the hands of the cruel into the hand of thy blood-thirsty Enemies but consider who 't is that appoints Death is it not the great God that gives life and is there any but he that can take it away can any act without him when they cannot breathe without him is it not he that kills and makes alive and brings to the Gates of Death and back again is it not he without whose Providence a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground by whom all the hairs of thy head are numbred As thy life is not put into thy own hands to live while thou listest and to dye when thou pleasest no more is it into thy enemies hands to take it away when their pleasure is but in the hand of thy mercifull Father who best knows when thy work is done and when thou art ripe for glory 'T is true he useth Instruments sometimes one and sometimes another but these instruments cannot go one link beyond their commission and these are of his own chooseing sometimes inanimate creatures must do his Will and prove his Executioners thus the waters must drown the old world thus the Red Sea must overwhelm proud Pharaoh and his Host thus the fire must burn up Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities adjacent thus the Earth must swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram and their company sometimes bruit Beasts 2 King 2.24 thus the two she-Bears that killed forty two Children that mocked the Prophet 2 King 17.25 26. thus he destroyed those that feared him not with Lions yea sometimes very Insects are his Executioners thus he plagued Pharaoh and his people and many others Herod was devoured of Worms and many of Lice and the least of creatures if animated by him can stop the breath of the proudest Tyrant and the strongest and most potent Prince without him can do nothing The Devil himself cannot touch one of Jobs Cattel without his leave the fire cannot burn the three children nor the Lyons devour Daniel having no Commission from him A world of Arians could not destroy Athanasius nor a world of Papists Luther and Calvin God as he hath appointed all men to dye so he hath determined by what death the time when and the manner how and the instruments by whom and every circumstance belonging to it If he pleased he can make five of his people put a hundred to flight Lev. 26.8 and a hundred chase ten thousand Isa 69.1 his hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear I know in our Creation we were by our composition made subject to death but by his blessing had we not sinn'd we had not dyed for sin brought death into the world but when the Fall came man had not only an aptitude to a dissolution but an irrevocable decree past upon him and dye he must and ever since nature of it self tends to ruine and our bodies like an old house must yield to time and fall in pieces God I know hath power in his hand to maintain life longer or take it away sooner and he acteth accordingly he sets one a longer Lease than another as he thinks fit The Fathers of the first ages lived long some of them near to a thousand years in our age few reach a hundred and there are but few that live so long as Nature might spin out their lives but either by some disease some accident some violence or other offered to Nature their lives are cut off Mans body being compounded of the four elements and of contrary qualities heat and cold drought and moisture except God by his special blessing keep these in peace they will strive for the predominancy and indanger the compositum When sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 death entred by sin and so death passed over all for as much as all have sinned and Christ in the work of Redemption hath not freed us from the first but the second death not from the stroak but the sting of death Christ died not to deliver us from hunger and thirst cold and nakedness sickness and diseases but so far forth as is for our good and God himself and not we our selves must be Judge in the case Christ himself suffered these miseries and dyed by the hand of cruelty and greater than the Master is the Servant cannot be and man is as liable to this as before Christs suffering Nature thou seest disposeth thee to death and God hath determined the time when for God is the God of Nature and disposeth it as he sees good Well maist thou expect death as the wages of sin and every day doth expose thee to some danger or other which may take away thy life Death comes irresistible like an armed man thou hast no time certain no time promised no breath but what God puts into thee and therefore thou shouldest daily expect death let it come in what shape it will or let God send by what messenger he pleaseth thou shouldst bid him welcome thou shouldst stoop willingly under the stroke for 't is but death still thou canst not avoid it therefore make a vertue of necessity Seeing thy Lamp must out 't is not much whether it be put out or burn out whether the tree rot down or be cut down whether the Rose wither or be gathered if the later 't is like to be put into the bosom all is but death and a death thou owest and a death thou must pay thy natural constitution adapts thee to it and God by his decree designs thee to it and 't is thy duty to submit and no reason to the contrary for it is thy interest The potion thou art to drink is prescribed and mixt by the wise Physician the Cup thou art to drink comes out of thy Fathers hand and no more nay not so bitter as he gave his only Son and he drank up the very dregs of it for thy sake yea and there is Sugar put into thine to sweeten it All the circumstances of thy death are determined by him and none can add one dram to the potion he hath mixed for thee and yet dost thou grumble that it is too much or too bitter dost thou think thy self wise enough to alter Gods Eternal Decrees who hath determined thy daies the number of thy months are with him Job 14.5 he hath appointed thy bounds that thou canst not pass Or wilt thou quarrel the messenger he sends and like the foolish dog bite the stone and let the passenger that threw it go free is there evil in the city 〈◊〉 3.6 and the Lord hath not done it without his leave a dog cannot move his tongue against thee nor an enemy his finger whoever be the Instrument God is the Author Isa 10.5 if the King of Assyria be the rod God is he that holds the rod and when the Child is reformed the rod will be burnt David could see God even in Shimei's cursing 2 Sam. 16.10
of good Christians have suffered death under this pretence For a good work said the Jewes we stone thee not but for blasphemy This sect is every where spoken against And after the way which men call heresie saith the Apostle so worship I the God of my Fathers There 's none that persecute the Saints as Saints but as Offenders no man will put an innocent man to death under that notion the Devil hath taught them their lesson better than so Job is not punisht as a righteous man but a hypocrite that served God for gain and if God restrained his wages he would curse God to his face Daniel must be cast into the Lions den and the three children into the fiery furnace for breaking the Kings Laws and the Jews put all to death in Hamans time being against the Kings profit He that would kill a dog saith the proverb must say he was mad But these aspersions are not inconsistent with eternal salvation 'T is true thou art a great offender against God and so deservest death but thou art not like to suffer upon this account greater offenders escape safe but thy fault is that thou wilt not betray the Truth thou wilt not worship God according to mens Inventions thou wilt not bow down to their Idols who set up their Dagon by the Ark these things are most like to lay thee open to sufferings rather than Atheism debauchery or open prophaness But if it be thus thou art not the first innocent person that hath been oppressed in judgment neither art thou like to be the last Eccle. 7.15 't is no strange thing to see a righteous man perish in his righteousness but thy innocent blood if shed will like the blood of Abel cry from the earth for revenge and do them more hurâ— thau the stroak of death can do to thee and thy cause will be cal'd over again and tryed at another Barr and if maintaining the Truth and keeping a good conscience and standing close to thâ— cause of Christ be the cause of thâ— sufferings fear not thou shalt hereater be acquitted when thine enemies shall be condemned and Heresie then will be otherwise defined than now they do Oh my God I see death cannot hurt me my enemies cannot hinder my happiness if my own deceitful heart do not deceive me Lord leave me not to my self for then I shall miscarry Lord through thy strength I shall be strong and if thou leave I can do nothing Lord qualifie me fit for suffering and death and then command what thou wilt MEDITAT VIII The Miseries Death frees us from OH my Soul what saist thou yet wilt thou submit to God even to the death and leave it to Gods dispose what death thou shalt dye whether a natural death or a violent thou seest neither can hurt thee if thou be prepared either will undo thee if thou be not and therefore thou needst not to fear it nay it will do thee much good and therefore thou maist desire it with submission to thy Makers will thou maist sing with Paul that Swan-like song Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all There are three things especially which make thy life uncomfortable to thee and that is Sin Sorrow and Temptations and from those or either of those thou canst never be freed by any but death sin is the cause of misery and temptations the cause of sin while thou art in the world thou art under the tyranny of sin and while sin lives sorrow never dies for afflictions follow sin as the shadow doth the substance or the effect the cause and while there is a Devil in hell and thou be on earth thou canst never be free from his assaults 'T is true in the Creation the soul was made innocent and the body spotless but by the Devils instigations Man lost his integrity sinned against God and so lost his Image and in the room of Original righteousness stamped upon his soul he hath Original sin so that thy whole man soul and body is polluted and that in all the powers and faculties of the soul and the body is become the instrument to act the sâ—â—s the soul conceives thou broughtest a poysonful Nature with thee into the world which thou canst not be stript of while thou art in the world yea before thou couldst sin thou wast sinful and before thou couldst act reason thou wast guilty of Treason against thy God thou broughtest the spawn of all sin with thee as a Wolf brings his wolvish nature into the world or a Toad or Serpent a noxious quality though when young they cannot reduce it into act Corruption hath naturally a seat in the soul from within come murders adulteries c. It possesseth the noblest powers and faculties of it Now a Swine in the Garden is not seemly much less in the Parlour or the Bed-chamber it takes up its residence in the heart which is the room wherein Christ himself should lodge This original corruption with which thou art tainted is virtually every sin for it is the Spawn of it there is no sin acted but the seed of it lyes here and hence it is thou art so disposed to evil and so averse from good there is no sin so bad but thou hast an inclination to it if this seed be watered with a temptation if the restraining or Sanctifying grace of God prevent not and no duty so good but this sets thy heart against it the very Praising of God that Angelical duty is opposed by this original sin This sin of Nature this original corruption is universal and that makes it much worse universal in respect of Time even from the fall to the end of the world no day free from this sin some sin reigns most in some Ages this in every Age. Also in respect of Persons no meer man was ever free since the fall no son of Adam or daughter of Eve other sins some persons may be and are little infected with but this all stand infected with And in respect of Parts 't is universal also no power of the soul no member of the body free from it and 't is continual and perpetual without any Intermission thou canst not leave it behind in one duty 'T is said that some Serpents when they go to drink lay by their poyson as also when they go to generate This I know not but this I am sure of thou canst not lay aside thy sinful nature yea when thou makest thy Addresses to God himself thou mayst haply lay aside the acting of sin but not being sinful for couldst thou leave thy sin behind thee thou mightest have more sweet communion with thy God in one Duty than now thou canst have in all thy duties for 't is sin that stains all thy duties and makes them signifie little to thee and wert thou not in Christ God would hate them and throw them back into thy face with disdain 't is
thee home and now art fallen in love with it that thou wilt not leave it and rid of it thou canst not be till death let out thy life 't is only in the Grave thou wilt be at rest and hid from sin which then cannot find thee nor any miseries which now are the effects of sin nor from the temptations which are the inducements to sin and dost thou yet tremble to part with such an Enemy thou hast pretended Enmity to sin and been at Daggers drawing with it and art now reconciled to it it hath been thy trouble to have it and is it now thy trouble to leave it many a poysoned Arrow the Devil hath shot at thee and wouldst still be his Butt to receive his Arrows and venomous Shafts These Hell-hounds haunt thee and will hunt thee till thou art in thy Grave there they will lose the scent and can follow thee no longer here is thy Borough thy hiding place where thou art shut in by God and secure Here the weary are at rest here the Prisoners are secure and hear not the voice of the Oppressour here thou shalt be freed from all that is called misery Sin is an imperious Tenant or Inmate it will not out till the house be pull'd down yea will turn the Landlord out of doors Oh what hard hap had man to admit of such a Guest but this is thy comfort sin is but a Tenant at will not at thy will but the Will of God who will shortly pull down the House and set thee at liberty and Oh! thy madness that though thou canst no other way be rid of it yet art unwilling to dye and be happy In Heaven Paul shall never cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death Here the unclean conversations of the wicked shall never vex the Soul of righteous Lot David here shall never water his Couch with his tears nor Jeremy wish his heart full of water and his eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the destruction of his people There is nothing here that can procure misery for here sin shall be shut out for no unclean thing shall ever enter But it is not sin only but sorrow also as well as sin shall be done away for when the cause is removed the effect shall cease It was sin that brought Death into the World and all the forerunners of it yea all the concomitants and consequents of it here thou art troubled with a sickly body subject to many infirmities many pains aches griefs and troubles scarce a waking hour free from pain and from head to foot scarce a free part but one pain or other doth molest it some pain ache or grief attends it every sense as 't is an inlet to sin so 't is to pain and misery to let in one trouble or other into the Soul and help to affect the heart with some fear or care or grief or trouble and these consume it as the scorching Sun the tender Flowers Oh how tender a piece is this dust-heap thy Body more brittle than glass it self a little cold or heat soon molests it how many tender Membranes Sinews Arteries Veins Muscles c. are therein contained and every one subject to obstructions extentions contractions dislocations c. and upon this distempers necessarily follow well maist thou say with Job Job 3 4.13 14 15. I am made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me When I lye down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossing to and fro unto the dawning of the day When I say my Bed shall comfort me and my Couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me with Dreams and terrifiest me through Visions So that my Soul chooseth strangling and Death rather than Life What bitter pills what nauseous potions dost thou take when sugered with the hopes of health what crying out Oh my Back Oh my Head Oh my Heart Oh my Bones Oh what would I give for a little ease a little rest a little sleep for a Stomach my Stomach nauseates my meat when others want meat for their craving Appetite and how hard a thing is it to keep up this poor old decaying ruinous Cottage in repair one Wall or other is continually ready to fall to ruine and at which door Death will enter is not yet known and when it comes it will but destroy thy body which for the Materials of it are no better than the body of a Beast which ere long will fall for Death is all this while undermining it and the rational Soul doth only keep it from putrefaction and Death is but a departing of the Soul from it to Glory and why shouldst be troubled to have the Prison-walls pull'd down and the Prisoner set at liberty why art unwilling to lay aside this flesh which hath taken part with Satan against thy God and is at present a temptation to thee with Peter to deny thy Master why choosest thou to live in a darksome nasty Prison where thy Wings are pinioned that thou canst not mount up to thy God where thou hadst thy Original this body is but a clog at thy heels and never was intended for thy dwelling place but only as a Tent or Pavilion an Inne or resting place for a night where like a wayfaring man thou maist rest for a while and away but here thou hast no continuing City thou art passing on to another place Phil. 3.21 to a Mansion a House not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens which Christ at his departing provided for thee when this Tabernacle shall be built into a Temple for God shall change this thy Vile body that it may be like unto his Glorious body and why then dost content thy self in this dirty Cell when thou maist have such a glorious habitation doth thy heart ake to think that the time is coming it shall never ake more or dost thou weep to think all tears shall be wiped from thine eyes and thou shalt never weep more or is it a matter of grief think'st that thou shalt never grieve more and art afflicted to think thy afflictions are at an end what unnatural sorrow is this art thou sick to think that in Heaven thou shalt never more know what sickness means or that thou shalt never more have an aking Head or an aking Heart here thou wilt be freed from whatsoever may be properly called Evil and shalt want nothing that is really good Here Christians themselves prove stumbling-block's in each others way which causeth tears from the eyes and sorrow from the heart but there the fire of love will consume the thorns of contention here corruptions like thorns serve to keep the fire of contention alive and those flames are more like to burn up their graces than their dross for the divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart Judg. 5.15 but
