command was not frighted to behold the Sun go down although he was in the midst of an open field Gen. 28. but he laid himself down in peace and slept sweetly having no other Bed but the Earth no other Pillow but a Stone no other covering than the Heavens nor other Curtains than the dark shadows of the night Likewise a Soul sanctified by the Spirit of God that walks in all the Commands of his Heavenly Father shall never be astonished for wheresoever his Sun goes down wheresoever Death Arrests him he will look upon himself as in another Bethel he will sleep quietly in the Lord Jesus in the most cruel death he will feel unspeakable and glorious joys and a Peace of God which passeth all understanding Acts 23. We may take notice of this blessed disposition in the Apostle St. Paul who had behaved himself with a good conscience towards God and towards Man 1 Cor. 15. He had labor'd more in his Ministry than all the other Apostles therefore he stands in no fear of deaths approaches but rather we may see him full of expectation and desires to pass through Death into Glory and Eternal Felicity This disposition is no less remarkble in Stephen the first Martyr of Christ Acts 6. in the midst of his most grievous torments he had a countenance shining as that of an Angel which was a certain testimony of his inward peace of Conscience and of the extraordinary joy of his Soul for as the Wise man informs us A merry Heart maketh a chearful Countenance Prov. 15. From the same wisdom proceeds this other Oracle that foretels unto every one what shall happen unto him The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14. Eccl. 1. Unto this is agreeable the excellent saying of Jesus the Son of Syrach It shall be well at the last with him who fears God he shall sind favor at the day of his death This life is but a moment that flies away apace and yet it determines our Eternal Estate it raiseth us to the highest Glory of Heaven or else it casts us headlong into the deepest Abysse of Eternal Misery for what Man soweth that shall he reap he that soweth in the flesh shall reap of the flesh corruption but he that soweth in the Spirit shall reap of the Spirit Eternal Life If you are afraid of a cruel and unhappy death keep your selves from an evil and a prophane life for commonly as Man's life is so is his death The most part of those who live in foul Lusts and Prophaness dye in hardness of heart or in grievous despair God's patience wearied out changes it self into a just resentment and fury Commonly God leaves at the hour of death such as have left him in the course of their lives he is inexorable to the cryes and sighs of such as have shut their Ears and Hearts to his Holy Word and his Fatherly Instructions he laughs at the horrid fears and most sensible torments of those that trample upon his sacred Commands according to his own words Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh King Ahab was desirous to hear a pleasing Prophecy of happy things of the victory over the Syrian Army nevertheless he did continue in his Impieties and Tyranny therefore the Prophet Micah was not afraid of his displeasure but tells him boldly of the approaching Judgments of God which did hang over his guilty Head likewise some sinners desire to be flatter'd and soothed up in their extravagancies they expect notwithstanding their crimes declarations of Joy and Prosperity but we should be false Prophets possessed with a lying Spirit if we did not foretel to such people that a most lamentable and miserable death hastens apace upon them we should have a cruel charity for them if we did not labor to save them by fear as out of a fire if we did not shew them Hell with its jaws open ready to swallow them up and the Eternal Torments wherewith God will punish all impenitent and hardened sinners Knowing what God's vengeance is we must perswade Men to embrace Faith and Righteousness and if we did fail in this our duty their Blood should be required at our hands To what purpose have the Heathen Philosophers discoursed so Learnedly of the shortness of our life To what purpose have many of their Princes entertain'd things on purpose to mind them of their mortal condition Such kind of thoughts did fly in their fancy but they reapt but little benefit from them because they did not oblige them to an Holy and Reformed Life and by consequence they did not prepare them to a blessed Death It was also to no purpose that Balaam desired so passionately to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end might be like a just man's Numb 23. for because he lived the life of a sinner and continued in his Abominations and Idolatry Numb 31. therefore he died as they and was comprehended in their punishment as he was a partner in their crimes it was but just and reasonable that he should share in their calamities and be a partaker of their torments To abandon Vice and Sin is to take from Death its Venom and all its fiery Darts It is to pluck from this furious Beast its Teeth and Claws it is to break the Cords and Chains by which the Devil drags us into Eternal damnation It is to destroy the Monsters that fright us and stifle the Furies that pursue us In short it tends to change Hell and its grievous Torments into an Heaven and its Glory There was never yet any person that lived an Holy and Religious Life but he died happily in the favour of his God Now that the Lord knocks open unto him the door of your hearts and at the hour of Death he will open unto you the Gates of Heaven present and give unto him whiles you are alive your Bodies and Souls and doubtless he will accept them and confirm the Gift with his own Seal here below he will enrich you with his Graces and crown you at last with his Glory Blessed are they that dye in the Lord but to dye in the Lord we must live to the Lord that we may be able to say with St. Paul Whether we live we live to the Lord whether we dye we dye to the Lord whether we live or dye we are the Lords To perswade us to this Religious Duty we must consider in the first place the Command that he gives us of loving him fearing him of repenting of our sins and of walking in his Holy ways unto this he exhorts us in the Holy Writings of the Old Testament as in the 6 of Deuteronomy Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
they began to draw near one another then the Nerves began to appear the Flesh to grow and to be covered with skin but there was no life until God Commanded the Prophet to prophecy again Thus saith the Lord Spirit come from the four winds blow upon these dead bodies and let them rise from the dead Then the Spirit entred into them they began to revive and they stood upon their Legs This is the lively and true image of the first resurrection for the Spirit of God that blows whither it listeth doth regenerate us by degrees John 3. and the new man is created in our hearts by little and little as the Child grows in its Mothers Womb. When Joshua brought the Children of Israel into the Land of Promise he did not destroy all the Cananites Josh 23. there remained some who became Scourges in their sides and Thorns in their Eyes Thus our true and Spiritual Joshua who hath led us into the kingdom of his Grace hath not altogether destroyed all our evil affections some yet remains that are like prickles in our sides and like swords that pierce through our souls They do yet render our life bitter and unpleasant and therefore we often desire death to come and put a period to this combat Sin was in possession of us as a strong man armed in an House but Jesus Christ is entred into our Souls and become the Master He hath therefore bound and chained sin and hath nailed it to his Cross But this furious Beast although it hath received a mortal wound and is ready to give up the last gasp it strugles and fumes within us our blessed Saviour hath extinguished with the Red Stream of his Blood the infernal flames of all our cursed affections but yet there remains in the ashes some sparkles of this devilish fire that do cause in us some furious fits This only merciful Redeemer of his infinite mercy hath loosed us from the Devils Chains but that we might have cause to be humbled to desire the increase of his Grace and to long for the advent of his Glory he leaves about us some of the troublesome Fetters by his Holy Spirit he files them off by degrees but one day he will take them away from us He doth now receive us as his beloved Children into the Celestial Kingdom of his Grace Joh. 11. nevertheless he suffers in us some ill-favoured reliques of sin and corruption At the voice of this Prince of Life that reaches to the very bottom of our hearts we are risen from the sepulchre of our Vices with our Grave-Cloaths about us as Lazarus when he came out of his Tomb we are like the antient Slaves that were set at liberty we bear upon our Forehead the visible marks of our antient slavery but one day our Lord Jesus