and say we must now part farewell for ever We shall never see or enjoy you more we shall never eat drink or converse more buy or sell more all our fleshly and sensual delights are ended our joy our mirth is ceased and all the blessed advantages for our salvation now will terminate Farewel the means of grace and all the golden opportunities for our souls farewell all those faithful Ministers that we have heard farewel all those powerful awakening Sermons that have sounded in our ears farewell all the blessed Sabbaths farewell all the Counsels Examples Reproofs Prayers of our serious and religious friends and Relations we shall never see the face of a Minister more or hear a Sermon more never have the door of grace and life opened to us any more for ever And what remains but a doleful remembrance of those good things that are past and gone and a severe strict account that is yet behind O dreadful change and loss indeed to them that make the world their home that have their heaven on this side heaven and no provision or portion beyond the grave The thoughts of which made a wicked young man very thriving in the world to utter these words If I live I shall be a rich man but this is the plague of it I must die which accordingly came to pass not long after 3 No wonder death is so terrible for after death the judgement Death is a Purservant that summons guilty souls to comend give an account at Gods dreadful bar And what more terrible to the Malesactorthen the sight and presence of an angry Judge While Paul reasoned of judgment Felix trembled and bid him be gone that Doctrine did so gall him that he could not endure it Acts 24. 25. Vse 2. The second use is to exhort perswade and stir you up to put this duty of so great and infinite concernment into practice O Sirs I beseech you to entertain some timely thoughts of your dying hour that death and you may be more familiar The best friend you have in heaven and earth longs to see it done O that therewere such an heart in them Now if you would do any thing in this blessed work viz. to prepare for death and judgement it must be done 1. Suddenly 2. Seriously 3. Effectually 1. It must be done suddenly it s a business of that importance that must not be neglected or delay'd for a moment of time Did you but see that you are upon the confines of eternity and in danger every day of being undone for ever you would quickly come to a resolution To further and encourage you consider 1. Life as dear and precious as it is is very uncertain What a nothing is this life a wind a vapour a dream a breath a bubble How soon may the Thread be cut the Glass run or this bright burning Lamp be dim and out when how or where this short dying life will terminate thou dost not know Whether at home or abroad among they friends or strangers in the field or house at thy table or in thy Bed who can tell 2. Death may come suddenly When the pase horse will set forth whether in the morning or at mid-day or midnight no man can tell thee There is a fatal hour which none can pass Luk. 12. 20. Psal 73. 18. 19. Psal 64. 7. 1 Thes 5. 3. 3. When death comes it strikes sure This King of terrors on the pale horse always rides the circuit and doth execution where-ever he cometh no shield or buckler or armour of proof can defend us no not an army of guard of men or Angels If dreadful death finds a King on his Throne or a beggar on the dunghil it 's all a case The strength of man though a Sampson this great Leviathan Death counts but a straw death doth his work speedily easily witness the last plague I shall adde here 1. Death calls warnings and alarums are very frequent not one of you but have had many a call and knock to mind you of death 2. Deaths commands are peremptory he brings his warrant a long with him Death coms in the name of the terrible Judge takes his Commission out of the court of heaven in order to the accomplishment and execution of an eternal irrevocable decree so that he must doe his work will have his Errand If a man had Mines of Gold and Silver to give it cannot deliver from the arrest of this inexorable Serjeant 3. Deaths Conquest is great I know thou wilt bring me to death and the place appointed for all living What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Thou hast set his bounds that he cannot pass They that have conquer'd Kingdoms and Countries and carried all before them have been subjected by death when death comes and takes a man by the throat though the proudest stoutest strongest in the world he must go willing or unwilling 't is all one to death 'T is observable that of bad men their souls are not resign'd but taken away What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Job 27. 8 20. A tempest stealeth him away in the night This night shall thy soul be required death will not stay a night T is in vain for them that are strong and lively to say to death go to the wrinkled faces to the gray heads to the pile cheeks to the naked backs the dry bons to the dry breasts meddle not with this young man strike not this comely beautiful woman that is in the flower and prime in nature Go to yonder consumptive declining decaying dying old man go to that weak wither'd old woman Let me alone or be excus'd O but death regards it not For this great Conquerour death knocks as often at the young mans door as at the door of the old woman Death arrests and carrieth away the strong the healthy the rich the honourable the learned prisoners to the grave as often as the weak the sickly the poor the base and ignorant 2 You are to do it seriously with thy soul The living will lay it to heart Eccl. 7. 2. The dead cannot there 's no device in the grave Then go about it now in good earnest before old age and death cometh 3. Do it effectually go thorow with the work leave it not undone or but done to halves let every lust be mortified every duty performed every grace exercis'd As good never a whit as never the near Now you have opportunity before you the day of grace is continued Christ is at the door open to him and make all sure for if ever thou be justified pardoned sanctified it must be now The considerations to perswade you are these following Motive 1. Consider there 's an absolute and indispensible necessity for the doing of it a present necessity an infinite and eternal necessity other things may be done this must be done and its more then time this great