full of trouble Yet many wish their dayes were three times double The Captive Slaves that in the Gallies lye To end their Bondage yet are loth to dye They flee from death although he be their friend For when he stops their Breath their Sorrows end Life is a warfare Death doth stint the strife We leave not fighting till we leave our life We fight against our sins the world and Devils At death we fully Vanquish all those evils To heavenly Joyes Death opens us the door Where sin and sorrow they shall be no more There 's no Corruption shall molest us there There 's no Temptation that we need to fear Why fear we Death then he this Boon will give Our Enemies shall dye but we shall live Life is the day wherein we labour hard Death is the night and then comes our reward Now we with Tempests on the Seas are driven Death is the Wind that blows us to our Haven Is he less happy that a brisker Gale Drives to the Shore or he that 's under Sail Whom fierce tempestuous winds as yet are driving Who with a thousand dangers yet are striving In life we in the raging Surges be Death comes and lands us in Eternity In life the Saints are Heirs but under age When death comes they receive their Heritage Heaven is our Kingdom but to come thereat There is no other way but through this Gate Life is our Journey Death our Journeys end Life is our Enemy and Death our Friend Death like a Pilot guides us to the Shoar He is the Porter that must ope ' the door We cannot serve our God or Christ enjoy Without distraction till our dying day Death 's but a quiet sleep when wearied 'T is but put off our Cloaths and go to bed Death is Gods pursivant and will compell Gods Friends to go to Heaven his Foes to Hell He is his Messenger none can prevent him None can resist him or the Lord that sent him Both Prince and Peasant drink of the same cup When he invites them home with him to Sup. All men must pledge the health Abel began There 's none exempt the Master nor the man The greatest Potentate cannot escape The way to Heaven and Hell lye through this Gate The high the low the rich and eke the poor When he doth knock must open him the door Nor fear nor favour makes him turn aside He will not be perverted with a Bribe What though some have their lives drawn out at length And we cut down by Death in our full strength What Hurt to us if we receive our pay For one Hours work as much as for a day What dammage to us if Commandment come When others work till night to leave at Noon The weary labourer pants and longs for rest And when he 's in his bed he thinks he 's best The Bed of Death to th' weary will give ease Our sleep's not broken there by worms nor fleas No fearfull Dreams nor Visions of the night Disturb our Fancies there or minds affright Within Death's Sheets the Grave we rest secure Free from oppression and tyrannick Power Our Souls like Captive Birds in Cages sing Death breaks the Cage and then the Birds take wing The world 's a Pest-house sin doth us infect Death 's our Physitian shall we him reject The Soul 's infected with sins foul disease And naught but Death can give us our release The world 's a Prison and we Captives be And only Death our Champion sets us free We mortal are when Death of life bereaves us We dye no more Death doth immortal leave us A thousand Maladies do each day attend us We 're sick to Death and none but Death can mend us In life we languish Death can make us well He 's like Achilles Spear can wound and heal Poor and in want we up and down do wander Death makes us all as rich as Alexander Death levels all both rich and poor do stand On equal ground none serve nor none command When Death hath done his work there 's no man can Discern between the Master and the man The Princes Skull no more than other men Bears the impression of a Diadem 'T is true of terrors Death is call'd the King And well he may while he retains his Sting But to Believers he no hurt can do For he hath lost his Sting and Poyson too In Stinging Christ this Serpent lost his Sting He that brought terror then doth comfort bring Christ conquer'd him and shall we fear to meet A Vanquisht Foe lying prostrate at our Feet For since that he was overcome and foil'd He is no Enemy but reconcil'd To good and bad he shews not the same face He 's Foe to Nature but a Friend to Grace We are poor mortals life is our disease Death our Physitian that can give us ease We groan for pain yet would not be set free We love our Bondage hate our Liberty Rather than over Jordans streams we 'l venture We 'l dye i' th' Wilderness or Egypt enter This Son of Anak Death more terror brings Than all the fiery Serpents with their Stings And though Egyptian Bondage doth torment us Flesh Pots and Leeks and Onions here content us At Death 't is true we must to Ashes turn But God will keep those Ashes in his Urn. And when the all-awakening trump shall sound The smallest Atoms of it shall be found And then by vertue of a new Indenture The Soul into her new-built house shall enter God shall with robes of honour then invest her And sin and sorrow shall no more molest her She shall by Christ her Judge be then acquitted And all her sins and trespasses remitted She shall in glory Halelujah's sing Unto the mighty God the worlds great King And wedded be to Christ in endless Joy And in her Husbands Bosom lye for aye Sorrow and Sighing then shall fly away And Tears shall swallowed be in endless Joy Then set thy House in order for thou must Within a little time return to Dust Lord make me then to know my later end How long the number of my dayes extend That I may know how frail I am before I go from hence and shall be seen no more When will this Joyfull Marriage be oh when Oh come Lord Jesus quickly come Amen Edward Bury FINIS The Author hath in the Press a. Book on the Subject these Poems are of Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside
A SOVERAIGN ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE FEAR of DEATH OR A CORDIAL FOR A DYING CHRISTIAN BEING Ten Select MEDITATIONS wherein a Christians Objections are Answered and his Doubts and Fears Removed and many convincing Motives and Arguments are laid down to perswade him to a willing Submission to Gods Will whether he be sent for by a Natural or a Violent Death By EDWARD BVRY formerly Minister of Great Bolas in Shropshire For me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Phil. 1.21 I am willing not only to be bound but to dye for Christ Act. 21.13 For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is better c. Phil. 1.23 London Printed by J. A. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1681. To the Worshipful PHILIP FOLEY of Prestwood Esquire One of the Members of the present PARLIAMENT AND TO THE Vertuous and truely Religious The Lady PENELOPE Daughter to the Right Honourable the Lord Paget his pious Consort E. B. wisheth increase of Grace here and Glory hereafter Worshipful and Right Honourable I Have made bold here to present you with a Discourse of Death or rather with a Discourse with my self concerning Death I am not ignorant that 't is an unpleasing Theam to declaim upon before many of the great ones of the times who fear Death more than Hell it self as believing it to be a Reality when God and Devil Heaven and Hell they would believe are Fictions The apprehension of Death puts them into a cold sweat it makes them tremble not much unlike to Belshazzars hand-writing upon the wall Dan. 5.5 6. Mat. 8.29 and whosoever minds them of it doth but torment them before the time but such as wink and then conceit Death doth not see them will ere long find their mistake But had I imagined you had been of this Gang I should not have prefixt your Name to these Papers They are intended for a Cordial against the fear of Death but such as those should be perswaded to fear it more But the Image of God and those divine qualifications which accompany salvation appearing in you I thought these Meditations nay nor Death it self would not startle you For let me tell you without flattery that there are some qualifications in you that draw the eyes of the world after you yea draw out their affections to you such as Justice Temperance Prudence Charity c. These as they are rare in our times in persons of your rank so they are lovely but there are other qualifications such as Piety and Holiness the Image of God and the Graces of his Spirit that make you lovely both to God and good men these the World take no notice of at least love not in you for they â—â—eem Grace and Holiness no better than â—â—renzie or Madness But the time is coming â—e greatest Gallants would be glad to be â—und in this Garb which now is grown so â—uch out of fashion they are now like Daâ—ocles sporting themselves amidst their â—inties and priding themselves in their â—incely Attendants but forget the Sword â—â—at hangs over their heads ready every moâ—â—nt to end their dayes together with their â—â—ner But though God hath given you â—â—ndance of these outward things beyond â—ny others yet you take them not as they â—e for your portion but say of them as â—ther of the Cardinals Hat when offered the Pope God shall not put me off with â—h poor triffes or as Galeacius that â—lian Marquess when offered great riches forsake his Religion Let their Money â—ish with them that hold all the Wealth â—he world worth one dayes communion â—h Christ You seek after better Riches 〈◊〉 as Solomon found out by Experience Eccles 1.14 at all was Vanity and Vexation of spiâ—â—â— so you can write a Probatum est upon 〈◊〉 I know you lye under great Temptatiâ—â— but I hope Gods grace to you as it was the Apostle will be sufficient 2 Cor. 12.9 and 't is small measure of Grace will make you digest Prosperity without a surfeit I speaâ— not these things to lay a stumbling-block oâ— pride before you I stand in my own apprehensions too near the brink of Eternity to bâ— guilty of this folly and can say 't is your Humility that makes you lovely in my eyes 〈◊〉 know the way to throw you down is to lifâ— you up and whosoever brings fuel to thâ— fire is your Enemy and not your Friendâ— but seeing your works praise you in thâ— gates Pro. 31.31 as Solomon saith of the good Houâ—â— wife why should not I and others praise yoâ— for them as he doth her that God may 〈◊〉 glorified your hands strengthened and otheâ— encouraged by your Example to do the likâ— hoping you will shine more and more unto tâ—â— perfect day Pro. 4.18 untill you come to shine as tâ—â— Sun in the Kingdom of your Father Mat. 13.4 Now there are two or three things whiâ—â— you may desire to be satisfied in in order 〈◊〉 this Dedication As first Why I write upâ—â— this Subject And to this I answer That Discourse of this nature can never be out season for as soon as we are born we aâ—â— subject to die And as 't is suitable for 〈◊〉 Times so also for all Persons none 〈◊〉 exempted and we have no greater work doe than to prepare for Death 'T is gâ— therefore for us 1 Cor. 15.31 with the Apostle to dâ— daily that is every day be expecting Deaâ—â— and preparing for it But more particularly God was pleased to exercise me for a long â—ime together with various distempers insomuch that I despaired of life and received in my self the sentence of death and was disabled for other concerns and although my distempers were not so violent as to â—hreaten a sudden dissolution yet being so complicated and continuing so long without check notwithstanding all the means that were used and I felt Nature so fast decay that I thought God had spoken by this Providence to me as sometime to Hezekiah 2 King 20.1 Put thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live And it being my Clymasterical year I thought it would prove fatal to me as it had done to many old persons and these apprehensions were much heightned by the continued rumors we then had and still have of Popish Plots and â—ur intended Massacre and a little fastened also by Melancholy Conceits so that between the one and the other I raised this Conclusion My dayes were cut off and my life drew near to a period but whether a natural disease or a violent hand would do my work I was at a loss Sometimes I concluded for the one and sometime for the other according as my disease or our weekly News prevailed However this put me on to have more serious thoughts of Death and Judgment than I usually have had and I thought it my
Recreation but this is no fault of mine 't is doubt they will want time for other things also but those that will not give themselves the trouble 't is doubt will ere long meet with trouble of another nature Others may think the Book useless because many have treated upon this Subject To these I answer The more shame they are practised no better It was indeed Solons complaint That there were many good Laws made but one was wanting to put all the rest in execution So many good Rules for Life and Death are published but could a Book be published to perswade men to live by these Rules it would be a happy work I am not so vain or simple to think this may prove such a piece yet I know not what better Subject to treat of that is more likely to prevail than a Treatise of Death to perswade men to practise the Rules of Life for those that put far from them the evil day are most like to neglect their daily Duty and what hitherto is written seems too little to effect the work and therefore I have added my Testimony to the rest I know 't is easie for Momus to quarrel and find fault with another mans Tale when perhaps he may tell it worse himself 't is easier to find fault with another than to be free from faults himself Those that have done better or will do better I shall give them their due respect for others I shall not value their censure what I have done hath pleased my self and the work was undertaken for my self and I hope I shall not displease any sober or discreet person but for those that God his Word his Works or his Providences cannot please I neither hope nor desire to please what I have done is intended for a Cordial for those that have Death in their eyes and the Fear of God in their hearts and these usually have better Stomachs than to nauseate their meat because not modishly drest those I mean that have Gods beauty-spots not the Worlds upon them I mean Grace in the heart not Spots on the face to adorn them and make them lovely in the eyes of God and good men 't is these I speak to As for those that take the World for their Portion and therefore are loth to leave it I shall not envy them but pity them their Portion is little worth for Nobleness of Blood Greatness of Birth Crowns and Kingdoms shine not so bright as the Image of God in poor Lazarus at the Gate or Job upon the Dunghil for Grace is better than a thousand Escutcheons for these are but empty badges of Honour I have only two sorts of persons here to speak to The first are poor Desponding Christians that though they have right to and Interest in Christ and Glory yet are under some black and direful apprehensions of Death and though they would willingly live to God and if required dye for God yet are not out of fear of Death To these I have spoke unto most in the Book and and therefore shall say little to them in the Epistle The other sort are such that though they would dye the Death of the Righteous and have the righteous mans reward yet are they loth to live their-lives they would have the wages but none of the work they would dye happily but will not live holily they would land in Heaven but they sail the contrary way they will not go into the Vineyard and yet expect their penny at night such as these haply are afraid of Death and well they may for it will speak no good to them but evil as Ahab said of Micaiah Now I have said but a little to those in the Book for it was not my business and therefore I shall speak the more to them in the Epistle not that I have any comfort for them in this Condition but only this that there is a possibility to get out and therefore would willingly lend them my hand to help them â—ut and therefore I shall reach out some Directions which if they take they will â—e capable of the comfort the Book it self holds forth and the Directions are these that follow 1. Direction If you would look Death in the Face with comfort get your Corruptions mortified and the power of sin abated for til then Death will be an Enemy there is nothing that makes Death terrible but unpardoned unmortified sin an honest man can look the Judge in the face without fear when the Malefactor trembles Paul could triumphantly insult over it 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56 57. Oh Death where is thy sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory the sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ You see sin is the sting of Death and what hurt can the Serpent do that hath no Sting what a bold challenge was this to Death as if Paul had said Death do thy worst I fear thee not In like manner Ambrose could say I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to dye and Ann Askew the Martyr in her Confession 〈◊〉 neither wish for Death neither do I fear it As Christ hath not taken away sin it self but the guilt of it so hath he not takeâ— away Death it self the consequent of sin but the sting of it so that every godly maâ— may say with the Martyr Kill me it may hurt me it cannot the worst it can do is bâ—â— to send me to my Fathers house the sooner but to others the Serpent is dangerous and his sting deadly for if sin dye not the Soul cannot live 't is true some there be that seem to brave Death to his Face but this shews an ignorant mind and a seared Conscience and an hard heart for 't is impossible if the Conscience be awake that a man should look into Hell yea leap into it without horror Death to such if their eyes be open will be terrible yea of all Terribles the most terrible saith a Heathen yea the King of Terrors saith Bildad Job 18.14 yea and as experience tells us the Terror of Kings Nothing can make Death look terrible but unpardoned sin till therefore this Pardon be obtained your condition is damnable till you have assurance of it it will be uncomfortable Now Faith and Repentance have the Promise of Pardon and Eternal Life and the want of this will make you liable to Eternal Death Luk. 16.16 He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be Damned He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find Mercy Leave off therefore lusting after Riches Honours and Pleasures and spend your time in minding your main Interest fight against sin which is your greatest Enemy for if sin dye not before you your Souls must dye 't is not enough to quarrel sâ—â— but you must kill it 't is not enough to coâ—fess it but you
