man in this world The greatness of the price the blood of God doth to every rational understanding fully speak the preciousness of the pearl Now how clear and plain is it in the word of truth that the Redeemer gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of goodworks Tit. 2. 14. That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve him in holiness and righteousness all our days Surely Reader that which the Son of God who thought it no robbery to be equal with God thought worthy the taking on himself the form of a servant and the suffering the spite and malice of men the wrath and rage of devils and the frowns and fury of his father to purchase for thee doth deserve to be minded and regarded by thee as thee onely thing thou followest after and setst thy self about during thy pilgrimage Alas All the pains and labour and watching and working and time and strength and lives of all the men in the world are not equivalent to one drop of the blood of Christ or the least degree of his humiliation and wilt thou deny to make that thy business for which he shed so much blood and laid down his life 6. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which is the peculiar work of the Holy Ghost and for which the Spirit is infused into the hearts of men The worth of the Father doth speak the desert of the Child Though men who pretend to honour the Father for his work of Creation and to admire the Son for his work of Redemption blasphemously deride and wretchly slight sanctification which is the work of the Spirit yet undoubtedly the work of the Spirit is no whit inferiour to either nay is the beauty and glory both of Creation and Redemption as being the end and perfection of both The Father created the world in order to the new creation by the Spirit as that choice work man ship which he resolved should bring him in the largest revenue of praise and honour T is the new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness that doth most declare the glory of God and the Firmament of sparkling graces that sheweth forth his most choice and curious handi-work Sanctification is the travel of the Sons soul a spiritual sacred life the great end of his death The Son redeemed man from slavery to sin and Satan and unto the service of righteousness by layino down the price thereof his own most precious blood One of the Sons main works was to purchase the re-impression of Gods Image on man the actual performance of which is the peculiar office of the Spirit hence he tells us Ioh. 14. I go away that the comforter may come and again Ioh. 6. The Spirit was not yet given i. e. so plentifully and universally because Iesus was not yet glorified And therefore we read that in few days after his ascension to acquaint us what was one main end and fruit of his death and suffering he powreth down the holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner and measure So that Creation the work of the Father doth as it were provide the matter the wax Redemption the work of the Son buyeth the Image of God the Seal and Sanctification the work of the Spirit stampeth it on the soul. Now Reader doth not the Sanctification of the Soul deserve to be thy main business when it is the curious work of the holy Spirit as that which the Fathers eye was chiafly on in thy Creation and the Sons in thy Redemption Is not that worthy to be made thy business which addeth a real worth to every thing and without which nothing is of worth or value Every one will grant that what is so richly excellent as to ennoble and add an intrinsick value to whatsoever it is affixed and the lack of which maketh every thing be they in other respects never so precious low and mean must needs deserve to be our business Truely Friend such is holiness it makes the word of God a precious word more to be embraced then gold yea then much fine gold The Ordinances of God precious Ordinances the people of God a precious people the excellent of the earth What is the reason that some in the account of him who is best able to judge though they be never so rich or beautiful or high and honourable in the world are called Dross Chaff Stubble Dust Filth Vessels of dishonour and counted Dogs Swine Vermine Serpents Cockatrices but want of holiness What is the reason that some though poor and despised and mean and houseless and friendless are esteemed by him who can best discern true worth The glory of the World the glory of Christ a Royal Diadem a Royal Priesthood higher then the Kings of the earth more excellent then their Neighbours Princes in all lands such of whom the world is not worthy but because they are godly persons an holy people Why are some Angels advanced to the highest Heavens waiting always in the presence of the King of Kings honoured to be his Ministers and Deputies in the Government of this lower world when other Angels are thrown down into the lowest Hell for ever banished the Celestial Court and bound in chains of darkness as prisoners to the day of execution but holiness in the former and want of it in the latter 8. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will and can refresh and revive thee in an hour of death and enable thee to sing and triumph at the approach of the King of terrors The Master of Moral Philosophy tells us that its worth the while for a man to be all the time he lives learning how to dye well The unerring spirit of God acquaints us that it ought to be our great work to be wise for our latter end Doubtless it must be a rich costly cordial indeed and deserves not a little time and pains and charge to prepare which can keep a man from fainting in such a day of extremity wherein our honours and treasures friends wives children nay our flesh and hearts will fail and forsake us That cannot be of mean worth which can make a man encounter his last enemy with courage and conquest at the sight of which Kings and Captains and Nobles and the greatest Warriers have trembled as leaves with the wind and their hearts melted as grease before the fire Now Reader Godliness is that wine which will cause thee to sing at the approach of this Goliah and enable thee as Leviathan to laugh at the shaking of his spear when whole hosts of others without Godliness flie like Cowards before it and would give all they are worth to avoid fighting with it Heark what a challenge the godly sends to this adversary daring it to meet him in the field O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the
militant Calvin was heard before his death often to sigh out How long Lord How long will it be ere thou avenge the blood of thy Servantsâ— The people of God are the purchase of Christ and of the same family and body with the dying Christian and therefore must needs be dear to him 4. For his Benefactours and those that have done good to him and his Paul had received some kindness from Onesimus he refreshed him in his bonds and in the 2 Tim. 1. 8. which was the last of his Epistles and thought to be written but a little before his death for he tells us in it I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand how pathetically doth he pray for him The Lord grant that he may finde mercy at that day 5. For our enemies This is to follow Gods pattern who doth good for evil and to obey his Precept who commandeth us to pray for them that despitefully use us Stephen when departing out of the World intreats mercy for them who were cruel to him Lord lay not this sin to their charge Act. 7. 60. Our blessed Saviour dying begs hard for their eternal lives who were the instruments and authors of his bloody death Father forgive them they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. Thirdly In an holy exercise of Faith Courage Repentance Charity and Patience 1. Faith It s the Character of Gods Children that they live by Faith and they dye in the Faith Hab. 2. 6. Heb. 11. 31. The waters say some of the Pool of Bethesda wherein the Priest washed the sacrifices before he offered them was of a reddish colour to note that men must be washed by faith in the blood of Christ before they are ready to be offered a Peace-offering to God by death The dying Christian must expect strong assaults against the bulwark of his faith but what-ever he let go he must keep his hold on Christ. I know no grace that the Devil is such a sworn enemy to as Faith and I know no season that he is more diligent in to overthrow their faith then when they are under some dangerous sickness therefore it s the observation of a good man that he seldom seeth a sick Saint followed close with temptations to recover of that sickness for Satan knowing he hath but a little time useth all his craft and strength to separate the soul from the Rock of his salvation Upon a dying bed reflect upon former experienes of Gods love to thy soul and recollect the former evidences of of thy title to Christ and thereby to Heaven I must tell thee though the certainty of thy salvation depend upon the truth of thy Faith the comfort of thy dissolution will depend on the strength of thy Faith Faith is the shield of the soul and therefore above all in thy encounter with thy great enemy Satan and thy last enemy death take the Shield of Faith Eph. 6. 14. Epaminondas after his victory at Loâ—ctrum wherein he was mortally wounded understanding that his Buckler was safe bid his Chirurgion boldly to pluck out the Dart that stuck in his side and died cheerfully The Saint the Souldier of Christ who is wounded even to death and keepeth his Shield of Faith safe may leave the world with courage The Apostle Paul who knew whom he had beleived 2 Tim. 1. 12. rings a challenge in the ears of death O death where is thy sting and sings a triumphant ditty at the approach of death The time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. When Iacob had beleived the report of Iosephs life his heart was revived Is Joseph yet alive saith he I will go down and see him before I dye When the true Israelite can firmely credit the testimony which God hath given of Iesus the Son of Ioseph how he being an enemy was reconciled to God by the death of his Son and shall much more being reconciled be saved by his life and by faith can cling on him his heart though dying is then enlivened O with what comfort can he take his journey into the other world When Philip viewed his young Son Alexander Now saith he I am content to dye Old Simeon springs young again at a sight of Christ and having embraced his Saviour in the armes of faith as well as in the armes of his body he begs a dismission out of this valley of tears being assured thereby of an admission into fulness of joy Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Having with an eye of faith beheld Christ he counts his life but a bondage and desires to depart or be loosed from fetters as the word signifieth and is taken Mat. 27. 17. We read of the Lords worthies that by faith they stopped the mouths of Lions Death is a fierce and cruel Lion but faith will pull out its teeth that it cannot hurt us or stop its mouth that it shall not devour us This grace like the Angel sent from Heaven when Daniel was cast into the Lions Den will save the Christian from being torn in peices O Friend The Robes of Christs righteousness is the onely Coat of Male which can defend thy soul against the shot of death If thou canst with Moses go up to Pisgah and take a view by faith of the Land of promise thou wilt comfortably with him lay down thine earthly Tabernacle Iob desired death as eagerly as the Labourer in an hot summers day desires the shadow Paul longed for it as vehemently as the Apprentice for the expiration of his Indentures and all because they had first beheld Christ by faith It s no wonder that many of Gods Children have called earnestly to be laid to bed knowing that it would prove their everlasting happy rest and when their bodies are carried by mortal men to their Mother Earth their souls should be conveyed by glorious Angels to their Father in Heaven 2. Courage A Christian should be a Voluntier in death Many of the Martyrs were as willing to dye as to dine went to the sire as chearfully as to a Feast and courted its pale and gastly countenance as if it had bee a beautiful Bride When King Lysimachus threatned Cyrenaeus Theodorus with Hanging Istis quaeso inquit ista horribilia minitare purpuratis tuis Thedori quidem nihil interest humine an sublime putrescat Threaten these terrible things to thy brave Courtiers Theodorus cares not whether he rot in the Air or on the Earth Cyprian said Amen to his own Sentence of Martyrdom Hierom reports of Nepotianus that he gave up his life so chearfully that one would have thought he rather walked forth then died When Ignatius was led from Syria to Rome to be torn in peices of wild
with fear Didst thou receive thy meat as in Gods presence and hadst thou an eye therein at his praise How didst thou behave thy self in thy Particular calling Did it no way incroach upon thy general Was thy conversation in heaven whilst thy dealings were about earth Wast thou diligent in the exercise of it righteous in thy dealings in it depending on God for a blessing on it What was thy carriage in company was thy life holy spotless exemplary profitable to others Mightest thou not in such a place have done thy God more service and thy Brothers soul more good May I not say to thee as God to Jonah Didst thou well to be angry at such a time upon no cause what were thy thoughts in solitude how wast thou imployed Had God any true share in thy thoughts hast thou watched thy self this day and kept thy heart with all diligence Hath none of thy precious time been lavisht away on unnecessary things Answer me faithfully to all these particulars that I may be able to return an answer to him that sent me O that I could but imploy one half hour every day with seriousness and uprightness in such soliloquies Lord thou didst create the world in six days and thou wast pleased to loâ—k back on every days work and behold it was very good and then ensued thy Sabbath Cause thy â—ervant to be a follower of thee as a dear child in minding every day the work thou hast given me to do that I may every night review it with comfort finding it good in thy Christ at the end of all my days looking back upon all my works I may see them very good through the acceptation of thy grace and with joy enter into my eternal Sabbath I Wish that I may end every day with him who is the beginning and first born from the dead That I may every night go to bed as if I were going to my grave knowing that sleep is the shadow of death and when the shadow is so near the substance cannot be far off Though lovers cannot meet all day yet they will make hard shift but they will find an opportunity to meet at night Should my devotion set with the natural Sun I may fear a dreadful night of darkness to follow That bed may well be as uneasie as one stuft with thorns that is not made by prayer If the soul lye down under an heavy load of sin the body can have no true rest Jacob could sleep sweetly upon an hard stone having made his peace with God when Ahashuerus could not though on a bed of down I cannot sleep unless God wake for me and I cannot rationally expect his watchfulness over me unless I request it My corruptions in the day call for contrition in the night How many omissions commissions personal relative sins heart life wickedness am I daily guilty of and â—hould I lye down under their weight for ought I know they may sink me before morning into endless wo. Whilst blood is in my veins sin will be in my soul. The weed of sin may be cut broken pulled up yet it will spring again I shall as soon cease to live as cease to sin Though I should be free all the day long from presumptuous enormities and onely defiled with ordinary humane infirmities yet these if not bewailed are damning The smallest letters are most hurtful to the eyes and far worse then a large Character Those sins which are comparatively little if not lamented are far more dangerous then Davids Murther and Adultery which were repented of When the soul like Thamar hath notwithstanding its utmost endeavours to preserve its chastity been ravished and by force defiled it must with her lift up the voice and weep If the Sun may not go down upon my wrath against man much-less may I presume to lye down under the wrath of God Besides how can sin be mortified if it be not confessed and bewailed Arraignment and Conviction must go before Execution The favours of the day past are not to be forgotten but to be acknowledged with thankefulness I receive every day more considerable mercies then there are moments in the day and when I borrow such large sums the principal of which I am unable ever to satisfie shall I be so unworthy as to deny the payment of this small interest which is all my Creditour requireth Whatsoever gain I have got in my calling whatsoever strength I have received by my food whatsoever comfort I have had in my Relations or Friends whatsoever peace liberty protection I have enjoyed all the day long I must say of all 〈◊〉 Jacob of his Venison The Lord hath brought it to me Surely the hearer of my morning prayers may well be the object of my evening prayses Aâ— how unreasonable is it that I like a whirl-pool should suck in every good thing that comes near me and not so much as acknowledge it Should any one be the thousandth part so much indebted to me as I am to God how ill should I take it if he should not confess it If a Beggar at my door receive a small almes from God by my hands I look for his thanks How often have I complained of the baseness and unworthiness of some that are engaged to me O what tongue can express what heart can conceive how much I am indebted to my God every moment though I am less then the least of all his mercies and doth not all his goodness merit sincere thankefulness Lord I confess there is not a day of my life wherein I do not break thy Laws in thought word and deed Sin is too much the element in which I live and the trade that I drive I find continually a law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and captivating me to the Law of sin and death Ah wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Since I am no day innocent make me every night penitent As my sins abound let my sorrow abound and thy grace much more abound Though I can never requite thy favours help me to admire and bless the fountain of them Suffer me never to go to bed till I have first asked thee my heavenly Father blessing Let the eyes of my soul be always open to thee in prayer and prayse before the eyes of my body be shut And O be thou always pleased so to accept my confessions petitions thanksgivings my person and performances in thy dear son that I may lay me down in peace and sleep because thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety Finally I Wish that every day of my life may be spent as if it were the day of my death and all my time employed in adorning my soul in trimming my lamp and in a serious preparation for eternity Whilst I am living I am dying every moment my sand is running and my Sun is declining I am as Stubble before the Wind and as
for vengeance what will the blood of a murdered soul do Why should I to humour any mans lust injure his soul hinder my own peace and incur the anger of the Lord. O that no foolish pretences whatsoever may keep me off from acquainting sinners with thâ—â—â—â—il and end the nature and danger of their sins It s Gods order first to cast the soul down and then to lift it up The ground must feel the Plow before it receive the Seed Sorrow must precede comfort and they must sow in tears who would reap in joy God must shake all Nations before the desired of all Nations will come to him We come to Sinai the Mount that burneth with fire and to blackness and darkness and a tempest which makes even a Moses to fear and quake exceedingly before we come to Mount Sion the City of the living God the Heavenly Ierusalem and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then the blood of Abel The Law is a School-Master to drive us to Christ. Austere Iohn with his Ax laid to the root of the Tree threatning the fire to those that bring not forth fruit prepareth the way for the sweet alluring Iesus Mourning and Grief is the Midwife of true mirth Penitential tears are the streams that lead to the Rivers of Pleasures Even the doleful sound of the Trumpet attendeth the Iudge when he is going to acquit a Prisoner by publique Proclamation Violence must be offered to corruption or there will be no acceptance of the Lord Christ. The building of holiness is the more strong for having its foundation of humiliation laid deep The safety of the soul doth depend like Jonahs upon his being cast over-boord and utterly lost in his own apprehension The blessed Iesus himself is brought into a desolate Wilderness before Angels are sent from Heaven to comfort him O that I might follow my God in his usual way and never prophesie smooth things to rugged and â—â—â—â—ed men but endeavour to break their hearts on â—â—th who have persisted in the breach of his holy Laws that their backs may not be broken in Hell Yet I would not instead of beating down the rotten Paper walls of presumption drive any into the Dungeon of desperation but as the good Nurse have the breast of consolation as well as the rod of correction in readiness for such Children Moses and Christ met together upon Mount Tabor The Gospel must be Preached to heal those wounds which are opened and discovered by the Law The Lord sendeth me to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound Lord thou killest and makest alive bringest down to the grave and bringest up It s easie and ordinary with thee to break those bones which thou intendest to rejoyce and to perplex those Rams in Briars and Thorns which thou intendest to accept of as a sacrifice Teach thy Servant to know how to speak a word in season both to the wicked and to the godly how to divide thy word aright both in its minatory and consolatory parts that as occasion shall â—e I may awaken the wicked out of their deadly slumbers and quicken the godly to their spiritual watchfulness and help to sweeten that bitter cup which thou hast put into their hands O that thy blessing might water my labours for both their welfares Alas poor sick unregenerate ones are dropping into boundless and endless sorrows and yet are without sense Though they are dying they know not what they are doing nor whither they are going Their eyes are shut by the god of this World that they see not that unspeakable misery to which they are liable every moment their hearts are hardened through custom in sin that neithâ—â—â—â—reatnings nor promises prevail with them to feel their wounds and sores O thou great Physitian thou Lord of life thou God of health open their eyes send some Ananias to them that they may receive their sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost enable them so to mourn now that they may be comforted when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and help thy servant to deal so faithfully with those whom thou callest me to visit that I may never give thy Majesty cause to say of me as once of the Prophets of Israel They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly saying Peace Peace when there is no peace I Wish that I may be close and home in my Applications to sick persons and speak what is proper to their estates with ardency and affection to their very hearts It s ill dallying with edged tools O how sad is it to toy and trifle to be formal or customary in counsel or reproof or comfort to immortal souls that are launching into the Ocean of eternity Death is a serious thing and that which they never did before nor shall ever do again Sin is a serious thing as the damned find in Hell by woful experience Though there they are in blackness of darkness yet they have light enough to see sin to be the evil of evils and altogether sinful Christ was serious when he took upon him my nature and therein did offer up himselfâ— a sacrifice for sin God is serious in commanding faith and repentance and in promising Heaven to the faithful and holy and Hell to unbeleivers and atheists And shall not I be serious and in earnest when I am dealing about matters of eternal life and death and about the concernments of God and Christ and souls and eternity O with what earnestness should I perswade the wicked to turn from their wickedness and live If ever their souls would draw near to the Lord of life it concerns them to do it when their bodies are drawing nigh to the Chambers of death It is but a very few hours and their condition will be past all amendment all alteration In this poor pittance of time all must be done upon which the Scales must turn for their salvation or damnation They are going to make that change which will admit them into endless joy or torment and render their estates unchangeable Their time is hastening that they must struggle with dreadful pains and strong distempers and death the King of terrors and must review that life which is ending and look back upon all that they have done and judge their persons and actions impartially whether they will or no that they must take their leave of all their friends and food and sleep and lands and houses and honours and pleasures and riches and step into eternity and appear before God without their Relations or Possessions or any worldly comforts to help or encourage them that they must be tried by an holy Law and an holy Judge for their everlasting lives or deaths and can my expressions be too full of weight and reason or my affections too full of bowels and pity
to his breast Hic sat lucis Hâ—re is abundance of light of joy He asked one of his Friends What news His Friend told him None Then saith he I will tell you some news I shall presently be with my Lord Christ. I shall give thee two or three quickening Motives and then direct thee about the workâ— of exercising thy self to Godliness on a Dying Bed and because its the last time of a Christians working for his God I shall in the third place annex some brief helps to this duty In reference to the Motives Consider First What a serious thing Death will be to every Man and Woman in the World It s ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves and undertake to mock God in their health and life but it s worst of all and desperate for any to do this on a sick and dying Bed The Heathen hardened in sin and wholly under the power of Satan ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives and of the sad consequence of a wicked end made light of death Flavius Vespasian none of the worst of the Roman Emperors died as Sir Thomas Moor with a jest in his mouth Vt puto Deus fio Methinks I am going and growing to be a God Augustus Caesar esteemed the best of them whose death the people so much lamented that they said Vtinam aut non nasceretur aut non moreretur Would he had never been born or never dyed went off the Stage of the World with a Complement Livia Nostri Conjugii memor Vive Vale Farewel and Live Wife mindful of our Marriage Galba dyed desperately crying out Feri si ex re sit Populi Romani Strike if it be for the common good Tiberius dyed dissemblingly of whose death Tacitus wittily Iam Tiberium vires corpus non dissimulatio deserebant Now strength and life hath lest Tiberius but not dissimulation But Christians who understand the holiness and justice of God the infinite demerit of sin the certainty of an unchangeable condition in the other World either in joy or torment know that death is no jesting matter that to dye is one of the most serious searching things that they can possibly do Two or three Particulars will shew what a serious thing death is 1â— Death will try men When the Bridegroom comes it will appear who have Oyl in their Vessels and who have noneâ— As soon as ever thou takest thy leave of temporal good things thy spiritual riches will be known A scorching Summer discovers what streams are fed with Ponds and what with Springs The Wind sheweth which Clouds have Rain in them and which have none Death will anatomize every soul and reveal all that is in it Conscience will then bring in a true Verdict in despight of all those bribes and frights which formerly kept the Bill in suspense or caused it to write on it an Ignoramus There are marks by which Saints and Sinners may be distinguished whilst they live as great mens servants are by the Liveries that they wear but these characters being most inward and known to none but themselves and the Lord they serve it is their dying onely that will reveal infallibly what they are and to whom they belong This World is as a common Inn wherein all are lodged and no difference is made between the good and bad onely that the worst men have the best usage but the very moment of mens dissolution makes a plain and vast distinction Death is the way of all the earth according to Ioshua's Periphrasis of it but this way hath two turnings one on the right hand to joy and bliss another on the left hand to misery and horror now as when the attendants of two Lords travail together on the road their servants cannot easily be distinguished especially if the Servants of the one counterfeit the livery of the other but when they come to the Bivium the parting way then it s clearly known who belong to the one and who to the other for each then followeth his own Master waits on him to his house stayeth and abideth there with him So though whilst men live all professing themselves Christians and most for a shew at least putting on the livery of Christ it is not known who belong to the Prince of Life and who to the Prince of the powers of the Air but death will discover it to themselves and the Elect Angels 2. It will appear that Death is a serious thing in that Eternityâ— When thou diest thy condition will be like the Law of the Medes and Persians such as cannot be altered At death thou goest the way that thou shalt never return David speaking of his dead Child saith I shall go to him but he shall not return to me And Iob by asking the question denyeth it If a man dye shall he live again God will never trust thee with a second life or give thee leave for second thoughts or better purposes or more serious and sober actions when thou art once landed in the other world He will not offer thee a Christ and Grace and Heaven when thou art gone from this earth Think of it seriously is not that work to be done well which can be done but once Shouldst thou not use thine utmost care and strength and diligence to dye well when thy everlasting making or marring dependeth on it Ah Friend If thou failest now thou failest for ever if thou dalliest now thou art undone eternally There is no wisdom nor knowledge in the Grave whither thou art going Eccles. 11. 7. 3. Death will appear to be a serious thing in that all the powers of Hell will then assault thee Thou mayst say of it in some respects as Christ did to wicked men and the Wicked one This is your hour and the power of darkness The Devil its observeable is most busie at the conclusion of a duty as of prayer that the Christian might be hindered and distracted when he closeth up all in the name of Christ and so all his desires be frustrated so he is most busie in the conclusion of our days adding fearful dreams to our slumbers strong distractions to our fancies increasing our pains with terrors driving the good if possible to despair and intoxicating the bad with presumptuous conceits and all because his time is little The Devil is come down having great rage knowing that his time is short Rev. 12. 12. At the approach of death through pain of body and perplexity of mind men are least able to resist and therefore this cowardly enemy will then be most ready and fierce to assault When the Christian is down then if possible he will â—rample upon him The last persecutions of the Church under Dioclesian and Maximinian were the soarest The last messenger the Devil sent to Iob concerning the sudden violent death of all his Children pierced his heart deepest The subtle serpent reserved that great Ordnance for the last hoping the former small
Beasts he often wished by the way that he were in the midst of those Beasts that were to devour him and that their appetites might be whetted to dispatch him fearing lest it should happen to him as to some others that the Lyons out of a kind of reverence would not dare to approach them being ready he said rather to provoke them to fight then that they should suffer him to escape Bradford being told by his Keepers Wife that his Chain was a buying and he was to die the next day pulled off his Hat and thanked God for it When some wondered that Adam Damplip could eat his food so well when his end was so near he told them Ah Masters Do you think that I have been Gods Prisoner so long in the Marshalsey and have not yet learned to die Yes yes and I doubt not but God will strengthen me therein Ann Askew subscribed her Confession in Newgate thus Written by me Ann Askew that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that is bound towards Heaven Indeed it s said of a wicked man that his soul is required of him and that God takes away his soul Luk. 12. Job 27. 10. but of a godly man that he giveth up the Ghost and he cometh to his grave Gen. 25. 8. Job 4. ult Nature will teach the Heathen that death is the end of all outward miseries to all men hence some of them drank of its cup with as much constancy and courage as if it had been the most pleasant Julip but grace will teach the Christian that death is not onely a remedy against all his bodily and spiritual maladies as Sir Walter Rawleigh said of the sharp Ax that should behead him this will cure all my infirmities but also an inlet into fulness of joy and felicity Reverend Deering said on his death-bed I feel such joy in my spirit that if I should have the sentence of life on the one side and the sentence of death on the other side I had rather a thousand times chuse the sentence of death since God hath appointed a separation then the sentence of life Tiâ—us Vespation the mirror of mankind being a stranger to Christ was very unwilling â—o leave the world being carried in an Horse-litter and knowing that he must dye lookt up to Heaven and complained pittifully that his life should be taken from him who had not desired to dye having never committed any sin as he said but onely one Socrates and some of the wiser Heathenâ— comforted themselves against the fear of death with this weak Cordial that it is common to men the way of all the earth Hence it was when the Athenians condemned Socrates to dye he received the Sentence with an undaunted spirit and told them they did nothing but what nature had before ordained for him But the Christian hath a greater ground for a holy resolution and a stronger Cordial against the fear of death even his hopes of eternal life and surely if he that exceeds others in his Cordials be excelled by them in Courage he disgraceth his Physitian Aristippus told the Saylers who wondred that he was not as well as they afraid in the storm Ye fear the torments due to a wicked life and I expect the reward of a good one It s no marvail that they who lived wickedly should dye unwillingly being frighted with the guilt of their past sins and with the fears of their future torments therefore the holy Ghost saith of such a one The wicked is driven away in his wickedness as a Beast that is driven out of his den to the slaughter or as a Debtor driven by the Officers out of his house wherein he lay warm and was surrounded with all sorts of comfort to a nasty loathsom prison But that the righteous who hath hope in his death should even dye almost with fear of it before-hand is matter of wonder Lots soul is exceedingly vexed with Sodom yet he is loth to leave it This world is a wilderness a purgatory a step-mother a persecutor to all the Saints and yet some of them when called to leave it sing loth to depart and would linger behind partly from nature which dreads a dissolution and partly from the weakness of grace To fear death much argueth sometimes wickedness always weakness 3. Repentance It s said of St. Augustine that he dyed with tears in his eyes in the practice of repentance and Posidonius saith of him that he heard him often say in his health that it was the fittest disposition for dying Christians and Ministers Laudatos saith he Chistianos sacerdotes absque digna competenti paenitentia exire de corpore non debere We dye groaning iâ— regard of our bodies why should not our souls sigh that ever they sinned against so good a God! Beasts bite their enemies with more venome and indignation when they are ready to dye Maxime mortiferi solent esse morsus morientium animaliâ—m The Christian should give sin his most deadly bite his greatest abhorrency and grief and shame when he is dying and shall never see sin or sorrow or shame more As its noble and excellent to dye forgiving sinners so also taking revenge upon sin Moses a little before his death is commanded to avenge the Children of Israel of the Midianites and then he is gathered to his people Numb 31. 1 2. Samuel takes vengeance on Agag when he was old and knew not the day of his death David could not dye with comfort till he had charged Solomon to execute that justice on Ioab which he had omitted The last time the Judge seeth the Felon he passeth sentence of death upon him O how should the soul of a dying Saint be inflamed with anger against sin when he considers the rich love that it abuseth the glorious name that it dishonoureth the blessed Saviour that it pierceth and that vast happiness which he is going to possess of which without infinite grace and mercy it had deprived him Some persons when they have been to take their last revenge on their enemies have done it to purpose The beleiver on his dying bed takes his last revenge on sin he shall never have another opportunity to shew his love to his God and Saviour in his spite at and hatred of sin therefore then he should do it to purpose as dying Sampson put forth all his strength and beg divine help that he may utterly destroy it and be avenged on it for all the defilement and bondage it hath brought on his soul and dishonour to his Saviour Dying Iacob cursed the sins of his own Sons Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their anger for it was cruel O my Soul enter not thou into their secrets The dying Child of God should curse his passions his pride his unbeleif his selfishness even all his lusts for disobeying such righteous Laws and displeasing such a gracious Lord. When David Chrytaeus
evil thoughts Matth. 15.19 that is the nest in which those Hornets breed The heart is the original of sinful words as well as sinful thoughts Out of the heart proceed false witness blasphemies Matth. 15.19 They were in the heart before ever they were in the tongue It s faid of the Weasel that it conceives at the ear and brings forth at the mouth Every sinner conceiveth at the heart what he brings forth at the mouth Such stinking breath comes from rotten inwards The heart is the â—â—â—sel of poisonous liquor the tongue is but the tap to broach it Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh The heart is the Forge also where all our evil works as well as words are hammered out Out of the heart proceed murthers and thefts and adulteries and fornicaâ—ions Matth. 15.19 You will say that murthers and thefts are hand-sins and that adulteries and fornication belong to the eye and outward parts of the body but alas the heart is the womb wherein they are conceived and bred the outward parts are but the Midwives to deliver the mother of those monsters and to bring them into the world An evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart bringeth forth evil things There is no sin but is drest in the withdrawing room of the heart before it appear on the stage of the life Apollidorus dreamed one night that the Scythians had taken him and flea'd off his skin with an intent to boil him and as he was lifting into the Cauldron his heart said unto him It s I that have brought thee to all this There is a real truth in this that the heart brings men both to all their sins and all their sufferings As the Chaos had the seed of all creatures and wanted nothing but the motion of the good Spirit to produce them so the heart hath the seed of all evil and wanteth nothing but the motion of the evil spirit and a fit opportunity to bring it forth It is in vain to go about an holy life till the heart be made holy The Pulse of the hand beats well or ill according to the sâ—ate of the heart and the inward vital parts Our earthly members can never be mortified unless the body of sin and death be destroyed The foul bird of sin must be killed in the nest the heart or it can never be thrown on the dunghil die in the life Therefore the Holy Ghost calls on men to take away the cause if they would have the effect to cease O Ierusalem wash thy heart from wickedness Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hands ye double-minded first the heart cleansed then the hands Ier. 4.14 Iames 4.7,8 If the chinks of the ship are unstopt t will be to no purpose to labour at the Pump It is not rubbing or scratching will cure the itch but the blood whose corruption is the cause of it must be purified When the water is foul at the bottom no wonder that scum and filth appear at the top There is no way to stop the issue of sin but by drying up the matter that feeds it As Moses cast the tree into the bitter waters and sweetned the Springs And as Elijah cast salt into the fountain and thereby healed the waters so the salt of grace must be cast into the Spring the fountain of the heart or the streams of the life will never be sweet Till trees are grafted and their nature altered all the fruit they bring forth is wilde and harsh and little worth Till the Christian is grafted into Christ and a new and another nature be infused into him all his fruit is unsavoury and unacceptable to God vain and unprofitable to himself Such a one is like a Cypress tree fair to look on but barren Like a Painter he may make a great stir about the colours and shadows of things the form of Godliness and shew all his wit and art and skill in expressing the outside but wholly neglecteth the substance and contemneth the inward parts the power thereof There be several things which may help to make the life fair in the eyes of men but nothing will make it amiable in the eyes of God unless the heart be changed and renewed Indeed all the medicines which can be applied without the sanctifying work of the Spirit though they may cover they can never cure the corruption and diseases of the soul. The best man without this is like a Serpent painted as it were without but poysonous within As the herb Biscort he may have smooth and plain leaves but a croked root Or as a Pill be guilded on the outside when the whole mass and body of it is bitterness It is one thing to be angry with sin upon a sudden discontent as a Man may be with his Wife whom he loves dearly and another thing to hate sin as that which we abhor to behold and endeavour to destroy A filthy heart like a foul body may seem for a while to be in good plight but when the heats and colds of temptations appear t will bewray it self Some Insects lye in a deep sleep all the Winter stir not make no noise that one would think them dead but when the weather alters and the Sun shines they revive and shew themselves So though lusts may seem dead in an unregenerate man they are only laid asleep and when opportunity is will revive Shame may hide sin but it will not heal â—â—n Corruption often lyeth secret in the heart when shame hindereth it from breaking out in sâ—abs and boâ—ches in the life Some court holiness as hard in shew as Saul did Samuel to be honoured before the people when like him they hate it in their hearts Fear may do somewhat to curb a vitiated nature but it cannot cure it The Bear dares hardly touch his desired honey for fear of the stinging of the Bees The Dog forbears the meat on the Table not because he doth not love it but because he is afraid of the Cudgel Many leave some sin in their outward actions as Iacob parted with Benjamin for fear they should starve if they kept it who are as fond of it as the Patriarch of his Child This inward love of sin is indeed its life and that which is most dangerous and deadly to the soul. As an imposthume is most perillous for being inward and private Rocks under water split more vessels then those that appear above water so sin raigning onely in the heart is oftentimes more hurtful then when it rageth in the life Such civil persons go to Hell without much disturbance being asleep in sin yet not snoring to the diâ—quieting of others they are so far from being jogged or awaked that they are many times praised and commended Example Custom and Education may also help a man to make a fair shew in the flesh but not to walk after the spirit They may Prune and Lop sin but never stubb it up
defence Though others like the old world are drowned are destroyed in these waters yet thou shouldst ride safely in a well pitcht Ark and to free thee from any fear of miscarrying the Lord himself would shut thee in When others are in the open air on whom storms and tempests have their full force thou shouldst be housed in Gods presence-chamber and kept secret by his side As Gideons fleece thou shouldst be dry when all about thee are wet The whale of destruction may digest thousands of Mariners but one godly Ionah is too hard for him The torrent of fire that ran from AEtna and consumed the Country yet parted it self to safeguard them that releived their aged parents When the Grecians had taken Troy and given every man liberty to carry out his burden they were so taken with the devotion of AEneas in carrying out first his houshold gods and upon a second licence his old Father Anchises and his Son Ascanius instead of treasures which others carried out that they permitted him to carry what he would without any disturbance Ieremiah in the Babylonish captivity was tendered and regarded highly by the King of Babylon When Sodom was destroyed Lot was preserved It was storied of Troy that so long as the Image of Pallas stood safe in it that City should never be won It is true of godliness so long as the fear and love of thy God are within thee so long as thou makest religion thy business nothing shall hurt thee every thing shall help thee godliness will bring in all gain and at all times No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly A Child of God by adoption is in some sense like the Son of God by eternal generation heir of all things 1 Cor. 3.30 31. Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or Life or Death or things present or things to come all is yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's Nay the Christians riches are not onely unsearchable Ephes. 3. 8. but also durable Prov. 8. 15. When a wicked man dieth all his riches dye with him His treasue is laid up on earth therefore when he leaves the earth he leaves his treasure Psa. 49. 17. When a godly man dyeth his riches follow him Rev. 14. 13. His treasure is in heaven and so when he dyeth he goeth to his gains O Reader what an argument is here to provoke thee to piety godliness is profitable in all conditions in all relations in both worlds In prosperity t will be a sun to direct thee in adversity a shield to protect thee in life t will be thy comfort and which is infinitely more in death that hour of need 't will be thy enlivening cordial The smell of Trefoil is stronger in a cloudy dark season then in fair weather The refreshing savour of the sweet spices of grace is strongest in the Saints greatest necessities When Death the King of terrors comes to enter the list and fight with thee for thy soul and eternal salvation for thy God and Christ and Heaven and happiness when all thy Riches and Honours and Friends and Relations would leave thee in the lurch to shift for thy self as Dogs leave their Master when he comes to the water Godliness would be thy shield to secure thee against its shot and make thee more then a conquerour over it Thou mightest call thy dying bed as Iacob the place through which he travailed Mahanaim a Camp for there Angels would meet thee to convey thee safe through the Air the enemies country of which Satan is Lord and Prince to thy Fathers houses where thou shouldst be infinitely blessed in the vision and fruition of thy God and Saviour for ever Godliness would be the Pilot to steer the vessel of thy soul aright through those boysterous waters to an happy port The Arabick Fable mentions one that carried an Hog a Goat and a Sheep to the City the Hog roared hideously when the other two were still and quiet and being asked the reason gave this account of her crying The Sheep and Goat have no such cause to complain for they are carried to the City for their Milk but I am carried thither to be killed being good for nothing else The Ungodly person may well cry out sadly when sickness comes for then guilt flyeth in his face and conscience tells him death will kill him he is good for nothing but to be killed with death Rev. 2.25 he never honoured God in this world and God will force honour out of him in the other world He may well screech out dreadfully at the approach of death whose body death sends to the grave and his souls to intolerable and unquenchable flames but the godly man may bid death welcom knowing it will be his exceeding gain and advantage Reader When others like the Israelites are afraid and start back at the sight of this Goliah thou mightest like little David encounter him in the name of the Lord and overcome him Thou mightest triumphantly sing in the ears of death O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The Lord of life would sweeten death to thee and subdue it for thee nay make it at peace with thee that thou mightest say to death as Iacob to Esau I have seen thy face as if it had been the face of God who hath made thee to meet me with smiles instead of frowns Death would help thee to that sight to that knowledge to that state and degree of holiness for which thou hast prayed and wept and fasted and watched and laboured and waited many a day as it s said of Iob there was none like him in the earth so I may say of this calling there is none like it upon the face of the earth the very enemies of it in their hours of extremity being judges Ah who would not work for God with the greatest diligence and walk with God in the exactest obedience and wait upon God with the greatest patience when he is assured that in the doing of his commands there is such great reward and those that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The Conclusion Reader I have now ended this Treatise but whether thou if a stranger to this calling wilt put an end to thy carnal fleshly ways and begin this high and heavenly work or no I know not If thou art ambitious thou hast here encouragement sufficient godliness will ennoble thee and render thy blood not only honourable but royal If thou art voluptuous here is a bait which may take thee godliness will bring thee to a river of pleasures to such dainties and delights as take the hearts of perfect and glorious Angels If thou art covetous here is a golden weight to turn the scales of thy desires and endeavours godliness is profitable unto all things it hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come when thy house and lands and honours and neighbours and
