God gasping and panting after the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 42. 1 2. O labour for such a frame of heart and bewail a narrow and contracted spirit Do not perform duties for duties sake so as to make duties the end of duties but as the medium by which thy soul may draw nigh to God and meet with him The countenance and presence of God in a duty is the very Suburbs of glory yea the very gate of Heaven Gen. 2â— 17. Let this be in thy thoughts and the very purpose of thy heart and expect it vehemently in every access to God Let thy soul follow hard after God and say One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Psal 27. 4. Psal 84. 2. Duties are only the outward Court but the form shell and carkass of Religion as Pipes without Water Breasts without Milk as Sails without Wind or as a Body without a Soul that hath no life The encrease of your grace and holiness depends upon your acquaintance and communion with the God of grace It was Mose his being in the Mount that made his face to shine and the Kings being at his Table that caused the Churches Spikenard to send forth the swell thereof Cant. 1. 12. The presence of the glorious God on a Sabbath the presence of God in prayer or at a Sacrament will be unto thy soul as marrow and fatness and that which will make thy hands to drop with Myrrh and thy fingers with sweet-smelling Myrrh Thus it was with the Spouse when her Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door Cant. 5. 4 5. 6 By improving every Providence every Comfort every Cross for Gods glory and our own spiritual advantage God doth nothing in vain for he hath a peculiar respect unto the good of his people in all his dispensations he doth time measure and order every dark and afflicting providence for his Churches advantage Jer. 24. 5. Rom. 8. 24. Heb. 12. 10 11. God's chastning and teaching commonly go together therefore it is we must hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6. 9. The Rod hath a Voice Beasts may feel the rod but the believer hearts the rod. God's rod should make us like Aaron's rod bud blossom and to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness Heb. 12. 11. Now if you would be bettered by affliction endeavour to do three things 1. To understand the meaning or mind of God in them for what sins committed or duties neglected they are sent Afflictions are Gods Messengers and we should never be quiet till we know their Errands Job 10. 2. 2. See the hand of God in all those afflictions So did David Psal 39. 10. and holy Job 1. 11. Hos 6. 1. 3. Labour to answer the end of God in your straits and troubles that you might be made more humble more holy more heavenly before that we may say and find that it hath beed good for us to be afflicted We have as much reason to seek unto God for a blessing upon our daily Rod as upon our daily Bread 7. Time must be redeemed by casting up your accounts every day and so to make even with God and not get further into his debt This will be the way to get an acquittance to procure a pardon before you are called and forced to an account Secret duties if well done are the sweetest duties and yet sadly neglected by Saints themselves You should retire every night and spend a little time in self-examination and when you sit alone commune with your hearts and call over the passages and actions of the day past We read Gen. 24. 63. That Isaac went out in the evening tide to meditate a precious duty but rarely practised Christians should spend void spaces of time in ejaculatory Prayer and holy Meditation And O how hard it is to ascend this Mount of heavenly Meditation 'T is very easie and delightsom to think of the World the pleasures of Sin Friends Riches Worldly business but to Meditate on God Heaven Eternity the insufficiency and vanity of the creature the bitterness of sin the certainty of death and judgement the very inwards of Religion is very difficult Before you lye down upon your beds at night call your selves to an account by such questions as these 1. I have lived many years in the world What have I been doing all my days have I answered the end of my being 2. Have I had a holy awe of God in the midst of my Worldly business this day What thoughts of death and Judgement have I had Where hath my heart been 3. How have I performed duties this day What hath been the sins of this day the mercies of this day that I may beg the pardon of the one and bless God for the other 4. What assistance and communion with God have I had this day in the duties of his worship have not God and my soul been strangers this day and many days together 5. What have I done or spoken for God and his Glory this day in my Family or else-where have I demean'd my self like a child of God this day this is to make Religion our business or to walk in the fear of the Lord all the day 8. Improve your time by endeavouring to order every days work with reference to your last day The end of every duty and the great reason of redeeming time lies here namely that we may be fit to dye and stand before God Therefore must we glorifie the infinitely holy God and make him our friend Hence it is that we must secure our souls and speedily get into Jesus Christ and grow in grace do good to others call our selves to an account and clear our title unto heaven that all our work may be done up while it is day and none left to do let death call when it will The reasons why our precious time must be redeemed are 1. Because the days are evil 2. Because 't is a considerable part of our Christian wisdom Reas 1. Because the days are evil This is the Apostles own argument to enforce the duty Precious time and evil days run parallel therefore no part of a little time must be lost I shall instance in a few particulars to make it appear 1. The Tares of false Doctrine or Diabolical Blasphemous Damnable Opinions do abound How do the Devils Agents endeavour to raise and undermine the very foundations and principles of the Christian faith Those old and damnable heresies that have been condemned and expunged out of the Church of God are greedily embraced and swallowed down by more then a few 2 Tim. 3. 1. and 4. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 12. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye knew these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3. 17. 2 Tim. 1. 13. 2. Mens flagitious
