and then thou shalt not so much as see the God thou worshippest the Earth shall shortly cover thee and then thou shalt have thy mouth and belly full of clay and dust Such thoughts as these will cool our desires to this present World will make us contented when we have enough and very charitable and liberal of what we can spare For what should we do with more in this World than will carry us thorough it What better and wiser use can we make of such Riches as we cannot carry with us into the other World than to return them thither before hand in acts of Piety and Charity that we may receive the rewards and recompences of them in a better life that we may make to our selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations When he finds his mind begin to swell and to encrease as his fortune and honours do Lord thinks he what a bubble is this which every breath of Air can blow away How vain a thing is Man in his greatest glory who appears gay and beautiful like a Flower in the Spring and is as soon cut down and withered Though we should meet with no change in our fortune here yet we shall suddenly be removed out of this World the scene of this life will change and there is an end of earthly Greatness And what a contemptible mind is that which is swelled with dying Honours which looks big indeed as a body does which is swelled out of all proportion with a Dropsy or Timpany but that is its Disease not a natural Beauty What am I better than the poorest Man who beggs an Alms unless I be wiser and more vertuous than he Can Lands and Houses great Places and Titles things which are not ours and which we cannot keep make such a mighty difference between one man and another are these the Riches are these the Beauties and Glories of a Spirit are we not all made of the same mould is not God the Father of us all must we not all die alike and lie down in the dust together and can the different parts we act in this World which are not so long as the Scene of a Play compared to an eternal Duration make such a vast difference between men This will make men humble and modest in the highest fortune as minding them that when they are got to the top-round of Honour if they keep from falling yet they must be carried down again and laid as low as the dust Thus when he finds the Body growing upon the Mind and intoxicating it with the love of sensual Pleasures he remembers that his Body must die and all these Pleasures must die with it that they are indeed killing Pleasures which kill a mortal Body before its time that it does not become a man who is but a Traveller in this World but a Pilgrim and a Stranger here to study Ease and Softness and Luxury that a Soul which must live for ever should seek after more lasting Pleasures which may survive the Funeral of the Body and be a spring of ravishing Joys when he is stript of Flesh and Blood. These are the thoughts which the consideration of Death will suggest to us as I have already shewed you And it is impossible for a man who has always these thoughts at hand to be much imposed on by the Pageantry of this World by the transient Honours and Pleasures of it It is indeed I think a very impracticable Rule which some men give To live always as if we were to die the next moment Our lives should always be as innocent as if we were immediately to give up our accounts to God but it is impossible to have always those sensible apprehensions of Death about us which we have when we see it approaching but though we cannot live as if we were immediately to die which would put an end not only to all innocent Mirth but to all the necessary Business of the World which I believe no dying man would concern himself for yet we may and we ought to live as those who must certainly die and ought to have these thoughts continually about us as a guard upon our actions For whatever is of such mighty consequence to us as Death is if it be certain ought always to give Laws to our Behaviour and Conversation 2ly If it be certain we must die the very first thing we ought to do in this World after we come to years of understanding should be to prepare for Death that whenever Death comes we may be ready for it This I confess is not according to the way of this World for dying is usually the last thing they take care of This is thought a little unseasonable while men are young and healthful and vigorous but besides the uncertainty of our lives and that it is possible while we delay Death may seize on us before we are provided for it and then we must be miserable for ever which I shall speak to under the next Head. I doubt not but to convince every considering man that an early Preparation for Death is the very best means to make our lives happy in this World while we do continue here Nor shall I urge here how a life of Holiness and Vertue which is the best and only Preparation for Death tends to make us happy in this World delivers us from all those Mischiefs which the wildness and giddiness of Youth and the more confirmed debaucheries of riper Years expose Men too for this is properly the commendation of Vertue not of an early Preparation for Death And yet this is really a great engagement and motive to prepare betimes for Death since such a Preparation for Death will put us to no greater hardships and inconveniencies than the practice of such Vertues as will prolong our lives preserve or increase our fortunes give us honour and reputation in the World and makes us beloved both by God and men But setting aside these things there are two advantages of an early Preparation for Death which contribute more to our Happiness than all the World besides 1. That it betimes delivers us from the fears of Death and consequently from most other fears 2ly That it supports us under all the troubles and calamities of this life 1. It betimes delivers us from the sears of Death and indeed it is then only a man begins to live when he is got above the fears of Death Were men thoughtful and considerate Death would hang over them in all their Mirth and Jollity like a fatal Sword by a single Hair it would sowre all their Enjoyments and strike terror into their hearts and looks But the security of most men is that they put off the thoughts of Death as they do their preparation for it they live secure and free from danger onely because they will not open their eyes to see it But these are such examples as no