they passed by the great Luminaries of Heaven without admiration So these beholding the poor mean treasures and fleeting honours of this world bow down the knees of their souls to them and worship them but pass by the beautiful Image of the blessed God the unsearchable riches in Christ and the glory to be revealed without any respect or regard So reasonable and righteous is mans devoting himself to the worship of the blessed and most high God that he cannot without manifest injustice as well as ingratitude and folly deny the exercising himself to godliness Unless man were his own Makerâ— he cannot have any title to become his own Master Psa. 119. 73. The Redeemers title to us is certain and clear and unquestionable whether we own it or no and all the while we keep any thing from him or deny subjection to him we rob him of his right Ye are not your own but â—ought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and spirits which are Gods 1 Cor. 6. ult The Slave is not his own man but his who redeemed him though his proud and stubborn spirit may refuse to acknowledge it Man is not in the condition of those persons who are servants by compact and agreement for a year or so long as they think fit and upon their own terms but like those whom the Romans took in War over whose persons and estates they had an absolute dominion as well as a right to their works and service Though the Commands of Christ are all holy just and good as profitable for man as honourable for himself yet he hath absolute authority over man and all that he hath and may command him what he pleaseth As Laban said to Iacob These daughters are my daughters these sons are my sons these cattel are my cattel and all thou seest is mine So the Redeemer by vertue of the price he laid down his most precious blood may say to every man This soul is my soul this body is my body this estate is my estate these children and friends are my children and friends this name and credit and interest is mine and all thou haste is mine Yet alas men â—â—o will give their Relations their due strangers their due enemies their due nay according to their Proverb the very Devil his due and far more then his due will not give Iesus Christ his due but against all justice and righteousness rob and wrong him of that which is his own and dearly bought too Rom. 14.7 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether therefore we live or dye we are the Lords For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living So absolute is the necessity of mans making Religion his business that upon his diligence or negligence herein his eternal salvation or damnation doth depend If any man will be Christs Disciple he must deny himself disclaim all title and disown all right to himself have nothing more to do with himself as upon his own account and make an unfaigned unreserved dedication of himself and all that he hath to the honour and interest of his Redeemer Sanctification is a separation from all common to sacred uses and this must be done with all the heart and soul and strength in the whole course of the life by all that will escape the wrath to come God commandeth men to strive to enter in at the straight gate to work out their salvations with fear and trembling to be holy as he is holy in all manner of conversation and his word is like the Law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered He hath enjoyned nothing but what his infinite wisdom saw fit and he is resolved not to vary the least tittle not to abate the least farthing of the price he hath set Foolish men are so besotted by their deceitful hearts and befooled by the Devil that they complement with Religion and onely give it an outside formal salute instead of cordial embraces and real entertainment They deal with religion as Anacharsis saith the Athenians dealt with money using it for no other end but to number and cast up accounts with whereas it might have served them for excellent purposes So they use Religion onely for a shew for fashion for custom and are satisfied with an hypocritical way of Worshipping God and think to put God off therewith whereas it would serve them for high and honourable ends it would if entertained in the power and life of it elevate the Christian above this beggarly world enable him to combat with and conquer his sturdy stubborn lusts and the power and policy of Hell help him to a conversation in Heaven to converse and communion with the Father and Jesus Christ his Son and dress his soul for a blessed eternity Reader If thou art unacquainted with this high and honourable this worthy and noble Calling of Christianity I shall appeal to thy reason and conscience in the tender of some questions possibly one or other of them may prevail with thee to bind thy self Apprentice to it As a Fowler according to the different nature of his game contrives and appropriates his stratagems that some he catcheth with light as Larks with a glass and day nets some with baits as Pigeons with pease some with frights as Blackbirds with a low-bell some with company as Ducks with decoy fowl So I shall endeavour to suit my questions to thy temper whatever it be that if either the light of reason or the bait of unconceiveable and infinite profit or the frights of dreadful threatnings and comminations or the company of Christ the captain of our salvation and all his followers and Souldiers who marched to Heaven in this way will win upon thee I may perswade thee to make Religion thy business O that being crafty I might catch thee with holy guile To this end I beseech thee to weigh the questions again and again as thou readest them and to dart up thy prayers to Heaven for a blessing on them that thou mayst not reject the counsel of God against thy own soul but hearken to counsel receive instruction and be wise for thy latter end 1. Is not that worthy to be made thy business upon which the true comfort and joy of thy life during thy whole pilgrimage doth depend Comfort is the cream the top of life joy is the flower the honey the life of life Life without comfort without delight is a living death If the body be disquieted with diseases and aches and pains the soul as a tender Husband sympathizing with his bride though the patient be heir of a Kingdom and commander of large dominions yet all creatures to him are unsavoury morsels and as an aguish pallat he can taste can rellish nothing Iob in distress speaks in such a mans dilect Why is light given to him that is in misery
and life to the bitter in soul Job 3. 20. Light is one of the most excellent things that God hath made and is therefore used by the Holy Ghost to set out not onely the Word of God and the Work of Godliness Psa. 119. 105. 1 Iohn 1. 7. but also Christ and Heaven and God himself 1 Ioh. 9. 1 Colos. 12. 1 Iohn 1. 5. Life is the Apex the highest stair the top-stone the choisest of all temporal mercies There is no flower in natures garden for beauty or excellency comparable to it therefore men if brought to the pinch will part with all to redeem this Skin for skin all that a man hath will he give for his life The loss of life is the chiefest outward loss and esteemed the greatest satisfaction to justice or nature The desire of life is indeed the greatest earthly blessing the most loyal people can desire for their loving Prince Let the King live but light and life as precious pearls as they are become burdens most toylsom and tedious to men without comfort Joy to life is as the form to the matter which animates and actuates it and makes it spâ—ightful and lively Why is light given to one in misery and life to the bitter in soul Now Reader It is Religion that is the comfort of thy life by bringing thee to him who is the life of all thy comforts Other things can never suâ—e and so can never satisfie and therefore can never truly refresh or rejoyce the soul of man The body may sooner be fed and preserved with Air and Wind as the soul filled with the whole world They who swim down with a full stream of outward good things who have waters of a full cup wrung out to them and have more then heart can wish though they be Masters of hidden and bottomless mines as the Spanish Ambassadour boasted of his Soveraigns treasures in the Indies though they have thousands and millions of heads bare and knees bowing to them and are mounted to the loftiest pinacle of honour and fame and renown though their garments are of finest silk sented with the sweetest perfumes embroydered by the most skilful Artist and enamelled with the richest jewels though their food be the most choice and luscious delicates the most mellifluous Nectar that earth air and water can afford and though their bodies be in the most perfect state of health and thereby enabled to extract the quintessence of all this and so rellish it in the highest degree yet all this is not able to give them the least dram of true delight the smallest crum of true comfort In the midst of their sufficiency such Monarchs are in straights They may possess much but enjoy nothing Their faces someâ—times are featured with laughter when at the same time their souls are in little ease In the midst of mirth their hearts are sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness As some Plumbs that are sweet and luscious in the outward part but have bitter kernels so the most rich and honourable sinners in the midst of their mirth and gigling and sports have inward gripes which like Leaven sowreth the whole lump of their enjoyments Haman though exalted to the highest seat next the Throne in the Persian Court and had the command of him who commanded one hundred and twenty seven Provinces yet had an aking heart and a worm gnawing his inwards that he cryeth out All this avails me nothing c. The Worlds greatest darlings whom she dandleth most upon her knees and to whom she granteth her sweetest kisses are but at best like a curious marble chimney-piece glorious and shining without but full of soot and blackness within God did at first for mans fall judge the earth to bring forth Briars and Thorns and all the fruit it beareth will be piercing and paining what ever men fancy to themselves But Reader though the curse of the earth be Thistles and Thorns yet the blessing of Heaven is light and joy Though the World be empty and vain and vexatious yet Religion is full and filling the soul with content and comfort Observe the very formal nature of it The Kingdom of God i. e. Religion consisteth not in meats and drinks but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Peace and joy is the heart-chearing wine which groweth upon this vine A good conscience is a continual feast Natural things must be brought to their center before they can enjoy rest and how can it be expected that spiritual beings can enjoy true repose but in their centre the Father of spirits That peace which passeth all understanding that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory are the true and legitimate children of the power of godliness Outward things and formes like Glow-worms may be glistering but they are not warming T is the power of Religion like the Sun that brings refreshing light and enlivening heat along with it The wicked is snared in his wickedness but the righteous sing rejoyce 2. Is not that worthy to be made thy business in which thou hast to do with an insinite glorious and jealous Majesty If men are serious about the concernments of a Father or Master or Noble-man or King how serious should they be about the concernments of a God I must tell thee Reader that thou hast every moment of thy life to do with the great God Whether thou art eating or drinking or walking or buying or selling or ploughing or sowing or reaping as well as when thou art praying or hearing or reading or meditating thou haste still to do with God In all companies in all thy relations in all natural actions in all civil transactions at all seasons thou haste more to do with God then with any creature then with all the creatures And is his work to be slighted or dallied with or slubbered over Is it good playing or toying with his interest and concerns in whose hand is thy breath and life and all that thou hast Dost thou not know that his eyes is ever upon thee that his arm is able to reach and revenge him on thee when he pleaseth that he looks on himself as worthy to be observed and pleased in all thy thoughts and words and deeds and wilt thou dare him to his face and provoke him before his eyes and cast him behind thy back as not deserving to be minded or regarded Is his fury so light a burden or his favour so little a blessing that thou art so indifferent unto either Ah didst thou but know what a God thou hast to deal with in every part and passage and moment of thy life how sweet his love is far better then life how bitter his wrath is more dreadful then death didst thou know how great a good how blessed a friend how high an honour how choice an happiness how rich a cordial how vast a treasure he is to them that make his service their business didst
thou know how powerful an enemy how intolerable his anger is what a Lion gâ—eedy of his prey what a consuming fire he is to them that do his work by halfes and negligently didst thou know him as the saved in heaven know him to be an hive of sweetness a river of pleasure or as the damned in hell know him to be a sea of wormwood meeting thee as a Bear robbed of her whelps O what wouldst thou then think of making religion thy business speak Friend in thy conscience wouldst thou then live without him in the world and leave him out as one unconcerned in the several passages of thy conversation Wouldst thou then put him off with the skin and shell and carkasse of religion as if he were an Idol and had eyes and saw not and ears and heard not instead of an hearty dedication of thy self and all thou hast to his service Wouldst thou then eat or drink or buy or sell or do any thing without asking his leave and begging his blessing and observing the rules and commands which he hath prescribed thee Or wouldst thou not rather do all things as in his presence according to his precepts and as may be most for his praise believing that he is not a God to be dallied with 3. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which is the end of thy being and preservation and of all the mercies that thou enjoyest and of all the cost and charge which the Great God is night and day at with thee For what end dost thou think the Great and Glorious God formed thy body so couriously in the womb and animated it with an heaven-born soul but that thou mightst be made capable of admiring his excellencies adoring his perfections and obeying his precepts Canst thou be so foolish as to think that he created thee to despise his dominion and break his laws and dishonour his name and walk contrary to him in thy conversation Wherefore dost thou imagine God doth preserve thee in thy being afford thee health and strength and sleep and food and raiment and friends and respect and protect thee in thy outgoings and incomings and defend thee from invisible enemies who are continually waiting to destroy thee and have power enough to drag thee into hell every moment bâ—t are onely restrained by his almighty arm but that thou mightest by these streams be led upward to the fountain imploy these talents as a faithfull Steward for the honour of thy Master and by these gifts tokens of his love be perswaded to own and acknowledge the giver Canst thou bâ— so sottish as to think that he bestoweth these favours upon thee that thou shouldst walk after the flesh and embrace the present world or to strengthen thee in thy treasons and rebellions against him To what purpose dost thou imagine he bestoweth on thee his Gospel his Ministers his Sabbaths his Ordinances many golden seasons of grace but to help and enable thee to draw nigh to him to seek out after him to desire him and delight in him as thy onely happiness and heaven Surely thou canst not be so brutish as to conceive that he giveth thee all this as women give babies to children to play and toy with or as the Dutch are reported to have sent powder and shot for money to the Spaniards to fight against him with Doth not the Husbandman who takes care by dunging and ploughing and sowing and harrowing to manuâ—e his ground expect that it will bring forth the greater crop and so recompence his cost that the profit which he shall receive by it at harvest will answer all his pains When a Father is at a great charge in the nurture and education of his child providing him Tutors or sending him first to some considerable Schools for a good while next to the University then to the Inns of Court is it not his â—rdâ— that his Son may be an honour to him continâ—â— his name with credit and be a prop and suppoâ—â— to his family And canst thou think that the only wise God to whom all Men are absolute and Angels comparative fools is at such infinite cost and charge with thee upon any other account then that thou mayst be serviceable to his interest advance his kingdom and make his praise glorious by a pious gracious and exemplary conversation and by making his service thy business 4. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which is the elevation and advancement and perfection of thine heaven-born immortal soul The advancement and restauration of a Prince and one nobly born to his kingdom and birth-right is much more deserving our care and pains and treasure and blood then the exaltation of a beggar from the dunghil The soul of man is royally descended begotten of God holiness is its restauration to its original glory and primitive perfection which it lost by the fall and therefore is worthy of all our cost and care and study and labour Thy soul Reader is of unconceivable value and excellency 1. As it is immediately created by God without any pre-existing matter 2. As it is of an immaterial and spiritual nature 3. As it is capable of the image and life and love and fruition of God himself 4. As it is immortal and of eternal duration though years and ages and generations and time have an end the soul hath no end 5. As it is the bottom in which the body and its everlasting good is embarqued 6. As it is the standard and measure of all our outward excellencies as friends and health and food and life and riches and honour and ministers and ordinances are more or less worth as they are more or less serviceable to the soul. Now grace and godliness is the honour and elevation and excellency of the soul it is soul-beauty Cant. 4. 1. it is soul-wisdom Prov. 4. 7. it is soul-riches Luk. 12. 21. it is soul-glory soul-comfort soul-food soul-raiment soul rest O how worthy is that form which animates and elevates the soul of man as its subject and matter He that addeth honour to a puissant King must be high and honouraâ—le indeed That which is the form of our form and the soul of our soul that exalteth and honoureth so noble a piece must needs deserve to be our only business 5. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which was the great design and end of the blessed Redeemers birth life death burial ascension and intercession No man unless worse then distracted can possibly conceive that the glorious God whose wisdom is unsearchable and love to his Son unquestionable would send his onely begotten Son out of his bosome or that Christ in whom were all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge would give himself to be born so meanly to live so poorly to die so painfully to be disgraced reviled buffetted scourged crucified for any thing that was not superlatively eminent and deserved to be the main work and business of every
Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 57 58. The Naturalists tell us of a precious stone called Ceraunias that glisters most when the Skie is Cloudy and over-cast with darkness Godliness friend will cast the greatest lustre on thee and put the greatest comfort in thee when thy time of trouble and day of death is come This this is the friend that is born for the day of adversity Therefore the sweet singer of Israel having this with him promiseth Though he walk in the valley of the shadow of death he will fear none ill Psal. 23. 9. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will help thee to comfort and confidence at a dreadful day of judgement and cause thee to lift up thy head with joy when thousands and millions shall weep and wail The day of judgement will be a terrible day indeed the judge will come in flaming sire a fire devouring before him and behind him a flame burning His tribunal will be a tribunal of fire Out of his mouth did proceed a fiery Law and by that law of fire he will try men for their eternal lives and deaths The earth at that day will be consumed with fire and the elements melt with fervent heat If the cry of fire firè in the night now be so dreadfull and doth so afright and amaze us though it be but in one house and possible not very near us how dreadful will that day be when we shall see the whole world in a flame and the Judge coming in flaming fire to pronounce our eternal dooms Who can abide the day of his coming or who can stand when he appeareth Then the Kings and Captains and Nobles and Mighty Men will call to the rocks to fall on them and to the hills to hide them from the face that sitteth in the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6. 15. O Reader of what worth is that which will help thee as the three Children to sing in the midst of so many flaming fiery furnaces and preserve thee from being hurt or so much as toucht therewith Truely Godliness will do this for thee it will turn this day of the perdition of ungodly men into a day of redemption to thee As true Gold is not consumed by the hottest fire and the Salamander can live in the greatest flames so the godly man in the midst of all those fires and flames will live and flourish though millions of ungodly ones are scorched and tortured As he is a King now reigning over his stubborn lusts and unruly passions that will be his Coronation day wherein he will appear before the whole world in all his glory and royalty As he is a Husbandman now sowing to the Spirit that will be his Harvest-day wherein he shall reap the fruit of all his prayers and tears and watchings and fastings and labour and sufferings As he is compared to a Virgin betrothed to Christ now keeping his garments white and clean and devoting himself to the service and honour and commands of his Lord that will be his Marriage day wherein he shall be arrayed in fine linnen the righteousness of the Saints adorned with the jewels of perfect graces and solemnly espoused to the King of Saints the heir of all things and the fairest of ten thousands the Lord Jesus Christ. As he is a servant now doing not his own but the will of his Master in Heaven and finishing his work that will be the day wherein his Indentures will expire and he shall enjoy the glorious liberty of the Sons of God As he is a Son now yielding reverence and obedience to the Father of Spirits that will be the day wherein he shall be declared to be of full age and enjoy his portion and inheritance As he is a Souldier now fighting the good fight of faith warring a good warfare enduring much hardship as a good souldier of Iesus Christ that will be the day wherein he shall be called off the guard discharged of those tiresome toylsome duties incumbent on him in this life and receive his garland a Crown of everlasting life Little dost thou conceive Reader the worth of Godliness at that day Godliness will then be honoured and admired not onely by them that have it and rejoyce in it but also by the most prophane and carnal wretches and those who now despise and deride it Then the blind world who now shut their eyes and will not see and the atheistical world who harden their hearts and will not believe shall return and discern and see and believe a difference between the godly and ungodly between them that fear the Lord and them that fear him not O friend what wouldst thou give at that day that godliness had been thy business at this day Godliness will make the judge the Lord Jesus Christ thy friend the Father by whose authority he fits the King of all Nations thy friend the Iustices who will be upon the bench for he shall come with thousands of his Saints thy friends Godliness would make the law by which thou art to be tryed thy friend Godliness would make thy conscience which is to be brought in as the evidâ—nce thy friend Godliness would strike dumb all thy accusers Satan thy corruptions and suffer none of them to hurt thee as thy foes And is not Godliness worthy to be made thy business which will do all this for thee 10. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which will do thee good to eternity The fool is for good for many years but a wise man is for goods that will last to eternity In worldly matters we value those houses and goods highest which will last longest We will give much more for the fee-simple or inheritance for ever of a dwelling or lands then for a term of few years or for a lease for life though we can enjoy them but during life O why should it not be thus in spirituals Why should we not set the greatest price and take the most pains for that which is not for years or ages but for ever for that which we may enjoy and have full solid comfort in to eternity No good that is eternal can be little if it be but an humane friend whom thou lovest to enjoy him for ever or a bodily health to enjoy it for ever or near relations to enjoy them for ever will infinitely advance the price and raise the value of them but to enjoy a God for ever the blessed Saviour for ever the comforting Spirit for ever fullness of joy for ever rivers of pleasures for ever and exceeding weight of glory for ever a crown a kingdom an inheritance for ever which is the fruit of Godliness what tongue can declare what mind can apprehend the worth of these Alas frailty is such a flaw in all earthly tenures that it doâ—h exceedingly abate their value and should our
affections to them Who would esteem much of that flower which flourisheth and looks lovely in the morning but perisheth and is withered at night How little are those things worth which are to day mine and to morrow anothers which make themselves wings and as birds flye away are no sooner in sight but almost as soon out of sight Though all the works and creatures of God are excellent and admirable in their degrees and places yet some are of far more worth then others because of their nearer relation to our spiritual souls and their eternal duration When I look upon honours and applause and respect in the world methinks its worth is little for I can see through that air it is but a breath a blast that quickly passeth away When I look upon houses and lands and silver and gold I may well judge their price low for there is a worm that will eat out and consume the strongest timberd-dwelling and gold and silver are corruptable things Riches are not for ever When I look upon my Wife and Children in whom I have through mercy much comfort and contentment yet their value as natural relations is small for so they shall not be mine for ever and therefore they that have wives are commanded to be as though they had none But when I look upon grace upon godliness upon religion upon the Image of God O of what inâ—â—nite worth and price and value are they because they are lasting they are everlasting they are mine for ever When honours and crowns and robes and scepters are but for a few days when stately pallaces and costly mannors and treasures gold and pearl are but for a short time when the most lovely and loving wives and husbands and sons and daughters and friends are frail and fading The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever Godliness is the good part that when thy relations and possessions and all the good thing of this life shall be taken from thee shall never be taken from thee Reader what an argument is here to provoke thee to spend and be spent to imploy all thy time and strength and talents to sell all for this pearl when it is of so great price that when all other priviledges excellencies royal or noble births high breedings preferments favours with Great men riches pleasures will onely as brass of leathren money be currant in some Countries in this beggarly earth it will enrich thee and enliven thee refresh and rejoyce thee for ever 11. Is not that worthy to be made thy business which all men even the greatest enemies to it will sooner or later heartily and earnestly wish had been their business We have an usual saying that what one speaketh may be false and light and what two speak may be false and vain and what three speak may be so but what all speak and agree in must have something of truth and weight in it And again we say Vox populi est vox dei The voice of all the people is an oracle Though as Christ said of himself so I may say of Godliness God himself beareth witness of it and his witness is true and it needeth not testimony from man yet as he made use of the testimony of Iohn to convince the Jews of their desperate wickedness and inexcusableness in not submitting to his precepts and accepting him as a Saviour So may I improve the witness of the whole world on the behalf of Godliness to convince thee Reader of thy folly and sinfullness in neglecting it and to shew thee how inexcusable thou wilt be found at the day of Christ if thou dost not presently set upon it and make it thy business It s evident that many men whose hearts are full of opposition to the ways of God and whose lives are a flat contradiction to his Word and Will do yet in their extremity seek him early and cry to him earnestly and flie to Godliness as the only shelter in a storm and safest anchor in a tempest The most prophane and atheistical wretches who have in their works defied God himself and in their words blasphemously derided godly men and godliness when they have been brought low by sickness and entred within the borders of the King of terrours and have some apprehensions upon their spirits that they must go the way of all the earth then as Naturalists observe of the dying Cuckoe they change their note send for godly Ministers godly Christians desire them to pray with them to pray for them hearken diligently to their serious instructions wish with all their hearts and would give their highest honours and richest treasures and imperial diadems and kingdoms if they have any and all they are worth that they had made Godliness their business and promise if God will spare them and lengthen their lives but a few days upon earth that they will have no work no calling no employment no design but how to please God and obey his counsel and submit to his Spirit and follow after holiness and prepare their souls for heaven O then Godliness is godliness indeed and grace is grace indeed Then they call and cry as the foolish Virgins to the wise Give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out O give us grace give us godliness in the power of it for all our formal out side lazy serving of God is come to nothing The Serpent that is crooked all her life time when dying stretcheth her self straight As Dionisius on his death when he heard Thales discoursing excellently about the nature and worth of Moral Philosophy Cursed his pastimes and sports and foolish pleasures that had taken him off and diverted him from the study of so worthy a subject So these lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God whose lives are little else then brutish delights in a circle or a diversion from one pleasure to another whose business now is to mock at piety and persecute the pious when they come to be thrown by a disease on their beds and their consciences begin to accuse them for their neglect of Godliness and to convince them of its absolute necessity and they have some fears to be overthroâ—n by death then they curse their hauks and hounds and games and cups and companions and sensual delights that hindered them from making religion their business Experience testifieth this frequently in many parts of the Nation where the consciences of dying sinners are not seared with a red hot iron Some wish this whilst they live either under some great affliction or on a dying bed nay I am perswaded that most wicked men that live under the Gospel in their prosperity even when they have the world at will in the midst of their sensual delights have inward conviction that the course they take will prove cursed in the end and have some velleities or weak desires though overruled by carnal head-strong affections that they could leave those vanities and make religion their business But
all wicked men after death when they come into the other world will wish in earnest with all their hearts and souls that they had minded nothing but the service of God and exercising themselves unto godliness There there it is that the whole world that now lyeth in wickedness and will not believe the word and wisdom of their Maker will all set their hands and seals to the truth of that which I am now endeavouring to evince When God sends his Officer death to arrest sinners for the vaste summs which they owe to his justice for their breach of his laws and this Serjeant according to command from the King of Kings executes his writ and delivers his prisoner to the Divels Gods Iaylors and they seize as so many roaring Lions on the poor trembling prey and hale them to their own den hell that dungeon of eternal darkness where sinners see and are assured that all their meat must be flakes of fire and brimstone and all their drink a cup of pure wrath without mixture and all their Musick howling and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and all their rest torments day and night for ever and ever and all their Companions frightful Devils and a cursed crew of damned wretches and all this to come upon them for not making religion their business whilst they were on earth Then O then they will wish with all their souls and strengths again and again that they had minded the Christian mans calling and made religion their business whilst they were in this world though they had been slaves or beggars or vagabonds and had lived in poverty and disgrace and prisons and fetters during their whole pilgrimage Now Reader if the witness of one enemy be a double testimony what is the witness of all the enemies of God and Godliness on the behalf of the Lord and his ways against themselves Shall it not prevail with thee to set speedily and diligently about the work of Christianity Ah how dumb wilt thou be struck another day if thou wilt not believe either God or good men or thy conscience or thy companions or all the world 12. and Lastly Is not that worthy to be made thy business upon which thine eternal life or death salvation or damnation doth depend Consider it friend here is salvation and damnation before thee eternal salvation and eternal damnation and they depend upon thy making religion thy business or neglect of it O what weight is there in these few words Make religion thy business and thou art eternally blessed be formal and careless about it and thou art cursed for ever upon the one and the other turneth thine eternal estate The Almighty God hath under his own hand set down this making religion thy business to be the onely terms upon which heaven shall be had and it is impossible to alter or abate his price Ioh. 6. 27. Mat. 6. 33. Philp. 2. 12. Canst thou be so foolish as to think that Christ and happiness and eternal life can be obtained upon easier conditions whea he must make God a liar and the Gospel a lie which the Divel himself is not so wicked as to think possible who arriveth at the port of bliss without exercising himself to Godliness The promises ever since the world was had the same conditions and ever will whilst the world shall endure The Gospel is therefore called the everlasting Gospel because it will continue without the least change or alteration the same for ever Thou mayst be confident that God doth not as some indiscret Citizens ask much more for his eternal glory and life men then he intendeth to take I say again ponder it for this argument hath more in it then thine understanding can possibly conceive or imagine Is not that worthy to become thy business and main work in this world upon which thine everlasting weal or wo thine endless estate in the other world doth depend Reader if that doth not deserve all thy time and pains and soul and heart and infinitely more upon which unchangable joy or eternal torments hang then I am sure nothing doth Alas all the things of this world whether about food or raiment or houses or lands or wives or children nay and life it self are but toys and trifles and shadows and nothings to an everlasting condition in the other world O that thou wert but able to conceive what it is to be eternally in fullness of pleasure or eternally in extremity of pain to be frying in flames for ever or bathing in rivers of delight for ever To enjoy God in his ordinances though it be but imperfectly and in a low degree one hour one day how sweet is it His tabernacles are highly amiable upon that account One day in thy Courts is better then a thousand elswhere But to enjoy God fully immediately and for ever too O how superlatively how infinitely pleasant and delightful will it be To be in Gods lower house though but a little time under some pious powerful Minister how reviving and refreshing is it But to dwell in his upper house for ever O blessed are they that dwell in that house they always praise thee The eternal presence of God will cause an eternal absence of all evil and an eternal confluence of all good O Reader who will not work hard labour much exercise himself to Godliness night and day do any thing that God commandeth suffer any thing that God inflicteth forbear any thing that God forbiddeth to be saved eternally to be infinitely blessed in the fruition of God for ever Surely its worth the while to obey the counsel of God in order to eteâ—nal salvation On the other side eternal damnatian how dreadful is it if it be but the scratch of a pin for ever or a little ach of the head for ever it woâ—ld be very doleful but a violent head-ach or tooth-ach or fits of the collick or stone for ever oh how intolerable would they be But ah how terrible is the wrath of God for ever darkness of darkness for ever the fire of hell for ever to which all the wracks and torments in this life are next to nothing Ah who can dwell in everlasting burnings I suppose thou woulst avoid thy wicked companions and forbear thy sinful courses do any thing thou couldst rather then to boyl in a furnace of scalding water for a thousand years nay one year and wilt thou not make religion thy business when otherwise God himself hath told thee thou shalt boil in a furnace of scalding wrath infinitely worse then scalding lead for ever ever ever Consider what thou hast read and the Lord give thee understanding that thou mayst be wise to eternal salvation Reader these twelve Questions being proposed I desire thee to answer them to him before whom thou shalt answer ere long for all the motions of thy heart and passages of thy whole life and I shall not detain thee longer in the passage though it be much
agreest and pay it in good money Pay what thou contractest for If thou buyest wares with an intention not to pay thou stealest them and truly such wealth will melt away like Wax before the Sun Such ill gotten goods will as commodities in a damp Cellar moulder and come to nothing He that hath any such riches saith Chrysostom must speedily away with it or else he locketh up a Theif in his Counting-house which will carry all away and if he look not the better to it his precious soul also He is notoriously unrighteous that like the Harpie which hath its name in Hebrew from injustice seizeth upon all he can meet with as prey Mark Reader how pious honest Iacob was in this particular when the Patriarchs had bought Corn in Egypt and given their money to them that sold it yet when upon their return he found the money in their sacks Take saith he the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks carry it again in your hands peradventure it was an oversight Gen. 43. 12. How many would have concealed the money stopt the mouth of their consciences with the first payment and have kept it now as lawful prize but Iacobs conscience was more tender mouthed Let thy payments be in good Money It s Treason against the King to make bad money and its Treason against the King of Kings knowingly to pay brass money If thou dischargest thy debt in adulterate coyn thou contractest a greater debt on thy soul and defilest thy conscience He that putteth God off with false service is a spiritual Hypocrite He that puts men off with false silver is a civil Hypocrite Such a mans conscience is farther from being currant then his Coin And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the Sons of Heth four hundred shekels of silver currant money with the Merchant Gen. 23. 16. He that makes light payments may well expect heavy judgements SECT III. Be righteous in selling Be careful whilst thou sellest thy wares to men that thou dost not therewith sell thy soul to Satan Believe it thou wilt follow thy calling to sad purpose if thou forgoest thine inward peace for a little outward profit Be righteous in the substance of what thou sellest and that in regard of its quality and quantity In regard of its quality Put not bad ware for good into any mans hand God can see the rottenness of thy stuffs and heart too under thy false glosses and for all thy false lights Thou sayst Caveat emptor Let the buyer beware but God saith Caveat venditor Let the seller be careful that he keep a good conscience To sell men what is full of flaws and defective for what is sound and sufficient will make a greater flaw in thy conscience then thou art aware of If thou partest with thy goods and thy honesty together though for a great sum thou wilt be but a poor gainer Thou wilt ask possibly whither every man be bound to reveal the faults of what he selleth supposing that he knoweth them I Answer that every man is bound either to discover them or else to take no more for his wares or beasts then they are worth at a Market-price with those defects It s clear that its sinful to use tricks and arts to hide those faults from the eyes of the Chapman for such deeds are done purposely to deceive I would also know Reader whether thou dealest herein as thou wouldst willingly be dealt with Wouldst thou be glad to pay double or half as much more as a commodity is worth Be righteous in the substance of what thou sellest in regard of its quantity We have a common saying Weight and Measure are Heavens treasure It s certain A false ballance is abomination to the Lord a just weight is his delight Prov. 11. 1. The righteous Lord hateth unrighteousness but his countenance beholdeth the just They wrong themselves most who rob others of their right He hatcheth a Cockatrice egge who sits brooding on ill-gotten goods and like Agrippina to Nero bringeth forth and gives life to that which will be his death The jealous God is very punctual in this particular Ye shall do no unrighteousness in Iudgement in Mete-yard in Weight or in Measure Iust Balances just Weights a just Ephah and a just Hin shall â—e have I am the Lord your God which brought you out of the Land of Egypt Lev. 19. 35 36. God is pleased to count up all in his command that they might not have the least colour of excuse for cozening in any thing Nay he loatheth so much false Weights and Measures in their hands that he will not allow them to be in their houses Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights a great and a small Thou shalt not have in thy house divers Measures a great and a small But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight a perfect and just measure shalt thou have Deut. 25. 13 14 15. Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers Weights in the Hebrew it is a stone and a stone because the Jews did not make their weights of Iron or Lead or any Mettal that would canker and wax too light but they made them of the clear stony Rock or of Glass They might not have an unjust Weight or Measure in their Houses because some not knowing them to be defective might use them and deceive others The face of Ephraims sin was visible under all the Masks which he used to hide it He is a Merchant the ballances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppress And Ephraim said Yet I am become rich I have found me out substance in all my labour they shall finde none iniquity in me that were sin Hos. 12. 7 8. Here is 1. His Calling that was Honourable He is a Merchant When some accused a young Gentleman for staining his Family by his employment and dishonouring the Noble house of which he descended Apollonius stood forth in his defence Ye talk saith he of a dangerous Trade and truly such is the life of Merchants they travail into forraign parts run great hazards make many ill bargains and sometimes are bought and sold themselves and all this they venture to serve their Country and ought they not to be highly esteemed Ephraim was a Merchant but how unsutable were his practices to his high and honourable Profession for observe 2. His Cozenage that was abominable The ballances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppress When a buyer comes for a commodity he weigheth it out fairly in the ballance but he hath a deceitful bag of weights or a deceitful beam He dares not cozen openly for shame but he doth covertly with the sleights and mysteries of his calling but to rob by fraud in a Shop or Ware-house is as bad as to rob by force upon the road Both are Thieves and the former in some respect the greater as more dissembling
