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
an affliction I am unworthy of all thy favors seeing thou dost take from me such a precious jewel which was shewn to me as a Lightning I am afraid to have been wanting in my Duty and that this death that kills me is the effect of my stupidity and blindess Methinks I could have hinder'd this doleful accident for if I had behav'd my self otherwise than I have done my Life and Soul should not be now in its Grave O God of all comfort pardon my excessive grief pacify my sighs stop the currant of my Tears remove all these vain displeasures that consume me deliver my Soul from this unmerciful grief and torment that it suffers and from these troubles that are more than humane Instead of looking to these inferior Causes and to the circumstances of the death of this person that I did love as mine own Soul give me grace to remember that the least things as well as the greatest are govern'd and rul'd by thy wise Providence and that the good and the evil proceed from thy Divine appointment Give me Grace to consider that thou dost hold in thine Almighty hand the Keys of Life and Death and that thou alone dost cast us into the Grave and lift us up from thence again Thou O Soveraign Monarch of the Vniversal World who dost not only let death loose but dost also appoint all the means to talke us out of the World make me truly submissive unto thy Sacred Pleasure and to put the Finger upon my Lips because it is thy doing If I open them let it be to adore thy Justice and sing forth thy Praises the person for whom I lament so much was nearly related to me like another my self but it was also thy Creature thy Child and a Member of our Saviours mystical Body We for our parts believe to have the right of disposing of our Workmanship and of that which we have bought with our Money and hast not thou O God the liberty to dispose of that which thou hast created after thy likeness bought not with corruptible things as with Gold and Silver but by the precious Blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish Thou hadst a Son who is the brightness of thy Glory and the express image of thy person whom thou hast not spared for me and shall I Lord refuse thee my Heart and my Bowels Thy only begotten Son came down upon Earth to suffer the most cruel and ignominious Death of the Cross but thou hast taken up into Heaven the person whom my soul did love to crown it with a glorious and ever happy Immortality Shall his or her Felicity be the cause of my Misery and that his or her Rest occasion my displeasure It is the property of true love to prefer the happiness of the beloved Persons to our own satisfactions Therefore our Saviour told his Apostles If you did love me you would rejoyce because I go to my Father for my Father is greater than I. Between thee O great and living God and us miserable Worms of the Earth there is a vast difference as there is between the innocent and harmless delights of this world and the unspeakale pleasures of thy presence for these are but as drops of Water that are dried up with the least wind whereas the satisfactions of Heaven are like a bottomless Sea of Delights in which we shall swim for ever Do I therefore weep for him or for her whose tears thou hast wip'd away Do I wear a mourning Apparel and a black Scarf for him who is now cover'd with a Glorious Attire of Joy and Gladness and who is adorned with an Habit as white as Snow Do I delight my self in darkness and doth he solace himself at the Fountain of Light and Glory Do I seek a solitary and melancholly Retreat and doth he rejoyce amongst the thousands of Angels and the Glorious company of the immortal Spirits I sigh and groan and he sings a new song the Song of the Blessed which is always in his mouth All my complaints and groanings cannot bring him back upon Earth but when that were possible it is not just to attempt it my kindness would be cruel and my love most inhumane How could I resolve to make him leave the Haven of Eternal Felicity to expose him again to the furious Waves and storms of this troublesom Sea of the World How can I have the heart to pull him down from his Triumphing Chariot and from the magnificent Throne unto which thou hast raised him to engage him in new and fresh encounters and to bind him again with a chain of misery how could I pluck off from him the Habits of Light and Glory to cloath him with darkness and cover him with our infirmities Is it possible that I should be so inhumane to draw him out of Rivers of pleasures to cast him again into a Sea of Gaul and Bitterness to take from him the Bread of thine Heavenly Kingdom and the Fruits of the Tree of Life to give him the Bread of affliction and the Apples of Sorrow and grief Can I be so cruel to pluck him from thy bosom from the Breasts of thy most tender favours and from that fulness of Joy which he hath in the sight of thy Countenance to make him languish in our embraces swallow the poison of this miserable Life and groan under the burden of our mortal afflictions In short can I be so senseless as to remove him out of that Eternal Life to cause him to become again the sport of Death He is pass'd from Death to Life is it my desire that he should return back from Life into the merciless hands of Death we shall go to him but he cannot come to us seeing that this life is so short that it is spent and gone as a thought we shall see one another shortly in the light of the Living O Lord how wonderful art thou in thy Works how Magnificent in the means that thou employest and how various is thy Wisdom in all things I see that what thou hast done is not only for thy Glory and for the advantage of this happy Creature a that thou hast received into thy Rest but it is also for my happiness and the instruction of my neighbors for in taking from me my most dearly Beloved my Joy my Pleasure and my Hopes thou hast put my Obedience and faith to a Tryal As thou didst heretofore try the Father of the faithful in requiring from him his only Son Isaac in whom thou hadst promised to bless all the Nations of the World I confess good Lord to the praise of thy Grace and Goodness that my tryal is loss than his for thou didst command Abraham to sacrifice his Son with his own hands to spill his Blood in thy presence and to reduce his Body into Ashes but thou requirest of me no other Sacrifice but that of my Obedience and of my Submission to thy Holy Will Thou wilt have me say with
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
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
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
glorious company of Angels and blessed Spirits take upon thee these beautiful Robes of light with which thine Heavenly Father will cloath thy nakedness and accept this immortal Crown that he offers to thee go and satisfie thy self with the Bread of the Kingdome of Heaven and remove thy thirst with the Christial Waters of that River of pleasure which proceeds from the Throne of God and of the Lamb Go and behold the face of the Father of lights go and be happy with his Divine resemblance and be transformed into his glorious Image O blessed Soul Seest thou not already the Heavens open and Iesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father holding out his hand unto thee offering to receive thee into his glorious rest Seest thou not the Angels of Heaven cloathed in white raiment coming to transport thee out of this miserable estate Seest thou not how thou art already encompassed about with light and Celestial Flames Dost thou not relish the sweetness of Paradise Is not there a Heaven already in thine heart Dost thou not hear the Hymns of the glorified Spirits Hath not the Lord caused thee to hear that sweet and comfortable voice sound in thine ear Verily I say unto thee thou shall be this day with me in Paradise Come good and faithfull Servant enter into the Ioy of thy Lord seeiest thou not thy self lifted up above all earthly and perishing things Dost thou not fly upon the wings of faith and repentance to the Throne of Gods glory Dost thou not cast thy self into Paradise into the Arms of Almighty God into the bosome of the Lord Iesus to rest there for ever and to be Satisfied with the good things which eye hath not seen ear hath not heard and which are not entered into the heart of Man but which God hath prepared for them that love him A Prayer and Meditation of a Christian Soul that prepares to go out of its Body and comforts its self in the Contemplation of the glory and happiness of Paradice O God! the Author of my being and the Soveraign Lord of my life thou seest all the motions and dispositions of my Soul thou knowest that I have wholly resigned my self into thy hands and desire nothing else but to depend upon thy good pleasure speak Lord for thy Servant heareth here I am to do thy Will O God Thy People Israel removed their Camp at thy Command in the same manner I am ready to remove out of this Earthly Tabernacle at the first motion of thy Will The Golden Cherubims were alwayes upon their feet with their wings stretched out and their faces towards the Mercy Seat O that I likewise might look up to him who hath purchased for me the eternal Mercies of God him who is the Propitiation for my Sins that I may be always ready to fly up to him Lord Jesus seeing thou callest me to thy self stretch out thy hand unto me from above and draw me out of this tempestuous Sea When a poor blind man understood that thou calledst him to restore his sight he left his Garment for haste and ran to thee with joy and shall not I quit this wretched body to go to thee my Lord and my God seeing thou callest me out of the mid-night of this World to thy marvelous and glorious light seeing that thou hast a design not onely to discover to me this surprising and refreshing light that shines in Heaven but thou wilt cause me to shine in thy Kingdom as the Stars and as the Sun When the Prophet Elias let fall his Mantle he was immediately received into a Chariot of Fire and carried up into Heaven also I hope in thy tender love and favor that as soon as my Soul shall forsake this wretched Body it shall be likewise received into a Celestial Charriot of Fire that will carry it up to Heaven thou wilt deal as gratiously with my Soul as with thine High-Priest Joshua thou wilt take away its Garments shattered and broken by sickness and distempers bespotted and bedaubed with sin to adorn it with Robes of fine and bright linnen and Crown it with glory Therefore I am so far from being afflicted to see the earthly house of this Tabernacle demolished that I rejoyce in a certain assurance that I shall be admitted to my eternal Tabernacle of Heaven O good God! thou seest upon me a contemptible body of dust that desires nothing more then to return to dust again but this Heavenly and immortal Soul of mine that is come from above that is thy breath and a beam of thy glory this Soul I say will return up to its source and origin It sighs for thee O God! and desires nothing but eternal happiness Is it possible that I can be happy too soon and too speedily admitted to the Contemplation of thy glorious face Lord I should be worse then an Infidel if I did doubt of my Salvation if I were not assured to partake of thy glory for thou