ourselves It is possible we may live to old age because some do but it is more likely we shall not because there are more that die young The truth is the time of dying is so uncertain the ways of dying so infinite so unseen so casual and fortuitous to us that instead of promising ourselves long life no wise man will promise himself a week nor venture any thing of great moment and consequence upon it The hope of long life is nothing else but self-flattery the fondness men have for life and that partiality they have for themselves perswades them that they shall live as long as any man can live and shall escape those Diseases and fatal Accidents with which our Bills of Mortality are filled every week but then you should consider that other men are as dear to themselves as you are and flatter themselves as much with long life as you do but their hopes very often deceive them and so may yours But you 'll say To what purpose is all this why so much pains to put us out of conceit with the hopes of living long for what hurt is it if we do flatter ourselves a little more in this matter than we have reason for If it should prove only a deceitful Dream yet it makes life chearful and comfortable and gives us a true relish of it and why should we disturb ourselves and make life uneasy by the perpetual thoughts of dying Now I confess were there no hurt and danger in it this were as ill-natured and spightful a thing as could be done and the least recompence I could make would be to ask your pardon for it and leave you to enjoy the comforts of life securely for the future to live on as long as you can and let Death come when it will without being lookt for but I apprehend a great deal of danger in such deceitful and flattering hopes and that is the reason why I disswade you from it For 1. The hope of long life is apt to make us fond of this World which is as great a mischief to us as to expose us to all the temptations and flatteries of it That we must die and leave this World is a good reason indeed why we ought not to be fond of it why we should live like Pilgrims and Strangers here as I observed before But few men who hope to live threescore or fourscore years think much of this though it be comparatively short in respect of Eternity yet it is a great while to live and a great while to enjoy this World in and that is thought a very valuable happiness which can be enjoyed so long and then men let loose their desires and affections endeavour to get as much of this World as they can and to enjoy as much of it as they can and not only to tast but to take full and plentiful draughts of the intoxicating Pleasures of it And how dangerous this is I need not tell any man who considers that all the wickedness of Mankind is owing to too great a fondness and passion for this World. And therefore if we would live like Pilgrims and set loose from all the enjoyments of this World we must remember that our stay is uncertain here that we have no lease of our lives but may be turned out of our earthly Tenements at pleasure For what man would be fond of laying up great treasures on Earth who remembers That this night his soul may be taken from him and then whose shall all these things be What man would place his happiness in such enjoyments which for ought he knows he may be taken from to morrow These are indeed melancholy and mortifying considerations and that is the true use of them for it is necessary we should be mortified to this World to cure the love of it and conquer its temptations For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world 2. As the hopes of long life give great advantage to the temptations of this World so they weaken the hopes and fears of the other World they strengthen our temptations and weaken us which must needs be of very fatal consequence to us in our spiritual Warfare All that we have to oppose against the flattering Temptations of this World are the Hopes and Fears of the World to come but the hope of long life sets the next World at too great a distance to conquer this what is present works more powerfully upon our minds than what is abfent and the farther any thing is off the less powerful it is To make you sensible of this I shall only desire you to remember what thoughts you have had of another World when the present fears of dying have given you a nearer view of it Good Lord what Agonies have I seen dying Sinners in how penitent how devout how resolved upon a new course of life which too often vanish like a Dream when the fear of Death is over What is the reason of this difference Heaven and Hell is the very same when we are in health as when we are sick and I will suppose that you do as firmly believe a Heaven and a Hell in health as in sickness the onely thing then that makes the thoughts of the other World so strong and powerful and affecting when we are sick is that we see the other World near us that we are just a stepping into it and this makes it our present concernment but in health we see the other World a great way off and therefore do not think it of such near and present concernment and what we do not think ourselves at present concerned in or not much concerned in how great and valuable soever it be in itself will either not affect us at all or very little Thus while bad men place the other World at a great distance from them and out of sight they have no restraint at all upon their lusts and passions and good men themselves at the greater distance they see the other World are so much the less affected by it which damps their zeal and their devotion and makes them less active and vigorous in doing good And there is so much the more danger in this because men look upon the other World as farthest off and so are least concerned about it when the thoughts of the other World are most useful and most necessary to them in the heat and vigour of youth men are most exposed to the temptations of flesh and sense and have most need to think of another World and a future Judgment but those who promise themselves a long life see Death and another World so far off while they are young that it moves them as little as if there were no other World. And though one would think that as our
the objects only of a subordinate fear or hope when the fear of man comes in competition with the fear of God it is wise counsel which the Prophet Isaiah gives Say ye not A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary 8 Isai. 12 13 14. There is a vast difference between the power of God and men which is our Saviour's reason why we should fear God more than men Be not afraid of them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn ye whom ye shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him 12 Luke 4 5. But whatever power men may have to hurt while they live they can do us no hurt when they are dead and their lives are so very uncertain that we may be quickly eased of those fears The same may be said with respect to hope and confidence in men though their word and promise were always sacred yet their lives are uncertain Their breath goeth forth they return to the earth in that very day their thoughts perish all the good and all the evil they intended to do But happy is he that hath the God of Iacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is who keepeth truth for ever 146 Psal. 5. 6. 