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A36312
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The righteous man's hope at death consider'd and improv'd for the comfort of dying Christians, and the support of surviving relations : to which is added Death-bed reflections, &c. proper for a righteous man in his last sickness / by Samuel Doolittle ; this was the first sermon the author preacht after the death of his mother Mrs. Mary Doolittle, who deceased Decemb. 16. 1692. and is since enlarged.
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Doolittle, Samuel.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing D1879; ESTC R10334
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104,634
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254
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us he talkt of Heaven all his Life-long but now where is his hope what is become of his confidence When he had heated his brain and phansie with some religious exercises how pleasantly could he talk of Heaven But now Death is approaching what little support has he from those thoughts Thus may your doubts and fears strengthen the hands and harden the Hearts of the wicked and tell me Christian is it not a trouble to thee to think thou shouldest dishonour God and discredit Religion and that Religion which should be dearer to thee than thy Life in the very last part and concluding act of it Can the thought of it be tolerable to thee Therefore for God's sake and Religions sake get HOPE for if you be comfortable and joyful then and if your hope be lively you may and will be so you may convince however you will silence These foolish men and perhaps after your decease they may bethink themselves and say surely Religion is no vain thing there is more in it than we know of for how â—as this man filled with joy when grim death stared him full in the face Such a death commends Religion more than an hundred Panegyricks written in the praise of it having this hope by your death-bed carriage and dying speeches you may bring more glory to God honour to Christ and credit to Religion at your death than you did in your Life 2. For your own sake Is not death tertible and do you want nothing to arm and fortifie you against it but what will or can if you have no hope Death how cold do the thoughts of it strike to our Hearts especially when we see the departing pangs hollow eyes pale looks ghastly countenances short breath trembling limbs and clammy sweats of our dying frends and then think one day this will be our own â—aie when we walk thro' Church-yards and see rotten Skulls scattered Bones what a frightful thought is it to think ere-long it will be so with us but when death really comes to act all this over upon us what a difference shall we find between seeing another die and dying our selves will you need no support at such a time will you want no cordial in such an hour will you need no refreshment when Heart Flesh and strength and all does fail Will you want nothing to help you when you come to grapple with this huge Goliah this mighty Conquerour DEATH verily you will and what can succour support and help you in that hour but a lively hope Would you not have your Hearts sink and die within you Would you be able to receive the Sentence of Death in your selves with a quiet and calm submission to God's Will Would you die in peace and go off with triumph then get and maintain a lively hope 3. For the sake of those Relations you shall leave behind Whenever you die you will leave them in Tears it will trouble them to think that you are dead but they will sorrow most of all to remember you did not die in hope Out of respect and pity to them get this lively hope that they may have this to comfort and support them when you are dead and gone That they may be able to say my Husband my Wife my Father my Mother my Son my Daughter is Dead but thanks be to God they died with a living with a lively hope If they have any love for you any sense of Religion any belief of another World nothing will be so serviceable as this to check their immoderate sorrow If you have no hope or but little tho' it is not their place to sit as judges upon you yet may they not fear the worst may they not take up a bitter lamentation at the Mouth of your Grave and say My loving Father my dear Mother my Son my Child is dead alass here is the breathless Carkass that is left behind but woe is me woe is me what is become of the Immortal Soul Oh! get this hope that you your selves and others too may know where death will Land you why should you be ambitious of going to Heaven incognito and as it were by stealth Why should you not let all know that that is the blessed Port you are bound for before you go off from Land That when you are praising God in Heaven your surviving Friends may be giving Thanks to God on Earth for your safe arrival Now that you who are Righteous may have a lively hope in your Death I shall lay down and do you practise these following directions First Get and maintain a firm and setled belief of a future happiness Content not your selves with the guesses and conjectures of an Heathen with a cold and naked opinion that is easily shaken with the breath of the next Temptation with a Faith which is the fruit of a Religious and Virtuous Education and is only the consequent of having been born and brought up among a sort of men called Christians an avowed Article of whose Creed is the Life everlasting but let your Faith be built upon sure Grounds Divine Revelation and let it be quickned and rais'd to that degree that it may presentiate the future glory to you that it may stand as a Rock unmoveable in the midst of Storms and like a brazen Wall blunt and beat back all those Arrows of Temptation which are shot against it Faith lays the Ground-work and Foundation for hope the Creed of a Sadducee and the hopes of a Christian are not reconcileable if I believe there is no other World but this how can I have hope of any thing beyond the Grave and if my Faith be weak and wavering a dead and lifeless thing will not my hope be so too As the Lamp goes out unless there be Oil to feed it so hope will wither languish and die except Faith maintain it Hope springs from Faith is nourished by and is in proportion to it In order to a lively hope it is necessary we conquer our infidelity and watch strive and pray against an evil Heart of Vnbelief Hope Heb. 3. 12. will not indeed none of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit can thrive or flourish while this root of bitterness is in the Heart Let us then use all the means appointed that we may be strong in Faith the life of our Rom. 4. 20. hopes nay the life of all our Religion depend's upon the certainty of a future state blot this Article out of our Creed and you stab Religion to the Heart the whole of Religion in a manner depends on the truth of this one single Article a life to come and thanks be God we are not left without plain abundant and sufficient proof of it and they who are Insidels in this age and in this part of the World they are so not out of necessity but rather out of choice Let us then with the greatest seriousness of Spirit intention of mind apply our selves to consider the many