should sever the Wheat from the Chaff the Sheep from the Goats the precious from the vile and in so doing we shall be as God's mouth and free from the blood of all men O then let this dreadful and amazing Doctrine of death and judgement be more frequently and effectually preached that souls in peril near run may see their sin and danger and flye to Christ as the only refuge knowing the terrour of God we perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. Mat. 3 7. 2. Converse with the best Christians viz. them that are grave sober solid savoury and sound in faith Such as make Religion their great business who love to speak of God and of the world to come and by whose counsel and example you may be stir'd up and perswaded to repentance and holiness to consider of death and judgement These were Davids excellent ones in whom he did delight and made his companions Psal 16. 3 119. 63. 3. Read the best Books and those that treat of death and judgement but especially the word of God There are the pure Chrystal streams and richest Mines in this field you will find the Pearl Let the word of God dwell in you richly be not ignorant of any part of it but be sure to accquaint thy self with those Scriptures that speak of the shortness of life the certainty of death and judgement heaven and hell Read the Book of Job and the twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes Psal 39. Psal 90. And let me desire you to be often urging upon your hearts some of those Scriptures that set forth the dreadfulness of that place of torment that will be the portion of all that forget God and make no provision for their precious souls Some few I have here set down which I desire you would all consider and apply Vpon the wicked he shall rain fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup Psal 11. 6. We be unto the wicked it shall go ill with them Isa 3. 10. He shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 13 42. Isa 33. 14. 66. 15. Matth. 25. 41. Luk. 16. 25 26. 2 Thes 1. 8 9. Rev. 6. 8 16 17. Direct 3. Make conscience of setting apart a little time every day on purpose to think of your latter end Do it so frequently until death and you become familar ever and anon put thy self into a posture of dying converse with thy winding sheet Coffin Grave let thy great change be so upon thy heart that thou may'st every morning or evening walk a turn or two with death Remember however it be with thee now thou mustere long be gasping and groaning for breath upon thy dying bed and grapple with the King of terrours and in a moment go down to the Grave and shall come up no more Job 10. 21. If thou shouldst affect thy heart with thoughts of thy latter end go down to Golgotha and think upon those dry bones putrified bodies and there revive the memory of your departed Relations Husbands Wives Children Friends Neighbours and look beyond the Chambers of the Grave converse with those miserable departed souls give the prisoners of the pit a visit Meditate on the raging furious flames that dismal darkness smoak and stink of the botomless pit the screeking of the damn'd and roaring of the devils the heart piercing complaints for water to cool their scorching tongues And when thou dost think upon those millions of souls that are hanging up in hell reflect upon thy sels and expect thy turn speedily Suppose every day thy last every meal thy last every journey thy last every duty Sacrament Sermon thy last And when the Lords day cometh think with thy self this will be the last spiritual market that I shall have to buy the spiritual Oyl of grace and to provide for the Bridegrooms coming after this day is ended I may never more hear the Lord Jesus speak to me by the mouths of his faithful Ministers never be invited to come to Christ or to beleive repent part with sin and accept of a pardon more and so demean thy self every day and in every duty as if thou should'st be called to Gods Bar and give up thine account at night In all thy thoughts words and actions say to thy self would I do thus and thus viz. would I eat drink sleep converse buy sell preach hear pray or worse if I certainly knew this day would be my last O let that Motto Memento mori which some carry in their Rings be engraven on your hearts it being the great concernment of our lives This is that which God people and some of the heathen too have been careful to remember King Asia made his Sepulcher in his life time 2 Cron. 16. 14. and some in their Gardens and places of solace and delight as Joseph of Arimathea John 19. 