look to your near and dear Relations for whom you expose your selves to so much pain care and trouble Look to Abraham your Father and to Sarah that bare you as the Prophet speaketh in another case to your Husbands Wives Children Parents Friends Neighbours Magistrates Ministers are these for ever No Many of them are gone down to the dark Valley already and shall return no more or look to those brave Heroes Alexander Caeser Pompey and where are they are they not all conquered by the King of terrors and held in the Prison of the Grave for many hundred years Look to your Silver Gold Pearl Perfumes costly Cabinets stately Structures Princes Pallaces are these for ever No They are corruptible things and cannot deliver in the day of the Lords wrath Kings Palaces are desolate places ready to become a heap Crowns are translated from head to head Scepters pass from one hand to another and Kingdoms have their rise and they have their ruine And will you sell your precious souls for pelf and transitory trash which indeed is more in expectation then in fruition consider how little that is worth for which you run the dreadful hazard of losing Heaven But now if you are Believers lift up your eyes to the everlasting Hills and put the Eagles eye of Faith within the Vail there 's the Ancient of Days God your Father the chiefest good and highest happiness there is Christ your dear Redeemer the Prince of Glory and a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens and upon the favour of God the love and Righteousness of Christ you may see Eternity Again turn your eyes inward to the hidden man of the heart is there the seed of God or impress of his Image and the Divine Nature 1 John 3. 9. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Is there an active living springing principle of Grace John 4. 14. On this thou maist read Eternity Grace is the Heir of glory every drop of which runs into the Ocean and nothing else can befriend you For the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. 5. Consider which of the two Eternities you are going towards I would have you deeply and seriously consider That there is one place for the Sheep and another for the Goats one place for the Righteous and another for the Ungodly one place for Believer and another for Unbelievers one place for the Dead and another for the Living An eternal Night or eternal Day eternal Pains or eternal Pleasures eternal Bliss or eternal Burning an eternal Life or eternal Death an eternal Heaven or an eternal Hell Now Sinners stop here and consider unto which of the two do you belong Have you any certainty of a blessed and glorious Eternity that Heaven not Hell will be your place and portion for resolving of which consider and answer to these Queries Have you unfeignedly believed repented and turned to God with the renting of your hearts and resigned your whole souls to him do you find your hearts affectionately and venemently carried out to Jesus Christ so as not to be satisfied without Union and Communion with him Is Jesus Christ the Beloved and Darling of your Souls Have you being sensible of what you have done against him and of your unworthiness of him by a deep and heart humiliation laid a Foundation for Heaven and Happiness You must Sow before you can Reap and they that Sow in tears shall Reap in joy Psal 126. 5. Are you Heaven-born or born after the flesh only If by a sound work of conversion you are become new creatures indeed 2 Cor. 5. 17. It is well stand and wonder at amazing mercy if not fear and tremble for if you fail here you are utterly undone for ever Further are you risen with Christ or dead in trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. Are you partakers of the first resurrection or are you in your graves rotting stinking in your sins being past feeling are you truely at odds with Sin and every sin or do you take pleasure in unrighteousness are you for Godliness in the life and power of it and is there no reigning allowed sin in your hearts and ways doth sin and every sin look ugly feel heavy taste bitter and no Idol of the heart to keep Christ out of his Throne no secret sin lived in against Conscience Do you pray and desire to live in the fear and as under the eye of God making conscience of secret sins and of secret duties with a sincere respect to Gods glory and your own good doth the heart-searching God find you in your Closets on your knees morning and evening pouring out your souls before him every one that is Godly will pray Psal 32. 6. Are you crucified to the World or do your souls cleave unto the dust have you a Treasure in Heaven or treasure in the Field onely Have you bought the Pearl or are you content with Pebbles Who are your Associates The Devils Herd or Christs Flock are you companions for Swine and filty Dogs the World of Ungodly or of the Doves and Lambs of Christ whose mark have you the mark of Sheep viz. Holiness humility innocency or the mark of Goats viz. Lust Pride and uncleanness who keeps the Throne the King of Saints or the God of this World do your hearts and lives speak Heaven Heaven Heaven or Hell Hell Hell Hell is not more the place of the devil then the heart of a wicked man Can you look upwards and say Our Father â—hich art in Heaven or must you look down-werd and say Our Father which art in Hell How can you take comfort in any thing of this World that are like to be unspeakably and eternally miserable in the other World Suppose you had as much of the Riches Pomp and glory of the World as any man that ever liv'd upon the face of the Earth If you could say this Crown this Kingdom this Countrey is mine this Gold this Silver or this Shop these Goods this Manner this Farm these Fields these Flocks this Corn these Cattle and these Mines these Pearls these Jewels are mine what would all avail you if your souls are the Devils Now how stands the case of your precious souls are they secured have you made a real preparation for death and judgement or left all undone Are you vessels of honour prepared unto Glory or Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction Rom. 9. 22 23. Let conscience speak commune with your hearts Psal 4. 4. Consider your ways Hag. 1. 5. Search and try your selves Lam. 3. prove your own work examine your selves whether you are in the Faith 2 Cor. 13. 5. Whatsoever you sow you shall certainly reap Gal. 6. 7 8. And in the place where the Tree falleth there it shall lye Eccl. 11. 13. If it falleth to the North it lyeth to the North if it falleth towards the South it lyeth towards the South If you live and dye towards
