take a deep impression upon all that shall read these plain truths Seriously consider and believe 1. That it is most certain that an end will be For whatsoever the Scriptures speak of Death the Grave and Hell is an infallible Truth You are to consider that every man is mortal must dye and pass into the other World and that in every one of your bodies there is an immortal and never-dying soul and that after these bodies have slept in the dust of the Earth they shall live again there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust and at the end of the World a Tribunal shall be set up before which all the World shall be made to stand And that as soon as your breath is gone the spirit shall return to God that gave it either to the Justice of God or to the Mercy of God to the place of joy or to the place of torment Our transgression natural constitution with a statute Law of Heaven have brought us under a necessity of dying Where ever this Viper fastneth it killeth certainly though not suddenly sin and death are twins sin is the great murderer that let death into the world For her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Gen. 2. 17. That is thou shalt become mortal As soon as Adam had sinn'd he and we in him our representative became subject or liable to death Sin like a mighty Monarch reign'd from Adam to Moses a Malefactor cast at the Bar is dead in Law though he be repriev'd for a time the Body sayes the Apostle is dead because of sin some dye in the womb some in their infancy some in their youth they that live longest dy at last Death never hurts a man but with his own Weapon it always finds Sin in us and the sting of death is sin And where ever you meet it or see it you may say of it as Abab to the Prophet hast thou found me O mine enemy Death and every death is the fruit of sin death temporal death Spiritual and death Eternal The soul that sins shall dye Ezek. 18. 20. The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. Our natural constitution rendreth us obnoxious to dissolution our flesh is not the flesh of stone or of brass but frail and mouldring dust to which as to our Centre we must return Gen. 3. 19. Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Eccles 3. 20. All go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for man once to dye Job 14. 5. His days are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass No shield or Buckler can fortifie against this King of terrors impartial death the great Leveller knows no faces and therefore none can be exempted If faithfulness might challenge impunity from death then Moses might have been excus'd if beauty then Absalem if strength then Sampson if sinceriry and piety then David if sultilry then Achitophel if magnanimity then Alexander if riches then Croesus if wisdom then Solomon but one event happens to them all so that when the fatal moment cometh no ransom can be given no art nor skill can keep us here Sirs were this Doctrine of the other would believed it would have a greater impression upon our hearts did we seriously consider of that future state of retribution according to our faith of which we must live or die stand or fall to eternity it would have a greater influence upon our lives 2. Consider That at your latter end all things in this World will fail you and take their leaue of you for ever All your natural indowments outward enjoyments Parts Parentage Birth Breeding Wit Wealth Crowns Kingdoms Pearles Diamonds Houses Lands Wives Children Friends when your breath is gone all these are gone Prov. 27. 24. Riches are not for ever neither doth a crown endure to all generations The glittering Sun of all outward glory will certainly set which your own experience and Scripture evidence doth clearly evince Riches have wings and they fly away Prov. 23. 5. The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. We brought nothing into this world and 't is certain we shall carry nothing out 1 Tim. 6. 7. If a man were possessed with as much of this World as Solomon the great King of Jerusalem who had great Magnificent Buildings fruitful pleasant Vineyards Gardens Orchards and Trees of all manner of fruits variety of servants possessions of great and small Cattel heaps of Gold and Silver peculiar Treasure of Kings Musical Instruments Men and Women singers and whatsoever his eyes desir'd yet when he takes a serious view of all things he would say with him all is vanity and that a man hath no profit of all his labour which he taketh under the Sun which made the wise man even to have life Eccles 2. Since the fall there is a curse upon the Creature which indeed is deceiving vexing decaying and all our outward comforts may be compared to Pharaoh's Hosts and alive this hour and the next drown'd and dead upon the Sea-shore and though you judge they shall endure for ever Psal 49. 11. Luke 12. 19. They will deal by you as Absalom's Mule that left him in his greatest extremity What woful miseries attend Wordly riches in the getting keeping and parting with them they are snares and thorns plagues and Scorpions unto many they pierce them thorow with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 10. Yet here men toyl beat their brains weary their bodies tire their spirits break their sleep perplex their thoughts rack their consciences ingulf and drown themselves in cares endanger their souls dreaming of nothing but perpetuity and when they have done all like the Silk-worm dye in their work Nay many a man survives his own happiness which perisheth before he perisheth and it s the worst of miseries to outlive our own happiness therefore let not riches highten your hearts and prompt you to pride which is too common This day the rich worlding sang a requiem to his sadly deluded soul concluding he had much laid up the night following his soul is required Haman is to day the second man in the Kingdom but soon lost all and his life too Now doth Nebuchadnezzar walk in his stately royal Palace of Babel priding himself in his outward pomp but while the word was in his mouth a voice came from Heaven saying O King Nebuchadnezzar to thee be it spoken thy Kingdom is departed from thee Dan. 4. 29 30 31. Jerusalem this year is the Princes among the Provinces the next year made tributary and they that live delicately are desolate and embrace Dung-hills Lam. 1. 1. and 4. 5. Yesterday Job's Cattle might be numbred by thousands and tomorrow he is stript of all and left naked Neither is our age without a sad
