but Death shall flie away from them and give them over to a Worm that shall never Dye and to a Fire that shall never be extinguished O miserable Bodies O wretched Souls whom God shall cast into the midst of Hells furious flames and against whom the Devils shall let flie all their Arrows discharge all their Fury and kindle all their Fires and whom they will take pleasure to torment for ever and ever 9. Some inquire what manner of Bodies the Children of God and the Members of Christ shall have after they are risen from the Dead I answer that their substance shall be the same which they had before Death they shall not be Phantasms or false appearances but true humane Bodies made up of flesh and bones for we may say of all the Bodies of the faithful as of that of our Saviour Christ that the Resurrection will procure unto them a considerable Glory which they never had before but it shall not destroy their Nature and Manhood They shall be able to speak in the Language of our Redeemer feel and see a Spirit hath neither Flesh nor Bones as ye see that I have All our Soul shall lose nothing of its Being only it shall be perfectly cleansed from all Sin and Corruption and sanctified in such a manner that it will not be poffible for it to entertain any vicious inclination likewise there shall be no alteration in the essential part of our Bodies but there shall be a wonderful alteration in regard of the qualities for they shall cast off all corruption and mortality and shall never be subject to Sickness Pain nor to the inconveniences that disturb it during this life And if they have now any imperfection they shall be perfectly freed so that we may justly say of the Celestial Jerusalem that in it no Blind nor Lame shall be admitted to enter for all the Bodies of the Saints shall be so perfect and beautiful that the least spot or blemish shall not be seen in them 1 Sam. 6. I know that Jesus Christ tells us in his Gospel Matth. 5. If thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better that one of thy Members perish than that thy whole Body should be cast into Hell and if thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better that thou shouldst enter into life lame or maimed than to have two feet and two hands and to be cast into eternal Fire Mark 4. But these words are figurative by them our Saviour would teach us that for his sake and glory we must deny our dearest affections and our most importunate lusts and when these words should be taken in their literal sence we must understand a Supposition if it were possible to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with one eye lame maimed it would be far better to be admitted to that blessed estate then to have a perfect and a whole body and to be cast into the Torments of Hell From thence we cannot conclude that the faithful are to rise from their Graves with imperfect and deficient Bodies for that is repugnant to an accomplished happiness seeing that sin shall be utterly abolished and destroyed the punishment of Sin shall continue no longer There are nevertheless some that believe with several ancient Doctors of the Primitive Church that the holy Martyrs shall bear about them the scars and other marks of their Sufferings for the Name of Jesus in the same manner as this glorious Saviour after his Resurrection could shew the print of the Nails that had fastened his feet and hands to the Cross and in his side the hole that the Spear had made They esteem such Marks glorious and honorable Stars so that according to their judgement the Martyrs shall be like to the generous and noble hearted Souldiers who have received Wounds in the service of their Prince which they bear about as undoubted expressions of their Courage I shall not altogether contradict this opinion for it is not contrary to the Analogy of Faith but I dare not affirm it as a certain truth for we cannot learn from the holy Scriptures that represent these Blessed Martyrs cloathed with long Robes washed and whitened in the Blood of the Lamb without making any mention of their former sufferings Our Saviour he was pleased to preserve the Marks of his Sufferings that he might convince St. Thomas of his unbelief and that he may one day discover and shew them to those that have pierced him through But from this instance I cannot see how we can gather any consequence we may safely say either that the Martyrs shall have no such scars or if they have they shall bring no deformity to their Bodies nor shall they deprive us of any Member or part required in us to make us perfect If it should be otherwise we could not be entirely and perfectly happy After the Resurrection the Bodies of Gods Children shall have none of these imperfections that Sin hath brought into the World they shall not feel any of the infirmities unto which the Bodies of Adam and Eve were subject in the estate of their innocency for their life was sensual and animal like disturbed with hunger thirst and weariness therefore they had need of nourishment and drink and especially of the Fruits of the Tree of Life to supply so much of their radical humor as was decayed and consumed by their natural heat I conceive also that they stood in want of rest and sleep and although God would have protected them from all dangerous accidents if they had continued in their integrity if we consider them in themselves without any such protection they might have been injured by fire and sword and burned with the heat of the scorching Sun But it shall be otherwise with the Bodies of the Righteous after the Resurrection they shall not be subject to any infirmity they shall be free from pain weariness and from the sense of any displeasure as the holy Spirit promiseth they shall hunger nor thirst no more the Sun shall not beat upon them nor any heat incommode them It is not to be doubted but that a glorified Body shall enjoy all the perfections that a humane Body is capable of and that the greatest and rarest Beauties on Earth are but difform objects in comparison of the Celestial which shall never change nor fade away no accident shall ever be able to destroy or diminish them The years ages and thousand of ages shall not imprint upon our glorious faces the least wrinkle we shall always be young and lusty as a precious Stone that preserves its Luster and Beauty without alteration and as the Sun that never decreaseth in light and heat These glorified Bodies shall cast off all gross and heavy qualities that incline them to the Earth so that they shall be more nimble then the Eagles and shall be able to fly up as quick
was exercising his Meditation when he cryed out Who is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he free his soul from the power of the Grave Eccles 12. And to speak in the language of Salomon or ever the Silver Cord be loosed or the Golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain or the Wheel broken at the Cistern That is to say The Back-bone whereof the Marrow is as white as Silver be unloosed when the Scull which is like a precious vessel of Gold be broken when the Vena Cava receives no more Bloud from the Liver the fountain of Life when the Lights that draw in and push forth the breath move no more or when the Kidneys that extract the humidity from the Veins and cause it to drop down into the Bladder as into a Cistern begin to fail Then shall the Body return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it To express unto us this inevitable fate Moses reckons up all the antient Fathers that have lived longest in the first world he mentions some who lived 700 others 800 others 900 years and some near a thousand Gen. 5. But when he hath well spoken of their deeds and of the Children which they left in the world he adds in the conclusion of all And then such an one died So that our Creator doth execute upon all men the Sentence once pronounced against Adam the Father of all Mankind Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. By this means God declares his Justice and Truth and accomplisheth what was signified by the antient Types Levit. 14. For according to the Laws which God gave to Israel by Moses the house that was infected with the Leper was to be demolished and cast into a noisome place There was a far more important reason for mans body to be destroy'd and laid in the Sepulchre because he was created to be the Palace of the living God the Dwelling of his Glory But Sin that is a kind of infectious Leper hath insinuated it self and disfigured it it hath entred the Skin corrupted the Blood disordered the Spirits it is crept into the Joynts and Marrow and hath speard its venom in such a manner that there is none of our Members but is an instrument of iniquity and unrighteousness Rom. 6. For the same reason we cannot sufficiently admire the difference that God had put between the Vessel that were clean and such as were unclean for he commanded that the earthen Vessel that was infected should be broken to pieces Levit. 11. but that such as were of a more precious substance should be only washt with water and purified with fire Numb 11. The Commands and Laws of the great God are excellent Commentaries upon his actions our Soul is like a Golden Vessel because it is of a Spiritual and Heavenly substance therefore God doth not altogether destroy it although it be infected with sin but causeth it to be washed and cleansed at the fountain of his infinite mercy he purifies it with the blood of his Son and causes it to pass through the fire of his Holy Spirit but for this miserable Body that is but an earthly Vessel and Tabernacle he doth break it to pieces and reduce it to dust and ashes It is my judgement that death is an excellent means to demonstrate the infinite power of our great God and Saviour for the greater the disease is the more admirable is the Cure without doubt the finger of God and his infinite power is far more visible in raising one man from the dead than in preserving many thousands alive As God is wont to draw light out of darkness so he makes use of death to cause his infinite wisdom to shine and appear to all his Creatures Sin hath brought forth death and death on the contrary by a most fortunate paricide kills and destroys its Parent Sin for it is Death that totally roots out of our Souls all corrupt affections Moreover God who is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. will have all his Children pass through the same path to take possession of his eternal Inheritance and enter by the same Gate into his Royal Palace All the faithful of the Old Testament are gone already this way through many tribulations Acts 24. they are arrived to the kingdom of God and through death they are come to the abode of life and immortality The Holy Scriptures that are inspired of God tell us That the Reubenites and half of the Tribe of Manasseth Numb 32. Josh 1. left their dwellings which they had beyond Jordan to go over and fight in the Army of Israel and that they did not offer to return until God had given rest to their brethren and put them into a peaceable possession of their inheritances If I may make some stop at such an excellent Allegory I may say that these passages represent unto us a lively image of the faithful that dye before the end of the world for they leave their bodies the abode and dwellings of their souls and they pass through death as through another Jordan into the Celestial Canaan to encounter with God by their Prayers in the society of the first-born whose names are registred in Heaven and they will not return to the bodies that they have quitted until the number of the Saints be compleat until the building of the Church be finished and until our great Joshua hath introduced us into his Eternal Rest and put us in possession of the incorruptible inheritance reserved for us in Heaven Then we shall not need to fight but to enjoy peaceably the fruits of our victories and to rest for ever from all our labours We shall have no cause to offer unto God Prayers and Supplications but our business shall be to sing unto him Praises and eternal Thanksgivings The strongest and the most considerable Reason in my judgement of this our destiny is That God hath predestinated us to be comformable to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren he will have us baptized with his Baptisme that we drink in his Cup and that we enter into Bliss by that same Gate through which he hath already past through Shame and Disgrace he is arrived to Glory and through Death he is ascended into life he hath drunk of the bitter waters before that he hath tasted of the Rivers of Celestial Joys and he is gone down into the Grave before he would mount up to the right hand of God Although it is appointed unto all men once to dye Heb. 9. I dare maintain that death hath no cause to boast it self and that it cannot sing Songs of Triumph with any Reason because that it looseth the most glorious and happiest victory for we read in the Book of Esther that King Ahasuerus would not abolish nor recal the Proclamation that he had set forth against the
more That if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a terrible expectation of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries for our God is a consuming fire Chap. 10. And in the Revelations it is not only said that in the Holy Jerusalem there shall no unclean thing enter or that committeth Abomination or a Lye and that God will shut out the Dogs the Witches the Fornicators the Murderers the Idolaters and whosoever doth love or do a lye Chap. 2.22 But the Spirit of God assures that the timerous that is such as are more afraid of Man than of God the Unbelieving the Execrable and Murderers the Fornicators and Witches the Idolaters and Lyers shall have their portion in the Lake that burnes with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death Chap. 13. 6. When we should speak the language of Angels when we should give all our Goods to nourish the Poor and when we should give our Body to be burn'd if we have not charity we are but like the sounding Brass and like the thinkling Cymbal When we should be able to perform Signes and Wonders if we be not cloathed with Innocency and Holiness if we be not adorned with Meekness and Love Christ will at last treat us as the foolish Virgins with a Depart from me I know you not When we should be able to cast the Devil out of other Men it will avail us nothing unless we can cast him out also of our own hearts with all the wicked Lusts that he nourisheth there To what purpose shall such cry out at the great day Lord Lord have not we prophesied in thy name have not we cast out Devils in thy name have not we done many miracles in thy name Jesus will return them this sad answer Depart from me ye workers of iniquity 7. Consider that whatsoever be your share of the advantages of this life when you shall come to dye you shall not carry away with you your Riches your Honors nor your Pleasures but if you be rich in Faith and good Works if you be cloathed with Holiness and crowned with Righteousness If Piety and the service of God be your delight you shall carry away out of the World this Spiritual Treasure this Celestial Glory and this Angelical Satisfaction It is what the Holy Spirit teacheth when it tells us Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them 8. Let us always have before our eyes the blessed examples of so many Saints who have traced us the way to Heaven by their Piety and good Works they are enter'd into the Paradise of God and the Glory of his Kingdom It is reported of a Painter that when he had a designe to represent an accomplished Beauty he borrowed from divers Objects the Excellencies and Perfections with which he was to adorn his Picture from the Lillies he took their whiteness from the Roses their red tincture from another Object the wonder of the Eye from another the coral of the Lips and so of the other parts Likewise to restore in our Souls the Image of God defaced by sin we must borrow the Vertues and Excellencies of former Men for example Represent always to your selves Abel's Innocency Henoch's Holy life Noah's Justice Abraham's Faith Lot's Hospitality Isaack's Obedience the Faithfulness of Jacob the Chastity of Joseph the Patience of Job the Meckness of Moses the Zeal of Phineas the Constancy of David the Wisdom of Solomon the Piety of Josias the Prayers of Daniel the Tears of Jeremiah the Fastings of Hester the Holy Earnestness of the Woman of Canaan the Devotion of Cornelius the Charity of the Samaritan the Alms of Dorcas and of the poor Widow the Publicans Humility the good Thiefs Repentance the Tears of Mary Magdalen the Weepings of Peter the undaunted Courage of St. Paul and his indefatigable disposition and the glorious Martyrdom of St Stephen and of so many noble Souls of all Ages and Sexes who have gone to the torments with as much joy as to Feasts and to Triumphs and who have sealed with their Blood the truth of the Gospel with an undaunted resolution Seeing therefore that we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us pursue with constancy the Race that is set before us 9. Chiefly Let us look to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith for he hath left us an example that we might follow his footsteps All the Vertues that we admire in these faithful Souls are but like so many little beams of the Sun of Righteousness and a weak Image of his Glory There is no Fire so perfect but it sends up a Smoak nor Righteousness so accomplish'd but hath its Imperfections whiles we are cloathed with this weak flesh The behaviour of the most Holy and Perfect is defiled by many infirmities but our Lord and Saviour is the Lamb without spot or blemish in whose Mouth there is no guile for it was necessary that we should have such an High Priest who is Holy Blameless separated from Sinners The perfect image of all Vertues was never found in any mortal Man on Earth but Jesus Christ is the fairest amongst the Sons of Men his Lips are full of Grace in him alone we have a perfect model of all Vertues and of all Perfections that we can imagine Therefore when the Apostle had perswaded the Romans to renounce the Lusts of the Flesh Drunkenness Anger Envy and such like sins instead of making an enumeratiun of the Vertues opposite to these Vices he thinks it sufficient to propose Christ's Holy example Put on the Lord Jesus Christ saith he to teach us that all the Vertues and Graces do enter and meet in the Sacred Person of our Saviour Jesus Christ in the highest degree of perfection 10. We are so much the more obliged to imitate Jesus Christ and to imprint in our hearts his Holy Image because that he is not only our Father our Lord and our King but he is also the blessed Head of that Body whereof we are Members It is not just to unite defiled and profane Members to an Head so Glorious and so Holy Whosoever gives himself over to his Lust and Delights in the corruption of sin maimes as much in him lies the Sacred Body of the Son of God This consideration drew from St. Paul this expression Shall I take the Members of Christ for to make them the Members of an whore 11. The Divine Spirits dwelling in our Hearts is a great obligation to Holiness of life know you not that you are the Temple of God and the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you Ezek. 8. Shall we be so base as to uncover our filthy and dirty thoughts before so Holy and Divine a Guest Shall we be so bold as to erect upon his Altar Idols that may provoke him to jealousie His eyes are so
painful Fetters Rejoyce O my Soul look up to that Rest that God prepares for thee above The blessed time is come that I shall no longer endure the heat of the day and the watchings of the Night but I shall rest eternally under the shadowes of the Tree of Life and there satisfy my self with its delicious Fruits I shall no longer withstand the contradiction of Sinners nor hear the mocks of the sensual and factious minds I shall no longer encounter with the enemies of thy Sacred Truth nor endure the stings of my Lusts but I shall live for ever in the blessed company of the Holy Angels and rejoyce with the Glorified Saints I shall preach no more against the obstinacy of Men. nor weep for the sins that disgrace thy Church and Profession nor complain of the injustice and affronts done to my Person nor grieve for my own imperfections but I shall sing for ever thy Divine Praises with the Seraphins and the Congregation of the first-born whose Names are recorded in Heaven O Lord who hast an infinite Power in thy Hands and bottomless Treasuries of Mercy be pleased to drive away from thy Flock all ravenous Wolves and mercenary Souls and raise up to this thy Church ☞ a Faithful Sober Wise and a Learned Clergy bring in our dissenting Brethren reconcile the differences that are amongst us and give to us all a friendly compliance that we may no longer be a hissing and a by-word to our Enemies Thou art able yet to clap an effeciual Plaister to our bleeding wound and to cure the distempered minds Be pleased therefore O great Physitian of both Soul and Body mercifully to look down from Heaven upon these Nations Check that bold spirit of division that causeth so much disorder amongst us and make us all sensible of our chief interests which consists in a Blessed Vnion Pour upon our Clergy abundance of thy Grace and give an happy success to their painful Ministry but now I am going to serve thee above in Heaven in a more glorious and excellent Ministry where I shall meet with no trouble nor resistance no weariness grief pain sorrow nor displeasure I shall enter into the joy of my Lord and receive from his merciful Hand the uncorruptible Crown of Immortality and Glory I shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and he shall be my Shepherd for ever he will lead me to the Fountains of living water and wipe away all Tears from mine Eyes Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a Father of a Family FAther of Eternity I yield unto thee my unfeigned thanks because thou hast made me an happy instrument to put into the World Children out of whose mouths thou mayest accomplish thine own praise and who may serve thee here below and worship thee for ever in Heaven amongst the thousands of Angels Whilst I have been in the World I have brought them up in thy Love and Fear I have caused them to suck from the Breast the Milk of Piety and when they were come to an age of understanding I have taught them to walk in thine holy Fear and obey thy Commandements I have laboured to shew them a good example and to guide them in thy Truth And now that I am ready to return unto thee who art the Author of my life and being the only source of my Happiness I leave them in thy merciful hands beseeching thee to look down upon them with the eyes of thy compassion they are thine Lord acknowledge thine own Image and Handywork Thy Finger hath fashioned these Bodies where so many wonders are to be seen And these souls that animate and move them are the breath and beams of thy Divinity Thou hast engaged to be our God and the God of our Posterity after us Thy great and precious promises have been made to us and to our Children O Heavenly Father I desire not that thou shouldest take them out of the World but that thou shouldest keep them from evil Cover them under the shadow of thy wings and preserve them from those Miseries and Calamities which thou hast threatened to send upon the Inbabitants of the Earth for their sins If thou dost chastise them let it be with the Rod of Men and with the scourges of the Sons of Men but withdraw not from them thy Grace and thy fatherly compassions Let the flames of affliction render their Faith more Pure their Lives more Holy and their Zeal more Sincere and Earnest and let it prepare them for thee and thine Eternal Bliss O Holy Father thou seest that the age in which we live is wonderfully corrupt that the Earth is inclined to Vice and that Sin raigns every where Thou knowest also how weak the Nature of Children is and how inclinable to evil therefore strengthen them I beseech thee with such Antidotes as may preserve them from the infection of the times Suffer not the wickedness of the World to win upon their affections nor Satan to prevail upon them by his suggestions nor evil company to spoil their pious Education Give them an understanding to know thee an Heart to love thee and Affections to embrace thee and thy Glory Let thy Holy Angels guard them by night and by day Let thy Providence defend them thy Word instruct them thy Promises comfort them and thy Holy Spirit Regenerate them and imprint in their Souls thy blessed Image Give them neither Poverty nor Riches but nourish them with Food convenient but especially give them that Bread which is come down from Heaven which hath brought Life into the World make them to raste of the Heavenly Gift and of the Powers of the World to come inflame them with thy Love and Charity and adorn them with all Christian Vertues but chiefly Sanctify them with thy Holy Spirit and make them to become new Creatures seeing that without Sanctification none shall see thy Face in Glory Confirm them for ever in thy Holy Covenant and give them grace to transmit it to their posterity after them as a blessed Inheritance that thou mayest be Glorified by them from Generation to Generation to all Eternity Suffer not the World nor Hell to pluck them out of thine Hand that nothing may separate them from the love which thou hast shewed to them in Jesus Christ thine only Son Let not Death terrify them but let it rather rejoyce and comfort them because that it is the entrance that leads to the Glorious Dwelling of their Heavenly Father and to the Celestial Paradise whatsoever change or alteration shall happen here below let them always lift up their Eyes to thee who art the same yesterday and to day and shalt be the same for ever Let them never forget their Duty to thee from whom they have received their Being and Life that they may prefer the Glory of thy Great Name the Purity of thy Worship and the hopes of thy Heavenly Kingdom to all worldly Glory Magnificence Riches advantages and Pleasures of the Flesh
O Heavenly Father not my Will but thy Will be done Pluck this Thorn out of my Flesh or vouchsafe unto me sufficient strength to endure its deadly wounds with patience O good God thou knowest that my Spirit is willing but my Flesh is weak and that my misery is heavier than the Sand of the Sea-shore but thou that quickenest the dead wilt accomplish thy Vertue in mine Infirmities Therefore instead of speaking in Cain's Language My punishment is greater than I can bear I will say with St. Paul I can do all things in Christ that strengthens me O Lord punish me not in thy wrath nor correct me in thy heavy displeasure but chastise me in reason that I may not be reduced to nothing When thou didst wrestle with Jacob thou tookest upon thee an Humane Body and didst strengthen thy Servant by the vertue of thy Divine Spirit O Merciful and Graciouus God let thy punishments be proportionable to my great weaknesses suffer not any temptation to seize upon me but only Humane and give me with the temptation an happy issue that I may support it that neither Death nor Life nor Pain nor Torment may ever separate me from thy Love or pluck me out of thine Hand Good Lord forsake me not that I may never forsake thee but enable me with Strength Patience and Constancy to bear my burden and make me more than Conqueror by Jesus Christ our Lord. Merciful God pity thy servant or rather thine adopted Child Awaken thy jealousie and let thy Bowels that are hardened against me move thee to compassion Strengthen me in this encounter with the assistance of the good Angels that comforted thine only Son in the night of his most bitter affliction cause this black night of my Sorrows to pass speedily away or rather in the midst of these dark shadows cause me to see the ravishing beams of thy Mercy Heal my grievous wounds or else pour into them the refreshing Balm of thy most tender and Divine Consolations my Heart and my Flesh fail and faint away but look upon me with a Gracious Eye and receive me into the embraces of thine Eternal Mercy Declare I beseech thee how sensible thou art of my affliction by a present relief receive my Sweat and Tears and put them into thy Bottles O good God thou seest that I am fainting and that my Soul is weary within me comfort me therefore with thy Cordials and with thy most Divine refreshments Give me to drink of the Wine of thy most effectual Consolations that may restore unto me my spirits apply the right hand of thy Mercy that it may strengthen my Soul and drive from thence all poison and infection Let thine Holy Spirit the Spiritual Dove light upon me to bring joy unto me O living God thou seest that I dye but give me some of that living Water whereof if a man drink he shall live Eternally my Friends are grieved with me and weep for my bitter affliction but can give me no assistance but thine only look would be able to deliver me O my God either pull me out of this Sea of Trouble into which thou hast cast me or cause me to pass through these waves to the Inheritance prepared for me from the foundation of the World Quench these violent Flames that burn and consume me or let them serve as fiery Chariots to carry me in triumph to Heaven O how mad and senseless should I be if I did fear Death seeing that it will put an end to my torments it will break in pieces my grievous Chains it will wipe away all Tears from mine Eyes and banish all grief from my Heart O my God when shall all my Cries my Sighs and Groans be changed into Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving when shall I see my self in the Glorious company of the Blessed who are come out of the great tribulation and who have wash'd and cleansed their Garments in the Bloud of the Lamb. Draw me and I shall run after thee and Glorify thee for ever in thine Heavenly Temple Amen CHAP. 14. The second Consolation against the fears of Death is to look upon God as a merciful Father and to trust upon his infinite Goodness THere is no Child well descended but desires earnestly to see his Fathers Face and especially the Face of a Good and Gracious Father A great Princes Son who hath been brought up in a Forreign Countrey rejoyceth at his own Happiness when his Father sends for him to make him partaker of the Glory and Dignity of his Empire he is not then grieved nor troubled he seeks not to delay his going but rather he embraceth with transports of joy the Messenger of such good news he thinks of nothing but of hasting his departure if he could borrow wings he would fly with an unspeakable swiftness to his Fathers Palace Now we are the Children of the Great God whose Throne is Heaven and whose Footstool is the Earth for our Faith that looks upon Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer considers God as our God and Father for to them who have received this only Son of the Father hath been granted the priviledge of being the Sons of God to them who believe in his name 1 Job 1. So that we have just cause to be transported in an Holy Excess of Joy with the Apostle St. John Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3. We were by nature Children of Wrath as others but God who is rich in Mercy hath predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will Eph. 2. He gives us the Gracious assurances of this free adoption in this life for as we are Children he hath sent the Spirit of his Son in our Hearts to cry Abba Father Eph. 1. This Holy Spirit bears witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God If we be Children then Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ Gal. 4. Yea if we suffer with him that we may be also Glorified with him Rom. 8. That we might be the Children of God he hath not only adopted us by Jesus Christ but also regenerated us by uncorruptible Seed We are not born of Flesh and of Bloud but we are born of God His infinite Goodness perswaded him first to grant us a Being and his incomprehensible love hath moved him to reform our Beings and reprint his Divine Image in our Hearts John 1. 1 Pet. 1. He hath begotten us by his pure Grace by the word of his Truth that we might be the First Fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance uncorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal 130. He that hides his transgressions shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain Mercy Prov. 1.8 It is certain that there is no sinner never so guilty that shall seek unto God's Mercy by a true Repentance but shall obtain his Request Psal 113. David had defiled himself with an horrible Adultery and imbrued his Hands in the Bloud of one of his most faithful Servants but assoon as he made his Suit unto God with a broken Heart and a contrite Spirit this good and merciful Creator cleansed this foul Sinner from all his guilt at the fountain of his infinite Mercy he made him whiter than Snow and comforted his bruised Bones This consideration caused him to cry out I said I will confess unto God my transgressions and thou O God hast taken away the punishment of my sin Ps 52 King Manasseh had been addicted to devilish Arts and to the most abominablee and grievous Idolatries 2 Chron. 33. Nevertheless as soon as he sighs in his Chains his Prayers and his Groans found a Gracious reception at the Throne of Grace The poor Publican in the Gospel being ashamed to lift up his Eyes to Heaven struck upon his Breast with this expression of his penitent Soul O God be merciful to me a sinner Luk 18. And God look'd upon him with an Eye of Mercy and stretched out unto him his Gracious Hand so that hâ— departed to his home justified The penitent Magdalen was inwardly grieved at her former filthy and debauched behaviour so that she came and cast her self at our Saviours Feet watering them with her Tears and wiping them with the Hair of her Head Luk 9. but Christ soon lifted her up with these comfortable words Thy sins are pardoned thy faith hath saved thee go in peace St. Peter by an unconstancy that should cause the best Christians to tremble for fear of falling into the same Apostacy denied his Lord and Master three times with cursing and swearing Matth. 26. but this merciful God looked upon him with an eye of compassion and gave him grace to repent most bitterly of such a foul crime I doubt not but at the same time that this wretched sinner poured forth his Tears in God's presence doubtless he poured into his Heart the Oyl of Joy and Gladness and comforted him most effectually by his Divine Spirit Likewise although your sins be grievous and abominable if your Souls be struck with grief and displeasure if your Hearts be truly penitent so that you shed sincere Tears of Repentance and in case you are heartily sorry for the want of a sufficient displeasure for your sins in case you prostrate your self before your Heavenly Father he will raise you up again by his infinite Goodness he will cast all your sins and transgressions behind him he will cry unto you in your Hearts by the voice of his Holy Spirit My Son or My Daughter thy sins are forgiven thee John 5. He will fill your Souls with an unspeakable Joy Luk 9. and will cause you to sing with the Psalmist Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32. Finally think not that it is ever too late to repent and that when Death is upon your Lips it is no time to seek to the Mercy of God As the business of Repentance cannot be too soon because we know not when God will call us to himself It is most certain that it can never be too late for at what time or season soever the poor sinner melts into Tears of Repentance in case his Repentance be real and his Tears proceed from a penitent heart God will always have the Arms of his Mercy wide open to receive him The Thief crucified at our Saviours side was at the last gasp when he was converted and when he uttered this excellent expression Remember me Lord when thou comest into thy Kingdom Luk 23. Our good and merciful Saviour granted his Request and encouraged him with the most excellent and comfortable promise that we can imagine Verily I say unto thee To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In like manner when thou art at the point of death if God speaks unto thee and awakens thy Conscience it is an infallible signe that he hath compassion upon thee and that he will not destroy thee It is a signe that he opens for thee his Heaven full of Light and Glory and offers unto thee his Paradice with all its Divine Excellencies Doubt not penitent sinner that this is the acceptable day the day of Salvation and the time of Gods good pleasure seeing that this good God draws so near thee thou mayest with freedom draw near him And seeing that he beats and knocks at the door of thine Heart it is an infallible token that thou mayest also beat at the door of his Eternal Mercies and that he intends to open to satisfy thee In short at what hour soever we go unto God and appear before his Throne he stretcheth out unto us the Golden Scepter of his Goodness that we should obtain Mercy and find Grace to be helped in time of need It is not needful that we should prepare long and elaborated Speeches or Prayers to perswade God to vouchsafe his Grace and needful help in such an urgent necessity It is not necessary that we should compose them with the Art and Industry of humane Wisdom We need but pray unto God as unto our Father and weep in his bosom we need but open unto him our Hearts and call our selves his Children that alone is sufficient to move him to compassion and to stir up his Fatherly affections to appease his anger and to draw upon us his most excellent Blessings The Prophet Isaiah the most Eloquent of the Men of his time seeks no other argument to perswade God to have Mercy and compassion but this Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy Zeal and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowels and of thy Mercies towards me are they restrained doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not Thou O Lord art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is from everlasting Isai 63. Likewise after that he had made this confession We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and we all doe fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities Chap. 64. He adds But now O Lord thou art our Father we are thy Clay and thou art our Potter and we all are the work of thine Hand Be
complain but shall be transported with joy and adore that infinite Goodness which thou hast declared to us poor and miserable sinners who out of thine incomprehensible Love hast made us thy Children and Heirs of thy Kingdom O Goodness worthy of the admiration of Heaven and Earth we were all lost but we shall be all found in God we were dead but by death we shall return to life we were over-whelmed in a grievous misery but by this means we shall attain to the greatest happiness O my God I recommend unto thee my Soul as to a faithful Creator Heavenly Father my Spirit I leave in thy Hands Amen CHAP. 15. The third Consolation against the fears of Death is to represent continually unto our selves the Death and Sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to trust upon the merits of his Cross IF we will dye with a peacable and quiet mind we must always represent to our selves the death and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and rely upon the merits of his Cross for the death of this Prince of Life should be the Model of ours and the bottomless Fountain of Comforts to a believing Soul 1. By looking upon this perfect example the wonder of Men and Angels we learn to endure with an Holy resolution and patience all the evils and pangs that accompany Death Luk 22. For although our Saviours Torments were most bitter so that his Soul was sorrowful unto death although there issued out of his innocent Body a bloudy Sweat for the violence of his pain nevertheless none ever heard the least murmuring or expression of impatience Isai 53. He was led to the slaughter as a Lamb and as a Sheep before the Shearer is dumb 2 From hence we learn that the last hours of our life must be employed in fervent and continual Prayers unto God seeing that this Beloved of the Father offers unto him at such a time his Prayers and Supplications with great Cries and a floud of Tears as to him who was able to deliver him from Death Heb. 5. In the bosoms of this Heavenly Father he poureth out all his Griefs and three times he presents this request Father if it be possible that this cup should pass away from me except I drink it Matth. 26. 3. We learn to present our selves before God's Divine Majesty with Humility and to resigne our selves wholly to his wonderful Providence seeing that he who thought it no robbery to be equal with God he whom the millions of Angels and Seraphims worship continually thought it no disgrace to himself to fall upon his knees three times to the ground and submit his Will to that of his Heavenly Father for after that he had said Father if it be possible let this cup pass away from me except I drink it He adds these words Nevertheless O Father not as I will but as thou wilt Matth. 26. 4. If at the time of our death an excessive sorrow or a malignant humour seize upon our minds so that in that disposition we are not able to see the Heavens open nor God who stretcheth out his Arm to receive us into his Rest Let us remember that this merciful Lord speaks to us as he did to his three Apostles who fell asleep when he was in his Agony Cannot you watch one hour with me Mat. 29. My dear Children it is no time to fall asleep with the foolish and inconsiderate Virgins trim your Lamps put on the Garments of Light to meet your Celestial Bridegroom and to enter with him into the Marriage Chamber Matth. 25. 5. God requires that we should do as much good at all times to our friends as we are able and to express the sincerity of our affections to those with whom Nature and our Duty have caused us to be related but especially at the hour of death we are more bound to this Religious Duty therefore Jesus Christ hath shewn us an excellent example for when he was nailed to the Cross and ready to breathe forth his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father he had an especial care of his Holy and Blessed Mother saying to his beloved Disciple My Son behold thy Mother and to her Woman behold thy Son 6. We must not only do good and shew kindness to our friends but we must forgive our greatest enemies such also as employ their greatest fury against us for by this means we shall follow the Blessed footsteps of our Gracious Saviour for he had compassion upon them that crucified him and mocked him Father said he forgive them for they know not what they do 7. By the Cross of Jesus Christ we learn to put our trust in the goodness of God in our greatest pangs and to embrace him as our most loving Father and Redeemer when he seems to discover to us a severe countenance full of wrath and displeasure for this Eternal Son of God in his most violent tortures when his Heavenly Father did suspend his aid and assistance and withheld the effects of his Grace the expressions of his Love and the comforts of his Divine Spirit nevertheless he looks upon him as his God and reposes himself upon him he prays unto him with an Holy assurance and repeats these passionate words My God my God! 8. If we will dye willingly and leave these crazy Bodies with a joyful mind when the time is come that we must go to the Father of Spirits we must remember with what resolution our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ prepar'd himself for death and how willingly he commended his innocent Soul into the hands of God his Father when he required it No man taketh my life away from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this Commandement have I received of my Father John 10. Heb. 10. This caused him to speak in this manner Here am I O God to do thy will Luk 23. Therefore when he gave up the Ghost he cried with a loud voice to shew that his precious Soul was not taken from him by violence but that he did willingly offer it up as a Sacrifice to God 9. In this rich description of Christ crucified we may further learn what should be our last words and last thoughts for if God vouchsafes to us the use of our Tongues until the last gasp we cannot end our life more comfortably than by such expressions as our Saviour made use of upon the Cross Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit But if we cannot move our Lips and that we cannot pronounce these words we must inwardly meditate upon them in our minds and express them with motions of the Heart 10. When we look more narrowly into the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ we may easily find how much we are bound to give up our souls unto God when he is pleased to call for them for this Blessed death is the price and ransom that he hath paid
