spiritual swooning away but in their coming again to themselves be like them not only in their desertions or dejections but their more usual assurance of Gods love Oh labour to speak the Dialect of Gods Children with David either in the phrase of Psal 3.7 or 119.94 either thus Save me O MY God Or thus I AM THINE save me Sixthly Rely on nothing else Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Pro. 3.5 That is to the devices of thy heart for security refuge help preservation in danger Some trust in horses saies the Psalmist and some I may say in Country houses and air Go to them in time of Pestilence they may but only in case duty and necessary business bind them not to the contrary He that flees the Plague and runs from his Duty may most likely but rush into the Plague as I may say or worse whatever he now thinks Some trust to their invention of Antidotes against the Plague to their own or other mens devices for help and succour in time of danger use them they may but trust to them and their danger is a hundred times the greater for cursed is man that trusteth in man much more that trusteth in himself that leans to his own understanding for he that doth so would if he prospered which it is pity therefore he should I say he would sacrifice to his own net as well as lean to his own understanding Seventhly Praise God much even with thy soul and all that is within thee under the greatest Judgments It is a duty most of all seasonable necessary and advantagious to thee Art thou alive Praise God as the living the living should do especially I say in time of danger Therefore Jacob in his time of danger and fears began his prevalent and successful prayer for deliverance with Less then the least of all Gods mercies For a thankful and chearful acknowledgment feeds faith and hope with former good experience and dispels fear of evil to come with a joy in the Lord who is the presentest and the greatest good Be careful for nothing saies the Apostle How so What remedy against disquieting care and fean Truly Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving In dangers and troubles I judge it very fitting to begin our Prayers with Thanksgivings thanking God for what we have when all seems to be a going and we our selves too who are less then the least of all Gods mercies But especially because by Praises in the beginning of our Prayers we sing out our fears and tune our hearts to pray in faith But seeing both Praise and Prayer are so useful to increase faith and blast fear I will never contend for the priority of either e'n put them together let them never go asunder To conclude then Oh pray much The admirablest way under heaven by Christs blessing to conjure all base fears quite out of the heart For if ever faith be emboldened it is in prayer Prayer it is the improver as of all grace so especially of faith Psal 62.8 Trust in the Lord at all times But how shall we do that It follows Ye people pour out your heart before him then he adds God is a Refuge for us That is certain as the Prophet thinks Oh the confidence in God that they arrive to who in danger can pour out their hearts before him Faith when we pray aright doth in every Petition get faster and faster hold of God Thus the soul in Prayer works it self even into Gods arms of mercy and Christs bosome of love Thus in danger we nestle closer into the Clefts of our blessed Rock till the indignation be overpast You know that excellent Counsel Isa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as is were for a moment untill the indignation be overpast Wouldst thou be so safe Then as Christ counsels Mat. 6.6 Do thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which seeth in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly There is to this purpose a very edifying inference may be easily gathered from 1 Tim. 5.5 Where you have the Apostle's good widow mentioned and that she trusted in God but that is not all It is not a poor rash flourish I trust in God and I hope in the Lord Jesus which is but a dream nay a vain and empty breath the poor ignorant prophane perfons hope which quickly gives up the Ghost But saies the Apostle The good widow she trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Thus she upholds her Confidence in God both day and night Woe be to those that say they trust in God day and night and yet scarce pray at all in good earnest day nor night The Apostle saies indeed that this good widow is desolate hath none to help her but yet to facilitate her faith you know God hath especially revealed his tender care of widows yet their even their trust in God if they will make any thing on 't must be raised and enlivened through continual supplications night and day So must every one of us do who make God our refuge in times of danger I think every one of our hearts tells us without asking what need we have to trust in God under this sad Visitation and sore Judgment of the Plague we may quickly sit in our Families as a desolate widow yea how quickly may we be shut up in them as many are at this time Well if we would approve our Consciences to God in this duty of trusting in him which is our wisest and safest practice let us be exceeding fervent yea constant too in our supplications and prayers day and night It is the use you sadly know as of old when a poor forlorn Family is shut up for the Plague to make upon the door a Red Cross and to write over or by it Lord have mercy c. But as you love your lives both before and after infection instead of that Red Cross have faith in the bloud of Jesus get your souls well sprinkled with it And that which effectually cures the Plague of the heart can more easily and quickly cure the Plague of the body And so Christ may be your Passeover indeed the destroying Angel may pass over you and not touch those that are careful by faith to get their hearts well sprinkled with the bloud of this immaculate Lamb of God And then instead of that short Lord have Mercy do you pour out your souls before the Lord who poured out his heart bloud for poor sinners And to encourage you in the whole even in all your labours to attain such a faith and confidence in Christ as may by his power work out of your hearts the slavish fears of Death Take that excellent place of Scripture Nahum 1.7 The Lord is good A strong hold in the day of trouble AND HE KNOWETH THEM THAT TRUST IN HIM to be sure that trust in him like Job though he stay them Be assured of it your Father which seeth in secret in the secret Closet nay in the secret Chamber and house shut up he that seeth in secret will reward you openly So that if you do indeed firmly believe in God and believe also in Christ you shall be able to say and that from some sweet and great experience that in very deed When his Wrath is kindled but a little blessed YEA THRICE BLESSED are all they that put their trust in him FINIS