Christ shall cover these marks of infamy and disgrace with an heavenly Diadem If you desire another image of our spiritual condition fancy to your selves a dead man cast into a foul Pit or Sink unto whom life is restor'd in a moment afterwards by degrees he is wash'd and cleans'd of the filth that covers his body We were not only dead of a Spiritual death but we were also overwhelmed in an Abysse of corruption and filth The Son of God hath pull'd us out of this Abysse and hath already restored unto us life but the dirt and putrefaction with which we were disfigured he washes it away by the waters of his Grace Zaâ— 13. For there is a fountain opened for sin in the House of David Isai 4. in the which God hath promised to wash away all the filth of the Daughter of Sion and all the bloud of Jerusalem and as it happened to the cruel King Adonibezech when the Tribe of Juda took him prisoner he lost the Thumbs of his Hands and the great Toes of his Feet but he did not suffer death until he was come to Jerusalem Thus our great God and Saviour the Prince of the Tribe of Juda hath cut off the strength and power of the old man that did tyrannize in our souls and hath deprived him of his venemous nails with which he did wound our hearts he hath also given him his mortal wound but he suffers him to enjoy a languishing life and will not take away his last breath until we bring him to the Gates of the heavenly Jerusalem But to speak more openly sin is yet in us but he doth not Reign for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath broken its Scepter and hath pull'd him from his Throne and as he hath taken from it all Command in us he constrains it to leave the possession of our souls by degrees As a strong and mighty King who having won the Battel pursues and drives his Enemy until he hath totally exposed him out of his kingdom so doth our Saviour deal with sin And as it happens with a Woman with Child in her old age there is in her Body two contrary lives that of the Mother and that of the Child the one decays and dies insensibly the other that is the Childs life grows and increaseth by degrees So it is in the faithful and regenerate Soul There are two lives that of Sin that the Scripture names the Old man and that of the New man which is created according to God in Righteousness and true Holiness the one diminishes and approacheth to its final end but the other grows and gathers strength until we arrive to the perfect stature of our Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit of God every day gets ground of our corruption and darkness As it happens with the Rivers of fresh water that encroach upon the Earth they undermine the nearest Banks or as the Sun when he riseth upon our Horison he drives before him all shadows until the Air be perfectly enlightned so it is with the Grace of God in our Souls CHAP. 5. Why we are yet subject to the Corporal or Natural Death and what advantage we do thereby receive in Jesus Christ THe wise King teacheth us in the 9 of the Ecclesiastes That the same accident happens to all to the righteous and to the wicked and to the clean and to the polluted to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not These words are to be understood of the several afflictions unto which we are exposed during this mortal life but we may apply it to the Natural Death for it is appointed unto all once to dye and after that the judgement follows Heb. 9. By one man sin is entred into the World and by Sin Death and thus Death is come upon all men because they have all sinned Rom. 5 Therefore when Joshua felt himself feeble and decaying he told the Children of Israel That he was going the way of all flesh Josh 23. and Job complains unto God I know that thou wilt reduce me to death and to the house appointed for all living Job 30. It was upon this subject that the Royal Prophet
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
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
and with our Daughters with our Flocks and with our Heards there shall not an Hoof be left behind Exod. 10. Thus we in an Holy Confidence may talk with Death maugre thy Rage and Fury we will go up to Heaven to sacrifice unto our God immortal praises we shall get out of thy slavery We our Wives our Children our Brothers and Sisters our Parents and Friends all the People of God whom thou dost at present keep in a close restraint notwithstanding the infernal attempts of thine inhumane power there shall not remain so much as an handful no not so much as the least grain of our Ashes behind us When the Son of God shall appear in his Glory from Heaven he shall consume all Death's Trophies and Monuments with irresistable Flames so that it shall happen to this imperious Enemy of Mankind as it happened to the Kings of the Amorites mentioned in the Israelitish History Josh 10. for as Joshua suffered them to live until he was returned from his victory and then when he had perfectly overcome all his Enemies he Commanded them to be brought forth and gave order to his Captains to tread upon their necks and then with his own sword he dispatcht them cast them into a Cave and caused great stones to be rowled at the entrance of it Thus shall our true and Celestial Joshua deal with Death he suffers it to reign while he is gone to pursue his Enemies for the last Enemy that shall be destroyed by him is Death when he shall have perfectly subdued all other Enemies he will then conclude all his victories with a glorious end and accomplish the Churches Triumph by causing us to trample upon Death that shall be cast into the bottomless pit whereof the entrance shall be shut up for ever Rev. 10. then shall be accomplisht this glorious Prophesie Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15. for the Spirit of God assures us in express words That Death shall be no more By what we have said it may easily appear what is become of the Rope thrice twisted by the Devil with an intent to strangle therewith all Mankind for the Son of God hath cut in pieces the first of these unhappy ties by his Almighty power by the Spirit of Sanctification he loosens the second by degrees and by the last he draws us to himself and then he burns and consumes it altogether therefore we have no reason to fear an Eternal Death nor to tremble when Hell opens wide its mouth If we resist the Devil he flies away from us Jam. 4. at last we shall trample him under our feet Rom. 16. It is true that the sad and doleful effects of the Spiritual death do commonly draw out of us many a sad Groan and Tear whilst our Soul remains in this sinful Flesh we are already got out of the Tombs of Corruption and Sin but yet bear about us as it were our Winding-sheet and some odd Reliques of our natural Misery But we have this consideration to comfort our drooping spirits That Christ will shortly give the same order from Heaven for us as he did for Lazarus Loose him and let him go Joh. 11. So that instead of the corruption of our Nature that is so incommodious to us he will invest us in Estate of Glory Incorruption Immortality and perfect Happiness for the Corporal Death we may justly say That our Lord and Saviour hath freed us from all the fears that it might beget in us so that it is my judgement that we may not only affirm that we have not the least apprehension of it but expect it with assurance for if we be truly of the number of the faithful and Gods adopted Sons we hope desire and hasten Deaths arrival by our most carnest and most passionate wishes What I have already declared in this Chapter might satisfy any Christian Soul and furnish it with sufficient considerations to strengthen it against all apprehensions of Death But as one that is wont to buy Stuffs in a Shop when he cheapens such as are slight and of a small value he casts his eye only upon a piece or a pattern and by that judges of the rest but when he intends to purchase a rich Tapestry of great value he desires to visit and consider every part one after another and make an estimation of the value and beauty of every corner So I judge that the Wise and Religious Reader will desire now that I have discover'd to him in gross the Body of Consolations against the fears of Death that I should in the next place unfold these hidden Excellencies produce every part of them by degrees to his contemplation and with my Pen make him take notice of all the Rarities CHAP. 6. From whence proceed the fears of Death AS a wise and discreet Physitian usually examines with care the causes of the Disease before he prescribes a Remedy and as an experienced Chirurgion searcheth the wound before he claps the Plaister to it Thus I judge it necessary to seek with diligence from whence the fears of death proceed before we shall appoint the Remedies to the faithful Souls for when we shall have perfectly understood the nature of the Disease and its principal Causes we shall without difficulty be better able to assign a convenient Remedy when we shall have searcht the wound and washt it clean we will with Gods assistance pour into it the true Balm of Gilead First we have just reason to accuse our selves of too much unmindfulness of Death we don't meditate so often as we should upon the misery and frailty of our poor and despicable nature we acknowledge it I confess with our tongues that our life is but a breath in our Nostrils a vapor that soon disappears a shadow that quickly vanishes away but in the mean time we flatter our selves in our hearts with more pleasant thoughts and desire as Herod that Men should look upon us as so many little Gods Acts 12. We suffer our selves to be deceived by the flattering insinuations of our corrupted Flesh and by the artificious suggestions of the old Serpent that whispers to us as to our first Parents You shall not dye Gen. 3. 