avoid being so called Thirdly See hence How little Reason Souls in Christ have to be fond of Life or afraid of Death What fond of Labour and Sorrow What afraid of Rest and Blessedness your Case Christians is not like that of other Men whilst you live and are present in the Body you are absent from the Lord from the Joys of your Lord when you dye in the Lord you enter upon this Blessedness Tho' this Portal be dark and uncomfortable it is an Inlet to this Transcendent Glory to us and to our Dear Friends that dye in Jesus Fourthly See hence What little reason we have to lament immoderately for our Deceased Godly Friends that dye before us What because they are blessed before us Fifthly Learn hence How Holiness becomes so absolutely necessary to this Blessedness It 's that without which it cannot be enjoyed You have heard wherein this Blessedness lyes what Ingredients it hath in it that it includes the Perfection of our Natures and Satisfaction thereof Blessedness is but perfected Holiness Now how impossible is it that Holiness should be perfected in Heaven that was never begun on Earth when this is the State we are to be made meet for So that a Heart conformed to God is in the Nature of the Thing as well as by the Pleasure of God absolutely necessary to a Felicitating Enjoyment of God Wicked Men hope God will save them in their Sins take them to Heaven in their unsanctified State and Temper of Soul which is not only repugnant to the Nature and Word of God as it were easie to evidence but to the Nature of that Happy because Holy State for what Philosophy can shew you true Pleasure and Blessedness can be obtained without a proper suitableness of the Faculty to the Object and Exercise of the Heavenly State A Holy Nature is necessary to the Enjoyment of a Holy God How often have you heard that if it could be supposed that a Carnal Animal Unsanctify'd Wretch void of a Divine Nature and God-like Temper could enter into Heaven where we are as sure as God can make us no such Wretch can come he would find nothing there that would make him Happy no Objects would be found there suitable to his Fleshly Appetites to feed upon and no Holy Appetites in him to relish the pure Pleasures of that Happy because Holy State Oh! if Sinners could but sense this that is so true in it self so evident in Scripture and to Reason it self as depraved as it is surely they would bethink themselves pray for and endeavour in the use of all God's appointed Means to be partakers of a Divine Nature qualifying for Glory Sinner let me tell thee 'till thy Nature and Temper the Disposition and Constitution of thy Soul be turned towards God and Holiness to love and hate as God doth thou mayest dream of Heaven as thine but it will prove but a Dream If thou live and dye short of real Holiness in thy Heart and Life thou must lye down in Everlasting Sorrow short of true Happiness Well then Sinner go home and take this with thee to thy retiring Place and seriously consider how frivolous all thy Pretensions are for Blessedness whilst thou art short of this real Holiness without which thou art absolutely uncapable of it Secondly For Exhortation Is it so that they who dye in the Lord are Blessed Oh! secure to your selves a Share in this Blessedness In Order to which ask your own Hearts whether this be like to be your Case Let me Begg of you to deal Faithfully with your own Souls in a Matter of this Importance There is a Blessedness which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive adequately of Have I an Interest have I a Share in it Will it be mine at last The Time will come will shortly come it may suddenly come that I must Dye Am I in Jesus Shall I Dye in Jesus Have I that Holiness that is Necessary to render me Meet for this Blessedness Oh! Christians would you put these Question in good Earnest to your own Consciences and take a Deliberate Answer some of you might go home with other Thoughts than you brought hither Do we see the Seats of our deceased Friends emptyed from day to day Will our Places shortly be Vacant as theirs are Must I Dye also and if I Dye in the Case I am in shall I Dye in the Lord Shall I be Blessed And give thy Soul no Rest 'till Conscience well informed and well awakened can furnish thee with a Satisfying Answer that when thou dyest tho' in the State thou art in thou dyest in the Lord and shalt be Blessed in the Eternal Enjoyment of him Secondly As ever thou wouldest be Blessed by Dying in the Lord Get into him United to him Interested in him as thy Lord and Saviour This I told you was supposed There is a Blessedness belongs to them that Dye in the Lord but none can share in it but such as are in him United to him Sinner art thou willing to be in the Lord in order to a Safe and Comfortable Dying in him and sharing in in this Blessedness with him Oh that it were so Oh that thou wert willing heartily willing for then the Hardest of the Work were over Our Dearest Lord hath done his part he hath satisfied Justice and Merited Mercy stands willing to Entertain thee Nay Courts and Solicits thy Compliance with him I know but three things and all highly reasonable in themselves that are absolutely Necessary to thy being in the Lord without which thou canst not Dye in him and be Blessed with him Let these be done and this Affair is well Secured First Give Credit and Assent to all that the Scriptures say of Christ Believing Acts 24. 