must forsake it 't is 〈◊〉 enough to rail against it but you must haâ—â— it with an irreconcileable hatred aâ— shake hands with it and give it a bill 〈◊〉 Divorce and well you may for it is yâ—â— implacable Enemy and the cause of 〈◊〉 your misery and will be the cause of yoâ— Eternal Damnation if you repent not of 〈◊〉 This is it that arms Death against you 〈◊〉 when 't is mortified and subdued it will 〈◊〉 pardoned and when it is pardoned Deâ— may buzze about your ears like a Dâ—â— Bee but cannot sting you by stinging Châ—â— he lost his sting that he cannot sting 〈◊〉 of Christs faithful people Hence manâ— the Martyrs went as chearfully to dye aâ— dine and accounted their Dying-day tâ—â— Wedding-day as indeed it is to all Belâ—ers for in this life they are betroatheâ— Christ and at their Death the Marâ—â— will be consummate and they shall forâ— enjoy their Beloved and be Eterâ— lodged in his Bosom Oh the madneâ—â— the men of the World who lodge this pent sin in their Bosom which breakâ— match between Christ and the Soul 2. Direct There is another Enemy that must be overcome as well as sin or will not dye chearfully and happily and that is the World for till it be overcome and crucified a man is not fit to dye neither can he be willing to dye Gal. 6.14 for who can willingly part with what he loves By Christ saith the Apostle I am Crucified to the World and the World to me the world and he were at a point there was no love lost the World mattered him not and he mattered the World as little they were each to other as a dead Carkass offensive and unsavoury and though the World should lay many Temptations before him it would signifie no more than if they were presented to a dead man though she draw forth her two breasts of Profit and Pleasure he scorns to suck at such botches he looks upon it as a dead thing and behaves himself as dead to it He had learned to want and to abound and in every Estate to be content and therefore mattered not her Superfluities and for Necessaries he knew he should not want them A prosperous Estate could not make him surfeit nor a wanting Estate repine he was semper idem alwayes the same as Job upon the Throne and upon the Dunghill he still keeps his Integrity he wears the world about him as a loose Garment ready to cast off upon all occasions and he is at a point with all things under the Sun if he may keep them with a good Conscience he is content if not he is content also and it behooves others that would look Death in the face with comfort to learn this lesson for if the affections close with the World 't is impossible Death should be either safe or comfortable safe it cannot be for it makes a man break his peace with God for two such Masters as God and Mammon no man can serve Mat. 6.24 for if he love the one he will despise the other Jam. 4.4 Know you not saith the Apostle that the friendship of the World is Enmity to God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World will be an Enemy to God 1 John 2.15 And again Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Those that goe a Whoring from God to the Creature and woe this vile Strumpet the World are very unfit to be received into the bosom of Christ have it we may use it we must as a Traveller doth his Staff so far as 't is helpful but love it we must not if we will not renounce the love of God a man may allow his wife a Servant to wait upon her but not to lodg in her bosom the love of the World is Enmity with the Lord Enmity both active and passive it makes a man both to hate God and to be hated by God he cannot be espoused to the World but he must be divorced from God see this in Judas in Demas in Demetrius in Ahab he will have Naboath's Vineyard or he will have his blood though he lose his Soul for it Col. 3.2 wise therefore was the Apostles Counsel to set our affections on things above and not on the Earth Things on Earth are mutable and momentary subject to vanity or violence when things above are as the dayes of Heaven and run parllael with the Life of God and line of Eternity and as the love of the World makes a man dye unsafely putting him out of a capacity of eternal happiness so it makes him dye uncomfortably also for who can willingly part with a present good for a future uncertainty with a thing he loves for he knows not what If the World seem a Pearl in his eye he will not let it goe if he have no assurance of a better Mat. 19.22 see this in the young man in the Gospel that would not exchange Earth for Heaven nor the Creature for God that parted with Christ whom he pretended to love rather than with his Estate which he did love Oh World how dost thou bewitch thy greatest admirers how dost thou deceive those that trust in thee But could we see the worth of Heaven or had we but a Pisgah-sight of the Heavenly Canaan we should soon make Moses's choice but the blind Moles of the World think God holds it at too dear a rate and if he will not abate he may keep it to himself some indeed while Religion is in credit will follow the Cry yet resolve they will never lose by it as the Young man before mentioned who came to Christ hastily but went away heavily the world breaks many a match between Christ and the Soul by bidding more as they think than God doth but it will fail in the payment but he that forsakes not all for Christ cannot be his Disciple the lesson I know is hard but necessary and there is a great reason it should be so when we look upon the World as our chiefest Jewel we are loth to throw it over-board but when we see the Vanity Emptiness yea Nothingness that is in it and can have recourse to a better Treasure we shall not matter it while we look upon it as our chiefest Treasure we shall be unwilling to part with it but when by the eye of Faith we can see better Treasure beyond Death and observe how little good it can do us at Death or after when we have most need we shall not much value it For indeed it proves like a bush of Thorns the harder we grasp it the more deeply it wounds and when by Experience we find that no Content Satisfaction or Happiness is to be had in the enjoyment we shall not much trouble at the loss In a word while the World is admired Death is hated but when Heaven is
in our eye Death looks more lovely If ever therefore you would dye Happily and Comfortably beware of letting out your affections upon the World for you will never be willing to leave what you love nor to pay so dear for Christ and Heaven till you affect them better 3 Direct If you would dye happily then redeeem your Time carefully make preparation for a dying time and take heed of losing time and spending it in vain he that would win the Race will set out with the first and hold on to the last and take all the advantages that are offered in the way he that hath much work to do and that of great concern must not lose the Morning or if he do must ply it hard the rest of the day You will find all your time that is allotted you little enough for the work you have to do and not an hour to spare to spend in idleness for delays and Idleness are the two Gulphs wherein many Souls are drown'd Many when they are young depending upon and trusting to their Youth their health and strength send Repentance thirty years before and 't is odds they never overtake it many young men go to Hell that thought to repent when they were old and many old men that thought they might have lived a little longer Many are resolved to spend their youthful dayes in the Devils service and then stop Gods mouth with the Blind and the Lame but he seldom takes up with a death-bed Repentance from those that purposely put him off to the last he usually reckons with such mispenders of time for the Talents he hath lent them and payes them off not with a Penny but a Prison for he expects what he hath given us to glorifie him should be that way improved upon this little inch of time Eternity doth depend our Everlasting well or ill being and therefore 't is too precious to be spent in vanity and folly and how then dare you spend a day an hour vainly in an Ale-house or other Vanity and not know whether you have another hour or day to live I have read of a Gentlewoman that usually spent her time in Cards and Dice and other unnecessary Recreations and coming from her Sport late in the night found her Maid reading for she was godly and casting her eye upon the Book reproved her thus Thou poor melancholy Soul what alwayes reading and spending thy time thus wilt thou take no comfort in thy life And so passing into her Chamber went to bed but could not sleep but sigh and groan her Maid lying in the room with her demanded the reason of it and whether she was well Fox Time and the End of Time p. 70. She replyed She had read the word Eternity in her Book which had so pierced her heart that she believed she should never sleep more till she had some better assurance of her Eternal condition And if this word Eternity were but well considered it might send our time-wasting Gallants trembling home from their Sports but God hath hid these things from their eyes There are more than those guilty though few more guilty there is many a man that is a good Husband for the World and careless in nothing but in matters relating to his Soul he can observe Times and Seasons for Plowing and Manuring of his ground Seed-time and Harvest shall not be neglected not the meanest Beast but shall be heeded his Garden Orchard c. shall be fenced pruned manured weeded and preserved his House well furnished and Provision prepared and yet his Soul altogether neglected and neither Food nor Raiment prepared for it for this life he is carefull that neither he nor his Posterity shall want and yet hath no care for the Life to come he can go from Fair to Market to prepare for the Body and matters not the Harvest Season or Market-day for the Soul The Mariners that observe the Wind and Tide yet neglect the sweet gales of the Spirit of God when they blow upon the Soul and would waft them Heavenward and help them forward to their Journeys end to the desired Port. The Devil by his diligence condemns us for where his work is Latimer 1 Pet. 5.8 there is he he is no Non-resident but alwayes in his Diocess He goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour And shall we not be as vigilant to save our Souls as he to destroy them if he find us idle he will soon imploy us The heart of man is a Mill that will be alwayes grinding if not Gods Wheat then the Devils Tares If the Devil spend all his time to deceive us we should spend all our time to prevent him All the time we have is little enough and there is none to spare and what is past is irrecoverably gone though we could give a world of Treasure for an inch of time Now if you would redeem time beware of those great devourers of Time which usually steal away a great part such as vain and idle Thoughts how much of our time is this way consumed many an hour which might have been better spent viz. in the Contemplation of God of Christ of Heaven of Glory is spent in roving vain imaginations which bring no profit do no good and tend to no benefit Yea worldly thoughts and cares take up also a great part of our time 't is true the World must have some of our thoughts and time but most men make a bad division between God and it they let the World run away with his part as well as their own yea much of that Sacred time set a part for a better use yea many times amidst our Religious duties the heart is stole away by the World Idleness also consumes much many enter not into the Vineyard till the eleventh hour and then mind not their work but their Wages vain and unprofitable Discourse also is a Thief and steals away much of our time and many idle and unnecessary Visits also and when all this is deducted 't is no wonder there is but little left for our grand business to these may be added immoderate lying in Bed vain and time spending Dressings and Attirings the whole Mornings work to our Female Gallants immoderate and unnecessary Recreations which some make all the Calling they follow Drinking Tipling and what not but if these in this their idle expence of time should ask themselves this question Which of the Eternities lye before them and to which of them they are going it might spoil their sport for when Death hath struck his stroak the Soul is in a stated condition which Eternity it self cannot alter and seriously 't is one of the saddest sights in the World to a man apprehensive of the danger to see an unconverted man fetch his last breath and lanching forth into an infinite Ocean of boiling Lead and burning Brimstone for the avoiding of that take time while time serves and lose not that Prodigally
that cannot be redeemed with the whole World 4 Direction The next thing I would advise you to which indeed is the chief of all is to get an Interest in Christ that so you may have a title to Glory for till this be had you cannot dye safely and till it be cleared up you cannot dye comfortably for who would leave a present Possession that hath no assurance of a future and when this is done Death will not be terrible But what can bear up the Soul against the pangs of Death if this be wanting Now the way to get an Interest in Christ is to espouse the Soul to him now there is nothing but Ignorance can stave off our affections from him ignotus nulla cupido The blind World can see no Excellency in him no need of him nor any use of him and therefore they have no love nor desire for him but all that know him will love him who prizeth a Physician that is not convinc'd of his skill and finds he hath a real need of him for who will take Physick before he be sick or minds a Plaister before he have a Sore But when the poor soul is convinced of her undone condition by Nature and that there is nothing in her or that can be done by her will serve turn for Salvation yea that help is not to be had in any Creature no not in the Angels themselves could she be Espoused to them for they cannot pay her debts nor secure the Soul in this desparing condition no wonder the Soul dreads death but when it knows withall that though there be an Emptiness in the Creature there is a Fulness in Christ and that he is fully able to make her eternally happy and that Christ doth make love to her and sends many Suitors in his behalf to woe for her affection and that he is the only suitable object in the world for her Affections and that he can make her happy when all the rest would leave her miserable I say under these convictions she begins to hearken to Christs proposals when she sees he is more useful than any other and will stand her in more stead both in Prosperity and Adversity in Health Sickness in Life and at Death when all other helps fail her While the world is lookt upon to be the best match Christ will not be valued till the cheat be found out for who will forsake the better to choose the worse but when they see Christ really better than the world they will then part with the world for him for who will stick at such a bargain when a man considers that the world can do him no good at Death or Judgment But Godliness hath the promise of this life 1 Tim. 4.8 and that to come and that it is profitable to all things Rom. 8.32 and that having Christ all shall be ours for if he spared not his own Son but freely delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things When the match is made up between Christ and the Soul all her Debts are made over to her Husband and he is touched also with the feeling of her Infirmities bears the heavier end of the Cross and in all her afflictions he is afflicted Isa 63.9 and he makes over all his riches to her his Merits his Righteousness his Spirit his Graces and his Glory Plal. 34.10 he hath promised she shall want nothing that is good and that he will never leave her nor forsake her Rom. 8.28 and that all things shall work together for her good Now whatever he hath promised he can make it good for he is both Omnipotent and Omniscient and he will make it good for he is Faithfull and the Experience of five thousand years prove it in all which time no man could stand forth and say This Promise God hath failed in the world yields us some little comfort if God give it a Commission but Christ is all and in all all the excellency that is in the Creature is but as a Vein to lead us to this Mine as a drop of this Ocean and as a ray of this Sun whatever our condition be he can help us if the Soul be sick he is her Physician and all others are Physicians of no value if wounded he hath a Plaister of his own Blood to cure her if she hunger here is food the Bread of life and the Water of life his flesh is meat indeed and his blood drink indeed If she be Poor and Blind and Miserable and Naked he can make supplies here is a Treasure to enrich her a Pearl of great price and spiritual Eye-salve to make her see if she have Enemies he is her Champion that can overcome the Devil and all his Instruments and none can hurt her but through his sides In a word she can want nothing when her Lord and Husband possesses all things the Cattle of a thousand hills are his yea all the beasts of the Forrest with his own Robes he arrayes her and with the Jewels of his Grace he adorns her with his Spirit he directs her and if heavy laden bears her burden if she be weary he is her resting place and hath promised never to leave her nor forsake her Heb. 13.5 and then no matter what others do These promises the Soul may press home by Prayer as Jacob did in a great danger Gen. 32.9 Lord thou saidst thou wouldst do me good and this was as good as present pay for God loves to be bound by his word and to be sued upon his own bond Prayer is a putting the Promises in Suit God can no more deny such Prayers than he can deny himself what need the Soul to fear when Gods Word is out upon it That all things shall work together for her good and if all things then Afflictions nay Sin it self Seneca Venenum aliquando pro remedio fuit saith a Heathen 'T is said that to drink of the Wine wherein a Viper hath been drowned cureth the Leprosie and the Scorpion healeth his own wound the flesh of the Viper cureth the biting of the Viper and so God sometimes cureth us by the wound Sin gives us we usually say The act increaseth the habit but 't is not so here for the believer is like a Sheep that by his fall into the mire is warned to take better heed Now look over all the World and see if you can find such a match for the Soul whether any Creature in Heaven or Earth hath deserved thy Affections better than he or hath done more or will do more than Jesus Christ that is a greater Benefactor than he and hath bestowed better Gifts whether any other can pay thy Debts or make preparation for the Eternal well-being of the Soul and if he prove the fittest Match stand not upon Terms with him think not to alter his Conditions or make him abate of his Price he expects