2. We commonly affirm that Death is inexorable without Ears nevertheless we live as if we had concluded an agreement with Death and had secret intelligence with the Grave Is 22. Death approaches with Feet of Wooll without noise we imagine therefore that it will never come near us as that wicked servant of the Gospel Matth. 24. that gathered from his Masters delays of coming that he would not come at all We hate and abominate the sight of all those things that represent to us any appearance of Death or that calls into our minds its remembrance if at any time its Image comes in our way we turn from it our Eyes and banish out of our fancy all imaginations of it as of a most odious and deceitful illusion Death seizeth upon us
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
O Lord my God are thy wonderful Works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I should declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred and being ravish'd into an Holy Admiration thou wilt say in the language of the same Prophet O God who is like unto thee who when thou hadst made me see many distresses and evils at last thou hast restored me to Life and drawn me out of the depths of the Earth Psal 71. Thou shalt increase my greatness again thou wilt comfort me And elsewhere What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me Psal 116. 18. The Consideration of God's redeeming us doth chiefly require us to deny our selves and consecrate our selves to his service for the Slave don't belong to himself but to him that hath redeemed him and paid his ransom As when God had deliver'd the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt he gave unto them his Law and his Ordinances in Mount Sinai Thus God hath redeemed us from the Tyranny of the Devil of the World of Sin of Death of Hell and from the power of all our Enemies that we might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our life Luk 1. He hath given himself a ransom for us that we might become a peculiar people to him given to good Works Tit. 2. You are bought with a price Glorify then God in your Bodies and your Souls that belong unto God 1 Cor. 6. 19. One love must kindle another the Sacred Fire that is come from Heaven must enflame our hearts with an Holy Zeal for his Glory God hath loved us so much that he hath given his Holy Son that believing we might not perish but have everlasting life He hath not spared him who is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person He hath deliver'd him to death for us yea to the ignominious death of the Cross And is it not just that we should love him above all worldly things a God so good and merciful Is it not just that we should love nothing but him and for his sake Is it not reasonable that we should offer unto him our Bodies and Souls as a Living and Holy Sacrifice pleasing to his Eye And if we have any Lust that offends him is it not just that we should willingly leave it betimes when it should appear as useful to us as our Hands and Feet and as dear as the Apple of our Eyes Whosoever he be that doth not deny himself is not worthy of him Matt. 10. 20. We must treat the body of Sin which the Holy Scripture stiles the Old man and the First Adam almost in the same manner as Christ the New Man and the Second Adam was treated upon the Cross Rom. 6. Instead of flattering it and seeking to satisfy its Lusts we must deprive it of all its pleasures make it drink Vinegar and Gaul teare its Head with Thorns bind and chain its Affections and nail them to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ with all its inordinate and brutish desires Mortify therefore your Members that are upon Earth Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Gal. 5. Coloss 3. 21. To live in sin and to delight our selves in iniquity is to frustrate as much as in us lies our good Lord from that principal end which he designed in leaving for a while the Celestial Abode of his Glory and Immortality for he is come into the World to destroy the Works of the Devil Now the chief Work of the Devil the great Enemy of our Salvation in which he takes most Delight and Glory is Sin with which he ensnares Mankind for by Sin Death and all kind of Calamities are enter'd into the World John 3. Rom. 5. 22. It is to trample upon the only Son of God to affront the Spirit of Grace and esteem the Bloud of the Covenant a prophane thing It is to destroy the Fruits of the Death and Passion of our good Redeemer and pull down his Cross for he hath carried our Sins in his Body upon the Cross that dying unto Sin we might live unto Righteousness He hath given himself for his Church to sanctify it and to render it a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle nor any such thing If the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled did Sanctify the uncleanness of the Flesh how much more shall the Bloud of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 23. Our Lord and Saviour was not only Dead but also buryed to teach us to bury also with him our sins and shut up in his Sacred Tomb all our carnal Lusts Don't you know all ye that have been baptized in Jesus Christ that you have been baptized in his Death we are then buried with him in his death by Baptisme 24. This Glorious Saviour is risen from the Dead and hath left his Sepulchre with his Funeral Attire to teach us to rise to newness of Life and to leave in our Grave that sin that encompasseth us and the ties of our corruption that bind us so fast To speak in St. Paul's language As Jesus Christ is risen from the dead by the Glory of the Father we also ought to walk in newness of life for if we are made one Plant with him by a conformity to his Death we shall also be One by a conformity to his Resurrection and as Christ who is risen from the Dead dies no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Likewise we ought not to apply our Members as instruments of iniquity unto sin but we ought to apply them unto God as being made alive from the dead Rom. 6. He is dead and risen again that he might have dominion over the dead and the living If any be in Jesus Christ let him be a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Rom. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 25. Jesus Christ after his Glorious Resurrection is ascended up into Heaven to lift up thither our Hearts and to draw thither our affections and to teach us to reform our manners to live an Holy Angelical and Celestial life If you are risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of God think upon things above and not upon things upon Earth Coloss 3. 26. There is nothing in the World so lovely as Vertue It is the delight and pleasure of Heaven it is the Daughter of the living God and the true and lively Image of our great Creator O blessed decking of a Christian Soul O rich and precious Ornament of God's Children O Heavenly Grace what rare and strong Charms hast thou to win the