14. all things that are said in the Law and the Prophets For these are they that Testifie of him And as Faith Unites the Soul to Christ so this is the first Work of Faith the Foundation of all the Rest But this must be an Energetical Operative and Influential Assent to all the Discoveries made of Christ Here is a Gospel that brings good Tydings of him and thou sayest thou believest it but I am notwithstanding all my Charity verily afraid with very many that say so it is not so for they do not carry it as if they did believe it Did they believe it they would not dare to live so opposite to it to the holy Ends of it therefore rest not in a naked Assent hereto but bring thy Heart thereby Secondly To give a Cordial Consent to the Terms proposed by him Thy Assent which is an Act of the Intellect or rather of the Soul as knowing the Truth and Goodness of Gospel Proposals must be accompanied or followed with an unseigned Consent to the Terms on which he is offered to be thine this Act of Faith is called Receiving of Christ As many Joh. 1.
use them This was not the way of this Holy Woman our Deceased Friend She has I know during my Acquaintance with her exercised her self in finding out and laying up Marks and Evidences of her Holy and Happy State I have heard her mention with a peculiar Thankfulness the Labours of those Ministers that have been helpful to her in it and let me tell you that you and I have to speak modestly as much need to do it as she had If thou think'st so it were easie to put thee in a way to do it whilst thou hast Health and Strength of Body and Composure of Mind to attend to it with Application of Soul for now is the Time if indeed thou wouldest have it done effectually done and because the Time will not give me leave to set down such Marks as as thou mayest depend upon in particular Let me pray thee to reflect back upon what I have said by way of Exhortation and ask thy Conscience if thou have thus received Christ Jesus the Lord art thou united to him art thou thus in him dost thou thus walk in him and live to him And hear what a wakeful and well enlightned Conscience will give thee in Answer and judge of thy Case accordingly Or because it is so much better done by better Hands read over the Marks of Grace and Sincerity as thou findest them set down to thy Hand in Practical Books for the Examination of the Truth of Grace and mark what falls from the Pulpit on that Design put them in Writing under Two Heads 1. Put down such as Conscience is clearest in and look oft upon them that thou mayest keep them clear and avoid all that clouds them 2. In another Place Put down such Marks as are plain Scripture-Marks but not so legible to thee by reason of some prevailing Disease of Soul that gets Entertainment there and so renders thy sincerity in Grace suspected by thee now and will do it more in a sick and dying Hour for Conscience will then speak out and will be heard at another rate than now thou hearest it View these frequently lay them on thy Table for that purpose or carry them about thee that at leisure times thou may'st be working thy Heart up to them and plying the Throne of Grace for ability to do it and for the Witness of the Spirit that thou hast done it Find out what Sin it is thou art most indulgent to that gives cause of Fear it is in Dominion and what Duty and Service thou stickest most at and daily urge thy Heart to keep the greatest distance from the one and to set presently about the other But I may not enlarge on Particulars I must leave that to you Well Friend go Home then and say to thine own Soul this is a Matter of great Concernment of Self-concernment I have bestowed many an Hour on that which is of lesser Moment of more remote Concernment I have left this at great Uncertainties a great while but I will now bring it to Issue that I may know where Death will land me in this Happiness or that Misery And do not satisfie your selves with any Evidence of your Grace or Title to Glory but what will abide the Test at Death and Judgment go by true Measures rightly applyed that thou deceive not thy self in this important Affair Thirdly Lastly This Doctrine would afford abundant Matter of Support and Consolation to such as are United to and Interested in Jesus Is it so That they are Blessed that dye in the Lord do they rest from their Labours and do their Works follow them First Had I time to Open this Fountain of Consolation I might easily make it appear that this might support and comfort all those Souls that are in Jesus under all the Miseries and Calamities of this Life Secondly Against the Hurt and Horrour of Death First As to First The Calamities of Life it may be they are many and great too Sickness Pain Sorrow Disgrace Poverty Loss of Dear Râ—lations and what not Well were they worse than they are they shall all be fully and finally done away at Death these are not entailed on the Children of God for ever God loves them better than to permit them to abide in such a boysterous state of things