Exo◠〈…〉 dote no longer on thy old master the World thy Wife and Children thy flesh and corruptions as to repine at the year of Jubile or refuse thy Freedome away with these base follies and mount thy thoughts to higher wisdome yea I shall sing and rejoyce when my Soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler Psa 〈…〉 the snare is broken and I am delivered 9. What is Death but a sleep and the Grave a bed all these are so near of kind that oft times they are called by the same names and the very feature of their countenance give them to be of near alliance It is the weaknesse then of flesh and blood that desires the one and abhors the other When we are weary of a dayes labour we desire to goe to bed and rest at night why should it not be so with us here too All our dayes are labour and sorrow and we may well be weary Psal 〈◊〉 10. Why should we when night is come be like froward children loath to goe to bed especially to that bed where we shall sleep in the Lord Rev. 〈◊〉 13 and rest from our Labours to that bed that shall be more easie and freer from disturbance then any beds of Down to that bed where we shall sleep more securely and rise againe more surely then from any other bed we shall take up in our strongest health Away then O my soul away with whatsoever may nourish distrust or distraction The Tempest is almost over and thou art entring the harbour and haven of safety This present Earth-quake shall break off thy chaines Acts 〈…〉 and open the prison dores for thy delivery thou shalt passe through the iron gate of Necessity and the earthen gate of Mortality to the golden gate of Liberty Eternity Thou art now trimming and making ready O my soul to go to bed to thy spouse thy Bridegroome give it some other name it is not modesty that makes thee unwilling either foolishnesse or fearfulnesse or at least want of affection makes thee draw back Why art thou so sad then O my soul Psal 4 〈◊〉 Cant. 〈…〉 and why art thou so disquieted within me make cheerfull speed to meet thy Bridegroome Thou art thy wel-beloveds and thy wel-beloved is thine The first sleep ever man had got him a wife the last steep he has Gen. 〈…〉 gets him a husband 10. But the names of things oft-times are more terrible then the things themselves How many great things have some great Conquerours effected by the power only of the Name and Fame Gen. 〈…〉 2 Reg. 〈◊〉 24.13 Death is this Conquerour this Nimrod this mighty Hunter more justly then Senacherib can she boast where I set my foot I dry up rivers rivers of blood in the veines of milk in the breasts of marrow in the bones where are the gods of Heva and Iva and of Sepharvaim yea where is proud Senacharib himself and of the Kings of the Earth she saith It is â— that make you lick the dust of the Earth and the slime of the pit Let not your idols of gold and greatnesse wherein you trust deceive you And yet what is this Death more 〈…〉 or beyond a Name More est morsus quia mordet Death is a biting and it is called Death because it doth Eate it takes a Morsell and it swallowes a mouthfull but it shall never digest it 〈◊〉 2.10 like Jonah's whale it shall cast it up againe safe and intire 〈◊〉 m. 15 Death is called a departure a parting of two old Friends for a season 〈◊〉 15. 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 47. 〈◊〉 25.8 that they may receive each other againe for ever It is called an expiring a giving up of the Ghost a sleeping with our Fathers a gathering to our people And are not these fearfull Names ô my soul doest thou not tremble or not blush rather that thou hast been frighted with these bug-beares why shouldest thou be either coy or fearfull 't is but a Mawkin draw near it will not it cannot hurt thee 11. Neither doest thou want witnesses of comfort or incouragement holy Scriptures are frequent upon this Theam 〈…〉 Solomon that was as famous for his Wisdome as for his Wealth who had as much as this world could afford to make a man in love with this Life yet plainly tels thee â—â—es 7.2 That the day of Death is better then the day of thy Birth And nature seemes to say as much when Heathen guided by her light only would mourne at the Birth and Feast at the Funeral of their Friends and Children Heathen knew but the one half of the good of Death a cessation of miseries thou ô my soul knowest the other a fruition of felicity Let not an Heathen then out-die thee in cheerfulnesse Blessed indeed are those that live in the Lord but that is not all Rev. 14.13 Cor. 14.13 Blessed also are the Dead that die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours 12. Ins. 1. O Death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives in pleasure in his own possessions and hath nothing to vex him But ô Death how sweet how acceptable is the remembrance of