midst of them St. Thomas who was not with the Apostles when Christ first appeared amongst them lost the comfort then of seeing him risen from the dead And if this merciful Redeemer had not had compassion of him he had perish'd in his unbelief for ever If upon the day of Penticost any of the faithful had been found absent from the Holy company of the Faithful in Jerusalem they had not seen the Glorious appearance of the Holy Ghost who knows but in a Sermon that we have neglected we have lost some pious advice some seasonable exhortation by which God might have brought our hearts to repentance Who knows but instead of that Fire that devours us we might have felt the Holy Flames kindled in us like unto those Flames of the burning Bush that would burn in us and not consume us Who knows but at the breaking up of the Assembly we might have said as the two Disciples of Christ going to Emaus Did not our heart burn within us when he spoke to us and opened the Scriptures 68. We must be fervent zealous and persevering in Prayers and other Holy Duties and embrace our Lord and Saviour with the Arms of Faith and Repentance and say unto him as Jacob I shall not leave thee until thou hast blessed me especially we ought to apply our selves to these blessed exercises when we feel the inward and troblesome struglings of the Flesh against the Spirit we must imitate that Holy and vertuous Woman who feeling two Children stirring in her Womb fell to her Prayers and unburdened her sorrows in the bosome of our Heavenly Father And as St. Peter when he began to sink lifted up his Hands in Prayer saying Lord save me Matth. 14. Likewise we who walk upon this dangerous Sea of the World assoon as we feel our selves sinking into the Delights of the World or assoon as the Waves of vicious examples and dangerous customs do hurry us away Let us cry out from the bottom of our Hearts O merciful God stretch out thine hand from above and deliver me from these Waters of Hell that carry me away accomplish thy vertue in mine infirmities and give me Grace in resisting against sin to resist unto Blood Psal 69. Heb. 50. 2 Cor. 22. Let thine Holy Spirit overcome mine let Heaven command the Earth and let Paradise lead Hell in Triumph If we make this Petition with all our Hearts God will grant it from his Holy Sanctuary He will extinguish the Fire that burns us He will shut the Lions mouth that intends to devour us He will appease the Winds and the Storms that the Devils have raised in us and at his first entrance into our Ship tost up and down with fears and apprehensions he will bring Peace and a blessed tranquility and will lead us to the safe Haven of Eternal Happiness as the Prophet Moses when he had been familiar with God came down from the Mountain with a shining countenance and as our Saviour when he was in Prayer upon Mount Tabor was transfigured his Garments were white as the Light and his Face appeared as glorious as the Sun Likewise if we lift up our selves above all these earthly and corruptible things and pray unto God with an Holy Earnestness and Zeal we shall see that our Souls shall be thereby cloathed with Holiness and full of Glory and Light they will be transformed into the blessed Image of the great God whom we adore for as soon as we behold him we become enlightened 69. To the end that we may tame this Body and reduce it to obedience and to overcome all our wicked and dangerous Lusts Psal 69 34. It is necessary that we should joyn Fasting to our Prayers we must not always expect a time appointed by the Rulers of our Church upon solemn accasions but we must order unto our selves a Fast according as we shall see it expedient and useful for if this Flesh is unruly it is rebellious against God and his Holy Commandements if because it is fed in Ease and Plenty it is Lustful Impure and Insolent Let us cut off from it all its dainties and labor to mortify it by Fastings and Abstinence and remember what our Saviour Christ saith in the Gospel That there are some evil spirits that are not to be driven out but by Fasting and Prayer Matth. 27. 70. If God gives us the Grace to overcome Sin and weaken our Lusts by fervent and earnest Prayers and by austere Fasting and hot tears of Repentance and by the assistance of his Divine Spirit that will pour his Blessings upon our Devotions take heed that we become not careless and negligent in good Works deceive not your selves Religious Souls and be not surprized for many times the old Man looks as if he were dead that we might not offer to strike him again to the Heart and give him the last blow that he may recover more strength there is always in the Ashes something of that infernal Fire that is able to do much mischief Lust is not rooted out so perfectly but that there remains some strings in our Hearts that may grow again This source of Iniquity is not so dry but that it may run afresh As it is during the time of Peace Men exercise themselves in feats of Arms and prepare new Armor for the War Likewise during the calm and rest of our Souls we must prepare some Armor for our Spiritual Warfare And as it is not sufficient to win a place by Assault and to have driven out the Enemies Forces but we must also watch day and night and keep a constant and a strong Guard that we may not be surprized and driven out again Thus when we have forced out the Devil and banish'd him out of our Hearts we must be always upon our Guard and stop all the Avenues for fear that this evil Spirit should come upon us accompanied with seven worse Spirits and that our last condition should be worse than the first 71. To these Works of Piety and Devotion in which we cannot be always employed we must remember to add a lawful Calling for Idleness is the Mother of all Vices when we are doing nothing the Devil prompts us to evil this happened to David a man after God's own heart for when he gave himself over contrary to his former practice to an unworthy idleness whilst he was looking into his neighbors House the Devil entred into his Heart and by the assistance of a lustful Object inflamed his Soul with an unlawful desire as the Iron that is not us'd becomes Rusty as the standing Water putrifies and as the Earth that is not manur'd begets insects and venemous Serpentss Likewise a Soul that is not employed is soon cover'd over with the rust of Vice It is easily drag'd along into the corruption of the age and apt to beget and bring forth Monsters therefore the Prophet Ezekiel examines the very beginning and first spring of Solomon's Sin saying That it was
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
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
which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. 4. The chief Spring of all our Comforts is God's Gracious promise of seasonable help in time of need Imprint therefore in your minds these Divine passages When he that loveth me shall call upon me I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honor him Psal 91. The Lord delivers from all temptations them that honor him he is rich unto all that pray unto him 2 Pet. 2. He is near to all them that call upon him yea to all them that call upon him faithfully Rom. 10. He accomplisheth the desire of the humble he hears their cry Psal 145. The Righteous is encompassed with many evils but the Lord will deliver him from them all Psal 34. Call upon me in the day of thy distress and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me Psal 50. When a poor Subject is courted and visited by his Prince in the time of his sickness he looks upon it as a great favour and an happiness indeed And when we enjoy the presence of a dear friend whom we desired to see in the midst of our most grievous pains we are wont to say Methinks I feel no more pain now that I have the satisfaction of your good company Now the Glory of God's Majesty doth accompany the tenderness of his Love He is the Father of Mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions He is like that faithful friend who never forsakes us for in our greatest calamities he succors us Prov. 18. He is the King of Kings and yet our most cordial and sincere friend who frequently visits the Houses of sorrow and is near to every broken and bruised Heart Psal 34. The more we are oppressed with evil the more he remembers us Psal 136. Notwithstanding our Childrens imperfections and miscarriages we cannot suffer to see them in distress but we are moved with compassion and perswaded to help them according to our ability and shall thy God who loves thee more sincerely and more cordially than the best Fathers and the most tender-hearted Mothers do their Children forsake thee in the day of thy distress This Merciful and loving Father who hath taken thee into his protection when thou didst enter into the World and who since hath furnished plentifully all thy necessities shall he deny his Gracious assistance now in the time of thy calamity He who hath fulfilled his praise by thy mouth when thou didst yet suck at thy Mothers Breasts who hath crowned thy youthful days with his Divine Blessings will not forsake thee now in thine old age he will not cast thee off in the last moments of thy life when thy strength is decayed and thou art scarce able to help thy self When we offer any assistance to our sick or wounded friends we labor to lessen their pain we employ all our skill and discover our most excellent Secrets at least we endeavour to make them sensible of our displeasure and grief for their distemper by our Sighs and Tears and by all good Offices their complaints and outcries are Darts that strike to our very hearts Likewise our merciful God is sensible of our calamities when he sees us oppressed with grievous pains his Bowels earn his Heart is as it were moved and his tender Love for us is concerned In all our afflictions he is afflicted and whosoever toucheth us toucheth the very Apple of his Eye Hosea 1. Isai 63. He is said to weep and grieve at the torments that we feel and to be sensible of our infirmities