to other mens happiness will set an end to his misery those only that live a holy life can rationally expect a happy death 6 Direct If you would dye willingly and happily learn with the Apostle to dye daily have death alwayes in your eye the strangeness of death makes it so terrible The Fox in the Fable that had never before seen a Lion trembles at the first sight but after grew more bold those that go first to Sea are usually more timerous in storms and tempests than the Ancient Mariners sudden danger more surprizeth when expected trouble is better born Death is stealing upon us whether we mind it or no and nothing more discovers our folly and madness than to neglect our watch when we are besieged by our Enemy and know he intends to surprize us to put far off the evil day when we know not but it is ready to dawn 'T is a folly for a Tenant to forget his Rent day and then think his Landlord hath forgotten it also or for a Malefactor to forget the day appointed for his Execution 't is a folly for a needy man to forget the Market or Fair where he should have supplyed his wants Death is no Jesting matter but a real thing and will make a real change both to good and bad as to the Body for haply both may say the next day to corruption Thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister then must they leave behind all their earthly Glory and worldly Pomp their friends and Relations their pleasant Houses yea Crowns and Kingdoms if they do enjoy them and all their earthly comforts they enjoyed and must march down to the Chambers of Death and make their graves in the dust but with the Soul is a greater change either they must go to everlasting Torments or endless Joyes and should not such a change be minded did the greatest Prince upon earth or our time-wasting Gallants consider it would spoil their sport did a Malefactor know that in a few dayes he should be dragg'd to Execution would he take no notice of it but spend his time as idly as before and shall we only be unconcerned they know in a few dayes and they know not in how few Eternity will shut her mouth upon them and then their souls will be in a stated case never to be changed Oh what a prodigious Creature is a hard hearted Sinner and how senceless is many a profane wretch that know not but the night following their souls may be required of them and yet regard it not that feel this house of clay mouldering about their ears and provide for no other Habitation that sensibly feel Deaths approaches by the many darts he throwes at them and yet need to be minded that they must dye the wisest Virgins had something to do against the Bridegroom came though they had Oyl in their Vessels yet their Lamps must be trimmed but the Foollish wanted Oyl to trimme them and yet slept the best of Saints should have their Loins girded and be in a Centinel posture against the coming of their Lord and Master and set themselves in order for so great a change were a mean woman to be married to some mighty Prince she would make some preparation against the Wedding-day but 't is the worst of sinners that least think of death though they have most need all the spectacles of mortality without nor Monitors of mortality within cannot make them mind their latter end Those should be like to Jonathans Arrows to David warn them of approaching danger our Children that rise up in our stead and tread out our foot-steps tell us that we are marching off the Stage and they are coming in our room to act their parts The Sun never sets but it may mind us of our latter end and that now one day more is past of our determined number of dayes that we had to live 't is good therefore to consider whether we are a days Journey nearer Heaven than we were in the morning or what work we have done in reference to Eternity every Bell that tolls may mind us of our Passing-bell every time the Clock strikes or the Glass is run out may mind us how our time hasts away and our death approaches every breath we fetch or every time our Pulse beats may mind us of death for the number of them is determined as well as the number of our months Job 14.5 Did men certainly know they should dye within a month what a change would there be in the world who then would mind earthly greatness or indulge his lust which yet those that are not sure of a day do eagerly pursue If you would dye happily think on death to prepare for it if comfortably think on it to be acquainted with it 7 Direction It is not enough meerly to think of death but you must also prepare for it for the former is necessary in order to the latter this preparation is your great Concern the very business of your lives God did not send you into the world as Leviathan into the Seas to play therein neither meerly to cark and care to moil and toil and drudge for the world you were made for an higher end and sent into the world upon another Errant to make provision for your immortal souls some may think this work is difficult and so it is to flesh and blood and cross to our carnal interest but 't is necessary and the neglect dangerous were but your houses on fire we need not use many words to perswade you to quench them though there were difficulty and danger in the enterprize or were your lives in danger you would endure hardship to save them were you in danger of drowning you would lay hold upon every twig and take any offered advantage to escape were your Estates in danger you would spare no pains nor cost to clear it up were but one of your beasts though but a Sheep or Swine in danger you would seek for help and is the immortal Soul only to be neglected There are none but those that deny there is a God a Devil a Heaven or a Hell or that think the Soul is mortal and shall dye with the body and that the Scriptures are not Gods Word but must needs confess there is great danger in dying unprepared or in an unregenerate condition and yet few live accordingly but whatever men think Hell will prove a real misery and Heaven a real Happiness and our Atheist will ere long be convinc'd of it to purpose Luk. 16. God will be true though every man be a lyar The rich Glutton found to his full conviction that Hell was no scare-crow nor Gods Threats no Bugbear but real things and we have many in our Age far worse then he is there described that yet have blind hopes it shall be well with them and if these things be real should not we be serious about them is not
Heaven worth having and Hell worth the avoiding and the soul worth saving we are serious about the things of the world and much more should we be to save our lives and are Salvation and Damnation trifles not fit to be regarded one year or month may make a great alteration in our Families or Neighbourhood and many now living may then be dead and landed in Eternity that thought they might have lived longer sometimes death strikes the Child in the womb when he spares him that stoopeth through Age and this may be your case for ought you know This was Jerusalems fault and ruine She remembred not her latter end Lam. 1.9 therefore she came down wonderfully and many I fear dye of her disease Now though our life is short and time uncertain yet our work is great and of great Concernment and requires time to do it in and those that consider it well know we have no time to spare all is little enough for our work and those that have been Prodigals of their time have found their mistake when it hath been too late We are in a race and run for our lives and shall we not set out with the first and hold on to the last and use our utmost diligence in the way if we turn aside or turn back or slack our pace or sit down we are never like to win the prize we stake our Souls to Heaven and therefore 't is for no small wager if we run well heaven is ours if not the Soul our chiefest Jewel is lost we have a great deal of work to do and Night draws on and the shadows of the Evening are stretched out and when night comes no man can work and is it not time to be up and doing most men are bewildred in the dark and lose themselves with their reward and miss their way or fall short of their desired Journeys end and this will be our case if we prevent it not for the way is difficult and delayes as well as mistakes are dangerous Many that have wit enough to get an Estate yea to deceive and to circumvent their Brethren have yet been deceived themselves in this their great concern yea many that have made a great profession of Religion and have directed others and have been their guides for want of a guide have miscarried themselves and lost their way those that have lived under the powerful means of Grace and performed many duties and preacht and prayed and thought themselves wiser than others and cast their ground and thought to go a nearer way to Heaven than others yet have been lost and never came to the place they aimed at Those that have exhorted others to take heed have lost themselves for want of heed and though they have been confident in the way have yet miss'd of the way and is it time for us that never arriv'd to that heighth to sit still and venture there is but a little between us and death and if death cut the thred of our lives before our peace be made with God we are past remedy for if once we fall into that gulph of Eternity there is no getting out we shall never find bank nor bottom As the tree falls so it lyes all the world cannot turn it and if the Soul miscarry our case will be worse than the beast that perisheth for as now men are never weary of sinning then God will be never weary of punishing and all the racks tortures and torments in the world will not equalize the torments of a miscarrying Soul but if we are prepared for death have made our peace with God and evened our Accounts with him have espoused the Soul to Christ and cleared up our Evidences for Heaven 't is not the Devil nor his Instruments 't is not death nor him that hath the power of death nay 't is not Hell it self that can hinder a Believers happiness for Assurance of Gods love will bear up the heart above water and keep it from desponding or sinking even under the pangs of death 2 Tim. 1.12 I know saith Paul whom I have Believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day And again Rom. 8.38 39. I am perswaded 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 shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 8 Direct For Preparation 't is necessary to put your Hearts as well as your Houses in order nay 't is much more necessary if you would reform begin at the right end if you reform the heart the rest will follow but all other reformation signifies little without it the way to kill a Tree is not to lop off here a Bough and there a Branch but to stub it up by the root and to destroy the tree of Sin is not to be lopping off here one and there another but root up the whole which will be done if the heart be reformed 't is not the Stream but the Fountain we must cleanse if we will have clean water the other will prove but labour in vain Prov. 4.23 Keep the heart with all deligence saith Solomon for out of it are the issues of life Quod sanitas in corpore id sanctitas in corde if a Disease strike to the heart 't is dangerous but if the heart be sound there is hopes if the Spring be clear the water will purge it self Job 31.1 if that be infected or polluted 't is in vain to purge the Stream Eccles 5.1 't is true the Eye the Foot the Hand must be heeded but if the heart be not first Regulated these will not be kept in order the Eye will be full of Adultery and the Hand swift to shed blood for out of the heart proceed murders Mat. 18.8 adulterycs c. Look to the heart and the heart will look to the rest The heart of man is of so great a Concern that it hath many Suitors the world yields many of them Riches Honour Pleasure woe for the Affection and seldom but one of these prevail Pro. 23.26 and spiritual Powers make suit also God saith My Son give me thy heart and happy are we if we give our consent as the heart is defiled he will have none of it and till it be renewed he will own nothing that man doth nor any Sacrifice he Offereth God sends many a Messenger to wo for it and many a time he striveth by his own Spirit to win it and many a Love Token he sends to oblige it and many a promise he makes to win upon it The Devil also contends more for it than about the Body of Moses for that is imagined to be but in reference to it he owns it as his by nature and would fain keep the possession for while he keeps
ready to offer it up when God required it Acts 21.13 and was willing not only to be bound but to dye for Christ at Jerusalem the recompence of reward was in his eye the Crown of glory was in his sight which Christ the righteous Judge should give him at the last day Phil. 1.21 and his desire was that Christ might be magnified by him both by his life and by his death Thou canst contentedly endure pain for health and wilt thou not endure it for Christ and everlasting Happiness Wilt thou not endure some few gripes for glory Thou hadst thy life given thee upon this condition to part with it when God requires it thou art a Tenant at will and so at anothers dispose and if thou wilt surrender God will build thee up a more sumptuous house if thou wilt not he will distrain upon thee pluck down thy house shortly and cast thee into Prison Life it self was given on no other terms but to be at Gods dispose and think not that thou hast wrong Death is the common road wherein all men walk Kings and Emperours leave their Crowns and Scepters at his gate rich and poor great and small bond and free croud in at this door and travail this road if thou willingly resign thou maist make an advantage if not ere long thou wilt be constrained to do it upon harder terms and seeing a death thou must dye what matter is it what Messenger 't is that Death sends to distrain for this Rent whether an ordinary disease or an extraordinary Pursivant whether thou dye in thy bed or go to Heaven in a fiery Chariot and if so the Crown of Martyrdom will be thy Reward Death to the wicked is but an entrance into Hell the beginning of sorrowes yea of eternal death Rev. 20.6 but those that have a part in the first resurrection the second death of them shall have no power Oh my foul why art thou afraid of death seeing the sting is taken out and the nature of it changed let us view it a little better and see what the godly have thought of it and what the Scripture saith of it Isaiah tells thee Isa 57.1 2. The righteous are taken away from the evil to come to enter into peace and to rest in their beds and is Rest so terrible to the weary man Paul calls it a departing Phi. 1.23 and to be with Christ and is this so dangerous to lye in Christs bosom in eternal bliss Job makes no more of it than the cutting down of a flower Job 14.1 2. and is this a matter of such moment Simeon calls it a departing in peace Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Joshua calls it The way of all the earth Joshua 32.14 Behold saith he I am this day going the way of all the earth and wilt thou be afraid of going in this beaten road In Christs account 't is but a falling asleep Our friend Lazarus sleepeth the like was said of Stephen And when he had said this Act. 7.60 he fell asleep and who is afraid of falling asleep 'T is called also a finishing our course 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight saith Paul I have finished my course And who would be afraid of his journeys end 'T is called a going hence O spare me Psal 39.13 saith David that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more a going home Man goeth to his long home Eccle. 12.5 saith Solomon and what danger is in going home 't is but a resting from our labour saith the Spirit Rev. 14.13 There the wicked saith Job cease from troubling and the weary are at rest Job 3.17.18.12 there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the Oppressor the small and the great are there and the Servant is free from his Master And how sweet is rest to a weary man and doubtless death to the godly is the end of all misery and the beginning of Happiness O my God I am fully convinc'd and I see great reason why I should submit to thee and lay down my life at thy feet and I resolve through thine assisting grace so to do and to submit my self to the stroak of death when and how it shall please thee Lord assist me in these resolutions lest my enemy surprize me and my deceitful heart betray me and my frail flesh insnare me and make me dishonour my God deny my Redeemer break my Peace with thee wound my Conscience and lose my soul by any sinâ—â—l complyance or denying my Life when thou cal'st for it MEDITAT II. Death is common to Good and Bad. O My Soul why art thou yet afraid at the apprehension of death why dost thou draw back why dost thou frame excuses is death any strange or unwonted thing that thou hast not seen nor heard of before then there were some cause but is it not as common as 't is for a man to be born is it not the end of all flesh the way of all the world Omnibus una manet nox et calcanda semel via lethi is it not the common road that all men tread when they go out of the world young and old great and small rich and poor good and bad all throng in at this Gate and art thou loath to stoop so low Death sometimes strikes the child in the womb and sometimes the man that stoops for Age and art thou afraid of that which unborn Babes and crooked old age undergo Heb. 9 27. and that which is as sure as the coat upon thy back It is appointed unto all men once to dye and after Death the Judgement All men dye once and most men twice but the second Death is far more formidable Job 14.1 2 5. Man that is born of a woman is of a few dayes and full of trouble He cometh up like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not His dayes are determined the number of his Months are with God he hath appointed his Bounds that he cannot pass Job 14.14 and 10.9 'T is therefore thy Duty all the dayes of thy appointed time to wait till thy change come for he hath made thee as the Clay and will bring thee to Dust again 1 Tim. 6.7 Wis 7.16 Thou broughtest nothing into the world and 't is certain thou shalt carry nothing out all have one entrance into Life and a like going out Death makes a very great change so that wicked men have cause to fear it the Godly to desire it and all to expect it Life flies away suddenly and cannot be retained Death comes speedily and cannot be resisted O death Ecclus. 41.1.2 how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at rest in his possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and hath prosperity in all things yea unto
him that is able to receive meat Oh Death how acceptable is thy Judgment to the needy and to him whose strength faileth him c. The best and holiest men have dyed for Innocency it self is no Target against it otherwise Christ had not dyed in whose mouth was found no guile The stoutest and strongest cannot resist death Sampson himself must yield him the victory The wisest cannot preserve himself alive Solomon himself that had studied the nature of all Vegetables 1 King 4.33 from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hyssop that grows upon the wall yet found out none that could cure the dint of Death contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis The worst of men also are subjected to his power those that would sell their Souls to save their lives cannot do it there is no power can resist it at one time it prevail'd against almost all the world as in the Flood against populous Cities as Sodom and Gomorrah c. against Potent Princes and great Armies as over Pharaoh and his Host Senacherib's Army where an hundred fourscore and. five thousand were slain in one Night thus good and bad pass through the same Gate but then their way soon turns the Godly to the right and the Wicked to the left hand the one to Heaven and the other to Hell for as death is an outlet to let us out of the World so 't is an inlet to let us in to Eternity to the Godly an inlet to Eternal Bliss and to the wicked into Eternal misery Then will a difference be made between the Good and the Bad as wide as between Heaven and Hell Death is a debt we owe to nature and pay it we must and t is not much matter whether it be sooner or later or whether we dye a natural or violent Death they both signifie the same thing should'st thou turn every stone and use all means direct or indirect thou canst not long preserve thy life possibly if thou deny payment of this debt when God requires it thou maist preserve it a little longer and but a little for God will ere long distrain for the Debt and then cast thee into an Eternal Prison Gods determinate counsel is upon thee and he knows eventually when thy death shall be he hath determined thy bounds that thou canst not pass God commanded Abraham to Sacrifice his Son and it was his Duty so to do and his sin if he refused though God determined eventually it should not be done yet if he had refused it he had miss'd of the Blessing Thy appointed time is with God but unknown to thee 't is his revealed will that is thy duty thou must look after not eventually what shall come to pass secret things belong to God Deu. 29.29 but things revealed unto us if God and his truth his Gospel and his cause call thee to lay down thy life and seal thy doctrine with thy blood thou must carry thy life in thy hand and lay it down at his feet If God command thee to lose thy life 't is thy duty to dye and if by denying Christ life be prolonged 't is a hard bargain and 't is no less thy sin though God eventually determined thy life to be prolonged There are many that hasten their death by their intemperance and sacrifice their lives to Bacchus and Venus to drunkenness and lust and so become a Victim to the Devil himself yet are not Gods decrees altered for though many hasten their death or use unlawful means to preserve their lives and so both the one and the other become Guilty yet Gods decrees are not altered If thou devote thy life to God and fully resolvest to lose it for his sake if he require it though he never call thee forth to suffer thou wilt not lose thy reward and if thou resolvest thou wilt part with Christ and kick up thy profession rather than suffer for him if he never put thee upon the trial God will take the will for the deed whether thou wilt or no dye thou must for death will not be bribed Crowns and Kingdoms will not prolong their owners lives thou maist say of death as Paul of preaching A necessity is laid upon me will I nill I dye I must if willing I have a reward if against my will I cannot help it death will not be corrupted with bribes won with promises nor terrified with threats When the time will be 't is not so much thy concern to know as thy duty to prepare for it thou maist lose thy self but canst not preserve thy life one day beyond the appointed time if thou deny God a temporal life he will deny thee eternal life I have read of one in persecuting times being called to suffer for the truth he had professed cryes out The fire is hot I cannot burn but within a short space he was burnt in his own house and we have cause to fear he finds the fire of Hell incomparably hotter than the flames he was burnt in which yet he could not evade Death triumphs over all ranks and Estates of men from the King upon his Throne to his meanest Subject Mors pauperum tabernas regumque turres aequo pulsat pede Death makes no difference ere long the grizly hand of Death will with a winding sheet cover those naked Breasts and spotted Faces which have been the Looking-glasses of lust And worms will ere long make their nest between those Breasts which are now exposed to sight and sale and eat out those wanton windows of love and messengers of lust death will then cool the courage of the stoutest hot-spur Crowns and Scepters are the spoils taken by this Conqueror as trophies of his victories Job 14.7 man that is born of a woman is of short life and full of trouble Inward corruption disposeth us to Death as well as open violence thy body is an earthen pitcher ready to break at every knock this earthly tabernacle must be repaired with food or Physick or both daily or it will soon fall about thy ears many are the harbingers of death many are the sensible decayes in nature which tell thee thy end is approaching the weakness of thy sight the dulness of thy hearing the rottenness of thy â—eeth the wrinkles in thy face and thy gray hairs mind thee that this crazy Pitcher will not long come home from the water unbroken The contrary Elements whereof thy body is compounded the disagreeing qualities within thee of cold and heat drought and moisture will at length quarrel for the upper hand and work the destruction of the compositum were there no external cause of thy dissolution these will effect what thy greatest enemy can but do though haply not so soon The fruit when 't is once ripe will fall if it be not gathered the Rose will wither if not pluckt the sturdiest Oak or Elm or Cedar will at length yield to time Methusalems glass will run out and these