each falleth in one after the other a first second and third drops down the rest not discerning the danger runs the round I shall thus apply it This day or hour a Swearer tumbleth down to hell The next a drunkard This evening or morning the pale horse mounteth one it may be a cursed Atheist or a malitious bloody persecutor or a filthy Adulterer or an idolatrous worldling and carrieth him to the place of Darkness The next day he receiveth his Commission to fetch some more of them those their brethren in iniquity that are lest behinde keep and continue their course and dance about the pit not considering they so must die and come to judgement How little do the living lay to heart this great business of their Mortality insomuch that when they would deny a thing with greatest confidence they will commonly say they thought no more of it then of their dying day as if death were not a matter of any moment but rather a meer toy or trifle not to be regarded She remembred not her last end Lam. 1. 9. You self destroying sinners Do you know that you must dye and leave the world for ever and are you so stupified and mad as not to think of Death in many dayes together yea hardly to entertain a serious thought of death and judgment at a house of mourning in the very sight of the dead you can be vain frothy jest pot pipe feast discourse of the world a sad proof that men do not consider their latter end Some at that solemn and sad season seem a little serious but as soon as the dead Corps is removed and the Grave and Coffin out of sight Death is no more remembred To make you sensible of this folly let me reason with you in a few plain hints What no thoughts of death you that have been under a sentence of death and brought to the very pits brink looking into Eternity Oh how sad is it to think how quickly those thoughts and impressions of your mortallity have worn out and past away Sinner remember and forget not those secret vows promises and engagements you then made to God viz. that you would part with sin leave your wicked company set loose to the world live godly and make it your business to be religious and loose no more of your precious time and opportunities for your soul If you have forgotten it the all-seeing and heart-searching God remembers it Know and consider in thy heart that death that did but warn thee then by sending his summons will shortly come himself Forgetful of Death and made of dust born of a woman and under a Decree not to be revoked by men or Angels Heb. 6. 27. Job 14. 3. As for man his dayes are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Not mind your death you that have sickly weak diseased bodies full of paines and aches that are so many partial quotidian deaths yea a dying daily What put off the thoughts of death thou that hast been at so many Funerals heard so many passing Bells or Knells seen so many Graves Skuls and Coffins before thine eyes Forget your death and yet sinners and sinning daily carrying the cause and sting of death in your bosoms mors in corpore the body is dead because of sin Rom. 8. 11. Thy body is but a body of death sin hath kill'd it the sentence is past Gen. 3. The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 1. The soul that sins must dye Ezek. 18. 20. What put off this evil Day and dead in part old and cold having one foot in the grave viz. feeble knees trembling hands wrinkled faces gray or bald heads the grave being ready for you What no more serious thoughts of death and so many pieces and parcels of your selves gone before to this long home so many Relations and Children now a sleep in the dust of death are they buried in perpetual oblivion never to be remembred any more What Sinner What not think of Death and Death at thy very heels and before thine eyes whither can you direct your eyes and not see that which preacheth or representeth Death all the Winter Death is on the Trees in our Gardens in every flower At your Table every day you feed on the flesh of dead Creatures to tell you that you must die and is not death in your beds every night what is sleep but the picture and image of cold Death and your beds but the representation of your dark graves O careless besotted sinners not consider of death and have precious souls that must live or die be saved or damnted to Heaven or Hell to bliss or burning to God or Devils to Saints or cursed Reprobates as soon as the breath is gon which may be the next day or hour this pale horse death hath the red horse Hell following him Rev. 6. 8. Lastly what not think of and prepare for Death and called Christians that profess you beleive the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting a happiness beyond the Grave For in this life only saith Paul wt have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. Poor hardned sinners that now forget God and this great and mighty concern of your eternal souls what will you do in the day of Visitation when your iniquities shall compass you about and no friend in heaven above or in earth beneath that can stand you in stead and when conscience like a bold sturdy Sergeant shall take you by the throat and summon you in the Name of the great Judge to come and stand at or before the judgement seat Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise Psal 94 8. to understand this to provide for your latter end 2. This blames the ignorant pettish and considerate soul who in an angry fit or passion wisheth for death out of a base end viz. as a writ of ease or out-let to present pain poverty sickness and other worldly troubles and perplexities not rightly considering how terrible death is or what are the dreadful consequences of it Now that we may be convinced of this sin and folly give me leave to tell you that between the worst longest and deepest miseries and calamities of this life and those after death there is no proportion but an exceeding distance Poor deluded souls what is the bite of a flea to the sting of a Serpent or a scratch on the hand to a stab at the heart what 's the heat and smart of a little candle to a hot fiery furnace or a devouring flame What 's a drop of gall to a Sea or Ocean of poyson or what is pain forture or anguish for an hour to intollerable misery time without end into which to the unconverted death will certainly be the door and are you so mad to imagine that there is nothing in the other world to be
World and your Hellish lusts have had half your time O let the time past suffice Know your times are in Gods hands Psal 31. 15. So that you are not certain of a day to come therefore begin and make speed in you work And for the gray-headed against whom death hath raised his batteries you can have but a few sands in your glass your departing hour cannot be far your Candle is within the socket and it may be is come to a stinking snuff Do you not see the Keepers of the old rotten house begin to tremble and the strong men bow themselves Expect the next blast the house to fall If you that are leaning on your staves and looking through your spectacles being ready to enter upon Eternity don't mind your work immediately Wo wo be unto you for ever If God should work a spiritual Miracle in converting and pardoning an old grey-headed Sinner that hath been idle till the leventh hour Mat. 20. 