Luk 2. He binds up our wounds and poures into them his Divine balm he cures the diseased Heart and causeth the bruised Bones to rejoyce Job 5. He casteth into our beds of Sickness his most excellent Perfumes and drives from thence all grief and displeasure when a pestilentious Feavor hath seized upon you this Heavenly Physitian can give you some Carduus Waters powerful Antidotes to keep the poison from the Heart Jer. 30. Psal 147. Psal 51. Psal 34. Cant. 1. His Gracious Hand can drive from thy Soul the venom with which the old Serpent labors to infect it He will in thy need clap upon thy Head thy Stomach or rather to thine Heart not a bleeding Pidgeon but the living and cherishing Vertue of his Holy Spirit only discover to him the afflicted and diseased part or member of thy Soul or Body and he shall anoint it with the Oil of Joy and Gladness that shall run down into thy Joynts and Marrow If thou feelest thy self weak or fainting say to him as the Spouse in the Canticles Comfort my Heart with wine Chap. 2. and he will not fail to present unto thee of the new Wine of his Kingdom If thou art thirsty ask him some drink and he will give thee of that Water which if a man drink he shall never be athirst My Brother or My Sister cast thy self upon God for his Power is as great as his Love to thee he understands better than thou or we can what is expedient and good for thee in his due time he will make thy pains to cease and will pull out of thy Flesh its incomodious Thorn either he will drive from thee the Spirit that afflicts thee or accomplish his Vertue in thine Infirmity He will strengthen thee in such a manner and with such Patience Constancy and Faith and fill thee with so much extraordinary joy and comfort that every one shall visibly perceive that God himself is thy help and that his Vertue sustains thee O how sweet and pleasant is God's assistance to a Christian Soul it brings along with it so much pleasure and admirable delight it causeth such undeniable testimonies of our Predestination to appear it gives us so many rare fore-tasts of our Celestial Inheritance that St. Paul doth not only prefer it to all the Pleasures and Honors of the World but he prefers it also to his being ravish'd into the third Heaven and to his seeing unspeakable things which cannot be uttered 1 Cor. 12. If Afflictions are increas'd with Christ Joy and Comfort increase also with him for as God commands Wine to be given to a Man whose Heart is oppressed with sorrow to drive away his sadness and bury his troubled thoughts in oblivion Thus in the greatest evils God supplieth us with the strongest and most cordial Consolations It is in this occasion that he declares his greatest Power and pours out most plentifully his Divine Graces Is 4. When thou shouldest walk through the Flames the Fire shall not burn nor touch thee for as the Son of God was in the Furnace with Daniels three Companions in Babylon Thus in thy most violent fits of the Feaver in the midst of thy most grievous aches he will satiate thy Soul and thou shalt be like a watered Garden Dan. 5. Or as a living
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.
is not given us for a time but to dwell in us for ever As that Flesh which our Lord took from us was never cast off nor never shall Thus the Spirit which he given us shall never be taken from us The flesh which our Saviour united in the same person with the Divine word hath been glorified by this eternal Union but the Spirit which he hath united to our Spirits by this gracious Union is the foundation of Glory and of our eternal happiness This Spirit of Life is not only the Seal of the promises of God but also the earnest of our uncorruptible inheritance reserved for us in Heaven This is St. Pauls Doctrine Ephes 1. for when he had said you have been Sealed by the holy Spirit of promise he adds which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his â—glory Because this Divine Spirit is the Seal of the living God he is the earnest of his Inheritance for this heavenly Image that it imprints in our Souls shall be part of that glory with which he will Crown us in his holy Paradice Therefore the Wisdom that is various in every manner doth not call this Spirit a Gage but an earnest for although both be given as a confirmation of promises and an assurance of their accomplishment there is this difference that Men commonly take back again the thing engaged when that which is promised is done but the earnest remains always and is part of the summe to be paid As therefore the earnest which is given is never taken away but Men commonly add to it the remaining summe promised likewise our Saviour never takes away from his Elect the Spirit of Adoption which hath been once bestowed upon them but he increaseth its Graces and Advantages until he hath raised them to the highest glory and most Divine happiness which he hath promised It is in this occasion as with the Sun which as soon as it appears upon our Horizon increaseth the Light more and more untill he is mounted up to our Meridian or as the Rivolets and Rivers which the farther they run the more they increase untill they discharge into the Sea Therefore when our Lord and Saviour speaks of this Spirit of Grace which such as believe in him receive he tells the Jews John 8. He that believeth in me Rivers of living Water shall flow from his Belly John 4. and to the Samaritan Woman he speak in this Language He that shall Drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing to eternal life This was sometimes shewn in a Vision to the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 47. by the waters that ran down from the Sanctuary for at the first they did reach no higher then the Prophets Ankle bone afterwards they rise up to his knee and then to his middle at last they increased in such a manner that they became a great Torrent and a deep River which was not to be forded over and which discharged it self into the Sea As David in the beginning of his Raign commanded but one Tribe but afterwards he enlarged the limits of his Kingdom over all the Tribes of Israel that small portion of the Kingdom was not then taken from him but only increased and became greater thus it is with us during this Life we have small part of the Kingdom of Heaven intrusted in our hands or if I may so say we have now some Jewels of the uncorruptible Crown which is promised hereafter This part shall not be taken from us this bright beam of our future glory shall never be put out but in the Life to come we shall possess as much of this Kingdom as we are able and shall be cloathed with all that light and splendor of the Heavenly Glory But as there is no comparison never so just but is faulty in some respects there is no small difference in this for the Tribe of Juda was the noblest and the richest part of the Kingdom of Israel but that part which our Souls enjoy at present of the happiness and glory of the Kingdom of Heaven is but as a drop of Water in comparison of the Ocean or as a weak raye of light in comparison of the Sun 2 Cor. 12. Therefore the Apostle St. Paul who had been ravished into the Third Heaven and who knew better than any Man in the World what were the Joys and glories of Heaven when he mentions this Spirit of Adoption that God sends into our hearts he calls it Rom. 8. The First Fruits of the Spirit To teach us that there is as vast a difference between the measure of the gifts and graces which we receive here below and the overflowing abundance which we shall enjoy in Heaven as between some few ears of Corn and the whole Harvest of a Field It is like the small quantity of Fruits which were broughâ— to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness compared to the great abundance of all the Land of Canaan It is like some small crums of the Heavenly Bread of which we shall have our fill in the Kingdom of God as some small drops of that New Wine which we shall drink for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem Therefore believing Souls you may from hence conclude that the approaches of Death ought not to scare or fright you because that you have within you the principles of a life everlasting and the seeds of a glorious Immortality which cannot be taken from you Jesus Christ doth not only wait for you and stretch out unto you his Arms to receive you into his Rest but he himself is also with you and will render the passage easie and pleasant to this new World where Justice and Righteousness dwell Iohn 11. He will make Miracles for your sake and if you believe you shall see the glory of God Ioshua 3. We do not only follow the footsteps of this Divine and real Ioshua but we pass with him and he passeth with us Exod. 19. We are not like the Children of Israel that went through the River of Iordan whilst the Priests held the Ark in the middle of the River but we may be compared to the Priests themselves 1 Pet. 2. that did bear the Ark of the Covenant and caused the Waters to return up to their Fountain again for we are a Generation of Priests and we bear in our Souls the Lord Jesus in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily and in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge In short our Souls return to God the Fountain from whence they came Let therefore that heavenly voice which was heard in the holy Land sound in our ears Is 43. Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine when thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee and through the Rivers
