welcomest news a poor soul can possibly hear to be told that God is his and Heaven is his and Eternal Life is his and when once this news is come then welcom life and welcom death welcom time and welcom eternity then the Soul can say O sweet Eternity O blessed Eternity O Sirs be not satisfied without some good assurance of Gods love to your souls and your right and title to heaven and eternal life yea without the fullest assurance that is attainable here for know that there are degrees in Assurance it self the Scripture mentions three degrees of assurance First there is assurance The work of righteousness is peace and the fruit of righteousness is assurance for ever Isa 32.17 and give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure as in the place before quoted Secondly there is much assurance Our Gospel came unto you not in word only but in power and in the demonstration of the Spirit and much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 Thirdly there is a full assurance We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Heb. 6.11 Now my Beloved I would not have you satisfied without assurance without much assurance yea without a full assurance the more full your assurance is the more chearfully joyfully and triumphingly will you die Thirdly Would you indeed have all all right all in order in the matters of your souls for a dying hour then labour to maintain a constant actual peace with God every day making even with him and renewing the sense of his pardoning love in your souls as a firm union with Christ and a well-grounded assurance of an interest in God and eternal Life so also an actual peace with God and a daily renewed pardon from him is requisite to a thorough readiness and preparedness for a dying hour David had an interest in God yea and his interest was clear to him yet how sollicitous was he to get all even between God and him and how uncomfortable was it with him till he had renewed his peace with God when by his fall it had been broken Psal 51.8 12. This also is what is evidently held forth Job 7.21 where Job pleads thus with God Why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my transgression for now shall I sleep in the dust thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be In the verse before he acknowledged he had sinned and here he intimates that God frowned on him for his sin the sense of pardoning love was not renewed in his soul which here therefore he pleads for and that upon this account because he was speedily to die intimating he could not die with comfort till he had a renewed sense of Gods pardoning love And this is the very thing which David begs in the Psalm of my Text in order to his comfortable going hence viz. that God would take away his transgressions Psal 39.8 As long as there is any sin any guilt lying upon our Consciences any sin unpardoned any difference between God and us any frowns in his face towards us we are unready for death and cannot with that comfort and boldness of spirit welcom it as we ought but when our peace with God is maintained and we have a renewed sense of his pardoning love in our souls then are things right and in order with us indeed deed and we may think of death with boldness and comfort and therefore mind this as ever you would be found ready for a dying hour every day even things between God and you every day get a fresh sense of pardon from him First as near as possible may be do nothing that may occasion any breach between God and you or raise any frowns in his face towards you if you do not break with God he will not break with you all breaches as to peace and friendship between God and us begin on our part yea neither will God break with us for little things in case they be not allowed by us but watched and striven against therefore as near as possibly you can do nothing to break and interrupt your peace with God for one moment And because when you have done all many things may and will fall out we having sinful sinning hearts and living in a world of snares and temptations for which God may justly frown upon us let us Secondly every day make even with him in the close of every day let us consider wherein we have broken with God come short of duty given any grief any distaste to his Holy Spirit and by Faith and Prayer let us sue out the pardon of it and let us not lie down if possible without some intimation of his pardoning love for which end First We should act Faith on the Blood and Advocateship of Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for remission of sins Rom. 3.24 25. And indeed Christ hath set up a Standing Office in Heaven which we may call the Pardon-Office he procureth new Pardons for his People daily under their new sins We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Have daily recourse to the Blood of Christ truly without it there is no living the best the holiest on earth have daily need of his Blood and should have daily recourse unto it for the maintaining of their peace and for the renewing of Gods pardoning love in their souls Secondly We should be humbly and earnestly importunate with God in prayer resolving not to let him go without this blessing carrying upon our spirits the sense of the worth and also of our unworthiness of it Thus the holy men of God of old have done they have sued out the pardon of their sins by Faith and Prayer and gotten a fresh sense of Gods love when they have broken with him as I might instance in Job in David and others we should every day pray as that Father did O Lord saith he do not after the manner of a Judge weigh or consider what I have done what I have spoken what I have thought but blot out all my sins with thy own Blood And as another of them did Lord saith he there is that in me which may offend thy holy eyes I know and confess it but who shall cleanse me or to whom shall I fly for relief but to thee O hide not thy face from me Truly when we have walked most watchfully most circumspectly many things may and will fall out that may offend the pure eyes of Gods Glory which we should confess and bewail before him suing out the pardon of them by the Blood of his Son Some of the Saints have made this their daily practise and so have maintained their peace for many years together and when they have come to die have gloricusly triumphed over Death