6. would it not be matter of amazement and wonder to Men and Angels For the Devil to be cast out of possession after he hath an Inhabitant threescore years and more for such an one to be born again would be strange indeed I have heard of an old man who being really converted not long before his death caused this to be written on his Tomb Here lyeth a very aged man of Three Years Old He reckoned all his time and life before as lost and worth nothing Now that you that have put off God and hazarded your souls so long already might lose no more time consider these motives 1. The present time is Gods time and must be yours 2. God the Righteous Judge will reckon with you for your time 3. You have solemnly promised to redeem it 4. Men take and improve opportunity for other things 5. Satan your deadly enemy is always busie and will lose no time 6. Saving-grace is an active and springing principle 7. Time once had and lost cannot be recalled 8. Cons How they prize time that have lost it 9. God hath joyned Time and Duty together 10. On this moment of Time Eternity depends Motive 1. Consider The present time is Gods and it must be yours Don't you hear the Holy Ghost say It is now high time to seek the Lord and calling to you Come away make speed Hos 10. 12. Delayes and Laziness are the two great Gulphs in which multitudes of souls are drowned and perish How many are now in Hell that purposed and promised to turn to God as you do hereafter O fear and tremble lest it should be your case To enforce this take these few hints 1. The present time hath most Precepts and Gods Commands like warrants in the Kings name must be obeyed on sight thereof We say Must is for the King If thou art young read Eccles 12. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Psal 95. 6. First seek the Kingdom of God Mat. 6. 33. You must not stay long Hos 13. 13. Bless God and wonder the golden thread of precious time is spin'd out so long 2. It hath most promises and they are great and precious I will receive you saith the Lord. They that seek me early shall find me The present time is an accepted time in which God may be found Psal 32. 6. Now God calls Heb. 3 7. and you may come and welcome John 6. 37. And it will be matter of unspeakable comfort to a man dying looking into Eternity to know he hath done the work for which he had his life and time 3. You have the hest examples And 't is our duty to imitate and follow them who are gone to Heaven before Your dead Lord would lose no time I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day When faithful Abraham was to offer his Son Isaac he made hast Gen. 22. 31. He rose up early in the morning Mary Magdalan came early in the morning to enquire after and to see the Lord Jesus whom her soul loved Mark 16. 2. Motive 2. God the righteous Judge will reckon with you for your time Not onely for your health wealth strength parts graces memories but for every minute of your time If at the day of judgement we must give an account for every idle word much more for so great a Talent so rich a Treasure as Time A Heathen could say that every wise man must tam otii quam negottii rationem reddere give an account of his business and of his idleness You may like fools waste your time neglect your duty and stand out against the call of God but it will cost your dear Eccl. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement The great Landlord of your time is at great expence to continue it Those Luminaries of Heaven over your heads and principally the Prince of all the lights of Heaven the Sun that glorious and mighty Gyant the Prince and Crown of all corporal Creatures do tire and waste as it were their Celestial vigour to beget and give Time Time is so rich a Jewel that God would have one man value it to another If one man had hurt another he was to pay both for his cure and loss of time Exod 21. 18 19. So must you at the great day of account for all your time for every Sermon you have heard for every Sabbath and Sacrament you have had all your days Motive 3. You have all promised to redeem your time The Vows of Jehovah are upon you Say with David I will pay my Vows If the Godly man will perform his promise to his hurt Psal 15. 4. Much more should you for your profit Take the Counsel of the Wise Man Eccles 5. 4 5. When thou vowest a vow unto God defer not to pay it pay that which thou hast vowed better it is that thou should not vow then to vow and not pay How often you have engaged your selves to leave your known sins and to live soberly and righteously and Godly in this present World let Conscience witness If you that have resolved to read pray sanctifie the Sabbath c. should still waste and trifle away the time it will not only be a breach of promise but a sin against light for which thy heart will reproach thee and if thine heart condemn thee God is greater then thine heart and knoweth all things 1. John 3. 20. Remember the promises thou didst make at such a Sacrament or when struck at the heart by such and such a Sermon or when death was at thy Family or thy self near unto it and defer not to perform thy Covenant God who is a God of truth will not be mocked and
all these things and stand before the Son of man Luk. 21. 36. Neither doth our dear Lord Jesus press that on us which he did not practice for being sensible of the bitter and most dreadful cup of his Fathers wrath prayed Father if it be possible let this cup pass Matth 26. 39. Sinners let me tell you as secure and sensless as you are an awakning impression of approaching death and judgement upon your souls would be as the cry at midnight to excite and stir you up to get in your Oyle and to trim your lamp The Virgins both wise and foolish were all asleep and secure enough until that sudden and amazing cry was heard behold the Bridegroom cometh go you forth to meet him Math. 26. 6. Then they all arose and trimmed their Lamps 'T is the storm and rain that hastens the Bee into the Hive that brings the Traveller into his Inn the Ship into the Hare bour so likewise the sense of death the dead and drousie Professor unto his prayer in their afflictions they will seek me early Hos 5. 15. Anh eart-affecting meditation of unchangeable eternity will be as a voice from the clouds crying hast sinner hast post hast hast as for thy life in the work of faith and repentance in parting with sin and closing with Jesus Christ without which there will be no hope Noah was moved with fear and prepared and got into the Ark to the saving of his house when the secure deluded world died by the deluge Heb. 11. 7. Knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. You wretched sinners that will not beleive or consider until you are just dropping into the pit if you had but a little cranny to look into the other world how violent and resolute would you be in the speedy prosecution of your known duty you would examine prove and try your selves you would read hear meditate watch pray repent fear love obey more then ever Did you see the night will come is coming and that the dayes of darkness shall be many whatsoever you do you would do it with your might Eccl. 9. 10. Now before the decree bring forth before the day pass as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you seek ye the Lord for how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation Zeph. 2. 23. Heb. 2. 3. Reas 5. You are to consider your latter and because there lyeth your highest wisdom O that they were wise c. If you would be so wise as to exceed all the Wise men great Statists and Polititians in the world it must be in considering of and preparing for your end Sirs in this you are most concerned because hereby you will promote your own interest for it will make a man profitable to himself wise for himself Job 22. 