41. And some of the Heathen were wont to walk among the Graves to put them in mind of death some have had their Graves alwayes before their Gates other a dead mans skul presented every day at their Tables and shall we that beleive the doctrine of the other world put off the serious thoughts of death Solomon adviseth us to go to the house of mourning telling us it is better because the living will lay it to heart When you hear the tidings of the death of your Friends relations or Neighbours go thither though not personally yet contemplatively in your minds thoughts go and put your selves in their stead And think thus a living man or woman is become a dead Corps or cold clay the soul is gone to its everlasting habitation but to what place whether to be comforted or tormented who can tell If he were a godly man he is certainly gone to heaven if thou art such a one thy soul will shortly be with him but if an ungodly man he is certainly gone to hell and now among the Devils and if thou art such a one thou shalt erelong be there too 'T is true the dead can have no thoughts of the living but the living saith Solomon know that they must die And you that are young when you hear of the death of a lively lusty young man or alovely beautiful young woman stop reflect and consider may not this be thy case O man woman or child in a very little space I shall say no more by way of direction only desire you to review the particulars before mentioned and you that are Parents and Masters of Families who make conscience of looking to the souls of those committed to your charge may cause your Children and Servants to learn by heart the particulars I here set down 1. That it is most certain an end will be 2. At our latter end all things in this world will be gone for ever 3. All the pleasures of sin will be gone and leave nothing but a sting 4. That only which is eternal wil stand us
if Parents and Children Masters and Servants were resolved to serve the Devil and go to Hell John 8. 44. The neglect of Family-duties is a dreadful and provoking sin and that as a Godly Minister said which will untile the house and causeth God to rain curses upon the Table Read and tremble at the Prophets imprecation Jerem. 10. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the Heathen that know the not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name How many Prayerless husbands do give occasion to their Wives to say to them as Zipporah to her husband Exod. 4. 25. A bloody Husband art thou to me Your Wives Children and Servants will sadly bewail it and cry out living or dying O that ever we were married to such husbands born of such Parents bound to such Masters that had no regard to serve God or care of souls If you are Christians indeed let a constant course of reading in the Word Catechising and Prayer be kept up in your houses for when death hath separated you and your relations it will grieve you to the heart that you did no more to further the good of their precious Souls Acts 13. 2 30. 2. By taking all occasions where-ever you are or come to further the conversion of perishing sinners If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious and are taken out of the Iron Furnace as fire brands out of the burning where is your pity and bowels to souls in perils Can you be contented to be happy Jud. 22. and to go to Heaven alone to endeavour by your prayers counsels and examples to perswade and draw others into Heavens way Wicked men are active for the Devil who like Snails leave their slime behind them where ever they come and are emptying the poyson of sin one into the other and so furthering their damnation What multitudes do you see weltring in their blood and making post-hast to Hell whose desperate and deplorable case should excite your compassion and cause you to speak a word in season for their salvation Your Dear Lord whom you should imitate Went about doing good Act. 10. 38. He improved his opportunity John 4. to convert a notorious sinner though weary and thirsty was not careful of hastning the meat because he preferred the opportunity to bring her soul out of Satans snare and so save her When at your Tables or buying or selling or travelling opportunity may be taken to speak of God and the things of God and to leave some conviction upon the company Thus Philip falling in with the Eunuch whilst he was riding on his way homewards from Jerusalem closed with him and was an instrument to save the soul of him he never saw before Act. 8. And by the heavenly discourse that dropped from the mouth of Mr. Carter Pastour of Brainford in Suffolk a Gentlewoman was converted while she was waiting on him in his Chamber warming his Bed A Word spoken in season through Gods blessing may save a soul and it is our duty to endeavour it Mr. Ignatius Jordan of Exeter was exceeding instrumental this way who would go from house to house to put his neighbours in mind of their Soul-concerns Holy David was not afraid or ashamed to speak of God hefore Kings and to tell what God had done for his soul and said he I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee Psal 5. 13. for he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death Jam. 5. 20. When at any time your neighbous are sick and under the hand of God take that opportunity to visit them to put them in mind of Death and judgment and to make them sensible of the necessity of Faith and repentance without which there can be no hope of Heaven Our Proverb is To strike while the Iron is hot Upon a bed of languishing when death looks men in the face they seem serious and fit to receive the impression of faithful counsel for their souls To which joyn serious prayer for The prayer of faith saith the Apostle shall save the sick and it may save the soul 3. By provoking and encouraging our fellow-Brethren in the way to heaven West must exhort one another daily while it is called to day Heb. 3. 13. And provoke one another unto love and to good works and so much the more as we see the day approaching Heb. 10. 24 25. Wicked men and the Children of the Devil have their go with us and do stir up one another in the way to Hell and shall not Saints edifie and build up one another in the most holy Faith Rom. 14. 19. 15. 2. 1 John 5. 11. Eph. 4. 26. 1 Cor. 14. 26. Jude 20. They that feared the Lord speak often one to another Mal. 3. 16. Christians ought and should spend that time in serious and profitable discourse which others spend and wast in idle and vain discourse Say with the man after Gods own heart Come all that fear God and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul That which you have seen and heard you must declare to one another 1 John 3. 