Contemplations ON MORTALITY Wherein The Terrors of Death are laid open for a Warning to Sinners And the Joyes of Communion with Christ for Comfort to Believers Phil. 3.20 21. We look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body Bernard To the Knights of the Temple The death of Christ is the death of my death because he died that I should live for how is it possible that he should not live for whom life hath dyed LONDON Printed in the Year 1669. To his highly honoured FATHER Mr. Samuel Lee Grace and Peace be multiplied from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Honoured and Dear Sir THis little Tract was hatcht by the warmth of your desires it hath broke shell too hastily It looks but callow and speeds to your bosome for wing and protection The bonds of nature grace and promise oblige it from me I wish it 't were worthy your view might help your faith or raise your joy I shall wrap my Preface under the dignation of your paternal leave in a Testimony a Request and a Prayer My Testimony respects a gratefull acknowledgment of your singular goodness unwearied kindness and tender love from my birth upward When reason budded your wholsome and godly counsels ever dropt as rain Deut. 32.2 your speech as dew as smal rain upon the tender herb and as showres upon the grass The warmth of your affection cherisht me under the divine influence into a flower your wisdome then transplanted me into the nurseries of grace and learning and at length to the Muses garden at Oxford It was ever your pious care to place me under the shadow of holy Tutor I magnifie God and thankfully acâ—s knowledge your prudence and love My body indeed was ever but tender and weak your affections strong and vigorous your charges great your sollicitous thoughts were ever wakefull that no unkind storm might blow upon me I prosper'd for God was with you your prayers went up his blessing came down and lo by the grace of God I hope your labour hath not been altogether in vain in the Lord. You watcht me and the Lord us both and hath kept us as the apple of his eye and hath blest us together many lustres of years There 's none like the a Deut. 33.26 God of Jesurun that rideth on the heavens for our help and in his excellency upon the skie The eternal God be your refuge and underneath the everlasting arms Dear Sir my Request follows The God of Heaven hath sprung a branch out of your roots and given you to see a grand-son of your own bowels Blessed be his name who begins to speak concerning his servants a 2 Sam. 7.19 house for a great while to come Will you please to give him a principal share in the lifting up of your hands to the holy Oracle that the Covenant may never depart out of his mouth b Isay 59.21 nor the mouth of his seed which the Lord graciously grant him nor the mouth of his seeds seed for ever Will you please to lay your hands on his head and say of him as holy Jacob to Joseph c Gen. 48.15 The God who fed me all my life long to this day the Angel who redeemed me from all evil when I came over Jabbok from Laban my hard Uncle Bless the Lad let my name be named upon him let the good will of him that dwelt in the bush over shadow his heart Will you please to blesse him in the name of the mighty God of Jacob that his dayes may be long If it seem good in the eyes of the divine wisdome that he may grow to a multitude in the midst of the earth and see peace upon Israel that his smel may be of a field which the Lord hath blessed d Deut. 33 12. Let the Lord cover him all the day long let him dwel between his shoulders He is design'd for the Sanctuary if the Lord please to accept and gift him and to blesse his times with seasons and places of wholsome and pious literature Bee pleased to blesse him as a freewill offering in the name of the Lord that your little Samuel may be girt with a linnen Ephod to minister before him in Shiloh to burn incense and whole burnt offrings upon his Altar that grace being poured upon his heart and lips he may have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to weary souls Honoured Sir My humble Prayer remains that the great God of Heaven would please graciously to support your spirits under the weakness of age that you may never want the staffe of Jacobs faith to lean upon in the hour of worship that your sleep may be sweet in Bethel upon the Corner-stone and afterwards may ascend the Seraphicall Ladder after the great Angel of the Covenant into Heaven that over all your sacrifices of prayer and praise that Angel of the Lord a Judg. 13 19. may do wonderfully that at evening-tide the covenant of free-grace may shine full in your face like the b 2 Sam. 23.4 light of the morning when the Sun is arising even a morning without clouds and that your assurance may spring like the tender grass by clear shining after rain that c Luk. 2.28 Simeon like you may take Christ in the arms of your faith while living and that Christ may warm your heart in the armes of his love when dying That you may sing aloud that lovly Song Now let thy Servant depart in peace For mine eyes have seen thy Salvation that having seen him here as a Prince of peace you may see him there as the King of glory If the following papers may