World we must shortly bid adieu and take our leave Even the Man of business must find a time to dye and give an account of his Stewardship tho' he allow himself little or none to prepare for Death and Judgment Our Youth and Strength is quickly gone we soon decline and languish into Dust Assoon as we begin to live we are hastening to the end of our Life As a Candle assoon as it begins to burn or an hour glass assoon as it is turned doth hasten to its end our life withering like a Flower 1 Pet. 1.24 Psal 90.4 and passing like a watch in the night We must dye shortly and much sooner than they who lived in the first ages of the World As Death is the certain consequence of old age so those Evil days as the wise Man calls them do still draw near and will quickly overtake us Whether we eat or drink or sleep whether we be sad or merry whether we talk or are silent whether we work or are idle whether we are studious or careless whether we prepare for Death and Judgment or whether we despise and avoid such Thoughts And yet how many spend ther youthful days in vanity and sin with a careless neglect of God and their Salvation in gluttony and Drunkenness in Chambering and wantonness Rom. 12.13.14 not putting on the Lord Jesus nor walking in his Spirit but making provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof As if this day of the Lord were a great way off at a mighty distance Whereas our Judge is at the door and the end of all things doth approach and it can't be long ere all the World must receive their Doom A beleiving thought of this
would certainly imbitter the pleasures of sin would quench our fond desire and check our Foolish hopes and spoil the relish of our carnal Joy would blast the Beauty and darken the luster of worldly greatness would sadden the delights and weaken the Temptations of fleshly pleasures For what satisfaction can that man take in Jovial Company in the pastimes of Children and the laughter of Fools who is verily perswaded that ere long he must appear to Judgment How can he be enamour'd of this Earth and after serious deliberation be fond of outward grandure who beleives and knows that shortly the Earth it self shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 the Trumpet of the Arch Angel found and our Glorious Judge summon all Man-kind before his Bar by that Thundring Voice Arise dead and come to Judment And can we grant this day of the Lord to be not only certain but near at hand and not think it time to prepare for our solemn appearance shall we contradict our principles and live in a repugnancy to our avowed Creed under the plain censure of Notorious Hypocrisy or folly The First from our profession if we do not beleive it the Second from the unsuitableness of our practise in case we do 3. Consider that your Summons to this Judgment of God may be sudden and unexpected and overtake you unawares When God will require your Souls to appear before his Tribunal how soon or suddenly he will do it you cannot say The time and place of our Death in kindness and wisdom is concealed from us that we may every where stand upon our gaurd and every moment expect our call to Judgment because we know not whether God by sickness will advertise us of our approaching end or his stroke be sudden by an unexpected casualty And therefore Moses speaking to the Jews as to one man Deut. 30.20 saith he of God He is thy Life and the length of thy Days q d. The shortning or prolonging of thy days is in the Hand of God Hence some are taken the first hour and some at the third and some at the sixth and some at the ninth and others let alone till the eleventh but that is a great uncertainty for we may be surprised Innumerable accidents attend us every where that may blot our names out of the Book of Life and suddainly confine us to the Chambers of Death It may be this day we are Jovial and in health among our friends and worldly affairs and to morrow arrested with a Summons to Judgment In the morning in chase of earthly honour riches or delights and in the Evening laid out for our funeral by various accidents not now foreseen by us or any of our friends We may be cut off while we presume on hereafter while we resolve to repent in the midst of our holy purposes before they are performed For tho' we read in Scripture of the Sinner of an Hundred years old that he shall be accurst yet have we no example of one in a thousand that lives to that age This young person whose funeral occasion'd my discourse not many days since was as strong and healthful and as likely to Live as any of us and 'T is a very great questions whether you and I may have so much Time and Space to repent upon a Sick-bed as he had who enjoy'd his senses and the use of his reason to the very last This day therefore cannot be too soon to prepare because to morrow may be too late Every unprepared Sinner being expos'd to as many hazards of Everlasting