hast promised to save all such as persevere to the end and to give the Crown of life to all those that are faithfull unto Death Seeing therefore that by the assistance of thine holy Spirit thou hast enabled me to continue in thine holy and Divine Covenant to fight the good fight to finish my course and to keep the faith thou wilt not refuse me this great Salvation this precious Crown O merciful and bountiful Lord thou hast promised all such as overcome to cause them to sit upon thy Throne now by thy special grace and wonderfull power that appears and is fulfilled in mine infirmities I have overcome the World sin the Devil and Hell at present I beseech thee give me a new supply of strength to overcome Death also that I may have no more Enemies to counter with but that I may mount upon the magnificent Throne designed for me let this Death be a passage that may bring me to life immortality eternal glory and to the happiness of thy Kingdom Thou art my God and Father that lovest me with an unchangeable affection reach thy hand to me thy childe for I long for thee and open for me the bowels of thy most wonderfull mercies O good Lord receive me into thy bosome and satisfie me with the most effectual Consolations of thy goodness thou art my Spiritual Bridegroom draw me and I shall run or rather I shall fly after thee to magnify thy tender compassions and to be filled with thine heavenly delights Thou art the chief Shepheard of my Soul help me therefore in this vale of the shadow of Death let thy Staff and thy Rod assist and comfort me send me thy light and thy truth that they may lead and conduct me up to thy holy Mountain and to thine eternal dwelling Send thy good Angels that they may carry me up upon their Wings I expect O Lord thy Salvation I do not onely expect and hope for it but I desire and wish for it with all mine heart
passionately love and because there is not one thing here below that can express unto us the Glory and Happiness of Paradise so many perfections are not to be found in one only thing Therefore the Holy Ghost gathers together all the Excellencies Riches and Beauty scattered about in the inferior Creatures and borrows the Ideas and Notions of those things that are rarest and most glorious and that give us the greatest pleasure and satisfaction to represent unto us Heaven's Glory To begin in the first place with the word Paradise it signifies a delightful and a pleasant Garden it is often made use of to express to us the Joys and Happiness of the life to come and to make us sensible that what we have lost by Adam is restored to us by Jesus Christ Our Lord and Saviour who is goodness it self shall bestow upon us another Eden another Garden of pleasure watered with living water in the midst of it is the Tree of Life that brings forth its Fruits every moneth instead of an earthly Paradise subject to change we shall find an Heavenly and an Unchangeable Paradise The earthly Paradise is no more to be seen it is thought that it was swallowed up and destroyed by the Waters and Deluge but the Heavenly Paradise can never be destroyed by the most furious Fire nor by the most swelling Waves It is above all the Winds and Storms and Tempests therefore St. Peter assures us That it is an incorruptible inheritance that fadeth not away It hath no need of an elemental Water for it is watered every where with the River of living Water that proceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb. And whereas Cherubims armed with a flaming Sword stood at the entrance of the Earthly Paradise to hinder Adam from approaching near to the Tree of Life and from gathering of its Fruits Now whole Legions of Cherubims are to carry us up upon their wings to the true Tree of Life which stands in the midst of the Heavenly Paradise and Jesus Christ himself the Prince of all the Angels of all the Cherubims and Seraphims promiseth to admit us to partake of its delicious Fruits by these blessed words To him that shall overcome I will give him to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God It is the common custom of Men to have an high esteem of beautiful and great Cities whereof the buildings are stately and the Inhabitants many Therefore the Jews were wont to boast of Jerusalem and to call it The City perfect in Beauty the joy of the whole Earth Therefore the Holy Ghost represents unto us the Glory and Happiness of Heaven by a City which he names Jerusalem And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews mentions the same comparison for when he had said That Abraham by faith sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaack and Jacob the Heirs with him of the same promise he adds immediately after For he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and Maker is God and a little after God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City Heb. 11. And in the 12 Chapter of the same Epistle he speaks to Believers in this manner Ye are come to mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels And elsewhere We have no continuing City here below but we seek one to come Heb. 13.14 God is pleased not only to describe unto us our future Paradise under the general notion of a City and of Jerusalem but he declares unto us its Heavenly Beauty its Glory and Magnificence you cannot find a richer and a more excellent Image than that of St. John who himself had been a spectator of the new Jerusalem and had beheld all its rarities and wonders for when the Angel who had in his hand a Golden Reed to measure this Glorious City had said unto him Come I will shew thee the Spouse the wife of the Lamb. He carried him in the Spirit to an high Mountain from whence he had a prospect of that great and Holy City Jerusalem which came down from Heaven from God decked as a Spouse prepared for her Husband having the Glory of God and his Light This faithful witness assures us that its Buildings and the Streets of this blessed City were all of fine Gold as bright as Chrystal its Foundations were of precious Stone it s twelve Gates were twelve Pearls at each of them stood an Angel of God This Holy City hath no need of the light of the Sun or of the light of the Moon for the Light of God enlightens it and the Lamb is the Light thereof there is no Temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it It is our delight to abide in stately and magnificent Houses and in rich and glorious Palaces Therefore Paradise is expressed unto us by a Dwelling and by a Palace which God himself hath built with his own Hands This is the Picture that the Royal Prophet represents unto us in the 65 Psal when he speaks of God's House and of the Holy place of his Palace And St. Paul doth the like in the 1 Cor. 5 Chap. when he saith We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens And our Saviour when he was ready to leave the World he comforts his Apostles in this manner In my Fathers House there are many Mansions I go to prepare a place for you And St. John heard a mighty voice from Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God with Men he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall he their God with them Every one desires to be rich there be some that esteem it their chief Happiness therefore the Holy Ghost represents the Happiness of Heaven under the notion of Riches and Treasures our Saviour himself speaks of it in this manner in the 6 of St. Matthew Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal Therefore when the Holy Ghost describes Heavens Glory and mentions Gold Pearls and precious stones it hath a regard to this consideration And because Men are for the most part desirous of Honors Greatness and Dignities and that there is nothing in the world more esteem'd than Scepters Crowns therefore the Glory of Heaven is express'd by a Kingdom by Thrones Crowns and Triumphs Our Saviour speaks in this language to his Apostles To you all who have continued with me in my afflictions I appoint a Kingdom as my Father hath
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
in the 31 Psalm I trusted in thee O Lord I said Thou art my God my times are in thy hand He is of the same judgement in the 39 Psalm Behold thou hast assured me my days as an band breadth and in the 68 Psalm Vnto God the Lord belong the issues of Death Moses teacheth us the same Lesson in his Divine Hymn Psal 90. for when he hath represented how that it is God who reduceth Man to Ashes and maketh him return to his first substance he tels us speaking unto God Thou turnest man to destruction and sayst return ye Children of Men. King Hezekiah's comparison is very notable he compares the Life of Man to a Thread that God hath twisted and that he cuts off at his pleasure Isai 38. Mine Age is departed and removed from me as a Shepherds Tent I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining Sickness from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me Hannah Samuels Mother removes all difficulty and confirms this Truth sufficiently 2 Sam. 2. It is God saith she who killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up There is nothing more significant to the same purpose than our Lord and Saviours words I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the Keys of Hell and of Death Apoc. This great God and Saviour closeth the Gates of the Grave when he pleaseth and 't is not possible to open them against his will In short Whether we live we live to the Lord whether we die we die to the Lord whether therefore we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14. And our Reason being enlightned with a Divine Revelation teacheth us this good and profitable Lesson for if God hath a hand in our Conception and Birth and if he appoints the time of our entrance into the world wherefore should not he also have an hand in our Death mark out the time of our last departure David speaks thus to God in the 139 Psalm My substance was not bid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy Book all my Members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there is none of them we may therefore for the same reason say to God My substance will not be hid from thee when this miserable Body shall fall to pieces as rotten Wood and as a Moth-eaten Garment thine Eyes shall see me when Death shall cut off the Thred of my Life and separate what thou hast joyned together so wonderfully thy Power and Wisdom shall have an hand in my last hours and nothing shall happen to me but that which thou hast afore ordained in thine unsearchable Decrees If God appoints the time of our Resurrection and if it be certain that without his express Commission the Holy Spirit will not breathe upon our dead bones to cause them to revive is it probable that the breath should depart out of our Nostrils and our Bodies should fall into the Bed of corruption without the Orders of this great and living God Ezek. 37. He hath appointed to the Sun its course and to the Stars that shine in the Heavens their several motions and stations Isai 40 and should not he also appoint to his Children their motions seeing that they are to shine for ever in the Heaven of Heavens where justice dwels as so many immortal Stars He hath measured the Waters in his hand he hath compassed the Heavens with his Span he hath weighed the Mountains in Scales and the Hills with a Ballance he hath fashioned the Earth with a Hive and given bounds to the roaring Sea and is it possible that he hath not not measured the time of our Life and that he hath marked out with his finger the last moment He who hath numbred the Kingdoms of Heathen Princes hath he not also numbred the days in the which he intends to reign in our hearts by his Holy Spirit hath he not appointed the time for us to ascend up into the highest Heavens where we are to reign with him in the Kingdom of his Glory If it be certain that God hath unmbred the Hairs of our Head Matth. 