which is so great a friend to me Can I be so unworthy as to cause others to trample this great favourite at heavens Court under their feet Hath not the polluting thy name been the argument which I have sometimes used for the perdition of thine enemies I have cried to thee Remember this that the enemy hath reproached O Lord and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name and shall I be guilty of that which I plead as a reason for others ruine Again My dayly prayer is Hallowed be thy name and shall my practices give my prayer the lye and prophane it Should I cheat and cozen as the men of the world my great profession would cause my sin like a Cart heavy laden to make deep furrows into which many might trip and fall How ordinary is it for Egyptians to follow the dark side of the Israelites Pillar to their perdition Foolish man that I am is not the burthen of my own sins already intolerable and shall I add to them by being partaker of other mens sins Is the River of wrath due to me so low so little that I must invite streams from every place to swell it into an Ocean O that for my own sake for the sake of other men and especially for thy sake I may order all my ways by thy word Lord preserve me by thy Spirit that I may never lay a stumbling block before the wicked nor as the unbeleiving spies by my distrust of thy providence and using indirect courses to releive my family bring an ill report upon the good Land Assist me that I may look not onely to the power of Religion but also the honour of Religion Let thy grace ever accompany me and enable me to keep a conscience void of guile before thee and a conversation so void of guilt before men that whereas they speak against me as an evil doer they may be ashamed at this day and may by my good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation I Wish that I may look to the righteousness of my actions as well as to the righteousness of my person and never think that my house can be firm if it be built upon the rotten foundation of injustice My God hath said Wo be to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his Chambers by wrong As high as my house is raised and as sure as it is seated the breath of this curse will blow it down Though my estate seem never so fair yet how easily and how speedily may this scorching curse cause it to fade and to wither in my hand as a flower Have not mine eyes beheld the ruines of some stately dwellings which have been built upon rapine Unrighteousness like Rabbits in some Countrys hath undermined the foundations and overturned the buildings and shall mine escape Whether I will believe it or no â— My God hath spoken that unjust gain will prove my own loss and he will see it accomplished Whatsoever fine terms I may call my cheating by as an Art in my Trade or the Mystery of my Calling yet my God counts it Theft and me for it but a Thief Though I may put a fair colour upon my false dealing yet he forbids it under the plain censure of stealing Thou shalt not steal And O how great a Theif am I if I be guilty of this in my ordinary dealings I wrong my Neighbours that trade with me and that most Hypocritically under the pretence of doing them right To kill a man in the field by force is wicked but to poison him at my Table by fraud is worse because in this latter I pretend friendship To rob on the High-way by open power is greivous but to rob in my Shop by this hellish policy is more odious for I wrong one that is my friend and in such a way that he hath no means to help himself The Righteous God saith My hands are full of blood not onely when I murther a mans person and take away his life but also when I injure a mans portion and take away his lively-hood Such unjust persons must expect sore punishments The Law of man punisheth Cheats in some measure but the Law of the jealous God is more severe to such Iuglers as endeavour to unglue the whole worlds frame knit together onely by commerce and contracts I rob my own family as well as my Neighbours He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house False dealing like Fire consumes what comes near it My Children were better be left beggars then heirs of those riches which I have got by robbery What is well gotten will faâ—e the worse for the Neighbourhood of my ill gotten wealth This as a rotten sheep will infect the sound flock Whilst I am digging deep to lay the foundation of my house sure I do but lay in barrels of powder to blow it up I rob my own soul most of all by my unrighteousness How ill is that gain which causeth the loss of my God! How cheap do I sell those wares with which I buy endless and intollerable wo How dear do I buy that silver for which I sell my inestimable soul and salvation Ah what an ill Market doth he make that puts off his soul at any price If it be unprofitable to gain the whole world and lose my own soul what a fool what a mad man am I to set my soul to sale for a very small part of the world Into what a miserable Dilemma doth my deceitful dealing bring me Either I must repent and vomit it up which will tear and wrack my very heart or else I must burn for ever in hell O that I might never â—e so bereaved of my wits as to touch or meddle with such distracting wealth Lord thou hast informed me that A little which the righteous man hath is better then the possessions of many wicked that better is a little with righteousness then great revenues without right I know that the comfort of my life doth not depend upon a confluence of outward good things but upon thy love and good-will towards me Let me rather choose the greatest want then riches from Satans hands and in Hells way Be thou pleased to sparkle my little with the precious diamond of thy love and then t will be better indeed then the riches of many wicked yea more worth then all the World I Wish that in my buying and selling I might ever have an eye to the ballance of the Sanctuary My person must be tried by Scripture at the last day for my everlasting life and death and shall not my actions be squared by it at this day How sad a bargain should I make if I should buy my own bane What a dreadful trade should I drive to sell like that Son of Perdition the incomparable Saviour for a little corruptible silver Is that wealth worth getting which will make way for eternal want Though my heapes
is a Traytour to his supreme Lord and to his Viceroy within him Reason but a Saint and a wicked man are contrary consider them from head to foot they stand both in defiance against each other Their understandings are contrary the one is light the other is darkness the one judgeth sin to be the greatest and most abominable evil the other judgeth it to be a pleasant eligible good Their wills are contrary the one is a resolved Souldier under the Captain of his salvation fully set to lose his life before he will give up his cause or leave his colours the other is a sworn Officer under the Prince of the powers of the Air an implacable enemy to the former General and stoutly bent to dye nay be damned rather then desert him Their affections are contrary the affections of the onâ— as fire ascend upward are set on things above the affections of the other like earth tend downwards and are set on things below what the one loves above his life the other hates unto death what the one forsakes as worse then Poyson the other followeth after as his onely portion Are these two Reader like to agree and to be as friends should of one heart and of one soul Idem velle idem nolle est vera amicitia saith the Oratour T is true friendship to Will and Nill the same things what kind of friendship must that be then between those that always will and nill contrary things Let thy own reason be judge if likeness be the ground of love what love can there be amongst them that are wholly unlike O let noâ— any carnal interest sway thee to choofe Sodom for the place of thy habitation much less to accept of Gods Foe to be thy bosome friendâ— for what communion hath light with darkness or what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that beleiveth with an infidel 2 Cor. 6. 14 15. Like as the Elements according to Empedocles opinion are always at strife together but specially those that are neerest so godly and evil men are always at odds but those especially that are nearest The Horse hath a natural emnity against the Camel and the Camel against the Horse Therefore Cyrus being to fight with the Babylonians who excelled in Horses used as many Camels as he could get The sinner is like the Horse altogether unclean the Christian like the Camel that cheweth the cud though he divideth not the hoofe is parly clean partly unclean now there being an enmity betwixt these there can never be any society The Feathers of Eagles say Naturalists will not mingle with the feathers of any ohter Fowls Many complain of the treachery of their friends and say as Queen Elizabeth that in trust they have found treason but most of these men have greatest cause if all things be duly weighed to complain of themselves for making no better choice He is right served in all mens judgements who hath his liquor running out which he puts into a leaking Vessel or riven Dish SECT III. I Come now to shew wherein the power of godliness consisteth or how a man maketh Religion his business in the choice of his Companions First Be as careful as thou canst that the persons thou choosest for thy Companions be such as fear God The man in the Gospel was possessed with the Devil who dwelt amongst the Tombs and conversed with Graves and Carcasses Thou art far from walking after the good spirit if thou choosest to converse with open Sepulchres and such as are dead in sins and trespasses God will not shake the wicked by the hand as the vulgar read Iob 8. 20. neither must the godly man David proves the sincerity of his course by his care to avoid sucâ— society I have walked in thy truth I have not sat with vain persons Psa. 26. 5. 6. There is a twofold truth 1. Truth of Doctrine Thy Law is the truth free from all dross of corruption and falshood oâ— error 2. Truth of affection or of the inward parts this may be called thy truth or Gods truth though man be the subject of it partly because it proceedeth from him partly because it is so pleasant to him in which respect a broken heart is called the sacrifice of God Psa. 51. 6. As if he had said I could not have walked in the power of Religion and in integrity if I had associated with vile and vain company I could never have walked in thy precepts if I had sat with vain persons Observe the phrase I have not sat with vain persons 1. Sitting is a posture of choice it s at a mans liberty whether he will sit or stand 2. Sitting is a posture of pleasure men sit for their ease and with delight therefore the glorified are said to sit in heavenly places Eph. 2. 6. 3. Sitting is a posture of staying or abiding 2 King 5. 3. standing is a posture of going but sitting of staying The blessed who shall for ever be with the Lord and his chosen are mentioned to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 8. 11. David in neither of these senses durst sit with vain persons He might as his occasions required use their Company but durst not knowingly choose such Company They could not be the object of his election who were not the object of his affection I hate the congregation of evil doers saith he in verse 7. As sitting is a posture of pleasure he did not sit with vain persons He was sometimes amongst them to his sorrow but not to his solace They were to him as the Canaanites to the Israelites pricks in his eyes and thornes in his sides Wo is me for I dwell in Meshech and my habitation is in the Tents of Kedar Psa. 120. 5 6. It caused grief not gladness that he was forced to be amongst the prophane Again He might stand amongst them but durst not unless necessitated as a Prisoner kept by force in a Prison sit with them A godly man may go to such persons as we do sometimes to felons in a Gaol about business but he likes not to stay in such a nasty place It s said of the Lyzard an unclean Bird that she liveth in Graves and such places of corruption But the Dove a clean creature loves to build and lie clean Though â—he sinner like Satan delights in herds of Swine the Saint disesteemeth a vile person and honoureth them that fear the Lord Psa. 15. 4. The Burgess of the new Ierusalem saith one upon that Text reprobos reprobat probos probat he rejecteth the vicious and though they may be great and high counteth them but vile Elisha was so far from bestowing his love that he thought an evil King not to deserve a look As the Lord liveth were it not that I regard the presence of Iehosaphat the King of Iudah I would not look
endeavour to revive me When I fall he will do his utmost to recover me He will rejoyce with me in my joys and sympathize with me in my sufferings in every condition to his power be a futable consolation O that the value and vertue of this Pearl may make me esteem it at an high price and the more wary that I be not cheated in my Choice Lord thou hast ordained the communion of Saints to be for mutual comfort and counsel let me choose those for my friends that will be faithful to their own and to my soul. I Wish that I may manifest to my own conscience the truth of my conversion by my Companions and that I am passed from death to life because I joyn with and love the brethren Beasts flock together Sinners joyn hand in hand and Saints are of the same heart and walk together towards the same Heaven My Associates will discover my nature whether Vertue or Vice be my Master My Comrades will speak to what Captain I belong If I joyn with the black Regiment of the Prince of Darkness it s a sign I am an enemy to the Lord of Hosts The members of Christs Mystical Body go in company It s presumed they are unchast Women who company with known Harlots and it s supposed they are dishonest men who are familiar with Theives If Christ and grace be predominant in me I cannot like and love their enemies An holy soul cannot delight in prophane sinners goldâ— will unite it self with the substance of gold but not incorporate with dross An heart truly good cannot brook those that are evil All creatures desire to joyn with such as are of the same nature Fish Fowls Birds Beasts all every one strive to be with them that are of the same species Confederacy in sin is the livery by which the black guard of Hell is distinguished from the rest of the rational creatures True friendship is the Cognisance of true Christians By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Love is the badge of the houshold of faith which witnesseth to what Lord they appertain Where love is in truth to their persons there will be a delight in their presence For what is love but a motion of the soul towards and its complacency in the object beloved In vain do I pretend my self a Disciple without sincere love which is the life of a Disciple Love to my God is the soul of Religion which keeps it in being in motion without this the whole body of it decayeth and dyeth All my performances if this be lacking are but as an unsavoury Corpse without either loveliness or life Love to my brethren is the sign of Religion which ever sheweth it self at the door where the substance is within He that loveth him that begetteth must needs love him also that is begotten The Child is acceptable for the Fathers sake The Picture is amiable because of the Person it representeth O how grossely do they delude their souls that think they love the Head when they hate and despise the Members that say they affect and prize Christ above their lives when they reject and persecute Christians to the very death Lordâ— thou hast told me He that loveth not his Brother abideth in death All thy Children are my Brethren they have the same Father the same Mother O suffer me not to give conscience cause to witness against me that I am in a state of death of damnation for want of this brotherly affection but grant that the hot beams of thy love may so warm my heart that I may be always reflecting back love to thy self and thy Saints as an evidence of my eternal salvation I Wish that I may consider whom I choose for my Companions least I be disappointed in the ends of Company My God intendeth society to be helpful to his people in the best things But they are never likely to further me in holiness who walk in the broad way that leadeth to Hell Satans Servants will not teach me to do the Lords work That friendship is ill made which is soon broken no band can hold him who is a stranger to Religion Where there is no fear of God in the heart there can be no true friendship They who are two in disposition will scarce be one in affection Where there is no true likeness there can be no true love Can two walk together unless they be agreed Grace is the onely Cement which conglutinates hearts and maketh true friends A brutish Sinner and a Beleiver are contrary each to other An unjust man is abominable to the just and he that is upright in his way is abominable to the wicked the Eagle hath perpetual emnity with Serpents and Dragons and their seed So hath the Eagle-eyed Christian with the seed of the Serpent Beasts hate fire and so do those whom God calleth Foxes and Lions and Bulls the fire of grace that burneth in a Saints heart and flameth out in his life Lambs and Wolves Doves and Ravens cannot unite Jerusalem and Babylon Sion and Sodom can never be compact and at unity togeâ—her Can I expect love from that person that hath none for his own soul nor for the blessed God Can contraries meet and not fight Is there any hope of an amicable conjunction betwixt them that are not onely differing but opposite I am born of God he is of his Father the Devil My work is to do the will of my Father in Heaven his work is to do the lusts of the wicked one Self is the Byass by which he moveth Scripture iâ— the Compass by which I sail I am travailing towards heaven he is hastening to hell and is it possible for us to have one heart O that no worldly advantage might make me ever strive to strike a Covenant with them to whom I am thus contrary They must needs be false to me that are made up of unfaithfulness A true friend is another self a vicious man cannot be a true friend because he is never himself Sometimes he is drunk with passion and so loseth his guide and leaveth the dictates of reason those servants are often in rebellion and thâ—n like the troubled Sea he casteth up mire and dirt In his fury he will strike at friends or foes and discover what he knows and more many times Passion is an high Feaver wherein men talk idly therefore the wise man gives a special Caution against such Companions Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man thou shalt not go Sometimes he is overcome with wine and then the Beast in him puts the curb into the mouth of reason and hath the command of it A Drunken man hath Nebuchadnezzars brutish heart and is fit onely to graze with Cattel Clitus is killed by his drunken Master and such a one speaketh and doth he knows not what He speaks what he should forget and forgets what he hath
Christian without a spice of this sin Ioshua is ready to envy them that seemed by their light to darken his Master Cantharides a venemous worm usually breedeth in Wheat when it is ripe the highest Christians as the greatest Favourites at Court are usually the greatest objects of envy But O t is a sign of a weak eye not to behold the sunshine of others holiness without pain The holy Apostle is enlarged in thanksgiving to God for the faith and love and patience of the Thessalonians and their grace was â— strong cordial to revive him in his sorrows and distress We give thanks to God for you all Remembring without ceasing your work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ. We were comforted over you in all our afflictions and distresse by your faith Nay he was so far from grieving at others graces that he professeth the joy of his life did very much depend upon their perseverance in piety For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord As if he had said Our life will be but a death in regard of sorrow and grief it will be so doleful a being that it will not deserve the name of a life if ye should once be loose and wandring from the Lord 1 Thes. 1. 2 3 4. 2 Thes. 3. 6 7 8. 1 Colos. 12. Grace cannot but desire and delight in its like He that truly loves his God will rejoyce in his brothers graces because they tend to his Fathers glory and he that truly loves his brother will be glad at his grace because it tends so exceedingly to his brothers good Pedaretus when he could not be admitted to be one of the three hundred among the Spartans went home rejoycing that his Country had three hundred better men then himself Surely then Christians when they behold others sparkling with grace and shining as lights in the World should rejoyce that the blessed God hath some that can do him more service and bring him more glory then themselves Good Wish about a Christians Carriage in Good Company wherein the former heads are applied THe Father of mercies and onely wise God who hath appointed â—he way in which I should walk during the time of my Pilgrimage and understandeth the multitudes of rubs and hinderances that I shall encounter with the power and policy of those enemies which will beset me therein as also how weak I am and unable to hold out how weary I shall soon be and ready to give over if I should travail alone having out of his boundless grace and goodness called me to the communion of Saints that I might be directed by their counsel and encouraged by their company notwithstanding all opposition to run the ways of his commandements I Wish that I may esteem his precept herein as my glorious priviledge improve their society to the greatest advantage both for my own welfare and my Gods honour and delight to converse with those brethren here with whom I hope to dwell in my Fathers house for ever What an inestimable dignity doth my God invest me with in imposing on me so sweet a duty How wretchedly ungrateful should I be if his paths should not be the more pleasant to me for such companions The worth and riches of this society may well invite me to trade with them and give me hopes of profiting by them All the companions on earth of the highest Callings are but a rabbel of Cennel-rakers to this noble society The Prince of this Senate is the Heir of all things the blessed and glorious Potentate such a Soveraign whose dominion is universal from Sea to Sea whose Kingdom is eternal throughout all Generations and even the highest have gloried in being his Subjects The Charter and Priviledges of this Society are the inestimable Covenant of Grace exceeding great and precious Promises wherein pardon of sin peace of conscience new natures adoption justification the love of the blessed God and eternal life are granted to them and entailed on them for ever The Servants of this Corporation are all the creatures in their several places striving which shall do them the greatest kindness They are in league with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field though never so ravenous by nature are at peace with them The glorious Angels pitch their Tents about them and count it their honour to wait upon them both living and dying The Livery in which this company is attired is the Royal Robes of Christs righteousness which renders them without spot or wrinkle and far more beautiful and amiable then Adam in his estate of unspotted innocency Their Garments smell of Myrâ—he Aloes and Cassin and for their richness infinitely surpaâ—â— that cloathing which is of wrought gold Their food is hidden Manna such meat as endureth to eternal life the bread that came down from Heaven the flesh of the Son of God which is meat indeed and the blood of the Son of God which is drink indeed Their inheritance is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken a Crown of life Rivers of pleasures an eternal weight of glory Some Societies have boasted that Kings and Lords have been Free of their Company the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is both Freee and Head of this Society they are his Hephzibah his delight his Segullah his peculiar treasure Ah! who would not have communion with them whose communion is with the Father and Jesus Christ his Son Lord let my ambition be to be enrolled a Citizen of Sion and to walk amongst them worthy of that vocation wherewith thou hast called me since the communion of thy Saints here is some weak resemblance of Heaven where all thy chosen shall glorifie and worship thee without fault and faintness teach me to hallow thy name by doing thy will on earth as it is in heaven I Wish that the gain which I am sure to reap by joyning with Christians in their common stock may make me more diligent at this spiritual trade The greatest priviledges are granted to Corporations not to particular persons The greatest victories are obtainted by Regiments and Brigades not by Souldiers engaged singly against their enemies That Oyntment which yeilded so grateful a savour as to delight God himself was compounded of several spices Exod. 30. 23 24 25. My God hath ordained the communion of the faithful for the building up one another in their most holy faith and if I expect his blessing it must be in his own way The body thrives best when all the members concur to perform their distinct and proper offices for the good of the whole Men make the most ravishing musick when many joyn in consort The two Disciples travelling together found the blessed Jesus to make a third and to warm their hearts with the fire of his heavenly Doctrine How many vessels going in company have returned in safety richly laden with the unsearchable riches in Christ If I am in doubts
be charily lookt to or they fade away so Saints if the Spirit of God were not choyce of them and ever watchful over them would perish How lovely are flowers to the eye how pleasant to the taste how soft to the touch what ornaments to an house How amiable are the children of God to those that have eyes to see his image on them how fragrant is the smell of their Spiknard and Calamus and Cassia what a grace are they to any Family or Society Dost thou walk into thy Garden to observe how thy flowers thrive so Jesus Christ goeth into his garden to see how his plants flowrish Thou wilt not allow any weeds or barren flowers in thy Garden and Jesus Christ will not permit such wicked unprofitable ones in his Church Flowers are lovely and beautiful one day and withered and fallen off the stalk the next so man is a comely living creature one day and a deformed corps the next Thus a Saint may make every flower like the Gilly-flower cordial to him If thou walkeâ—t by a River thou mayst change the water there into spirits by meditation How fitly may thy thoughts be raised by that object to the cleansing refreshing properties of the Word of God to the water of life to the Well of salvation to the river whose streams make glad the City of God to the rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore The same water which being liquid is penetrated with an horse hair will bear the horse himself when hard frozen So those threats and judgements of God which penetrate deep into the tender consciences of the regenerate enter not at all into the hearts of carnal men hardned by custom in sin and hence thou mayst gather the reason whence the sword of the Word that in some divideth the joynts and marrow in others glanceth only or reboundeth not making the least dinâ— or impression upon their frozen adamantine hearts If thou art eating and drinking thou mayst feed thy soul as well as thy body by meditating on the meat that endureth to everlasting life on that flesh which is meat indeed and that blood which is drink indeed Thou mayst think if my outward man need food and without it cannot subsist surely spiritual food is as needful for my inward man and without it that will starve If a famine of bread and water be so dreadful that the tongues of men cleave under it to the roof of their mouths and their countenances become as black as a coal how dreadful is a famine of the Word of the Lord If natural food be so pleasant and savoury to my taste surely spiritual food is sweeter then the honey and the honey comb If all the labour of man be for his belly what labour doth the soul deserve If the ordinances of my God now are so pleasant to me that my soul is even filled as with marrow and fatness and refreshed as with Wine on the Lees well refined what a blessed day will it be when I shall eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven and drink new wine in my Fathers Kingdom O blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. If thou beholdest thy candle thou mayst consider how that light which makes small shew in the day yeilds a glorious lustre in the night not because the Candle hath then more light but because the Air hath then more darkness so that holiness and grace which in a day of prosperity and life seems of small worth and price in a night of adversity and death will be of infinite value Or thus I set up this candle to help and direct me about my business so God sets up the candle of my life and affords me the light of his word for me to work out my salvation not to play by them Or thus this candle is spending it self for my good so I should be willing to spend and be spent for the good of others souls Or this Candle is always consuming and will at last be quite wasted so is my life daily wearing away and ere long will be quite extinguished The great Candles whilst they burn make the greater light but when they go ouâ— leave the greater stench So ungodly men the greater they are the more they shine with glory whilst they live but when they die leave the more stinking savour behind them If thou art putting off thy cloaths thou mayst ponder thy duty to put off the old man which is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts and to put off the works of darkness as also that ere long thou shalt put off thine earthly tabernaâ—le Art thou lying down in thy bed thou mayst think of thy grave wherein thou must shortly lye down and never rise up till the morning of the resurrection Is the night dark thou mayst meditate thence on the darkness of thy mind naturally of the works of darkness of the blackness of darkness for ever Ah! what a dark dungeon is Hell where not the least spark of light appears though so much fire My night will end but sinners evening will find no morning If a bed be so refreshing to my wearied body how refreshing is a Redeemer to a wearied soul How lovingly he inviteth me Come to me all that are weary I will give you rest and how refreshing will tha God! When thou wakest in the morning thou mayst say with the Psalmist When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness or When I awake I am still with thee or rouse thy self up with Awake to righteousness and sin not Awake thou that sleepest arise and call upon thy God When thou art rising thou mayst meditate on the Churches garment of needle work the fine linnen of the Saints righteousness thy putting on the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness thy putting on that most excellent cloathing which is for warmth for ornament and defence the Lord Iesus Christ. Dost thou look on the glass to dress thy self think of the glass of Gods law how necessary it is daily to look into it for the discovery of thy spiritual spots and filth Dost thou wash thy hands O wash thy heart from wickedness and forget not that great laver of the blood of Jesus Christ. Doth thy stomach call for some food think of thy spiritual appetite and how savoury it will make the dainties of Gods house to thee They did all eat of the same spiritual meat and they did all drink the same spiritual drink they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Art thou to go about buying or selling or worldly bargains take some thoughts of buying that one Pearl of great price which the wise Merchant sold all he had to purchase of buying that gold of grace and fine linnen of the Saints righteousness Mat. 13. 44. Rev. 3. 18. Amongst all thy gains and gettings consider What will it profit a man to gain the
was the debtor God-man the surety who made satisfaction to God the Creditour How he was born of a mean woman that we might be born of the most high God he was tempted that he might conquer Satan for us and succour us when tempted by him what a life he led filled with miracles and miseries what a death he died embittered with shame and pain and all that we might be exalted to eternal honour and pleasure How he triumphed over Death the Grave the Curse of the Law Satan and Hell in his Resurrection and ascended into Heaven leading Captivity Captive appears in his Fathers presence pleading his death as the prise of his Chosens fafety and life sitteth at his right hand and ever liveth to make intercession for us Its precepts excel all the commands and Statutes and Laws that ever were in the World in purity and justice and goodness much more then the Firmament of Stars doth a Wisp of Straws Its promises are exceeding great and precious of special efficacy superlative excellency and unquestionable certainty In a word the Scripture hath all in it requisite either for counsel or comfort for necessity or delight for knowledge or action for direction in life or consolation in death 3. The form of the Scripture renders it worthy my highest esteem and hottest affection 1. It s inward form is That perfect correspondence and agreement between the commands and promises laid down in the word and that infallible and certain truth of Gods own understanding The books of men are sutable to their minds and their minds being but in part sanctified their works must be answerably imperfect but the Lords understanding being infinitely pure and true his word must bear some proportion to it God is truth without the least shadow of error holy without the least tittle of mixture hence his word is certain without the smallest colour for doubts Thy law is the truth pure not admitting of the least sin or darkness Thy word is very pure therefore doth thy servant love it Because of its exact conformity to the eternal will of God it s called his word As a man maketh known his mind by his words so doth God hence it s called the mind of God Pro. 1. 23. The Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 15. The counsel of God Act. 20. 27. The Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. The Law of God Psalm 1. 2. Not onely in regard of its Author which is the divine wisdom but also in regard of its matter which is the divine will 2. It s outward form is both plain and difficult according to Gregory so shallow that lambs may wade in it and so deep that Elephants may swim in it It s stile is so plain as to encourage the most unlearned and yet so difficult as to exercise the greatest Scholars and most profound Rabbies To those that are babes in understanding the Scripture is milk to them that are men in knowledge the word is strong meat It s therefore called light the nature of which is both to discover it self and other things also Thy word is a light to my feet and a lanthorn to my paths It s a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts Psa. 119. 105. 1 Pet. 1. 19. It is plain in regard of fundamentals and things necessary to be known and done What we are to believe concerning God the mediatour our own estate of innocency apostacy recovery what we are to practise in order to salvation are all perspicuous and clear to ordinary capacities Though there be some whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine upon them yet all wisdomes ways are plain to him that understandeth 2 Cor. 4.4 Pro. 8. 9. The Scripture sheweth the greatest simplicity both in words and phrases and figures that the weakest need not be afraid of searching into it There is such obscurity also in things not absolutely necessary to salvation that the deepest understandings need not be ashamed of reading and studying it Peter affirmes that in the Epistles of Paul there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood There are such abstruse texts in the word of God that no man can make a certain comment on them The Jews themselves confessed that in the latter end of Ezekiel there are many things mentioned which are beyond all their apprehensions against which and all other difficulties in the Old Testament they comfort themselves according to the expression of the woman of Samaria Messias venturus est qui nobis annunciabit omnia The Messias will come and tell us all things Now the wise God seeth fit to let some truths in Scripture be dark 1. To shame us for our ignorance which is the fruit of our fall from him The pride and height of man is laid low by the profound and hard places in the Word of God 2. To quicken us to diligence in reading and meditating and comparing Scripture with Scripture The deeper a mine of gold lyeth in the earth the harder we must labour to dig it out 3. To raise our price of the Word of God We are apt to slight things that are easie and ordinary and to value things at the highest that cost us dearest 4. To provoke us to pray to God that he would give us his key whereby we may unlock this cabinet of precious Jewels He onely that made the Scripture can best acquaint us with his mind in the Scripture therefore David intreated divine light that he might understand the divine Law Psa. 119. 18. Open mine eyes that I may see the wonderâ—ful things of thy Law 4. The final cause of the word will speak it full of value and worth Namely the glory of the great God and the salvation of lost man The honour of God shines more brightly then the Meridian Sun through the whole Heaven of the Scripture The Scripture exalteth God in regard of his infinite nature and being his transcendent excellencies and perfections his eternal decree his works of creation and providence It advanceth God in all his attributes declaring to us 1. His wisdom how he is the onely wise God the foolishness of God is wiser then the wisdom of men yea that Angels themselves are fools to him His understanding is infinite 2. His Power how he is mighty in strength the Almighty God to him nothing is impossible doth what ever he pleaseth can do more then he will do 3. His mercy how he is full of mercy rich in mercy the Father of mercys hath multitudes of tender mercies his mercy endureth for ever hath an heighth and depth and length and breadth in it which none can reach 4. His Iustice how he fails not the least in the performance of his promises and accomplishment of his threatnings how he will by no means clear the guilty not the greatest of his favourites not
this hour hence God appeals to the consciences of the Jews whether though the Prophets died his threatnings which were denounced by those Prophets did not live and take hold of them Zach. 1.5 5 It s true in the Predictions and Prophesies The predictions of the Israelties distress in Egypt four hundred years and deliverance thence of their possessing Canaan of Cyrus birth of the Jews redemption out of the Babylonish captivity of the four Monarchies and of Christs coming in the flesh his mean birth afflicted life death buriall ascention are all already accomplished Those Prophesies in Daniel and Revelation concerning the future estate of the Church the ruine of Pope and Turk the vocation of the Jews and the glorious and pure condition of the people of God in the latter days shall all to a tittle be fulfilled It s observable therefore that some predictions that were or are future are set down in the present tense To us a son is born Babylon the great is fallen is fallen to assure us that they shall be as certainly fulfilled as if they were fulfilled already Isa. 9. 6. Rev. 18. 6. It is the rule of all truth Other Books are true no farther then they are agreeable and commensurable to this All other sayings and writings are to be tried by this touchstone It is not what sense saith or what reason saith or what Fathers say or what General Councils say or what Traditions say or what Customs say but what Scripture saith that is to be the rule of faith and life Whatsoever is contrary to Scripture or beside Scripture or not rationally deducible from Scripture is to be rejected as spurious and adulterate To the Law and to the Testimonies if they speak not according to this it is because there is no light no truth inâ— them Isa. 8.20 3. Consider it O my soul in its names and they will speak much to the excellency of its nature What is this Word which thy thoughts are now upon It is called Scripture or Scriptures by an Antonomasie or excellency of phrase as the most worthy writings that ever saw the light It is called the Word of God both in regard of its efficient cause which is the Spirit of God the material cause which is the mind of God the final cause which is the glory of God It is called the Law of the Lord the law of liberty the law of saith a lawâ— a royal law the book of the law the book of the Lord the book of life the Gospel of peace the Gospel of God the Gospel of Gods grace the counsel of God the charge of God the breath of God the mouth of God the oath of God the Oracles of God the paths of God the wisdom of God It is called a thingâ— the good part the key of knowledge the key of Heaven tidings of salvation glad tidings of peace a good way a perfect way a narrow way Many other titâ—es it hath which shew the excellency of this Word of truth 4. Consider it O my soul in its comparisons which will shew thee somewhat of its perfections Whereunto is this Word resembled it is resembled to light to a lamp Solomon tells us The commandment is a lamp and the law is light T is likely he learned it of his father Thy word is a light to my feet and a lanthorn to my paths saith David Prov. 6 23. Psal. 119. 105. 1. It is light for its clarity and beauty Light is the ornament of the world which is most incorporeal of all corporeal beings therefore termed spiritual Though it discovers all the pollutions of the earth yet it is not polluted therewith The word is the glory of this lower world The law is spiritual and its beauty is not faided nor its purity stained by all the filth of false doctrines and heresies which have been cast into the face of it from the beginning of the world to this day The word of the Lord abideth for ever 2. Light is pleasant and delightful darkness is affrighting and dreadful but light is refreshing and reviving Light is sweet and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun Eccles. 11.7 The word of God is sweet and its a pleasant thing with the eyes of faith to behold the glorious sun of divine truths The eye is not more affected with curious sights nor the ear with ravishing musick nor the pallate with rare meats then a spiritualized understanding with spiritual truths David found not onely delight in the singular but delights in the plural number all sorts and degrees of delights in the word of God Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me but thy commandments are my delights His delights in the Law of God were so rare and ravishing that they quite extinguished all sensual delights as the light of the day the light of a candle and drowned the noise of all his crosses and troubles by their loud and amazing melody Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a pleasant Garden wherein every flower yeilds a fragrant savour Ambrose to a feast wherein every book is a dainty dish affording food both pleasant and wholsom 3. Light discovereth and maketh things manifest The night conceals things and the day reveals them That which maketh manifest is light Ephes. 5. 13. Light discovers things in their proper shapes and colours whether beauties or deformities When the Sun appeareth we see the dust in corners and dirt in Ditches which before lay hid The word of God maketh a discovery of an unknown world of sin in the heart of man and the great mystery of iniquity which lay hid there I was alive without the Law but when the commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. 9. The faults and spots and defects of his duties were visible by the light of the word All things are naked and open before it It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. The word sheweth the beauty of holiness the love and loveliness of the Redeemer 4. Light directs us how and where to walk In the night we wander and go out of the way we stumble and fall but the day helpeth us both to see our way and to walk in it without stumbling If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world Iohn 11. 9. The word of God doth preserve us from sin and guide our feet in the way of peace Luk. 1. 73. It is our Poleâ—stâ—r as we are Mariners our Pillar of fire as we are travellers The Law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide Psa. 37. 31. Our feet by the light of the word are preserved from falling and our steps from sliding Psalm 119. 105. 5. Light scattereth darkness As the Sun
conscienciousness of my behaviour in secret The lineaments and features of the body are beâ—t discovered in the night when it s stripped naked of those garments which in the day time covered it and were not wholly answerable to the proportion of its several parts The shape and countenance of the soul is much better revealed when it retires from the world and is freed from these objects and businesses which hurried it hither and thither possibly much differing from its own inclination There is no right judging of the Patient by his water till it is setled nor true discovery of the state of a Christian by his heart till it be quiet and composed When men are busie upon the stage of the world surrounded with spectators they put on habitsâ— and act not their own but the parts of others and so are not easily known who or what they are but he that followeth them into the retiring room where they undress themselves may soon discover them The frame and bent of my heart in private to sin or holiness will speak its temper whether good or bad The soul is not at such liberty to vent it self and to manifest its genius and disposition in its outward actions as in its inward motions and meditations External acts may flow from external principles which as a Team of Horse draw the Cart after it by force but internal thoughts ever flow from an internal principle which as the natural and proper off-spring of the mind discover what its parent is The Laws of men the fear of punishment the hope of reward may tye my hands in company but it s nothing but the fear of my God can bind my heart to its good behaviour in secret My thoughts are not liable to an arraignment at any earthy Bar nor my person to any arrest from men â—or any tumult or disorder in them because the Law of the Magistrate can take no cognizance of them they being locked up from all humane eyes in the privy cabinet of my heart Though I am limited in my words not to speak what I will and also in my works not to do what I will by reason of that shame or penalty or ill-will from friends or superiours which dishonest actions and unseemly expressions may bring upon me yet my thoughts in this sense are free I may think what I will notwithstanding any of these considerations Again outward actions both good and bad materially considered are common both to Sinners and Saints What good duties are there but as to the matter of them wicked men may perform them as well as the godly Abstinence from gross sins praying fasting hearing reading almes-giving have been practised by some Hypocrites in a larger measure then by some sincere Christians On the other side There are â—ew sins so great but some of the Children of God have at some time or other been guilty of them Gluttony Drunkenness Fornication Incest Murder c. have been committed by them that were truly sanctified where then lieth the difference between them so much as in their usual and predominant thoughts Once more my God judgeth of my actions by my thoughts and therefore by them I may well judge of my spiritual condition Isa. 10. 7. Gen. 22. 16 17. Lord I have often heard out of thy word Where the treasure is there will the heart be also I know every man will be frequent in thinking of that which he esteems his happiness and treasure The Covetous wretch hugs and embraceth his wealth in his heart and thoughts when it is out of his sight and in other mens hands the Adulterer pleaseth himself in the meditation of his wanton dalliances with his foolish Minion when he hath no opportunity for the execution of his lust the Proud man fancieth himself in a fools Paradise whilst he imagineth multitudes waiting upon him in the Presence Chamber of his crazie brain with their bare heads their bended knees admiring and applauding the worth of his person the vastness of his parts and himself as the only epitome of all perfections O give me that character of thy children to meditate in thy Law day and night Let my thoughts be conversant about those riches that are not liable to rust those pleasures which satisfie a rational soul and that honour which is from God give me to know that my treasure is in Heaven with thy self in thy Son by having my heart and my conversation there also I Wish that when ever I sequester my self from worldly business I might leave all my finful and worldly thoughts behind me There can no work of concernment be done in secret unless these disturbers be absent Should I entertain such guests I forbid Christ my Company Vicious thoughts are his sworn enemies and he will not dwel in the same heart in the same house with them If I desire him to sit upon the throne of my heart I must give him leave to cast down every imagination and to bring every thought to the obedience of himself Places that are full of vermine are not fit for a Princes presence Vain and unnecessary thoughts about lawful objects are strangers though not sworn enemies and will give my best friend distast Though a noble person should come to give me a visit if he should hear me debasing my self to converse needlesly with inconsiderable impertinent fellows I may look that he should passe by without calling in Christ loves not to be entertained in a room full of dust-heaps and cobwebs If vain thoughts lodge within the blessed Jesus will stand without Gold and Clay will not mingle If these mists arise and these clouds interpose they will hinder my sight of the true Sun Besides My works will be answerable to my thoughts if my thoughts be wicked or fruitless so will my actions be My hands are but the Midwife to bring my thoughts the conception of my heart into the world My thoughts are the seed that lyeth in the ground out of sight my works are the crop which is visible to others according to the seed whether good or bad such will the crop be If men be so careful to get the purest the cleanest and the best seed for their fields that their harvest may be the more to their advantage how much doth it concern me that my heart be sown with pure and holy thoughts that my crop may tend both to my credit and comfort Lord there is no good seed but what comes out of thy garner I confess the piercing thorns of vicious thoughts and the fruitless weeds of vain thoughts are all the natural product of my heart O let thy good spirit plow up the fallow ground of my soul and scatter in it such seeds of grace and holiness that my life may be answerable to thy Gospel and at my death I may be translated to thy glory I Wish that I may in solitude when I have no men to discourse with converse with other
