many ardent affections and pious ejaculations may pass from the heart to Heaven which the Devil may not know the reason of and of which alone God is witness This then is another excuse that Conscience makes for it self and 't is none of the least And yet 4. There is one more a very good one when all else is said that can be the Conscience flies to that in 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Christ cleanseth me from all sin So that let the Devil accuse as home and charge as deep as hee can yet here to be sure is a full answer for him an irrefragable one and such as he can never invalidate or take away the force of And in case Satan should be so impudent as to urge the matter farther and say that is true the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin but that belongs to none but a true Beleiver which you can never prove your self to be To this Conscience answers likewise and that roundly and smartly Thou lyest Devil and besides thou art no Judge in this case it comes not within thy cognisance what transactions are in my soul what mutual embraces betwixt Christ and me what acts of faith and love are in that secret place as I said before thou knowest not It doth not therefore follow it is not de non entibus de non apparentibus idem est judicium things that appear not to one that is ignorant are as if they were not Let that matter alone Devil for as cunning as thou art thou art no Judge in it it is enough that my God who alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the knower of the heart Acts 15.8 knows that I love him and believe in him whether thou knowest it or not Thus now we see what a good Conscience is in both the parts of it both as 't is honestè bona pacatè bona as 't is a quiet Conscience and an excusing Conscience every way void of offence both towards God and towards men and where such a Conscience is is it not a sufficient fortification against the fear of Death What is it that can be a just ground of trouble to this man That which is the most disquieting thing of all namely his sin and the guilt of it that is removed Christ hath taken it off from him What is it can be matter of terrour to him at the great Tribunal which he must one day stand before No enemy will appear against him there for God is reconciled to him and hee that shall sit there as his Judge is no other than his Redeemer And if Conscience here even in this life whose internal motions are known to none but God himself upon which ground none else but he can impose a Law upon it and oblige it be at so much ease Surely 't is from the same God that he is going to who alone can comfort or afflict the person to all eternity hereafter whose conscience he alone also can comfort or afflict in time But I hasten to answer two impertant objections which seem much to contradict all that hath been said hitherto SECT 9. Two important objections answered against the preceeding doctrine and what hath been said upon it FIrst It may be some will say shall we think that all those that are afraid or unwilling to dye are to be looked upon as persons without such a quiet and excusing Conscience or as those which have not such inward testimonies of a good estate and that in all the particulars which have been mentioned Would not this be very uncharitable to pass such a censure Yea and very unwarrantable too and against plain evidence both of Scripture and Experience Of Scripture which positively affirms Heb. 2.15 that some and those precious ones too for 't is spoken of Saints through fear of death are all their life time subject to bondage And doth not experience farther prove it almost every day How many choice Servants of Christ have met with hard struggles when they come to dye Have been willing to live yet longer if it might bee Have they not had their dreads on them Yea their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pangs and bands in their death like a woman in travel Secondly On the other hand is it not a very ordinary thing to see wicked men live and dye in peace Men as vile as prophane and deboished as any the earth hath and yet their Consciences are quiet notwithstanding they have no disturbance at all from them nor as the Psalmist saies have they any bands in their death Psal 73.4 but seem to pass out of the world as innocent as Lambs and without any fear at all upon them These are two considerable Objections indeed and must be answered and to satisfaction too least the truth before delivered bee prejudiced and shaken by it I answer therefore to both in order and first to the first objection I say three things First by way of concession I grant it that many who have indeed such a quiet and excusing Conscience a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men as I have been speaking of do notwithstanding dye with fears upon them and seem to be taken out of the world by violence rather than freely to go out of it and this contrary to the very precepts even of an Heathen moralist For what saies Seneca in his 104th Epistle Vir fortis sapiens exire debet è vita non trahi a wise and a valiant man ought to go readily out of this life not to be drawn And again quid est obsecro cur timeat mortem homo What is there in death considered simply in it self that a man should fear cum illâ nihil sit mali nisi quod ante ipsam est timeri the greatest evil of it is to be afraid of it before it comes Thus he even a very Heathen Well but yet for all that such is the extraordinary timidity of some persons and good ones too such is their