thee and how welcome is thy presence to him that dwels in miseries and vexations and hath hopes of glories hereafter in everlasting possession how sweet is that refreshing thou givest to weary Pilgrims how welcome art thou to those that know whence thou commest and whither rendest who but he that is all flesh and blood would desire to lurk and hide himself among the stuffe and trash of this vile world 〈◊〉 â—am 10. rather then goe to that Crown and Kingdome thou leadst unto who but he that has quite lost his judgement that shall consider the miseries of the present and the felicities of the world to come but will say out of choice what the Prophet spake out of passion It is better for me to die Ion◠〈…〉 then to live 13. But what is the matter now ô my soul that thou art so loath to die Why art thou so fearfull ô thou of little faith Mat. 〈…〉 how often hast thou thought in thy Meditations that thou couldest welcome Death And yet when it lookes upon thee and offers thee service thou shrinkest back and thy face is pale and thine eyes looke wilde as if thou wert amazed doe thy longings now languish thy hopes and expectations now end how often hast thou prayed Mat. 〈…〉 Thy kingdome come and now the gates are opening art thou loath to goe How often hath thy ravished heart cry'd out Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 〈…〉 and now he comes and calls art thou loath to goe Doth thy Redeemer send for thee and art thou loath to goe Doe joyes and crownes and everlasting possessions now expect thee and art thou loath to goe Doe Saints and Angels
A prick of a thorne hath let in Death a point of a Sword could doe no more Death lurks sometimes in our meat and sometimes in our drink and sometimes in the very aire Man hath not more helps of living then he hath means of dying But O Lord how sweetly did thy Wisdome and Justice accord when thou madest Death the revenge of sin and so plagued us with a brood of our owne begetting But as the wages â—om 6.23 so the end of sin is death Thy Justice O God hath made it the wages thy Mercy hath made it the end Death came in by sin â—om 5.12 and sin goes out by death Sin is a Viper descended of the old Serpent and Death is her off-spring born to the destruction of her Mother Thy mercy O Christ that took away my sin could also have taken away my death but thy wisdome chose rather to alter then abolish it Cor. 15.55 Thou hast cut out the sting crost out the curse and now with Esau it meets not with frownes but kisses surely the bitternesse of death is over Gen. 33.4 Thou O Saviour by thy Death hast so sweetned Death Sam. 15.32 and perfum'd the Grave that it shall not grieve me when my Sun is set to sleep a while in that silent bed 5. Cor. 15.26 And thus our last enemy is become our first friend we meet with in our passage to that other world who as she leads thy body through corruption and rottennesse so she guides thy soule to life and happinesse as she closes the eye of thy body so she opens much more the eye of thy soule if thy friends mourne to see thee dead thy soule rejoyces much more to see him who was dead Rev. 1.18 and is alive Psal 41.5 thy Name and Memory perishes perhaps among the sons of men but is everlastingly recorded among the sons of God 6. Surely it is but the worst part of Man that is in the reach and power of death our soules are so far from damage that they gaine more then the body loses The worst of Death is but corruption and that works but upon a carkase that neither feels nor cares We carry heaven and earth about us while we live when we die each part returnes homewards Kings and Prophets Patriachs and Apostles have all gone the same way and who can be so fond as to hope exemption Whoever is cloathed with flesh and blood is engaged unto death for those garments and Death can distraine no farther then her owne these garments T is true she desires and a spires higher faine would she ravish the soule but our Joseph is too chaste for her embracements Gen. 39.12 and flyes away without his garments 7. The time of Death for her comming is uncertaine because she would alway be expected for sometimes she takes advantage and strikes suddenly though most times she sends her harbingers age and sicknesse to give notice of her comming The time of Death for her continuante when she comes is but guest-wise for a night and her first word is To bed she must be our bed-fellow for a night and the earth our bed where claspt in her cold armes we be til we be as cold as she This is cold news thinks flesh and blood who seldome bids her guest welcome fain would she make delaies she thinks the night will be long and therefore desires to sit up a little longer But Death though sometimes she seeme to admit of discourse yet she resolutely holds her conclusion