be found who are more foul but Death will pluck off their masks present them with a true glass in which all the spots and dirt and wrincles in the faces of their hearts and lives will be visible Men flatter them often but Death never flattered any It is observable that Haman the day that he died was called and named according to his desert the Adversary and Enemy is this wicked Haman Hest 7.6 Haman probably had many a Title given him before Some had stiled him Haman the Great Haman the Magnificent Haman the Prince Haman the Vertuous all before nick-named him but when he comes to dye t is Haman the Enemy t is wicked Haman then he is called by his proper name Since he was born he never heard his right name till now The Enemy and Adversary is this wicked Haman So it may be in thy life time thou art stiled Great or Gracious because in place higher then others but when Death comes those gaudy colours will be washt off and thou shalt hear Not the King of Heavens Favourite but his Fool when thou art nigh thy execution as he was it will be not the Worshipful but the Wicked Haman Satan will then play hardest upon thee with his biggest gâ—ns when his time is but little his rage is greatest This is his hour and the power of darkness As the Turkish Emperour when he hath blunted the edge of his Enemies weapons and wearied their arms with thousands of his ordinary Souldiers then falls on with his Janizaries the pride and power of his Kingdom When thou through pain of body and perplexity of mind art least able to resist then the Devil cometh with his fiercest assaults If on thy death-bed thou shouldst think of turning to God he hath a thousand ways to turn thee off from such thoughts When there is but one battel for a Kingdom what wounds and work what fighting and striving is there When the Devil who knoweth thee to be his own already hath but a few hours to wait on thee and then thou art his for ever be assured he will watch by thy sick bed night and day and if all the power and policy of hell can prevent it neither cordial shall benefit thy body nor counsel thy soul Will not this be a trying hour to thee when the cloath shall be drawn and thy bodily comforts all taken off the Table will not death search thee to the quick when those Theives in their frightful vizards all thy sins in that Night will break in upon thee As the Elders of Samaria said of Jehu when he sent to them to prepare and provide to fight with him Two Kings stood not before him and how shall we Adam and Angels could not stand before sin it laid them both low and how wilt thou Beleive it those that have been Lions in peace have carried themselves like Harts in this War Brutus whose blood seemed as warm and to rise to as great a degree of courage as any since the Roman Consuls yet when Furius came to cut his Throat he cryed out like a Child Heathen who saw nothing almost in Death save rottenness and corruption accompanying the body who lookt no farther then the Grave have esteemed Death the King of Terrors The Terrible of Terribles and have been frighted into a Feavor upon the sight of its forerunner But Death is not half so terrible to a moral Heathen as t will be to thee O wicked Christian thou knowest that thy Deaths-day is thy Dooms-day that the Ax of Death will cut the down as fuel for the unquenchable fire that as soon as thou art carried from the Earth thou art cast into Hell Thou presumest that thou shalt behave thy self like a man in the onset with this Enemy but I dare be the Prophet to foretel that thy courage will be less then a Womans in the issue for man man dost thou not know as Pilate said to Christ that Death hath power to kill thee as well as to release thee it can send thy body to the grave and thy soul to the place of endless misery and desperation Fifthly The misery of the unprepared Fifthly Dost thou not know the misery of every carnal man at death In thy life time thou doest the Devils work and when Death cometh he will pay thee thy wages sin at present is a Bee with honey in its mouth but then the sting in its Tail will appear and be felt now thou hast thy savoury Meat and sugered draughts but then cometh the reckoning Some tell us that sweet meats though pleasant to the taste are very heavy in the stomach Sure I am the sweet morsels of sin which now thou feedest so merrily on will then lye heavier then Lead on thy heart and be more bitter then Gall and Wormwood Thou mayst see now and then in this World through the floodgates some drops of wrath leaking in upon thy soul but when Death cometh the Flood-gates will be all puld up and then O then what a torrent of wrath will come pouring down upon thee Here thou sippest of the Cup of the Lords fury but then thou shalt drink the dregs thereof The pains which thou sufferest here are onely an earnest penny of thy eternal punishment It was a cruel mercy which Tamberlane shewed to three hundred Lepers in killing them to rid them out of their misery but Death will be altogether merciless and cruel to thee for it onely freeth thee from the Goal to carry thee to the Gallows t wil deliver thee from Whips but scourge the with Scorpions its little finger will be infinitely heavier then the loyns of this miserable life When God saith to Death concerning thee as Judas to the Jews concerning Christ take him and lead him away safely who can tell the mockings buffetings piercings scourgings the cursed painful and shameful eternal death which will ensue Suppose for thy souls sake in earnest as Turannius did in jest Componi se in lecto velut examinem a circum stante familia plaugi jussit Senec. de Brevit vitae cap. ult who would needs be laid in his bed as one who had breathed out his last and caused his whole family to bewayl his death that thou wert ascending up to thy Chamber whence thou shouldst never come down till carried on mens Shoulders betaking thy self to thy dying bed Thou lookest on thy body and beholdest deaths Harbinger Sickness preparing his way before him O how thy colour comes and goes at the sight of this Ax which the hand of death hath laid at the root of thy tree of life Like the Locust thou art ready before hand to dye at the sight of this Polypus Now thou art laid down on that bed whence thou shalt never rise more Thy next work is to seek for some shelter against this approaching storm thou lookest upward and seest that God full of fury whom thou didst many a time dare to his very face and
2 Sam. 23.5 Mark how the pious King draws all the Wine which made his heart glad in one of his last hours from this Pipe Death is one of the sowrest things in the World and such things require much sugar to make them sweet David found so much honey in the Covenant that therewith he made Death it self a pleasant a desireable Dish If you observe the beginning of the Chapter you will find that his end was near Now these be the last words of David But this this was the quiet and ease of his heart that Gods Covenant with him was everlasting and without end As Death is famous for its terror being King thereof so also for his power it brings down the mighty Princes and Potentates of the Earth Cant. 8.6 Samson was but a Child in Deaths hands hence we read when Scripture would draw strength in its full proportion and length As strong as Death but as strong as Death is David knew it could not break in sunder the Covenant between God and him nor dissolve the union betwixt his Saviour and his soul The firmness of this Covenant being sure footing for faith to stand on is that which puts life into a dying Christian As Death though it parted the soul and body of Christ parted neither of them from the divine nature they were as a Sword drawn by a man the Sword is in one hand separated from the Sheath in the other hand but neither of them separated from the man so though Death break the natural union between the beleivers soul and body it cannot break the mystical union between Jesus Christ and the soul therefore Saints are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 And truely by the vertue of this Cordial this Covenant they are so far from flying back at the sight of their Foe Death that they can look him in the face with courage and confidence See how they triumph over him as if he were already under their feet O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 58. The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Hark they speak as Challengers daring their disarmed enemy to meet them in the field and they speak as Conquerors being assured through the Captain of their salvation of the victory before they fight Epiphanius faith Epiph. lib. 1. cap 33. that Adam was buried in Calvary where Christ was crucified Sure it is that Christ at Calvary did somewhat which made the Christians bed soft and easie that whereas it would have been a bed of Thorns he turned it into a bed of down and thereby the beleiver comes to lye on it so contentedly and to sleep so sweetly and comfortably By this time Reader I hope thou understandest the necessity and benefit of this relative change With this Covenant thou art armed Cap a pe with armour of proof with the righteousness of Christ which is law proof death proof and judgement proof and leavest Death wholly disarmed and naked Without this thou hast no Weapons and findest Death a man of War In the forequoted place thou seest that sin is the sting of Death and the strength of sin is the Law The Law binds the soul over for disobedience to its precept to its malediction and punishment passeth a sentence of condemnation already upon the creature and beginneth its execution in that bondage and fear as flashes of the unquenchable fire which seize on men in this life Rom. 7.6 John 3.18 Heb. 2.14 And as sin hath its strength from the law the law making it so powerful to curse and condemn so Death hath its strength and sting its venome and vertue to kill and damn to destroy soul and body for ever from sin Sin makes Death so deadly that its the poyson in the cup which makes it so mortal and loathsom a draught Thy work and wisdom therefore is as the Philistinos when they heard that the great strength of Samson the destroyer of their Country lay in his hair were restless till they had cut it off and became weak so now thou hearest wherein the strength of Death the great destroyer and damner of souls consisteth to be unquiet night and day to follow God up and down with sighs and sobs strong cries and deep groans for pardon of sin and to give thy self no rest till thou attainest an interest in this Covenant through Jesus Christ Pious Job though not in thy case was for this cause exceeding importunate for a sense of this pardon And why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my trasgressions for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Job 7. ult He cryeth out as one fallen into a deep dirty ditch or one whose house is fired Water Water for the Lords sake to clease this defiled soul and to quench this scorched conscience Lord Why doth the messenger who useth to come post to me a poor condemned Prisoner with a pardon lingring so long Alas I wish he may not come too late But what is the reason of this importunity for expedition Why Job in his own thoughts was going to appear before his Judge and he durst not venture without a pardon in his hand for now shall I sleep in the dust The child did not dare to go to bed at night till he had asked his Father Blessing and begd and obtained forgiveness of his disobedience in the day Nothing in the whole creation can pacifie the conscience awakened with the guilt of sin and frighted with the fear of death but a pardon in the blood of this Covenant for want of this it was that the Heathen were either desperate or doubtfull in their deaths and their Orator ingeniously confesseth that notwithstanding all the Medicines they could gather out of their own Gardens the Disease was still too strong for the Remedy But a plaister spread with the blood of Christ and applied by faith to the sore is a soveraign and certain cure Faith in Christ is such a Shield that under its protection a Christian may stand in the evil day of Death keep his ground and secure himself from all the shot which the Law Satan or conscience can make against him I am the resurrection and the life He that liveth and beleiveth in me shall live though he dye Joh. 11. Willet Hexapl. in Levit. c. 11. The Death of the King of Saints is the onely comfort and help against Death the King of Terrors It s a strange property which some report of the Charadrion that if any man have the jaundise and look on the bird and the bird on him the bird catcheth the disease and dieth of it but the man recovereth Christ took mans disease and dyed that all who look on him with an eye of Faith might recover and live