Eternity O let not London nor England forget that and other tremendous judgments which our sins have called for lest a worse then any yet should come upon us The forgetting of our latter end is a deadly and provoking sin and that which will hasten judgement Her filthiness it in her skirts she remembred not her last and therefore she came down wonderfully she had no comforter Lam. 1. 9. 8. Consider That where death cometh to strike the stroake your souls are stated your Eternity is cast without change for ever Then your immortal souls are for salvation or damnation for an eternal life or eternal death for an eternal heaven or an eternal hell You sadly besotted souls know and remember while you have a day before the golden threed of life be cut that if you be found without Christ Faith Repentance Holiness but a moment after death you are undone to Eternity After death all means and hopes fail there is no work or device in the grave Eccles 9. God will be then irreconcilable sin unpardonable heaven not attainable and your souls lost irrecoverably And then the Devil your bloody adversary will have his designe upon you he knoweth that if you be his in life and death that you are his forever and that he and you shall never part Sinners this is certain as the tree falleth so it lyeth as is the seed so will be the harvest if you do the Devils work you must have the devils wages if you march under the command and conduct of the Prince of Darkness and suffer him to lead and hurry you hither and thither at his will whil'st you live you will be his prisoners and slaves in that dreadful dungeon of dismal darkness after you are dead Consider the Land of darkness is no place for service there 's no repenting in the grave no Lord have mercy on us written upon Hell Gates no Sabbaths no Sermons no Ministers there 'T is in the time of life that you are to labour and make preparation for life eternal because according to your work and choice in this world will be your everlasting lot in the world that is to come It is appointed for you once to dye and after death the judgement Heb. 9. 7. The pale horse death goeth before and hell followeth after Rev. 6. 8. there will be no change of your condition the eternal ruine or eternal welfare of your precious souls depends on those few minutes this swift stream of mans life after it once turneth or declineth ever runneth with a perpetual ebb never floweth again so that all that you leave undone now will be undone for ever If you die unbeleivers you will be unbeleivers for ever if you dye under the guilt and power of sin and wrath of God you will remain under the guilt of sin and wrath of God for ever but if you dye holy humble mortified sincere souls you will remain holy heavenly and in the favour of God for ever Rev. 21. He that is filthy will be filthy still and he that is holy will be holy still but the inpenitent unpardoned sinner though he live a hundred or a thousand years in satisfying his lust will be accurst at last Poor sinners that read this little Treatise let me beg you to up and be doing while it is day the night will come wherein you not no man can work John 9. 4. Then to your work with might and main while your candle is burning your Sun shining will you yet loiter and see your glass running your Sun setting your selves dying and your souls perishing O seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55. 5. in an acceptable time 2 Cor. 6. 2. before the day pass as the chaff before the decree bring forth before the evil day cometh before they that look out of the windows be dark and the keepers of the house begin to tremble before the doors be shut in the streets and the silver cord be loosed or the Pitcher broken at the fountain before you are gone to your long home and the spirit return'd to God that gave it Consider with your selves are your fit to grapple with this mighty Monarch death are you fraughted for this long Voyage and ready and willing to pass through this dark Entry take heed and feare lest you be found unfit Think on the sadly deluded Virgins that had their Oyl to buy when their Lamps should burn and so came to the door but found it shut think upon poor Esan that was hunting for Vienson while he lost the blessing Poor perishing souls what do you intend to do if you will work it must be now or never Are you resolved to seek and secure the Kingdome of God first Mat. 6. 23. whilst it is called to day or will you bestow nothing but dregs and snuffs of rotten old age upon God and your immortal souls O that you might know in this your day the things which belong to your Peace before they be hid from your eyes 9. Lastly consider That it is the most dreadful and amazing sight on this side hell to see a Christless unbeleiver breathing out his last There are other sad sights viz. to see a man starving for want of bread or dying for want of a physitian or drowning for want of a boat or to see a man dead a dead corps a body without a soul but ah how sad and astonishing a spectacle is it to see a man near the coasts of Eternity viz. to behold a wretched sinner in his cold sweats and dying groanes with his precious immortal soul standing on his pale cold quivering lips and death the great Conqueror and the King of terrors marching furiously with his Writ of remove in one hand not to be reverst and his deadly dart and sting in the other hand conscience on the rack barking biting and tearing him like a Lyon the Devil Gods Executioner looking on and standing by the heart under dejecting and sinking despair the eyes dim and fixed his heart-strings ready to break with anguish his Wife Children Friends at the bed-side weeping sighing crying wringing their hands beating their breasts the Wife crying out alas my Husband the Child crying out alas my Father The poor perishing soul all this while looking backward upon his mispent time and by-past sins inward upon his own heart a dreadful sight where he seeth no Christ no grace no purity nothing but sin guilt death darkness Then looking upward to that God that hath been provoked to that Christ that hath been rejected to that Heaven and Eternity that he hath lost and looking down-ward to that dark and dreadful pit that must be his place and portion with a fearful looking for of judgement seeing the Devils come and ready to seiz upon him O what a dreadful out-cry and shriek will the soul make when it departs perceiving it self sinking down down to the burning lake and bottomless pit where he must take up his lodging with devouring
