the rich Man in the Gospel else so confidently say to his Soul Thou bast Goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry But Death would not be put off so for that Night was his Soul taken from him notwithstanding all his great Possessions It is in vain to cry out on a Death Bed with that wretched Cardinal Beauford in Henry the Sixth Time Wherefore should I dye being rich will not Death be bribed Will Money do nothing No truly it cannot for as Riches profit not in the day of Wrath to pacifie the Justice of an angry God so neither will they profit in the day of Death to bribe that King of Terrors Beauty is another outward Excellency that many glory in and indeed it is a great Ornament a Gift of GOD and no small one it is a taking thing We delight in things that are beautiful Beauty to some is a Portion among men to others a favour from God It is a silent Eloquence a tacite Perswasion and works much upon some What is said of the Church Psal 45.11 So shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty I know it is spoken there of Spiritual Beauty the Graces of the Spirit of God which beautifie and adorn the Church in the eyes of Christ for it is said the KING's Daughter is all glorious within But yet it is true also in some me sure of outward Corporeal Beauty it is a desireable thing and may duly be an attractive of Love it is that which draws the Eyes and Hearts of many tho' often it is an incentive to Lust both to great Men and to good Men. Solomon loved strange Women the Scripture saith and they turned away his heart from God and having smarted severely for it as a fruit of the sincerity of his Repentance and to prevent so great wickedness in others he hath left us many Excellent Cautions and Counsels in Sacred Writ against the ensnaring Temptations and powerful Charms of Beauty But though Men are deluded and deceived by beautiful Objects and Persons yet Death is not A beautiful Face is as mortal and as soon yea sooner many times turned into duct and corruption than a face that is deformed Death regards a goodly well favoured Joseph or Absolom no more than a leprous Vzziah or Gebazi nor doth it spare a beautiful Rachel more than a blear ey'd Leah Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain in this respect for they profit none in a dying hour the beautifulest Person and the most lovely Complexion is quickly turned into Paleness and Corruption when once the time of their dissolution is come Death soon making those that for their Beauty and Comeliness were most admired by others become most loathsome and intolerable and they most desirous with Abraham to bury such dead out of their sight By what hath been said it appears that all Men notwithstanding all their great Attainmen's in Worldly Excellences are not exempted from dying And as no outward so no inward-Excellency and Perfection can priviledge any from Death no not Grace it self Grace is as Salt to the Soul to preserve it from Moral Corruption for ever but it cannot preserve the Body from Natural Corruption in this World In Heaven where there shall be nothing but Grace and Holiness in the Soul in perfection there there shall be no dying but here on Earth where Grace is insperfect being mingled with Sin and Corruption there is a necessity of dying Death is become domestical to us we have the Seed of it within us we carry it daily in our bosoms I mean in the body of Sin as the Apostle calls it that we carry about with us which will never be extirpated and destroyed till the death of the body All our Prayers and Tears cannot prevent Death Prayer can do great things to instance in particulars of its Prevalency would be endless Our Lord himself tells us That whatever we ask the Father in his Name he will give it us John 16.23 That is an Astonishing Scripture Esay 45.11 Thus saith the Lord The Holy One of Israel and his Maker Ask me of things to come concerning my Sons and concerring the Works of my hands command ye me As if saith one God was as ready to do them service as if they had him at their Command There is a kind of Omnipotency in Prayer and therefore it is said of Jacob that as a Prince he had power with God and prevailed Gen. 32.28 And the Apostle tells us The effectual fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much how much the Apostle could not tell us but leaves it to every one to make Observations from their own Experience But though Prayer can do such great things yet it cannot prevent Death We read indeed that the Prayer of Faith doth save the Sick but though it can even restore from a sick-bed yet it cannot raise from a Death-bed Nay Christ himself hath not so Redeemed us that we should live for ever and not see Corruption he hath Redeemed us that we shall live for ever in Heaven but he hath not Redeemed us that we should live for ever on Earth and not dye no it was the Priviledge of Jesus Christ the Redeemer that he should not see Corruption and therefore of him only it is said Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption But may some say this necessity of dying seems not to be unalterably imposed upon all Men for some have lived who never dyed and some shall live hereafter that shall not dye I Answer It is true the Scripture makes mention of Two and but Two that lived here oâ— Earth and by special Grace and Favour were exempted from Death ascending up unto God leaping over Death and the Grave as it were in their passage to Heaven and they are Enoch and Elias concerning Enoch it is said That by Faith he waâ— transtated that he should not see Death Heb. 11 5â— He was a Person eminent for Holiness for it is said That he walked with God three hundred years and obtained this Testimony before his Translationâ— that he pleased God Gen. 5.22 And being such an Eminent Proficient in Grace as that there waâ— none that we read of like him at that time he obtained such Grace and Favour from God as none did for it is said He walked with GOD and he was not for GOD lock him O the Excellency of Grace and Holiness how highly doth it ennable and advance a Man Enoch walked with God and God thinks the Earth not good enough for him and therefore he takes him to himself into Beaven nay this is not all so much was God taken with the Holiness of Enoch that he shall not go to Heaven in the ordinary way as other Saints do by Death but he shall be translated from Grace to Glory without so much as looking into the Grave The like we read of Elias another eminent and zealous Servant of God 2 King
2.23 That he was taken up in a siery Chariot by a Whirl-wind into Heaven So great was his Zeal for God and his Glory and so highly did God esteem it and him for it that he must not abide any longer on Earth but be taken up into Heaven and that in no other way but by a fiery Chariot a Passage to Heaven that did bear some Resemblance to his Zeal for God while he was here on Earth The Apostle also tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 That at the last Day we shall not all dye but we shall all be changed and 1 Thes 4.17 We that are alive and remain shall be caught up with him in the Clouds to meet the Lord and so shall we be ever with the Lord. These Exceptions of some few that have not dyed nor shall not dye do not at all make void this general Truth that all shall dye but rather make for the Confirmation of it The general Rule or Law saith all must dye none escape but by special Grace or Priviledge and though the Saints that shall be found on Earth at the Resurrection of the dead dye not yet they shall undergoe that which is equivalent unto Death for they shall be changed Death is call'd a Change so saith Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change shall come And they that are alive at the Last Day undergoe a Change also The Change of Death is a putting off of our Mortality but the Change at the Last Day is a putting on of our Immortality The one is a Change by being uncloathed the other is a Change by being cloathed upon but both is a Change And thus all dye or shall be changed By what hath been said it is very evident That Death befalls all men one time or other sooner or later But for the Manner how or the Time when any shall dye this is unknown unto any The Living may and do know that they shall dye but they know not when they shall dye What our Lord saith of the day of Judgment is true of the day of Man's Death of that day and hour knoweth no Man Many a Man hath been mistaken concerning the purpose of God I said says David in my prosperity that I shall never be moved but he was mistaken for he adds in the next words almost But thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled Much more may we be mistaken concerning the Time of our Death I said says Hezekiah in the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the Grave I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the Living I shall no more behold man with the Inhabitants of the World Good Hezekiah thought there was no way for him to escape Death but he was mistaken for afterwards he tells us God had in Love to his Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption and he Lived fifteen Years longer after he had given himself over for dead A Man may have the Sentence of Death in himself when as to that particular time God hath given out none against him So on the other hand the Rich Man in the Gospel reckons not of Death till many years hence and he is very liberal to his Soul because God had been bountiful to his Body he had got a great Stock of Riches and he gives himself a rich stock of Time even many years he resolves to make his Life larger as he had done his Barns and because they are full of Corn he also will be full of Days whereas the Word came out against him from God Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee and he that before resolved to Live many years could not now Live till the next Morning It is our Wisdom always to be prepared for Death but it s more than belongs to us peremptorily to determine the Time of our Death or the Length of our Days But though the Time of our Death be unknown to us yet is it known to and fixed by God he hath determined not only the Time when but also the Place where and the Manner how we shall dye with all the Circumstances relating thereunto It is God that turns up the Giass of our Time and puts such a Measure of Sand into it and no more such a Measure that it may and shall run so long and no more that it shall run no longer than his Appointment God speaking after the manner of Men is said in Scripture to have a Book wherein is written down not only the Number of our Sins but also the Number of our days and as we cannot commit a Sin but it is written down in some Leafe of his Book so can we not live a day or hour that hath not our Name written down upon it in Gods Book That some have the Time of Life confined only to the dark Cell of the Womb and never see the Light that others are strangled in the place of breaking forth of Children and are only Causes of Grief to them that bear them that others dyâ— in their Infancy without the Knowledge of good or evil and leave only sad Remembrances to their Parents that once they were that others grow up to years of Discretion but are cut off in the prime of their days and in their full strength and that others live to extream old Age till Nature is wholly spent and consumed in them All this is from the Appointment of God they all fill up the Number of those Days and the measure of that Time that God hath allotted to them and then they depart according to his Will How many have we seen cast upon sick beds whom God hath there visited with strong pains bringing them so low that their Lives seem'd to be brought unto the Grave and themselves numbred with them that go down into the Pit free among the dead and as the slain that lye in the Grave given over by themselves and all others for such and yet even these God hath raised up again shewing Wonders as it were to the dead as the Psalmist speaks causing them to arise and praise his Name What 's the Reason of all this Why God's appointed Time was not come and so Diseases could have no further Power over them And what is true of Sickness is as true of Men who are but like Diseases Executioners of God's Decree upon Man even they have no Power to lengthen Life or to hasten Death but what is given them from above God hath not only set us the bounds of our Habitations but the bounds of our Living also Job speaks much to the stating and determining of this Case Job 7.1 Is there not an appointed Time to Man upon Earth Now in an Appointment of God there must be a Certainty or else we make him like unto a mortal Man that is changeable which cannot be Therefore Man having an appointed Time by God upon Earth he must reach to it
said of it is but like the painting of the fire to the eye which expresseth not the pain and anguish that is in it unto the Senses For if we understand by Death a Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Death I may allude to what the Psalmist saith of the Power of God's Anger Who knows the Power of thine Anger So who knows the dreadfulness of the Horror and Pain that is contained in thee O Death according to our Fear of thee So yea and much greater is the Misery which the wrath of God by thee inflicts upon all those that live and dye in their sins But though Death be thus terrible yet is it the more common acceptation of it that chiefly affects the generality of Mankind for as for Spiritual Death or Death in sin because of the present pleasures and Delights which bewitch the Senses this they are insensible of And as for Eternal Death that is looked upon by many as a Dream or Notion as a thing that may never be or if among some it be credited for a Truth yet is it looked upon as that which is a great way off and if the terror of it doth startle the Consciences of some yet are they soon quieted with such thoughts as these Christ dyed for all and God is a merciful God and so they hope all shall be well with them But now for Temporal Death which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body this is so much Death to them that they think there is no other but that at least they apprehend none so prejudicial to them This is a Truth so evident that which way soever they go or turn objects of Mortality present themselves before their eyes in the Death of Friends Relations and others whereby the reigning Power of Death over all is visible sweeping away all Men before it into the Grave the place of silence and rottenness yea themselves are not without some symtoms of their approaching dissolution diseases and distempers as well as business and employments wasting and consuming their bodies dayly whereby they may be convinced that they also are made of the same Mould and must shortly be crumbled into the same Dust with others Thus Death meeting with them so often and staring them so frequently in their faces gives them to understand that there is no way for them to escape its stroke the thoughts whereof cannot but now and then make them fear and tremble But though nothing be more certain than Death yet nothing is more uncertain than the Time of Death For though all shall dye yet all do not dye at the same time nor after the same manner To some God gives long Warning Nature wasting and consuming in them by lingring Distempers with others God is more quick shooting them with an Arrow as it were and suddenly they are wounded unto Death and Destruction Some their hoary Heads are found in the Way of Righteousness and they come to their Graves in a good old Age others arise early to that height of Impiety that the Earth groans under the burthen of their great Wickedness and God is so provoked thereby that he causeth the Earth to swallow them up quick to some the Promise of Long Life made for an Encouragement to Obedience and Holy Walking is turned into a Performance God satissying them with length of days and then leaves them to depart in peace shewing them his Salvation others God cuts off in the midst of their days and of their sins also and they go down quick into the Grave and into Hell too Though the days of a good Man at the most are but few yet because of some special Goodness they are often prolonged so though the days of a wicked Man at the most are but few yet because of some special Wickedness they are often shortned The Wise Man proves this Assertion Prov. 10.27 The fear of the Lord prolongeth or adds to days but the days of the wicked shall be shortned As every Man because he is a Sinner shall live but few days so some shall not live half their days because they are Notorious Sinners The short of it is this Death doth not always give Warning how many rise in the Morning that make their Beds in the Grave before the Evening How many go well to Bed at Night whose Sleep is their Death and they arise no more until the Morning of the Resurrection How often have we seen many projecting for themselves and theirs great things in the World laying house to house and land to land that with the Fool in the Gospel they might eat drink be merry for many year when on a sudden or in that very Night their souls have been taken from them To presume therefore of Long Life and thereupon to neglect to prepare for Death is the great 〈◊〉 piece of Folly imaginable for scarce is 〈…〉 Week passeth over our heads wherein we may not hear of some or other that are suddenly gone into another World and that which hath been the Case of others may be ours also It is the sad Condition of a wicked Man let him dye how and when he will he dies miserably if Death cut him off suddenly then he goes down quick into Hell that Gulf of all Woe and Misery If Death gives him long Warning by a succession of many years distempers yet all this while he doth but pine away in his Iniquity and encreaseth his Misery when Death shall cut him off and throw him into that place of Torment the pain and anguish whereof is so great that it cannot be sufficiently expressed no not by them that feel it But now it is the happiness of a godly Man let him dye never so suddenly yet he always dyes happily because he is in a state of Peace and Reconciliation with God it is true he may dye without a sence and feeling of that Peace and so his passing thorow the Valley of the Shadow of Death may be terrible to him but still God is with him and though the eye of his Faith be held so that he cannot discern him to be his God though his Rod and his Staff do not comfort him yet they do support and strengthen him and as soon as Death hath opened his eyes he beholds the face of God to his everlasting joy and satisfaction Doth Death then come certainly and sometimes suddenly It is thy Wisdom O Christian always to be prepared for it and then let it come when it will tho' this Night thou maist bid it welcome But as Mans Life is short and frail so is his Death sure and certain for it is the common lot 〈◊〉 Men. Man saith Job that is all Men are good 〈◊〉 dye it is the way of all the Earth it is the end of all Men. Who is he that lives and shall not see Death No Man can redeem his Brothers no nor his own Life from Death that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption
such a sufficient Ransome no man can give to God Christ is indeed become a Ransome for Believers but it is to deliver them not from the first but from the second Death for as to the first Death it is appointed unto all Men once te dye Some have a longer time in this world and others a shorter but all dye one goes before and another follows after one Man rots in the Grave and makes it empty that he which is yet alive may have a place to lye down therein We all dwell in houses of clay whose foundations are in the dust which will shortly tumble down into it Earthly Tabernacles we have that must be dissolved and laid in the Earth here we have no abiding place Death and the Grave will shortly take all for all go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again Eccles 3.20 Some are sent before and others follow after but all go the same way some have a long Race to run others but a short but Death is at the end of both To him that is old Death is certainly near and to him that is young Death is not far off He that dyes not till he is old travels a long way before he meets with Death whereas he that dyes young hath but a short way to his long home Death meeting him betimes but still whither young or old all must dye the decree is gone forth and there is no reversing of it There is an appointed time to Man upon Earth as Job speaks and when that is expired Death cuts him off and throws him into the Grave the house appointed for all living Death is inexorable it spares none and the Grave is in atiable it is not satisfied with any when it hath the Husband it gapes for the Wife when it hath the Parent it gapes for the Child when it hath one Generation it gapes for another one Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh and the latter crowds the former out of the world No Man hath a dispensation against Death there must be a dissolution of all things and therefore a dissolution of all Men. No Man hath more Priviledge than another against the Sentence of Death the greatest Prince dyes as soon as the meanest Peasant Neither Power nor Wisdom neither Strength nor Riches neither Beauty nor Honour nor any outward Excellency whatsoever can protect any against the stroke of Death these things can do much among Men yea every thing but they avail not against Death powerful Death despiseth them all Power can do nothing to ward off the stroke of Death from any where is Alexander and Casar and all the Great Conquerors of the World why they and all their Greatness and Power are gone down into the Grave and after all their Conquests over others have yielded themselves up as conquered by Death There is no Title can be given unto Man which sets him farther off from Death than to call him God and this high Title God himself hath honoured some Men with Psal 82.6.7 I said ye are Gods but least they should be lifted up with Pride with the same Breath he adds an humbling Consideration to take down all proud and lofty Thoughts but ye shall dye like Men. Kings and Princes that are the greatest for worldly Power and have the priviledge to be called Gods yet have they not the priviledge of God not to dye like men No Mans Wisdom can save him from dying Death will be too hard for the most cunning Politician Wisdom is an excellent Gift of God and renders a Person lovely in the Eyes of all it makes a mans face to shine it sets a Glory and Beauty upon a Mans Person and Actions a Man can hardly give a greater Commendation of any Man than to say he is a Wise Man and yet of Solomon not only the wisest of Kings but the wisest of Men it is said than he stept with his Fathers as well as others and though he tells us Wisdom excells Folly as far as Light excells Darkness yet we know wise men dye as well as the foolish and bruitish person We read indeed of a poor Wise Man that by his Wisdom delivered a City but we never read of any that by their Wisdom delivered themselves or others from Death no for as there is no work no levise in the Grave whither we are going so is there no Knowledge or Wisdom that can keep a man from going into the Grave Eccless 9.10 No Man by his strength can overcome Death Bodily health and strength are no defence at all against Death It is true they are great Mercies where God gives them unto any a sickly weakly Man is burthensome to himself and others though God heaps upon him other Mercies in abundance as Wealth Honours and Relations yet he takes little delight in them the want of Health imbitters all whereas a Man that is hcalthful and strong takes delight in every Comfort and Enjoyment though it be even poor and mean in comparison of what others have but though health and strength be so great a Mercy yet can they not withstand the Power of Death they may make a man dye with strong pains upon his bed but they cannot defend him against Death If God bestow upon any of us a strong healthy Body it is a great Mercy and we ought to be thankful for it but we may be soon laid in the Grave for all that Death should not be a stranger to us because sickness and distempers are strange things to us for we have not long Life much less can we escape the stroke of Death because we are bealthy and strong for in the fullness of our strength we may be in Death one dyeth in the fullness of his strength when his Bones are full of Marrow As for the strength of any Man though he be a Sampson yet this great Leviathan Death counts it but as straw and the soundest and purest health but as rotten wood David complains that the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for him But there are none such that are too hard for Death Death stays not to take men at advantage when they are weakned with age and sickness as Simeon and Levy did the Schecemites when they were sore Gen. 34.25 No Death can do its work as easily and as speedily in health as in sickness in strength as under weakness No man by his Riches can protect himself against Death all the Riches in the world are too low a Value to ransome any from Death and the Grave Solomon tells us Money answers all things and indeed rich Men can do great things by their Wealth many seek the favour of such their Riches make them many Friends The Wise Man tells us The rich mans wealth is his strong City Prov. 18.11 by reason whereof they trust to their Wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches thinking they are well provided for against all Evils What made
Majesty of Heaven condescends so low as to entreat us with more Earnestness and Affection to pity our own Souls and accept of a Pardon then Guilty Condemned Sinners desire to obtain it but when this Life is at an end there shall be no more Offers of Mercy but the Blood of Christ shall then be a Spring shut up and a Fountain Sealed that none can wash in it and be Cleansed Death Seals up the State of a Sinner for ever You know what Abrabam tells the Rich Man in Hell in Luke 16.26 Between us and you says he there is a great Gulf fixed so that they that would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence The State and Condition that Men enter upon after Death is fixed and unalterable Therefore O Sinner what thou dost for God for Heaven for thy Soul do it quickly for this is the only Time and Season for thee to work in and as thou now Sowest so thou shalt Reap for ever The State of Man under Death being thus it greatly concerns all Men to wait for Death Job tells us it should be his Practice Job 14.14 All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change comes Now waiting as it relates unto Death may include three things Meditation Expectation and Preparation First Meditation He that waits for the Accomplishment of any Worldly Business especially if it be of Concernment to him how busie will his Mind and Thoughts be in musing upon it He now that is waiting for the coming of Death considering both the certainty of it that it will come and the uncertainty of it when it will come and believes withal that Eternal Happiness or Eternal Misery will be that State to which Death will bring him cannot but have his Thoughts much taken up about it This will make a Soul Truly and Spiritually Wise and therefore the Psalmist Prays Lord teach us to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom He that is truly Wise will Meditate of Death and he that Meditates of Death will be truly Wise The more we number our Days and think of our Time the fewer Sins we shall have to number for as a Copy is then safest from blotting when dust is thrown upon it so are we from Sinning when we remember we are but Dust Secondly Waiting includes in it Expectation That which we wait for we are in Expectation of and that Man may be said to wait for Death that in every Action of his Life in every Alteration of his State and Condition saith to himself well I must Die when though his Bones are full of Marrow though Riches come in upon him like a Flood yet saith he I must die I have no abiding Place here I am but a Stranger and Sojourner in this World as all my Fathers were I have now Wife and Children Friends and Lands but I cannot enjoy any of these for ever no nor my Life it self for I have but a Lease of it and that but a short one too which will soon expire I expect Death daily even in the midst of all my Enjoyments I am but a Steward of all that I have here and I must shortly be called to an Account such and such are gone before me and I am following after The other day Death snatched away such a dear Relation from me this day it hath seized upon such a Friend and Acquaintance and to morrow the same Messenger may come for me It is that I expect and therefore I wait for it Thirdly Waiting includes in it Preparation He that waits for Death ought to be preparing for it This now is exceeding Requisite because it is above the reach of Words to express how much depends upon this Preparation it is that our whole Life should have respect unto every thing that we do ought to have a tendency in it to make Death Comfortable But of this Preparation for Death I shall speak more hereafter in its proper place This waiting for Death by way of Meditation on it by way of Expectation of it and by way of Preparation for it is very necessary considering what an Important difficult Work the Work of dying is and this will appear if we consider two things First what Death is Secondly what Death doth First what Death is and here are three things considerable Death is a Deprivation Death is a Desolution and Death is a Destruction All which make Death terrible and the Work of dying difficult First Death is a Deprivation It strips us of all those Comforts that in this World did Refresh us Friends Relations Lands Houses these have often delighted us while we live yea it may be too much by setting our Affections inordinately upon them and now what Grief of Soul doth it create to us violently by Death to be torn from them but part we and they must whether we will or no and that for ever Job tells us We came naked into the World and we shall return naked out of it The Apostle indeed seems to intimate as if some Men in our days could scarcely believe it and therefore to beat Men off from such a conceit he tells them 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing with us into this World this is true and all Men will grant it and says the Apostle it is certain we shall carry nothing out of it Death makes all lie equal in the Dust Secondly Death is a Dessolution In Life Soul and Body are united and live lovingly together there is a near union between them a union which because of their long Acquaintance and Co-habitation together is become so dear that no union can be more desirable as to the continuance of it nor no union more dreaded as to the Dissolution of it except it be the Spiritual union between Christ and the Soul There are several kinds of unions and generally Love is the ground of them all There is an union of Friendship between one Friend and another whom Love hath united so strongly that they seem to Act as if one Soul animated them both so Jonathan loved David even as his own Soul This is a strong union There is also a Relative union between Parents and Children so Jacob loved Benjamin so that it is said his Life was bound up in the Life of the Lad This is a stronger union than the former There is also a Marriage union between a Man and his Wife and this is a stronger union than either of the former Man and Wife making but one Flesh as the Scripture speaks But yet there is a union that is stronger and nearer than any of these Vnions and that is the Vnion between Soul and Body for these two make but one Person Now all dis-unions are uncomfortable and some dis-unions are dreadful and as some dis-unions are dreadful so those dis-unions are most dreadful which rend that from us that is nearest and dearest to us
