solace and satisfie them as that there shall not be room for the least tittle or iota of a desire for ever yea such sights and enjoyments as shall so satisfie them as to leave them under an utter impossibility of ever turning aside from them to any thing else and so an eternal impossibility of sinning Oh how sweet must this be and indeed the School-men I find and others from them give this as one reason why the Saints in heaven are impeccable because the sight and enjoyment they have of God there is so full and satisfying as that they cannot turn aside to any thing else O welcom death that brings us to those sights those enjoyments of God the Chief Good Once more 7. Death when ever it comes will bring you to and set you down in the enjoyment of an eternal Sabbath and oh how sweet is this There remaineth a Rest the word is a Sabbath or Sabbatism to the people of God Heb. 4.9 Ay but when shall they enjoy it why truly when death comes that will enter them upon it immediately upon the night of death dawns the eternal Sabbath True the Saints enjoy a Sabbath here and the Sabbath to them is the sweetest and amiablest day in all the week 't is a day of joy and holy feasting to their souls and oh how many times do your souls long for it but alas these Sabbaths have an end but the Sabbath death will set them down in will be an eternal Sabbath and an eternal Sabbath wherein they shall be employed in the highest acts of worship and adoration even Love Praise Admiration and Halleluja's for ever wherein there will be no weariness no faintness wherein there shall be no intermission no going to duties and break off again as here we do but an whole Eternity shall be imployed in acts of Divine Worship and Adoration wherein there shall be no deadness no dulness no spiritual indispositions no unsuitableness in us to those high and holy Exercises which this Sabbath will be fill'd with but our souls shall be perfectly suited to and fitted for those glorious employs wherein not a few only and those some Saints and some sinners some good and some bad shall joyn together in acts of worship but an innumerable company both of Saints and Angels and these all perfectly holy Heb. 12.22 23 24. Oh how sweet and glorious will this be 'T is a great saying which I have read in a worthy Divine Sabbaths here are comfortable says he and we have tasted some sweet some comfort in some Sabbaths but take all the comfort that ever you had in all the Sabbaths you have enjoyed here and all will be nothing to the comforts and sweetness of the Eternal Sabbath Alas the perpetual Sabbath that shall be hereafter that will be the accomplishment of all these Sabbaths how sweet then must that be Oh ye Saints of God lift up your heads death will set you down in this Sabbath How have some of us longed sometimes for the coming of the Sabbath and how have we grieved when it has been gone well but when death comes that will bring you to a Sabbath that shall never end 'T is a sweet saying of Austin There says he speaking of Heaven is the great Sabbath a Sabbath that hath no evening no end in which we shall rest and behold behold and love love and praise for ever Oh blessed be God for this Sabbath and blessed be God that death when it comes shall bring us to this Sabbath Well then fear not death dread not death but be found diligent and faithful in the use of the helps prescribed for the preparing of your souls for it and then 't will greatly befriend you when ever it comes and you may exult and rejoyce in it I should now conclude but I must first beg all that read this plain Discourse deeply and frequently to consider and contemplate these things 1. Every day seriously consider and contemplate the exceeding worth of your souls and the great things they are capable of 't is sad to think what low thoughts the most of men have of their souls they are content to sell their souls to lose their souls to damn their souls and all for a lust for a little of this world a little carnal sensual pleasure and delight here which is but for a moment That rebuke which Austin gave one is due to the most How comes it to pass says he that among all thy good things thou wilt let nothing be in an ill case but thy self thy Soul Truly the most of men are solicitous to have all well but their Souls they will have it go well with their Bodies their Names their Estates their Families but their Souls they mind not But my Beloved I beseech you think deeply and frequently of the worth of your souls and the concerns of them O 't is your soul that is your principal part Christ who best knew the worth of souls tells you that the whole World is nothing to one soul and that the gain of the one can't recompence the loss of the other no not in the least Mat. 16.26 and you know what a price he was pleased to pay for souls even his own Blood his precious Blood Life and all 1 Pet. 1.19 Besides there are two things which speak the soul to be a thing of unspeakable worth and value its vast capacity and its absolute immortality 1. The capacity of the soul speaks its worth Oh what great things is the soul of man capable of there is a kind of infiniteness as a worthy Divine observes in the soul of man 't is capable of even an infinite happiness or an infinite misery 't is capable of eternal life or eternal death 't is capable of unconceivable communications both of love and wrath and must one day be fill'd with the one or the other of them 't is capable of knowing God of bearing his Image of enjoying glorious communion with him yea of living Gods own life and in a participation of his own blessedness look whatever the Angels enjoy look whatever the humane soul of Christ enjoys that thy soul is capable of the enjoyment of Sinner O how precious does this speak it to be and how great should thy concern be for it while day and season lasts contemplate it therefore a little and say O how precious is my soul and what great things is it capable of and it being so why do I take up in such low poor dungy drossy things as the best of sin and this world are 2dly The immortality of the soul argues its worth the soul that never dies 't is indeed but as it were a spark a beam of God's own immortality breathed into the body at least there is a stamp and impress thereof upon it the body that dies that returns to dust but the soul that lives that goes to God Eccles 12.7 As the mortality of the body as a Learned man
I am not As the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more He shall return no more to his House and his place shall know him no more Again Job 10.20 21. Are not my dayes few Cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return even into the Land of darkness and the shadow of death And again Ch. 16.22 When a few dayes are come then shall I go the way whence I shall not return All shewing that when a man is once gone off the Stage of this World there is no return for him any more Second Proposition is this That such is the state of men and women under death that there is nothing to be done for their souls there is nothing to be mended that is amiss nothing to be set in order that shall be found out of order Death my beloved is not the time of working but of receiving the reward of our work Death leaves us under an utter and eternal impossibility of ever doing any thing for another World Therefore whatever thine hand findeth to do saith Solomon do it with al thy might for there is no work nor counsel in the Grave whither thou goest Eccles 9.10 And I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day because the night cometh when no man can work saith Christ John 9.4 Death is a state of darkness and it deprives us of all helps advantages and opportunities of ever doing any thing for the good of our souls There is no repenting no believing no turning to God in the Grave There is no assuring pardon of sin no getting an