kill and bring down the one and to quicken and perfect the other How dost thou with the holy Apostle of old forgetting those things which are behind follow after that thou mayst apprehend that for which also thou art apprehended of Christ Jesus pressing towards the mark c. Phil. 3.12 13 14. O the watchings the warrings the wrestlings of thy soul for more grace more holiness more victory over and cleansing from sin Oh the many prayers and tears sighs and groans that thou pourest out between God and thy soul in order hereunto These things are the business of thy life yea and after all sin is still strong and lively and grace is still weak and imperfect the sense of which breaks thy heart almost and makes thee go mourning all the day long What daily cleansing thy self and yet still unclean daily perfecting holiness yet still imperfect Oh hovv fad is this Well but Soul vvhen death comes things vvill be strangely alter'd vvith thee that vvill do that for thee in one moment vvhich thou by a vvhole life of prayers tears faith vvatching vvarring labouring couldst not do ' t vvill make thee perfect Hence those above are said to be so the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 then all that is imperfect will be done away and that which is prefect shall come 1 Cor. 13.10 perfect grace perfect holiness Novv there is much lacking in thy faith thy love thy obedience thy humility thy heavenliness thy joy and delight in God but death vvhen it comes vvill make up all in a moment yea novv thou art stained and defiled vvith sin and this lust and the other lust stirs and vvorks and vvars vvithin thee but vvhen death comes that vvill purge avvay all Death is the Saints only perfect cleanser through Christ Indeed 't is said of vvicked men and hypocrites that their iniquites shall lie down with them in the dust Job 20.11 vvhich is a dreadful vvord indeed Death does not kill their sins no they live in the grave they go vvith them into the other vvorld and vvill there live in them for ever vvhich vvill be a great part of their torment 't will be indeed however they may now think of it the one half of hell for vvhat is hell but sin at the highest and vvrath at the hottest but though it be thus vvith vvicked ones yet 't is otherwise vvith the Saints Death through the Grace of Christ vvill for ever put a period to your sin and perfect your graces Oh sweet vvho vvould not vvelcom death 6. Death vvhenever it comes vvill set thee above all afflictive distances between God Christ the Comforter and thee and vvill set down thy soul in the full constant and immediate vision and fruition of all for ever and is not this svveet Poor Saint here thou complainest that God is as a stranger to thee and as a way faring man that turneth aside to tarry but for a night Thou hast only novv and then a short visit from him Jer. 14.8 Thou complainest that thy Beloved withdraws himself and is gone Cant. 5.6 Thou complainest that the Comforter that should relieve thy soul is far from thee Lam. 1.18 thou complainest of many sad and woful distances from God and of the lowness of thy communion and well thou maist for indeed how little a portion is there here seen or enjoyed of him by thee well but when death comes that will lift thee above all those distances between God and thee Christ and thee and set thee down in the full constant and immediate vision and fruition of him for ever the thoughts of which made Paul and others to desire to be gone and to chuse death rather than life 2 Cor. 7.6 7 8. We are confident says he knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Pray observe Paul enjoyed as much of God and Christ here as most did and yet all that communion he enjoyed here he accounted as no communion to that which he should enjoy after death While we are present in the body says he that is while we live in this world we are absent from the Lord absent from God and Christ our communion here is but distance and estrangement so low and unconstant is it in comparison of what we know we shall enjoy after death and therefore says he we had rather be absent from the body we had rather be gone hence and be present with the Lord Death will bring us to anotherguess presence and enjoyment of God and Christ than here we shall ever be able to reach unto Alas all we enjoy of God and Christ here is but as an earnest so the Apostle speaks in the verse foregoing He that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God who also hath given us the earnest of the spirit but when Death comes we shall enjoy the full inheritance all we enjoy here is but as the first-fruits we that have the first fruits of the spirit says the Apostle Rom. 8.23 but when death comes we shall have the full vintage full incomes of love full manifestations of light and life and glory fulness of joy and pleasure in the Divine Presence Psal 16.11 full embraces in Christs bosom full views of his face full visions of his glory Death when it comes will bring us to the Beatifical Vision which is all good and happiness in one Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 They do see God now they see him by Faith and those sights of him are sweet glorious soul-ravishing and transforming sights but after death they shall have other sights of him such sights of him as will even infinitely surpass all that ever they had or were capable of here Here they see him but through a glass darkly that is they have but low obscure mediate sights of him they see and enjoy but little of him but when death comes then they shall see him face to face that is fully clearly immediately 1 Cor. 12.12 The sum is as a learned man gives it us that in this life we have but low and slender sights and enjoyments of God in comparison of what we shall see know and enjoy of him in eternal life Glas Rhet. Here they see but his back parts as God said to Moses but when death comes they shall see his face that is his glory here they see him but negatively as it were what he is not but then they shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 we shall see him as he is in all his glorious excellencies and perfections In short they shall then have such sights and enjoyments of God and Christ as shall eternally fill delight solace satisfie and set at rest their souls for ever such sights and enjoyments as shall so