3. Hereby be helping forwards towards Heaven and comforting one another by the comforts wherewith our selves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. 4. When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luke 22. 32. 4. We must do good to others by distributing to their outward wants and necessities and hereby lay up a treasure in Heaven before our treasure in Earth fail and we lose both Mat. 19. 21. This is to honour the Lord with your substance Prov. 3. 9. This is to make friends with the unrighteous Mammon and to provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the Heaven that faileth not Luke 12. 33. This duty must not be forgotten Heb. 13. 16. because 't is a sowing of seed 2 Cor. 9. 6. and it will spring and bring forth a crop or harvest in this or the other world Eccl. 11. 1 6. God will not forget it Heb. 6. 10. The Lord Jesus will certainly reward it Mat. 25. 40. A well done from Christ hereafter will compensate all the service of well doers here Mat. 25. 31. 5. By labouring to keep up constant communiou with God in all holy duties Christians you may lose time in the very service of God if you are not careful therein to converse with him Take heed of a slight spirit in serious performances God looks upon the heart and most there Some serious preparation is necessary before you approach the presence of the high and holy God Joseph shav'd himself before he would come into Pharaohs presence Let your heaven-born souls in every duty with the love-sick Spouse go out to meet your Lord and taken up with nothing else 'T is not the picture of the husband but the presence of the husband that can satiate the truely loving longing spouse It is a blessed sight to see souls working towards
timerous fearful cowardly Apostate and back-slider in heart who for fear of a little outward hardship declin'd his professed principles and turn'd his bach on Christ and his persecuted little Flock may be heard to wish that either he had never known the way of righteousnees or that he had been faithful unto the death Secure and sadly deluded souls consider you are not far from this direful gulf where multitudes of souls lament and weep day and night and certainly if the horrible and amazing cries and yellings of those infernal spirits were sounding in your ears you would not rest quiet in your Beds or Houses There were sad and astonishing out-cries when the world was drown'd when Sodom was burn'd to see the Clouds suddenly drop fire on their heads and houses and men women and children burning together but this was but a flea-bite to that place where is weeping and gnashing of teeth to all Eternity Remember all you that forget God the day of your calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon you make haste Deut. 32. 35. But if you are the servants of the Lord and real Saints Mourners in Sion lift up your heads and hearts for you belong to another place and better Country viz. to mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an inumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel Heb. 12. 22 23 24. And know that you are almost come within the hearing of those heavenly Songs eternal triumphs and Hallelujahs of Saints and glorious Angels in your Fathers house Where you will have fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore Ps 16. 11. 7. Consider How sudden violent or unexpected your end may be Therefore let none think or say they shall dye in their nest or promise your selves a time of preparation by a long life or a lingring sickness Consumption or such like Fearless careless sinners you don't know what a night or what an hour may bring forth the rich man in the Gospel while he dream'd of many dayes was arrested by a killing and dreadful message Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Luke 12. 20. He lives not that knoweth where when or how he shall dye some have gone to bed well and dyed the same night others have dropt dead from their Horses some have died at their Tables whilst the meat hath been in their mouthes others have died in their full strength being wholly at ease and quiet with breasts full of milk and bones moistned with marrow others die in the bitterness of their soul and never eat with pleasure They shall lye down a like in the dust and the worms shall cover them when they are brought to the grave and to remain in the tomb Sirs There are many dreadful instances in the word of God of the sad and sudden approach of this merciless messenger death which stand as so many Sea-marks to give you warning least death should come in an hour you look not for it and find you unprepared The King of the Chaldeans in his greatest jollity and having not a thought of death saw a hand-writing on the wall which was very terrible and the same night was slain While he was feasting and drinking wine and praising the Gods of Gold and Silver in the same hour came forth fingers of a mans hand and wrote over against the Candlestick upon the Plaister of the wall of the Kings Pallace and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote Then the Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another Dan. 5. 3 4 5 6. and 30. Death is the King of terrours and terrour of Kings Good Hezekiah received a sudden summons for death Isa 38. 1. which made him turn his face to the wall pray and weep sore and to chatter like a Crane and mourn like a Dove in the bitterness of his soul because he was to go to the gates of the grave and to the pit where there is no hope The first born in Egypt were slain at midnight which made a great cry Exod. 29. 30. Korah and his wicked company were swallowed up in the midst of their Rebellion Numb 16. 30 31. They went down quickly into the pit and all Israel fled at the cry of them There dyed suddenly of the men of Bethshemesh fifty thousand and threescore and ten because they looked into the Ark 1 Sam. 6. 