10. it is not to be doubted but that he hath also numbred the days of our Life And if a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without his order how can it be that a Soul should take its flight up to Heaven without his express Commission He bottles up our Tears he keeps a Record of all our afflictions and takes an account of our Sorrows Psal 50. and can we imagine that he doth not keep an account of the life and death of Men and that he minds not the time that we are to spend in this vally of Tears He takes notice of our uprising and of our down-sitting he compasseth thee round about whither thou dost stop or go Psal 59. and can it be conceiv'd but that he observes thy rising at thy birth the several passages of thy Life and thy going down at thy Death In short if God hath appointed in his eternal Council the continuance of the great World he hath also without doubt limited the Life of Man the little World and the Image and Compendium of the Great As our Lord and Saviour teacheth us Man is not able by his solicitous care to add one Cubit to his stature and our experience sufficiently demonstrates that we cannot add a year a day nor a moment by all our labor and industry to the continuance of our Life If Life and Death were not in Gods hand there would be nothing setled nor constant neither in the Kingdoms of the World nor in the Church of Christ The Prophets would be often found in grievous errors and the eternal Election would be totally abolish'd for the most weighty affairs of a Commonwealth depend upon the Life of Princes The death of one Man is able to turn an Empire upside down and to change the state of a Kingdom If Alexander the Great had been stifled in his Cradle what would become of the Prophesie of Paniâ— who declares the glorious victories that this Prince should obtain against King Darius the Persian Monarch under the Embleme of an Hâ—-Goat that should run at a Ram with all his might that should break his two horns and trample him under his feet And if King Cyrus had died before the obtaining of the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 how should Isaiah's Prophesie be accomplish'd for he paints out this young Conqueror in his most lively Colours and calls him by his name in this expression I have said of Cyrus He is my Shâ—pheard and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy Temple shall be laid Isai 44. If the Devil could have taken away St. Pauls Life
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
Kingdom promised to him and confirmed by Samuels anointing in his flight and grievous persecutions God would have us do as the true Israelites did in the Babylonish Captivity they had always their Hearts and Affections in Jerusalem and in the midst of their deepest sorrows Jerusalem was all their comfort Likewise we who are wandring up and down in this miserable Wilderness that live in the World as in a Babylon in a kind of Captivity we ought to comfort our selves and rejoyce in expectation of the Kingdom of Heaven that hath been prepared for our fruition from all Eternity and whereof the Holy Spirit is the true Unction that hath confirmed the promise of it and given us the earnest Psal 137. Gal. 4. The Eye of our Faith should always be fixed upon our Celestial Jerusalem that is the Mother of us all and the place of our Eternal Rest Colos 3. The Apostle doth therefore exhort us If you be risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God Think on things that are above and not on things on the Earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God 28. When Men are going to live in another Countrey where their Money will not pass they furnish themselves with Bills of Exchange and find the means of receiving it in other Coyn Therefore seeing that our Gold our Silver and our present Jewels will not pass in Heaven the place of our Eternal Abode let us send thither betimes all our Riches and Treasures by Bill of Exchange and that we may entrust them with an assurance of a notable advantage and of a lawful gain let us put them into God's hands for he will restore one hundred times more in his Kingdom Let us now distribute them to the poor to the Members of Christs Mystical Body and this Divine Saviour will then acknowledge that they have been given to his own Person You that fear so much to loose your Money get such Purses that will never decay and make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into Eternal Habitations 29. Lastly as the Israelites when they had tasted of the Fruits of the Land of Canaan desir'd with a most earnest Passion to enjoy such a noble and delicious Countrey and their Abode in the Wilderness became tedious and unsuffererable Likewise we who have the First Fruits of the Spirit and a fore-taste of our Heavenly Paradise let us aspire with all our Heart to the Heavenly Canaan and let us long continually for those unspeakable Delights All worldly Pleasures have no relish with us and the greatest sweetness of this life is turn'd into bitterness so that we do often present Davids Prayer unto God Remember me O Lord with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine Inheritance Psal 106. To conclude this discourse Seeing that we have no lasting City here below but that we seek for that which is to come seeing that we know not the hour when God shall take us out of the World to introduce us into his Holy Jerusalem Heb. 11. Luk 21. Let us take heed that our hearts be not over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and with the cares of this life least that day surprize us unawares And as the Holy Apostles left their Nets to follow Jesus Christ Matt. 24. Let us also leave the vain cares the ill-grounded fears and deceiving hopes that intangle our Souls that when it shall please God to call us we may be ready to answer his Heavenly Message Let us accustom our selves betimes to Will what God willeth and to obey him without resistance Let us cast all our cares upon God and repose our selves upon his wise and fatherly Providence 1 Pet. 5. Let us look with contempt upon the World upon its vain Grandeur and decaying Riches esteem not any thing upon Earth nor that which Man is able to promise or to procure but esteem and value the blessed advantages that we expect in Heaven and that are disposed and entrusted in God's own hands 2 Tim. 1. Tit. 2. Let us prefer Job's Dunghil and Ashes before the proud Throne and Glorious Monarchy of Nebuchadnezar Let us fancy the begging Estate of poor Lazarus more happy then the overflowing abundance of the rich Miser Imprint in your minds that blessed saying of the Son of God What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world if be destroys himself and looseth his Soul Luk 9. Let us have always before our eyes the image of that rich Worldling who had gathered much wealth for his Soul but his Soul was not wealthy nor rich before God Remember what he saith â—o his Soul Soul thou hast much Goods gather'd up for many years rest thy self eat and drink and be merry but what doth God say to him Thou fool in this very night thy soul shall be taken away from thee and the things that thou hast gathered whose shall they be Instead of studying how to enlarge our Barns and Cellars and to increase our Revenues and Treasures let us labor to set some bounds to our desires and let us be content with what we have at present seeing that we have but a breath in our Nostrils and that we are cloathed with a mortal Body let us not entertain such great designes and suffer not our longings to be immortal Let us always and in every place be ready to end our life to put the last stone to this building or rather let us be always in a disposition of dissolving this earthly Tabernacle let us willingly break all the bands and ties that unite us to this miserable Earth that when Death shall come it may have nothing to do but to cut the last string by which our soul is naturally joyned to this languishing Body Settle and fix your strongest affections in Heaven that where your Treasure is your Hearts may be there also Let us not be lull'd asleep as the foolish Virgins but having our Reins girded our Candles lighted Let us be prepared at every moment to go to meet our Heavenly Spouse and follow him into the Marriage Chamber Let us be like a Ship at Anchor ready to set sail with the first favourable wind and as a Soldier entirely arm'd that waits for the day of Battel and for the Signal to mount upon his Horse that he may appear in the field at the sound of the Trumpet Let us send before-hand all our most precious Jewels into the most glorious Palace of Eternity that our Bag and Baggage being ready prepar'd we may have nothing to do but to take our last farewel If any consideration of Flesh and Bloud hinders us let us break asunder all these Bands by the strength of our Nazareth that
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
clean and pure that they cannot suffer the sight of iniquity and sin it is that which doth most afflict and grieve him Therefore when St. Paul had advis'd the Ephesians That no corrupt Communication should proceed out of their mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace unto the hearers he adds immediately after Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption And if there be any that are not moved with the presence of such a Glorious Person let him tremble at this fearful threatening If any destroy the Temple of God God will destroy him 1 Cor. 3. 12. There was two Tables of Stone in the Ark of God's Covenant where God himself had written his Law which he gave to his People by the Ministry of Moses 1 Kings 6. Seeing that the God of all mercy hath chosen thy Soul to be his Sanctuary and the pavillion of his Glory his Sacred Commandments must be there engraven upon the Table of thy Heart thou must be moved with an earnest desire for the service of God and for an exact conformity to his Holy Will that we may be able to say to you what St. Paul said to the Christians of his days Ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in fleshly Tables of the Heart And that you may say with the Royal Prophet My God my Delight hath been to do thy Will thy Law is within me 2 Cor. 3. 13. Let us represent to our selves continually the great and many Obligations that we have to fear God to love him and to serve him he is the most perfect of all Beings he is perfection it self infinitely lovely so that if there were neither Hell to punish us nor Heaven to reward us he ought to be served and reverenc'd because of Himself and of his Divine Perfections This consideration causeth Jeremiah to break forth into these lofty expressions Who would not fear thee O King of Nations for to thee doth it appertain forasmuch as among all the Wise Men of the Nations and in all their Kingdoms there is none like unto thee Jer. 10. 