in your ears as thorns darts and swords in your flesh as poyson in your bowels as fire in your bones to compel and force you speedily tocurb and check the reins of your hellish lusts that you so might five from wrath to come Did you but view that dark and cold grave and hot hell that is so neer you would rather starve or dye then run to that excess of riot you could not sleep and snort dance and sport upon the pits brink under such a consideration But forget all this banish the thoughts of God death and hell and you will run and rush into sin as the horse into battel Luk. 12. 45 crying peace peace till danger death and destruction cometh 1 Thes 5. 3. This was that mighty sin that ripened Jerusalem for ruine and brought her down wonderfully her filthiness is in her skirts she remembreth not her last end The Lord complaineth by the Prophet Isaiab of the same thing Israil doth not know my people doth not consider but what follows ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the holy one of Israel compare Lam. 1. 9. Isa 1. 3. 4 But he that doth that which is lawful and right shall save his soul alive who is that he that considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall save his soul whosoever doth perish that man shall never perish Ezek. 18. 14. 28. Reas 4. The consideration of your latter and will be a powerful incentive to make you exert and put forth the greatest industry in a way of duty yea it will certainly have an influence upon all our duties and upon all our graces for considering and doing are frequently joyn'd together Psal 41. 1. Prov. 31. 16. she considereth a field and buyeth it I thought on my wayes or considered my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies Psal 119. 59. Lam. 3. 40. Heb. 10 This if any thing will make you serious diligent and constant in any duty and to work while it is day before the night cometh wherein no man can work The Apostle exhorts to consider one another to provoke to love and good works and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Heb. 10. 24 25. The remembrance of the day of our death and of our passing into eternity with a deep impression of it upon the heart will be as a voice of thunder speaking to the secure sensless sinner awake awake thou that sleepest open thine eys stand upon thy feet and behold and see what a sea of blood and wrath is here See and beleive beleive and consider consider and fear fear and fly and make hast in thy work Thy work is great and weighty diversions are many adversaries are strong thy strength is small thy time is short thy account is great death and judgement are at the door therefore up and be doing now or never You slow and slothful souls Let your apparent and inevitable danger suddenly provoke and spur you unto your duty to seek the Lord in a time accepted before the door of life beshut God with-drawn and mercy quite gone The prophanest Sea-man will sigh mourn pray promise vow if death and danger looks him in the face when the ship was like to be broken and death threatned immediately to surprize them the Marriners were sore afraid and cryed every one to his God And this the very light of nature dictated to the ship-master though a Heathen that then it was no season to sleep what meanest thou O sleeper arise and call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not Joneh 1. 6. and the most notorious thieves and murderers will pray in prison or when they come to the Gallows the place of execution When the most righteous Judge sent his destroying Angels to the City of London and other places in the year 65. for the dreadful fear of which many thousands did flye and many thousands did fall viz. the carkases of men like dung upon the ground and as handfuls after the Harvest man When death did knock at a thousand doors in one night Owhat confessing of sin fastings crying and importunate knocking was there at the throne of grace and it may be by many persons families that prayed but little before or since that God would pity pardon and remove that amazing sweeping judgement which is now almost forgotten Upon an unwakening apprehension of Ninevehs fatal ruine the King and his Nobles decreed and proclaimed a Fast and injoyned every one to cry mightily to God Jonah 3. 7. Sinners were you but truly sensible of your peril you would pray to purpose viz. more ardently more in wardly more deeply more affectionately then ever you have done It was a supposed danger and that of death that caused Jacob to weep and make supplication for Esau hated Jacob and said in his heart the dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand then will I stay my brother Jacob Gen. 27. 42. and Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed Gen. 31. 7. Which made him so importunate with God for deliverance and he prevailed Gen. 31. 11. Hos 12. 4. Poor sinners your case is dangerous I will not say desperate but you are ignorant of it you do not know that you are poor miserable blind and naked were you but sensible that you are liable to the wrath of God the stroke and sting of death every moment it would constrain you to cry mightily to God for pardon Holy Job when he considered of Death and Judgement set prayer to work and said Why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me Job 7 21. 14. 13. This also made those two gracious Kings Hezekiah and David to weep and pray in the bitterness of their souls In those dayes was Hezekiah sick unto death and Isaiah the Prophet came unto him and said thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt dye and not live then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept sore and prayed to the Lord Isa 28. 1 2 3. David when the sorrows of death compassed him and paines of hell got hold of him then said he I called upon the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Psal 116. 3 4. Jonah that could sleep in the ship prayed in the Whales belly Out of the belly of hell I cryed and thou heardest my voice Jonah 2. 2. The Apostle Peter and Christ himself presseth prayer from the consideration of the end of the world The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer 1 Pet. 4. 7. and pray saith Christ that you may escape