forced from him whether he will or no. But though a Sinner's Death be violent yet no Man dies before his time though some in Scripture are said so to do Hence we read that Caution of the Wise Man Eccles 7.17 Be not wicked over much why shouldst thou die before thy time And God threatens Psal 55.23 Bloody and deceitful Men shall not live out half their Days And it is a common saying among us that such a one is cut off in the midst of his Days To all which I shall only return this short Answer That simply and in it self considered it is impossible but that the whole tale of Days that God hath appointed to every one must be fulfilled according to the Number of them They are set down by God and no Man can die before God's time It is true a Man may die before his time that is before he is prepared by Grace or before he is ripened in the course of Nature Such expressions as these denote no more than either that God cuts them off in their full strength and in the vigour of their years when yet they might according to humane probability have lived much longer or else comparing the shortness of their lives with the length of others God seems as it were to break it off in the very midst before he hath finished it And is Death the lot of all Men sooner or later Though all die not the same way and after the same manner nor at the same time yet is Death the end of all Men Doth Death pass upon all because all have sinned Why then let every one prepare for Death The Spirit of God tells us that all flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field which soon withers and dies And is it so with these Bodies of ours that they are frail and dying The Wisdom of a Christian then should manifest it self not in labouring to avoid the stroke of Death for that is impossible nor yet in spending too much time in daubing over a House of Clay or in repairing and propping up of an Earthly Tabernacle which when we have done all will at length crumble into dust but seeing the Body is appointed for and will turn to dust to be sollicitous that when it dies it may die happily and comfortably Christian whoever thou art into whose hands these lines may fall know that I am come to acquaint thee with a message from the True and Faithful God that cannot lye that the Lease of thy Life is almost expired and that the time of thy departure is not far off What habitation hast thou provided for thy precious and immortal Soul that it may not at its departure out of thy Body take up its dwelling with Devils and damned Spirits for ever It may be thou hast provided well for thy Wife and Children heap'd up much Silver and Gold together for them added House to Land that they may dwell upon the Earth it may be thou hast settled thy Estate so as to prevent all disputes and quarrelings when thou art dead I cannot say but thou hast done well and that these things ought to be done I condemn thee not But what hast thou done for thy Soul all this while Hast thou not laid out much more care and pains for thy never dying Soul than thou hast for thy perishing Body If not let me say unto thee O careless Sinner as the Mariners said unto Jonah in the Storm What meanest thou O Sleeper What meanest thou O drowsy stupid Sinner Arise for God's sake and for thy Soul's sake and bestir thy self look about thee Whither art thou going What will become of thee Is not Eternity before thee And must not thy State and Condition be for ever hereafter as thy Preparations are now O that God would open thine Eyes that thou mayest see what will make for thine Eternal Interest before Death open them when it will be too late Now that I may press this Exhortation the more home upon thy Conscience I shall lay down two or three Reasons for thy more thorough Conviction that it will be much for thy Interest and Advantage to be ready and prepared for Death First Consider Conscience will then be very busie and active in reviewing thy Life Now if for the most part thereof thou hast walked uprightly with God Conscience will then give thee some measure of boldness towards God But now if at such a time when Conscience is reflecting back upon thy former Life it cannot but say if it will speak the Truth as usually upon a Death bed it doth I have been considering thy former ways and the Account that I can give of them in general is that they abound with multitudes of Sins and Provocations which no Man can number to particularize them would be endless but if it may tend any way to thy Repentance before it be too late Remember O Sinner for I do how long God hath lengthened out thy Life how many tenders of Christ and Salvation by him he hath made unto thy Soul which thou hast rejected How many years of Sabbaths hast thou enjoyed How often hath the Spirit of God moved upon thy Soul and stirred up holy motions in thy Heart which thou hast resisted and quenched What multitudes of mercies wherewith God would have drawn thee to himself hast thou slighted and abused How many corrections and afflictions hath God laid upon thee wherewith he would have imbittered Sin unto thy Soul that himself might have been more sweet which thou hast despised and grown more hardened in Sin under How hath the Patience of God been even wearied with waiting upon thee whilst thou hast pressed him with thy Sins even as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves and yet thou wouldst not forbear thy wicked ways Doest thou not remember the particular times and days the several seasons and occasions wherein it hath been thus and thus with thee Surely says Conscience thou canst not forget it these things are all down in my Book though thou thoughtest I took no notice of them and I am now a going to open this Book to shew it to thy Judge where I shall justifie them all to thy very face for I do very well remember every one of them O that for thy Soul's sake I could say I do as well remember thy praying thy hearing thy reading thy Meditation of holy and heavenly things with the sincerity yea the fervour and earnestness of thy Soul expressed in all these that I could bear Witness to thy Faith to thy Humility to thy Patience and Self denial to thy Repentance and Godly Sorrow for Sin to the daily longing and breathing of thy Soul after the being rid of a Body of Death that thou mightest never offend God any more but I cannot say these things of thee and I dare not now flatter thee and tell thee that I can when I cannot and if I should it would do thee no good
such The Happiness of those that are in Christ lies in the Manifestation of the Divine Love and Favour unto their Souls now this Death cannot hinder them of I know many of God's People have not the Light of his Countenance liftted up upon their Souls in Death but their passage to Heaven is dark and uncomfortable God loves them though they know it not yet by this darkness and uncomfortableness which Death brings upon them by their passage through it Death is but bringing them to the most clear Discoveries of the Love of God to their Souls in Heaven with which they shall then be filled and satisfied to all Eternity Our Comfort in Death lies in the Knowledge of our Interest in Christ but so doth not our Happiness that lies in our Interest in Christ whether we know it or not Our Consolation in a dying hour springs from our Assurance that Christ is ours and we are his but our safely and security in that hour ariseth from the certainty of our Interest in Christ Indeed our Ignorance that we are in Christ when we come to die may prejudice our present Peace and Comfort in Death but it shall not prejudice our future Happiness after Death They that are in Christ are always in a safe Condition they may die uncomfortably indeed but they cannot die miserably they are built upon the Rock of Ages and therefore though they fall by Death into the Grave even as others yet they perish not with others Death may kill them but it cannot hurt them He that hath an Interest in Christ being united to him by Faith need not fear what Death can do unto him True and thorough Conversion from Sin unto God is a sure Foundation for Peace and Safety both in Life and Death He that is interested in Christ is built upon a Rock that is Impregnable the Gates of Death and Hell shall not prevail against him To behold a Man dying that is in Christ this is Comfortable for such a one dies that he may live for ever and changes only a Temporal for an Eternal Life To behold a Christless Person but not in a dying condition this is something tolerable for who can tell but that the next Sabbath or the next Sermon God may make it a time of Love to his Soul even such a day of his Power and Grace towards him as thereby savingly to draw him unto Christ But to behold a dying Man and a Christless Man also this is dreadful yea even intolerable for such a one dies from Earth to be Damned in Hell It was a sad and doleful Complaint and Oh that it might startle and awaken some secure Sinner to look after Christ that was once uttered by one upon a Death-Bed being just a dying Oh I want nothing now but a Christ to Save me O miserable State and Condition indeed for in having him the Soul hath all that can do it good or make it good but in wanting of him the Soul hath nothing that can do it good here or make it happy hereafter Interest in Christ is the only true Preparation for Death This now is the general Direction for our Preparation for Death without which there is no dying happily or comfortably But the more particular Directions are these that follow First Wouldst thou be prepared for Death then die unto Sin by daily and constant endeavours to mortifie and subdue the Power and Strength of it in the Exercise of a Holy Life The Apostle tells us in Rom. 6.23 That the wages of Sin is Death By which he means Temporal and Eternal Death This now is the Fruit of Sin for Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death But is there no way to escape this Death yes from Spiritual and Eternal Death there is a deliverance and therefore the Apostle tells us in Rom. 6.13 That if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body that is the deeds of the Body of Sin then we shall live and not die that is we shall live Spiritually and not die Eternally and as for a Temporal Death though we cannot scape the stroke of it yet we shall be free from the Curse and Sting of it Wouldst thou therefore O Christian be prepared for Death when it comes then take from it now its Power and Strength When the Philistines saw Sampson was too strong for them they labour to know wherein his great Strength lay and when they found it was in the Hair of his Head they would not be quiet till they got his Hair cut off Every Christian hath to deal with a dreadful Enemy unto Nature and that is Death Assault he will all of us at one time or other yea and be too hard for us If now we would overcome him we must find out where his great Strength lies the Spirit of God now tells us that the Power and Sting of Death is Sin so we read in 1 Cor. 15.56 The Sting of Death is Sin And the Power and Sting of every Mans particular Death lies in his own Sins Death cannot hurt any of us but by that Power and Strength that our sins put into its hands Christian the way how thou mayest overcome thine Enemy Death is set open to thee his Strength is discovered to thee that thou mayest have thine Advantage against him to weaken him and to take away his Strength and that is by dying unto Sin this will be the Death of Death Yield not therefore at any time to its Solicitations for this is but to make Death the more strong and Powerful to wound thy Soul and Conscience When therefore thou art tempted unto any Sin though it may seem pleasant and delightful yet before thou yieldst unto the Temptation say to thy self O my Soul how will this relish with me when I come to lie upon a Death-bed and my Soul sits trembling upon my Lips ready to take its Flight unto the Tribunal of God What Peace and Comfort will it procure to my Conscience then Will not the Remembrance of it prove more bitter than Gall and Wormwood and the grating Reflections of Conscience more stinging and tormenting to the Soul than a thousand Deaths could possibly be Wouldst thou not have Death bitter then let not Sin be sweet now Part with Sin betimes get that removed that is the troubler of a Death-Bed and the Sting of Death and that is Sin Make it your daily business to be dying unto Sin Now this dying unto Sin implies our constant endeavours to subdue the Power and Strength of Sin and this is done by daily Mortification It is true in the People of God Sin doth not Reign and that is Comfortable to consider Sin in the Work of Conversion hath received such a Wound as is incurable but yet wherever Sin is in any Soul it doth not use to lie dormant but where it cannot Reign it will molest and struggle yea and it
may be prevail to a Victory sometimes even over those over whom it shall never prevail unto Condemnation This now calls for a constant work of Mortification Every day there are corrupt Inclinations and Propensions to be kept in sinful thoughts to be contended with Evil motions to be supprest and it is not the meer Habis and Principle of Grace received in our first Conversion without the vigorous and constant Exercise of it in a way of Mortification that will overcome all these Though Regeneration hath given Sin its Deaths wound yet Mortification must daily weaken and subdue its Power and Strength and according as the work of Mortification is successful in the Soul so will be our Peace and Purity in Life and our Joy and Comfort in Death Secondly Keep Conscience clear that it may not have the guilt of any known sin to charge you withal Now Conscience may then be said to be clear when it is pure and when it is a Peaceable Conscience that is peaceable must be pure and a pure Conscience usually is a peaceable Conscience When Conscience is free from all known and willful defilements and not justly burthened with the guilt of Sin then is Conscience clear If it be possible do not wound Conscience and if you would not have a care of Sin he that is not watchful to avoid Sin cannot have a clear Conscience It is impossible for us while we are surrounded about with Infirmities and oppressed with a Body of Sin and Death which the Apostle complains of to keep our selves free and unspotted from all Sin for in many things we offend all Those Sins now that are Sins of weakness and Infirmity as they are usually small Sins and so hardly discernable many times by our selves nor others so they do not break our Peace with God nor obscure the clearness of our Consciences but they are known and willful sins that waste and wound the Conscience and they that are not careful to keep themselves from sinning thus can never have a clear Conscience nor be in a prepared State for Death for how can Conscience speak Peace unto the Soul upon a Death-bed with the guilt of any known sin upon it If you wound Conscience by sin now Conscience will wound you for sin hereafter Any known sin committed against Conscience will exceedingly discompose and trouble the Soul in a dying hour Reader doth thy Conscience reprove thee for living in any sinful way or for being careless and remiss in looking after Heaven and Eternity hearken unto Conscience now that Conscience may hearken unto you another day O Sinner when thou shalt come to lie upon a Death-bed and begin to examine thy Conscience how things are with thee and how it is like to go with thee for ever thou wouldest then be glad to have Conscience give thee a comfortable answer and say all is well and all shall be well with thee to Eternity thou hast been Faithful in following my Counsels and Reproofs that from the Great God according to his Word I delivered unto thee and now I will be as Faithful in declaring to thee the Truth of things as to thy future State fear not therefore for it shall certainly go well with thee for ever Wouldst thou now have Conscience speak thus comfortably to thee at Death hearken to what Conscience saith to thee now for if thou dost not hearken unto Conscience in thy life time when it Faithfully Admonisheth and Reproves thee Conscience will not hearken unto thee at thy Death to excuse and acquit thee but will prove thy great Accuser and Condemner Guilt lying upon the Conscience makes the Soul ashamed and afraid to come before God even in this Life much more at Death A Guilty Sinner chooseth rather to run away from God that if it were possible God might not find him Thus we imitate our Grand-Father Adam who as soon as he had sinned endeavours to hide himself from God among the Trees of the Garden And who of us is there but may observe the same by himself what slavish fear what dejection and sinking in our Spirits doth seize upon us when we come before God in the Performance of a Duty after we have provoked him by some known sin with what Doubtings with what Fears and misgiving of heart do we come into his Presence as if we were not willing that God should take any notice that we are before him and if we are not in continual pain while we are performing the Duty yet we would willingly enough that the Duty were done and over And if we cannot tell how to engage in Duty with a guilty Conscience how shall we be able to contend with Death with a guilty Conscience If the Presence of God in Duty be so dreadful and terrible unto the Soul under the Apprehension of some known sin committed by it and not pardoned to it that it makes it quake and tremble to come before him what then will the Presence of God in Death and Judgment when Conscience shall be awakened to make terrible Reflections not upon a particular sin but upon the sins of a whole Life if not Repented of Oh with what horrour and amazement with what Consternation and Confusion must such a Soul be filled withal But now he whose Conscience is clear Oh how doth he Rejoyce to draw nigh to God how glad is he to go up unto the House of the Lord as David speaks with what delight doth his Soul hasten unto God in Duty that it may taste how good the Lord is that it may see the Power and Glory of God so as it hath sometimes done in his Sanctuary O with what Peace and Contentment of Mind shall I say alas these are Expressions of too low and too mean a Signification to represent the workings of such a Soul towards God rather with what Joy and Rejoying with what Triumph and Exultation doth such a Soul make its abode and stay with God in Duty where it enjoys the sweet and refreshing Smiles of his Countenance and sits under the delightful Banner of his Love Thus it is with a Christian in Duty that hath a clear Conscience And if it be thus with him in Duty and Conscience continue to keep its clearness and inoffensiveness in an upright walking with God daily it cannot be bad or ill with such a Soul at Death A Conscience kept clean and pure in Life will be quiet and peaceable in Death nay let me say more he who hath made it his care and business to walk continually with a clear and inoffensive Conscience in his Life shall certainly have much boldness yea and usually a great deal of Joy and Rejoycing in Death and though the Devil may and will labour to disturb such a Soul's Peace and Comfort then yet a Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ shall be too hard for him And what Conscience doth in God's Name on good grounds upon a Death bed God will confirm and enlarge