14. Whilst we are travelling here below we are not capable of such an high and Celestial Meditation it belongs only to the Angels whom God hath invested with Light and Glory and to the Heavenly Spirits whom he hath admitted to the contemplation of his Face Let us therefore seriously consider the Blessings and Favors which we have received from this great God who hath created us in his own Image and who hath made us to be the Master-pieces of all his inferior Wonders He hath placed in us a breviation of all the Beauties and Perfections of the World he hath given us a Being as to the Sun Moon and Stars A Life like the Plants Sence as to the Animals Understanding as to the Angels In short he hath infused into this Body fashioned with his own fingers an immortal Soul of an Heavenly Substance a beam of his Glory and a living Image of his Godhead My Soul therefore bless the Lord and all that is within me bless his Holy name my Soul bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits Psal 103. 15. It is for mans sake that God hath stretched out the Heavens established the Earth poured out the waters and prescribed Limits to the roaring Sea It is for Man's sake that this Gracious Creator hath adorned the Heavens with such a number of Beautiful Stars that he hath given to the Moon its unconstant Motions with its wonderful influences that he hath setled in the Sun such a bountiful source of Light and that he hath appointed the unvariable succession of the seasons of the Days Months and Years It is for Man's advantage and lawful recreation that so many Birds sing and fly in the open Air that such prodigious numbers of Fishes swim in the Seas and Rivers that the Earth is beautified with so many delicate Flowers that it brings forth so many wholsome Herbs and pleasant Fruits that it nourisheth so many kinds of Animals and engenders in its Bowels Gold Silver and precious Stones In a word it is for Man's sake that God hath created the World and hath filled it full of so many Riches and beautified it with so many excellent Perfections Therefore it is no wonder if the Royal Prophet is ravished into an Holy Admiration and bursts forth into these expressions O God what is mortal Man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou dost regard him Thou hast made him a little lesser than the Angels thou hast Crowned him with Glory and Honor Thou hast establish'd him Governor over the Works of thine Hands Thou hast put all things under his Feet the Sheep and the Oxen the Beasts of the Fields the Birds of the Heavens and the Fishes of the Sea If the example of this great Prophet hath not power sufficient to stir you up and perswade you to the fear and worship of God by the consideration of the wonderful Works of the Creation Hear what the Angel declares who took his slight through the middle of the Heavens having the Eternal Gospel in his hand Fear God and give him Glory worship him that liveth for ever and ever for he hath made the Heaven and the Earth the Sea and the Fountains of Waters 16. We have not only in God our Life Motion and Being but he hath not left himself without witness in doing good and sending Rains from Heaven fruitful seasons filling our hearts with Food and Joy He doth nourish us with his Manna and gives us to drink of his abundance he overshadows us with his Protection and enlightens us with his Heavenly Fires He hath always his Eyes open to our Miseries and his Ears to our Sighs and Groans He is always near them that call upon him yea them that call upon him faithfully Let us therefore say as David I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my Supplication for he hath enclined his Ear unto me therefore will I call upon him all the days of my life Psal 14. Psal 116. 17. Meditate often upon the advantages that are common to thee with the rest of Christians and upon the Blessings and Favours which God hath vouchsafed to thy Person in particular Remember how many times he hath sent his assistance from above how he hath wrought Miracles to deliver thee from the Evils that did threaten thee Consider how liberal he hath been to thee in the whole course of thy life what admirable and noble means he hath employed to crown thee with his most precious Favors then thou wilt say with Jacob O God I am not worthy of the least of all the Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant Gen. 32. And with David Many
our ears and in our mind Put off thy shooes from thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground Exod. 6. Cast off there thy base and earthly affections and renounce thy sottish and filthy Lusts for thou art always before my eyes that are too clean and pure to suffer the sight of evil and the place where thou standest is sanctified by my presence Heb. 1. Remember that I see thine Heart that I search thy Reins and that I read thy most secret thoughts Revel 2. Christian souls imagine that God calls unto you from Heaven continually as hed id unto Abraham Walk before me and be perfect Gen. 17. Let therefore the dread of this Divine Majesty seize upon thee and possess thee When Potiphar's Wife tempted chaste Joseph to defile himself with Adultery she perceived nothing in the room but this object of her Lust but this Holy man perceives the Glorious Godhead between him and this lascivious Woman he perceives God's Eye that seeth into the greatest depths This made him break out into this expression How can I do this thing and sin against God Thus if our Flesh tempts us and if the vicious and prophane intice us into secret and shameful retreats to share in their filthy crimes Let us then remember that God is every where and wheresoever we hide our selves God hath an Ear to hear us an Eye to see us an Hand to record our Deeds Words and Thoughts God is all Ear all Eye and all Hand he discovers us as easily under the dark shadows of the night as at break of day he spies us through our Fig-leaves and beholds us in our most subtle disguises he understands our most inward thoughts and listens to the silent language of our Hearts he searcheth into all the Clossets of our Souls and into all the foldings and windings of our Consciences In a word all things are naked and altogether open to the Eyes of him with whom we have to doe An antient Philosopher did perswaded such as desire to be vertuous to chuse some grave and vertuous person and to represent him always in their presence and to live as in their sight Seneca We need not represent unto our selves imaginary appearances for in every place where we are and what ever we can do or think we are always in the sight of the Holy of Holies who is both our Witness and our Judge It was David's Meditation when he cried out O Lord whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whether shall I flye from thy presence If I mount up to Heaven thou art there if I go down into the pit thou art there also if I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the Sea thither shall thine hand guide me and thy right hand uphold me If I say the darkness shall cover me behold the night shall be like light round about me darkness shall not hinder me from thee and the night shall shine as the day the night and the day are to thee alike 53. If the Devil and the World have ensnared us in their Nets and if we have been unhappily lull'd asleep in the bosome of some deceitful pleasure This consideration alone that God sees and understands us is able to awake us with an Holy dread and fear Let therefore the words of St. Paul sound continually in our minds Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall enlighten thee or Awake to Righteousness and sin not Eph. 5. 1 Cor. 15. Truly if we be not stupified and besotted above measure This dreadful voice that God thunders from Heaven is able not only to awake us from the sleep of iniquity but to oblige us also to cry out with Jacob God is here and I knew it not O that this place is dreadful it is the house of God it is the Gate of Heaven Gen. 28. Assoon as Peter had taken notice of our Saviours looks that were cast upon him he went out of the High Priests Hall and wept bitterly for his Apostacy Thus if we could but perceive and acknowledge that God casts his eye continually upon us we should repent of our Vices and our Hearts would quickly melt into Tears of Contrition 54. And because it is sometimes necessary to retain our selves with an Holy awe and to withdraw our selves out of Lust as out of the Fire you Religious Souls keep always in your mind a short Collection of the Judgements of God that have happened from time to time upon all manner of sinners Consider how God dealt with the Celestial Spirits who have not kept their original purity they are reserv'd for utter darkness and for eternal Chains until the great day of Judgement and say unto your selves If God hath not spared the Apostate Angels with he spare Man that rebels against him and offends him with delight remember the dreadful fall of our first Parents who although they had been fashioned with Gods own hand and instructed by himself have lost both themselves and all their posterity by listning to the deceitful suggestions of the old Serpent Cast your thoughts upon the first wicked World that was destroyed by a Deluge and upon the Cities of Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zebolim upon whom fell the Fire and Brimstone of God's hot displeasure Look upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians overwhelmed with all their pride in the waves of the Red Sea Consider the three thousand that were kill'd with the Levites Swords because of the Idolatry of the Golden Calf and the four and twenty thousand whom a suddain death swept away because they went a whoring after Paal-Peor Look with fear upon the burning Serpents of the Wilderness that did cast their poison upon the Murmurers against God and their Superiors upon the Earth that open'd its mouth to swallow Corah Dathan and Abiram upon that Heavenly Fire that consum'd Nathan and Abihu who offered strange Fire unto the Lord upon the Bears that went out of the Forrest to devour two and forty young Rascals who mock'd Elisha the Prophet upon the Lion that devour'd the Prophet who disobey'd God's Command and hearkened to a lying Brother In short cast your eyes with astonishment upon Nebuchadnezzar feeding amongst the Beasts of the field Jezabel eaten up by Dogs Agrippa consumed with Worms and the rich Miser burning in the flames of Hell Dan. 4. 2 Kings 9. Acts 12. Luke 16. 55. Above all things think upon the last Judgement and consider this last day in which we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ to receive in our Bodies that which we shall have done whether it be good or evil remember that in this dreadful day God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness the secret contrivances and thoughts of the Heart before this Throne of Fire the Books shall be opened not only God's Books where all our Sins and Impieties are Registred but also the Books of our Consciences where the frightful
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.