each falleth in one after the other a first second and third drops down the rest not discerning the danger runs the round I shall thus apply it This day or hour a Swearer tumbleth down to hell The next a drunkard This evening or morning the pale horse mounteth one it may be a cursed Atheist or a malitious bloody persecutor or a filthy Adulterer or an idolatrous worldling and carrieth him to the place of Darkness The next day he receiveth his Commission to fetch some more of them those their brethren in iniquity that are lest behinde keep and continue their course and dance about the pit not considering they so must die and come to judgement How little do the living lay to heart this great business of their Mortality insomuch that when they would deny a thing with greatest confidence they will commonly say they thought no more of it then of their dying day as if death were not a matter of any moment but rather a meer toy or trifle not to be regarded She remembred not her last end Lam. 1. 9. You self destroying sinners Do you know that you must dye and leave the world for ever and are you so stupified and mad as not to think of Death in many dayes together yea hardly to entertain a serious thought of death and judgment at a house of mourning in the very sight of the dead you can be vain frothy jest pot pipe feast discourse of the world a sad proof that men do not consider their latter end Some at that solemn and sad season seem a little serious but as soon as the dead Corps is removed and the Grave and Coffin out of sight Death is no more remembred To make you sensible of this folly let me reason with you in a few plain hints What no thoughts of death you that have been under a sentence of death and brought to the very pits brink looking into Eternity Oh how sad is it to think how quickly those thoughts and impressions of your mortallity have worn out and past away Sinner remember and forget not those secret vows promises and engagements you then made to God viz. that you would part with sin leave your wicked company set loose to the world live godly and make it your business to be religious and loose no more of your precious time and opportunities for your soul If you have forgotten it the all-seeing and heart-searching God remembers it Know and consider in thy heart that death that did but warn thee then by sending his summons will shortly come himself Forgetful of Death and made of dust born of a woman and under a Decree not to be revoked by men or Angels Heb. 6. 27. Job 14. 3. As for man his dayes are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Not mind your death you that have sickly weak diseased bodies full of paines and aches that are so many partial quotidian deaths yea a dying daily What put off the thoughts of death thou that hast been at so many Funerals heard so many passing Bells or Knells seen so many Graves Skuls and Coffins before thine eyes Forget your death and yet sinners and sinning daily carrying the cause and sting of death in your bosoms mors in corpore the body is dead because of sin Rom. 8. 11. Thy body is but a body of death sin hath kill'd it the sentence is past Gen. 3. The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 1. The soul that sins must dye Ezek. 18. 20. What put off this evil Day and dead in part old and cold having one foot in the grave viz. feeble knees trembling hands wrinkled faces gray or bald heads the grave being ready for you What no more serious thoughts of death and so many pieces and parcels of your selves gone before to this long home so many Relations and Children now a sleep in the dust of death are they buried in perpetual oblivion never to be remembred any more What Sinner What not think of Death and Death at thy very heels and before thine eyes whither can you direct your eyes and not see that which preacheth or representeth Death all the Winter Death is on the Trees in our Gardens in every flower At your Table every day you feed on the flesh of dead Creatures to tell you that you must die and is not death in your beds every night what is sleep but the picture and image of cold Death and your beds but the representation of your dark graves O careless besotted sinners not consider of death and have precious souls that must live or die be saved or damnted to Heaven or Hell to bliss or burning to God or Devils to Saints or cursed Reprobates as soon as the breath is gon which may be the next day or hour this pale horse death hath the red horse Hell following him Rev. 6. 8. Lastly what not think of and prepare for Death and called Christians that profess you beleive the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting a happiness beyond the Grave For in this life only saith Paul wt have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15. 19. Poor hardned sinners that now forget God and this great and mighty concern of your eternal souls what will you do in the day of Visitation when your iniquities shall compass you about and no friend in heaven above or in earth beneath that can stand you in stead and when conscience like a bold sturdy Sergeant shall take you by the throat and summon you in the Name of the great Judge to come and stand at or before the judgement seat Vnderstand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise Psal 94 8. to understand this to provide for your latter end 2. This blames the ignorant pettish and considerate soul who in an angry fit or passion wisheth for death out of a base end viz. as a writ of ease or out-let to present pain poverty sickness and other worldly troubles and perplexities not rightly considering how terrible death is or what are the dreadful consequences of it Now that we may be convinced of this sin and folly give me leave to tell you that between the worst longest and deepest miseries and calamities of this life and those after death there is no proportion but an exceeding distance Poor deluded souls what is the bite of a flea to the sting of a Serpent or a scratch on the hand to a stab at the heart what 's the heat and smart of a little candle to a hot fiery furnace or a devouring flame What 's a drop of gall to a Sea or Ocean of poyson or what is pain forture or anguish for an hour to intollerable misery time without end into which to the unconverted death will certainly be the door and are you so mad to imagine that there is nothing in the other world to be