houses of clay will at last tumble down of themselves Psal 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Mors omnibus communis est 'T is the common path all the world walks in some sooner some later some in Infancy and some in Youth and in middle and some in old age And 't is the best way for thee to put thy life into his hands that gave it and who only is able to preserve it and assure thy self he will dispose of it to thy advantage and if he take it from thee will exchange it for life Eternal for a Believer to dye is but as the putting off an old suit of cloaths 1 Cor. 5.6 and exchanging it for a new and who will fear to put off his old nasty Rags at night for rich Robes in the morning 'T is but to change a Cottage for a Palace Earth for Heaven and the creatures for God and who will not be willing of such a bargain yea of a Peasant to be made a Prince Whatever thou losest for Christ thou shalt lose nothing by him for he will repay thee a hundred fold Mat. 19.29 This is the way to secure thy life or to part with it at the best advantage when otherwise thou wilt lose thy life as the Pharisees did their duties for nothing they prayed they fasted they gave alms but by reflecting upon themselves and not looking at God in what they did they lost their Reward If thou lose thy life and canst not help it what praise-worthy thing dost thou Thousands of men it may be imagined that never intended a life for Christ have yet with others been bloodily Massacred upon a religious account when something else lay at the bottom these have suffered Death without a reward and this may well be thy condition 'T is true thou shouldst not run before thou art sent or expose thy life to danger without a call so maist thou be guilty of thine own death which is murder in the highest degree this is the way to shorten thy life but to hasten thy misery But to dye for Christ is gain and soul-advantage and how canst thou that pretendest to believe a Resurrection to Eternal Life and pretendest an interest in it yet fear to dye which is the only way to enjoy it we sow our seed willingly in hope of a plentiful crop we go to bed willingly in hope of rest and sleep and shall we fear to repose our body in the Grave in hope of a joyful Resurrection O the Ignorance the Infidelity the want of Love that appears in thee for didst thou really believe what thou pretendest to believe or hadst thou that love for Christ which thou pretendest to have thou wouldest long for the time when thou shouldest enjoy this happiness when thou shouldst enjoy this God Mat. 6.21 love would make thee run through fire and water to come to him Love makes labour light it makes a man slight all the difficulties that lye in the way Vbi amor ibi animus and where the treasure is there will the heart be also dost thou believe that at death this mortal shall put on immortality 1 Cor. 15.54 and this corruptible shall put on incorruption that death shall be swallowed up of victory and that in Heaven thou shalt never hunger more nor thirst more nor have need of any creature supplies and never meet with more losses crosses or afflictions to molest thee but shalt be as the Angels of God which behold Gods face in glory Dan. 12.3 Phil. 3.21 dost thou believe that thy glorified body shall shine as the Sun in the firmament and be fashioned like unto Christs glorified body and yet art afraid to dye and come to glory how can these things be reconciled The question is not Whether thou must dye or no this is determined by an irrevocable decree but it is about the Time and the Manner of thy death who is fittest to dispose of it thee or the great God that gave it wouldst thou have it at thine own will alas thou canst not preserve it a moment and thou canst not preserve it from a violent death and a languishing disease may haply be more painful than the death thy enemy puts thee to thou canst not deny Christ thy life without hazard of eternal death and wilt thou not rather suffer a few pangs than run this hazard and be obnoxious to eternal torments Thou hast a sickly weakly body many distempers hang upon thee from head to foot scarce a free part and subject to more than yet thou feelest and there is no other Physician can cure thee but Death his stroak is the Catholicon the universal Medicine for all distempers and dost thou fear the potion which so many of the Saints have taken and did well nay never any that miscarried under his hands Christ by his death hath destroyed him who hath the power of death Heb. 2.14 15. even the Devil to deliver them which through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Now the only way to be delivered from this fear is to fall under this Stroak for death frees us from this as well as from all other miseries If thou shouldst yet deny thy life and so think to save it thou art much mistaken when God is thine enemy and thine enemy then he will be Every creature will wait for a Commission to take away thy life God can hide Death in the smallest creature With what contemptible things did he torment Pharaoh and his people which had they not been withdrawn upon Moses supplication would have been their destruction as Frogs and Lice and Locusts and Caterpillars c. Nay we may read of many that have lost their lives by such as these some have been devoured by Rats and Mice others destroyed by Leeches some stung to death by Bees Wasps and Hornets some choakt with Flies with Figs with Grapes Ward on Mat. part 329. with the kernel of Grapes with Fish-bones crums of bread an hair in milk some have been eaten of lice others of worms some have dyed in smelling of a flower some with the prick of a pin or thorn and many other such like God needs not muster any great Army to destroy thee the least of his creatures can do it if he give them a commission and if thou deny thy life when he requires it well maist thou fear this commission will be sealed well maist thou fear the bread thou eatest will choak thee the drink thou drinkest will be thy bane and what ever judgment thou ever readest or heard'st of that ever befell a graceless sinner it may be thy portion that the flouds may drown thee as it did the old world and Paraoh and his host that the fire may burn thee as it did Sodom and Gomorrah that the earth may open her mouth and swallow thee up
as it did Corah Dathan and Abiram Or whatsoever other judgments have befaln the Enemies of God may be thy portion for Apostacy is a most dangerous sin some creature or other may well distrain of thee in Gods name when thou denyest the debt Hadst thou been the first that ever tasted of death as Abel was thou mightest have been afraid had never any before thee entred into deaths darksome Cell or gone through that dark and narrow entry it were something but when ten thousand times ten thousand have gone before thee what need this fear and seeing will we nill we all of us must dance after deaths pipe why wilt thou not do it willingly God loves a chearful giver he loves a free-will Offering and loves not grumbling Servants millions of the Saints are now in Heaven that have travailed this road yet none of them repent they came there too soon Many of them have been taken out of the world by the hand of violence and now have the crown of Martyrdome upon their heads Rev. 12.11 they loved not their lives to the death and now have received a crown of life and if thou be faithful to the death this will be thy reward when thou comest to thy Juorneys end thou wilt be among the souls of just men made perfect singing Halelujahs to God for ever and for ever then wilt thou bid adieu to a vain miserable cheating and deceitful world But haply thou maist say Here I am acquainted but there I am a stranger and what comfort can I have in the removing Art thou a stranger the more shame for thee other Saints were strangers and pilgrims in this world and made hast home into their own country if thou hadst been well acquainted with the Word thou wouldst have seen the vanity and emptiness of all earthly felicity and that there was nothing in the world worth thy love and hadst thou had thy conversation in Heaven as thou hast pretended thou wouldst not have been such a stranger there as thou seemest to be But stay hast thou not many friends and relations there is not almighty God there whom thou callest Father and art thou a stranger in thy Fathers house hast had no communion no trading with him in his Ordinances what is then become of all thy prayers and other duties are those all lost 't is true thou never fawest his face neither canst see it and live but hast not seen him in his Word in his Ordinances in his promises threatnings providences and Attributes Blessed is he that hath not seen Gal. 4.26 and yet believeth and is not Jerusalem that is above the mother of as all and is not the Lord Jesus Christ him whom thou callest thy Lord and thy God and thy Husband and thy elder Brother yea thy Head and is a loving wife a stranger to her beloved husband and is not the Holy Ghost there from whom thou hast received such sweet consolations in thy sinking fits and are not the holy Angels there beholding thy Fathers face in glory who are now thy guardians that rejoyced at thy conversion and will rejoyce at thy Coronation 'T is true thou seest them not thou knowest them not they are invisible but they see and know thee and then thou wilt be able to see and know them for they shall be thy constant companions and thy fellow brethren And are there not millions of glorified Saints which are thy Spiritual kindred fellow members of Christs body yea brethren in Christ yea are there not some that thou knewest in the dayes of their flesh whose company thou so much desiredst and whose death thou so much lamentedst nay are there not some that were related to thee in the flesh gone before thee of whom thou hast comfortable hopes that they are with the Lord and will not their company be now as comfortable as it was on earth yea thou wilt know more there than ever thou didst here for I question not but the Saints shall know each other for shall we sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and not know them All the Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles Martyrs and glorified Saints are here and is not thine Inheritance thy Crown thy Mansion-house here and art thou yet a stranger is not this thy countrey which thou pretendest to be seeking and all this while art thou a stranger to it yea dost not live upon heavenly allowance and hast thy meat and thy drink and thy cloathes for thy soul from hence Or is it death that thou art a stranger to why didst thou not know that thou wast mortal why then didst not acquaint thy self with death thou knewest all must dye why didst not consider of it and among the rest of thy own death didst not believe God when he said Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Heb. 9.27 or when he saith 'T is appointed unto all men once to dye and after death the judgment and when he told thee that all flesh is grass and the flower thereof as the flower of the field But if thou hadst not believed God couldst not believe thy own eyes and ears dost not dayly see younger and stronger than thee go before thee dost not hear of many round about thee strucken by death many suddenly many by a violent death and many by diseases Dost not remember a hundred thousand slain in London in one year two or three hundred thousand in Ireland in a few weeks bloodily Massacred hast thou not many Lectures of mortality read to thee many Monitors of mortality within thee doth not the dimness of thy eyes mind thee the very Spectacles thou lookest through tell thee of the decayes in Nature and canst expect greater warning or hast any more considerable work to do than to provide for death and is death yet a stranger hast thou not visited many a sick bed and been with many a departing soul and received their last breath into thy bosom and yet hast not sufficient warning God never ingaged to give thee so much thou art his listed souldier and hast taken press-money and thou art ingaged to be in a continual readiness yet God hath given thee many a particular warning to prepare for death thou hast many a time look't death in the face and God hath often pluckt thee by the shoulders and shewed thee grim death before thee and thou hast several times received the sentence of death within thee and God hath in effect said to thee Set thy house in order for thou must dye nay not only so but God hath imployed thee to warn others yet he hath forborn thee above sixty years and every year given thee many warnings and what wouldst thou have more and yet art unacquainted with thy main work What if he had taken thee hence thirty or forty years ago as he did many that were companions with thee in vanity what had been thy condition that yet pretendest thou art not
ready and what hopes is there of thee if God spare thee another year that thou wilt bring forth better fruit is old age the best and fittest for repentance and preparation to dye when thou wilt find enough to do to wrastle with pains and bodily distempers would a Captain take it for a sufficient excuse if a Souldier that is by ingagement to be ready at an hours warning and should give him a week a month a years time to make ready and at the end of that time he should plead his Arms are not fixed nor other necessaries provided and if the Captain give him another year and at the end thereof he should plead the same excuse would this be taken for a good excuse yet this excuse hath been in thy mouth many years together and 't is doubt if God yet lengthen thy daies and give thee more years it will be the same Hath not death entred into thy habitation hath it not taken away thy parents thy loving wife thy dear children and other of thy near relations and didst not yet lay it to heart wa st thou no wiser than fatted beasts that are taken away one after another to the Shambles and those that remain are senseless of the danger neither consider their turn is coming yea hath not death thrown many a dart at thee and sometimes wounded thee in the head sometimes in thy bowels and yet dost not consider that he hath a dart will reach thy heart Yea sometimes thou hast thought thou hast had thy deaths wound and yet wilt take no warning to get on thy Armour doth not the pains the aches the distempers of thy body under which thou daily groanest bid thee prepare for thy winding-sheet doth not news ring dayly in thy ear this and that friend relation or neighbour is dead and ere long others will say of thee he is dead also hast thou not interred many a dead corpse and preacht may a Funeral Sermon and given many an exhortation to the living to prepare for death and comforted many that have lost their friends by death and wast never yet satisfied that thou wast mortal and must dye also didst thou think thy self only exempted from the common lot of all men or that God would bring thee to Heaven another way or couldst thou wish thou wert immortal and shouldst live on earth to Eternity art thou willing to take the Earth for Heaven and the creature for God and the happiness thou meetst with here for Heavens glory hast enough to satisfy thee here below and desirest no more if not why wouldst not dye and come to happiness if the earth be more desireable to thee one year why not twenty and why not to eternity if God should bid thee choose thy time and appoint it thy self what time wouldst thou require haply Methusalems daies well but these would expire and death at the end would be as bitter as now it is If death were the road to Hell as 't is to the wicked thou mightest well startle at it And I have wondred at those of them that have been so prodigal of their lives when Life is the only preservative out of Hell Or if thy case were that of the beasts and thou were to be reduced unto the horrid estate of nothing death might make thee shrug but when thou believest that death to thee will be an entrance into glory an outlet to misery and an inlet to happiness and the same road that Christ and all the glorified Saints have gone to Heaven in how can this be reconciled with thy fears Hast thou had so many discourses of death and with death and dost believe that the sting is taken out by Christ and dost yet run from this Serpent and take him for an enemy that is but thy Fathers Messenger sent for thy good This must needs be thy sin and thy folly and doth too evidently bespeak thy Infidelity or the weakness of thy Faith Thou hast comforted others at the last gasp and prayed with them and for them thou hast strengthened the weak hands and feeble knees and now dost faint under the same burden But hadst thou had more mortifying Meditations of death and with the Apostle hadst learned to dye daily death would not have been so terrible a Bugbear to thee as now it seems didst thou once a day look him in the face by a serious meditation and by a believing expectation he would not look so grim and terrible Bears and Tigers are not so terrible to those that are their keepers and acquainted with them as to others The Lion in the Fable was at first sight a terror to the Fox but time much allayed his fear the more thou beholdest death the less deformed yea the more lovely he doth appear death will be no excepter of persons the rich and poor high and low whether they will or no must dance in this Ring when God commands he must and will strike death is written upon thy cradle and thou wast rockt upon the mouth of the grave and ever since no day hath been sure to thee but it might have been thy dying day 't is not long since thou didst bewail the death of thy Parents and 't is not long before thy children will bewail thine one generation comes and another goes and the latter treads out the steps of the former we trod out the steps of our predecessors and our posterity will do as much for us The world is but a Tent to abide in for a time an Inne to tarry in a night a Lodging place for a wayfaring man a baiting-place in a Journey Oh the folly of most men that take it for their Inheritance and look for no more but to the Godly 't is no continuing city no abiding place neither indeed worthy our love Were the world as the garden of Eden full of delights and pleasures thou hadst something to say for it and yet the worm of time would eat out the very heart of it the shortness of the continuance would spoyl the sport Many doat on beauty but none but the blind will fall in love with deformity it self The world is a Bochim a place of Lamentation and who falls in love with sorrow 't is a Golgotha a place of dead mens skuls and who but mad men converse among the Tombs 'T is a pest-house an infected and an infecting place where most we converse with are infectious 't is a prison a place of hardship where the soul hath not liberty to act according to its nature 't is a place of Egyptian bondage and slavery where there is little but moiling toyling working caring from morning till night for a poor living wherein we are so chained to our Oars that we have scarce time to eat our meat and what madness is it over eagerly to desire such a life and to quarrel those that ease us of our burden and put an end to our labours Here thou livest under continual pains aches griefs