and like unto them that the Children of Israel did eat in the Promised Land In like manner the Fruits that we relish in the Wilderness of this World are Fruits of the Tree of Life with which we shall be fully satisfied in Heaven for the Grace that God bestows upon us here below by his Divine Spirit is the beginning of the Glory with which he shall Crown us above The same Light that shines upon our Souls on Earth shall shine much more for ever in Heaven But whereas we look upon it at present as it were through a black mist with much imperfection then we shall see it clearly without Vail or Darkness The same Holiness that adorns at present our Souls shall be their Ornament and Glory then it shall appear without spot or blemish That same peace of Conscience that preserves our Hearts and Sences shall Crown us above it shall be without the least disturbance In short the same Jesus that is conceived in our Hearts and that is formed and grows in us by degrees shall then appear in a perfect Stature that shall want no more increase As it is with the Sea it enters into the Rivers before the Rivers can run to the Sea in like manner God comes to us before we go to him and Heaven enters into our Souls before we can enter into Heaven Aged Simâ—on waited patiently for Death but assoon as he had seen the Saviour of the World and embraced him he ran to meet Death he thought upon nothing but his latter end therefore he prayed most earnestly to receive him into his Glorious Rest O Christian Soul how shouldest thou dispose and prepare thy self to dy seeing thou beholdest with the Eyes of Faith this Blessed Redeemer not wrapped up in Swathling Cloaths but Crowned with an infinite Glory and Light He is not in thine Arms but he lodges in thine Heart thou hast not received him to return or part with him again but to be united unto him for ever and to be incorporated into his mystical Body Seeing therefore that Death brings thee nearer to thy Redeemer perfects this Blessed Union and casts thee into the very Fountain of Life instead of being frighted at her and grieved when it comes to thee thou shouldest then rejoyce and be transported above measure with gladness we should meet this Death with a cheerful countenance I mean that we should meet the Lord Jesus this merciful Prince of Life who having vouchsafed unto thee the sight of his Salvation intends to receive thee into his Rest and Eternal and Glorious Peace that Reigns above in Heaven A Prayer and Meditation of a Christian Soul that strengthens it self against the fears of Death by considering our strict and unseparable Union with Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit and the First-Fruits in us of our Blessed Immortality O Mighty and Merciful Lord who art the Son of Righteousness and the Fountain of Living Water drive away from me the dark shadows of death and quench all the Fires that it kindles in my Soul thou art not only dead for me but thou art pleased to live in me that I might one day live for ever with thee Thou hast of thy pure Mercy chosen me for thy Child and hast made me a Member of thy Mystical Body Flesh of thy Flesh Bone of thy Bone and caused me to be partaker of thine Holy Spirit God hath not given thee the Spirit by measure that out of thy fulness we might receive Grace for Grace By the means of this Blessed and Infinite Spirit that rests in my Soul I am united unto thee in a more perfect manner than the Tree is to the root that bears it or the Child to its Mother that nourisheth it in her Womb or the Members of the Humane Body to the Head that gives them Life The Ties that unite me unto thee O Glorious Saviour are more unchangeable than the Heavens and the Earth As nothing can pluck me out of thine Hands there is nothing can separate me from thine Heart Whether I live or dye I am thine my Lord and my God and nothing can alter thine affection for me Death can take me out of the World and carry me out of the embraces of my dearest friends but it can never separate me from thine Holy Spirit the Soul of my Soul and the Light of my Life which cannot be put out by all the envious Blasts and Storms of the Prince of Darkness this Holy Spirit will bring me to behold thy Face to rest in thy bosom and unite me unto thee for ever To whom Lord shall I go thou hast the words of Eternal life and thou art the inexhausible Fountain Thou art my Hope and my Treasure my Glory and mine only Happiness O faithful and unquestionable Witness I should be worse than an Infidel if I did call in question my future Salvation and Glory seeing the Father hath not spared thee for me although thou art his only and beloved Son the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Seeing that thou O merciful Lord hast willingly suffered the most shameful death of the Cross and spilt thy precious Bloud to wash away all my sins and satisfy for my crimes and seeing that thine Holy Spirit is come into my Heart to make me a partaker of that precious Bloud and Seal me for the day of Redemption O Glorious Spirit of my Saviour that rests upon me when I should be able to speak the Language of Angels I could not sufficiently express the wonderful operations that thou dost produce in my Soul thou kindlest in me such Heavenly Flames as never go out but are always alive as the fire of thine Altar Thou formest in me a white Stone where a new Name is written which no man knows but he that receives it Thou givest me to eat of that hidden Manna of that food of Angels that the World knoweth not Thou witnessest with my Spirit that I am a Child of God an Heir of God and a Joynt Heir with Jesus Christ the King of Kings Thou dost not only Seal unto me the pardon of all my Sins but thou dost also purify my Conscience from all dead Works to serve the living God Thou causest me to cry out Abba Father and imprintest in my Heart the Glorious Image of my Heavenly Father Thou art the Seal of my Adoption the earnest of mine uncorruptible Inheritance prepared for me in Heaven Thou hast given me the infallible assurances of a Glorious and Eternal Life and begun it already in my Soul granting to me its First-Fruits Thou causest me to behold the Sun-shine of thy Grace and makest it to give Light in mine Vnderstanding Thou dost not only vouchsafe unto me the favour of beholding from this Valley of Tears thine Heavenly Canaan but thou causest me to tast of its Fruits I am not yet come to the Fountain of Waters that spring forth to Eternal Life but I feel the Streams and the
end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things Phil. 3. If we should seek in these days for the Christian Vertues where shall we find Faith Hope and Charity where shall we meet with Righteousness Fidelity Holiness Innocence Goodness Meekness Humility Patience Piety and Devotion You Daughters of Heaven what is become of you we cannot see any more your Angelical countenance we are so far from beholding the delightful Beams of your Divine Presence that we cannot spy out any of your Footsteps upon Earth You may therefore understand Christians thereby that the Son of God is at hand for iniquity abounds Charity grows cold and there is no more faith upon Earth In the midst of such a woful Corruption who of us doth afflict his Soul as Righteous Lot who weeps day and night as David a Man after God's own Heart where can we spy out the Fountains of Tears of the Prophet Jeremiah Or the confusion of Face of Daniel Or the Zeal of Moses of Phineas and of St. Paul If the Angel of God that went through the midst of Jerusalem did review in our days the Inhabitants of this Land I am afraid that he would not find many marked with the Letter Thau not many weeping and sighing for the abominations that are amongst us for evil and wickedness are become familiar to us by the means of our too usual inspection our continual conversation with the vicious accustomes us to the grievousness of their crimes and to the impiety of their discourses as we are accustomed by degrees to breathe in an unwholsom Air without aversion and to hear the fearful downfall of the Cartaracts of the River Nilus without repugnancy But we are so far from grieving at the universal inundation of Vice in the World that we our selves are carried away with the impetuous torrent of corruption Sin gets upon us insensibly and overcomes us so that the World is not