contribute any thing I rejoyce waiting that blessed time when all our joyes shall be full and none d Joh. 16.22 24. take them away when Christ shall see us again and e Heb. 9.28 appear the second time to our Salvation When the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall also f Rev. 7.7 wipe away all tears not only from standing in but springing out of our eyes when the tear-fountain shall be dryed up and the g Punctum lachrymale Bartholin Anat p. 344. conduit stopt Here 's little but sinning and suffering mourning and praying there shall be nothing but holy enjoying rejoycing and praising Here we h 2 Cor. 5.2 4. groan being burdened with clay-tabernacles which set heavy and weighty upon us since the animal spirits are much exhausted by length of dayes and the sorrows of this frail life And yet we groan but not simply to be unclothed not meerly to put off our clay but to be clothed upon after our clay is baked in the earth into a transparent Porcellane Tabernacle fit for glory When Mortality shall be swallowed up of life and our vile bodies i
's his Cordiall For thou art with me thy crook and thy staffe they comfort me He fears no evill because God is with him He fears God and therefore nought but God I 'le forewarn you whom ye shall fear a Luk. 12.5 sayes our Lord fear him who after he hath kil'd hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him The filiall fear of God expells the tormenting fear of death and hell it self Holy David with one God in his hand encounters and vanquishes every evill and scatters the fear of evill Let the King of Terrors muster his Forces and order his Troops in Battalia The shadow of death to David is but the shadow of evill Though b Ps 3.6 ten thousand Curiassiers run upon him atilt with envenom'd and poysoned spears c Ps 4.8 he layes him down in the bosome of God he sleeps in peace For thou Lord makest him to rest in safety The d Job 26.11 Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonisht at his reproof who keeps a Saint in his arms Hee 'll scourge the black Tents of e Hab. 3.7 Mat. 27.54 Cushan with affliction and the pale Curtains of this Land of Midian like the Souldiers at our Lords Sepulchre shall tremble to detain a Saint in the grave For he that keepeth Israel f Ps 121.3 shall neither slumber nor sleep hee 'l awaken him in due time in the resurrection morning to enter the Courts of Glory David saies not I shall not dye and therefore I will not fear But though I dye I will not fear for thou art with me Be the waters of Kidron never so deep the fire of Tophets Valley never so quick and furious g Ps 40.2 the pit of Moloch never so dark and obscure God hath secured my heart from fear because he is with me a Isay 43.2 The waters shall not drown nor the fire burn nor the pit swallow The power and wisdome the mercy and truth of God encircle the faith of a Saint he dyes b Heb. 11.13 kissing and embracing the promises and like good old Simeon taking Christ in his arms he tunes his Swanlike c L k. 2.28 29. Sonner and sings himself asleep at the mouth of the grave Thou art with me For thou art mine A God in Covenant guides to death and receives to glory Other friends take leave at death Here 's a friend like Ruth d Ruth 1.16 goes through with theâ— to Canaan Others shake hands at the grave they weep with Orpah and depart This friend takes thy spirit into his e Luk. 23.46 hands immediately and keeps thy body in his privy f Is 26 20. chamber of presence God is the God of Abraham even in the grave God g Mat. 22.32 is not the God of the dead but of the living God is the God of whole Abraham therefore Abraham is alive to God his immortall soul is alive with God his precious dust is alive to God and therefore Abrahams body shall arise to glory 'T is in his keeping who keepeth all the h Ps 34.20 bones of his Saints not one of them is broken and to morrow I mean at the resurrection of the just all their i Ps 35 10. bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee Josephs bones are embalm'd for heaven and lye in a more magnificent Tomb then Egyptian Pyramids and k Gen. 50.25 Exod. 3.19 Josh 24.32 Heb. 11.22 follow the Ark to Canaan Does the Father take care of his childrens bones what chest do they sleep in with l Is 26.19 my dead body saies Christ in the Cedar Chest of the Covenant What doe they sleep in the arms of his own beloved Son yes they m 1 Thes 4.14 sleep in Jesus and shall rise with Jesus They are baptized into his death n V. 14. and buried in his grave and brought in the clouds together with him The same new Tomb the same Fine Linnen the same Spices the same Angels for a Saviour and for his Saints Little did Joseph of Arimathea think that he embalmed the whole body mysticall of Christ and wrapt the Saints together with him in the same o Joh. 20 7 Napkin but so he did by reason of their communion with him But does the Father and the Son likewise take such heavenly care of dying Simeons and is the Spirit of Grace at a distance from the bodies of Saints which are his p Temples No such matter though there were not a stone of these Temples lying upon another yet the Spirit will rear them up The Spirit of God is at work in the grave of a Saint If the a 1 Cor. 