vapour which appeareth for a little season and is gone James 4.14 O how soon may one or another or all of us be among the dead How soon may death approach us 3. What infinite mercy is it that God has spared us thus long and still does spare us to set all things right to make all ready for a dying hour O my Beloved how great is the sparing mercy of God towards us We have had some forty some fifty some sixty years in the World and still God spares us still he lets us live and enjoy good and why all this think you smely to set things right in our souls to make ready for a dying hour and shall we yet neglect it God forbid O Sirs think a little I beseech you with your selves how long since the Grave might have swallowed us up and the Bottomless Pit have shut its mouth upon us How long since might time and dayes have been at an end with us and our souls stated in a miserable Eternity But still God spares us and we are yet in the Land of the Living with a door of mercy and grace yet open unto us at least a possibility left us of knowing the things of our peace in our day of making provision for Death and Eternity And O what mercy is this I would fain a little quicken both you and my self by this consideration And in order thereunto let me plead a little particularly with you 1. Consider how long God hath spared and does spare you beyond what he does and has thousands and ten thousands of others God does not spare all at that rate which he has spared and does still spare us Alas How many thousands are there now free among the dead who came into being long since we did Their Glass is run their Sun is set their day is over their hopes and expectations are all at an end their souls are stated in an eternal condition a condition that will admit of neither change nor period for ever and yet we are spared still They came into the World long after us and are gone into Eternity long before us Yea how many are there that never arrived to the one half of those years that we have arrived unto their Sun has set in the morning How many of us have out-lived our yoke-fellows our children our servants our friends and acquaintance And yet we stand our ground and all this that we might prepare for a dying hour This patience of God should lead us to repentance Rom. 2.5 And O that it might so do 2. Consider how much we have provoked God and what advantage we have given him in Justice against us I would fay here as Christ speaks in another case Luke 13. begin Suppose ye that those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices 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 of Siloah fell and slew them think ye they were sinners above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish So say I here suppose ye that those that are gone down to the gates of the grave and the bars of death before us were greater sinners than we I tell you nay but except we repent we must all likewise perish We have sinned as well as they and possibly in many regards more than they To be sure we have all over and over deserved long since to have been covered with the shadow of the Night of eternal darkness O how has the patience of God been tried and his long-sufferings put to it by us What a burden have we been to his Soul Some of us have cause to think that we have been as great a burden to God as most that ever lived How justly may the blessed God complain of many of us That we have made him to serve with our sins and wearied him with our iniquities as he did of them of old Isa 43.24 that we have broke his heart with our whorish heart whereby we have departed from him Ezek. 6.9 that our sins have pressed him down as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves Amos 2.13 Alas Alas How have we wallowed in our pollutions and acted out the enmity and rebellion of our natures against him How have we rejected his Word resisted his Spirit despised his Grace trampled upon his Son refused many and many an offer of love and many a sweet Call and blessed invitation to come to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb And yet that he should still spare us O what mercy is this In the 1 Pet. 3.20 we read that the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah And truly my Beloved it waits as much in our dayes our provocations being as many and as high against him as theirs of that Generation were O Sirs why are we not in Hell Why are we not sealed and shut up among the damned Why have we one Call more one offer more one season of Grace more Verily 't is all rich Mercy O that it might lead us to Repentance 3. Consider how sad it had been with us had the Lord taken that advantage against us which we have over and over given him Suppose my Beloved God had not spared us but had cut us off as he might long since what now had been become of us And where now had we been Had you died of such and such a sickness you have been in when possibly a sentence of Death was passed upon you both by your selves and others and there was really but a step between death and you where and how miserable had you now been Had you not been now in the flames eternally separated from God and Christ Being Godless and Christless Have you not now cause to fear you had been in as irrecoverable a condition as the Devils themselves are in sealed up under wrath and condemnation past all hopes and possibility of mercy for ever Whither had I gone saith Austin if then speaking of the time that he was in his sins I had gone hence Whither had I gone but into the flames and into eternal torments answerable to my sins May not we say the like But blessed be God it is yet time and season with me and you we are spared to this hour that we might provide for death and Eternity O Sirs suppose you or I were now among the damned suppose we were as they are sealed up under wrath and separated from God left under an utter impossibility of ever seeing his face how sad then would our condition be Why thus it might have been with us O what mercy then is it that God has spared us and doth-spare us as he does And how should it awaken us to our work 4. Consider how much more sad it may and will yet be with us in case we provide not for