The Lord saith he hath bid him curse David God can yea he will if it be good for thee preserve thee from a violent death and he will preserve thee till the appointed time come they cannot antedate his Decree thou shalt not be cut down sooner neither canst thou stay longer than he hath appointed and dost call God thy God and thy Father and yet resist his will dost pray Thy will be done and yet when he makes known his will dost thou oppose it but haply thou maist say How shall I know it is his will that I shall lay down my life why when thou canst not save it without denying Christ or his Truth or committing sin for he that commiteth sin is of the Devil and in such a case think not to wrestle out of the hands of God sin will find thee out and never any man set himself against God and prospered There is no resisting of God when thou canst not breathe without him all diseases are his Executioners and wicked men can do no more to the one or the other of them thou must submit and not much matter to which to neither of them thou should submit willingly but to God in both thou shouldst seek all lawful means against the one and the other but nothing but what is lawful when God denies help go not to the Devil for a medicine to submit to death when thou canst not help it is no praise-worthy thing when thou canst save thy life by unlawful means and wilt not this shall not be unrewarded a Crown of glory will be given thee He deserves death that in time of danger deserteth his Captain and falls off to the enemy Keep thy life thou canst not without his leave and if thou lay it down for his sake 't is not the way to lose it but to save it to hide it with God in Christ and doth not Reason tell thee he is fittest to dispose of thy life that gave it he is too righteous to do thee wrong and too gracious to do thee hurt never was indulgent Father or tender-hearted Mother more carefull of their only Child than God will be of thee thou shalt not lye longer in the furnace than need is he afflicts not willingly nor grieves the children of men thou art but like a sleepy child that wrests and wrings and cries and will not be undrest and thy Father must carry thee to bed against thy will and what harm hath he done then when thou awakest thou wilt thank him for it When Corn is ripe it should be cut and who is fitter to know when 't is ripe than the great Husbandman when thy work is done thou maist go to thy rest and who better knows than the Lord of the Vineyard if that he take thee off in the midst of thy day and give thee the wages for the whole day what cause is there of complaint Nay should he give thee the whole wages for one hours work if God call thee off 't is not to stop thy wages or to blame thee for working no longer Thou must submit to the stroak of death and do it willingly whether it be natural or violent for consider God hath most right to thy life and is the fittest person to determine of the Manner of thy death He gives men Laws to live by and yet many will take their own wills and waies to their own destruction he gives men Laws to dye by look that thou follow not thy own will to perdition thou art but a Tenant at will if thou resign not at thy Landlords will it will be the worse for thee he will never provide a better house but a Prison for thee he is the fittest to determine when to pull down these houses of clay and who shall do it and if thou willingly submit he will raise thee up a Spiritual building an house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens Is it not unreasonble for thee to think to keep the keyes of life and death at thy girdle why shouldst thou think to dispose of thy death any more than of thy birth or of thy latter end more than thou didst of thy beginning it was through him that thou wast born and at his dispose shall be thy death if thou wouldst wring this key out of Gods hand into whose hands wouldst thou commit it is any in the world fitter for it than he is nay can any other in the world preserve thy life thou art the clay and he is the Potter and whose is the Pot but the pot-makers and who may better dash it with his foot than he may he not dispose of his own as he pleaseth he is best able to maintain life and best able to take it away for if he tread upon thee he leaves thee dead behind him if he with-hold thy breath thou returnest to thy dust and all thy thoughts perish Doth not he rule in Heaven and in the Earth doth not he direct the Sun the Moon and the Stars in their courses doth not he cause Summer and Winter Cold and Heat Seed-time and Harvest Day and Night and thou letst him alone with these and why because thou canst not take this work out of his hand he makes the Grass to grow for the Cattel and Corn for the service of Man he waters the earth with his Clouds and causeth the Springs to run among the Hills why dost not take these out of his hand or must he rule all the rest and only thee must be excepted hath he more wisdom than thou hast in all other things only in the disposing of thy life thou outwittest him why art thou not his creature as well as others and how cam'st thou from under his dominion doth it beseem a rational man much less a gracious man to argue at this rate and except himself from Gods dispose and argue himself from under his tuition and think himself to be an independent creature fit to stand upon his own legs Doth not he know best when his work is done and when his Roses are ripe and when his Children are fit for glory or is any other fitter to determine these controversies or wouldst thou dispose of thy own life if so wouldst have all men have the same priviledge then Heaven especially Hell would be long empty for what wicked man would leave the Earth to go thither and God must be beholding to his people to come to him how should Judgment and Justice then be executed the sword of Justice would rust in the Scabbard for what offender would lay down his head upon the block willingly How would the Earth then be filled with violence and all flagitious crimes if thou wouldst not have others have the like priviledge then thou art partial if thou wouldst thou art foolish but if it were at thy own dispose how couldst maintain it Thou couldst neither provide thy self food neither could thy life be preserved by food without Gods blessing neither
maist do all things Trust not in thy own strength lest with Pembleton thou failest in the performance Mat. 9.17 God will not put new wine into old bottles nor the heaviest burden upon the weakest Horse the strongest if he leave them are weak and the weakest in his strength are strong if thy heart be upright God will either free thee from thy suffering or support thee under it he will fit the back before he lay on the burden if thou dye by a violent death so do those many thousands that are slain with the Sword and yet those that are slain by the sword are better than they that dye of famine Lam. 4.9 many a wounded man that yet escapeth with his life suffers more pains of his wounds than if he had been slain outright If thou refuse a few pangs for Heaven thou art not worthy of it yea a natural death may be as painful many times is more painful than a violent death but the reward of the latter if it be for God may clearly turn the scales and make it more eligible Thy enemies as before was said are not Masters of thy life neither is it in their power to take it away for they have no power but what they receive from Heaven 't is he that disposes of Angels and Men of Crowns and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth that must dispose of thy life and is not he the fittest for the work is there any in the world can do it better is there any in the world thou hadst rather trust with thy life is not he the fittest to send for thee out of the world that sent Christ into the world for thy sake and wilt thou think thy life too dear for him that thought not the pangs of death nor the pains of Hell too much to suffer for thee hath he suffered so much to purchase glory and wilt thou suffer nothing to enjoy it his suffering was a thousand times more for thee than thine is like to be for him or rather for thy self for thou hadst the benefit of his death but he will have none by thine hath he provided a Mansion and wilt not leave thy Cottage to go to it Death 't is true is surly and grim but 't is thy Fathers Messenger and must do the message he gives in charge and 't is an Ambassador from the great King and Ambassadors are entertained not for their own but their Masters sake and death may be welcomed for the message sake he brings He comes to tell thee that thy work is done and thy wages is ready thy Warfare is accomplished the Field is won and the Crown is thine Mat. 25.21 that thou hast been faithful over a little and now must be Ruler over much and must enter into thy Masters joy That the Bridegroom is come and thou must go in with him to the wedding that thou hast been faithful to the death Rev. 2.10 and now shalt have a crown of life And is not such a message welcome and the Messenger that brings it will any wise man rather stay in Egypt than go through the red Sea at Gods command or endure a few Wilderness troubles to come to Canaan yea through a sea of blood to a Haven of rest If the way be troublesome the Journeys end is pleasant if thou art stung with fiery Serpents there is a brazen Serpent to heaâ— thee of thy wounds and to draw ouâ— the venom If the sea be rough the Piloâ— is skilful If thy disease be dangerous this Physician is skilful if thy wounds be deep this Surgeon will cure thee yea by Killing will cure thee of all distempers Were Death a pursevant from Hell as to many he is well mightest thou fear but being sent from Heaven and coming in thy Fathers Livery and his ugly Vizor taken off he is more amiable If thou have part in the first resurrection the second death on thee shall have no power Death 't is true Rev. 20.6 puts a cup of trembling into the hands of unrepentant sinners even a cup of the Lords indignation filled to the brim which they must drink up to the very dregs and Eternity will be little enough to see the bottom but what is this to thee thy part is sugered and 't is but one sup swallowed in a few moments of time to them it proves the first and second death to thee but a Sleep Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Those sparks which wicked men now on earth kindle by their lusts will there be blown up into an everlasting flame Mar. 9.44 the worm dyeth not and the fire never goeth out That death that puffs out the candle of the wicked only snuffs the other that it may burn brighter The godly while they are in the world act a Comedy which begins bad but ends well the wicked act a Tragedy which alwaies ends in blood and confusion death sets an end to both to the godliess miseries and the wickeds happiness Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them And if this be the only way to blessedness why art thou afraid to walk in it death will be the Funeral of thy Vices and the Resurrection of thy Graces here Josephs feet shall no longer be hurt in the stocks the iron shall no longer enter into his soul neither shall Jeremy lye here in the miry dungeon nor Daniel in the den of Lions nor Jonah in the Whales belly why wilt thou not be uncloathed that thou maist be cloathed upon and surrender this house of clay that thou maist have a better Thou art like an ill debtor that bortowest with prayers keepest with thanks and partest with it with repining Thy body is but lent thee yet art thou loth to restore what was borrowed Well dye thou must and whether it be fit that God or thee should determine of the Time and the Manner of thy death is the question in hand and is this become a controversie and wilt dispute thy right Heaven and Earth may stand amazed at thy folly if thou wilt not yield him his due he will ere long distrain for it and try the Title at Judgment where thou art like to be cast and thrown into Prison till thou hast paid the utmost farthing for if thou deny to glorifie God by thy death he will glorifie himself by thy destruction Oh my God I yield I surrender I submit I put my life into thy hands send for me when and by whomsoever thou wilt My spirit is willing though my flesh is weak I dare not trust my own deceitfull heart lest it betray me but thee I dare trust Lord strengthen my Faith confirm my Assurance clear up my Evidences for Heaven stand by me in all my Sufferings and lay no more upon me than thou givest me strength to bear then call me and I will run after thee though
everlasting why haltest thou between two opinions 1 King 18.21 if the Lord be God follow him and if Baal be God follow him If God be better than the world follow him fully and if the world be best then pursue it with all thy might but consider well what thou dost for this will be bitterness in the latter end Hast thou so long laboured and prayed and ran and wrestled for a prize that now seems not worth having dost thou now come within sight of Heaven and doth thy heart fail thee Hast thou put thy hand to the plow and now lookest back didst thou begin in the Spirit and wilt now end in the flesh wilt thou be like wicked men and Seducers that grow worse and worse Hath the world bribed thee or the Devil stopt thy mouth Take heed thou make not Judas's purchase or Demas's choice If thou change thy master consider what is his wages as well as what is his work and if this please thee go on Dost thou want nothing here to make thee happy that thou art so loth to away well let me tell thee if thou miss of Christ thou wilt want nothing to make thee everlastingly miserable if the world be all thou expectest then 't is no wonder thou art so loth to leave it for who can willingly part with his only Happiness and be stript of all his desired enjoyments and not only so but enter into everlasting misery for so they will do that have their portion in this life and those that make the world their God or love any thing though it be life it self above Christ 'T is no wonder that these fear the Pursevant that fetches them to execution and drags them to Hell He that hath the world for his All will be loth to lose all at one cast these may look upon death as one that comes to torment them before the time death to those is like as Belshazzars hand-writing was to him a terror and amazment and there is nothing that is in the world can speak peace to such a soul if his conscience be awake 'T is not Lucretius his Epicurean Rules nor Anacreons wanton Odes can then lull it asleep or cease the barking of it or shift off the terror of death A wounded Spirit who can bear but one that believeth that death is but a gathering to his Fathers a sweet sleep a going to Christ and being with him and that the body though laid in the grave shall not be lost but raised up again at the last day and made like unto the glorified body of Christ How unsuitable is it for such to be terrifyed with the apprehensions of it but the thoughts of the Immortality and the Incorruptibility and the Spirituality and Glory of the body at the Resurrection should drown the noise silence the doubts and fears of the danger that lies in the way and the pains and pangs of death it self The pains of death to these are worse than being dead and this is but a flea-biting to the joy that follows but to the wicked the pain of dying is nothing in comparison of the consequences of death and the tormenting pains of the second death for were Hell no worse than the pangs which dying men suffer it were not so formidable Rev. â— 6 6.16 In misery men shall seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them then will they say to the rocks and mountains fall on us and cover us c. 'T is wonder how wicked men can eat and drink and sleep and all this while know they are in debt and danger yea that there is a Sergeant ready to arrest them whensoever the Creditor will and to cast them into prison out of which they are never like to get sure some judiciary hardness is falne upon them that they are sleeping thus on the top of the Mast and playing securely before the mouth of the Lyon or before the Cannons mouth and are more insensible than brute Beasts of their danger approaching yea they hasten their death and misery by the intemperance of their lives and sacrifice not only their health but life also to Lust and Drunkenness to luxury and excess and will not suffer Nature to spin out the thred of their lives to the utmost extent but put a period to it themselves and cut off the thred of their lives with their own hands these men run headlong to Hell and wilfully upon death which they had cause most of all to fear and avoid The apprehension of approaching death is not the same to those men and to others that believe that death will end all their miseries and land them into everlasting happiness the same Judge absolveth the innocent and condemns the guilty and those men have not the same apprehensions of him the one longs for his coming the other fears it 'T is rather a wonder that the Saints that have assurance of their future glory do not long for the time of their dissolution and seek to hasten it by some illegal way than use any indirect means to live when they are called to dye I know the former is unlawful for we must keep our station while God appoints us and so is the latter for we must come off the Centinel when he calls us but it is more natural to desire happiness than misery and to use indirect means to procure the former than the latter We read in the primitive times when many Christians were to suffer of a Woman and her children that were hasting to the place and being met by one of the persecutors who demanded whither she went and why she made so much haste she answered She was a Christian and hearing many Christians were that day to suffer she hasted with her children to suffer with them and feared lest she should come too late Ignatius was afraid lest the Prayers of the Church should prevent him of suffering for Christ and of his Crown of Martyrdome These had not such fearful apprehensions of death as thou seemest to have Sure those that look for perfection by death should not be afraid of it and if these tabernacles of our bodies must down what matter is it whether they are taken down or burnt down seeing the materials both waies will be preserved the one turns them to dust the other to ashes and in a little time they will moulder of themselves into dust Death to the godly is but a parting of two intimate friends the Soul and the Body for a time and both the one and the other will be gainers by the separation the Soul goes immediately to Heaven and the Body lies in the grave for a season and shall thence be raised in unspeakable glory and God will build it up again an habitation for the soul at his own proper cost and charges Death to them is but a Gaol-delivery where the soul that hath been long a prisoner shall be set