19. And God many times taketh away the desire of our eyes with a stroak as he did Ezekiels Wife Ezek. 24. 16. Job's children died at their banquet Ishbosheth was smitten and died in his sleep Ananias and Saphira being Husband and Wife died within three or four hours one of the other with a lie in their mouths Act. 5. 5 10. The righteous Judge many times shoots an arrow suddenly at wicked men who dye in the act of sin Ps 64. 7. When they are about to fill their bellies the Lord doth cast the fury of his wrath upon them as he did upon the chosen men of Israel Ps 78. 30 31. Many times God to execute his fierce wrath sends out his destroying Angels who will make dreadful work in a little time for in one night in the Camp of the Assirians the angel of the Lord smote a hundred and fourscore and five thousand that in the morning were all dead Corpses Isa 37. 36. How short and uncertain is our life subject every moment to the stroak of death which the least crumb or flye may put an end unto as it hath to many And as our end may be sudden so also it may be violent a mortal disease may invade both Heart and head and poor dying creatures many times are so distressed and distracted that they cannot think of any thing but their tormenting pain being uncapable to say any thing to God or men about their souls O how stupid and unsensible do many souls make their passage into the other world like Nabal or like a man in a lethargy or as so many stocks or stones and not awake till they awake in the flames of hell The rich man dyed and in hell he lift up his eyes his first and second death was very unexpected All you obdurate sinners stand here and wonder at the matchless mercy and infinite patience of the great God in delaying the King of terrors so long God hath not dealt so kindly with thousands of sinners that are gon before unto judgement and who went down to the pit in a moment witness the late dreadful Plague by the means of which a hundred thousand souls were sent into
fire to all Eternity The pangs of death the worlds loss anguish of Conscience frights of hell meeting together will make a man perfectly miserable and force him to cry out with cursed Cain Gen. 4. 13. My punishment is greater then I can bear or to say with the sadly afflicted Church behold no sorrow like unto my sorrow And if the dreadful reflection of a guilty accusing conscience be so tormenting here what will the whole flame and Sea of wrath be when poured out to the very utmost Sensless sinners Consider this may be your doleful case when you come to die viz. to have much sorrow and wrath with your sickness Eccl. 5. 17. For there is no is peace to the wicked saith my God not one word in all the Bible but speaks terrour in life and death though the sinner live a hundred years he shall be accurst he dieth under the curses written in God's Book yea under that most dreadful Gospel curse 1 Cor. 16. 22. The apprehension of which will cause such distraction of spirit and sad reflection of guilt which will make them curse their God and their King looking down to the pit roaring out Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Therefore be wise to consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in peeces and there be none that can deliver Psal 50. 22. And as it is dreadful and amazing to see the unbeleiver dying so on the contrary 't is comfortable and reviving to see the godly man dying because his ultimum is his optimum his last is his best the day of his death is better then the day of his birth Eccl. 7. 1. His end is peace Psal 37. 37. God at peace Conscience at peace and all at peace O blessed sight to see the heaven born panting soul going out of the world upon the wings of joy calmness and serenity of spirit with full sail for heaven longing and crying out make no tarrying O my God haste my beloved haste so come Lord Jesus I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1. 23. You have heard what are the great things to be considered namely that an end will certainly be this world is no place of continuance they that now see you ere long will see you no more for ever You have heard that your present things will perish that sin so full of deadly poyson will leave a sting a dart that will strike through your Liver and that the case of the wicked will be doleful dreadful yea desperate when they come to dye for when death comes your souls then will be stated so as there can be no alteration to all Eternity The next thing is to speak to the reasons why it is a duty and matter of such moment to consider are these following Reas 1. Is taken from God Because the only wise gracious most indulgent and soulcompassionating God wisheth it and that most vehemently O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Sirs in this pathetical Option or desire there is the very tender bowels of God this is the very language of his heart and it is as if he had after the manner of men spoken thus to his faithful servant Moses I have but one wish or request and all is comprehended in this one viz. that thou shouldst go and tell them from me that they must be wise to consider this to remember the dayes of old and the years of many Generations what I have done for them in chusing them above all the Nations of the world to be my treasure portion and peculiar people and because I love them I have delivered them wrought wonders for them in Egypt the Red Sea and in the wilderness and have kept them as tenderly as the apple of mine eye carrying them upon Eagles wings but yet let them know that they have forgotten me provoked me and that their end is like to be miserable for afire is kindled in mine anget and unless they do speedily consider it will burn to the lowest hell Now you souls in peril which is best to thwart cross and greive your well-wishing dearest best and only friend or to please and geatifie your prosessed deadly implacable enemy your adversary