follow He desires not so much the end of this Life whatever he now suffered as the blessedness of the next Life which he hoped for It was not an Annihilation to put a period to his present sufferings but a happy Change which he groan'd for Not a Ruin but a temporary dissolution of this earthly House in order to an Eternal Advantage Not a bare privation of this Life but a passage to a better He doth not groan so much from the Sense of present Evil as by reason of the Absence of his most desired Good He was not so much burdened by what he felt and could not avoid or remove as by what he foresaw and expected and could not yet Enjoy He must dye first and have the old House pull'd down before he could reach that compleat Felicity which he so earnestly aspires after SECT VI. 2. It is therefore further exprest as that which he groaned and longed for viz. to be Cloathed upon To lay aside this mean and little troublesome Garment for a more beautiful and commodious one To have this earthly House dissolved and moulder into dust with the Expectation of reassuming Another or the Same with a glorious Change And in that sense the Expression verse 3. may be understood That being thus cloathed that is with such a glorified Body we may not be found Naked or without any Body at all Though * A. B. Cant. 3. Vol. Serm. 6th some carry the expression Desiring to be cloathed upon as wishing not to put off this Body at all but to be in the number of those who shall be found alive at the coming of Christ to Judgment which some of the Disciples of Christ expected by a mistake of what he said concerning St. John If I will that he tarry till I come And so the words may be read If so be that we shall be found cloathed and not naked That is if at Christ's coming we shall be found Alive and not Dead and so have this mortal corruptible Body changed into a Spiritual Glorious and Immortal one without Dying Whether that was the sense of the Apostle or not I shall discourse of these words as the common Sentiment of real Christians who have no hope of Living till the end of the World but expect to dye e're it be long and carnestly desire a future Blessedness for Soul and Body in another Life and therefore when they lay down this Body in the Dust they groan to be cloathed upon to have these vile Bodies made like the glorious Body of Christ or as the Apostle himself expresses it 1 Cor. 15.53 To have this Corruptible put on Incorruption and this Mortal put on Immortality The putting off there is the same with the being cloathed upon here That is they groan to have this present State changed for the Felicity and Glory of that future State which Christ hath given them to expect both for Soul and Body in another Life SECT VII 3. There is yet another Expression which riseth higher That Mortality may be swallowed up of Life That which is Mortal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our mortal Life which is subject to Dangers Afflictions and Death it self That this may be Swallowed up of Life as is that which is Imperfect by that which is Perfect as Infancy and Childhood by Maturity and Manhood or as Darkness is swallowed up in Light The meaning is that our low Animal Life may be changed into an Heavenly one that our frail short and transitory Life may be changed into an Immortal Eternal one that the Corruption and Mortality which our Bodies are liable to and which remain in them while they are in the Grave may be removed Or according to the Apostles Phrase That Death may be swallowed up in Victory may be finally perfectly and for ever Destroyed For so the expression does import and is often rendered in other places * See Dr. Hammond 1 Cor. 15.54 g. for ever And that includes the Resurrection of the Body to an happy State as one part of this Desire For if by Dying we are more miserable than before Death is not swallowed up in Victory it rather is too hard for us and gains a Victory over us But if our state be bettered by Death not only as to our Souls but our very Bodies are also to be raised again to a glorious Life if when Death hath done its utmost our Souls pass into a State of Rest and Bliss to be compleated in a glorious Resurrection of the Body and to be continued and increased to all Eternity we are then Victorious over Death Death may be said to be swallowed up in Victory or Mortality swallowed up of Everlasting Life CHAP. II. The Method and Design of the following Discourse Good men in the present state are burdened with their Sins and Sufferings so as to groan for Deliverance SECT I. After this Paraphrase and Explication of the words that which I design as the Ground of my following discourse is this That it becomes the State and Frame of real Christians while they are burdened in these mortal Bodies earnestly to desire a better an Immortal Life wherein the Body as well as the Soul shall be gloriously Changed In discoursing of this I shall first show That such is