unlike to the House mentioned by God himself in the 14 of Leviticus for it is not only infected with an incommodious Leprosy but it infects all such as dwell therein The Men of the World have an easier taske to teach us their Vices than we have to teach and perswade them to Vertue As a pestiferous Body may spread the infection and give it to a thousand such as are whole whereas a thousand in perfect health cannot heal one infected with the Plague So that what happened under the Ceremonial Law happens now unto us the clean Vessel did not sanctify the defiled but the defiled did corrupt by its approaches such as were clean Evil companies corrupt good manners and the flames of the most burning Zeal are extinguish'd by the coldness of the Age. As Lambs cannot feed amongst Bryars and Thorns without leaving behind them some of their Wooll Likewise the harmless and meek Souls cannot live amongst so much cousenage and malice without loosing something of their Innocency and Christian Simplicity Who is it amongst us that can say with a safe Conscience that the World is crucrified to him and that he is crucified to the World Gal. 6. Or who is it that lives in the World without being guilty of its sins as the Fish drinks of the Sea water and receives nothing of its bitterness Psal 26. Who can converse in the Courts of Princes as Joseph in Aegypt as Daniel in Babylon or as Queen Esther in the Court of Ahasuerus Is there any that can justly say that he hath washed his Hands in Innocency and purified his Conscience from all dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. Who can speak in this manner I have purified my Heart I am clean from my sin Prov. 20. In truth if we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1. We have good reason to break out into the Prophet Isaiah's exclamation when he saw God sitting upon his Throne Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean Lips and I dwell in the midst of a People of unclean Lips Isai 6. Or we may say with the same Prophet From the sole of the foot unto the crown of the head there is no whole part Not only the Souls that are fixed to the Earth but also such as mount up to Heaven by fervent Prayers and devout Meditations have good cause to acknowledge their imperfections and to ask forgiveness If any fancies himself to be perfectly whole and free from all infection let him enter into his Soul and seriously examine his own Conscience and the same thing will happen to him as to Moses when he put his hand into his bosom he drawed it out again as white as Snow all covered with Leprosie Exod. 4. Where is there a Christian that feels no Law commanding in his Members and strugling against the Law of his Understanding Who is it that finds not by experience the truth of St. Paul's saying The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Rom. 7. Gal. 5. Without doubt such as know not nor never have felt the bitter and vehement struglings of their carnal Lusts that War against the Soul 2 Pet. 1. cannot conceive what it is to deny themselves to put off the old man with his Deeds to crucify the Flesh with its Affections and filthy Lusts Eph. 4. such know not what it is to mortify our Members to cut off our right Feet and right Hands and to pluck out our right Eyes Matth. 10. that is to say to destroy and by an Holy violence to give a deadly wound to all our brutish Passions and vicious Affections when they should seem to us as dear and useful as our Hands Feet and as tender as our right Eyes Coloss 3. Matth. 5. If these cursed affections could but declare their names they would say as the evil Spirits of the Gospel Our name is Legion for we are many As that Devil that possessed the Lunatick mentioned by St. Mathew he cast him sometimes into the Fire at other times into the Water Likewise these carnal Lusts labour to cast us sometimes into the Flames of Ambition or into the burning heat of Covetousness or to hurry us headlong into the gulf of unlawful Delights or into the mud of filthy and carnal Pleasures Furthermore they break the Chains and Ties with which we imagine to stop their fury they war and fight against us by day and by night and at every moment they return to charge us home and renew the combate Every where they assault us and have no more regard for Temples and Houses of Prayer than for common and publick places As Satan had once the boldness to encounter with Jehosoua the High-Priest before the Angel of God Likewise these cursed Lusts are so impudent to tempt us in the most Religious
the Nurse leaves sometime the Child to his Legs and suffers it to fall that it might know its own strength and learn to hold faster by the Hand Thus God withdraws from us the assistance of his Grace to humble us and to cause us to implore more earnestly the help and favourable succors of his Holy Spirit When St. Peter felt the Sacred Flames of that Holy Zeal that was kindled in his Heart and that sincere love that he had for Christ he rejoyced and imagined himself to be strong enough to resist all the powers of Hell and to frustrate all the fiery Darts of the Devil This good opinion that he had of himself and of his own ability transports him to that confidence as to contradict our Saviour Christ and to protest Although all should be offended in thee yet will not I be offended and when I should dye with thee yet will not I deny thee This was he who trembled at the voice of a Damsel so that his Fall and Apostacy was as notable as his Confidence was great therefore it warns such as stand that they should take heed of falling into misfortune Rom 11. There is no good natured Child but is vexed to live amongst such as Curse and Reproach its Parents and if we should happen to be concerned unawares in the offence or to occasion the death of him from whom it had its being it will feel an Eternal displeasure Now it is certain that whilst we live in this world we must spend our time amongst those that blaspheme the Holy Name of God and abuse the Glory of his Eternal Godhead Moreover Vice and Corruption are so universal that we our selves offend this Father of Mercies and Compassions we add sin to sin and heap up our iniquities together Let us therefore conclude from hence Believing Souls that Death is not to be feared as an Evil or a Misery but that it is rather to be desired as an Advantage and a Blessing For seeing that it is to be wished for because it frees us from all the calamities and sufferings of the World It is far more desirable because it closeth our Eyes and conveys out of our sight all the sins and abominations that abound in the World and because it stops our Ears and hinders us from hearing the Impieties and the filthy Discourses that infect the Air. Seeing that Death is to be embraced with joy because it delivers our Bodies from the diseases that torment them and our minds from the cares and displeasures that vex and afflict them It deserves to be welcomed with greater expressions of Gladness because it delivers us from all remains of sin and puts a period to our natural corruption so that it is to be esteem'd and look'd upon as the Death and Destruction of the Old Man rather than the Death of a true Believer Sampson rejoyced in his Death because he knew that in dying his mortal Enemies should dye also and be destroyed with him we have more cause to rejoyce at our Death and to give God thanks at that time seeing that in dying or rather in passing from Death to Life we may see the Destruction of all the dangerous Enemies of our Salvation Who are more dreadful to us than the Philistins were to Sampson All the most cruel and barbarous Men of the World are not so much to be feared as the Lusts of our filthy Flesh that put out the Eyes of our understanding that cause us to be the Devil's sport and to worship many false Gods We commonly run out with haste from a place infected with the Plague and should not we make as much speed by our Vows and Prayers to get out of the World seeing that Vice is so Infectious and Universal all over it that so many thousand Souls are therewith miserably spoiled Seeing the World is as a Babylon where all manner of Debauchery Vice and Vertue are mixed together where Unjustice and impiety Reigns have we not greater cause to be transported with Joy when God delivers us from our woful Captivity than the Children of Israel had when it pleased him to call them out of Babylon should we not sing unto him when the Lord returned back and restored them of Sion that came back from their Captivity we were as those that dream though our Mouths were full of Laughter and our Tongues with Songs of Triumph In short as the Lord Jesus when he had restored Lazarus to life and taken him out of his Grave he had compassion of him and could not see him any longer wrapped up in his Winding Sheet and tied with a Napkin therefore he commanded Loose him and let him go Likewise this Merciful Lord who hath made us to be