and for thy encouragement in so doing assure thy self that thou shalt reap a double advantage thereby for first it will help thee to Live well and secondly to Dye easily First It will teach thee to live better which it doth 1. By warning and admonishing of thee to avoid and forsake thy Sins For when thou considers that thou must certainly dye and that thou knowest not how soon it may be thou wilt then think with thy self Why should I commit these things which if they do not hasten my latter end yet they will make it more uneasie and troublesome by reflecting then upon what I have done amiss I was for any thing I know die to morrow why therefore should I commit this evil which will then be Gall Bitterness unto me would I do it if I were sure I should dye to morrow if not O why should I do it to day since I am certain that tho' I should not dye to morrow yet it will not be long before I must perchance it may be the last act of my life O therefore let me not conclude so ill and close up the last Scene of my life with that which may peradventure usher in my Eternal Death 2. It will be a great motive and means to put thee upon the best and most profitable improvement of thy time There are certain Civil and Natural Actions of our lives that the Almighty God hath indulged and allowed to us and indeed Commanded us with moderation to use as the competent supplies of our our own natures with moderation and sobriety the providing for our families and relations without coveteousness or anxiety the diligent and faithful walking in our callings and the like But there are also other businesses of greater importance which are attainable without injuring our selves in those common concerns of our lives namely our knowledge of God and of his Will of the doctrine of our Redemption by Christ our Repentance of sins past making and keeping our peace with God acquainting our selves with him living to his Glory walking as in his presence praying to him learning to depend on him rejoycing in him and walking thankfully before him These and the like things are the great business and end of our lives and beings and the reason why we enjoy them in this world and withal fit and prepare us for that which is to come And therefore the serious consideration that our lives are short and uncertain and that death will sooner or latter overtake us puts us upon the resolution and practice to do this our great work whilst it is called to day that so we loyter not away our day and neglect our task whilst we have Time and Opportunity to do it lest the night overtake us when we cannot work And if thou wilt wisely consider thy latter end thou may'st then do this great business this one thing necessary with ease and quietness without any neglect of what is necessary to be done in order to the common necessaries of thy life and calling For assure thy self that it is not these that rob thee of thy time and prevent thy minding the one thing necessary but it is thy negligence thy excess of pleasure thy immoderate and excessive Cares and Solicitousness for wealth and grandeur thy excessive eating and drinking thy curiosity and idleness These are the great consumptives that do not only exhaust that precious time which might be with infinite advantage spent in working out thy salvation with Fear and Trembling and finishing the great work and business of thy life But also when Sickness and Death comes and God calls upon thee to give up the account of thy Stewardship will perplex thy thoughts and fill thy soul with confusion when thou shalt find that thy work is not half done or it may be not at all began and yet thy day is spent thy night approaching and thy lamp just ready to expire so that what thou dost then will be with abundance of trouble perplexity and vexation and peradventure after all thy soul will take its flight before thou hast brought it to any perfection Therefore do thou wisely provide against all that mischief at the hour of thy death by a due consideration of thy latte end and a making use of thy present time and opportunity to do thy great work in whilst it is called to day because the night certainly cometh when no man can work Thirdly The wise consideration of thy latter end and the imploying thy self upon that account about the one thing necessary will most certainly render thy life the most pleasant and comfortable life in the World For as a man who is before-hand in the world hath a quieter life in reference to externals than he that is behind-hand so a man that takes his opportunity to gain a stock of grace and favour with God and hath made his peace with his Maker through Christ Jesus hath done a great part of the chief business of his life and is ready upon all occasions for any Condition which Divine Providence shall assign him whether it be of life or death of health or sickness of poverty or of riches for he is as it were before-hand both in the business of his Everlasting State and of his present Life too So that if God lend him longer life in this World he still carries on his great work to greater degrees of perfection and that too with the greatest ease and facility imaginable without any kind of difficulty trouble or perturbation whatsoever And if he cuts him shorter and calls him presently to