the present State of good men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens that may well make them long for Deliverance II. That they have the certain Expectation of a better State and Life after the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle by Death III. That it is agreeable to the Temper of a Christian Spirit so far as renewed and sanctified to long for that better State and Life beyond the Grave IV. That it is not such a State and Life wherein they expect to be without any Body at all but to have their Bodies raised and changed and glorified To be cloathed upon with an House from Heaven and to have mortality swallowed up in Life The consideration of these particulars will make way for the practical Application suitable to this solemn Occasion on which I am desired to preach on this Text. SECT II. First That such is the present state of good Men in these Bodies that they groan under manifold Burdens which may well make them long for Deliverance I need not run far into the common Theme of the Miseries of humane Life which every one feels or knows of those that do Our Sufferings and our Sins while in this earthly Tabernacle will be sufficient to be considered under this head 1. Our Sorrows and Sufferings while in the Body Our early Tears when we come into the World prognosticate a good share of these to be expected Not to mention the Vexation of disappointment in our Temporal Injoyments as a great part of this Burden the actual Sorrows and Afflictions which all partake of are very many and great heavy and afflictive they are such as extort the Cries and Tears and
Imagination as may justly make us groan for Deliverance All the objects of sense about us in every Condition our Food and Cloathing our Houses and Estates Friends and Relations and our Selves most of all yeild us Temptations And the more Holy and Sanctified any are the more apprehensive they must needs be of this Burthen their Spirits are more tender Earthly things are more unsuitable God's displeasure is more Fear'd so that they would rather chuse to be freed from sin than to be Possessors of the whole World The clearer Light they have of the evil of Sin and the more unfeigned their Love to God and Christ is who is dishonoured and displeased by it and the more ardent their Desires are to be like him and please him and the more lively their Hopes are of living with him for ever this makes this Burthen of Sin to be so much the more intolerable And even Temptations to sin tho they prevail not are a part of their Burden it is grievous to a good man to be continually sollicited and tempted by the World Flesh and Devil to dishonour and disobey the Lord. And where are we without such Temptation We can hardly open our Eyes and Ears but we meet with one So that this is one great consideration that moves them to desire and chuse to be dissolved that they may sin no more and be tempted no more that they may grieve the Spirit of Grace no more and interrupt their own Peace and Joy and Communion with God and Christ no more for ever Yea notwithstanding the Mortification of the Flesh and the Life of Faith sincerely begun and carried on yet the sinful distempers of our Spirits our frequent decays and back-slidings our low attainments in Grace and Comfort are owing very much to this Body as the Spring or at least the occasion of them our sloth and negligence our eager Passions inordinate Cares and Fears and Griefs yea our general Disinclination and Aversion to Spiritual and Heavenly things are much from this flesh this earthly House of our Tabernacle SECT IV. Let me sum up this Head in the excellent words of * Mr. Howe of Blessedness p. 493. another on this Subject Who can reflect says he upon this present State and not be in pangs and groans after a better Especially on the account of the Spiritual Grievances of Christians the darkness of our beclouded minds the glimmering and ineffectual Apprehensions we have of the most important things the inconsistency of our scattered Thoughts when we would apply them to Spiritual Objects the great difficulty of working off an ill frame of Heart and the no less difficulty of retaining a good one our being so often tost as between Heaven and Hell that when we have been raised and hope to descend no more we are all on a suddain plunged in the Ditch so that our own Cloaths abhor us How often do repell'd Temptations return again and vanquished Corruptions recover strength that we know not when our work is done We are miserable that we need be always watching and more miserable that we cannot watch but are so often surprised and overcome of evil We say sometimes we will seek relief in Retirement but we cannot Retire from our selves Or in converse with Godly Friends but they often prove Snares to us and we to them or we hear but our own Sins and Miseries repeared in their Complaints Would we Pray how faint is the Breath we utter How long is it