in the Things of this World should be unwilling to die that the Thoughts of Death which parts them and their Happiness should be bitter and unpleasant This now is naturally the Temper of all Men till God opens their Eyes and discovers to them more excellent Things even Things of a spiritual and divine Nature which as they are more suitable to their Souls so are they more durable and satisfying and having once tasted what present Sweetness Peace and Joy there is in God and in ways of Holiness besides what is laid up for them hereafter in Heaven their Hearts and Affections are now become dead to the World and all worldly Things so that they have no relish and savour of these Things upon their Spirits But as St. Paul saith of himself so it may be said of them they are now crucified unto the World and the World is crucified unto them The World sees no Glory or Beauty in them and they see as little in the World How easily now can such take their leaves of it when God by Death calls them to it The Apostle tells us for his part he did die daily 1 Cor. 15. and 31. And did we die daily in our Desires and Affections unto the World and the Things thereof it would not be so hard for us to die when we come to it in good earnest When Death comes to a Man whose natural strength and vigour hath been wasting and consuming a long time by lingring Sicknesses and Distempers his Death is not so hard and strong as that Man's Death is whom a few day's Sickness cuts off in the midst of his strength and Vigour Nature being strong in him to make resistance against it whereas in the other the strength of Nature is wasted and consumed and so Death to him is more easie So is it here the Christian whose Love and Affection to the World and the Contentments of this present Life hath for many years been consuming and dying will more freely and readily part with them at Death than he whose Love and Affections are strongly and eagerly bent upon them such a one must be rent and torn from them by force and violence in the hour of Death When our heart 's set loose from all things that are desirable under the Sun and there is nothing upon Earth that insnares and intangles our Affections towards it one Difficulty yea and a great one too in our way of dying is then removed Death will rend and tear that heart that is glued in love to any thing in this World Therefore O Christian as to all thy worldly Enjoyments possess them as if thou possessed'st them not rejoice in them as if thou rejoicedst not and use the World as not abusing of it for the Fashion of the world passeth away How dreadful will Death be to one who as the Apostle saith minds earthly Things and how easie will Death be to one whose Mind and Conversation is in Heaven It is good therefore for us to consider that we are but Strangers and Pilgrims here Heaven is the proper Place and Dwelling for holy Souls Make provision therefore by a holy weanedness of Heart and Affections for your departure bence send your best things to Heaven before-hand that is your Heart your Love your Delight and then you your selves will the more readily and willingly follow after them Fifthly Would you be prepared for Death live every day then as if it were your last doing nothing therein but what you would be willing to be found doing at Death and Judgment He that shall every day seriously consider with himself for ought I know this may be my last day The shadows of Death may stretch themselves over my Life before the shadows of the Evening overtake me I have no Assurance of my Life here no not for a moment How is it therefore with thee O my Soul as to Eternity what is thy daily Work and Employment Is it that wherein if I should meet with Death at the end of it I can comfortably give an Account thereof unto the Great God If I knew this to be my last Day would I be thus employed as I now am If not why do I venture upon the doing of that which I would be loath Death should find me a doing since I know not but Death may overtake me before I have finished what I am about Reader whoever thou art possibly thou mayest be guilty of no very great mistake if thou shouldst think with thy self as healthful and as strong as now I am yet there may be some secret invisible Hand of Death stretched out towards me possibly this very day I may feel some Symptoms and some Fore-runners of it some mortal incurable Disease may seize upon me before Night and cast me upon a sick Bed which to me may prove a Death bed Supposing now that this were thy very Case and that thou hadst received the Sentence of Death though not as Hezekiah did by a Messenger sent immediately by God unto him as he had but by the Violence of some Distemper accompanied with those Signs and Tokens that usually are and have been presages of Death unto others How then wouldst thou spend those few small Moments of Time that thou hast yet left thee on this side Eternity How would thy Thoughts work What would thy Words and Discourses then be Surely thou wouldst not be so abominable stupid and secure so wretchedly careless and negligent of thy Soul and of thy eternal Interest and Concerns when thy Soul is as it were sitting upon thy Lips and looking over into Eternity being ready to take its sudden flight thither as to be plodding and contriving in thy Thoughts how to enjoy the Pleasures Profits and Delights of the World which you now find to be nothing but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit nor yet would you be so desperately mad and bold as to send then for your vain and wicked Companions with whom you have consumed so many Days and Years in Sin and Wickedness that you and they might now laugh and waste away your last Hours together also No certainly there is no relish and savour now in any of these Things unless it be that which is bitter yea surely the Remembrance thereof will then be more bitter to the Soul than Gall and Wormwood Oh now the Consideration of the Wants and Exigences of the Soul begin to thrust and force themselves into the Mind and Thoughts of a Sinner O the sight of a righteous and a severe Judge of a strict Account and of a dreadful Tribunal Oh the bitter Vpbraidings and Terrors of an accusing Conscience the fearful Reflections upon past Sins and the Expectations of future Torments the Fears and Thoughts of these Things do now fill the Mind and perplex the Soul and make a Sinner cry out O what shall I now do to be saved Were you never in all your Lives by the Death-bed of a careless negligent Sinner whose
Conscience was then awakened under Horrors and Desperation If you have not others have and what hath been their dying words Oh that God would pardon their sins that he would Sanctifie and Save their Souls that he would spare them a little space that he would grant them a little time longer that they might recover their Strength that they might Repent of their Sins and Reform their Lives or else that he would graciously manifest his Love and Favour to their Souls and receive them to his Mercy This is the Language these are the Thoughts and Cares of Men upon a Sick bed when they see death coming near them and staring them in their Faces And if this were thy Case and Condition O Sinner that thou didst now lie tumbling and tossing upon a Sick-bed yea upon a Death-bed would not these things be in thy mind would not the same Thoughts and Cares possess thy Soul and the same words and discourses fall from thy Mouth why let the same Care the same Thoughts the same words take up some part of every day and hour of this Life now for thou knowest not but that this moment thou art as near death as if thy Friends and Relations yea and thy Physicians also despaired of thy life and had given thee over for dead O if we could thus spend every day as if it were our last we should then hardly be brought to the doing of any thing but what we would be willing death should find us doing and how exceedingly would this further our Preparations for a dying hour Sixthly He that would be in a readiness for a dying hour must frequently meditate of his own death and of the death of Christ To Meditate of our own death will make us Studious to prepare for it and to Meditate of the death of Christ will Arm us against the Fears of our own Deaths He that by frequent Meditations of his own death and of the death of Christ hath made death familiar to his Soul is not only prepared for death but in a great measure also freed from the fears of death As to the considering of our own death the Scripture is often in calling upon us to lay the thoughts of it to our hearts Oh that my People were wise says God that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And though a Man lives many years and rejoyces in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many Eccle. 11.8 By days of darkness we are to understand death or the State of death during the abode of our Bodies in the dark Grave or in the darkness of the Grave He that frequently ponders of his ways will at length be brought to turn his feet unto God's Testimonies as David speaks of himself So he that often thinks upon death will by the serious thoughts of it be stirred up to make some timely preparation for it this being the end to which the Contemplations of death doth tend This is that Wisdom which Solomon tells us the Living gain by going often to the House of Mourning even so to lay to heart the thoughts of death so as to make preparation for it It is sad that the Goodness and Mercy of God should occasion our forgetfulness of him and of our selves and yet it is commonly so with us When God lays his Afflicting hand upon us especially under some smart stroke we are then brought to seek God as the Prophet speaks In their Affliction they will seek me early There is some tendency in Afflictions to make us mindful of God and of our own Interest and Concerns which is the design God aims at in Afflicting us But when God is pleased to open his hand towards us as the Psalmist speaks and fill us with his Blessings then we are very prone to forget both him and our selves we forget God because when we are full we are ready to deny God and say who is the Lord and we forget our selves because we return not that Duty and Obedience which such Goodness and Mercy should engage us to And because the Streams of Mercy now run pleasantly about us we consider not how many the days of darkness are that will overtake us shortly but put far from us the thoughts of death and the Grave and this is the Reason why when death comes it finds us so unready and unprepared and we so troubled and discomposed in our Spirits and under so many fears and doubts as to our Spiritual and Eternal concerns Frequently therefore O Christian make thy private Retirements Commune with thy self alone visit Death and the Grave in thy thoughts take a walk now and then in the Valley of the Shadow of Death suffer not thy thoughts to be estranged from such Meditations If thou findest thy self shy and unwilling to engage in such a work yet bring thy heart to it inure thy self to the thoughts of Death in general and of thine own death in particular And that thou mayest not be afraid of it to the Meditation of thine own death joyn the Consideration of the death of Christ who hath Conquered death took away its Sting By dying he slew death was the death of death as it was Prophesied of him in Hosea 13.14 O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Victory He now that by Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is interested in his death may say when ever the time of his departure comes thanks be to God through Christ I am ready and prepared for it Muse therefore much upon the Death of Christ for herein lies thy support and comfort O Soul against thine own Death Seventhly He that would be prepared for death must labour for an assurance of a better life always living by Faith in the Contemplation of the Glory and Happiness of Heaven He that is assured of an Eternal Life in Heaven need not nay will not much fear a Temporal death here upon Earth Christians the time is coming when you and all things and persons in this World must take your leaves one of another and part for ever what then O Christian will bear up thy Spirit at such a time why nothing less than the sense and hopes of the love of God and of thy Interest in Christ some Evidences of a work of Grace upon thy Soul which is an earnest and foretaste of Heaven and Glory These are the only things that will bear up thy Soul in a dying hour When a Man hath attained to some well grounded Assurance of his Interest in God and Christ and thereby of his Right and Title unto Heaven then are things in a good posture with him and he in a readiness for Death and the Grave And how light will that Soul make of death that hath the assured hopes of Heaven and Glory to encourage him to go through it He that by Faith lives in the daily Contemplations of the Glory and Happiness of
more time to live here upon Earth they love God more than all Things and Persons whatsoever but yet their affections are not so fully taken off from the World nor from their Friends and Relations as they should be they are not wrack'd and tormented with perplexing fears of Wrath and Hell but yet they are not ravish'd with the Joys of Heaven Concerning the Death of such as these we must say Blessed are they that thus die in the Lord for though they have not that assurance that some have and so die not so comfortably as to sense and feeling as they do yet have they that Faith and Affiance in the Lord Jesus Christ whereby they die happily But then there are others that are strong Christians grown Men in Christ who have attained unto such a full assurance of Faith that they are not only willing to die but are desirous of Death being perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor length nor depth nor any Creature shall ever be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus for they know in whom they have believed and with whom they have intrusted the everlasting Concernments of their Immortal Souls and that he is able and faithful yea and will also keep that good thing that they have committed unto him unto that day And therefore they can with a Holy Triumph through Christ say O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore they can with chearfulness commit one half of themselves that is their Bodies unto the Grave where though they know it shall turn to Corruption and Rottenness yet that troubles them not because they know also that by the Power of God it shall be raised up a most Glorious Body at the last Day for they are assured that their Redeemer lives and they believe that he shall stand at the last day upon the Earth and not only so but because he lives they believe that they shall live also And though for the present Worms destroy their Bodies yet in their Flesh they shall see God whom they shall see for themselves and their Eyes shall behold him and not anothers and that to their everlasting Joy and Comfort Now to such as these Death is both happy and comfortable also and therefore they are desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all But now a Question may arise here Is it not Lawful to desire or wish for Death To this I Answer negatively and positively in some cases it is unlawful and sinful and in some cases it may be lawful and commendable First negatively wherein it is sinful and unlawful And so for any to wish for or to desire Death through impatience or discontent in any condition because they cannot have their own Wills but are crost in their desires this is sinful This was the Sin of Jonah who because God had smitten the Gourd from which he received some refreshment presently he falls into a Passion and in a discontented fit he concludes the matter that it was better for him to die than to live Jonah 4.8 but God knew it was better for him to live than to die and therefore in his pity he spares him that he might repent of his Sin This was the Infirmity of Elijah which the Apostle seems to take notice of when he tells us He was a Man of like Infirmities with us Jam. 5.17 