to them Faith is a Christians guide and good Works his garment As the Fish by the Fins are raised from the mud to the top of the water so faith lifteth the soul from earth to heaven It is the evidence of things not seen Good works are as Scales a shield to a Christian and are not unfitly called the Breast plate of righteousness Thus O my soul though thou couldst not read a line in any Printed book thou mightest read many good lessons in this natural book Even things without mouths can Preach and speak thy Makers praise and pleasure Their voices are heard in every language and their words go to the end of the world Psa. 19. 4. Wheresoever O my soul thou goest thou mayst by meditation get some steps nearer thine eternal weal Art thou walking Consider thou art but a sojourner and traveller in this world thy life is a continued moâ—ion thy way is the Son of God thy home is the Fathers House thy motion is painful thy way is perfect and thy home will be full of pleasure Why shouldst thou wander and come wide or loyter and come short of Heaven O be sure to walk in the right way and be content to travail hard that thy saâ—e way may find its end in solace and thy painful walk make thy home more welcome Art thou walking in thine Orchyard thou mayst from every tree as a Text gather many profitable doctrines and inferences Take a turn or two among the Trees and thou mayst find much wholsom fruit on them 1. Some Trees are profitable for one purpose some for another some to quench thirst some to comfort and refresh the inward parts c. so the Children of God are diversly serviceable according to the different gifts bestowed on them by the Holy Ghost 2. Every living fruit tree is in some measure fruitâ—ul though some bring forth more fruit some less yet all bring forth some All living Christians are thriving and bearing fruit though some are more eminent for growth and proficiency in grace yet all bring forth fruits worthy of repentance The Hypocrite like a dead stake in an Hedge continueth at a stay is without good fruit nay groweth more rotten every moneth then other but the true Saint like the living Tree the longer he continueth rooted in Christ the more abundant he is in the work of the Lord. 3. The best Trees have a winter wherein they seem to be dead and barren yet they have their life and sap at that time remaining in the root Christians under desertions and temptations may be judged by themselves and others to be dead and undone but even at such seasons their life is hid with Christ in God Though they may fall fouly they cannot fall finally 4. Fruit-trees are tossed and shaken by the wind but there is no danger of their overturning or death whilst their root remains firm in the earth Saints may be stirred and tossed by the high winds of Satans and the worlds temptations but can never be overthrown because they are rooted in Christ. Grace may be shaken in but never out of their souls 5. The winter which the Trees suffer in frosts and snow and the continuance of their sapunder ground is profitable for them and helpful to their greater growth in Spring So the various and severest providences of God towards his people are serviceable to their good and their seeming declensions in order to their greater growth As Children under a fit of an Ague they may at present be weakened and stand at a stay but afterward they shoot up the more 6. The fruits of trees are harsh and little worth till they are grafted so the fruits of all by nature are wild and unpleasant to God till they are grafted into Christ. 7. Those trees that stand most in the Sun bring forth the sweetest and the largest fruit So those believers that live nearest God by an holy communion do the more abound in the fruits of righteousness and their fruits are the more acceptable springing from a principle of love to God 8. The more the boughs are laden the more they bow down to the earth so the more abundant any are in holiness the more humble and lowly they will be 9. The Husbandman chuseth what plants he pleaseth to bring into his Orchyard and his grafting of them and care about them makes the difference between them and others So God chuseth whom he pleaseth out of the wilderness and waste of the world and his grafting them by regeneration and conduct of them by his Spirit distinguisheth them from all the rest of the earth 10. The Leaves drop from the Trees in the beginning of Autumn Such is the friendship of this world whilst the sap of wealth and honour lasteth with me and whilst I enjoy a summer of prosperity my friends swarm in abundance but in the winter of adversity they will leave me naked O how miserable is that person who hath no friends but of this world How happy is he that hath the sap of grace which will remain with him in the coldest winter Thus O my soul whilst thou art walking with regenerate creatures thou mayst better thy spiritual senses and walk with thy Creator O how may thy thoughts be raised to the trees that are planted in the house of the Lord and flourish in the Courts of thy God that are planted by the Rivers of waters and bring forth their fruit in due season Lord I confess thy goodness in giving me so many ushers yet alas my dull and blockish heart to this day hath not learnt those lessons which thou hast set me by them Vnless thou who art the chief Master of the Assemblies undertake the work all will be in vain Thy creatures are as burning glasses they cannot make the Sun to shine but when it doth vouchsafe its heavenly beams they help to increase both light and heat It s thine own promise that all Sions Children shall be taught of God Let it please thee to undertake the tuition and instruction of thine untoward Scholar O do thou spiritualize my heart and then I shall spiritualize all the works of thine hand do thou enlighten me so powerfully by thy blessed Spirit that I may turn every spark into a candle and every candle into a star and every star into a Sun and by the light of all be enabled to see more of thy beautiful face and blessed perfections I Wish that I may not onely taste by occasional but make a full meal by set and serious meditation of that food which may God provideth for my soul If a drop a little be reviving and strengthening surely a good draught will yeild me more comfort and profit If ever it be true it s here the best is at the bottom That rare object which upon a transient view gives me some delight upon a permanent vision will afford more pleasure If my meat abide in my body it will afford me the better
Murthers and Adulteries and Blasphemies and Prophaness of wicked men cry aloud in mine ears that God is patient The persecutions and oppressions and prayers and cries and tears of good men proclaim to my conscience that God is patient The Sabbaths and Ordinances and seasons of grace and offers of pardon and life which both good and bad enjoy speak plainly and distinctly The Lord is patient O that mine eyes could see it mine ears hear it my mouth taste it my mind discern it and my soul rellâ—sh it in all these O thou beautiful beam darted from the Sun of Righteousness that callest poor mortals to life when they are at the brink of death thou that art the wonder of glorious Angels and glorified Saints be thou unto me as a bundle of myrrhe and a cluster of camphire always unto me let me love thee much for my own sake because thou hast done so much for me but most for the Lords sake because he is all in all unto me Well O my soul how wilt thou requite the kindness thou hast received from this Patience of thy God! When Ahashuerus an Heathen had read and considered how Mordecai had saved his life by discovering the two trayrours that sought to lay hands on the King he cried out What honour hath been done to Mordecai for this and could take no rest till he had given him some signal honour Thou hast read for thy whole life is a Book written within and without with it how the Patience of thy God hath saved thy life the life of thy soul when sin and Satan conspired together to take it away now wilt thou not say within thy self What honour hath been done to the patience of God for this and be unsatisfied till thou hast done it some honour for this good office it hath done thee What love doth that friend deserve who saves thy life What esteem doth that hand of pity merit that keeps thee out of the bottomless pit What thanks is that Messenger worthy of that brings thee a condemned sinner certain news of a reprieve and great hopes of a pardon Surely the respect thou owest to the patience of God which doth as much for thee as all this should be very great especially considering thy disrespects formerly to the God of Patience have been very grievous Lord I acknowledge I have formerly much abused thy patience uâ—ing it as an encouragement to prophaness and turning thy grace into wantoness but now through thy strength I will no longer despise the riches of thy forbearance but be led through thy goodness to repentance I know thou intendest it as a City of refuge to the penitent not as a sanctuary to the presumptuous O let me never make it a pillow for an hard heart but a plaister for a wounded spirit Let this servant of thine and friend of mine obtain his errand and accomplish the end for which thou hast sent him Thou sparest me here that thou might spare me hereafter thou waitest upon me that thou mightst be gracious unto me and art long-suffering because not willing that any should perish but that all might come to repentance O that therefore I might wait upon thee in all thy providences and ordinances for grace that so thy long-suffering may be unto me salvation Thou hast told me Though the sinner live an hundred years and God prolong his days yet it shall not go well with the wicked His preservation is but a reservation to the sorer and greater destruction Though thou sufferest long thou wilt not suffer always and when thou strikest impenitent ones the slowness of thy pace will be recompenced in the heaviness of thy hand The longer the child of vengeance is in the womb of the threatning the bigger it groweth and the more pain it will put the sinner to when it cometh to the birth of its execution O how dreadful will my doom be when thou comest to reckon with me for all thy patience if I do not at this day prevent it by repentance If thy patience do not now make me bend hereafter it will make me bleed It s a sweet friend but a bitter enemy No fury like that which is extracted out of abused patience T were far better to be sent from the Mothers breasts to everlasting burnings then to live many years at the charge of patience and then to die impenitent If I cause thee to suffer long now in vain thou wilt cause me to suffer long in the other world and the more dreadfully for thy long-suffering in this Since thou art gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness O take me not away in thy long-suffering but give me to mind in this day of thy patience the things that concern mine everlasting peace that I may to eternity give thee honour and praise for thy wondrous and boundless patience Amen CHAP. VI. How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness on a Week-day from Morning to Night FOurthly Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness every Week-day I have spoken in the first part how a Christian may make Religion his business on a Lords-day I shall therefore in this place discover how he may do it on a Week-day Every day with a godly man is an holy Sabbath to the Lord Godliness is not his holy days or high days but every days work and his exercise every part of every day I have enclined my heart to keep thy statutes not by fits and starts but always unto the end Psa. 119. 112. The Flower called Heliotropium or Turn-sol turneth its face towards the Sun from morning to night so doth the true Christian towards the Sun of righteousness The Command of God is Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23. 17. And the carriage of holy men is answerable hereunto The twelve Tribes served God instantly day and night Act. 26. 7. As the Angels though they are imployed up and down in the world for the service of the Saints yet they always behold the face of their Father so the Children of God though they are occupied about civil and natural actions are called hither and thither as their occasions are yet they pass the whole time of their soâ—journing here in fear That Watch is naught that goeth onely at first winding up and standeth still all the day after that mans religion is little worth that like Epâ—raims goodness is as a morning cloud or dew which vanisheth away ere noon The Rivers run ever towards the Sea notwithstanding that hills and rocks and mountains interpose and force them to their winding Maeanders nay their compass about is not without profit for they water those grounds in their passage through which they seemed to wander The person that hath the living water of grace in him is always tending towards the Ocean of his happiness notwithstanding his seeming diversions by his worldly actions and particular vocation nay he is doing good
and serving his God and his soul as well as his family and body in those interjections The wheel of a chariot though it be in motion all the day and turning about on the ground yet it s but a small part of it that toucheth the earth at one time the greatest part of it is always above it so the true Christian though he be all the day busie about earthly affairs yet it s but his body his lesser part that is employed about them his soul his affections which are his greatest part are always about them SECT I. I Shall first offer thee two quickening Motives and then acquaint thee wherein thy daily exercise to Godliness consisteth First Consider Any day may be thy last day and therefore every day should be an holy day with thee I mean not an holy day for play or recreatâ—on but for the work of Religion He that knoweth not how soon his Master will come and reckon with him had need to be always employed about his Masters business Because there is no time of life in which thou art secure from death therefore every day of thy life thou oughtest to be about thy duty Prov. 27.1 Boast not thy self of to morrow thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Every day is big-bellied and hath more in the womb of it then any man knoweth he that salutes the morning with a smiling aspect may bid the world good night for ever before the evening The candle of thy life may be blown out on a sudden before its half burnt out The Poets fable that Death and Cupid lodging together at an Inn exchanged arrows whereby it hath since come to pass that old men â—â—ote and young men die Death cometh up to the young and strong old and weak men go down to Death Thou mayst be called forth to that war in which there is no discharge and not have an hours warning to prepare thy self for a march Sturdy trees are overturned by an unexpected wind lusty men by violent feavers or outward accidents our enemies are strong our earthly houses weak the coming of our Landlord is unknown the lease of our lives is uncertain we are every moment liable to be ejected and shall we not be so employed that our Lord when he comes may find us well-doing I remember I have in some Author read that the invention of clocks was not primarily to mind us of the Suns posting in the heavens but of our Lives passing on earth It was Calvins reason for his unweariedness in his studies when his friends urged against it the injury it did his body Would ye have my Lord when he cometh find me idle It will be woful for that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find doing evil or doing nothing But and if that servant say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens and to eat and drink and be drunken The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut him asunder and will appoint him his portion with unbelievers Luk. 12. 45 46. In which words we may observe 1. The sin of the unfaithful servant 2. The severity of his Lord. In the sin we may take notice 1. Of the nature of He bâ—ats his fellow-servants and eats and drinks and is drunken He gives himself up to all manner of wickedness He is unrighteous to his fellow-servants he beats them and unfaithful to his Master he abuseth his goods he eats and drinks and is drunken Sin doth not lie skulking in the â—ecret trenches of his heart but appeareth boldly in the open field of his life T is a sign an enemy hath great power when he sheweth himself openly 2. The occasion of it His Plea for it His Lord delayeth his coming Because he hath not a speedy reward he layeth aside all good works because of Gods gracious forbearance he argueth a general acquittance for all his evil works He makes bold to riot because he is not called to a speedy reckoning We tremble not at the noise of those Cannons which we fancy to be a great way off That which is lookt upon at a distance seems small and so is despised though the same beheld near appears great and terrifieth us In the severity of the Lord we may read 1. How sore his judgement is He shall cut him asunder and give him his portion among unbeleivers These two expressions speak the dreadfulness of his doom though no words can speak fully how woful it is He shall cut him asunder An allusion to some tortures then in use amongst the Heathen to shew the exquisite pain which his body shall suffer And give him his portion among unbeleivers Because the hottest Hell is reserved for such The wrath of God abideth on them Joh. 3. ult to note the extream punishment which his soul shall undergo 2. How sudden it is unexpected evils are most dreadful The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him Sudden frights overwhelm the spirits Those miseries which seen at some distance have been entertained with patience surprising men on a sudden have â—triken them into despair Death comes sometimes like a Thief up into our windows coming in at the door is ordinary but coming in at the window is unlookt for Ier. 19. 21. As the snare secretly and unexpectedly seiseth the silly Bird so doth a day of death the simple Children of men Luk. 21. 35. Our Saviour speaks of his coming in the second or third watch of the night which the Jews called Intempestum Gallietnium not in the first and fourth because saith Theophilact they are the dead time of the night when men are in their soundest sleep to shew us how suddenly and unexpectedly he shall surprise most men Luk. 12. 38. Reader This present days work may be the last act of thy life it behoveth thee therefore to do it well When thou art in thy Closet thou mayst think with thy self I may possibly never pray more never read the word of God more how reverently uprightly graciously should I therefore pray and read When thou art eating or drinking or refreshing nature thou mayst consider for ought I know this may be the last time that I may use these creatures of God how fearful should I be of abusing them how should I eat my bread as before the Lord. When thou art in thy Shop or about thy calling thou mayst ponder this Possibly my last sand is running and I must this day bid adieu for ever to Wares and Shops and Flocks and Fields and all civil commerce O how heavenly should I be about these earthly affairs How spiritual about these temporal things Who would not do his last work well Ah how holy should he be at all times who hath cause every moment to expect the coming of an holy and
commodities make the most of their Markets and buy their wares while a fit time of buying them serves and having possibly had great losses formerly or spent their time idly do by their diligence seek to redeem and as it were to buy back again the time that is past The Lacedemonians were penurious of their time and spent it all about necessary business not suffering any Citizen either to play or be idle When their Ephori heard that some used to walk in the afternoons for their recreation they forbad it as savouring too much of pleasure and commanded them to recreate their bodies by some manly exercise which might breed them to be serviceable to the Common-wealth Reader the time of thy life goeth post thou art hastening to thy last stage whether thou art eating or drinking walking or sitting buying or selling waking or sleeping death is always making speed towards thee the time of thy departure hence is concluded and resolved beyond which it is impossible for thee whether thy work be done or undone to stay one day no not one hour nay not one moment and shouldst thou waste thy time upon toys and trifles as if thou hadst nothing to do no God to make peace with no Redeemer to lay hold on no soul to take care of He that hath a great way to go or much work to do and that upon pain of death and but a little time for it hath little reason to laze or loyter When we have but a little paper and much to write we write small and thick O how much work hath every Christian to do in this world which if he neglect he is lost for ever how many head-strong lusts to subdue how many duties towards God and men to perform how many graces to exercise providences and ordinances to improve and can all this be done in a little time The Candle of our lives burns low if like foolish Children we play it out we may thank our selves if we go to bed in the dark without the light of comfort to our graves It is one of the most irrational yet ordinary action of the children of men especially persons of estates and quality to waste time in Dicing or Carding or hawking or Hunting or Chambering or Revelling and yet to murmur that they want time and tell us Its pitty mans life is so shortâ— that it is not spun out to a longer thread I must tell such that they complain of God when they should of themselves He is not penurious but they are prodigal in mispending it I must ask them Why would they have more time Is it to be more riotous and prophane and vicious The shortest moment is too much for the service of sin He that sinneth but once sinneth too much by once If it be that they might honour God and get grace and lay hold on eternal life why do they not set about it and make it their business Every one would accuse him of folly that were condemned one Assize to be hanged but was reprieved till the next and had that time allotted to sue out his pardon if he should in the interim give himself wholly to gaming and drinking and take no care about his pardon yet complain to all that came to him that his time was short and he had not enough to get his pardon in or prevent his Execution Our days are sufficient for our duties had we grace to number them and to apply our hearts to wisdom but there is no overplus of time to be abused to fleshly or worldly lusts or to be lavished away in idle and unnecessary things A good man that liveth all the day long in the fear of his God and husbands his time to the best advantage of his soul finds it so sufficient for his work that he is always ready to be called to an account and when ever he dieth he dieth full of days and hath had his fill of living but men waste their time in vanity and folly sacrifice their youth to frowardness and unprofitableness their manhood to pleasure and passion their old age if they live so long to earthly-mindedness and Atheism nay they will set down and contrive sports or send for or go into idle company to pass away the time and then complain that time is little and life is short and they have not enough to provide for death and eternity in The Moralist observeth truly Non exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus It is not a little time that we have but it is much which we waste God iâ— bountiful in allotting us time but we are laviâ—h of it and then grumble that it is no more The largest possessions in a Country though worth thousands per annum are nothing in the hands of a Prodigal Heir who useth to throw away thousands at a cast and must pay the Bills which Pride and luxury and gluttony send him in daily but a twentieth part of those revenues were a large estate in the hands of a frugal person The vast incomes of Egypt and all the Eastern Provinces were but a small sum when they were gathered to maintain the pomp and ambition of Antony and the riot and fleshly lusts of Cleopatra when some prudent provident Emperours have lived freely and nobly a whole year with less then they consumed in a day Foolish men that are riotous and prodigal of their time as if it were given them onely to sport and play and roar and revel in pine and whine at last that they are lost because their time is so short but wise and gracious persons that deny themselves and crucifie the flesh that can redeem time from toys and idle talk and foolish sports and unnecessary diversions to pray and hear and read and examine their souls and bemoan their sins and provide for heaven these grow rich in good works and find the days of their pilgrimage sufficient for them SECT V. FIfthly Call thy self to an accauut at evening Take a review of thy carriage the whole day how thou didst behave thy self Begin with the morning consider whether thou didst awake with God what was the frame of thy Spirit in closet and family duties in company and solitude Reflect upon thy actions thy passions thy speech thy silence thy behaviour at table in thy shop whether thy affections were heavenly above the world when thy actions were earthly about the world whether thou wast righteous in thy particular calling and didst set upon it out of conscience to Gods precept and with an eye to his glory whether thou didst not lose an opportunity of advantaging thy brothers soul and doing thy God service whether thou hast not failed in thy thoughts or words or deeds in thy demeanour towards thy relations or neighbours or strangers whether thou didst in all walk according to that rule which thy God hath prescribed thee This is the way to make the day more pious and the night more pleasant Conscience
weep Our daily infirmities and imperfections must not be passed over Some have died of very slight wounds in their fingers or toes Small sands may sink a great ship Small drops of rain make the earth miâ—y and durty Vain thoughts spending time idly omission of doing good when a price hath been in our hands are counted by us small sinâ— but such small drops will pollute our consciences to purpose if not bewailed timely The mercies and good providences of the day deserve our acknowledgement at night If God command his loving kindness in the day time his loving kindness may well command our thanksgiving in the night season As David had his soliloquies in the day so he had his songs in the night Psa. 77. 6. All our success in our callings and undertakings is the fruit of Gods providence We may work but God onely can prosper Humane gains are from divine grace The Tables that are spread for us like Peters sheet wherein were all sorts of four footed Beasts and Fowls come down from Heaven How many perils are we protected in how many dangers are we delivered from How many evils are prevented good things bestowed every day and shall not our Sun and Shield be adorned We may well every night speak in the words of the Psalmist Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits even the God of our salvation Selah Psa. 78. 19. The perils of the night call for our prayers at night If there were no fear of visible Thieves and Robbers yet there is of invisible Devils We cannot bolt our doors so fast but they will find the way in We never lye down to sleep but those roaring Lyons are waking and waiting by our bed side to devour us If God were not our guard we could not sleep a moment in quiet He that goeth to bed before he hath gone to God by humble and hearty supplication lieth down before his bed is made and may well expect to find it uneasie all night nay like a foolish Governour of a Fort beleagured with cruel and crafty enemies he takes his rest before he hath set his watch and is liable to be called up at midnight or to be kild in his bed every moment Cyril speaks of a certain people that chose to worship the Sun because he was a day God for believing that he was quenched every night in the Sea or that he had no influence on them that lighted up candles they were confident they might be Atheists all night I fear many who worship not the Sun are too much of the minds of that people in their night Atheism Though they know not but when they close their eyes they may sleep their last and never open them more yet they will rather die intestate then take the pains by fervent prayers to bequeath their souls into the hands of their dearest Redeemer Reader take heed of going prayerless to bed lest Satan take thee napping How unworthy art thou of Gods protection if thou dost not esteem it worthy a petition I have read of a Prince that would walk abroad every evening in a disguise and stand harkening and listening under his Subjects windows to understand what they said It s true enough that the great God looketh down from heaven every evening he is under thy window and in thy chamber to observe whether thou hast the manners or grace to bid him good night before thou goest to rest Believe it if thou forgettest him thou wilt find sooner or later that he will remember thee to thy cost A Good Wish about the Christians carriage on a Weekday from Morning to Night Wherein the former heads are applied THe Rock of Ages and everlasting Father to whom a thousand years are but as one day having out of his rich mercy afforded me a short time in this world not to play or toy with temporal things but to prepare my soul for my blessed eternity I Wish that I may never waste that pecious season which is given me for the working out my own salvation about needless affairs but mind the one thing necessary and pass the whole time of my sojourning here in the fear of my God Every day that I live and do not improve for my eternal good is lost If I live to eat and drink and sleep the beast liveth in me not the man I do but act a brutish part in an humane shape If I live to buy and sell and increase my heaps the Heathen liveth in me not the Christian What do I more then an Infidel Time is a silver stream gliding into the Ocean Eternity depends upon this poor pittance of time As I use time well or ill so eternity will use me The everlasting harvest will be sutable to the seed that is sown in time whether Wheat or Tares It s irrational to expect a crop of Barley if I sow Thistles or a crop of bliss for ever if I now sow to the flesh My life is given me to dress my soul in for the coming of my Bride-groom at death Whatsoever I do if it hath not relation and subserviency to my last end and chiefest good it is lost time and waste strength and though I may be so busie as to sweat about it yet Christ may sayâ—to me as to him that stood in the Market-place Why standest thou all the day idle Lord my time is not mine own but thine The day is thine the night also is thine It is thine by creation and why not thine by a religious observation It was thy favour that I was not turned out of the womb into the unquenchable fire I could Wish that as soon as ever the Sun of my life arose I had gone forth to my spiritual labour till the evening of my death that my childhood and youth had been employed in remembring my Creator but since its impossible to recal those days and years which I have spent in folly and vanity O teach me so to number my remaining days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom and live every day of my life in the fear of the Lord all the day long I Wish that the uncertainty of my life and certainty of my death may quicken me to be religious every hour of every day Every day may be my last therefore every day should be my best There is no part of my time in which I am priviledged from an arrest by the King of terrors Am I young yet I am old enough to die Death observeth no order Some drop out of the armes of their earthly Mothers into the embraces of their Mother Earth and do no sooner speak but they are sent to the place of silence My Sun may set in the morning of my age and death may tread upon the heels of life Some have experienced those words of the wise man There is a time to be born so little to live that it is not mentioned and a time to die Am I
strong This Sampson of death can fetch meat out of the eater and out of the strong sweetness Deaths harbinger sickness which prepareth its way before it will make me melt like Wax before the Sun though my strength were the strength of stones and my flesh as brass Fresh Flowers are cropt in their pride and greatest beauty The Autumn of death comes ordinarily before the winter of old age Besides I am liable every day to many sudden accidents and unexpected surprisals How many die in their Shops or Fields or in the Church or Streets as well as others in their beds All men do not go out of the world at the fore door of sickness many at the back-door of a violent death When my blood frisketh merrily in my veins and light sparkleth gloriously in mine eyes when my countenance is most fresh and lovely and my senses are most quick and lively even then aâ— my best estate I am altogether vanity I may draw a long line of life because nature may afford radical moysture enough for it when death lieth in ambush like a theif in the candle and wasteth all on a sudden Should I as the rich fool reckon falsly to a million when I cannot count truly to one and promise my self many days when my soul may be required of me this night how gross is my delusion Ah how sad how fatal is that error that can never be mended The time past is gone and never never to be called back All my prayers and tears all the revenues of the world cannot regain the last moment The time to come is Gods not mine own It is not in my hands therefore I have no reason to reckon upon it I am both foolish and dishonest if I dispose of anothers goods Reversions are uncertain and he may well be poor that hath no estate but what he hath in hope or rather presumption Lord thou reckonest my life not by ages no not by years but by days thou hast told me that my days are few my time is little though my work be great I acknowledge my proneness to put far from me my dying day whereby I gratifie my grand enemy in drawing nigh to the seat of iniquity O help thy servant to live every day as if it were his last day Grant that I may live well and much though my life be little and short because there is no day of my life in which I can promise my self security from the arrest of Death let me expect it every day and every hour of every day that when ever my Lord shall come I may be found well-doing I Wish that since the eye of my God is ever on me my eye may be ever on him and I may be so pious as to carry my self all the day long as in his presence What ever I do my God observeth whatever I speak my God heareth whatever I think he knoweth I may call every place I come into Mizpeh The Lord watcheth and observeth Ah how holy should he be who hath always to do with so pure and jealous a Majesty The Iews were to dig and cover the natural excrements of their bodies because the Lord their God walked in the midst of their camp Sin is the spiritual excrement of my soul and infinitely more odious and loathsom to my God O how watchful should I be against it who walk ever in his company The Sun is said by some to be all eye because it hath a thousand beams in every place it filleth the largest windows and peepeth in at the smallest key-hole it shineth on the Princes Pallace and the Poor mans Cottage the Heavens above the Earth beneath and Air between it looks on every person with so direct a countenance as if it beheld none beside The natural Sun is darkness to the Sun of righteousness the whole world to him is a sea of glass he seeth it thorough and thorough The Watch-maker knoweth all the wheels and pins and motions in the Watch He that made me cannot be ignorant of me nor of any thing in me or done by me Whether I be in my Shop or Closet Abroad or at Home in Company or Alone the Hand of my God is with me and the Eye of my God upon me O that I could set him ever before me and set my self ever before him that I could always see him who always seeth me and like a Sun-dyal so receive this Sun in the morning as to go along with him all the day Lord thou searchest and knowest me thou knowest my down-sitting and uprising thou understandest my thoughs afar off Thou compassest my paths and lying down and art acquainted with all my ways For there is not a word in my tongue but O Lord thou knowest it altogether Whither shall I go from thy Spirit and whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up to Heaven thoâ— art there If I make my bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me If I say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me Yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day The darkness and the light are both alike to thee O teach me to walk before thee and to be upright I Wish that the end of all my days may be the beginning of every day that my first thoughts in the morning may be of him by whom alone I think The Firstling under the Law was to be the Lords and why not the first fruits of every day under the Gospel Surely the worthiness of the person deserves precedency of dispatch It is no mean incivility to let an honourable man wait our leasure what impiety is it then to let the great God stay till the dreggy flesh or world be served Ah how unworthy as well as wicked is it to put that God off who deserves all I am and have with the leavings of his slaves Besides the soul usually walks up and down all day in the same habit in which it is dressed in the morning The day is usually spent well or ill according to the morning employment If Satan get possession in the morning t will be many to one but he keeps his hold all day What youth is to age that is the morning to the day if youth be not tainted with vice age is imployed in vertue He that loves chastity will not marry her that spent her youth in whordom A man may give a shrewd guess in the morning when second causes are in working what weather will be most part of the day If I set out early in my heavenly journey I am the more likely to persevere in it all the day As some sweet Oyls poured into a Vessel first will cause whatsoever is put into it afterwards to taste and
savour of it So if godliness and the immediate worship of God do first in the morning possess my soul my natural and civil affairs will probably rellish of it Again Mens hearts are generally upon that in the morning which they esteem their happiness and portion The covetous Muck-worm no sooner openeth his eyes but his â—eart is tumbling in his heaps The voluptuous beast no sooner wakes but he is sporting in sensual waters The ambitious Peacock no sooner is able to think but his gay Feathers and gaudy dress for that day come into his mind and why should not my heart send its first thoughts into Heaven Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire in comparison of thee The Birds early in the morning salute the rising Sun with their sweet notes and shall not I the Sun of righteousness Further My wants my mercies call for morning duties I walk in the midst of deaths of dangers every day and shall I dare to travail without my defence Men cloath their bodies against the sharpness of the weather and why not their souls against the assaults of the flesh the world and the wicked one There is no safety without this breast-work If Satan take me out of my trenches and strong holds as Joshua did the men of Ai it will be no wonder if he roâ—t and ruine me If I do not bless God in the morning how can I expect that he should bless me in the day Is any earthly Prince so prodigal of his favours as to throw them away upon those that esteem them unworthy to be desired If I do not serve the Precepts of God I am presumptuous to look that his providence should serve meâ— Should I undertake my affairs on earth before I have dispatched my business with heaven I am a notorious Cheat and Theif I am a Theif to God by robbing him of his glory and that natural allegiance which I owe to my Maker I am a Theif to my self in robbing my self of that blessing which I might have on my callings and undertakings O that prayer might be the girdle to compass in the whole body of my natural and civil dealings and concernments And that I could every day of my life forestal the worlds market by setting early about closet and family duties Suitors find it fittest to wait upon and dispatch their business with great persons betimes in the morning Lord freedom of access to thy throne of grace is an unspeakable favour Access is hard to earthly Princes No worldly Court is so open as to admit all comers Those that with much difficulty present their Petitions are often against all reason denyed Thy gates are open night and day all that will may come and be welcome Thou invitest souls to come into thy presence and delightest to hear and grant their prayers Thine eares are more open and ready to hear then their mouths to ask Thou pressest upon many undesired blessings but denyest none who ask not stones instead of bread Importunity never angers thee the more fervent and frequent my soul is with thee the more prevalent Thou fillest the hungry with good things and dost not send any that desire thy grace empty away from thy gate What care I how little notice or knowledge the Nobles of the earth will take of me when I can speak so freely to their better their Soveraign and not fear a repulse O teach me the right art of begging and then I need not be afraid of poverty If I be but skilful to follow that trade my returns will be both â—â—re and large Thy mercies are renewed upon me every morning so are my necessities O let my prayses and prayers be as frequent and early I will bless the Lord at all times his praise â—hall be continually in my mouth O God my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee in a dry and barren Wilderness where no water is My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up I Wiâ—h that having done with the more immediaâ—e service of my God in Praying and Reading both in my Closet and Family I may proceed to serve him in my Shop and Particular Calling When God saith Man is born to labour I must not sing with the fool Soul take thine ease An idle person is like Caterpillars and Mice that devour Gods creatures and do no good to others It s pity he ever lived the book of whose life is filled up with nothing but Cyphers Nature never intended men to be drones to feed on others labours nor bats to spend their lives in the company of sleep the brother of death My God my soul my family my country do all call upon me to be diligent in that calling whereto he hath called me My God is a pure act himself and hath capacitated all his creatures for action He created all men but never made a sluggard The idle person wholly degenerates from the end of his being and receiveth his faculties in vain The command for civil labour hath the same divine stamp as that for sacred rest I have also his pattern for my encouragement as well as his precept for my warrant Hitherto my father worketh and I work My soul also stands in as much need of exercise as my body Idleness is the door at which diseases enter into both Rust eats up vessels that are laid by and unused The mind is never more bright then when it is in imployment from doing nothing we proceed to do evil Idleness is not onely a vice it self but also hath this unhappiness to usher in all other This is the least advantage of industry that it gives the soul no leasure to play with sin or to entertain the wicked one Standing waters do not sooner putrifie then lazy souls T is action that preserves the â—oul in health As Gâ—ats dance up and down in the Sun and then sit down and sting the next hand they seize upon So they who have no time to work have much to imploy in slandering and backbiting others One sin never goeth alone Again my Family may well rouze me out of the bed of laziness If I expect supply of their wants it must come in with Gods blessing at the door of diligence I am stealing from my wife and children all the while I am loytering The Heavens may cause seed sown to ripen into a joyful Harvest but untilled land will afford no crop save of weeds or stones Once more My Country commands me to my calling I am but an ill member in the body Politique if as a diseased part I take of its nourishment but rather hinder its growth then contribute to its health A jarring string is not more prejudicial to the rarest Viol in the hands of a skilful artist then an idle person to the musick and composure of the universe The most venemous