and will not be denyed though still we desire such is our weaknesse to hug our diseases till they ravish us of all that is flesh and blood and leave us fit for none but Death And now Death will forbeare no longer but thrusts out sicknesse and enters the bed her selfe Yet she stayes not long there she and her bed-fellow are soone removed one Story lower to the floore and then one Story more to the grave And yet there is no abiding That which is to full of alteration cannot be permanent Psal 30.5 Death may endure for a night but lift commeth in the morning When that day breaks the shadowes fly away and Night and Death shall be no more But what company shall I meet with in the house of death What 〈◊〉 17.14 Corruption and Wormes These are my neere kindred Curruption was my mother and begat me she is now my daughter I beget her The wormes are my sisters by the mothers side they are now my children as a Mother I breed them as a Father I feed them a lusty kindred Surely they cannot but bid me welcome and be glad to meet me there Why should not I be so to them However I may be coy of their acquaintance here yet there we shall be more then intimate I shall embrace them in my armes and hug them in my bosome I shall feast them with my flesh yea with all my heart and my Liver too I shall give them free quarters for should I grudge they would be so bold as to take it But much good doe it them it is the last banquet I shall ever make them and the last time I shall ever meet them after this supper good-night kindred 8. We doe not then indeed and but scarcely in appearance seeme to lose by Death for what is the World and all that therein we leave behind us her best things are vanitie the rest vexation 〈◊〉 107.34 How is she falne since our fall from a fruitfull Land to a barren wildernesse how is she fruitfull now onely in thornes and troubles how are all her pleasures vaine and but in appearance while her sorrowes are reall What are all her pomps and honours but empty bubbles and baubles to please fond children And what is our flesh but a bundle of diseases a bladder full of muddy water a lumpe of rottennesse And what was that thing which we once call'd Life but a perillous pilgrimage a sea of troubles a labyrinth of perplexitie But that which is worse then all the rest without which the rest were not evill Rev. 4.40 that which is the death in the pot the leaven of the whole lump Cor. 5.6 and that which imbitters the whole life is sin and a necessity of so doing so that while we live we cannot but sin we are plunged into such an inevitable habit of mischiefe and and miserie that to live and to sin are of like necessity and we must leave off both or neither And that which makes full this part of our misery we delight in our prison we sing in our cage we are proud of our chaines and too often take pleasure in the jingling of our fetters Death now is our freedome from all these Why dost thou droop then â—â—ke 21.28 O my soule lift up thine head rather when thy redemption draweth neere when death shall open thy prison dores be not loath to goe at liberty
are as perpetuall as they are pleasant our glory as permanent as excellent Nor can they but be everlasting since they spring from a fountaine that cannot drie 〈◊〉 84.1 10. Oh how amiable are thy dwellings on Earth ô Lord of hosts how doth an holy soule long to go into thy courts for one day in thine house is better then a thousand otherwhere Oh! what then are millions of yeares in thy courts in Heaven yea what is Eternity in comparison whereof millions of yeares are not a moment 8. Now this life of glory will seem to give the greater lustre if we doe but compare it with those other lives of the middle and lower regions And first what is this World but a ship of vanity floating upon a sea of misery whose richest fraught and best commodities are not better then those of Solomon from Tharshish Gold and Silver and Ivory and Apes â—â—ng 10.22 and Peacocks Riches honours pleasures And what are these at the best but vanity what is Gold and Silver but red and white clay what is honour but a bubble what is pleasure but a squib or worse an Ignis fatuus And if this be the best what is the rest if this be her Welcome what is her Farewell if when she meet us she be vanity she cannot be lesse then vexation when she leaves us When the rust and the canker hath consumed thy gold and thy silver 〈◊〉 6.19 when Theeves have plunder'd thy goods and worse then Theeves have sequester'd thy Lands when thy State is wrack'd thy Credit crack'd when thine honours are flowen and thy pleasures gone then thou shalt not need an O Edipus to tell thee what this World is And next what is our whole Life on Earth but a vast composure of sinne and misery A couple of Harlots that can accord