Virgin My Soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Or with the Glorified Spirits of Heaven To him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his bloud be Glory and Strength for ever and ever Amen 24. Christian Souls if the vast number of your sins come into your remembrance consider that it is not said that the Bloud of Christ cleanseth us only from a certain number of sins but That if we confess our sins he is Faithful and Just that is True and Merciful to forgive us our sins and that the Bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins Let them be never so numerous drown them all as so many hellish Monsters in the bloud of thy Saviour take hold of this Divine Jesus with the Arms of Faith and Repentance wrap your selves up in his Winding sheet repose your selves upon his Cross and rest secure in the shadow of his Almighty intercession 25. But if the grievousness of your crimes fright you take hold at the same time of the Horns of this mystical Altar and all the powers of Hell will not be able to pluck you thence Comfort thy self sinful Soul for there cannot be a spot so black nor so deep but the Bloud of Christ is able to wash it clean away There is no crime so grievous and horrid but the Sacrifice of this Lamb without spot that taketh away the fins of the world can make an atonement for it Let thy sins be never so great they have their limits but thy Redeemers Merits are without limits and the efficacy of his sufferings continues for ever To assure thee of this truth and to encourage thee he was pleased upon the Cross to discover the Riches of his Mercy upon a wretched Robber who suffered then the hands of Justice for his crimes assoon as he saw him moved with Repentance he changed his infamous and painful Cross into a Paradise of Glory and Happiness and filled his Soul with the sweetest Comforts of his Holy Spirit This merciful Redeemer is the same yesterday and to day and shall be the same for ever Therefore be never so foul and abominable a sinner if thou dost groan under the burden of thy sins and art moved with contrition Heb. 13. thou oughtest not to cast off thy hopes and to be discouraged draw near with humility to thy Saviours Cross and wash thy self in the Bloud that comes out of his veins All the diseased persons that entred into the pool of Bethesda were healed of all manner of distempers Joh. 5. Likewise all spiritual diseases are cured in this Divine Pool of all their griefs it is not necessary to stay till a good Angel from Heaven come to move the Waters for Christ's Bloud is always fresh living and of the same Vertue and Efficacy we need not fear that others should step down before us or that the throng should hinder us for a thousand worlds may be all healed at the same instant neither do ye pretend that there is no body to cast you into this mystical Pool for our Lord will never refuse to admit you when you shall have been Bedrid eight and thirty years as the poor man that was troubled with the Palsie and when you shall be nailed to a Cross as the good Thief you may nevertheless dip your selves into this Divine Pool and feel its saving and healing Vertue It doth not only wash away the filth and heal all thy diseases but it gives also life to the Dead and renders the living immortal Whosoever thou art that dippest thy self in this precious Bloud thou mayest say with the Apostle St. Paul This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am the chief 1 Tim. 1. Howbeit I have obtained Mercy the Lord will deliver me from all wicked work and will preserve me to his Heavenly Kingdom to him be Glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 7. 26. You understand therefore very well believing Souls that you have no cause to fear Death seeing that all its Darts have been broken to pieces all its Armor hath been torn and that its spoils appear so visibly upon Christs Cross You may see the Claws of this old Lion the paw of this devouring Bear the Teeth and Poison of this infernal Serpent and the Head of this prodigious Dragon you may see death swallowed up into victory and the Prince of Life leading it in triumph follow then the Glorious Chariot of this noble Conqueror singing with the Apostle O death where is thy Victory O Grave where is thy Sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. 27. Therefore when God shall draw near to you covered with the vail of Death be not terrified seek not to run from him and to hide your selves from his all-seeing Eyes unto whom darkness is as the noon-day Gen. 3. Although you are by nature poor wretched blind and naked you have more substantial Garments than Fig leaves for you have the leaves of the Tree of Life that are designed for the salvation of the Gentiles Revel 22. The Leaves that shall never fade shall cover all your nakedness and adorn your immortal Souls for it is the Eternal Righteousness the most accomplished Righteousness of our Lord Jesus who hath been made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Dan. 19. It is Jesus Christ himself who is named The Lord our Righteousness It is the precious Garment of Salvation the Glorious Cloak of Righteousness mentioned by the Prophet Is 61. It is the Wedding Garment whitened in the Bloud of the Lamb without spot and the fine and bright Linnen which are the Righteousness of the Saints Ezek. 16. In short it is a Garment which will not only cover and adorn you but it will also heal all your infirmities and make you become immortal Rev. 7. 28. If you come before your Heavenly Father with this perfumed cloathing of your Elder Brother Jesus Christ Gen. 27. or rather if you be cloathed with him as with a Garment Rom. 1. You shall not only obtain the best and most advantageous Blessing but you shall enter into the possession of the uncorruptible Inheritance prepared for you from the beginning of the World For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 6. A Prayer and Meditation for a Christian who strengthens himself against the fears of Death by meditating upon the Death and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ O Merciful Saviour who hast cloathed thy self with our mortal Flesh that thou mightest offer it up as a Sacriffce to God succor me in my weakness and increase the Faith and Hope which thou hast begun in my Soul I see Death threatening to destroy me
of God the Father Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen CHAP. 19. The Seventh Consolation against the Fears of Death is our strict and unseparable union with Jesus Christ by the means of his holy Spirit and the first Fruits of our Blessed Immortality OUr Lord Jesus Christ doth not onely live and triumph in Heaven but it is from thence our life our glory and our blessed Immortality proceed For as the Father hath life in himself he hath also given to the Son to have Life in himself and as the Father raiseth and quickneth the Dead likewise the Son quickneth whomsoever he will So that we may not only say to him as St. Peter Thou hast the words of eternal life John 6. but we may justly speak to him in Davids Language with thee is the fountain of Life in thy light shall we see light Ps 36. Therefore all those that are united and incorporated into Jesus Christ do participate of the fulness of his holy Spirit and by that means they became Immortal Now by the vertue of Christs Death and Pastion we are not only made partakers of the Fruits of his Sufferings but we are united to and Incorporated in him so that by that means we have obtained not only the grâ—â—t and precious promises of Glory and Immortality which he hath purchased for us by the infinite merits of his Sufferings but we receive the First-Fruits and foretasts of our future blessedness He that is lifted up and dwells on high quickens the Spirits of the humble Is 57. he dwells in our hearts by Faith Eph. 31. he pours into our Souls his holy and quickning Spirit for because we are the Children of God he hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry Abba Father Gal. 4. Whosoever hath not this Spirit of the Lord Jesus he is none of his By the means of this Spirit he dwells in us and we in him we become the Members of his Body and we may boast that we are his Flesh and his Bones All things that are most strictly united by Nature or Art are employed to represent this admirable union John 6. which we enjoy with Jesus Christ by the means of his Spirit that quickens us Rom. 13. From hence are derived these expressions of the holy Apostles We have put on the Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 3. And that when we draw near to him who is the living stone rejected of Men but lifted up and of great price with God 1 Pet. 2. we like so many living stones are built up together to make a Spiritual House For the same reason our Saviour informes us John 15. That he is the true Vine and that we are the branches And St. Paul assures us that if we are become one Plant with him by the conformity of his Death we shall also be one by the resemblance of his Resurrection Rom. 6. To shew unto us that this Sacred Union contains many ties of Love our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as our Brother our Father and our Bridegroom therefore the Apostle tells us that he thinks it no Disgrace to own us for his Brethren in saying Heb. 1. I will declare thy name unto my Brethren and also where he informes us Rom. 8. that God had predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first born among many Brethren And after his Resurrection he speaks in this manner to Mary Magdalen John 20. Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Heb. 2. Therefore this glorious Redeemer shewing himself unto God with all the Elect saith Here I am and the Children which thou hast given me Hosea 2 And by the Mouth of Hosea he speaks to his Church and makes this promise unto her I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in Righteousness and in Judgment and in loving kindness and in Mercies From hence it is that this Church is called The Spouse of the Lamb in the Revelations and in the Canticâ—es the Spiritual Union betwixt Christ and his Church is expressed by a continual Allusion to a Marriage between Man and Woman And because our Meat and Drink are turned into our Body and Substance Jesus Christ assures us That his Flesh is truly Meat and his Blood is truly Drink That he is the true Bread come down from Heaven that gives Life to the World and that whosoever shall eat him shall live for ever But amongst all the Similitudes borrowed to represent our Union with Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit there is none employed more frequently in holy Scripture than that of the Humane Body for there is not any more proper for us all the Spirits that give life and motion proceed from the Head and assoon as the Members are separated from it they Dye In the like manner the Spirit that quickens us and makes us become new Creatures proceeds from Jesus Christ so that whosoever is separated from this Head he falls into Death and Eternal Destruction And as there are many Members nevertheless they make up but one Body because they are all animated with the same Spirit and they are kept alive by the same Head l kewise there be many Members belonging to Christs Mystical Body some engaged yet upon Earth and others glorified in Heaven nevertheless they make up but one only Mystical and Spiritual Body for they are all quickned by the same Spirit and receive all the celestial influences from the same Head St. Paul teacheth us this Doctrin in expresse terms 1 Cor 12. For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ for by one Spirit are we all Baptised into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit Finally because the same spirit that is in our Lord as in the Head and Fountain and in the Church in general as in the Body which is quickned and moved is also in every particular Member The holy Apostle is not satisfied to call this Spiritual Body of Christ and his Church Christ but he tells us moreover that whosoever is united unto him is made but one Spirit with him These and such like Representations let them be never so lively and noble are but dark shadowes and unperfect Images of our Union with Jesus Christ by his holy Spirit for the richest and most Magnificent Garment can never keep off from the Body Diseases nor hinder the approaches of corruption that creeps upon it There is no foundation never so firm and well setled that can free the house built upon it from the ruines and breach s of time and the weather Although the Sap mounts up from the root of the vine and runs
into the twigs and branches they wither at last and are cast into the fire The rarest Meats and the most delicious Drinks can never make our Bodies become Immortal Death snatcheth away the Brother from the Brother the Father from the Child and the Wife from her Husband The stroke of a Sword can separate a Body from the healthiest and strongest Head nay without any such violence the Head dies as well as the Body and the Spirits that run in our Ve ns are far from hindring the corruption of our Bodies for they corrupt of themselves and vanish away In short the strictest Unions of Nature and Art are dissolved by time so that all things under the Sun are subject to vanity and unconstancy But the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is the principle of an eternal Life and the Seed of an uncorruptible glâ—ry whosoever is united to him by this Spirit nothing can separate him from Christ neither Life nor Death neither Hell nor the World nor things present nor things to come Therefore because our Blessed Saviour could find nothing here upon Earth nor amongst all the Creatures worthy and able to represent this perfect and unseparable Union he seeks an Image of it beyond all natural beings in the holy Trinity in that unchangeable Union which was which is and which shall ever be between him and God the Father As we may see in his excellent Prayer John 17. Father I pray for them all which shall believe on me that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that they may be one ever as we are one Banish therefore from your Souls all apprehensions and fears O believing Souls for all the Three persons of the most holy most glorious and most wonderful Trinity are engaged for your Salvation and to bring you to your eternal happiness The Father by his infinite wisdom hath found out a means to reconcile us unto himself to satisfie his offended Justice and to declare the riches of his unparalleld Mercies The Son hath purchased for us this great Salvation by suffering the shameful Death of the Cross and by spilling his most precious Blood for the forgiveness of our Sins and the holy Spirit by incorperating us into Jesus Christ makes us partakers of the infinite Merits of his Sufferings Revel 2. That is the true Hysop that sprinkles the Divine Blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish to cleanse our Souls It is he that gives to our Souls the white Stone where the new name of Elect and Believers is written Heb. 12. which none knows but he that hath it He gives us to eat of the hidden Manna and of the food of Angels Iohn 4. which the World knoweth not It is instead of a precious Ring or Jewel by which our spiritual Bridegroom promiseth and confirms unto us his conjugal Faith It is the Seal of the Living God that Seals unto us the Covenant of Grace and the promises of Glory and Happiness made unto us in the Gospel as the Apostle himself tells us Eph. 2. that now having believed the Gospel of our Salvation we have been Sealed by the holy Spirit of promise Therefore he exhorts us Eph. 4. not to grieve the holy Spirit of God by whom we have been Sealed for the day of Redemption Finally this is the Spirit that witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God If we be children we are Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with the Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 8. Think not Christian Souls that I labor to perswade you that this holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus shall come and whisper in your ears or cry unto you from within that you are the Children of God as the extravagant Quakers amongst us imagine the Testimony that he gives to our Spirits is a real and an effectual testimony if I may so speak for he regenerates us and makes us become new Creatures he gives us a more certain assurance of our adoption then if he did declare from Heaven Thou art my Child and thy name is written in the Book of Life As the Seal imprints its Image in the wax thus the Spirit of the Lord Jesus imprints in our Souls the Image of Holiness and all Divine Vertues now as the Figure that remains upon the Wax makes us judge without dispute what manner of Seal did print it likewise when you find Gods Image imprinted in your Hearts acknowledge the finger of God and the Vertue of his holy Spirit to have been there for none can have that blessed Image but he must needs be the Child of God The holy Spirit that gives it to our Souls kindles in us the blessed flames of holy Love and produceth in us Tongue of fire he makes us speak to God with boldness as to our Father and lift up our eyes to Heaven with joy and gladness as to the place of our Inheritance All the goods of this present life may be nay will be lost at last Pro. 23. Riches take wings and flie away like an Eagle Honor vanisheth away as a smoak carried away with the wind Earthly Delights and Pleasures hast away as a Torrent or the waters of a River that slide along the Banks and they end at last in a Sea of bitterness and sorrow If by chance these vanities continue with the Worldlings while they remain on Earth Ps 49. they can continue no longer for they cannot carry beyond and the Grave their Riches their Honours are not Buried with them and all their unsetled delights fly away with their Breath but Death hath no power upon this Spirit of Life which is our true Treasure our glory and everlasting delight Moreover the true and living Faith that embraceth Jesus Christ our Saviour shall cease and hope that considers the advantages to come shall one day be abolished Whilst we are in this earthly Pilgrimage we walk by Faith and not by sight and while we are tost up and down upon this dangerous Sea of the World Heb. 6. we have need of the Anchor of our Hope and to expect with patience the fulfilling of that we hope for Rom. 8. but when we shall come to our heavenly Country we shall neither need a staff to walk with nor a shield to defend us and to quench the fiery darts of the Devil when we shall be secure in the Haven of Eternity we shall have no occasion to make use of this Anchor for our hope shall be changed into a perfect Fruition When we shall be in Paradice we shall need no Wings to carry us up to God but only to fly about his Throne as the Seraphims In short we need no looking glass to see the glory of God for we shall behold face to face All that we believe at present without seeing we shall then see and believe no more But the Spirit of the Lord Jesus whom the World knoweth not and cannot receive he
they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the Fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the Flame kindle upon thee and say with David When I should walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for thou art with me thy Staff and thy Rod shall comfort me Psal 23. It seems the Primitive Christians had adesigne to shew us this Truth by the Picture of a Giant-like man wading through the Sea with a Staff in his hand and a Child upon his Shoulder for this Giant is the Emblem of a Christian who lifts up his mind as high as Heaven The Sea signifies the dangers of this World and the fears of Death The Staff represents Faith that keeps us up in our passage through Life and Death upon which when we lean we worship the living God of Heaven and Earth and the Child is an Image of Christ therefore he that bears him is called Christophorus that is He that bears Christ Cesar could not endure to see his Pilot tremble in a furious Storm at Sea because he was in his Boat we have far less reason to be afraid seeing that we carry in our Hearts the great Emperor and Monarch of the World the Hope and Comfort of Israel Cesar was as much in danger as his Pilot to make Shipwrack but our Lord Jesus Christ hath all the Winds at his Command He can still the most disturbed Sea and through the most grievous death he can cause us to pass and arrive to the safe Haven of an Eternal Rest and of a most happy and glorious life When David shewed himself with a purpose to fight with Goliah he spoke to this prodigious Philistines in this manner I come unto thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the Armies of Israel But you Christian Souls when you are to encounter with Death you may say to it not only I come to thee in the name of him who Commands legions of Angels and all the Armies of immortal Spirits but I come to thee cloathed with his Armor strengthened by his Holy Spirit and assisted by him in person for Jesus Christ who hath overcome death for us intends to overcome it by us We are the living Stones which he hath chosen of his disinteressed Mercy to bring down that proud insulting Enemy that causeth all Worldlings to tremble and cover their faces with Shame and Confusion Judg. 6. We have already seen a Sampson breaking in pieces with a wonderful strength the Cords with which he had been bound by the Philistians and tearing also the Body of a young Lion in which he found some few days after Honey most pleasant to his taste It will be much easier for us when we shall be strengthened with the Divine Vertue of the Lord Jesus of whom Sampson was but a Type to tear in pieces all the Cords and Chains of Death We shall rent in pieces the Body of this old Lion and when we shall search into his Bowels with a serious and repeated meditation we shall find the sweetest and most ravishing Comforts As when the Prophet Elias was carried up to Heaven in a fiery Chariot he let fall his Cloak with which Elisha separated the Waters of Jordan so that he passed through the River on foot Likewise our Saviour Jesus Christ being ascended up above the Clouds to the Throne of his Glory he hath left us the precious Cloak of his Righteousness he hath granted us his Holy Spirit that we might pass through the turbulent Waves of this tempestuous Sea of the World by its Divine Vertue and that through death we might enter into immortal Life And as the death of our Lord Jesus Christ separated his Soul from his Body although both his innocent Soul and Holy Body remained always united personally to his Divinity In the same manner the Believers death disunites for a time his Soul from his Body but it can never separate it from the Spirit of the Lord Jesus that is the Soul of our Souls and such an Holy Flame that it can never be extinguished When the High Priest of the Jews put off his Priestly Garments he cast off at the same time his Breast-plate where the names of the twelve Tribes were engraven Exod. 20. Not only our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life not only our Pictures are printed upon the Palms of his hands with the Bloud of the Covenant but we be as a Signet upon his Heart Cant. 8. so that we cannot be separated from him no more than his heart can be taken from him his Love is stronger than Death and his embraces are embraces of Love Ruth promised to Naomi that Death alone should be able to separate them Ruth 1. But on the contrary we may tell our Lord and Saviour who is as our Father Brother and Husband not only death shall never be able to separate us but it shall rather bring us nearer unto thee and cause us to rest in thy bosome where we shall be for ever satisfied with thine Heavenly delights Christians you need not fear Death for you are not to be wounded by all its Darts for you have been dipt in the River that springs to Eternal Life The Spirit of the Lord Jesus that is in you is the Spirit of Life the beginning of immortality and the only Spring of Eternal Glory and Happiness Seeing that the breath of the Prophet Elias raised a dead Body to life the Spirit and the Breath of the Father and of the Son will be able to keep your Spiritual life from decaying unless it be in Death's power to stop the breath of the Almighty unless it be able to limit the beams of Light and Glory that came from his Divine countenance unless it can cause the Rivers of living Water that spring out of his Throne to cease and dry up It is not possible that it should cause us to perish and render us miserable Therefore you are certain of your Eternal Happiness while Jesus Christ shall be the Author and Well-Spring of Light Life Glory and Immortality and that his Holy Spirit shall be victorious over Death and Hell and you may sing with David I shall not dy but live and declare the Works of the Lord Ps 118. You be not only sure of this Glory and Eternal Happiness and you be not only enter'd into possession of it by your Faith and Hope but you begin already to enjoy it and its First-Fruits for he that believes in Jesus Christ is past from Death to Life and whosoever hath the Son of God hath Eternal Life As the Prophet Moses when he was in the Wilderness did not only see afar off the Land of Promise but he tasted of its delicious Fruits Thus we don 't only behold afar off with the Eye of Faith our Celestial Inheritance but we taste at present and relish some of its blessed Delights And as the Fruits brought by the Spies were the same
and like unto them that the Children of Israel did eat in the Promised Land In like manner the Fruits that we relish in the Wilderness of this World are Fruits of the Tree of Life with which we shall be fully satisfied in Heaven for the Grace that God bestows upon us here below by his Divine Spirit is the beginning of the Glory with which he shall Crown us above The same Light that shines upon our Souls on Earth shall shine much more for ever in Heaven But whereas we look upon it at present as it were through a black mist with much imperfection then we shall see it clearly without Vail or Darkness The same Holiness that adorns at present our Souls shall be their Ornament and Glory then it shall appear without spot or blemish That same peace of Conscience that preserves our Hearts and Sences shall Crown us above it shall be without the least disturbance In short the same Jesus that is conceived in our Hearts and that is formed and grows in us by degrees shall then appear in a perfect Stature that shall want no more increase As it is with the Sea it enters into the Rivers before the Rivers can run to the Sea in like manner God comes to us before we go to him and Heaven enters into our Souls before we can enter into Heaven Aged Simâ—on waited patiently for Death but assoon as he had seen the Saviour of the World and embraced him he ran to meet Death he thought upon nothing but his latter end therefore he prayed most earnestly to receive him into his Glorious Rest O Christian Soul how shouldest thou dispose and prepare thy self to dy seeing thou beholdest with the Eyes of Faith this Blessed Redeemer not wrapped up in Swathling Cloaths but Crowned with an infinite Glory and Light He is not in thine Arms but he lodges in thine Heart thou hast not received him to return or part with him again but to be united unto him for ever and to be incorporated into his mystical Body Seeing therefore that Death brings thee nearer to thy Redeemer perfects this Blessed Union and casts thee into the very Fountain of Life instead of being frighted at her and grieved when it comes to thee thou shouldest then rejoyce and be transported above measure with gladness we should meet this Death with a cheerful countenance I mean that we should meet the Lord Jesus this merciful Prince of Life who having vouchsafed unto thee the sight of his Salvation intends to receive thee into his Rest and Eternal and Glorious Peace that Reigns above in Heaven A Prayer and Meditation of a Christian Soul that strengthens it self against the fears of Death by considering our strict and unseparable Union with Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit and the First-Fruits in us of our Blessed Immortality O Mighty and Merciful Lord who art the Son of Righteousness and the Fountain of Living Water drive away from me the dark shadows of death and quench all the Fires that it kindles in my Soul thou art not only dead for me but thou art pleased to live in me that I might one day live for ever with thee Thou hast of thy pure Mercy chosen me for thy Child and hast made me a Member of thy Mystical Body Flesh of thy Flesh Bone of thy Bone and caused me to be partaker of thine Holy Spirit God hath not given thee the Spirit by measure that out of thy fulness we might receive Grace for Grace By the means of this Blessed and Infinite Spirit that rests in my Soul I am united unto thee in a more perfect manner than the Tree is to the root that bears it or the Child to its Mother that nourisheth it in her Womb or the Members of the Humane Body to the Head that gives them Life The Ties that unite me unto thee O Glorious Saviour are more unchangeable than the Heavens and the Earth As nothing can pluck me out of thine Hands there is nothing can separate me from thine Heart Whether I live or dye I am thine my Lord and my God and nothing can alter thine affection for me Death can take me out of the World and carry me out of the embraces of my dearest friends but it can never separate me from thine Holy Spirit the Soul of my Soul and the Light of my Life which cannot be put out by all the envious Blasts and Storms of the Prince of Darkness this Holy Spirit will bring me to behold thy Face to rest in thy bosom and unite me unto thee for ever To whom Lord shall I go thou hast the words of Eternal life and thou art the inexhausible Fountain Thou art my Hope and my Treasure my Glory and mine only Happiness O faithful and unquestionable Witness I should be worse than an Infidel if I did call in question my future Salvation and Glory seeing the Father hath not spared thee for me although thou art his only and beloved Son the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Seeing that thou O merciful Lord hast willingly suffered the most shameful death of the Cross and spilt thy precious Bloud to wash away all my sins and satisfy for my crimes and seeing that thine Holy Spirit is come into my Heart to make me a partaker of that precious Bloud and Seal me for the day of Redemption O Glorious Spirit of my Saviour that rests upon me when I should be able to speak the Language of Angels I could not sufficiently express the wonderful operations that thou dost produce in my Soul thou kindlest in me such Heavenly Flames as never go out but are always alive as the fire of thine Altar Thou formest in me a white Stone where a new Name is written which no man knows but he that receives it Thou givest me to eat of that hidden Manna of that food of Angels that the World knoweth not Thou witnessest with my Spirit that I am a Child of God an Heir of God and a Joynt Heir with Jesus Christ the King of Kings Thou dost not only Seal unto me the pardon of all my Sins but thou dost also purify my Conscience from all dead Works to serve the living God Thou causest me to cry out Abba Father and imprintest in my Heart the Glorious Image of my Heavenly Father Thou art the Seal of my Adoption the earnest of mine uncorruptible Inheritance prepared for me in Heaven Thou hast given me the infallible assurances of a Glorious and Eternal Life and begun it already in my Soul granting to me its First-Fruits Thou causest me to behold the Sun-shine of thy Grace and makest it to give Light in mine Vnderstanding Thou dost not only vouchsafe unto me the favour of beholding from this Valley of Tears thine Heavenly Canaan but thou causest me to tast of its Fruits I am not yet come to the Fountain of Waters that spring forth to Eternal Life but I feel the Streams and the
Rivers that run in my Soul I am not yet come to thine Holy Paradise but thou hast caused Paradise to be in me Thou hast given unto me an unspeakable and glorious Joy and hast bestowed upon me that Peace of God that passeth all understanding O living and quickening Spirit unknown to the World thou strengthenest me in such a manner that death will never be able to fright me Thou hast united me to thy self by an unseparable Vnion O Prince of Life and hast put in me a Seed of Immortality an infallible Principle of Glory and a source of unspeakable Happiness Thou art in me to dwell with me for ever therefore thou shalt fill up the measure of thy most signal Favors My Faith by thy Divine assistance hath spied out the Kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of the World and shortly I shall see with mine Eies the unexpressable Beauties of that Celestial Countrey that flows with the Milk of the purest and sincerest Joys and with the Honey of the sweetest and most ravishing Comforts Thou hast sent a fore-taste of the Fruits of the Tree of Life but I shall come into thine Heavenly Paradise I shall ever have my fill of these delicious Fruits Now thou hast caused some drops of the dew of Heaven to fall upon mine Heart but then thou wilt make me drink of the Rivers of thy Divine Pleasures At present in my painful passage through this Valley of Tears in the midst of my Groans and Tears I may gather some Herbs but when I shall come to my Heavenly Countrey I shall reap my Hands full with Songs of Joy Here upon Earth I see God as in a Glass obscurely but in Heaven I shall behold him face to face and I shall be satisfied with his likeness My Lord and my God who by the infinite Merits of thy sufferings hast purchased for us this Spirit of Life and who hast given to my Soul such an Authentick Seal of my Salvation and such a precious earnest of thine Eternal Bliss I feel in me the motions and endeavours of of this New Man that Essays to leave this Body of Darkness and Death to enter into the Light of the Living Lord Jesus seeing thou hast made me partaker of the Spirit of thy Grace enlightned my Soul with thy Divine Knowledge and caused me to know the way of Life Seeing that thou hast given me to taste of the Heavenly Gift of the Powers of the life to come Seeing that thou hast vouchsafed to me the First-Fruits of thy Glory and that I already feel Heaven in my Soul Seeing that I behold thee with the Eyes of my Faith that I embrace thee with all my affections and that thou dwellest in my Heart perfect in me the work of thy Grace and bring me at last to thine Eternal Glory Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation Amen CHAP. 20. The eighth Consolation is to consider that Death frees and delivers us from all the Evils that are in the World and that we daily suffer THere are certain Pictures with two Faces the one represents most ugly Features and the other beautiful and pleasant things This is the true Emblem of Death for it may be painted with a fearful Face a lean Body and iron Hands that ravish from us our Goods and our Honors and that divide our Persons dragging our bodies into a loathsome Sepulchre If we look upon Death in this manner we can do nothing less but tremble and fear We may also look upon it as a powerful Deliverer that unlooseth all our Fetters breaks our Chains to pieces lifts up our Souls to the highest Glory and Happiness If we consider thus there is nothing more lovely than death and nothing more to be desired I have hitherto endeavoured to shew how a Believer shall strengthen and comfort himself against the fears of Death but now I shall say something more with Heavens assistance I shall labor to prove not only that Death is to be expected without apprehension but to be received with an Holy Joy That it is not at all dreadful but rather it is to be earnestly desired I shall no longer give to speak right any Consolations against the fears of Death for I hope to make it plain that Death it self is to be looked upon as the greatest Consolation and Comforter That I may attain unto mine end I shall shew as in a Picture a short view of all the dreadful miseries of which Death delivers us and then I shall endeavour to paint out in the brightest Colours or rather I shall chaulk out unto you the Blessedness and Glories into which it ushers us Man's Life and Misery are Twin-Sisters that are born at the same time and owned Adam for their First Father they dye together at the same instant in true Believers We all know that Man begins his Life weeping and crying and ends it with sighs and Groans We come into the World all covered with Bloud and we go out wet all over with a cold Sweat If the Child cries not assoon as it is born we judge that it is dead and when the sick Body ceaseth to groan and sigh we say that he is past hopes so that as our crying is a token of Life likewise is and the end of thy sighs an infallible signe of thy Death Wretched Man how miserable is thy condition thy best friends rejoyce at thy crying and they weep and lament when thou ceasest to sigh and groan All the rest of thy time between thy Cradle and thy Grave is no happier it is but a continued Chain of Misery a mixture of pains a succession of evils and a Sea of bitterness As one Wave falls upon the back of another one evil is no sooner gone but another meets and threatens us one depth calleth another and all manner of Flouds and Storms pass over our Heads Job 5. As the Sparks rife out of the Fire to fly up and down Man is born for Misery and Pain and as the wisest of Kings speaks His days are nothing but pain and his employment but trouble in the night his Heart resteth not Eccles 3 There are scarce any dwellings but Messengers of ill news do sometimes come to them as they did to that of Job Job 1. By God's unchangeable order and appointment the days succeed the nights and divide the year into two equal parts for if the nights are longer in one season so much the shorter are they in another but the nights of our afflictions are so long that they seem to last several Ages whereas the days of our prosperity are so short that they are gone in a moment so that we may justly say with the Prophet Moses The best of our days are but labour and sorrow so soon doth our life pass away and we are gone Psal 90. It is as easy a taske to number the Stars of the Firmament and to reckon up the grains of