his Bar his work being done before-hand and his accounts ready and fairly stated he joyfully imbraces the message of death And blessed is that servant whom his Master when he comes shall find so doing Secondly The frequent Consideration of thy latter End will teach thee to dye Easily 1. In regard thy frequent consideration of thy approaching Death and Dissolution will render it so familiar to thee that thou wilt not be afraid of it when it comes The fear of Death is often times more terrible than Death it self but by thy frequent meditating of it thou wilt learn not to fear it 2. In regard by thy frequent Consideration of thy latter end Death becomes no Surprise to thee The great Terror of death is when it surprises a man at unawares but by this anticipation of it and serious preparation for it thou wilt take away all possibility of thy being surprised or afrighted by it in regard thou wilt be alwaies ready to receive it 3. In regard the greatest sting and terror of Death are the unrepented and unpardoned Sins of the past life the thoughts of whereof are the main strength the Elixir and the very venome of Death it self But if thou wisely consider thy latter end thou wilt then take care to make thy Peace with God in thy life time and get the pardon of thy sins sealed in the blood of Christ To enter
his turn upon you or finds himself disapointed his pretended kindness will soon vanish Sixthly If a man flatter or commend you to your face or to one whom he knows will tell you again it is a thousand to one but that he either has already or else means to deceive and abuse you Seventhly If a person be Choleric and give you ill Language do you rather pity him then imitate him in returning the like and so you prevent the kindling more heat and find that Silence or at least very gentle words are the most exquisite revenge of reproaches that can be Eightly Some men are excellent in the knowledge of Husbandry some in Gardening and some in the Mathematicks in all your conversation therefore learn wherein the skill and excellence of the person with whom you converse lyes and put him upon talk of that subject and observe it well and remember it that so you may glean up the worth and excellency of every person you meet with Ninthly Converse not with a Lyer or a Swearer or one of Obscene or Wanton Language least he thereby corrupt you or make you to be looked upon by others to be of the same prophane temper Or if it should do neither yet those kind of Discourses will fill your memory and so be troublesom to you in time to come for you will find the remembrances of the passages which you have long since heard of this nature will haunt you when you would have your thoughts better imployed Secondly As to the management of your own Speech 1. Let it be always true never speak any thing for a truth which you know to be false because that is a great sin against God who gave you your Tongue to speak your mind with and not to report a lye 2. As you must not lye so you must not come near it neither by equivocating or reporting that absolutely which you have only by hear-say or the relation of others or at best but by conjecture or opinion only 3. Let your words be few especially if strangers or men of more experience or understanding or that are any way your betters are in place For else you will do your self a double injury 1. By betraying your own weakness and folly And 2. By robbing your self of the opportunity which you might otherwise have to gain Wisdom Knowledge and Experience by hearing those whom you silence by your impertinent talking 4. Be not over earnest loud or violent in your talking for thereby you will sometimes for want of pondering your thought over-shoot your self and lose your business 5. Be careful not to interrupt another whilst he is speaking but hear him out that so you may understand him the better and be able to return him the more suitable answer 6. Always before you speak especially when the business is of any weight and moment think before you speak and weigh the sence of your mind which you intend to utter that so your Expressions may be significant pertinent and inoffensive 7. Speak well of the absent if you do not know they deserve ill 8. Be sure you do not give an ill report of any unless you are sure they deserve it and in most cases tho' you know a man doth deserve ill yet you ought to be sparing in reporting so of him unless it be when you are called to give testimony for the ending of a Controversie or the concealing the Crime may harden the Man in his evil way or bring another into danger and then even Charity it self obliges you to speak your knowledge 9. Avoid Swearing in your ordinary conversation and not only Oaths but Imprecations and earnest and deep Protestations too For as you have the commendable Example of good Men to justifie a Solemn Oath before a Magistrate so you have the Precept of our Saviour forbidding it otherwise 10. Avoid scoffing and bitter and biting jesting and jeering especially at the condition credit deformity or the natural defects of any person for such things leave a deep impression and are a most apparent injustice and if you your self were so used you would take it amiss and oftentimes such Injuries cost a man dear when he thinks little