the Devil can't endure that you should think of death or dying for if Satan that old Serpent would permit and suffer you to look into hell he could neither drag nor draw you thither at his pleasure And will you go on in the wayes of sin and death or bethink your selves whose you are what you have done whither you are going and what is like to become of you when your breath is gone what provision you have made for your other world that so the great business between God and your souls may be made up Sinners if the infinitely holy just and righteous God did desire or designe your ruine and destruction he would not have excited you to this solemn and serious consideration of the end of sin death and Eternity until it were too late and you left without remedy so that what is here intended hath a tendency to make you happy if it be regarded O that they were wise c. Reas 2. Because a deep serious and heart-affecting consideration of death and the grave will both realize it and represent it as near even at the door and make it to stand in open view Whereas things looked upon at a distance whether they be good or whether they be evil have but a little if any influence Now a fixed and hearty consideration will give as it were a being to future things and bring them near so that you may really converse with those things A truly godly man that hath a veiw of unseen things by divine contemplation here upon the wings of faith and hope he may ascend up into heaven and walk a turn in the golden streets of the New Jereusalem as the Prophet Ezekiel was in the Visions of God at Jerusalem in his mind when his body was by the River Chebar among the Captives in the Land of the Chaldeans so likewise those sadly wounded spirits who through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage being exercis'd with soul-conflicts and under powerful cutting and killing convictions of sin and misery or have such dark and dismal thoughts and apprehensions of hell and the wrath of God which make them ever and anon to enter into the Chambers of death and visit the prisoners of the pit and look upon that black guilt and fiery furnace to be so near that they are on the brink of it falling down continually This hath been the case of many of Gods precious ones who are now in heaven above all these fears and frights that were once more bitter then death And O how many travailing with these pangs and agonies of soul are ready to
were a voice speaking to thee as God to Baruch Jer. 45. 4 5. I will break down and pluck up and seekest thou great things seek them not Death is the great Leveller that will make all equal and you that grasp the world most greedily will find it but vanity for all is vanity is the language of experience Eccl. 1. 2. 1 John 2. 17. When Samuel was to anoint Saul he brought or directed him to Rachels Sepulcher and to this end as is suppos'd namely to suppress or prevent haughty proud thoughts that might arise from that new and great preferment And if the supposition be true it is as if he had spoken thus Saul God hath highly honoured you and I annoint you King But remember here lies the dust of that beautiful Rachel and though you are now King in Israel yet you must be as Rachel viz. laid in a Grave or Sepulcher the thoughts of which is a very mortifying Meditation You that have the waters of a full Cup that wallow in wealth and swim in worldly glory to wean you from the world that your hearts may not be turned into Earth and buryed before you are buryed keep fresh in your thoughts death and eternity Job 14. 14. 3. Would you be deeply sensible of the sad and doleful condition of unbeleivers when they come to dye think seriously of your latter end What will you do in the hour of distress when God shall call for your breath change your countenance and require your souls if you have made no preparation for death and Judgement Poor souls I would pity you with my very heart to think how ignorant you are of your great concernment you eat drink sleep buy sell and get gain but slight your souls and do not consider of the evil day We be unto him that is alone that is alone in life and alone in death that hath no Christ to befriend him or stand by him in that woeful day that cometh to lye down in the death-bed without peace or pardon who shall go into a Grave and stand before the Ba without an Advocate to plead for him It is most probable you may have dife ferent apprehensions of yout selves and others in your dying hour so the nearer the object the clearer the sight O sinners when the door of eternity begins to open as usually it doth to men dying you will have other thoughts of your selves and other men Here you ruffle it out thinking your selves above and better then others behold great Babel said that proud person in his Princely Palace but when pale death appears it will pull down those Peacocks feathers and cause their crests to fall Now the world shines and sparkles in your eyes which makes you judge and think that nothing but Riches Honor and Greatness can make you happy then it wil appear the pant being off to be an empty nothing As for the pure â—n heart who mourn for sin and mind itheir soules above the world who are scorn'd jeer'd hated being look'd upon as a company of poor pensive sneaking besotted fools will then be adjudged the best wisest and happiest men on earth Now sin is excused and called a light and little thing for trick of youth but then it will have at black and dreadful face and feel more heavy then lead taste more bitter then death it self Now the Damned and cursed Crue are your brave Boon companions and bosom friends but when you are come to your dying groanes and cold sweats away with them their sight is terrible But know that you who have been companions in sin must be companions in sufferings and lye down together in everlasting chaines and flames you shall be fettered