his Sons Iob 1. 5 6. It may be my Sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts i. e. when they had been feasting at their elder Brothers house God gives Israel a special caution against this Deut. 8. 12 14. Men in an house of mourning are put in mind both of Gods Soveraignty who draweth away their breath and they perish Psa. 104. 29. and their own frailty how soon they are gathered and withered even in their prime and pride Psa. 39. 5. I am blind if I do not see mine own end in the end of another and distracted if I do not provide for my last enemy which I must necessarily encounter Thus it s a mercy to our selves to be merciful unto others and whilst we visit the sick we visit our own souls Who would not do his Neighbour good when he may be confident it will tend to his own gain I have but hopes by my visit of advantaging a sinner but I may be sure if I be faithful therein of profiting my self SECT III. THirdly It may be the last opportunity thou mayst ever have of advantaging thy sick neighbours soul. His sick-bed may be his death-bed and then t will be too late to counsel or advise him There is no Purgatory in the other world Diseases both bodily and spiritual must be purged away before death or never He that is filthy at death must be filthy still even to all eternity All the tears in hell will not wash out the least spot in the soul All the fire of hell will not purge out the least dross Therefore Christ took the opportunity of dropping good counsel into the heart of the Theif on the Cross knowing that if he had omitted it a very few hours longer the soul of the poor Theif had been lost for ever Hadst thou a friend going to Sea and never to return again waiting at a Port for a Wind and then to be gone and hadst busineâ—s with him of as great concernment to him as his life thou couldst tell him of a quicksand which he must beware of or he will be cast away wouldst thou not be quick and speedy to acquaint him with it lest he should be under Sail before thou didst see him would it not cut thee to the heart if he should miscarry through thy negligence The Application is easie The soul of every Neighbour is or ought to be dearer to thee then the body of thy nearest friend or relation When thy wicked Neighbour is sick his soul is launching for ought thou knowest into the Ocean of eternity whence he shall never â—ever return more He waits onely for a wind a word from God and he is gone The sick bed is the passage or path-way to the grave Thou hast work to do with him that is more worth to him then his life that iâ— of as great value as his immortal soul and eternal salvation Now thou mayst acquaint him while he is on the shore with his danger and the way of his delivery but if once he launch into the Main thou mayst call loud and long enough after him in vain O will it not pierce thee to the quick if his soul should be swallowed up in the boundless and bottomless Sea of divine wrath through thy laziness or unfaithfulness When the day drew near for the destruction of the Jews the heart of Haman swelled with hopes and Hester had then an opportunity to step in and preserve the lives of her Countrymen Mordecai tells her Who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this She made use of the season and saved their lives with the hazard of her own Had she delayed a little longer it had been too late they had all been sacrificed upon the Altar of Hamans ambition When the hour of a wicked mans death approacheth the heart of the roaring Lyon is big with expectation of his prey and a Christian friend hath then possibly an opportunity to save the poor creatures soul Now or never there is no knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whether the sick person is going If he make use of the price God puts now into his hands by serious prudent faithful and affectionate counsel he may help the â—inner to heaven Who knoweth whether he be come by the Providence of God into the sick mans Chamber for such a thing as this I have but one thing more to commend to thee and then I shall speak to the work it self Before thou goest to thy sick Neighbour go to God by prayer intreat him to direct thee what to speak and to succeed what shall be spoken It is his own Ordinance and therefore thou mayst the more comfortably beg and expect his assistance Nehemiah would speak to God before he spake to the King for the afflicted Jews Hester prefers her Petition first to her Maker that her prayer might prosper and then her Petition to her Husband for the lives of her Countrymen God is the Principal Agent and if he be left out all thy labour will be lost Wherein the exercising thy self to Godliness in visiting the sick consisteth 1. In endeavouring to benefit the soul of thy Neighbour 2. In getting some spiritual profit to thy self First In endeavouring the spiritual good of thy Neighbour We are enjoyned in the eighth Command to mind and further our Neighbours temporal wealth but much more his spiritual welfare T was true which Bucers Physitian told him when he expressed his eagerness to die Non sibi sed multorum utilitati se esse natum That he was not born for himself but for the good of many others Every Saint is to be as it were a common stock for the profit of many He is born and new born not onely for himself but for others benefit The Lynx is a spotted unclean beast that knowing how his urine will congeal into a precious stone and be profitable to men maketh an hole in the ground when he pisseth to hide it from them Iob who knew the advantage that might acrue to others thereby would not conceal either the word or works of God from them Iob 6. 10. and 27. 11. To this end 1. Labour to be acquainted with the state of the sick persons soul. It s dangerous to give either Purges or Cordials ignorantly or at peradventure The souls of men are of unconceivable value and therefore not to be tampered or trifled with It s a good step to the cure to understand fully the disease and the constitution of the Patient therefore Physitians feel the pulse view the urine enquire of the sick person or his friends concerning his former course of life diet present digestion of his food place of his trouble or pain c. that they may proceed upon good grounds and give sutable and effectual advice So shouldst thou Reader in visiting the sick inform thy self either by conference with some serious Christians of their acquaintance before-hand or by some searching
discern and discover the secret lusts which are hugd in their hearts Besides their consciences being defiled as well as other faculties are not so true to them as to convince them powerfully of that pride hypocrisie unbelief impenitency atheism and ungodliness which they are guilty of And Satan hath a strict watch over them to keep them asleep in sin not caring so men go to hell whether they go thither in the dirty road of scandalous and crying crimes or in the cleanly path and through the fair Meadows of Civility Whether the person be scandalous or civil it will be needful to let in light at some crevice and not to leave the sinner wholly in the darkness of despair The good Samaritan poured Oyl as well as Wine into the wounds of him that fell among Theives A little hope may melt that heart which despair would harden Sturdy Theives have wept at the news of a Reprieve that have stormed and raged at the sentence of Condemnation But this is wisely to be done lest the sinner be encouraged to presume Lenity is to be joyned with Severity Let there be love but not emboldening them to sloth let there be terror but not driving them into a fury saith Gregory If the sick person be one that is judged a true member of Christ then speak to the excellency of Grace and Christ and Heaven to the certainty and worth of those promises that are entailed on beleivers to make his passage into the other world as comfortable as thou canst It will be fit also to speak to those graces of Faith Patience Love Heavenly-mindedness and Ioy in God which should be minded and exercised in a time of sickness how the time of affliction is the spring the special time wherein those graces should shoot up and shew themselves that God expecteth some service from him under his fickness and that his last works should be better then his first If he be under doubts and fears for Satan will take the advantage of his sickness to assault him with his fiery darts and Saints are too apt to Question Gods love when they feel his hand the weakness of the body discomposing the mind and denying it the free exercise of spiritual judgement then advise him to review his former experiences of divine goodness and trials of divine grace within him to hold fast on Jesus Christ and to consider that sickness is common to men good as well as bad that though they differ vastly in the other world yet not at all in their passage thither Singular Saints have been afflicted with the sorest sickness Iob was a none-such for sanctity yet full of sores It s a question whether he were more eminent for corporal distempers or spiritual health Hezekiah David Asah Paul Epaphroditus were all thus chastened of the Lord but not condemned with the world Whatsoever the sick person be whether gracious or graceless it will not be amiss to mention the three great lessons which God would teach every one by affliction 1. The emptiness of the world appearing in its inability to afford the least ease to the body or comfort to the soul of the sick how little worth is that which fails a man in his greatest need 2. The preciousness of Christ and Grace and the Promises of the Gospel which can enliven and encourage a dying person that can cause light in darkness joy in sorrow and life in death that can enable a Christian to rejoyce in tribulation and to welcome pain and sickness nay and the very King of terrors and to look into the other world with comfort and confidence 3. The sinfulness of sin which is the original of all diseases and aches and greif and separation of friends and losses and miseries whatsoever The Rabbies say that when Adam tasted the forbidden fruit his head aked T is clear sin is the original of sickness The body is the instrument of unrighteousness therefore the subject of diseases For this cause many are weak and sick 1 Cor. 11. 30. All the evil in this and the other world are the issue and off-spring of sin Ah! what a root of bitterness is that which brings forth such bitter fruit Be sure to take the thoughts of the sick off from resting in Physitians or any means used for their cure Thâ—s was the fault of good Asah 2 Chron. 16. 12. Let them know that it is God that wounds and he onely that can heal and therefore he must not be tempted either by despiâ—ing those helps which his providence giveth or by relying on them Hippocrates gave this counsel to all Physitians that when they went upon any occâ—sion to visit their Patients they should consider first of all whether there was not divinum aliquod in morbo something of God in the disease if so he held the Patient to be desperate and his recovery impossible Cujus contrarium verum est If it were the hand of God that smote them the same hand can help them for with him nothing is impossible Let them understand that sickness hath a supernatural as well as a natural cause That all diseases are like the Centurions Servants at the command of God He saith to one Go and it goeth to another Come and it cometh to a third Do this and it doeth it God would have the Israelites know that not onely Sword and Famine and Captivity but also Pestilence Consumptions Feavers and Burning Agues are sent from Heaven Deut. 28. 21 22. He causeth those stormes and tempests and quarrels and contentions that are between the humours in our bodies to their disturbance and destruction therefore Moses beholding the whole body of the Jews except two renowned members corrupted for he lived to see all that came out of Egypt besides to die cryed out Thou turnest man to destruction and â—ayst Return ye children of men SECT V. 3. DEal closely and faithfully with him Let not fear of giving distaste or hope of some advantage to thy self make thee false to the soul of the sick Do not play the part of a Mountebank in using palliating medicines to allay the distemper or Anodynes to stupifie the patient and neglect the root of the malady Alas carnal wretches are prone enough of themselves to deceive and flatter their own souls till it be too late for second thoughts and the wicked one will be at their beds side to hinder if it be possible all means from awakening and undeceiving them be careful therefore lest thou shouldst be any way accessary to Satans design Sin is like the little Serpent Aspis which stings men whereby they fall into a pleasant sleep and in that sleep die sinners need all the rouzing and affrighting considerations that may be He that gives a potion which instead of furthering health procureth death is a Murderer The Flatterer is like the worm Terendo mentioned by Pliny in Nat. Hist. as soft as Silk in the feeling of the hand but it biteth so hard with the
teeth that it eateth out the heart of the strongest timber Flattery is to sin what Oyl to Fire it makes it flame the more O t is dangerous to speak peace where God speaks war shouldst thou do so the blood of such a soul would be required at thy hands Ezek. 33.8 Jer. 23. Faithful dealing will bring thee in most comfort at present and most credit hereafter as also be most advantagious to the sick person When the great day comes the man that hated flattery and scorned for a little profit or favour to disown his duty or prove false to the soul of his Neighbour will hold up his head with courage but the cowardly and fearful wil hang down their heads with shame Rev. 21. 8. 4. Pray with him and for him Sick persons are often full of pain and grief and are more then usually assaulted by Satan whereby they are the less able to pray for themselves and have the more need of the prayers of others It s observable that though the Holy Ghost commandeth men in other afflictions to pray themselves Is any afflicted let him Pray yet when he mentioneth sickness he saith not Is any sick let him Pray But Is any sick let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him Jam. 5. 13 14. i. e. A sick man is not so fit to pray himself he wanteth others to pray for him and with him The soul sympathizeth in the sufferings of the body and the inner man is seldom at rest if the outward man be distempered and disquieted The mind is unfitted for duties by the diseases of the flesh Paul calls his bodily weaknesses a temptation Gal. 4. 13 14. Afflictions on the flesh are temptations to the spirit and sickness is a piercing Arrow in Satans Quiver of temptations If the person be carnal what Motives hast thou from his misery to quicken thee to the duty The poor creature is going to Hell and knoweth it not His destruction is near and he is not aware How should the thoughts of that extremity and eternity of torments which he is every moment liable to stir thee up to be earnest and instant with God on his behalf It may be thou wouldst sit up a whole night to watch with him for the comfort of his body Dost thou not know that the soul is infinitely more worth O watch and pray that he enter not into eternal condemnation Thou art not ignorant that God hath made promises of grace as well as promises to grace and canst not tell but that grace waiteth in heaven for the â—ick person onely thy prayer must be the messenger to fetch it thence God hath shewn mercy at the last he can do it to this man therefore thou mayst have the more hopes Besides it may be his sickness shall not be unto death but onely to heal his diseased soul and so to give him a new life both natural and spiritual The Question before thee is whether that poor sick creatures soul shall be Christs or the Devils for ever and wilt thou not plead hard with God that it may be thrown in to Christ whose title is unquestionable and that the Grand and Arch-enemy of Christ and Men may be frustrated and disappointed in his expectation Zeal to the advancement of thy Redeemers interest and love to the soul of thy Neighbour should actuate and animate thy requests and put life and fervency into thy Petitions If the sick man be godly thou hast the more encouragement to pray God hath promised as much to him as thou canst rationally desire for him He hath hopes to speed that goeth to an honest able man and sheweth him his Bond for what he demands God is infinite both in righteousness and power so that there is no fear of a repulse if you can shew his hand for your request He delights to hear his promises pleaded in prayer and to see his Children so full of affection as to be fervent in their petitions for each other Thou mayst send the same message by prayer to Jesus that the Sister of Lazarus did Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick and mayst be confident of the like gracious answer This sickness is not unto death eternal but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby Next to thy endeavours for the good of thy sick Neighbours spiritual estate it will be fit to advise him about his temporal estate that he may dispose of his worldly affairs and his wealth if God have given him any with wisdom and settle things so firmly that his Relations may not be wrangling for his goods when his body is at rest in his grave Secondly The exercising our selves to Godliness in visiting the sick consisteth in getting good to our own souls by it Though it be forbidden us to enquire of the dead and ask their counsel yet it s commanded us to enquire of the dying and to learn of them Sick men may teach them that are in health many excellent lessons Some say that ground covered with Ashes is made thereby the more fruitful The Dust of the dead falling upon a right soil an honest heart will make it the more abundant in holiness A Christian findeth walking in Hospitals or Church-yards among the sick or dying much conducing to the health and life of his soul. He that was cast dead into his Grave by touching the bones of dead Elisha he was ravished to life That which Elias said to Elisha when he begged a double portion of his spirit If thou seest me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee may fitly be alluded to in this place The sight of others sickness and death and their departures from us is a great means to increase the spirit in us and to double our care and diligence in preparing for such an hour 1. In laying to heart thine own frailty He is but a cold clod of clay and dead already who doth not see his own death in the death of others Sickness is but one remove from death the sick bed is the way to the coffin therefore when thou visitest the sick or dying reflect upon thy self and consider This will be my case or a worse a violent stroak The same enemy that encountred my Neighbour is upon his march towards me and will certainly overtake me The feet of them that carry my friend to his grave are ready to carry me also what need have I to be always in a dying frame and ready for death The very next arrow that death shoots may be levelled at me and shall not I stand always upon my guard in expectation of it and armed for it O how deep will the head of that Arrow pierce me if it find me naked 2. In considering Gods mercy to thee and blessing him for the health thou enjoyest The pain of others will tell thee that ease is a mercy the racking sickness and restless nights
over and commodities be sold. The Adulterer makes use of the dark night for his deeds of darkness Satan watcheth every opportunity to insnare and destroy me if I give him the least advantage by idleness or carnal security or running into occasions of sin he doth presently lay hold on it to pollute me All men indeed may shameâ—me The Mariner doth spread his Sails when the Winds blow The Merchant observes his Exchange hours when he may meet with many friends and dispatch much business in a little time The Lawyer minds his Terms There is a time when Kings go out to Battel 2 Sam. 11. 1. which Souldiers will not neglect The Husbandman makes Hay whilst the Sun shines Yet Ah how foolish am I to let slip those golden seasons which my God giveth me for working out my own salvation Lord thou hast made every thing beautiful in its season But poor silly man knoweth not his time Grant me so much prudence that is the men of Issacar I may have understanding of the times and so much piety as to serve the times not as Worldlings in altering my course according to the fashions and customes of men but in embracing what is tendered in due time for my own and others good always adhering to the Commands of thee my God I Wish that the uncertainty of my sick Neighbours outward recovery may make me the more careful and solicitous about his spiritual health If he die he is stated and fixed for ever and ever and I am for ever deprived of all opportunities of profiting or advantaging his soul. Now he is sick he is nigh death but one step from it The sick stand upon the borders of the grave upon the brink of the pit nay of eternity Those that are in most perfect health are inclining towards death but they that are sick are approaching the Chambers of darkness Such a man may speak in the language of Haman My life draweth nigh unto the grave Psa. 88. 3. Should he depart this life in a natural estate he falleth into the jaws of eternal death All prayers for him will then be fruitless and there is no giving counsel to him after death I must now advise exhort perswade beseech him to mind faith and repentance or never do it I must now put up hearty cries and groans to God on his behalf or never do it The loving kindness of God cannot be declared in the grave nor his faithfulness in destruction When he is wailing in Hell for the ungodliness of his heart and life I may be weeping on earth for my neglect of him or unfaithfulness to him but both our tears will be ineffectual and our cries comfortless O that the love of my Saviour the command of my God the worth of a soul the weight of an eternal estate the fear of losing such a season and the impossibility of recalling or recovering it may all provoke me to be instant with the sick to turn to God and abhor and bewail their sins and to be fervent with God that he would crown my endeavours with success Lord I may speak thy Mind and Will to Men but thou alone who didst make the ear canst enable them to hear let it please thy Majesty so to affect my heart with a due sense of others misery so to direct my tongue what to speak in order to their recovery and so to prosper the undertakings of thy servant that as often as I visit any unconverted person in his sickness I may turn a sinner from the error of his ways save a soul alive and hide a multitude of sins I Wish that I may be solicitous to understand the spiritual conditions of the sick that my prescriptions may be profitable being sutable to their several sores The knowledge of the disease must necessarily precede directions for its cure It s folly to undertake their recovery whose estates I am ignorant of He works at the labour-in-vain who goeth about to heal a wounded Patient when he knoweth not the place or nature of his pain The mistake of the Physitian may be as mortal and dangerous as the disease it self It will be no wonder if a blind man shoot awry and miss the mark This was the cause that Jobs friends though holy men and designing a good end wandred exceedingly and instead of administring comfort by their visitation wounded him to the quick and proved his greatest cross The Sabeans and Chaldeans robbed him of his Cattel Satan wronged him in his body but his three friends vexed his soul and did break him in peices with words Their ignorance was the ground of the hurt they offered instead of the help they intended Job 19. 2. A Friend may do that mischief upon a false supposition which an Enemy doth out of malice Though the Doctrine be true and right if the Application of it be wrong I may kill sooner then cure the person to whom I apply it The Husbandman must know the nature of his ground before he casteth in his seed or otherwise he will miss of his expected crop Lord thou knowest the conditions and dispositions of all men by immediate intuition and needest not that any should testifie of man thou knowest how needful it is for me to understand by rational discourse who and what those sick persons are how things stand betwixt thy Majesty and their souls whose recovery I go about O help me to find out their sickness and to give such advice out of thy word that thou mayst work their cure I Wish that when the condition of the sick person is found out neither fear nor flattery may make me unfaithful to his soul. Those prescriptions cannot be profitable that are not answerable to his estate I am unfaithful to God my Neighbour and my self if my Application be not sutable to his condition My God commandeth me to proclaim War against the presumptuous to preach Peace to the penitent and if I act otherwise out of fear or affection I act contrary to my commission I am false to my trust if I keep not close to the will of my Lord. He that takes not his Masters Precepts for his rule will at last be counted and punished as an unfaithful servant I hinder also my Neighbours good whilst I give him counsel unsutable to his case I may pretend love and respect but its real hatred to flatter him who is hastening to the unquenchable fire How dreadful will his fall be from the high Turret of presumption into the infernal pit of perdition and how little thanks will he give me in the other world for cozening his soul by telling him all was well till he came to see his own and my mistake in hell Again the guilt of such a crime would make a deep gash in my own conscience It s ill slighting or tampering with inestimable souls His blood will be required at my hands and if the blood of a slain body cry so loud
that in the other world I may stand among thy Sheep on thy right hand and hear that blessed heart-chearing voice Come thou blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for thee before the foundation of the World For I was hungry and thou gavest me meat I was thirsty and thou gavest me drink I was a stranger and thou didst take me in I was sick and thou visitedst me when my soul shall be above all sin and my body above all sickness and both blessed in thy favour and fruition for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII How a Christian may exercise himself to Godliness on a Dying Bed SIxthly and Lastly Thy duty is to exercise thy self to Godliness if God give thee opportunity on a Dying Bed The work of a Saint is to glorifie God not onely in his life but also in his death The Silk-worm stretcheth out her self before she spin and ends her life in her long wrought clew The Christian must stretch out himself on his dying Bed and end his life in the work of his Lord. Every Man by his death payeth his debt to nature He is earth in regard of his Original creation and must be earth in regard of his ultimate resolution Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. The Sinner when he dyeth payeth his debt to Sin Satan and the Law To sin as he is the servant of unrighteousness and so must receive its wages which is death To Satan as he hath sold himself to work wickedness at his will and so must have his tempter to be his eternal tormentor To the Law as he hath violated its precepts and commands and therefore must undergo its punishment and curse The Saint when he dieth payeth his debt to God for he oweth him honour as well by his death as by his life Hence we read not onely of their living in the Lord and to the Lord but also of their dying in the Lord and to the Lord Rom. 14. 8. Rev. 14. 13. Which though some expound in that place of the Revelations to the cause for which they died they did not dye out of humour or obstinacy or any carnal selfish interest but purely as Martyrs at Gods call and for Gods cause They loved not their lives to the death for the testimony of Iesus Yet the words may as clearly speak 1. The state in whiâ—â— they died They died in the favour of God reconciled to him through the death of the Mediatour The Castle of their souls was not taken by storm or in a state of emnity and opposition but by a quiet voluntary sâ—rrender or in a state of peace and amity 2. The manner of their deaths They died in the fear of God they exercised grace as well in sickness as in health and when dying as when living their spiritual motions were quick when their natural motions were slow Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus high Priest of Rome that though he lived to a great old age his voice did not fail him nor his hand shake in his sacrificing to the Gods It s said of Moses when he was a hundred and twenty years old and dyed that his natural sight did not fail him neither was his heat abated So it may be said of the Christian that though he die old his spiritual sight doth not fail him nor his divine heat abate As Caleb he is as strong in regard of grace his inward strength when he is entering into the promised Canaan as he was when he first went forth as a spie by faith to search the land flowing with milk and honey The Heathen counted him happy that dyed either in the midst of the goods of fortune hence they say if Priamus had died a little before the loss of his Town he had died the greatest Prince in all Asia or in the exercise of their moral vertues Hence they so highly extol Seneca and Socrates who seemed to dare even death it self out of resolution and fortitude Though those seeming vertues were but as Austin terms them Splendida Flagitia Famous Vices and their confidence arose not from any grounded knowledge of their good estates but from their blindness and ignorance of their depraved wicked and woful estates He is the happy man indeed that dieth in the faith that sleepeth in Iesus that goeth to his grave in the exercise of grace The Master of Moral Philosophy commendeth that Pilot whom a Ship-wrack swalloweth up at the Stern with the Rudder in his hand The most high God commendeth that person whom death seiseth doing the work for which he was sent into the world Even the blind Mole if Naturalists may be credited opens his eyes when he comes to dye and the crooked Serpent stretcheth out her self straight when she is going to fetch her last breath and shall not the Saint be best at last Reader Observe how careful the Saints have been to do their last work well and to go out of the world like some sweet spices perfuming the room in which they fetch their last breath with holiness and leaving a sweet savour behind them Jacob when dying worshipped leaning on his staff Heb. 11. 21. What a Character doth he give of the Angel of the Covenant and what blessings doth he pray for and prophesie to come on his children when he was going from them How was his heart enlarged in pantings after the Lord Christ Gen. 48. 16. and 49. per tot The living waters of his graces ran with the greater strength when they were emptying themselves into the Ocean of glory Moses like the dying Swan sings most sweetly being to go up to Mount Nebo to dye there What excellent doctrines reproofs instructions doth he deliver to the Israelites How pathetically rhetorically divinely doth he dictate his last legacies to his Political children who can read and not be ravished with wonder and delight Deut. 32. 33. Ioshua like the morning star shines brightest at last He gives his people so strict a charge to serve the Lord such gracious counsel when he was going the way of all the earth that it could not but be remembred many days after Dying Ioseph will lay his bones at stake for Gods faithfulness and that he will visit Israel and deliver them out of Egypt Sampson did the Church of God much service in slaying more of her enemies at his death then in his life Iulius Caesar among the Romans and Olympia the Mother of Alexander among the Grecians were famous for their care to die handsomely and not to commit at last any ill beseeming action whereby their memories should have been rendred inglorious But the Christians care hath always been to die holily and to do their God most service when they are going to that place where they shall do him no more in a proper sense Philosophers tell us that the soul upon deaths approach is more divine and supernaturally inclined certain it is the soul of a Saint onely doth then more
aspire heaven-ward when its returning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to its original divinity according to Plotinus his phrase of death As his Saviour he brings out his best wine at last and his last works are more then his first Rev. 2. 19. The blessed Prince and Lord of life should be our pattern at death He got his Father most glory he did his Church most good by his death though he was eminently serviceable to both all his life time It s said of him He was obedient Phil. 2. 7. to the death Which may import 1. His continuance in well-doing His obedience lasted to the last moment of his life so should ours Elisha would not leave his Master till taken from him into Heaven and we should not leave our Lord till taken to him into Heaven Polycarp in his old age being urged by the Proconsul to deny Christ answered I have served him eighty six years and he never once hurt me and shall I now deny him 2. His obedience in his death His death was a Free-will offering in obedience to his Fathers command Not onely his birth and life was an answer to his Fathers call A body hast thou prepared c. Then said I Lo I come to put on that body to take upo◠〈◊〉 that nature and thereby and therein to do thy Will O God but also his death was in pursuance of his duty This commandment received I of my Father Thus the Christians death must be offered up as a sacrifice to God in obedience to his command The Sinners soul is Prest to this War in which there is no discharge This night thy soul shall be required of thee The Saint understanding the orders from the Lord of Hosts is a Voluntier He gives up the Ghost Into thy hands Lord I commend my Spirit 3. The gracious manner of his dying The Sun of righteousness when setting did shine most gloriously Though at his death he had such infinite disadvantage being to wrestle with the frowns of an incensed God the fury of earth and Hell and met with clouds black and thick enough to have obscured the graces and hindered the holiness of any but himself from shining at all yet how brightly did they break forth in the midst of all those Fogs and Mists and Darkness What holy counsel and comfort did he give his Disciples to prepare them for his departure in his last and one of his longest Sermon Ioh. 14 15 16. What an heavenly prayer doth he put up to his Father for them and all his elect to give them both a taste and a pledge of that intercession which he was going to Heaven to make for them When he was hanging on the Cross under such an heavy weight as the sins of the whole World Grace was not depressed His love to his Mother is observeable Woman behold thy Son And from that hour that Disciple took her to his own house John 19. 26. But his love to his membrenâ— though enemies was wonderful Father forgiâ—â— them they know not what they do His Faith in his Father Father into thy hands I commend my spirit His pity to one of the Theives His Patience in bearing the scoffing words and taunts more bitter then Worm-wood of them that passed by reviling him as well as in suffering the wracking of his bones and whole body and the anger of an infinite God in his soul without any murmuring may well call for our admiration Reader he hath set thee a pattern that thou shouldst follow his steps Some tell us the Phoenix of Saba in Arabia Faelix so called from Phoenicea or the Purple colour of her wings liveth six hundred and sixty years at the end of which time she buildeth her a nest of Cassia Calamus Cinnamon and other precious spices and gums which the Sun by the extremity of his heat and the wavering of her wings fires and she taking delight in the sweetness of the savour hovers so long over it that she burns her self in her own Nest. Thus did the blessed Jesus and thus ought his followers to expire in a Nest of sweet Spices the exercise of the graces of the holy Spirit It was a poor farewel to the world which even Octavius Augustus gave when at the point of death he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Head and beard combed and his shriveled Cheeks smoothed up then asking his friends if he had acted his part well Cum ita responderint vos omnes igitur inquit Plaudite It is a dreadful conclusion which Pliny relates the Hyberboreans to make who when they have lived to one hundred years or more make a great feast to which they invite all their friends and after their jollity and mirth throw themselves down a steep rock and so perish Ungodly men are always worst at last when they come to the bottom they are flat and dead and nothing but grounds and dregs How often in the eyes of the world do wicked persons go out like a Lamp leaving a stench behind them The scandalous sinner usually like the Goats beard or star of Jerusalem closeth up the flower of his presumptuous hope at high noon he is cast in his own conscience long before his death The Hypocrite ordinarily as the Daysie and Dandelion declares the approach of the evening by shutting up before its approach If he be gold in the morning and silver at noon yet as we say of Butter he is lead at night What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God shall take away his soul As its storied of the Pardora a people in India that in their youth they have silver hairs but in their age their hairs are quite black Or as the She Wolf hath a yearly defect in generation the first time she hath five the second time four then three then two then one then barren ever after So the Hypocrite dâ—clines and decreaseth in goodness faster then the Moon in its last quarter and is commonly worst at last But the sincere Christian hath his best at the bottom and hath his daintiest dish reserved to be served in at the last courseâ— Naturalists tell us of Honey that that is the thickest and best Honey which is squeezed last out of the Comb. O what excellent periods and endings both in regard of the exercise of grace and comfort have many of the Children of God made The Death-bed to some Saints hath been like Tharah to the Israelites in the Wilderness where after many journeys growing near to the Land of Canaan they rested themselves and it was called Tharah from Roah and Tarah which signifieth a breathing time The Sun when it declines into the West hath even then much more light then any of the Stars The meanest upright Christian when he is near setting hath more joy and comfort then a specious Hypocrite any day of his life When some asked Oecolampadius lying on his death-bed whether the light did not offend him he answered pointing
guns of the losâ— of his Cattel and Estate and Servants would have done some execution in making some breach upon his faith and patience and this great gun playing when he was before tired in defending must needs shatter him in peices He may fitly be called the Wolf of the Evening Jer. 5. 6. that devoureth This roaring Lyon walketh in the night to seek his prey There have been few eminent Saints but have found their Death-bed a Bed of Thorns in regard of temptations Mr. Knox said when he came to dye In my life time the Devil tempted me to despair casting my sins in my teeth but now in my sickness he tells me I have been faithful in the Ministery and so have merited Heaven but blessed be God who brought those Texts into my mind Not I but the grace of God in me What hast thou that thou hast not received The Israelites never met with so much opposition as when they were to take possession of the Land of Canaan then all the Kings of Canaan combined together and came out and fought them When Satan was to be cast out of the possessed person and never to enter into him more he rent him and tore him that the people thought he was dead Now Reader What need hast thou to be serious and holy on a dying Bed to the utmost of thine ability and to fetch in all the strength thou canst from Heaven when thou hast such cruel powerful enemies to encounter with It s was one of the most quickening prevalent arguments that Alexander used to the Macedonians before their third and last fatal Battel with Darius That tâ—ey were to fight with all the strength of Persia at once What an awakening argument should it be to thee that thou art to fight with all the Powers of Hell at once Secondly Consider It s a special season wherein thou mayst glorifie God A Saint by his death may bring God more honour then by all his life The Actions and Speeches of dying men make a deep impression on the hearts of those that are about them The wicked themselves who have mocked at the purity and strictness of the Saints lives have admired their patience and chearfulness in their deaths Though they look on the beleivers words in health as savouring of self and sinister ends and humour and so neglect them yet when they hear a dying Saint commend the love and faithfulness of God the pleasantness and excellency of his ways and worship and to bless the time and pains and strength that ever they spent in his service they esteem his language and begin to have other thoughts of Holiness and Heaven for they consider that surely now the man is entering upon the borders of eternity he is serious and in earnest Hence the Patriarchs knowing the prevalency of such words urge Ioseph with Iacobs dying charge Thy Father when dying said Forgive I pray thee the iniquity of thy servants Gen. 50. 16. That Ruâ—â—ian that would live with his fellow Riotors beholding the holy behaviour of Ambrose on his Death-bed would chuse to dye with Ambrose The enemies of Christ beholding at the death of Christ how the Rocks were rent darkness covered the face of the earth how the vail of the Temple was torn in sunder the graves were opened the dead raised were forced to cry out Doubtless this man was the Son of God So when the adversaries of Gods people see them on their Death-beds and behold their patience in bearing their sickness their Faith in relying on their Saviour their charity in forgiving their enemies their zeal for the honour and interest of their Master their constancy in defending the Gospel they did before profess they are compelled in their consciences to acknowledge Doubtless these are the Servants the Sons and Daughters of God Much more will a holy behaviour on a Dying-bed benefit such as fear God It convinceth sinners that they whether they will or no must have other thoughts of holiness and holy men then formerly and it confirmeth Saints in their gracious practices and makes them more diligent in their preparation Mr. Bilny the day before he suffered death being told that though the fire was hot Gods Spirit would cool it to his everlasting refreshing answered putting his hand in the flame of the Candle I feel by experience and have known by Philosophy that Fire by Gods Ordinance is very hot but yet I am perswaded by Gods holy Word and by the experience of some spoken of therein That in the flame they felt no heat and in the fire no consumption and I constantly beleive howsoever the stubble of this my body shall be wasted by it yet my soul and spirit shall be purged thereby a pain for the time whereon followeth joy unspeakable And then he most comfortably treated on Isaiah 43. 1 2. But now Thus said the Lord that created thee O Jacob and that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have redeemed thee When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Which words he applied both to himself and his friends then present Of which some reaped such fruit that they caused the words to be fair written on Tables The comfort whereof in several that were with him was never taken from them to their dying day O t is very profitable to others when a Saint so behaveth himself on his Death-bed that he may say to his Friends and Relations as Sir Robert Harleigh did to his Children I have formerly taught you how to live and now I teach you how to die Thirdly Consider It s the last opportunity that thou shalt ever have to do any work for thy God and Saviour and thy own soul When thou diest thou goest to the place where thou shalt receive thy reward and shalt never never more have any season to sow to the Spirit in to serve thy Redeemer in and to manifest thy thankfulness to him for his love to thee I must work the work of him that sent me whilst it is day saith Christ for the night cometh wherein no man can work Ioh. 9. 4. Thou mayst when dying say to thy friends as the Crier of the Ludi seculares which happened but once in a hundred years did at Rome Come see that which ye never saw before nor shall ever see again He that hath but one Arrow to shoot but one throw to cast but one opportunity left him to work out his salvation in may well improve it to the utmost A certain Martyr going to suffer expressed his sorrow that he was going thither Where he should do his God no more service Our God is so good that his work is desireable and were it possible for any grief in Heaven saith Dr. Sibs it would arise from a Christians consideration that he did no more
lay a dying he lift up his head from his Pillow to hear the discourses of his friends that sat by him saying I shall dye with the more comfort if I can dye learning something The Christian both by his painful sickness and approaching death may learn something of the evil of sin and certainly he may dye with the more comfort for godly sorrow and joy may be contemporaries as the Heavens shine and showr at the same time if he dye in a flood of tears for his unkindness to Christ. 4. Charity in a double respect 1. In forgiving them that have wronged thee If the natural Sun should not go down upon our wrath muchless should the Sun of our Lives It s bad to bear anger or malice one hour in our hearts against any but it s worst of all to carry it with us into the other world How can he expect to dye in peace with God who dyeth in war with men when God himself hath said Except ye forgive others their trespasses against you neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses Amilcar the Father of Hannibal when he was dying made his Son take a solemn Oath to maintain a perpetual War with the Romans Edward the first adjured his Son and Nobles that if he dyed in his expedition against Bruce King of Scotland they should not inter his Corps but carry it about with them till they had avenged him on that Usurper But certainly its a desperate thing to leave Children Heirs to the Parents wrath and rage as well as to his riches O how dreadful is his estate who takes his enemy by the throat when God by death is taking him by the throat and ready to thrattle him for ever If thou hast wronged others either in name or goods or body seek reconciliation and make satisfaction for this is righteous and just If thy brother hath ought against thee thou hast never more need of reconciling thy self to him then when thou art approaching the Altar of death there to offer up the last sacrifice to God in this world If thy Brother have wronged thee in any sort remit it this is charity to do otherwise is to give place to the Devil Eph. 4. 16 17. and thou hast least cause to give him ground when his rage is greatest and his barteries strongest in thy last conflict with him O! imitate that blessed Martyr Stephen and the incomparable Saviour in begging Gods love for them who hate thee Act. 7. 60. Luke 23. 34. 2. In remembring the poor and afflicted if God hath made thee able its best to be merciful in our life-time to make our own hand our Executors and our own eyes our Overseers for the payment of our Gifts and Legacies to our spiritual Kindred for such have a particular promise that God will make all their bed in their sickness but its good to be charitable when we are dying True friends show most love at parting Though justice must be blind not to see persons yet charity must be quick-sighted to pick out the fittest objects viz. the poor and the pious poor in the first place Our Goods will not extend to God therefore they must to the Saints When Ionathan was beyond the reach of Davids charity he doth for his sake manifest it to his Son God is beyond all our gifts therefore for his sake we must bestow them on the Godly that are his Children Make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when that faileth ye may be received into the everlasting habitations Hereby men lay up a good foundation against the time of need Godly Parents are ignorant how their Children may imploy the estate they leave whether as fuel for corruption or as oyl to keep the Lamps in Gods sanctuary burning its good therefore for themselves with prudence to dispose of what they may to Gods Servants and Service Some men have estates dropping on them out of the clouds as it were large inheritances fair patrimonies like Canaan both in regard of their fruitfulness and abounding with all sorts of comforts and in regard of their easiness of obtaining them without sweat or labour they inherit aâ— the Israelites Houses which they built not Wells which they digged not and Vineyards which they planted not upon both these accounts such persons are engaged to do good and distribute and to be rich in good works God expects a return of his Talents with advantage How liberal nay lavish have many Papists been upon their death-beds to Friars and Monks even to the wronging their Wives and Children that some States as Venice have been forced to make Laws to restrain men lest the Church should in time swallow up all the revenues of the Common-wealth and all this upon a foolish vain conceit that they should the sooner pass through Purgatory It is certainly a great disgrace to the Disciples of Christ and no mean dishonour to Christ himself that so many and such large gifts have proceeded from the false faith of Merit-mongers when the faith of his most glorious Gospel doth not work the like in true beleivers How will Christians answer it that an idle Dream and fancied Fear of an imaginary Purgaâ—ory should do more them the sure perswasion of the love of God and the certain hope of eternal life 4. Patience and Submission to the will of God both as to our death or life and also as to our pain or ease in sickness As to our life and death we must know God is wise and will never gather his fruit but in the best season None ununless a fool but will be willing God should chuse for him It s excellent for a sickâ—person to be wholly at Gods disposal as knowing that whilst he is here God will refresh him with the first fruits and when he goeth hence receive him into that place where he shall enjoy the whole harvest It was the speech of dying Iulian he that would not dye when he must and â—e that would dye when he must not are both of them Cowards alike To desire to live when one is called to dye is a sign of Cowardise for such a one is afraid to enter the list with the King of terrors To desire to dye when one is called to live speaks a faint-hearted creature for such a man dares not look an affliction or disaster in the face therefore would take shelter in deathâ— Cato Cleombrotus Lucretia shewed more cowardise then courage in being their own Executioners The Romans commended Terentius for his resolution to live after his Army was routed by Hannibal He is the most valiant person that can dye willingly when God would have him dye and live as willingly when God would have him live He that is weary of his work before the evening is an unprofitable servant and is either infected with idleness or with diseases When Dr. Whitaker was told death was approaching he answered Life or Death is welcom to me which God pleaseth Mr.