for ever I must not Enlarge Briefly Secondly As to the Second The Hurt and Fear of Death which is so terrible to innocent much more so to sinful Nature you had need be well secured against them Sin hath put such a Venemous Sting into Death as fills it with just Horror But to a Soul in Christ this hurtful 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 Sting is taken out Death is become a Sleeping in Jesus the Evil of it which is destructive is done away it is now become the Passage into the Joy of your Lord as I have largely opened to you upon a late Occasion and may not add more now This well thought of may support and comfort thy Dejected Soul under the Nearest Views of thy Approaching Change Well Sirs tho' I must have done what once more say you There is a Blessedness is it like to be yours Will you take Care it may be yours Will you get Evidence it is yours in Title now and shall be yours in Possession when you dye that you may have Peace whilst you live and Comfort when you dye and this Blessedness after Death which all shall have that dye in the Lord For it came by a Voice from Heaven to John he had it in Command to write for our Support it is an Indubitable Truth Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord c. FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. Line 20. between and and to add should be pag. 11. lin 1. read Secondly It doth suppose their Abiding and Walking in him from c. pag. 47. lin 22. put one in the place of such and such in the place of one pag. 51. l. 26. dele not
in this Text of great Importance to your Souls and mine O that I knew how to â—ffect your Hearts and mine with it â—hat we might know how to give it â—ts Influence upon your Hearts and Lives I say so because of the Great Solemnity with which these Words are introduced here is such an Apparatus as is verily very awful I do not know three Passages in all Scripture so Solemnly introduced I heard a Voice from Heaven whether the Voice of the Angel of God the Angel of the Covenant Or whether a Voice from God more immediately the Text hath not told us And we may safely be ignorant about it But it is A Voice from Heaven a Voice than cannot lye a Voice that cannot deceive us a Voice that should be heard and received with all suitble Reverence and Acceptation and who could have believed it unless well attested and this Voice bids him Write Write why is it worthy to be Written if it is a Voice from Heaven on such an Important Occasion as appears in the Context John might well write it down fro the Comfort of the Followers of Jesus that poor despised reproached persecuted Generation whom the World reckons not worthy to live And their God that knows them better than the World knows them and is not ashamed to be called their God he knows that the World is not worthy of them q. d. Souls bear up under all Discouragements tho' yours is a Distressed Heart-stooping Day here is a Word from Heaven a Cordial for Fainting Seasons and I 'll write it down for you that you may have it ready and may have Recourse to it in your needful Hours and that is Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth c. The Words Logically considered contain First A Proposition Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. Secondly A Limitation or Determination of the Time and Season of verifying it From henceforth Thirdly A Twofold Reason of the Truth of the Proposition First That they may rest from their Labours Secondly And their Works do follow them Which will be the Reasons of the ctrine and waving to speak to them now I may hope for room for some Application which is the thing I would aim at The Proposition in the Text then that I may for Brevity sake make it serve for the Doctrine is this Doct. Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. I call it a Proposition and yet the accurate Logicians may quarrel at it because the Predicate is in the Place of the Subject But it is a Logical Proposition at least with very little Variation They that are dead and dye in the Lord are Blessed And so I must endeavor to explain the Subject and then the Predicate and though the Subject be last in the Text it is to be reckoned first in the Proposition and must therefore fall first under our Consideration First What are we to understand by The Dead that dye in the Lord There are two Senses that put in very fairly and both of them agreeable enough to the Original Some and Men of Value by Dying in the Lord do understand as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much as Dying For the Cause and Sake of the Lord as Martyrs do that seal their Testimony with their Blood The Preposition which we render In after the manner of the Hebrews signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as For and I must not deny but this Preposition in other Places of Scripture is so render'd as in the Margin and elsewhere and the Proposition Mat. 6. 7. Eph. 3. 13. is true take it in this Sense That those that Dye For the Lord are Blessed and it may be in a Degree above other Men that Dye only in the Lord. But I may not exclude the other Sense of it by this tho' there are great Authorities to countenance me in it because I think it is beyond Dispute that when the Apostle uses an Equivalent Phrase Them that sleep in 1 Thes 4. 