my Soul is athirst for God my flesh and mine heart leap for joy for the strong and living God O Lord when shall I go up to the Heavenly Jerusalem when shalt thou open for me the Gutes of righteousness When shall I go into the holy Sanctuary When shall I be in the blessed company of the glorified Saints who have Palmes in their hands Crowns upon their heads and Praises in their mouths When shall I be with the thousands of Angels that are cloathed with light and glory and with burning Seraphims that surround thy Heavenly Throne O my God and Father When wilt thou remove and take away this covering from mine eyes that I may behold thy beautiful and glorious Face When shall I see my self transformed into thy Divine Image and sanctified with thy likeness O Lord thy grace hath brought me to a most happy estate Who could express the joy and satisfaction of my heart with the eyes of faith I see the Angels descending from Heaven to encompass me about I see them ready to take me into their armes and to transport me into thy glorious Rest O my God! I have nothing to stop me in this World I shut mine eyes to all things under the Sun all my thoughts are employed about the glory of Heaven and the pleasures of Paradice Merciful Father glorify thy Child that thy Child may glorify thee let me enter into the magnificent Palace of immortality let me see my God face to face let me embrace my Saviour and onely Redeemer let me receive from his hand the incorruptible Crown let me drink out of the Rivers of of his pleasures and let me swim in the Sea of his Heavenly delights O God whose goodness is unspeakable speak to me in a Language suitable to those heavenly desires which thou hast kindled in my Soul O that I may soon hear these sweet expressions Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise come believing Soul enter into the Joy of thy Lord And before that I shall go into thy Heavenly joy cause this joy to come into my Soul before thou receivest me into Paradise cause a Paradise to be in me O my God I feel an unspeakable and surprising gladness in me I enjoy a peace which passeth all understanding I see my self already surrounded with light and Glory If therefore my expectation be so happy and pleasant what shall be the fruition If the first-fruits are so ravishing what shall we say of the harvest I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ stretching out his armes unto me and opening his bosome to receive me my Lord and my God my Saviour and my All I commend my Spirit into thy hands for thou hast Redeemed it thou who art the Almighty and true God Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen CHAP. 23. The eleventh Consolation The glorious Resurrection of our bodies WHen God Created Angels he gave them a Spiritual nature that had little or no relation with the Elements I confess that some of these Heavenly Spirits have often appeared in humane bodies to the ancient Patriarchs but those bodies were extraordinary and subitaneous formed by Almighty Gods Power for such occasions besides those holy Spirits were not in those bodies as the Soul is in ours quickning and animating them in the same manner but onely as the Pilot is in the Ship that he governs therefore as soon as they had fulfilled the work about which they were employed by God they left those bodies without prejudice to their beings as the Pilot leaves and goes out of the Ship when he hath brought it to the desired Haven All the happiness of these glorified Spirits consists in this that God hath confirmed them in his grace and love and admitted them for ever to a continual contemplation of his glorious face It is not so with our Souls for although they be also spiritual and of an Heavenly substance God hath not created them to be alone and to subsist at a distance from all matter but to live in the pleasant company of those Elementâ—l bocies which he hath fashioned in a most Artifiâ—ial manner When he creates an humane Soul and pours it into an organized body it is not that it should be there as water in a Vessel or as a King in his Palace it lives not thereas an assisting form or as an outward cause of the Bodies operations but it is united to it by a very strict union and serves as an essential form It is the Principle of our life the internal cause of motion of Sense and of understanding So that if we will speak properly Man cannot be said to be altogether of a Spiritual nature as the holy Angels nor a single body as the Sun and the Stars but he is made up of both Therefore if our Souls wish to depart out of this Earthly Tabernacle it is not out of any displeasure against it as it is in it self for none did ever hate his own body every one seeks to nourish and cherish it But by accident because of the vanity and corruption unto which sin hath enthralled it we desire earnestly to depart out of it to a place where righteousness and true holiness raign that we might be with the Lord Jesus to behold him nearer It is therefore an undoubted truth That unless the body partakes of the same happiness and glory of the Soul Man cannot be said to be perfectly and entirely happy I confess it is no light occasion of joy to us to know that when our Soul casts off this earthly body it enters into the eternal Dwellings of Heaven whether it goes to behold the face of the Father of lights But this holy Joy is disturbed with sad reflections and this Heavenly sweetness is strangely altered with the bitter considerations of this poor body cast into the earth and left to the mercy of the crawling Worms for it is a most hatefull thing to behold our body rotting and turning to ashes that body that was our pavillion our Palace nay more then so that was a half part of our selves Therefore if we will render our Joy accomplished and apply an effectual comfort to our Souls we must nourish and entertain this pleasant assurance That the ruine of our bodies which causeth us to lament so much shall not be eternal but as our bodies fall down by Death they shall rise again one day at the general Resurrection This is one of the noblest and most excellent Mysteries of our Christian Religion and one of its most glorious advantages The Wisdom of the World with all its reasonings and the heathenish Philosophy with its rarest subtleties could never attain to this wholesome and comfortable Doctrine Therefore when St. Paul Preached to the Council of Athens he was heard with admiration until he had spoken to them of the Resurrection as soon as he began to mention that they laughed at him Therefore while Humane Reason remains in its darkness and
Natural ignorance it cannot of it self find out the glorious Mystery but as soon as it is enlightned with this light from above it discovers its most temarkable circumstances and acknowledgeth the Justice and Necessity of the future Resurrection of our Bodies First Seeing that Rewards and Punishments ought to be proportionable and answerable to him who is to punish and reward we must of necessity establish the Resurrection of our Bodies otherwise the pains of the wicked cannot be most violent nor the happiness of the Godly can never be absolute and perfect Secondly As when a Traytor is executed men are wont to fasten to the Scaffold or to burn in the fire the Instruments and Tools with which he had assaulted or offended his Prince in the same manner the bodies of the prophane and impious varlets of the Traytors against God's Divine Majesty ought to be treated they ought to be eternally punished with their Soul in Hell fire because they have been the unhappy instruments employed in affronting our Creator Thirdly The body is not onely the instrument employed by the wicked against God but encourageth them and hurries them on in sin for its humors stir it up inflame it and carry it to evil Acts For example its sanguine constitution makes it luxurious and inclinable to the filthy lusts of the flesh its choler carries it to violent and furious actions its mellancholy prompts it to the most horrid and hellish attempts So that if such are to be punished that cause us to perform such grievous actions it belongs to Gods justice to inflict upon the body as well as upon the Soul eternal punishments Fourthly To every thing ther eis a season and a time to every purpose under the Heaven Eccles 3. As the body of the wicked and of the reprobate hath had its good things and its satisfactions during this life it must needs have also in another life its punishments and its torments Fifthly But not to forget the reasons which have a relation to the faithful and which are the Pillars and supporters of our faith and hope we may say That Jesus Christ is no less able to save us then Adam was to damn us Now Adam having lost both Soul and body we must conclude that it belongs to Christ to save them also Therefore the body is to rise again that it may partake of that Salvation or Redemption procured unto us by this great Saviour Sixthly As we have born the Image of the first man who was of the dust of the Earth we must also bear the Image of the second man who comes from Heaven 1 Cor. 15 Now we bear not this Image at present in this life we must therefore bear it in another Seventhly God hath not made a Covenant with part of man but with all man composed of Soul and body The body therefore must needs rise again that it might gather the eternal fruits of glory and happiness which are promised unto us by this Divine Covenant Eighthly God is not onely stiled The Father of Spirits and the God of the Spirits of all flesh Heb. 12. But he declares himself to be the God of Abraham and of his Posterity Numb 16.27 He is not onely the God of the Soul or the God of the body alone but he is the God of believing persons of both their Souls and bodies from hence it follows of necessity That the bodies of such as are deceased are not utterly destroyed for God will raise them up again With this argument Christ stopt the mouths of the Saduces who denyed the Resurrection Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead said he Have you not read what God himself speaks to you I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the Dead but of the living Ninthly God hath adopted us to himself by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his Will to make us the heirs of his Kingdom and coheirs of his Son From this passage we may gather a certain assurance of the Resurrection for when this Father of Mercies shall see our bodies lying in the dust out of his tenderness and compassion he will say there are the bodies of my Children the members of mine onely Son it is not convenient to leave them alwayes in that shamefull estate in the bowels of the Earth that love that I bear to them cannot suffer it doubtless it was this consideration that caused the Apostle to call the redemption of our bodies Adoption for by that he assures us that he shall fetch out of their graves the bodies of all them whom he hath Adopted and that our future Resurrection is an effect and a necessary consequence of our Adoption Tenthly If we consider Death in it self as it is in its own nature we shall find it to be the wages of sin and a punishment of our crimes Now Jesus Christ hath paid for us these wages and satisfied for all our sins abolishing them in his Cross we may therefore conclude that Death 〈◊〉 to be destroyed in respect of believers and that their bodies must needs rise again Eleventhly St. Paul assures us that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of his body Now the body of this great God and Redeemer consists not onely in that infinite number of Souls purchased with his Blood but also in the Union of all the bodies that have been the companions of these blessed Souls Therefore as he hath saved our Souls from Spiritual Death and eternal damnation he must also save our bodies from corporal death and redeem them from the power of the grave Twelfthly If death did for ever detain our bodies in the grave we could not say to speak properly that our Saviour hath swallowed up death into victory and that he hath destroyed the Sepulcher for in such a case Death and the Grave would remain victorious and triumph eternally over these miserable Bodies Thirteenth Our Saviour hath suffered in his Soul and in his Body and by that means he hath purchased to himself both our Souls and Bodies according to St. Pauls excellent intimation You are bought with a price glorify therefore God in your Bodies and in your Souls that belong unto God From hence we must conclude that this glorious Saviour will be deprived of part of that which he hath purchased by his inestimable sufferings if our Bodies did alwayes continue in the power of Death Fourteenth The holy Ghost hath Sanctified our Bodies and made them his Temples as St. Paul teacheth us Know ye not that you are the Temple of God and that the holy Ghost dwelleth in you From hence the Resurrection of our bodies must needs follow as a necessary consequence for can we imagine that God will suffer the Temple of his Holiness to continue for ever in its ruines and Desolation will he not rear up again the noble Pavillion of his glory cast down by Death Fifteenth God hath predestinated us to make us
we may conclude that although in Heaven we shall know one another we shall have nothing of that carnal love which we have at present and which causeth us to put so much difference between one person and another A father may know his Children but his love shall not be grounded upon considerations of flesh and blood he shall love them only because they are amongst the Children of God and the Heirs of his Kingdom and because he shall see them appear in the Image of the Heavenly Father cloathed with his Light and Crowned with his Immortal Glory Finally we shall love no body but in God and for his sake as they shall be in God and God in them In this manner it shall not be possible to love them more or less Charity or Love the Queen of Vertues shall then sit upon its Throne and attain to its highest degree and perfection If you think seriously upon this Christians you shall easily find arguments to answer the vain objections of such as say that if we come to the knowledge of one another in Heaven that shall be able to disturb our satisfaction and rest for as it will be a comfort and joy to meet there with our Parents and Friends in like manner it will be a trouble and dissatisfaction not to find there all such whom we have formerly loved We may retort the same objection in a stronger manner against those that believe that we shall not know one another in Heaven for we may say also that if we know not the persons we shall not know whether our Parents or our Friends are there and that this is as likely to disturbe and trouble the quiet and satisfaction of our minds But to argue in this gross manner is to confound Heaven with the Earth Grief and displeasure can never be admitted in a Paradice of joy and perfect happiness In this glorious condition our knowledge shall be so clear our Charity so pure our Love for God so servent that as we shall love all things which God shall love and where his Image shall appear so it shall not be possible for us to love them whom God shall hate them who shall bear the marks and similitudes of the Devil When David was yet here on Earth he said unto God Lord shall not I hate them that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred they have been to me as mine Enemies Ps 39. In the same manner we shall rather speak in Heaven in the estate of perfection when God shall be in us all in all and we shall be all in God Some there are that inquire what kind of language we shall speak in Heaven some reply that we shall speak the Language of Angels grounding their opinion upon what St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians When I should speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels If I have not charity I am become as sounding Brass and a tinkling Simbal But this is a Chimerian opinion for as the Angels are pure Spirits by consequence they can have no Tongue nor proper language I confess in some holy Apparitions Angels have spoken to Men but it was by moving the Tongues of their borrowed Bodies or by employing some other corporal Organ then they did speak in the Language of those unto whom they were sent they had no particular or proper Dialect But if Angels did speak their Language would excell as much that of Men as the Angelical Nature excells the Humane by the Tongues of Angels therefore our Apostle understands an excellent Tongue better then that of Men. Others fancy that in Heaven we shall speak no other Language but the Hebrew because say they that it is the Tongue which God hath Sanctified from the beginning of the World in which he spoke to the Patriarcks and Holy Prophets in which he proclaimed his Law upon Mount Sina in the audience of all the People of Israel and in which he hath Recorded his Sacred Law with his own Finger They say that it is the Language which Adam did speak in the Earthly Paradice in the state of innocency and which all the Inhabitants of the World did speak before God sent amongst them a Division of Tongues Others are yet of opinion that as then we shall attain to all Knowledge and Sciences we shall not be ignorant of all kind of Languages but that we shall speak them all in a most perfect manner and that with them we shall declare the wonderful Works of God as the Apostles did at the day of Pentecost As the holy Scripture is silent upon this matter I shall affirm nothing But in general terms I may say that as God caused a division of Tongues to punish Mans insolency and pride and that as the differing Languages of People is an effect of their Sin it is most certain that this confusion and difference shall be altogether taken away and that nothing shall be said in Heaven but shall be very well understood by all the glorified Saints I may add moreover that in case we should speak so well all manner of Languages which have been in the World it is nevertheless very likely that we shall all speak but one Language that we may all praise God with the same voice but whether this shall be the Holy Language or another more perfect and majestick which God shall sanctifie for this purpose we cannot know until God of his infinite Mercy shall have raised us to this estate of Glory and perfect Happiness From what we have already said Christians you may easily understand that our happiness hath three steps or degrees the first is attainable in this Life the second at the Egress of the Soul out of the Body the third at the great day of our glorious Resurrection for already in this Life God bestows upon us the First-Fruits of his Glory and the fore-tasts of Heaven The Spirit of God and of his Glory rests at present upon us which fills us full of an unspeakable glorious joy and with the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding When our Souls depart out of this wretched and crasie Body God gathers them up into the bundle of Life he introduceth them into the blessed company of the Angels and Glorified Spirits and admits them to the Contemplation of his Face which is fulness of Joy But in this joyful day when Christ shall come down from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead he will carry us both in Soul and Body to the highest Glory and Happiness whereof we are capable for this reason the Name of Glory is ascribed to this high degree of happiness which is promised to us at the blessed appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ as in the 8 Chap. to the Romans where the Apostle saith That the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the Creature it self shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into
of the Soul from the Body seeing that Death which shall separate you from your selves is not able to separate you from the Spirit of the Lord Jesus The Soul of our Souls the Seal of the promises of God and the earnest of our future Inheritance Instead of looking backwards and longing for these perishing advantages and for Honors that can only dazle the eye consider that Death shall wipe away all Tears remove all your grief and raise you above all the storms of the World above all the miseries and troubles that cover the face of the Earth That you may be able to follow this Death more chearfully Remember that it draws you out of a place all polluted with Sin and infected with Impiety to transport you into a new Heaven adorned with Righteousness and Holiness and perfumed with the Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings of the Glorified Saints remember that it frees you from all remains of corruption and gives Deaths wound to all your Lusts Mind not so much the false appearance of Death for to the wicked it is as it were the Subburbs of Hell the jaws of the bottomless pit and the beginning of their endless Torments but to you Believers it is the Gate of Heaven an entrance into Paradice and a passage to a most happy Life Learn to relish now the Joys wherewith your Souls shall be for ever satisfied when God shall Crown you with his Glory and make you Drink of the Rivers of his Pleasure Seeing that your Soul is going to put on a Garment of an Immortal colour and to dwell for ever in the Palace which God hath built with his Almighty hand Cast off willingly this wretched crasie and corruptible Body depart willingly out of this Earthly Tabernacle which turns of it self into Dust Consider well that if it falls by Death it shall rise again at the Resurrection and that when it shall have been the Dwelling and the Food of Worms it shall at last become the Temple of God and the Tabernacle of his Glory Finally O Religious Souls shut your eyes to the World and to all the vanities in it which the World adores and aspire to the real advantages which God hath prepared for you before the Creation of the World and which you shall injoy when the World shall be no more Let your precious Faith and your blessed hope enter into Eternity it self to behold that extraordinary happiness and glory which God shall accomplish when he shall bring us both in Soul and Body into his Celestial Paradice to see his face in which is fulness of Joy Seeing that this perfect happiness and infinite Glory which never entered into the Heart and thoughts of Man shall never be perfectly accomplished but at that Day when Jesus Christ shall appear from Heaven to be glorified in his Saints and to become wonderful in all Believers Think alwayes upon this Glorious Day the end of all our wishes the fulfilling of all your hopes and the perfection of all the designes which God hath conceived in himself from all Eternity You Devout Souls that are grieved to see the World prosper and Satans Empire flourish to see Gods Children subject to all the Darts of Death take good courage and rejoyce with an holy Joy for shortly all the Enemies of God and of your Salvation shall be punished with an everlasting punishment as from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Shortly the Devil his Angels his Agents and Slaves shall be bound up in Chains of Darkness and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and shut up in the bottomless pit Shortly Death shall be no more and this Church of Jesus Christ ' whose Miseries and Afflictions cause you to weep shall be shortly cloathed with unspeakable light and glory It shall enter with Joy and Triumph into the Heavenly Jerusalem and you your selves shall sing with all the glorified Armies of Heaven Seeing that Christ shall come as a Thief in the Night and shall surprise all the Children of the World unawares prepare your Souls Believers with the love of God and an expectation of your Merciful Lord behave your selves in the same manner as you would do if you were now at the Eye of this great Festival as if you did spie already the breaking of this most happy day Entertain now the same affections and joy as if you did hear the voice of God and the Trumpet of the Archangel as if the Earth were already in a flame and as if Jesus Christ himself were coming in the Clouds of Heaven And seeing that no impure thing shall enter into the Heavenly and Holy Jerusalem and that without Holiness no Man shall see the face of God cleanse your selves Christians from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the Lord forsake all manner of Vice give your selves over to Vertue and to the practice of good Works imitate the diligence of the Faithful Servant that you may not be ashamed at the coming of your Great Master Take heed that you be not like the Wise Virgins that slept as well as the foolish but watch and pray that you may not enter into Temptation for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Redeem the time for the dayes are evil and make haste to put on the Garments of Righteousness and innocency fill your Hearts with the Holy Oyl of Faith of Hope and Charity Take your Lamps in your hands and let your Souls shine with a Divine Light In this blessed disposition let us go and meet our Heavenly Bridegroom and hasten his coming by our Prayers and Groans Let our Souls be full of Love let them sigh for our Divine Jesus and being moved with the same affection as St. John let us say to him with an earnest desire Come Lord Jesus and if he answers for certain I come quickly Let the Longing of our Souls increase more and more that we may be able to Pray more fervently and to cry out from the bottom of our Souls unto Heaven Come Lord Jesus even come Lord come quickly Amen A Prayer and a Meditation for a Believing Soul that rejoyceth and comforts it self in looking upon Deaths Destruction and the everlasting and Blessed Life which we hope to injoy both in Soul and Body after the Resurrection O Great Judge of the World bottomless Fountain of Life and happiness thy Gracious hand hath put into mine Heart the seeds of Immortality the first-fruits of Heavens Glory and the foretasts of everlasting Delights Thou hast made me to behold by Faith the joys and happiness of Paradice where thou shalt receive my Soul when it shall depart out of this wretched World and to Meditate upon the Glory which thou preparest for my Body when thou shalt take it to thy self to make it like to thy Glorious Body Now raise my thoughts and my hopes to this highest glory and happiness which thou hast promised to our
seek amongst the rarest and most precious Treasuries of Wit and Learning belonging to the Heathen Antiquity turn over the Writings of the most Eloquent Orators of the Subtlest Philosophers of the most famous Poets examine the Secrets of the most expert and experienced Physitians consider their Practice and all the Remedies that they prescribe to the Soul and you shall find them too unskilful to perform the least Cure They do but charm and divert the Disease hardens us against the evil they furnish us with a good exterior and teach us to bear a good Meen but they have no real Antidote against the Venome that kills the Principle of Life nor Remedy that reaches to the Heart And as the Torrents that dry up in the hottest seasons such Consolations that flow not from the Fountain of Life vanish away without effect and dry up to nothing when a deep sorrow fear and affliction seize upon a sinful Soul It seems the contrivers of the Heathens Religion were sensible of this Truth for they have dedicated Temples and erected Altars to all manner of gods and goddesses not only to Vertues and Health but also to Vices and Diseases to Fear Cowardise Anger the Feavor the Pestilence and an infinite more but they left Death out of their Devotions This is an open Declaration that they knew not how to strike acquaintance with Death and win its esteem and favor They had no Sacrifices nor Incense that could allay its fury they lookt upon it as their most inhumane and unreconcileable Enemy The very name of Death did terrify them therefore it was one of their most unfortunate Omens Adrian the Emperor is a witness of what I say he was one of the greatest Princes in former Ages he had made most part of the habitable World tremble under his Scepter and put to death an infinite number of Men but at last he trembled and was astonished himself at the approaches of Death he had overcome the most barbarous Nations and tam'd the most savage Beasts but when he came to this last Enemy he had no weapons fit for the Encounter therefore in this occasion he discovers the weakness and unconstancy of his Mind far more disturb'd than his Body was with the Disease Sometimes he did employ the Magick Art to retard Death sometimes he did make use of his Sword and Poison to hasten it at last he kill'd himself by an abstinence from Food necessary to entertain his life He had conquer'd all the World and given Peace and Happiness to his Empire but he could not overcome himself or appease the troubles of his Conscience he was so far from satisfying the troublesome thoughts of his Soul that he suffers himself to be overwhelmed with despair he flatters his Soul in hastening its ruine for when his Disease did suffer him to breath he talkt unto it in this manner My little Soul my dearest Companion Thou art now going to wander in obscure Cold and strange places Thou shalt never jest again according to the wonted custom thou shalt never give me any sport or pleasure any more But some may say that Adrian was a powerful Monarch but no great Philosopher that he knew how to Govern and was well acquainted with the Politicks but that he was ignorant of the Morals and had no skill to dye well To answer this Objection let us give an example of one without exception who will satisfy all Opponents Aristotle is generally esteem'd to have been the Subtlest and the most Learned of the Heathen Antiquity he was the Prince of all the Philosophers the Glory of his Age and the Founder of his Sect when his excellent Soul had viewed all things examined the Heavens searcht among the excellencies of the Earth pryed into all the Wonders of the World and found out the rarest Secrets of Nature He could never find any solid Comforts against the apprehensions of Death Notwithstanding all his admirable Subtleties and his profound Learning the fears of this cruel Death terrifies his Conscience in such a manner that he confessed That of all terrible things Death was the most dreadful CHAP. 3. Of divers sorts of Death with which we must encounter WHen David had a design to fight with Goliah he could not make use of the Armor of King Saul therefore he took a smooth stone out of his Bag cast it with his Sling struck the Philistine in the Forehead and brought down this proud Giant who had defied the Armies of Israel We have already examined and tried all the Armor of humane Wisdom and Learning laid up in the Storehouses of the greatest wits of former Ages and we have found that they are not able to yield us any benefit when we shall encounter with Death Let us therefore now see whither we may overcome this Proud Enemy with the Sling of our mystical David with the weapons of our Divine Shepheard but before we begin the Encounter let us look and behold it in the face The enemy that I intend that you should overcome is a Monster with three Heads for there are three sorts of death the Corporal the Spiritual and the Eternal The Corporal Death is a separation of the Soul from the Body although our Body hath been fashioned with the Finger of God it is but a weak and frail Vessel made with the slime of the Earth but our Soul is of an Heavenly Spiritual and Immortal Substance it is a Sparkle and a Raie of the Godhead and the lively Image of our great Creator for when God had made our first Parent He breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life Gen. 2.7 that we might thereby understand that our Souls do proceed from his immediate hand therefore he is named the Father of spirits Heb. 12. and The faithful Creator of Souls 1 Pet. 4. This Soul doth raise us a degree above all the Animals and above the Celestial Bodies and renders us like to the Angels of Heaven It is the Light that enlightens us the Salt that preserves us from Corruption In one word by this Soul we live enjoy our Sences move and understand as soon as this Angelical Guest leaves its Lodging and Earthly abode it looseth all Beauty and falls of it self into an inevitable ruine For this Flesh that we entertain with care and pamper with all manner of Dainties doth then corrupt and rot after that it hath been stretcht awhile upon Beds of Gold and richly attired in Purple and Scarlet it is cast upon a Bed of Worms and covered with the vilest insects of the Earth notwithstanding all its former perfumes it yields then a most horrid stink before it did ravish the eyes of the Beholders with its admirable Beauty but now it becomes so odious and horrible that the living care not to see it at last it is reduc'd to ashes according to the Sentence that was pronounc'd in the Earthly Paradise Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return The Spiritual Death is the separation
of the Soul from God our Creator for he being the Soul of our Souls and the Light of our Life assoon as we depart from this source of Light and Life we fall into an Abysse of Darkness and Death For all those that depart from God shall perish Psal 73. As the Members when they are cut off from the Body do commonly rot and as the Twig withers when it is separated from the Vine so in a separation from God we can neither live move nor have a Being and as it is with the Body separated from the Soul it nourisheth a nest of Worms that devour it and sends forth a most insufferable stench so it is with our Soul when it is at a distance from God it brings forth a multitude of evil affections that torment and consume it and the ill scent of its crimes are odious to Heaven and Earth of this kind of death our Saviour speaks to the Jews in this manner If you do not believe that I am he you shall dye in your sins John 8. And to the Angel of the Church of Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3. This same Death St. Paul mentions in the 2 Chap. of the Coloss and 2 of the Ephes When you were dead in your trespasses and sins God hath quickened us together with Christ and elsewhere he exhorts a sinfull man Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light Eph. 5. And it is of the same kind of Death that St. Paul speaks of concerning the Lecherous Widow that She is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. It was this kind of Death that Adam suffered assoon as he had tasted of the forbidden Fruit according to Gods threatening In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death For not only his body became subject to Death and Corruption but his Soul also was cast into the death of Sin and enslaved to corruption It happened to him as to a Lamp newly put out the snuff yields a most ill-favour'd scent As the life of Grace is a preparation to the life of Glory as it furnisheth us with a fore-tast of the Heavenly joys so on the contrary the Spiritual Life is as it were the Suburbs of Hell it is the first beginning of an Eternal death and the mouth of the infernal Pit The Eternal Death is nothing else but an entire and irrecoverable separation of the Soul and Body from God accompanied with infinite Torments Torments indeed unto which all the sufferings of this mortal life are but light and inconsiderable scratches nevertheless as the spirit of God doth represent the Heavenly joys and felicities by the things that are most pleasant and delightful thus to express unto us Hells Torments it borrows the things that are the most dreadful and painful in this life We are told of an Abysse or Furnace full of flames a bottomless pit burning with fire and brimstone The Scripture mentions Chaines of darkness an Eternal night and an Hell fire where there are weeping and knashing of Teeth it tels us that Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isai 30.33 Fancy to your selves a Man devoured with Worms burning in hot Flames who is broken and tortured continually in whose wounds kindled Brimstone is poured without intermission with boyling Lead and burning Pitch and if there be any other Torment more grievous and horrid fancy it also All this will give us but a light and an imperfect image of Hell torments for all the pangs of the Body are nothing in comparison to the horrors troubles and incredible griefs that shall for ever rack and torture the damned Souls in Hell As sname doth aggravate our sufferings and render them more terrible the damned shall be loaden with Shame and Infamy for all Eternity their names shall be hateful to God and his Holy Angels and they shall be cursed with an endless Curse And as it is an increase to our Torment to suffer in the company of abominable Varlets and to become a companion of the most infamons Executioner they shall suffer with Hells Executioner and shall be sent to the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels All their senses shall share in these horrid Torments they shall be crusht in the Wine-press of Gods Eternal Wrath and they shall feel for ever and ever the stroaks of Gods vengeance and of his Almighty hand They shall then learn by experience what a terrible thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God and how unsufferable that fire is that shall consume his Enemies their Eyes shall perceive nothing but the bottomless pit the Devils image and the Furies of Hell their Ears shall hear nothing but the horrible outcries and fearful roarings of the Tormented Devils and damn'd souls They shall be choakt with the noisome smell and fumes of the bottomless pit they shall then drink the very Dregs and the bottom of Gods anger and indignation and they shall suck the venom of his Arrows Fire and Brimstone shall be the portion of their Cup. Psal 11. The sufferings of this life are but short and for a moment but the Torments of the damned shall never end Their Worm dieth not and their fire shall never be quenched Mar. 9. Revel 20. They shall be tormented day and night for all Eternity when they shall have suffer'd as many thousand Ages as there be drops of water in the Sea or grains of Sand on the shore it shall be but the beginning of their grief they shall live for ever to dye continually and they shall dye and never be consum'd in the midst of those hot flames they shall beg a drop of water to cool their tongue Luk. 16. but we may say of this Fire that shall torture the damned what the Spouse in the Canticles saith of the Divine love that had enflamed her Soul Many waters cannot quench it neither can the flouds drown it Cant. 8. And St. Paul tels us that the things that God hath prepared for them that love him eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor did it ever enter into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2. So on the contrary we may say that those things that God hath prepared for them that hate him Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor did never enter into the Heart of man From hence shall proceed their Rage Madness and despair they shall cry in Cains Language My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. when they shall see nothing but an extream misery and woful darkness they will curse God the King of all Creatures Isai 8. In their fury and rage they will eat their Tongues and blaspheme the great God of Heaven and Earth It had been far better for such
they began to draw near one another then the Nerves began to appear the Flesh to grow and to be covered with skin but there was no life until God Commanded the Prophet to prophecy again Thus saith the Lord Spirit come from the four winds blow upon these dead bodies and let them rise from the dead Then the Spirit entred into them they began to revive and they stood upon their Legs This is the lively and true image of the first resurrection for the Spirit of God that blows whither it listeth doth regenerate us by degrees John 3. and the new man is created in our hearts by little and little as the Child grows in its Mothers Womb. When Joshua brought the Children of Israel into the Land of Promise he did not destroy all the Cananites Josh 23. there remained some who became Scourges in their sides and Thorns in their Eyes Thus our true and Spiritual Joshua who hath led us into the kingdom of his Grace hath not altogether destroyed all our evil affections some yet remains that are like prickles in our sides and like swords that pierce through our souls They do yet render our life bitter and unpleasant and therefore we often desire death to come and put a period to this combat Sin was in possession of us as a strong man armed in an House but Jesus Christ is entred into our Souls and become the Master He hath therefore bound and chained sin and hath nailed it to his Cross But this furious Beast although it hath received a mortal wound and is ready to give up the last gasp it strugles and fumes within us our blessed Saviour hath extinguished with the Red Stream of his Blood the infernal flames of all our cursed affections but yet there remains in the ashes some sparkles of this devilish fire that do cause in us some furious fits This only merciful Redeemer of his infinite mercy hath loosed us from the Devils Chains but that we might have cause to be humbled to desire the increase of his Grace and to long for the advent of his Glory he leaves about us some of the troublesome Fetters by his Holy Spirit he files them off by degrees but one day he will take them away from us He doth now receive us as his beloved Children into the Celestial Kingdom of his Grace Joh. 11. nevertheless he suffers in us some ill-favoured reliques of sin and corruption At the voice of this Prince of Life that reaches to the very bottom of our hearts we are risen from the sepulchre of our Vices with our Grave-Cloaths about us as Lazarus when he came out of his Tomb we are like the antient Slaves that were set at liberty we bear upon our Forehead the visible marks of our antient slavery but one day our Lord Jesus Christ shall cover these marks of infamy and disgrace with an heavenly Diadem If you desire another image of our spiritual condition fancy to your selves a dead man cast into a foul Pit or Sink unto whom life is restor'd in a moment afterwards by degrees he is wash'd and cleans'd of the filth that covers his body We were not only dead of a Spiritual death but we were also overwhelmed in an Abysse of corruption and filth The Son of God hath pull'd us out of this Abysse and hath already restored unto us life but the dirt and putrefaction with which we were disfigured he washes it away by the waters of his Grace Zaâ— 13. For there is a fountain opened for sin in the House of David Isai 4. in the which God hath promised to wash away all the filth of the Daughter of Sion and all the bloud of Jerusalem and as it happened to the cruel King Adonibezech when the Tribe of Juda took him prisoner he lost the Thumbs of his Hands and the great Toes of his Feet but he did not suffer death until he was come to Jerusalem Thus our great God and Saviour the Prince of the Tribe of Juda hath cut off the strength and power of the old man that did tyrannize in our souls and hath deprived him of his venemous nails with which he did wound our hearts he hath also given him his mortal wound but he suffers him to enjoy a languishing life and will not take away his last breath until we bring him to the Gates of the heavenly Jerusalem But to speak more openly sin is yet in us but he doth not Reign for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath broken its Scepter and hath pull'd him from his Throne and as he hath taken from it all Command in us he constrains it to leave the possession of our souls by degrees As a strong and mighty King who having won the Battel pursues and drives his Enemy until he hath totally exposed him out of his kingdom so doth our Saviour deal with sin And as it happens with a Woman with Child in her old age there is in her Body two contrary lives that of the Mother and that of the Child the one decays and dies insensibly the other that is the Childs life grows and increaseth by degrees So it is in the faithful and regenerate Soul There are two lives that of Sin that the Scripture names the Old man and that of the New man which is created according to God in Righteousness and true Holiness the one diminishes and approacheth to its final end but the other grows and gathers strength until we arrive to the perfect stature of our Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit of God every day gets ground of our corruption and darkness As it happens with the Rivers of fresh water that encroach upon the Earth they undermine the nearest Banks or as the Sun when he riseth upon our Horison he drives before him all shadows until the Air be perfectly enlightned so it is with the Grace of God in our Souls CHAP. 5. Why we are yet subject to the Corporal or Natural Death and what advantage we do thereby receive in Jesus Christ THe wise King teacheth us in the 9 of the Ecclesiastes That the same accident happens to all to the righteous and to the wicked and to the clean and to the polluted to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not These words are to be understood of the several afflictions unto which we are exposed during this mortal life but we may apply it to the Natural Death for it is appointed unto all once to dye and after that the judgement follows Heb. 9. By one man sin is entred into the World and by Sin Death and thus Death is come upon all men because they have all sinned Rom. 5 Therefore when Joshua felt himself feeble and decaying he told the Children of Israel That he was going the way of all flesh Josh 23. and Job complains unto God I know that thou wilt reduce me to death and to the house appointed for all living Job 30. It was upon this subject that the Royal Prophet