aptness to despond partly from the natural constitution and temper of their melancholy bodies and mindes partly from the molestation of the great enemy of mankinde through Divine permission the Devil that the work of natures dissolution comes off hard with them and is a much more difficult task to them than to some others And the truth is who that is a Son or Daughter of Adam let them be never so holy and never so fit for Heaven but more or less have something of a cohorrescency of death upon them Two such old friends and so intimate as the body and the soul are loath to part It is natural for every thing to desire and seek the preservation of it self and to oppose and be afraid of that which destroys it Hence 't is that Aristotle in the third Book of his Ethicks the fixth Chapter tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is most dreadful Thus also another Heathen Epicur Ad me nunc Apud
any breach of Gods holy and righteous Law any act that may satisfie his own evil heart be it never so foul either sees no hurt or will see none in it is willingly ignorant as the Apostle speaks in another case 2 Pet. 3.5 and to that end hates to be reformed cannot endure a soul-searching Ministry or a plain-dealing Friend that may convince him of the sinfulness of his heart and waies and so lies drowzing under a sleepy and kinde of dead Conscience or else if his Conscience doth stir at any time and begin either latrare or lacerare to barke and it may be to bite too what doth he do presently Doth he not do by this his barking and biting Conscience ready to fly in his face as a man that hath a fierce Mastiff-Dog tye him up or Muzzle him Thus he deals with his Conscience and that he may bee the less at leisure to hearken to or hear the brawlings of it is it not his common practise to go into some such company or engage in some such business or indulge himself in some such pleasure recreation or other sinful divertizement as may wholly take him off from giving any the least attendance or regard to it So long as he can keep his eyes open he is thus employed and when night comes what care doth he take either to ingorge or intoxicate himself so as he may sleep it out till day-light returns or at least that hour of it that gives him the advantage of his accustomed course of sinning with his wicked Companions day after day Thus he lives and wastes his precious time not caring or knowing how soon death may Arrest him and spoil his sport Fourthly and Lastly A regenerate person is a man Crucified to the World and the World to him He is no more moved or affected with the pleasures the delights and lying vanities of this world than a living man is pleased with the presence of a dead Wife lying by him and all the splendours grandeurs blandishments allurements and bewitchments of this world work no more upon him than upon a dead man that hath neither sense nor motion nor life in him But yet in the mean while though his heart be dead to this world world and all the fine toyes and trifles of it so as all the wealth riches gauderies and glories thereof be nothing to him yet he is so wise as to minde the things of the other world these as he highly prizeth and values them at their just rate so he earnestly seeks after them His whole business lies here namely by patient continuance in well-doing to seek for glory honour immortality eternal Life Rom. 2.7 and this being the trade hee drives every step he treads is towards Heaven and to a being made meet for the enjoyment of it Contrariwise an unregenerate person takes quite another course he is all for earth and for earthly things all for either the profits of the world if his heart be choaked with covetous cares and thoughts or for the pleasures of the world if he be a bruitish sensualist or for the honours dignities and high-places of the world if he be of a lofty and proud Spirit As for the injoyment of God or the saving of his soul they are matters too serious for him to minde mundus cum suis frivolis the frivolous World is his Idol and that he will adore though with the losse of Heaven it self and all the blisses thereof for ever which being so may we not conclude that every step he treads is towards Hell and that he is ripening apace for it Thus we see what a vast difference there is between a regenerate person and an unregenerate in their lives Let us see now what the difference is in their deaths The regenerate person 1. Hath no stings nor gaulings of Conscience his main worke is done when he comes to lye upon his dying-Bed It hath been his every daies work to set things right and to keep them so to the utmost of his endeavour betwixt God and him to get and grow up into an intire friendship with him and still to call himself to an account for every thing that might offend and with all speed to hasten to the blood of sprinkling to be washed and cleansed he would never be at rest so long as guilt remained upon his own heart or one frown in the face of God towards him But this the unregenerate person never did nor would ever by any means be perswaded to it self-Examination self-Reflexion and self-Judging were Duties which he was alwaies a stranger to these were works for an awakened and a tender Conscience which he never had nor desired to have and so now judicially is given up happily to a Conscience past feeling and that cannot be sensible of any thing 2. In case a regenerate and holy person should be under some little clouds for a while and through the malice of Satan by Divine permission be somewhat