6.19 spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you So then well may a Saint with holy Jacob b Ro. 8.11 gather up his feet into his bed and sweetly fall a sleep For the Father keeps him the Son lies by him and the Spirit quickens him All heaven will come down to the grave of a Saint and not wake their beloved till c Gen. 49.33 the day break and the shadows flee away then up he gets to the mountains of Myrrhe and to the Hills of Frankincense d Song 6.4 But to follow David its worth tracing the footsteps of David nay the footsteps of God with David in this Valley Therefore he fears not for God is with him le ts listen to his Harp and learn the Ditty Methinks I hear five principall Songs of spirituall consolation for a dying Saint An Experimental feeling of the divine presence For thou art with me David ha's it and David feels it and therefore speaks it 'T is his safety to have it his joy to feel it and his love to speak it the having of God at death carries us to heaven safely the feeling it wings us thither and makes us sing of it to others when we are flying A holy Appeal to God in Prayer David must now be supposed upon his knees praying harping singing for thou art with me All the joyfull Prayers of a Saint end with Songs and the Songs with this Epiphonema this burden shall I call it No! this Diapsalma this Selah this Diapason this Close upon all the Strings For thou art with me A Saint in Covenant and a Saint knowing it may dye sweetly T is a strong Cordiall 't will sweat away death For thou art with me and what 's the reason For thou art mine He that can prove that God is his may sweetly inferre that God is with him God's with none but who are his But they that are so and know it so shall fear no evill For God makes them d Act. 2.28 full of joy with his countenance Divine Relation is a Saints Sanctuary Fly to this holy Tower and thou art safe The Lords a
from the hony-comb Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest and choicest reflections upon his love and the fear of death will vanish Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties this will make way for secret communion and sweetly encrease it The more frequent and humbly familiar you are with God in holy reverence the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul and enlarge it for glory our a Ps 90.8 secret sins saies Moses are in the light in the broad day light of thy countenance Let 's consider a he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love let 's be as tender to avoid his displeasure as we would be joyfull in the beams of his face let 's b Ps 63 6. remember him upon our beds and meditate on him in the night watches Let 's c Ps 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commune with our own hearts and be still that we may commune with his and be joyfull Silete vacate be still from all passions and hurries give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears The more our Souls are wrapt up in this communion the more they dye to the world and live to God Our life is a vapor to dying mortalls but death is a vapor to a living to a lively Saint But now let me end with a caution that 's mixt with a Cordiall A very holy Saint may set in a cloud and arrive at the haven in a storm God's tyed to believers by promise to save them but not to carry them in a Song 3.9 Solomons Chariot of the wood of Lebanon into Heaven Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm Thou art with me and therefore I 'le fear no evill When the Soul from feeling can chear up its spirits that God is with it It fears not who 's against it God for secret reasons b Luk. 24.16 may hold the eyes of some disciples that they may not know him to shew that all from grace to glory is from free love and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant nor assurance to discern our adherence The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works the peace of God that passeth all understanding c Col. 3.15 to rule in our hearts and the joyes of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain All our springs are in Zion and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Christians If meek and humble may injoy greater Visions then many gracious holy and sweetly gifted Ministers 'T is not alwayes the strength of Grace but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni When two experienc'd Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile and not see him nor taste him till the evening till the c Luk. 24 29. Supper of Glory But yet 't is rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions The pure in heart shall see him in the Glasse of assurance as well as behold him hereafter face to face CHAP. IX Holy Appeals to God in Prayer great Comforts against Death DAvid was now at Prayer applying and appealing to God at owning and appropriating work telling God that he was with him Did not God know that he was with David Yet but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it A Saint must tell God that he feels it not to satisfie him as unacquainted with it For the Lord fills the Soul with himself and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning But because God delights