6. For a conclusion of this Argument I shall briefly vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in concealing from us the time of our Death This we are very apt to complain of that our lives are so very uncertain that we know not to day but that we may die to morrow and we would be mighty glad to meet with any one who could certainly inform us in this matter how long we are to live but if we think a little better of it we shall be of another mind For 1. though I presume many of you would be glad to know that you shall certainly live twenty or thirty or forty years longer yet would it be any comfort to know that you must die to morrow or some few months or a year or two hence which may be your case for ought you know and this I believe you are not very desirous to know for how would this chill your blood and spirits how would it overcast all the pleasures and comforts of life You would spend your days like men under the sentence of Death while the execution is suspended Did all men who must die young certainly know it it would destroy the industry and improvements of half Mankind which would half destroy the World or be an insupportable mischief to Humane Societies For what man who knows that he must die at twenty or five and twenty a little sooner or later would trouble himself with ingenious or gainful Arts or concern himself any more with this World than just to live so long in it and yet how necessary is the service of such men in the World what great things do they many times do and what great improvements do they make how pleasant and diverting is their conversation while it is innocent how do they enjoy themselves and give life and spirit to the graver Age how thin would our Schools our Shops our Universities and all places of Education be did they know how little time many of them were to live in the World for would such men concern themselves to learn the Arts of living who must die as soon as they have learnt them Would any Father be at a great expence in educating his Child only that he might die with a little Latine and Greek Logick and Philosophy No half the World must be divided into Cloysters and Nunneries and Nurseries for the Grave Well you 'll say suppose that and is not this an advantage above all the inconveniencies you can think of to secure the salvation of so many thousands who are now eternally ruined by youthful Lusts and Vanities but would spend their days in Piety and Devotion and make the next World their only care if they knew how little while they were to live here Right I grant this might be a good way to correct the heat and extravagancies of Youth and so it would be to shew them Heaven and Hell but God does not think fit to do either because it offers too much force and violence to mens minds it is no trial of their vertue of their reverence for God of their conquests and victory over this World by the power of Faith but makes Religion a matter of necessity not of choice now God will force and drive no man to Heaven the Gospel-Dispensation is the trial and discipline of ingenuous Spirits and if the certain hopes and fears of another World and the uncertainty of our living here will not conquer these flattering temptations and make men seriously religious as those who must certainly die and go into another World and they know not how soon God will not try whether the certain knowledge of the time of their death will make them religious That they may die young and that thousands do so is reason enough to engage young men to expect death and prepare for it if they will venture they must take their chance and not say they had no warning of dying young if they eternally miscarry by their wilful delays And besides this God expects our youthful service and obedience though we were to live on till old Age that we may die young is not the proper much less the only reason why we should remember our Creator in the days of our youth but because God has a right to our youthful strength and vigour and if this will not oblige us to an early Piety we must not expect that God will set death in our view to fright and terrifie us as if the only design God had in requiring our obedience was not that we might live like reasonable Creatures to the glory of their Maker and Redeemer but that we might repent of our sins time enough to escape Hell. God is so merciful as to accept of returning Prodigals but does not think fit to encourage us in Sin by giving us notice when we shall die and when it is time to think of repentance 2dly Though I doubt not but that it would be a great pleasure to you to know that you shall live till old Age yet consider a little with yourselves and then tell me whether you yourselves can judge it wise and fitting for God to let you know this I observed to you before what danger there is in flattering ourselves with the hopes of long life that it is apt to make us too fond of this World when we expect to live
so long in it that it weakens the hopes and fears of the next World by removing it at too great a distance from us that it encourages men to live in sin because they have time enough before them to indulge their Lusts and to repent of their Sins and make their Peace with God before they die and if the uncertain hopes of this undoes so many men what would the certain knowledge of it do Those who are too wise and considerate to be imposed on by such uncertain hopes might be conquered by the certain knowledge of a long life This would take off all restraints from men and give free scope to their vicious inclinations when they know that how wicked soever they were they should not die before their time was come and could never be surpiz'd by Death since they certainly knew when it will come which destroys one great motive to Obedience that Sin shall shorten Mens lives and that Vertue and Piety shall prolong them That the wicked shall not live out half their days that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned 10 Prov. 27. Such promises and threatnings as these must be struck out of the Bible should God let all men know the time of their death Nay this would frustrate the methods and designs of Providence for the reclaiming Sinners some times publick Calamities Plague and Famine and Sword alarum a wicked World and summon Men to repentance sometimes a dangerous fit of Sickness awakens Men into a sence of their sins and works in them a true and lasting repentance but all this would be ineffectual did Men know the time of their death and that such publick Judgments or threatning Sickness should not kill them The uncertainty of our Lives is a great motive to constant Watchfulness to an early and persevering Piety but to know when we shall die could serve no good end but would encrease the wickedness of Mankind which is too great already which is a sufficient Vindication of the Wisdom of God in leaving the time of Death unknown and uncertain to us SECT VII That we must Die but once or that Death translates us to an unchangable State with the Improvement of it THe last thing to be consider'd is That we must die but once It is appointed for men once to die There are some exceptions from this Rule as there are from dying that as Enoch and Elias did not die so some have been raised again from the Dead to live in this World and such men died twice But this is a certain Rule in general That as all men must die once so they must die but once which needs no other proof but the daily experience and observation of Mankind But that which I intend by it is this That once dying determines our state and condition for ever when we put off these mortal Bodies we must not return into them again to act over a new part in this World and to correct the errours and miscarriages of our former lives Death translates us to an immutable and unchangeable state that in this sence what the wise man tells us is true If the tree fall towards the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be 11 Eccles. 