damped in his inward peace and comfort when hee is about his last work of dying yet as hath been said there is no just reason why it should be thus with him and 't is very rare that any good man or woman is long vexed thus but to be sure the storm ends at last and the rest of their passage is usually under a pleasant and fair gale God himself as I may so say sitting at the sterne and the holy Angels spreading the Sails And Oh then the calmness of their mindes the serenity of their peace the inward quiet of their souls how great is it How is not Death then at all dreadful but rather a welcome Messenger which they now look for and wonder that his Chariot wheels move no faster which blessed repose being now cast into after their buffetings and combates with Satan on a sudden they breathe forth their perfumed breath and so fall asleep in Jesus But alas How far otherwise is it with a wicked unregenerate man when he comes to this dying worke For if his Conscience be not so far seared blinded and left judicially insensible as was but even now mentioned but is let loose upon him and inabled by the God of Conscience to charge him and accuse him home If it calls all his sins to remembrance and sets them in order before him a work which sometimes God to shew his Power will assist this or that wicked mans Conscience in as himself speaks Psal 50.21 I say when once Conscience acts this part upon some obstinate and impenitent wretch and hath a commission so to do Oh then the roarings the yellings the howlings of such a Conscience How then doth death come with all its stings how doth Hell fire flash in his face with all its flames And how doth the Devil himself as 't were haunt and affright him with all his Feinds Oh now the horrors the terrors the soul-sinking over-whelming dreads that are upon him may not his Name bee now changed into magor-missabib
fear round about He that before seemed to have no such power faculty or principle of Conscience in him call it what you will no such vicegerency of the Divine Majesty for what is Conscience but Gods Vicegerent Behold now he findes it much otherwise he now experiments the truth of those words in Prov. 20.27 The Spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the Belly and 't is not onely a shining but a burning Candle too that kindles wrath as wel as discovers sin and can you imagin it possible for such tormented ones as this poor miserable self-condemned man is not to be afraid to dye Doubtless they are afraid and afraid to such a degree as is not easie to be expressed and yet whilst they live in this manner is not their very life a burthen to them and a sore torment are not these the men of whom Epictetus speaks apud Stob. c. 120. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain wonderful sort of men that are weary of life and yet have no minde to dye or of whom Seneca speaks in his fourth Epist Inter mortis metum vitae tormenta miseri fluctuant vivere nolunt mori nesciunt that are miserably tossed betwixt the fear of Death and the torments of Life have no desire to live and yet know not how to dye And the same Seneca again Epist 101. Invenitur qui malit inter supplicia-tabescere perire membratim toties per stillicidia amittere animam quam semel exhalare Invenitur qui velit trahere animam tot tormenta tracturam Usque adeonè mori miserum est Est tanti habere animam ut agam Would one think that the man should be found upon earth that would rather waste away by degrees among grievous sufferings be content to rot in pieces one member after another and let his soul go out as 't were by drops rather than to send it out all together at one single groan That any man should bee found that would endure the lengthening out of his life under so many torments Is death so miserable a thing to be thus affrighted at it Yea and is life too of so great value as to be thus defired The like passage we finde in Cyprian also in his Book de Mortal concerning some in his age Pati non vultis exire timetis quid faciam vobis Ye are unwilling to live under your sufferings and yet ye are unwilling to dye what shall I do unto you Or how shall I comfort you Second Use for Exhortation TO good and bad to regenerate and unregenerate First to the unregenerate to whom would they could all hear it I would make it my most earnest request that they would do five things 1. Sit down and bethink themselves that they would go into their retirements though 't were but for one half hour in a day and seriously consider what their condition is how doleful dismal dangerous How angry God is with them and that continually and unappeasedly whilst they remain impenitent and unbelieving in this their unregenerate state That they would consider what vengeance hangs over their heads hourly and that if they live and dye Thus there can be no possible hope of good for them That if still they remain fearless and careless of God and will not hearken to his calls and counsels now in their life time when pangs of death come upon them and they then cry out for mercy miserably roaring in the very anguish of their soul God will be so far from hearing them who when time was would not hear him that he will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear comes Prov. 1 24.