and bound together and never part any more for ever Now an interest in Christ and a life of holiness is little valued and every lust and triffle preferred then a world a world for a Christ forty thousand pound for a good Conscience cryed out a wicked wealthy worldling when dying and passing into eternity 4. Would you expedite your Repentance try your state and make all ready for the other world think upon this last enemy the King of terrors that will ere long terminate your dayes and then all your opportunities will be gone for e If the thoughts of death especially the second death did but influence your hearts and penitrate npon your Consciences you would easily be perswaded to cast away your sins namely to cut off a right hand or pluck out a right eye and to rent your hearts to mourn in secret to afflict your souls and to put your mouths in the dust if so be there may be hope Lam. 3. 28. 29. We see that men in a journey if they think they have daly enough they are slack and slow enough but if they see but a little time they will make speed If a man must do the work of a whole day in half a day he will make hast Repentance is not a work for a day though a daly work our whole life is little enough to compleat and perfect it As long as we sin we must mourn while we provoke the Judge we must plead guilty and sue our out pardon with Ropes a bout our necks and smiting on our breasts and if it might be with tears of blood And the great things of death and Judment will prepare and prompt you to do it suddenly for when the day is gone the night comes and the Grave and Hell have shut their mouths upon you what can be done Eccles 9. 10. 5. Would you pray more frequently more fervently then ever you have done remember you must dye The Monuments and Statues of the dead as one notes are made in a praying posture viz. kneeling and with hands lifted up to heaven as if the remembrance of them now dead should teach us our duty what we must do whilst living One that was wont to pray often in a day being asked why he spent so much time in prayer gave no other answer but this I must dye I must dye An awakening apprehension of a mans entrance upon an endless state and a speedy approach before the holy God will make him pray and that importunately If there be in the Family a Husband wife or Child near unto death almost every one that cometh about the bed will be lifting up hands and putting up of prayers and then you cry out send speedily for some sober serious Minister or for some solid savoury praying Christian to commend his sad case to God The young man that lately suffered for Murder who came into Newgate as ignorant of God as the horse or the Mule and as sensless of his soul as a stock or a stone was by the acxcess and application of Ministers to him convinced of his desperate case and through the grace and blessing of God upon his appointed means he seemed so deeply sensible of the dreadful hazzard of his precious soul that he did with so
cannot live without him or be absent from him Having tasted of the Grapes of Eshcol he must go to Canaan to see the good Land that goodly Mountain A foresight or glimps of the sweetness beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus will cause most vehement longing to be with him Now let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation For this we groan earnestly And O how confidently quietly and comfortably may such a soul entertain the thoughts of death that hath sincerely repented of all sin and to whom sin is so greivous a burden that he would dye to be rid of it And whose soul is â—â—l'd and fraughted with grace and assured of glory and his heart sent as a Harbinger to Heaven before him And indeed a serious and hearty consideration of our eternal state would provoke us to press earnestly after all this To close up all let me ask you as in the presence of the great Judg of quick and dead at whose dreadful tribunal you must all shortly stand these following Queries Quer. 1. First Whether a seasonable preparation for death and Judgement viz. how you may escape Hell and come safe to Heaven be not the most urgent and important business that you have in all the world Let your conscience judge and determine Quer. 2. Are not they in a very happy condition that do believe repent and turn to God with their whole heart who by living a life of grace are truly prepared for death and out of the dreadful hazzard of loosing Heaven Rom. 8. 1. Psal 37. 37. Quer. 3. Is it not possible that you being yet on this side the Grave and Hell may prepare for this evil day were you resolv'd upon it would be done you have often intended it promised it when shall it be none but the Devil and your flesh will stop and hinder you Quer. 4. Do you firmly beleive the things here will fail that death will come that sin that accursed thing will sting and that the impenitent sinners case at the hour of death wil be sad and very desperate Let me say to all such there is not a night you lye down upon your beds but you run a very great hazzard If death should call and you not ready you must go though you be ruin'd to eternity Matth. 25. 10 11 12 16 22 23. Quer. 5. Have you so liv'd as to be fit to lye down in a Grave to rise again and stand before God who is a consuming fire Do you know your selves in a state of grace that you are new born that your evidences for heaven are clear and certain is your work done do your Lamps burn and have you a well-grounded assurance that you are in the Number of those to whom death will be a priviledge Phil. 21. Quer. 6. Can you chearfully and without dread entertain the thoughts of a dissolution and of leaving all your earthly and sensual delightes Suppose the dreadful Judge should at this instant send death into this place with the names of five or six of you in his writ or forehead and death should say you and you this man and that woman must go along with me I have received a comand from the great and terrible God who hath the power of death and of hell to bring you young man young woman this day or night before the Judgement seats I have often warned you by sending my Deputies and and that this ten twenty or forty yeares every Coffin every dead Corps or Grave you have seene was so many intimations of my coming Now saith death I am come look here upon my commission see my dart and my sting This dart must kill the body and send thy soul unto eternity I command thee this moment to bid adieu to and take thy leave of Friends Relations Houses Lands pleasures of sin once for all Thou shalt never see or jnjoy them more Luke 12. 