in the face we shall not only contemn it but we shall also seek it boldly in its retreats and with an assured and undaunted countenance we shall behold Death let fly all its Arrows and Launces all its Thunderbolts without the least apprehension As it is with them who are not wont to see Savage Beasts they dare not draw near to them and can scarce look upon them without fear but such as are familiarly acquainted with them can touch them without apprehension and freely play with them Thus it is with those who have never had the confidence to look Death in the face they tremble and are fill'd with astonishment assoon as they see its approaches but those who do often behold Death are familiarly acquainted with it and therefore they can with confidence thrust their Fists into its jaws Moses fled away from his Rod when it was first turned into a Serpent but when he began to take it into his hands and saw that it return'd to its former shape and being he was far from running from it or entertaining the least apprehension of it but rather he made a very happy use of it and by Gods Command he wrought many great miracles Thus it is with Death it frights us at first but if we can but take hold of it with the hands of a true and lively faith it will be so far from scaring or frighting of us that it will discover to us a world of delightful Wonders Death therefore is so far from terrifying such as are accustomed with it that it fils them full of comfort and joy as a Child that looks upon his Father who hath a Vizard on his face is frighted and begins to cry but if he hath but the confidence to pull off the Vizard and take but notice of the loving smiles of his Parent hid under that horrid deformity he will not only cease from weeping and settle his mind but he will also leap for joy and embrace him Thus if we look upon Death with a timerous countenance and behold its hideous appearance we shall be struck with a sudden horror but if we can with any assurance lift up its ugly Vizard we shall soon discover our heavenly Father and with tears of Joy we shall run to embrace him as the Apostles when they espied our Saviour in the night walking upon the Waves of the Sea cried out in a fright thinking that it had been a Spirit but when he drew near to them and heard his voice they perceiv'd him to be their Saviour when therefore they took him into their Ship the storm ceas'd immediately Thus if we look upon Death at a distance the blindness and ignorance with which we are possess'd will represent to us a frightful Spirit but if we examine and behold it nearer by the help of the Gospel Light we shall find it to be our Salvation and the accomplishing of our Redemption All our fears will then be calm'd and our Souls will return to their former repose In a word as he that runs from his Enemy increases his courage and renders him more earnest and resolved to pursue him Thus when Death sees us tremble and decline its approaches it becomes more proud and imperious over us We must therefore think betimes of Death represent it to our selves continually and enter into an acquaintance with it it was holy Job's practice for he cried unto the Pit thou art my Father and to the Corruption and the Worms you are my Mother and my Sisters Job 16. And imagine that this was the chief reason of Philip of Macedon's commanding a Page every morning to rouse him up out of his sleep with O King remember that thou art a mortal man For by this often repeated Lesson he labour'd to humble his lofty mind and teach his frail nature not to glory too much in the splendor of his Crown and Scepter nor to abuse the power committed to his Trust By this means also he became acquainted with Death that it might not seem strange when it should come in earnest to snatch him away This was also the designe of that Emperor Meruaan or Meruanes who caused this Motto to be Engraven upon his Seal Remember that thou must dye These words did call to his mind that which his Courtiers did not dare to mention to him So that this great Prince never confirm'd with his Seal the death of any man but at the same time he did represent to himself that his own death was not to be avoided for the same reason the Noblemen of China are wont to have their Coffins ready made betimes in their Chambers that at every moment they might look Death in the face for the same cause the Aegyptians in their most sumptuous Feasts did commonly place a dead mans Scull in an eminent corner of the room by this spectacle they intended not only to oblige the Guests to a moderation of their Joys and to a curbing in of their unruly Lusts but also to bring them acquainted with and to accustome them to behold it amongst all their Delights They treated Death as if their designe had been to invite it to their most delicious Feasts that they might rejoyce together with it Iohn 19. I conceive that the Jews for the same cause did build their Sepulchres in their Gardens of Pleasure that they also might have the image of death continually before them and that in the midst of all their divertisements it might be their most pleasant and ordinary entertainment For us Christians to oblige us to think upon Death there is no need that a Page should remember us every day that we are Mortal nor that the Motto of a Ring should call to our minds that we must dye there is no need of a Coffin to be plac'd in our Chambers in such things there is many times more Ostentation than Piety nor is it needful that a dead mans Skull be put before our Eyes or that a Sepulchre be built or hewen in our Gardens and places of Recreation and Delight for as Alexander the Great understood that he was a Mortal Man by the Bloud that ran out of his Wounds Thus the Diseases unto which we are subject and the daily infirmities that we feel do sufficiently instruct and assure us that we are Mortals And as a famous Philosopher when he receiv'd the unhappy news of his only Son 's untimely death answer'd the Messenger with a setled countenance I knew said he that I had begot him a Mortal man Xenoph. Thus will the faithful say without change of countenance or appearance of fear when his death is declar'd to him I knew that my Mother had conceiv'd me a Mortal Man I knew very well that Death is the Tribute that we must all pay to Nature and that upon this condition I am enter'd into the world If we will make use of any exterior help to imprint this Lesson into our Fancy we must practice with care the advice of
we know not at what time nor in what place Death intends to come upon us let us expect it at every moment and in every place Seeing that we lodge in this Earthly Tabernacle without any loss or assurance of Time let us be ready to depart at the first warning for it will be far better for us to goe out willingly than to be drag'd out against our wills it is not convenient that Death should carry us away in the same manner as the Sea bears and tosseth a dead Corps upon its wayes But we must in this occasion imitate the discreet Pilate or Mariner that trims his Sails and helps by his Art the Winds and the Tide to drive him to his desired Haven We should not follow Death as the Malefactor follows the Executioner that leads him to suffer but as the Child follows his Father that conducts him to a Feast we should not engage him in a combat with Death by constraint as the antient Slaves did with the wild Beasts in the Roman Amphitheaters but we should imitate David's generosity who of his own accord march'd out of the Camp of Israel to fight with Goliah It is better for us to attack and seize upon Death than to be surprized and devoured by it unawares Come when thou wilt O Death thou shalt never surprize me for I wait for thee at every moment with my weapons ready in my hand Thou shalt never drag me forcibâ—y for I will follow thee willingly and joyfully Although thou art mine Enemy yet will I speak to thee in the Language of the Spouse in the Canticles to her beloved Draw me and I will run after thee Nay I will meet thee in the way and receive thee with hearty embraces for instead of dreading thy coming I desire it passionately and hope for it for at thy first arrival assoon as I shall have seen thee I shall have overcome thee O blessed and happy day that assures me of such a glorious Victory and of such an Eternal Triumph A Prayer and Meditation upon the continual expectation of Death O Gracious God in whose power alone and at whose pleasure are the Times and the Seasons I know that it is appointed to all men once to dye and that the Grave is the dwelling which thou hast prepared to receive all Mankind we understand sufficiently by the experience of former Ages that none is able to say I shall live and shall not see Death Thou O Almighty God our Supreme Judge hast pronounced our irrevocable Sentence in the Earthly Paradise that we must dye so that I should be guilty of the greatest folly and madness if I did not firmly believe that I must dye as others and follow at my turn in the way of all flesh But Lord thou hast been pleased to hide from our knowledge the wonderful proceedings of thy providence and dost not suffer us to see the Hand that marks out the last hours of our Life We can perceive no shadow to discover to us with certainty when shall be the going down of our Sun we know not at what hour of the day or of the night thou wilt call us away to appear before thy great Tribunal Give us therefore Grace O merciful God to be alway ready to answer to thy Call and to obey thy Holy Commands that I may be as a Ship at Anchor that stays only for a Wind to set her Sails forward or as a Soldier who waits only for the Signal to march to the Encounter Give me Grace O good Lord that I may be like the good and faithful Servant who expects his Masters coming and hears his voice assoon as he calls Or like the wise Virgins who were ready to meet the Bridegroom and to follow him into the Marriage Chamber seeing that I can never know neither the time nor the place when Death will come to me O that I might expect and wait for it at every moment and at every place O that I might live in such a manner as if I were always ready to dye That my Soul were always upon my Lips prepared to fly away That I were continually in readiness to commit it into thy hands O my God my Faithful and Merciful Creator By this means I shall receive Death with Joy when it comes as thy Servant and Messenger and I shall follow it willingly being certainly perswaded that it will lead me into Eternal Life and introduce me into thy Glorious and Immortal Palace Amen A Prayer and Meditation for Youth O Almighty God and Vniversal Light that enlightenest every Man coming into the World the only Author of my Being by whose Gracious allowance I breath Thou O Lord hast formed and fashioned my Body with thy Divine hand and hast put into it an immortal Soul created after thy likeness Thou hast not only bestowed upon me a Life but hast by thy continual care preserved my Soul and kept my Body from all the dangers unto which this weak and frail Nature is always subject Although I feel my self lusty and strong if thou withdrawest away from me thy Spirit and that Divine Vertue that sustains me I shall instantly fall away and return again into nothing from whence thine Almighty Hand hath taken me O merciful Lord seeing that I live by thee alone make me to live only to thee and for thee that all my actions may tend to thy Glory and Praise thee That I may consecrate to thee with all my heart the First-Fruits of my Life and the Flower of my Age that I may remember my Creator in the days of my Youth and that I may abstain from Vice before the Time come in which I shall say That I have no pleasure therein O Father of Mercies pardon and forgive all the Sins and Infirmities of this foolish and unconsiderate Youth Give a stop to all the unruly motions and repress the violent attempts of this boiling Age tame this miserable Flesh that is not obedient to the will of its God That if the dread of thy Holy and great Name and the respect that I owe to thy Sacred Eyes that behold me are not sufficient to recall me from the Commission of sin and to oblige me to obedience Give me Grace to look continually upon Death that appears round about me and it may be in my very bosom Give me Grace to listen daily to the Heavenly voice that calls me to come forth before the Tribunal of the Great Judge of the World who spies my most secret actions who reads the most inward thoughts of my mind and examines all the passages of this most wretched life O that this flourishing Age and this perfect Health that I enjoy might never flatter me with the conceit of being free from and out of the reach of Deaths merciless Darts But let me remember that there are more Flowers and Blossoms that fall to the ground than Men gather of Fruits and that more tender and young Plants are taken up
by the Root then are hewen down of old and overgrown Trees O that I might have always in my mind this consideration That a greater number of Babes and Children are buried than of old Men and that the first person who was dead and buried in the Earthly Paradise was but a young Man in the flower of his Age. Great God of the Spirits of all flesh wean my Heart and Affections from the World from all deceitful Pleasures and from these inferior Vanities that I may find in thee all my Joy and my most ravishing Delights Let me not feed my fancy with the vain hopes of having yet many years to spend in ease and in the pleasure of this life but let me remember that there is no part of it free from evils from crosses cares and displeasures That the greenest Fruit hath many times a secret Worm that devours it as well as the ripâ—st and that the freshest blossom hath prickles as well as the most flourishing or decaying Roses The more I shall live in this miserable and corrupted Age the more evil I shall suffer and the more bitterness I shall drink and the more I shall spot my Soul and offend my God I shall have liv'd sufficiently if I have learnt to live well and to prepare to dye well I shall do both if thine Holy Word become my guide and if thine Holy Spirit Sanctify me and Direct me in thy Will which is Good Holy Pleasant and Perfect Assist and strengthen me O Lord that I may find thy Yoke easy and thy burden light O good God if thou prolongest my days increase in me the Riches of thy Grace and enflame my Soul with thy Love but if thou dost cut me off betimes let me not be so great an Enemy to my self as to be sorry because thou wilt so soon transport me into an happy and immortal Estate because thou art pleas'd to abridge my Labors to put a period to the cruel War against my filthy Lusts and to bestow upon me the Crown in the middle of my Race I shall obtain sufficient Glory and Comfort if thou dost grant me strength enough to overcome the Devil vanquish Death and triumph over the Enemies of my Salvation O let me not be so mad and foolish to lament for the loss of a moment that flies away apace Seeing thou dost promise to introduce me into an Eternity where there is no alteration nor shadow of change and where thou shalt bless me with an eternal flourishing and happy Youth O my good God I am ready to Glorify thee either in Death or in Life seeing that thy Son Jesus Christ is to me gain whether I live or whether I dye Amen A Prayer and Meditation for Old Age. O God the Antient of days and Father of Eternity it is thy pleasure that in every Season and Age thy Children be prepared for Death I have therefore good cause O Lord to prepare and dispose my self for that last hour I who have already a foot in the Grave Grant I beseech thee that the more this outward Man decays the more the inward man may be renewed day by day That this weak and infirm Body that stoops towards the Earth teach me to lift up my Mind and thoughts towards Heaven Grant that old Age that hath furrowed my Face and wrinkled my Skin may also wipe off all the spots of my Soul and drive from my Heart all displeasure and grief That Age that causes my Knees to quiver and whitens my Skin may strengthen my Faith and refresh my Hope and Assurance upon thee and that Death that pursues me close at the heels may cause me to seek a shelter under the protection of the Prince of Life O Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth thou seest the pitiful condition unto which I am reduc'd I am become a trouble to my self and useless in the world my Soul is weary of its abode by reason of the griefs that it endures for I do but lead a dying Life or rather a living Death My Good God and Creator I have been under thy protection before I was born from the Womb of my Mother thou hast bin my God and assured Refuge Thou O Gracious Lord hast bless'd my Infancy and Youth and crown'd all my years with thy Fatherly Grace and loaden me with thy Blessings Leave me not I pray thee in my white and decrepid old Age and now that my strength faileth be thou the Rock of my Soul and the strength of my Life My years are pass'd as a Torrent of Waters at present I am nothing but the shadow of a shadow that ceaseth to be but thou art always the same and thy years shall never fail As thou hast no beginning thou shalt never have an end Renew my days as the Eagles Animate I beseech thee and quicken this Death these Ashes that I carry but rather reach to me thy hand and take me out of this Dwelling of Clay that rots and decays with age into thine Heavenly Jerusalem I have lost all tast of earthly Meats and Drink It is now high time that thou shouldest satiate me with the Dainties of thy Holy Table and give me to drink of the Wine of thy Kingdom I am already as out of the World my life holds but by a weak string O Gracious Lord now let thy Servant depart in Peace according to thy word for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation Amen CHAP. 9. The Third Remedy against the fears of Death is to consider that God hath appointed the time and the manner of our Death EIther we are Hypocrites who draw near unto God with our Lips and honor him with our Tongues whilst our Heart is far from him Matth. 14. as we must desire the accomplishment of the Will of God and resigne our selves wholly to it for every day we say to him in our Prayers Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Therefore we cannot abhor nor fly from Death so cowardly if we be rightly perswaded as we ought That God hath limited the Time and appointed the manner of our Death That which moves us for the most part to complain of this last Enemy is a continual eye that we have sixed upon the Flesh and its Power and a too great confidence upon second causes We are like the dog that bites at the stone that strikes him for we commonly curse the means that God employs to call and withdraw us out of the World It will easily appear that God hath numbred our days and that by his wonderful and eternal Wisdom he hath decreed the hour and moment of every mans death for besides what our Saviour Christ saith in general That God hath reserv'd the Times and the Seasons in his own power Acts 1. Job tels us expresly The days of Man are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Job 14. The Royal Prophet speaks to the same purpose
Saints and of thy blessed and Glorious Angels Amen A Prayer and Meditation upon the manner of our Death O God the Creator of all flesh and Father of the immortal Spirits I know that all manner of Deaths of thy Children are precious in thy sight and that howsoever they shall happen thou wilt take care of my Soul when I consider all things I sind that it matters not whether my Soul gets out by my Lips or by a wound so that it enters into thy Glory to enjoy thine Eternal Happiness What difference is there if my Lamp goes out of its own accord or if it be blown out by some envious blast so that it be lighted again by the immortal beams of the Son of Righteousness and continuâ— for ever Glorious in the highest Heavens I shall be sufficiently happy if I dye in the Lord and enter into mine Eternal Rest from all my Labors in what manner soever Death assaults me from all Eternity O Lord thou knowest all thy works and with a glance of thine Eye thou discoverest the depths and seest the bottom of Eternity As thou hast marked out and appointed the moment of my death thou hast also ordained the manner of it I must O Almighty God repose my self upon this wonderful and wise Providence and be contented with thy uncontroulable Decrees but O my God and Heavenly Father if thou wilt give me the liberty who am but Dust and Ashes to speak unto thee and to send up the thoughts of my Heart I beseech thee to be so Gracious as to let me know my end that I may not be surprised on a sudden by an unexpected death as Job's Children and so merciful as to give me timely notice of my departure as thou didst to thy servant Hezekiah I desire not the notice of many years but of a few days or at least of a few hours immediately before that my Soul may not be disturb'd with evil thoughts nor frighted with false conceits and malicious suggestions of the Devil but that I may end my days with all tranquility and satisfaction of mind that I may always have a perfect use of my sences of my reason and understanding and a certain perswasion of thy Grace and Favor that I may glorify thy name and edify my acquaintances until the last moment of my departure Suffer not therefore my Soul to be snatch'd away by force on a suddain but that I may have time to commit it into thy merciful hands Amen A Prayer and Meditation for one that dies in a strange Countrey in the midst of Infidels O My God and Heavenly Father how painful and grievous is this trial who can express the troubles of my mind at the moment of my most urgent necessity and of all the troubles of my mind at the time of my Agony I see my self destitute of all humane assistance Here I am at a distance not only from my natural soil and fare from the pleasant company of my friends and deprived of all spiritual Comfort of which I have at present greatest need in my extremity but also to my unspeakable grief here I am in a barbarous Countrey in the hands of my most inhumane and unreconcileable Enemies I have no body to comfort and rejoyce me nor to strengthen me in the faith of my Saviour Christ all things that appear before me do increase and add to my trouble I am here among the Enemies of the Truth who labour to destroy my interest in Christ and to cause me to perish now that I am entering into the Haven of Eternity I must encounter with Death with Hell it self and with the subtle insinuations of the infernal Spirits O Almighty and merciful Lord suffer me not to lose courage and to yield to the present temptations By thy wonderful Providence and out of the Treasuries of thy Mercy supply all my wants and infirmities and grant that I may with the Shield of faith quench all the siery Dorts of the Devil I am beset with many visible and invisible Enemies but they that are for me are more in number then they that are against me It is true I am far from my Native Countrey but I am not one jott farther from Heaven whereof the Earth is the Center I am at a distance from all my Earthly friends but nothing can put me at a distance from thee O good God who lovest me with an unchangeable affection I am in the imbraces of mine Heavenly Father and of my God I have not the comfort of a Minister to assist and help me in my grief and pain but I know that thou wilt send to me thine Holy Angels as once to thy beloved Son in his bitter Agony These Angels shall protect me against all the power of the Prince of darkness Thou wilt administer unto me thy self the sweet comforts of thy Salvation thy Rod and thy Staff will assist me in this Valley and Shadow of Death O Lord thou dost things that are not to be searched out and so many wonders thot it is not possible to number them Thy Grace is sufficient for me and thy power is made manifest in mine infirmities thine Holy Spirit who is the true comforter and the great Power of the Almighty shall refresh me in these my afflictions and in all things shall made me more than Conqueror Thou art stronger than all other beings so that I am perswaded nothing can ravish me out of thine hands I am certain that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature can separate me from the love that thou hast declared to me in Jesus Christ my Lord This precious faith with which thou hast enabled my Soul shall vanquish the World triumph over Hell and destroy Death in its own Empire Amen A Prayer and Meditation upon the death of a beloved Person O My God I acknowledge that there is nothing certain nor unchangeable on Earth but thy precious and Holy Promises therefore it becomes us to enjoy the things of the World as not enjoying them Thou hast snatch'd out of my embraces and pull'd from my bosom my greatest Darling and most intimate friend by this means thou hast open'd my Heart and torn my Bowels thou hast separated me from my self so that my life is but a burden and a pain to me I did often look upon this pleasant object of my love as a gift from above and a mark of thy favour and liberality It was my greatest joy and my seetest comfort The day that it took away loaded me with sorrows and overwhelmed me in a Sea of grief That which doth most disturb me is That I am afraid that this is a streak and an effect of thine anger and justice Lord my God I must needs acknowledge that I have grievously offended thee seeing thou dost thus chastise me with so much severity and makest me to feel so sharp
good Heli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good or with thy Servant Job The Lord gave the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Thou hast pluckt out that strong root that did tye me to this Earth and hast out the pleasant string that did bind me so fast to the world that thou mightest transplant my heart in Heaven and lift up my affections to the things above A part of my self which I lookt upon as my Treasure is already with thee and the wings of Divine Love that enflames me caries me thither also at every moment Instead of continuing in my Sighs Groans and Tears for him or for her that I loved with all the affection and tenderness that I am capable of Give me Grace to employ my self in preparing to depart out of this earthly Tabernacle Enable me to imitate the Piety Zeal Faith and Constancy and all the other Noble Vertues of those whom thou hast received into thine Eternal Rest and crowned with Glory Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last End be like his Amen CHAP. 10. The fourth Remedy against the fears of Death to separate our Hearts from the World THe Children of Israel did leave the Wilderness with a ready mind and went joyfully over the River of Jordan when God Commanded them so to do The cause of this their readiness was an earnest longing for the Land of Canaan and their unsetled condition in the Wilderness having nothing but Tents to live in Death is to us the same in regard of our Heavenly Paradise as the River of Jordan was to the Children of Israel in respect of the promised Land Therefore from hence it appears that the best means of obliging our selves to a resolution of entring into this passage willingly is to free our selves from all those things which might incumber as stop or tye us to the World and to keep our selves always in a readiness to depart For that purpose it is not necessary that we should go out of the World but that the World should be banished and driven out of us and that we should renounce all the vanities and unruly affections so that we may be able to speak with the Apostle The world is crucified to me and I am crucified to the world for there be many who depart out of the World but leave there their Hearts and most tender Affections as Lot's Wife that went out of Sodom but left therewith her Treasures and Delights her most earnest desires as the Israelites who when they went out of Egppt left behind them their cursed affections with their pots of Flesh and Onions The same thing happens to many who separate themselves without any necessity from the acquaintance of Mankind and who affect a strange and austere kind of life They leave the society of wise and vertuous persons and the lawful use of the Blessings which Heaven hath vouchsafed to them and they deprive themselves of all that deserves our esteem and the means of glorifying God and edifying our neighbors but many times they carry with them their Corruptions their Vices and a legion of wicked Thoughts and carnal Desires By this means they give place to the Devil and expose themselves to all his temptations for that wicked Serpent delights himself rather in the Dens of Wild Beasts and in the Caves of the Earth than in the Palaces and Dwellings of Princes and Kings The most horrid and abominable Vices creep and breed rather in the Desarts and places of Retreat than in Publick and in the great Cities that are full of Inhabitants Lot remain'd chast in the most execrable City that was in the World but when he went aside to the foot of a Mountain and into a Cave to dwell he defiled himself with a monstruous Incest When Satan intended to tempt our Saviour Christ he carried him into a Desart and to the top of a Mountain From hence we may gather that this subtil Enemy of Mankind hath learnt by his long experience that the places of Retreat and the most solitary are the fittest for to lay his snares If our Saviour who was wholly innocent and free from Sin hath been able to overcome all manner of Temptations we are not of the same temper we are not furnished with such Armor as he was of Proof against all the enflamed Darts of the Devil for our miserable Flesh delights in its own destruction it opens the Ears and the Heart wide to the deceitful promises of Satan and suffers it self to be cheated by his damnable Enchantments It flatters us and causeth us to be â—ull'd aslcep in its bosom then like a treacherous Dalilah it betrays us into the unmerciful hands of our great Enemy Some cloath themselves with Hair and wear at their Girdle a knotted Cord whom the Devil drags to Hell with the invisible Chains of Lust Others climb up to the top of frozen Mountains and yet their Hearts do burn with impure Flames Some fret themselves in a mournful solitariness whose desires and longings are for the world and its vanities Others have their hands lifted up to Heaven whose mind is enslaved to the Earth and rooted in the rotten and filthy pleasures of the Times Some have a Lamp burning before them whose understanding is wrapt in gross darkness more palpable than that of Egypt Others have an empty Stomach whose Soul is full of abominable Passions In short Some live in appearance like Angels and yet they are possessed by legions of infernal Spirits Other seem to have no concernment in the World and yet lodge the whole World in their Hearts Under a course Habit there dwells oftimes more Envy more Vanity and Ambition than under the glorious attire of Silk and Gold Through a torn cloathing some Souls may be perceived swell'd with Pride and Arrogancy and in the company of Beggars are to be found many times the Designes of Kings and the lofty thoughts of the greatest Monarchs To speak plainly the good things and advantages of this life don't stop and wed us of themselves to this World but rather that Love and Affection which we bear to them for without doubt there be many that are more earnest and affectionate for the things that they want than others that enjoy them Some poor people have a far greater longing for Riches than ever Solomon had in the midst of all his great Treasures Some silly Women that are covered with old Rags and some contemptible Joanes have more Vanity and Pride in their Brains than ever had Queen Esther in her Richest and most Glorious Attire The Prophet Daniel was rais'd to an high and eminent Honour for he was the Governor of the third part of the Monarchy of the Persians and of the Medes nevertheless he was no more concerned in Babylon than if he had had there but a Sepulcre and worn the Chains of a Slave he sends forth as many Sighs and pours as many Tears
general to sell what they have without exception and to give it to the poor The Commandment was given upon this occasion This vain glorious Pharisee did boast of having kept all the Commandements of God from from his youth up To remove this good opinion of himself out of his mind and to give a vent to the swelling of his Pharisaical Pride our Lord puts him to a Trial enjoyning him to sell all his Goods and to give them to the poor At these words the poor young man went away very sad in a confusion because he had much Riches and his Heart and greatest affections were with his Treasures By this proceeding he discovered that he was far from loving God with all his Heart and with all his Soul and with all his Strength because that it did appear that he did love his worldly possessions more than Christ and his Blessedness You may therefore understand without difficulty devout Souls that this Commandement that was made to this young man extends not to all in general If it had been otherwise the Holy Apostles who were mindful of every thing that did tend to perfection would not have rested satisfied with the loss of their Goods to follow Christ as they declared to him themselves We have left all and have followed thee Matth. 19. But they would have totally quitted all their enjoyments and would have reserved nothing for themselves which they did not for St. John Christ's beloved Disciple had a Dwelling House where he entertain'd the Holy Virgin after our Saviours death John 19 And the other Apostles had their Ships their Nets and Tackling therefore after Christs Resurrection they returned to their Fishing Trade Our Saviour upon this occasion of the young mans refusing to obey this express and particular Command of selling his goods and giving them to the poor Informs his Disciples That it is hard for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he explains in another place this passage in such a manner that he leaves not the least difficulty in it when he saith That it is hard for them who put their confidence in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God Mat. 19. By this we may understand that he speaks not of all rich Men in general but of such only who put their trust in their Riches therefore the Apostle St. Paul don't Command the rich Men to cast away their Estates and Goods but he advises them not to put their confidence in them so as to become more vain and prouder In this manner he speaks to Timothy Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain Riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. Here are therefore the best directions according to my judgement for a true Christian who desires to be acceptable to God to attain to the dispositions necessary for an happy Death First we must employ our most assidual and earnest endeavours and affections for the Eternal advantages of the Soul and of the Life to come we must thirst impatiently for the Graces of God and for the Gifts of his Holy Spirit we must sigh and long for the spiritual Riches of the Soul and labour with all our strength to attain to the uncorruptible Crown and the immortal Glory of Heaven Christ gives us this Holy and safe advice Seek saith he first the Kingdom of God-and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Mat. 6. And elsewhere Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth unto everlasting life John 6. 2. As the good King Solomon built first the Lord's House and then laid the foundation of his own Palace Thus we ought to proceed to labour first for the advancement of God's Kingdom and the edificatiof his Church then we may have liberty to employ our selves about the affairs of this present life and about our worldly concerns but our Employment and Calling must be just and allowed by the Laws of God and of Man for he that gains Riches by unlawful Arts is but a Thief and a Robber 3. Before we engage in any work we must pray to God to vouchsafe his Blessing to it and speak to him as Moses Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us yea the work of our hands establish thou it Psal 90. For without his Assistance and Blessing all our labors will be in vain and to little purpose It is God that makes poor and makes rich that lifts up and abaseth 1 Jam. 2. Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. The Royal Prophet is of the same judgement when he saith If the Lord buildeth not the City their labor is but lost that build it 4. Our Labors must be without murmurings and mistrusting God's Providence we must banish out of our minds all idle thoughts and groundless expectations that disturb us Psal 107. We must pluck out of our hearts all the cares and displeasures that trouble us We must imprint in our minds that excellent Sentence of David Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee Psal 5. and that of St. Peter Cast all your care upon him for he careth for you 1 Pet. 5. We must remember our Saviours charge Take heed to your selves least at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life Luk 21. 5. Above all things we must beware of the slavish vice of Covetousness that denies God's good Providence and his fatherly Care To that purpose St. Paul exhorts us in express words Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. That he might beget in us an aversion of this infamous Vice St. Paul tels us They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. He adds next For the love of Money is the root of all evil which which some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Colos 3. The same Apostle declares That Covetousness is Idolatry and that it shall never inherit the kingdom of God Eph. 5. Therefore we ought to follow the wise King's advice Labour not to be rich but forbear from any such designe Prov. 25. 6. If God is pleased to afflict us with poverty and to cast us down in the dust of a mean Estate notwithstanding our continual labors in a lawful Calling Let us endeavour to possess our Souls with patience look upon Christ our Saviour who for our sakes became poor although he was rich that we might be enriched with his poverty Let us beseech him