-33 2. That hereupon they would pitty themselves and be no longer cruel to their own precious souls that they would no more neglect their own salvation the great salvation offered them in the Gospel For how much sorer punishment than ordinary must not they look for who neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 3. That they would suffer the words of Exhortation instruction and counsel from plain-dealing friends and such as have a true pity for them whether they have any pity for themselves or not 4. That they would be prevailed with to break off from their evil company and fall in with the Lords precious people give attendance upon his holy Ordinances that of Preaching especially which is a converting Ordinance and where God is present with it will soon make a change upon the most perverse sinner in the world 5. That they will delay no longer but hasten to do this with all speed least the door of Mercy be shut upon them and the opportunity of Grace past before they are aware of it To the regenerate even all the true Saints and Servants of the high God My Exhortation to them is two-fold First more General then more Particularly to some of them My General Exhortation to all is unto three things 1. To pity all such as still abide in their unregenerate estate Though they hate you yet do you pity them yea and pray for them watch for all opportunity of doing good to their souls give them the example of an holy life and every way do your utmost if it be possible to pluck them as fire-brands out of the devouring flames 2. Blesse God for your own most rich and unspeakable Mercy that your selves are not in the same case with them That he hath made such a vast difference between you What are you naturally better than they Were not both hewed out of the same Rock And whence doth the difference rise Is it not altogether from free-Grace Yes verily altogether from free Grace Not by works of Righteousness which we had done saies the Apostle Titus 2.5 But through his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration Oh then be thankful For what greater thing than this can God himself do for you than he hath done in making such a change upon you 3. Walk worthy of all this Mercy and Goodness Let God have something from you answerable to his kindness and this his distinguishing love to you and from you of all others from whom he hath removed the fears of Death so that 't is no way dreadful to you but come when it will come it shall be welcome to you But as for such of you among the Lords People as happily may not bee quite gotten over these fears and yet may bee truely willing to bee with Christ and thereupon could even wish that you had once shot this Gulf of Death Let me speak to you more particularly and entreat you 1. That you would seriously consider how uncomely at least if not a kinde of inconsistent thing it is for those that pretend for Heaven and do in good earnest set their faces thither-ward to be afraid of Death Even an Heathen could say I mean Seneca Epist 24. Confirmandus est animus vel ad mortis vel ad vitae
SICK-BED Thoughts Upon those words of the Apostle In Phil. 1.23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better PART I. Containing an ANSWER TO That great and solemn QUESTION What that State and Condition is which a Person must be found in before he can have good and sufficient ground not to be affraid or unwilling to Dye By J. B. Printed in the Year 1667. To the Reader Courteous Reader WHilst all the World is in an hurry tossed here and there with vanity and vexation whilst few or none almost are looking after their future state or regarding what will become of them to Eternity I judged it not amiss a little to call thee aside into such serious thoughts as it pleased the Lord lately to cast into mine own heart whilst I passed away some restless nights on my Sick-Bed If thou shalt vouchsafe to read them over with a candid minde and an honest intent I hope thou wilt not think thy time lost nor bee unwilling that two or three peeces more much about the same bulk and price should follow this their fore-runner to compleat what I propound if the Lord spare life and health farther to handle viz. An Answer to a second great and solemn Question What state of Grace a person must arrive at before he can truly say with the Apostle Paul that he hath a vehement desire to depart and to be with Christ This will make up another little Treatise of its self The next to which will bee an Answer to a third Question viz. What posture and frame of heart a person must be found in that can truely say he is fit and ready to Dye that can say with good old Simeon Now let thy servant depart in peace To which will bee subjoyn'd a Discourse to prove that a righteous mans death is no other than a going to Christ This will make a third Treatise Lastly the enquiring into the reasons why a good man should and will by all means desire to bee with Christ and that as soon as possibly may be let his condition here in this World bee never so pleasing to flesh and blood will make up the fourth part and so finish the whole design That which this last Discourse will be founded upon will be those words Which is far better And now if any should ask why I chuse this Subject of all others to write upon at this time I answer not onely because the Lord cast it strongly into my minde at a season when I knew not but that I might leave the world and so was willing to be preparing for my change but also because all things here below seem to have a face of death upon them as in all places so most of all in this our poor ruinated City of London for besides the wonderful desolation of the Inhabitants thereof by the late raging Pestilence even beyond what hath been known in any former age and the late scattering impoverishing and