When thou shouldest speak with a Divine Tongue and with an Heavenly Wisdom thou mayest have good cause to cry out Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed Isai 5. John 12. In short as the Rivers of fresh Water that run continually into the Sea derive not from thence their natural bitterness thus thy good and Holy Life thy Learned and excellent Sermons will not be able to remove the corruptions of this present evil Age nor stop the Torrent and hinder the overflowings of Vice for thy labor and industry if compared with the corruption of the World are as unconsiderable as a few drops of water in comparison of the Ocean This cursed Earth may be watered with thy Sweat and Tears it will nevertheless bring forth nothing but Bryars and Thistles the Weeds which thou thinkest to pluck up will tear thy Skin and draw bloud out of thy Hands In short he that plants is nothing nor he that watereth but it is God who giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. It is justly to be feared that in staying any longer time in this corrupt and unwholsome Air thou mayest receive some evil impressions from the general contagion It is to be feared that thou mayest sully thy pure Hands by handling so many Wounds and Sores and that the Thorns of this cursed Earth may pluck off the Wooll of thine harmless and innocent life But when thou shouldest have a thousand times more Gifts and Graces and that thy labors should bring far greater advantages and profit to Christ's Church it belongs not to thee to give Laws unto thy God but to follow the motion of his Will Leave to him the chief care of his own Houshold and rest upon his Eternal Providence He hath more right in the Church than thou canst pretend to for he hath created it by his Power and redeem'd it by his precious Bloud He that cares not for his own especially for those of his Family hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel and can God who is Faithfulness it self and the very Being of Truth God who cannot deny himself and whose Gifts and Calling are without Repentance Rom. 12. Can such a God cast off all care of his Church of that Church which he embraceth with an Eternal Love and cherisheth as the apple of his Eye Jer. 31. This Father of Mercies who hath not spared his own Son but hath delivered him to dye for his Church how should not he with him freely give her all things Rom. 8. He understands better than thou and all the men of the World what is proper and advantageous for this Holy Congregation and for every member that composes it He knows how to provide for all its wants for his Wisdom is infinite and his Providence is most wonderful When this great God hath a designe to plague his Enemies and to declare his justice he hath always fit Agents ready and his Quiver full of Arrows As soon as he commands the Holy Angels that wait before him to cast their Sicles into the Earth and to reap or pour down the Viols of his wrath these Holy Spirits fly with an unspeakable swiftness to perform his Sacred Pleasure Revel 14 16. Likewise when he intends to do good to his Chosen he finds in every place the Heralds of his Mercy and his Divine hand is always full of Blessings As the Main Ocean of his wonderful Riches can never become dry Likewise the Channels by which he conveys them to us shall never fail The cause of thy complaints should serve to appease thy Grief nourish thy Faith and increase thy Hopes for if thou art graced with extraordinary Gifts this proceeds neither from thy Nature nor thine Industry but God's Favour and Bounty Now thou mayest be assured that his hand is not shortened his great Power is not lessened the Well-spring of all his Blessings and Wonders is not stopt nor dryed up Is 49. He that sends a desired whiteness the prognostick of an approaching harvest to the spacious Fields John 4. He sends also into his Spiritual Harvest Laborers when he sees it convenient In this latter Age and in this decay of the World as well as in the first appearance of his Church Luk 10. he finds Men to work in his Vineyard or rather he forms and fashions them with the hand of his Grace and enables them by his Holy Spirit for he gives the Mouth and the Tongue he makes deaf dumb blind and restores the eye-sight he calls things that are not as if they were Matth. 20. Exod. 4. Rom. 4. When he designes for himself a Tabernacle he calls by name a Bezaleel and fills him with his Spirit of Wisdom of Understanding and knowledge in all manner of Workmanship Exod. 31. When he resolves to deliver the Children of Israel from their Babylonish Captivity and to build the Temple of Jerusalem he hath at his Command Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes Acts 14. He stirs up Zerobabels Esdras and Nehemiahs Likewise when he intends to repair the breaches of his House and to increase the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour he makes Servants and fit Agents and bestows upon them sufficient Graces for such a noble Work Psal 8. Mat. 21. As he hath never left himself without witness in doing good thus he hath never been without witnesses to declare his Sacred Truth Luk 19. By the mouth of Babes he perfects his praise and as our Saviour told the Jews If these held their peace the stones would cry out Luk 19. God will rather pluck the Pillars of the Idols Temples to prop up his Church rather than to suffer it to fall down he will change the Wolves into Lambs and the Lambs into Shepheards rather than that his Sheep should want their necessary Pasture He chooseth the feeble things of this World to confound the strong the despicable and such as are not to destroy such as are 1 Cor. 9. Thus God never leaves his Church without some testimony of his favour some powerful instrument of his Grace but many times it happens that when he removes one good thing from us he bestows upon us something more rare and excellent This consideration glads the Heart of Joseph upon his Death-bed as appears by what he said to his Brethren I am going to dye but God will not fail to visit you and cause you to go up from hence into the Land that he swore unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob Gen. 50. For instead of a Joseph who had occasioned their Bondage God raised up a Moses who deliver'd them with a mighty hand and a stretched-out Arm 2 Kings 2. Thus God took up Elijah with a Chariot of Fire but he gave unto Elisha a double portion of his Masters Spirit and caused his Glorious Miracles to appear with greater admiration Likewise our Lord and Saviour when he had finished the great work of our Redemption he ascended up into Heaven A Cloud conveying him
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
O God who art the Creator and Father of their Spirits cause them to endure a thousand Deaths and reduce them to nothing from whence thou hast fetched them rather than to suffer them to be enslaved to Vice Error or to Superstition that robs thee O Great God of thine Honor to ascribe it to the Creature Merciful and Almighty Lord I shall not say to thee as Esau did to Isaac when he had blessed Jacob My Father hast thou but one Blessing for I am certain that thou hast an infinite number and many inexhausible Fountains of all manner of Blessings but I beseech thee with all the Zeal and Earnestness that I can to Bless my dear Children with thy Heavenly and especial Favors take them into thy protection bear them in thy Hands embrace them with thy tender compassion and let them be as dear to thee as the Apple of thine Eyes Let thy fear be always before them Let them love thee with all their Heart and serve thee with all their Powers that they may Glorify thee in prosperity and adversity in Life and Death that Christ may be their gain whether they live or whether they dye but I am now leaving the World and my Children without Grief or mistrusting thy care of them I am ascending with joy up to thee who art my God my Father and their Father and I trust in thy great and Eternal Mercies that one day we shall see one another in thine Heavenly Kingdom when we shall be admitted to behold thy Face which shall fill us with unspeakable Gladness and Pleasure Amen CHAP. 13. The First Consolation against the fears of Death God will not forsake us in our most grievous pangs MAn is naturally afraid of pain and abhors all sufferings and grief now the most of us are perswaded that it is impossible to dye without enduring great pains therefore they abhor Death not so much for its own sake as for the evils that it causeth to suffer That we may be able to drive away this ill-grounded Fear and strengthen our minds against all apprehensions we must first consider that death is not so dreadful and painful as commonly imagined the Holy Ghost calls it a Sleep and the Heathens themselves have said that Sleep is Death's Cousen-german and the Image of frozen Death Now Sleep creeps upon us insensibly it charms our Sences softly and with invisible Fetters it ties and stops all our most active faculties although we sleep every night we are not able to discover how this happens to us It is said of Socrates one of the most famous Men of the first Ages when he had in obedience to the Decree of the Judges of Athens drunk poison when he felt the venom benumming his Sences and Death creeping into his Veins he declared with a pleasant countenance That he had never swallowed anything more sweet and comfortable Nothing can be imagin'd more pleasant than the death of the old Patriarchs The Holy Scripture tells us That when Jacob had made an end of commanding his Sons he gathered up his Feet into the Bed and yielded up the Ghost Gen. 49. The same is related of King David That when he had perswaded Solomon to fear God and to do justice he slept with his Fathers 1 King 1. God is as merciful to many in these latter days to cause them to dye in speaking and calling upon his Holy name their Souls are not pluckt from them by violence but of their own accord they separate from the Body and fly into Heaven with an Holy chearfulness The separation of such Souls from the Body happens without pain grief or suffering Such are like to a Taper that extinguisheth without any blast of Wind of its own accord when the Wax that kept it alive and nourisheth its flame is totally spent If you perceive some tost and tortured with grievous pangs in their death-bed they are not properly the pangs of death but the last struglings and motions of life for I cannot imagine that at the moment of the separation of our Souls from our Bodies we suffer any pain because at that instant all the Senses are then lulled asleep and our Bodies have no more strength nor life to hinder the Souls departing Death is so far from being so dreadful and painful as we commonly imagine that on the contrary it is that very thing that puts an end to all our pains and miseries And I am perswaded that the diseases that bring us to our graves are not so grievous as the other distempers that we endure whilst we live here on Earth such as are a cruel Gout a Stone in the Kidneys or a Canker in the Breast for they are tortures that rack us continually and a Fire that consumes us without ceasing But when our pains should be far more sensible and that we should have reason to impute them to death we have no reason therefore to fly from it or to abhor its approaches for otherwise we have as good cause to curse the hour of our Birth and weep for our Victories for there is no Birth without pain nor Victory without strugling the most Glorious and flourishing Laurels are watered with Bloud and Sweat The most excellent things are the most painful and to speak according to the common saying that One nail drives another so one evil is a Remedy to many other evils we commonly seek with an earnest longing as a good thing that evil that frees us from the violent pains that we can scarce endure To be healed oâ—â— our distempers we swallow most bitter Pills and Potions that gripe and torment our Bowels To be freed from the Stone we suffer a most painful cutting And that the Gangreen that hath seized upon one of our Members might not get to our Heart we endure it with patience to be cut off whether it be Arm or Leg therefore when Death should be much more grievous bitter and more cruel than it is commonly represented yet we ought to embrace it willingly because that it delivers us not only from some disease or some particular pain but generally from all pains aches and distempers The Physick works not always out the humour that disquiets us When we have drawn out a Stone from the Bladder many times others grow in the place that are worse The Surgeons hand let it be never so perfect answers not always his Patients expectation instead of removing his pain it increaseth it But the working and cure of Death is always certain and never fails the success is always happy to a Christian Soul That I may supply thee with some comfort in the midst of thy great pains and sufferings My Brother or My Sister remember that these things happen not to thee by chance but it is God who sends them to thee according to the decree of his Wisdom Ascribe not thy Disease to the influences of the Stars to blind Fortune but lift up thine Eyes to his appointment who hath stretched