should not dispose of thee as well as he doth of all the world Shall the pot say to him that made it Why hast thou made me thus Art thou wiser than he to know who is fit to be cal'd forth to suffer and knowest thou better than he how to guide the affairs of the world But thou art afraid thou shalt not hold out but dost thou stand by thy own strength and dost not think that God hath power enough to uphold thee or wisdom enough to know what thou canst do a wise Captain will not put a fresh-water Souldier upon the hardest assaults put experienced Souldiers God will not put new Wine into old Bettles if thy heart be rotten no wonder if thou miscarry if it be right God will not suffer thee to faint having so many cordials by him In Queen Maryes daies we read of poor simple men and women that never had the Learning the means the time the help that thou hast had nor never made the profession that thou hast made yet were wonderfully supported by God under all their sufferings and became glorious Martyrs and cannot God uphold thee also and why then shouldst thou be so desirous of life and fearful of death and rather live a miserable life than dye a happy death why wouldst thou still live in Meseck and in the tents of Kedar rather than in Gods own House and in his presence in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore why dost desire to be present in the Flesh and absent from the Lord and preferrest misery before glory it self and a vain empty nothing before eternal treasures sure something is amiss with thee that with Adam thou hidest thy self from God and wilt not go when he calls thee Heb. 10.22 couldst thou draw neer to him with a pure heart in assurance of faith with a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and thy body washed with pure water thou maist find more delight in his presence than the world can yield and in sincerity will enable thee to delight in him much more perfection when all imperfections will be done away then thou wilt find with David that 't is better be a door-keeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness that a day in his courts much more in Heaven is better than a thousand elsewhere But Oh my soul hast not thou plaid the Truant and now darest not come into thy Masters sight hast thou not with the slothful servant hid thy talent or like the unjust Steward wasted thy masters goods and now fearest what account thou shalt give of thy Stewardship or what answer thou shalt make about thy talent Or hast thou not played the Coward and runst away from thy Colours or turned thy back upon the enemy and now darest not look thy Captain in the face Paul when he had fought the fight and kept the Faith and expected the crown he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ to be absent from the body and present with the Lord well may thy Lord and Saviour entertain thee with a check Why art thou fearful Oh thou of little faith Art thou listed to fight against thy enemies and now when the last enemy is to be destroyed dost thou turn thy back throw down thy weapons and quit the field doth thy faith fail thee and dost thou question whether there be a reward for the righteous and a God that judgeth the earth and whether there be an eternal happiness to be had or whither those that dye in the Lord are blessed and do rest from their labours dost now question whether death doth put an end to all the Saints miseries and enter then into eternal joy if so why hast thou preacht and owned and pleaded for these things yea why hast thou suffered so much in hope of a joyful resurrection but if thou believe there is a God and that the Scripture is the Word of God and that God will do as he saith and will make good all his promises and all his threats and that it shall go well with the righteous and that he shall eat the fruit of his labour Isa 3.10 and that it shall go ill with the wicked for the reward of his hands shall be given him If thou do believe death is to the godly the Out-let to misery and the Inlet to glory and puts them into possession of all that is good that it will cure all diseases and heal all maladies how can this stand with thy fear and dread the very thoughts of eternal Joy draws up the heart to Heaven and makes thee wish and long for the time of thy dissolution and much imbitters all earthly enjoyments and makes the soul impatient of delayes and to cry out Come Lord Jesus come quickly when shall the time be that I shall Solace my Soul in the enjoyment of my Husband when shall I lye in his bosom when will my beloved send for me in his triumphant Chariot O cursed sin when shall I be rid of thee thou art the Make-bate between my God and me thou hidest his face from me thou spoilest all my duties thou art the cause of all my misery when shall I be rid of thee when shall I give thee a bill of divorce when shall it once be Oh my soul were but thy love as it should be to Christ these would be thy breathings and thy pantings after him thou wouldst be like a love-sick woman never well till thou wert in the arms of thy beloved thy thoughts would be upon him ubi amor ibi animus where the treasure is there will the heart be also where love is the heart will be and love makes labour light the wife that loveth her husband will rather venture his displeasure in coming to him without his consent than in staying from him when she is sent for and thy unwilllingness to dyeand come to Christ when he calls thee doubtless proceeds from want of love to him let them fear death that have Plague-sores running upon them the marks and tokens of the second death whose passing out of the world is but the direct road to Hell whose life time is all the respite they have out of Hell and the only breathing-time they are ever like to have free from torments but to the godly it is not so but their only Hell and time of their misery If a man were sore sick and could certainly know that after one night he should be perfectly well and never be sick more or if a man in pinching penury and want should know that after one Sleep he should awake a Prince and all his wants should be supplyed who would fear that Night or be afraid of that Sleep but such a Night such a Sleep death is to the godly it is but a sleep and they shall wake in glory 'T is but to wink saith the Martyr and we shall be in Heaven presently
true it wounds thy body but thy Soul is safe but it destroyes them both in body and soul and it brings more profit to the soul than dammage to the body 't is but as the prick of a pin to a dangerous Ulcer which were it not prickt would prove mortal it will put an end to thy pains and a beginning to thy Joyes for when thy life expires sin also dyes and sin and sorrow are breathed out with thy life and from this day thy Lease in Heaven bears date which shall never expire Rouse up thy self O my Soul be not dejected God minds thee no hurt Death will not cannot hurt thee Kill me they may saith the Martyr hurt me they cannot the worst they can do is but to send me to my Fathers house the sooner Many a warning thou hast had many a Corps thou hast interred many a Funeral Sermon thou hast Preached for shame say not thou hadst not sufficient warning wast thou so mad as to think of going to Heaven another way or that thou wast immortal when thou sawest so many about thee dye daily or that thou shouldst live to old age when thou sawest so many dye young and felt so many sensible Symptoms of thy approaching death thou hast as thou didst suppose some grounded hopes that thou hadst a part in the first Resurrection and that therefore the second death on thee had no power and why then is death so terrible Many have more distempers in their Souls than in their Bodies 't is true this is thy case yet thou hast hoped thine are not mortal the malignity of the disease is over when many others have Plague-Sores running upon them these may expect death and have cause to fear it it will but heal thy distempers but inrage theirs thou hast had many meditations of death and many discourses with death and you did seem pretty well agreed thou hast looked death in the face and is he now become more terrible or art thou more timerous that when he comes to thy Bed-side draws thy Curtains and shakes thee by the hand thou tremblest hath Christ done thee no good by his passion by subduing Death disarming him pulling out the sting and trampling him under foot yea laying him prostrate at thy feet hath all the pains thou hast taken in heavens way workt no more upon thee set thee up no higher where now is thy promised obedience and thy prayers Thy will be done when thou art ready to resist Gods Will when 't is manifested and preferrest thine own before it why dost call thy Father the only wise God when thou thinkest thy own wit best and that thou knowest best when 't is best for thee to dye and wilt not submit to his will and that if thou wouldst speak out thy mind is to indent with Christ this thou wilt do or Suffer but not that this sin thou wilt leave but that thou wilt not thou wouldst pick and choose thy duties and take the easiest part of it and leave the difficult dangerous and costly part undone and wilt not have heaven at so dear a rate Thou pretendest a desire to be happy and who doth not Balaam desires the death of the righteous and that his end may be like his but they will not live the righteous mans life and thou art not willing to dye his death for he is conformable to the will of God both in life and death which is that thou dost dislike O my Soul some great thing is amiss with thee thy corruptions are as strong fetters to hold thee in the Devils Slavery thy grace is weak and cannot procure thy freedom the Devil is too cunning for thee the world subtil and thy own heart deceitful to betray thee into Satans hands Oh my God this is my condition this is the estate of my Soul here lyes my distemper the world lyes too close to my heart and Christ lyes at too great a distance my corrupt deceitful heart is ever and anon puting me on to choose this for my happiness a little Grace I see will not carry me through the temptations that lye before me but Lord speak the word and grace will flourish and corruption will dye thou hast said and I believe it that thou wilt not break the bruised reed Mat. 12.20 nor quench the smoaking flax till thou bring forth Judgment unto victory Lord I believe help my unbelief and let not my little grace be lost in the great heap of the rubbish of my corruptions Lord if thou open mine eyes to see the emptiness of the creature and the fulness of Christ then shall I love the one and despise the other Psal 119.32 and shall run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart I see no reason why I should be exempted from obeying thy Will even to the laying down of my life and though flesh and blood will not yield willing obedience to it yet 't is my resolution thus to do Lord strengthen my resolution I know my fears are the result of my Infidelity Lord strengthen my faith that I may overcome them for by thy strength I shall stand and without thy assisting grace I shall Apostatize and fall back Leave me not to my self for then I shall undo my self dishonour my God scandalize Religion bring a reproach upon the Gospel wound my Conscience break my Peace with my God and undo my Soul Luk. 9.62 Let me not O Lord now I have put my hand to the Plow look back again Nor when I have begun in the Spirit Gal. 3.3 end in the flesh Rev. 2.10 Lord make me faithful to the death and then give me a Crown of Life MEDITAT V. The World is not desirable to a Christian OH my Soul why art thou desirous to stay in the World and why so unwilling to go to thy Father The time was when thou wast otherwise minded thou lookedst upon it as Bochim a place of tears a Golgotha an unlovely habitation thou wast not willing to dwell in Meseck and in the tents of Kedar thy affections did like fire mount upward and what Load-stone hast now to draw thee back thou wast at a point with all things under the Sun and didst wear the World about thee as a loose garment ready to cast off upon all occasions and dost now spit upon thy hands and take better hold dost now set up thy Staff and with Peter say 't is good being here Art now beginning to build Tabernacles here and slight that house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens thou didst conclude with Solomon Eccles 1.14 All is Vanity and vexation of spirit and now at last hast found some solidity 2 Pet. 2.22 art thou now returnining with the dog to his Vomit and the washed Sow to her wallowing in the Mire are the Scales of ignorance now fallen from thine eyes and dost thou see some excellency in the worlds enjoyments that before
were hid from thee take heed lest thou see through the Devils Spectacles for these may deceive thee Is the world now become a Pearle in thine eye that thou despisest that Pearl of great price be not deceived it will not prove a true Diamond but a Bristow Stone Art thou now ready with Cardinal Burbon to say thou wilt not leave thy part in Paris for a part in Paradice consider well what thou dost before thou strike up the bargain and take the world for thy portion take a view of it again and see it in its own dress and not in the Devils paint and colours or in his Glass hadst thou indeed rather be absent from the Lord than from the World and doth it yield thee better delight and satisfaction Well and will it do so at death also where will thy portion be 2 Pet. 3.10 when the earth and all the works therein shall be burnt up give not Christ a bill of divorce till thou art sure of a better match will the World content thee here and hereafter what provision can it make for thee for hereafter if this be all thou takest for thy portion then no wonder thou art loth to leave it for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Hadst thou a great Estate in the World there might be some temptation but who will grieve to leave an empty Cell heretofore when thou hadst a greater Estate in the World thou wast crucified to the World and the World to thee and now dost fall in love with Poverty and Want thou didst look upon it as upon a dead Carkass and now dost perceive some life in it But stay a while and consider well what the World hath and whether her portion can pay thy debts and make provision for thee to Eternity thou canst expect no more portion than it hath consider whether it will serve thy turn the Soul is an immortal piece and must run parallel with the longest line of Eternity will the world do so also if not what will the Soul do when the portion is spent thou art in debt ten thousand Talents and canst not pay one farthing and it must be paid to the utmost mite or thou wilt be cast into a Furnace of fire for ever can the World if thou espouse thy self to it pay this debt No nor all the Angels in Heaven to help it and what a case wilt thou then be in to Eternity 'T is best for thee to return to thy former Husband for it 's much better with thee then Here is enough in him to pay thy debts and provide for the future But is thy forsaking Christ and choosing the World the result of all thy profession and the fruit of all thy Mortification Repentance Self-denial Preaching Praying Hearing Reading Meditating and of all thy other duties and is the World a sufficient recompense for all the pains thou hast taken in Gods Service and dost expect no more at his hands and art thou willing to let go all thy right in the Promises and all thy hopes of a future reward and doth the World make thee amends for all thy losses and crosses thou hast met with upon Religious accounts hast thou reduced thy self to pinching wants hard labour how foolishly then hast thou behaved thy self if the world be thy portion how foolishly hast thou denyed thy self in thy portion why hast thou not run down the current of the times as others have done when it was the way to preferment why hast thou swam against the stream why didst not take thy pleasure as others did in thy sins and sinful company then mightst thou have enjoyed the World as they do for their Portion in Externals is better than thine they take their pleasures they satisfie their lusts and why dost then live a mortified life for the like portion why didst thou take upon thee the profession of Religion when thou knewest it would run counter with the times why dost not swear with the Swearer drink with the Drunkard and be as debaucht as any other if the reward be alike but if thou look for another reward why art thou afraid of the time when thou art to receive it if Religion will not pay thee thy charges why didst profess it if it will why dost forsake it haft thou had a hard Master of Christ hath he failed of his Word or broke his promise to thee is his work or Wages worse than Covenant if not why dost leave thy Master look about thee within and without consider while thou art here what thy wants are what thy miseries and whether the world is like to free thee from the one or the other if it can how happens it in all this time it is not done thou hast spiritual wants can the World relieve those thou hast but a little knowledge of God and dost thou desire no more if thou do in what School wilt thou learn it death will bring thee where all these clouds of ignorance shall be dispell'd and thy knowledge shall be perfected 1 Cor. 13.9 10. Here thou knowest but in part and understandest but in part But when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away Thou hast now but a little enjoyment of him a few glimpses of him in a duty and dost desire no more what means then all thy Prayers and Duties tending this way but thou art never like to have much more till thou come to Heaven doubtless if thou now take up with the World for thy portion thou art of all men the most foolish why dost thou run from it when thou seekest to enjoy it and why dost forsake thy desired happiness If the world will content thee why dost seek after other things and deny thy self that content the world offers thee Art thou as holy as thou desirest to be and as good as thou wouldst be and hast thou as much satisfaction as thou desirest what is the meaning then of all thy Prayers Studies and other duties why dost bewail thy sins and implore Heaven for power against them and if thou wouldst be better why dost fear Heaven where thou wilt be holy as God is holy if thou be as good as thou desirest to be why dost play the Hypocrite with God and man and like a man in a Boat look one way and row another wouldst thou have no more power against thy sins why then dost rail upon it and revile it and profess that it is thy greatest trouble why dost wrestle and fight and pray against it and bring under thy body and if thou wouldst have power why dost thou fear Death which will free thee from this as well as other Enemies art content to live in thy Pride and Passion and Ignorance and Hypocrisie why dost not then speak plain art thou like some Beggars that have sores to shew to move compassion but are not willing to have them cured lest it marr their Trade