not get union with Christ and an interest in Christ This is what lies at the bottom and foundation of all of all our hopes of all our mercies of all our comforts of all our acceptation and communion with God of all Grace on Earth and of all Glory in Heaven and without it whatsoever our attainments in Religion are whatever our Profession may be whatever place or esteem we may have to the Church of God though never so raised and eminent yet we have nothing that will avail us in a dying hour I remember a saying of a learned man That thou maist live in death saith he get into Christ implant thy self into Christ by believing Faith joyns and unites us to Christ and they that are in Christ cannot die for Christ is their life And indeed if we have union with Christ he will be life in death it self to us Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord that is die having union with Christ being implanted into Christ Rev. 14.13 If we have union with Christ he will not be only life in death to us but he will even turn death it self into life the King of Terrors into a King of Comforts insomuch that the soul shall be able to triumph over it as the Apostle doth 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. whereas without this without union with Christ and an interest in Christ we shall never be able to look death in the face with comfort but shall when we come to die be some of the miserablest spectacles in the world It is the speech of a worthy Divine who is long since gone hence A Christless dying man or woman says he is one of the saddest spectacles in the world For a man to be dying and not Christless that is comfortable for such an one dies but to live for ever he dies the death of Nature to live the life of Glory for a man to be Christless and not dying is something tolerable for who knows but that the next meeting at an Ordinance may be the time of God's love to him of drawing him into Christ but for a man to be dying and Christless Christless and dying too that is intolerable that is terrible indeed for such an one dies to be damned and he is going off from all hopes and possibilities of mercy for ever Oh therefore above all press after union with Christ and an interest in Christ this was Pauls great care and solicitude to the very last that so he might go off the Stage with comfort and that for which he accounted all things but dung as most base and vile Phil. 3.8 9. O Soul didst thou indeed know and consider of how much weight and importance an interest in Christ is to thee with reference to thine eternal happiness thou would cry out as eagerly for Christ as ever Rachel did for children saying Give me Christ or else I die give me union with Christ and an interest in Christ or I am undone eternally Oh look to the great uniting act of Faith make a right choice of Christ chuse him as your Lord and Head your King and Saviour and renew your choice of him every day resigning up your selves entirely to him to be saved and governed by him in his own way Secondly Would you indeed have all set right and made ready in the matters of your souls for a dying hour then press after a firm and unshaken assurance of an interest in God and his love and of your right and title to eternal life of another and a better life than this is here without some good evidence for Heaven and some well-grounded assurance of an interest in God and Eternal Life things are not ready with us nor are we in such a preparedness for a dying hour as we ought to be though a man hath an interest in God and his love though he hath a right and title to eternal life and happiness yet as long as he is in the dark and at an uncertainty in his own soul about it things are out of order with him and he is greatly unready for a dying hour For pray mark as our interest in this is requisite to our dying happily so the sight and assurance of that interest is requisite to our dying comfortably Indeed when a man hath attained to some good evidence for heaven to some well-grounded assurance of his interest in God and Christ then are things in a good posture with him in reference to a dying hour then he can play with Death and triumph over it as Job did when he could say I know that my Redeemer liveth Job 19.25 26. And as the Apostle seems to speak of it 2 Cor. 5.12 We know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven None of you do comfortably leave your house unless you have another to go unto much less can you comfortably quit this world unless you have some well-grounded assurance of another and a better life Take a man that is in the dark and at a loss as to his interest in God and Christ and he knows not what Death will do to him nor where it will lodge him whether in heaven or in hell whether upon the Throne of Glory or in the Prison of eternal Darkness in the Bosom of Christs love or under the Revelations of his infinite and eternal wrath and is such a one ready for a dying hour Surely no As ever therefore you would have things right and ready within indeed for a dying hour you must press after an assurance of your interest in God and Christ you must do as the Apostle exhorts give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 You must every day prest after a fuller and firmer assurance as to your eternal interest you must be much in faith much in prayer much in examining your evidences much in proving your state much in looking after the seal and evidence of the blessed Spirit which is indeed all in all and never rest till you can say My Lord and my God my Heaven my Glory God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever O then all will be sweet and well with you this is that which the Saints of old have laboured after with their whole might Say unto my soul saith David to God I am thy salvation Psal 35 3â— set me as a seal upon thy heart and as a seal upon thine arm Cant. 8.6 This Austin pressed much after Lord saith he tell me what thou art to me say unto my Soul I am thy salvation so say it that I may hear it behold the ears of my heart are before thee open them O Lord and say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation O my Beloved this is worth pressing after for this is the