Robert Bolton being told that it would be better for the Church of God if God pleased to spare his life said If I shall find favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation if not Lo here I am let him do with me what he pleaseth Another pious soul in his sickness cryed out Domine si tibi sim necessarius non recuso vivere Lord if I may be further serviceable to thee I am willing to live Lucius Cornelius Lieutenant in Portugal under Fabius the Consul was infamous to following ages for his impatience in complaining of his Physitian and railing at Esculapius for not accepting his vow and passionate desire of having his life spun out to a longer thread We cannot blame them who have their portion in this life for their unwillingness to leave it and to become beggers in Hell for ever Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit saith Ciprian de Moral Let him fear death who must pass from this death to the second death To such a one indeed death is a Murderer like Iehorams messenger comes to take away the life of his soul and all his happiness and therefore he may well call as Elisha did shut the door and keep him out Many Saints who died violent and cruel deaths yet gave their very enemies cause to admire their patience They wearied out their bloody Persecutors by their meekness and patience Bonner said of the Martyrs in Queen Marys days A vengeance on them I think they love to burn When that old Disciple Policarp came to the stake at which he was burnt to death he desired to stand untied saying Let me alone for he that gave me strength to come to the fire will give me patience to endure the flame without your tying Cassianus with admirable meekness suffered a cruel Martyrdom from his own Scholars who at the command of the barbarous Tyrant became his Executioners some with their Pen Knives pricking and lancing his flesh others casting stones at him till they had killed him Eulaliae a chast virgin of a noble Family in Portugal being for a time kept close by her Parents for fear her bold Profession should cause her death one night getting from them and appearing before the Tribunal of Maximnus she was for refusing to sacrifice to his Idols Executed in this manner first two Hangmen with all their might rent her joynts in sunder then her flesh was scratched from her sides with the Talons of Wild Beasts and hot burning Torches were set to her sides which ended her life A Christian should also exercise patience and submission to Gods will under his pain It is the rule of Hippocrates that that sickness is most dangerous in which the sick man alters his countenance Undoubtedly its ill and unbecomming Christianity when men who in health are mild and meek in sickness are altered to be peevish and passionate that their relations and attendants who pity their pain and pray for their ease and watch and work night and day to serve them are requited with harsh words and fretful returns Cajus Marius suffered the veins of his legs to be cut out for the cure of his Gout and never shrunk for it The Grecians were cowardly in their encounters with men but valiant and patient in their conflicts with diseases Master Ieremiah Whitaker who on his death-bed had dreadful fits of the stone bore them with maâ—vellous patience often turning up his eyes to Heaven and saying Blessed be God this is not Hell The Saint who is in covenant with God and hath engaged himself to God to submit to all his providences and hath God engaged to him to lay no more upon him then he will enable him to bear may well with patience endure the divine pleasure Vincentius a Spaniard who was Martyred at Valence under Dacianus the President of the cruel Tyrant Dioclestan was used in this manner first he was laid upon the wrack and all the joynts of his body distended till they crackt again then all the members of his body were pierced and indented with deadly wounds then they vexed and tore his flesh with Iron Combs sharply filed then they laid his body on an Iron grate and when they had opened his flesh with Iron Hooks they seared it with fiery Plates sprinkling the same with hot burning Salt last of all they cast him into a vile Dungeon the floor whereof was first thick spread with the sharpest shells that might be gotten his feet then being fast locked in the stocks there he was left alone till he died all which he endured without murmuring or complaining and according to his name Vincentius was over all a Conquerour And shall not Christians who dye in their Beds in peace with much less pain be patient Many who knew not God did look on death as a favour and one of the greatest which their Gods could bestow on them Agamedes and Trophonius having built the Temple of Apollo asked of that God a reward for their service They were answered that within seven days they should be bountifully paid for their pains at the end of which time they dyed in a sleep One of Caesars crazed Souldiers desired the favour of the Emperor to have leave to kill himself Especially the thoughts of the happy issue of the most painful sickness and death to a Child of God may as the wood thrown into the bitter waters of Marah make them sweet unto him Some chuse to be cut rather then to be daily tortured with the stone though they know that cutting will put them to much pain because they hope that cutting will cure them of their distemper When a Gaoler knocks off a Prisoners Fetters and Bolts though it puts him to much more pain then the constant wearing them though every blow goeth to his heart yet he flincheth not he complaineth not because he knoweth his future ease will make amends for his present pain Christians are here fettered with sin and misery which constantly grate upon their spirits Death is the Gaoler to knock of their shackles and let them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God what though it put them to much pain they may bear it with much patience knowing that it will end in eternal pleasures Though an Hypocrite like a piece of Brass when stricken with the Hammer of Sickness or Death maketh a sharp and irksome noise with impatience and breaketh in peices is undone for ever yet the sincere soul as a piece of Gold when so smitten may sound sweetly and be pliable True Gold may be stretcht out in length and breadth in thin and fine leaves as you please Now Reader that thou mayst thus glorifie thy God credit thy profession further thine account and advantage others by thy death it is requisite that thou be always ready for it The Qâ—arter-day never comes amiss to him that hath always his Rent
ready by him The loving Husband let him come when he will is ever welcom to a faithful Spouse The actual unpreparedness of some holy persons hath caused their Petitions for a longer stay when God seemed to call them hence Psa. 39. 13. As a Nobleman who is a Loyal Subject and affectionately desires his Princes presence and company at his house may wish that it may be deferred when his house is out of repairs till it is in a better order The habitual unpreparedness of sinners I mean their predominant impenitency and unbeleif hath made death cutting to them indeed The Pismire fears not the Winter having laid in her provision against that season but the Graâ—hopper being unprepared is starved therein Let thy whole life be but a preparation for death He that would dye but once I mean escape the second death must dye daily live in a constant expectation of it and preparation for it Pliny calleth a sudden death the greatest fortune of a mans life Iulius Caesar the day before his death in discourse with Marius Lepidus upon that point what was the best end of a mans life preferred that which was sudden and unlookt for which was his fate the next day Augustus his Successor was of the same judgement and desired Mortem celerem insperatem But the Christian findeth by experience that death to be the best which was most expected and prepared for Meditatio mortis vita perfectissima The Meditation of death is the holiest life â—aith the Father Tota vita meditatio mortis discendum est mori The whole life is but a learning to dye saith the Philosopher Wise Princes lay up ten years for one days Battel A wise Christian will lay up every day somewhat for his last day knowing that if he win that combat he is made for ever Invasions or Insurrections like a sudden breach of the Sea carry all before them when pitcht Battels give equal advantage and cause less terror on each side Evils premeditated are often prevented always mitigated the mind gathering reason and strength together wherewith to encounter them But unthought of troubles like fire in the night are most frightful startling the secure sinner from his quiet repose In order to this preparation I shall mention two or three particulars but briefly having spoken to them else-where 1. Keep a clear conscience in thy health Remember that sin is the sting of death therefore be afraid of sin if thou wouldst not be afraid of death T was Nero's answer to Seneca when he advised him to desist his wicked courses that he might please the Gods Verâ—or ego deos cum talia facio Do you think I fear the gods who dare run upon such actions But he who did not dread the Gods found death dreadful to him for the Historian observeth that he cried pittifully like a Child when he was called forth to be killed T is the righteous onely that is bold as a Lion because the rigâ—teous onely hath a conscience sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb and a conscience void of offence towards God and Man When Hilarion was nigh death Depart my soul saith he depart what dost thou fear thou hast served Christ almost seventy years and art thou afraid of death Bernard observeth of Gerrard I beheld him exultantem in morte hominem insultantem morti exulting in death and insulting over death St. Ambrose undauntedly encountred his last enemy saying I have not so lived that I am afraid to live any longer neither do I fear to die because we have a good Lord. The Testimony of a good conscience was the great Apostles comfort in the midst of his trials and troubles 2 Cor. 1. 12. T is guilt which makes us shie of a severe and Holy Gods presence It is no marvail that Alexander the Conqueror was struck almost dead at the sight of Cyrus Tomb that Sigismond when dying should forbid his servants to mention the word Death that Lewis the eleventh should while in health enjoyn his Courtiers not to speak of Death and when sick prohibit the naming it upon pain of death I do not wonder that Saul upon the news of his approaching danger and death falls groveling on the ground and hath no strength left in him nor that Belteshazar upon the tidings of this Serjeants coming to arrest him fell into an Ague Quaking and Shivering so violently that all the wine which he drank so plentifully in his golden Bowles could not chear his heart nor fetch blood into his cheeks The Malefactour may well dread the thoughts much more the approach of an Assize knowing that he is bound over to it and must appear to be arraigned condemned and executed The entry of death may well be forcible upon them whom it ejects out of all their happiness and whole lives have been made up of unholiness T is vice that paints death with such a formidable countenance with a whip and flames in its hand Friend let thy conversation be pious if thou wouldst dye in peace Such as a mans life is usually such is his death An unholy life is ordinarily followed with an unhappy end A filthy Adulterer mentioned by Luther expired in the armes of an Harlot So also Tigillinus Cornelius Gallus Ladislaus King of Naples one of the Popes died in the embraces of strange flesh A great swearer when he came to dye saith Mr. Bolton swore apace and as if he had been already in Hell called upon the standers by to help him with oaths King Henry the second on his death-bed cursed his Sons the day wherein he was born and in that distemper departed the World saith the Historian which himself had so often distempered We read of one who lived well that died ill and of but one in the whole Book of God who lived ill that dyed well A sinner may presume upon peace at death and bespeak in the language of Iehoram to Iehu Is it peace Jehu Is it peace death or as the Elders to Samuel Comest thou peaceably but the Answer will be the same with that of Iehu to him What peace can there be so long as the whordoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her witch-crafts are so many What peace can there be so long as thy lâ—sts and atheism and ignorance and prophaness abound and thy abominations are so many It s no wonder that such persons like Owles are never heard but at night the close of their days and then they screech horribly What shall we call a mocking of God saith a learned person if they do not mock him who think it enough to ask him forgiveness at leasure with the last drawing of a malicious breath these find out a new God make one a leaden one like Lewis the eleventh of France And again Let us not flatter our immortal souls to neglect God all our lives and know that we neglect him trusting upon the peace we think to make at parting for this is no
other then a rebellious presumption and a contemptuous laughing to scorn and a deriding of God his Laws and Precepts Unquestionably such will be grosly mistaken at last in falling from their heights into Hell As the Daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her Father was lifted up that Iupiter washed him and the Sun annointed him but it proved to him but a sad prosperity for after a long life and large prosperity he was surprised by his enemies and hanged up till the dew of Heaven wet his cheeks and the Sun melted his grease Reader Let me bespeak thee as Iotham did the men of Sechem Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Hearken unto me in this day of thy health and life that God may hearken unto thee in the day of thy sickness and death Make thy peace with God now give a Bill of divorce to sin strike an hearty Covenant with Christ keep thy conscience clean every day allow not thy self in any known sin if thou wouldst leave this world in favour with God in the love of good men and to thy eternal gain Nihil est in morte quod metuamus si nihil timendum vita commisit saith the Antient Death hath nothing frightful but what a prophane life makes so They who flie from the holiness of God in life may well fear the justice of God at death A sinner indeed is every day carrying more Faggots to that pile in which he must burn for ever and always twisting those cords with which Devils will eternally scourge him and therefore the guilt of his wicked life and fear of his dreadful wages may well represent death to him in a frightful vizard But he who makes it his constant business to please his Maker to mortifie his earthly members to crucifie the flesh to serve the Wills of God in his generation and to dress his soul against the coming of the Bridegroom shall finde his latter end comfortable and the day of his death better then the day of his birth O Friend if thou wouldst dye comfortably live conscienciously An happy death is the conclusion of an holy life God hath joyned them together and none can part them asunder It s reported of the Dardani that they never Wash but three times when they are Born when they Marry and when they Dye The true Christian must be daily washing his soul by faith in the blood of his Saviour and bathing himself in the tears of repentance and hereby his soul will be fit to be commended into the Hands of God by well dying 2. Clear up thine evidences for Heaven Be not contented to leave thy salvation at uncertainty They who walk in the dark are full of frights and fears The comfort of thy death will depend much upon the clearness of thy deeds and evidences for eternal life The want of diligence about this hath caused many of the Children of God to go crying to Bed and wrangling to their eternal rest They dye and know not how they shall speed in the other world they fall into the hands of their enemy Death as the Lepers into the hands of the Syrians expecting nothing but cruelty and misery trembling every step of the way though they find good chear and all sorts of comforts 3. Dwell much in the thoughts of Deaths Cicero said of Fencing Fortissima adversus mortem dolorem disciplina It was the strongest fence against the fear of death So I may say of entertaining death frequently in our meditations it s a good guard against the terror of death Custom diminisheth the dread of things which to nature are so frightful Marius before he would bring out his Souldiers to fight with the Cimbres caused them to stand upon the trenches to acquaint themselves with the terrible aspect of those Savages and so brought them to contemn them which at first sight they so amazedly feared When we are on a sudden surprized by an unexpected adversary we want time to unite our strength to resist the assault but what we expect we provide for and so are the better able to encounter with it The old people that lived near the Riphaean Mountains were taught to discourse much of Death and to converse with it and to speak of it as of a thing that will certainly come and ought so to do hence their resolutions were strengthned to undergo it with patience and courage As Cordials lose their vertue so even Poisons their venome by frequent use Mithridates by constant use of it made it so far from being mortal that it was nourishing to him Though Death in its own nature be venemous the Christian by frequent meditation of it and application of the blood of Christ to his soul may make it profitable to him 4. Wean thy heart from the earth They who love the earth as their Heaven will be unwilling to leave it though for Heaven Canst thou bear the loss of some worldly comforts when God takes them from thee if not how wilt thou be able to bear the loss of all worldly comforts in a dying hour If running with Footmen weary thee how wilt thou be able to run with Horsemen If a little loss a little load be ready to break thy back what wilt thou do under the weight of a great one Paul was martyred in his affections before he was martyred in his body and dead to the world before he was slain by the world hence he came to dare even death it self and to bid it do its worst I protest by your rejoycing which I have in Christ Iesus I dye daily Should a Messenger have come to Paul and told him you must dye to morrow and leave all the good things of this life He might have said That is not now to do for I died yesterday and this day and every day and I have already taken my leave of this world and all its vanities Those that like Eeles lye in the mud of worldly pleasures are unfit to be sacrificed to God as being unclean creatures and unwilling to part with their present delights though for those that are more excellent The immoderate love of sublunary vanities makes men say as Peter at Christs transfiguration It is good to be here albeit like him they know not what they say 5. Set thy house in order After the heart is set in order the next work is to set the house in order according to Gods counsel Isa. 38. 1. Abraham was careful before his death to settle the affairs of his houshold as appeareth by his providing a fit spouse for Isaac and his giving gifts to the Children of his second Wife and sending them away Gen. 24. 1 2. and 25. 6. This ought to be done in the time of our health and strength partly because we are uncertain whether we shall have time and ability in sickness to do it or no. How many have died suddenly and why not thou and I as well as others Some who had a
mind to make their Wills have not had a tongue to do it with Others who have had a tongue have lost the use of their understandings partly because in sickness we should have as little as may be to do with the World All occasions of disturbance or distraction to our souls should be prevented The disposition of what God hath given thee must be with prudence for the maintenance of love among Relations with plainness that thy meaning may not be mistaken and with judgement and ability for the preventing of all Quarrels and Law-suits amongst such as are interested in it Reader If thou art careful and faithful in the discharge of these particulars thy Funeral will prove a Festival and the Sun of thy life will set as the natural Sun in a clear evening not in a cloud but in such a red skie as to prognosticate the ensuing day to be fair thy certain and comfortable resurrection to bliss and honour Thy name will live when thou art dead and thy memory be blessed amongst all that fear the Lord. Tacitus makes one of the Sempronii not wholly to degenerate from the honour of his house onely for dying well Constantia mortis hand indigna Sempronio nomine Nero did tacitly wipe Claudius the Emperour though himself were the worst of the two when in an ambiguous phrase he mentions his death Desinit Morari inter homines Every sinner goeth out like a snuff but the just shall be had in everlasting remembrance By practicing these duties thou shalt come to die in the Lord to rest from thy labours and to have thy works following thee to thine endless blessed reward A Good Wish about the Christians exercising himself to Godliness on a Dying Bed wherein the former heads are applied THe righteous God having appointed death to be the end of all the Children of men as the common road through which they pass into the other world to receive according to what they have done in this life whether it be good or whether it be evil I Wish that I may be wise to consider of my latter end and so live that I may rather desire then be afraid to dye that my last days may be my best days and I may imitate my Redeemer in bringing my God much honour and doing his Church much service when I am entring into my Masters joy The evening praiseth the day the last scene commends the Act. The rivers the nearer they draw to the Sea the sooner they are met by the tide Though to guide a vessel safely along in the Ocean argueth much skill and such a Pilot is worthy of praise yet at the very entrance into theâ— Haven then to avoid the Rocks and to cast Anchor in a safe Road argueth most skill and deserveth most praise Musitians reserve the sweetest strain for the close of their lesson Orators though in every part of their speech they use great care yet in the close of their speech they use the utmost of their Rhetorick and put forth all their art and skill to stir up all the affections of their hearers that they may leave at last the deepest impressions upon their hearts of those things which they would perswade to My whole life ought to be noâ—thing else but a pleading with my God for mercy and a walking according to his word but when I come to the period of my days how powerful should my prayers how pious my practices be how lively my graces how holy my whole conversation that my God may say of me as once of Thyatira I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more then the first Though violent Motions are slowest at last as being farthest from that strength which forced them contrary to their own inclinations yet natural motions proceeding from an inward principle the nearer the centre the swifter the motion Though Hypocrites and such as have onely a form of godliness grow worse and worse and fill up the measure of their lusts with the measure of their lives yet gracious persons and such as have the power of godliness grow better and better and compleat their task with their time O that the longings the desires the faith the hope the delight of my soul like the approaches of a Needle may be so much the more quick by how much they draw nearer to their Load-stone Iesus Christ. Lord thou hast an absolute dominion over me both living and dying It s thy word None of thine liveth to himself or dyeth to himself But whether they live they live unto the Lord and whether they dye they dye unto the Lord and whether they live or dye they are the Lords O help me to glorifie thee both by my life and by my death Let thy spirit be strong within me when my flesh is weak When the Keepers of the house shall tremble shew thy self the Keeper and strength of my heart When the Grinders shall cease because they are few or weak give me to feed on the Manna of thy promises and that bread which came down from Heaven When the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low let me hear by faith the song of Moses and the Lamb sung by the celestial quire When they that look out at the Window are darkened let the eyes of my soul be opened to behold with thy dying Martyr Stephen Iesus sitting at the right hand of God Let my hope and desire look out at the Windows and say Why is his Chariot sent to fetch me to himself so long a comming Why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Make hast my beloved be thou like the Heart and Roe upon the Mountains of spices Whether I perish in the field with Abel or in the Prison with the Baptist or in my bed with Jacob grant me thy gracious comforting presence and then though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear none ill O do thou undertake my conduct in my passage over the rough waters of this Jordan into Canaan and then there will be no danger of drowning Assist me so to live by faith that I may dye in the faith and when my friends take my earthly body to their disposal O do thou receive my Heaven-born soul into the armes of thine infinite mercy for thou hast redeemed it Lord God of truth I Wish that I may frequently ponder what a serious solemn thing it is to dye How ever light or vain or jesting my life hath been my death will be in earnest I cannot dally or trifle with it It will not dally or trifle with me It can be done but once and upon it my everlasting making or marring depends It â—s so certain that all must willing or unwilling ready or unready undergo it Neither the policy of Achithophel nor the strength of Sampson nor the wisdom of Solomon nor the beauty of Absolom nor the piety of Abraham nor the wealth
of the rich Glutton can prevail to avoid it No time no place no company no houses no lands no relations no youth no strength no power no preferments can priviledge me against the arrest of death God hath decreed it Sin hath deserved it and I must expect it It is so searching that it will discover all the Children of men both to themselves and Angels Though ships are usually distinguished by their Flags yet that is no sure sign for Mariners when in sight and fear of their enemies will ordinarily hang out the colours of other Nations and say they belong to them but when they come to their Haven to unload their vessels it appears to what Country they belong Though men are usually distinguished by their outward behaviours yet many for their own ends put on Christs livery who are of Satans family but when they come to be searched and unladen at the end of their lives t will be known to whom they belong When I come to dye then the great controversie between Christ and Satan concerning my soul will be determined whose it shall be for ever O my soul that thou couldst but conceive what it will be to be sent by death into an unchangeable estate either of bliss or misery If thou diest in thy sins thou art killed with death Shouldst thou now live without conscience thou wilt dye without comfort and remain comfortless for ever Ponder a little with thy self the fearful death of a sinner that thou mayst flie his wicked acts as thou wouldst his woful end In the midst of his jollity and mirth when he is in an eager pursuit of carnal pleasures and posting in the way of worldly delights and running to all excess of riot he is on a sudden by deaths harbinger sickness commanded to stand and proceed no further This cuts him to the very heart His former prosperity like Oyl hath suppled his body and makes him more sensible of his present pain And his immoderate love to those fleshly delights doth abundantly greaten his grief and increase his loss Now the man is thrown whether he will or no upon his sick bed that must be his death bed In this his extremity his Companions and Friends and Wife and Children and Honour and Places and Preferments and Silver and Gold and Houses and Lands and costly attire and dainty fare are all dry things and unsavoury to him no creature can afford him the least comfort If he look into his Chamber his Wife is weeping and wringing her hands his Children are sighing his friends are lamenting and wailing but all this doth increase not mitigate his vexation and misery If he look into his Conscience he finds that taking courage and telling him to his face that though formerly he would not suffer it to speak yet now it must tell him the truth that death and hell and wrath are the wages of his ungodly works It will bring to his mind the time he hath mis-spent the talents that he hath mis-improved the day of grace that he hath despised the great salvation that he hath neglected his secret and private and publick sins the sins of his Childhood of his youth of his riper age those sins which he had forgotten and thought should never have been remembred are all set in order before his eyes His heart which was before harder then the neather Milstone is now pierced though not with an evangelical contrition yet with legal terrors and torments His sickness will allow no rest to his body and his sins will afford no ease to his soul. In the evening he cryeth Would God it were morning in the morning Would God it were evening because of the anguish of his spirit His bones are filled with a painful disease and his body with unquietness The Arrows of the Almighty are within him the poison thereof drinks up his spirit and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against him His review of his past actions his remembring of his slighting Christ for a brutish pleasure or a little fading treasure or a base lust and provoking God and continuance in sin against mercies judgements warnings the light of conscience the motions of the spirit are as so many envenomed Arrows sticking in his side and piercing him through with many sorrows but the thoughts of his necessity of dying and his fore-thoughts of the consequent of death how hell rides upon its back and eternal torments attend it how he must fry in unquenchable flames and take up his everlasting lodging amongst roaring Lyons frightful Dragons and the hellish crew sink him quite down To add some more Gall and Wormwood to his cup of bitterness the Devil now steps in and sheweth him his sins in their black hew in their bloody colour and countenance to make him hopeless and desperate The poor creature in this miserable plight and plunge knoweth not what to do whether to go for releif Dye he would not but must live he would but cannoâ— Now he wisheth that he had prayed and served God and minded his soul and salvation more and gratified his flesh and embraced the pleasures and honours of the World less Now he desireth that he might live a little longer and thinks O how would I redeem time and follow after holiness and walk with God what would I not do and suffer to lay up some comfort some cordial against such an hour But whilst he is thus in the midst of his vain wishes Death tells him by the violence of his distemper that the time of his departure is at hand His eyes now begin to sink his speech to faulter his breath to shorten and his heart to fail him and a cold sweat to seise on his whole body He strives and struggleth with all his might to continue here but Death like a Cruel Serjeant drags him to the bar of God whence he is immediately with frowns and fury dismist and haled to the dreadful and eternal Dungeon of Hell O the howlings the screeching the groans the grief which possesseth this poor soul when he is attached by Devils those merciless Officers and carried by them to the lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever The Spirit being now gone the Body remains a cold lump of Clay forsaken of its dearest friends loathsom to its nearest relations sit for no company but the wormeaten congregation amongst which it must abide till the last day when it shall be joyned to the soul and partake with it in unconceiveable and endless torments Ah who can read such a souls estate with dry eyes or think of such a condition without sorrow O my soul what are thy thoughts of such a death Wouldst thou for the most prosperous Worldlings life dye such a death Doth not thine heart ake whilst thou art musing on it If thou wouldst not meet with the end of such men avoid their ways Lord I confess my self a great sinner and thou mightest justly leave me to walk
in the counsel of the ungodly and to go in the paths of the destroyer that my feet should tend to death and my steps take hold of hell yet for thy sons sake teach me thy way and lead me in thy righteousness that my soul may never be gathered with sinners nor my life with bloody men that I may die the death of the righteous and my latter end may be like his I wish that I may look upon a dying Bed as a Fit Pulpit in which I may preach my Makers and Redeemers praise The speeches of dying persons are often highly prized as savouring of most sincerity and least suspected of selfish ends They who scorned my counsel and rejected my advice in my health and strength as fearing it proceeded rather from interest then simplicity of heart will if they have the least grain of charity believe me in earnest and my words to be the language of my soul when I am dying and entering into my eternal estate The worst of men have some reverence and respect for dying Christians What thrusting and crowding even to the prejudice of their bodies hath there often been to hear the speeches and last words of dying men The vilest Malefactour who is cut off by the Sword of justice is permitted with patience to speak and attended to with diligence at the Gallows If enemies have some respect for dying Felons and will hearken to them with meekness what hopes may a dying Saint have of advantaging the souls of his friends O that I might greedily embrace such an opportunity of advantaging the interest and honour of my God the service and good of my neighbours and by my pious language and gracious carriage at my latter end make others in love with holiness holy men and the holy one of Israel Sinners catch hold of every season to propagate their ungodly seed and commend Satans rotten wares to the men of the world Why should not Saints be as vigilant as diligent for their God and Saviour Lord I know not in what manner by what distemper it will please thee to call me to thy self I beg if it may seem good in thy sight that nothing may befal me on my dying bed which may render me uncapable of commending thee and thy ways and worship to others My chearfulness in bearing thy will and activeness to extol thy work and reward may through thy blessing perswade Satans drudges to forsake his slavery and admit themselves thy servants O that I might allure others to prepare for such a day by lifting up my head with joy when that day of redemption draweth nigh The Apprentice makes merry when his time is expired and he enjoyeth his freedom The Bride hath a feast and musick when her Marriage-day is come This life is my time of service death sets me at liberty In this World I am contracted to my dearest Saviour my solemn marriage is in the other world into which I pass through death Why should I fear that Messenger which brings such good news and be troubled at that friend who will do me so great a courtesie O enable me to live every day according to thy Gospel that keeping my conscience clean and my evidences clear I may in the day of my death rejoyce and be exceeding glad Give me to savour the sweetness of thy love the pleasantness of thy paths to feel the powerful influences of thy spirit the vertue and efficacy of thy word so to rellish communion with thy self and thy dear Son all the days of my life that when I am going out of the world and comming to thee O Father I may from my own experience quicken and encourage others to forsake earthly vanities before earthly vanities forsake them and to take thee for their chiefest good and choicest happiness who will never leave them nor forsake them I Wish that the nearer I draw to my reward the more zealous and industrious I may be about my work and that when my body droppeth and faileth most my soul may be most vigorous and active in the exercise of grace I am infinitely indebted to the blessed God for his unspeakable grace to my precious soul my engagements to the dearest Redeemer for loving me and washing me in his own blood are far beyond my apprehension This is the last opportunity that I shall ever enjoy to testifie my thankefulness and to do my God my Saviour my soul any service O how diligent should I be to promote their interest and improve this season Nature in its last conflict with a disease puts forth it self to the utmost it draweth in those spirits which before were scattered in the outward parts to guard and arm the heart it rallieth all those forces which are left if possible to win the day O why should not grace in its last encounter muster up all its strength and put forth it self to the utmost Lust is strong to the last when nature is weak and spent and the sinner disabled from his unclean or intemperate acts even then he can hug them in his heart and roul them under his tongue as a sweet morsel and commit them over and over again in his thoughts and fancy and affections The dying Theif on the Cross when his hands and feet were nailed and by force kept in order could yet find his tongue at liberty before his death to rail at and revile the Lord of life Ah is it not a thousand pities that grace should be outvied by lust and that those that are paid with such lamentable wages as everlasting burnings should dye serving their cruel Master and enter into Hell belching out their blasphemies and spitting their poison in the face of Heaven and that the Children of God should do their father so little service when they are going to their blissful mansions and can do him no more love to my self as well as to my God may quicken me to labour with all my might when I draw near my last hour As I fall now I lie for ever My eternal estate dependeth more upon my death then my life It s possible though rare that a prophane life may be corrected by a penitent death but a wicked death can never be amended He that shoots off a piece if he be not steady just at its going off loseth his Charge and misseth his Mark He that dieth ill dieth ever he is killed with death He that goeth awry when he goeth out of the world shall never come back to recal or amend his steps If I am a conqueror now I am a conqueror for ever if I am foiled now I am foiled for ever Cowards will sight desperately when they are in extremity and must either kill or be killed The Historian saith of Cn. Piso a confederate of Catalines that though he had an heart like an Hare yet he could sight like a Lyon when he apprehended a necessity of fighting for his life O that my pains my diligence may be
answerable to my peril and my danger Lord when that day and hour draweth near that I must go hence and be no more seen do thou draw near in boundless mercy to my poor soul When I must enter into the Chambers of death and make my bed in the grave save me from the paws of Satan and the power of Hell that the bottomless pit may not shut her mouth upon me and give me to triumph in that hour of tribulation as knowing that neither tribulation nor persecution nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor life nor death can seperate me from thy love which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. I Wish that when I am going to the place of silence I may speak the excellencies of my God and make his praise glorious It is the unhappiness of worldlings and wicked men that they cannot when they dye commend the principles whence they have acted nor the vain pleasures which they have minded and pursued How many of them whose lives have been nothing but a bundle of false-hood and lies when God hath called them to leave the world have spoken truth and told their Friends and Relations that sin is an evil and bitter thing that carnal pleasures are guilded poisons that the greatest and choicest of worldly comforts though they may have honey in their mouths have a sting in their tailes and what a vain empty nothing the whole creation is How often have they complained how the world hath deceived them the flesh deluded them and Devil beguiled and destroyed them It is my priviledge as well as my duty to extol my Master whom I have served to commend the sweetness of his ways the pleasantness of his worship the reasonableness of his precepts the richness of his promises and the vastness of that portion which he hath laid up for his Children when they come to age I have sometimes tasted his work and ways to be sweeter then the honey and the honey comb I have viewed by faith his reward to be vastly glorious and beyond all apprehensions excellent O why should I not diswade others from their eager pursuit of foolish fading shadows and perswade and encourage them to earnest endeavours after real substance and durable riches The sinner who hath wallowed all his life time in the mire of filth and wickedness will when he comes to dye and begins to return to his wits from his own experience of the emptiness and unprofitableness of his ungodly courses and from the convictions of his natural conscience acknowledge a sober sanctified conversation to be safest and the ways of God to be most gainful and upon these accounts advise his friends and relations to forsake and abandon the lusts of the world and flesh and to follow after holiness as they would be happy eternally And have not I much more cause to shew my abhorrency of sin and love to my Saviour and his image when I am entering into my Fathers house The sinner hath onely found at last a fleshly life to be vain and fruitless and is like to pay dear for his learning but I have known the paths of piety to be paths of pleasantness and rejoyced more in them then in all riches The sinner hath onely the dim light of nature to shew him the loathsomness of vice and the loveliness of grace but I have the holy Spirit of my God to enlighten my mind in the knowledge of both The sinner hath only a carnal love to his Neighbours and Kindred he knoweth not what it is to love them in Christ and for Christ I have some knowledge of the love and Law of Christ of the worth of their souls of the price paid for them by the Lord Iesus and their unchangeable conditions in the other world O that my language to them might be somewhat answerable to the love of Christ to me Lord It is unrighteousness to die in debt to man and not to endeavour to make them satisfaction according to my power I am sure to dye in thy debt for I am less then the least of all thy mercies and unable to requite thee for the smallest of thy favours It is my comfort that all the recompence thou expectest is a thankful acknowledgement and hearty acceptance of thy grace and good will O what injustice and ingratitude were I guilty of should I deny thee so small a request Be pleased to help thy servant in his last hours both to accept unfeignedly of thy grace for his own good and to acknowledge thy good will and bounty and faithfulness to thy glory for the good of others I Wish that my lost breath may be drawn Heaven-ward I mean that I may enter praying into the house of blessing and praise I am no Christian if I do not give my self to prayer whilst I live It is one choice piece of my spiritual Armour whereby I have often assaulted and conquered my soul-enemies It is the Ambassadour which I have many a time sent to the heavenly Court that always received a favourable Audience and obtained his errand It is the Vessel which hath brought me food from far and ever returned richly laden if it were not my own fault It is the element in which I live the aliment by which I subsist the pulse the breath of my soul without which it must needs dye On my death-bed I have as much need of its succour as at any season My adversaries will then imploy their greatest power and policy to rout and ruine me I am but weak flesh and blood altogether unable to combat with Principalities and Powers and how can I expect supplies from the Lord of Hosts unless I send this Messenger to intreat it My wants and weaknesses at such a time will be more then ordinary Faith must then be acted in spight of all the frights and fears which a malicious Devil and an unbeleiving heart from the number and nature of my sins the strictness of the law and the justice of God may put me to Repentance must then be exercised and my sins lye nearer my heart then my sharpest diseases In patience I must possess my soul under all the pains and pressures which the wise God shall lay upon me I must then chearfully submit to the divine pleasure and by my willingness to leave all the world to go to Christ shew that I hate Father Mother Wife Child House Lands Life and all for Christ. Those graces and many other must be put forth at suâ—h a time none of which I can do by my own power and therefore have abundant cause to fetch help from Heaven by prayer Besides the distempers of my body will discompose my soul and unfit it in a great measure for all holy service Again my Benefactors my near Friends and Relations the poor afflicted Church of God do all call aloud to me to pray for them as the last kindness I shall ever do for them I profess