est infinitum unde ex hac parte peccatum est infinitum Aliud quod est in peccato est inordinata conversio ad immutabile bonum ex hac parte peccatum est finitum Ex parte aversionis respondet peccato poena damni quae enim est infinita Est enim a missio infiniti boni scilicet Dei En parte conversionis respondet poena sâ—nsus Aquin. 1 2 quest 87. Act 4. yet it s infinite in regard of the Object as being committed against a boundless Creator therefore it s punished with the absence of all good which is an infinite loss and the presence of all evill which is infinite in duration though not in intension because of the incapability of the sinner The infernal pit is the place of those punishments into which by the ladder of death men descend Matth. 7.23 and 25.41 Mark 9.49 Death is but the sinners trap door into Hell The English capital malefactors when cast are carried into a Dungeon and from thence to the Gallows Ungodly men being cast by the Law of God and not suing out their pardon from the Gospel which is an office set up for that purpose do go through the Dungeon of death to the place of their dreadful and everlasting execution God hath also engaged to bestow on the members of Christ an incomparable and unchangeable Crown It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom but Death is the young Prophet that anointeth them to it and giveth them actual possession of it They must put off their rags of mortality that they may put on their robes of glory It is in the night of Death that Saints go to their blessed and eternal rest The corn must first die before it can spring up fresh and green Israel must die in Egypt before he can be carried into Canaan There is no entrance into Paradise but under the flaming sword of this Angel Death that standeth at the gate The soul must be delivered out of the prison of the body that it may enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of God This bird of Paradise will never sing merrily nor warble out the praises of its Maker in a perfect manner till it be freeed from this cage The sinner dieth that according to Gods word he might receive the bitter fruits of his evil ways Death is to him as the gate through which condemned and piacular persons pass to their deserved destruction The Saint dieth that according to Gods promise he may enjoy the purchased possession Death to him is as the dirty lane through which Chrysostom passed to a feast a dark short way through which he goeth to the marriage Supper of the Lamb. His body is mortal that his sins and sufferings might not be immortal The third Ground of the point 3 Reas Mans apostacy from God may be Mans apostacy from God Death broke in upon man by reason of mans breaking the commands of God We had never fallen to dust if we had not fallen from our duties Sickness had never seised on our bodies if sin had not first seized on our souls Mors est conditio naturae non peccati argumentum vel poena Son Suas 7. The Pelagians and Socinians say That death is not a consequent of sin but a condition of nature The blasphemous Jews tell us that Adam and his posterity were therefore condemned to dye because there was one to come out of his loyns who would make himself a God meaning Christ but the God of truth hath resolved the genealogy of death into another cause even the first Adams aspiring to be like God and ambition to cut off the entail and hold onely from himself Gen. 3.15 Rom. 5.12 As a Lethargy in the head diffuseth universal malignity through the whole body and thereby corrupteth and destroyeth it Ideo factum est par peccatum non mortale quod erat sed mortuum quod non fieret nisi peccaret Lâ—mb Sent lib 2. dist 19. The apple which Adam did eat was poisoned which entred into his bowels and being the venome of it is transmitted all along like Gehazi's leprosie to his seed Some tell us that he would often turn his face toward the Garden of Eden and weep reflecting upon what he had done Sure I am it was not without cause for we all got the infection from him and by him it is that the whole world is tainted and turned into a pest-house Whatsoever delight he had in the act there was death in the end Vide Vossium Disputat Theol de peccat pr hom quaest 3. p 43. It seemeth unquestionable that man in his estate of innocency had a conditional though not an absolute immortality T is true he was mortal ratione corporis being a compound of corruptible Elements but immortal ratione foederis being free from the Law of death by vertue of the covenant As before he fell he had a posse non peccare a possibility not to have sinned but since a non posse non peccare a necessity of sinning So in his estate of purity he had a possibility of not dying but in his estate of Apostacy a necessity of it If he had stood he should like Enoch have been translated that he should not see death he should have entred into his Fathers house but not have walkt thither through the dark entry of death Psa 90.7 Rom. 8. The flesh faileth us because sin hath defiled it Mans flesh at first was fly-blown with pride and is ever since liable to putrefaction Sin is therefore called a body of death because it causeth the death of the body When one asked who set up the stately Edifices in Rome it was answered The sins of Germany meaning the money which the Popes Agents received for Pardons granted to the Germans If it be demanded Who pulleth down the goodly building of mans body it may be answered The sins of man It is sin which turneth such costly curious houses into confused ruinous heaps Draco the Lawgiver appointed death the punishment of every offence for which cause his Laws are said to be written in blood and being demanded the reason he gave this answer that though when crimes were unequal he seemed to be unjust in making all equal in punishment yet herein his justice appeared that the least breach of the Law deserved death The light of Nature taught them that those that sin are worthy to die Rom. 1.32 The estate of all sinners lyeth in the valley of the shadow of death Wheresoever sin hath but a finger death will have a hand Sin though never committed but onely imputed did put to death the very Lord of life It is like that wilde Caprificus which if it get but rooting though in the substance of a stone in the wall it will break it asunder CHAP. IIII. First Vse discovering the folly of them that mind the flesh chiefly First Use of Information The folly of them that
resolved since thou wouldst live without his counsels thou shalt dye without his comforts thou lookest downward and seest Satan who formerly was thy flatterer and seeming friend now thy tormentor and desperate Foe waiting like the Jaylor to drag thee to his own Den Thou lookest inward and conscience presents thee with a black Catalogue of thy bloody crimes and in the name of God whose Officer it is arresteth thee for them and chargeth thee to answer them at his dreadful Tribunal to which thou art even now going Thou lookest without thee among thy Friends and Relations and earthly comforts and seekest the living among the dead as the Angel said to the Woman living comforts amongst dead creatures but alas t is not there thy Wife and Children and Neighbours may weep with thee but cannot ease thee of one tear they may give thee occasion to call to mind thy sins but not abate the least of thy sorrows Miserable comforts are they all Physitians of no value I have read of one in Holland that being condemned for killing her Bastard when the Messenger was dragging her away to Execution looks pitifully on her Father a Person of quality then present and casts a doleful eye on her Mother Will ye not help me Where are your bowels Can ye find in your hearts to let your own Child be thus cruelly dealt with But alas they might not they could not help her Such truely is thy case thou lookest on thy right and left hand on thy Father or Mother or Husband or House or Land and dost as it were call for help but alass they cannot give thee any comfort in this groaning Hour in this thy dreadful conflict they may be about thy body as Ravens about a carkass to devour it to get something from thee but they cannot defend it Well now the Screech-owl of Death which all this while clawd about thy Windows is entered thy Chamber flyeth towards thy bed side the Messenger by this time is come to thee and sheweth thee the Warrant for thy speedy and immediate execution Now Now is the beginning of thy sorrows Live thou canst not and dye thou darest not fain wouldst thou be rid of thy pain but fearful least thou shouldst go to a worse place Thou dislikest thy dirty nasty dungeon but dost not like to exchange it for a Gibbet Thou choosest to stay but Death will not be denyed thou must go Thou sayst thou art not at leisure thou hast such worldly affairs of concernment to finish thou art not prepared thou hast the business of thy soul a work of infinite weight to begin as they for their farms so thou I pray thee have me excused thou begest on Week one Day nay one Hour Death will not wait one moment Death pulls thee as Benaiah did Job towards the place of thy eternal punishment thy soul clings about thy body as he about the Altar and still sings loath to depart Death like Solomons Officer renteth thee in peices by force and slayeth thee there Now thy soul standst quivering upon thy pale lips ready to take its flight to its everlasting home thou seest Divels looking and longing like so many ravening and roaring Lyons for thee their prey thy past sins trouble thee O how thou cursest thy pastimes and pleasures thy Companions and possessions which stole away thy time and affections and hindred thy preparation for such a dreadful hour thy future fufferings terrifie thee and Ah thinkest thou Whither am I going Where must my soul lodge this Night In what place with what persons must I dwell for ever Oh that I had provided for this before hand how many a time did God wish me Ministers perswade me Christ beseech me and Conscience warn me but fool that I was I rejected the intreaties of Christ stifled the convictions of conscience scorned the counsels of men set at nought the commands of God trample on Sabbaths and Sermons and seasons of grace as things of no worth and now my day is past my soul is lost Heavens Gate is shut and Wo and Alass it s too late The Blessed God in whose favour is life to whom I wicked wretch said Depart from me hath now fixt my doom to depart from him for ever O what unconceivable evil is there in the loss of so great a good ten thousand hells are included in my banishment from that Heaven The frightful and cruel Divels whom I defied in my words but deified in my heart and works whose lust were my laws and whose Wills were my warrant shall be my Masters Tyrants and Tormentors to all eternity My own spirit O that I could flee from my self is infinitely more greivous and painful then ever Sword was to any flesh what Wolf in the Breast what pangs of the Stone what pain of the Teeth what Cancer in the Bowels ever caused the thousandth part of that torture which the Worm in my conscience causeth but it is as impossible for me to avoid it as for the Wounded Deer to run from the Arrow that sticks in his side The fire burns me yet consumes me not gives heat to scorch me but no light to refresh me Here is blackness of darkness yet I can see the heart cutting frowns of an angry God and can see my self to be infinitely miserable I enjoy a long night but no rest I must always complain but have no releif here is crying without compassion all pain without the least pity sorrow without the smallest dram of solace or the least drop of succour If my misery were ever to end though after so many millions of Ages as all the men in the World could number my heart would have some hope but alas alas as it is intollerable so it is unchangeable as long as God is God I must fry in these flames all my tears shall not quench the least spark of this fire though I must weep for ever all this fire will not dry up the least tear though it will burn for ever O that I had never been O that I might never be What must I ever live and yet never live must I ever dye and yet never dye Consider this all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like unto our sorrows wherewith the Lord afflicteth us in the day of his fierce wrath for who can dwell in such everlasting burnings and who can abide such devouring flames O that the Mountains would fall on us and the Hills cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of his wrath is come and who can stand O what a dreadful Sunset of life will it be which brings such a dismal Night of eternal death O Friend think of this now how wilt thou do to dye If thou shouldst leave this life in the service of thy lusts thou art thus irrecoverably lost Thou art miserable beyond all expressions beyond all conceptions If Job because of some temporal
