to love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 and to look for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 The Spirit and the Bride say Come Come Lord Jesus Come quickly is the voice of faith and hope and love Rev. 22.17 20. But I find not that his servants are thus Characterized by their desires to die It is therefore the presence of their Lord that they desire But it is Death that they abhor And therefore though they can submit to death it is the coming of Christ that they Love and long for and it is interposing death that causeth them to draw back Let not Christians be discouraged by mistakes and think that they love not God and glory because they love not this enemy in the way nor think that they are graceless or unbelieving worldlings because they are afraid of death as death But perhaps you will say that if grace prevail not against the fears of death then fear is predominant and we are not sincerâ— To which I answer that you must distinguish between such a prevailing as maintaineth our sincerity and such a prevailing as also procureth our fortitude and joy If grace prevail not to keep us upright in a holy life renouncing the world and crucifying the flesh and devoting our selves entirely to God though the fear of death would draw us from it then it is a sign that we are not sincere But if grace do this much and yet prevail not against all fears and unwillingness to die but leave us under uncomfortable hideous thoughts of death this proves us not to be unsound For the soul may savingly love God that is afraid of death And he may truly love the End that fears this dark and diâ—mall way Yet must there be so much to prove our uprightness as that in our deliberate choice we will rather voluntarily pass through death either naturall or violent then lose the happiness beyond it Though we love not death yet we love God and heaven so well that we will submit to it And though we fear it and abhor it yet not so much as we fear and abhor the loss of heaven Let not poor Christians therefore wrong themselves and deny the graces of the Spirit as if they had more mind of earth then heaven and of things temporal then of things eternal because they are afraid to die All suffering is grievous and not joyous to our nature Paul himself desired not to be unclothed but clothed upon with our house which is from heaven that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.2 4. it â—eing better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Even Christ himself had a will that desired that the Cup might have passed from him if it had been agreeable to his Fathers will and the ends of his undertaken Office Mathew 26.41 42. Raise therefore no unjust conclusions from these natural fears nor from the imperfection of our conquest but praise him that relieveth us and abateth the enmity of death and furnisheth us with his Antidotes and will destroy this enemy at last SECT VIII Vse 6. FRom the Enmity of Death we may further learn to study and magnifie the victorious grace of our Redeemer which overcometh the enemy and turneth our hurt into our benefit and maketh death a door of life Though death be the enemy that seemeth to conquer us and to destroy and utterly undo us yet being conquered it self by Christ it is used by him to our great advantage and sanctified to be a very great help to our salvation The suffering of Christ himself was in the hour of his enemies and the power of darkness Luke 22.53 which seemed to have prevailed against him when yet it was but a destroying of death by death and the purchasing of life and salvation for the world So also in our death though sin and Satan seem to conquer it is they that are conquered and not we who are supervictors through him that hath loved us Rom. 8.37 They destroy themselves when they seem to have destroyed us As the Serpent bruised but the heel of Christ who bruised his head so doth he bruise but our heel who in that conflict and by the means of his own execution through the strength of Christ do bruise his head Gen. 3.15 And this is upshot of all his enmity against the womans holy seed Though Death was unsuitable to innocent man and is still a natural enemy to us all yet unto sinners it is an evil that is suitable and fit to destroy the greater evil that did cause it and to prevent the everlasting evil The fore-knowledge of our certain death is a very great help to keep us humble and disgrace all the seducing pleasures of the flesh and all the profits and honours of the world and so to enervate all temptations It is a singular help to quicken a stupid careless sinner and to waken men to prepare for the life to come and to excite them to seek first the Kingdom of God and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure to consider seeing all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons they ought to be in all holy conversation godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. When we drop asleep the remembrance of death may quickly awake us when we grow slack it is our spur to put us on to mend our pace Who is so mad as wilfully to sin with Death in his eye or who so dead as with death in hâ—s eye to refuse to live a godly life if he have any spiritual light and feeling Experience teâ—leth us that when health and folly cause us to promise our selves long life and think that death is a great way off it lamentably cools our zeal and strentheneth our temptations and duls our souls to holy operations and the approach of death puâ—s life into all our apprehensions and affections It is a wonderfull hard thing to maintain our lively apprehensions and strâ—ng affections and tenderness of conscience and self-denyal and easie contempt of earthly things when we put far from us the day of death We see what a stir men make for the profits and honours of this world and how fast they hold their fleshly pleasures while they are in health and how contemptuously they speak of all and bitterly complain of the vanity and vexation when they come to die And if our lives and the world be brought hereby into such disorders when men live so short a time on earth what monsters of ambition and covetousness and luxury would men be if they lived as long as before the flood even to eight hundred or nine hundred years of age Doubtless long life was so great a temptation then to man in his corrupted state that it is no wonder if his wickedness was great upon â—he earth and if it prepared