Interest in Christ no making our Calling and Election sure there O no these things must be done now or they can never be done and if they be never done our souls are for ever undone 'T was an Epicurean saying of him who said Eat drink play for after death there is no pleasure but it would be a Christian saying to say to you and my own soul love God pray to him seek his face repent believe make sure of Christ for after death none of these are to be done They must be done here or never Third Proposition is this That such is the state of men and women under death that the Soul is actually and irreversibly stated and concluded in his eternal condition The Souls eternal state is absolutely fix'd and unchangeably determined without any alteration for ever 'T is an observation among the School-men that look what befel the Angels that sinned that in death befalls wicked men those that are not ready for a dying hour The Angels immediately upon their sinning were stated in an irreversible condition of wo and misery And wicked men unready souls immediately upon death are irreversibly stated in a like eternal condition they are eternally sealed up under damnation And the Devils may as soon get out of those Chains of eternal darkness whereinto they are cast and in which they are locked up being reserved unto Judgment as such persons can change or reverse that condition The truth is death when ever ot where ever it comes is a determining thing it concludes the soul for ever under an unalterable state of life or death of happiness or misery for as the Tree falls so it lies Eccl. 11.3 Hence in death the Spirit the soul is said to return to God Eccl. 12.7 Upon which a learned man has this observation God saith he receives the Soul of Man when he dies to himself and having received it he delivers it either to the Holy Angels that by them it might be carried to Heaven if it hath been holy and good or he delivers it to the evil Angels by them to be dragged into Hell if it hath been ungodly Hence the Apostle tells us after death comes judgment Heb. 9.27 By which is meant the particular Judgment of every man and woman immediately upon death which is nothing else but the stating of the soul in an eternal condition Hence also when Dives is brought in desiring that Lazarus might dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue answer is made that it cannot be for as much as there is no going for any either from Hell to Heaven or from Heaven to Hell because there is a Gulph fixed Luke 16.26 Noting the unalterableness of that state which Death sets men down in whether of happiness or misery Well then if such be the state of men and women under death as we have heard then surely 't is highly our concernment to have all ready all in order against a dying hour comes Having given you thus briefly the demonstration of the point I shall make some practical improvement of it CHAP. V. Wherein sinners are convinced of their sin and folly in their neglect of this concern with six weighty Pleas or Arguments to set home this Conviction and awaken them to their work ANd is this indeed a concern of so much weight and moment to us Then how great is their folly and what enemies are they to their own souls who live in the neglect of this great business and concern which the most of men do God is pleased to spare yeâ— wonderfully to spare them for dayes for weeks for months for years together and that for this very end that they should make themselves ready and set all right in the matters of their souls against a dying hour comes but woe and alas for them This they mind not this they concern not themselves about but do live in a total neglect thereof than which what greater folly can they be guilty of Pray mind what God himself speaks in this case Deut. 32.28 29. Where he saith concerning Israel they were a Nation void of counsel nor was there any understanding in them And what then O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Observe here two things attested and verified by God himself First that 't is a point of the highest wisdom the Sons of men are capable of seriously to consider their latter end that is to prepare for death to set all things right in the matters of their souls so as that things may issue well with them at last and they may go off the Stage of this World with comfort Secondly that not to do this is a point of the greatest folly It doth evidently argue men to be void of counsel and all true understanding It would have been their wisdom to have considered their latter end and their not doing of it argued them to be guilty of notorious folly These things you may see God himself attests and verifies here And my Beloved what greater folly can there be than for a man to live in the neglect of that which is of so much weight and importance for him to mind as this is Surely the greater the concern
is the greater must our folly be in the neglect thereof yet this is the folly that the most of men are guilty of they mind not their latter end their dying hour at least not so as to make a timely provision for it God lets them live many years and perhaps they rejoyce in them all but they forget the dayes of darkness which are many They regard not the state of their souls nor how things stand between God and them in reference to another World And O that this were not the folly of too many of us who profess the belief of another life a future state We live and enjoy good but we put far from us the evil day as those are said to do Amos 6.3 God spares us time after time but no provision do we make for a dying hour O how many of us have never yet set any thing right in the matters of our souls any thing in order against the time comes when we are to go hence and be no more that have scarce ever had yet one serious thought of Death Judgment or Eternity nor made the least tittle of provision for them And what shall I say to such I would if God saw good awaken them out of their folly and convince them of it In order to which I would plead a little with them in five or six particulars 1. Must we not all go hence Solomon tells us there is a time to be born and a time to die Eccl. 3.2 And the one is as sure as the other as sure as we have had a time to be born so sure we shall have a time to die and the living know it The living know that they shall die saith Solomon Eccl. 9.5 Indeed they may well know it for not only the experience of between five and six thousand years tells them so but it is what is appointed what is infallibly determined by the unchangeable Law and Degree of Heaven Heb. 9.27 nor can any thing whatever exempt us from the stroak of Death 1. Youthful strength and vigour can't do it For young men die as well as old strong men die as well as weak One dieth in his full strength saith the Holy Ghost being wholly at ease and quiet his breasts are full of milk and his bones are moistned with marrow Job 21.23 24. 