e're we can get our Hearts possest with any becoming Apprehensions of God or lively sense of our own Concernments So for Meditation when we would compose our Thoughts we may as well attempt to hold the Wind in our fist c. And would we then out of Choice continue in such a state as this under so many Burdens and of such a Nature How is it that we do not cry out more feelingly O wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Nothing but the belief and Expectation of another and better state can support us under these Burdens and that is next to be considered CHAP. III. Christians have a certain Expectation of a better State and Life after this and may be comfortably persuaded of their own Title in particular SECT I. Secondly THat real Christians have the certain Expectation of a better State and Life after the Dissolution of this Earthly Tabernable 1. As to the thing it self such a better State is Certain 2. As to Particular Christians they may have a certain Expectation of it as to themselves Let us Consider 1. The Objective Certainty That there is such a better State and Life beyond the Grave Were there no such Expectation of all Creatures in the World Men were the most Miserable and serious Christians and the Wisest and most Knowing Men would be * See Mr. How 's Vanity of Man as Mortal most so The present Vanity of Life were enough to make us regret it if nothing more or better were to be expected we could not but always live in dread and fear of Death we should not enjoy our selves here and yet would be afraid of losing our selves for ever hereafter * Dr. Parker Demonstration of the Law of Nature Sect. xxi We were miserable indeed in this Life if there were no such Future State of Immortality to be expected From the highest pitch of humane Felicity there could be nothing but a sad prospect of the gloomy Regions of Everlasting Death and Darkness What can support the mind under such a view Or scatter our black and Melancholy Apprehensions about it When we think that after a short Mushrome Life we must return to Dust and Silence and be for ever buried in the horror and loathsomeness of the Grave This will dash and disturb all our Joys and spoil the Cheerfulness and Tranquility of our Spirits in a prosperous State This will double all the Miseries of Life for under them to think to fetch relief from dying is such another kind of Comfort as if you should tell a Man in a Storm at Sea that there is no hope of allaying the Tempest but when you are Drown'd the Storm will trouble you no longer This will be an intolerable Accession to the load of present calamity to consider the Period of Life is so short and Fading and that so much of so little should be lost and worn away in Sorrow and Misery and to despair of any Remedy or Deliverance but in Eternal Death 'T is much more Eligible never to have been born than only to Grieve and suffer a while and Dye to drop a Tear and vent a Groan and pass a little time in a Stormy Tempestuous World and then disappear and sink back into Nothing But all who own any thing of Religion acknowledg somewhat of an immortal State the poor Heathens themselves had some notices of it the Jews in their several Generations believed it and the very Light of
hope and view We have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens And for this we groan earnestly for this state of immortal Happiness desiring to be cloathed upon with our House that is from Heaven A Blessed State so fitted for us and we for it that no Apparel for the Body can be more SECT II. He was not only content to Dye and ready with Patience to receive a Summons out of this World but so unspeakable was the difference in his Judgment between his present State in the Body and that which he expected beyond the Grave that he reckoned a Translation was every way preferable and rather to be chosen even by intervening Death that so instead of this little House this mean and poor Dwelling which we now inhabit we may come to a better Building that is of God formed and prepared by him to the more spacious Mansions which the blessed God has provided for us above that instead of this movable Tent This earthly Tabernacle continually liable to so many changes dangers and inconveniencies we may have a House not made with hands that is of God's immediate Work more excellent and more lasting more safe and more abiding That instead of this earthly House of dirt and clay into which it will shortly be dissolved we may have a building in Heaven suited to the Heavenly State and Life a more commodious Dwelling fitted for the Offices of a Glorified Soul and which shall not molder but be Eternal that when this Tabernacle is dissolved which needs every day to be repaired and with all our care cannot long be supported we may have a permanent unchangable building eternal in the Heavens In short that our bodies as well as our Souls may be glorious and blessed and unchangably so in