14. Jesus Sleeping is allow'd to be dying in Jesus For after this he assures us The dead in Christ shall rise first Verse 16. There is nothing in the Context that I can discover should limit us to this Sense therefore it must not I think be understood only of those that Dye for him that suffered a Violent Death for him as many of our Brethren have done and now do in the Christian World The Translation hath a plain and sound Sense different from that for though it may be admitted to signifie Dying for him yet it doth not exclude but take in their Dying in him that dyed not thus for him 1 John 4. 13. Eph. 3. 17. Dying interested in him United to him by the Spirit on his part and by Faith on ours And the Proposition is true of these and all these so that in the same Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 16. 7. Joh. 15. 4. Sense they are said to be in Christ to abide in him and walk in him they may be said to dye in him Let me add that Dying in the Lord thus explain'd doth suppose Two Things First Their Being in him by their Coming to him and Receiving of him which are but two different Scripture Joh. 1. 12. Mat. 11. 28. Expressions for their Believing in him Secondly It is Supposed to Dying in him they did Abide and Walk in him from the time of their Coming to him and Receiving of him be it a longer or shorter time And pray Sinners you that make light of Christ that prefer your other things before him or turn your Backs upon him to serve divers Lusts and Pleasures instead of him that abandon your selves to a Carnal Interest Know that you cannot in this Case dye in him or be blessed in so doing and therefore bethink your selves how it will be with you if Death lay its cold Hands upon you O Get into Christ Get a saving Interest in him give up your selves to him that Death may not find you out of him for Woe to you if you dye and not in Jesus Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord. Let us now briefly see what we are to understand by the Predicate Blessed And of this give me leave to speak something First of the Name and then of the Thing for Names are to lead us to Things and I would I could tell you more of it I am ashamed to think how little I can tell you of the Blessedness of those Souls that Live and Dye in Jesus That I may borrow some Light from the Old Testament let me tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Hebrews have a Word Expressive of this beyond what our Language can fully reach it 's often Translated Blessed and this Word seems to be in that form which the Masters in Sacred Language call Forma Regiminis and may be turned from its concrete to an abstract Signification and therefore if I
Participation and Fruition of that which is called the Felicitating Good the best Good I did not say an adequate Good for that strictly taken does sometimes denote that which does but just correspond to the thing But O! the Happiness the Blessedness of the Soul that is interested in this God and this Christ There shall be more than he can receive more than enough for him a fulness for all the rest of the Heavenly Society Fourthly The last thing I shall mention as Consequent upon and perhaps Constitutive of this Blessedness is a full Contentation a Complacential Repose of Soul in the Delights which arise from all this to a Holy Soul My Friends when the Soul hath a View of God of his Holiness Purity and Goodness that doth enamour it that doth draw out and enlarge the Affections towards him when this Soul is grown up hereby unto a resemblance of God and perfected Participation of him can it choose but have Rest and Repose in him The School-men are puzzled for a Notion of this Rest this satisfying Repose as I understand it here they can get no higher than an Acquiescence or Resting of the Appetite in the appitible thing and such a pleasedness in its Portion that it will look no where else for another a better O my Friends the Blessedness of this state which our Lord is gone to prepare for us and which they are received into that dye in him hath all this and a great deal more than this that might be expressed and yet at last our highest Expressions nay our most refined Conceptions are at a loss in this Paul that was there was not able to utter what this Blessedness was which some translate not fit not lawful to be spoken and 2 Cor. 12. 