2. Prov. 9. 12. 'T is true wisdome to understand this viz. to be wise to that which is good Rom. 16. 19. to be wise in Christ to secure the cheifest good is the best wisdom There are many worldly wise men who while they live provide for every thing but death and they are often ready to dye before they begin to live in a spiritual sense and is it not a very unfit and sad season to prepare for death when it s a burden to live And indeed such are the many evils attending old age that men can have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12. 1 And shall these be accounted the only wise men that are but wise in their Generation to get the world to pursue lying vanities and forsake their own mercies to hew out cisterns broken cisterns rhat can hold no water and forsake the fountain of living water this is to prefer Pebbles before Pearls to gain Larth and to lose Heaven Jer. 2. 13. Jonah 2. 8. Math. 16. 26. To be happy for a time and miserable to eternity True wisdom and serious consideration is exercised about things good evil yea it is conversant about the best good how it may attain it and about the worst evil how it may impede avoid and escape it chusing the most adequate and effectual means to bring it to pass This excellent divine wisdom is proper and profitable to direct Prov. 10. 10. and so it doth every considering godly man while he lives firstly and firmly to secure that which he hath of greatest value viz. a precious soul more worth then any thing he stands possessed of If all the Rocks were Pearls all the earth and Heaven Gold or if all the water in the vast Ocean were converted into Crystal or the most precious stones in the world and put all into one scale and the soul into the other scale the soul would weigh it all down Our dear Lord tells us that the gaining of the whole world is an invaluable consideration to the loss of our soul Math. 16. So that he must be wise indeed that hath gotten a Cabinet for this rare incomparable Jewel where it will be for ever safe He that winneth souls is wise saith the wisest of a meer man Prov. 11. 30 and sure then he is so that saves his own Again he that considereth his end is in the very way to procure and make the best friend that will certainly stand him in stead to purpose and in the greatest peril viz. God Christ Angels Saints Conscience Scripture his real friends When once the breach is made up between God and the poor soul who can harm or hurt it If God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8. I will lay me down and sleep in peace Psa 14. 8. Moreover he provideth against the greatest wants by the laying up for a spending time There was not a man to be found in all Egypt so wise as Joseph who fore-seeing their want filled the store-houses against the years of Famine He that gathereth his meat in the Summer saith Solomon is wise Prov. 10. 5. Consider the time of youth is your Summer old-age a sick-bed is not a gathering but a spending time and you are not wise wise towards God wise for your precious soules that do not make it your business to Trade and lay up a stock and store against that time Many a silly soul like the wanton Grashopper leaps and ckips chirps and sings all the Summer and when the Winter cometh perisheth for want But the truly serious and considering soul like the laborious Bee or Ant toils and labours in the Summer And that man might put off sloth and learn his duty and so provide for time to come Solomen sends him to the Ant Go to the Ant thou sluggard consider her wayes and be wise which provideth her meat in the Summer and gathereth her food in Harvest Prov. 6. 6 8. And so the wise in heart that trade for eternity lay up the best supplies against the evil day which are the favour of God an interest in Christ pardon of sin peace of conscience a stock of
pretend to beleive these things we may see them as busie as a company of Ants in a sunny day and that the general course of men hath no tendency towards this end but indeed a sad and woeful incongruity 2. The second cause is want of spiritual and divine wisdom It was for want of that wisdom which is from above that the Israelites did not consider O that they were wise said God They are a Nation void of counsel neither is there any understanding in them Deut. 32. 28. If men were wise for their precious and eternal souls they would consider what is here to be done and what is like to be their condition in the other world The prudent man fore-seeth the evil or considereth the evil and hideth himself When God by the mouth of Moses threatned to plague the Egyptians by the Pestilence Haile and Fire he that beleived and feared the word of the Lord amongst the servants of Pharoah made his servants and cattel flee into the house and were preserved Exod. 9. 20. So the soul that is truly wise to consider of the danger of beingdestroyed by the grievous hail and fire of Gods wrath will flee into the hiding place viz. under the wing of the great and glorious Mediator where alone there is true succour But he that did not fear or consider of the danger left his servants and cattle in thâ— field and were destroyed Exod. 9. 21 25. 3. The third hindrance is sensuality worldly pleasures and cares these carry away the heart from the true consideration The Israelites confluence of creature-comforts caused them to forsake and to forget God Deut. 32. 14. 15 16 17 18. The old world was eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage not considering of their danger till the flood came and took them all away Matth. 24. 38 39. The men of the earth do so mind earthly things that their hearts are surfeited and drunken with the care of it Luke 21. 34. And while mens minds and thoughts are carri'd so vehemently after the world to make provision for their life they can think but little of their death Luk 12. 15 16 17 18. 4. The fourth obstruction is a plague upon the heart and desperate security proceeding from it No bonds next to death are so strong to keep men under as security and senslesness of Spirit So dead a sleep possesseth more of the ungodly world that they are past feeling and become so stark dead that the voice of God in the dreadful threatnings of his word and the alarum of his amazing tremendous judgement and desolating providences prevail not to awaken them The Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of a deep sleep and hath in judgement closed their eyes that they can sin in the very face of the Judge at the very brink of hell at the very mouth and entrance into that great gulf of Eternity 5. A fifth hindrance to mens consideration of their latter end is a strong delusion of heart or satanical suggestions The old serpent and desperatively deluded hearts make them dream that God is all love that they shall have a long life that preparation for death and Eternity is a short work and that it may be done at any time namely when they have done with the world when they are old or lying on a sick bed They say in their hearts 't is but beleiving or repenting and saying Lord have mercy upon me let me die the death of the righteous Under this deadly delusion they dream of heaven and go laughing to hell 1 Thes 5. 