of it 11. Be careful that you give no reproachful menacing or spiteful Words to any person no not to Servants or those who are your Inferiours 1. Because there is not the meanest person but you may sometime or other stand in need of him 2. Because ill words provoke ill words again and commonly ill words gained by such a provocation especially if they come from an inferiour affect more and wound deeper than such as come with that provocation or from one who is our equal 12. When you have occasion to speak in company be careful as near as you can to speak last especially if strangers are in company for by this means you will have the advantage of knowing the judgment temper and relations of others which will give a great light into the nature of the thing you are discoursing of and help you to answer with the more advantage and the more security against giving offence 13. Be careful not to commend your self you should shun flattery from others but especially avoid flattering your self lest it makes others believe your reputation to be small and sinking 14. Abhor all filthy and obscene speeches for thereby you will both discover the corruption of your heart and corrupt it more 15. Never use any prophane speeches nor make jest of Scripture Expressions but when you use the Names of God and Christ or any Expressions of the Holy Scripture use them with reverence and seriousness 16. Do not upbraid or deride any man for a pious strict or religious Conversation if he be sincere you thereby dishonour God and injure him or if he be a Hypocrite yet it is more than you know or at least his piety and strictness is not his fault but his hypocrisie and dissimulation and though the one is to be detested yet the other is to be commended and not derided In the next place see that you frequently meditate on and make preparation for thy dying Hour For although it be the most certain known and experienced Truth in the World that all Men must dye and come to judgment yet most Men being loth to entertain the unwelcome thoughts of their own latter end forget their mortality and put far from them the evil day As if a serious preparation for death and an everlasting state were no business of theirs and only concerned them that are actually dying and passing immediately to the Tribunal of Christ But yet this their way is their folly and one of the greatest occasions of those other follies that usually attend their lives and therefore that thou may'st free thy self from this imputation of folly and become wise do thou wisely consider thy latter End and make it thy business to entertain thy felf with frequent and serious Meditations of Death and Eternity
into Covenant with God and to keep it by husbanding thy time for the promoting his Honour observing his Will and keeping his Laws that so thou may'st keep thy own Conscience always clean and thy Evidences for Heaven clear whereby the Malignity of Death will be cured the bitterness of it healed and the fear of it wholly removed And if thou canst but entertain it with such an appeal to Almighty God as once the good King Hezekiah made viz. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee with a perfect heart c. it will make the thoughts and the approach of Death no terrible business to thee at all 4. But that which will above all other things render Death easie to thee if thou makest it thy business to enter into a frequent consideration thereof is this That by the help of this consideration and the due improvement of it Death will become nothing to thee but only a Gate to give thee admittance into a better Life it will not be to thee so much the dissolution of thy present Life as it will be the changing of it for a far more glorious happy and immortal Life so that though thy Body die yet thou wilt not for thy Soul which is the most noble part of thee only makes transition from her life in the Body to her life in Heaven not so much as one moment of time intervening between her quitting the one and her entering into the enjoyment of the other And this is the great Priviledge which the Son of God hath obtained for us that by his Death he sanctified it to us and by his Life hath conquered it not only in himself but for us too It is true this passage through death is somewhat streight and painful to the Body which is left by the way but the Soul passes through without the least harm or any expence of time and in the very next moment acquires her estate of happiness and glory In the next place when you have received great Mercies from the hand of God be sure that you return Praise and Thanksgiving to him especially if it be a recovery from some sore and desperate Disease wherein Almighty God brings you down to the very Gates and shews you the Terrors of Death and yet after he hath shown you the Spectacle of your own Mortality wonderfully rescues and delivers you from that danger and gives you a new life as it were from the dead Resolve therefore to live that Life to his Glory that you have received from his Goodness and in order to your doing so I would have you always remember 1. That Affliction comes not forth of the Dust nor doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but from the Wise and Over-ruling Providence of God whose Prerogative alone