happy day to spend O sleep no longer in your sins while God stands over you lest before you aâ—e aware you awake in Hell Patience and mercy have their appointed time and will not alway wait and be despised O let not your Teachers be forced to say We would have taught them publikely and privately but they would not We would have Catechized the ignorant and exhorted the negligent but some of them would not come near us and others of them gave us but the hearing and went away such as they came If once by forefeiting the Gospell the Teachers whom you slight be taken from you you may then sin on and take your course till time and help and hope are past The Providence that called me to this work was soâ—e warning to you Though it was not the calling away your Teacher it was a removing of his Helper a pattern of meekness and godliness and charity and he is left the more disconsolate in the prosecution of his work God hath made him faithfull to your souls and carefull for your happiness He walks before you in humility and self-denyall and patience and peaceableness and in an upright inoffensive life He is willing to teach you publikely and privately in season and out of season He manageth the work of God with prudence and moderation and yet with Zeal carefully avoiding both ungodliness and schism or the countenancing of either of them Were he not of eminent wisdom and integrity his name would not be so unspotted in a place where Dividers and Disputers Papists and Quakers and so many bitter enemies of godliness do watch for matter of accusation and reproach against the faithfull Ministers of Christ As you love the safety and happiness of your City and of your souls undervalue not such mercies nor think it enough to put them off with your commendations and good word It is not that which they live and preach and labour for but for the Conversion Edification and salvation of your souls Let them have this or they have nothing if you should give them all you have The enemies of the Gospel have no wiser Cavill against the painfull Labourers of thâ— Lord then to call them â—â—â—elings and blame them for looking after Tythes and great matters in the world Bâ—t as among all the faithfull Ministers of this Countrey through the great merâ—y of God thâ—se adversaries are now almost ashamed to open their mouths with an accusation of Covetousness So this your Reverend faithfull Teacher hath stopt the mouth of all such calumnie as to him When I invited him from a place of less work and a competent maintenance to accept of less then half that maintenance with a far greater burden of work among you he never stuck at it as thinking he might be more servicâ—able to God and win that which is better then the richâ—s of this world And if now you will frustrate his expectations and disappoint his labours and hopes of your salvation it will be easier for Sodom in the day of judgement then for you Alas how sad is it to see a faithfull Minister longing and labouring for mens salvation and many of them neglecting him and others picking groundless quarrels and the proud unruly selfish part rebelling and turning their backs upoâ— their Teachers when ever they will not humour them in their own wayes or when they deal but faithfully with their souls Some even of those that speak against disobedience conventicles and schism turn away in disdain if their Children may not be needlesly baptized in private houses and if that solemn Ordinance may not be celebrated in a Parlour Conventicle How many refuse to come to the Minister in private to be Instructed or Catechised or to confer with him about their necessary preparation for death and judgement Is not this the case of many among you Must not your Teacher say He sent to you and was willing to have done his part and you refused Little will you now believe how heavy this will lie upon you one day and how dear you shall pay for the causless grieving and disappointment of your guides It is not your surliness and passions that will then serve turn to answer God Nor shall it save you to say that Ministers were of so many minds and wayes that you knew not which of them to regard For it was but one way that God in the holy Scripture did prescribe you and all faithfull Ministers were agreed in the things which you reject and in which you practically differ from them all What are we not all agreed that God is to be preferred before the world and that you must first seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and that no man can be saved except he be converted and born again and that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Mat. 6.33 John 3.3 5. Mat. 18.3 Rom. 8.9 and that you your housholds should serve the Lord Josh 24.15 Are we not all agreed that the Law of the Lord must be your delight and that you must meditate disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbâ—liever looketh no further then the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrors of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so vicâ—orious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that it is much more precious then Gold that perisheth and it shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we Love and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the malignity and enmiâ—y of death while it seeth the things that are beyond it and the time when death shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like Davids three mighty men that brake through the host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23.15 16. When the thirsty soul saith O that one would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks through death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters â—o the soul We may ever Psal 15.4 and have contemned the ungodly as vile persons though they had been of your side The