3. This is a consideration of very great moment and deserves to be more particularly explain'd which I shall do in these following Propositions 1. That this life is the only state of trial and probation for Eternity And therefore 2. Death when ever it comes as it puts a final period to this life that we die once for all and must never live again as we do now in this World so it puts a final end to our work too that our day of grace and time of working for another World ends with this life And 3dly As a necessary consequence of both these once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state 1. That this life only is our state of trial and probation for Eternity whatever is to be done by us to obtain the favour of God and a blessed Immortality must be done in this life I observed before that this life is wholly in order to the next that the great the only necessary business we have to do in this World is to fit and prepare ourselves to live for ever in GOD's presence To finish the work GOD has given us to do that we may receive the reward of good and faithful Servants to enter into our Master's rest I now add that the only time we have to do this in is while we live in this World This is evident from what S. Paul tells us That we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. Now if we must be judged and receive our final sentence according to what we have done in the body then our only time of trial and working is while we live in these Bodies for the future Judgment relates only to what is done in the Body The Gospel of Christ is the Rule whereby we must be judged even that Gospel which St. Paul preached 2 Rom. 16. and all the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel concern the government of our Conversation in this World and therefore if we be judged by the Gospel we must be judged only for what we have done in this World. This life throughout the Scripture is represented as the time of working as a Race a Warfare a labouring in the Vineyard the other World as a place of Recompence of Rewards or punishments and if there be such a relation between this World and the next as between fighting and conquering and receiving the Crown as between running a race and obtaining a prize as between the work and the reward then we must fight and conquer run our race and finish our work in this World if we expect the Rewards of the next Many of those Graces and Vertues which our Saviour has promised to reward with eternal Life can be exercised only in this World Faith and Hope are peculiar only to this Life while the other World is absent and unseen And these are the great Principles and Graces of the Christian Life to believe what we do not see and to live and act upon the hopes of future Rewards the government of our bodily appetites and passions by the rules of Temperance Sobriety and Chastity necessarily supposes that we have Bodies and bodily Appetites and Passions to govern and therefore these Vertues can be exercised only while we live in these Bodies which solicite and tempt us to sensual Excesses To live above this World to despise the tempting Glories of it is a Vertue only while we live in it and are tempted by it to have our Conversation in Heaven which is the most divine temper of Mind is
Heaven Nothing but the hopes and fears of the next World can enforce these Duties on us and this justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in making the present exercise of these Vertues necessary to our future Rewards I shall only add that whatever complaints bad Men may make that their future Happiness or Misery depends upon the government and conduct of their Lives in this World I am sure all Mankind would have had great reason to complain if it had been otherwise For how miserable must it have made us to have certainly known that we must be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the next World and not to have as certainly known how to escape the Miseries and obtain the Hapâ—iness of it And how could that be possibly known if the trial of it had been reserved for an unknown state What a terrible thing had it been to die could no Man have been sure what would have become of him in the next World as no Man could have been upon this supposal for how can any Man know what his reward shall be when he is so far from having done his work that he knows not what he is to do till he comes into the next World. But now since we shall be rewarded according to what we have done in this Body every Man certainly knows what will make him happy or miserable in the next World and it is his own fault if he do not live so as to secure immortal Life and what a blessed state is this to have so joyful a prospect beyond the Grave and to put off these Bodies with the certain hopes of a glorious Resurrection This I think is sufficient to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in making this present Life a state of trial and probation for the happiness of the next But to proceed 2. If this Life only be our state of trial and probation for Eternity then Death as it puts a final period to this Life so it puts a final end to our work too our day of Grace and time of Working for another World ends with this Life We shall easily apprehend the necessity of this if we remember that Death which is the punishment of Sin is not meerly the death of the Body but that state of Misery to which Death translates Sinners and therefore if we die while we are in a state of Sin under the Curse and under the power of Death there is no Redemption for us because the Justice of God has already seiz'd us the Sentence is already executed and that is too late to obtain a Pardon for in this case Death answers to our casting into Prison from whence we shall never come forth till we have paid the uttermost Farthing as our Saviour represents it 5 Matt. 25 26 for indeed Sin is the death of the Soul and those who are under the power of Sin are in a state of Death and if they die before they have a principle of a new Life in them they fall under the power of Death that is into that state of Misery and Punishment which is appointed for such dead Souls and therefore our redemption from Death by Christ is begun in our dying to Sin and walking in newness of Life which is our conformity to the Death and the Resurrection of Christ 6 Rom. 4. This is to be dead to sin and to be alive to GOD as Christ is and if we die with Christ we shall rise with him also into immortal Life which is begun in this World and will be perfected in the next which is the sum of St. Paul's argument v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. thus he tells us 8 Rom. 10 11. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is our Bodies are mortal and must die by an irreversible Sentence which God pronounc'd against Adam when he had sinned but the Soul and Spirit has a new principle of Life a principle of Righteousness and Holiness by which it lives to God and therefore cannot fall into a state of Death when the Body dies But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is when the divine Spirit has quicken'd our Souls and raised them into a new Life though our Bodies must die yet the same divine Spirit will raise them up also into immortal Life This is the plain account of the matter If Death arrests us while we are in a state of Sin and Death we must die for ever but if our Souls are alive to God by a principle of Grace and Holiness before our Bodies die they must live for ever A dead Soul must die with its Body that is sink into a state of Misery which is the death and the loss of the Soul a living Soul survives the Body in a state of Bliss and Happiness and shall receive its Body again glorious and immortal at the Resurrection of the Just but this change of state must be made while we live in these Bodies a dead Soul cannot revive in the other World nor a living Soul die there and therefore this Life is the day of God's Grace and Patience the next World is the place of Judgment And the reason St. Peter gives why God is not hasty in executing judgment but is long suffering to us ward is because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 5. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their hearts and they have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest There is some dispute what is meant by to day whether it be the day of this Life or such a fixt and determin'd day and season of Grace as may end long before this Life The example of the Israelites of whom God swear in his wrath that they should die in the Wilderness and never enter into his Rest that is into the Land of Canaan seems to incline it to the latter sence for this sentence That they should not enter into his Rest was pronounc'd against them long before they died for which reason they wandered forty Years in the Wilderness till all that Generation of Men were dead and if we are concern'd in this example then we also may provoke God to such a degree that he may pronounce the final sentence on us That we shall never enter into Heaven long before we leave this World Our day of Grace may
a direct contradiction to justifying Faith nay if the justifying act of Faith were an actual reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation Despair must be very mortal because while Men are under these Agonies they do not they cannot rely on Christ for Salvation for they believe that Christ has cast them off and will not save them but if to believe in Christ that he is the Saviour of the World that he has made expiation for our Sins and intercedes for us at the right hand of God and is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him that he will save all true penitent Sinners and will save us if we be true Penitents I say if such a Faith as this when it brings forth the genuine fruits of Repentance and a holy Life be a true justifing Faith this is consistent with the blackest Despair and then Men may be in a justified state though they are never so strongly perswaded that they are Reprobates A very good Man may have his fancy disturbed and may pass a false judgment upon himself but this is no reason for God to condemn him no more than God will justifie a presuming and enthusiastick Hypocrite because he justifies himself 4. If Death put a final end to our Work and Labour and shuts up our Accounts then it concerns us to do all the good that we can while we live What ever our hand findeth to do we should do it with all our might seeing there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor working in the grave whither we are hasting Not that the next World is an idle and unactive State where we shall know nothing and have nothing to do but Death puts an end to our working for the other World nothing can be brought to our account at the Day of Judgment but the good we do while we live here for this onely we shall receive our reward proportionable to the encrease and wise improvement of our Talents And is not this a good reason why we should begin to serve God betimes and to take all opportunities of doing good since we have only a short life to work in for Eternity There are great and glorious rewards prepared for good Men but those shall have the brightest Crown who do the most good in the World who are rich in good works and lay up for themselves treasures in heaven Indeed the meanest place in Heaven is a happiness too great for us to conceive I 'm sure much greater than our greatest deserts but since our bountiful Lord will reward all the good service we do why should we neglect doing any good when such neglects will lessen our reward why should we be contented to lose any degrees of Glory This is a holy Ambition to be as good and to be as happy as God can make us This is never thought of by those Men who have no greater designs than to escape Hell but as for the Glories of Heaven they can be contented with the least share of them No Man will ever get to Heaven who so despises the Glories of it and if a late repentance should open our eyes not only to see our sins but to alter our opinions of this World and of the next yet we can never recal our past time and that little time that remains which is the very dregs and sediment of our lives the dead and unactive Scene will minister very few opportunities of doing good and if it did we are capable of doing very little and if we get to Heaven that will be all but the bright and triumphant Crowns shall be bestowed upon those who have improved their time and their talents better It is the good we do while we live that shall be rewarded and therefore we must take care to do good while we live It is well when Men who do no good while they live will remember to do some good when they die But if God should accept such presents as these yet it will make great abatements in the account that they kept their Riches themselves as long as they could and would part with nothing to God till they could keep it no longer it is