I love them how can I manifest it better then by commending them to God in prayer Should I leave them thousands of silver and gold if I were able it would not all amount to the price of one fervent prayer My riches might wrong them through the deceitfulness of their hearts and cause them to be contented short of Heaven but my prayers cannot prejudice them but may much further their eternal welfares Men whose natures are crabbed and cruel have granted the requests of their dying children when they have been contrary to their own humours How much more will God the Father of mercies whose nature is Love whose bowels are infinite satisfie the desire of his dying children when they fall in with his own design and desire If Joab had hopes to speed in his supplication for Absolom because he knew the Kings heart was more for it then his own may not I be confident to speed when I beg that he would pay my debts in spirituals with interest to those who have bestowed carnals on me for his sake when I ask that my Children and Relations may love and fear and worship his Majesty and be his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works and when I intreat that he would accomplish all the great and good things which he hath promised to his Church the purchase of his Christ knowing that his heart is infinitely more for these things then mine can be Lord when I dye I shall no more put up prayers for my self or other particular persons My natural obligations to my Kindred and Relations my civil ingagements to my Friends and Benefactours besides my spiritual bonds to them and thy whole Israel may well provoke me to be fervent and instant with thy Majesty at such an hour on their behalves My Redeemer before his death wrought hard at this duty He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears Ah how should I pray for my self and others when I am taking my leave of prayer O let thy spirit of supplication be so poured down on me that I may poure out my spirit in supplication unto theeâ— for my own and others souls through thy Son with the greatest success I Wish that the night of my death may shine gloriously with the sparkling stars of divine and heavenly graces In particular I desire that when the time of my combat with my last enemy and my last combat with any enemy shall come I may above all take the shield of Faith whereby I shall be sheltered against the sting of death and quench the fiery darts of the wicked one The wise Mariner perceiving a storm approaching makes hast to fasten his Vessel with Anchors that it may be steady and not altogether at the mercy of the winds I must expect the greatest tempest when I am entering into my eternal Haven then all the powers of darkness will conjure up their strongest winds if possible to shipwrack the vessel of my soul Ah how much doth it concern me to put forth this grace the anchor of my soul both sure and stedfast and which entereth into that within the vail and thereby to fasten on the rock of Ages If I fail in this I fall I miscarry for ever God is a severe judge to condemn all guilty Malefactours Without his Son I am cloathed with guilt and so under his boundless wrath When Adam had disrobed himself of original righteousness by disobeying the law he fled from God and dreaded the summons of offended justice There is no appearing in the Fathers sight with acceptance but in the garments of his Son None can have boldness to enter into the holy of holies but by the blood of Iesus It s Faith onely that interesteth in this blood I know that through the red Sea of this blood I pass may safely though enemies pursue me hard into the Land of promise Lord I confess through an evil heart of unbeleif I have many a time departed away from the living God yet Lord I believe help mine unbeleif O Lord of life be not far from me when Devils and death are near me Help me with thy servant Stephen to see Heaven open by faith and the Son of man at thy right hand Enable me to disclaim whatsoever duties I have performed or graces I have exercised and to rely alone on a crucified Christ for pardon and life Though thou killest me let me dye trusting and clinging on and cleaving to Iesus Christ Let this Pilgrims staff of faith be never out of my hand till I come to my joâ—rneys end Thou art the Lord of Hosts and the Captain of my salvation O help me to put on the whole armour of God grant me such skill to use it that I may be able to stand in the evil day Teach thou my hands to war and my fingers to fight that through thee I may do valiantly and through thee may tread down mine enemies Grant me so to finish my course to fight the good fight of faith that at death I may receive the crown of righteousness which the righteous judge shall give to all that love his appearing I Wish that my faith may ripen into full assurance that thereby I may depart with joy and an abundant entrance may be ministred unto me into the Kingdom of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Moses and Simeon could sing at their own funerals The great Apostle could call to be put to Bed expecting thereby his sweetest eternal rest How many Martyrs have gone more joyfully to dye then ever Epicure did to dine and leaped when they drew near the Stake believing that they drew near their home their happiness their heaven What is it O my soul that makes thee start and flinch back at the sight of this bug-bear What is there in death that is so dreadful to thee Is it the sweetness of life or the pain of death or thy future estate after death Consider them all seriously and then judge rationally whether any of these should make the sigh so loath to depart First The love of life need not make thee so backward to obey the call of death If all thy time were made up of Holy-days death would bring thee greater advantage The Garlick and Onions of Egypt are nothing comparable to the Clusters of Canaan But alas its far otherwise thy whole life is a civil death Thou art born to sorrow as the sparks flye upward Thy days are few but full of trouble The earth to thee is a valley of tears the cross is thy daily companion which accompanieth thee where-ever thou goest The sufferings of thy flesh are neither few nor small How many diseases in thy body losses in thy estate how much disgrace ignominy slander oppression art thou liable to The sufferings of thy spirit are more and greater Thine own sins the provocations of others the dishonour of thy God the wants and weaknesses and oppression and persecution of the Church
of Christ do all give thee daily occasion to mingle thy bread with ashes and thy drink with weeping What is this world that thou art so fond of it Thy God calls it a Sea of glass mingled with fire Rev. 15. 2. A Sea for its turbulency it s never at rest but ebbs and flows continually though sometimes more sometimes less Its work is to bubble up mire and dirt especially on them who are chosen out of the world A Sea of glass for its fragility All its pomp and pride on a sudden vanisheth Glass is both easily and irrecoverably broken in peices A Sea of glass mingled with fire for the fiery and dreadful miseries that befal men in it All its apparent comforts are mingled with real crosses In Heaven there is solace without the least grain of sorrow In Hell there is mourning without the smallest dram of mirth but on Earth there is no estate without mixture The Saints have joy in God but if need be they are in heaviness through manifold tribulations 1 Pet. 1. 6. The merry sinners in the midst of their pleasures have their hearts heavy Some of the wiser Heathen were so sensible of humane miseries that one of them when Ancient told his Scholar that if it were offered him to be young again he would not accept if Saints of all men must expect a large draught of sufferings The world is their enemy and raiseth all its forces against them If I be a Disciple I must look to follow my Master in bearing his Cross O my soul why shouldst thou hug that which hates thee and doat on this world which is neither a fit match for thee as being unsutable to thy nature nor if she were can be faithful to thee being made up of wavering and inconstancy Or secondly Is it the pain of death that thou art so frighted at Surely the fear of it is the greatest torment How many have felt greater pain in divers diseases as in the Stone or Strangury or Collick then in a dying hour Some of Gods Children have felt very little pain in the judgement of those that have seen them dying The waters of Jordan though rough to others have stood still when the Ark was to pass over But though I were sure my pain should be sharp yet I am as sure it shall be short In a moment in the twinckling of an eye I shall be transported over the gulp of misery into endless glory My pangs will be almost as soon gone as come Sorrow will endure but for a short night joy will come in the morning If I were assured of a great purchase made for me in Spain or Turky which upon my first comming over I should enjoy would I not adventure a passage through the boistrous Ocean to take possession My Saviour hath made a larger a better purchase for me in Heaven He is gone before to prepare a place for me My passage thither though it may be more painful is less perillous It s impossible for me to miscarry in it O why am I so slothful to go in and possess the good Land Surely the pleasures of the end may well sweeten the ways to it were they never so bitter With what chearfulness do some women undergo their sharp throws and hard labours supported with this cordial that a child shall thereby be born to them O how infinitely inferiour is the joy of a man child brought forth into this world to the joy of a sanctified soul brought out of this world into Heaven Again I have a tender Father who knoweth my frame and will lay no more upon me living or dying then he will enable me to bear He hath said it I will never leave thee nor forsake thee O my soul thou hast little reason to dread a contest with this enemy for this cause Thou mayst contentedly undergo a little pain to go to thy dearest Lord when many a sinner hath suffered greater to satisfie his hellish lust Thirdly Is it thy future condition that makes thee unwilling to dye Dost thou not know that death is thy portal through which thou shalt pass into the true Paradise It s the straight gate through which thou shalt enter into life Though its the wicked mans shipwrack which swalloweth him up in an Ocean of wrath and torment yet it s the Saints putting into harbour where he is received with the greatest acclamation and richest welcom imaginable Travellers who have met with many dangers and troubles in their journeys rejoyce when they come near their own Country I am a Pilgrim here and used or rather abused as a stranger shall I not be glad when I come near my blessed home my eternal happy habitation Children in some parts when they first behold the Stork the messenger of the Spring testifie their joy with pleasant and loud shoutings O why shouldst not thou lift up thy head with joy when sickness the fore-runner of death is come to bring thee tidings that the Winter of thy misery and cold and hardships is past and the Summer of thine eternal light and joy and pleasure is at hand Thy death may well be a Free-will-offering considering that though the ashes of the sacrifice thy body fall to the earth yet that divine flame thy immortal spirit shall ascend to Heaven In death nothing dyeth of thee but what thou mayst well spare thy sin and sorrows When the house is pulled to peices all those Ivy roots in the wall shall be destroyed The Egg-shell must be broken that the little chick may slip out Thy body must be dissolved that thy â—oul may be delivered Yet thy body doth not dye but sleep in the bed of the grave till the morning of the resurrection That outward apparel shall not be utterly consumed by the moth of time but lockt up safe as in a chest to be new trimmed and gloriously adorned above the Sun in his greatest lustre and put on again when thou shalt awake in the morning never never to put off more O that I could so live that I might not only be always ready but also when God calls me desirous to dye If I borrow any thing of my Neighbour I pay it back with thanks My life is Gods he lends it me for a time Why should I not when he calls for it restore it with thanks that he hath been pleased to lend it me so long Lord thy Children love thee dearly and believe that when they come home to thee thou wilt entertain them kindly yet their flesh like Lots Wife is still â—ankering after the Sodom of this World and loath they are to leave it though it be for their exceeding gain Give thy servant such true faith in thy Son that I may neither love life nor fear death immoderately but as the heart of Jacob revived when he saw the Wagons which Joseph sent to fetch him to Egypt so my heart may leap for joy to behold the heavenly Chariot which the Son of
Joseph shall send to convey me to the true Goshen I Wish that I may with patience submit on my dying bed to the divine pleasure It hath been far from some Moralists to murmure either at the extremity of their sickness or the necessity of dying By impatience I do not help but rather kill my self before-hand It s the general lot of mankind to sickeâ— and dye Am I angry that I am a man that I am mortal Because I know that I must be sick and dye I know that I must submit The knowledge of an approaching evil is no small good if improved Though it cannot teach me to prevent it by all my power or providence yet it may teach me to prepare for it and to bear it with courage and patience Discontent and quarrelling are great arguments of guilt and a defiled conscience The harmless sheep conscious of their innocency do quietly receive the Knife either on the Altar or in the Shambles and give death entrance with small reluctancy when the filthy loathsom Swine roar horribly at their first handling and with hideous cries are haled and held to the fatal block The Children of God and members of Christ who are perfect through their head do often give up the Ghost and desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ when the souls of wicked men are required of them and they are strangely passionate at the approach of death and with dreadful screeches salute its Harbinger sickness O that patience might have its perfect work in me when I am taking my leave of it and its work is near an end Lord my heart is too prone to be impatient under thy hand though thou art infinitely wise as well as gracious and knowest what is best for me In my sickness turn mine eyes upon my sins that my discontent may be at my self for that which is the original of all my sorrows and then I shall never repine or murmur against thee I Wish that I may daily think of death and wait beleiving and repenting and working out my salvation till my change shall come My whole time is given me that therein I might prepare and dress my soul for my blessed eternal estate Why should it not be imployed for that end The Child who hath all day been diligent about his duty may expect his Fathers good word at night But what Master will give a reward to him in the evening who hath all the day long served his enemy My life is the seed which will yeild a crop of horror or comfort in an hour of death If that be good my Harvest will be glorious and joyful if that be sinful my Harvest will be bitter and sorrowful Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles The Grapes of comfort are not to be expected from the Thistles of corruption nor the Figs of peace from the thorns of impiety I should blush to commit to the keeping of a cleanly and considerable person a foul and filthy vessel With what face can I commend to the holy and glorious God an impure and polluted soul O how dreadful will it be to meet with my dying bed before I have met with the Lord of life and to be going out of the world before I have seriously considered why I came into it My great work in this world is to get my depraved nature healed by the blood and spirit of Christ ifâ— I forget my business when I have time to do it and trifle away my days in doing evil or doing nothing I lose my soul am unfaithful to my Master and deepen my judgement by the number of my days â— That Traveller may well be agast and perplexed who hath a long journey to go upon pain of death in one day for which the whole day is little enough and seeth the sun near setting before he hath begun his journey How ill doth the evening of my time and the morning of my taske accord together How justly may God reserve the dregs of his wrath for me if I reserve the dregs of myâ— days for him What folly am I guilty of in deferring my preparation for death If he be a ridiculous person that having choice of lusty horses should let them all go empty and lay an extraordinary heavy load upon a poor tired jade that is hardly able to go much more foolish is he that prodigally wasteth his youth and health and strength in the service of the flesh and the world and leaves the great and weighty affairs of his soul and eternity to be transacted on a sick or dying bed O my soul what little cause hast thou to future or delay thy solemn provision for the other world First thy life is uncertain thou hast not another day at thy disposal There are some creatures they say in Pontus whose life lasteth but one day They are born in the morning come to their full growth at noon grow old in the evening and dye at night What is thy life but a vapour that soon passeth away The first minute thou didst begin to live thou didst begin to dye Death was born when thou wast born the last act of life is but the completing of death As on thy birâ—hâ—day thou didst begin to dye so on the day of thy death thou dost cease to live How many outward accidents and inward diseases art thou every moment liable to May I not say to thee as Michael to David Save thy self to night for tomorrow thou shalt be slain Others have died suddenly by imposthumes or the falling-sickness or violent means and if thou promisest thy self a fair warning before the fatal stroak thou dost but cozen and cheat thy self But secondly If thou wert sure to see the evening star of sickness before the night of death overtake thee thou art not sure thy sickness shall not be such as may not incapacitate thee for the working out thy salvation Extremity of pain anguish of body lack of sleep the violence of a fever may indispose thee and distract thee that thou canst not so much as think of God Or thy distemper may be such that the Physitian may charge thee not to trouble thy self with melancholy or sad thoughts lest thou wrongest thy body and yet the Minister commandeth thee to pull up those sluces of sorrow if thou wouldst not lose thy soul for ever Or cold diseases as the Lethargy or Palsie may surprise thee and incline thee to continual slumbers till at last thou sleepest the sleep of death O how sottish art thou and how grosly doth the destroyer of souls delude thee to defer that work of absolute necessity of conversion to God upon which thine endless weal or wo dependeth to a dying Bed when thou art not sure to dye in thy bed but mayst as well dye in thy Shop or Fields or in the Streets when thou art uncertain what disease if thou shouldst meet with a dying bed should send thee to thy eternal
home when thou art neither Master of thy time nor reason nor of thy natural abilities much less of supernatural grace which is indispensably requisite to this great work O that since I must dye once for sin I might dye daily to sin and as the Philistines that they might the better deal with Sampson cut off his Hair wherein his great strength lay so that I may the better deal with death I may by faith and repentance daily cut off and destroy sin wherein the strength of death lieth May I not say to thee O my soul as Joshua to Israel Prepare ye victuals for within three days ye shall pass over this Iordan to go to possess the Land which the Lord your God giveth you Prepare the spiritual food the flesh of Christ which is meat indeed and the blood of Christ which is drink indeed an heart weaned from the world longing to be with God for within a few days thou shalt go in to possess the land of promise Lord I know nothing more certain then death Sin hath deserved it my brittle body inforceth it thou hast decreed it and none can prevent it I know nothing more uncertain then the time when or the manner how Thou hast many ways and means to bring me to my grave not onely ordinary distempers of my body but thousands of casual dangers I cannot promise my self freedom from it in any place or condition Death may seise me abroad at home in company in solitude at bed at board Why should I not always provide for that extremity that enemy which I cannot avoid Why should I not ever be ready for that which may come at any time and will come at some time or other Surely I do not hasten my death by preparing for it but sweeten it exceedingly I â—hall not dye a moment the sooner but infinitely the better Should death overtake me in my sins alas where am I what will become of me for ever I may well salute it as Ahab Elijah with Hast thou found me O mine enemy for t will come to me as the Prophet to that King with doleful dreadful tidings T will bring me news of a dismal dungeon of darkness to be my habitation of Lyons and Scorpions and Dragons to be my companions of a never dying worm an unquenchable fire pure wrath without mixture full torments without measure to be my portion for ever and ever O teach me so to live above this vain empty life so to be crucified to this world so to make my peace with thy Majesty through the great peace-maker and Prince of Peace my Lord Iesus so to set my heart and house my spiritual and temporal concernments in order that I may be delivered from the paw of the Lyon from the teeth of this monster from the sting of this Serpent and though my body be destroyed yet my soul may escape as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler and mount up to thy self to enjoy that happy life which shall know no death I Wish that all the days of my appointed time I may exercise my self herein to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men There are but two which can afford me real comfort in a dying hour which always take the same side and joyn together God and my conscience Humane friends often stand afar off when they should be most near and I have most need Some of them are loth to come to a sick mans chamber Mournful objects must not disturb their jollity and mirth They are sworn enemies to sorrowful occasions and baniâ—h such foes their quarters or themselves from such coasts Others if they come to visit me love not to see my gastly countenance like not to hear my deep and deadly groans But be they never so full of pity they can onely sympathize with me they cannot relieve refresh me The most they can do is to accompany me to my grave and there they leave me But O the comfort which a loving God and a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ and purged from dead works will afford me in a dying hour The smiles of a God and chearings of a good conscience will be musick indeed to welcom me to the shoar after all my tumblings and tossings in this tempestuous Ocean They will make my bed in my sickness help me to lye easie hearten me in my sighs and groans be my feast at my funeral bid me Be of good chear for my sins are forgiven me tell me that my Redeemer liveth and because he liveth I shall live also lodge my body in a grave as in a Bed of Spices and convey my soul into my Saviours Bosome and Embraces when my Houses Lands Honours Friends Wife Children leave me they will cleave to me nay when my breath life heart flesh forsake me they will not fail me yea when faith hope patience repentance shall bid me farewel weeping as Orpah did Ruth these like Naomi will stick to me go with me and seek rest for me O that my heart may be so upright in the service of my God that when I â—hall receive the sentence of death I may be able to say with good Hezekiah Remember now I beseech thee O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O my soul what a friend shouldst thou be to thy God thy conscience how faithful to their warnings now in life if thou wouldst have them thy friends at death Hereby thou mayst be able to triumph in that hour of temptation to defie death it self and bid it do its worst Though it be the common gate through which the sinner goeth into prison where he meets with Chains and Fetters and cold and all sorts of miseries yet thou shalt go through it into the Kings Pallace where thou shalt have rivers of pleasures and 〈◊〉 entertainment If Jacob went down so joyfully 〈◊〉 Egypt when God had said to him fear not to go down for I will go down with thee and I will bring thee up again What needest thou fear to go down into the Grave when thy God hath undertaken to go down with thee thither and to bring thee up again Thy body may be turned into dust but thy God is in Covenant with thy dust and thy head the blessed Redeemer will not suffer one muscle or nerve or artery or vein of any of his members to be lost With what chearfulness mayst thou take thy leave of thy body Farewel sweet body thou hast been in some measure faithful to thy soul in the service of thy Lord Farewel I must bid thee goodâ—night till the morning of the resurrection Be thou content to go to bed and sleep in the dust and rest in hope for though after the skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh â—hall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold him and
not another though my reins be consumed within me Though thou art sown in dishonour thou shalt be raiâ—ed in glory though thou art sown in weakness thou shalt be raised in power though thou art sown a natural body thou shalt be raised a spiritual body and fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ himself Thy dust shall live and thou shalt arise and be joyned to this soul and both joyn with the great assembly of the sirst-born in singing the praises of thy Master and Husband The Souldier is glad when he is called to receive his pay though the ways be deep and dirty through which he travelleth to the the place of Muster The Husbandman rejoyceth when his Fields are white to Harvest and with piping and shouting accompanieth his last load 〈◊〉 the barn O that my life might be so sanctified 〈◊〉 devoted to my God that at my death he may be my solace Ah Lord it matters not who be failing to visit me on my sick bed so thou be present with me Nay though mine enemies come and say When shall he dye and his name perish An evil disease cleaveth to him now that he lyeth down he shall rise up no more If thou pleasest to visit me with thy saving health I shall not be afraid when I walk in the valley of the â—hadow of death O when the Sun of my life shall be setting let the Sun of righteousness so arise upon me that I may be delivered from the power curse and sting of death and may find it through his merits to be my haven of rest after all my foul weather a bed of ease after my sore labour a release out of prison and my Iubilee to give me possession of an inheritance undefiled incorruptible that fadeth not away which is reserved in heaven for me Amen CHAP. IX Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness A good Foundation Lâ—ving by Faith Setting God always before our eyes I Come now to the second thing promised namely to lay down the Means whereby Christians may come to make Religion their business First If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness be sure that thou layest a good foundation in a renewed heart and nature I begin with this because it is the chiefest requisite and the baâ—is of all Godliness must first spring up in the heart before it can overflow in the life Other means are like those parts of the body the want of which may be supplied by others but this is like the heart which if wanting nothing can make up its want A dead man will as soon arise and walk as an unsanctified person make Religion his business Every thing will act according to that principle which is predominant in it Though for a time it may by violence work contrary to its natural inclination yet it will endeavour the removal of that force and return to its old course Fire moveth upwards and earth downwards both strâ—ving to overturn what standeth in their way because the place of fire is above of earth beneath A river may be stopped and hindred in its current but it will never cease till it hath overborn the dam and attained its former passage Water that is naturally sweet may be made brackish by the over-flowing of salt water but it will not leave till it hath workt out that saltness and returneth to his natural sweetness so every man whether good or bad will act according to his nature whether gracious or vicious A good man may be hindred in his holy course by temptations and the violence of the flesh but because his nature is gracious he will never be at rest till he hath forcibly broke through those impediments and got into his former way of Godliness An evil man may step into the path of piety through the example of others or good education or some slender convictions of a natural conscience but he will quickly be weary he will not hold out in it he will break through those obstacles because his nature the stream of his heart runs another way The Heart of man is like the Spring of the Clock which causeth the wheels to move right or wrong well or ill Hence it is that Gods precept is to this Make you a new heart and a new spirit and his promise of this I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall never depart away from me The fear of God in the heart will bind thee fast to God in thy life If the heart be throughly drawn to him the tongue and hand will not depart from him If the heart once set forward for God all the members will follow after the mouth will praise the ears will attend to him the eye will watch him the seet will go after him all the parts like dutiful handmaids in their places will wait on their Mistris There was a great Master among the Jews which bid his Schollars to consider and tell him What was the best thing or the best way in which a man should always keep One said A good Companion was the best thing in the world another said A good Neighbour was the best thing he could wish A third said A wise man or one that could for esee future things A fourth said A good eye that is a liberal disposition At last came one Eleazer and he said A good heart is better then them all True said the Master thou hast comprehended in two words all that the rest have said For a good heart will make a man both contented and a good companion and a good neighbour and help him to foresee things that are to come that he may know what is on his part to be done Indeed without this there can be no godliness all professions and performances are but a shew a shadow and where there is this there is all godliness in all manner of conversation As the King of France said of Dover that it was the key of England and if his son who then invaded the Britains had not that he had nothing So it may be said of the heart It is the key of the whole man it opens and shuts the door to Godliness and Wickedness and if grace hath not this it hath nothing The Philosopher when he would perswade the King to settle his residence in the midst of his Dominions and thereby keep all his people the better in subjection took a Bulls hide ready tanned upon which when he stood on any side of it still it rose up on the other but when he stood on the middle he kept down all alike The onely way to subdue sin is to do it in the heart that commands all otherwise though one unruly passion may be kept down another will rise up The Heart is the great Work-house where all sin is wrought before it s exposed to open view It s the Mint where evil thoughts are coyned before they are currant in our words or actions Out of the heart proceed
by the roots All that these can do is to make a man like a grave green and flourishing on the surface and superficies when within there is nothing but noisomness and corruption It hath often appeared that those means which the great Moralists have used to bridle their lusts and passions have rather like strong sents to Epileptick bodies raised them then recovered them Indeed if the cheif fault were not in the vital parts then outward applications might be effectual but when the heart and lungs and inwards are all corrupted Plaisters applied to the face or hands or thighs or sides will do little good When the fault is in the foundation of an house it cannot be mended by Plaistering or rough-cast A Leopard may be flea'd but he is spotted still because the spots are not onely in the skin but in the flesh and bones and sinews and most inward parts When the disease is accidental as to lose the sight by the Small-Pox or the like there the Physick of morality may be advantagious but where the disease is natural as in the man that was born blind there Physick will do no good a miracle alone must restore such a one to his sight Unsanctified persons at best act from themselves and therefore for themselves As the Kite they may spread their wings and soar aloft as if they touched Heaven when at the highest their eyes are upon their prey upon earth Lucullus told his guests when he had feasted them liberally and they had admired his bounty in their costly entertainment Something my Friends is for your sakes but the greatest part is for Lucullus his own sake An unconverted person may do something some small matter for the sake of Religion from common gifts of illumination c. but the most that he doth is for his own sake for that credit or profit which he expecteth thereby If any thing be enjoyned which thwarteth his interest he will reply with Ajax when commanded to spare Vlysses In other things I will obey the Gods but not in this Reader Make sure of this inward change otherwise though thy conversation may be specious it can never be gracious nor thy profession durable If the house be built on loose earth it will never stand long When the principles are variable and uncertain so will the practices be If the arguments upon which thou takest upon thee the livery of Christ and the grounds of thy engagement in his service be not firm and constant the love of God and hope of eternal life c. such as the world and flesh cannot over-top thou wilt throw up thy profession and leave thy Master when thou art offered in thy blind judgment a better service though it be but the pleasures of sin for a season with eternal pains at the end of them for thy soul and Saviour and eternal salvation How well may he prove a Bankrupt who is worse then naught when he first sets up I wonder not that many pofessors disown the Lord Jesus when they were ignorant why they at any time owned him He that takes up Religion on trust will lay it down when it brings him into trouble As the Celendine springeth and floweth at the comming of the Summer birds but withereth at their departure And the Corn that promiseth a good Harvest in the Blade is blasted in the Ear because its root is withered and naught So the person that hath no sound foundation though he seem to look high will never hold out The Turnsel makes a shew for a time with white velvet leaves and yellow flowers but fadeth away without bringing forth any fruit Christ tells us some which heard the word though for a season they rejoyced in it when tribulation came because of the word were offended at it because they had no root To prevent that sad Apostacy which many are guilty of to their eternal undoing Friend consider serionsly beforehand what it will cost thee to be a Christian indeed A foolish builder that undertakes to raise a structure as high as Heaven and pondereth not the charge thereof gives over before he hath half finished it and so loseth all his expence and labour As in marriage one that is wise and considereth the person his portion and his precepts with the cares and burdens that are incident to that condition for such must have trouble in the flesh and after this upon mature deliberation accepteth him for an Husband will stick and cleave to him loyally and faithfully whatever befalls him whereas a foolish Maid that hudleth up a match in haste hand over head promising her self nothing but delight and pleasure when she comes to suffer poverty or imprisonment or disgrace with her Husband repenteth of her bargain and forsakes the guide of her youth So the Christian that hath duly pondered the excellencies in Christ his misery without Christ absolute necessity of Christ what love and joy and peace and endless bliss God offereth with his Son what Christ expecteth from all that will be married to him even the denyal of themselves the taking up of their Cross the contempt of Father Mother Wife Children Estate Life and all for him and after he hath duly considered all this gives himself up to Christ will be faithful unto death and own the Lord Jesus Christ whatever it may cost him when the man that followeth Christ for the loaves or for fashion or on a sudden strikes a league with him expecting nothing but comforts and joy in his contract will quickly leave him if called to suffer with him He that followeth Christ he knoweth not why will forsake him he knoweth not how If thou art Reader to begin this work of entering thy self into Christs Army I would advise thee to bethink thy self upon what grounds thou engagest in his quarrel For Christians are not called to their spiritual war for love of fighting as Cocks that fall to it upon sight of each other Consider the enemies thou art to fight against how potent and crafty and cruel they are continually seeking thy destruction the Captain thou art to fight under how wise he is to direct and command thee how able to protect and defend thee how faithful and bountiful to crown and reward thee the excellency of the cause it is for thy soul thy God thy Saviour thy salvation the dangers thou must encounter and hardships thou willt be called to endure the certainty of thy conquest how impossible it is to miscarry in so just a quarrel under suchâ— an Almighty Captain and then list thy self to fight the good fight of faith and fear not but thou shalt be more then a conqueror through him that loves thee Secondly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness Live by Faith The life of Faith it s the onely life of holiness and unbelief is the mother of all Apostacy When God would perswade Abraham to sincere and singular godliness he doth it by offering him sure footing for his faith I am
God much more eligible then the pleasures of sin Symphorianus a Christian young man after he was almost scourged to death being draged to Execution at Augustodunum met his Mother not crying or tearing her hair but like an Holy Lady thus comforting him Son my Son I say Remember life eternal look up to Heaven Life is not taken from thee but exchanged for a better At which words of his Mother he went on willingly to the Block and exposed his Throat to the fatal Ax One of the Dutch Martyrs feeling the flame coming to him said O what a small pain is this to Heaven Our blessed Saviour had an eye to the joy set before him and thereby was encouraged to endure the Cross and despise the shame Indeed if Faith spring a leak then the waters break in and the Christian sinks apace as we see in Peters denial of his Master As Faith in the Promises so also Faith in the Threatnings makes the Christian a Conquerour over the worlds affrightments where the World threatens Bonds and Whips and Dungeoâ—s and Death if the Christian will not sin against God and begins to stagger the soul. Take heed what thou dost saith Faith for God threateneth Fire and Brimstone and Chains and Blackness of Darkness for ever as the wages of all sin Is the Wrath of an Infinite God not more to be feared then of weak dying Men Is the pains of a violent death which will quickly be over and the most the World can do against thee comparable to the pains of eternal death And thus Faith by the terror of this great Ordinance drowns the noise of those small peices that the soul is deaf to their report 2. Faith enableth the soul to overcome the allurements of the world If the world cannot terrifie the Saint with its fiery Furnace to disown and deny his Saviour it will seek to inchant him with its Musick and thereby to make him deaf to the Call and Commands of Christ. Thus it served Ioseph When it could not prevail on the left hand by selling him for a slave it tryeth him on the right hand by setting a Dalilah to tickle him with pleasure but by Faith he saw the Hook under the Bait and durst not nibble at it much less swallow it Though the world like Iezabel painteth her face and tireth her hair to render her amiable and lovely and as a Srumpet sheweth her naked Breasts of pleasure and profit to entice the beleiver to go a Whoring after her yet he vieweth by Faith the deformity of her person under all her dawbery and the dregginess and deceitfulness of her pleasures notwithstanding their shew of clearness and so rejects them with scorn and disdain Pliny saith of Cato that he took as much pleasure in the Honours he denied as in those that he enjoyed The beleiver can glory more in his refusal of glory for Christ then unbeleivers in all their preferments Indeed if the Christian did consult with sense or carnal reason he would take the worlds present money but the beleiver doth not consult with flesh and blood like wise Abigal knowing how much it will conduce to his advantage he can part with his estaâ—e for God and never make those Nabals privy to the design lest they should hinder it Besides Faith discovers pure Rivers of pleasures more noble and excellent delights to be the portion of those that refuse to grate their teeth with such kennel water As man is a rational creature he would sell his wares to them that will give most Now Faith sheweth how infinitely God out-bids the world Sense saith The world offereth fair it offereth comforts sutable to thy flesh such as they desire and it offereth ready money present possession But saith Faith God offereth thee better The comforts he offereth are more excellent being sutable not as the Worlds to a carnal brutish nature but to an heavenly divine soul and more durable being eternal when the pleasures of sin are but for a season He that hopes for no better market will take the present money offered him But he that is assured of greater gains will refuse the lesser An unbeleiver who expects no better bargain then what this life affords him may well take up with present pay what ever it be but the Beleiver who seeth the glory to be revealed and fulness of joy in Heaven and is assured that if he be faithful unto death he shall receive that eternal crown of life turns his eyes off the honours and comforts of this beggarly world Those stars of creature joys do all disappear in the presence of this Sun Gold bears little sway with the soul that knoweth his title to the new Ierusalem that is paved with Gold in which gold is trampled under foot Those birds that flie aloft in the Firmament are not so easily snared by the Fowlers Gins Though the things of this world were glorious in his eyes during his estate of unbeleif yet now he hath discerned a world beyond the Moon and sent Faith as a spie to search and coast that Country which hath brought word back that its a good land flowing with Milk and Honey and in it there is want of nothing they have no glory by reason of that glory that doth so infinitely exceed When a man is below things above seem small the great Stars that are bigger then the Earth seem not so big as a bushel and things below seem great but when a man is above as upon the top of a Steeple then things below seem little he beholdeth men like Grashoppers Were he conveyed to the highest hill in the World men would not be discerned great Kingdoms would be but small Cottages Unbeleif sets a man below here on earth and so the things of Heaven are little in his eye but Faith soars aloft it carrieth the Christian up to Heaven and then the whole earth is but a small spot in his eye Ioseph bids the Patriarchs Regard not your stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours So saith Faith to the Christian Regard not the lumber and rubbish of this world for all the great and good things of the other world are thine Faith gives the soul a taste the first fruits of Heaven And as no man having drunk old wine desireth new for he saith the old is better So no man having tasted the wine of Heavens pleasures desires carnal delights A Pilgrim travelling to Ierusalem saith one came to a City where he saw a goodly Training and Mustering there he had a mind to stay but that he remembred that was not Ierusalem He came to another City where he saw gallant sports and pastimes there he had some good will to abide but that he remembred it was not Ierusalem He came to a third where were goodly buildings Fair Ladies curious Musick c. where also he had some thoughts of setling but still he remembred it was not Ierusalem So the beleiver when the