is by the vertue of Gods Divine Spirit which he hath bin graciously pleased to grant unto us and if the persons that we love and cherish as tenderly as your souls or those whom we are to reverence and honor labor to stir up the bowels of our compassion and to impede us in our Holy resolutions by base and earthly considerations let us tell them as our Saviour did to Mary Magdalene Le me alone for I am going to my Father John 20. Stop not my course for I hold already the prize and the promised Crown In short as Abraham let the Ram loose whereof the Horns were taken in a Thicket and offer'd it up in Sacrifice to God Gen. 21. Likewise let us free our minds from all worldly cares and carnal affections Let us offer them up all to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice let us present them as a Burnt-offering consume them in the Flames of an Holy Zeal and love of his Divine Majesty When the Christian shall be thus prepar'd he shall never stand in fear of Death he will say to it with an assured countenance Come when thou wilt O Death I desire no reprieve for along while ago I have setled my affairs and wait for thee with patience the chief part of my self is not here below my Heart is already ravish'd into Heaven where God expects me with Arms wide open Therefore notwithstanding thy fearful darkness and the designe that thou hast to destroy me I will follow thee as couragiously and as joyfully as St. Peter did the Angel of Light that open'd to him the Gates of his Prison and freed him from his Chains Acts 12. A Prayer and Meditation for such as prepare for Death by a renunciation of the World O Infinite Lord of Heaven and Earth who dispossest of good and evil by thy Divine Providence and admirable Wisdom thou hast not suffer'd us to have here a lasting City that we might seek for that which is to come Thou dost discover before our eyes the vanity and unconstancy of all things under the Sun that we might labor to attain to solid and everlasting advantages Thou hast placed and reserved in Heaven an inexhaustible Treasure of Riches uncorruptible Crowns of Glory and Eternal Triumphs that thither we might transport our Heart and affections The source of Heavenly pleasures is with thee that we might always be athirst for the strong and living God and that we might desire with an Holy earnestness to look upon thy beautiful and glorious Face Most Glorious Creator seeing thou hast bestowed upon me an â—mmortal Soul suffer me not to be so wretched as to content my self with these mortal vanities and seeing thou hast made it of a Spiritual and Heavenly nature suffer me not to be so unhappy as to wallow in this miserable dust of the Earth or to cast my self into the puddle and dirt of carnal Lusts Give me Grace to renounce the World and all the Vanities that the World adores Give me Grace to possess all these decaying and perishing things as not possessing them that I may tramble upon all the pomp and glory of the Age that I may consider that the Gold the Silver the precious Jewels whereof the apparent beauty deceives the carnal eyes of Men is nothing else but hardened Earth that will crumble away and dissolve into Dust that I may remember that after my decease all these things will profit me no more than that vile Earth and the Stones that shall cover my dead Corps or the Wood or Lead which shall be given to it for a Coffin Give me grace to despise all the Honors and Dignities after which the Men of the World run so impatiently for they are but like a shadow that passeth away and like the smoak that ascendeth up put of our reach Pluck out of my heart the cares of this life and all solicitousness for the Earth that Death may never surprize me unawares and that there may be nothing to stop or hinder from going to thee when thou shalt be pleased to call me that my soul being totally disengag'd and freed from all these Bryars and Thorns I may be always ready at every moment to be offered unto thee as a living and a burnt Sacrifice The Children of Israel did fix and raise their Camp at thy Command Give me also Grace to be as ready prepar'd to live and dye to remain in this Tabernacle and to depart out of it when thou shalt send thine Orders and as this people did pass over the River Jordan with a wonderful joy to take possession of the promised Land O that I might also leave this miserable Wilderness with transports of joy to enter into the Celestial Canaan where the Milk and Hony of Divine Pleasures and of Eternal Comforts flow as in their natural Channel O God who art my portion and mine inheritance cast me not away with the men of the World whose portion is in this life Thou dost fill their paunch with thy good things they are full and leave sufficient for their Babes but for me all my comfort is that I shall behold thy face in Righteousness and shall be sanctified when I awake with thy likeness Amen CHAP. 11. The Fifth Remedy against the fears of Death is to renounce Vice and to apply our selves to the practice of Piety and Sanctification GOd is so wonderful in all his Works and he governs all his Creatures in such a manner that his very Enemies are constrain'd to acknowledge this Truth You have an excellent example in Balaam who beholding the Tents of the Children of Israel breaks out into this passionate wish Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 25. He was a wicked Varlot that loved the wages of iniquity nevertheless he perceived by that Prophetical Light with which his Soul was enlightened how sweet and comfortable Death was to such as addict themselves in this life to the service and fear of Almighty God and how different it is from the death of the profane Worldlings who give themselves over to their Lusts and Delight in the unlawful pleasures of the Flesh for as the Drunkards sleep with a disturb'd and unquiet fancy likewise such as are drunken and full with the base and rotten pleasures of this life if they be not hardened by Atheisme do commonly depart out of the World with strange frights and horrid gripings of Conscience that cannot be express'd It is otherwise with a good Christian for as the Handicrafts man who hath work'd all the day in his Shop and the Husbandman who hath wearied himself in following his Plow lays himself down at night in peace so it is with a good Christian who hath carefully attended the works of Piety and Mercy in this life he sleeps his last sleep with a great quiet of mind and satisfaction of soul as righteous Jacob when he travelled a journey to his Mothers friends with his Fathers
Hearts and Affections of all such as behold thy Perfect and Divine Beauty 27. On the contrary there is nothing so ugly and ill-favour'd as sin it is a woful Monster of Hell and a frightful Image of Satan It is true that it disguises it self and takes a beautiful appearance but if you lift up this borrowed Mask you shall perceive the Devils fearful looks and the depths of Hell 28. Faithful Souls weigh in the ballance of the Sanctuary the fearful evils that sin hath brought into the World it hath blotted out God's Image and defaced the Beauty of the Creation it hath put a division between Heaven and Earth and kindled a grievous War between God and Man it is an heavy burden under which Nature it self groans for because of sin all Creatures sigh and are in labor until now 29. It continues yet its woful Effects for it is Sin that grieves the Holy Spirit that afflicts the Angels that offends the Weak that hardens the Ignorant and that gives an occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme his Holy Name and to curse his Gospel Rom. 8. It is Sin that pleaseth the Devil that rejoyceth Hell that upholds the tottering walls of Babylon that strengthens the Kingdom of the Prince of Darkness and that causeth him to work with efficacy in the Hearts of the Children of Rebellion Eph. 2. 30. Lift up your Eyes to the Cross of Jesus Christ and you shall perceive how abominable sin is for neither in Heaven nor on Earth there could not be found an offering able to make expiation for it God hath chosen rather to punish it in the person of his only begotten Son than to leave it unpunished O that the stain of sin is grievous and deep seeing that nothing but the Bloud of a God can wash and cleanse it 31. When you meditate upon our Lords Death and Passion make it not your business to cry out against Judas's Treason the Pharisees envy the Peoples mutiny don't lay the blame upon the Impiety of Caiphas the unjustice of Pilate or Herods Scoffs and Jests nor upon the cruelty of the Roman Soldiers but be angry against your own Sins and let an Holy Displeasure rise in you against your iniquities and crimes Say to your selves our sins our sins alone have betrayed Christs innocent Body bound and fastened the Lord of Glory to this ignominious Cross and deliver'd him into the Executioners hands our sins have crown'd him with Thorns nailed him to the Wood deliver'd to him Gaul and Vinegar to drink In short our sins have pierced his Hands and Feet and open'd his Side You would abhor the sight and acquaintance of the Hangman that should have fastened your Father to the Gallows and you would scorn to kiss his bloody hands how much more abominable shall we be to God and his Holy Angels if we do cherish and delight to entertain Sin whereas we should be stirred up against it with an Holy Zeal and an earnest desire of Revenge Instead of nailing to the Cross this unmerciful Parricide and crushing to pieces this hellish Monster if we feed and nourish it in our bowels we shall then be guilty of crucifying afresh the Son of God and of putting him to an open shame guilty of treading him under feet and of esteeming the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified an unholy thing 32. Consider seriously the fearful effects that Sin produces in you have you never been sensible of the horrid and cruel torments of a poor Soul disturb'd with the sight of its crimes How sharp and piercing are the remorses of a Conscience awaken'd from a prophane sleep It is a pain and an anguish that cannot be expressed it causeth our head to dissolve into water our eyes to become a Fountain of Tears it causeth our Blood to be congeal'd our Skin to become black our Bones to be crack'd and broken It is a common saying that the punishment follows the sin close at the heels but imagine that it keeps always its company and that it is a Rack and Torture that never leaves the guilty for there is no peace for the wicked saith my God Isai 48. 33. Whereas there is no satisfaction like unto that of a good Christian who loves his God sincerely and worships him in Spirit and in Truth There is no kind of delight to be compar'd to that of a regenerate Soul that applies himself without hypocrisie to the works of Piety and Holiness John 4. for the quiet of the Soul and the peace of Conscience are more worthy than great Treasures than Scepters and Crowns therefore the wise Solomon tels us That the Righteous mans Heart is a continual Feast Prov. 15. To perswade us that there is nothing like to this hidden Manna to this spiritual Food that the world knows not and to these Angelical and Divine Pleasures the Holy Apostles inform us that it is an unspeakable and glorious Joy and a peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. 4. 34. If any Delight or Pleasure accompanies Vice it is but in appearance superficial as a dream it vanisheth away for the Triumph of the wicked is of a short continuance and the Joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment There is always some Thorn some Grief hidden and secret in their laughter their Heart is afflicted and their Joy is cut off by Sorrow Prov. 14. 35. But the Holy Joys and Celestial Delights of one that fears God and that worships him in purity and innocency of life are solid and lasting they cast a deep Root into the very bottom of our hearts and enter into the Joynts and Marrow and disperse themselves all over the inward parts The Gibbets the Wheels It is the French custome to break notable offenders upon a Cart-wheel and the most grievous torments of this life cannot pluck these joys from us but they comfort the soul in the midst of the greatest distresses and heal up the broken bones 36. The Worldlings become weary tired with the accomplishment of their Lusts and are afflicted at their greatest success they loath at last all their carnal sports and their greatest sweetness turns into bitterness we grow out of taste with the pleasures of sin so that we begin to loath and abhorr them It is what Zophar intends to shew us when speaking of the wicked he saith His meat in his Bowels is turned it is the gall of Aspes within him he hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his belly Job 20. 37. It is otherwise with them who apply their hearts to the fear and service of God and that find his Yoak easy and his burden Light Matth. 11. They take great satisfaction in the ways of Righteousness they run with an holy freedom to their happy end and to the price of their spiritual Calling the more they drink of the Waters of Siloah the more they thirst their Zeal is like an
Souls who have consecrated your selves willingly unto God and to his Service and Worship cast away these vain and base actions and all these dead works leave them to such as are dead in their trespasses and sins but for you behave your selves according to your Celestial Calling and apply your selves to Righteousness and Holiness and to the practice of all other Vertues as such who were dead but now are made alive 45. We must continually meditate upon the Holiness and Purity of our future abode in Heaven and the expectation that we have there Rom. 6 For as Jesus Christ is gone to prepare a place for us in the House of his Heavenly Father John 14. It is but just and reasonable that we should fit and prepare our Souls for such Holy and Glorious Mansions Revel 21. It is not possible to go to Heaven by treading the paths of Hell Nothing impure nor filthy shall enter into the Holy City which is the new Jerusalem As in Solomon's Temple there was no way to the Holy of Holies but through the Sanctuary thus if we will one day enter into the Heavenly Sanctuary where Christ dwells the true Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy seat Eph. 2. It is absolutely necessary that we should tread in the paths of good Works which God hath prepared that we should walk in them Tit. 2. It is upon this consideration that St. Paul grounds this exhortation to Piety and Christian Vertues The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying ungodlines and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works seeing that we have such promises let us cleanse our selves from all filth of the Body and of the Spirit finishing our Sanctification in the fear of God 1 Cor. 7. St. John makes use of the same reason to perswade us to Holiness Beloved we are now the Children of God but what we shall be doth not yet appear now we know that when he shall appear we shall be madè like unto him for we shall see him as he is and whosoever hath this hope in him let him purify himself as he is pure 1 Joh. 2. The Apostle St. Peter employs the same consideration to kindle in our hearts this pure and celestial fire We according to his promise look for new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 2 Pet. 3. 46. You know Christians that God created our first Parents in his own Image and Likeness before that he brought them into his own terrestial Paradise there is a greater reason that this Divine Image should be imprinted in our Souls before we enter into the Celestial Paradise unto this the Apostle hath a regard when he tells the Ephesians be ye renewed in the Spirit of your mind and put on the new Man created according to God in Righteousness and true Holiness Chap. 4. 47. If the place of our future Abode unto which we are designed doth require from us Sanctification the quality of the persons with whom we shall spend an Eternity doth no less oblige us to the same behaviour for they shall be Angels of Light and the Blessed Saints who have wash'd and whitened their Robes in the Bloud of the Lamb Revel 5. It is a glorious Church that hath neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing Eph. 5. It is the Spouse of the Son of God cloathed in fine Linnen clean and white which are the Righteousness of the Saints Revel 19. St. Paul had this same consideration when he saith That we are fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and That our conversation ought to be as becometh Citizens of Heaven To wean us from the filthy Deeds of the Flesh and from the prophane disposition of Esau he employs the same reason to perswade us in the 12 of the Heb. You are come saith he to the Mount Sion to the City of the living God to the Celestial Jerusalem to the thousands of Angels and to the Assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in Heaven and to the Spirits of the Just sanctified 48. As it is with a Child in his Mothers womb he begins to live there the same life that he leads when he is come into the World likewise the Christian ought to begin to live in the same manner upon earth as he hopes to live for ever in Heaven if we will live and Reign with Christ above in his Kingdom we must at present have him Live and Reign in our Hearts here below by faith 49. The chief happiness of Man consists not only in the true knowldge of God and of him whom he hath sent to save us nor in the Spiritual Peace nor Celestial Transports of the Holy Spirit but it consists in Holiness without which none shall see God John 17. Rom. 5. Therefore the Apostle inquires from the Romans of his time What fruit had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed but now being free from sin and become servants of God ye have your Fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life Heb. 12. Rom. 6. 50. I find also that this is a very good remedy to keep our selves free from the Debaucheries and Corruptions of the Age to abstain from the company and acquaintance of vicious persons for as he who did touch things unclean did become thereby unclean and as such as haunt amongst the sick of the Plague are infected with their Disease Likewise it is the property of evil company to corrupt the best manners 2 Cor. 15. 51. Whereas we should accustom our selves to the company and acquaintance of good Men and Delight in the society of such who like the Seraphims excite and enflame one another to glorify God and sing forth his praises we must frequent such unto whom we desire to be like for as Jacob's Sheep Ewned Lambs spotted and marked as the Rods upon which they did cast their eyes Thus if we have our joyes fixed upon the Holy examples of Piety and Vertue we shall see our selves insensibly transformed into their Image and Resemblance we must delight our selves in the company of them with whom we hope to live for ever in the highest Heavens 52. The most powerful and the most effectual means to oblige us to the practice of Piety and of Holiness and purity of Life it is to look with the eyes of faith upon him who is invisible and to represent unto our selves the great world as a large Temple where he dwels Let the voice that came unto Moses out of the burning Bush sound continually in
the shield of Faith extinguish the first enflamed Darts of the Devil for as it is very easy to put out the first sparkles of an increasing fire but if we neglect or cherish it it may come to be a fearful burning and as we can without pain pluck up with one hand a young Tree planted but a few days but if we suffer it to take root and to get strength we shall not be able to pluck it up with both our hands but must be forced to employ the Axe the Wedge and the Sawe Likewise if we resist sin in its beginning we shall easily overcome and tame it we shall put out without labor these first beginnings of a strange fire and we shall pull up with ease this bitter plant that will grow to our sorrow but if we suffer this infernal Fire of Lust to increase all the Water of the Sea will not be able to extinguish it and if we give leave to this cursed Plant to grow it will never be pluckt up without much sweat and labor Sin never begins by the same means that it ends and it discovers not all its poison at once As the Child in his Mothers Womb is not made in an instant Thus this Monster of Satan is formed by degrees one Chain of Hell is link'd into another when Lust hath conceived it brings forth sin from the thought proceed the suggestion and from the suggestion pleasure and delight and from delight consent and after consent then follows the deed which begets the Habit from thence the sinner proceeds to be hardned in a custom of sin thus the Devil aggravates the yoke of Tyranny and of our Bondage and strengthens the tye and chains by which he drags us into eternal damnation 61. As amongst the Planets there is always one that rules and causeth its influences to be felt upon earth more than the rest thus amongst Sins and Lusts there is always some one or other that rules in us unto which we are more addicted than to the rest by a natural propensity unto this therefore we must chiefly take heed here we must declare our strength and industry for fear that the Devil should employ it as a means to enter into our Souls and establish there his Tiranny we must imitate the wise and valiant Captains who having a place to defend against a vigilant and an active Enemy do fortify the places that are naturally the weakest and furnish them with the best Soldiers causing there a watchful and continual Guard to be kept Christian Souls be sure you take all the Armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having overcome all that ye may continue stedfast Eph. 6. 62. We must not neglect any sin nor imagine that there are some light and unconsiderable that God regards them not for a little Leaven seasons and Leavens the whole Lump and the least dead Fly corrupts and causeth several confections to bubble up and spoil The least scratch may cause a feavorish Inflamation and but little poison can lay us in our graves The Devil cares not by what Gate he enters into our Souls and by what tye he takes hold of our Hearts This cursed Serpent slides through the least and the narrowest cranies and holes of the House as well as through the widest Gates Christian Souls give not place to the Devil but shut your Ears to all his Enchantments 63. We must not only eschew all manner of sins and abstain from all appearance of evil but for our better security that we may not endanger our Salvation we must take heed of all those things whereof our Souls are doubtful and upon which our consciences cannot resolve We must never do any thing but we must be fully perswaded that it is acceptable unto God and agreeable to his Holy Will for Whatsoever is done without Faith is sin 64. As those who intend to stop the currant of a running Water are wont to cut for it a new Channel and Gutter Thus if your vicious Lusts and Passions are too violent you must divert them and propose unto your selves new and fresh objects are you Cholerick be angry and sin not fret and fume against your own Sins and Lusts and crush in pieces these Children of Babel Are you opprest with sadness and grief Let the causes of your sadness be your offences against God and the scandals of his Church Are you furious and violent Remember to be of the number of those blessed violent persons who ravish the Kingdom of God by violence Are you inclined to Covetousness Covet and be greedy for the Riches and Treasuries of Heaven Matt. 21. Are you lifted up with ambitious thoughts Let your ambitious aim be to raise you upon the immortal Throne and to attain to the uncorruptible Crowns of Glory Are you lustful and given to your pleasures Labor to enjoy the Divine and ravishing Delights of the Holy Spirit and meditate often upon the eternal pleasures that are reserved for you in Heaven 65. Devout Souls who sigh and groan for your infirmities who labor to attain to perfection apply your selves to read and meditate upon God's Holy Word with a Religious attention and before you enter into this Holy Reading say with the Prophet David Lord open mine eyes and I shall see the wonders of thy Law Psal 119. Intreat your good God to open your Hearts as he did Lydia to receive this uncorruptible Seed of your Regeneration and that he may give you a filial obedience Acts 16. In such a case assoon as you shall hear the Lord's voice you will find your Souls enflamed with his Holy Love 1 Pet. 1. When we do but only behold a beautiful countenance we become not more beautiful thereby nor do we take from it its excellent features 2 Cor. 3. but it is otherwise with us who behold as in a Glass openly the Glory of the Lord we are transformed thereby into the same image of his Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 66. Take pleasure to meditate often upon God's wonderful works and to sing forth his Praises The Spiritual Songs inspired by the Holy Ghost do commonly appease all the evil notions of our mind and beget in us an Holy Joy and Celestial Peace as when Saul was tormented with a wicked Spirit David was appointed with his Harp to play before him and by that means he quieted his troubled mind Likewise when Hatred Anger Revenge Covetousness Ambition or Lust or any other of the unruly passions which are as so many evil Spirits that disturb and torture our Souls within us we must seek a remedy from David's Harp and sing unto the Lord in Spiritual Songs and Hymns 67. We must carefully attend at all the publick exercises of Devotion and not leave off the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is for where there are but two or three met together in the name of Jesus Christ he is there in the
midst of them St. Thomas who was not with the Apostles when Christ first appeared amongst them lost the comfort then of seeing him risen from the dead And if this merciful Redeemer had not had compassion of him he had perish'd in his unbelief for ever If upon the day of Penticost any of the faithful had been found absent from the Holy company of the Faithful in Jerusalem they had not seen the Glorious appearance of the Holy Ghost who knows but in a Sermon that we have neglected we have lost some pious advice some seasonable exhortation by which God might have brought our hearts to repentance Who knows but instead of that Fire that devours us we might have felt the Holy Flames kindled in us like unto those Flames of the burning Bush that would burn in us and not consume us Who knows but at the breaking up of the Assembly we might have said as the two Disciples of Christ going to Emaus Did not our heart burn within us when he spoke to us and opened the Scriptures 68. We must be fervent zealous and persevering in Prayers and other Holy Duties and embrace our Lord and Saviour with the Arms of Faith and Repentance and say unto him as Jacob I shall not leave thee until thou hast blessed me especially we ought to apply our selves to these blessed exercises when we feel the inward and troblesome struglings of the Flesh against the Spirit we must imitate that Holy and vertuous Woman who feeling two Children stirring in her Womb fell to her Prayers and unburdened her sorrows in the bosome of our Heavenly Father And as St. Peter when he began to sink lifted up his Hands in Prayer saying Lord save me Matth. 14. Likewise we who walk upon this dangerous Sea of the World assoon as we feel our selves sinking into the Delights of the World or assoon as the Waves of vicious examples and dangerous customs do hurry us away Let us cry out from the bottom of our Hearts O merciful God stretch out thine hand from above and deliver me from these Waters of Hell that carry me away accomplish thy vertue in mine infirmities and give me Grace in resisting against sin to resist unto Blood Psal 69. Heb. 50. 2 Cor. 22. Let thine Holy Spirit overcome mine let Heaven command the Earth and let Paradise lead Hell in Triumph If we make this Petition with all our Hearts God will grant it from his Holy Sanctuary He will extinguish the Fire that burns us He will shut the Lions mouth that intends to devour us He will appease the Winds and the Storms that the Devils have raised in us and at his first entrance into our Ship tost up and down with fears and apprehensions he will bring Peace and a blessed tranquility and will lead us to the safe Haven of Eternal Happiness as the Prophet Moses when he had been familiar with God came down from the Mountain with a shining countenance and as our Saviour when he was in Prayer upon Mount Tabor was transfigured his Garments were white as the Light and his Face appeared as glorious as the Sun Likewise if we lift up our selves above all these earthly and corruptible things and pray unto God with an Holy Earnestness and Zeal we shall see that our Souls shall be thereby cloathed with Holiness and full of Glory and Light they will be transformed into the blessed Image of the great God whom we adore for as soon as we behold him we become enlightened 69. To the end that we may tame this Body and reduce it to obedience and to overcome all our wicked and dangerous Lusts Psal 69 34. It is necessary that we should joyn Fasting to our Prayers we must not always expect a time appointed by the Rulers of our Church upon solemn accasions but we must order unto our selves a Fast according as we shall see it expedient and useful for if this Flesh is unruly it is rebellious against God and his Holy Commandements if because it is fed in Ease and Plenty it is Lustful Impure and Insolent Let us cut off from it all its dainties and labor to mortify it by Fastings and Abstinence and remember what our Saviour Christ saith in the Gospel That there are some evil spirits that are not to be driven out but by Fasting and Prayer Matth. 27. 70. If God gives us the Grace to overcome Sin and weaken our Lusts by fervent and earnest Prayers and by austere Fasting and hot tears of Repentance and by the assistance of his Divine Spirit that will pour his Blessings upon our Devotions take heed that we become not careless and negligent in good Works deceive not your selves Religious Souls and be not surprized for many times the old Man looks as if he were dead that we might not offer to strike him again to the Heart and give him the last blow that he may recover more strength there is always in the Ashes something of that infernal Fire that is able to do much mischief Lust is not rooted out so perfectly but that there remains some strings in our Hearts that may grow again This source of Iniquity is not so dry but that it may run afresh As it is during the time of Peace Men exercise themselves in feats of Arms and prepare new Armor for the War Likewise during the calm and rest of our Souls we must prepare some Armor for our Spiritual Warfare And as it is not sufficient to win a place by Assault and to have driven out the Enemies Forces but we must also watch day and night and keep a constant and a strong Guard that we may not be surprized and driven out again Thus when we have forced out the Devil and banish'd him out of our Hearts we must be always upon our Guard and stop all the Avenues for fear that this evil Spirit should come upon us accompanied with seven worse Spirits and that our last condition should be worse than the first 71. To these Works of Piety and Devotion in which we cannot be always employed we must remember to add a lawful Calling for Idleness is the Mother of all Vices when we are doing nothing the Devil prompts us to evil this happened to David a man after God's own heart for when he gave himself over contrary to his former practice to an unworthy idleness whilst he was looking into his neighbors House the Devil entred into his Heart and by the assistance of a lustful Object inflamed his Soul with an unlawful desire as the Iron that is not us'd becomes Rusty as the standing Water putrifies and as the Earth that is not manur'd begets insects and venemous Serpentss Likewise a Soul that is not employed is soon cover'd over with the rust of Vice It is easily drag'd along into the corruption of the age and apt to beget and bring forth Monsters therefore the Prophet Ezekiel examines the very beginning and first spring of Solomon's Sin saying That it was
glorify their Creator and advance his Kingdom When this good desire is well governed it is as acceptable to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice This was David's earnest desire in the 119 Psalm Let my Soul live that it may praise thee This Holy Zeal forced so many bitter Tears from King Hezekiah in his sickness and caused him to intreat most earnestly to live yet longer in the World This Wise and Religious Prince did well foresee the fearful Evils the grievous Confusion and the abominable Idolatry that was likely to succeed after his Death in the Kingdom of Judea He was therefore very desirous to glorify God on Earth and to accomplish the Reformation which he had begun He desired to have Children whom he might teach to fear God with all their heart and to serve him according to his Holy and Divine Will that he might cause Piety to continue in his House and Royal Family he discovers this Holy desire in his Divine Hymn which he sung unto God after his miraculous recovery Behold for Peace I had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back for the Grave cannot praise thee Is 38. Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy Truth the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth The Lord was ready to save me therefore we will sing my Songs to the stringed Instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. We find the same earnest desire in St. Paul for when he looks upon himself and upon the miseries that attend upon him on Earth and lifts up his Eyes to see the Heavenly Bliss that waits for him above he desires to depart out of this earthly Tabernacle and to be with Christ and acknowledgeth that it would be his great advantage but when he looks upon the Church of Christ his desire of the Salvation and instruction of his Brethren causeth him to prefer their Comfort to his own Happiness and Joy It is saith he more expedient for you that I remain in the Flesh and I know for certain that I shall abide and remain with you for your advantage and the joy of your faith This desire of Life with an intent of Glorifying God is Good and Holy but it is no easy task to keep it within its just and lawful bounds for very often it becomes vicious when it is stirr'd up by a fond love of our own persons which makes us so loth to dye For example when a great Prince animated with an Heroical Vertue is engaged in a War for the preservation of his Subjects and for the delivery of many afflicted People from oppression and Tyranny if God blesseth his Armies and causeth his Glorious designes to succeed he will not be well pleased if Death at that instant offers to cross him to break in pieces his victorious Arm to put an end to his Conquests and to cast his Crown to the ground he may justly complain in this manner Must I now leave off such a noble and a brave Designe must I here stop in the midst of such a glorious Race and must Death bury with my Body the expectations of so many good Men I am afraid that all my labors will vanish away with my breath I have just cause to fear that my fall will draw after me the destruction of many poor People that depend upon me I fear that oppression and Tyranny will resume fresh Spirits and a greater Boldness and prove for the future more grievous and unfufferable O cruel and inhumane Death by taking away my Life thou bringest my Friends to Execution and the Arrows that thou stickest in my Heart do pierce the Souls of many innocent People Likewise he that is promoted to be the King's Vicegerent in a Province or to be a Governor of a rich Countrey and an important Place may be grieved because Death snatcheth him away in the middle of all his business especially if it be in troublesome times and if he sees none of a sufficient ability to succeed him Must I will such an one say Must I quit so soon this Glorious employment Must I so quickly leave my Prince's service and forsake so many poor People as a Flock without a Shepheard Death how hateful and odious art thou Thou delightest to bring all things into confusion and trouble Thus a brave General of a victorious Army who being full of Courage manageth a successful War for the Honor of his Prince and the advantage of his Countrey cannot but complain against Death when it comes to subdue him before he hath totally subdued and overcome his Enemies especially if the times be so unhappy that none is able to undertake that employment after him he will be ready to break forth into complaints Must I leave off so many Glorious designs Must I forsake my most faithful Soldiers and abandon them to the mercy of their Enemies or to the capricious humour of an unexperienced Successor O Death full of envy wilt thou pluck out of my hands so soon this conquering Sword and cut off with one blow of thy Sithe so many great expectations In the same manner he that sits in the most Honourable seats of Judicature as a Judge a President or a Counsellor or any other chief Magistrate will doubtless mourn if Death seizeth upon him in the flower of his age especially if he fears that after him corrupt Men will succeed who may be likened to whitened Walls Must I will he say leave so soon this noble Office in which I took so much delight O inconsiderate Death why dost thou not suffer me to wear my Purple until such time as I shall be weary to bear it Why dost thou not permit me to sit here upon this magnificent Seat until I tumble off with old Age Likewise a faithful Minister of the Gospel when he perceives the work of the Lord to prosper in his hands Satan falls from Heaven by his means as a Lightning and Dagon to be brought upon his Face to the ground may justly wonder at Death's approaches and speak in this manner Must I so soon quit the duties of this Holy Function in which I took my greatest delight Must I break off from this Sacred Work by which I did advance so happily the Glory of God I am afraid that when I am gone ravening Wolves will enter into the Lord's Flock and a terrible night of ignorance will involve our posterity Thus a Father of a Family who passionately loves his Wife and Children shall never see death but shall feel all his Bowels move and his Heart tormented with grief he will sigh out such expressions as these Must I forsake a poor forlorn Wife swimming in Tears Must I leave my tender-hearted Parents who found my life a comfort and will find my
Armies I speak not unto you prophane Atheists that laugh at the most Holy things and that are of opinion that all fear of God must be banished out of your Troops and Companies and that the most wretched Varlets are the best Soldiers but I speak to you Christian and Religious Commanders who forget not by your promotion amongst Men that you are nevertheless the Soldiers of Jesus Christ and although you wear at your side a material Sword forget not to employ also the sword of the Spirit the word of God that dwels in your hearts Neither do I intend to speak to you who manage War with an intent only to satisfy your Revenge your Ambition or your Covetousness but I speak to you brave and worthy Captains who have purified your weapons in an Heavenly Fire who undertake War only to procure a more lasting Peace to the publick and who fight only to serve your Prince and Countrey you that are the great bulwarks of States and Empires by whose labors and watchings Men sleep in security Let the whole World see by experience in your persons that there is nothing that agrees better with true generosity than Piety and the fear of God behave your selves always as in the sight of your Maker who is at your Elbows and accompanies you in all your actions Remember that he commanded to remove all filth from the Camp of Israel because of his Holy and Divine Presence If you will obtain his Blessing upon your persons and designes cast out of your Armies the filth of Vice and Punish without Mercy the Rapes Burnings all Impiety and Blasphemies make your Soldiers put in practice St. John the Baptist's most excellent advice to the Soldiers of his time who enquired what they were to do to be be saved Do violence said he to no man neither accuse any falsly and be content with your wages Live as Lambs and fight as Lions Spare as much as you can the bloud of your Soldiers and shed not that of your Enemies but against your Wills because they are God's Creatures and Men that bear his Image Never trust to your own valor and experience but remember that it is God who gives Courage and strengthens the hands in the day of Battel who causeth Fear and Terror to fly whither he listeth Look always upon David's example There was never a Captain more couragious nor more willing to venture his life and yet there was never a person more zealous in Prayer to God nor more submissive to his Will nor more careful to return unto him the praise of all his advantages and if Death comes to put a stop to your victories or to call you away in a trice in which your Prudence and Courage is requisite wonder not at it consider that God offers you by this means an occasion of a more Glorious Victory and of a more Magnificent Triumph for the victory over thousands of Mortal Men and of the whole World is nothing in comparison of a victory over Death and Hell Inquire not who shall succeed you in the Conduct of your Army out of a distrust of God's good providence for he who is able to raise up Children unto Abraham out of Stones can raise up also from thence Captains and Soldiers when he pleaseth to give a check to the Enemies pride and to deliver his People from their hands he can make Gideons Jephtha's Sampsons and such like extraordinary Commanders Who knows but that he will cause a General to succeed you that shall have more Courage and Generosity and that shall be blessed with a greater Happiness and more Glorious Successes When Moses departed to his Rest Joshua Commanded in his stead and for that purpose God enabled him with a noble Spirit of Wisdom and Courage for one Enemy that Moses overcame Joshua destroyed thousands whereas Moses did but coast along the Land of Canaan and turn up and down in the Wilderness Joshua brought the People of Israel into that pleasant Countrey and into a peaceable possession of it Seeing therefore that it is God's pleasure leave to others the care of worldly Wars and ye go to gather the pleasant and delicious Fruits of an Eternal Peace which hath been purchased unto you by the Bloud of Christ Likewise ye faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ remember to shew the example of a resignation to God's good pleasure according to your Doctrine Let not Death cause you to draw back thou hast my Brother a Will to Glorify God on Earth well but thou shalt Glorify him better in Heaven with more zeal and less hindrance whilst thou art surrounded and fetter'd with these Fetters of Mortality thy Ministry must needs be accompanied with many imperfections Thou imaginest that if it pleased God to prolong thy days thou mayest be instrumental in the reformation of the World but thou art mistaken My Brother for this World is accustom'd to Evil and this Age is hardened in Iniquity Preach as much as thou wilt to the Inhabitants of this inferior World it shall be as in the times of Noah the Herald of Righteousness when the patience of God waited for the conversion of Sinners for the whole Earth hath corrupted its ways so that all the thoughts and imaginations of the Heart of Man are evil continually from his Cradle they are corrupt and filthy And if God doth not interpose his Almighty Hand and declare in us the Virtue of his Holy Spirit our thoughts will grow worse and worse until we tumble into our Graves If thou afflict never so much thy just and innocent Soul and spend thy self in exhorting the greatest Sinners to fly from the wrath to come and the judgements of God that hang over their guilty Heads it may be thou shalt be mocked by thy nearest Relations as Lot was by his Sons-in-law When thou wouldest thunder out the threatenings of God's Law against the abominations of Israel as the Prophet Isaiah did once thou shouldest be forced at last to confess I have labour'd in vain I have employed my strength for nought Isai 49. Jer. 6. When thine Eyes should be converted into a fresh Spring of Tears and when thou shouldest spend the days and the nights in calling upon the Superstitious the Schismaticks and Idolaters to forsake their false worship and their unchristian proceedings thou shalt not be able to soften the hardness of their Hearts nor overcome their obstinacy but they will be ready to speak to thee in the Jews language to Jeremiah As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouths to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven and to pour out Drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem for then had we plenty of Victuals and were well and saw no evil Jer. 44.