it is to bring down to the Grave and raise up again 2. That Almighty God being of most Infinite Wisdom Justice and Mercy he hath Wife and Excellent Ends in all the Dispensations of his Providence and that therefore he never sends an affliction but it brings a Message with it his Rod has a Voice a Voice commanding us to search and try our Ways repent of our Sins humble our selves under his mighty Hand and turn to him that strikes us which Voice be sure that you hear and obey 3. How uncertain and frail a creature man is even in his seeming strongest age and constitution of health For even then a Pestilential Air some ill Humour in the Blood the Obstruction it may be of a small Vein or Artery a little Meat ill digested and a Thousand other Accidents may upon a sudden without giving him the least warning plunge a man into a desperate and mortal Sickness and bring him to the Grave 4. That your condition can never be so low but that God hath power to deliver you and you ought to trust in him nor is your condition ever so safe and secure but you are within the reach of his Power also to bring you down and therefore think not that now your turn is served you shall have no more need of him and that therefore you my live as you list 5. That Sickness as well as Death undeceive men and shews where their true wisdom lies When a Young Man especially is in the career of his Vanity and Pleasure he thinks Religion the fear of God and the practice of Piety to be but pitiful foolish low mean and inconsiderable Matters and that those who practice them are a sort of silly brain-sick melancholy and unintelligent Persons that want Wit or Breeding and understand not themselves or the World But on the other side they think themselves to be the only Men that live bravely and splendidly in regard they can Drink and Roar Whore and Swear and Blaspheme without the least fear But so soon as ever a fit of Sickness seizes him death looks him in the Face and tells him he must die that his Glass is almost out and hath only a few Sands left to run then his judgment of things is altered and he cries out of his former Follies and Intemperance as Madness Vexation and Torment and tells you That he now sees plainly that to be truly religious is mans greatest happiness to which he adds many Solemn Promises of Amendment and Reformation if God will be pleased to spare him Be sure therefore that you always keep this in your mind and make conscience of performing your sick-bed Protestattons 6. How pitiful and inconsiderable a thing the Body of Man is and how soon the strength of it is turned to saintness and weakness its beauty to ugliness and deformity and its whole consistence to putrifaction and rottenness and then remember how foolish a thing it is to be proud of such a Carkass and spend all or the greatest part of thy time in trimming and adorning of it or in pampering and pleasing thy Appetite and yet this is the chief business of most young Men in this Age but let it not be thine 7. To avoid intemperance and sinful Lust for although Sickness Diseases and Death are by the Laws and Constitutions of our Nature incident to all Mankind yet Intemperance Whoring Vncleanness and Disorder bring more Diseases and destroy more strong and healthy young Men than the Plague or any other natural or accidental Distempers for they weaken the Brain corrupt the Blood decay and distemper the Spirits disorder and putrifie the Humours and fills every part of the Body with putrifaction And those Diseases that are not occasioned but these Vices yet they are rendred far more sharp lasting malignant and incurable by that stock of corrupted Matter which those Vices lodge in the Body to feed those Diseases and by rendring Nature impotent and not able to resist them 8. That you ought every Morning and Evening upon your Knees with all reverence to acknowledge the goodness of God in his Mercy to you and return him hearty Thanks for it
there before the Minister begin and stay till he hath done and all the while you are there carry your self Gravely and Reverently 10. After Evening Sermon go to your Closet and having read a chapter in the Bible examin what you have writ or recollect what you remember and afterwards if the Sermon be repeated either in your Fathers or in the Ministers House go to the repition thereof 11. In all your Speeches and Actions on that day let there be no lightness or vanity use no Running Leaping or Playing or Wrestling use no Jesting or telling Tales or foolish Stories nor talk about News or Worldly Business but let both your Actions and your Words be such as the Day is Serious and Sacred and tending either to instrust others or inform your selves in the great business of your Knowledge of God and of his Will and of your own Duty 12. After Supper and Prayers ended in your Fathers Family repare to your Closet and there upon your Bended Knees implore Pardon of God for what you have amiss and beg his Blessing upon what you have heard and his acceptance of all your Performances for the merits and satisfaction of Christ And lastly perform all this Chearfully and Heartily Uprightly and Honestly and account it not a burden to you for assure your self that you shall find a Blessing from God in so doing and remember it is your Father that tells you so who loves you and will not deceive you and which is more then that remember that the Eternal God hath Promised Isa 58. 