of them to fit loose from them and make God and communion with God all in all to him 'T is a great saying which I have read of a learned man Although adversity breaks many yet prosperity and a fulness of enjoyments kills many more And how rare a man is that who in prosperity does not at least a little in some degree or other let down his Watch and remit his strictness and exactness in walking David was a wise man and Solomon was a wiser and yet both the one and the other discovered great sin and folly through abounding prosperity So that I say 't is both a rare and difficult thing but by how much the more rare and difficult it is by so much the more excellent and eminent when attained Oh for a man to swim Chin-deep in the streams of creature-comforts and yet not to forsake the Fountain of living waters for a man to have the streams run pleasantly on each hand of him and yet to bathe and delight onely in the Fountain as his rest and happiness for a man in the height of prosperity to be able to say to God as the Psalmist in his affliction did Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee this is noble Grace indeed O labour to come up to this whatever your worldly enjoyments are though never so great so high so pleasant yet as ever you would be ready for a dying hour fit loose from all die to all the more dead we are to the world the more ready we are to go out of the world a worldly spirit a spirit in love with this world is most unready for a dying hour how can he be ready to leave the world that is in love with the world a worldly spirit is most odious to the Spirit of God and most unsuitable to the future life and one living in that spirit cannot be fit to die 'T is a great saying I have read in one He is perfect whose soul is alienated from the world but says he that soul is far from God to whom this miserable life is sweet that is to fay who is fond of these poor things here O die die daily to the world under all your enjoyments of it if you would indeed be ready to die 3. For a man to be empty and yet full to be destitute of all outward comforts and enjoyments and yet to want nothing but to be content and to see all in God and enjoy all in God for a man to be afflicted and distress'd and yet at the same time see a fulness and sufficiency of all good and happiness in a naked God and naked Godliness and accordingly to live upon him and rest satisfied in him this is a noble strain of Grace indeed this the Prophet and in him the Church resolved upon Heb. 3.17 18. Athough the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Here you see is a most sad supposition a most forlorn and destitute condition supposed to come well and what then in case all this comes to pass what will the Church do then that the 18 verse tells us Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation she is resolved to live upon God and delight her self with God she sees enough in him alone and sets him and her interest in him over against all wants losses and afflictions So the Apostles 2 Cor. 6.10 who were as having nothing yet possessing all things they saw all in Christ and enjoyed all in Christ Here as one glosses upon the place we possess nothing but do wander up and down from place to place yet possessing Christ in him we possess all things Oh for a man to see and enjoy all in Christ when the world frowns upon him and is low with him this is a noble strain of Grace and let me say this that 't is an argument that we have carnal hearts if we see not all in God and enough in God to satisfie us and make us happy whether we have any thing or nothing of this worlds Heaven which death sends us to if we are indeed ready for it is no thing else but the vision and fruition of God for there he is all in all and certainly if we do not see all in God now and enough in God now we cannot suppose our selves to be so fully ready for death and Eternity as we ought to be 4. For a man to have no affliction and yet to be deeply afflicted to be wholly free from all personal affliction and yet greatly to lay to heart and be afflicted for the afflictions of Gods name and people this is glorious Grace Grace in lustre 'T is the observation of a worthy Divine That in the day of the Churches trouble and affliction when both his name and people do greatly suffer God does sometimes leave some of his people an affluence of all outward good things when others are stript of all their comforts they are full when others are in straights they abound neither is there any cloud upon their Tabernacle and this God does to try them whether they will take up in their enjoyments and forget the afflictions of his name and people and truly not to do so but in such a case to lay the Churches afflictions to heart and to bleed and mourn with the bleeding interest of Gods name and people this is pure Grace and marvellous pleasing to God such Grace some of the Saints have come up unto such Grace was sound in David 2 Sam. 7.1 2. And it came to pass when the King sate in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all enemies that the King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an house of Cedar but the ark of God dwelleth within Curtains Mark all was well with David he had rest and he dwelt in an House of Cedar he had all things suitable for and becoming a King ah but all was not well with the interest of God and his worship Davids house and interest prospered but it fared not so well with the house and interest of God and therefore all his enjoyments were as nothing to him he so laid the sufferings of Gods name and worship to heart The like was found in Nehemiah Neh. begin all things were well with him in his own person he was the Kings Cup-bearer and lived under the enjoyment of an affluence of all outward contentments and yet was in deep affliction of spirit upon the account of the Churches affliction When I heard these words says he verse 4. these words what words why that the remnant that were left of the Captivity were in great affliction and reproach that the wall of