almost utter undoing of many thousands more in the loss of their estates trades and other outward comforts and enjoyments and this all England over more or less I say besides all this hath not the wrath of God and men as 't were joyned in one to lay the very houses also and the habitations desolate and to make them likewise feel such a stroke of death and dissolution as they were any way capable of receiving Oh! where under the whole heavens is such another woful spectacle to bee seen such an angry mark of divine displeasure such avengements from an offended and highly provoked God! The devouring flames that have wasted many famous Cities in former ages viz. Constantinople Rome Alexandria in Aegypt Paris Amsterdam Hamburrough the late Imperial City of Aka in Germany yea and in this our London too as wee finde upon record in antient story and as well in the French and Dutch as our own English Chronicles came short of this Nor indeed were the sins of any of them all of so deep a Dye and aggravated with such incensing circumstances as the sins of this our England and especially of London are some of the chief of which the iniquity of the times is come to that heighth as not to suffer them to be so much as mentioned and if they must not be so much as mentioned how can they bee confessed and when will they be forsaken Oh poor sinful England Oh England laden with iniquity when wilt thou be reformed when wilt thou be washed from thy filthiness when shall it once bee dost thou look for healing and yet all the while dost what thou canst to make thy wounds wider and thou the Metropolis of England once famous London canst thou hope for better things upon what ground I pray dost thou at all repent of thy manifold transgressions and thy mighty sins dost thou at all prepare to meet the Lord in the way of his judgements were this evident there would be some hope indeed Then perhaps those good words and comfortable words which the Angel spake to the Prophet Zachary chap. 1.13 16. viz. that he would return to Jerusalem with mercies after it had been burnt 70 years before by the Chaldean Army may bee applicable to thee also But alas is there any the least appearance of such a spirit as this among us surely nothing less For who or where almost are any to be found that do indeed lay things to heart where are the men and women that mourn that sigh for the abominations of the Land for the detestable things of the Sanctuary Such as Ezekiel complained of in his time chap. 5.11 and chap. 8. throughout where are any that lay to heart the afflictions of Joseph nay that are affected with their own afflictions in any such measure and manner as they ought is not the sense of things already off nay rather was it ever on so as it ought to have been for how else could it bee so soon gone again do we not see men walk every day through the heaps of rubbish with dry Eyes yea with merry Countenances as if London were London still and had known no sorrow or felt the force of such a consuming Fire and which of all things else to me is as calamitous as any that can be named and as bad an Omen are not many very many even of those that suffered most in their Trades losses and sad effects of both as little affected as any other and as unreformed Mercies before did no good upon them neither sparing mercies whilst saved from that over-spreading Plague that carried away so many of their Neighbours Friends Kindred and Relations nor inriching mercies by which they abounded in the things of this life and now Judgements do no good upon them neither no though thereby reduced to great extremities and become the objects of misery to all that know them Oh! how must this insensibility this incorrigibleness needs exasperate an holy God if people will not
in person to her that would satisfie her Thus the Persian Lady to her Prince when he offered her a very precious Jewel to wear for his sake 't is your self Sir I desire to enjoy Tu mihi sola gemma es these without you lose their value and in my account will be little worth In like manner our Apostle here placeth his chiefest happinesse in the sight of Christ and being in person with him Bernard in Psal qui Habit. expresseth it to the life Esse Christum cum Paulo magna securitas esse Paulum cum Christo summa foelicitas Christ his being with Paul was his great security but Paul's being with Christ was his highest felicity Secondly when Paul desires to be with Christ the meaning of it in this place is so to be with him as to have the most full enjoyment of him that he could be made capable of to be in the full view of him even face to face Here he had but glympses of him and that by faith onely and through thick clonds and this but now and then too which though very refreshing to him yet far from making up such a blessednesse as the constant and un-interrupted enjoyment of him would give This and nothing less than this will put an end to his desires and afford him the content he seeks for omnis motus tendit in quietem all motion aims at rest but this most of all Thus we have the Apostles desires what they are and how vehement and the object about which they are conversant together with the Medium or way for the attaining of them he would depart and be with Christ Let us next see the reason of his desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is far better so 't is translated but it would be better expressed by a right Englishing of the causative particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for for it is far better