Abraham found a Lamb intangled in a Bush Likewise in the midst of the sharpest storms of affliction and in the most intricate difficulties that you dread you shall find unexpected sweetness and comforts And as several colours of the beautiful Rainbow appear upon the Cloud whence proceeds the Storms and the Rain Likewise thus in the greatest afflictions God will give you some testimonies of his fatherly care and of his Divine love The assurance that you shall repose in God shall never be confounded for the love of God is spread in your hearts by the Holy Spirit that he hath given you The hotter the fire of affliction shall be the greater and the more miracles it shall bring forth The higher the waters of your Floud shall rise the nearer they will approach your Souls good and the nearer you will draw to Heaven the place of your Souls birth Comfort therefore your selves my dear Children and assure your selves that by the favourable assistance of God's Grace and Mercy we shall see one another again speedily I shall not return to you but you shall come to me for I am going to that large and magnificent Dwelling whither our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is gone before to prepare a place for us and where he will embrace us all I am going up to my Father and your Father to my God and to your God A Prayer and Meditation for a King and a Soveraign Prince who prepares for death by reposing himself upon God's providence O King of Kings and Lord of Lords who hast been Graciously pleased out of thine especial goodness to make me a living Image of thine Almighty Power and a visible expression of thine Heavenly Glory suffer me not to be lifted up in pride by that Power and Majesty with which thou hast cloathed me That I may not imitate that vain glorious and prophane Monarch who discovered his impious mind in these terms Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the House of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty But give me Grace to adore the Scepter of him who hath established me to humble my self before the Throne of thine universal Empire I have so much the more reason thus to abase my self because I am to appear before thy great Tribunal not only as a man to answer for my actions but also as a Prince I must there appear to give up an account of my publick Stewardship and of so many thousand Souls committed to my care If at any time the splendor and glory of my Crown dazle my Eyes and delude my fancy or if fond flatterers sing at my ears A voice of God and not of Man O let me then remember the frailty of my corruptible Nature I am born as other Men and subject to the same passions and the same infirmities Death will have no more regard for me than for the vilest of my subjects it will not treat me with more civility than them It will enter as boldly into my Palace as into the Huts of my meanest Soldiers and into the Cabans of the most contemptible Shepheards It will break my Scepter in pieces as easily as the Beggars staff and trample upon the Flowers and Jewels of my Crown in the same manner as upon the grass of the field My Life as that of my Slaves and Vassals is but the breath of my Nostrils a wind that vanisheth away a shadow that will quickly disappear O God of all flesh whilst thou continuest unto me my life here below Command in my Heart and amongst my affections Govern me by thine excellent Wisdom and by thy Royal and Divine Spirit Seeing that by thee Kings Reign and Princes do Justice give me Grace to lift up mine Eyes always unto thee and to employ all the Power and Authority which I have received from thee to thy Honor and Glory and to the advance of thine Heavenly Kingdom that I may look upon my Subjects as thy Creatures formed after thine own Image and as thy Children redeemed with the Bloud of thine only Son if thou hast been pleased to put a differance between them and me O that I may also consider that there is a more vast difference between me Dust and Ashes a Worm of this vile Earth me a nothing and less than nothing and thine Eternal Being O great and living God! whose Power is infinite when thou art pleased to send these Orders to the richest and to the most powerful Monarchs Sons of men return at the same instant they are not able to make resistance but they must needs return to Dust and with them all their contrivances all their high and glorious purposes vanish away O Soveraign Monarch of the World when thou shalt forewarn me by any of thy Servants or signify unto me by any other means that thy pleasure is to take me from my Throne to remove me from my Principality and to separate me from my self instead of troubling and afflicting my Soul as an Heathen Prince give me grace to shew a noble constancy and a Christian resignation to thine Holy and Divine pleasure If thou dost with one hand write the Sentence of my Death I know that thou wilt signe with the other the irrevocable Decree for me to go and take possession of a life infinitely happy Alas great God what are all these Territories that I must leave in comparison of the Celestial Inheritance which thou hast prepared for me from the Creation of the World for all the Earth if compared with the Heavens is but a point and what are all the inferior Crowns that fade away and fall to the ground in comparison of the uncorruptible Crown of Glory that waits for my coming at the end of my mortal Race O how willingly shall I cast off this Purple this Royal Attire to put on the precious Robes of Light and Immortality reserved for me in thine Heavenly Paradise How joyfully shall I put down this Scepter to take into my hands the flourishing Branches of Palms that I see in the possession of thy triumphing Saints O Almighty King of Kings thou hast entrusted me with the Governance of this Kingdom and Principality I return it willingly into thy Divine hands Thou hast subdued my people under me and taken me out of many Waters thou hast justified my Right to these Crowns by a gracious and a miraculous Restauration ☞ O let me never forget thine infinite goodness so visibly declared to me and my people How innumerable are thy Mercies O Lord Let therefore the former experience that I have had of thy goodness encourage me to cast willingly my Self my Life my Crown and my Kingdoms into thy Divine hands And while I yet remain amongst the living give me Grace O good and merciful Saviour to wean my self from the world and worldly pleasures Give me a hearty distaste of all unsatisfying delights of the Body and a true relish of the immortal
contentments of the Soul Let the nearer approach of my death make me to draw nearer to thee in love and obedience Give me power to overcome all carnal temptations O that the excellency of my Place and Dignity the precious Bloud of my Saviour with which thou hast washed my Soul and that immortal Bliss prepared for me might fill me with an hearty loathing and contempt of the vain and unprofitable Delights of the World that my Soul may not be fettered and enslaved to these filthy vanities so far below the excellency of its Being O Gracious God! with my Person I leave to thee the disposition of my Scepter and Kingdoms thou art able to give to my successor the same Piety Zeal and Love for thy Truth that I have always expressed I leave to thee the care and preservation of that Religion which thy powerful hand hath planted amongst us thou art able to cause it to flourish in the midst of so many envious attempts of adversaries Let me not therefore distrust thy good providence but grant to the person that thou hast appointed to succeed me a Love and Fear of thy Holy Name enrich his Soul with all Divine Graces and Royal Vertues My God and my King thou gavest me an earnest desire of building thee a Temple as to David a Man after thine own heart I have labour'd to recruit in my days the sensless divisions of my people but seeing that it is not thy pleasure that I should accomplish such a glorious Work Give to my Successor the Grace and Wisdom as to Solomon that he may perfect the pious designes that I have begun Establish his Throne with true Religion and sincere Reformation Let Justice and Peace flourish in his Reign Let Truth prosper Charity and Love enflame the Hearts of thy People Let all his neighbors bless him Let him have as many Guards as Subjects and as many Fortresses as Hearts in his Dominions But especially good God give him grace to build thee a setled House in these Nations and to raise it up to the highest pitch of Glory and Happiness that is possible on Earth In the mean while I shall depart out of this life and go to Glorify thee in the magnificent Palace of immortality where I shall cast down my Crown at the feet of the Lamb and adore him who liveth for ever and ever Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a Vice-Roy or a Governor O Almighty Governor of this great World seeing that thou hast granted to me the honor of representing the Person of my Prince thy living Image it is but just that I should return unto thee my unfeigned thanks for such a special Favor for I should not have this Power if it were not given to me from above and if thou who art the King of Kings and holdest in thine Almighty hand the Hearts of Princes hadst not caused the superior Powers to favor my Person Give me Grace never to forget that the Persons that I am to Govern are not my Slaves but the Subjects of my Prince moreover they are thy Creatures and Children it belongs not to me to dispose of them at my pleasure according to my passions but to observe the Orders that have been given me and to obey thy Divine Commandments Let me behave my self as if my Prince were always and every where at my elbows to be a witness of all my actions But especially let me remember that I am always before thine holy Eyes that behold my Heart and read my most secret thoughts Let me consider night and day that I must give an account to my Great Master of the Stewardship intrusted in my hands and that I must one day appear before thy dreadful Tribunal where disguising and lying will never take place If whilst I am diligently employed in the Duties of mine Office and managing my business with all the care and faithfulness that I am able Death comes to call me away out of the World give me such a courage that I may not be afraid but that I may quit my Dignities without repining for the Honor of Governing a Kingdom or a Monarchy or of Commanding many Worlds is nothing in comparison of the Glory and Happiness prepared for me in Heaven Let not the care of the time to come trouble the quiet of my Soul thou canst raise up other Governors unto whom thou canst grant a Spirit of Wisdom and Discretion with an happy and glorious Governance whilst I shall rest for ever from all my labors and cares and when I shall have overcome Satan the World Sin and Death and kept thy Works until the end thou wilt give me into my hands a never-fading Palm thou wilt put upon my Head a Glorious Crown and into my mouth the Songs of the Blessed in whose company I shall sing Praises and Tranksgivings unto thee for ever and ever Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a General of an Army and for a Captain O God of Hosts I have been perswaded that this employment in which I have engaged my self for the service of my King and Countrey would not be displeasing to thy Divine Majesty seeing that thou hast appointed Military Laws unto thy People and hast been so Gracious to them as to govern their Armies march out before them and Command in Chief when they have encountered with their Enemies Although thy Son is the Prince of Peace his first Minister and Fore-runner did not forbid the use of Weapons to the Soldiers that resorted to him but only to be content with their wages and to do violence to no man besides the Holy Apostles teach us that it is not in vain that thou hast put the Sword into the hands of Soveraign Princes and Kings who are the Images of thine Almighty power and of thy uncontroulable Justice Let me never appear at the head of an Army or of a Company but let me imagine my Prince to be there present as if I were to sight before his eyes but let me chiefly remember that I am in the sight of thy Holy Angels and of thee who art the King of Kings of all the Nations of the World and of their Armies Let not the power which thou hast given me over others cause me to neglect the obedience that I owe unto thee my great God and Creator Let not the honor of being a Captain make me forget that I am a Soldier of Jesus Christ who Judges and Wars according to right Let not the Sword that I carry at my side hinder me from receiving into my Heart the Sword of the Spirit which is the word of God that is sharper than a two-edged sword that searcheth to the division of the Soul and Spirit Joynts and Marrow Give me with this Heavenly Sword the Breast-plate of Righteousness and the Helmet of Salvation and especially give me the Buckler of Faith that I may be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil O my God! cloath me with the
thee and bring all thoughts to thine obedience Let the World be confounded in all its purposes and let it never have the power to scare me by its threatenings or to corrupt me by its fair promises Let Satan once more fall from Heaven as a Lightning and let him be for ever shut up in the bottomless pit Shut up the mouths of all false Prophets and let thy Truth be victorious over Error that we may see the Congregations of thy true Catholick Church increase in number of persons that may worship thee with more Affection and Zeal or rather increase in them thy Grace and Heavenly Blessings O let me always consider that the Sheep that I am to feed belong not to me nor to any mortal Man but to thee Lord Jesus who hast created them by thine infinite power and redeemed them by thy wonderful Goodness Thou hast willingly offered thy self to the sufferings of a painful death that thou mightest deliver them from the Wolfs Paw and Claws of the infernal Lion Let me remember that I am shortly to appear before thy Glorious presence and to give thee an account of my Stewardship O Lord who knowest all things unto whom nothing is hid thou seest the very bottom of my Heart and spiest my most secret thoughts Thou knowest how faithfully and affectionately I have been employed in thy service I have led thy Sheep to the wholsome feeding of thy Heavenly Pastures I have led them to the Waters that burst forth unto Eternal Life my Conscience bears me witness before thee and thy Holy Angels that I have declared nothing neither by Word nor Writing but that which I firmly believe to be agreeable to the Oracles of the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists I have drawn out of the Sacred Treasuries of thy word things new and old for the beautifying of thy House and for the instruction of such as dwell there I have labour'd day and night in the hings that thou hast put into my heart for thy Glory for the advance of thy Kingdom and the comfort of thy Children In the important passages of my life I have not taken counsel from Flesh and Bloud but I have preferred the Honour of thy great Name and the Glory of thy Divine Truth to all Earthly advantages and to my particular interest I have despised all the Riches of this World and the Honors of the Age for the sake of the spiritual Treasuries and of that Heavenly Light which thou hast put into me as into an Earthly Vessel that all Glory may be ascribed to thee who art the Author of all good and of all perfect Gifts My most delicious Meat and my most pleasant Drink was to do thy Holy Will and to perfect thy Work I have taken a singular delight in declaring the wonderful Councils of thy Wisdom and discovering the Mysteries of thy Kingdom I have shared in the evils and sufferings of thy Members I have not been sparing of the comforts which thou hast furnished me in all my afflictions and temptations Thy Holy Law is in my Heart and thy Gospel is there engraven with the finger of thy Blessed Spirit Thou hast kindled in me an earnest desire of saving Souls and bringing them to Righteousness O Lord who searchest into the bottom of the most secret Hearts Thou knowest that I may say with the Holy Prophet The zeal of thine House hath caten me up Or with the Apostle The care of thy Church cometh upon me daily But for all this I pretend not to be justified in thy presence I am so far from resting upon mine own Righteousness and of being puft up with the opinion of my deservings that I confess my self a poor and a miserable sinner therefore with my whole Heart I desire the forgiveness of my great imperfections and miscarriages which I have been guilty of in thy service I have not been enflam'd with a Charity pure enough nor with a disinteressed Zeal I have been sometimes too indulgent and sometimes too severe in the reprehension of Vice and I have not been as I ought the Director of my Floâ—k in all manner of good Works the love of my self hath crept in with that affection that I owe to thee alone and I have have not served thee only for thy sake and for thy Divine perfections but also for the expectation of the Rewards which thou hast promised to thy faithful Servants when thou shalt render unto every one according to his Works I have been too sensible of the wrongs done to mine own Person and especially when I have seen my best deeds misinterpreted and my most charitable cares requited with ingratitude I have not always possâ—ssed my Soul with patience and I have not had that Meekness Love and Humility which thou Divine Jesus hast recommended to me by thine example on Earth O Lord if thou should est treat me according to the exacâ—ness of thy justice and require at my hands the Souls that are perished by my negligence or evil example I should be cover'd with shame and confusion and I should soon be cast with the unprofitable Servant into the Eternal Torments of Hell where are weeping and gnashing of Teeth But O Merciful Lord thou art goodness it self Love and the very being of Charity Thou acceptest the Will for the Deed and the Vndertaking for the Performance and thou hast thy Arms always wide open to receive thy poor Servants that weep for their mistakes and that humbly prostrate themselves before thee to implore thy Mercy and Forgiveness O Divine Saviour Thou art rich in Goodness and ready to cause thy Glorious Countenance to shine upon such as call upon thee to their unspeakable joy and comfort and upon such as draw near to thee by a true and serious Repentance Therefore I pour forth my Soul before thee and acknowledge that thou hast heard me and accepted the contrition of my heart and heard the voice of my Tears Thou strengthenest my Faith raisest my Hopes and fillest my Soul with refreshing and excellent considerations of thy Love Thou causest me to tast the Salvation which thou often preachest to others I feel thy Gracious Hand drawing me to thyself I see that thou openest to me the Gate of Paradise unto which I have had so many good and Holy Souls that rest now in the enjoyment of thy Glory Thou causest me to have the confidence of saying with the Holy Apostle I know that God will show Mercy unto me and receive me into his Heavenly Kingdom O Good and Merciful Lord I feel my Body consuming away and my strength decaying but thou art the Rock of my Heart and my portion for ever I see death coming apace to me but instead of afflicting and frighting me it comforts and rejoyceth my Heart for it comes to put an end to this miserable life that is no better than a languishing kind of death it comes to take me from my continued labors and loose me from my greivous and
which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. 4. The chief Spring of all our Comforts is God's Gracious promise of seasonable help in time of need Imprint therefore in your minds these Divine passages When he that loveth me shall call upon me I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him Psal 91. The Lord delivers from all temptations them that honor him he is rich unto all that pray unto him 2 Pet. 2. He is near to all them that call upon him yea to all them that call upon him faithfully Rom. 10. He accomplisheth the desire of the humble he hears their cry Psal 145. The Righteous is encompassed with many evils but the Lord will deliver him from them all Psal 34. Call upon me in the day of thy distress and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me Psal 50. When a poor Subject is courted and visited by his Prince in the time of his sickness he looks upon it as a great favour and an happiness indeed And when we enjoy the presence of a dear friend whom we desired to see in the midst of our most grievous pains we are wont to say Methinks I feel no more pain now that I have the satisfaction of your good company Now the Glory of God's Majesty doth accompany the tenderness of his Love He is the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions He is like that faithful friend who never forsakes us for in our greatest calamities he succors us Prov. 18. He is the King of Kings and yet our most cordial and sincere friend who frequently visits the Houses of sorrow and is near to every broken and bruised Heart Psal 34. The more we are oppressed with evil the more he remembers us Psal 136. Notwithstanding our Childrens imperfections and miscarriages we cannot suffer to see them in distress but we are moved with compassion and perswaded to help them according to our ability and shall thy God who loves thee more sincerely and more cordially than the best Fathers and the most tender-hearted Mothers do their Children forsake thee in the day of thy distress This Merciful and loving Father who hath taken thee into his protection when thou didst enter into the World and who since hath furnished plentifully all thy necessities shall he deny his Gracious assistance now in the time of thy calamity He who hath fulfilled his praise by thy mouth when thou didst yet suck at thy Mothers Breasts who hath crowned thy youthful days with his Divine Blessings will not forsake thee now in thine old age he will not cast thee off in the last moments of thy life when thy strength is decayed and thou art scarce able to help thy self When we offer any assistance to our sick or wounded friends we labor to lessen their pain we employ all our skill and discover our most excellent Secrets at least we endeavour to make them sensible of our displeasure and grief for their distemper by our Sighs and Tears and by all good Offices their complaints and outcries are Darts that strike to our very hearts Likewise our merciful God is sensible of our calamities when he sees us oppressed with grievous pains his Bowels earn his Heart is as it were moved and his tender Love for us is concerned In all our afflictions he is afflicted and whosoever toucheth us toucheth the very Apple of his Eye Hosea 1. Isai 63. He is said to weep and grieve at the torments that we feel and to be sensible of our infirmities Luk 2. He binds up our wounds and poures into them his Divine balm he cures the diseased Heart and causeth the bruised Bones to rejoyce Job 5. He casteth into our beds of Sickness his most excellent Perfumes and drives from thence all grief and displeasure when a pestilentious Feavor hath seized upon you this Heavenly Physitian can give you some Carduus Waters powerful Antidotes to keep the poison from the Heart Jer. 30. Psal 147. Psal 51. Psal 34. Cant. 1. His Gracious Hand can drive from thy Soul the venom with which the old Serpent labors to infect it He will in thy need clap upon thy Head thy Stomach or rather to thine Heart not a bleeding Pidgeon but the living and cherishing Vertue of his Holy Spirit only discover to him the afflicted and diseased part or member of thy Soul or Body and he shall anoint it with the Oil of Joy and Gladness that shall run down into thy Joynts and Marrow If thou feelest thy self weak or fainting say to him as the Spouse in the Canticles Comfort my Heart with wine Chap. 2. and he will not fail to present unto thee of the new Wine of his Kingdom If thou art thirsty ask him some drink and he will give thee of that Water which if a man drink he shall never be athirst My Brother or My Sister cast thy self upon God for his Power is as great as his Love to thee he understands better than thou or we can what is expedient and good for thee in his due time he will make thy pains to cease and will pull out of thy Flesh its incomodious Thorn either he will drive from thee the Spirit that afflicts thee or accomplish his Vertue in thine Infirmity He will strengthen thee in such a manner and with such Patience Constancy and Faith and fill thee with so much extraordinary joy and comfort that every one shall visibly perceive that God himself is thy help and that his Vertue sustains thee O how sweet and pleasant is God's assistance to a Christian Soul it brings along with it so much pleasure and admirable delight it causeth such undeniable testimonies of our Predestination to appear it gives us so many rare fore-tasts of our Celestial Inheritance that St. Paul doth not only prefer it to all the Pleasures and Honors of the World but he prefers it also to his being ravish'd into the third Heaven and to his seeing unspeakable things which cannot be uttered 1 Cor. 12. If Afflictions are increas'd with Christ Joy and Comfort increase also with him for as God commands Wine to be given to a Man whose Heart is oppressed with sorrow to drive away his sadness and bury his troubled thoughts in oblivion Thus in the greatest evils God supplieth us with the strongest and most cordial Consolations It is in this occasion that he declares his greatest Power and pours out most plentifully his Divine Graces Is 4. When thou shouldest walk through the Flames the Fire shall not burn nor touch thee for as the Son of God was in the Furnace with Daniels three Companions in Babylon Thus in thy most violent fits of the Feaver in the midst of thy most grievous aches he will satiate thy Soul and thou shalt be like a watered Garden Dan. 5. Or as a living
Spring of Comfort that can never be stopt nor dried up Let the Storms and Flouds beat against thee Let the defluxions endeavour to check thee Is 58. thou mayest say with King David I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16. When I should walk in the valley of the shadow of Death when I should have no other help nor assistance in the World when there should be no more strength remain in my Body I would not fear for O God thy staff and thy Rod will comfort me Is 26. God will not only draw near to thy bed of Sickness but he will embrace and receive thee into his protection he will kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth and make thee taste of the sweetness of his Divine Comforts Cant. 1. He will cherish thee as a Mother doth her Child to pacify it and make thee so sensible of his Love that thou mayest say with the Spouse his left hand is under my head and his right doth embrace me With his Gracious Hand he will wipe off thy cold sweat and into his bosom he will receive thy sighs thy groans and thy tears he will gather up into his most precious bottles And as it happened when our Lord and Saviour was in his Agony when drops of Bloud fell from him the Holy Angels appeared to comfort him Luk 22. Likewise in our greatest and most difficult encounters when thou shalt be at handy-blows with death it self his faithful Ministers hâ—s Messengers the Angels of his right hand shall visit thee to supply thee with spiritual Comforts 2 Cor. 5. Revel 5. And when these earthly Comforters shall fail he will send to thee some of those powerful Spirits that wait before his Glorious Throne Dan. 7. O good God if we could but perceive the things that are of themselves invisible and if thou didst but give us eyes like unto those of the Holy Prophet we should behold Legions of immortal Spirits flying about in the houses of Sorrow with an intent to comfort the Christian Souls Is 6. 2 King 6. Finally as the Sun with its Light and the strength of its Beams drives away the thickest Clouds and comforts with its delightful countenance the face of the whole Earth Thus Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness that carries healing under his wings banisheth all sadness with the light of his Divine Graces Mal. 3. and with the presence of his Holy Spirit he drives away the most sensible griefs and fills us with unspeakable joy and with the Peace of God which passeth all understanding A Prayer and Meditation for a sick Person who desires to prepare for Death O Almighty and Gracious God! who hast created both light and darkness and who dost by the wisdom of thy Providence bestow good and evil things upon us I acknowledge that thine Hand hath cast me upon this bed of sickness and that this disease proceeds not so much from the disorder of my Body 〈◊〉 from the corruption and extravagancy of my Soul far be it from me to complain of thy justice I adore thy Goodness and Wisdom O Lord how favourable are thy punishments if compared with my deservings I have miserably abused thy former Mercies mispent that time of health that I received from thee in whom we live move and have our Being I confess that I have loved the vanities of the World and the satisfaction of this wretched Flesh more than the Glory of thy great Name 〈◊〉 the Salvation of my Soul therefore I could willingly water this Couch with my Tears O God who understandest all things thou knowest that my weeping proceeds not from any fretful humour but out of a sincere displeasure of having offended so good a Father and merciful Lord In thâ—â— thy chastisement I feel the workings of thy tender compassion and I perceive thy most wonderful Love I see thâ— thou dost not rebuke me in thy wrath nor dost not correâ— me in thy fury Thou dost not punish me as a Judge bâ— dost chastise me as a Father so that this disease is a tesâ—â—mony of thy Love and of thy Fatherly care of me 〈◊〉 thou dost correct all them whom thou lovest and causest tâ—â—â—â— to feel the smart of thy Rod whom thou ownest for 〈◊〉 Children therefore if we were without reproof wh◠〈◊〉 all are partakers we should be no longer Children but bastards If this chastisement is at present grievous and painful one day it will produce the Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness and as at the end of Jonathan 's Rod he tasted Honey that comforted him and opened his Eyes Likewise when I shall have felt the Rods of thy displeasure I shall taste the sweet comforts and unspeakable joys of thine Holy Spirit and my understanding shall be more enlightened O Almighty and ever wise God who drawest Light out of Darkness and causest that all things work together for good to them â—hat love thee it matters not how thou orderest this disease so that it may advance thy Glory and further my Salvation Thou beholdest mine affliction and poverty and thou knowest better than I can what is good and expedient for me O great God I know that thou canst do all things and that thou givest the wound and bindest it up thou strikest and thy hands must heal thou castest into the Grave and bringest up again The most desperate and irrecoverable diseases thou canst cure the dead thou canst bring to life again and call the things that are not as if they were O Almighty Physitian thou canst not only vouchsafe thy Blessing to these Remedies prescribed and administred to me but if thou speakest the word I shall be perfectly whole and well again But if thou judgest expedient to continue this disease upon me continue O merciful Lord unto me and increase thy Fatherly assistances and the comforts of thine Holy Spirit Strengthen me with a Christian patience and with a resolution worthy of my hâ—nourable Profession seeing that thou art the Soveraign Physitian both of Soul and Body I beseech thee my God if thou dost not remove the distemper of my Body at least pluck out of my Heart and mind all the grief and displeasure that torments me Fill my Soul with thy Peace Joy Love and Heavenly Comforts while my Body languisheth upon this Earth and while I am kept from my former societies of Men. Let my mind be lifted up to Heaven Let my Soul delight it self in a familiarity with thee I have lost too much time already about the affairs of the World that is nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit Give me Grace to employ now these few moments of leasure which thou dost grant to me to think seriously upon my sins to beg thy pardon with an earnest Repentance Give me Grace to meditate upon thine unspeakable and eternal Mercy to embrace it with a true and lively Faith upon thy Glory and the Happiness of thy Kingdom
Now although we be the Children of God and the supposed Heirs of his Crown our Glory and Dignity is not to be discerned during the years of our Earthly Pilgrimage Our Heavenly Father suffers us here in an Estate contemptible in the eye of the World that we might learn Humility and desire more earnestly his celestial Inheritance As it happens in a dark and obscure midnight Men tread under feet the Pearls the Diamonds the Scepters and the Crowns Thus it is now that a gross ignorance hath overspread and covers the face of the World the Children of God who are the most precious Jewels of his Crown are esteem'd no better than the scum or the filth of thē Earth This consideration causeth St. John to tell us Beloved we are now Children of God it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. As David sent for Absalom out of the Philistins Countrey and gave him leave to dwell in the City of Jerusalem but for the space of two years he would not suffer him to enter his Royal Palace or see his Face Likewise God hath freed us from the Devils Tyranny and Hells Power he hath admitted us into his Holy Church which is as his Jerusalem where he gives a fore-tast of our Heavenly Peace and Reconciliation but he delays for a time our reception into the magnificent Palace of his Glory and to the enjoyment of his Divine Presence the highest satisfaction and the greatest happiness While we remain in the Body we are estranged from God so that we are saved but by Hope 2 Cor. 5. But when we shall depart out of this Body we shall be with the Lord and shall enter into a real fruition of his Celestial Inheritance Rom. 8. Finally while we dwell here below we may see the Image of our Heavenly Father and behold his Face as in a Glass but when he shall have caused us to draw near his Throne we shall see him face to face we shall be transformed into his likeness and be fully satisfied with his resemblance Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 1 Cor. 13. Psal 17. Let Death be never so hideous and ugly it is the Messenger of our Heavenly Father and if we can have but the confidence to open its iron hands and look into them we shall find Gracious Letters full of Love by which this Father of Mercy calls us to the full enjoyment of our Eternal Happiness Death doth not only invite us to go to God but it serves as a Vessel to convey us through this tempestuous Sea of the World to go to our good God who expects our coming at the Haven of everlasting Rest it is like to Eliah's Chariot of Fire that carried him up to Heaven 2 King 2. If Death covers our eyes with one hand and deprives us of the Light of the Sun with the other it rents in pieces that Vail which hinders us from the sight of the varieties of God's immortal Sanctuary and discovers to us the Glorious Face of the Father of Lights with the one it digs for our Bodies a Grave to cast them in but with the other hand it flings open for our Souls the Gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem to usher them into the Banqueting-Hall Therefore Death should be so far from frighting us that its arrival should rather comfort us and cause us to resolve to follow it with an Holy chearfulness for we should not only be willing to go to God with transports of joy when he is pleased to call us to himself to behold his Face and to eat of the Bread of Eternal life in his Heavenly Kingdom but of our own accord we should be impatient to enjoy his Glorious Presence and in a continual longing to see that happy day that shall bring us into him and satisfy us with his unspeakable Delights A true Christian should be moved in this occasion with David's Spirit As the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God I confess that this Great God before whom we are to appear is cloathed with Glory and Majesty and dwels in the Light which no man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6. I know that he sits upon a dreadful Throne of Fire whereof the Wheels are like a burning Flame Dan. 7. that a thousand thousand wait upon him and ten thousand Millions stand before him Isai 6. I am not ignorant that at his Presence the Earth is moved the Sea and the Rivers dry up the Mountains tremble and the little Hills shake the Rocks decay the Pillars of Heaven fail and the Seraphims cover themselves with their wings Revel 4. But let not this dreadful Majesty and Heavenly Pomp terrify thee O believing Soul for this Great God is full of a Fatherly affection for thee Round about this Throne of God there is a beautiful Rainbow of a Green colour like unto an Emerald to signify unto us that God is reconciled and that the Covenant of our Peace is to continue for ever As out of this magnificent Throne proceed the Thunders and Thunderbolts that fright the Worldlings and cast the proud Souls down to the ground so from thence proceed also Lightnings and such refreshing Flames as are able to comfort the Believer and to guide him to his Celestial Inheritance We are related to God more than the Angels and Seraphims for we are not only his Creatures and Servants but also his Children and the Members of his Son nay we are but one with him Joh. 17. Let us therefore return our hearty thanks to our Heavenly Father which hath made us mete to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Colos 1. Let us go up with confidence to Mount Sion for there are no signes of God's wrath to be seen nor of his just vengeance we shall find no bounds to separate us from God's Gracious Presence but we shall find Cords of Love to draw us and unite us unto him we shall see no fire to devour and scare us but we shall perceive the comfortable Flames which burn without consuming and which bring Comfort rather than Fear we shall not meet there a terrible Law-giver to derive us from him to scare us with his Thunderbolts but we shall meet a loving Father to embrace us and open to us the bosom of his tender compassions In short we shall not hear there the terrible sound of the Trumpet that causeth the Rocks to split asunder that casts to the ground the proud Cedars and that makes the Deer cast their young but we shall hear the sweet and melodious voice that will settle our trembling Souls refresh our languishing Hopes and fill us with Peace and Eternal Comfort Heb. 12. I acknowledge that God is just but he is also merciful and his