2. Worldly pomp and greatness can't do it For great men die as well as mean men rich men die as well as poor men Where is the House of the Prince saith the Holy Ghost Answer is made He shall be brought to the Grave and shall remain in the Tomb the clods of the Valley shall be sweet unto him and every man shall draw after him as there is innumerable before him Job 21.28 32 33. So in the 49 Psalm 16 17 18 19. Be not thou afraid when one is made rìch when the Glory of his House is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him though while he lived he blessed his soul and the like he shall go to the generation of his Fathers he shall never see light 3. Humane wisdom and policy can't do it for wise men die as well as fools So Psal 49.10 Wise men die likewise the Fool yea in many respects Wise men die as the Fool Eccl. 2.16 Pray what is become of all the wise men and great Politicians that have lived in former Ages Truly the clods of the Valley cover them 4. Spiritual gifts and graces can't do it For good men die as well as bad holy men as well as wicked men The righteous man perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away Isa 57.1 5. Eminency of place and service can't do it Your Fathers where are they And the Prophets do they live for ever Zach. 1.5 What higher place than to be a Prophet to be an Ambassadour for God and yet such die Nothing you see can exempt us from death's strokes Why then should we neglect to prepare for it I will close this Head with a saying I have read in one of the Ancients What among humane affairs saith he is more certain than death What more uncertain than the hour of death Death compassionates not poverty it reverences not either the greatness it spares no Sex no Manners no Age only it seems to come in at the gate upon old men but craftily it steals in upon young ones 2. Does not death hasten upon us all As we must all die so death hastens apace upon us Every step we take is a step towards death and the grave So we find Eccl. 9.10 Our whole life is as one well observes upon that place nothing else but a journey towards Death and the Grave whether we sleep or wake eat or drink trade or travel pray or play we are still hastening to the Grave A dying hour hastens upon us all and how fast pray does it hasten upon us Faster than a Weavers Shuttle does to the end of the Web My dayes saith Job are swifter than a Weavers Shuttle Job 7.6 How fast does it hasten upon us As fast as yea faster than a Post hastens to the end of his Stage or a swift Ship to the Harbour under the advantage of Wind and Tide or the swift flying Eagle to the prey My dayes are swifter than a Post saith Job they flee away they see no good They are passed away as the swift Ships as the Eagle hasteneth to the prey Job 9.25 26. How fast does it hasten upon us So fast as that for ought we know it will be upon us before we see the light of another day Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Luke 10.20 How fast does it hasten upon us So fast as that for ought we know it may be upon us the next hour yea the next moment They spend their dayes in mirth and in a moment go down to the grave Job 21.13 To be sure it will be upon us speedily and it may be upon us suddenly I pray consider what are we And what is our life Wind Job 7.7 O remember that my life is wind an hands breadth Psalm 39.5 Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hands-breadth mine Age is as nothing before thee a declining shadow Psalm 102.11 My dayes are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like Grass A Flower of the Field which is withered and gone with the Wind As for man his dayes are as Grass as a Flower of the Field the Wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof knoweth it no more Psalm 103.15 16. And again All flesh is Grass and the goodliness thereof as the Flower of the Field the Grass withereth the Flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the people is grass Isa 40.6 7. Vanity and a shadow Man is like to vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away Psalm 144.4 A
vapour which appeareth for a little season and is gone James 4.14 O how soon may one or another or all of us be among the dead How soon may death approach us 3. What infinite mercy is it that God has spared us thus long and still does spare us to set all things right to make all ready for a dying hour O my Beloved how great is the sparing mercy of God towards us We have had some forty some fifty some sixty years in the World and still God spares us still he lets us live and enjoy good and why all this think you smely to set things right in our souls to make ready for a dying hour and shall we yet neglect it God forbid O Sirs think a little I beseech you with your selves how long since the Grave might have swallowed us up and the Bottomless Pit have shut its mouth upon us How long since might time and dayes have been at an end with us and our souls stated in a miserable Eternity But still God spares us and we are yet in the Land of the Living with a door of mercy and grace yet open unto us at least a possibility left us of knowing the things of our peace in our day of making provision for Death and Eternity And O what mercy is this I would fain a little quicken both you and my self by this consideration And in order thereunto let me plead a little particularly with you 1. Consider how long God hath spared and does spare you beyond what he does and has thousands and ten thousands of others God does not spare all at that rate which he has spared and does still spare us Alas How many thousands are there now free among the dead who came into being long since we did Their Glass is run their Sun is set their day is over their hopes and expectations are all at an end their souls are stated in an eternal condition a condition that will admit of neither change nor period for ever and yet we are spared still They came into the World long after us and are gone into Eternity long before us Yea how many are there that never arrived to the one half of those years that we have arrived unto their Sun has set in the morning How many of us have out-lived our yoke-fellows our children our servants our friends and acquaintance And yet we stand our ground and all this that we might prepare for a dying hour This patience of God should lead us to repentance Rom. 2.5 And O that it might so do 2. Consider how much we have provoked God and what advantage we have given him in Justice against us I would fay here as Christ speaks in another case Luke 13. begin Suppose ye that those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloah fell and slew them think ye they were sinners above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish So say I here suppose ye that those that are gone down to the gates of the grave and the bars of death before us were greater sinners than we I tell you nay but except we repent we must all likewise perish We have sinned as well as they and possibly in many regards more than they To be sure we have all over and over deserved long since to have been covered with the shadow of the Night of eternal darkness O how has the patience of God been tried and his long-sufferings put to it by us What a burden have we been to his Soul Some of us have cause to think that we have been as great a burden to God as most that ever lived How justly may the blessed God complain of many of us That we have made him to serve with our sins and wearied him with our iniquities as he did of them of old Isa 43.24 that we have broke his heart with our whorish heart whereby we have departed from him Ezek. 6.9 that our sins have pressed him down as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves Amos 2.13 Alas Alas How have we wallowed in our pollutions and acted out the enmity and rebellion of our natures against him How have we rejected his Word resisted his Spirit despised his Grace trampled upon his Son refused many and many an offer of love and many a sweet Call and blessed invitation to come to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb And yet that he should still spare us O what mercy is this In the 1 Pet. 3.20 we read that the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah And truly my Beloved it waits as much in our dayes our provocations being as many and as high against him as theirs of that Generation were O Sirs why are we not in Hell Why are we not sealed and shut up among the damned Why have we one Call more one offer more one season of Grace more Verily 't is all rich Mercy O that it might lead us to Repentance 3. Consider how sad it had been with us had the Lord taken that advantage against us which we have over and over given him Suppose my Beloved God had not spared us but had cut us off as he might long since what now had been become of us