AN ANTIDOTE Against the Sinfull Palpitation of the Heart OR Fear of Death Humbly offered to mens serious Thoughts because sadly occasioned by That Dreadfull PLAGUE And those horrid Fears of Death that have seized This present Generation in England whom either greater Sins or weaker Graces or both together have rendred more then ever Timorous MADE UP OF That Singular and Soveraign Scripture Hebrews 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject to Bondage By Robert Tatnall M. A. Sometimes Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and lately Minister of the Gospel at St. John Evangelist's LONDON Isa 9.14 15 16 17. For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Rev. 1.17 18. I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of Death Psal 68.20 He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death London Printed by J. Hayes and are to be sold by S. Gellibrand at the gilded Ball and S. Thomson at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1665. Perlegi hunc Libellum cui Titulus An Antidote against the fears of Death in quo nihil reperio Doctrinae Disciplinaeve Ecclesiae Anglicanae aut bonis Moribus contrarium Joh. Hall R. P. D. Episc Lond. Ã Sac. Domest July 6. 1665. TO THE TRULY CHRISTIAN READER IT is not a time now if ever to complement with dying men and women that poor aid which any serious Christian can endeavour to give in such a publick Calamity as we all now do or should deeply lament The unworthy Labourer in this small Piece of Service must acknowledge so much concerning himself only for his Apology That having been some time till of late imployed in London as a Minister He cannot but weep over it in some Conformity to his Great President 's weeping over Jerusalem And lisp that tender Affection which he cannot express to so great a City For it is belov'd of all and a City once much in and 't is hop't not now out of God's favour To be sure not left out of the hearts of some few who as formerly do still most affectionately pray for her though they can do little else The Plague rages amongst us Good men as well though I hope not as much as bad men are obnoxious to this visitation The latter understand little of the Duty or Comforts manifested in Scripture Spiritually knowing nothing at all Such if they will may hear the sounding of Gods Bowels and tender Mercies to them as in some other instances so not least of all in those Comprehensive though SHORT INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SICK with some other very lately made publick by an Eminent Labourer in the Gospel which with his leave may be stil'd His repeated Call to the Unconverted in Epitome or their Now or Never indeed The Lord make those Instructions as effectual as they are most opportune and importunate too with mens souls Surely the endeavouring of sinners conversion especially at the brink of the Grave must needs be a work of Sage Prudence and an Apostolick Spirit But who is sufficient as for that so for the rest of the Labour viz. The Edification and Building up of Souls in their most holy Faith when their bodies are near ruine Truly be that now questions who is must answer for himself that he of all men is not Who yet counts it his great Duty to deplore it as well as to confess it And whilst he laments his own evident insufficiency to rely upon that sufficiency which is of God both to Direct Assist and Bless the meanest of all his Labourers As for good men and women who are so though they can scarce themselves think so yet they are Christs flock And the Sheep and Shepherds too cannot but chiefly tender their good Now 't is clear that Death is near them as well as others Yea some of Gods most pretious Children have been sick of the Plague none that I know do much doubt it to be King Hezekiahs sickness unto death Nay some have dy'd of it as a most Eminent Minister of this City not long ago And 't is not question'd by some considerable Divines but that many of the converted Corinthians dyed of the Plague as well as others of them were much visited with it so that many were sick and many weak Whereupon some may say there may be no peremptorily asserted ground for a good mans looking on himself as unconcern'd and exempted in a common danger and calamity But however it must be remembred that a good man hath no reason to fear the fear of the wicked whilst he hopes not their hope He having more reason then any wicked persons have to wait upon God for a special Protection if the ninty first Psalm be a part of his Charter as no doubt it is Yet notwithstanding I find a great Terrour upon this Plague even possessing Good as well as Bad men Which I am the more troubled at because as good people have less cause to sink and faint away so Christ by their dispondency hath the less Honour Which two inconveniencies much sadder then a Plague O that I could as a poor Instrument if not remove yet abate at least in some O let Saints bear up and stand in the Gap or Breach Aaron you know ran into the midst of the visited Congregation and stood between the Dead and the Living making atonement for them till the Plague was stayed Numb 16.47 48. Hath Christ made his people a Royal Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable by Jesus Christ and shall such run from the Congregation I mean from their Duty their Calling their Charge their own people yea God and all in vain O let Christ be honoured for the increase of whose Kingdom by the consciencious labours of Gods Children in their places The world both doth and shall stand through Gods mercy remembred in all his Judgments even till the great and general day of the Lords Tribunal There are indeed no greater Motives to any good Action or endeavour then the advance of Christs Honour and of the Holiness and Happiness of poor souls who may if they be wise become with Abraham strong in Faith and so rewarded with strong Consolation that believing so with him they might rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory not only after but also before their death All which is plainly intended in the Subject or Scripture here presented to such as would be serious and safe Which Design of God and interest of man if it be sincerely espoused in the ensuing Discourse God will I hope in mercy pardon and every good person pity his infirmities who in pity prayes for a blessing of God upon this and all other means to be used by such as are sick of the fears of Death before they are