to hear that we thankfully own and acknowledge it Thou art with me David speaks it upon his knees and with his Harp in his hands he sings it This Lesson Lord I learnt of thee wilt thou please to hear it Thou art with me in me and thou within me comest unto thy self I am full of thee and therefore my Soul over-flowes to thee Thy love is a fire which hath inflamed my heart and a Excellens sensibile laedit sensum being pent it preyes upon my spirits let it have it 's holy vent into thy bosome It multiplies upon it self and out it must wilt thou accept it For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection and touch every tone with a flame of love as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne winged with that love from whence it came Prayer what is it but a flight of the Soul from it self to God A Soul affected with divine love hath Doves eyes its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples unto the holy Oracle within the Vail 'T is in Prayer that David pours out his Soul and sings Thou art with me he sayes not thou wilt be with me but inferres that God would be with him because he was so and therefore I shall fear no evill This God is our God a Ps 48.14 for ever and ever he will be our guide unto death and through death and after b Ps 73.24 death receive us to glory Faith carries the foot of prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Rev. 14.6 into the midst of Heaven as with Angels wings And as the Lord said to Joshua so may we say to praying Saints a Josh 1.3 every place that the soal of your foot shall tread upon that hath he given you the good land is before you go in and possesse it When we pray we enter the Court of Heaven where the Lord b Exod. 24.10 Ezek. 1.26 sits on a Saphire Throne embellisht with the morning Stars and the Rain-Bow of the Covenant round about him and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him We are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray Our Father which art in Heaven as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assum'd into Heaven The Father sees us at all times but in prayer we doe Sistere nos coram present our Souls to be seen by him Should our hearts be in heaven when our souls are in prayer what heavenly hearts become so heavenly a presence as God's and so heavenly a quire as the Angells round about him Let 's pray that his will be done as it is in heaven that we be like a kind of earthly Angells that in all our prayers our wills may be hallowed into his d 1 Joh. 5.14 as when we shall come to heaven Then if we ask any thing e according to his will he heareth us To have our wills the best way is to have his holy will to be ours and then we may pray with reverence
behold the upright for the b Ps 37.37 end of that man is peace He 'l give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold If there be any choicer thing than grace and glory and truly that 's God himself he 'l keep back nothing From whom from such as walk c Ps 84.11 uprightly He 'l shew d Ps 16.11 Ps 23 3 the path of Life but 't is to such as first have been lead by him in the paths of righteousnesse Happy man that can unfeignedly and skilfully tune Hezekiahs Song Remember e Isay 38.3 now now at the point of death O Lord how I have walkt before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Integrity of hearr and the goodness of his doings are his double appeal at the appearance of death Though the good we have done be very little yet if that little fruit grow from a sanctified root God graciously accepts it because 't is of his own planting As David spake of his royall preparations for the Temple So must we of all our graces duties services f 1 Chron. 29 14. All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee Do any fragrant spices perfume the air of a Saints discourse Or any pleasant fruits garnish the garden of a Saints life We must invite as the Spouse doth Let g Song 4.16 my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits The trees of righteousnesse are h Isai 61.3 of his planting that he may be glorified like the Trees of Lign-Aloes like the Cedars of Lebanon which the Lord hath planted and not man Numb 24.6 and Psal 104.16 i Phil. 2.13 To will and to doe to think and to act the hearts integrity and the lifes sanctity are all from his good pleasure Whoso can enter his appeal at the throne of grace with the testimony of his conscience that k 2 Cor. 1.12 in simplicity and godly sincerity he hath had his conversation in this world may rejoyce at the remembrance of the day of the Lord Jesus and long for its approach Section 3. A third Appeal concerns our love to God Opticks teach us that lines and raies of light come from all parts of a luminous body and traverse and cut one another at innumerable angles but some are centrall from the midst All the affections are but emanations beamings from the heart and will but love is the cardinall centrall ray What we love that sets all the wheels of the Soul in motion Love 's the commandresse of all our forces It a Ps 86.11 unites all the powers under its banner and leads all the squadrons of the soul into the fortress of Gods name The Soul before acquaintance with God was