3. And that which doth much encrease this stupidity may be the want of or neglect of a powerful and soul searching ministry whose office as watchmen is to foresee the danger and to warn and awaken secure sinners crying aloud to them in the name of the Lord Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Ephes 5. 14. But som cannot endure that Ministers should be so severe plain and peircing in their Doctrin so as to thunder and lighten in the eyes and ears of sleepy souls They are well contented to sit under those that daub with untempered mortar and who sow pillows for their arm holes under whose ministry they may take a nap and sleep it out But they hate him that reproveth in the Gate that galls cuts and wounds their Consciences just like the gall'd-backt horse that bites and kicks at him that would heal him A person of no mean quality speaking his opinion of several ministers said such a man I can hear and such a one I can hear very well but for the third he mentioned that was wont to lay the ax to the root of the Tree and grapple with the heart I cannot endure to hear him for he alwayes grates upon my conscience 6. Men do not consider their latter end because they are afraid to do it 1. First to wanton sinners the remembrance of death is a bitter Pill that will not suffer the pleasures of sin to go down so sweetly Therefore they say to the thoughts of Death as the Governour to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will send for thee Serious thoughts of death and Judgement to come as the hand-writing on the wall will damp the spirits and mar the mirth of the greatest Prince or gallant in the world 2. They fear to think of death because they have made no preparation for it viz They have not believed repented liv'd a life of holiness so as to make God their friend A bankrupt that oweth many hundred pounds more then he is worth is afraid to cast up his Accompts so poor and impenitent sinners that are indebted to God that owe him ten thousand talents are unwilling to think of death because death will say unto them come give an account of your Stewardship for you must pay the utmost farthing 3. They are afraid to think of death by reason of the dreadful consequences of death as it relates to both worlds The change that death makes as to this present world is very amazing 1. It brings unavoidable dissolution or separation of soul and body these two dear companions that have lived and converst together and sin'd together for many years must then part and a living man will become a dead Carcase fit for nothing but a grave and the soul must have another habitation Job 17. 13 14. Job 19. 26. Well might Death be called the King of terrours 2. It is matter of fear to leave this world that hath been so pleasing and delightsom and for which we have toyl'd and labour'd so many years in one night to loose it all For when the departing hour cometh you may take a view of all your comforts which you have had under the Sun and helps for heaven viz. Husbands Wives Parents Children Kinsfolk Friends jolly Companions Gold Silver Houses Lands sweet and delicate Banquets pleasing Bargains
and say we must now part farewell for ever We shall never see or enjoy you more we shall never eat drink or converse more buy or sell more all our fleshly and sensual delights are ended our joy our mirth is ceased and all the blessed advantages for our salvation now will terminate Farewel the means of grace and all the golden opportunities for our souls farewell all those faithful Ministers that we have heard farewel all those powerful awakening Sermons that have sounded in our ears farewell all the blessed Sabbaths farewell all the Counsels Examples Reproofs Prayers of our serious and religious friends and Relations we shall never see the face of a Minister more or hear a Sermon more never have the door of grace and life opened to us any more for ever And what remains but a doleful remembrance of those good things that are past and gone and a severe strict account that is yet behind O dreadful change and loss indeed to them that make the world their home that have their heaven on this side heaven and no provision or portion beyond the grave The thoughts of which made a wicked young man very thriving in the world to utter these words If I live I shall be a rich man but this is the plague of it I must die which accordingly came to pass not long after 3 No wonder death is so terrible for after death the judgement Death is a Purservant that summons guilty souls to comend give an account at Gods dreadful bar And what more terrible to the Malesactorthen the sight and presence of an angry Judge While Paul reasoned of judgment Felix trembled and bid him be gone that Doctrine did so gall him that he could not endure it Acts 24. 25. Vse 2. The second use is to exhort perswade and stir you up to put this duty of so great and infinite concernment into practice O Sirs I beseech you to entertain some timely thoughts of your dying hour that death and you may be more familiar The best friend you have in heaven and earth longs to see it done O that therewere such an heart in them Now if you would do any thing in this blessed work viz. to prepare for death and judgement it must be done 1. Suddenly 2. Seriously 3. Effectually 1. It must be done suddenly it s a business of that importance that must not be neglected or delay'd for a moment of time Did you but see that you are upon the confines of eternity and in danger every day of being undone for ever you would quickly come to a resolution To further and encourage you consider 1. Life as dear and precious as it is is very uncertain What a nothing is this life a wind a vapour a dream a breath a bubble How soon may the Thread be cut the Glass run or this bright burning Lamp be dim and out when how or where this short dying life will terminate thou dost not know Whether at home or abroad among they friends or strangers in the field or house at thy table or in thy Bed who can tell 2. Death may come suddenly When the pase horse will set forth whether in the morning or at mid-day or midnight no man can tell thee There is a fatal hour which none can pass Luk. 12. 20. Psal 73. 18. 19. Psal 64. 7. 1 Thes 5. 3. 3. When death comes it strikes sure This King of terrors on the pale horse always rides the circuit and doth execution where-ever he cometh no shield or buckler or armour of proof can defend us no not an army of guard of men or Angels If dreadful death finds a King on his Throne or a beggar on the dunghil it 's all a case The strength of man though a Sampson this great Leviathan Death counts but a straw death doth his work speedily easily witness the last plague I shall adde here 1. Death calls warnings and alarums are very frequent not one of you but have had many a call and knock to mind you of death 2. Deaths commands are peremptory he brings his warrant a long with him Death coms in the name of the terrible Judge takes his Commission out of the court of heaven in order to the accomplishment and execution of an eternal irrevocable decree so that he must doe his work will have his Errand If a man had Mines of Gold and Silver to give it cannot deliver from the arrest of this inexorable Serjeant 3. Deaths Conquest is great I know thou wilt bring me to death and the place appointed for all living What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Thou hast set his bounds that he cannot pass They that have conquer'd Kingdoms and Countries and carried all before them have been subjected by death when death comes and takes a man by the throat though the proudest stoutest strongest in the world he must go willing or unwilling 't is all one to death 'T is observable that of bad men their souls are not resign'd but taken away What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Job 27. 