to think that many who do so much and cry Lord Lord Lord have mercy on us yet are not thereupon to be judged in so good a condition and in an unquestionable state of Salvation Therefore I conceive a right understanding of such expressions may be got by taking notice of holy John's palpable intent and the drift of his speech upon the forementioned occasion the Apostle therefore for the better understanding of such mistaken spirits asserts in summe thus much that indeed those only that confess Jesus to be the Son of God and will not deny him in fear of Death or Torment are to be taken for true Christians and happy souls indeed Upon the same account he asserts also That Perfect love casteth out fear that is the tormenting fear of death or danger as Tertullian evinces in his Scorpiacum or Antidote against the Gnosticks speaking thus Johannes negat timorem esse in dilectione quem timorem intelligi praestat nisi negationiâ— authorem i.e. John denies fear to be in love what fear can be better understood then such as is the Author and cause of denying Christ even as the Apostle Peter did for fear of death or suffering He that loves Christ but tolerably aright will not be loath to dye for Christ or to dye and go to Christ That Spouse who is truly sick of love for Christ thinks no Cure of that sickness like Death even to depart and to be with Christ to be ever with the Lord her blessed Bridegroom Thirdly Christ by giving his people that excellent grace of hope kills the fear of death 2 Thes 2.16 There it is plain that good hope through his grace is not only his gift but therewith also or thereby everlasting Consolation which therefore is neither to be interrupted by the fears of Death or discontinued by Death it self yea the same Consolation springing from this grace of hope Heb. 6.18 19. is there called strong Consolation Indeed stronger then Death or the terriblest fears of Death For Christ giving this hope is there said to comfort and establish Saints so that no fear of death as in that place of judgment day can either sadden whom he so comforts or shake and disturb the minds he so establishes for their hearts thus become fixed trusting in the Lord. The Saints grace of hope gets beyond Death before hand and enters into heaven As this Apostle to the Hebrews represents it as entring into that within the vail and by it Saints on earth fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Now you know hope 's nature is contrary to fear He who hopes for eternal life and for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body as it is spoken of Saints hope Rom. 8 23 24 25. He that hath such a saving hope whereby as an Anchor sure and stedfast he hopes for life can never be tost like a wave with any slavish fears of Death Oh then still thy soul by hope in God The Apostle Peter calls the Saints the childrens hope a lively hope Who hath saies he begotten us unto a lively hope Lively hope destroys the exanimating killing fears of Death Puts us beyond death as to fear before it come at us as to feeling for he that hath this lively hope as an Anchor sure and stedfast cannot much fear that he shall at death become a Castaway though he be careful with the Apostle Paul It is Hells pit that is bottomless or fathomless so that the despairing Damned are alwaies tormented with Eternal pains and frights But alas Come the worst of it to the Saints of God this they know that the Graves pit is not bottomless there is enough for their hope to bottom and anchor upon surely and stedfastly The Grave to the wicked is indeed bottomless and though it detains a while the body yet it lets the soul slip into Hell and the body too not long after But Christs Death burial hath so sanctified every of the Saints Graves that at worst their graves will be by so much happier to them then that Grave was to the dead man whom Elisha's buried bones revived even by how much Lazarus his second was or will be better than his first Resurrection Christs Death and Burial hath left somewhat in every Saints grave sufficient at the lowest for his hope to bottom on so that his body when there may be truly said to rest in hope and therefore having this grace of hope he need not unless he will be disquieted with fears before Death Fourthly Christ by giving his people on earth some real foretasts of heaven and of eternal life doth thereby effectually destroy their fears of Death And therefore the Apostle Paul who was next to his Lord and Master the greatest conquerour and triumpher over Death we read of after that he had been Rapt up into the third heaven as he stories it himself in the second Epistle to the Corinthians was ever after most undaunted under the seriousest thoughts of death as is most evident in his other Epistles which were written after those to the Corinthians particularly in that to the Romans where he tells us how little he fears death or a thousand deaths though killed as it were all the day long yet more then Conquerour He had before so sweet a sight of heaven that Death could not fright him so sweet a taste of heavens pleasures that he could never after taste any bitterness in death And thereupon justly longing to be there again he feared not death the only passage into so much bliss Let every true Saint consider this I say every soul that conscionably walks with God and labours to have Communion with God in his holy waies and Ordinances that walks in some measure as that blessed Apostle Paul who lived in all good conscience before God that with holy David tastes and sees that the Lord is gracious that tastes in deed and truth savingly of the heavenly gift the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come O precious Saint dost thou so live How is it possible but thou must long to be filled with these heavenly joyes How canst thou fear that Death that will put thee into actual possession of thy Masters Joy According to that in Rom. 8.28 And not only they viz. the Creatures but we our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body See here that a taste of the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which Gods Spirit from above fetches for and feeds a Saint with makes him not to groan under the fears of dying but rather under fears of not dying O you that taste and rellish heavenly things in Divine Ordinances and have much of the presence of Christ with you in them are you affraid to dye and to be with Christ for ever Is not this better then to live There are three things deservedly to be called first