for as to any other Infirmities of that Holy Man the Scripture is silent but it takes notice of this that when he was persecuted by Jezabel's Cruelties and fled for his Life under fear and infidelity in 1 Kings 19. and 24. he cry'd out It is enough O Lord now take away my Life for I am no better than my Fathers These fits of passion and discontent are sinful and not to be justified and yet how frequent is it for Men thus to vent their discontents when any trouble befalls them that crosseth their Wills presently nothing will serve their turns but Death O that they were Dead I will not say what once I heard spoken to be always true in this case that such Persons by wishing for Death wish for Hell and Damnation with it I dare not say so least I should offend against the Generation of the Righteous But this I will say that there are many wicked prophane wretches who when something doth cross and vex them instantly cry out Oh that they were dead to whom if God should not be more merciful to their Souls than they themselves are to their Bodies but take them at their word and presently strike them dead it may be feared he must also by striking their Bodies into the Grave smite their Souls into Hell they allowing themselves no space and time for their Repentance O that such Persons would seriously consider what they do when they wish such an End may befall them Again to wish for Death absolutely is sinful though we are under pains that are more painful than Death it self Nature puts us upon desiring to live and Grace should put us upon desiring to live because God wills it though we be under sore afflictions for as it is our Holiness to do the will of God while we live so it is our Holiness to be content to live while we suffer according to his will To desire Death because our lives are full of troubles is a sinful wish or desire for God may and often hath as much use of our lives when we are in an afflicted condition as when we are in a prosperous condition a sickly Body yea a sick Bed may bring as much Glory to God as a healthful Constitution and we may do as much service when we are bound in Chains and in a Prison as when we enjoy the greatest Freedom and Liberty Passive Obedience brings as much Honour to God as Active doth When you lie under any troubles therefore wish not for Death beg of God rather that he would remove those Evils from you than remove you from those Evils God hath a thousand ways to let us out of trouble though he doth not open the door of the Grave to let us in thither Pray that your Afflictions may be sanctified and that your Spirits may be raised up above your troubles while you live and seek not nor desire freedom from them by Death For a Christian to bear a burden well is more desireable than to be delivered from it especially if while we are suffering our selves we are doing good unto others A Christian should be contented yea he should rejoice in suffering Evils that lie upon when he doth good thereby unto others He that is of a gracious publick Spirit will triumph over Personal Troubles and Afflictions so long as he sees God making use of him as
discouragements unto our endeavours and we are apt to cry out with Solomon's Sluggard There is a Lion in the way and therefore it is that the hands of the Sloathful refuse to labour And so it is with us in Spirituals difficulties soon discourage and hinder our endeavours whereas they should be a whet to Industry The Kingdom of Heaven says our Lord suffers violence and the violent take it by force But alas in many Christians the fears of death are so strong that they keep them in Bondage all their Days But now were Death removed out of our way could Christians be cloathed upon with their House which is from Heaven without laying down the earthly Tabernacles of their Bodies in the Grave were there no such thing as dying to make way for our Entrance into Heaven how delightful would the Thoughts of Heaven be to us we should not then run with Patience but with Chearfulness the Race that is set before us we should no longer need Motives to quicken us in our way to Heaven but so earnest and vehement would our desires and longings be after it that nothing could stop the eager pursuits of our Souls for the obtaining of it How delightfully should we pray Lord let thy Kingdom of Glory come Our Meditations thereof would so draw forth our Affections and ravish our Souls in the delightful fore-thoughts of it that we should think nothing hard to part with for the attaining of it But that now which abates our Desires after Heaven must needs hinder our diligent Endeavours in the use of Means for the obtaining of it Now as Death is an Enemy so it is the last Enemy but yet withal it is an Enemy that shall be destroyed so the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15. and 16. Now the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death But how or by whom is this last Enemy Death destroyed and overcome I answer Not by our selves for Death seems rather to have destroyed us than we it when it brings the Body down into the Grave and turns it into Corruption and Rottenness But this last Enemy is destroyed by our victorious Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ the Captain of our Salvation he it is who by the Merit of his Death hath overcome Death and of a deadly Enemy hath made it become a most comfortable Friend to all that believe in him Now for this we must know Christ hath not delivered us from our Obligation unto Death for since the Fall of Man Death is become necessary for a Christian being the only way appointed by God for our Entrance into Heaven and therefore we see that Believers die as well as Vnbelievers Neither hath Christ delivered us from Sickness and Distempers the usual Fore-runners of Death David complains Psal 38. My Loins are filled with a loathsome Disease there is no soundness in me because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my Sin But now in these Respects Christ hath overcome Death for Believers First He hath taken away the Sting of Death This Captain of our Salvation upon the Cross as in an open Field and pitch'd Battel did spoil Principalities and Powers Col. 2.15 Now one of these Powers armed against us was Death and the Weapo◠with which Death fights against us is Sin Our 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ now took away our Sins upon the Cross and so spoil'd Death of his Power For having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them on his Cross Death once struck the Lord of Life and Glory with its Sting and by striking him lost its Sting in his blessed Side so that ever since all that are in Christ do or may insult over Death as being conquer'd and overcome for them so speaks the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. and 55 57. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin says he and the Strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Christ delivers Believers from the fears of Death Heb. 2.14 15. Forasmuch then as the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil But is this all No the Apostle adds another end and that is that he might deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life-time subject unto Bondage Now that which makes an Enemy to be feared is his Strength his deadly Weapons Christ now by dying on the Cross took away the Weapons of Death its Sting whereby it hath Power to hurt and that is Sin Now Death being disarmed Christians are free'd from the Fears of it It is true Men may sometimes fear a naked Enemy but there is no real Cause for it seeing he cannot hurt them And so the People of God sometimes may exceed in their Fears of Death but they have no just Cause neither would they be so afraid of Death if they were strong in the Faith of Jesus Christ who hath disarmed Death for them Thirdly Christ delivers his People from the Curse of Death In it self Death is a Curse the Punishment of Man's Sin the Expression of God's Wrath the Execution of the Law and the dreadful Sentence pronounced against Man upon his Apostacy from God In the day thou eatest thereof says God thou shalt die the Death But all that die under the stroke of Death do not die under the Curse of it all deserve it indeed but to some the Nature of it is changed thorough him who is the Resurrection and the Life they that believe shall never die A Voice from Heaven hath pronounced them blessed that die in the Lord Rev. 14.13 The Nature of Death is changed to them that are in Christ such do but sleep To die to a Saint is no more than to undress and go to Bed Let what will become of Dives our Friend Lazarus sleepeth John 11.12 The Just by Death enter into Peace they rest in their Beds and are taken from the Evil to come Death to the wicked is like a Malefactor's putting off his Cloths that he may be scourged according to Law So Death uncloathes the wicked that by the Wrath of God they may be tormented for ever But now to the godly Man Death is but like a Child's putting off an Old Garment that he may put on a new one So Death uncloathes the Godly of the Rags of their Mortality that they may be cloathed with an incorruptible Garment that shall never fade or change but keep its beautiful Lustre and Glory for ever Fourthly Christ delivers his People from the Dominion of Death It is true when Death hath laid their Bodies down in the Grave in seems to have Dominion over them but it is but for a while for our Lord Jesus hath taken away this seeming Dominion of
fearest God thou needst not be so foolishly fond of this Life for what is there in it that should make thee coat upon it Is it not a Life full of cares and troubles Have not thy Sins made it so The Wise Man tells us that all that is in this Life that can be outwardly enjoyed is nothing but Vanity and vexation of Spirit Hast thou not by experience found it so Thou shouldst therefore with Holy Job bless God not only for giving of Life but for taking of it away also God gave it thee for a time and but for a short time too and if thou wert so wise as thou shouldst be thou oughtest to count it thy felicity that it is so short for it is a Life of sorrow and who will complain because his sorrows are so short It may be thou hast met with some pleasures here that gratifie thy sense but are they comparable to what thy Soul hath tasted in the enjoyment of God unto which God by Death is calling thee to the enjoyment of with himself in Heaven to all Eternity Darest thou say that Earth is like Heaven Is Christ in those dark and dim discoveries he makes of himself in the Gospel like to Christ in the full and open manifestations of himself in all his Glory in Heaven Canst thou say thy Soul is so like him in Wisdom Holiness Joy and Peace here as it will be above when it comes to be enrolled among the Spirits of just Men made perfect If thou wilt be in love with Life be in love with Eternal Life and henceforth fear not to die at God's call for the obedience that thou owest unto God binds thee and the gain that Death will bring should both invite and encourage thee Though Death ends this Life it begins another and though thou may'st rot under ground in one part of thee yet it is in thy vilest part thy Body and even that will spring up and flourish again shortly And in the mean time thy Soul thy better part shall live a more noble and excellent life Think well therefore of Death for as it ends thy Life so it ends thy Sin and thy sufferings also In these particular Instances O Christian thou feest how little cause there is for thee to be afraid of Death I shall now in the next place endeavour to discover how unfit and uncomely a thing it is for Christians to fear Death and for this consider First A Christians fearing of Death brings a reproach upon Religion as if there were not that in Christianity that could lift up a Soul above the fears of Death For a Papist that professeth no Man can in an ordinary way be assured that he shall go to Heaven when he dies to tremble at the thoughts of Death this is no great matter it is but to act according to what his Religion teacheth him but for one that professeth the knowledge and assurance of Salvation and a future happy State to stand amazed at death the way and passage through which God hath appointed we must enter into Heaven where this happiness is to be enjoyed shews if not a want of Faith yet at least a great weakness of Faith and gives occasion to those that speak evil of the good ways of God to reflect disgracefully upon Religion Secondly To live in fear of Death is that State of Bondage and Slavery which wicked Men are under and from which Jesus Christ came to deliver his People And therefore for a Believer to live dejectedly under the fears of Death is a very uncomely thing Indeed the fears of wicked Men are so great that they cannot think of Death without horrour and when they come to die they are compelled to it for of all things in the World they dread Death most and could they but be assured that they shall live here always they would desire no other Heaven Fearfulness and amazedness under the apprehensions of Death is the proper State of wicked Men that Slavery and Bondage unto which they are always subject for upon good grounds they can have no hopes in Death but are full of fearful expectations of Wrath and fiery Indignation that shall Torment them for ever But now for true Believers God hath made your state and condition very unlike unto theirs as to the issues of Death because you have good hopes of Eternal Life even in Death so says the Wise Man Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his Death Now since there is so great an unlikeness between you and them both in Death and after Death let there not be a likeness between you and them as to your fears of Death let a Faelix tremble at the hearing of Death and Judgment but let not the Godly hang down their Heads but lift them up with joy and rejoicing because the day of their Redemption draweth nigh Thirdly Consider this to be afraid of Death is to fear that which is but the Shadow and semblance of Death For to speak strictly a state of Sin and separation of the Soul from God for Sin this is Death properly but the separation of the Soul from the Body only is but the Shadow of Death But O how seldom is it to see Men trembling because of a spiritual Death because they are dead in trespasses and sins though this be infinitely more dreadful than any temporal Death can be And therefore to shew how full of Woe and Misery this Death is it is called Damnation which is the extremity of all Misery This is that now to which this spiritual Death tends and in which it will terminate Hence therefore Wicked Men are said to be condemned already and the wrath of God abides upon them and that they shall have their Portion in that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone which is the second Death This shall as certainly be their Portion as if they were there already Therefore O Christian if thou wilt fear Death fear not that which is the shadow and the appearance of it but fear that which is Death indeed fear Sin that is the cause both of the first and of the second Death also for if thou art spiritually alive and raised from the Death of Sin as all true Believers are how uncomely a thing is it for thee to fear the Shadow the appearance of an evil which cannot hurt thee when thou art delivered from the evil it self Fourthly Consider for a Christian to fear that which is both common and certain is an uncomely and unsuitable thing Afflictions in general are the common lot of all God's People in this World but Death is that which is more common because it is that which befals all both good and bad from other outward Afflictions there is a possibility that some may be free or if they befal them they may be delivered from under them again but no Man can escape Death What Man is he that liveth saith the Psalmist and shall not see Death shall he
deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave No he cannot Now God hath in Mercy made that to be most common which is most grievous and afflictive that he might thereby abate the terrour of it to us and for any one to strive against that which no Man can avoid or shun argues that Man to be guilty of great folly It is therefore very unbecoming thee O Christian to fear Death which is the common way of all Flesh yea the way by which all the People of God enter into Heaven and Happiness But to proceed a little farther in this subject I shall in the next place endeavour to discover that the fears of Death may not only be overcome for a time but that it is possible for a Christian to live without them or above them which though it be a high attainment yet is it that to which Grace may reach and that which many of the People of God do daily experience the comfort of Now by a Christians living without the fear of Death I mean a holy quiet ation and satisfaction of Soul as to his future State of Happiness founded upon the knowledge of his Interest in Christ who hath overcome Death for all Believers whereby the thoughts of it approach doth neither distract nor disquiet his Mind so as to bereave him of that Peace and Tranquility of Soul that he enjoys is his Hopes and Expectations of Heaven and Glory but that he can with a holy Contentation and Satisfaction resign up his Soul unto God whensoever he calls for it Now that such a State as this is attainable I need say no more than that this was one of the ends for which Christ died that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them who by reason of the fear of Death were all their life-times subject unto Bondage So that we being delivered out of the hands of all our spiritual Enemies whereof Death is one we might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our lives In this Heavenly frame was Holy David when he said though he walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death he would fear no evil And so was St. Paul when he tells us he was perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come should be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No wonder therefore that he could say I desire to be dissolved though it was by Death that he might be with Christ Thus to live above the fears of Death will cost much pains with our own Hearts great diligence and circumspection over our selves in all our thoughts words and ways much watchfulness against all Sin and Temptations for if we be remiss and through carelessness much more through presumption we fall into Sin or neglect Duty we shall soon be brought into Bondage and Slavery by the fears of Death If therefore O Christian thou art one who hast overcome the fears of Death and canst live above them thou may'st then die with courage and leave this World though Death carry thee out of it with joy and rejoicing And that thou may'st be able to do so let me briefly lay down two or three Directions First Have a great care of blorting thy Evidences for Heaven Darkness is an uncomfortable thing And when Christians have been tampering with the works of Darkness I mean some known Sins blotting their Evidences which should discover their Title to Heaven so that they cannot read them what wonder is it while they are thus in the dark that they are afraid to leave Earth though it be to go to Heaven because they know it not for which they may thank themselves God would not only have his People go to Heaven certainly but joyfully and therefore he hath made ample provisions for their Peace and comfort both in Life and Death so that they may not only have good hope but strong consolation through Grace yea may with a holy exultation of Soul cry out Thanks be to God who always causeth us to Triumph in Christ But now if when God hath spoken Peace they will turn again unto folly by venturing upon Sin they hereby create their own sorrows Fear and Consternation of Soul under the apprehensions of Death come from themselves they are their own Tormenters and the hinderers and disturbers of their own Peace and Joy And now if instead of being able to read their Evidences for Heaven which should comfort them they can only make wounding reflections upon their Sins that have blotted those Evidences so that they walk in darkness and the fears of Death continually afflict their Souls they must thank themselves for where there is the apprehensions of guilt lying upon any Soul unpardoned there the thoughts of death will be terrible This made David when in his own apprehensions he was drawing nigh to the Grave beg so importunately of God that he would spare him a little longer that he might recover his strength before he should go away from hence and be seen no more If therefore when you come to die you would leave this World cheerfully you must live in the World conscienciously Exercise your selves in all things to keep Consciences void of offence towards God and towards all Men. Take heed of those black Fiends thy Sins which will fright thy Soul in the dark night of death If thy Conscience be kept clean thy Evidences for Heaven will be clear and the thoughts of death comfortable Many be venturing upon Sin wound their Souls and when death approaches O then they start back and sain would they be spared a little longer If Conscience be raw with the guilt of any one Sin a very light affliction much more death will make a Man kick and fling and very unwilling to bear it but where the Spirit is sound and the guilt of Sin taken off from the Conscience by the love of Christ death it self will be embraced with courage and joy Secondly Deaden your Hearts and Affections to the World and all the comforts thereof The inordinate love of worldly enjoyments and the imperfect love of God makes Men afraid to die He whose Heart and Affections sit loose to the World a small matter will make him willing to leave it but where the Heart is fastned to it in love and affection there will be no parting from it without much reluctancy He that hath laid up his Heart in Heaven can comfortably think of laying down his Body in the Grave Prize therefore Heavenly things above Earthly Place your Happiness in spiritual things count them not only your Food but your Feast yea make them your recreation Were Heaven and Heavenly things the continual solace and delight of our Souls with what joy and rejoicing should we leave Earth to go to Heaven Thirdly Familiarize the Thoughts of Death
unto your Souls by frequent Meditation Dost thou dread this King of Terrours give not way to thy Fears but bring Death often into thy thoughts there is no such hurt in it as thou imaginest nothing that should terrifie a Christian Consider a little what it is that Death can do against thee and what it is Death shall do for thee and then tell me if thou hast any cause to fear it nay tell me what cause thou hast to rejoice in it What is it death can do against thee It may part thee and the World thee and thy Friends yea it will part between thy Soul and thy Body bringing it down into the dust for a time to become a Feast for Worms and this is the worst that Death can do against a Believer But then consider withal what Death shall do for thee why it shall bring thee to a Happiness so great in the enjoyment of God as is unutterable for thee to express and unconceivable for thee to imagine and this not for a time but for ever this death shall do for thee O Christian and surely if thou believest these things with a lively active Faith thou canst not any longer set death at a distance from thee as an Enemy that thou art afraid of but converse with it familiarly as a Friend yea as thy best Friend next unto Jesus Christ Job was thus familiar with death Job 17.14 I have said unto Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worms ye are my Mother and Sister and Brother Accustom thy self therefore O Christian unto the thoughts of death and often think what a happy change thou shalt thereby undergo even an entrance into Heaven and Glory And then though the thoughts of death be full of horrour unto others yet such thoughts unto thee will not only be profitable but exceeding delightful Fourthly If you would die with Courage and Joy then often meditate upon the Death of Christ It is a common Argument and in the Mouths of most Persons that all must die all that have lived before us have gone this way But who is there that takes courage to follow others into the Grave because multitudes are gone thither before them No it is but a poor encouragement to die because other Men like our selves have died before us But when a Christian shall believingly remember and consider that Jesus Christ died and was laid in the Grave not only before us but for us and that he hath there conquered the King of Terrours even upon his own ground this makes a Believer die with a holy courage and descend into the Grave with an undaunted boldness But because Christians so seldom meditate on the Death of Christ therefore are they so afraid of their own death He that hath often conversed with death in the Meditation of the death of Christ as Believers do or should do cannot be afraid to die if he knows what the death of Christ means which he hath meditated upon Savingly to know that Christ is gone before us in death is not only enough to make us cheerful but to make us alive in death He that by Faith contemplates that Christ is gone before him by dying and that in dying he died for him and that he also is alive and lives for him with what abundant joy and consolation may he depart out of this World CHAP. VI. Objections against Death and Vnwillingness to die answered Consolations against the Fear of Death in general Comforts against the Death of Friends and Relations in particular The Saints great Gain by Death propounded as a Motive and Encouragement unto Christians against the Fears of it THough it be the Duty of Christians to die willingly yea with Courage and Joy to commit their Souls into the hands of God yet are there many who cannot overcome their fears of death so as to be willing to die and the Reasons thereof are such as these First say some We could be content to die had we but attained unto sixty or seventy years as some Men do but alas we are young in the prime of our years and in the strength of our Days The Sun of our Life hath not been long up and must it go back and decline yea and set also already We are willing to die hereafter but O that God would spare us a little longer To this I answer these are foolish pityings of thy self For if it please the Great God in whose Hands thy life is thy breath and all thy ways that thou must die young hast thou any Injustice to charge him withal What wrong hath he done thee in cutting short the thread of thy life Thou hast forfeited thy life into his Hands long since and if sparing Mercy hath continued the Forfeiture and given thee a space and time of Repentance though not so long as thou desirest yet more than thou deservest yea and more than he owed thee Thou shouldst therefore rather be thankful for it and with all diligence improve it than repine that it is so short or be unwilling to part with it so soon For though long life may be a Blessing yea is promised so yet if thou art a Believer a short life shall be no Curse unto thee To a pardoned Soul all things are Blessings yea Death it self for the bitterness of it is taken away Righteous Abel though young dies and dies by Murder whilst wicked Cain the Murderer of him lives some hundreds of years after When God who is the great Lord of Time and measures out to every one what number of days they shall live hath appointed unto thee the day and hour of thy departure though the days of thy life be but as a span long compared with the lives of others yet is it in vain to contend with God thou may'st trouble thy self and make thy life uncomfortable but thou can'st not alter God's Decrees for he is of one Mind as Job speaks and who can turn him That is none can and therefore chearfully yield up thy self unto his Will But possibly thou wilt say I would live longer that I might serve and honour God more If thou art sincere in what thou sayest it is well but if God will take the Will for the Deed and accept of what thou hast done already and reward thee with the eternal Enjoyment of himself immediately hast thou any Cause to complain What if thou gettest to Heaven twenty or thirty years before thy Father or Brother or many other of thy Acquaintance that are travelling with their Faces Heaven-ward and have been so many years already Will it grieve thee that thou art got to Heaven too soon where if thou art a Christian thou always hast a desire to be I assure thee thy Friends and Relations though they may not envy thy Happiness yet if they had but once tasted the Sweetness thereof their longings after it would be so great that they would continually cry out Oh Time hasten and flee away that
Therefore says God when thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee they shall not overflow thee and when thou walkest thorough the Fire thou shalt not be burnt Esai 43.2 Take Courage therefore O Christian be not afraid of any Affliction be not afrighted no not at the sight of death it self though thou see'st it is a narrow passage a way beset with Briars and Thorns though it be a strait Gate for Flesh and Blood to pass through yet fear not for it is the Gate of Heaven the way that leads unto Glory Be not afraid therefore to walk in the valley of the shadow of death though love of Friends and strength of Body fail thee yet fear not for God will be with thee his Rod and his Staff will support and comfort thee he will be your God and your Guide not only unto death but for ever and ever for he will never never never leave his People nor forsake them till he hath brought them to the eternal enjoyment of himself in Glory Secondly Wouldst thou O Christian be comforted and supported against death then much and often meditate upon the Lord Jesus Christ Now though every thing in Christ and every thing done by Christ be exceeding sweet and precious for unto them that believe he is precious Christ and whole Christ is precious for there is nothing in him or done by him that we can tell how to want But yet I shall instance in some few things more particularly which may be of great Use unto a Christian to meditate upon for his support against the hour of Death As First Meditate often upon the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Now though in general these were so great that they exceed all our Expressions and Apprehensions yet how willingly and patiently did he undergo them all both from God and Man in his Body and in his Soul His Body was racked and tortured in all the parts of it but especially in those parts wherein the sense is most quick and therefore his Pain and Anguish was most afflicting They digged or pierced my hands and my feet saith the Psalmist of him Psal 22.16 He suffered in his Soul also for he conflicted with the wrath of an angry God which was impress'd upon him in such a dreadful manner that had he not had the strength of the Deity to support him it had certainly overwhelm'd him and ground him to Powder For it was pure Wrath without the least mixture of sparing Mercy the great God bated him nothing That 's a sweet Scripture Rom. 8.32 God spared not his own Son And it was well for us that he did not for had he spared him he had not spared us His Death was not common and ordinary but a Death by Crucifixion he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross which was a violent death considered in it self and therefore he is said to be cut off out of the Land of the Living though in respect of himself it was voluntary and therefore he tells us I lay down my Life of my self John 10.18 And indeed Christ must either die a voluntary Death or none at all partly because there was no Sin in him to deserve Death and partly because otherwise his death had not been a Sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory unto God for us for that which died of it self was never offered in Sacrifice but that which was slain in its full force and strength This death of Christ was also full of exquisite Pain and Torture and therefore when he was going to encounter with it he screws up his Request to his Father to the highest pitch Matth 26.39 Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me It was also a death full of shame than which nothing is more cutting to an ingenious noble Spirit And truly in this respect the Thieves that suffered with him fared better than he for they had no Taunts Reproaches and Sarcasms cast upon them they only encountered with Pain But Christ had Pain and Shame also for the Souldiers the Jews the Thieves all scoffed and flouted at him And therefore says the Apostle he not only endured the Cross but he despised the shame Heb. 12.2 But this is not all for the death of Christ was a cursed death Pain was bad and Shame was worse but the Curse is worst of all for he that is hanged on a Tree is accursed of God and therefore Christ that he might shew the greatness of his Love to his People redeemed them from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for them Gal. 3.13 Now though Christ knew that all these Sufferings and this death should befal him yet so great was his Love to Believers that he underwent all willingly and patiently What godly Man on Earth what Saint or Angel in Heaven can read or hear those Words of his in Luke 12.50 without Astonishment where speaking of his death and sufferings he saith he had a Baptism to be baptized withal which was a Baptism of Blood And how am I straitned till it be accomplished Indeed it is said when the time of his sufferings drew near that he began to be sorrowful that he was sore amazed and very heavy My Soul says he is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Not that Christ repented of his Undertaking when he was to suffer no for when the time of his suffering was come the Holy History tells us he not only went to a place that Judas who betrayed him knew of that so he might be the more readily taken but when his Enemies came thither to apprehend him he went forth to meet them and asked them Whom seek ye And when they told him Jesus of Nazareth he tells them I am he upon which they fell to the ground and as if they were more afraid to apprehend and bring him to his sufferings than he was to suffer he speaks to them again and by his Words Oh how willingly blessed Jesus didst thou go to suffer he doth as it were strengthen and encourage them to go on in their work of laying hold of him he said therefore unto them a second time Whom seek ye They said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered them I have told you that I am he if therefore you seek me behold here I am He was a Volunteer in his dying and offering up of himself His death was a Free-will Offering and this made him to become a Sacrifice Psal 40.7 8. Then said I loe I come In the Volume of thy Book it is written of me I delight to do thy Will O God yea thy Law is within my heart As if he had said my very heart is ready for the shedding of my heart-blood Therefore says he I lay down my life no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up John 10.17 18. As if he had said if