19. 20. O how can you think of your dying the worlds burning the trumpers Sounding the deads rising and staunding at the Bar and not fear and tremble You Sons and Daughters of pleasures did you consider what horror and astonishment dogs you as the heels which will inevitable come upon you as travel on a woman with child you would not say unto God depart and treasure up wrath lay up scoorges and scorpions for your distressed souls against the last day Quer. 7. Let me ask you that pass for Saints and hope for Heaven whether your consciences in secret do not tell you that you have made poor preparation for it yea it may have done less for Heaven then many that are now in hell You say you must dye and come to judgement but how stands the case as to the other world If you look downward to this world it s well but how is it within with your precious soul Do you beleive that Atheists Unbeleivers Drunkards Swearers Murderers Thieves Persecutors Lyars Sabbath-breakers Adulterers worldlings are going swiftly to hell Do you beleive that Christs flock is little and not fear your selves Do you think that Esau Judas Ahab Agrippa Herod Simon Magus the foolish Virgins are in hell and yet confident of your going to heaven These have out done many of you Esau wept and cryed for the blessing Heb. 12. 17. Ahab humbled himself 1 Kings 12 29. Herod did many things and heard John joyfully Mark 16. 20. Agrippa was almost a Christian Acts 6. 28. The Scribe was not far from the kingdom of God Mark 12. 34. The foolish Virgins were not prophane they took care to trim their Lamps and knock at the door Now what sins have you lest what grace have you exercis'd what duties have you performed and how Take heed you be not deceived Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luk. 13. 24. Quer. 8. 4. You having so many warnings time and means to prepare for death judgment and will not who will pity you when you perish God will not Prov. 1. 26 27. Christ will not Luke 19. 27. Angels Saints Ministers will not all will say away with them let them be damn'd And O what a killing and amazing sight will Christs coming in the clouds be to all that either denied his coming or who would not prepare for it His incarnation was terrible Matth. 2. 3. His Crucifixion was more terrible Luk. 23. 44. 45 47. 48 But his being on the tribunal will be most terrible Then shall the tribes of the earth mourn Math. 24. 3. And men cry to the rocks and mountaines to fall on them Rev. 6. 15 16. When they shall see so many thousands and millions of men and women dragged down with all the Devils of hell to that burning lake of fire and brimstone How will they then mourn for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit and with bitterness of soul wish they had never heard of Christ that they had been born among the Heathen or never had a being or enjoy'd a life of pleasure upon the Earth How will the wretched sinner beat his breast pluck off his hair tear his bowels crying out when he sees all hope is gone O that I had now no soul or that this immortal soul were mortal that I might now dye and breath no more or that my sentence might be but to lodge with Devils in this burning lake ten thosand years that so I might not remain in a state of banishment from the face and presence of God to all eternity O then pray that serious thoughts of death may be alwayes upon thine heart and whethere thou goest let them go and where thou lodgest let them lodg that thou mayest speak of it to thy Children and Family when thou sitttest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up O let these great things of death and judgment be bound as a signe upon thine hand and write them upon the posts of thine house and on thy gates that they may be always before thine eyes and for thy good alwayes that thou may'st beware least thou forget the Lord thy God and the everlasting concernments of thine immortal soul and gods anger be kindled against thee and destroy thee suddenly with a mighty destruction Consider now what I have spoken and the Lord give thee understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2. 7. Which is that God wisheth in the Text O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider thrir latter end FINIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus spatium temporis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est opportunitas Qui quid atotiis retro est mors tenet Sen. in Epist Prov. 22. 6. Luke 13. 24. 1 Cor. 9 24. 25. Eph. 6. 12. 1 Tim. 6. 12. Schola crucis est Schola lucis Luth. Ps 94. 12. Math. 4. 16. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Ezek. 13. 8. Rom. 5. 8. Isa 61. 1. John 6. 16. Tempus acceptum or tempus acceptabile Bez. in loc Quodoffertur gratia ex gratia Dei est qui sua contuit rebus omnibus momenta ut oblatam occasionum arripiamus The youth that lately was hang'd for murdering his Fellom Servant confess'd that his Sabbath breaking made way for all his other prodigious sins Tempus non potest Deo consecrari nisi quo modo redemptum Calvin in loc * Punctum est quod vivimus puncto minus Nonexignum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Sen. Enigua pars est vitae quem nos vivimus