the other World After such a State and Life as this so elegantly described in the beginning of this Chapter he declares his earnest Desire in this Text not in his own name only but as the common sense of all the Followers of Christ This he amplifies and limits by several expressions unto which some following verses in this chapter will give further light For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life SECT III. In which words we may consider two Parts 1. The State and Temper of the Followers of Christ or of all real Christians That while they are in the Body they are burdened and groan for Deliverance 2. A Judicious Stating the matter of such Desire of Deliverance Or what it is that they groan and long for set forth in three expressions 1. Negatively It is not Simply to be uncloathed But 2. To be cloathed upon And 3. That Mortality may be swallowed up of Life 1. The state and Temper of good men or real Christians while they are in the Body They are burdened and therefore groan for deliverance We that are in this earthly Tabernacle Or as the expression is ver 8. While we are at home in the Body present in the Body or While we converse and Sojourn in the Body Which he calls an earthly House ver 1. But because it is no certain fixed Dwelling he adds the other term of a Tabernacle While we dwell in this little Fabrick framed at first out of the dust of the earth as were the Worms who are therefore our Kindred and Relations and they were formed before the Creation of man While we are in this earthly Tabernacle whose foundation is in the dust Whose matter is not more excellent than that of the Beasts that perish An earthly Tabernacle not only as to its original but is sustained and repaired by earthly things 146 Psalm 4.12 Eccl. 7. and ere long to be resolved into Earth again This dust shall be turned to earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God While we are in this earthly House we groan and long for a removal we earnestly covet desire and wait for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a better Dwelling and a better State we pant and breath and long for it from the Faith and Hope of what God has revealed concerning the upper better World and the future Felicity of all that believe in Christ where we look for another sort of Bodies and another kind of Life this is that we aspire and groan after and would fain obtain SECT IV. 2. He describes the matter of such a Desire and the just limits of it in three Expressions 1. Negatively Not for that we would be uncloathed i. e. 1. Not Simply to dye for dying sake Not meerly to be rid of the Body and to live without any As we are a sort of Creatures made up of Soul and body the separation of these two cannot in it self for its own sake be desirable we have a natural innocent unavoidable Aversion to Death as such And as it is a Penalty and the fruit of Sin as even to the best man it is there cannot but be some unwillingness to dye however fit it be to be desired otherwise on the account of the Consequences of Death All the Faith and Reason in the world cannot make Death to be no penalty So neither is it possible that any man can reason or believe himself into a love of Pain and Death as such Therefore it is not simply to be uncloathed to have Soul and Body separated that is here desired It is not a perpetual state of being without a Body For he desires to be cloathed upon and not found naked Our case is so stated that our Souls are to be cloathed upon with a Body and we cannot but desire that the union of the Soul and body should be preserved and in the state of Separation there is some hankering of the Soul after the body Some such Desire of regaining that Reunion SECT V. 2. Neither is it meerly a Weariness of this present Life by reason of the Burden of sorrows and Sufferings which the Apostle and other Christians met with in it that makes them thus to groan For if he might be further serviceable to the interest of Christ and therein be accepted and pleasing to him he declares ver 9. that he was willing to live He professes his readiness to prefer the Salvation of many Souls and his being instrumental to their happiness before the hastening of his own He knew that God may have as much Service in our Lives in an afflicted suffering State as in a prosperous Condition he knew That we may glorifie God in Sickness and in a Prison as much or more than in health or liberty And that to bear any of our Trials and Burdens well and to honour God by a Christian Deportment under them is better than to be delivered His Desire therefore to the blessed State which was in expectation was not to the Act of Dissolution it self without reference to what would