because they have committed some grievous crime Rather consider that it may be a means which God hath a design to employ to declare his Power and his Servants Patience Faith Piety and Vertues Therefore our Lord and Saviour tells the Apostles when at the Sight of a Man blind from his Birth they enquired from him whether the Man had sinned or his Father or Mother because he was born blind That neither the Man nor his Father nor Mother had sinned but that the Works of God might be manifested in him John 5. By these words we are not to imagine that these persons were without sin for there is none just no not one but we must understand that they were not guilty of any grievous sin and they had not committed any such crime as had drawn upon them God's vengeance from above It was God's Will that this poor man should come into the World with that natural imperfection that he might make him an instance of his Grace and declare in him his Almighty Power and that our Saviour in giving him his sight might make it appear that he was the true God who fashions the wonderful Eye and that he was the true Light that enlightens every man coming into the World Psalm 94. John 1. Likewise when some came to inform this Great and Wise Saviour what had happened to the Galileans whose Bloud Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifice he replyed in this manner Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell and slew them think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luk 13. God is glorified divers ways by the afflictions and calamities which he sends to his Children for first he justifies them before all the world from the calumnies which are cast upon them and he discovers thereby to all the sincerity of their Love and their unfeigned Obedience Satan accuseth us for serving God for the advantages which we receive in this life Job 1. and because he is pleased to protect and favour us by his over-ruling Providence Therefore God removes many times from us that which is pleasing and delightful to the Flesh he gives us the Bread of Affliction for our Food and the Waters of Sorrow for our drink He presents us with cups full of bitterness and causeth his Rod to return upon us often By these grievous temptations he stops the mouth of the accuser of our Brethren who accuseth them day and night before God Isai 30. He declares by that means to all the Enemies of our Salvation and of his Glory that we put our full confidence in God alone and in his unchangeable promises and not in the outward tokens of his Mercy and Favor Revel 11. He shews to all the World that the Anchor of our Hope is not fixed here below but that it is cast into Heaven where Christ is entred as our forerunner Heb. 6. As God is glorified in our Afflictions he is also honoured by our deliverance If the Land of Judea had not been peopled with deaf dumb lame blind decrepid and possess'd with Devils Acts 9. If Aeneas had not been sick eight years If a poor Woman had not been grieved with a Bloudy Flux twelve years If another had not been vexed with a disease that had bended his Body If the sick of the Palsie had not been lying in his bed thirty eight years If the Daughter of Jairus had not been dead If the Widows Son of the City of Nain had not been carried to his Grave In short If Lazarus had not been buried four days the Glory and Divine Miracles of our Lord and Saviour had not been admired all over the World Matth. 9. Luk 13. John 5. Matth. 9. Likewise our desperate diseases and our unexpected recoveries when humane skill can do nothing declare to the most stupisied Souls that it is God alone that can give the wound and bind it up and that leads to the Sepulchre and brings back again Luk 7. John 11. Job 5. 1 Sam. 2. God's deliverances of his People from their afflictions are of two sorts for either he takes away the burden from us or else he stretcheth out to us his merciful hand and helps us to bear it either he removes our affliction and pacifies our grief or he strengthens us with Power and Courage and arms us with Patience and a generous resolution needful in such a case This appears in a notable manner in the Apostle St. Paul for fear that he should be lifted up in pride because of the excellency of his Divine Revelations God had given him a Thorn in the Flesh and had sent the Angel of Satan to buffet him and to increase the bitterness and sharpness of his disease This Holy man prayed often to remove it from him but God took not this Thorn away from his Flesh nor did not check that messenger of Satan that afflicted him but he delivered him from the inconveniencies in a more illustrious manner for he strengthened him with his Divine Spirit and enriched him with his Graces he made him feel the Vertue and Power of Christ within him and accomplish'd his Vertue in Pauls infirmity Insomuch that this great Apostle cries out in the deepest of his afflictions with transports of joy I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am I strong I can do all things in Christ that strengthens me 2 Cor. 12. This may be also seen in the Martyr St. Stephen for he was condemned to dye by a death the most painful and grievous that we can imagine but God gave him such powerful Comforts and fill'd his mind with such Joys that his face shin'd as that of an Angel You must understand the words of St. Paul in that manner in his Epistle to the Hebrews Acts 6. Heb. 5. Jesus Christ having 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 feared for he was not altogether freed from the sufferings and torments of the Cross but he underwent it couragiously and was more than Conqueror in all things he drunk up the very dregs of the Cup of God's wrath but by his Divine Power he overcame the strength of the poison His Heavenly Father took him not down from the Cross nor out of the hands of his Murderers but he hath upon this Cross raised up his Glorious Trophies the Cross hath been as his Triumphing Chariot Likewise when you see a Christian bear up in the midst of a grievous affliction and overcome his grief by his constancy and patience who instead of murmuring rejoyceth and comforts himself in his distresses
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.
Heavenly Blessings when we were without Christ we were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel having no Hope and without God in the World But we who were far off are made nigh by the Bloud of Christ we have access with confidence by Faith in his precious Bloud so that we may go with boldness to the Throne of Grace to find mercy and help in time of need Heb. 4. Rejoyce therefore Christian Souls for you are not come to the Mount that might be touch'd with hands nor to a burning Fire nor unto Blackness and Darkness and Tempest and the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more but ye are come unto mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel For Abels Bloud called for vengeance against his own Brother Heb. 12. Col. 1. but the Bloud of Christ pleads for Mercy Pardon and Forgiveness for them who were his enemies in their understandings and wicked deeds And if when we were enemies we have been reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. How much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life and intercession 22. Never fear neither the Devil nor all the powers of Hell for according to God's antient promise The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. The Lord of Glory hath spoiled the Principalities and Powers he hath made a show of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross Colos 2. By his death he hath destroyed him who had the Empire of death that is the Devil so that he hath crusht to pieces this red Dragon that did devour whole Nations and People Heb. 2. Rev. 12. As it happened when the Children of Israel did look to the brazen Serpent which Moses set up in the wilderness they were perfectly cured of the bitings of the fiery Serpents Likewise you wretched sinners who feel the venemous and deadly wounds of the old Serpent cast the eyes of your faith upon Jesus Christ crucified and you shall be saved from death John 3. As when the Angel destroyed the First-born of Egypt he had not the power to meddle with the Children of Israel who had sprinkled their doors with the bloud of the Paschal Lamb so the Devil who destroys the Children of this world hath no power to touch those whose Hearts and Consciences are washed in the Bloud of the spotless Lamb. And as Pharaoh and all the Egyptians that followed him were overwhelmed and drowned in the waters of the Red Sea Heb. 10. which served as a passage to the Children of Israel to their promised Land Thus Satan and all his wicked Spirits are as it were swallowed up in this precious Sea of Christs Bloud which opens unto us a way to the celestial Canaan Rejoyce you Heavens and you that dwell in them for the accuser of our Brethren is cast out who accused them day and night before God but they have overcome him by the Bloud of the Lamb 1 Pet. 1. Jam. 5. Christian Souls resist the Devil and he will fly from you If he goes about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour be not troubled at his fury nor at his infernal power for he is tied to a Chain that he cannot stretch nor break He hath been overcome by the Lion of the Tribe of Juda Take therefore the shield of Faith that you may be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil Rev. 6. and speak to him with an undaunted Soul Get thee behind me Satan for thou hast no part in me I belong to the Lord Jesus who hath paid my ransom who hath redeemed me with his Bloud and sealed me with his Spirit The Gates of Hell have no power upon those that are built upon the Rock of Eternity Matth. 16. 23. Let not your sins cast you into the Abysse of despair nor drive you from the Anchor of your Hope for God hath so loved the World that he hath given his only Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life they that are whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick John 3. Our Saviour is not come to call the Just to Repentance such as are puft up with a vain conceit of their own Righteousness but sinners who acknowledge their faults and are sorry for them The sacred Arms of your Redeemer that were stretched wide open upon the Cross are yet stretched wide open to receive us and from the highest Heavens where he dwells he causeth these comfortable words to be heard Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy loaden and I will give you rest Matth. 11. This merciful Lord is come to seek for the lost Sheep to save such as were perished and to redeem his people from their sins As by one Man Sin came into the World and by Sin Death thus death is come upon all Men for they have all sinned likewise by the obedience of one we are become conquerors over death Rom. 5. And we have obtained the gift of Righteousness and Immortality it is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World and that hath made an atonement for all our iniquitites John 1. For as the Ram that was caught by the Horns in a Thicket was offered up unto God as a burnt-offering instead of Isaack Eph. 5. Thus the true Lamb of God hath been offered up unto God upon the Cross for us as a Burnt-Sacrifice well-pleasing unto him he hath born our iniquities in his Body upon the Tree and by his stripes we are healed Isai 53. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows the chastisements of our peace was upon him As Aaron did put upon the live Goat Hazazel all the sins of the People Lev. 16. God hath made him who knows no sin to be made sin for us that we might become the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. Acts 10. Whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins in his Name Therefore rather than to play the desperate as Cain Achitophel and Judas let us cry out with King David O blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered O blessed is he unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin Psal 31. Or let us burst out into St. Pauls language Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Rom. 8. Let us therefore embrace this crucified Jesus and say with the Blessed