expiated our sins conquered the Devil and disarmed Death he paid our Ransom Redeem'd us from Hell which we can hardly think of without horrour and trembling and purchased Heaven where we long and desire to be he hath opened the Gates of Heaven and invites and beckons us to enter in and oh how powerful are the thoughts of a weeping bleeding groaning and dying Jesus to revive and recover the dying hopes of poor Sinners Do I stand amaz'd at the thoughts of my guilt overwhelm'd with the sight of my sins terrified with apprehensions of Divine Severity and Justice Do I in the depths of a melancholy grief cry out my hope is gone woe is me my hope is gone can there be any happiness any Heaven for such a wretch as I am how can I how dare I hope oh that I could hope but alass the Law Curses and Condemns me and I O miserable man have little or no hope I would think of Christ our Passover 1 â—or 5. 7. Sacrificed for us In this case what is to be done Shall I sink under the burden abandon all hope indulge my sorrow and fear and give way to a self-tormenting despair No I would go to mount Calvary and set my self at the foot of my Redeemers Cross I would often look up to a bleeding and dying Jesus think what he suffered for whom and for what end and then I would embrace this dying Jesus in the Arms of my Faith and after this how soon would hope begin to stir Christ dying on the Cross and Christ living in the Heart is the foundation of our hope and thanks be to God 't is such a Foundation as cannot be shaken I add further it is infinitely useful to consider and act Faith in Christ as risen from the Dead Had our Lord Jesus onely died and not risen again had he been yet sleeping in the Grave as Death's Eternal Prisoner had he not after a little time reviv'd and rose and lâ—v'd again all our hope must have been buried with him in the same Grave but tho' he was Dead he is Alive and lives for evermore Rev. 1. 18. and to Eye him as risen is very serviceable to quicken our hope how fully even beyond all possibility of doubting does the Resurrection of Christ assure us that his Death was valid his Sacrifice accepted our debt paid and justice satisfied that he did all that was necessary to expiate our sins and finished the work of our Redemption before he gave up the Ghost and Died on the Cross with his last with his dying Breath he cried out It is finished and is not his Resurrection Joh. 19. 30. a full convincing and undeniable evidence of the truth of that saying did Justice release and Divine Power bring him out of Prison Did God give him an open and publick acquittance And is there any ground to suspect the payment of what we ow'd and he undertook to satisfie for may we not from hence conclude to our unspeakable comfort incouragement and joy the efficacy of his Death the validity of his sufferings and the perfection of his sacrifice Moreover does not the Resurrection of Christ discover the possibility of ours nay is it not the cause and reason the earnest and pledge of it Did he roll away the Stone from his own Sepulchre and can he want power to roll it away from the Graves of his People Is the Head Risen and now in Heaven and shall the Members always be the Prisoners of Death is he Risen as the First 1 Co. 15. 23. Fruits and shall there not be an Harvest at the end of the World Oh what influence hath the Resurrection of Christ upon our hope as we are Christians therefore we are said to be begotten again 1 Pet. 1. 2. to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and God raised him 21. up from the Dead that our Faith and Hope might be in God A daily and lively exercise of Faith in Christ as Crucified and Risen would contribute very much to the Strength Life and Vigour of our Hope Fifthly Beg of God to fill you with and give you his Holy Spirit to beget and nourish it in you We can have no good and solid well-grounded and lasting Hope except it be given us from above we cannot get it our selves we must be begotten to it it does not grow and spring up of it self but must be planted in us by a Divine Hand and if it be not watered too by the same Hand how soon will it wither and die if we have good 2 Thos â— 16. Hope we have it thro' Grace and as God's gift It is nothing but the Breath of God can scatter those Fogs and Mists which darken our Souls and cloud our Hopes If we are without Hope let us look up to God for it if our Hope decline and wither if that which remains be ready Rev. 3. 2. to die let us beg of him his Holy Spirit to quicken and recover it The Spirit of God Works Grace and then enables the Soul to see it and then helps him to rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God Oh Rom. 5 2. how soon can he scatter those fears that torment us answer those doubts which for many years have been unresolved and fill that Heart with Hope which was almost swallowed up of Despair How necessary is frequent fervent Prayer to keep our Hope alive If you want go to God for it fall on thy Knees and say I have heard and Lord I believe there is an Heaven and thro' Grace it is possible to me even to me I see many of my fellow Christians with whom I pray hear and daily converse living in the joyful hope and expectation of it but I am full of doubts and fears Lord I have little or no hope and if Death should come while matters are thus with me how should I ever be able to die it is bad to live but Lord it's worse to die without hope oh for hope oh for a lively hope of Heaven oh that on my Death-bed when I shall have no hope of Life I may have hope of Glory oh give me thy holy Spirit to scatter my fears resolve my doubts calm my Conscience and enliven my hope whatever I am deny'd while I live Lord let me have hope at last let this Prayer be heard now and fully answered when a dying hour comes Sixthly Frequently and seriously examine the groâ—â—â— and reason of your Hope Many take up their Hope upon very slight and insufficient grouâ—ds and the least blast of affliction blows down these Castles thâ—y build in the Air many times their hope is like Jonah's Gourd which Joâ— 4◠〈…〉 sprung up at night and withered the next Morning A sound hope is the fruit of many Prayers and Tears much watchfulness and holy walking and we have reason to suspect that hope we come easily and quickly by Such an