pretend to beleive these things we may see them as busie as a company of Ants in a sunny day and that the general course of men hath no tendency towards this end but indeed a sad and woeful incongruity 2. The second cause is want of spiritual and divine wisdom It was for want of that wisdom which is from above that the Israelites did not consider O that they were wise said God They are a Nation void of counsel neither is there any understanding in them Deut. 32. 28. If men were wise for their precious and eternal souls they would consider what is here to be done and what is like to be their condition in the other world The prudent man fore-seeth the evil or considereth the evil and hideth himself When God by the mouth of Moses threatned to plague the Egyptians by the Pestilence Haile and Fire he that beleived and feared the word of the Lord amongst the servants of Pharoah made his servants and cattel flee into the house and were preserved Exod. 9. 20. So the soul that is truly wise to consider of the danger of beingdestroyed by the grievous hail and fire of Gods wrath will flee into the hiding place viz. under the wing of the great and glorious Mediator where alone there is true succour But he that did not fear or consider of the danger left his servants and cattle in thâ— field and were destroyed Exod. 9. 21 25. 3. The third hindrance is sensuality worldly pleasures and cares these carry away the heart from the true consideration The Israelites confluence of creature-comforts caused them to forsake and to forget God Deut. 32. 14. 15 16 17 18. The old world was eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage not considering of their danger till the flood came and took them all away Matth. 24. 38 39. The men of the earth do so mind earthly things that their hearts are surfeited and drunken with the care of it Luke 21. 34. And while mens minds and thoughts are carri'd so vehemently after the world to make provision for their life they can think but little of their death Luk 12. 15 16 17 18. 4. The fourth obstruction is a plague upon the heart and desperate security proceeding from it No bonds next to death are so strong to keep men under as security and senslesness of Spirit So dead a sleep possesseth more of the ungodly world that they are past feeling and become so stark dead that the voice of God in the dreadful threatnings of his word and the alarum of his amazing tremendous judgement and desolating providences prevail not to awaken them The Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of a deep sleep and hath in judgement closed their eyes that they can sin in the very face of the Judge at the very brink of hell at the very mouth and entrance into that great gulf of Eternity 5. A fifth hindrance to mens consideration of their latter end is a strong delusion of heart or satanical suggestions The old serpent and desperatively deluded hearts make them dream that God is all love that they shall have a long life that preparation for death and Eternity is a short work and that it may be done at any time namely when they have done with the world when they are old or lying on a sick bed They say in their hearts 't is but beleiving or repenting and saying Lord have mercy upon me let me die the death of the righteous Under this deadly delusion they dream of heaven and go laughing to hell 1 Thes 5. 3. And that which doth much encrease this stupidity may be the want of or neglect of a powerful and soul searching ministry whose office as watchmen is to foresee the danger and to warn and awaken secure sinners crying aloud to them in the name of the Lord Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Ephes 5. 14. But som cannot endure that Ministers should be so severe plain and peircing in their Doctrin so as to thunder and lighten in the eyes and ears of sleepy souls They are well contented to sit under those that daub with untempered mortar and who sow pillows for their arm holes under whose ministry they may take a nap and sleep it out But they hate him that reproveth in the Gate that galls cuts and wounds their Consciences just like the gall'd-backt horse that bites and kicks at him that would heal him A person of no mean quality speaking his opinion of several ministers said such a man I can hear and such a one I can hear very well but for the third he mentioned that was wont to lay the ax to the root of the Tree and grapple with the heart I cannot endure to hear him for he alwayes grates upon my conscience 6. Men do not consider their latter end because they are afraid to do it 1. First to wanton sinners the remembrance of death is a bitter Pill that will not suffer the pleasures of sin to go down so sweetly Therefore they say to the thoughts of Death as the Governour to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will send for thee Serious thoughts of death and Judgement to come as the hand-writing on the wall will damp the spirits and mar the mirth of the greatest Prince or gallant in the world 2. They fear to think of death because they have made no preparation for it viz They have not believed repented liv'd a life of holiness so as to make God their friend A bankrupt that oweth many hundred pounds more then he is worth is afraid to cast up his Accompts so poor and impenitent sinners that are indebted to God that owe him ten thousand talents are unwilling to think of death because death will say unto them come give an account of your Stewardship for you must pay the utmost farthing 3. They are afraid to think of death by reason of the dreadful consequences of death as it relates to both worlds The change that death makes as to this present world is very amazing 1. It brings unavoidable dissolution or separation of soul and body these two dear companions that have lived and converst together and sin'd together for many years must then part and a living man will become a dead Carcase fit for nothing but a grave and the soul must have another habitation Job 17. 13 14. Job 19. 26. Well might Death be called the King of terrours 2. It is matter of fear to leave this world that hath been so pleasing and delightsom and for which we have toyl'd and labour'd so many years in one night to loose it all For when the departing hour cometh you may take a view of all your comforts which you have had under the Sun and helps for heaven viz. Husbands Wives Parents Children Kinsfolk Friends jolly Companions Gold Silver Houses Lands sweet and delicate Banquets pleasing Bargains