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
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
burning is quite cold or lukewarm I have not a sufficient trust upon thy promises and upon thy fatherly care my Hope is not setled It doth not sill my Soul with Heavenly Joys and Comforts Thine eyes O Lord that sees all the secret Clossets of the Heart and that pierce into the depths are too Holy and Pure to pass over the sight of evil and to approve of the ill-favour'd Features of Satan yet imprinted in my Soul they don't only discover my sins and iniquities and all my evil Deeds but they also behold all the spots and imperfections of my best performances and of my most Glorious Acts. My Lord and my God I am not only grieved to see so much sin in the World in the Church and in my Self but I am also grieved and vexed that I have not grief enough That my Soul is not sufficiently vexed as that of Righteous Lot That the Zeal of thine House doth not eat me up as it did the Man after thine own Heart That mine Eyes are not become a Well-Spring of Tears as those of the Prophet That the cares of the Churches do not besiege me as they did thine Holy Apostle And that I do not sigh and cry as the servants whom thou didst mark with the Letter Thau O wonderful Lord Seeing that thou dost give me leave wherefore is it that I do not embrace thee with a lively Faith and a serious Repentance VVherefore do not I wrestle with thee by Prayers and Supplications and Tears and that I continue not in these Devotions until I have obtained thy most precious Blessings until thou hast changed my Being and my Life until thou hast renewed my Spirit and my Heart to love thee fear thee and worship thee answerable to thine infinite Merits and Glory O Lord I perceive thou hast not altogether forsaken me I perceive the day of my deliverance breaking in upon me I see Death coming to carry me out of this painful Dwelling out of this life of bitterness and sorrow I have this comfort that it shall put to death my most cruel and unreconcileable Enemies and introduce me into the freedom of thy Children It will cut off all the remains of that corruption in which I was first conceived and usher me into that Eternal Light that shines for ever in Heaven Therefore instead of frighting me the sight of Death rejoyceth and comforts my Heart for this cause I shall not fly from it and turn my back but I shall go and meet it I will endeavour to hasten its coming by my Prayers and continual VVishes I will embrace it when thou shall be pleased to send it O Almighty God of an infinite Goodness when wilt thou reach unto me thy Hand from Heaven to draw me out of this Egypt that I may no longer see the cruelties and abominations committed in it VVhen wilt thou deliver me out of this Babylon where Vice and Vertue are intermixed and where the Creature receives the Honor only due to the Creator VVhen wilt thou have Compassion of my poor Soul that drags yet some of its Chains And when shall I hear that sweet and comforting voice Loose him and let him go to his God who calls him and to his Saviour who holds out unto him his Arms wide open VVhen wilt thou send unto me thy good Angels to lead me up to thine Holy Mountain to thine Heavenly Jerusalem where no impure thing shall ever enter or that committeth Abomination or a Lye VVhen shall I see my self in that blessed Paradise where there shall be no Serpent to seduce us nor Lusts to war against us nor evil company to corrupt and spoil us VVhen shall I behold the new Heavens and the new Earth where Justice Righteousness and true Holiness are sitting upon the Throne How long Lord shall I hear thine Holy Name blasphemed and the Bloud of thy Covenant trampled under foot How long yet shall I listen to the impieties and abuses of the Children of this age VVhen wilt thou lift me up to the Dwelling of thy Glory where I shall be no longer assaulted with temptations from the VVorld with enticements from the Flesh and with the fiery Darts of the Devil where I shall be no more vexed with evil desires false Fears and vain hopes where I shall never offend my God nor grieve his Holy Spirit that hath sealed me to the day of my Redemption O Holy of Holies when shall thy Church be so sanctified and cleansed that no spot or wrinkle nor any such thing shall appear in it When shall I see it decked with fine Linnen cloathed with the Sun and crowned with the Stars When shall my Heart be as a golden Viol from whence sweet Perfumes may ascend VVhen shall I behold thy Face continually VVhen shall I love thee without interruption and serve thee without any Lett or Hinderance VVhen wilt thou put into my Hands a Celestial Harp and into my Mouth the Songs of the Blessed and when shall I worship thee in the company of all the Holy Spirits without intermission and for ever VVhen shall I sing forth thy Praises in Heaven O Lord when shall I appear with the Holiness of thy Saints in the white Robes of thy Martyrs and be as fiery as the Seraphims that fly about thy Glorious Throne O my God! Let this Holy Zeal which thou hast kindled in my Soul be like a Fiery Chariot and an Holy Flame to carry me up to the Heaven of thy Glory where I am to shine in thy presence for ever Amen CHAP. 22. The Tenth Consolation is the Glory and Happiness of our Souls at their Egress out of the Body IF there were neither Punishment nor Torment after this life to be feared the Wicked and Unbelievers that prosper in the World might justly esteem themselves the happiest of all men And if there were neither Glory nor Rewards to be expected after death the Righteous and the Faithful who drink here below Cups full of bitterness and sorrow would be the most miserable of all Creatures The condition of the Beasts would appear more happy than theirs for they enjoy in quiet and peace all the pleasures that the animal Nature is able to relish They are not tormented by so many diseases that vex our Bodies neither do they know the cares and displeasures that consume and fret our minds They grieve not for the time past nor trouble themselves with any apprehensions of the time to come They never feel the grievous disputes of Lusts They know not most of those Passions that torment and domineer over our Souls All their pains and sufferings end with their breath so that when they are dead they endure nothing If we make our Eyes the Judges of these things we may say The accident that happens to Men and Beasts is the same accident as is the death of the one so is the death of the other But if we search and examine further we shall find more difference than
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
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
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
the glorious liberty of the Children of God And in the 3. Chap. to the Colos he saith you are Dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is your Life shall appear you shall appear also with him in Glory Therefore this glorious appearing is stiled a blessed Hope that is to say the fulfilling and accomplishment of all that we expect or hope for as in the 2 Chap. to Titus St. Paul saith We expect the Blessed Hope the appearing of the Glory of our great God who is the Saviour Jesus Christ Then shall be the consummation of the Glory and of the head and of the Members for then the Son of God shall cause the Damned to feel that Power which he possesseth in Heaven and in Earth and in the Depths he shall discover himself to the faithful in his greatest Glory and most Divine Splendor Therefore this glorious Day of his descent from Heaven with the Angels of his power is mentioned as the first day of his manifestation of his appearing and of his Kingdom for this cause when the Holy Ghost speaks of this day it stiles it The day of the Lord Jesus Christ or the day of the Lord Jesus as also the Day of the Lord and the day of God As it shall be the Day of the Lord Jesus it shall also be our Day therefore St. Paul calls it The day of our Redemption because that in this day our Lord shall redeem our Bodies out of their Graves and shall bestow upon both our Souls and Bodies Eph. 4. all the Fruits of that Redemption which he hath purchased for us with his Blood Rom. 8. and shall raise us up to the highest Glory and most perfect happiness Heb. 9 It is the happy Day of the Consummation of our Marriage with this Divine Lamb. It is the day of our Joy and Triumph with the glorified Men and Angels It is the day of our Coronation and of our entrance into our Kingdom when the King of Kings the Lord of Lords shall Crown us with his own hand and put us in possession of an Empire prepared for us from the beginning of the World In a word it is the day when we shall come to the Lord Jesus and be with him as he is with the Father that we may be all in one Because of the glorious and wonderful things which shall come to pass on this day it is named The great Day St. Jude calls it thus when he speaks of the Revolted Angels he saith That God hath reserved them in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the Great Day In this manner many understand the words of St. John when he describes the Foul Spirits and likens them to Frogs which he saw coming out of the Dragons Mouth and of the Beast and out of the Mouth of the False Prophet and saith They are the Spirits of Devils working Miracles which God sent forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the Battle of that great Day of God Almighty Revel 16. Lastly this glorious Day is not only called The day of Judgement the Day of the Lord the Day of our Redemption and the Great day but oftimes without any addition it is stiled the Day and that Day as in the 10. Chap. to the Hebrews Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and good Works not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching In the first Epist to the Thessal You are not in Darkness that that Day should surprise you Thus in 2 Epist to Timothy and first Chap. St. Paul saith I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that Day And when he remembers the good and charitable Deeds of Mesiphorus he prays for him in this manner The Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that day And in the 4 Chap. speaking of himself he saith I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give at that Day It is so stiled because of its excellency it is the Day of Dayes the end of all the Seasons the Consummation of all Ages and Times after this there shall be no more alteration of Days Months and Years Therefore an Angel is represented in the Revel lifting up his hand to Heaven swearing by the living God who hath Created Heaven and all things therein the Earth and all things in it and the Sea and the things that are there That there shall be no more Time for instead of this unconstant time which flies away without leaving any sign of its being an everlasting Eternity shall succeed an Eternity always the same always Blessed with Happiness alwayes glorious and joyful This Divine and Magnificent Day shall begin at the end of all other Days but shall never draw to an end Therefore St. Peter in these words calls it an Eternal day or Eternity 2 Pet. 3. Glory be to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ both now and for ever Amen And in expectation of this Day of Days all Creatures are groaning and travailling in pain until now but especially Believers who have the First Fruits of the Spirit groan in themselves desiring with an earnest and holy desire to see the breaking of this great and glorious Day It is the end of all the Prophecies and the accomplishment of all Gods gracious promises to his People in all the Ages of the World It is the end and price of our Spiritual Calling the fulfilling of all our desires and expectations the Crowning of all our Labors and the highest step of that glory and happiness unto which we pretend You Devout Souls that delight in the contemplation of Celestial things I pray consider with me the accomplishment and the perfection of three kinds of works which have been succeeded by their several Rests The first was that of the Creation of the World for in six days God Created the Heaven and the Earth and all things in them and when he had finished his Works and found that they were good and perfect he rested the seventh day Gen. 1. 2. Therefore he Blessed and Sanctified it The second great work was that of Redemption for when our Saviour had fulfilled all the Prophesies which meâ—tioned him when he had caused the meaning of all the ancient Types and Figures to appear in his person and in his sufferings when he had fully satisfied the justice of God and purchased for us with his Blood an Eternal Redemption he cried out all is finished John 19. and he bowed his Head and gave up the Ghost After this Christ had nothing more to do nor to suffer but he