far better multo magis melius saies the vulgar translation much more better Longè enim optimum est saies Beza for that is farre the best Properly the words may be rendred by much rather better better by much or as 't is in the old bibles best of all But for whom not for you saies the Apostle but for me I am sure Indeed for your sakes Methinks I could be content to stay a while longer but when I consider how sweet it will be to be with Christ for altogether and in the highest and fullest enjoyment of him then I am impatient till I am with him His love to the Phillippians was great and his love to himself was great too Willing he was for their sakes to stay and yet for his own sake more willing to go Egomet mihi proximus ipsi I am nearest to my self may every man say It were something strange if a man should not love himself first I was about to say best too next unto the God that made him and sweet Jesus his Redeemer yet Paul sayes that even in this case he was in a straight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am in a straight between two he was besieged on both sides which to yield to he doth not well know but at last resolves that for their furtherance and joy of faith if Christ should see fit he would abide and continue yet longer with them vers 24.25 he that could wish himself even accused from Christ amazing expression for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. 9.3 was here willing all things considered to come somewhat the later to Heaven which yet he most of all desired on condition to help on the word of the Gospel yet a little further and to give a more firm establishment to the Churches of Christ Oh rare temper What an holy struggle was now in Pauls heart between the love which he bare to Christ and his people in this World and the love which he bare to Christ and himself in the other World Will it not be hard to determine in which of these he exercised the greatest Grace and also which of the two graces now at work in his heart was the most noble his self-denyal or his self-love But enough of glossing upon the Words which I have been the larger in in reference to what will follow in the several Points to be handled from them As for the division of them they fall into two parts 1 a declaration of the Apostles desire which is to depart and to be with Christ 2 the reason of this his desire which is far better The Doctrines arising from the words are these four the first is a Doctrine that lies couchant in them necessarily implyed though not so plainly expressed it is this That whoever hath a true and saving interest in Christ hath good and sufficient ground not to be affraid or unwilling to dye this I take it is included and must be understood for he that desires to dye and to go to Christ must needs be supposed not to be affraid or unwilling to dye omne majus contines minus every greater contains the lesse a man must first be past the fear of Death before he can have a desire of death especially such a vehement desire as is here meant as in goodnesse No man can be positively good but he that is first good negatively first he must removere prohibens take away that which hinders his being good before he can be truly good even so here in the case of death The fear of death must first be removed and conquered before there can be any actual desire at least any great and strong desire of it This then is the first Doctrine The second is this That no person whatsoever is so fit to dye as he that can truly say with our Apostle here he hath a desire an earnest and ardent desire to depart and to be with Christ The third is this A righteous man's death is no other than a going to Christ The fourth this from the se words for it is much better That there is reason very great reason how happy soever a mans condition may seem to be in this world yet even then when it is thus with him to depart hence and to go to Christ yea and to desire it and that greatly SECT 2. The first Doctrine propounded and the method layed down for the handling of it THe first Doctrine then is this That whoever hath a true and saving interest in Christ hath good and sufficient ground not to be affraid or unwilling to dye The method I intend to handle it in shall be this 1 To consider what are the just causes of the fear of death 2 What it is that gives a good and sufficient relief against the said fear which whatever it is is likewise a clear evidence of a true and saving interest in Christ 3 I shall endeavour to answer two very important objections which may seem strongly to oppose the whole Doctrine and all that is said upon it 4 Make use of the whole
being wicked men and women they are far from a truely good and quiet Coscience And so now I think I have answered this objection too and that without leaving any room for a Reply I come next to the use of all which is two-fold SECT 10. The uses and improvement of the point First by way of information and then of exhortation both to good and bad By way of Information SEe here the difference the vast difference between men and women regenerate and unregenerate between men reconciled to God and unreconciled between men of a good Conscience and an evil Conscience and that both in their life and in their death In their life which in many things differs very much I will reduce all to four heads briefly 1. One of them the regenerate person lives holily the whole course of his life is holy in all the designs of it in his continual practise in a sincere thorough universal constant obedience He is