And where now had we been Had you died of such and such a sickness you have been in when possibly a sentence of Death was passed upon you both by your selves and others and there was really but a step between death and you where and how miserable had you now been Had you not been now in the flames eternally separated from God and Christ Being Godless and Christless Have you not now cause to fear you had been in as irrecoverable a condition as the Devils themselves are in sealed up under wrath and condemnation past all hopes and possibility of mercy for ever Whither had I gone saith Austin if then speaking of the time that he was in his sins I had gone hence Whither had I gone but into the flames and into eternal torments answerable to my sins May not we say the like But blessed be God it is yet time and season with me and you we are spared to this hour that we might provide for death and Eternity O Sirs suppose you or I were now among the damned suppose we were as they are sealed up under wrath and separated from God left under an utter impossibility of ever seeing his face how sad then would our condition be Why thus it might have been with us O what mercy then is it that God has spared us and doth-spare us as he does And how should it awaken us to our work 4. Consider how much more sad it may and will yet be with us in case we provide not for
vagabond and a fugitive it changes it self into all shapes it will and it will not 't is like a leaf moved and carried about with the wind My vain and importunate heart hales me now to the Market and then to strifes and brawlings now to feasting and then to impure lusts now the flesh is inflamed with sordid titillations then the mind is defiled with filthy cogitations And who of us may not make the same complaint yea such is the enmity and opposition of our own hearts against Heaven and the things of Heaven that many times when we most resolve and set our selves to follow God and to pursue the work of our souls then they set us most back It was a great speech of that same Father This sayes he is my daily exercise with my whole strength I bend to thee and would mount up to God and Heaven but by how much the more strongly I endeavour to come up to thee by so much the more powerfully I am cast into the earth into my self and even under my self captivated to my lusts And so 't is often with us Le ts then and oppositions must be expected by us on all hands and we had need therefore the more to awaken to our work 'T is true if you will ingage in good earnest in the work of your souls your helps and incouragements will be greater than your lâ—ts and discouragements you will have more with you then against you You will have God with you and Christ with you and the Comforter with you and all the Graces of the Covenant with you be incouraged therefore to set upon Soul-work Now lay all these things together and see if it be an easie matter to make ready for a dying hour and if it be not why should we neglect Why should we delay any longer 6. How terrible will death be to you And what a dreadful change will it make with you in case you still neglect to make ready for it Suppose my Beloved you go on in the neglect of this Great Concern putting far from you the evil day what think you will the issue of it be will not death be most terrible to you when you shall be called to conflict with it Will it not make a dreadful change with you Surely it will Death to an unready soul what will it be It will be the period of all his mercies of all his comforts of all his hopes For such an one receives all his good things in this life before death comes Luke 16.25 It will be the sending of him to his own place the cutting him down as fewel for everlasting burnings It will be as a worthy Divine speaks the taking up of a Draw-bridge and the pulling up of the Flood-gates of Gods eternal wrath to let in the deluge of it upon his soul for ever It will be a change to him but what change will it be Surely a very sad one 1. A change from Earth to Hell And is not this a sad Change The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all that forget God Psalm 19.17 And we read of the rich man who was unready for death that being dead he was in Hell Luke 22.23 2. A change from Light to Darkness and is not that a sad change The Holy Ghost speaking of such an one tells us God shall drive him out of light into darkness and chase him out of the world Job 18.18 Here wicked men enjoy the light of Creature comforts but God will drive them out of these into the darkness of Eternal misery into utter darkness Mat. 25.30 into blackness of darkness Jude 13. 3. A change from pleasure to pain from delight to torment a sad change it is from pleasure and delight in sin to pain and torment for sin Luke 16.23 Here the soul sports himself in the pleasures and delights of sin and he thinks he can never have enough but then there will be an end of all those pleasures and delights and nothing but pain and torment and vexation will succeed them 4. A change from the offers of Grace to the Revelations of Wrath Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction saith the Psalmist in that 88 Psal 11. True in the 1 Pet. 3.19 20. we read of Christ's preaching by his Spirit to the Spirits in Prison that is to Souls in Hell But mark when was it that he preach'd to them not when in prison but in the days of Noah when they lived in the world There is never an offer of grace and love made to souls in the Grave while life lasts the soul hears the joyful sound And O the sweet offers the gracious tenders the loving invitations that are made to him of Christ of Grace of Eternal Life and Love O the wooings the meltings the entreatings the allurings of Divine Love to and over the soul but when death comes farewell all these farewell all the sweet offers of Christ and all the blessed motions of the Spirit then there 's nothing but wrath reveiled and wrath shall come on the neglecting soul to the uttermost 5. A change from fair probabilities to utter impossibilities of life and salvation a sad change still Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation now and not hereafter 2 Cor. 6.2 Now there is a fair probability for the worst of sinners to be saved if they will look after Salvation and mind their Eternal Concerns Christ is both able and willing to save to save was the end of his coming into the world and of all he did and suffered here 1 Tim. 1.15 Now they are besought and entreated to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.19 20. but when death comes that changes these fair Probabilities into utter impossibilities of life and salvation Therefore mark Now says the Apostle is the day of salvation that is now while life lasts and while the Gospel is preached 6. A change from hope to despair a sad change indeed We read that the hopes of the Hypocrite shall perish Job 8.13 and that the expectation of the wicked shall perish Prov. 10.28 Whether men be open sinners or close hypocrites their hopes at last shall all fail and turn into despair despair of ever seeing God or enjoying the least tittle or Iota of good for ever Thus death will be terrible to you and make a dreadful change with you in case you neglect to make ready for its coming 't will affright you as bad as the hand-writing upon the wall did that proud King Dan. 5.5 6. Which made his countenance change his thoughts to trouble him and the joynts of his loyns to be losed and his knees to smite one against another O when death comes and thou shalt be found unready how will thy countenance change thy joynts be losed thy thoughts troubled and thy heart tremble within thee In a word I would say to you as the Prophet spake of old Isa 10.3 What will you do
in the day of visitation and whither will you flee for help When death comes what will you do which way will you look will there be any hope any help any refuge for your souls to flee unto Alas there will be none Wilt thou then run to the mercies of God and cry Lord Lord Alas it will be in vain he will then say unto you Depart from me I know you not Mat. 25.11 12. Wilt thou then labour to get grace and pardon Alas it will be too late then the door will be shut against thee Mat. 25.10 Wilt thou then desire others to spare thee some of their Oyl Alas that will be a vain thing they will tell thee they have but enough for themselves Mat. 25.9 Wilt thou then plead thy gifts parts and services for Christ Alas it will be to no purpose unless thou hast done the main work notwithstanding all thy gifts and services he will send thee away with the workers of iniquity Mat. 7.22.23 Wilt thou call upon the Rocks and Mountains to cover thee and hide thee from the wrath of him that sits upon the Throne Alas it wil be in vain Rev. 6. latter end O sinner when thou shalt see thy self launching out into the great Ocean of Eternity and God shall as it were say to thee by the Mouth of thy own Conscience Well now time and days are at an end with you and will never dawn more what hast thou done for thy Soul What provision hast thou made for another world Is Christ thine hast thou gotten thy sins pardoned and the like When it shall be thus I say what wilt thou then do and whither wilt thou then look how wilt thou then cry out Undone undone I am lost for ever my day is ended and my work is still to do woe is me what a God a Christ a Heaven a Blessedness a Glory have I wilfully and foolishly lost truly thou and such as thou are the only persons whose death will be truly lamentable I remember a saying I have read in one of the Ancients They saith he are to be bewailed in their death whom the Devils drag away to the torments of the Infernal Pit not they whom the holy Angels do conduct to the joys of Paradise they are to be bewailed who after death are by the Devils turned into Hell and not they who by the Angels are placed or set down in Heaven O that these things might convince you of your folly and awaken your souls and that so as yet to know the things of your peace in your day and the time of your visitation CHAP. VI. Being a Call to all Good and Bad Saints and Sinners to address themselves to the great work of making all ready for a dying hour WHat is the language of all this Verily it calls aloud upon us all Good and Bad Saints and Sinners to make it our great business to set all things right in the matters of our souls and make all ready for a dying hour And O that we would make this improvement of this great truth and of God's sparing goodness to us he spares us and why does he spare us but that we should set all things right and make all things ready Oh that we would now fall in with the end and design of God herein making it our great care and business in time to provide for Eternity in life to make ready for death Some of you I verily believe are about this work and the Lord prosper you in it You know you were born for Eternity and you do endeavour to live for Eternity your great work in time is to make provision for a blessed Eternity O happy souls that you are Others of us and those by far the most I fear are utterly negligent in this business Death and Eternity are little minded by us but we are in a sleepy drowsie secure spirit and to such methinks this truth speaks in a language much like to that of the Ship Master to Jonaâ— Jon. 1.6 What meanest thou O sleeper Arise and call upon thy God if so be he will think on us that we perish not So what mean you O you sleepy drowsie secure souls arise make ready for a dying hour set all things right all things in order in your spiritual concernments lest death come upon you at unawares and you be lost for ever And to such of us I would say as sometimes God did by the Prophet to Hezekiah Isa 38.1 Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live So say I to you set your hearts in order your spiritual concerns in order make all even between God and you for you shall shortly die and not live you shall shortly go hence and be no more and why should we not all do so if you be to change your condition in the world how careful and solicitous are you to have all things ready and in order for that change Why my Beloved you are shortly to pass under that great and last Change a Change from Time to Eternity and will you have no care no solicitude to make ready for that Change if you are to take a journey though but a few miles or to make a Voyage into a strange Land O how are you concerned to have all things ready all things in a prepared posture in order therreunto And my Beloved should not you be more concerned to make ready for your great journey your last and great Voyage you are making a journey a voyage out of Time into Eternity you are just launching sorth into the great Ocean And what nothing in order nothing ready nothing set right in order thereunto That is strange If you have some great business a business of more than ordinary importance to be done or a Suit at Law to be tryed and determined O how close do you follow it and how careful are you to have all things ready in order thereunto And my Beloved should you not be as careful and diligent to prepare and set all things right for the great business of your souls in another world Have you any business any concern of greater importance to you than the concern of your Souls and Eternity if you are to appear before some Earthly Judge especially if it be about a matter that concerns your life O how thoughtful are you to have all things ready and in order in reference thereunto And my Beloved should not you be as thoughtfull and solicitous to make all ready and to set all right in order to your appearing before the Judg of all the Earth and that about a matter which concerns the life of your souls about a matter of eternal life or death Well what shall I say will you set about this great business this great concern or is it all one with you whether you live or die are saved or damned to Eternity God yet spares you blessed be his Name Will you now set all right before you go
hence and be no more Sinners will you set about this great business your work is wholly yet to do though it may be your day is far spent your Glass is almost run your Sun near setting and all your work to do Oh 't is high time for you to awake out of sleep unless you mean to sleep the sleep of Eternal Death Saints will you set about this great business while God spares you You have done somewhat but there is much more yet to be done there is much out of order yet in your souls Grace weak it may be Corruption strong Peace broken Evidences blurr'd and blotted Unbelief powerful within you the heart much estranged from God little suitableness to Heaven in your Spirits and the like will you now labour to recover strength how many of us may complain as that holy man St. Bernard once did I am ashamed to live because I am so unprofitable and I am afraid to dye because I am so unprepared Surely this truth concerns the best of us all and if we understand our selves we cannot but know it the Lord help us to know it effectually And if after all you would indeed address to this great work and business then I have several great and weighty directions to propound to you for your help therein of which some more general some more particular and I would speak of each distinctly CHAP. VII Wherein are propounded several general directions in order to a through preparation of Soul for a dying hour 1. WOuld you indeed set all things right in your souls make all ready for a dying hour then in your most prosperous and flourishing state here maintain a frequent and serious remembrance of death and the grave upon your spirits If a man live many years saith Solomon and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they are many Eccl. 11.8 By the days of darkness here we are to understand death and the state of death the abode of our bodies in the grave which is a Land of darkness and where the light is as darkness Job 10.20 Now saith he though a man live many years and rejoyce in them all that is though a man live long and prosperously long and joyfully yet let him remember death and the grave the future state 'T is true there are other days of darkness which we are subject to in this world and should be remembred by us days of outward darkness the darkness of outward trouble and affliction and days of inward darkness the darkness of spiritual distress and dereliction and indeed 't is of marvellous use to us in our prosperity to remember these days of darkness but especially we should remember death and the Grave we should carry a lively remembrance of these days of darkness daily upon us and indeed our not remembring these days of darkness is one great cause why we are so unready for Death and the Grave as we are When we are in the midst of our enjoyments and the streams run pleasantly about us we are too apt to forget these days of darkness we are so taken with our earthly comforts that we are loth to think of Death and Eternity putting far from us the evil day as those in their enjoyments did Amos 6.3 And therefore when these days come they find us so unready and our spiritual concernments so discomposed as usually they do But my Beloved as ever you would have all right and in order in your souls against a dying hour comes let me recommend this to you as one special help maintain a deep and frequent remembrance of Death and the Grave upon your Spirits remember the days of darkness and that especially these two ways 1. Remember them so as to have them much in your meditation be much and frequent in the contemplation of Death and the Grave This the Holy Ghost calls a considering our latter end and withal mentions it as a business of great importance to us Deut. 32.29 To consider is to revolve a thing in our minds and to keep it much in our thoughts and meditations And thus we should consider our latter end and remember the days of darkness this is that the Saints of old have been much conversant in they were much and frequent in the thoughts and meditations of death as I might instance in the good old Patriarchs Job David and others And 't is what does marvellously conduce to our preparation for it The meditation of death saith one is life it is that which greatly promotes our spiritual life therefore walk much among the Tombs and converse much and frequently with the thoughts of a dying hour 2. Remember them so as to have them daily in your expectation In the midst of all your enjoyments expect Deaths approach daily this is called a waiting for our change All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change comes Job 14.14 And we are commanded to wait for the coming of our Lord as that which lies in the directest tendency to the exactest readiness and preparation for his coming Luke 12.36 Expect death every hour saith one for 't is every hour approaching thee In the morning when thou risest think with thy self this may be the last day In the evening when thou lyest down think with thy self this may be the last night I may ever have in this world I know not when my Lord will come whether in the morning or in the evening at mid-night or at the Cock-crowing therefore I will be always expecting his coming Woe and alas for us we are apt to talk of many years yet to come as he did Luke 12.9 whereas we should live in the expectation of death every moment Thus let us consider the days of darkness it will marvellously conduce to the preparation of the Soul for them the meditation and expectation of death will conduce much among others to these four things 1. It will conduce much to our humbling and self-abasing Let a man own himself to be a mortal saith Austin and pride will it must down And think frequently of death saith another and thou wilt easily bring down thy proud heart Hence also the consideration of Death is often in Scripture mentioned by the Holy Ghost as an argument to make us humble Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 as elsewhere 2. It will conduce much to the weaning of our hearts from this world and to the loosening of them from the things here below The time is short saith the Apostle what then Why it remaineth that they that have Wives be as though they had none and those that weep as though they wept not and those that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not those that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. He mentions the shortness of time as that the meditation
and expectation whereof has the directest tender 〈◊〉 in it to wean and loosen the heart from all things here below And indeed as St. Bernard hath it he easily contemns all things here who looks upon himself as dying daily 3. It will conduce much to the engaging the heart to Heaven and the things of Heaven to a serious pursuit of a blessed Eternity So we find Heb. 11.13 c. Those all dyed in the Faith saith the Apostle not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the earth that is they were apprehensive they had but a little time to stay here And what then They desire a better Countrey that is an Heavenly the apprehension they had of their departure hence quickned them unto earnest desires and pursuits after the better Countrey the Heavenly Land And indeed one great reason why we breath no more and press no more after Heaven and a blessed Eternity is because we so seldom remember these dayes of darkness 4. It will conduce much to the quickning of the Heart to Duty and to diligence and faithfulness therein Christ himself made use of it for this end I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work Jo. 9.4 Peter also that holy Apostle made use of it to that end I will not be negligent saith he to do so and so in the way of my Duty as knowing that shortly I shall put off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.12 13 14. The consideration of the near approach of his death quickned him to his Work and Duty And the Scripture propounds it as that which has a tendency to this thing Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with all thy might saith Solomon for there is no work nor counsel in the grave whither thou art going Eccl. 9.10 He propounds the consideration of our going to the Grave as a means to quicken us to our present Work By all which we see how much the serious remembrance of the dayes of darkness must needs contribute to our readiness and preparedness for these dayes Therefore be much in this work For my own part I have hardly found any one thing more quickning and engaging upon my Spirit than this And Souls I would beg you as you would live for ever think often of death 2. Would you indeed set all things right in your souls and make all ready for a dying hour Then be not fond of long life here in this World but rather covet to live as much as possible in a little time I would speak of each distinctly 1. Be not fond of long life here in this World A fond hope and desire of long life here is one of the greatest Enemies to a true preparation of Soul for our departure hence For pray observe take a man that is fond of long life here and all his thoughts and projects are for this World He is wholly taken up about and carried out after the concerns of Time scarce allowing himself one serious thought for Death and Eternity A sad instance you have hereof in the rich man Luke 12.19 he reckoned upon many years upon a long life here and what are the things he is taken up about verily the things of this world only the increase of his Goods and where to store his Treasures Fond hopes and desires of long life here will certainly produce great delays if not utter neglects in the great work and concern of your Souls and Eternity As ever therefore you would have all right and well in the concerns of your souls when you come to die be not fond of long life here but sit as loose in your thoughts hopes and desires both of this life and all the enjoyments of it as possibly you can And indeed my Beloved to reason it a little with you why should you be fond of long life here why should you covet a long stay in this world I would only plead with you in two things as to this 1. What is this world and what have we here that we should here covet a long stay is this world such a sweet such an amiable such a desirable thing it is an angry world a frowning world a dirty world a bewitching ensnaring world 'T is a waste howling Wilderness a strange Land an house of Bondage a troublesome tempestuous Sea an Aceldama a Field of Blood such I am sure 't is oftentimes to the poor Saints and people of God And what have we here Why here we have fears within and fightings without troubles on every side and from all hands from friends from enemies from men from devils here we have sorrows snares losses wounds deaths dangers temptations seductions disappointments vexation of spirit and truly little else is to be expected by us here except that which is worse than all this viz. dayly risings and ebolitions of lust violent eruptions of corruption great aboundings of sin and iniquity both in our selves and others continual breakings with God and departings from him renewing and increasing sin and guilt dayly Indeed this world is full of sin and temptation to sin 'T is as Augustin speaks of it tota tentatio all temptation and as it is all temptation so 't is little else but sin and why should we covet a long stay here Why saith one of the Ancients should we so much desire that life in which by how much the longer we live by so much the more we sin and the more numerous our days are the more numerous will our sins be who would desire to stay long in a Prison or a Dungeon in a state and place of sin and sorrow and such is this world 2. Is there not a better life a better place a better state for our souls to long and aspire after what do you think of the life above a whole Eternity spent in the Divine Presence in the bosom of Divine Love a life of love a life of pleasure a life of joy a life or admiration a life of holiness perfect and unspotted holiness a life every way correspondent to the Divine Life and the Divine Will is not this a better life to be with Christ is best of all Phil. 1.23 To possess a mansion in our Father's House prepared by our Lord and Head Jesus Christ for us to live for ever in the vision and fruition of Father Son and Spirit to dwell in the Heavenly City where no unclean thing can enter to joyn in with the glorious Host of Saints and Angels above and with them to spend a whole Eternity in Songs of Praise and Hallelujahs to God and the Lamb to take up all our waters at the Fountain head and indeed to dive and bathe unchangeably in the Fountain of all delights at the Father's right hand Oh how sweet is this life and how much to be desired by us
In a word my beloved the Saints when in the best frame have many of them been so far from being fond of long life here that indeed they have thought it long till the time came when they should go hence and be no more crying out with an holy impatiency Why is his Chariot so long a coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot 2. Covet to live much in a little time 'T is said of that Reverend and worthy Divine Dr. Preston that he desired to and accordingly did live much in a little time And our Lord himself you know did not live long in this world but he lived much in a little time he did much work in a few days for God and souls And indeed my beloved 't is not a long life but a fruitful life that is most amiable most desirable and most like his life who is life it self 'T is not he that lives many years but he that lives much in a few years that is the most happy soul I know those whose ambition is not to live long but to live fruitfully and to do as much as possibly they can in a little time and might they have their option or choice it would be this to live much in a little time and then have their dismission to rest And my Beloved let this be your choice and your ambition be casting about in your selves how you may live much in a little time how you may compass much spiritual work and business in a few days Labour to treasure up much grace much experience of God and his love to bring a large revenue of glory to him and the like And for this end possess your souls with a deep sense of the exceeding worth and preciousness of time and accordingly set your selves to redeem it looking upon the loss thereof to be the greatest loss in the world Eph. 5.16 we are commanded to redeem the time And what is it to redeem the time but to esteem time as precious as a thing of incomparable worth and value and accordingly to make the best and highest improvement of it for the honour of God and good of our souls that possibly we can It is to fill up our time with duty and our duties with grace to make use of time for those ends for which time is given us not to eat and drink and solace our selves in the Creature but to serve and honour the Creator to work out our Salvation to get acquaintance with God and Christ to make sure of Heaven and a blessed Eternity O Sirs look upon time as precious so indeed it is Time is the most weighty and momentous thing in the world 't is that which our eternal all depends upon According as we do or do not manage and improve our time well so will it go with us for ever 'T is a sweet meditation which I have read in a discourse of a holy man This life saith he of ours is most swift and yet in it Eternal Life is either gotten or lost for ever This life of ours is most miserable and yet in it Eternal Happiness is either gotten or lost for ever No less than a whole Eternity of Happiness or Misery Salvation or Damnation depends upon our use and management of our little time here in this world As the tree falls so it lies Eccles 11.3 As it is with us when we go out of time so it will be with us to all Eternity and this we should be much in the thoughts of accounting therefore the loss of time to be the greatest loss 'T is a weighty saying which I have read in one of the Ancients It is a great and heavy loss indeed saith he when we neither do good nor think good and let me add nor get good but we suffer our hearts to wander abroad about vain and unprofitable things and yet it is too difficult to restrain or keep them back from these things Truly no loss like the loss of time the loss of estate the loss of Trade the loss of this or the other outward comfort is nothing to the loss of time these being lost may be recovered again but time being lost can never be recovered more accordingly set your selves to redeem it and do it as much as possible you can accounting that day lost wherein you have not done something for God and your souls the truth is we live no more than we are conversant in the work of God and our souls For as for that which we call life that is not spent in this work it is not indeed to be accounted life Thirdly would you indeed set all things right in your souls make all ready for a dying hour then think much and often with your selves how great a change death will make with you when ever it comes death is a change and in many respects the greatest change which the Sons of men are to pass through all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Job 14.14 Job had many changes and great changes Changes and war were upon him as he complains Job 10.17 But no change like this of death this was the great change and this he waited for all his days indeed death is a great change to every man and woman come when and how it will 't is that as you have heard that deprives men of all their enjoyments here which dissolves the union between soul and body which turns the body to dust and putrifaction and which is unspeakably more than this it is that through which the soul enters into the immediate presence of God and states it in eternity it is a change from time to eternity from work to reward a reward suitable to the work we have here been doing whether it be good or evil and is not this a great change Take a few hints in particular about it to shew the greatness of it First It is such a change as all other changes upon the outward man are but leading and introductory unto and into which at last they all issue and resolve themselves we pass through many changes here in this world we may say as Job Changes and war are upon us but these are but leading and preliminary as it were to this last and great Change these all are or should be to us Monitors of this last Change and do but a little darkly shadow it out unto us Secondly It is such a change as calls for great spiritual changes to pass upon us here to sit and prepare us for it a change in our minds a change in our wills a change in our affections a change in our conversations a change in our whole man a real change a thorough change an universal change Old things must be done away and all things must become new 2 Cor. 5.17 The mind must be changed from darkness to light from ignorance to knowledg in spiritual things The will must be changed from enmity to subjection from
rebellion to obedience to God and his Laws the affections must be changed from earthliness to heavenliness from carnality to spirituality the Conversation must be changed from sin to holiness from vanity and loosness to strictness and seriousness in walking with God Oh how great must that change be that calls for so many and so great changes to sit and prepare us for it Thirdly it is such a change as though it do not put us out of being yet it puts us into a quite other manner of being than ever we yet had a change which sets us naked before the Tribunal of God to receive a definitive sentence of life or death from him a change which brings us into the immediate sight of God either as a gracious Father or as a revenging Judg a change which fully opens the eyes of the soul and makes him to see both grace and sin heaven and hell grace in its amiableness sin in its odiousness heaven in its glory and hell in its horrour for my Beloved whatever we are whether good or bad Saints or Sinners yet when we die our eyes will be fully opened to see these things we shall see unutterable things if we be good we shall see them with joy and exultation if we be bad we shall see them with anguish and confusion of soul Fourthly It is such a change as makes us capable of and actually puts us into unspeakably greater things either of happiness or misery comfort or confusion than ever here we knew or were capable of a change which in one moment in the twinkling of an eye carries the soul from small first fruits to the full vintage from a few drops to a bottomless boundless Ocean of either Happiness or vengeance Delight or Torment And withal there leaves him without any possibility of change or alteration for ever but that of its reunion with the body for it is such a change as leaves the state of the soul for ever unchangeable Oh then think much and often with your selves how great a change death will make with you certainly did men think and consider with themselves how great a change death will make with them when it comes they would not leave the matters of their souls in such disorders and discomposure in such an unready posture for it as they do Fourthly Would you indeed set all right in your Souls and make all ready for a dying hour then presently set upon Soul-work without admitting of the least delay or procrastination upon any account whatsoever delays and procrastinations in the work of our Souls and Eternity is the High-way to death and ruine what was it that ruined the foolish Virgins but their delays in this great work and their neglect of the great concerns of their soul till it was too late to mind them Mat. 25. begin Felix also was in a fair way and had a fair opportunity before him to have provided for another world but he delayed and his delay for ought we know was his ruine Acts 2.25 Truly the heart is very apt to delay and procrastinate Soul-work it is apt to cry out to morrow to morrow hence it is that the Scripture calls so often upon us for a speedy engaging in the work of our souls the Scripture saith now and to day now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 And to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 3.7 8. And if the Scripture saith now why shouldst thou talk of hereafter If the Scripture saith to day why shouldst thou talk of to morrow Austin confesseth this and withal tells us there is scarce any end of delays if once we give way to them I delayed saith he to be converted to God and put off my living to him from day to day And elsewhere he tells us that when God called upon him to awake to his work he returned nothing but a few sleepy words Anon Lord saith he anon bear with me a little but this anon and anon had no end and this bear with me a little went on a long way Take heed of this this hath been the ruine of thousands and ten thousands how many have been convinced that it is their duty and interest both to fall in with the work of God and their Souls to make preparation for another world but they have put it off till hereafter and satisfied their Consciences with resolutions hereafter to do so and so and have thus lost their season Oh fall presently without delay upon Soul-work and to quicken you a little hereunto consider four things First Consider the unreasonableness of delays no just Plea can be made nor true account given why you should delay your Soul-work one moment the Devil and a man 's own heart will make many Pleas but no just Plea can be made they will tell you it is too soon you are young and have time enough before you what need you engage so soon but is this a rational Plea Is it too soon to be saved too soon to be happy too soon to secure your eteraal interest is it too soon to lay hold on eternal life Is it too soon to know and enjoy God Is it too soon to be out of danger of perishing eternally Why truly it cannot be too soon for these things besides God calls for thy youth Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 And he greatly values the kindness of thy youth Jer. 2.2 Again they will suggest that such and such a business must be dispatched such a work done and carried off your hands and then you may attend this work Lord saith he to Christ I will follow thee but suffer me first to go bury my father and saith another Lord I will follow thee but first let me go and bid them farewell which are at home Luk. 9.57 61. But friends let me ask you if there be any business to be dispatched like the business of your Souls and Eternity is there any thing upon your hand that is of so much worth as your souls and of so much weight as Eternity is there any thing you are so nearly concerned to mind as that which is indeed the one thing necessary even the saving of your souls Oh the whole world is nothing to this and the greatest concernments on earth are but trifles to this concern Again they will tell you it is an inconvenient season and hereafter the work may be better done and minded by you than now it can which was Felix his case in the place before mentioned Acts 24.25 But hearken soul art thou sure of another season and art thou sure that that will be a more convenient season surely no if it be not convenient to day thou mayst fear it will be less convenient to morrow that Devil and deceitful heart that tells thee it is not convenient now will make provision that it shall be less convenient hereafter O therefore break through