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
wicked Conscience In the decay of their Age the vices of their Mind gather strength and flourish Instead of weeping for the sins of their youth they add sin to sin and are more hardened in evil Old Age imprints more furrows and wrinkles in their malicious Hearts than it doth upon their Foreheads Neither Men nor their Lives are to be measured by a Yard or an Ell We must not only consider how long we have liv'd but how well we have liv'd and employed the course of this Life for there are some young Men who have the Wisdom and Prudence of Gray Heads and there are Gray Heads that become as weak as Infants and some that scarce go out of that simple Age The first are twice Children the other continue always in their Childhood Some young Men have perform'd such brave and Glorious Deeds that one would judge by the passages of their Lives that they have lived several Years or Ages on the contrary Some old and decrepid persons can scarce prove that they have bin long in the World unless it be by their Church Register by their Gray Hairs or by the great number of their wicked and abominable actions This consideration causeth the Author of the Book of Wisdom to say That that old Age is not the most Reverend that can shew a number of years but Wisdom is to be reckoned old Age amongst Men and a Life without spot Ch. 4. It is certain he hath lived sufficiently who hath learn'd to live well and hath prepar'd himself to dye well To what purpose should this miserable and languishing Life be lengthened a few days Art thou afraid to be happy too soon and fearest thou to see the end of thy Torments Doth the Traveller endeavour to lengthen out a painful and dangerous way Doth the Workman grieve to have finish'd betimes his laborious Task Doth the Soldier murmure because he comes off from his Watch and Guard Miserable Man What are all the years for which thou dost so impatiently afflict thy self and vainly desire for a day with God is as a thousand years and a thousand years in his sight are but as one day He that sails upon the Seas admires the spacious extent of the Waters the difference of the rowling Waves that mount up sometimes to the Clouds and then fall down again into an Abysse And such as travel by Land are delighted to see on one side deep Vallies and on the other high Mountains that reach above the Clouds but if God had but taken us up into the seat of his Glory and that we should from that high Heaven cast down our Eyes upon this base and unworthy Globe of the Sea and Land to behold the proud and stately Mountains with the most swelling Waves they would appear unto us but an even Plain or rather they would seem altogether very little Thus when we compare the Men of the World the one with the other we shall find that some have liv'd long and others but a little while that some are old others are young but in respect of God there is no difference between the young and the old between an over-aged Methusalah who lived Nine hundred threescore and nine years Gen. 3. and a Child that hath only seen the Light of the Living for the life of all Mankind is but a moment in comparison of Eternity If thou art ready to dye for Righteousness of a violent Death meditate seriously upon the saying of the Prophet David Psa 116. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Arm thy self with an Holy confidence and say with Eli 1 Sam. 3. It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Imitate the generosity of St. Paul Acts 20. and grave in thine heart these Divine expressions The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying That Bonds and Afflictions abide me but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God Remember always the Prayer that our Lord and Saviour offered up unto God in the greatest Agony Father O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me except I drink it thy Will be done Forget not also at this time Christs advertisement He that loveth his life shall loose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall save it to eternal life John 12. O Great and Glorious Lord God the Enemies of thy Truth and Glory are met together against thy dear Children whom thou hast sanctified by the blood of the Covenant but they are not able to do any thing but what thou hast appointed to be done in thine Eternal Wisdom A Prayer and Meditation upon the time of Death O Merciful Lord who dost govern all things by thine infinite wisdom and hast reserved the times and the seasons in thine own power thou hast not only written my name in the Book of the living but thou hast also measured the length of my life and appointed the hour of my death Thou hast numbred my days and prescribed to me my bounds that I cannot pass beyond them O Soveraign Lord of the World that hast from all Eternity mark'd out with thy finger the moment of my entrance into this life and the time of my going cut This miserable body is but a crazy Tabernacle made up of Earth subject to all manner of infirmities Nevertheless none is able to destroy it without thy Divine assistance the same hand that hath fashioned and formed it must break it to pieces if a Sparrow fals not to the ground without thy leave it is not possible that my soul should fly away into Heaven without thy express Command My God and Father give me Grace not to be of the â—â—â—ber of suâ—h wretches as are in daily apprehensions of Death but let me rest upon thee who dost kill and give life who dost cast into the Grave and fetch him thence again Let Satan and all the enemies of thy Glory plot against me what they can they are not able to do any thing but what thy Wisdom hath ordained and appointed before the fâ—undation of the world Without thy leave and permission they are not able to pluck an Hair from my Head nor diminish a moment from the time that I am to live in this earthly Tabernacle O Almighty and most merciful God I recommend unto thee my Soul as to my faithful Creator and leave it wholly into thine hands Here I am to accomplish thy Will and to submit my self to thy pleasure without any resistance whether this Soul which thou hast created after thy likeness and which is an Image of thy Divinity remain in this Body that I may be able to serve thee on Earth or whether thou dost call for it and take it up into Heaven that it may glorify thee in the company of thy
up to the Throne of his Glory but according to his promise he hath not left us destitute but hath sent us the Comsorter to dwell with us for ever namely the Spirit of Truth whom the world seeth not nor cannot know John 14. Christs Corporal presence was enjoyed but by a small number of People but this Divine Spirit is like a large River that swells and runs over every where John 7. This Holy Spirit is not only with us but also within us He is poured out into our Hearts He Seals us for the day of Redemption He is the earnest of our Inheritance until the full consummation of the Glory reserved for us in Heaven Therefore when this merciful Saviour saw his Apostles afflicted in an extraordinary manner for his Leaving of the World he speaks to them in this Language Because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your Hearts Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you John 16. When St. Paul took his last farewel of the Elders and People of the Church of Ephesus they wept bitterly being grieved to the Heart because he had said That none of them should see his face any more But to comfort them he assures them that in Heaven they had a Father and a Protector and such a Shepherd as would never forsake them I commend you said he To God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Act. 20. Remember therefore O Man of God seriously to consider all these things If the Lord who hath called thee to the Sacred Function of the Ministry continues thee in the world labor with courage and diligence in thine Holy employment Be not tired in the service of this good Master and merciful Saviour fight the good fight of the Faith endure patiently all manner of Labors as a good Soldier of Jesus Christ be as earnest and as careful for the Lord's Sheep as Jacob was for those of Laban Here what he professed of himself In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes Gen. 20. Jacob endured patiently these grievous pains and labor and the time of his service seem'd to him to be but of a few days because of the love that he did bear unto Rachel Likewise thou wilt joyfully endure the troubles of thine Office digest with patience all the inconveniencies if thou dost sincerely love the Lord Jesus and his Heavenly Spouse If thou dost esteem the salvation of Souls for whom Jesus Christ hath suffered death if thou hast well understood the Excellency of thine Heavenly Reward and the Glory prepared for thee when thou shalt have finished the time of thy painful and difficult service and of thy mortal Race for they who bring many to Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. Jacob had to do with a deceitful and unfaithful man But God is not as Man that he should Lye or as the Son of Man that he should Repent Gen. 23. Be thou faithful until Death and he will give thee the Crown of Life Revel 2. If it is the Lord's pleasure to lessen thy task so that instead of employing thee in his Vineyard he intends to take thee up into his Kingdom to drink there of his new Wine if at the time that thou thinkest of sowing with Tears thou art transported to the place where thou mayest reap with Songs of Triumph If in lieu of the opposition which thou must suffer from sinners God will grant to thee his Eternal Consolations and receive thee into the harmonious Societies of the Church Triumphant adore his Goodness and his infinite Mercy cast thy self into his hands and resolve chearfully to will what is pleasing to him if during thine abode in this Valley of Tears God hath given thee a livelyhood and if thou hast found in him thy joy thy satisfaction and thy greatest comfort Death will be thy greatest advantage thou shalt find in thy Saviour thy Rest thy Glory and Eternal Delights Phil. 1. Meditate often upon the words of the Holy Apostle St. Peter The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the Glory that shall be revealed feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over God's Heritage but being ensamples to the Flock and when the chief Shepheard shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. You also who are afraid to leave behind you a desolate afflicted and comfortless Widow Come and learn this Lesson to relye upon the goodness and tender compassions of the Father of Mercies who never fails to comfort the forlorne in all their afflictions and who is always near to them that call upon him in their distresses 2 Cor. 1. Psal 145. He bears so much favor to the Widows that he calls himself The Judge of the Widows Psal 68. that is the Protector of their integrity and right and severe revenger of the wrongs that they suffer Therefore God tells us in express words That he maintains the Widow and establisheth her Borders Prov. 15. Seeing Job was so merciful as to cause the Widows Heart to sing Job 28. How much more may we expect from God's goodness he will doubtless fill her with his Heavenly joys and the ravishing comforts of his Holy Spirit I mean not the foolish Widows that seek for nothing but pleasure worldly diversion and carnal pastimes who live in the delights of the Age and who are dead whilst they live But I mean the wise Widows who being left alone by their Husbands death have their confidence and trust in God continuing in Prayer day and night Our great God and merciful Lord hath not only said in general that he is the Judge the Protector and Comforter of the Widow But he hath vouchsafed unto some his most signal Favors and extraordinary Blessings In the Reign of Abab while a cruel Famine overspread the Land God sent the Prophet Elijah to a poor Widow of Sarephtah who was preparing her self and her Son to dye as soon as they had eaten a little remnant of Meal and Oil that was left but the Holy Prophet comforted her in this manner Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel the barrel of Meal shall not waste neither shall the cruse of Oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth Rain upon the Earth 1 King 5. Many Widows have been comforted in such a miraculous manner for God hath so ordered it that their provisions have not failed although it may