it were not my pleasure to part with it all that Men or Devils could do they were not able to wrest it out of my hands Now though Christ by his death and sufferings accomplished several ends as the satisfaction of the Justice of God the procuring Pardon and Remission of Sin and the obtaining Heaven yet this also was one end of his death and a very comfortable one too and that is the overcoming of death for Believers Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory hath by his death spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross By his death he hath not only destroyed death but him also that had the power of death that is the Devil and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lives-time subject unto that bondage The Blood of Jesus Christ hath slain death's Enmity not that death is so destroyed that Believers shall not die but it is unstung It still wears its Dart by which it strikes all Men but it hath lost its sting by which it hurts Is death therefore riding upon its pale Horse and making haste towards thee O Believer fear it not be not dismayed at it though there may be much of pain in it yet there is nothing of the Curse in it it is as a Serpent without a sting thou mayest take it into thy hand yea into thy bosom without danger Death poured out all its Poison upon Christ when he was made a Curse it fastned yea it lost its sting in his blessed Side And who would fear an Enemy that is conquered Death to a Believer is not only an innocent harmless thing but it is one of his best Friends death is yours says the Apostle speaking to Believers It is theirs as a special Privilege When Christ was upon the Cross there was a Contention between him and death and as it was prophesied of him he was then the plague of death and the destruction of the Grave for he swallowed them up in Victory So that now death drives but a poor Trade among Believers all that it can do is but to destroy the Body and to afright some that are weak in the Faith but it cannot hurt them Victory over death is as sure to them as if they had already overcome and therefore says the Apostle speaking of Death and the Grave Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Secondly Meditate upon the Resurrection of Christ This is a great Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion that upon which the Faith the Hope and Happiness of a Christian for Eternity is built for as Christ died for our Sins so he arose again for our Justification And if Christ had not risen the Faith and Hope of a Christian is but vain If Christ be not risen a Christian shall not rise and if there be no Resurrection there is no Life everlasting If Christians have hope only in this Life they are of all Men most miserable But blessed be God Christ is risen and therefore the Faith and Hope of a Christian stands firm for it is built upon the Rock of Ages against which as the Gates of Death did not so the Gates of Hell shall not prevail That Christ is risen the Scripture is clear an Angel declares it Matth. 28.6 He is not here he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay Holy Men who were Eye-witnesses hereof give their Testimony to this Truth when our Lord shewed himself alive to them by the space of Forty Days in nine several Apparitions and once was he seen of five hundred Brethren together 1 Cor. 15.6 And says the Apostle Acts 2.24 He was raised from the dead the pains or bands of death being loosed because it was not possible he should be holden of them It was possible Death should seize upon him and so it did he willingly yielding himself up unto it because as our Surety he owed a death by way of satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins which he had taken upon him and accordingly he paid it otherwise Death could not have taken hold of him But though death did take hold of him yet could it not keep it though it had possession of him in the Grave yet it could not keep him there no that was impossible partly because he is life essentially life so himself tells us I am the Resurrection and the Life Now it is not possible for death to hold life it self longer under its power than he who is life it self pleaseth And then partly it was not possible Christ should be held under the power of death in â—espect of us for having undertaken the great work of restoring us unto life if his life had been subdued by death if he had been held down a Prisoner under the power of death and the grave we had been lost and undone for ever for as the Apostle argues if Christ be not risen then our Faith is vain we are yet in our sins But Christ being to carry on the work of our Redemption to perfection though he submitted himself to die yet was it impossible Death should have Dominion over him for ever Christ therefore is risen and he is risen as a publick Person in the behalf of all Believers who are therefore called the Children of the Resurrection and said to be risen with him Eph. 2.6 Christ's Resurrection is not only the Cause of a Believer's Resurrection but the security of his happy Resurrection therefore he is said to be the first fruits of them that sleep Now as the first fruits did both assure and sanctifie the whole Harvest so doth Christ do for Believers by his Resurrection he assures them of their Resurrection and sanctifies it also that it shall be a blessed Resurrection even unto an Eternity of Happiness And therefore it is with respect to Believers that Christ is called the First-born or the first begotten from the dead who are in their time and order to be born from the dead the Resurrection giving New Birth or Being unto those bodies which while they were in the Grave seemed to have none For as certainly as the whole Harvest follows the first Fruits so doth the general Resurrection of Believers at the last day follow the Resurrection of Christ For as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. and 12. If Christ be risen from the dead how can it be but that there must be a Resurrection from the dead If we acknowledge the Body of Christ is risen we cannot rationally deny the Resurrection of our own bodies because Christ's Resurrection is not only the Exemplar of our Resurrection but the Cause of it for because Christ and Believers are but one Mystical Body he the Head they the Members and the Head being risen the Members shall not always lie rotting in the Grave but shall in due time arise also For the Spirit of Life that is in Christ
of his Son much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his Life For certainly he is able to save unto the utmost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Christ hath not lost his Love and Affection to his People by his Advancement Harbour not therefore O Believing Soul any suspicious thoughts in thy Heart concerning him as if by his Exaltation into Heaven he were now become forgetful of any of his Members here below groaning under Sin or Misery for though the days of his Passion are ended yet so are not the days of his Compassion He retains the same Temper and Disposition of Soul now he is in Glory his Heart is not changed though his Condition be but he still bears the same Respect to his People now that he did when he was on Earth for indeed he there Lives and Acts upon the account of Believers so says the Apostle He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Doth God O Believing Soul by Diseases and Distempers upon thy outward Man cause thy Beauty and Comeliness to consume and wither hath long and tedious Sicknesses almost wasted and destroyed thy Body and by all art thou brought so low that thou despairest of Life Doth Death seem to be written upon all thy helps to Life And do all the means that are used for thy Recovery seem rather to further thy Dissolution than any way to hinder it Why yet fear not Death but Remember as God hath Glorified and highly Exalted Jesus Christ whose Form and Visage as the Prophet speaks was marr'd more than any Mans so he will Exalt thee also not to an Equality of Glory with Christ for in Heaven he shall be the Light and the Glory of it but yet there shall be some likeness and Conformity in all the Members of Christ unto him who is their Head Fear not therefore O Christian the worst that Death or the Grave can do unto thee for assure thy self as because he lives Believers shall live also so where he lives there Believers shall live also Thirdly Another Consideration for the removal of the fear of Death is frequent Meditation of the Happiness of the Soul in Death and of the Resurrection of the Body after Death As for the Happiness of the Souls of Believers in death it is exceeding great the Body at present suffers loss for though once it was an excellent Fabrick the Workmanship of God's hands yet being forsaken by the Soul it is become loathsome and turns to Corruption and rottenness so says the Wise Man The Body returns to the dust from whence it was taken there to consume and moulder away this is the State of Man's Body in Death procured by Sin and inflicted by God But now for the Soul that returns to God that gave it either to partake of Eternal Blessedness or to receive Eternal Punishments Now that the Happiness of Believers in their Souls is great at Death will appear if we consider either the Evils they are freed from or the Blessedness they attain unto as for the Evils that accompany our present State in this Life Death frees Believers from them all at once during this Mortal Life indeed Sufferings are annexed to the State of a Christian as a necessary Appendix to his very Being for such is our condition while we are here that Afflictions are almost become as needful for the Soul as Food and Raiment is for the Body therefore saith the Apostle if need be you are in heaviness through manifold Tribulations 1 Pet. 1.6 God sees it needful that Afflictions should be and in his Wisdom and Mercy he proportions the Afflictions of his People to their necessities This Life is a Life of Suffering unto the People of God it is their appointed Path and Way through which they must walk to Heaven therefore says the Apostle We must through many Tribulations enter into the Kingdom of God It is appointed for us so to do And indeed as Job speaks Man is born to trouble as the sparks flyupward he comes into the World crying and all the rest of his time between the Cradle and the Grave he is not much Happier for his Life is made up of Sin and Suffering the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Suffering there is a kind of a continual Chaining or Linking together of one Misery or Affliction to another a mixture of Pain and Sorrow or Succession of Evils and Troubles that runs through all his days as one Wave falls upon the neck of another so one Evil is no sooner gone but another comes in its room One depth as the Psalmist speaks calls upon another Floods and Storms of Miseries and Afflictions daily pass over our heads And if Troubles and Afflictions come not of themselves nor are caused by others we can Mint and Coin them our selves by our Sins Our Lord tells us That sufficient to the day that is to every day are the Evils and Troubles thereof but as if they were not enough we can create Troubles to our selves before hand and Anticipate in our Fancies and Apprehensions for our greater Vexation and Trouble Evils that are to come though we know not whether we our selves shall live till they come And herein we are more cruel to our selves than the Devil is to himself for that Evil Spirit cares not to be Tormented before his time whereas we antidate and bring Evils that are at a distance from us nearer to us by unquiet Apprehensions and sinful distracting Vexations entertained in our minds and so the fears of Miseries to come make us far more miserable than when those miseries are come upon us and by the Apprehension of an imaginary Evil we make it become a real Affliction and an unfeigned Torment to us in our resentment of it Thus Sin and Sorrow Afflictions and Temptations divide our days and time while we are here until Death comes for a Believers relief and then there shall be an end put to all his Sorrows and Sufferings because there shall be an end of Sinning After Death there shall be no Cries nor Tears under any Miseries or Afflictions no fears of future Evils nor no grief for past sins the causes of them no Poverty or Distress shall come near that Holy place the Habitation of Holy Souls all the Inhabitants there are become Kings possessed of Riches and Glory without value Fear not therefore O dying Believer whose Soul by Death is getting free from thy Body for thou art but removing from Earth to Heaven where thou shalt instantly be with thy dear Lord and Saviour thou art but going to thy God and Father and the Father of Spirits to visit those Mansions of Glory that are there prepared for thee Chearfully therefore take thy leave of thy Body and let it know that thou art taking thy flight to Heaven during the time that it shall sleep in the dust of the Grave until the morning of the