come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Chrâ—st Jesus our Lord. You see here what it is that conquereth the enmity of death in our sanctification even that powerfull love of God that is then given us which will go to him through the most cruel death 4. A fourth Antidote that is given us by Christ against the Enmity of Death is the Holy Ghost as he is the Comforter of the Saints He made it his work to corroborate and confirm them As sin hath woven calamities into our lives and filled us with troubles and griefs and fears so Christ doth send his spirit to undo these works of Satan and to be a Comforter as well as a Sanctifier to his members As the Sanctifying Spirit striveth against the enticing sinfull flesh so the Comforting Spirit striveth against the troubling flesh as also against the persecuting as well as the tempting world and the vexing as well as the tempting Devil And greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 The Spirit of Christ overcomes the disquieting as well as the tempting Spirit But with some difference because our comforts are not in this life so necessary to us as our Holiness Joy being part of our Reward is not to be expected certainly or constantly in any high degree till we come to the state of our Reward And therefore though the Holy Ghost will carry on the work of Sanctification universally constantly and certainly in the Elect yet in many of them his Comforting work is more obscure and interrupted And yet he is a Conquerour here For his works must be judged of in reference to their ends And our comfort on earth is given us for our encouragement in holy wayes that we be not stopt or diverted by the fear of enemies and also to help on ouâ— love to God and to quicken us in thanks and praise and draw up our hearts to the life to come and make us more serviceable to others And such a measure of comfort we shall have as conduceth to these ends and is suitable to our present state and the employment God hath for us in the world if we do not wilfully grieve our Comforter and quench our joyes So that when Death and the Grave appear before and our flesh is terrified with the sight of these Anakims and saith We are not able to overcome them and so brings up an evil report upon the promised Land and casts us sometime into murmuring lamentation and weakning-discouragements yet doth the Holy Ghost cause Faith and Hope as Caleb and Joshua to still the soul Numb 13. and causeth us to contemn these Gyants and say Let us go up and possess it for we are well able to overcome it Ver. 30. The Comforting Spirit sheweth us his death that conquered death Heb. 2.14 15. even the Cross on which he triumphed openly when he seemed to be conquered Col. 2.15 He sheweth us the glorious Resurrection of our Head and his promise of our own Resurrection He sheweth us our glorified Lord to whom we may boldly and confidently commend our departing souls Acts 7.59 And he sheweth us the Angels that are ready to be their Convoy And he maketh all these Considerations effectual and inwardly exciteth our Love and heavenly desires and giveth us a triumphing Courage and Consolation So that Death doth not encounter us alone and in our own strength but finds us armed and led on by the Lord of life who helps us by a sling and stone to conquer this Goliah If a draught of Wine or some spiritfull reviving liquor can take off fears and make men bold what then may the Spirit of Christ do by his powerfull encouragements and comforts on the soul Did we but see Christ or an Angel standing by our sick-beds and saying Fear not I will convey thy soul to God this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise What an unspeakable comfort would this be to a dying man Why the Spirit is Christs Agent here on earth and what the Spirit speaks Christ speaks And therefore we may take its comforting words as spoken to us by Christ himself who spoke the like to the penitent Thief to shew believers the virtue of his Cross and what they also may expect from him in their extremity And our Phisitian is most wise and keeps his Cordials for a fainting time The Spirit useth to sustain and comfort us most in our greatest necessities We need not comforts against death so much in the time of prosperity and health as when Death draws near In health we have ordinarily more need of quickning then of comforting and more need to be awakened from security to a due preparation for death then to be freed from the terrible fore-thoughts of it though inordinate fears of Death be hurtfull to us security and deadness hurt us more And therefore the spirit worketh according to our necessities And when Death is neerest and like to be most dreadfull he usually giveth the liveliest sense of the Joyes beyond it to abate the enmity and encourage the departing soul And if the comfort be but small it is precious because it is most pure as being then mixed with no carnal joyes and because it is most seasonable in so great a strait If we have no more but meer support it will be yet a pretious mercy And thus I have done with the third degree of the destruction of Deaths Enmity by these four Antidotes which we receive at our Conversion and the Consequents thereof 4. The fourth degree of this Enemies destruction is by it self or rather by Christ at the time and by the means of death which contrary to its nature shall advantage our felicity When Death hath done its worst it hath half killed it self in killing us It hath then dismissed our imprisoned souls and ended even our fears of death and our fears of all the evils of this life It hath ended our cares and griefs and groans It hath finished our work and ended all our weariness and trouble And more then this it ends our sinning and so destroyeth that which caused it and that which the inordinate fears of it self had caused in us It is the time when sin shall gasp its last and so far our Physitian will perfect the cure and our greatest enemy shall follow us no further It is the door by which the soul must pass to Christ in Paradise If any Papist shall hence plead that therefore all men must be perfect without sin before death or else go to Purgatory to be cleansed because as we die so Christ will find us or if they ask How death can perfect us I answer them It is Christ our Physitian that finisheth the cure and Death is the time in which he doth it And if he undertake then to do it it concerns not us to be too inquisitive how he doth it What if