destruction as their may be accidents to surprize 'em with sudden Death 4. Consider that youth and health is the fittest time to prepare for this final judgment As to the former if we but reflect on the manifold infirmities of old age that weakness of body and that decay of parts which doth usualy accompany that state the hardning of their hearts by a custome and continuance in Sin the loss of memory and quick apprehension the want of those vigorous Affections and flexible inclinations which they had in Youth which makes it more difficult to convince and perswade them such considerations as tkese methinks should be enough to discourage a delay in our young yerears But besides this how can such persons expect to find ' acceptance with God in the dregs of their time after the misspending of an whole Life to his dishonour for tho I would not discourage their utmost endeavours and thro' the mercy of God in Christ there is hope enough to prevent a total dispair yet what can we suppose should be the substance of such a mans prayer but to this effect Lord I have wasted my days in sin and sacrificed the flower of mine age to sport and folly to the provocation of thy Justice and the hazard of my Salvation the best of all my Time I must needs confess hath been devoted to the will of Satan and devoured by my Lusts But I here present thee with the Lees and refuse of my strength and Age the little fragments and poor remainder which they have left I beseech thee for the sake of Christ to receive me now at last tho' I did obstinately deny obedience to thy earliar calls and wilfully refus'd to return sooner tho' now my strength as well as my body is bow'd down to the Grave and I am hardly capable of doing thee any Service denyme not O Lord to live with thee in the other World tho' I have liv'd so long without thee in this What prevalency do we imagine there can possibly be in so weak an address without a Soverain extraordinary Grace to relieve the exigence of such sad and discourageing Circumstances And then as to health that for certain is the most proper time to prepare for Judgment Let us but suppose the young sinner seiz'd by a fit of Sickness if the accuteness of the disease do not influence the brain and and cause a dilirium yet is that a time to repent and make your peace with God and provide for our appearance before his judgment Seat for usually the understanding is then clouded the fancy then disturb'd the passions disordered and the thoughts distracted Consider seriously what is wont to be the hurry of a violent distemper suppose restlesness through heat or pain or want of sleep or suppose the Physician should mistake thy case or the Devil use his subtelty and malice to deceive or terrify thy guilty Soul and then tell me whether a sick-bed be a fit season to prepare for Judgment May not thy thoughts have work enough to struggle with thy pains or to settle thine estate or regard thy mourning friends about thee When thy pulse is low and thy breath short and thy Spirits almost gone thy Sins many and thy fears great and thou hast hardly Sufficient strength to get rid of a clot of Spittle is that a time to enter the lists with Principalities and powers and all the rulers
of outer darkness Beside 't is the sate of many the nearer they approach to Death that the less apt they are to believe it and so perish in their security and are totally unconcern'd about a future judgment But supposing the free use of Reason and an awaken'd apprehension likewise of what refers to their Immortal Souls and their Eternal abode I then add 5. That if through the inticements of youthful lusts you now neglect to prepare it is very probable and you may justly fear it that your passage by Death to this Judgment of God will be very uncomfortable and full of horror whether repentance on the brink of the Grave after a a wicked life may be Saving or no is not the question Thro' an extraordinary act of Grace whereof the penitent Theif was an instance it cannot be deny'd possible But when it is sincere and saving who can tell any otherwise than as in charity we must hope the best For as to the persons themselves on a sick and deathbed how can they in an Ordinary way be assured of their sincerity it is therefore probable that their last Sickness will be very uncomfortable tho' their Repentance should prove sincere and their Souls saved in the day of Christ For suppose when their sins stare them in the face and they did never till now bethink themselves of the necessity of a pardon That Satan should now tell them that their Repentance doth come too late to meet with that mercy they so long abus'd And that 't is all owing to their Fears of Death and the apprehended dreadful consequences of dying If he should tell 'em that the pleasures of Sin being lost and so the bait to intice them gone every thing about them looks sad and mournful and such a change of their