to a Prison than to their God and had rather be Panished to a Land of Strangers than sent to Heaven O Lord must I that am called thy Child and an Heir of Heaven and a Co heir with Christ have no more Acquaintance with my Glorified Lord and no more Love to thee who art my Portion before I go hence and come to thee Must I go hence so like a Stranger to my home O what do I beg for so frequently and so earnestly for the sake of my Redeemer as the Spirit of Life and Consolation that may shew me the pleased face of God and unite all my Affections to my glorified Head and draw up this dark and drowsie Soul to love and long to be with thee O God forbid that this sinful Flesh should be more powerful to draw me downward than Faith and Hope and Love to carry my Desires up to God O thou that freely gavest me thy Grace maintain it to the last against its Enemies and make it finally Victorious It came from thee it hath been preserved by thee it is on thy side and wholly for thee O let it not now fail and be conquer'd by blind and base Carnality or by the Temptations of a Hellish conquered Enemy It is thine Image which thou lovest it is a Divine Nature and Heavenly Beam VVhat will a Soul be without it but a Dungeon of Darkness a Devil for Malignity and dead to Holiness and Heaness O rather deny me the Light of the Sun than the Light of thy Countenance Less miserable had I been without Light or Being than without thy Grace O forsake not a Sinner in his extremity who consents to thy Covenant and would not forsake thee My God I have often sinned against thee but yet thou knowest I would fain be thine I have not served thee with that Resolution Fidelity and Delight as such a Master should have been served But yet I would not forsake thy Service nor change my Master or my Work I can say with thy Servant Paul Act. 27.23 That thou art the God whose I am and whom I serve And O that I could serve thee better For to serve thee is but to receive thy Grace and use it for my own and others good and so to glorifie thee and please thy Will which being Love it self it pleased best when we receive it and do most good Nothing in this World is more my Grief than that I love thee no more Forsake not then a Sinner that would not forsake thee that looks towards thee that feels it as his trouble to be so dark and strange unto thee that groaneth and gaspeth after thee feeling to his greatest sorrow that while he is present in the Body he is absent from the Lord. My Lord I have nothing to do in this World but to seek and serve thee O pardon all my Carnal Thoughts and all my Unthankful Neglects of thy precious Grace and Love and let the fuller Communications of thy forfeited Grace now tell me by experience that thou dost forgive me When I have said VVill the Lord cast off for ever And will he be favourable no more My Conscience has replyed That this is mine Infirmity I never wanted Comfort because thou ever wantedst Mercy but because I wanted Faith and Fitness to receive it and perceive it But hast thou not Mercy also to give me even that Fitness and that Faith My God all is of thee and through thee and all is to thee and when I have the Felicity the Glory of all for ever will be thine If I can live and dye in trusting in thee surely I shall not be confounded * See a more full Example of the Acting of Holy Desires towards the Blessed Change in the Close of his Saints Everlasting Rest These be some of the Dying Thoughts of that Excellent Person SECT II. And yet my Friends mistake me not I say not that all are Graceless that are afraid of Death For Nature desires Life even under Sufferings that are but tolerable rather than dye And this is from meer natural necessary Inclination which Free-will hath not full Power against Death as the Dissolution of our frame as the Separation of Soul and Body cannot for it self be loved The putrifying of this Body in the Grave the greatness of the Change of Death the darkness of our Minds and the weakness of our Grace the remaining Sense of Sin with the dreadful Majesty of that God before whom we must appear joined with our Natural Averseness to Dye may make us shrink and tremble But the Faith of the Invisible VVorld the Love of God and Christ and a desire to enjoy him and please him and be with him should do much to overcome these Fears and make us willing Though some remaining Fear be consistent with Vprightness yet remember that not to desire and long for this Blessed State though mix'd with a Fear of intervening Death is highly criminal and faulty For the Love of God and Christ and earnest Desires to be like him and to be with him seems to be the better half of all Religion 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Tit. 13. 