13 14. If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy Daq and call the Sabbath a Delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt Honour him not doing thy own ways nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the High places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ALmighty God when he had rais'd the Frame Of Heaven and Earth and furnished the same With Works of equal wonder framed then A piece of greater Excellence call'd Man Gave him a comprehensive Soul that soar'd Above the Creatures and beheld their Lord Inscrib'd him with his Image and did fill The Compass of his Intellect and Will With Truth and Good gave him the Custody Of his own Bliss and Immortality And justly now his Sovereign might Demand Subjection and Obedience at his Hand Were only Being given 't were but Right His Debt of Duty should be Infinite But here was more a Super-added dress Of Life Perfection and of Happiness Yet this Great King for an Experiment Of Mans deserv'd Allegiance is content To use an Easie Precept such as stood Both with his Creatures Duty and his Good Forbids one Fruit on Pain of Death and give Freely the rest which he might Eat and Live But Man Rebels and for one tast doth choose His Life his God his Innocence to lose And now Death stricken like a wounded Dear Strictly pursued by Guilt by Shame and Fear He seeks to lose himself from God he flies And takes a Wilderness of Miseries A Land of New Transgressions where his course Is closer bound his Nature growing worse And whil'st in this condition Mankind lay A Man would think his injured God should say There lies accursed Man and let him lye Intangled in that Webb of Misery Which his own Sin hath spun I must be True And Just Unthankful Man thou hast thy due But 't was not so though Man the Mastery With his Creators Power and Will dares try And being overmatcht will still disdain To seek a Pardon from his Sovereign The Great and Glorious God the Mighty King Of Heaven and Earth despis'd by such a thing As Man a Worm of his own making breaks The rules of Greatness and his Creator seeks His Froward Creature not in such a way As once he did in the Cool of the Day Wherein Man Sinn'd and hid such Majesty Had been too great for Mans Necessity But the Eternal Son of God the Word By which all things were made the Mighty Lord Assumes our Flesh and under that he laies And hides his Greatness and those Glorious Rayes Of Majesty which had been over bright And too resplendant for poor Mortals sight And under this Disguise the King of Kings The Message of his Fathers Mercy brings Solicites Mans Return pay's the Price Of his Transgression by the Sacrifice Of his own Soul and undertakes to Cure Their Sin their Peace and Pardon to Procure To conquer Death for him and more then this To settle him in Everlasting Bliss And now O Man could this access of Love Thy Thankfulness to such a height improve That it could fire thy Soul into a Flame Of Love To him alone that bought the same At such a rate yet still it were too small To recompence thy Saviours Love withal Once did he give thee Being from the Dust And for that only Being 't were but Just To pay thy utmost self But when once more Thy Being and thy Bliss he did restore By such a means as this if doth Bereave Thy Soul of hopes of Recompence and leaves Thy Soul insolvent twice to him this day Thou ow'st thy self yet but one self canst pay Another REader the Title of this Solemn Day And what it doth import doth bid thee stay And read and Wonder 't is that Mystery That Angels gaze upon Divinity Assuming Humane Flesh th' Eternal Son Of the Eternal God is Man become But why this strange assumption or what end Equivolent could make him to descend So far beneath himself and equalize The Miracle of such an Enterprise Yet stay and wonder Undeserved Love To Man to Sinful Man did only move This stood from Heaven to Earth and all to win And rescue Lost and Fallen Man from Sin And Guilt and Death and Hell and reinstall Him in that Happiness lost by his fall And greater everlastingly to dwell In Blessedness so that thou canst not tell Which of the two the greater Wonder prove Thy Saviour's Incarnation or his Love But both conclude thou dost not give but pay A Debt in the observation of this day Another WHen that great Lamp of Heaven the glorious Sun Had touched his Southern period and begun To leave the Winter Tropick and to climb The Zodiacks ascending Signs that Time The brighter Sun of Righteousness did choose His beams of Light and Glory to disclose To our dark lower World and by those Rayes To chace our Darkness and to clear our Days And lest the Glorious and Resplendant Light Of his Eternal Beam might be too bright For Mortals Eyes to gaye upon he shrouds And cloaths his fiery Pillar with the Clouds Of Humane Flesh that in that dress he may Converse with Men acquaint them with the way To Life and Glory shew his Fathers Mind Concerning them how bountiful and kind His Thoughts were to them what they might expect From him in the observation of neglect Of what he did require and then he Seal'd With his Dear Blood the Truth he had Reveal'd FINIS