like a bird wandring from its nest but now she hath found where to lay her a Ps 84.3 young even all its unfledg'd desires upon thine altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God The Soul that 's in love with God loves him only thirsts pants cries after him Whom b Ps 73.25 have I in heaven but thee and none upon earth do I desire beside thee Are there no Saints there no Angels there Yes but they move in the stated inferior Orbs both of their own essence and his affection he mounts higher and the glory of the Sun of Gods countenance eclipses all these Stars that a Saint sees none in heaven to love like God All these he loves in the order of his ascension to the bosome of God A Saint passes by the Angells ascending and descending on Jacobs Ladder till he comes to the embraces of the c Gen. 28.12 13. Lord above at the top of all Non aliud tanquam illum as d Bernard f. 94. b. Bernard heavenly non aliud praeter illum non aliud post illum A Saint loves none like him none besides him none after he hath tasted of his loveliness And again Nec pro illo aliud nec cum illo aliud neâ— ab illo ad aliud convertamur The Soul embraces none in stead of him none in competition with him neither turns about from him to any besides him Bern. p. 77. b. Bonum est magis in camino habere te mecum quam esse sine te vel in coelo It 's better to be with thee in a Furnace then in Heaven without thee A Saint loves heaven for God not God for heaven Heaven is heaven because God is there and where ever God is that place is a Saints heaven As a faithfull Spouse is not taken with the Jewells Bracelets and Ear-rings but the lovely person that gives them 'T is not the place but the person not the Palace but the Prince not the glorious Throne but the Father of Mercies upon it God lov'd first and kindled these holy flames and whither doe they towre but upward into the element of love within his bosome O let my prayer saies David a Ps 141.2 Dirigatur instar coâ—umâ—â— be directed as incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of my heart like a pillar of incense No incense was fragrant to God but what smoaked in the fire that first came down from heaven no love but that which first flasht from God O let our love stream straight upright into heaven in perfumy and spicy pillars not waved by chill blasts of the worlds tentations The Torch of our affections was first kindled from b Ezec. 10.6 between the wheels of the chariot of Cherubims and it lights our winged feet into the Chamber of Presence We have none in heaven to love and none in earth to desire but God Here upon earth there 's nothing desireable but God In heaven there are things desireable but nothing so lovely as God He is the only prime and ultimate object of the Souls satiety Hearken to this c Ps 45.10 O daughter consider his lovely and beautifull glory incline thine ear and forget thy fathers house The memorable relish of the song of divine love inchants the Soul with a holy forgerfulness of old terrene relations So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty O Queen of Zion forget thy black Egyptian Father and all his tawny-moor Princes of the adust race of Cham. Run to the arms of thy Solomon desire him upon earth and love none besides him in heaven and he will greâ—tly desire thy beauty Thy beauty a Alas 't is his beauty that shines upon thee First thy beloved is thine and then thou art his he plants his Lillies and then feeds among them But let 's descend a little and try the pretended love of mortalls by these higher than Lydian touchstones Dost thou love any thing in the world more then God above God beyond God without God and not in order to him How then can d 1 Joh. 3 17. the love of the Father dwell in you Dost thou love him
thereof yet a Saint drinks of a river that makes glad the City of God and glides with its silver streams along the banks of his Soul A Saint a Ps 143.5 remembers the daies of old meditates on all his works and muses on the work of his hands He recounts his sweet songs in the night his pleasant touches on the harp when the spirit of God was pleased to sing in consort I Remember saies the Psalmist the b Ps 77.10 years of the right hand of the most High when his candle shined upon my head and by his light I walkt through darkness The secret of God was upon my Tabernacle when c Job 29 3. c. I washed my steps in butter and the rocks poured me out rivers of oyl He that hath enlarged my Soul d Ps 4.1 in distresse he that hath e 2 Cor. 1.10 delivered doth and will deliver Christ is the root of his faith experience like a heavenly dew makes it spread and flower in appeals to heaven and grow within the firmament Nay all a Saints graces are like the Misseltoe have noe root of their own but in the true vine their sap life is from Christ and experience sucks it out Thou hast been with me and continually with me and therefore I will not fear I was cast upon thee f Ps 22.10 from the womb thou art my God from my mothers belly Thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth By thee g Ps 71.6 I have been held up from the womb thou art he that tookest me out of my mothers bowells my praise shall be continually of thee Cast me not off in