2 Pet. 3.12 Not to desire this Blessed Change is directly a sin against the Gospel whereby we are * 2 Thes 2 12 1 Pet. 1.12 called to the obtaining of the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ VVithout such Desires we comply not with the Design and VVill of God who hath called us to his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus For how can his Call be answered without an Inclination of Heart to such a State and a Desire after it For a real Member of Christ and Heir of Heaven to be only Content to see the Lord to be Content to be for ever in his Blessed Presence and perfectly holy and freed from Sin is a very hard and harsh expression Men are covetous eager and ambitious after earthly good And shall a Christian's Desire be less earnest after the Heavenly Glory I grant some remaining Fear of Death may consist with Integrity when it is not God and Heaven we are averse to but Death that stands in the way or when it is because of our Doubts of God's Acceptance of us For I question not but most upright Christians would rather dye than live might they but hope to be with Christ and enjoy the Divine Presence As others would be glad of a Removal might it be without Dying because they fear the Pains and Terrors of a dying Hour Might they not be uncloathed but cloathed upon by an immediate Translation they care not how soon it were For there be many such who desire the Second Coming of Christ unfeignedly and the Blessed Consequences of it to whom all the parts of the Heavenly State and Life are sweet and grateful who live and walk in their Integrity before God though their Grace prevail not against this Fear of death VVhereas you ought to consider that the Throes and Pangs of Travelling VVomen in
Christians before he takes them to himself And thus it was with our Deceased briend of which more presently But. SECT IV. Secondly Let us Consider her Carriage in each Relation There were many things Im table in her Example as a Wife a Mother a Mistress c Her Affection and Reverence to her Husband were very observable When he among many other of the faithful Servants of Christ was Silenced and forbidden to Preach though she had then Children and like to have more and a considerable Maintenance was thereby to be stopped and a growing Family to be cast upon the Providence of God and many urged her to perswade him to comply with the Imposed Terms she wholly declin'd it and would rather trust God in a Suffering State leaving him intirely to his Conscience as the fittest Judge of his Obligations Trust and Duty in that Case When afterwards of Consequents to his Nonconformity he met with any Difficulties by continuing to Preach she patiently submitted and took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods saying often when his Person was in hazard That she was ready rather to adventure her own Life then that his should be in danger as apprehending his to be more valuable to the World and the Interest of Souls than hers or Twenty such This Affection she continued all her Life advising her Children in her last Sickness to be careful of their Father and tender of him in her Absence for by so mild and good a word she spake of her Dissolution then in prospect Advising them withal to Love one another and be kindly affectioned to each other Praying particularly for her Son whom she had the Comfort to see setled in the Sacred Work of the Ministry that God would furnish him with suitable Strength of Body and Spirit and crown his Ministry with an abundant Blessing Not long before she died she thankfully owned the Goodness of God to her in the Spiritual Assistance and Comfort she received by such Relations who had an Interest in Heaven and could plead it for her in Prayer while she was languishing on a Sick Bed O what a Mercy is it said she when her Husband and Son had both been Praying for her with great Fervency and inlargedness of Heart What a Mercy is it that I should have such Relations to plead with God for me And at last when she took her Farewel of her Husband she thanked him for all his Love and all his Prayers as audibly as she was then able to speak Many Memorable things she said by way of Counsel and Advice to her Children As concerning the Deceitfulness of the Heart and the need of searching it again and again for God knows it and will not be mocked Exhorting them to seek God with their whole Heart to Pray fervently and importunately for his Grace and Favour and not in a slight and overly manner as if they were indifferent whether God did Answer or Deny I hope they will remember it and act accordingly At another time in her Sickness she cried out whilst her Children were about her O Love the Lord all ye his Saints Love the Lord ye my Children Love him Fear him She desired that they would Pray for her and she assigned a good Reason why they should For says she I have often Prayed to God for you when you could not Pray for your selves Under this Head I might add somewhat of her Carriage even to Servants to whom she gave the most Seasonable Counsel particularly in her last Sickness to the Servant that attended her to be much in Reading the Holy Scriptures to value Catechising and be diligent in learning the Principles of Religion to be faithful in her Place c. But this leads me SECT V. Thirdly To the Last Scene of her Life to speak of her deportment under Bodily