secretly to her Vault and with the skirt of his Manâ—le wiped the moysture from the Carcass and still at the return of his temptation laid it before him saying Behold this is the beauty of the Womad which thou didst so much desire And the Man at last with that moysture of the Corps put out the Fire The godliness of the World its whole glory and gallantry is but a curious Picture drawn on Ice which affords no good footing for whilst we are standing on it we are sliding from it and who would lay the stress of his felicity upon so slippery a foundation No wise man ever put his chiefest goods and riches in such low damp rooms where they will corrupt and putrifie Hipocrates affirmeth that all immoderations are Enemies to the health of the body Sure I am they are to the health of the soul The amity of the World is emnity against God All the Water is little enough to run in the right Channel therefore none should run beside The time is short use the World as net abusing it 1 Cor. 7.29 Secondly That you chuse the good part that shall never be taken from you Mans heart will be fixt on somewhat as its hope and happiness God therefore puts out our Candles takes away Relations that we may look up to the Sun and esteem him our chiefest portion When we are Digging and Delving in the Earth to find out content and comfort he sendeth damps purposely to make us call to be drawn upward Till the Prodigal met with a Famine he regarded not his Father If the Waters be abated the Dove is apt to wander and defile her self but when they cover the face of the earth and allow her no rest then she returneth to the Ark. I hope there is a good work begun in you which shall be finished at the day of Christ But every one stande h or falleth to their own Master Get Scripture on your side and you are safe for ever The Romans when they parted from the bones of their Dead friends for they burnt them took their leave in such language Vale Vale Vale Noste ordine quo natura permiserit sequemur Farewel Farewel Farewel We shall follow thee in the time and order which nature alloweth us You may say of your Husband as David of his Child I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Prepare therefore for your dying hour Labour to be rich in godliness Grace alone is special bayl against death It is such wealth as will be currant in the other World lay up your treasure in Heaven where neither Thief nor Moth neither Men nor Divels can rob you of it Take God in Christ for your Heaven and you are happy in spight of the World Death and Hell You know the living comfort of your dying Husband was that though his flesh and heart failed him yet God was the strength of his heart and his portion for ever And it was a memorable speech of His when some Friends came to him and commended the richness and magnificence of Hampton Court newly trimmed and adorned for the reception of her Majesty One drop of the blood of Christ is more worth then all the World I must tell you there is no such Cordial in a day of Death as this Covenant-Relation to the Lord of life The Child may walk in that dark entry without fear if he have but his Father by the hand Though I walk in the Valley of the shadow of Death I will fear none ill for thou art with me Death indeed is strong it overcometh Principalities and Powers but as strong as it is it cannot separate God and the godly person It may dissolve the natural union betwixt soul and body but not the mystical union betwixt God and the soul The Saints dye in the Lord they sleep in Jesus O Couzen be married to Christ and you are made for ever Heaven is the Joynture and Death one of the Servants or slaves of her that is the Spouse of this Lord. Death is yours ye are Christs 1 Cor. 3.21 Other men are Deaths it hath dominion over them but Death is yours your servant to strip off your rags of sin and misery and to cloath you with the Robes of joy and glory The ensuing Discourse was for the substantial part of it delivered at the Funeral of your dearest Relation on earth You gave me the Text and my indisposition of body allowed me then but little time which caused me now to make some enlargements and additions but it s the same body possibly in a little neater far from gaudy dress which was prepared for the Pulpit I present it to you not doubting of its acceptance for his sake whose death was the occasion of it The good Lord bless it to you requite your love to me and them that fear him make up the want of streams in the more abundant enjoyment of the fountain fill you with all the fruits of righteousness enable you to persevere and encrease in godliness and so to live with a good conscience that you may dye with much comfort and be a follower of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises so prayeth Your Servant for Jesus sake George Swinnock TO THE Right VVorshipful THE Mayor with the Recorder Jurats Common Council and the rest of the Inhabitants of his Native Town Maidstone in Kent Honoured and Beloved IT is a general observation that all creatures have propensity and inclination towards those places where they receive their births and beings Vegetatives which stand in the lowest rank of life thrive best because they delight most in those grounds whence they first grow Sensitives as they have an higher being so a stronger inclination to those parts where they are born The Prince of Philosophers telleth us that Fish usually stay with pleasure in those Waters in which they are bread Arist Hist Animal l. 4. c. 8 and Beasts in those Woods in which they are brought forth and that neither of them will remove without force and violence Nature hath planted in them both this principle of affecting their native places Hence it comes to pass that even these creatures have manifested their thank-fulness after their manner Trees acknowledge that sap which they borrow from the earth in which they stand in the tribute of leaves which they pay back to the same in Autumn The Storks are said to leave one of their young in that part of the Earth where they are hatched Patriam quisque amat non quia pulchram sed quia suam Sen. Men as they have a Nobler life so a greater love to their Native Country Heathen themselves have been famous for this Pericles the Athenian did so affect his Country-men that his usual speech was If none but my self should lead them to the shambles Plut. in vit as much as lyeth in me they shall be immortal When Cleomenes King of Sparta being greatly distressed had
a promise of help from Ptolemy King of Egypt Idem upon condition that his Mother and Son were sent to him as pledges Cratesiclea for so was his Mothers Name as soon as she understood it said to her Son who was affraid and ashamed to mention it to her How is it that thou hast concealed it so long and and hast not told me Come come put me straight into a Ship and send me whither thou wilt that this body of mine may do some good unto my Country before crooked Age consume it without profit Themistocles notwithstanding his Countrymen had banished him Diodor. drunk the blood of a Bull and poisoned himself to keep Artaxerxes who had sworn not to go against it without him from invading his Country [a] Pez Mel. Hist Codrus King of Athens [b] Tul. de Offic. Attilius Regulus General of the Romans and [c] Livie M. Curtius are renowned in History for sacrificing their lives for their Countries liberty The Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of like passions onely he acteth from higher principles and affecteth for holier purposes Religion doth not break the string of natural affection but wind it up to such a pitch as may make its stroaks more true and its sound more melodious Nehemiah was sad and pensive when the City of his Father was solitary Nehem. 2.3 The Jews were disconsolate when their native Country lay desolate Psa 137 beginning Paul could wish himself parted from Christ that his Kindred and Countrymen might be united to Christ Rom. 9.3 Greg. Nazianzen and Hierom report that the Jews to this day come yearly to the place where Jerusalem the City of their Fathers stood which was destroyed by Titus and Adrian and upon the day of the destruction of it weep over it As its natural to love so not unusual in our Kingdom for rich persons to manifest their love to their native parishes by large gifts to the poor But though my respects to you be sincere yet I may say in a sense Silver and Gold have I none to speak my affections by onely such as I have I give you A Treatise which may through the blessing of God help you to the true Treasure Bucholcerus blessed God Melch. Adam that he was born in the days and bred under the Dicipline of holy Melancthon I must Ingenuously acknowledge that it was a great mercy to me that I was born amongst you and brought up under as pious and powerful a Ministry there Mr. Thomas Wilson as most in England In Testimony of my unfeigned love I present you with this brief discourse which was conceived in your Pulpit and through the importunity of several of you brought forth to the Press The occasion of it as is well known to you was the Death of your Neighbour and my dear Relation Master Caleb Swinnock who was interred May 21. 1662 whose Father and Grand-father had three or four times enjoyed the highest honour and exercised the highest Office in your Corporation I am much of his mind who saith That Funeral Encomiasticks of the dead are often confections of poison to the living for many whose lives speak nothing for them will draw the example into consequence and be thereby led into hope that they may press an Hackny Funeral Sermon to carry them to Heaven when they dye and therefore am always sparing my self though I condemn not the custome in others where they do it with prudence and upon good cause My Friends holy carriage in his sickness besides his inoffensiveness for ought I ever heard in his health commandeth me to hope that his soul is in Heaven I had the happiness some time to be brought up with him in his Fathers Mr. Robert Swinnocks Family whose House I cannot but speak it to the glory of God had Holiness to the Lord written upon it His manner was to pray twice a day by himself once or twice a day with his Wife and twice a day with his Family besides singing Psalms Reading and Expounding Scriptures which morning and evening were minded The Sabbath he dedicated wholly to Gods service and did not onely himself but took care that all within his Gate should spend the day in secret and private duties and in attendance on publique Ordinances of their proficiency by the last he would take an account upon their return from the Assembly His house indeed was as Tremellius saith of Cramners Palaestra Pietatis a Scool of Religion I Write this not so much for the Honour of him of whose industry for the good of the souls committed to him I was a frequent eye witness and whose memory is blessed but chiefly for your good that as some of you do already so others also may be provoked to follow such gracious patterns I must tell you that what low thoughts soever any of you now may have of holy persons and holy practices yet when you come to look Death in the face and enter into your unchangeable estates a little of their grace and godliness will be of more worth in your esteems then the whole World Though the Saint be markt for a fool in the Worlds Calender at this day and the prosperous Sinner counted the wisest person yet when the eyes of sinners bodies are closed the eyes of their souls will be opened and then O then they will see and say according to that Apocryphal place which will be found Canonical for the matter of it We Fools counted his life to be madness Wisdom 5. 4 5. and his end to be without honour But now he is numbred among the Children of God and his lot is among the Saints The Subject of this Tractate is partly The true way to dye well which I am sure is of infinite concernment to your immortal souls and such a Lesson that if it be not learned you are lost for ever Laert. The Cynick cared not what became of his body when dead and the other Heathen could slight the loss of a Grave Facilis jactura Sepulchri a little Earth but without question it concerns you nearly to take care what becomes of your souls and you cannot so easily bear the loss of God and Heaven Men indeed are generally unwilling to hear of Death and the Minister who would urge them to it is as unwelcome as foul weather which usually comes before its sent for whatsoever hath a tendency to Death is killing the telling them of it sounds as mournfully in their ears as the tolling of a passing Bell and the making their Wills as frightful to them as the making their Graves Hence when they are riding post in the broad way of sin and the World and conscience would check and rein them in with the curbs of Death and Judgement they presently snap them in peices and stifle its convictions They dare not look into the book of Conscience to see how accounts stand between God and themselves but like Hauks
the end of this City will be the same with all her Predecessors What he spake of places is as true of persons though men may admire them for a while yet the stateliest and most curious buildings of their bodies will fall to the ground as their Ancestors have done before them Job 3.15 This storm will beat on the Princes Court as much as on the Peasants Cottage What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah Psal 89.48 The interrogation is a strong negation The Prophet challengeth the whole World to find out a person that can procure a protection against Deaths Arrest The Psalmist was gracious yet grace gave way to nature death will like hail and rain fall on the best gardens as well as the wide wilderness The Wheat is cut down and carried into the Barn as well as the Tares A godly man is free from the sting but not from the stroke from the curse but not from the Cross of death Holy Hezekiah could beg his own life for a few years but could not compound for his death he did obtain a reprieve for fifteen years but not a pardon the best fruit will perish because it is wormeaten The gold and the dross the good and the bad go both into this fire the former to be refined the latter to be consumed The whole World is a charnel house and the several inhabitants thereof so many walking carcasses The voice said Cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass Isa 40.6.7 The words speaks mans mortality He is grass withering grass a flower a fading flower Secondly Its certainty the voice said cry The Prophet had a charge in a Vision given him to proclaim so much from God to his people surely the people is grass Thirdly the Vniversality the flesh of Kings and Counsellors the flesh of Saints and Martyrs the flesh of high and low rich and poor All flesh is grass Man is sometimes compared to the flower for its beauty but here for its frailty a flower will quickly fade if it be not cut down by an instrument of Iron nor cropt by the hand yet the gentle breath of Wind quickly bloweth off its beauty Besides an Expositer observeth t is to the flower of the field not of the garden flowers of the garden have more shelter and are better lookt to then flowers of the field these are more open to hard weather and more liable to be pluckt up or trod down Naturalists tell us of a Flower called Ephemeron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. ad Apol. because it lasteth but a day Man is such a Flower his life is but a day whither longer or shorter a Summers or a Winters day how quickly do the shadows of the Evening stretch themselves upon him and make it night with him Pliny speaks of a Golden Vine which never withereth The bodies of Saints shall be such hereafter but at present the best Hearbs wither as well as the worst Weeds Neither the Dignity of a Prince nor the Piety of a Prophet can excuse from enrting the List with this Enemy Against this Arrest there is no Bail CHAP. III. The Reasons of the Doctrine Mans Corruptibility Gods fidelity and Mans Apostacy from God Reasons of the Doctrine I Shall onely lay down in the explication of the point two or three Reasons and then proceed to that which will be practical 1 Man corruptibility The first ground of the Doctrine is the corruptibility of mans body It s called in Scripture an house of clay Job 4.18 and an earthly Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 The body of man at best is but a clod of clay curiously moulded and made up The Greek Proverb hath a truth in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is but an earthen Vessel Some indeed are more painted then others in regard of dignity and place others are stronger Vessels then the rest in regard of purity of constitution Profecto omni moda vanitas Iun but all are earthen Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Psa 39. All Adam is all Abel Man nay every man when most high in regard of his hopes and most firm in regard of his foundation is even then the next door to and but one remove from corruption What the great Apostle said in a proper every one may say in a common sense I die daily We carry our bane every moment about us The very food which preserveth our lives leaves that be hind it which will force our deaths It s holden for certain saith one that in two Years space The Netherland cure there are in the body of man as many ill humours ingendred as a Vessel of a hundred ounces will contain Ipsa suis augmentis vita ad detrimenta impellitur inde deficit unde proficere creditur Greg. Against some these enemies appear in the open field often skirmishing with them but against all others they lye in ambush and wait for an opportunity to fall on and destroy them In the best timbered body they are but like fire raked under the ashes and reserved to another day when they will flame out and burn it down We are all like the Apples of Sodom quae contacta cinerescunt Tertul. Apol. cap. 40. which being touched crumble into dust or as the Spawn of Locusts which being handled dissolveth Arist Hist Animal according to the Philosopher God needs not bring out his great Artillery to batter down the building of mans body a small touch will tumble it down nay it s every moment decaying and will at last fall of it self There is rottenness at the core of the fairest fruits Our flesh is no match for the Father of spirits An ordinary Besome will sweep down the Spiders Web. Though it hath accurate weavings and much curiosity yet it hath nostability As it was with the Gourd of Jonah so it is with the Children of men we breed and feed those Worms which will devour and destroy us Every Mans passing Bell hangs in his own Steeple The second Reason is Gods fidelity 2 Reas Gods fidelity The righteous and gracious God hath threatned eternal pains to the wicked as the wages of their sins and hath promised endless pleasures to the godly as the reward of Christs sufferings now the place of payment where these threatnings and promises shall be accomplished is the other world to which death is the passage Man dieth that Gods Word may live and falleth to the earth that Gods Truth might stand Sin though it be finite in regard of the subject as being the act of a limited creature In peccaeto duo sunt Quo cum unum est aversio ab immutabili bono quod
dominions cannot withstand Death The most eloquent Oratour by his strongest reasons and most pathetical expressions cannot perswade Death The deepest Counsellour by all his policy cannot outwit or cozen Death O mighty Death saith the Historian thou hast drawn together all the far stretched greatness Sir Walt. Ral. Hist World in fine all the pride cruelty and ambition of man and covered it with these two words Hic jacet There is no discharge in that War Every one must go in person there is no appearing by a proxy Though the Tenant would serve for his Land-lord the Subject for his Soveraign the Father for his Child as David for Absolom yet it will not be accepted All must in their own persons appear in the field and look that grim Goliah Death in the face It is appointed for all men once to dye Hebr. 9. God hath decreed it and man cannot dissanul it The Grammarian as one observeth wittily who can decline other nowns in every case can decline Death in no case Death is every moment shooting its Arrows abroad in the World and doing execution and though it shoots above thee slaying the Superiours below thee taking away thy Inferiours on thy right hand killing this friend on thy left hand causing that acquaintance to drop yet t will never cease shooting till thou art slain Thy life for a while may be kept up like a Ball by the Rockets and tost from hazard to hazard yet at last t will fall to the earth When once Death this son of a murderer sin comes to take away thine head there will be none to shut the door or hold him fast Now men that must travel arm themselves for all Weather Women that cannot escape their appointed sorrows provide Bezer and Amber powders against that time But O what a mad man art thou who knowest certainly of the coming of this Enemy and that when he cometh he can both kill and damn destroy both body and soul yet takest no care to arm thy self for that hour In other things thou providest for what may be and wilt thou not for that which must be In Summer thou layest in fuel and food because it may be thou mayst live to spend it in Winter Thou workest early and late to encrease thy heaps and to add to thy hoards because it may be thy Children may come to enjoy it Where is thy reason then to toly and moyl for an uncertainty and thus foolishly to neglect that which is of necessity Secondly Death may come suddenly Secondly Dost thou know that death may come suddenly Some diseases do no sooner appear but we disappear Death like a flash of lightning hath on a sudden burnt down many a body It sometimes shoots white powder doth execution without giving warning Deiodorus dyed with sudden shame Sophocles with sudden joy Nabal with sudden fear Pope Alexander was choakt suddenly with a Fly Anacreon the Poet with the Kernel of a Grape Aeschilus was kild by the shell of a Tortoise which the Eagle let fall on his bald head mistaking it for a Rock The Cardinal of Lorrain was lighted to the Chambers of death by a Poisoned Torch A Duke of Britany Prest to death in a crowd King Henry the second of France was kild at Tilting Senecio Cornelius had his breath stopt by a Squinzy I might name very many others who took a short cut to their long homes Balthazers carousing in his Bolls drunk his bane Ammon merry at his dainties meets with Death Zimri and Cozbi unload their lusts and their lives together Korah and his companions find the Earth Opening her mouth and swallowing them up quick though she stay for others till they are dead Herod scarce ends his proud speech before he is sent to the place of silence Ananias and Saphira finish their lies and their lives at the same time Scarce a week but nigh those parts we live in some or other by violent or natural means are suddenly sent into the other World That which hath been one mans case may be any mans case Reader when thy breath goeth out thou art not sure of taking it in again thou mayst like the fool be talking of many years when that God whose word must stand may say this night thy soul shall be required of thee and O what will then become of thee Thy eternal condition that estate which is to be for ever and ever dependeth on this uncertain life and art not thou mad to be reveling and roaring dallying and delaying when thine unchangeable estate is in danger Theives after the commission of their Robberies frequently repair to Inns where they drink joyfully and divide their booty when on a sudden the Hue and Cry arriveth at that town the Constable entereth their Room attacheth their persons marreth all their mirth and carryeth them to the Goal whence after their tryal for their fellonies they are carted to Tyburn Many a sinner in the midst of his carnal triumph hath been haled to eternal torments like that filthy Adulterer mentioned by Luther who went inâ—o Hell out of the imbraces of his Harlot The Philosophers say that the weather will be warmish before a snow When the skie is most clear then the great thunder commeth Sodom had a fair sun-shiny morning but a storm of fire and brimstone before night Sure I am thou hast no promise to excuse thee in thy greatest pleasures from such a sudden punishment Thou art already a condemned person and thou wantest nothing but the messenger death Speed nothing but an hurdle an horse and an halter as Judge Belknap in Richard the seconds time said of himself to carry thee to thy deserved Execution Psa 64.7 God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded When the Pye is priding her self on the top of a Tree little thinking of a Fowler so near she is fetcht down by a sudden shot It may be thou trusteth to thy youth and strength because thou feelest no infirmity therefore thou fearest no mortality Thou thinkest Death should go to the dead bones and dry breasts to such as see with four eyes and go on three legs but dost thou not know that Death never observeth the Laws of nature As young as thou art thou mayst be rotten before thou art ripe Thy Sun may set at high noon the Jews have a Proverb that the old Ass often carryeth the young Asses skin to the market Blossoms are liable to nipping as well as full grown fruit to rotting Have not several been Married and Buryed in the same week nay drest by the same hands in one day for their Weddings and their Coffins Bensirah the Jew hath a good saying The Bride went into her Chamber and knew not what should befall her there Pro. 27.1 Therefore boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Is it thy strength thou trustest to alas the Leviathan of Death laughs at the shaking of that