not the Gift but the mind of the Giver that is accepted Under the Gospel God is pleased with a living Sacrifice but the Offerings of the Dead and such these Testimentary Charities are which are intended to have no effect as long as we live are no better than dead Sacrifices and it may be questioned whether they will be brought into the account of our lives if we did no good while we lived The case is different as to those who did all the good they could while they lived and when they saw they could live no longer took care to do good after death such surviving Charities as these prolong our lives and add daily to our account when such Men are removed into the other World they are doing good in this would still they have a Stock a going below the increase and improvements of which will follow them into the other World Men who have been charitable all their lives may prolong their Charity after death and this will be brought to the Account of their Lives but I cannot see how a Charity which commences after death can be called doing good while we live and then it cannot belong to the Account of our Lives all that can be said for it is this That they make their Wills whereby they bequeath these Charities while they live and therefore their bequeathing these Charities is an act of their Lives but they never intend they shall take place while they live but after their death and when they never intend their Charity to be an act of their Lives I know not why God should account it so These Death-bed Charities are too like a Death-bed Repentance Men seem to give their Estates to God and the Poor just as they part with their Sins when they can keep them no longer This is much such a Charity as it is Devotion to bequeath our dead Bodies to the Church or Chancel which we would never visit while we lived But yet as I have already intimated this is the only way to prolong our Lives and to have an increasing Account after death to lay the foundations of some great good to the World which shall out live us which like Seed sown in the Earth shall spring up and yeild a plentiful Harvest while we sleep sweetly in the dust such as the religious Education of our Children and Families which may propagate itself in the World and last many Ages after we are dead the Endowment of Publick Schools and Hospitals in a word whatever is for the Relief of the Necessities or for the Instruction and good Government of Mankind when we are gone To do good while we live and to lay designs of great good to future Generations will both come into our Account and this may extend the Account of our
dependance on God nothing gives a more signal demonstration of a divine Power or Vengeance or Protection nothing is a greater blessing to Families or Kingdoms or a greater punishment to them than the life or death of a Parent of a Child of a Prince and therefore it is as necessary to reserve this Power to God as to assert a Providence There are two or three places of Scripture which are urged in favour of the contrary opinion 14 Job 5. Seeing his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass 7 Job 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling Which refer not to the particular period of every Man's life but as I observed before to the general period of humane Life which is fixt and determined which is therefore called the days or the years of Man because God has appointed this the ordinary time of Man's life as when God threatens that the Wicked shall not live out half their days that is half that time which is allotted for men to live on Earth for they have no other interest in these days but that they are the days of a man and therefore might be their days too From what I have now discoursed there are two things very plainly to be observed 1. That men may contribute very much to the lengthening or shortning their own lives 2. That the Providence of God does peculiarly over-rule and determine this matter 1. As for the first there is no need to prove it for we see men destroy their own lives every day either by intemperance and lust or more open violence by forfeiting their lives to publick Justice or by provoking the Divine Vengeance and therefore who ever desires a long life to fill up the number of his days which God has allotted us in this World must keep himself from such destructive Vices must practise the most healthful Vertues must make God his Friend and engage his Providence for his defence Can any thing be more absurd than to hear men promise themselves long life and reckon upon forty or fifty years to come when they run into those Excesses which will make a quick and speedy end of them which will either inflame and corrupt their Bloud and let a Feavour or a Dropsy into their Veins or bring Rottenness into their Bones or engage them in some fatal Quarrel or ruine their Estates and send them to seek their fortune upon the Road which commonly brings them to the Gallows What a fatal Cheat is this which men put upon themselves especially when they sin in hope of time to repent and commit such sins as will give them no time to repent in The advice of the Psalmist is much better What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good seek peace and persue it These are natural and moral causes of a long life but that is not all For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth That is God will prolong the lives of good Men and cut off the Wicked not that this is a general rule without exception but it is the ordinary method of Providence 34 Psal. 12 13 c. 2. For though God has not determined how long every man shall live by an absolute and unconditional Decree yet if a Sparrow does not fall to the ground without our Father much less does Man No man can go out of this World no more than he can come into it but by a special Providence no man can destroy himself but by God's leave no Disease can kill but when God pleases no mortal Accident can befal us but by God's appointment who is therefore said to deliver the Man into the hands of his Neighbour who is killed by any evil Accident 19 Deut. 4 5. Those wasting Judgments of Plague and Pestilence Famine and Sword are appointed by God and have their particular Commissions where to strike as we may see 26 Lev. 47. Ier. 6. 7. 65 Isai. 12. 15 Ierem. 2. 91 Psal. and several other places All the rage and fury of Men cannot take away our lives but by God's particular permission 10 Matth. 