and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 They fear not them that kill the body and after thâ—t have no more that they can do Luke 12.4 They trust upon his promise that haâ—h said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13.14 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116.15 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14.13 SECT IX Vse 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lieth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deter your hearts from heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungratefull to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life then of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you die with agony and horror so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrors or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more then this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerfull praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must do the work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subserviency to grace and in expectation of these celestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnal mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To die without fear and pass into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the Terrors of death will not prevent them When Death draws neer it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted death its likely your horror will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse then death and it is but the senslesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrors of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickâ—ed by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the earnest of your inheritance Eph. 1.14 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is â—he Lord of life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that death cannot conquer us nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3.3 John 14.19 and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.20 21. In our own strenâ—th we dare not stand the charge of death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then
if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God It could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Answ The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to aâ— far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Vse 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and Praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with us for ever nor malice follow us to our Rest The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And me thinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeping now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we foresee the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tendeâ— hand of our mercifull Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us foâ— ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal love hath perfected our Love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithfull friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithfull Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths for no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the Sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournfall tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continuall burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortall venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but grievous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealt with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours oâ— alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then indeed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth is ordinarily endured to prevent a longer A woman doth bear the pains of her travail because it is short and tends to the bringing of a child into the world Who would
not submit to any labour or toyl for a day that he might win a life of plenty and delight by it Who would not be spit upon and made the scorn of the world for a day if he might have his will for it as long as he liveth on earth And should we not then cheerfully submit to our momentany afflictions and the troubles of a few dayes which are light and mixt with a world of mercies when we know that they are working for us a far more exceeding eternall weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Our clamorous and malicious enemies our quarlelsome brethren our peevish friends our burdensome corruptions and imperfections will shortly trouble us no more As our life is short and but a dream and shadow and therefore the pleasures of this world are no better so our troubles also will be no longer and are but sad dreams and dark shadows that quickly pass away Our Lord that hath begun and gone on so far will finish his victories and the last enemy shall shortly be destroyed And if the fearful doubting soul shall say I know this is comfort to them that are in Christ but what is it to me that know not whether I have any part in him I answer 1. The foundation of God still standeth sure the Lord knoweth his own even when some of them know not that they are his own He knoweth his mark upon his sheep when they know it not themselves God doubteth not of his interest in thee though thou doubt of thy interest in him And thou art faster in the arms of his Love then by the arms of thy own faith as the child is surer in the Mothers arms then by its holding of the Mother And moreover your doubts and fears are part of the evil that shall be removed and your bitterest sorrows that hence proceed shall with the rest of the enemies be destroyed 2. But yet take heed that you unthankfully plead not against the mercies which you have received and be not friends to those doubts and fears which are your enemies and that you take not part with the enemy of your comforts Why dost thou doubt poor humbled soul of thy interest in Christ that must make the conquest Answer me but these few Questions from thy heart 1. Did Christ ever shew himself unkind to thee or unwilling to receive thee and have mercy on thee Did he ever give thee cause to think so poorly of his Love and grace as thy doubts do intimate thou dost Hast thou not found him kind when thou wast unkind and that he thought on thee when thou didst not think on him and will he now forget thee and end in wrath that begun in Love He desired thee when thou didst not desire him and give thee all thy desires after him and will he now cross and deny the desires which he hath caused He was found of thee or rather found thee when thou soughtest not after him and can be reject thee now thou criest and callest for his grace O think not hardly of his wonderous grace till he give thee cause Let thy sweet experiences be remembred to the shame of thy causeless doubts and fears and let him that hath loved thee to the death be thought on as he is and not as the unbelieving flesh would misrepresent him Quest 2. If thou say that it is not his unkindness but thy own that feeds thy doubts I further ask thee Is he not kind to the unkind especially when they lament their own unkindness Thou art not so unkind to him as thou wast in thy unconverted state and yet he then exprest his Love in thy conversion He then sought thee when thou wentest astray and brought thee carefully home into his Fold and there he hath kept thee ever since And is he less kind now when thou art returned home Dost thou not know that all his children have their frowardness and are guilty of their unkindnesses to him And yet he doth not therefore disown them and turn them out of his family but is tender of them in their froward weakness because they are his own How dealt he with the peevish prophet Jonah that was exceedingly displeased and very angry that God spared Nineve lest it should be a dishonour to his Prophesie in so much that he wisht that he might die and not live and after repined at the withering of his gourd and the scorching of the Sun that beat upon him The Lord doth gently question with him Dost thou well to be angry and after hence convince him that the mercy which he valued to himself he should not envy to so many Jonah 4. How dealt he with the Disciples that fell asleep when they should have watcht with Christ in the night of his great agony He doth not tell them You are none of mine because you could not watch with me one hour but tenderly excuseth that which they durst not excuse themselves The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak When he was on the Cross though they all forsook him and fled he was then so far from forsaking them that he was manifesting to admiration that exceeding love that never would forsake them and knowest thou not poor complaining soul that the kindness of Christ overcometh all the unkindness of his children and that his blood and grace is sufficient to save thee from greater sins then those that trouble thee If thou hadst no sin what use hadst thou of a Saviour Will thy Physitian therefore cast thee off because thou art sick Quest 3. Yea hath not Christ already subdued so many of thy enemies as may assure thee he will subdue the rest and begun that life in thee which may assure thee of eternal life Once thou wast a despiser of God and his holy wayes but now it is far otherwise with thee Hath he not broken the heart of thy pride and worldliness and sensuality and made thee a new creature and is not this a pledge that he will do the rest Tell me plainly hadst thou rather keep thy sin or leave it Hadst thou rather have liberty to commit it or be delivered from it Dost thou not hate it and set thy self against it as thy enemy Art thou not delivered from the reign and tyranny of it which thou wast once under And will not he perfect the conquest which he hath begun He that hath thus far delivered thee from sin thy greatest enemy will deliver thee from all the sad effects of it The blessed work of the Spirit in thy Conversion did deliver thee from the bondage of the Devil from the power of darkness and translated thee into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Then didst thou enter the holy warfare under his banners that was never overcome in the victorious Army that shall shortly begin their everlasting triumph The sin which thou hatest and longest to be delivered from and art willing to use Gods means against it is the conquered enemy which may assure thee
of a full and finall conquest supposing that thy hatred is against all known sin that there is none so sweet or profitable in thy account which thou hadst not far rather leave then keep Quest 4. Moreover art thou not truly willing to yield to all the terms of grace Thou hast heard of the yoak and burden of Christ and of the conditions of the Gospel on which peace is offered to the sinfull world and what Christ requireth of such as will be his Disciples What saith thy heart now to those terms Do they seem so hard and grievous to thee that thou wilt venture thy soul in thy state of sin rather then accept of them If this were so thou hadst yet no part in Christ indeed But if there be nothing that Christ requireth of thee that is not desirable in thy eyes or which thou dost not stick at so far as to turn away from him and forsake him and refuse his Covenant and grace rather then submit to such conditions thou art then in Covenant with him and the blessings of the Covenant belong to thee Canst thou think that Christ hath purchased and offered and promised that which he will not give Hath he sent forth his Ministers and commanded them