is by Faith that Water is turned into wine temporal mercies into spiritual advantages Faith worketh by love and draweth men with the Cords of love T is by faith that men are so fruitful in their lives Heb. 11. 32 33. and so chearful in their deaths Rom. 8. 37 38. O Reader above all thy gettings get faith and above all thy keepings keep faith For it must be faith that must keep thee from falling in an hour of temptation and from fainting in an hour of persecution The unbeleiver is fitly called an unreasonable man because its unreasonable that the God of truth should not be credited and that he to whom it is impossible to lye should be distrusted and also an absurd man because its absurd for a workman to go without his tools which he shall every moment have need of It s said of the Serpent that of all her parts she is most careful of her head well knowing that though she be mangled and cut never so much in her body yet if her head be whole that will cure the wounds of all her other parts Let thy great work be to â—ecure thy faith if that be whole all will be well what ever decays there may be in other graces this will help them to shoot forth again Thirdly If thou wouldst exercise thy self to Godliness set God always before thine eyes Subjects will carry themselves handsomly and loyally when they are before their Soveraign They who walk before God will be upright His eye is the best Marshal to keep the soul in a comely order Let thine eye be ever on him whose eye is ever on thee The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15. 9. Seneca perswaded his friend Lucilius for the keeping him within compass to imagine that some grave man as Laelius did still look upon him Reader couldst thou walk ever as in Gods presence thou wouldst keep close to his precepts Consider therefore that in all places in all companies at all times the eye of God is on thee and he takes exact notice of all thy thoughts words and actions that he knoweth thy natural parts In his book were all thy members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was not one of them that he knoweth all thy moral passages thou understandest my thoughts afar off and art acquainted with all my ways There is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether There is no drawing a curtain between God and thee He seeth thee thorough and thorough far more perfectly then thou canst the clearest Chrystal Darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day to thee the darkness and the light are both alike The darkness of the air may hide thee from men and the darkness of thine understanding may hide thee from thy self but there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves from him Neither the ring of Gyges nor the helmet of Pluto can hide thee from Gods eye Observe how strict God is in observing thy ways Thou numbrest my steps dost thou not watch over my sin Job 14. 16. By steps is understood inward Motions and outward actions whatsoever is done either in the retiring room of the heart or common hall of the life To number the steps notes an exact account we say of a man that goeth very leasurely and softly Such a man telleth his steps God is said to tell or number our steps because he is so exact in his observation of and so severe in his inquisition into all our thoughts words and deeds He is supposed to be void of shame that doth not fear to sin before many witnesses Though thou art in secret consider conscience is present which is a thousand witnesses and God who is a thousand consciences The Italian was somewhat conceited who wrote a supplication to Candle light to disclose to him the secrets of his Kingdom It s thought the light of the Candle seeth more wickedness then the light of the sun but to God the day and night darkness and light are both alike he seeth all things in all places and at all times It was a prety fancy of one that would have his chamber painted full of eyes that which way soever he lookt he might still have some eyes upon him and he fancying himself according to the Moralists advice always Sub custode Paedagogo under the eye of a keeper might be the more careful of his carriage And it was a wise answer of Livius Drusus when an Artist offered him so to convtrive his house that he might do what he would none should see him No saith Drusus Contrive it so rather that all may see me for I am not ashamed to be seen If the eyes of men make even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while that the Adulter watcheth for the twilightâ— and they that are drunk are drunk in the night how powerful will the eye and presence of God be with those that fear his anger and know the sweetness of his favour Moses forsook the sinful pleasures of Pharaohs Court not fearing the wrath of the King for he saw him that was invisible A good commander causeth good government in a Town or City This truth wrought home and set close to the heart would cause good orders good government in it The thought of this Omnipresence of God will affrighten thee from sin Gehezi durst not ask or receive any part of Naamans Presents in his Masters presence but when he had got out of Elisha's sight then he tells his lye and gives way to his lust Men never sin more freely then when they presume upon secrecy They break in peices thy people O Lord and afflict thine heritage They slay the Widow and Stranger and murder the Fatherless yet they say The Lord doth not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Psa. 94. 5 6 7. Eliphaz though falsly accused Iob as guilty of the same crime upon the same account Iob 22. 5 6 7 13 14. They who shut God out of their hearts shut him also out of the world through their atheism and then are at liberty for all manner of wickedness They who abounded in abominations said The Lord seeth us not the Lord hath forsaken the earth Ezek. 8. 9 10 12. The wise man diswadeth from wickedness upon the consideration of Gods eye and Omniscience And why wilt thou my son be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosome of a stranger For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Prov. 5â— 20 21. Ioseph saw God in the room and therefore durst not yeild but his Mistris saw none but Ioseph and so was impudently alluring and tempting him to folly I have read of two religious men that took contrary courses with two lewd women whom they
so often to remember his latter end because the meditation of it is so gainful to him The first day man was made he was called to think of his last day God minded him of death in the Tree of Knowledge and the threatning annexed to the Prohibition that he might thereby keep him from sin Satan could not prevail with Eve to taste of that killing fruit till he had prevailed with her to distrust that threatning of death ye shall not surely dye Gen. 3. 4. After the fall God reneweth this meditation by turning the conditional into an absolute commination Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return and though the Holy Ghost omitteth many particulars about Gods carriage with the long-lived Patriarchs and their holy conversation before him yet he is exact in registring their deaths And he died and he died of every one Gen. 5. to quicken us to fear God because we are but dying frail men There is hardly any thing about which we deal but God gives us by it a Memento of Death Our Cloaths are all fetcht out of Deaths wardrobe our food out of deaths shambles The Sun is an emblem of lifes posting the night of the chambers of darkness the year hath its autumn the day its night Our candles should mind us of the wasting of our days the evening of the shadow of death our undressing of our putting off our earthly tabernacles and our lying down in our beds of our lying down in our graves If thou wouldst make Religion thy business and main work think often and seriously of thy death and departure of this world He that guides and steers the ship aright sits in the stern or hinderâ— most part of it He that would order his works his way according to God must be frequent in the meditation of his end The end of his days must be at the end of all his thoughts Zeno Cittiaeus consulted with the Oracle how he might live well and received this answer If he would be of the same colour with the dead Reader if thou wouldst live much and well get thy heart as much affected with godliness in health as it will be in sickness Have the same thoughts of it the same seriousness about it the very same carriage towards it whilst the world salutes thee with its smiling face and bewitching features which thou wilt wish thou hadst had when thou shalt come to take thy leave of it and lye upon thy dying bed Be of the same colour with the dead O what thoughts have the dead of godliness and of making it ones business The dead in Christ and the dead out of Christ have both other manner of thoughts of Religion and making it ones occupation then thou canst possibly imagine Those who while they live delay repentance and dally about Religion minding it as if they minded it not who neither in their dealings with men nor duties towards God nor in their relations nor vocations make it their business but mispend their precious time misimploy their weighty talents neglect God and their eternal welfares as if they had not been made to mind either when they come to dye and perceive in good earnest that that surly Serjeant Death will not be denyed but away they must go into the other world and fare well or ill for ever according as their hearts and lives have been godly or ungodly good or bad here good Lord what thoughts have they then of godliness How hearty are their wishes that they had made it their business What Worlds would they give that Religion had been their principal work What prayers and tears do they poure out for a few days to mind it in What sighs and sobs and groans that they have neglected it so long What purposes do they take up what promises do they make if God spare them to follow hard after holiness and make it their onely business A Philosopher asking Euchrites which of the two he had rather be Craesus one of the richest and most vicious in the world or Socrates one of the poorest and most vertuous Eucrites answered Craesus vivens Socrates moriens Craesus while he lived and Socrates when he dyed The Cuckoe when wearing away changeth her noat The worst men when they come to dye alter and change exceedingly It is worthy our observation that those who are greatest strangers to death are most familiar with the works of darkness No place abounds more in Wolves no person in wickedness then where this Mastiff is wanting Jerusalem hath greivously sinned her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end therefore she came down wonderfully 1 Lamen 8. 9. Jerusalem hath greivously sinned hath sinned sin Heb. Hath committed a great or greivous sin so the Chaldee Behold here the colour of her sin is was not of an ordinary dye but of a black a bloody an heinous nature Her filthiness is in her skirts Lo here her carriage after her sinning she made of it an open shew so far was she from shame It is a term taken from prostituted Strumpets or monstrous women saith Diodat The outward looks of the former bewray her inward lusts and the marks of the latters defilement are visible on her garment thus the shew of Ierusalems countenance did publiquely evidence her crime She did as clearly by her skirts proclaim her filth as if it had been written on her face and engraven on her forehead Here was impiety in her practice Ierusalem hath greivously sinned and impudency to purpose Her filthiness is in her skirts But what dust was that which bred such vermine what polluted seed was that which begat such a poisonous serpent Reader if thou wouldst know the Mother which brought forth and bred up this ugly Monster She remembreth not her last end therefore she came down mightily It was her forgetfulness of death which nourished and cherished her wicked deeds They who mind not their reckoning care not how much they riot and revel They who put far away the evil day cause the seat of violence to come near Amos 6. 3. The further we drive death from our thoughts the nearer we draw to sin They who fancy their foe to be very far off will not prepare and make ready to fight Men that are young do not consider that the old Ass often carrieth the skin of the young to the Market that death comes like a Thunderbolt and Lightning and blasteth the green corn and consumeth the strongest buildings if they did they would flee youthful lusts He who seeth death at his door will be most diligent about his duty A serious consideration of the death of the body will be a soveraign though a sharp medicine to kill the body of death The Naturalists tell us that the ashes of a Viper applied to the part which is stung draweth the venome out of it They who look on themselves as Pilgrims and strangers will abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the
soul 1 Pet. 1. 17. Who would make his Belly his Gut his God who confidereth that every meal may be his last or that thinketh his dainty diet his fine fare doth but provide a greater feast for wormes Who would give way to sinful wantons who beleiveth that whilst he is unloading his lust God may put a period to his life He that is high in conceit of himself little dreameth how low he must shortly be laid Who would be proud of that body which shall ere long see corruption become such a noysom loathsom carcass that the nearest and dearest relations will not endure the sight or sent of it He who loveth the world inordinately forgetteth that he may leave it suddenly and must leave it certainly Would Haman have bragged so much of Hesters banquet if he had known that his own corps should be served in for the last course Would the Israelites have tempted God for meat if they had thought that death should have been their sauce Would Achan have coveted the golden wedge if he had mused of his so sudden departure into the other world Without question he would have forborn the Babylonish garment if he had seen death at his back so ready to strip him naked Had the rich fool thought that his bed should that night have proved his grave he would never in the day have prided himself in his goods Who would not at Gods call vilifie that flesh which will be ere long a lump of filth and be choice of that soul which lives for a more high and heavenly flight It is reported of the Brachmans that they use no cloaths but Bear-skins no houses but Caves no food but such as nature dresseth When Alexander came to them in his travails he asked them the reason of this severe kind of living They answered him We know we shall dye whether to day or to morrow we know not and therefore why should we take care either for power to govern others or for riches to live in pleasures or for honour to be esteemed of None are so loose to the world that great hinderance of holiness as they who ponder they must leave it Travellers who look on themselves near their journeys end care not to burden themselves with much baggage Their moderation will be known to all men who believe The Lord is at hand Those who are most mindful of their deaths are most faithful in their lives Iob was eminent in grace because Iob was daily conversing with his grave All the days of his appointed time he waited till his change came Job 14. 14. That servant will follow his work most and best who expecteth his Masters coming every moment It is said of the Kite that by the turning of his tail he directs and winds about his whole body The same is reported of the Glede or Puttock Fish also say Naturalists turn and wind about by the fins in their Tails Reader could I but prevail with thee to mind the end of thy life it would help thee very much to order thy conversation aright O said God that my people were wise then would they consider their latter end Deut. 32. 29. The Thebans made a Law that no man should build an house for himself to dwell in before he had made his grave Several of the Philosophers had their graves made before their doors that when ever they went abroad they might remember their deaths If thou wouldst but in thy out-goings and in-comings behold the place of thy burial I doubt not but thou wilt be watchful over all thy ways When thou art in the midst of thy delights as Ioseph of Aritmathea have thy tomb in thy garden and it may prevent thy surfeiting by those dainties When thou sittest at Table let the first dish set before thee be according to Prester Iohns custom a deaths-head and then with what fear wilt thou feed how thankfully wilt thou receive the creatures even as through the beloved Son how soberly wilt thou use them even as in Gods sight If God raise thee to the height of prosperity and some friend do but as Moses and Elias to Christ when his Face did shine as the Sun and his Raiment was as white as Snow Luk. 9. 30 31. talk to thee of thy decease which thou must shortly accomplish it will abate thy love to the worlds withering vanities and quicken thine endeavours after the eternal weight of glory If God cast thee into great adversity and thou dost but consider thy time here is but short and therefore thy troubles cannot be long this will make thee contented in the saddest condition When thou beholdest thy relations and fore-thinkest that thine eternal separation from them is at hand and that within a few days thou shalt never have another opportunity to help them heaven-ward how will it stir thee up to do them all the good thou canst now both by thy Precepts Pattern and Prayers If when thou attendest on publique Ordinances thou wilt but cast thine eye on the Graves in the Church-yard as thou passest along and meditate thus Within a little time I must be laid in the dust when I shall hear no more pray no more enjoy a Sabbath no more when I shall never never more have a tender of a Saviour never more have a season to beg mercy in for my poor soul. After such awakening thoughts with what attention wouldst thou hear with what affections wouldst thou pray with what intention and devotion with what seriousness and uprightness wouldst thou perform every duty Some say that nothing in this world is so strong as death because it subdueth the mighty it conquereth the greatest conquerours it overcometh all Sure I am that death hath great force and power over mens souls as well as over their bodies The thought of it hath raised some to a spiritual life The consideration of death hath also caused others to live much in a little space when they have sâ—en the â—un of their lives near setting and the night of their deaths approaching they have in the day followed their work with the greater diligence None will work so hard as they who think themselves near their everlasting homes There were two Emperors Adrian and Charles the fifth that in their life time caused their Coffins to be carried before them and their exequies to be solemnly celebrated to this end possibly that considering they were but men dying men they might thence be righteous in their government and virtuous in their actions It is reported of Turannius that after he was ninety years old he got leave of Caesar to retire himself from Court and the old man would needs be laid in his bed as one that had breathed out his last and all his Family must bewail his death Friend do thou in earnest what he did in jest Suppose thou wert this day to bid adiew to thy Friends Relations Honours and Possessions and to travail into the unknown other world to
undergo so strict an examination Well may the time of judgement be called a day for it will declare and manifest the worth of grace and holiness which in the night of this life is not observed Ah who can conceive the value which the vilest wretch on earth will put upon holiness at that day then grace will be grace indeed and godliness will be godliness indeed Then they who mock at Saints for their purity and strictness and look upon Sanctity but as Hypocrisie and the acting of a part to cozen the world with and think it is enough to put God off with a few prayers now and then when their pastimes and lusts will give them leave will call to beleivers as the foolish to the wise Virgins Give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out then the graceless Princes and Potentates of the world will throw their Crowns and Diadems at the feet of the meanest Christian for a dram of his grace and holiness The Apostle speaking of that day puts the question Where shall the sinner and ungodly appear 1 Pet. 4. 18. Now indeed those that â—coff and deride and scorn at holiness and holy ones may appear before great men in many parts of the world with praise and applause Now they may appear in the Country and be respected of their Drunken Atheistical Brutish Neighbours and probably be the more honoured for their opposition to the Spirit of grace and holiness but then Where will the sinner and ungodly appear Not in Heaven for that is no Stie for Swine no Kennel for Dogs no Gaol for Malefactours no place for such unholy God-provoking persons Into it can in no wise enter that which is defiled or unclean Such a Pallace is not fit for Beasts Snakes and Serpents and Adders are more fit for the bosome and embraces of men then such men for the bosome and embraces of God Heaven cast out wicked Angels and will not take in wicked Men Where shall they then appear Not on Earth for that will be burnt up with fire Their Houses and places must know them no more for ever The earth groaned under their weight whilst it bare them but now is eased of such loads and shall not be pestered with such Plagues again But where shall they appear Not before Christ the Iudge with any comfort for him they have derided buffeted crucified they have rejected his Laws trampled on his blood told him to his face that they will not have him to raign over them But where will they appear Not before the Saints for they have maligned oppressed imprisoned persecuted them as a company of Cheats and Hypocrites O where shall the sinner and ungodly appear 1. Consider The holiness of the Iudge He is the holy Iesus He loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity Psa. 45. What will the ungodly sinner do when he shall be judged by the holy Saviour Who can stand before this holy God 1 Sam. 60. 20. His eyes are like a flame of fire and so he knoweth the most secret works of darkness His Law is very pure and observeth and condemneth the least spots the least defilement and how will unclean ones endure to be judged for their everlasting lives and deaths by such a Law His throne is a white throne and how will the black sinner do to stand before this white throne Reader Thou hadst need to be a faithful and loyal subject if thou wouldst then be owned and acknowledged by thy Soveraign How exact should he be in his life who must be tried by so holy a Law If thou callest him Father who without respect of persons will judge every man according to his works pass the time of thy sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1. 17. 2. Consider The strictness of his proceedings Every thought word and action shall be revealed examined and weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed nor secret that shall not be made known The thoughts of thy heart shall then be as visible as the features of thy face When God shall judge the secrets of mens hearts by my Gospel Rom. 2â— 16. All thy words will then be as audible as if thou hadst had a voice to reach every child of Adam both alive and dead Verily I say unto you that of every idle word ye shall give an account at the day of Christ Mat. 12. 36. Every action of thine will then be legible not onely to God as it is at this day but also to Angels and Men We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to give an account of all things done in the body whether they be good or whether they be evil 2 Cor. 5. 10. All the works of darkness will then be brought to light We must all appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely be present in person and not by a proxy but be laid open and manifest be transparent so the word signifieth to give an account of every thing done c. to render a reason of every individual thought word and deed what was the principle from which we acted what was the rule by which we acted what was the end for which we acted When Benjamins sack was opened the silver cup appeared On that Fair-day all mens packs will be opened and then it will be known what ware they carry about with them Hence some have conjectured that it will not be a short time nor the judgement soon passed over It is called a day but not in relation to our natural or artificial days for Christ judging as man in his humane nature by his divine power will probably employ a far greater time in searching into and publiquely revealing every mans condition and conversation Though I am not of their opinions who say it will be precisely a thousand yearsâ— because it s said A thousand years are in thy sight but as one day Yet I judge it to be taken indefinitely and as Aâ—stin saith That the day of judgement shall begin is certain but when it shall end is uncertain I find two Divines eminent both for grace and learning in their generations speaking One saith I humbly conceive that the day of judgement shall not be passed over in an instant but shall be of long continuance sor if Christ should judge onely as God he could dispatch it in a moment but he judging as man it must be after the manner of men that the creature may understand admire and approve what is done The other saith It must take up some large quantity of time to manifest all the secret sins of men and therefore it may be made evident both from Scripture and reason that the day of Christs kingly office in judging the world shall last happily longer then the day of Christs private administration now in governing the world 3. Consider The weight of the sentence It s called the eternal judgement because the sentence then pronounced shall never be
death and day of judgment and bring him in unspeakable gain before the aery honours and withering vanities of this life Reader If thou wilt give conscience free liberty to speak its mind I know it will tell thee that no calling is comparable to this for profit The gain of Godliness is real gain rich gain certain gain eternal gain 1. It s real if the word of truth may be trusted its fruit is therefore called substance in distinction from earthly riches which are shadows I will cause them that love me to inherit substance 2. It s called also true riches other riches are fained hence also godly men are said to be rich towards god and other men to be rich in this world It s rich gain as it hath relation to the best part it makes the soul of man truly precious as it is serviceable to our last end and prepareth man for the fruition of God and also as its reward is unconceivable The vessels of mercy shall swim in an Ocean of glory Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive what God hath layd up for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. It s reward is beyond all expression above all apprehensions no comparison can fully resemble it no understanding conceive it 3. It s eternal gain Other gains are fading deceitful brooks dying flowers withering goards and vanishing shadows Riches are not for ever Pro. 29 Man in honour abideth not Psa. 49.2 The pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11. 25. But this gain is for ever The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever both in the nature of it t is incorruptible seed and in the fruit of it which is the gift of God eternal life Though other trades shall all fail as useful onely in this needy World though other callings shall vanish and time it self shall be no more yet this trade this calling shall râ—n parallel with the life of an immortal soul though gold be a corruptible mettal the gain of this calling is better then much fine gold it s an inheritance undefiled incorruptible Our work whether in doing or suffering the Will of God is but for a moment but it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory O what an happy good what an excellent gain is that which is eternal Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken from her When thy Lands and Houses shall be taken from thee thy place and dwelling shall know thee no more when thy Friends and Relations shall be taken from thee Son of Man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke when all the comforts of this life shall serve thee as vermine and lice do a dead man though they stick close to him in his life run from him at death this Calling will stand by thee encourage thee never leave thee nor forsake thee In other things thou chosest for that which is most lasting If thou buyest an house or beast or suit of apparel thou art desirous to have that which is most durable and strong O why shouldst thou not chose that good which is everlasting When Demetrius had taken Megara and his Souldiers plundered the City he fearing the Philosopher Stilpo might receive some loss sent for him and asked him whether any of his men had taken any thing of his Stilpo answered No for I saw no man that took my learning from me Godliness is such Wealth such Learning as will abide with thee in general plunder indeed neither men nor Devils can rob thee of it 4. It s certain gain He that sets up of this trade may be trusted for none ever brake of this calling God himself whose is the earth and the fulness thereof is bound for them and hath undertaken for their perseverance and growth and gains The Merchant that trades into the other world is not properly a Merchant-venturer for the Gospel which is the Ensurance Office hath engaged infinite power and love and faithfulness for the security and safe return of all the Vessels which he sends forth The Promises are all yea and amen the sure mercies of David The Covenant of grace which containeth all their gains and riches is stable in all things and sure 2 Cor. 1. 20. Isa. 55. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. If there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies and every man that went promised as much gold as he would desire and a certainty of making a good voyage who almost would stay at home what crowding would there be to Port-Towns and what hast to take shipping Reader Though God will not suffer this to be in reference to earthly treasures knowing out of his infinite wisdom how hurtful they would be to immortal souls yet he offereth thee all this and infinitely more in calling upon thee to mind godliness He saith to thee as Ioseph to his brethren Gen 45. 18. Come unto me and I will give you the good of the Land of Egypt and ye shall eat the fat of the Land Come unto me and I will give you the good of Canaan and ye shall eat the pleasant fruits of that Land flowing with Milk and Honey O Reader didst thou know the worth of this jewel thou wouldst trample upon all the wealth of this World as dung in comparison of it Little dost thou think or imagine the advantage the vertues of this Diamond It is the true Loadstone that draweth all good to it Luther saith of one Psalm This Psalm hath done more for me then all the Potentates of the World I may say to thee This calling will feed thee with bread that came down from Heaven and cloath thee with fine linnen the robes of Gods own righteousness t will protect thee and maintain thee t will advance and honour thee t will inrich and ennoble thee in life refresh and rejoyce thee in death crown and reward thee after death do more for thee then all the Princes or Potentates Relations or Posâ—Possessions Persons or Comforts upon Earth can do In thy prosperity and enjoyment of outward good things godliness would like Sugar and Spice correct their windiness and make them wholsom and profitable to thee It would like Elisha's Meal and Salt make thy Meat sweet and savoury and thy drink pleasant and refreshing to thee It would make thy bed soft and easie thy garments warm and sweet sented T will so far abate thy appetite to this luscious food that thou shouldst not feed immoderately to the surfeiting thy soul. As the fiery bush which Moses saw in the Mount Horeb though it was in a flaming fire did not consume Or as the shining worm that being cast into the fire doth not waste but is thereby pâ—rged from its filth and made more beautiful then all the water in the world could make it So Affliction should not ruine but reform and purifie thee In the greatest danger this will be thy
Treatise A CHristians should Admonish one another 285 How ibid. Afflictions tend to a Christians advantage 814,815 Anger resteth in the bosome of fools 44,45 B Backbiting to be avoided 271 The great danger and evil of it 272 to 275 A Backbiter wounds three wiâ—h one arrow 274 Christians must bear with one another 288 A threefold burthen Christians must bear for each other 289 Their Civil Spiritual and Natural burthens ibid. The Beasts of the field may teach men 453 Beasts teach man six lessons Thankefulness to God Dependance on God The dread of God Diligence in our callings Innocency Wisdom 453 454 Birds of the Air teach man eight Lessonsâ— 454 to 457 Christians must use a conscience in buying 17 C CHristians should be diligent in their particular Callings 511 Christians must avoid censuring 266 The great evil of censuring 267 How to apply our selves to civil men in sickness 577 Saints must be careful in the choice of their Companions 90 133 The benefit of Company 86 87 to 90 138 139 The great danger of evil Company to draw men to sin 9â— to 95. 133 to 135 to draw men to suffering 95 to 99 136 The Great advantage of good Company 98 to 101. 241 to 247 A mans Company will discover him 101 102 139 Christians should Company with them that are godly 109,110,140,141 because they are godly 116,117 Whether a Christian may not be more intimate with some godly Companions then others 119 Two Cautions about it 120,121 Christians should endeavour the spiritual good of their Companions 121 to 125,182 Saints may sometimes use but should not chuse the Company of sinners 109,110 Objections against it answered 124 to 128 Evil Company infectioâ—sâ— 156 157 Saints may be the better for evil Company when they are called to it 158 159 177 Wherein 179 to 182 Christians must guard their souls in evil Company 160,161 not needlesly expose themselves to sufferings 167 Saints must not disown Christ in any Company 172 to 175 Saints should endeavour the Conversion of sinners 182 183 How 183 to 189 By good Company pious souls have been confirmed 245 Erring Saints recovered ibid. Dull Christians quickened 246 Much sin prevented 248 Christians must watch themselves in good Company â—62 What sins Saints are most prone to in good Company 263 The Communion of Saints the most excellent Communion 236 250 257 Wherein the Communion of Saints consisteth 275 In a mutual communication of their gifts and graces ibid. In joyning in the Ordinances of God ibid. In serviceableness each to other 276 Wherein 280 to 287 A Contented spirit a great help to godlinessâ— 809 Nine Arguments to Contentedness in the most afflicted condition 813 Christians should receive Counsel 301 Penitent Christians should be comforted 283 It s a duty to be courteous 39 Courtesie is an ornament to Christianity 40,41 D EVery day to be begun with duty 496 Arguments to it ib. to 499 Christians should exercise themselves to godliness in their dealings with all men 5 It s a sign of hypocrisie to be careless in dealings with men 7 to 10 The credit of Religion is much engaged in our Dealings with others 11 to 14 In our dealings with others we must be righteous 15 Courteous 39 Meek 42 The Principle of a Christian in his dealings must be gracious 51 52 The end of a Christian in his dealings must be minded 53 54 A daily performance of holy duties to be minded 756 The necessity and benefit of daily duties 757 to 760 Christians should exercise themselves to Godliness on a dying bed 611,612 What it is to dye in the Lord. 612 Three things in it ib. In what respects Christ was obedient to the death 6â—5 Death is a serious thing 619 Death will try men 620 At death man is stated for eternity 622 Satan is busie to assault at death ib. 623 A death bed is a special season to honour God 624 It s the last opportunity 627 How Christians should honour God on a dying bed 628 In commending God and godliness to others 629 In commending our selves to God 633 In praying for our Relations the Church our Benefactours and our Enemies 634 to 637 In exercising grace on a dying bed 637 What graces Saints should especially exercise on a dying bed Faith Courage Repentance Charity Patience 637 to 647 Our whole life should be a preparation for Death 633 634 In what respects or how a Saint may dye with comfort 658 to 662 Meditation of death a special help to holiness 745 to 753 The great mischif of discontent 811 812 E CHristians must spiritualize earthly things 372,373 Several examples hereof 374 to 380 The earth teacheth man four lessons 457 Earthly things unsutable unsatisfying vexatious deceitful and uncertain 828 to 840 Ejaculations profitable 435 Christians must look to their ends in their actions 53 54 Frequent Examination of our selves and our ways a duty 523 786 The great advantage thereof 524 to 727.781 to 786 Examples helpful to encourage us heaven-ward 841 F FAith necessary if we would exercise our selves unto godliness 706 The excellency of Faith 707 Faith destroyeth sin 708 Overcometh the world 712 Faith overcometh the affrightments of the World 713 714 Faith overcometh the allurements of the world 716 717 Faith enableth to overcome Satan 720 the flesh 722 Faith deriveth grace from Christ. 724 Faith sets all other graces at work 725 Faith makes Ordinances profitable 727 Nine Questions to them that neglect Family duties 508 to 511 Fear sinful when 179 There can be no true Friendship betwixt a godly and a wicked man 105 to 108 Who is thy best friend 303 345 G SEtting God always before our eyes a great help to godliness 729 to 737 The knowledge of God a great help to holiness 801 to 809 Gods Omniscience 493 494 Gods Patience Vide Patience Gods word Vide word Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to Godliness 695. Vide Means Godliness the most excellent Calling 844 The most honourable ib. The most comfortable 849 The most profitable Calling 858 Twelve serious thoughts to quicken all to Exercise themselves to Godliness Vide Epistle to the Reader H THe heart the great work-house of thoughts words and actions 698 The necessity of a new heart in all that would make religion their business 699 700 The heart of man backward to good 255 prone to evil 364 must be watched 369 Holiness is honourable 844 Humility an help to holiness 792 The Excellency of humility 793 794 Vnrighteousness a sign of Hypocrisie 7 8 I THe evil of Idleness 820 The great mischief of Ignorance 806 The Ignorant should be instructed 280 281 A serious consideration of the day of judgement a special help to godliness 765 Dreadfulness of the day of judgement to wicked men 767 776 The day of judgement will be comfortable to Saints 772 Their godliness will be mentioned ibid. Their names vindicated 773 Persons publiquely acquitted ib. Their happiness will be perfected 774 Justice to what resembled 39
The Conclusion 1 Motive 2 Motive 3 Motive Job 42. 3. Jer. 31. 18. Ezek. 47. Miscenda est leniâ—as cum sevâ—ritate sit amor sed non emolienâ— sit rigor sed non exasperans Greg. Mor. 10. Deut. 18.11 Eccleâ— 5. 1,2 Carendo potius quam frâ—endo sapimus The Introduction 1 Motive To visit the sick is a duty 2 Motive It s a good opportunity for the doing of good It s a good opportunity for the receiving of good Eccles. 3. 11. and 9. 12. 1 Chron. 11. 39 3 Motive It may be the last opportunity Psa. 88 11 The matter of it 1. Know his condition 2 Let thy Application be sutable 3 Be close and home in thy Applications 4 Pray with them and for them 2 In receiving good by them 2 King 13. 14 to 20. The Conclusion Xen. l. 8. Plut. Apol. Plin. l. 9. c. 35. Suetonius Sueton. Anrel Victâ—r Woodriff Simeons Song Epist. Dedicat. Mr. Nicols in his relation of the life and death of Ign. Iordan 1 Chron. 28.1 8 9. Vide Fox Martyr Vol. 3. p. 138. Hitr. in vit Aug. de ve invo c. 33. Melc Adam Bellar. de arte mor. l. 2. c. 19. I have read of one that used to pray God bless my Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters none else To whom one that heard him answered It were better the Devil had thy father and mother and brethren and sisters and none else Ruth 1. 8. and 2. 19. 2 Tim. 1.18 Si pro te solo oras pro te solus orabis si pro omnibus rogas omnes pro te rogabunt Amb Ruth 1. 8. and 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cic. quaest Tusc. l. 1. Prov. 12. 52. Posidon in vit Aug. L. Cornelius legatus sub Fabio Consule Vividam naturam virilem animam servavi quo ad animam efflavi tandem desertus oâ—e medicorum AEsculapii Dei ingrati â—ui me voveram sodalem perpetuo suturum si filâ— aliquantulum optata proâ—â—lisset Ep. taph Pluâ— ad Apol. Hilarion morti proximus dixisse fertur Egredere animâ— mea Egredere quid dubitas septuaginta prope annis serviisti Christo mortem times Hier. Epist. Fam. l. 3. in vit Sir W. Rawleys Ep. Hist. World Idem l. 1. c. 2. Vide more of this in Fading of the flesh p. 85 86 87. See more of this in Fading of the flesh p. 88. 89. * Morari having the first syllable short signifieth to stay and so the meaning is Claudius ceased to stay amongst mortal men but take it as it is derived of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stultus and hath the first syllable long in which sense Nero spake it it importeth Claudius hath now made an end of playing the fool amongst men The Introduction 1 Motive Death is a seriouâ— thing 2 Motive A dying â—â—me is a fit season to glorifie God in 3 Motive It is the last opportunity The matter 1. In Commending God and his ways to othersâ— 2 To commend others to God 3 In exercising grace 1 Faith Courage Patience Means A continued preparation for it in life Plut. Conclusion Plut. Moral Drexel Consid. AEternâ—t A Reverend divine had this written in his study Nolâ— peccare manns videt Angeli asâ—ant Diaâ—olus accufab â— Conscientia testabitur infernus cruâ—â—abit Tu vero â—â— quiâ— in te artis est ita compone domum meam ut ab omnibus conspici possit Vellejus Paterculus Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time Magâ—um nescio quid majusque quam cogitari potest numen est cui vivendo operoram demus Huic nos apbemus nam nihil prodest inclusam esse conscientiam patemus Deo Senâ—e Merito debâ—t somper senare in aâ—ribus Vigilate Bucer in 13. Mark Philostr in vit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immunditiae suae in fimbrlis suis mercedem nondum recordata Trem. Consideratâ—o mortis tanquam caudae ad vitam optime regendam confert Sen. de brev vit cap. ult Muson apud Stob. Ser. 1. Luk. 1. 10. â— Psa. 119. 62 164. 1 Thes. 5. 17. 2. Pet. 3. 11 14. Per quot dies hoc judicium extendatur incertum â—st Scripturarum more diem poni solere pro tempore nemo nescit Aug. de â—â—vit dâ—i l. 20. cap. 1. Cicer. de Senec. Plutarch Qâ—antum possumus a lubrico recedamus c. Sen. Epist. ad Lucil. Mat. 10. 28. Joh. 14. 27. Psa. 55. 45. Liv. l. 15. c. 7. Conf. l. 9. c. 1. Dares Phryg de bello Trojanâ— Iustin Lib. 34. Ios. Lib. 12. Cap. 5.