together to worke our mischief 1 Kin◠〈…〉 onely here 's the contention which of the twaine has the greatest right and share in us each pleads hard for all and will not be contented with an half and surely sinne would have the greatest part were it not that sin it self is a misery What are our bodies but bundles of diseases every member having more infirmities then arteries it is almost as impossible to know them as to cure them and more impossible not to have them if we could yet it would be more then tedious for to name them how tedious then to feel them And yet who is he that is not continually accompanied with some one or more of them our diseases which is strange being more diverse then our Deaths and which is more strange yet our grounds of grief within our little world our selves being more then all the great world beside can give us Now then O my soule thinke seriously on thy joyes above and thy miseries here and then neglect Heaven if thou canst and dote on Earth But if neither sorrows within thee nor troubles about thee doe not throughly affect thee thinke on those horrours of that lower world if thou thinkest those thoughts will not affright thee Isa 6 〈◊〉 Where the damned are ever dying never dead ever burning never consumed ever tumbling downe never come to the bottome where the Worme dieth not but her continuall gnawings make way for continuall gnashings Mat. 〈…〉 Where dismall feares and terrours frights and amazements utter darknesse and fire unquenchable with rivers of brimstone where roarings and howlings Mat. 〈…〉 yellings and shriekings Isa 3 〈◊〉 and cursings of ugly Fiends and gastly Ghosts are but parcels of torments and all that men can say are not halfe expressions of those woes which none can know but those that feel them And that which is heavier then all the rest this infernall Vault is so thick seeled with Despaire that there is no getting out for ever Think on this then O my soule and then think again that there was but one step between thee and this Death and if thy gracious Saviour had not stept in that step and catch'd thee thou hadst fallen irrecoverable yet this not half he not onely redeem'd thy life from Hell but crowned thee also in Heaven with mercy and glory everlasting Ps 10 〈◊〉 Thinke on this double mercy O my soule and be double thankfull double happy 9. 〈◊〉 30 But whereunto shall we liken this Kingdome of God or unto what shall we compare it It is like a Sea-scourged Marchant that hath been long tossed on the raging waves by the churlish windes beaten with many a billow dash'd on many a rock threatned with many a wrack and catarack that has gone over many a gulf past over many a pool fought with many a Pirate and now at last richly fraught is entred with joy and triumph into the safe haven and harbour of his own City It is like unto a Joseph imprisoned in a dungeon in stocks and irons and at last brought forth and set among Princes 〈◊〉 â—4 〈◊〉 2.2 and made to inherit a throne of glory It is like unto a David hunted persecuted banished and at last returne home and be crowned a King in Hierusalem 〈◊〉 â—5 9 It is like a year of Jubile after fifty years bondage Like a return from Babylon after seventy years captivity to a Temple more glorious then the first Or like a Sabbath of holy rest 〈◊〉 6. 〈◊〉 20 after a week of hard labour It is like a beggarly Lazarus full of sores that fain would have some crums of comfort from the seeming riches of this world but can get none tell he have his fill in Abrahams bosome 〈◊〉 1 Or like that other Lazarus sick dead and buried and perhaps stinking in the grave of this Earth the cold and hard and heavy stone of Misery and Necessity pressing him down till the voice of God cry Lazarus come forth It is like liberty and pardon to a condemned prisoner It is like a sumptuous Wedding-feast at the marriage of a Kings son who hath married not the rich and beautifull Daughter of a Noble nor the homely Daughter of a Citizen or Artizen but the deformed Daughter of a miserable Beggar for such were we whose first parents by their fall bemired both themselves and us who since have made our selves more filthy by continuall wallowing 〈◊〉 16. 〈◊〉 4. thus are we naked and wounded and in our blood even to the loathing of our selves no eye pitties neither Priest nor Levite can help us 〈◊〉 â—0 〈◊〉 1. till the Son of God come who has compassion who washes off our mud with his blood who takes our infirmities and cures our deformities wraps us in the garments of his own rightrousnesse gives us his grace and comelinesse and then lookes and loves and marries for ever and keeps an everlasting wedding at which all rejoyce but devils and damned These are glimples of our glory if so much sutable to our shallow fancies here we know but in part 〈◊〉 33.