8 20. A tempest stealeth him away in the night This night shall thy soul be required death will not stay a night T is in vain for them that are strong and lively to say to death go to the wrinkled faces to the gray heads to the pile cheeks to the naked backs the dry bons to the dry breasts meddle not with this young man strike not this comely beautiful woman that is in the flower and prime in nature Go to yonder consumptive declining decaying dying old man go to that weak wither'd old woman Let me alone or be excus'd O but death regards it not For this great Conquerour death knocks as often at the young mans door as at the door of the old woman Death arrests and carrieth away the strong the healthy the rich the honourable the learned prisoners to the grave as often as the weak the sickly the poor the base and ignorant 2 You are to do it seriously with thy soul The living will lay it to heart Eccl. 7. 2. The dead cannot there 's no device in the grave Then go about it now in good earnest before old age and death cometh 3. Do it effectually go thorow with the work leave it not undone or but done to halves let every lust be mortified every duty performed every grace exercis'd As good never a whit as never the near Now you have opportunity before you the day of grace is continued Christ is at the door open to him and make all sure for if ever thou be justified pardoned sanctified it must be now The considerations to perswade you are these following Motive 1. Consider there 's an absolute and indispensible necessity for the doing of it a present necessity an infinite and eternal necessity other things may be done this must be done and its more then time this great
world be assured it shall go well with them in the other world Art thou in astate of grace at odds with fin and truly in love with Christ and holiness Be of good chear go thy way and eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the bitterness of death is past The king of terrors that had the power of death is conquered by the Lord of life Terrible death that rides on the pale horse is dismounted by thy dear Lord that rides on the white horse under whose bloody Cross thou mayest see him disarmed wounded and dead death that raigned from Adam to Moses is now swallowed up in victory Isa 25. 8. I will ransoms thee from the power of the grave I will redeem thee from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction The beleiving soul is dead with Christ while he lives Rom. 6. 8 and is delivered not only from the damnation of sin but the dominion of sin and there is hope in his death When he dyeth he shall die in the Lord Rev. 14. 13. he shall sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4. 14. his end shall be peace Psal 37. 37. This made the Apostle after his sad conflict Rom. 7. to triumph over the last enemy death 1 Cor. 15. 55. Motive 7. If you should not prepare for death yet you will wish you had as many do when it is to late You that are for making provision for the flesh and so eagerly pursuing the world When you shall be cast upon the bad of languishing you will wish in the very torment of your minds and flames of horrour that I had parted with my sin O that I had been careful to please and honour God and to get an interest in Jesus Christ then should I have now dyed the death of the righteous but this I wholly slighted I prosecuted the world with might and main and got so many thousands for my Posterity I liv'd a merry and jovial life but for my soul for my eternity things of infinite worth I have done nothing I forgat my soul Now here 's the Messenger of death come for me to imprison my body in the Grave the Chambers of darkness and to carry my soul I know not whither I fear to hell O that I had been wise to under stand this to consider my latter end What would I now give to live but a few years more to make provision for this soul that must now enter the gulf of endless eternity Motive 8. Consider the gaines will be exceeding great As will appear by these following particulars Would you haue sin as hell and be more truly holy Consider your latter end This is most certain that all the evil antecedents and dreadful consequences of death spring and grow out of this bitter root what is it that wounds stings paines and kills what is it that brings Diseases threatens death that murders the body and that damns and burnes the soul What is that doth necessitate the to make use of Physick Physicians whilst alive and bringeth thee to a Coffin and Grave when thou art dead is it not sin which thou embracest in thy bosom You poor blind deluded souls as little and as lovely as sin looks in your wanton eyes it is the Mother and Nurse of all your miseries hacht in hell the Devils spawn or excrement He that committeth sin is of the devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. This is that evil thing and bitter that hales death and hell at the heels of it yea that arms death devils and hell against us Were it not for this black ugly fierce ouer and bloudy adversary Law or Justice could not condemn us Death could not kill us Devils could not torment us Hell could not burn us Sin is the Traitor and Murderer of your immortal souls and those nails that will shortly dig your Graves will you hug hide and hold it fast Will a woman put that knife into her bosom that hath kill'd or murder'd her dear Child or Husband no by no means it must be broken and cast away for ever Now Sirs if sin be the enemy use it as an enemy or murderer kill it take the sacrificing knife and cut the throat of it or strike the heart vein and let it bleed until it dies Deal by it as Samuel by Agag cut it in pieces Did you think seriously of death and hell you would hate it to purpose and say away to hell with it from whence it came and it would put you upon a desire and earnest endeavour after holiness Being expos'd to a dissolution what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. But if you forget death you will make dreadful work namely your accounts greater and hell the hotter you will increase your sin and God will heap up wrath against the day of wrath And if ever God shâ—w mercy it will cost you dear your souls must mourn your hearts must break and bleed for sin for unless you repent you will certainly be damned Luk. 13. 5. 