with his words but in a Battel t wil appear how he can handle his Sword Many flourish with their colours when they know their enemies to be far enough off woh change their countenances when they meet them in the field In thy life time thou art walled in and lyest warm in the confluence of creature-comforts no visible Enemy appeareth against thee but when this Champion sheweth himself bidding thee defiance and offering to fight with theef or thy soul and Saviour and Heaven and happiness at the sight of whom the hearts of Kings and Captains have melted like grease before the Sun then then thou wilt perceive what mettle thou art made of whither thou hast the faith and spirit of a David and canst encounter him in the Lord or no. Now thou art a Vessel in the Harbour and so art kept above Water though several things are wanting but when thou launchest into the Ocean the boysterous Waves and tempestuous Winds will soon discover thy leaks and tell thee what is lacking It s like enough thou hast some armour with which thou hopest to defend thy self against the stroaks of death but know for a truth that Death will stab thee through all thy Paper Shields of profession priviledges and performances since thou art a stranger to Christ and the power of godliness Thy life is like the letting down a Fishermans net thy death as the drawing up of this Net while the Net is down a man cannot tell certainly what he shall catch for the Nets may break the Fish may escape whilst thou livest it s not so evident what thine aim is or what thine end shall be but at thy Death when the Net shall be drawn up then thou wilt see what draught thou hast made Though godly men at their Deaths may look up to the Lord of life and say At thy word we have let down our Nets and caught abundantly we fished for holiness and have caught happiness fished for grace and have caught glory and honour and immortality and eternal life yet when the Net of thy life cometh to be drawn up thou mayst say with Peter Lord I have fished all Night all my life time and have caught nothing I fished for honours and pleasures and riches and I have caught nothing but the Weeds of wrath and damnation I blessed my self many a time like the vain confident Husbandman in the goodly shew which my Corn made on the ground but now the threshing time is come I find nothing but Straw and Chaff vanity and vexation It must needs be a trying hour upon this twofold account 1. Because all thy temporal mercies will then leave thee When the hand of death shakes the tree of life all those fair blossoms will fall off We brought nothing into the World and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out of this World 1 Tim. 6.7 The Hedghog gets to a pile of Apples and gathers as many as she can up upon her prickles but when she comes to her resting place her Hole she throweth them all down and carryeth not one in with her Thus men walk in a vain shadow and disquiet themselves in vain heaping up riches which die with them naked they come into the World and naked they go out of the World Plutarch wisely compareth great men to Counters which one hour stand for thousands and the next hour for nothing Hermocrates being unwilling that any man should enjoy his estate after his death made himself in his Will his own heir Athenaeus reports of a covetous Wretch that on his Death-bed swallowed many peices of Gold and sowed up others in his coat commanding that they should be buried with him but who doth not laugh at such folly In that storm of death all thy glory and riches which thou hast taken such pains and wrought so hard for must be thrown overboard As the Great Sultan hath an officer to search all persons that come into his presence and take away all their Weapons so the great God by his Messenger Death will search thee and take away all thy wealth In that day the Crowns of Princes and Shackles of Prisoners the Russet of Beggers and Scarlet of Courtiers the Honours and Offices of the Highest the Meat and Drink and Sleep and Mirth of the Lowest must be laid by As it was said of Sarah It ceased to be with her after the former manner so the time will come that it may be said of thee It ceaseth to be with him after the former manner Now thou canst relish thy food and delight in thy friends ravish thine Ears with melodious sounds and thine eyes with curious sights rejoyce in things of naught and be Titled with vanity and nothing but when Death comes t will cease to be with thee after the former manner Now thou pleasest thy self in thy lovely Relations and pridest thy self in thy stately possessions these weak props preserve thy spirit from sinking at present but Ah what will become of thee when they shall all be taken away from thee when thou shalt bid thy Wife and Children and Friends Farewell for ever and say to thy House and Lands and Credit and Sports and Pastimes Adieu to Eternity or as dying Pope Adrian did O my soul the loving Companion of my body thou art going into a solitary place where thou shal never never more take pleasure At the hour of Death thy most costly jewels and most pleasing delights will be as the Pearl in an Oyster not thy priviledge or perfections but thy disease and destruction When those carnal comforts are gone thy spiritual comforts if thou hast any will be known When the hand which held thee up by the Chin and kept thee above Water is taken away thy own skil in swimming will be discovered When the vertue of those Cordials which supported thy spirits for a time is spent t will appear whither Nature hath any strength or no. 2. Because thy spiritual enemies will then assail thee Those Adversaries which before were hid and lay lurking as it were under the Hedge will then appear openly and wound thee to the very heart Thy sins will then assault thee When the Prisoner appeareth before the Judge then the Evidence is produced and the Witnesses which were never before thought of shew themselves When thou goest to stand before the Judge of the whole Earth thy sins will bear thee company In the Night of Death those frightful Ghosts will Walk Thy Lusts which are now Lyons Dormant will then be Rampant Thou mayst say to Death as the Woman to the Prophet Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my Son Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my soul While the Hedgehog walketh on the land she seemeth not so uncomly but when she sprawleth in the waters her deformity appeareth Whilst men walk up and down they usually look in false glasses and judge themselves fair because some may
calamity cursed the day wherein he was born and the Messenger that brought tidings of his birth and desired to dye rather then to endure it whom wilt thou curse or rather whom wilt thou not curse when under the sense of eternal misery surely thou wilt seek for death but not find it dig for it but t will flee from thee Though Judas could make himself away out of the Hell he had on earth yet he cannot out of the Hell he hath in Hell When thou diest thou art stated by God himself and there is no appeal from this Judge nor reversing of his judgement It is the observation of the School-men that what befel the Angels when they sinned that befals every wicked man at Death the Angels upon the first act of sin were presently by God himself stated in an irrecoverable condition of misery so wicked men upon the last act of their lives are fixt as to their eternal woful estates It is appointed for all men once to dye and after Death the judgement Sixthly The felicity of the prepared Sixthly Dost thou know the felicity which upon thy death thou shouldst enter into if thou wert prepared for it As the Good House-wife looketh for Winter but feareth it not being prepared for it with double cloathing so thou mightest expect Death but not fear it being prepared for it with Armour of proof Syrens some write screech horribly when they dye but Swans sing then most sweetly Though sinners roar bitterly when they behold that Sea of scalding Lead in which they must Swim naked for ever yet thou shouldst like the Apostle desire to depart wish for that hour wherein thou should lose Anchor and sail to Christ Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solvere Anchorum A Metaphor from a Ship at Anchor importing a sailing from this present life to another Port So the Syriack Chrysostom Beza Erasmus and others take it as the word signifieth Thy dying day would be thy Wedding day as the Martyrs called theirs wherein the fairest of ten thousand and thy soul now contracted should be solemnly espoused together As frightful a Lyon as Death is to others that their souls are fain to be torn from their bodies thou mightest like a weary Child call to be lay'd to bed knowing that t wil send thee to thine everlasting happy rest Bene mori est libenter mori Seuec. Epist 61. If it be an happy Death to dye willingly as the Moralist affirmeth thou shouldst give up the Ghost and be a Voluntier in that War Nature teacheth that Death is the end of misery but grace would teach thee that Death would be the beginning of thy felicity it could not hurt thee Death among Saints drives but a poor Trade it may destroy the body and when that is done it hath done all its feats like a fierce Mastiff whose Teeth are broken out it may bark and tear thy tottered coat but cannot bite to the bone This Bee fastened her sting in Christs blessed body and is ever since a drone to his Members Though the wicked are gathered at Death as the Rabbins sense that place Gather not my soul with sinners let me not dye their deaths Psa 26.9 as sticks that lye on the ground for the fire or as Grapes for the winepress of Gods fury yet thou shouldst be gathered according to the Hebrew Isa 57.2 as Women do cordial flowers to candy and preserve them Nay Death would exceedingly help thee Plutarch saith that strong bodies can eat and concoct Serpents Thou mayst like Samson fetch meat out of this Eater and out of this strong Lyon sweetness Death ever since it walked to Mount Calvary is turned to beleivers into the gate of life Nihi non à diis im nortalibus vita erepta est sed mors donata est Cicer. lib. 3. de Orat. An Heathen could say Life is not taken away from me by the immortal Gods but Death is given to me meaning as an act of grace and favour Much more may a Christian esteem Death which puts an end to his trials and sins and troubles a priviledge rather then a punishment Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 When sickness first gives thee notice that death is at hand thou mightest make the servant welcome for bringing thee the good news of his approaching Master Thy heart may leap to think that though thou art like Peter now bound in the fetters of sin and Imprisoned amongst sinners yet the Angel is coming who will with one blow on thy side cause thy shackles to fall off open the Prison Doors and set thy soul into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When this Samuel is come to thy gate thou needest not as the Elders of Bethlehem tremble at his comming for if thou askest the Question Comest thou Peaceably He will Answer Yea Peaceably I am come to offer thee up a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour acceptable to God in Jesus Christ the pale face of death would please thee better then the greatest beauty on Earth When thou lyest on thy dying bed and Physitians had given over thy body Christ would visit and give thy soul such a Cordial that thou mightest walk in the valley of the shadow of Death and fear none ill How willingly mayst thou part with the militant Members of Christ for the Triumphant Saints How chearfully mayst thou leave thy nearest Relations for thy dearest Father and Elder Brother how comfortably mayst thou take thy leave of all the riches honours and pleasures of this life knowing that though Death cometh to others with a Voider to take away all their fleshly comforts and carnal contentments nay all their hopes and Happiness and Heaven and hereby when they break at death they are quite bankrupts for ever yet it is to thee onely a servant to remove the first course of more gross fare of which thou hast had thy fill and to make way for the second which consisteth of all sorts of dainties and delicates When thy soul was ready to bid thy body good night till the morning of the resurrection thou mightst joyfully commit thy body to the grave as a bed of spices and shouldst see glorious Angels waiting on thy soul and carrying it as Eliah in a Triumphant Chariot into Heavens blessed Court. There thou shouldst be saluted by the noble Host and celestial quire of Saints and Angels welcomed by the Holy Jesus and gracious God in the fruition of whom thou shouldst be perfectly happy for ever and ever If there were so much joy in Heaven at thy repentance when thou wert but set into the way what joy will there be when through so many hazards and hard-ships thou art come to thy journeys end Thus friend wert thou but prepared Death would be to thee a change from a prison to a Pallace from sorrows to solace from pain to pleasure from heaviness to happiness Thy Winding-sheet would
The red Sea of his blood is the onely way through which thou canst pass into Canaan Reader since there is a flood and vengeance and wrath upon the face of the World flie as the distressed Dove to this Ark of the Covenant see how Jesus Christ the true Noah a Preacher of righteousness puts forth his hand to take thee in He is the Son of David to whom souls that are in debt and in distress may flee and seemeth to speak to thee as David to Abiathar Abide thou with me fear not for they the World and Devil that seek thy life seek mine but with me thou shalt be in safe-guard 1 Sam. 22.2 and ult A change of nature requisite Secondly There must of necessity be a change of thy nature by Repentance or Death can never be thy passage into the undefiled inheritance The new man is the onely Citizen of the new Jerusalem T is bad venturing a voyage to the Happy Islands in an old leaking bottom In the Art of navigation it was a Law and formerly seriously observed that none should be a Master or Masters Mate that had not been first a Sculler and Rowed with Owers and from thence be promoted to the Stern None are fit to Raign with God who have not wrought for God Others are more unfit for it then a Carter for a Princes Court Men must be bound Apprentices on earth to that high and holy Trade of worshipping and glorifying the blessed God and know the Art and Mystery of it which the purblind eyes of nature cannot discern before they can set up for themselves and inrich themselves by it in Heaven Men that are wholly strangers to a Country and no whit acquainted with the Language and Carriage of the natives would find if in it but a solitary place He whose eyes are so bad that he cannot see God with the help of the spectacles of Ordinances will be much more unable to see him face to face Alas what would an earthly man do in Heaven Till thou art converted and hast a sense of thy sins and miseries thou art a Rebel in actual Arms against God If Death finds thee in such a condition God takes the Fort of thy Soul by storm with thy Weapons in thy hands and therefore thou canst expect nothing less then Death eternal without mercy There is no peace to be thought of with God whilst thou maintainest War against him The sinner instead of disarming armeth Death against himself The life of sin is the life of Death and enableth it to kill the soul Till thy nature be renewed thy heart is full of enmity against God and thy life nothing else but a walking contrary to him and therefore thou canst have no delight or joy in him which is the very Heaven of Heavens There must be conformity to him before there can be communion with him God and man must be agreed before they can walk or dwell together Except ye be converted ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God and again Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Mat. 18.3 John 3.3 Which negatives can in no wise and cannot enter speak not onely the impossibility of it on Gods part because he is fully resolved against it but also the incapacity on mans part because he is wholly unprepared for it Swine are not fit for a rubd Room or a presence Chamber As Timber must be laid out and shrunk before its fit for building otherwise t will warp So God humbleth and draweth out self-â—ap and self-indisposition before they become the Temple of the Holy Ghost That building which reacheth up to Heaven must have a low foundation They that would turn Pewter by Alchimy into Silver first dissolve the Pewter or otherwise their labour is in vain Thy heart must be melted by godly sorrow for sin and hatred of sin before thou canst be a vessel of Silver for thy Masters use the Angel troubled the Waters before they were healing John 5.4 Repent that your sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 Repentance and Remission are ever Twins T is observable that nature haâ—h made the roots of many trees bitter whose fruits are very sweet They that in life sow in tears at death shall reap in joy It is the wet seed-time that hath the sunshiny harvest God is reâ—â—â—â—d that all the sons of men shall feel sin 〈◊〉 in broken Bones on Earth or broken Backs in Hell When sin hath its deaths-wound before it will expire at death for though sin brought death into the body death will cast sin out of the body When grace is before budded and blossomed at death it will ripen into glory Holiness is the Raiment of Needle-work in which thou art to be brought to thy Lord and Husband Psa 45.14 but its necessary that like Abrahams Ram thou be perplexed in these Briars before by death thou art offered up as a peace-offering to God They are foolish who Dream of being carried to Heaven in a Feather-bed None but such as are weary of the work as a sick man of his bed and heavy laden with the weight of sin as a Porter can be of his burden shall enter into the everlasting rest Naturalists observe that the Egiptian Fig-Tree being put into the Water Pliny Nat. Hist Lib. 13. Cap. 7. presently sinketh to the bottom but being well soaked contrary to the nature of other Trees it boys it self up to the top Till thy mind is inlightned to see sins deformity thy will renewed to refuse it as thy only enemy and thy affections purified to grieve for it and loath it as it is contrary to the blessed God and thy own felicity till thy soul is soaked in these bitter waters never expect to be lifted up to the Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand This howling Wilderness is the onely way to Canaan The path to Sion lyeth by Sinai God powreth the Oyl of gladness into the broken Vessel Some Phylosophers tell us that Feeling is the foundation of natural life no feeling no life It s true I am sure in Divinity no feeling no sense of sin no spiritual no eternal life Impenitency like a Lethurgy is deadly is damning God doth qualifie all whom he intendeth to dignifie Saul is qualified by receiving another spirit then he had before to reign over men much more must they be qualified by receiving a new heart and a new spirit who are to reign with God The Sun never leapt from Mid-night to Mid-day but first sendeth forth some glimmerings of light in the dawning of the day then looketh upon us with some weak and waterish beams after that beholds us with open face and even then hath many Miles to run before he can arrive at his Meridian glory God never carried a soul from Hell to Heaven from a natural condition to the beautifical Vision but through the door or gate of conversion Reader to conclude this Use and sum up
little dost thou think what Rings and Robes what dainties and delicates what grace and mercy and peace he provided on purpose against the return of thee a wandring prodigal Thou needst now no longer run a score with the World for any of its course carnal fare thy beloved will entertain thee at his own table with curious and costly feasts thou shalt have bread to eat which the world knows not of If dangers and evils pursue thee thou hast thy City of refuge at hand wherein thou mayst be secure from the fear and fury of men and Devils T will be life to thee now to think of Death thou mayst lift up thy head with joy when that day of thy redemption draweth nigh Death will give thee a writ of ease both from sin and sorrow then thy Indentures will expire and thy soul be at liberty Thou hast now taken in thy full lading for Heaven and mayst therefore call like a Merchant that hath all his goods on shipboard to the Master of the Vessel to hoise up sail and be gone towards thy everlasting harbour O how may thy heart revive with old Jacobs to see those wagons which are sent to fetch thee to thy dear Jesus for thou knowest that he is Lord of the Countrey and able to make thee welcome when thou comest thither Now thou art present in the body and so absent from the Lord but then thou shalt ever ever be with the Lord but if thou refusest so great and so good an offer chusing slavery to the flesh before this Christian liberty and resolving as many wicked ones do rather to be free for many Harlots then to take one Wife rather to love and serve divers lusts and pleasures then to be wedded to Jesus Christ go on take thy course but be confident that thy fleshly life like the head of Polypus though pleasant at present will afterwards cause troublesome sleep and frightful Dreams If thou intendest to lanch into the Ocean of eternity without this Pilot the blessed Saviour who alone can steer the Vessel of thy soul amidst those dangerous shelves and sands aright and the ballast of grace not regarding what passage thou hast nor at what Port thou arrivest in the other World whether Heaven or Hell prepare thy self to take up thine eternal lodging amongst frightful Devils and to bear thy part in the endless yellowings and howlings of the Damned and know withal to thy terror that this very tender of grace will one day like Joabs Sword to Abner stab thee under the fift rib cut thee to the very heart and like a mountain of Lead sinck thee deep into that Ocean of wrath when thou shalt have time enough to befool thy self for refusing so good an offer and where thou shalt be tormented day and night for ever and ever I have this day set before thee life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live That thou mayst love the Lord thy God and that thou mayst obey his voice and that thou mayst cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days Deut. 30.19 20. CHAP. VIII The Second Exhortation To the serious Christian shewing how a Saint may come to dye with courage I Shall now speak in this Use of Exhortation to the Serious Christian If thy flesh will fail thee so fortifie thy Spirit 2. Exhortation To the serious Christian to be valiant in Death that thou mayst give the flesh a chearful farewel Thy care must be to dye with courage A good Souldier in all his Armour may be daunted at the sight of that Enemy whom he meeteth on a sudden Mary was troubled at the sight and sayings of that Angel which brought the best news that ever the world heard Luk. 1. T is true thou canst never dye before thou art ripe for Heaven but thou mayst dye in some sence before thou art ready in thy own apprehensions to leave the earth Many go to Heaven certainly who go not to Heaven comfortably Tertul. de Spectat cap. 1. It was Tertullians character of the Christians in his time that they were Expiditum morti genus A sort of people prepared for death When a son hath loytered in the day he may well be affraid to look his Father in the face at night but when he hath laboured faithfully he may come into his presence without fear Though he that is sober at home be more ready to put off his cloaths and go to sleep then he that is drinking and vomiting in a Tavern yet even this man may think of some business which he neglected in the day time that may make him unwilling to lye down Surely somewhat is the cause that the children of God are so unquiet when night cometh and so many of them go wrangling to bed Christian I would in a few words direct thee how thou mayst put off thy earthly Tabernacle as chearfully as thy cloaths and lye down in thy grave as comfortably as ever thou didst in a bed of Down It is thy own fault if thou dost not keep such a good fire all day I mean Grace so flaming on the hearth of thy heart that thou mayst encrease it at night and so go warm to bed even to thy Eternal Rest The first Means Take heed of blotting thy Evidences for Heaven Darkness we know is very dreadful 1 Blot not thy evidences for Heaven when men by great or willful sins have so blurred the deeds which speak their right to Heaven that they cannot read them no wonder if being thus in the dark they are affraid to leave the earth It is reported of good Agathon Doroth Doct. 2. that when death approached he was much troubled whereupon his friends said unto him What dost thou fear He answered I have endeavoured to keep the commandments of God but I am a man and how do I know whether my works please God or no for other is the judgement of God and other is the judgement of men He must needs be troubled to be removed from present pleasures who knoweth not that he shall go to a better place Twenty pounds a year certain is counted better then and a man will be unwilling to part with it for forty pounds a year that is doubtful It is assurance onely of a better life which will carry the soul with comfort through the bitter pangs of death Hence it was that Job called so frequently and cried so earnestly to be laid to bed O that I might have my request that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off then should I yet have comfort Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy one Job 6.8 9 10. Job had lived with a good conscience and therefore feared not to dye with great comfort His fidelity to God
encouraged him to expect mercy from God He had not concealed nor shut up Gods faithfulness from men and therefore knew that God would not conceal his loving kindness from him But David on the other hand when night in his own thoughts drew near was as importunate to fit up longer God seemed to call him to bed but he begs hard O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psa 39. ult Now mark the reason of this petition David as t is generally conceived was now persecuted by Absolom the unnatural Son forced his Father to flie He in his suffering reads his own sin and Gods indignation and so dreads an appearance in the other World in such a condition He who when things were clear betwixt God and his soul could walk in the valley of the shadow of Death and fear none ill could even give Death a challenge now when things are cloudy and dubious runs back like a Coward He had lost the sense of Gods favour and therefore could not think of venturing into his presence without much fear The train of his corruptions threatned to wait on him to the highest Court and he durst not appear before the Lord with such company He had been declining in his grace under a sad distemper and as a weak consumptionate man he was affraid to travail so great a journey as the way whence he should never return The Tenant who wants his rent loves not to hear of the Quarter day Friend If thou wouldst leave the World chearfully live in the World conscienciously take heed of those fiends which will fright thee in the night of Death chuse suffering before sin and punish thy body to keep thy soul pure The Ermin some say will die before she will go into the Dirt to defile her beautiful skin and the Mouse of Armenia will rather be taken and slain then preserve and pollute her self in a filthy Hole As the white is always in the Archers eye so let thy Death be in thine that it may quicken thee to diligence and exactness in thy life Logicians who regard not the premises infer wilde conclusions so if thou art careless of thy conversation expect but an uncomfortable dissolution As when God looked on all his works and saw that they were good then followed his Sabbath of rest so when thou canst reflect upon the several passages of thy life and see that through Christ they are good and thou hast not been guilty of enormities though of infirmities after this thou wilt joyfully by Death enter into thy everlasting Sabbath Thy evidence will be clear if thy conscience be kept clean but the truth is many even amongst Christians wound their souls by venturing on sin and thence flinch and start back when they come to be searcht besides they neglect casting up their accounts so long that they know not whether they are worth any thing or nothing and so may well be unwilling to have their estates ransackt into If thou shouldst fall I would not sad any Saint take heed of lying there but be as speedy as is possible in calling to Christ to raise thee up If thy conscience be raw with the guilt of any sin a light affliction much more Death will make thee kick and fling and unwilling to bear it But when thy flesh is sound thy spirit healed by the blood of Christ Death it self will be but a light burden on thy back How merrily mayst thou though thou hast not a penny in thine own purse go the way of all the Earth travel into the other World when thou art sure of Christ in thy company who will bear thy charges all the way The second Means 2 Wean thy heart from the World Secondly Mortifie thy affections more to the World and all its comforts They who love the World most leave it worst Lots Wife lingered in Sodom so much and was so loth to depart because she loved it overmuch When boards lye close one upon another they are easily parted but when they are glewed one to another t will cost some trouble and pains If thy heart be loose to the World t will be a small matter to thee to leave it but if thou art fastened to it in thy affections t will not be done without much reluctancy and opposition The Wife who hath been so faithful to her Husband as to keep her heart wholly for him is ready always to open the Door to him when she that entertaineth other Lovers though her Husband knock at the Door dares not run presently to open it but first makes a shuffling and busling up and down to hide or get them out of the way The more thy affections are set on Christ thy true Husband the more the World is taken out of thee and so the more easily wilt thou be taken out of the World He who hath laid up his heart in Heaven will comfortably think of laying down his head in the Earth When the pins of the Watch are taken out which held it together how easily doth it fall in peices When thy affections from these things below are removed how quickly how quietly will thy soul and body fall asunder If the World be as loose to thee as thy Cloak thou canst put it off at pleasure but if it be as close to thee as thy skin they shall have somwhat to do who shall perswade thee to part with it We read of some unwilling to dye for they had treasure in the field Jer. 41.8 Where their treasure was their hearts were also Make it thy work therefore by considering the Worlds vanity and deceitfulness and by pondering Heavens glory and happiness to wean thy heart from sublunary things hereby thou wilt as willingly leave them as ever infant did those breasts which long ago t was weaned from The third Means 3. Familiarize the thoughts of Death Vse thy heart to the frequent thoughts of Death When Children are frighted at a Dog or a Cat we do not give way to their foolish fears but bring the brute to them and get them to touch and handle it and shew them that it is not such a frightful thing as they imagine and hereby in time they are so far from being frighted that they can play with it familiarly Dost thou dread this King of Terrors Death give not way to this fear but bring death up to thy spirit handle it feel it there is no such hurt in it as thou imaginest nothing which should terrifie thee hereby at last thou mayst come to play upon the hole of this Asp One ground I suppose why Job made no more of dying was because he was so well acquainted with Death Strangers are startled at many things in a place which they that are home-born and used to can delight in I have said to corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worms thou art my Brother and Sister Job 17.14 Job was as familiar with Death
what is it in death that thou art afraid of Is it not a departure the Goal delivery of a long prisoner the sleep of thy body and a wakening of thy Soul the way to bliss the gate of life the portall to Paradise Art thou not sure to triumph before thou fightest by dying to overcome death and when thou leavest thy body to be joyned to thy head The Roman general in the encounter between Scipio and Hannibal thought he could not use a more effectual perswasion to encourage his souldiers then to tell them that they were to fight with those whom they had formerly overcome and who were as much their slaves as their enemies Thou art to enter the list against that adversary whom thou hast long agoe conquered in Jesus Christ and who is more thy slave then thine enemy Death is thine 1 Cor. 3.30 thy servant and slave to help off thy cloaths and to put thee to thine everlasting happy rest Is it the taking down of thine earthly tabernacle which troubles thee Why Dost thou not know that death is the workman sent by the Father to pull down this earthly house of mortality and clay that it may be set up a new infinitely more lasting beautiful and glorious Didst thou believe how rich and splendid he intends to make it which cannot be unlesse taken down thou wouldst contentedly endure the present toyl and trouble and be thankful to him for his care and cost He takes down thy vile body that he may fashion it like to the glorious body of his own Son which for brightness and beauty excels the Sun in its best attire far more then that doth the meanest Star Is it the untying of the knot betwixt body and soul which perplexeth thee It is true they part but as friends going two several wayes shake hands till they return from their journey they are as sure of meeting again as of parting for thy soul shall return laden with the wealth of heaven and fetch his old companion to the participation of all his joy and happiness Is it the rotting of thy body in the grave that grieves thee Indeed Plato's worldling doth sadly bewail it Woe is me that I shall lie alone rotting in the earth amongst the crawling Wormes not seeing ought above nor seen But thou who hast read it is a sweet bed of spices for thy body to rest in all the dark night of this worlds duration mayst well banish such fears Hast thou never heard God speaking to thee as once to Jacob Fear not to goe down into Aegypt into the grave I will go down with thee and I will bring thee up again Gen. 16.4 Besides thy Soul shall never die The heathen Historian could comfort himself against death with this weak cordial Non omnis moriar All of me doth not die though my body be mortal my books are immortal But thou hast a stronger julip a more rich cordial to clear thy spirits when thy body failes thy soul will flourish thy death is a burnt offering when thy ashes fall to the earth the celestial flame of thy Soul will mount up to Heaven Farther death will ease thee of those most troublesome guests which make thy life now so burdensome as the fire to the three children did not so much as singe or sear their bodies but it burnt and consumed their bands so death would not the least hurt thy body or soul but it would destroy those fetters of sin and sorrow in which thou art intangled Nazian Orat. Besides the sight of the blessed God which is the only beatifical vision which at death thy soul shall enjoy Popish Pilgrims take tedious journeys and are put to much hardship and expence to behold a dumb Idol The Queen of Sheba came from far to see Solomon and hear his wisdom and wilt thou not take a step from earth to Heaven in a moment in the twinkling of an eye thy journey will be gone and thy work be done to see Jesus Christ a greater then Solomon Hast thou not many a time prayed long and cried for it hast thou not trembled least thou shouldst miss it hath not thine heart once and again leapt with joy in hope of it and when the hour is come and thou art sent for dost thou shrink back for shame Christian walk worthy of thy calling and quicken thy courage in thy last conflict As the Jewes when it thunders and lightens open their windowes expecting the Messias should come O when the storm of death beats upon thy body with what joy mayst thou set those casements of thy Soul Faith and Hope wide open knowing that thy dearest Redeemer who went before to prepare a place for thee will then come and fetch thee to himself that where he is there thou mayst be also and that for ever FINIS Some Scriptures that are occasionally opened 1 Sam. 30.6 p. 106. 2 Sam. 23.5 p. 64. Ester 7.6 p. 47 48. Job 7. ult p. 67. Psal 11.6 p. 133. Psal 16.5 6. p. 161. Ps 17. ult p. 164. Psal 27.5 p. 111. Psal 91.4 p. 112. Psal 121.4 p. 110. Psal 142.5 p. 110. Eccles 1.2 p. 160. Eccles 8.8 p. 34. Eccles 9.12 p. 136. Isai 25.10 p. 111. Isai 27.11 p. 111. Isai 27.3 p. 110. Isai 40.6 7. p. 14. Zachar. 2.5 p. 110. Habak 3.16 17. p. 124. Matth. 6.21 p. 138. Rom. 15.19 p. 114 115. 1 Cor. 15.57 p. 65 66. 2 Cor. 1.3 p. 123. A Table of the chief heads treated of in the foregoing Book A. AFflictions not to be born without divine help p. 9. The vast difference between sinners and Saints in Afflictions 123 124 125. The more mens affections are crucified to the world they die with the more comfort 88. B. The great folly of men in minding their bodies above their souls Blessedness vide Happiness C. The necessity of an interest in the Covenant of Grace p. 63. The comfort of a Christian in God p. 105 179. The need sinners stand in of Christ p. 63 64 75. The Excellency of Christ p. 73 74. The terms upon which sinners may enjoy Christ p. 78 79. D. Death will seize on all p. 14 15. Neither height nor holiness will excuse from dying p. 13. 39 40. Nor strength in our youth The corruptibility of mans body natural cause of death p. 16 17. Sin the moral and meritorious cause of death p. 19 20. Gods fidelity the supernatural cause of death p. 17 18. Counsel to prepare for death p. 29 30 31. Death is certain p. 34 35. Death is often sudden p. 36 37. Death will try men p. 43 44. 45 46. Death strips men of outward comforts Spiritual enemies busie in an hour of death p. 47 48. When death comes it is too late to prepare p. 40. Death gain to a Christian p. 18 19 182 183. 56 57. The misery of sinners at death p. 50. What is requisite to prepare for death p. 61. to 70. Comfort against the death of Christian friends p. 180.
Comfort against our own death p. 182. To familiarize death is one meanes of dying with comfort p. 92 E. Godly men are apt to envy prosperous wicked men p. 3 4. The cure of envy p. 5 6. God an Eternal Good p. 119 131. When a Christians evidences for heaven are clear he dyeth with the more comfort p. 85. F. Faith necessary p. 62 63. Flesh no fit judge of Gods providences p. 8. Flesh why put for corrupt nature Ibid. Mans folly in providing for the flesh p. 23 24. G. God a Christians strength p. 10. God a Christians comfort p. 105 106. God a Christians happiness p. 106. 107. God a perfect good p. 108. God the Christians defence p. 109 110 111. God a sutable good p. 115 116 117. God an eternal good p. 119. God the Saints peculiar good p. 120. Gods great condescention to sinners p. 77. Who is a godly man p. 140. to 143. Choose God for thy portion p. 147. God vide Portion H. Happiness what it is p. 114. Wherein the Happiness of man consisteth Vide God Hell its extremity and eternity p. 136 to 139. Humiliation necessary p. 69 70. I. Ignorance the cause of mans love to the world and his neglect of God Justification p. 62. K. Knowledge of God requisite in all that would choose him for their portion p. 151 152 153. L. Saints sick of Love to God p. 8 9. Christ to be loved above all p. 78 79. P. The excellency of the Saints Portion p. 7 11 105 139. Why God the best portion vide God The difference of the Christian and the Worldlings portion p. 127. The sinners portion is poor ibid. it is piercing p. 128 129. it is perishing p. 130 131. Characters of those that have God for their portion p. 139. They are known by their desires after God p. 141. their delight in God p. 142. their endeavours for God p. 143. God is a satisfying portion p. 158. a sanctifying portion p. 165. an universal portion p. 168. an eternal portion p. 171. Portion vide God Prosperity of wicked men a stumbling block to the godly p. 3. The causes of wicked mens prosperity in the opinion of the heathen p. 5. Saints have a propriety in God Psalms of David famous p. 2. S Saints gain by death vide Death Scriptures famous for their verity p. 1. Sin the cause of death vide Death The misery of sinners at death p. 49 50 51. The difference between a sinner and a Saint in affliction p. 123 to 127. God wooeth sinners p. 73 74. Sinners warned to prepare for death p. 29 30. Folly of men in neglecting their souls p. 24 25 26 27. Saints must labour to die with courage comfort p. 63. T. Time present to be husbanded well p. 40. Men ought to try themselves p. 139. Death will try men to purpose p. 47 48 V. Understanding of man satisfyed only with God the supreme truth p. 163. W. Will only satisfyed with God the chiefest Good p. 164. Worldly comforts unsatisfying p. 159 160. poor p. 127. uncertain p. 119 120. The world is defiling p. 166. ERRATA PAge 13. line 16. for unto read into p. 41. l. 12. for Demetrius Aster r. Demetrius Afer p. 48. l. 9. for fool r. foe p. 62. l. ult He seemeth to every person r. he seemeth to say to every person p. 67. l. 14. for lingering r. linger p. 106. l. 26. for that pipe r. the pipe of its p. 108. l. 11. for strength r. stream p. 123. l. 15. for no to cover r. no cover p. 126. l. 1. add when other birds are in want p. 139. l. 15. for his own provided r. provided for his own p. 149. l. 8. for wisely r. vilely
wipe off all tears from thine eyes all thy sins and sorrows should be buried in thy Grave and the Vessel of thy soul which in this life is weaterbeaten tost up and down with the boysterous billows of temptations and the high winds of the Worlds wrath and the Devils rage would there arrive at a blessed and everlasting harbour Death would sound a retreat and call thee out of the field where the Bullets flye thick and threefold in thy Combate with the flesh world and wicked one to receive a crown of life Hence that ancient custome of placing a Laurel Crown at the head of the dead mans Coffin in token of Victory and Triumph CHAP. VII What is requisite to preparation for Death A change of state and a change of nature with a most gracious offer from the most high God to Sinners IF any thing or all that I have written hath wrought thee to a resolution to prepare for thy dissolution if these motives which thy conscience must needs confess to be weighty have melted thee and made thee pliable for a divine stamp and mould I shall acquaint thee with the means and way how thou mayst dye well Having finished what is perswasive Secondly I shall offer thee somewhat that is directive And know Reader further that there is no other medicine in the World which can possibly cure thy wounded dying soul but that which I have from God to prescribe thee throw away this or neglect the rules in applying it to thy sores or advise with flattering mountebanks and thy lamentable condition will be irrecoverable thy dreadful estate will be desperate I shall not like an Emperick try new tricks or remedies on thy bleeding gasping soul but give thee that receipt consisting but of two ingredients which the great Physician hath left in Writing under his own hand and which thousands have experienced to be effectual for their cure whose souls are made thereby at this hour as his body in the Gospel every whit whole Pride or an Ambitious desire of self sufficiency and self subsistance was the stone at which man at first stumbled and fell into the bottomless pit of matchless misery it was the fatal Knife which cut the throat of his glorious hopes and happiness the wise God therefore like a tender Father in mans recovery takes special care to lay these Weapons out of the Childrens way by which they had wrought themselves such wo. Hence it is that he hath chosen those two graces to make us happy and carry us to himself which speak us to be most beggerly and carry us most out of our selves Faith and Repentance Faith teacheth us to deny our selves as utterly weak and Repentance causing us to abhor our selves as altogether unworthy Repentance discovereth our nakedness and obnoxiousness thereby to shame and suffering and Faith telleth that our own rags come infinitely short of hiding it and that we must fetch our garments out of anothers Wardrobe The whole Globe of Christianity divideth it self into these two Hemispheres As the bodily life consisteth in natural heat and radical moysture so the life of the soul in Faith and Repentance Therefore Reader if thou wouldst dye well undergo that great change with comfort it is absolutely and indispensably necessary that thou mind these two changes before hand A change of thy state or condition which is wrought by faith and a change of thy nature or disposition which is wrought by Repentance The Door of thy happiness hangs on these two Hinges the merit of Christ without thee and its acceptation with God for the justification of thy person and secondly the Spirit of Christ within thee and its operation for the sanctification of thy nature A change of State requisite First There must of necessity be a change of thy state by faith in Christ or thou canst never put thy head into the other World with comfort There is no such Shroud such a Winding-sheet for the departing soul to be wrapt in as the righteousness of a Saviour Pauls care was that he might not be found naked 2 Cor. 5.3 O t is sad indeed for thy soul to be summoned to appear before the jealous God and to have nothing to cover thy nakedness Adam knowing that he was naked fled from God Guilt cannot but be shie of a Judge sore eyes will not endure the sight of the Sun God is a consuming fire to all who have not Jesus Christ for their Skreen He seemeth to every person as Joseph to the Patriarchs Thou shalt not see my face with joy except thou bringest thy Brother with thee T is alone in the Garments of thine Elder Brother that thou canst have a sound hope to receive the blessing Every one who dyeth out of Christ dyeth in his sins John 8.21 And were not mens hearts desperately hard t were impossible that any should dye in their senses who die in their sins all would die distracted who dye thus defiled By nature thou art under the Covenant of works and so bound to earn happiness by thy fingers ends if ever thou wilt have it in which failing for no meer man ever saild to bliss in that bottom thou art liable to the curse of the Law a bondslave to thy Jaylor Satan and an heir of Hell If ever therefore thou wouldst arrive at Heavens blessed port there is a necessity of imbarquing in another Vessel and that is the Covenant of Grace by which thou mayst be freed from all the former crosses and curses and filled with all the special comforts and rich cordials of the Gospel Now it is faith in Christ by which thou comest to be shipt in this Covenant and surely it concerns thee then to get this grace Many nay Millions are drowned and cast away sayling through the boysterous billows of death in the broken bottom of the first Covenant when others in the second ride in Triumph with top and top gallant to their desired Haven Reader If thou art out of this Covenant thou art like a man in the midst of the Sea without any Boat or bottom though some in Vessels at the same time are safe yet he is sure to sink It is related of one that being at the point of Drowning in a River and looking up and seeing a Rainbow in the Skie the sign of Gods Covenant that he would never more drown the World he made this conclusion What if God save the whole World from a deluge of Waters and suffer me to perish in this River what good will that Covenant do me So say I to thee though thousands escape a deluge of wrath through Gods promise to Christ and in Christ to his purified ones what good will it do thee if thou perishest An interest in this Covenant was the living comfort of dying David He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although he make not my House to grow