my h V. 9. old age forsake me not when my strength faileth Thou i V. 20 shalt quicken me again and bring me up again from the depths of the earth See how Davids feeling communions did wing his soul up into heaven and keep it there The Lark is a lively embleme of a Saint alwaies singing while mounting to heaven and then silent in a gracious sadness when by any tentation drawn down to the world Behold in David how experience feeds upon God and drinks out of God and then like a Dove lifts up ' its eyes to heaven in appeals of praise under the sense of divine veracity love and mercy O my Soul thou hast Doves eyes eyes like the spirit when thou raisest up thy wings in heavenly praise and thankfulness Appeals are the fruit of gratitude and oh how comely is this for Saints Bernard f Bern. f. 89 b. saies 't is clemency in God to deny ungratefull men their petitions that they may not fall under heavier condemnations for their frequent ingratitudes Let us then sing forth his glory and make every mercy to sound upon the Harp and Viol. My lips saies the Prophet g V. 22. shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed My tongue shal talk of thy righteousness all the day long He Hath heard my voice I a Ps 116.1 2. will call upon him as long as I live He hath been with me and he will be with me and David tells this not to the sons of men nor to his own soul only but to God himself When David and his Harp are alone and the singer of Zion is planting his heavenly thoughts into the melodious strings O the Shushannims the Lilly tunes that David playes 't would ravish ones Soul to lay an ear to the key-hole To hear an other Saint flowing forth in appeals It dissolves our Souls into rivers of pleasure but for our own Souls to be swimming in these Sanctuary waters O extasie of joy The Soul by appeals dives into the Ocean of love and appears not till the resurrection The life of such a Saint is hid with God in Christ and at his appearing and kingdome shall break forth in orient and radiant lustre It builds none of Peters Tabernacles in the mount of present Vision it longs for fulness and looks upon Tabor as but a small petty step to glory and under the sweet manifestations of its future communion cries out when dying with that b Mr. Newman of New-England holy Saint of late Angels do your office Was God with a Saint in electing love before a Saint was Is God with a Saint in the breathings sealings of his spirit before a Saint clearly sees himself with God and shall such stand amused at death What 's Death to a Saint It neither separates from God nor Christ nor the Spirit nor Angells nor Saints nor Heaven nor Glory 'T is a friend to a Saint one of the Guard-Chamber to the King of Heaven turns the key and hands us into his presence A Saint like Androdus in Gellius hath pickt the thorn out of the foot of this Lion and behold how tamely he walks by his side till the morning of Triumph Is God with a Saint and can he say so because he feels so The grave which is like the darkness of Egypt to others it may be felt gives the light of Goshen to a Saint since Christ hath left a path light and a luminous glittering print of his footsteps in it when he passed through it A Saint draws its enlightned aire into the lungs of meditation for his nourishment God's with him and a Saint sees him tasts him feels him and therefore c Act. 2.26 his heart rejoyces his tongue is glad and his flesh rests in hope It was said of Lazarus d Joh. 11.3 Behold he whom thou lovest is sick and it may be said of every departing Saint Behold he whom thou lovest is dead No! saies Christ this damsell-soul e Mar. 5 39 is not dead but sleepeth and my bosome shall warm it till it wake and minister to mee The vigor of Christ shall cherish the body of a Saint as Elisha did the Shunamites child and raise it to a glorious life when the Sun of assurance shines glitteringly at the evening of his life in the face of an appealing Saint his Soul may presage joyfully that such a ruddy a Mat. 16.2 evening is the certain token of a radiant and illustrious day to follow the bright morning of his resurrection A day wherein the Captain of our Salvation our victorious and triumphant Joshua will lead the Armies of Israel into the land of Canaan and command the Sun of glory to stand still for ever in the noon of Eternity and that permanent happiness never to know an evening O then haste my beloved and come away a Song 8.14 be like a young Roe or a Hart upon the Mountains of Spices Thou b Rev. 22.16 Root thou Off-spring of David thou bright and Morning Star that shinest in that ruddy dawning haste thine appearance The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus FINIS The Errata PAge 9 line 34 shrink read screik p. 1 l. 21 Noahs second r. the second Noahs p. 12. l. 30. attaching r. from attaching p. 32 l. 8 sharpness r. sharpens p. 42 l. 5 sticks r. strikes p. 69. l. 1 pangs r. pains p. 85. l. 7. whereas r. where 's p. 88. l. 34 bode r. bope p. 94 l. 24 again r. against p. 94 l. 29 spi r. spirit p. 97 l. 22. oyl r. toyl p. 108 l. 21 through r. though p. 123 put in this note in the margin at the words a Opticks teach us a Vittellon optic l. 2. Theorem 17. p. 67. edit Basil fol. 1572.