speaks of Death as that which he was daily familiar with being in Deaths often frequently thinking thereof for said he I die daily Thoughts of Death was that which he accustomed himself unto and that was one Cause why he was so willing to embrace it And thus it should be with all of us were our hearts rightly affected and we so familiarly acquainted with death as we ought Those of us who have the most lively Faith would not only not be afraid of death but we should even court it as that which is better than life But I would not here discourage any weak Believer for I dare not say that they are no true Believers who are not come up to this frame of Soul Though it is true Grace is the same in all Believers one Believer hath the same that another Believer hath yet all that are Believers do not attain to the same degrees of Grace There are some and it is their sin and ought to be their Humiliation that Death and they are little acquainted they seldom descend into the Grave by frequent Meditations of their Mortality they look not into the Pit out of which at first they were taken and into which they are shortly to return now their comfort in the thoughts of death is little if any at all because death and they are such Strangers to one another These may be true Believers but they are weak and faulty But now others there are who are so advanced in Grace above their Brethren that by a constant Familiarity with death are so composed in their Spirits that they fear it not nay they rejoice in the thoughts of it not because they think they shall not taste of death for they know that death will overtake them as well as others they are sensible that the time of their departure draws nearer and nearer daily These things they believe but they do not afflict themselves therewith so well are they acquainted with death both in the Nature and in the Effects of it And were they to die presently this would not much trouble them for they know the bitterness of death is past though death it self be not the Gall and the Wormwood is taken out Christ hath been there before them and therefore the sting of death which is sin is gone the dangers yea and the difficulties also in dying are removed out of the way This they believe and therefore they are not afraid though by death they descend through the Grave into Heaven for their Jesus their Saviour is there and they know that till they die where he is they cannot be wherefore they say though we die nay therefore will we die that we may see him Wouldst thou therefore O weak Believer attain unto this sweet frame of Spirit accustom thy self then to a holy familiarity with death conceive of it under the fairest and easiest Notions this is that the Spirit of God in Scripture delights in when it speaks of death with respect to the People of God it always makes use of the most comfortable Expressions to represent it to them by So sweetly is death enamell'd and so richly is it cloathed in the holy Language that it seems to have a kind of Lustre and Beauty upon it to draw the Hearts and Affections of Believers to be desirous of it Look a little therefore O Believer into the Sacred Oracles and see how the Spirit of God teacheth us to cloath Death with delightful Expressions sometimes it is called an undressing or uncloathing And what Man that hath worn a Suit of Cloaths till it is become filthy and nasty would not be glad to put off his old filthy Garments that he might put on Change of Raiment And why should not a Christian be willing to lay down the Earthly House of his Tabernacle though it be in the Dust of the Grave that he may be cloathed upon with his House which is from Heaven Sometimes Death is compared to Rest they shall rest in their Beds says the Prophet and Job speaking of the state of Man in death tells us there the weary are at rest Now when a Man hath wrought hard and taken great pains and labour all the Day how desirous is he to go to Bed and take his Rest And is not Death the same to thee O Christian Doth not the Spirit of God call it so Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours And surely there is no rest like to that rest that a Christian obtains after his spiritual labours and conflicts with Sin Satan the World and his own evil Heart when the Soul is set free from the Body and takes its flight at once from all these into the Bosom of God that place of Rest and Happiness which remains for the People of God As there is no Yoke like unto the Yoke of Christ when a Christian suffers for him for it is a Yoke lined with Love My Yoke says he is easie and my Burthen is light So there is no Rest and Happiness like that which is with Christ for the same Happiness that he enjoys his Children and Servants enjoy also Sometimes death is called a Sleep so says our Lord our Friend Lazarus sleepeth it is spoken of his death now who of us when the day is spent and the night hath overtaken us is afraid to go to bed and sleep And why then should a Christian when his Days are finished and the Night of Sickness is come upon him be afraid to fall asleep though he sleep the sleep of Death By such Considerations as these and the like that the Scripture holds forth to us Christians should endeavour to allay the bitterness beautifie the deformity blunt the edge and take out the sting of death that all hard thoughts of it might be buried and instead thereof there might grow up a sweet Familiarity and Acquaintance between them and death Oh how would this facilitate the work of dying and cause holy Souls to exult with joy and rejoicing when death is approaching towards them And here I cannot but make a little Digression to reason the Case with some weak Believers whose unwillingness to die is very great because their fears of death are so many But why should the fears of Death so amaze and terrifie thee O weak Believer Hast thou not the same Grace in thee with others Hast thou not the same Faith the same Hope the same Love acting and working in thee Dost thou not serve the same Lord Hast thou not the same God for thy Father the same Jesus for thy Saviour the same Spirit of Consolation for thy Comforter Art thou not going to the same Heaven nay art thou not going to the same Heaven in the same way that all the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Saints of God in all Ages have gone before thee Death was the Gate through which they all entred into Heaven and why then shouldst thou be so unwilling to go to Heaven
in the same way Oh how unlike to Christians do they shew themselves who are so loath to die that they will not come but must be dragg'd to the Grave yea to the very thoughts of Death Oh how unsuitable is this Temper to those who desire that God's Wills may be done who profess themselves to be Strangers and Pilgrims here upon Earth and to look upon Heaven as their Country and their Fathers House The life of a Christian should be a life of Faith now the Excellency of the Life of Faith in a Believer with relation unto Death lies in this that it makes him not only submissive but chearfully to come to that to which another must be dragged by force I mean Death and the Grave To a Believer when his Faith is on the wing Life as St. Paul says of his is not dear and Death as he speaks of his is desired It was as hard to make St. Paul patient when he thought of living as to make another patient when he thinks of dying a most sweet and Blessed Frame of Spirit but where is it to be found now how rarely is it be to seen the most of Men shall I say nay the most of Professors and would to God there were not just cause to complain and say whom we hope are real Christians their Hearts and Affections are so much set upon the World even as if their Portion were not in Heaven but they themselves were among the Number of those whose Names are written in the Earth The Lord humble us that so much of this Evil frame of Spirit is to be seen in the best of God's Children as appears by their backwardness and unwillingness to die O Christians if Jesus Christ had gone as unwillingly to Suffer and to Die for us as we go to Pray to him and to hear from him not to say as unwillingly as we go to die that we may enjoy him what had become of our Salvation but blessed be God he did not And surely Christians if it was Christs desire to die for us as it was it should then be our longing to live with him though it be by Dying Oh what a strange unseemly and unbecoming thing is it for a Christian to hear his Saviour crying out I have a Baptism to be baptized withal though it was the Baptism of his bloody Death and Sufferings and oh how am I straitned till it be accomplished And that a Christian reflecting upon the thoughts of his own Death should say I have a Baptism to be baptized withal though not a Baptism of a bloody Death by the hands of Violence but the Baptism of an easie quiet and peaceable Death and how am I straitned and full of fears lest it should be accomplished Certainly Christians a willingness in Christ to die for us that we might live by him should cause in us a willingness to die that we might live with him Would to God O Christian Reader that what hath been said might be a means to work in my self and thee not only a readiness and fitness for Death though that is very good and that in which the safety of a Christian lies and happy are they that have gone so far for Heaven is sure to them whether they know it or not but Oh that we might go further that Grace might attain to a greater Perfection in us even that we might come to a Holy willingness and desire yea to a Holy-longing of Soul after Death This is that Holy covetousness of Soul that God allows of There are two things wherein a Christian cannot be too insatiable in his desires after them one is that he may Honour God the other is that he may enjoy God that he may honour God as much as he can while he is on Earth and that he may enjoy God as soon as it may be in Heaven this is the most commendable and desirable life and this will end in the most Happy and Comfortable Death Death did I say nay it is Life in Death it is Death swallowed up of Life even in a Life of unconceivable Glory and Happiness in the enjoyment of that God who is all Life all Love all Peace all Joy and all Happiness in the utmost and highest Perfection I am sensible I have made a Digression in this particular but the desire I had Christian Reader to stir up my own Soul and thine also unto a Duty so full of Sweetness and Delight hath put me upon it I now go on to what yet remains Having laid down some Consolations against the fear of Death in general I shall in the next place endeavour to propound some Considerations for the support of Christians under the loss of Friends and Relations in particular which unto many is a sore Trial and hard to be born for it is as common for Christians to exceed in their Grief for their dead Friends and Relations as it is to exceed in their Love and Delight in their living Friends and Relations and in both it is very hard for Christians to keep their Passions and Affections within due bounds The blessed Apostle therefore gives us Excellent Counsel how we should carry our selves under the enjoyment of Relations and outward Comforts whilst we have them and how we should bear up under the loss of them when God takes them away from us we have the Direction for both 1 Cor. 7.29 If we have Relations or Worldly Enjoyments why then saith he Rejoyce in them as if you rejoyced not If you want them or have lost them then says he weep for them as if you wept not and he lays down a very cogent reason for what he says for the time is short and the World is passing away and so are you and all your Relations and Comforts passing away with it As if the Apostle had said if God hath Blessed you with dear and sweet Relations with pleasant and delightful Comforts yet consider it is but a little time that you shall enjoy them they and you shall quickly part again therefore rejoyce in them as if you rejoyced not And if God hath seen good to take away those sweet Pledges of his Love and once the Objects of your Delight and Joy do not much Afflict your selves under the loss of them for it is but a little while that you shall continue here without them the time is short and the World is passing away and ere long it will not be yea you your selves are passing away with it yea before it also weep therefore as if you wept not these things are not your great Concerns your Happiness lies not in the Enjoyment of them nor your Misery in the loss of them but it lies in something higher and of greater Worth and Excellency even in God himself it 's the Enjoyment of him only that can make a Soul happy and the loss of him only that can make it miserable Therefore with a Holy Moderation and Indifferency of Affection carry
Christian why then consider as you have not the Comfort of enjoying of Children so you have not the Care and Trouble of Educating and bringing them up nor the Grief and Vexation of their wicked lives and sometimes more wicked and untimely deaths which is a constant trouble of Soul unto many which made a Holy Man once mournfully complain and say It is better to weep for tendead Children than for one living Child Little do you know what a continual grief of Spirit and a constanr aking of heart some Children are unto their Parents What a heart wounding was it to David when he cries 2 Samuel 16.11 Behold my Son which came out of my Bowels seeketh my life Oh how many Children are there to whom the lives of their Parents are a burthen who instead of Praying to God their Heavenly Father for their Parents not only think and wish it in their Hearts but among their Prophane Companions are not ashamed to speak it with their Tongues as I have heard of some wickedly and impiously desiring that they could invert that Petition of the Lord's Prayer and say of their Earthly Fathers what others say of their Heavenly Father Our Father which art in Heaven longing for the Expiration of the life of those who under God were the Instruments of conveying life unto them Oh to what a heighth of Impiety are such vile wretched Monsters come for they deserve not the Name of Children who cannot be content to stay till God takes away their Parents from them but would themselves bury them as it were alive And let not any such think slightly to pass over their Sin by saying Why we wish them no ill what hurt is it to wish them in Heaven they cannot be in a better place It is true they cannot but this doth not excuse their wickedness for doubtless it is not so much their Parents Happiness in Heaven that they desire as that they might enjoy their Estates here upon Earth But let all such wicked Wretches know that God will be sure to meet with them here or hereafter And if the Blessing of long Life be promised unto those that honour their Parents those then that desire the Death of their Parents shall have cause to fear their lives may be shortned for surely of such wicked I had almost said blood-thirsty Wretches it may be truly said that they shall not live out half their days But this by the way But this is not my Case may some say God hath not denied me Children or Relations but he hath taken many of them from me and such who were very delightful to me and this doth much trouble me But though God hath taken some from you yet hath he not left you more than he hath taken so it is sometimes But yet it frequently happens that if God removes away one mercy from us presently we are so cast down as if all our Enjoyments were gone and we mourn so excessively that we are become so blind that we cannot behold the Mercies God hath left us for the want of what he hath taken from us But why O Christian art thou so unthankful to God and so unkind to thy self as to lose the Comfort of all the other Mercies thou enjoyest because God hath taken away one Mercy that thou wantest Oh vile Ingratitude how many thousands are there as good shall I say nay better than you whose whole Harvest of Comforts in this World is not a handful to the gleaning of those Comforts you still enjoy who in all their Lives never were Owners of such comfortable Enjoyments as you now over-look in your grief and trouble if not in your diseontent But what dost thou mean O Christian by all this What are the Mercies God hath left thee in possession nothing worth The Grave hath swallowed up a Child Death hath snatch'd away a Friend but still thou hast a Husband it may be or a Wife or Children or if God hath stripp'd thee of all these yet he hath left thee a comfortable Estate to live upon with health and strength to use and enjoy it or if this be gone also have you not the Gospel the Ordinances of God and if thou art a Believer thou hast an Interest in Christ and in the Covenant of Grace and a Right and Title to all the Priviledges belonging to that Covenant as Pardon of Sin Peace of Conscience and Hopes of eternal Life And what dost thou faint and sink as if all thy Comforts in this World and all thy Hopes of the World to come were dead and buried in one Grave together Beware of this O ye mourning afflicted ones for the Sin is great and so is the Danger that attends it as might be shew'd at large but I forbear Yet before I leave this Head I shall add one thing more You who have lost the delight of your Eyes and the joy of your hearts as to outward Comferts yet remember God hath far better to bestow upon you even such as transcend the love of Parents or the joy of Children I confess a dear Husband a loving Wife a beloved Child an affectionate Friend these are very great things when they stand by other Comforts and Enjoyments but Oh! what poor little small things nay nothings are they when God shall set himself by them before a gracious Soul And now that God is taking away these earthly Comforts who can tell but that hereby he is making way for himself the King of Glory to come into such a Soul to communicate of himself and his Grace in a more sweet and sensible way and manner than ever he hath done And as one saith the Death of Children Relations and Friends these dark and uncomfortable Providences must cast up and prepare the way of the Lord removing them out of the heart that himself may dwell there alone Fourthly Under your Tears and Sorrows in the loss of Friends and Relations consider What wrong hath God done you by your Afflictions that you so mourn and complain God hath taken from you a dear Relation from whom you expected much Comfort but God had a greater Interest in your Relation than you had for all Souls are his and will you dispute with him Who had most Right to dispose of your Relations God or you Your Relation though never so dear to you was the work of his hands and what may not God do what he will with his own Suppose the Relation thou hast lost was a beloved Child that you nourished and bred up and that with great pains and care God hath paid you sufficiently for it in the Loan of your Child so long and now that your Child is come to full Age and to the Time appointed of the Father may he not take it home unto himself Did you or could you provide better for your Child than God can God gave your Child Life and Breath while it was with you that it might be a Comfort to you and you