partakers of the first Resurrection and called our Souls out of the noisom Grave of our Lusts is moved with compassion for us when he sees these wretched Souls drag about them the reliques of Sin and some Remains of that Corruption in which they were wrapped Therefore he will cause them to hear this sweet and comfortable voice Loose them and let them go Let them go to the Eternal Mansions to the City of the living God to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Glorious Companies of Angels and to the Church and Congregation of the First-born whose Names are Written in Heaven A Prayer and Meditation for a true Christian who comforts himself with this Consideration That Death shall deliver him from Sin that Reigns so much in the World and from all Remains of his wretched Corruption O Most Gracious High Priest Holy Innocent separated from sinners exalted above all the Heaveâ—â— who art now shining in Light and Glory look upon mâ— from thy Sanctuary and Compassionate my wretched Estate Thou understandest well the cause of my grief O Lord who searchest the Hearts and readest my most Secret Thoughts Thou knowest O my God that I grieve to see so much Injustice and Impiety reigning this day in the World to see Vice Prophaness Superstition and Schism committing so many disorders in thy Holy Church But that which chiefly increaseth my pain and aggravates my displeasure is to see my self guilty and spotted with the general corruption and to feel my Flesh warring and strugling against the Spirit The Lusts of the Flesh do not only disturb me but they get many times the victory and insult upon my infirmities Sin shews not only it self to me in all its Hellish deformity so that I am thereby ashamed of my self but I also acknowledge to the praise of thy Grace that all that is best in me cannot endure an exact Inquisition of thy Justice Alas my God how imperfect is my Piety How languishing is my Devotion I worship thee too much for custom and in a very slight manner I often praise thee with my Tongue and Honour thee with my Lips whilst my Heart is far from thee The Love that I bear to thee is not pure and enflamed and my Charity instead of being
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
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
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
is by the vertue of Gods Divine Spirit which he hath bin graciously pleased to grant unto us and if the persons that we love and cherish as tenderly as your souls or those whom we are to reverence and honor labor to stir up the bowels of our compassion and to impede us in our Holy resolutions by base and earthly considerations let us tell them as our Saviour did to Mary Magdalene Le me alone for I am going to my Father John 20. Stop not my course for I hold already the prize and the promised Crown In short as Abraham let the Ram loose whereof the Horns were taken in a Thicket and offer'd it up in Sacrifice to God Gen. 21. Likewise let us free our minds from all worldly cares and carnal affections Let us offer them up all to God as a sweet smelling Sacrifice let us present them as a Burnt-offering consume them in the Flames of an Holy Zeal and love of his Divine Majesty When the Christian shall be thus prepar'd he shall never stand in fear of Death he will say to it with an assured countenance Come when thou wilt O Death I desire no reprieve for along while ago I have setled my affairs and wait for thee with patience the chief part of my self is not here below my Heart is already ravish'd into Heaven where God expects me with Arms wide open Therefore notwithstanding thy fearful darkness and the designe that thou hast to destroy me I will follow thee as couragiously and as joyfully as St. Peter did the Angel of Light that open'd to him the Gates of his Prison and freed him from his Chains Acts 12. A Prayer and Meditation for such as prepare for Death by a renunciation of the World O Infinite Lord of Heaven and Earth who dispossest of good and evil by thy Divine Providence and admirable Wisdom thou hast not suffer'd us to have here a lasting City that we might seek for that which is to come Thou dost discover before our eyes the vanity and unconstancy of all things under the Sun that we might labor to attain to solid and everlasting advantages Thou hast placed and reserved in Heaven an inexhaustible Treasure of Riches uncorruptible Crowns of Glory and Eternal Triumphs that thither we might transport our Heart and affections The source of Heavenly pleasures is with thee that we might always be athirst for the strong and living God and that we might desire with an Holy earnestness to look upon thy beautiful and glorious Face Most Glorious Creator seeing thou hast bestowed upon me an â—mmortal Soul suffer me not to be so wretched as to content my self with these mortal vanities and seeing thou hast made it of a Spiritual and Heavenly nature suffer me not to be so unhappy as to wallow in this miserable dust of the Earth or to cast my self into the puddle and dirt of carnal Lusts Give me Grace to renounce the World and all the Vanities that the World adores Give me Grace to possess all these decaying and perishing things as not possessing them that I may tramble upon all the pomp and glory of the Age that I may consider that the Gold the Silver the precious Jewels whereof the apparent beauty deceives the carnal eyes of Men is nothing else but hardened Earth that will crumble away and dissolve into Dust that I may remember that after my decease all these things will profit me no more than that vile Earth and the Stones that shall cover my dead Corps or the Wood or Lead which shall be given to it for a Coffin Give me grace to despise all the Honors and Dignities after which the Men of the World run so impatiently for they are but like a shadow that passeth away and like the smoak that ascendeth up put of our reach Pluck out of my heart the cares of this life and all solicitousness for the Earth that Death may never surprize me unawares and that there may be nothing to stop or hinder from going to thee when thou shalt be pleased to call me that my soul being totally disengag'd and freed from all these Bryars and Thorns I may be always ready at every moment to be offered unto thee as a living and a burnt Sacrifice The Children of Israel did fix and raise their Camp at thy Command Give me also Grace to be as ready prepar'd to live and dye to remain in this Tabernacle and to depart out of it when thou shalt send thine Orders and as this people did pass over the River Jordan with a wonderful joy to take possession of the promised Land O that I might also leave this miserable Wilderness with transports of joy to enter into the Celestial Canaan where the Milk and Hony of Divine Pleasures and of Eternal Comforts flow as in their natural Channel O God who art my portion and mine inheritance cast me not away with the men of the World whose portion is in this life Thou dost fill their paunch with thy good things they are full and leave sufficient for their Babes but for me all my comfort is that I shall behold thy face in Righteousness and shall be sanctified when I awake with thy likeness Amen CHAP. 11. The Fifth Remedy against the fears of Death is to renounce Vice and to apply our selves to the practice of Piety and Sanctification GOd is so wonderful in all his Works and he governs all his Creatures in such a manner that his very Enemies are constrain'd to acknowledge this Truth You have an excellent example in Balaam who beholding the Tents of the Children of Israel breaks out into this passionate wish Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his Numb 25. He was a wicked Varlot that loved the wages of iniquity nevertheless he perceived by that Prophetical Light with which his Soul was enlightened how sweet and comfortable Death was to such as addict themselves in this life to the service and fear of Almighty God and how different it is from the death of the profane Worldlings who give themselves over to their Lusts and Delight in the unlawful pleasures of the Flesh for as the Drunkards sleep with a disturb'd and unquiet fancy likewise such as are drunken and full with the base and rotten pleasures of this life if they be not hardened by Atheisme do commonly depart out of the World with strange frights and horrid gripings of Conscience that cannot be express'd It is otherwise with a good Christian for as the Handicrafts man who hath work'd all the day in his Shop and the Husbandman who hath wearied himself in following his Plow lays himself down at night in peace so it is with a good Christian who hath carefully attended the works of Piety and Mercy in this life he sleeps his last sleep with a great quiet of mind and satisfaction of soul as righteous Jacob when he travelled a journey to his Mothers friends with his Fathers
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