28 29 30 31. And this lays as great an obligation on us as the love of life can which is the dearest thing in this World to serve and please God this will make us secure from all fears and dangers My times saith David are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me 31 Psal. 15. This encourages us to pray to God for ourselves or our Friends whatever danger our lives are in either from sickness or from men There is no case wherein he can't help us when he sees fit he can rectify the disorders of Nature and correct an ill habit of Body and rebuke the most raging Distempers which mock at all the Arts of Physick and powers of Drugs and many times does so by insensible methods To conclude this is a great satisfaction to good men that our lives are in the hands of God that though there be not such a fixt and immoveable Period set to them yet Death cannot come but by God's appointment SECT VI. The particular Time when we are to Die is unknown and uncertain to us III. THe particular time when any of us are to Die is unknown and uncertain to us and this is that which we properly call the uncertainty of our lives that we know not when we shall Die whether this night or to morrow or twenty years hence There is no need to prove this but only to mind you of it and to acquaint you what wise use you are to make of it 1. This shews how unreasonable it is to flatter ourselves with the hope of long life I mean of prolonging our lives near the utmost term and period of humane life which though it be but short in itself is yet the longest that any man can hope to live No wise man will promise himself that which he can have no reason to expect but what has very often failed others for let us seriously consider what reason any of us have to expect a long life is it because we are young and healthful and vigorous And do we not daily see young men die can youth or beauty or strength secure us from the arrests of Death is it because we see some men live to a great age But this was no security to those who died young and left a great many men behind them who had lived twice or thrice their age and therefore we also may see a great many old men and die young
done but once for their whole lives especially if the happiness of their whole lives depends on it for no errour can be corrected in what is to be done but once and certainly we have much more reason to prepare to die once which translates us to an immutable state of Happiness or Misery This ought to be the work and business of our whole lives to prepare for Death which comes but once but that once is for Eternity What unpardonable folly is it for any Man to be surprized by Death to fall into the Grave without thinking of it To commit a mistake which may be retrieved again to be guilty of some neglect and inadvertency when the hurt we suffer by it may be repair'd by future diligence and caution is much more excusable because it is not so fatal and irreparable a folly In this case experience may teach wisdom and wisdom is a good purchase though we may pay dear for it but a wise Man will use great caution in making an experiment which if it fail will cost him his life because that can never be tried a second time and experience is of no use in such things as can be done but once And this is the case of dying we can die but once and if we miscarry that once we are undone for ever And what considering Man would make such dangerous experiments as Sinnres do every day when their Souls are the price of the experiment Who would try how long Death will delay its coming how long he may sin on safely without thinking of Death or Judgment whether Death will give him timely notice to repent or whether God will give him grace to repent if it does Who would venture the infinite hazards of a Death-bed-repentance whether after a long life of sin and wickedness a few distracted confused and almost despairing sighs and groans will carry him to Heaven If such bold Adventurers as these when they have discovered their mistake and folly could return back into this World and live over their lives again the hazard were not so great but this is an experiment not to be twice made If they sin on till they harden themselves in sin and are forsaken of the Grace of God if Death comes long before they expected and cut them off by surprize and without warning if their dying and despairing Agonies and Horrours should not prove a true godly Sorrow not that repentance to salvation never to be repented of they are lost to Eternity And what wise Man would expose his Soul to such a hazard as this Who would not take care to make his Calling and Election sure before Death comes and in a matter of such infinite concernment wherein one miscarriage is irreparable to prevent danger at a distance 2dly We hence learn how necessary it is for those who begin well to persevere unto the end It is the conclusion of our lives which determines our future state as God expresly tells us by his Prophet Ezekiel 18 Ezek. 21 24. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die And throughout the New Testament the reward is promised only to those who continue to the end And what I have now discoursed gives a plain account of this for our whole life is a state of trial and probation and if we leave off before our work be done if we stop or run backwards before we come to the end of our race we must lose our reward our crown the Christian Life is a state of Warfare and we know the last Battel gives the final Conquest and this cannot be otherwise because what comes last undoes what went before when a wicked Man turns from his wickedness and does good God in infinite Mercy thro' the Merits and Mediation of Christ will forgive his sins because he has put them away from him and undone them by repentance and a new life when a righteous Man turns from his righteousness and does wickedly his righteousness shall be forgotten because he has renounced it and parted with it and is a righteous Man no longer Now when God comes to judge the World he will judge Men as he then finds them he will not inquire what they have been but what they are he will not condemn a righteous Man because he has been wicked nor justifie a wicked Man because he has been righteous for this would be to punish the Righteous and to reward the Wicked Such as we are when we die such we shall continue for ever and therefore it is the last scene of our lives which determines our future state And should not this make us very jealous and watchful over ourselves To take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living GOD. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of GOD lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest after we have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ we are again entangled therein and overcome and it happen to us according to the true proverb The dog is turned to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire This as the same Apostle tells us makes our latter end worse than the beginning for it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us Let those consider this who have been blessed with a religious Education and trained up in the exercises of Piety and Vertue who have preserved themselves from the pollutions of youthful Lusts and spent their vigorous age in the service of God Can you be contented to lose all these hopeful beginnings to lose all your triumphs and victories over the World and the Flesh When you have out-rid all the storms and hurricanes of a tempting World for so many Years will you suffer yourselves to be shipwracked in the Haven When you are come within view of the promised Land will you suffer your hearts then to fail you will you then murmur and rebel against God and die in the Wilderness There has been a very warm Dispute about the Perseverance of Saints Whether those who are once in a state of Grace shall always continue so I will not undertake