4. others not possible to be spoken to us in our imperfect state it doth not appear yet what we shall be No not to inspired Men but we shall be like him resembling God and Christ in their imitable Perfections Wicked Men are so Foolish that though they walk after the Inclinations of their own Hearts they think they may go well enough to Heaven but it is far otherwise If these Men were not Fools to themselves they would think it so but it is otherwise Philosophically speaking since there is no proper suitableness between the Faculty and Object which can only yield Pleasure between God and Men and so there is no Capacity in them for this Blessedness Though I have spoken to the Name and Thing which we call Blessedness as it does cannote an Abolition of all Evil Natural and Moral and of that satisfying Repose or Felicity in its several Ingredients which either constitute or at least result from the Fruition of this Blessedness 2. Let us a little consider the Determination or Limitation of it the Word we translate From henceforth from the different Position of it in various Copies hath caused a considerable Variation in the Sence Those that make it the last Word of the first Clause with our own Translation Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth would have them Blessed from the Time and Season of their Death Others that make it the first Word of the next Clause From henceforth that they may rest from their Labours and their Works follow them would have them blessed from the Sufferings they endured The Traceing this in all its Niceties is not to be entred upon before this Assembly and it would signifie little if I may bring it which way soever taken to much the same Sence The Word Henceforth may refer to the Calamities and Persecutions under which they were or it may relate to the Death of those that dye in the Lord and why not to both and if it were reckoned to the latter it will still I conceive come to the same thing That they may cease from their Labours and their Works do follow them from henceforth from the time of their Departure that are in Jesus not to exclude the other they are blessed in him Next that they are so blessed the Spirit of God hath given two Evidences which I left for Reasons of the Proposition they are blessed and cannot but be blessed when they dye in Jesus For First They Cease from their Labours The Translation seems perplext That they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them It looks not at first view very like a Reason But if we may take the Greek Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text which we Translate That they may for a Conjunction Causal as Grammarians and Lexographers allow us to do in other Cases and Translate it Because both Clauses run smooth as Reasons of the Doctrine They are blessed because they do or may rest and because their Works do follow them Man that is born of a Woman is of Job 14. 1. very short Continuance of few days and full of trouble They often have sighing sobbing Hearts grieved Souls this is a sighing sobbing troublesome World and they have it from within from rebelling Passions they feel it is Labour and Sorrow to grapple with these What from Afflictions and what from Sin it 's all Labour and Sorrow Now for a Man that is deeply afflicted by these Calamities whether of Sin or Afflictions it 's a comfortable thing for the weary to be at Rest Come Souls take Courage remember that though you walk with many a sorrowful Heart after your Lord groaning under an Evil Nature of your own and the Evil Influence it hath upon you your Devotions to God and Conversation with Men yet you shall be blessed when you dye in the Lord all this shall be done away at once Secondly Their Works do follow Acts 10. 4. them Indeed they go also Before them but I say their Works do follow them not barely to be their Continued Imployment there though that may be true the Change of their Place will make but a Gradual Change of the most Noble Part of their Imployment here they shall Love and Praise God there as they did here but at a more Easie Elevated Rate They must needs be blessed upon that account the Nature of this Blessedness as far as we can pry into it tells you that they cannot but be happy Men that see that love and enjoy God and rise to such a satisfaction of Mind therein that they want no more than what they have they drink of such Rivers of Pleasure that they are satisfied with them There is somewhat Emphatical in the Text Their Works do follow them their Works shall follow with them as the Original is more strictly rendred A Metaphor taken from People that are crouding in at some Narrow Passage they that are coming after press and croud in with them there is a kind of Struggle among them O the Works of Humanity Charity and Piety which they have exercised themselves in shall follow them they shall croud in with them Neither bring I it so
12. as received him that is believed on his Name When I receive him as God offers him and to the Ends and Purposes for which he offers him to do that for me which God hath appointed him and which he hath undertaken to do for me in the Gospel to be a Prince and Ruler as well as a Saviour to give Repentance as well as Remission of Sin to bless me Acts 5. 31. in turning me from my sins Is not this a Controversie between thee and thy Christ Sinner it hath been a Cause of parting betweeen him and many a Soul and is like to be so to many more Thou hast the more Reason to look diligently to it that it be not thy Case It is a common Case and a dangerous one see to it it be not thine own If thou name the Name of Christ in reality art indeed a Christian more than in Shew or Livery thou must thou wilt depart from Iniquity not only leave it in Affection and Conversation but fight on Christ's side against it as 2 Tim. 1◠16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Word signifies This will this must reach to thy Constitution-Sin thy Calling-Sin which perhaps thou thinkest thou livest by thy Darling Sin that is Peccatum in delicijs One Reservation one Exception from Christ's Terms will not be born by him If thou dispence with thy self in any allowed way of known Iniquity he will not dispence with thee and such one Leak will sink thy Vessel He will not I had almost said he cannot indulge thee in one of these He will save thee from thy sins not in them how vainly soever thou flatterest thy self in the Matter He is the Author of Eternal Salvation but Heb. 5. 9. to none but those that obey him in whatsoever he Commands Yea even when he Calls them to cut off a right Mat. 5. 30. Ch. 18. 8. hand pluck out a right eye to mortifie sins that are as pleasurable and as useful as these I know but one Place in the whole Bible that seems to give Countenance to any thing cross to this and I think with Submission it is the Translation not 2 King 5. 18. the Original which affords the Umbrage to it Where Naaman taken to be a true Convert seems to ask and have a Grant to continue his Honourable and Gainful Post Bowing down in the Idolatrous Worship in the House of Rimmon Had it been translated The Lord pardon thy Servant when I have bowed down in the House of Rimmon as the Rules ◠Conversivum about the Conversive Particle in the Original and the Rules of the Accents some say do warrant tho' not fit matter for such a Discourse as this he had been brought in begging Pardon for what he had done not begging an Indulgence to go on in his Idolatry which seems inconsistent with his Sincerity and the same would be inconsistent with thine And when this is truly done thou must further add Thirdly A firm Affiance in and Recumbence on him Thou must rest upon him and him alone for all he hath undertaken to do for thee This in Scripture Language is called Staying on him and trusting in him Isa 26. 3. This is a special Exercise of Faith Paul trusted him committed his all 2 Tim. 1. 12. to him Trust to him for Grace all kind of Grace for Justification Sanctification yea and Eternal Salvation 1 Tim. 1◠16. Look unto him and Lean upon him as one that hath satisfied Divine Justice for thee merited that Divine Grace that is sufficient for thee Expect all from him and from none but him who is all to thee Trust not to thy Duties nor thy Graces for any thing Christ hath undertaken to do for thee Neither trust to Christ to repent believe and obey the Gospel for thee because he requires this of thee tho' he affords the help of his Grace to thee without which thou canst not thou wilt not do it Well Sirs will you see this be done that you may get into the Lord in Order to dying in him and being blessed with him Nothing short of this will do it Oh! live not short of this Nay let me beg of you this further 4. That you would when thus got into him Abide in Jesus dwell in him cleave unalterably to him never think of quitting him Whither canst thou go Is there Salvation in any other Canst thou have Salvation by him in any other way on Col. 2. 6. any other Terms As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him Let him be the Principle Pattern and End of all when the Flesh and the World court thee to turn aside from him when Satan puts in to offer better things to thee for he will promise thee fair as he did thy Lord say No I see my need of him my lost Estate without him I cannot be better I am for my dear Lord he hath Dominion over me and he shall have it I have been am and will be govern'd by him that I may be saved by him I will follow him fully I will follow him whithersoever he goes I will do any thing suffer any thing rather than forsake him I will never leave him nor forsake his Ways nor reject his Terms his Righteous his Reasonable Terms Fifthly Above and besides all this Pray labour to get Evidence and Assurance of all this that you are got into him that you abide in him dwell in him and walk in him and so shall dye in him and be blessed by him There is a Blessedness some shall share in they have a good Title to it now and shall shortly have possession of it Can you produce a good Title to a share in it Sirs Do I speak all this to you as to Persons unconcerned about this Matter What will you not purchase a Farm or House without looking into the Title to see it be indefeasable And will you when any Doubts arise review and clear up the Title to it Will you in such a Case sit down without searching into the Matter and say I hope well Where is there a Fool of this Size to be found in City or Country And is a Title to Blessedness and Unspeakable Glory the only thing that is not worth Minding thy Clearing up What hast thou no Evidences for Heaven no Scripture Grounds for thy Hope of a Future Blessedness and wilt thou be at no Pains to get any 'till Sickness Old Age and Death overtake thee Wilt thou not get them 'till thou hast such Occasion to use them Alas Christians this is the Common Folly how many that hear such Things from us with little regard in times of Health cry out to us on their sick and dying Beds when indisposed and disabled by Sickness and Pains of Body and Anguish of Mind for such solemn and important Business Oh! what shall we do for cleared Evidences for Heaven and have them to seek when they should