and say we must now part farewell for ever We shall never see or enjoy you more we shall never eat drink or converse more buy or sell more all our fleshly and sensual delights are ended our joy our mirth is ceased and all the blessed advantages for our salvation now will terminate Farewel the means of grace and all the golden opportunities for our souls farewell all those faithful Ministers that we have heard farewel all those powerful awakening Sermons that have sounded in our ears farewell all the blessed Sabbaths farewell all the Counsels Examples Reproofs Prayers of our serious and religious friends and Relations we shall never see the face of a Minister more or hear a Sermon more never have the door of grace and life opened to us any more for ever And what remains but a doleful remembrance of those good things that are past and gone and a severe strict account that is yet behind O dreadful change and loss indeed to them that make the world their home that have their heaven on this side heaven and no provision or portion beyond the grave The thoughts of which made a wicked young man very thriving in the world to utter these words If I live I shall be a rich man but this is the plague of it I must die which accordingly came to pass not long after 3 No wonder death is so terrible for after death the judgement Death is a Purservant that summons guilty souls to comend give an account at Gods dreadful bar And what more terrible to the Malesactorthen the sight and presence of an angry Judge While Paul reasoned of judgment Felix trembled and bid him be gone that Doctrine did so gall him that he could not endure it Acts 24. 25. Vse 2. The second use is to exhort perswade and stir you up to put this duty of so great and infinite concernment into practice O Sirs I beseech you to entertain some timely thoughts of your dying hour that death and you may be more familiar The best friend you have in heaven and earth longs to see it done O that therewere such an heart in them Now if you would do any thing in this blessed work viz. to prepare for death and judgement it must be done 1. Suddenly 2. Seriously 3. Effectually 1. It must be done suddenly it s a business of that importance that must not be neglected or delay'd for a moment of time Did you but see that you are upon the confines of eternity and in danger every day of being undone for ever you would quickly come to a resolution To further and encourage you consider 1. Life as dear and precious as it is is very uncertain What a nothing is this life a wind a vapour a dream a breath a bubble How soon may the Thread be cut the Glass run or this bright burning Lamp be dim and out when how or where this short dying life will terminate thou dost not know Whether at home or abroad among they friends or strangers in the field or house at thy table or in thy Bed who can tell 2. Death may come suddenly When the pase horse will set forth whether in the morning or at mid-day or midnight no man can tell thee There is a fatal hour which none can pass Luk. 12. 20. Psal 73. 18. 19. Psal 64. 7. 1 Thes 5. 3. 3. When death comes it strikes sure This King of terrors on the pale horse always rides the circuit and doth execution where-ever he cometh no shield or buckler or armour of proof can defend us no not an army of guard of men or Angels If dreadful death finds a King on his Throne or a beggar on the dunghil it 's all a case The strength of man though a Sampson this great Leviathan Death counts but a straw death doth his work speedily easily witness the last plague I shall adde here 1. Death calls warnings and alarums are very frequent not one of you but have had many a call and knock to mind you of death 2. Deaths commands are peremptory he brings his warrant a long with him Death coms in the name of the terrible Judge takes his Commission out of the court of heaven in order to the accomplishment and execution of an eternal irrevocable decree so that he must doe his work will have his Errand If a man had Mines of Gold and Silver to give it cannot deliver from the arrest of this inexorable Serjeant 3. Deaths Conquest is great I know thou wilt bring me to death and the place appointed for all living What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Thou hast set his bounds that he cannot pass They that have conquer'd Kingdoms and Countries and carried all before them have been subjected by death when death comes and takes a man by the throat though the proudest stoutest strongest in the world he must go willing or unwilling 't is all one to death 'T is observable that of bad men their souls are not resign'd but taken away What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Job 27. 8 20. A tempest stealeth him away in the night This night shall thy soul be required death will not stay a night T is in vain for them that are strong and lively to say to death go to the wrinkled faces to the gray heads to the pile cheeks to the naked backs the dry bons to the dry breasts meddle not with this young man strike not this comely beautiful woman that is in the flower and prime in nature Go to yonder consumptive declining decaying dying old man go to that weak wither'd old woman Let me alone or be excus'd O but death regards it not For this great Conquerour death knocks as often at the young mans door as at the door of the old woman Death arrests and carrieth away the strong the healthy the rich the honourable the learned prisoners to the grave as often as the weak the sickly the poor the base and ignorant 2 You are to do it seriously with thy soul The living will lay it to heart Eccl. 7. 2. The dead cannot there 's no device in the grave Then go about it now in good earnest before old age and death cometh 3. Do it effectually go thorow with the work leave it not undone or but done to halves let every lust be mortified every duty performed every grace exercis'd As good never a whit as never the near Now you have opportunity before you the day of grace is continued Christ is at the door open to him and make all sure for if ever thou be justified pardoned sanctified it must be now The considerations to perswade you are these following Motive 1. Consider there 's an absolute and indispensible necessity for the doing of it a present necessity an infinite and eternal necessity other things may be done this must be done and its more then time this great