lives wast and the other World grows near so we should recover a more lively sence of it yet we find it quite otherwise When men have been used to think the next World a great way off they will never think it near till it comes and when they have been used to think of the other World without any passion or concernment for it it is almost an impossible thing to give any quickness and passion to such thoughts for when any thoughts and the passion that properly belongs to such thoughts have been a great while separated it is a hard thing to unite them again to begin to think of that with passion and concern which we have been used for thirty or forty years to think of without any concernment 3. Another dangerous effect of flattering ourselves with long life is that it encourages men to sin with the vain hopes and resolutions of repenting before they die When men are convinced that if they live and die in sin they must be miserable for ever as I believe most profest Christians are as I am sure all must be who believe the Gospel of our Saviour there is no other possible way to ward off this blow and to sin securely under such Convictions but by resolving to repent and to make their peace with God before they die They flatter themselves they have a great while yet to live Judgment is a great way off and therefore they may indulge themselves a while and enjoy the sweets of sin and gratifie their youthful inclinations and learn the Vanity of the World by experience as their Forefathers have done before them and then they will grow as wise and grave and declaim against the Follies and Vanities of Youth and be as penitent and as devout and religious as any of them all Whoever considers the uncertainty of Humane Life if he should hear men talk at this rate would either conclude that they were mad or merrily disposed but could never guess that they were in their wits and in good earnest too but if he will allow men to be in their wits who can promise themselves long life when they see every day how uncertain life is and if we will not allow such men to be in their wits above two thirds of the World are mad this gives a plain account how men may resolve to sin while they are young and to repent when they are old for it is only the flattering hopes of long life that can encourage men in a course of sin Men indeed who do not promise themselves long life may commit a particular sin and resolve to repent of it as soon as they have done which are a more modest sort of Sinners of which more presently but I speak now of those and too many such there are who resolve to take their fill of this World while youth and strength and health last and to grow sober and religious when they grow old the consequent of which is that they resolve to be damned unless they live till they are old or till they grow weary of their sins and learn more wisdom by age and experience Now I shall not insist at present upon the hazard such men run of not living till the time comes which they have allotted for their repentance which belongs to another Argument but onely what a dangerous thing it is to be tempted to a custom and habit of sinning by the hope of long life and of time enough to repent in for there is not a greater Cheat in the World that men put upon themselves than to indulge themselves in all manner of Wickednesses to contract strong and powerful habits of Vice with a resolution to repent of their sins and to forsake them before they die The experience of the World sufficiently proves how vain this is for though some such men may live while they are old how seldom is it seen that they repent of their youthful Debaucheries when they grow old They still retain their love and affection for those sins which they can commit no longer and repent of nothing but that they are grown old and cannot be so wicked as they were when they were young And is there any reason in the World to expect it should be otherwise Do we not know what the power of habit and custom is how the love of sin increases with the repeated commission of it and is the spending our youthful strength and vigour in sin likely to dispose and prepare us to be sincere Penitents when we grow old Do we not see that a custom of sinning in some men destroys the modesty of humane Nature in others all sence of God and of Religion or of the natural differences of good and evil Some men sin on till they despise repentance others till they think repentance is too late so that though men were sure that they should live long enough to grow wiser and to repent and reform the sins and extravagances of youth yet no man who enters upon a wicked course of life has any reason to expect that he shall ever repent and therefore it is extreamly dangerous to flatter ourselves into a habit and custom of sinning with the hopes and expectations that we shall live to repent of our sins and if this be dangerous it must be very dangerous to flatter ourselves with the hopes of long life which is the great temptation to men to sin on and to delay their repentance till old age 2. Since the time of our Death is so unknown and uncertain to us we ought always to live in expectation of it to be so far from promising ourselves long life that we should not promise ourselves a day And the reason for it is plain and necessary because we are not sure of a day This you 'll say is hard indeed to live always in expectation of dying which is no better then dying every day or enduring the repeated fears and terrors of Death every day which is the most uncomfortable part of dying at this rate we never live but instead of dying once as God has appointed we are always a dying nay this indeed is a fine saying but signifies nothing for no man does it nor can do it though we may die every day we see that men live on forty fifty threescore years and therefore though we know that our lives are uncertain yet no man can think every day that he shall die to day This is very true and therefore to live always in expectation of dying does not signifie a belief that we shall die to day but only that we may which answers the objection against the uncomfortableness of it for such an expectation as this has nothing of dread and terror in it but only prudence and caution Men may live very comfortably and enjoy all the innocent pleasures of life with these thoughts about them to expect Death every day is like expecting Thieves every night which does not disturb our rest but