not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People By this gracious and loving Title of Father the prodigal Son is perswaded to be able to oblige his Father to have compassion of him I will rise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants Thus although we have forsaken our Heavenly Father mispent the Riches of his Grace and lived a filthy and a prophane Life Nevertheless if we can be but moved with a serious and a true repentance and say to him from our hearts Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy Son He will forget all the miscarriages of our youth and will pass by all the offences that we have committed out of ignorance or mistake nay he will blot out all our wilful and deliberate sins he will not only embrace us when we shall cast our selves at his feet and in the arms of his Mercy but he will meet and receive us as his dearest Children he will kiss us with the blessed kisses of his Fatherly love he will give unto us his Holy Spirit that shall seal us for the day of Redemption and shall assure us that we are admitted to the liberty and all the priviledges of his Children he will shooe our Feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and will give us all the assurances of our entire and perfect reconciliation He will cloath us here upon Earth with the Robes of Righteousness and Holiness and in Heaven he will bestow upon us uncorruptible Robes of immortality and Glory In this life he will give us the foretasts of Eternal Happiness and in the life to come he will lead us by the hand into the Banqueting Chamber and will cause us to sit there at Table with Abraham Isaack and Jacob and with all the First-born whose names are written in Heaven Out of this celestial abode all murmurings and complaints shall be banished but here shall be rejoycing and gladness for the conversion of poor sinners and for their admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven God himself shall invite the Holy Angels and blessed Spirits to share in these publick rejoycings saying to them We must rejoyce for these my Children were dead but now they are alive they were lost but now they are found again Let the miserable slaves of the Devil and of their filthy Lusts tremble at the approaches of death and let them look upon God as a dreadful Judge Rom. 2. For our parts we have not the spirit of Bondage to be again in fear but we have the spirit of Adoption whereby we may cry Abba Father Let the Sons and Daughters of Adam who have no other Being nor Life but that which they have received with their corrupted Nature fly from God's Presence for our parts we that are Regenerated by the Spirit of the second Adam we will draw near to him with boldness We will not say as that wretched Soul disturbed and frighted at the consideration of its crimes I heard thy voice I was afraid and hid myself Gen. 3. But rather having been brought up in the Schools of the Prophets and Apostles and having learn'd that we must prefer our Obedience to God's Will to all other things whatsoever we shall say unto him with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 8. Or rather we will speak unto him in plainer terms O my God and Heavenly Father speak when thou wilt for thy servant is ready and resolved to obey thy Commands we will stay till God shall call the fourth time as that Holy Man Numb 31. Who because of his tender and unexperienced years could not distinguish between God's voice and that of a Man but we will have our Ears always open to his Divine Orders and at the first motion and summons of his Will we shall be ready to follow him as the Children of Israel were in the Wilderness when they raised their Camp and marched according to God's directions Numb 3. And as when the Levites stopt and put down the Ark in its own place 2 Chron. 3. Moses did commonly pray O Lord give rest to the thousands of Israel Likewise you believing Souls whom God hath chosen for his Ark and Temple assoon as you shall perceive that this wise Governor of Mankind intends to put a period to your painful Journey and laborious Race that is to say assoon as you shall perceive the least signe of death speak with an Holy confidence and joy Rejoyce O my Soul the time of thy freedom and of thine Eternal Rest approacheth Here is the Messenger of good news here is Death that will usher me in to the Glorious Palace of my Heavenly Father Father the hour is come Glorify thy Son that thy Son may Glorify thee John 17. When the hour was come that our Lord Jesus Christ was to go out of this World to the Father he said unto his Disciples who were grieved for his going from them If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I John 13. John 14. Christian Souls speak in this manner at the hour of your departing If such as are about you happen to weep and lament if they endeavour to move and stop you by the considerations of Flesh and Bloud tell them why are you grieved at my deliverance and at the end of my misery why would you hinder and retard my Glory and Happiness O how cruel is your Love how blind and unconsiderate is your Affection Certainly if ye did love me as ye ought ye would prefer my satisfaction and the accomplishment of my happiness to the small advantages that ye might gather from my abode with you ye should consider that the least part of the joy that I shall feel in my Heavenly Fathers House is a thousand times more worth than all the Pleasures of the Earth than the Honors of the Age and the Pomp and Glory of the World My friends or rather my enemies let me go for I go to my Father I go to behold his Face which is the most Divine satisfaction I go to take possession of that Inheritance prepared for me from the foundations of the World John 20. Matth. 21. A Prayer and Meditation for a believing Soul that strengthens it self against the fears of Death by an Assurance and Trust upon God's Fatherly Goodness and Infinite Mercy MY God and Creator I perceive that the time of my departure draweth near and that Death presseth sore upon me It summons me to appear before thy dreadful Tribual it frights me when it brings to my remembrance all my former sins and represents unto me the hainousness of my crimes O Great God when I seriously think upon what I am
for them now if there be any reason to render unto every one that which hath been dearly bought and purchased with a great price and seeing that it would be a great sin to refuse unto any man that which he hath paid for with the Bloud of his only and beloved Son how can we refuse our Souls unto God seeing that they belong to him because he hath not only created them and stamped in them his Image but he hath also purchased them with the Bloud of his only Son in whom from all Eternity he is well pleased We must not therefore imitate the example of naughty paymasters or unjust possessors of other Men's Goods we must not expect until our Souls be plucked from us by violence but rather like the good and righteous Debtors we must return them willingly and yield them up into his hands who hath paid for them an infinite and an unvaluable Ransome David was of this mind when he said Into thine hand I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth Psal 31. 11. In this Death and Passion of our Glorious Redeemer we learn not only our Duty but also sufficient grounds of comfort and hope and if I may so say it is in the Bowels of this dead Lion that we find the sweetest and most ravishing Consolations this Chief Priest that bears us upon his Breast in his Heavenly Sanctuary or rather upon his Heart will not forsake us in the day of our distress and will not give us over to the fears and pangs of death for seeing that he hath encountred with this cruel Death seeing that it hath felt its sting its shiverings and pains and that he hath bin tempted as we have bin in all things except in sin he is merciful and faithful to have compassion of our infirmities he is no less able to assist us in our temptations and to make us in all things more than Conquerors 12. Believing Souls consider with me the noble expressions of St. Paul Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. These excellent Truths may be very well applied to our Lord Jesus Christ whom the Holy Ghost names The Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Heb. 3. For the comfortable assistances which he hath received from God in the time of his greatest anguish are precious tokens and infallibie assurances of God's future help in our need for as when he was in his bitter Agony when his Soul was cast down with deadly sorrow an Angel from Heaven comes to comfort him Likewise when we shall be engaged in an encounter with death when it shall endeavour to fill our Souls with sadness and apprehensions he will doubtless send unto us some of his good Angels that be at his right hand I mean the faithful Teachers of his Holy Word or else he will send from Heaven some of his blessed Spirits that stand about his Throne and that are commonly employed in the preservation of the Godly The Holy Ghost himself the Comforter of afflicted Souls and the true Oil of Gladness will then drive from our hearts all grief and refresh us with his Heavenly Comforts He will not forsake us until he hath brought us to the Head Spring of Eternal Joy and Comfort 13. Our Lord and Saviours deliverance from death is an Image and an assurance of our future deliverance which we are to expect from God's Mercy and Almighty Power for as when St. Paul saith that this High Priest in the days of his Flesh offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from Death And was heard in that he feard We are not to understand that he was freed altogether from death but rather that he had the favour granted to him of swallowing Death up into Victory and of triumphing over the Powers of Hell and that through the shame and bitterness of death he is gone into his Glory and into the Joys of his Heavenly Paradise Likewise when we pray unto God in our greatest distresses and deepest sorrows when we pour into his bosom the Tears of a sincere Repentance he hears us from his Sanctuary and delivers us from Death not by hindring us from dying but by raising our Souls to pass through Death into an immortal Life from this valley of Tears into Happiness and endless Bliss 14. If we will be sully perswaded that God will not with-hold from us the Joys and Comforts of his Holy Spirit and that he will make us more than Conquerors of death by admitting us into an Eternal Felicity we need but cast our eyes upon our Lord Jesus Christ for as he who bestows much will not refuse a little so God who hath not spared his only Son but hath delivered him for us all to an ignominious and cruel Death how shall not he with him freely give us all things St. Paul hath taught to argue in this manner and to gather this consequence necessary from God's proceedings Rom. 8. 15. When Christ our Lord gave up the Ghost upon the Cross the vail of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom Heaven was opened and a repenting Thief was admitted All this happened to teach us that we may enter into the Holy of Holies by the Bloud of Jesus by the new and living way which he hath consecrated by the Vail which is by his Flesh and that this merciful Lord hath always his Arms wide open to receive us and that he will never refuse the Glory of Heaven and the delights of his Paradise to the greatest sinners that repent and that seek to his Eternal Mercy by his infinite Merits 16. The Death of this great God and Saviour is the payment of all our debts and the expiation of all our crimes it is the healing of all our diseases the freedom from all our miseries for it hath overcome Satan and the powers of Hell It is the death of an Eternal Death it is this meritorious death that hath purchased for us Heaven and all its Excellencies and procured to us a Right to God's Paradise and to its Delights and Pleasures In short it is this Death that conveys Pardise into our Souls before we enter into Paradise and fills our minds with an Heavenly and Divine Peace and an unspeakable and glorious Joy 17. This Cross of our Saviour may be compared to the Wood which Moses cast into the Waters of Marah for it takes away from the natural Death of God's Children whatsoever is incommodious and bitter and causeth us to relish Sweetness and Comforts that cannot be express'd It is like the Salt which the Prophet Elisha cast into the Waters of Jerico to make them wholsom and fruitful for
one after another and he also in his time yielded up the Ghost But Jesus Christ who is Risen from the Dead Dyeth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him so that he lives for ever and ever and will cause us all to become Immortal Therefore instead of desiring as Jacob to Live to go down into Egypt to see his Son Joseph we should earnestly desire to Dye that we might ascend up into Heaven there to behold our Lord Jesus Christ our Father and Redeemer When Jacob embraced again his wonderful and beloved Child in the exceeding transport of his Joy and Love he burst forth into this kind of Language Let me now Dye now that I have seen again thy Face and that thou art alive On the contrary when we shall embrace Christ in his Glory when we should behold his Divine Countenance we shall speak in another manner my Lord and my God seeing that I now look upon thee alive and Raigning in Heaven I shall live also and Raign with thee for ever and ever Amen A Prayer and Meditation for a believing Soul who strengthens it self against the Fears of Death by considering the glorious Ascention of Jesus Christ into Heaven and his sitting at the right hand of God O Holy and Divine Saviour I have often looked upon thy generous Behaviour and glorious Victories to strengthen my self against all apprehensions of Death but if thou wilt render my joy most perfect and accomplished give me Grace to Meditate upon thy Divine Triumph As thou hast engaged in many Encounters for my sake and hast vouchsafed unto me a share in thy Victory grant me also a share in thy glorious Ascention and Triumph As thou hast suffered for my Sins and art risen again for my Justification thou art also ascended up into Heaven to prepare a place for me thou art willing that I should be admitted into thy Noble and Divine Palace that I should be where thou art that I may behold thy Glory which thou hast enjoyed with God the Father before the Creation of the World O sweet and Merciful Lord what cause have I to fear to go to Heaven seeing that thou art there seated in the highest Glory and Felicity and that thou stretchest out thy merciful hand to receive and admit me Have not I good reason to expect to be glorified in thy Kingdom seeing that thou thy self dost bestow upon those that serve thee the Immortal Crowns and Scepters O great God and Saviour thy Throne is surrounded with Glory and Splendor nevertheless I will draw near unto it with boldness for it is a Throne of Love and a Throne of Mercy unto which every penitent Sinner may come Round about this glorious Throne I see a Rainbow of an Emerald colour that certifies me that thy Covenant is everlasting When thy Glory and Majesty did increase thy Love for me did not lessen and thy compassion and goodness were always the same Thou art the same yesterday and to day and thou shalt always be the same for ever Thou hast been pleased for my Salvation to lye in a Manger and to be nailed to a Cross Thou hast given thy Soul for my Ransome and hast spilt thy precious Blood to wash and cleanse me from my Sins and to make me a way that I might enter into thine holy Sanctuary In the midst of all that Glory and Light with which thou art now cloathed thou hast not thought it a scorn to acknowledge me for thy Brether and for a Member of thy Mystical Body It is for my sake that thou appearest before thine Heavenly Father it is for me that thou offerest up unto him Prayers and Supplications O wonderful Lord it is in thy power to give unto me the things which thou hast merited by thy Sufferings and which thou desirest for me by thy Prayers and Intercession for all power is given unto thee in Heaven and in Earth O Soveraign Monarch of the whole World hast not thou given unto us this great and gracious promise When I shall be lifted up from the Earth I shall draw all Men after me And is it not for us that thou hast prayed in this excellent manner Father I will that they also whom thou hâ—st given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Seeing therefore that thou hast left this wretched Earth to go and Raign above in Heaven take unto thee my Soul O wonderful Redeemer and deliver it from this valley of Tears and Misery cause it to understand at the time of its departure those words of joy and eternal comfort Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradice Lord Jesus draw me with the cords of thy Mercy and Grace and I shad run after thee And seeing that I must of necessity pass through Death to come to thee the Prince of Life and Immortality give me Grace to consider it in the same manner as the Prophet Elias did the Fiery Charriots that carried him up to Heaven or as Jacob did the Waggon that carried him into Egypt to his Son that did Raign there this holy Father in a transport of joy cried out let me see my Son Joseph again and then let me Dye But when I shall be ravished with an unspeakable and glorious joy I shall speak in another manner Let me Dye that I may behold my true Joseph the Soul of my Soul the light of Life the Author of my Glory and Happiness O sweet Jesus I shall freely and willingly leave this wretched and crasie dwelling to enter into thy heavenly Palace to behold thy Glory and Magnificence O King of Kings and Lord of Lords when shall I hear that Divine Wisdom that drops from thy Lips and when shall I see thee sitting upon the Throne of thy Glorious Majesty where a thousand thousands wait upon thee and ten millions Worship thee When shall I enter into the Glorious Company of the Saints and Blessed Spirits that Sing forth thy Praises and cast at thy feet their most precious Crowns O glorious Monarch that art now in thy Kingdome enjoying a perfect happiness forget not thy poor Servant be not unmindful of thy Sâ—n or Daughter who am now overwhelmed with the sorrows of this miserable life and the anguish of Death Let not the Songs of the holy Angels and applauses of all the glorified Spirits hinder thee from listning to my Sighs and Groans O Almighty and merciful Lord look upon me with the eyes of thy Love and reach unto me thine helping hand Send unto me thine Angels of Light to receive my Soul and prâ—tect me from the Angels of Darkness that endeavâ—r to destroy me and to drag me headlong into Hell Let Some of thâ—se glorious Spirits that wait for thine orders and fly at thy command deliver me from Death and carry me upon their wings into thy Bosome I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand
is not given us for a time but to dwell in us for ever As that Flesh which our Lord took from us was never cast off nor never shall Thus the Spirit which he given us shall never be taken from us The flesh which our Saviour united in the same person with the Divine word hath been glorified by this eternal Union but the Spirit which he hath united to our Spirits by this gracious Union is the foundation of Glory and of our eternal happiness This Spirit of Life is not only the Seal of the promises of God but also the earnest of our uncorruptible inheritance reserved for us in Heaven This is St. Pauls Doctrine Ephes 1. for when he had said you have been Sealed by the holy Spirit of promise he adds which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his â—glory Because this Divine Spirit is the Seal of the living God he is the earnest of his Inheritance for this heavenly Image that it imprints in our Souls shall be part of that glory with which he will Crown us in his holy Paradice Therefore the Wisdom that is various in every manner doth not call this Spirit a Gage but an earnest for although both be given as a confirmation of promises and an assurance of their accomplishment there is this difference that Men commonly take back again the thing engaged when that which is promised is done but the earnest remains always and is part of the summe to be paid As therefore the earnest which is given is never taken away but Men commonly add to it the remaining summe promised likewise our Saviour never takes away from his Elect the Spirit of Adoption which hath been once bestowed upon them but he increaseth its Graces and Advantages until he hath raised them to the highest glory and most Divine happiness which he hath promised It is in this occasion as with the Sun which as soon as it appears upon our Horizon increaseth the Light more and more untill he is mounted up to our Meridian or as the Rivolets and Rivers which the farther they run the more they increase untill they discharge into the Sea Therefore when our Lord and Saviour speaks of this Spirit of Grace which such as believe in him receive he tells the Jews John 8. He that believeth in me Rivers of living Water shall flow from his Belly John 4. and to the Samaritan Woman he speak in this Language He that shall Drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing to eternal life This was sometimes shewn in a Vision to the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 47. by the waters that ran down from the Sanctuary for at the first they did reach no higher then the Prophets Ankle bone afterwards they rise up to his knee and then to his middle at last they increased in such a manner that they became a great Torrent and a deep River which was not to be forded over and which discharged it self into the Sea As David in the beginning of his Raign commanded but one Tribe but afterwards he enlarged the limits of his Kingdom over all the Tribes of Israel that small portion of the Kingdom was not then taken from him but only increased and became greater thus it is with us during this Life we have small part of the Kingdom of Heaven intrusted in our hands or if I may so say we have now some Jewels of the uncorruptible Crown which is promised hereafter This part shall not be taken from us this bright beam of our future glory shall never be put out but in the Life to come we shall possess as much of this Kingdom as we are able and shall be cloathed with all that light and splendor of the Heavenly Glory But as there is no comparison never so just but is faulty in some respects there is no small difference in this for the Tribe of Juda was the noblest and the richest part of the Kingdom of Israel but that part which our Souls enjoy at present of the happiness and glory of the Kingdom of Heaven is but as a drop of Water in comparison of the Ocean or as a weak raye of light in comparison of the Sun 2 Cor. 12. Therefore the Apostle St. Paul who had been ravished into the Third Heaven and who knew better than any Man in the World what were the Joys and glories of Heaven when he mentions this Spirit of Adoption that God sends into our hearts he calls it Rom. 8. The First Fruits of the Spirit To teach us that there is as vast a difference between the measure of the gifts and graces which we receive here below and the overflowing abundance which we shall enjoy in Heaven as between some few ears of Corn and the whole Harvest of a Field It is like the small quantity of Fruits which were broughâ— to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness compared to the great abundance of all the Land of Canaan It is like some small crums of the Heavenly Bread of which we shall have our fill in the Kingdom of God as some small drops of that New Wine which we shall drink for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem Therefore believing Souls you may from hence conclude that the approaches of Death ought not to scare or fright you because that you have within you the principles of a life everlasting and the seeds of a glorious Immortality which cannot be taken from you Jesus Christ doth not only wait for you and stretch out unto you his Arms to receive you into his Rest but he himself is also with you and will render the passage easie and pleasant to this new World where Justice and Righteousness dwell Iohn 11. He will make Miracles for your sake and if you believe you shall see the glory of God Ioshua 3. We do not only follow the footsteps of this Divine and real Ioshua but we pass with him and he passeth with us Exod. 19. We are not like the Children of Israel that went through the River of Iordan whilst the Priests held the Ark in the middle of the River but we may be compared to the Priests themselves 1 Pet. 2. that did bear the Ark of the Covenant and caused the Waters to return up to their Fountain again for we are a Generation of Priests and we bear in our Souls the Lord Jesus in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily and in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge In short our Souls return to God the Fountain from whence they came Let therefore that heavenly voice which was heard in the holy Land sound in our ears Is 43. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine when thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee and through the Rivers
of that uncorruptible Inheritance which God keeps for thee in Heaven and hath prepared since the Creation of the World Hast thou a pleasant Garden or a rich Field But what are all the Gardens of the World in respect of the Heavenly Paradise where the Tree of Life grows that brings forth its Fruits every moneth of the year and where the River of living Water as transparent as Chrystal runs continually What reason hast thou Christian Soul to grieve when thou forsakest the pleasures of the World that thou enjoyest with the Children of the Earth or the Delights of the Body which are common to thee with the bruit Beasts Seeing that God will satisfy thee with his most precious Delights for in the blessed Vision of his Face thou shalt meet with fulness of joy Hast thou any friends on Earth Let it not trouble thee to leave them for instead of one friend here below whom thou fanciest to be real and sincere thou hast thousands in Heaven who will receive thee into the Eternal Mansions and embrace thee as their companion and the partaker of the same Glory and Happiness Hast thou any Parents or Relations I suppose that they are not burdensome to thee and that thou receivest much more Pleasure and Assistance from them than Grief and Ingratitude yet thou hast a spiritual Parentage in Heaven and Eternal Relations Thou hast in the Mansion-House of thy Heavenly Father a great number of Brothers and Sisters with whom thou shalt live in a blessed Unity as Members of one Body governed by the same Spirit and enflamed with the same Zeal Thou Husband whom Death snatcheth away from thy beloved Wife seriously consider that God will unite thee to himself by an unscparable Union and that he purposeth to take up to him some part of thy self that thy expectations thy hopes and affections might be now in Heaven And thou also O Woman whom Death plucks out of the embraces of thy dear and loving Husband remember that thou hast a Husband also in Heaven who hath espoused thee to himself for ever in Righteousness in Mercy and Compassion a Husband always Living and Glorious a Husband who loves thee with an Eternal Love that is stronger than Death whose affections are enflamed for thee in such a manner that the Water of all the Seas and Rivers are not able to extinguish a Husband who bears with all thine infirmities and hath redeemed thee from all thy sins a Husband who hath not spared for thee his precious Bloud that he might procure for thee the Glory and Happiness of his Kingdom who invites thee to his Heavenly Nuptials having prepared and appointed for thee a Room in the Banqueting-Chamber where thousands of glorified Saints shall sit and where the meledious Tunes of Angels shall be heard a Husband who calls to thee reacheth out unto thee his Hand and opens his Bosom to receive thee If thou hast found any satisfaction and pleasure in the company of that Person whom God had given thee for an Assistant and Mate judge from thence what Angelical Delights thou shalt meet with in the ravishing embraces of thy Heavenly Spouse The most pleasant Marriage days are gone as a shadow but the day which shall bring thee to thy Celestial Bridegroom shall never depart nor darken so that the Heavenly Contentments shall abide and continue with thee for ever without the least distaste You beloved and loving Children who are yet in the bosom of a good Father or of a tender-hearted Mother suffer Death patiently to remove you far from them and depart with joy to that good God that will receive you as his Children satisfy your Souls with the Milk of his most Blessed Consolations and will make you his Heirs and Co-Heirs with his Son Jesus Christ Say to him as the Holy Prophet When my Father and my Mother should forsake me yet the Lord will receive me Isai 66. Rom. 8. Psal 27. And you Fathers and Mothers that have a tender affection for your Children if Death takes them out of your sight and deprives you of the comfort of their company grieve not as those who have no hope for when they should be never so accomplish'd when they should have never given you but pleasure and divertisement What are all these pitiful Delights that pass away in a moment and that change oft-times into bitterness and sorrow if compared with the Eternal Pleasures which we shall enjoy in the contemplation of God's Glorious Face and in a familiar acquaintance with his Divine Wisdom You shall not return to them but they shall in their time go to you so that you shall shortly see one another in the Dwelling of the Father of Spirits Matth. 27. Death separates you for a while but the Author of your Life will bring you together for ever Finally of what age and condition soever you be if you perceive the breath of your Life to stop never grieve nor murmure at it for if Death separates you from your Selves it brings you nearer to God your chief Good and instead of a wretched and perishing life it will promote you to the fruition of an Eternal and ever happy one If we had lived in the days when our Saviour was on Earth there is none of us but would have looked upon it as a singular Happiness and Honor to have been admitted with Peter James and John when they went up to Mount Tabor to be Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's transfiguration A far greater Honor and Happiness Death is endeavouring to procure you it will usher you up to Mount Sion it will transport you above all the Heavens where you shall behold more excellent wonders than ever the Apostles beheld upon Mount Tabor for you shall not only see this Glorious Saviour whiter than the Snow and brighter than the Sun but you your selves shall be transfigured with him and cloathed with an exceeding great Glory The Holy Apostles saw but two Prophets but you shall see all the Prophets all the Patriarchs Apostles Confessors Martyrs the Holy and Blessed Virgin and generally all the Saints that Reign and Triumph in Heaven The Apostles had a sight of this Glory of our Saviour as of a flash of Lightning it continued with them but for a moment for soon after they came down from the Holy Mountain and were again in danger of the same temptations as before and besieged by the same Calamities It will be otherwise with thee O Christian Soul thou art flying up to Heaven from whence thou shalt never descend till the great day of the Glorious Resurrection of our Bodies Thou shalt not be assaulted any more by any temptationâ— thou shalt have no more Enemies to overcome nor Bitterness to digest Thou art going to reap and enjoy the Blessed Fruits of thy Saviours Victories and to be Eternally satisfied with the Celestial Pleasures that are at the right hand of the God of Mercies We esteem St. John highly priviledged because the Lord gave him
a sight of his Glory of the Riches and Divine Excellencies of the New Jerusalem but how much greater is thy priviledge for that which this Holy Apostle beheld in a Vision and a Dream God will discover to thee in Truth and Reality Let thine Heart listen and thou shalt hear the voice of thy Saviour calling already to thee feom Heaven as unto his Beloved Disciple Come and see Come my good and faithful Servant come my Son or my Daughter and I will shew thee my Glorious and Magnificent City I will shew thee the Palace of my Glory and all the Splendor and State of my Kingdom Come and I will expose before thine eyes all my Riches Treasuries and my most precious Crowns Come and I will cause the River of Living Water which proceeds from my Throne to run before thee and the Eternal Delights that proceed from my Face I shall shew thee all these Heavenly Treasures and Glory all the Angelical satisfactions not in the visions of the night in an extasy in an Holy ravishment of the Mind or in a Prophetical elevation of the Soul but I will discover them to thee in Reality and Truth by the assistance of a purer and more Glorious Light than that of the Sun I shall not only cause thee to behold this Glory these Treasures and Delight but I will cause thee to be partakar of them for ever for as thou hast pledged me in the Cup of my bitterness and sorrows as thou hast continued with me in my afflictions and hast been faithful unto Death I will give the Kingdom to thee as the Father hath given it to me I will give thee the Crown of Life and will cause thee to swim in the vast Ocean of the Eternal Pleasures Thou shalt not only see all my Treasures all my Pomp and Glory thou shalt not only behold the Rivers and the Seas of my most wonderful Delights and shalt be a partaker of them but thou shalt see me as I am in my Kingdom I will pull off the Vail that covers me and scatter the Clouds and Mists that hide me so that thou shalt look upon me without hindrance and behold me face to face thou shalt be transformed into my Likeness and be satisfied with my Resemblance You see therefore Christians that although Death appears to us grievous and ill-favoured we may apply to it what David said of Ahimaz that it is the Messenger of good news Notwithstanding its hideous Vail and Cloak of Darkness we have just cause to liken it to the Chariot of Fire that carried up the Prophet Elijah into Heaven From what we have said you may easily conclude with the wisest of Kings That the day of our death is better than the day of our birth for our Birth brings us upon a wretched Earth but death carries us into a Paradise of Heavenly Delights Our Birth exposeth us to several Encounters but Death lifts us up upon a Chariot of Triumph Our Birth expresseth from us Crying and Tears but Death makes us sing for joy our Birth brings us into the Light but Death causeth us to shine as the Sun our Birth makes us to live a sensual and animal Life of a short continuance but Death introduceth us into a Spiritual and Angelical Life that shall continue for ever In short our Birth casts us into the Arms of Death but Death leads to the Well-spring of Life Therefore the Apostle St. Paul confesseth that Christ is gain to him both in life and death Phil. 1. And for the same reason the Primitive Christians could not endure to see any person afflicting himself for the decease of Believers because that it was the day of their Deliverance Rest Glory and Happiness they did commonly forbid all manner of Mourning for they judged that it is not proper that we should cloath our selves with black and sadness for their sakes who are clothed in white and shining Garments of Light and Immortality They look'd upon this Life as upon a continual Death and upon Death as upon the beginning of a real Life Therefore they stiled the aniversary day of the Martyrs death The day of their Nativity From hence proceed the usual Songs of Praise which they did commonly sing to perpetuate their Blessed Memories I need not cause you to take notice devout Souls of the notable difference between the death of God's Children and the death of the wicked It is as great as between Heaven and Earth between Paradise and Hell Balaam had good cause to desire the one and fear the consequence of the other we have as much reason to cry out as he did Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 23. You have heard how an Heathen Prince made this address to his Soul My little Soul my little Darling Hostess and Companion of my Body Adrian thou art going to wander up and down in cold obscure and fearful places thou shalt never delight thy self in jesting as thou hast been wont thou shalt never give me any more pastime but when a Christian Soul goeth out of this mortal Tabernacle he may talk to it in another manner O my Soul pleasant Hostess and Heavenly Companion of this crazy Body thou canst not wander out of thy way for thou hast a faithful and a knowing Guide Thou art already in the blessed company of Angels that shall bear thee upon their wings thou art going to a Noble place enriched with Light and Glory and blessed with the sincerest and most Heavenly Delights Thou shalt meet with no more Sorrows Grief nor Displeasure which so often disturb thy quiet here upon Earth Thou shalt rejoyce for ever with all the Glorified Saints and sing Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving for ever with all the Celestial Spirits O my Soul how great is that Glory and Happiness which thou mayest justly expect from thy God who hath both an infinite Power and an infinite Mercy and Goodness seeing that he hath endeared thee unto himself by giving his own Life to free thee from Death and Eternal Damnation If your friends or rather your enemies in this occasion weep and are grieved at your departure if they labour by their Tears and Sighs to move your Heart and to perswade you to remain yet here below speak to them as St. Paul did to those that wept about his neck What mean ye to weep and to break my heart Acts 21. St. Paul was then in his journey to Jerusalem where he was to be bound and imprisoned and to be carried to the City of Rome where he was to dye upon a Scaffold by the separation of his Head from his Body notwithstanding St. Paul's friends comforted themselves with this expression The VVill of the Lord be done And what mean ye my friends will ye hinder me from going up to an Heavenly Jerusalem at the Gates whereof I must cast off all these Chains and Fetters of Mortality I must leave