to make the motion in his name and to invite and and compell men to come in and to beseech them to be reconciled to God and that yet he is unwilling to accept thee when thou dost consent If Christ had been unwilling he had not so dearly made the way nor begun as a suitor to thy soul nor so diligently sought thee as he hath done If the blessings of the Covenant are thine then Heaven is thine which is the chiefest blessing And if they be not thine it is not because Christ is unwilling but because thou art unwilling of his blessings on his terms Nothing can deprive thee of them but thy refusal Know therefore assuredly whether thou dost consent thy self to the terms of Christ and whether thou art truly willing that he be thy Saviour and if thy conscience bear thee faithfull witness that it is so dishonour not Christ then so far as to question whether he be willing who hath done so much to put it out of doubt The stop is at thy will not at his If thou know that thou art willing thou maist know that Christ his benefits are thine And if thou be not willing what makes thee wish and groan and pray and labour in the use of means Is it not for Christ and his benefits that thy heart thus worketh and thou dost all this Fear not then if thy own hand be to the Covenant it is most certain that the hand of Christ is at it Quest 5. Moreover I would ask thee Whether thou see not a beauty in Holiness which is the Image of Christ and whether thy soul do not desire it even in perfection So that thou hadst rather if thou hadst thy choice be more Holy then more rich or honourable inm the world If so be assured that it is not without Holiness that thou choosest and preferrest Holiness Hadst thou not rather have more faith and hope and love to God and patience and contentment and communion with Christ then have more of the favour and applause of many or of the riches or pleasures of this world If so I would know of thee whether this be not from the spirit of Christ within thee and be not his Image it self upon thee and the motions of the new and heavenly nature which is begotten in thee by the Holy Ghost Undoubtedly it is And the spirit of Christ thus dwelling in thee is the earnest of thy inheritance Dost thou find the spirit of Christ thus working in thee causing thee to love Holiness and hate all sin and yet canst thou doubt of thy part in Christ Quest 6. Moreover canst thou not truly say that Christs friends so far as thou knowest them are thy friends and that which is against him thou takest as against thy self If so undoubtedly thy enemies also are to him as his enemies and he will lay them at thy feet Thy troubles are as his troubles and in all thy afflictions he is as carefull of thy good as if he himself were thereby afflicted Fear not those enemies that Christ takes as his own It is he that is engaged to overcome them And now when Conscience it self beareth witness that thus it is with thy soul and that thou wouldst fain be what God would have thee be and desirest nothing more then to be more like him and nearer to him and desirest no kind of life so much as that in which thou maist be most serviceable to him Consider what a wrong it is then to Christ and to the honour of his Covenant and grace to thy poor dejected soul that thou shouldst lie questioning his love and thy part in him and looking about for matter of accusation or causeless suspicion against his spirit working in thee and that thou shouldst cast away the joy of the Lord which is thy strength and gratifie the enemy of thy peace When sickness is upon thee and death draws nigh thou shouldst then with joy lift up thy head because thy warfare is almost accomplished and thy Saviour ready to deliver thee the Crown Is this a time to fear and mourn when thou art entring into endless joy Is it a time of lamentation when thou art almost most at thy journeyes end and ready to see thy Saviours face and to take thy place in the Heavenlâ— Jerusalem amongst those millions of holy souls that are gone before thee Is it seemly for thee to lament thus at the door when they are feasted with such unconceivable joys within Dost thou know what thy Brethren are now enjoying what the Heavenly Host are doing how full they are of God and how they are ravished with his Light and Love and canst thou think it seemly to be so unlike them that art passing to them I know there is such difference between imperfection and perfection and between earth and heaven that it justifieth our moderate sorrows and commandeth us to take up infinitely short of their delights till we are with them But yet let there not be too great a disproportion between the members of Jesus Christ We have the same Lord and the same spirit and all that is theirs in possession is in right and title ours They are our elder brethren and being at age have possession of the inheritance but we that are yet in the lap of the Church on earth our mother and in the arms of our Fathers grace are of the same family and have the same nature in our low degree They were once on earth as low as we and we shall be shortly in heaven as high as they Am I now in flesh in fears in griefs so was David and Paul and all the Saints awhile ago yea and Christ himself Am I beset with sin
interposing death are our discouragments that drive us back But all these enemies shall shortly be overcome Fear not death then let it do its worst It can give thee but one deadly gripe that shall kill it self and prove thy life as the Wasp that leaves its sting behind and can sting no more It shall but snuff the Candle of thy life and make it shine brighter when it seems to be put out It is but an undressing and a gentle Sleep That which thou couldst not here attain by all our preaching and all thy prayers and cares and pains thou shalt speedily attain by the help of death It is but the messenger of thy gracious Lord and calleth thee to him to the place that he hath prepared Hearken not now to the great deceiver that would draw thee to unbelief and cause thee to stagger at the promises of God when thou hast followed him so far and they are near to the full performance Believe it as sure as thou believest that the Sun doth shine upon thee that God cannot lie he is no deceiver it was his meer love and bounty that caused him to make the promises when he had no need for himself to make them and shall he be then unfaithfull and not fulfill the promises which he hath freely made Believe it faith is no delusion It may be folly to trust man but it is worse then folly not to trust God Believe it Heaven is not a shadow nor the life of faith and holiness a dream These sensible things have least reality These grosser substances are most drossy delusory and base God is a Spirit who is the prime being and the cause of all created beings And the Angels amd other celestiall inhabitants that are nearest to him are furthest from corporeity and are spirits likest unto God The further any thing is from spirituality the further from that excellency and perfection which the creatures nearest God partake of The earth is baser then the air and fire The drossy flesh is baser then the soul And this lumpish dirty visible world is incomparably below that Spiritual world which we believe and wait for And though thy conceptions of spirits and the spiritual world are low and dark and much unsatisfying remember still that thy head is there and it belongeth to him to know what thou shalt be till thou art fit to know it which will not be till thou art fit to enjoy it Be satisfied that thy Father is in Heaven and that thy Lord is there and that the Spirit that hath been so long at work within thee preparing thee for it dwelleth there And let it suffice thee that Christ knoweth what he will do with thee and how he wilt employ thee to all eternity And thou shalt very shortly see his face and in his light thou shalt bâ—hold that light that shall fully satisfie thee and shame all thy present doubts and fears and if there were shame in heaven would shame thee for them Vse 9. FROM the Enmity of Death and the necessity of a Conquest we may see what a wonderfull mercy the Resurrection of Christ himself was to the Church and what use we should make of it for the strengthening of our faith It was not only impossible to man to conquer death by his own strength and therefore it must be conquered by Christ but it was also beyond our power to believe it that ever the dead should rise to life if Christ had not risen as the first fruits and convinced man by eye-sight or certain testimony that the thing is possible and already done But now what a pillar is here for faith What a word of Hope and Joy is this that Christ is risen With this we will answer a thousand Cavils of the tempter and stop the mouth of the enemies of our faith and profligate our infidelity As unlikely as it seems to flesh and blood shall we ever doubt whether we shall rise again when the Lord came down in flesh among us that he might die and rise again himself to shew us as to our faces that we shall rise This is the very Gospel which we preach and by which we must be saved that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buryed and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seem of Cephas then of the twelve and after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once of whâ—m the greater part remained alive when Paul wrote this who was the last that saw him 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4 5 6. Read over this Chapter again and again where our Resurection is proved by the Resurrection of Christ No wonder therefore that the Chruch in all ages ever since the very day of Christs Resurrection hath kept the first day of the week as a holy festivall in remembrance of it Wherein though they commemorated the whole work of our Redemption yet was it from the Resurrection as the most glorious part that the spirit of Christ did choose the day This hath been the joyfull day to the Church this 1625. years or thereabouts in which the ancicient Christians would assemble themselves together saluting one another with this joyfull word The Lord is risen And this is the day that the Lord hath blessed with the new birth and resurrection of millions of souls So that it is most probable that all the six dayes of the week have not begot half so many souls for heaven as this blessed day of the Lords Resurrection hath done Let Infidels then despise it that believe not Christs Resurrection but let it still be the Churches joyfull day This was the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoycâ— there in Psal 118.23 24. In it Let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyfull noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us come before his presâ—nce with thanksgiving and make a joyfull noise to him with Psalms Psal 95.1 2. Every day let us remember the Lords Resurrection but on this day let the joyfull commemoration of it be our work We may see by the witness of the Apostles and their frequent preaching the Resurrection of Christ as if it were the sum of all the Gospell that this is a point that faith must especially build and feed upon and that we must make the matter of our most frequent meditations O what vigor it addeth to our faith when we are encountred by the sight of death and of a grave to remember seriously that Christ is risen Did he take flesh purposeâ—y that he might die and rise and shew us how he will raise his members and will he after all this break his promise and leave us in the dust for ever it cannot be Hath he conquered death for himself alone and not for us Hath he taken our Nature into Heaven to be there alone and
particulars 1. Of the frame of her heart in every dayes duty in Meditation Prayer Hearing Reading c. whether lively or dull c. 2. Of those sins which she hâ—d especially to repent of and watch against 3. Of hâ—r Resolutions and Promises and how she kept them 4. Of all special Providences to her self Husband Brothers and others and the improvement of them As at the death of her Son who died with great sighs and groans she recorded her sense of the speciall necâ—ssity of holy armour and great preparation for that encounter when her turn should come to be so removed to the everlasting habitation 5. Of her returns of prayer what answers and grant of them she found 6. Of the state of her soul upon examination how she found it and what was the issue of each examination and in this it seems she was very exact and punctual In which though many times fears and doubtings did arise yet hath she frequent records of the discovery of evidences and comfortable assurance of sincerity Sometime when she hath heard Sermons in London that helped her in her search and sometime when she â—ad been reading writings that tended that way she recordeth what evidences she found and in what degree the discovery was If imperfect resolving to take it up and follow the search further And if she had much joy she received it with jealousie and expectation of some humbling consequent When any grace languished she presently turned to some apt remedy Aâ— for instance it s one of her Notes Novemb. 1658. I found thoughts of Eternity slight and strange and ordinary imployments very desirable at which I read Mr. Bs. Crucifixion and was awakened to Mortification and Humiliation c. The last time that she had opportunity for this work was two or tâ—ree dayes before her delivery in Child-bearing where she finally recorded the apprehensions she had both of her bodily and spiritual State in these words Drawing near the time of my delivery I am faln into such weakness that my life is in great hazzard I find some fears of death but not very great hoping through grace I die in the Lord. I only mention these hints to shew the Method she used in her daily Accounts To those Christians that have full leisure this course is good But I urge iâ— not all upon those that have so great dutieâ— to tâ—ke up that time that they cannot spare so mucâ— to record their ordinary passages Such must remember what others record and daily renew reâ—entance for their daily failings and record only the extraordinary observable and more remarkable and memorable passages of their lives lest they lose time from works of greater moment But this excâ—llent work of Watchfulness must be performed by all And I think it was a considerable expression of her true wisdom and care of her immortal soul that when any extraordinary necessity required it and she found such doubts as of her self she was not â—ble to deal with she would go to some able experienced Minister to open her case and seek assistance as she did more then onâ—e to my dear and ancient friend Mr. Cross who in a full age is since gone after her to Christ And therefore chose a Minister in Marriage that he might be a ready assistant in such cases of necessity as well as a continual help At last came that death to summon her soul away to Christ for which she had so seriously been preparing and which she oft called a dark entry to her Fathers Palace After the death of her children when she seemed to be some what repaired after her last delivery a violent Convulsion suddenly surprized her which in a few dayes brought her to her end Her understanding by the fits being at last debilitated she finding it somewhat hard to speak sensibly excused it and said I shall ere long speak another language Which were the last words which she spake with a tongue of flesh and lying speechless eighteen hours after she departed August 17. 1659. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Our turn is coming Shortly we shall also lay by flesh this is our day of preparation There is no preparing time but this Did men but know the difference between the death of the holy and the unholy which doth not appear to fleshly eyes how speedily would they turn how seriously would they meditate how fervently would they pray how carefully would they live how constantly painfully and resolvedly wâ—uld they labour Did they well consider the difference between dying prepared and unprepared and of what difficulty and yet everlasting consequence it is to die well O then what manner of persons would men be in all manner of holy conversation and godliness and all their lives would then be a continued preparation for death as all their life is a hasting towards it And now I shall only desire you for the right understanding of all that I have here said and to prevent the cavils of blinded malice to observe these three or four pâ—rticulars 1. That though I knew so much â—f her as easily maketh me believe the rest upon so sure a testimony and saw her Diary yet the most of this History of her life is the collection and observation of such faithfull witness as had much better opportunity then I to know thâ— secrets of her soul and life 2. That it is no wonder if many that knew her perceived not all this by her that is here expressed For that knowledge of our outward carriage at a distance will not tell our Neighbours what we do in our Closets where God hath commanded us to shut our door upon us that our Father which seeth in secret may reward us openly And many of the most humble and sincere servants of the Lord are so afraid of hypocrisie and hate ostentation that their Justification and Glory is only to be expected from the searcher of hearts and a few of their more intimate acquaintance Though this was not the case before us the example described being more conspicuous 3. That I overpass the large expressions of her charity which you may hear from the poor and her intimate acquaintance as I have done that I may not grate upon the modesty of her surviving friends who must participate in the commendations 4. That it is the benefit of the living that is my principall end Scripture it self is written much in History that we may have matter of imitation before our eyes 5. If any say that here is no mâ—ntion of her faults I answer Though I had acquaintance with her I knew them not nor ever heard from any other so mâ—ch as might enable me to accuse her if I were her enemy Yet I doubt not but she was imperfect and had faults though unknown to me The example of holiâ—ess I have briefly proposed They that