condition from health to sickness and the Gates of Death must needs alter their resolutions and thoughts If he should tell 'em that the nearness of Eternity cannot but make a person who hath space to consider more apprehensive of another World and concerned about it than at other times and that if Sickness and Death were at a greater distance they wuold still be the same which is to sadly probable from the many Examples of those who have return'd to their former sins assoon as they return'd to their health and left all their repentance their holy thoughts and good resolutions in that Sickbed where at first they took 'em up If the Devil suggest such a Temptation as this to the Sick Penitent who hath hitherto walk'd in the way of his own heart and in the sight of his Eyes what can he reply or plead on his own behalf to make proof of the Sincerity of his Repentance to himself or to those about him However it may become us to consider seriously that God doth oftentimes in righteous Judgment open the Eyes of Great Sinners on a Death-bed and fill their Souls with an amazing horror from the fears and foresight of of his approaching vengeance When they cannot but apprehend that their Sinning season is now expir'd their mirth and jollity over their final Judgment at hand and their Bodies and Souls within a few hours to part and so be divided between the Grave and Hell you will then admit other thoughts of God and his terrible Judgment than at present in your careless health bitterly reflecting on your past follies in the days of your Youth and freely condemning your former choice the serious review of your vensual Joys which are fled as a shadow and vanisht like a cloud of smaok shall give you an unexpressible remorse and shame having barter'd away your Souls for such a thing of nought and ventured your Eternal Salvation for a trisling lust Was my God my Soul and my Salvation of no greater value will you then be forc'd say of no greater value than so easily to be parted with for the short satisfaction of abrutish forbidden pleasure must I leave this world I lov'd so dearly and bid adieu for ever to all its injoyments are all my good days past is all my mirth and joy concluded and nothing but Eternal sorrows to be expected must all my mirth and laughter be exchanged for tears and howling my ease and pleasure for insuportable and remediless torments must my guilty Soul be thus torn from my body and from all things in which it took delight to be drag'd and hurried to a dismal place where it will hate to live and yet cannot dye Must I sport and sing and revel it no more Must I brave it out in Pride no longer and relish the delights of sense no more no more for ever And which is worse infinitely worse must I make my appearance before my offended Judge whose threatnings I derided whose wrath I provok't whose commands I contradicted whose servants I reproch't c must I now appear before the dreadful tribunal of this Just this Holy this Inexorable Judge Is there no hope of escapeing in the crowd and so avoid a trial or is there no possibility of an excuse when arraigned before his bar or is there no method to be found to evade the Execution of his Terrible Judgment must I hear and hear to my Confusion that Epitome of Hell compriz'd into a Sentence Depart Depart from me ye cursed into Everlasting Fire Oh! what shall I be able to say for my self when my own Conscience brings the charge and reads the Indictment and I cannot disown or deny one Article of what I am accus'd All the mercies you have receiv'd from God all the instructive afflictions you have at any time met with all the awakening Sermons you have heard all the mottions of God's Spirit and the rebukes of your own which you have resisted all the calls of his Word the warnings of his Providence and the threatnings of his Wrath which you have slighted your knowledg of your danger your time and space to repent your former confessions of Sin your convictions of guilt your purposes to reform the reproofs you have had from others and the promises you have made your selves may all be muster'd up to your awakn'd thoughts to seize your Souls with horror and confusion when you are called by Death to pass to this Judgment of God And now Christians 't is probable you may suppose and hope that this will never be your case yet the present instance of this Vnhappy youth may convince you that 't is possible and more than possible For tho' I never saw him to my knowledg Save on his Death-bed yet having exprest his own desires that others might take warning by his Example I need not scruple to acquaint you with what I learn't from himself and is well known to his Surviving companions that during his health he did put the evil day far from him and yet was very apprehensive of a future Judgment and concern'd at his own unpreparedness in his last Sickness most heartily confessing and that with Tears that