my Sins and all my Sufferings and Grief I shall enter into a new Glory into the ever blessed company of Saints and Angels If your love be sincere and real prefer my Felicity and Rest to the small satisfaction that you find in my company here below Consider that in the House of my God and in the vision of his Glorious Face I shall find every moment more Joy and Pleasure than I should have met with upon Earth in thousands of Ages All the Pomp and Splendor of the World all the Glory and State its Riches and Treasures its Pleasures and Delights are as unconsiderable to those that I am going to enjoy in Heaven as a few drops of Water to a boundless Sea or as a flash of Lightening to the Noon-Sun Must the blind Passion which you have for to see me continue with you hinder me from seeing the face of my God and Heavenly Father Suppose I were now shut up with you in some dark Dungeon and bound with the same Chain would you rather see me your companion to continue in your misery and sufferings than to behold me at a distance at liberty in the fruition of a perfect satisfaction Tell me not that we shall never see one another any more for can you be so great an Unbeliever to doubt of God's Mercy that intends to bring us together again in Heaven Death separates us for a moment but the Prince of Life will unite us together for ever in his Fathers House whither he is gone to prepare a place for us O Devout and Religious Soul by such Language as this thou shalt be able to mollify the hardest Hearts and prepare them to behold thy Translation into Heaven as Elisha was when he saw his Masters Rapture If they feel any displeasure and grief for thy separation from them they will have more joy and comfort to consider with the Eyes of Faith that extraordinary Glory and Happiness into which God intends to receive thee of his infinite Goodness and Mercy If it happens otherwise and that thou art to deal with weak minds whose Love is blind and whose Passions are so unreasonable as to resist God's appointment and to hinder thy promotion to Happiness thou must overcome by the strength of God's Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit all the furious reluctances of Nature Thou must imitate St. Peter when he saw our Saviour Christ in his transfiguration upon Mount Tabor he forgot his Family and all his dearest Enjoyments in the World therefore in that excess of joy he cried out Lord it is good for us to be here In the same Language must you speak Christian Souls I dare be bold to affirm if your mind is raised up by Faith into Heaven to behold Jesus Christ shining in Light and Glory and surrounded by all the Holy Angels and Immortal Spirits Assoon as you shall have but the least relish of Paradise you will be so ravish'd with that extraordinary Happiness that you will easily forget the most lovely Enjoyments of the Earth unto which you had devoted your affections so that in that transport of Joy you will be ready to burst out in this Language My Lord and my God I am sick with Love for thee I wish for nothing but for thy glorious Presence My chief Happiness is to be with thee and to behold thy face where I see already so much Light and Love I confess we shall not say as St. Peter Let us build Tabernacles For we shall never be concerned as Soldiers and Travellers in Fights and Journeys We shall not say let us build an House that we may dwell with thee and thy blessed company for I see O God with the eye of Faith the Palace which thou hast built from the foundation of the World where thou hast prepared a place for me Lord open to me the Gates of this Glorious Palace that I may enter in and sing forth thy Divine Praises My dear Friend shall the miserable Pagans who never tasted of the Heavenly Gift who were never made partakers of the Spirit of Grace nor of the powers of the Life to come the Heathens who were without Hope and without God in the World shall they march courageously to meet Death and wilt thou that hast had some foretasts of the happiness of Heaven that hast seen some beams of its Glory canst not thou resolve to depart out of the World Shall a Seneca who had no other means to strengthen himself but the perswasions of his vain Philosophy who had no expectation of advantages of the life to come shall such an one look with a stedfast countenance upon his Blood and Life gushing apace out of his veins and thou my Brother hast thou been brought up under the tuition of an Eternal Wisdom Dost thou embrace by Faith the Glory and Felicities prepared for thee by God and art not able to look upon Death with resolution and courage and canst not leave the World with expressions of Joy Shall Socrates whose crazy Body was animated by a sinful Soul and who had no manner of Antidotes against Death drink up that poison that was mixed for him as a pleasant cup of Drink And thou Christian that art animated by the Spirit of the living God that seals to thee his great and most precious promises Thou Christian that enjoyest the earnest of that Inheritance prepared for thee in Heaven shalt not thou be able to swallow down with content the cup that death holds out to thee Thou hast a powerful and an infallible Antidote against this poison for after this bitter Cup thou art going where thou shalt drink at leasure out of the Rivers of Eternal Pleasures Shall it be said that in the Jews Houses at the time of death the sound of Instruments of Musick was heard together with Crying and Lamentations and at thy Dwelling who hast an interest in Christ crucified and seest him Reigning and Triumphing in Heaven there shall be nothing heard but weeping and sighing that praising God and giving of Thanks shall not be seen at such a time Finally seeing so many persons of all Ages Sexes and Conditions have desired Death to be freed from all Earthly Evils and Calamities hast not thou good cause to wish for it heartily when it shall please God that thou mayest enter in the fruition of the advantages and happiness of the Heavenly Life How excellent is thy loving kindness O God therefore the Children of Men or rather thy Children the Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Christ thy Well-beloved Son put their trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be fully satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt cause them to drink out of the Rivers of thy Pleasures If you be passionately desirous to taste of the Angelical delights and relish the Divine pleasures that flow from the Throne of God and of the Lamb if you be really athirst for God will not you speak in Davids Language Psal
conformable to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born amongst many Brethren Now the Soul and the Body of this onely begotten of the Father that were separated by Death have been joyned again in his glorious Resurrection and received into Heaven therefore our Soul that departs out of the World to enter into Paradise must return again to its Body that we may ascend up to Heaven both in Soul and Body All the difference that appears between Christ and us is that the precious Body of our noble Chieftain could not be subject to corruption but was raised again as soon as it fell because of that strict and personal Union between his Humanity and Divinity whereas the most part of all other bodies are corrupt and reduced to Ashes Sixteenth We have the same holy Spirit and Divine vertue dwelling in us which was in our Lord Jesus Christ the efficient cause of his Resurrection although not in the same measure and degree therefore it will produce in us the same effect and raise our bodies also from the dust St. Paul makes use of this Reason in the 8 of the Romans if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Seventeenth The dead body that touched the bones of the Prophet Elisha revived again on a sudden We have more cause to expect the Resurrection of our bodies because our bodies don't onely touch Jesus Christ dead and risen again but we are become one body with him flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone I am said he the Resurrection and the life he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Eph. 5. John 11. Eighteenth God hath imprinted upon our bodies his own Signet and the marks of his love he hath given to them visible and palpable assurances of their future blessedness Under the Old Testament believers carried the Seal of the Covenant of God in their flesh for Circumcision was the Seal of the righteousness obtained by Faith and hope of a blessed immortality they did also eat the flesh of the Paschal Lamb which was a type of Jesus Christ the true Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Likewise under the New Covenant God consecrates to himself our Bodies by the Waters of Baptisme and by the Bread and Wine of the Lords Supper So by this means he assures them of a Joyfull and glorious Resurrection For if by eating of this Bread and drinking of this Wine we eat and drink spiritually the flesh and the Blood of Jesus Christ it is an infallible assurance that this Divine Saviour will raise us up again at the end of the World as he himself promiseth Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day St John 6 54. Nineteenth The body of believers endures many assaults and evils for Christs sake and for his holy profession it is often exposed to the most shamefull and most cruel torments and partakes on the same sufferings as he did on Earth therefore it is just that it should partake in his triumphs glory and eternal happiness It is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also raign with him We always bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh 2 Tim. 2. 2 Cor 4. Twenty There is nothing that God doth in vain he never bestowes upon us useless desires therefore to what purpose hath he kindled in us such an earnest desire to see this wretched Body out of the misery and corruption into which sin hath enthralled it and the fruition of glory and immortality As St. Paul tels us in these words The creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God He adds immediately after For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groane within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body Rom. 8. Finally Seeing that whatsoever God hath appointed in his eternal Councel must be fulfilled in time and that all things in the World attain to those ends for which he made them and seeing that he created our Souls not to be alone but to live in the company and fellowship with the Body therefore this Body which falls down by Death must needs rise again at the Resurrection that the immortal Soul might return to and dwell with it for ever To say that the Resurrection of our bodies is impospossible is the greatest and most abominable Atheism in the World 'T is to deny with impudency the infinite power of God and the sacred History of the Worlds Creation For if things are in their beings as they are in workings and if their operations are correspondent to their natures we must of necessity conclude That if there be a God of an infinite being he must needs have a power answerable to his being And by consequence that this Almighty God may without difficulty raise the dead If thou believest that God calls the things that are not as if they were Wherefore dost thou not also believe that this same God will also call the things that have been already to restore them that being which they have formerly enjoyed from his Almighty Hand If thou believest that God hath fashioned Eve out of one of her Husbands ribs that he made Man of the dust and created this dust out of nothing canst thou not also believe that God is able at the day of the Resurrection to make again thy body of that dust into which it is reduced by Death If thou believest that God hath breathed into Adams Nostrils the breath of Life that he hath created thy Soul and infused it into thy Body where it was never before How canst thou question his power of returning one day the same Soul into the same Body where it formerly made its abode In short if thou believest that the holy Ghost by moving upon the Waters hath caused so many beautiful and noble Creatures to appear and that he hath made light to shine out of darkness canst thou not be also perswaded that this same holy Ghost can shew his Power amongst the Graves and fetch thy Body out of the dark shadows of Death to introduce it â—nto the light of the living Thou seest by experience that every day a new House 〈◊〉 built up
greatest dainties Some answer to this That such kind of inhumanities are not ordinary and that such wretched Indians never practice such hainous things but in urgent necessity or when they purpose to revenge themselves upon their Enemies But such as have given an account of the New found America relate That in some Provinces there have been such cruel and inhumane Savages as not only to devour the flesh of their Enemies whom they sacrificed to their Idols but also of their dearest Friends whom they do cut in pieces in their Shambles These same Historians tell us That some of the barbarous people are so impiously mistaken as to reckon it an act of piety and duty to their Parents and Friends to give them a Sepulchre in their own stomachs Moreover they say That yet there are some who like so many mad Dogs feed upon Infants and hunt after Men as we do after wild Beasts of the Field In case all these relations should be true I must desire my Reader to take notice that are two kinds of parts that compose the humane body the one solid as the Bones and Nerves and so essential to it that without them it would cease from being any longer an humane body the other parts are adventitious accidental and changeable they serve to maintain it almost as the food and nourishment Now this I affirm as an undoubted Truth that when it happens that Men feed upon their own Kind God takes care by his wonderful Providence that the essential and solid parts of the Man devoured never enter into the substance or composition or the solid parts of the devourer At the great day of the Resurrection the bodies will reassume all their essential and solid parts without which they cannot be true bodies but they shall not need the accidental and fluid parts as are the humors and the Blood for then they shall have no more inward heat to consume them no more hunger and thirst Therefore they shall never have any need of meat or of drink or of any other thing whatsoever to serve them instead of Nourishment Let the mettals be never so much mingled the Goldsmith separates them with ease Thus let our humane Bodies be never so much altered and mingled God will be able enough to separate and distinguish them from one another Shen the Goldsmith will separate the mettals he casts them into the melting-pot and causeth them to pass through the Fire but God who can do all things without means hath no need of the Fire or of the melting-pot for by his word at the twingling of an eye he can cause this separation to be made and render unto every Body that which necessarily belongs to its composition In a word when the difficulty should be far greater than it is and when the resolution of this objection were not so easie to be made as it is it should not weaken our Faith or cause us to doubt of the Resurrection of our Bodies When it concerns things that the holy Scripture doth not expresly declare and decide or that cannot be drawn from it by a necessary consequence it is lawful to dispute either for or against such things but if it concerns such as this sacred Writ inspired of God plainly sets forth our Faith must learn her Duty to submit to Almighty God and believe that there is nothing impossible with him Now this Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead is so expressy and plainly found in this Holy Scripture that it seems as visible as the beams of the Noon-Sun Many questions are made upon this subject some are of that importance that a reply will give most satisfaction upon this excellent subject first they inquire by whom and by whose Power shall the Resurrection be effected The Scripture gives an occasion to make this inquiry for it ascribes it sometimes to the Father as in the 5 of St. John The Father raises the dead and quickens them sometimes to the Son as in the 3 of the Phil. Jesus Christ shall change our vile Bodies according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself And sometimes to the Holy Ghost as in 8 Rom. If the Spirit of him who hath raised Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you he that hath raised up Jesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Holy Spirit that dwelleth in you This difficulty may thus be resolved All the outward works of God that concern the Creatures are common to the three Persons of the most Holy most Glorious and most Wonderful Trinity So that we shall rise again by the the infinite Power of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Nevertheless the Resurrection is especialy ascribed to the Son as he is Judge of the quick and of the dead In order to the discharge of that glorious employment all Power hath been committed to him in Heaven and in Earth and in the Seas 2. Some inquire further When shall this Resurrection be I answer that it shall be in the day which God hath appointed to Judge all the World by the Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17. You are not to expect from me Christians that I should point out unto you precisely the day when this shall come to pass for it belongs not to us to know the times and the Seasons which God hath reserved to himself It is true we may see that most part of the Prophecies are already fulfilled so that we may say in general terms The Lord is at hand and our Salvation is nearer to us then when we began to believe Phil. 4 Rom. 13. Nevertheless I cannot undertake to make out unto you this Glorious Day nor to tell you the year nor age when this shall be There is no Man upon Earth nor Angel in Heaven that is able to speak of it with certainty therefore Jesus Christ himself informs us But of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels of Heaven but my Father onely Mat. 24. If our Saviour saith more that the Son himself knoweth not the Day Mark 13. We must understand this as he is a Man and during his abode in the World for as he is God he knoweth all things from all Eternity and now that he is glorified as he is Man he understands all things But he hath hid from Men the time of his coming that we might expect him at every moment as he tells the Holy Apostles Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come but know this that if the good man of the House had known in what Watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his House to be broken up Mat. 24. He writes in the same Language to the Angel of the Church of Sardis Remember how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as the thief and thou shalt
as the fire St. Paul intends to teach us this truth when he tells us that this Body is sown an earthly and a sensual Body but it shall rise again an heavenly and a spiritual Body we are not so to understand these words as to think that God will change them into Spirits or into such uncomposed bodies as are the Heavens for they shall yet be made up of flesh and bones and they shall have all the essential parts of an humane Body as we have already taken notice but I conceive that they are named spiritual and heavenly because they shall have no more the gross and earthy qualities and they shall live no more a Sensitive and an animal life In a word they shall need no more meat or drink than the Stars and Celestial Bodies no more than the holy Angels of God I confess that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended up into Heaven in a cloud not because that a Cloud was necessary to uphold and keep up his glorious Body for if in the estate of his infirmity and humiliation this divine Body was able to walk upon the waves of the Sea without sinking by the assistance of his divine Nature how much more since its glorification shall it be able to ascend up on high and to go whither he listeth If the help of any Creature had been necessary to uphold him he might have had Legions of Immortal Angels to carry him up but Christ needed not to be assisted neither by a Body nor a Spirit nor by any other Creature This Cloud therefore that appeared at his Ascention was no token of the infirmity of his humane Nature it did rather manifest the glory and magnificence of his Divine Majesty unto which this precious Body was united personally God hath often revealed himself attended by a Cloud as upon Mount Sina in the Ark of the Covenant at the Dedication of Solomone Temple therefore that Cloud in which God was pleased to discover himself is stiled The Glory of God that is the Sign and visible expression of his Glorious Presence and Divine Majesty Let us therefore gather from hence that the Cloud which attended upon the glorified Body of Jesus Christ was no needful help to carry him up to Heaven but as it were a Chariot of Triumph to cause him to go with more glory and pomp The Bodies of the Saints after the Resuriection shall shine and be full of glory they shall not only have some superficial splendor upon their Countenance or Skin as Moses when he had been with God forty days and forty nights in the Holy Mountain but they shall shine within and without as a true Diamond that casts abroad on all sides its light and flames So that it shall happen to them as it happened to our Saviour upon Mount Tabor for it is said that his Garments became White as the Light In the same manner at the time of our Transfiguration our bodies that are but the Garments of our Immortal Souls shall be as clear as the Light and as bright as the Celestial Globes I speak here nothing but what the Prophet Daniel saith before me Daniel 12. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And our Saviour assures us Math. 23. That the Children of God shall shine in the Kingdom of their Father as the Sun These glorified Bodies shall never corrupt nor putrify but they shall be for ever uncorruptible Therefore St. Paul assures us that the Corruptible must put on incorruption so that I may safely affirm that their glory shall be more durable than that of the Sun or of the Moon or of the Stars for although these Celestial Bodies never corrupt out of any inward principle although there can be no alteration happen to them neither from their essential form nor from the properties that come from it nor from any other inherent quality they shall nevertheless corrupt out of an external principle for the Almighty hand of God which made them shall change and alter them as the royal Prophet tells us in 102 Psalm The heavens shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed 1 Pet. 5. Unto this St. Peter doth very well agree The Heavens saith he shall pass away with a great noise Where as the glorified Bodies shall never corrupt neither by any internal principle nor by their essential form nor by the properties and accidents that flow from it nor by any external cause nor by any accident whatsoever that can be imagined for the Almighty hand of God shall make them never to marr them again From hence it follows that they shall Die no more but shall continue Immortal for with incorruption they must put on Immortality therefore when our Saviour speaks of the estate of the glorified Saints Luk. 20. he saith not only that they shall not Die but that they cannot Die any more because they shall be like the Angels being the Children of the Resurrection In this consists the difference between them and those whom God hath raised up already mentioned in the Old and New Testament For they were forced to return to their sensual life to eat and drink and therefore they were again subject to corruption and Death but at the day of the general Resurrection whatsoever is Mortal shall be swallowed up by Life therefore St. Paul applies to this glorious day the accomplishment of this Prophecy Death is swallowed up into Victory and he brings in these who shall be cloathed with this Immortal Glory braving Death and the Grave in this triumphing Language O Death where is thy Victory O Grave I where is thy Sting In short to make us sensible that our Bodies shall put on all the richest and most noble qualities that can be imagined and to express all in a word the Holy Ghost assures us that they shall bear the Image of the Son of God and be made conformable to his glorious Body St Paul declares this Truth in the 15 Chap. of the first of the Corinth The first Man saith he was of the Earth Earthly the second Man was the Lord from Heaven as is the Earthy such are they that are are Earthy and as is the Heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly and as we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly And in Philip. 3. he saith we wait for the Lord Jesus from Heaven who shall change our vile Body that it may be like to his glorious Body from hence you may gather Christians that at the rebuilding of this little Temple of the Godhead there shall happen no such thing as at the rearing up of the Temple of Jerusalem for when that was Rebuilding at the return from the Babilonish Captivity they that had seen the former
must take notice of two or three distinctions which if we understand well we shall find no more difficulty in this question First God may be considered in three several respects as he is in Himself and in his proper Being It is in this respect that our Souls do earnestly long for h m and desire to draw near to him and be united unto him as to their Soveraign Good and the bottomless Fountain of Glory and Happiness Secondly as he doth reveal and discover himself on Earth by certain Images and Tokens of his favourable Presence Thirdly as he shall manifest himself in Heaven by the Glorious Images and Divine marks of his Glorious Presence Secondly we must distinguish the several kinds of sight for there is the sight of the Body which looks only upon the objects whereof the Images and Species are within the reach and capacity of our Eye-sight as are Colour and Light There is the sight of the understanding which sees and beholds the things that are at a distance from our sences as the spiritual and invisible substances and the Essential forms of the Body There is also the sight of Faith which riseth yet something higher than our understanding as it is during our abode here below when it is enlightened with God's Divine Grace it sees and beholds things which the eye of the Body never saw and the sensual understandings of Men can never comprehend as the Mysteries of Christian Religion and the powers of the World to come Lastly we must distinguish the knowledge of the Understanding for sometimes it is obscure and confused at other times it is plain and distinct Moreover that knowledge which is most certain and the plainest is of two sorts the one hath bounds and limits suitable to its subject that is to say suitable to the ability and reach of the Understanding the other is absolute and of the same nature as its object that is to say as the thing it self which the understanding looks upon and beholds God as he is in himself and in his own Essence and Being hath never been seen by the Eye of the Body and shall never be neither in this life nor in the life to come for God is a Spirit and of an invisible Nature 1 Timothy 6. In this respect St. Paul affirms That God dwels in a Light which no man can approach unto that no man hath ever seen him nor can see him John 3. But this good God who of himself is invisible delights to shew him self to his Creatures in several ways First God shews himself unto all Men in the works of the Creation of the great World for as St. Paul saith in the 1 of the Romans The invisible things of God from the creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Especially he hath been pleased to give in the Light a production of Nature and the first of all visible Creatures a lively Image of himself for as there is nothing more ample purer and more beautiful than the Light Likewise there is no visible Creature that represents so well this great God who is a Being most pure most beautiful and perfect the Father of Lights and the true Sun of our Souls Secondly God discovers himself in all the workings of his wonderful Providence and chiefly in his extraordinary and miraculous Operations for when men perceive productions which exceed all the ordinary strength of Nature they are forced to acknowledge that they come immediately from an infinite Power As Pharaoh's Magicians for when they saw that by their Magick Art they were not able to counterfeit Moses's Miracle they confessed That it was the finger of God Thirdly God discovers himself in his Holy and Divine Word which is to us as a beautiful and perfect Looking-Glass where we may see his Image and the brightness of his Glory This was St. Pauls judgement when he saith That all we that behold as in a Glass the glory of the Lord with open face are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3.18 Fourthly God revealed himself to the Church of Israel in the Ark the Signe and ordinary Token of his Gracious Presence He did speak unto this People from the midst of the two Golden Cherubims and did publish his Divine Oracles there he was pleased to discover himself in divers representations chiefly in the Cloud and Fire which came down from Heaven Therefore the Signe bearing the name of the thing signified is sometimes stiled The Lord as in that passage where David saith My Soul is athirst for God for the mighty and living God O when shall I go and appear in the presence of God Psal 42. Fifthly God manifested himself to the Patriarchs and Prophets in Dreams and Visions by Divine Raptures and Prophetical Elevations In this manner he appeared to the Patriarch Jacob in Bethel for when it is said that God was at the end of the mystical Ladder which reach'd up to Heaven without doubt he gave some Sign and Testimony there of his Presence And when the Prophet Isaiah mentions his Glorious Throne he makes no difficulty to say I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple above it stood the Seraphims each one had six wings with two he covered his Face and with two he covered his Feet and with two he did fly and one cried to another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the House was filled with smoak Isai 6. And the Prophet Micah when he speaks of his Vision he saith I have seen the Lord sitting upon his Throne and all the Hosts of Heaven standing at his right hand and at his left 1 King 12. And the Prophet Daniel describing one of his visions speaks in this manner I beheld till the Thrones were cast down and the antient of days did sit whose Garment was white as Snow and the hair of his Head like the pure Wooll his Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as hurning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him Sixthly God shewed himself unto Moses in a particular manner not only when he appeared unto him in Horeb and spoke to him out of the flaming Bush but especially when God appeared unto him in the Holy Mountain and for the space of forty days and forty nights discoursed with him familiarly as with a friend for at that time he exposed before him such Glorious and Magnificent Tokens of his Divine Presence that it was almost the same thing as if he had seen God himself God gave him more Light and Knowledge of his Glory than to any other of
this there be any other Sphere whereof the motion is so furious and swift as to carry with it the inferior Globes and to cause them to roul round in the space of four and twenty hours Of this Heaven David speaks in the 19 Psalm The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work be hath put in them a Tabernacle for the Sun Now above all these Heavenly Spheres mentioned by the Astrologers some reckon up nine or ten and others more There is yet a third Heaven spoken of by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. I know saith he a man in Christ which was taken up into the third Heaven I know that he was taken up into Paradise and heard words which cannot be spoken which are not possible for Man to utter The Holy Apostle removes in these words all doubts concerning the place intended by this Third Heaven for he calleth it Paradise where he heard unspeakable words which are not possible to be uttered The Celestial Globes rowl about continually but this Third Heaven which for its excellency is stiled Heaven is fixed and without motion in Eternal Rest And as much as these beautiful Orbs have a greater Light and Glory than the Air and the inferior Bodies so much the more doth this Third Heaven excel them It is my judgement that Solomon means this Third Heaven scituate above all the rest which exceeds them so much in Beauty and Glory when he speaks to God of the Heavens and of the Heaven of Heavens 1 Kings 8. That is to say the most Excellent the highest and the most Glorious of all the Heavens are not able to contain thee and God himself saith by his Holy Prophet The Heavens are my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Isai 66. for in this high Heaven God hath placed his Throne where he discovers his Glory and the brightness of his surprizing Countenance there the Seraphims fly and thousand thousands worship him and ten thousand Millions stand continually before him Isai 6. Dan. 7. Here it was that the Blessed Soul of our Saviour Christ was admitted assoon as it had left the Body according to what he promised to the crucified Thief Verily I say unto thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luk 23. Hither this Glorious Saviour is ascended both in Soul and Body after his Resurrection and here it was that St. Stephen saw him when he cryed out I see the Heavens open and Jesus Christ fitting at the right hand of God Acts 7. And hither it is that the Souls of all such as dye in his favour are carried up Therefore St. Paul to the Hebrews mentions immediately after the thousands of Angels The Spirits of just Men made perfect and the Church and Congregation of the first-born whose names are written in Heaven In short it is the Glorious Seat where we hope that God will receive us both in Soul and Body at that day when we shall be taken up into the Air above the Clouds of Heaven to be for ever with the Lord Jesus Some inquire then what shall become of this Elemental World whether this Heaven that appears to our Eyes and this Earth which sustains us shall perish or whether they shall remain yet after the great day of Doom Certain prophane Atheists are perswaded that the World shall remain for ever as it doth at present and that there shall be no manner of alteration The Apostle St. Peter hath Prophesied of these Persons and described them in their own Colours There shall come at the last day mockers walking after their own Lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers are asleep all things continue in the same manner since the beginning of the World I need not trouble my self in a refutation of such impieties I speak to none but to the devout Souls which reverence the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures and are fully perswaded of the Truth of all the Articles of our Creed It oft-times happens when Men oppose a false Doctrine and an erroneous opinion they run from one extremity to another therefore some imagine that the World shall totally perish and that as God hath called the Heavens and Earth and the rest of the Elements out of nothing he will reduce them all again into the same Nothing and that he intends to create others more beautiful more Holy and far more Glorious There are two kinds of expressions that seem to favor this opinion The first which speaks of the Heavens and of the Earth as of perishing and decaying Creatures In this manner David discourseth of them in 102 Psalm and after him the Apostle to the Hebrews Thou Lord hast established the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they shall wax old as doth a Garment and as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up and theyshall be changed And our Saviour tells us in the 24 of St. Matt. The Heavens and the Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away Especially the words of St. Peter in the 2 Epistle and the 3 Chapter are remarkable The Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with heat and the Earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt up The other passages mention new Heavens and a new Earth as in the 65 of Isaiah Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former things shall be remembred no more Likewise in the fore-mentioned Chapter the 3 of the 2 Epistle of St. Peter We look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise wherein dwelleth Righteousness And in the 21 Revel I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away and there was no more Sea Moreover St. Paul to the Hebrews speaks of the World to come from hence some conclude that the old World ought to be abolished and that God shall create a new World There is no man that is a Christian can doubt of that wonderful change which shall happen to the world at the last day if he considers the fore-mentioned passage of Holy Scripture especially that of St. Peter The Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with heat and the Earth with the Works that are therein So that as the Walls of Jerico fell at the sound of the Priests Trumpets Likewise this great world shall be turned upside down at the blowing of the Arch-Angels Trumpet Our Reason alone being enlightened by Divine Revelation seems to confirm this Truth for seeing that the House infected with a spreading Leprosy was to be demolished how much the rather should the world be destroyed because in it is to be seen apparently the spots and blemishes of sin the Spiritual Leprosy But although this great Fabrick of the World ought to be ruined and turned upside down we do not believe that it shall