Weakness and Pains under which her Patience and Submission were very becoming and truly Christian VVhen a day or two before she died her Relations seemed more than usually concerned She asked them why they were so saying It is not Death yet I may out-live this and be buffeted by Sathan as a Roaring Lion before I die When she could not sleep in the Night she said the next Morning I thought this would have been a Comfortable night to me but presently recollected her self saying So it is for it is a Mercy I am out of Hell when Ten thousands are cast into the bottomless pit that never sinned as I have done How well she bore her own Sickness and how little sollicitous she was about the Issue of it is evident from her own words O how comfortable is Death when sin is Pardoned and God Reconciled O that I might entertain kind and good Thoughts of God and trust him though he slay me When spoken to about her Recovery She could say I do not hope it and blessed be God I do not desire it When asked Are you not in a streight about it Are you willing to leave Husband and Children and all to be with Christ She declared her Willingness It is true sometime she complained that she had not such vigorous lively melting Affections in Sickness as sometime formerly in Health yet she depended on God still VVhen she was Asked VVhether she kept her Thoughts employed about Heaven She Answered I do what I can And the Night before she died after a little silence when she was questioned concerning her Thoughts VVhat she was thinking of She Answered Three things which are fit for all of us often to think of a Deceitful Heart a Painful Death and a Tempting Devil God restrained the last and carried her above the Fear and Feeling of the Second for though she said She feared a hard Death as many Holy Persons do Yet she added I submit to the will of God he will not lay upon me more than he will enable me to bear VVhen the 17th Chapter of John was Read to her where are those remarkable Consolatory words of Christ Father I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me to behold my Glory though she could hardly speak so as to be heard she made a shift to say O Excellent Excellent expressing her Faith and Hope and Joy as far as her weakness would permit Her Humility and Thankfulness was very conspicuous during this Sickness O what a Mercy is it said she that such a one as I should have Hopes of Heaven of the Pardon of Sin and of an Interest in Christ And yet when any of those holy expressions she used were repeated in Praver to God by those who assisted her She desired no such Speeches of hers should be mentioned to God For says she my Frame is not equal and alike a way I cannot think and speak the same things at one time that I do at another An hour or two before she left this World she testified her desire to be with Christ saying How long O Lord how long if my Work be done Come and deliver me She begged they would pray for her that her Strength might hold out to the last that God would not leave her nor hide his Face in the Agonies of Death She defired rather to be dissolved than to continue in the Body saying I Look I Long I Hope O when will the hour come Must I tarry and endure another Night Come Lord Jesus come quickly Hast thou no Bowels for me Whilst thou wert on Earth thou wert full of Compassion to poor Sinners and art thou not the same in Heaven After this she owned her self refreshed by Prayer and that though her Body was weak her Heart was in a good Frame being much recruited and encouraged by Prayer And so she commended her foul to God calling on him to the very last for his merciful Assistance and Succour through the dark Valley and to accept and receive her departing Soul and so she died in the Lord and slept in Jesus God grant to us as he did to her saving Help in that hour of Darkness and Trouble and enable us to follow the Exemplary Faith and Patience of those who are gone before that with them at last we may receive the end of our Faith and Hope the Salvation of our Souls and the Resurrection of our Bodies in the day of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life in whom whosoever believes shall never die the Second Death but the Spirit that raised Christ from the Dead shall quicken our Mortal Bodies and make them like to his most glorious Body that with Soul and Body we may be for ever with the Lord. To him be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS Books to be Sold by A. Chandler of the same Author THe Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses on Several Texts An Exhortation to Repentance and Vnion among Protestants The Present Correction and Reproof of Sin or a Discourse on 2 Jer. 19. Thine own Iniquities shall Correct thee and thy Backslidings shall Reprove thee A Sermon of St. Peter's Sin and True Repentance Printed for S. Wade at the Bible under the Piaza of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill