Image and grievous remorses of Conscience will appear In the day of this glorious coming the Heavens shall melt the Elements will be dissolved the Earth and all its works shall be burn'd with fire and every man shall give an account of every idle word how much more of every wicked action and prophane discourse Matt. 5.12 56. That we may not be confounded nor ashamed in this fearful day in which God will judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Let us be inwardly perswaded that it is not sufficient to abstain from outward sins but we must also hate and inwardly abhor them Acts 17. For as the Leopard in Chains leaves not his Skin nor his Spots and changes not for all his restraint his rapacious and cruel nature for it continues nevertheless to be a Leopard and as a Thief in Fetters shut up in a Dungeon remains a Thief in his heart and disposition likewise such as abstain from exterior sins for fear of Man and the severity of the Laws are nevertheless esteem'd to be vicious and abominable in the sight of God and of his Holy Angels if every time that he thinks upon his crimes he is not moved with a true contrition and an inward abhorrency of his soul to abominate them The best means to render our Conscience whole is to tear it in pieces with the sorrows of repentance 57. It is not sufficient to abstain from the thoughts words and actions that God prohibits but we must also apply our selves to the study of true Piety of Vertue and generally of all the good Works that God requires for as the Praise and Honor of a good Bow-man is never bestowed upon one who hath only the skill of not breaking his Bow his Arrows or his Quiver but to him who strikes the mark and aims well and he is not to be reckoned a good Artist who works not ill because he doth nothing at all but he who works well and shews excellent pieces of worknanship likewise he is not to pass for a good and Religious Christi-who only abstains from evil and commits no outward sins but he who doth good and applies himself to Vertue Every Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit although it bears no evil Fruit is hewen down and cast in the fire Matt. 2. our Saviour curs'd the Fig-tree not because that it brought forth evil Fruits but because it brought forth no good Fruit but was altogether barren The wicked servant was cast out into utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth not because he had lost or mispent his Talent but because he had not employed it well and turned it to his Lords advantage Matt. 25. Not only such shall be condemned to the Flames prepared for the Devil and his Angels who afflict God's Children on Earth and spill the bloud of his servants but such as have not cloathed his Members visited and comforted them nor given them to eat and drink In short if you enquire from the rich Miser how he comes to be condemned to Hell tortured in the Flames he will not tell you it was because he took what was not his own or because he committed no Murders Violences and other horrid Deeds but because he lived without Charity and had no pity of the poor 58. And because God requires that we should proceed daily forward until we become to the measure of the perfect stature in our Lord Jesus Christ we must very frequently take a view of our former life and feel the pulse of our Lusts to see whether they be not more fervent and violent than before whether the old Man continues to decline and how much we have gain'd upon our wicked affections and reformed our corrupt disposition for as those who swim against the stream if they slack but a little are carried downwards by the violence of the Current Likewise if we employ not all our strength to swim up to our Heavenly Source Integrity and Perfection the torrent of our Lusts and of evil Customs will hurry us down into the deep Abysse of Death and Eternal Destruction we must therefore often examine every day what progress we have made in Piety and Holiness and whether since so many years that God speaks to us and instructs us to discover to us what is pleasing to hime if we have more Piety Zeal and Charity and mors Holiness than before we must imitate the solicitou care of such as have transplanted some rare plant of the East in this Northern climate they have always the eye upon it to take notice of every thing that happens to it We must propose for our example a Steward who hath a great account to make up he looks often upon his Memorials and his Registers An Heathen Philosopher was highly prais'd because he did never lay himself down to sleep until he had well examin'd what progress he had made in Philosophy and Moral Vertue Likewise a good Christian should never cast himself upon his Bed to sleep at night until he hath seriously considered how he hath proceeded forward in Piety and the love of God In a word a true Christian by this means shall never be less alone than when he is alone for thon he shall entertain himself with his God and shall discover unto him his Heart and his most secret thoughts then he shall speak seriously unto his Soul and shall examine exactly his Conscience then he will look to his wicked deeds to weep and lament for them with Tears of a sincere repentance then he will cast himself upon the infinite Mercy and Goodness of his God to embrace it with a lively Faith and assurance then he will make a reflexion upon God's Commands to walk in them with an Holy Zeal and Earnestness all the days of his life 59. Amongst these directions that I intend to give to him that desires to apply himself to the practice of Piety and to abandon Vice I must not forget this advice that he must never satisfy his carnal Lusts and Pleasures but he should rather check and bridle them for when we grant them what they desire we are so far from extinguishing the feavorish Flames and satisfying these hellish longings that we do but increase and encourage them the more as he that loves Money is not satisfied with Money and as the ambitious is never exalted high enough in Honor Thus the lustful Worldling is never contented with the fullest enjoyment of the carnal pleasures It is a Fire that kindles another and a Flame that never saith It is enough These filthy Lusts are like the Serpent that stings the bosom of the person that warms it in his Breast or as the Furnace of Babylon that burnt up those who had first lighted it for such as entertain the Flames of their fleshly Lusts they keep in their bosoms a Fire that will at last burn and totally consume them 60. We must resist the first motions of the Flesh and with
of the Stone in his Kidneys that forceth from him at every moment most grievous sighs and groans If any should offer to paint before him his looks and grimness or that should counterfeit them ingeniously in his presence he would bring him little ease to his torments rather an increase to his vexation and trouble The most beautiful Flower also can give no delight to such as are rackt in the Executioners hands or tied to four Horses that are ready to tear him in pieces Thus it is with the most eloquent and florid Discourse it can bring no comfort to a soul that is departing Davids Harp alone can drive away the evil spirits and appease the troubles of a wounded Conscience But some may imagine in this general survey of the wise Follies and Vanity of the Heathen Philosophers I should except the Stoicks I confess that in this particular they express more gravity but they proceeded no better nay when I have well considered them I find them to be far more unsufferable and more impertinent than the rest for besides that they treat of the immortality of the soul in a very doubtful and unconstant manneâ— the pretended comforts that they offer do render Death more dreadful They tell us that Death is the end and center where all humane Afflictions and Miseries cease therefore it is rather to be desired than avoided or feared They might have some colourable reason for this conclusion if they did but discover beyond the Grave an happiness which they might here expect and hope for Death assures them of no other comfort but only to put a period to all the miseries of this wretched life Therefore such kind of Discourses are not properly Comforts and the resolution that they beget in us is but a silly Passion much like unto a Criminal upon the Rack who impatiently longs for Death that he might be delivered from the cruel hands of the Executioners or who bears the inferior torments with joy to get on the top of the Scaffold where he is to be broken upon the Wheel Oh miserable wretch the change of Tortures will bring no ease to thy Pains if thou canst not endure patiently the Ropes that unjoynt thy Members how wilt thou suffer the bar of Iron that shall crack all thy bones in pieces O blind Philosopher If thou canst not bear the miseries of this life how wilt thou endure the pains and tortures of Death Moreover they tell us That the most cruel and painful Death is a noble occasion to exercise our vertue and to cause our constancy and resolution to appear with admiration This discourse seems to be plausible but in reality it is nothing but wind for what availeth this apparent vertue because it doth not stop us from falling into the deepest Abyss of Torments and Misery but it perisheth and dies with its Idolaters Therefore such as have most admired it have at last acknowledged its vanity witness that famous and worthy General who fancied that his vertue would procure unto him the Victory over all the Enemies of the Roman Common-wealth for whose sake he took up Arms when the Battle was lost and all his ambitious hopes had deceived him being ready to stab himself with his own sword he cryed out Oh miserable Vertue what art thou but a vain and an unprofitable word a name without a body He did thus exclaim against his Vertue that he had formerly adored because it could yield him no comfort in the day of his distress nor free him from falling into utter dispair The most ordinary and usual comforts that they commonly bring are these That Death is inevitable that we all enter into the world upon condition to go out that we have as much cause to be afflicted with the day of our Birth as with the day of our Death That Humanity and Immortality are not consistant That Death is a Tribute we all owe to Nature That the Kings and greatest Monarchs are forced to pay it as well as the meanest Subjects and that this is such an universal Law that it admits of no exception But these kind of Comforts do but increase our trouble and add to our affliction I have therefore good reason to speak unto these grave Philosophers Job's language to his troublesome friends Miserable Comforters are ye all For in truth they don't only search the wound to the quick without any application of an healing Plaister but they also tear and widen it enflame and render it far more grievous when we are in hopes of seeing an end to our calamities our soul is comforted and armes it self with constancy and a patient resolution but when we see our selves cast into an Abysse of Evil and that no hopes appear of getting out we are then overwhelmed with grief and despair It is a lamentable thing to be born to dye but it is far more lamentable and grievous to know that Death is not to be avoided that all the Treasures of the world cannot free us from it for his affliction is the greatest whose misery can never be cur'd This also is a false and deceitful maxime That the comfort of the miserable is to have companions in misery although many thousand drink together of the waters of Marah they seem no less bitter and although thou shouldest be burnt in a fire where many are consumed thou shalt not find there a milder and a more easy abode Thy neighbors grief doth not lessen thy Affliction their Sickness cannot restore to thee Health and their Death comfort thee against the approaches of thine own On the contrary if thou hast any sence of Humanity thou wilt weep for their Misery and thine together It is that which great Xerxes King of Persia did practice for when he took a view of his numerous Army in which there were 1100000 Men and considered that within one hundred years so many brave Captains and Soldiers would be rotting in their Graves he was moved with compassion and wept I do not mention here the brutish and foolish opinion of such as imagine that Mans Soul is mortal and dies with our Bodies This consideration brings no comfort but casts us into an irrecoverable despair for after the torments of Hell fire there is nothing that can be imagined more dreadful than a reducement to nothing It is needless also to mention the Philosophers that are Disciples of Plato who have discoursed of the Souls Immutability and of its Blessedness after this life they imagine themselves very acute and subtle but their discourses of this matter are so gross and extravagant that instead of perswading the Truth they express it to scorn and contempt Let their fond and imaginary descriptions of the Elysian Fields be witnesses for whatsoever they have invented of this kind hath been placed amongst the Fables and poetical Fictions Those Chymerical Gardens under ground contain nothing like to the Divine Excellencies and unspeakable pleasures of the Paradise of God In one word
compar'd to the Figtree of the Gospel cursed by our Saviour Christ for it brought forth no fruit for others and it withered for want of nourishment Therefore a pleasant poverty is better worth than riches with discontent Nature is content with a little Piety with less but covetousness hath no measure The Heathens have very well acknowledged that he was the richest who was most content for the more things you desire the more are wanting to you It matters not much if the Cup which is presented to you be of Gold or of Earth so that there be liquor enough to quench your thirst I would rather drink of a little clear stream of Water than out of a great River all muddy and troubled A little quantity of ground is sufficient to nourish a Man in his life but less is necessary to cover him when he is dead A little Money satisfies to subsist honestly in the fear of God but less is required to dye happily in the favour and love of our good Saviour Kings and the greatest Monarchs have but one body to nourish and to cloath as well as the meanest of their Subjects They who enjoy least in the World do use or rather abuse the most of any the things that they possess Instead of envying the Worldlings opulency let us meditate upon St. Paul's excellent saying Having food and raiment let us be therewith content 1 Tim. 6. and let us imprint into our minds that other Sentence Piety with contentment is great gains 1 Tim. 1. 14. Christian Souls cast your eyes upon all the things of the World that are most esteem'd and you shall find that their possession is but uncertain and of a short continuance for Riches have wings to fly to Heaven as an Eagle All Flesh is like Grass and the Glory of Man as the Flower of the Field the World passeth away with all its Lusts Prov. 23. There needs but the pillaging of a Town the breaking of a Merchant or an unsuccessful and contrary suit in Law to render thee poor and bring thee to want A little sparkle of fire is able to reduce all thy Riches into Ashes and to bring thee to extream poverty The least ill look can cover thy face with shame and confusion and cast thee down from the highest humane Glory into the deepest Abysse of Disgrace and Ignominy The wise Man informs us that He who trusts in his Riches shall fall We may say so of such as relye too much upon great mens favor for it is like a broken Reed that pierceth the hands of such as lean upon it There is nothing here below so constant as unconstancy if the Earth did not often change its face and appearance it would not be Earth as it is and if the world were not unconstant it would cease to be World therefore it is no wonder if the Heathens who understood not God's wise Providence that governs the natural Beings and draws Light out of Darkness have represented Fortune blind mounting sometimes on a Wheel and in an instant tumbling down again How many persons do we meet with reduc'd on a suddain to beggery who a little before did flourish in all manner of Plenty How many are cast down into the dust and become the scorn of the World who were once rais'd to the highest Dignities and the greatest Honors How many fall into the contempt and derision of the Vulgar whose praises were once exalted up to Heaven In a word how many do we see before our Eyes dragg'd along the streets shut up in close prisons brought upon the Scaffolds and Gallows who were once the Glory of the World admired of all men and the scourge of honest Men When we run over and consider the strange unexpected and suddain changes that we have seen in our days they seem to us as Dreams St. Paul represents this great unconstancy of the World to take off our Hearts and Affections from it The time saith be is short it remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they 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. Because of this great unconstancy of all Worldly advantages St. Paul invites us to think upon the immortal Riches Charge saith he them that are rich that they put not their trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6. For the same reason the Son of God adviseth us Not to lay up for our selves Treasures upon Earth where the Moth and Rust do corrupt but lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where the moth and rust don't corrupt and where Thieves don't break through and steal Matt. 6. A wise Persian was well acquainted with this truth therefore he hath left this Lesson for posterity The world is constant to no man my Brother apply thy self and thy heart to the great Creator of the world and that shall suffice thee 15. Consider that if the Riches and Honors do not leave us in our life time or in case none takes them away from us by violence it is most certain that death will deprive us of all and will separate them from us for ever Psal 49. For when Man dies he carries nothing with him his Glory accompanies him not into his Grave 1 Tim. 6. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out Job 1. The King and the greatest Princes may speak in this language as well as the meanest Soldiers of fortune Naked I came from my Mothers womb and naked I shall return All the Treasures Riches Scepters and Crowns shall never advantage us after our decease What was Nebuchadnezzar the better for having had so great a number of People within his Dominions they could not hinder him from lying down upon a Couch of Worms nor preserve him from being eaten with Vermin Isaiab 14. To what purpose did the rich glutton swim in a Sea of all manner of Riches in his life time after his decease he could not obtain a drop of cold water to asswage his violent thirst Luk 16. The Author of the Book of Wisdom was entered into this Meditation when he represents the Worldlings spending themselves in lamentations for their former follies and voluntary blindness What hath pride profited us say they or what benefit hath Riches brought us all these things are passed away as a shadow as a Post that runs swiftly or as a Ship that slides through the troubled Waves Wisd 16. Our Heirs give us nothing of all our substance but a Winding sheet a few Boards or it may be some pounds of Lead all consumes with us and rots in our Graves
our ears and in our mind Put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground Exod. 6. Cast off there thy base and earthly affections and renounce thy sottish and filthy Lusts for thou art always before my eyes that are too clean and pure to suffer the sight of evil and the place where thou standest is sanctified by my presence Heb. 1. Remember that I see thine Heart that I search thy Reins and that I read thy most secret thoughts Revel 2. Christian souls imagine that God calls unto you from Heaven continually as hed id unto Abraham Walk before me and be perfect Gen. 17. Let therefore the dread of this Divine Majesty seize upon thee and possess thee When Potiphar's Wife tempted chaste Joseph to defile himself with Adultery she perceived nothing in the room but this object of her Lust but this Holy man perceives the Glorious Godhead between him and this lascivious Woman he perceives God's Eye that seeth into the greatest depths This made him break out into this expression How can I do this thing and sin against God Thus if our Flesh tempts us and if the vicious and prophane intice us into secret and shameful retreats to share in their filthy crimes Let us then remember that God is every where and wheresoever we hide our selves God hath an Ear to hear us an Eye to see us an Hand to record our Deeds Words and Thoughts God is all Ear all Eye and all Hand he discovers us as easily under the dark shadows of the night as at break of day he spies us through our Fig-leaves and beholds us in our most subtle disguises he understands our most inward thoughts and listens to the silent language of our Hearts he searcheth into all the Clossets of our Souls and into all the foldings and windings of our Consciences In a word all things are naked and altogether open to the Eyes of him with whom we have to doe An antient Philosopher did perswaded such as desire to be vertuous to chuse some grave and vertuous person and to represent him always in their presence and to live as in their sight Seneca We need not represent unto our selves imaginary appearances for in every place where we are and what ever we can do or think we are always in the sight of the Holy of Holies who is both our Witness and our Judge It was David's Meditation when he cried out O Lord whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whether shall I flye from thy presence If I mount up to Heaven thou art there if I go down into the pit thou art there also if I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the Sea thither shall thine hand guide me and thy right hand uphold me If I say the darkness shall cover me behold the night shall be like light round about me darkness shall not hinder me from thee and the night shall shine as the day the night and the day are to thee alike 53. If the Devil and the World have ensnared us in their Nets and if we have been unhappily lull'd asleep in the bosome of some deceitful pleasure This consideration alone that God sees and understands us is able to awake us with an Holy dread and fear Let therefore the words of St. Paul sound continually in our minds Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall enlighten thee or Awake to Righteousness and sin not Eph. 5. 1 Cor. 15. Truly if we be not stupified and besotted above measure This dreadful voice that God thunders from Heaven is able not only to awake us from the sleep of iniquity but to oblige us also to cry out with Jacob God is here and I knew it not O that this place is dreadful it is the house of God it is the Gate of Heaven Gen. 28. Assoon as Peter had taken notice of our Saviours looks that were cast upon him he went out of the High Priests Hall and wept bitterly for his Apostacy Thus if we could but perceive and acknowledge that God casts his eye continually upon us we should repent of our Vices and our Hearts would quickly melt into Tears of Contrition 54. And because it is sometimes necessary to retain our selves with an Holy awe and to withdraw our selves out of Lust as out of the Fire you Religious Souls keep always in your mind a short Collection of the Judgements of God that have happened from time to time upon all manner of sinners Consider how God dealt with the Celestial Spirits who have not kept their original purity they are reserv'd for utter darkness and for eternal Chains until the great day of Judgement and say unto your selves If God hath not spared the Apostate Angels with he spare Man that rebels against him and offends him with delight remember the dreadful fall of our first Parents who although they had been fashioned with Gods own hand and instructed by himself have lost both themselves and all their posterity by listning to the deceitful suggestions of the old Serpent Cast your thoughts upon the first wicked World that was destroyed by a Deluge and upon the Cities of Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zebolim upon whom fell the Fire and Brimstone of God's hot displeasure Look upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians overwhelmed with all their pride in the waves of the Red Sea Consider the three thousand that were kill'd with the Levites Swords because of the Idolatry of the Golden Calf and the four and twenty thousand whom a suddain death swept away because they went a whoring after Paal-Peor Look with fear upon the burning Serpents of the Wilderness that did cast their poison upon the Murmurers against God and their Superiors upon the Earth that open'd its mouth to swallow Corah Dathan and Abiram upon that Heavenly Fire that consum'd Nathan and Abihu who offered strange Fire unto the Lord upon the Bears that went out of the Forrest to devour two and forty young Rascals who mock'd Elisha the Prophet upon the Lion that devour'd the Prophet who disobey'd God's Command and hearkened to a lying Brother In short cast your eyes with astonishment upon Nebuchadnezzar feeding amongst the Beasts of the field Jezabel eaten up by Dogs Agrippa consumed with Worms and the rich Miser burning in the flames of Hell Dan. 4. 2 Kings 9. Acts 12. Luke 16. 55. Above all things think upon the last Judgement and consider this last day in which we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ to receive in our Bodies that which we shall have done whether it be good or evil remember that in this dreadful day God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness the secret contrivances and thoughts of the Heart before this Throne of Fire the Books shall be opened not only God's Books where all our Sins and Impieties are Registred but also the Books of our Consciences where the frightful
midst of them St. Thomas who was not with the Apostles when Christ first appeared amongst them lost the comfort then of seeing him risen from the dead And if this merciful Redeemer had not had compassion of him he had perish'd in his unbelief for ever If upon the day of Penticost any of the faithful had been found absent from the Holy company of the Faithful in Jerusalem they had not seen the Glorious appearance of the Holy Ghost who knows but in a Sermon that we have neglected we have lost some pious advice some seasonable exhortation by which God might have brought our hearts to repentance Who knows but instead of that Fire that devours us we might have felt the Holy Flames kindled in us like unto those Flames of the burning Bush that would burn in us and not consume us Who knows but at the breaking up of the Assembly we might have said as the two Disciples of Christ going to Emaus Did not our heart burn within us when he spoke to us and opened the Scriptures 68. We must be fervent zealous and persevering in Prayers and other Holy Duties and embrace our Lord and Saviour with the Arms of Faith and Repentance and say unto him as Jacob I shall not leave thee until thou hast blessed me especially we ought to apply our selves to these blessed exercises when we feel the inward and troblesome struglings of the Flesh against the Spirit we must imitate that Holy and vertuous Woman who feeling two Children stirring in her Womb fell to her Prayers and unburdened her sorrows in the bosome of our Heavenly Father And as St. Peter when he began to sink lifted up his Hands in Prayer saying Lord save me Matth. 14. Likewise we who walk upon this dangerous Sea of the World assoon as we feel our selves sinking into the Delights of the World or assoon as the Waves of vicious examples and dangerous customs do hurry us away Let us cry out from the bottom of our Hearts O merciful God stretch out thine hand from above and deliver me from these Waters of Hell that carry me away accomplish thy vertue in mine infirmities and give me Grace in resisting against sin to resist unto Blood Psal 69. Heb. 50. 2 Cor. 22. Let thine Holy Spirit overcome mine let Heaven command the Earth and let Paradise lead Hell in Triumph If we make this Petition with all our Hearts God will grant it from his Holy Sanctuary He will extinguish the Fire that burns us He will shut the Lions mouth that intends to devour us He will appease the Winds and the Storms that the Devils have raised in us and at his first entrance into our Ship tost up and down with fears and apprehensions he will bring Peace and a blessed tranquility and will lead us to the safe Haven of Eternal Happiness as the Prophet Moses when he had been familiar with God came down from the Mountain with a shining countenance and as our Saviour when he was in Prayer upon Mount Tabor was transfigured his Garments were white as the Light and his Face appeared as glorious as the Sun Likewise if we lift up our selves above all these earthly and corruptible things and pray unto God with an Holy Earnestness and Zeal we shall see that our Souls shall be thereby cloathed with Holiness and full of Glory and Light they will be transformed into the blessed Image of the great God whom we adore for as soon as we behold him we become enlightened 69. To the end that we may tame this Body and reduce it to obedience and to overcome all our wicked and dangerous Lusts Psal 69 34. It is necessary that we should joyn Fasting to our Prayers we must not always expect a time appointed by the Rulers of our Church upon solemn accasions but we must order unto our selves a Fast according as we shall see it expedient and useful for if this Flesh is unruly it is rebellious against God and his Holy Commandements if because it is fed in Ease and Plenty it is Lustful Impure and Insolent Let us cut off from it all its dainties and labor to mortify it by Fastings and Abstinence and remember what our Saviour Christ saith in the Gospel That there are some evil spirits that are not to be driven out but by Fasting and Prayer Matth. 27. 70. If God gives us the Grace to overcome Sin and weaken our Lusts by fervent and earnest Prayers and by austere Fasting and hot tears of Repentance and by the assistance of his Divine Spirit that will pour his Blessings upon our Devotions take heed that we become not careless and negligent in good Works deceive not your selves Religious Souls and be not surprized for many times the old Man looks as if he were dead that we might not offer to strike him again to the Heart and give him the last blow that he may recover more strength there is always in the Ashes something of that infernal Fire that is able to do much mischief Lust is not rooted out so perfectly but that there remains some strings in our Hearts that may grow again This source of Iniquity is not so dry but that it may run afresh As it is during the time of Peace Men exercise themselves in feats of Arms and prepare new Armor for the War Likewise during the calm and rest of our Souls we must prepare some Armor for our Spiritual Warfare And as it is not sufficient to win a place by Assault and to have driven out the Enemies Forces but we must also watch day and night and keep a constant and a strong Guard that we may not be surprized and driven out again Thus when we have forced out the Devil and banish'd him out of our Hearts we must be always upon our Guard and stop all the Avenues for fear that this evil Spirit should come upon us accompanied with seven worse Spirits and that our last condition should be worse than the first 71. To these Works of Piety and Devotion in which we cannot be always employed we must remember to add a lawful Calling for Idleness is the Mother of all Vices when we are doing nothing the Devil prompts us to evil this happened to David a man after God's own heart for when he gave himself over contrary to his former practice to an unworthy idleness whilst he was looking into his neighbors House the Devil entred into his Heart and by the assistance of a lustful Object inflamed his Soul with an unlawful desire as the Iron that is not us'd becomes Rusty as the standing Water putrifies and as the Earth that is not manur'd begets insects and venemous Serpentss Likewise a Soul that is not employed is soon cover'd over with the rust of Vice It is easily drag'd along into the corruption of the age and apt to beget and bring forth Monsters therefore the Prophet Ezekiel examines the very beginning and first spring of Solomon's Sin saying That it was
O God who art the Creator and Father of their Spirits cause them to endure a thousand Deaths and reduce them to nothing from whence thou hast fetched them rather than to suffer them to be enslaved to Vice Error or to Superstition that robs thee O Great God of thine Honor to ascribe it to the Creature Merciful and Almighty Lord I shall not say to thee as Esau did to Isaac when he had blessed Jacob My Father hast thou but one Blessing for I am certain that thou hast an infinite number and many inexhausible Fountains of all manner of Blessings but I beseech thee with all the Zeal and Earnestness that I can to Bless my dear Children with thy Heavenly and especial Favors take them into thy protection bear them in thy Hands embrace them with thy tender compassion and let them be as dear to thee as the Apple of thine Eyes Let thy fear be always before them Let them love thee with all their Heart and serve thee with all their Powers that they may Glorify thee in prosperity and adversity in Life and Death that Christ may be their gain whether they live or whether they dye but I am now leaving the World and my Children without Grief or mistrusting thy care of them I am ascending with joy up to thee who art my God my Father and their Father and I trust in thy great and Eternal Mercies that one day we shall see one another in thine Heavenly Kingdom when we shall be admitted to behold thy Face which shall fill us with unspeakable Gladness and Pleasure Amen CHAP. 13. The First Consolation against the fears of Death God will not forsake us in our most grievous pangs MAn is naturally afraid of pain and abhors all sufferings and grief now the most of us are perswaded that it is impossible to dye without enduring great pains therefore they abhor Death not so much for its own sake as for the evils that it causeth to suffer That we may be able to drive away this ill-grounded Fear and strengthen our minds against all apprehensions we must first consider that death is not so dreadful and painful as commonly imagined the Holy Ghost calls it a Sleep and the Heathens themselves have said that Sleep is Death's Cousen-german and the Image of frozen Death Now Sleep creeps upon us insensibly it charms our Sences softly and with invisible Fetters it ties and stops all our most active faculties although we sleep every night we are not able to discover how this happens to us It is said of Socrates one of the most famous Men of the first Ages when he had in obedience to the Decree of the Judges of Athens drunk poison when he felt the venom benumming his Sences and Death creeping into his Veins he declared with a pleasant countenance That he had never swallowed anything more sweet and comfortable Nothing can be imagin'd more pleasant than the death of the old Patriarchs The Holy Scripture tells us That when Jacob had made an end of commanding his Sons he gathered up his Feet into the Bed and yielded up the Ghost Gen. 49. The same is related of King David That when he had perswaded Solomon to fear God and to do justice he slept with his Fathers 1 King 1. God is as merciful to many in these latter days to cause them to dye in speaking and calling upon his Holy name their Souls are not pluckt from them by violence but of their own accord they separate from the Body and fly into Heaven with an Holy chearfulness The separation of such Souls from the Body happens without pain grief or suffering Such are like to a Taper that extinguisheth without any blast of Wind of its own accord when the Wax that kept it alive and nourisheth its flame is totally spent If you perceive some tost and tortured with grievous pangs in their death-bed they are not properly the pangs of death but the last struglings and motions of life for I cannot imagine that at the moment of the separation of our Souls from our Bodies we suffer any pain because at that instant all the Senses are then lulled asleep and our Bodies have no more strength nor life to hinder the Souls departing Death is so far from being so dreadful and painful as we commonly imagine that on the contrary it is that very thing that puts an end to all our pains and miseries And I am perswaded that the diseases that bring us to our graves are not so grievous as the other distempers that we endure whilst we live here on Earth such as are a cruel Gout a Stone in the Kidneys or a Canker in the Breast for they are tortures that rack us continually and a Fire that consumes us without ceasing But when our pains should be far more sensible and that we should have reason to impute them to death we have no reason therefore to fly from it or to abhor its approaches for otherwise we have as good cause to curse the hour of our Birth and weep for our Victories for there is no Birth without pain nor Victory without strugling the most Glorious and flourishing Laurels are watered with Bloud and Sweat The most excellent things are the most painful and to speak according to the common saying that One nail drives another so one evil is a Remedy to many other evils we commonly seek with an earnest longing as a good thing that evil that frees us from the violent pains that we can scarce endure To be healed oâ—â— our distempers we swallow most bitter Pills and Potions that gripe and torment our Bowels To be freed from the Stone we suffer a most painful cutting And that the Gangreen that hath seized upon one of our Members might not get to our Heart we endure it with patience to be cut off whether it be Arm or Leg therefore when Death should be much more grievous bitter and more cruel than it is commonly represented yet we ought to embrace it willingly because that it delivers us not only from some disease or some particular pain but generally from all pains aches and distempers The Physick works not always out the humour that disquiets us When we have drawn out a Stone from the Bladder many times others grow in the place that are worse The Surgeons hand let it be never so perfect answers not always his Patients expectation instead of removing his pain it increaseth it But the working and cure of Death is always certain and never fails the success is always happy to a Christian Soul That I may supply thee with some comfort in the midst of thy great pains and sufferings My Brother or My Sister remember that these things happen not to thee by chance but it is God who sends them to thee according to the decree of his Wisdom Ascribe not thy Disease to the influences of the Stars to blind Fortune but lift up thine Eyes to his appointment who hath stretched