2. Would you speedily call off your hearts from the world lay up treasure in heaven Remember your latter end In the greatest affluence of worldly prosperity alwayes consider that you must die Poor worldlings that make gold your hope whose plottings and ploddings are for earth If death and eternity were more in your thoughts you would let go that in your affections which you cannot hold in your possession and love that but a little that will be lost and which you cannot love long Riches have wings and they will be gone Consider how little the things of the world will stand you in stead in the evil day your gold and silver cannot keep you from diseases while you live nor from hell after you are dead Prov 11. 4. Psal 49. 6 7. It falleth out with many of the great storers of this world as it doth with a Sumpter Horse who all the day carrieth a great treasure on his back but at night it is taken from him and he thrust into a foul Stable So many wealthy worldlings that tire them selves to get and carry worldly treasure when death cometh it s taken from them and they for their ill getting or ill using of it are thrust down to hell the rich man dyed and in hell lift up his eyes And if you would deaden your hearts to this empty earth and look after a treasure above a happiness beyond the grave that shall last as long as your souls shall last think often of death this would divert your worldly cares and projects Remember from this day to your last day cannot be long your Journey or Voyage is short and a little Provision is enough neither Poverty nor Riches but food convenient is the desire and choice of a Citizen of Sion Converse more with death and be often looking into eternity and thou mayest here as it
were a voice speaking to thee as God to Baruch Jer. 45. 4 5. I will break down and pluck up and seekest thou great things seek them not Death is the great Leveller that will make all equal and you that grasp the world most greedily will find it but vanity for all is vanity is the language of experience Eccl. 1. 2. 1 John 2. 17. When Samuel was to anoint Saul he brought or directed him to Rachels Sepulcher and to this end as is suppos'd namely to suppress or prevent haughty proud thoughts that might arise from that new and great preferment And if the supposition be true it is as if he had spoken thus Saul God hath highly honoured you and I annoint you King But remember here lies the dust of that beautiful Rachel and though you are now King in Israel yet you must be as Rachel viz. laid in a Grave or Sepulcher the thoughts of which is a very mortifying Meditation You that have the waters of a full Cup that wallow in wealth and swim in worldly glory to wean you from the world that your hearts may not be turned into Earth and buryed before you are buryed keep fresh in your thoughts death and eternity Job 14. 14. 3. Would you be deeply sensible of the sad and doleful condition of unbeleivers when they come to dye think seriously of your latter end What will you do in the hour of distress when God shall call for your breath change your countenance and require your souls if you have made no preparation for death and Judgement Poor souls I would pity you with my very heart to think how ignorant you are of your great concernment you eat drink sleep buy sell and get gain but slight your souls and do not consider of the evil day We be unto him that is alone that is alone in life and alone in death that hath no Christ to befriend him or stand by him in that woeful day that cometh to lye down in the death-bed without peace or pardon who shall go into a Grave and stand before the Ba without an Advocate to plead for him It is most probable you may have dife ferent apprehensions of yout selves and others in your dying hour so the nearer the object the clearer the sight O sinners when the door of eternity begins to open as usually it doth to men dying you will have other thoughts of your selves and other men Here you ruffle it out thinking your selves above and better then others behold great Babel said that proud person in his Princely Palace but when pale death appears it will pull down those Peacocks feathers and cause their crests to fall Now the world shines and sparkles in your eyes which makes you judge and think that nothing but Riches Honor and Greatness can make you happy then it wil appear the pant being off to be an empty nothing As for the pure â—n heart who mourn for sin and mind itheir soules above the world who are scorn'd jeer'd hated being look'd upon as a company of poor pensive sneaking besotted fools will then be adjudged the best wisest and happiest men on earth Now sin is excused and called a light and little thing for trick of youth but then it will have at black and dreadful face and feel more heavy then lead taste more bitter then death it self Now the Damned and cursed Crue are your brave Boon companions and bosom friends but when you are come to your dying groanes and cold sweats away with them their sight is terrible But know that you who have been companions in sin must be companions in sufferings and lye down together in everlasting chaines and flames you shall be fettered and bound together and never part any more for ever Now an interest in Christ and a life of holiness is little valued and every lust and triffle preferred then a world a world for a Christ forty thousand pound for a good Conscience cryed out a wicked wealthy worldling when dying and passing into eternity 4. Would you expedite your Repentance try your state and make all ready for the other world think upon this last enemy the King of terrors that will ere long terminate your dayes and then all your opportunities will be gone for e If the thoughts of death especially the second death did but influence your hearts and penitrate npon your Consciences you would easily be perswaded to cast away your sins namely to cut off a right hand or pluck out a right eye and to rent your hearts to mourn in secret to afflict your souls and to put your mouths in the dust if so be there may be hope Lam. 3. 28. 29. We see that men in a journey if they think they have daly enough they are slack and slow enough but if they see but a little time they will make speed If a man must do the work of a whole day in half a day he will make hast Repentance is not a work for a day though a daly work our whole life is little enough to compleat and perfect it As long as we sin we must mourn while we provoke the Judge we must plead guilty and sue our out pardon with Ropes a bout our necks and smiting on our breasts and if it might be with tears of blood And the great things of death and Judment will prepare and prompt you to do it suddenly for when the day is gone the night comes and the Grave and Hell have shut their mouths upon you what can be done Eccles 9. 10. 5. Would you pray more frequently more fervently then ever you have done remember you must dye The Monuments and Statues of the dead as one notes are made in a praying posture viz. kneeling and with hands lifted up to heaven as if the remembrance of them now dead should teach us our duty what we must do whilst living One that was wont to pray often in a day being asked why he spent so much time in prayer gave no other answer but this I must dye I must dye An awakening apprehension of a mans entrance upon an endless state and a speedy approach before the holy God will make him pray and that importunately If there be in the Family a Husband wife or Child near unto death almost every one that cometh about the bed will be lifting up hands and putting up of prayers and then you cry out send speedily for some sober serious Minister or for some solid savoury praying Christian to commend his sad case to God The young man that lately suffered for Murder who came into Newgate as ignorant of God as the horse or the Mule and as sensless of his soul as a stock or a stone was by the acxcess and application of Ministers to him convinced of his desperate case and through the grace and blessing of God upon his appointed means he seemed so deeply sensible of the dreadful hazzard of his precious soul that he did with so