should sever the Wheat from the Chaff the Sheep from the Goats the precious from the vile and in so doing we shall be as God's mouth and free from the blood of all men O then let this dreadful and amazing Doctrine of death and judgement be more frequently and effectually preached that souls in peril near run may see their sin and danger and flye to Christ as the only refuge knowing the terrour of God we perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. Mat. 3 7. 2. Converse with the best Christians viz. them that are grave sober solid savoury and sound in faith Such as make Religion their great business who love to speak of God and of the world to come and by whose counsel and example you may be stir'd up and perswaded to repentance and holiness to consider of death and judgement These were Davids excellent ones in whom he did delight and made his companions Psal 16. 3 119. 63. 3. Read the best Books and those that treat of death and judgement but especially the word of God There are the pure Chrystal streams and richest Mines in this field you will find the Pearl Let the word of God dwell in you richly be not ignorant of any part of it but be sure to accquaint thy self with those Scriptures that speak of the shortness of life the certainty of death and judgement heaven and hell Read the Book of Job and the twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes Psal 39. Psal 90. And let me desire you to be often urging upon your hearts some of those Scriptures that set forth the dreadfulness of that place of torment that will be the portion of all that forget God and make no provision for their precious souls Some few I have here set down which I desire you would all consider and apply Vpon the wicked he shall rain fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup Psal 11. 6. We be unto the wicked it shall go ill with them Isa 3. 10. He shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 13 42. Isa 33. 14. 66. 15. Matth. 25. 41. Luk. 16. 25 26. 2 Thes 1. 8 9. Rev. 6. 8 16 17. Direct 3. Make conscience of setting apart a little time every day on purpose to think of your latter end Do it so frequently until death and you become familar ever and anon put thy self into a posture of dying converse with thy winding sheet Coffin Grave let thy great change be so upon thy heart that thou may'st every morning or evening walk a turn or two with death Remember however it be with thee now thou mustere long be gasping and groaning for breath upon thy dying bed and grapple with the King of terrours and in a moment go down to the Grave and shall come up no more Job 10. 21. If thou shouldst affect thy heart with thoughts of thy latter end go down to Golgotha and think upon those dry bones putrified bodies and there revive the memory of your departed Relations Husbands Wives Children Friends Neighbours and look beyond the Chambers of the Grave converse with those miserable departed souls give the prisoners of the pit a visit Meditate on the raging furious flames that dismal darkness smoak and stink of the botomless pit the screeking of the damn'd and roaring of the devils the heart piercing complaints for water to cool their scorching tongues And when thou dost think upon those millions of souls that are hanging up in hell reflect upon thy sels and expect thy turn speedily Suppose every day thy last every meal thy last every journey thy last every duty Sacrament Sermon thy last And when the Lords day cometh think with thy self this will be the last spiritual market that I shall have to buy the spiritual Oyl of grace and to provide for the Bridegrooms coming after this day is ended I may never more hear the Lord Jesus speak to me by the mouths of his faithful Ministers never be invited to come to Christ or to beleive repent part with sin and accept of a pardon more and so demean thy self every day and in every duty as if thou should'st be called to Gods Bar and give up thine account at night In all thy thoughts words and actions say to thy self would I do thus and thus viz. would I eat drink sleep converse buy sell preach hear pray or worse if I certainly knew this day would be my last O let that Motto Memento mori which some carry in their Rings be engraven on your hearts it being the great concernment of our lives This is that which God people and some of the heathen too have been careful to remember King Asia made his Sepulcher in his life time 2 Cron. 16. 14. and some in their Gardens and places of solace and delight as Joseph of Arimathea John 19. 41. And some of the Heathen were wont to walk among the Graves to put them in mind of death some have had their Graves alwayes before their Gates other a dead mans skul presented every day at their Tables and shall we that beleive the doctrine of the other world put off the serious thoughts of death Solomon adviseth us to go to the house of mourning telling us it is better because the living will lay it to heart When you hear the tidings of the death of your Friends relations or Neighbours go thither though not personally yet contemplatively in your minds thoughts go and put your selves in their stead And think thus a living man or woman is become a dead Corps or cold clay the soul is gone to its everlasting habitation but to what place whether to be comforted or tormented who can tell If he were a godly man he is certainly gone to heaven if thou art such a one thy soul will shortly be with him but if an ungodly man he is certainly gone to hell and now among the Devils and if thou art such a one thou shalt erelong be there too 'T is true the dead can have no thoughts of the living but the living saith Solomon know that they must die And you that are young when you hear of the death of a lively lusty young man or alovely beautiful young woman stop reflect and consider may not this be thy case O man woman or child in a very little space I shall say no more by way of direction only desire you to review the particulars before mentioned and you that are Parents and Masters of Families who make conscience of looking to the souls of those committed to your charge may cause your Children and Servants to learn by heart the particulars I here set down 1. That it is most certain an end will be 2. At our latter end all things in this world will be gone for ever 3. All the pleasures of sin will be gone and leave nothing but a sting 4. That only which is eternal wil stand us