freed from the bondage and power of sin he is no way under the dominion of it it doth not reign in his mortal body but he is very much dead unto sin and alive unto God There 's nothing in the world that he hates and flys from so much as sin and all occasions and temptations leading to it Hee 'l as soon adventure himself into a nest of hissing Serpents or into an house infected with the Plague as to go into any place or company where his heart may be endangered or his eyes and ears be vitiated with corrupt and corrupting objects discourses and examples And as for the Devil that is alwaies injecting filthiness into his thoughts or laying snares before him and still some way or other is soliciting him to evil he is so much aware of him that he stands upon his guard continually is evermore struggling with him and by his holy combates with him through the strength of Christ never fails of making some conquest over him more or lesse and whilst he resists him causeth him to fly from him But now the other the unregenerate person how wickedly and wretchedly doth he live What an unholy and impure life How doth he wallow in his filthinese as a Swine in its mire and lick it up as a Dog doth his vomit how doth his heart lye asoak in sin and what a miserable Vassal and Slave is he to it multos Dominos habet qui unum non habet How many Lords is he under whilest he disobeys the Lord his Maker every lust exerciseth a domination over him a great and a severe Tyranny How is he distracted betwixt this sin and that betwixt this temptation and that And how busie is he to make provision for every Lust I and he must please the Devil too whose Vassal he likewise is so far is he from resisting or opposing him and indeed how can he he having laid his chains upon him For doth it not fare with the Devils Bond-Slaves whom he holds Captives at his will as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.26 as it doth with the Turkish Galley-Slaves who being both Manacled Shackled and fastned to their Seats and Oares are made to work till the Irons eat into their very flesh and besides that to suffer as many cruel blows as their savage Task-masters have a minde to give them This then is one difference A second is this The Regenerate person walks with God is in amity and friendship with him as Enoch was there is a great good will betwixt God and him they are agreed together as the Prophets Phrase is Amos 3.3 can two walk together except they be agreed It is the regenerate man's daily and constant care in all things to please God to do his will yea all his will this is meat and drink to him he is never better pleased than when like Christ himself Luke 2.49 he is about his Fathers business this he mindes more than his appointed food as Job did Job 23.12 He will rather lose a Meals meat two or three for fail than an opportunity of doing a service for God or wherein he may any way injoy some good from him in this or that Duty or Ordinance Which kindness God takes great notice of and will be sure to answer again to him and some way or other makes him sensible how well he takes it at his hands This blessing and that shall speak it out unto him he will make good all that he hath promised to them that keep his Statutes and his Judgements to do them Deut. 28 1.-15 All manner of blessings shal come upon him the blessings of the City and of the Field of the Basket and of the store yea of Heaven and of Earth as is there at large expressed But now as to the unregenerate person it is quite otherwise with him he is at enmity with God and God with him he walks contrary to God and God to him he hates God and God hates him as 't is said of the howling Shepherds so they are called Zach. 11.3 that had no pity upon the Lords people ver 5. their soul saies God abhored me and my soul loathed them ver 8. the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hates Psal 11.5 And thereupon must not such an one needs be under a curse a dismal one and may he not reasonably look for it every day Yea every hour every moment hath he not cause to fear that one curse or other one sore Judgement or another will fall upon him What saies David Psal 7.11 12 13. God is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his Sword hee hath bent his bow and made it ready Hee hath also prepared for him the Instruments of death he ordaineth his Arrows against the Persecutors And again Psal 11.6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible in the Margent 't is a burning tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup. And this is a second Difference the third follows A regenerate person hath an awakened an enlightned a tender Conscience a good and bonest Conscience that will do all its Offices faithfully It will inform accuse give true evidence rebuke and passe a right Judgement too as the case requires It will not suffer him to lye in his sin or to neglect the means that may remove either the guilt or filth thereof and 't is his constant care alwaies to keep it wakeful and tender apt to be convinced and apt to rebuke upon all occasions He no way despiseth the fore-warnings of it to prevent sin and the checks of it when sin is working and ready to put forth it self for by this means principally the amity is kept up between God and him and the peace that he injoyes inwardly maintained But how much otherwise is it with an unregenerate man either he is a man of no Conscience that is makes no Conscience of any thing he doth scruples nothing doubts nothing but adventures upon any thing