instead 5. Consider which of the two eternities are you going towards 6. We are all near our everlasting habitation 7. You know not how suddenly or unexpected your end may be 8. When death comes your souls are stated your eternity is cast 9. 'T is a dreadful and amazing fight to see a Christless soul breathing out his last 4. Vse May be of comfort to the poor people of God who through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Let not you hearts be trobnled fear not neither be terrified because of this King of fears But cheer up your spirits and comfort up your hearts with this that death as terrible as it is to the wicked cannot hurt you The day of your death will be better then the day of your birth and thereffore death is put into the Beleivers Inventory and reckoned amongst his priviledges 1 Gor. 3. 22. Death will be gain to the Godly man viz. an out-let to all his present misery and an in-let to endless glory Then the truely penitent perplexed wearied soul shall be perfectly free from the power of Satan the firy darts and dreadful temptations of that unclean spirit Then the old Serpent for ever will be under their feet Then the body of death shall be put off and the in dwelling of sin that natural fountain of corruption will be perfectly dryed up You shall never complain of vain thoughts or hard hearts any more Never doubt of the truth of grace or favour of God more The beleiver shall then be with Jesus Christ the day of his dissolution will be the day of his Coronation he shall then receive the Crown and sit down on the Throne and enter into his Masters joy which is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Object I sometimes think of death but the thoughts of death and judgement are very terrible I fear I am not fit to die how shall it be known Answ There is a habitual fitness for death and an actual fitness for death Every graciously upright man or woman in the world that fears God in truth is habitually fit to dye so prepared for his great change that the sting of death or second death shall not hurt him having past the the strait gate shot the gulf he is out of danger As soon as a man is in a state of grace born again made a new creature and by faith united unto the Lord Jesus Christ God is reconciled his person justified his sins pardoned and recorded in the Court of Heaven though his pardon is not brought down transcrib'd and seal'd in the Court of his own conscience The truly converted soul is Gods special favourite and shall lodge in his bosom and never more be out of his favour 't is true heaven may be out of sight God may frown but will never condemn There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2. 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth it is Christ that dyed Rom. 8. 33. 34. Quest When is the godly man actually prepared for death Answ When his spiritual estate is well setled viz. all made sure between God and his soul particularly 1. When a man is truly conscious to himself that he hath sincerely and with much brokeness of heart repented of all his known sins committed before or after conversion so that there is no fresh or former guilt remaining on him This godly sorrow is the godly mans pleasure he delights to be sowing in tears loves with his soul a wet seed-time for they that sow in tears shall reap a harvest of joy which is a time of refreshing rom the presence of God compare Psal 126. 5 6. and Acts 3. 19. 2. When sin is so great a bur den that he is weary of this body of death and willing the infected house should be pulled down that the Leprosie might be cured that so he might never sin or offend his Father more The serious thoughts and sence of which is a heavy burden and matter of greif that makes him groan and complain We in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened and O how bitterly did St. Paul complain Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death He had been in deaths often for the sake of his dear Lord but this death his body of sin troubled him more then any It was so great a burden to holy David that he felt it in his very bones Psal 38. 3. 3. The godly man is fit to dye when the work of grace is perfected and his Generation work ended When the beleiving soul hath his Vessel full of Oyl and the Wedding garments of the glorious Righteousness of Christ about him then he is a Vessel of honour prepared unto glory Rom. 9. 23. wrought for the self same thing 2 Cor. 4. 5. and made meet or fit for the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. The ship that 's laden or fraugthed is fit to put to Sea and to sail from hence or for it s appointed Port. The labourer is fit to receive his wages when he hath done his work so when the heaven born soul hath faithfully served his Generation and done the work in his Place Calling and Relations for which God sent him and intrusted him though the best fall short being in some degrees unprofitable servants then is he fit to welcome death though to the flesh it s the Kings of terrours When the godly man liveing or dying can apeal to the heart-fearching God as Hezekiah did Isa 38. And say I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 17. I have finish'd my course and there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4. 8. this makes him fit and willing to depart to be with Christ When sin is pardoned and the pardon sealed i e when the clamorous noise of the guilt of sin in the conscience is calmed and silenced by the blood of sprinkling and his evidences for heaven bright and clear so that his better country is within view and the gate of glory wide open namely abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. Lot had a mind to prolong his time in Sodom it was a goodly City and he was not well assured wither to go when he had lest it But when the gracious soul his assured of a better state a better life that 's hid with Christ in God so that he can say as once an eminent godly man dying I shall but change my place I shall not change my company He may then being seal'd to the day of Redemption long for his dissolution 5. When the heart is weaned from and weary of this evil world and so enflam'd with love to Christ that it