their extravagant courses thy Table also sometimes becomes a snare thy Meat and thy Drink the Cloaths thou wearest the Neighbours among whom thou livest prove snares or troubles sometimes vexing thee with their unjust dealings sometimes provoking thee by passionate words and sometimes grieving thee to see and hear their sinful words and actions the most with whom thou livest have one plague-sore or other running upon them giving and receiving infection one from another the very duties thou performest are full of snares the Devil doth what he can to thrust in base ends and motives or to divert the heart in the performance or he fly-blows them and makes them stink in the nostrils God thy very Calling is full of temptations and snares all the Talents Gifts or Endowments God hath lent thee the Devil will do what he can to render them the fuel for Pride or some other lust and how canst desire to live in such a world among such snares and such temptations The world it self is a very Golgotha there are few men but what are spiritually dead a very Egypt for slavery where there is little else but Moiling and Toiling Carking and Caring and a thousand troubles and anxieties do here accompany the Sons of men and few men but be snares one to another many pull-backs in Heavens way but very few helpers forward every man almost is like a Turkey Gally-Slave chained to some oar or other where he labours in the very fire Isa 55.2 and spends his money for that which is not bread and his labour for that which satisfies not he moils and toils night and day works hard and fares hard and all this while thinks not of his latter end and of any the Godly meet with most wrongs most injuries and most hardship and all little enough to make them mind their Fathers house yea Professors themselves many times help to increase each others Burthens by their contentions animosities and reproach they fasten one upon anotâ—â—r if they differ from one another in circumstances and modes of Worship and canst take delight in such a world and exchange it for Heaven What canst observe here but Pride and Covetousness and Tyranny and Oppression Envy and Malice Debate and Strife Hypocrisie and dissimulation and other works of the flesh and little sincerity and the power of godliness to be seen now are these the things that take with thy affections are these the flesh-pots the Garlick and the Onions that tempt thee back into Egypt look but within thee and without thee and thou wilt see enough to wean thee from the world within thee are many bodily distempers Pains and Aches Griefs and Infirmities and apparent decayes in nature languishing distempers which hasten thy approaching death decay of thy senses thy sight dim and thy hearing dull many a broken nights sleep many a waking hour yet few free from pain weakness and trembling of Joints and Limbs and several distempers which are not like to be cured by any Physician but Death and look which way soever thou wilt without thee and thou maist see some cloud or other pretending an approaching storm arising some threatning wants and penury and thou findest much adoe to provide necessary Food and Raiment for thy Family here one is sick another lame another lying under other Infirmity and all causing thy grief and trouble And if thou look abroad what pleasing object canst thou fix thy eyes upon what but prophaneness and debauchery doth appear in sight and little of the fear of God is to be found which way canst thou turn thy Eyes but thou wilt see Prophaneness Sabbath-breaking and debauchery acted or thy Ears but thou wilt hear Swearing Lying Filthy and Ribald speaking mocking Taunts and Reproaches against the power of godliness Gods ordinances contemned and his Ministers abused and is this thy pleasant sights thy delightful Melody the Syren Songs that inchant thee and draw thy affections to the world here if thou delight in it thou maist hear the godly made the Drunkards Songs and with the Apostles the Off-scowring of all things a gazing-stock to Men and Angels and those that depart from evil make themselves a Prey Here thou canst scarce pray in thy Family or sing forth the Praises of God or fast to the humbling of thy Soul but thou becomest a reproach and derision and perhaps the Butt of persecution And if thou look abroad in the Nation thou wilt find it not much better in some places much worse if thou ascend the Courts of Judicature in some of them thou maist find Judgment and Justice perverted Tyranny and Oppression countenanced by Magistrates great men like great Fishes eating up the rest Covetousness and Extortion exercised and the Righteous Oppressed in Judgment and Pillows sown under great mens Elbows by many Ministers and the Power of Godliness more than the Torrent of sin opposed and restrained and sin and wickedness winked at and tolerated by both Magistrates and Ministers so that the Land is become a Sodom for Sin and for Uncleaness and may for ought we know equalize it in Sufferings and few Mourners will be found in our Sion If we look abroad we have cause to fear a Foreign Invasion and at home Domestick Insurrections even Vipers breed in our own Bosom many long to wash their hands in the blood of the Saints yea in the best blood in the Nation and which increases our misery and danger our Councels are divided and we know neither our Enemies nor the danger we are in only this we know we are in the hands of God and 't is against him that we have sinned and wilt thou fall in love with deformity it self and desire to live amongst confusion when God calls thee away from the evil to come art thou loth to go Sin is the ugliest Hag that ever the World brought forth and destruction is her natural issue The very best which the world can shew thee is nothing else but the shadow of a Smoak or the Dream of a Shadow those that have most trusted to it have been most deceived there is no trust to be put in mortal man nor confidence in Princes there is nothing of solidity under the Sun or any thing whereof we can say there is satisfaction in it The Devil doth what he can to dress it up in his Paint and Varnish and shews it to us in its glory and splendor but whoso hath the wearing of it will find it much worse than here it is described so that death cannot be worse to a Saint than life neither should it be less desired and is this world now Christs Rival and is the contention which will prove the better Match or whether Heaven or Earth be to be preferred or whether God or the Devil be the better master or give the better Wages and is God and Christ and Heaven and Glory like to be cast off and the world like to run away with thy affections is this like best to
Moses shall come and bring it into the Heavenly Canaan and though Death in it self be a Punishment yea a curse threatned upon the fall and remains so still to wicked men to whom it is an inlet into eternal misery yet to the godly the curse is taken away by the death of Christ who for us was made a Curse and dyed that cursed death upon the Cross to take away the Malignity of it who by his death disarmed Death and took away his weapons wherein he trusted yea took away his sting that now thou maist put the Serpent into thy bosom and now Death is so far from putting an end to Believers happiness that it puts an end to their sorrows and is the very Gate to eternal Life and at the very stroak of Death in that moment of time their Joyes commence and their sorrows end death to the Wicked is a Pursivant sent from Hell to fetch them thither to the Godly a Messenger sent from their Father to bring them home 't is to the body but a quiet sleep free from hurtful dreams or fearful Visions The Grave is but a Bed of Roses perfumed by the Body of Christ a resting Chamber a Repository where God lays up his Jewels wherein thy dust will be kept as in a Cabinet and not one grain of it shall be lost Rev. 20.13 but the Earth the Sea the Grave and Hell shall then give up their dead and then both Body and Soul shall be received into the City of Pearl where no dirty Dog shall trample upon the Pavement when that Death hath done his Office the Angels shall do theirs and carry the Soul into Abrahams bosom and lodge it for ever in the arms of Christ and at the Resurrection when the Soul and Body shall be reunited they shall both be glorified for ever and freed from all mutation and change and all things else that may be called Evil when Death hath broken the Cage the Bird will be at liberty and sing sweetly when the prison Walls are pull'd down the prisoner will be free and is this that which thou fearest how many thousand deaths would a miscarrying Soul endure for Heaven at last yea if Eternity were spent in the continual feeling the very pangs of Death it would be much easier for a damned Soul if it felt no more than now it is and art thou so nice that thou canst not endure it for one Hour for one moment upon the promise of Eternal life Death brings in the Harvest of thy hopes the fruit of thy Prayers the reward of thy pains and of all the losses and sufferings thou hast had for Christ God is now sending for thee to make thee a King and wilt thou now withdraw thy self like Saul and hide thy self as he did when they sought him to make him King here lyes the perfection and end of thy Faith and of thy Hope the Salvation of thy Soul for these Graces as well as others are imperfect here here is the only place where happiness is to be had the only soil where hearts-ease grows and yet must God needs whip thee home or thou wilt not matter it well if now thou refuse to come at his call when thou call'st he may give thee no answer and when thou knockest he may not open but sure some root of bitterness lyes at the bottom either thou dost not believe there is such a happiness or that it is not thine or hast placed thine affections elsewhere and canst not remove them and made some other choice which thou wilt not leave Didst thou stedfastly believe that there was a reward for the Righteous and that thou art one of those that shall receive it how can this be reconciled with thy fears would any wise man take a great deal of pains for an Inheritance and then lose it all for want of taking possession thou hast in thy life-time 't is very like suffered a hundred times as much pain as thou art like to do at thy death and shall this dismay thee more than all the rest the day of Death is not so gloomy as 't is thought to be Solomon when he was upon his Throne in the midst of his Jollity commends his Cosfin Better saith he is the day of Death than the day wherein a man is born Eccles 7.1 Many of the wiser Heathens were of the same mind they wept and mourned at the birth of their Children to consider the troubles they were like to meet with in this troublesome World when they feasted and rejoyced at the death of their friends because their troubles were over and their rest was come and surely Believers have better ground of rejoycing than they had a more sure foundation for Faith and Hope to build upon Oh Death how pleasant is thy face to those acquainted with thee thou art black but comely to those that know thee thou art indeed attended with a little pain but with endless bliss the one makes makes thee feared the other beloved Oh my Soul let us draw a little nearer and take a more exact view of Death and see what is the worst hurt he can do us the best good he will bring us and compare the one with the other and compute the odds and see whether we can make a savers bargain of it and if so how little cause of fear we have It may be thou thinkest thou must part with all thy carnal Joys and worldly delights thy sensual pleasures thy merry Company and bid farewell to all thy merry meetings and pleasant Jokes with all thy Recreations Pastimes and pleasant Sports and be Buried in silence and laid in the dust and must bid thy pleasures adieu and poor Soul is this thy trouble and the cause of thy fear hast thou not better in exchange for them are there not more and more lasting Joyes in the presence of God Psal 16.11 Rivers of pleasures without bank or bottom at the right hand of God for evermore unknown Pleasures unseen Delights which no eye hath seen nor ear hath heard of neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of such as no stranger shall ever meddle with Pro. 5.14 and will not those make thee amends Let the Epicures of the Age that choose pleasures for their portion plead this argument let the Drunkard howl when the new Wine faileth Joel 1.5 or when the Cup is snatched from his mouth Alas thou hast met with little Joyes and those mixed and the greatest part Wormwood and Gall a litttle Honey and many Stings a little bitter-sweet pleasure that ends in pain yea short and transitory in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is Heaviness but what are those to the Joyes unspeakable and full of Glory that is in Heaven 'T is true there are some that are the Sons and Daughters of pleasure Psal 73.5 That are not in trouble as other men neither are
dye as to dine and accounted the day of their Death their Wedding day Paul was ready not only to be bound but to dye for Christ Many were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection they had Trial of cruel mocking scourging yea bonds and imprisonments they were stoned sawn asunder tempted slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins Heb. 11.36 c. being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the World was not worthy they wandred in deserts and in mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth c. The more thou sufferest for Christ the more weighty will thy Crown of Glory be those that loved not their lives to the death but were killed for the Testimony of Jesus are placed under the Altar nay follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and are cloathed with long white Robes and have Palms in their hands But if thou deny thy life to Christ he will deny thee entrance into this Heavenly Canaan and thou shalt not only lose thy reward but thy Soul also and expose thy self to Death Eternall If thou suffer with him thou shalt reign with him and if thou art ashamed of him he will also be ashamed of thee Those that honour him he will honour and those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed If thou come to suffer for him as many eyes will be upon thee so many Prayers will be put up for thee and doubtless much comfort will be dropt into thy Soul by the Spirit of God who is the Comforter sent by God upon this business and God will stand by thee in suffering times and give in Cordials to refresh thy heart I have read of a Christian that under his Rack and Tortures as he after told his friends apprehended a young man with a handkerchief wiping the sweat off his face and comforting him The holy Angels will stand by thee and God will not be at a distance from his suffering Saints and who then need fear to dye that hath learnt to live if thou be prepared thou needst not fear what Messenger God sends for thee nor at what hour of the night thy master comes for Death cannot be sudden to the prepared Soul that is alwaies upon his watch and thou needst not fear what thy sufferings be if thou canst but say Propter te propter te Domine 'T is for thee and for thy sake we are killed all the day long and accounted as Sheep for the slaughter The more thou sufferest then the more deeply thou engagest God to thee and he will pay thee an hundred fold this is the best usury and the best way thou canst dispose of thy life for every year on Earth that thou hast lost thou shalt receive a thousand in Heaven and for one friend thou forsakest here thou shalt receive a thousand there and for every thing thou losest for his sake thou shalt be recompensed a thousand fold and as thou shalt have no loss so thy Enemies shall be no gainers by thy death they heap up coals of fire upon their own heads and without repentance prevent it augment their own damnation for Christ will take it as done to himself and their torments are like to be as durable as thy Joyes which will be for ever and ever Consider not so much what thou sufferest as for what and for whom if it be for the Truth it will prevail and if it be for Christ thou shalt not lose by it Truth is more precious than life it self and fit to be sealed with thy blood thou must deny thy self rather than deny thy God for he that gave thee thy life is fittest to dispose of it and whosoever parts with his life upon this account makes a good bargain he cannot buy this Gold too dear Many are the encouragements given in Scripture to persecuted Saints Mat. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you And as great will be thy reward so great also are the company of thy fellow-sufferers even from righteous Abel to this day Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers Persecuted Yea Christ and his Apostles followed after for almost all of them dyed a violent death and greater than the Master is the Servant cannot be the world that hated Christ will hate his Servants also and persecute all that bear his Image If they hated him for righteousness sake they will hate all that are righteous Christ suffered for thee the wrath of God and wilt not thou suffer for him the wrath of man he was stung by Death and dost think it much to be strucken by it now the sting is out he suffered for thee the pains of Hell and think'st it too much to suffer the pangs of death for him when many times it is not so much as some have endured from an aking tooth and what is this to the recompense of reward he gave thee thy life and can take it if he please and yet desires thy consent and if thou refuse he will distrain of thee for this debt The worst of Enemies can but stop thy breath and the least of Creatures can do as much if animated by God The least Fly or Hair or Crumb of Bread will choak thee if God give it a commission and well maist thou fear it if thou hast denyed God to lay down thy life for his sake sickness or age will as surely end thy life as thy Enemies can though haply not so suddenly thou hast no assurance of it a day to an end neither canst thou have only put it into his hand and he will dispose of it for thy good how can the seed spring up if it be not sown or how can the body rise if not fallen if God suffer any to take away thy life 't is not out of any love to them or hatred to thee he loves his Child better than his Rod though sometimes the rod may be set on high when the Child is turned out of door yet when the child is reformed the rod shall be burnt they cannot preserve their own lives nor take away thine 't is God doth both and ere long they must tread the same steps and down to the same pit and travail the same road and enter Deaths dark Vault as well as others only here is the difference death which will bring thee as Joseph out of Prison will bring them in and as it knocks off the bolts from thy heels he will fasten shackles and chains upon theirs and shall bring them like Haman from his glory to his execution that death which will set an end to thy misery will terminate their felicity it will
bring thee to glory but them to shame and everlasting contempt well may they fear Death but thou hast more cause to desire it Heaviness to thee may continue for a night but joy comes in the morning and by the eye of faith thou maist with Stephen see beyond Death even Heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God yea the Tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradice of God the Crown of glory the purchased Inheritance the Prize for which thou didst run the Crown for which thou didst fight If thou hast a mark in thy forehead for a Mourner in Sion there thou shalt have a Crown upon thy head in token of Victory Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Thou art almost come to the top of the hill draw not back now nor let thy heart go down hold out now Faith and Patience your work will not be now long hold fast what thou hast let no man take thy crown let no temptation draw thee away from Christ consider well the hand that holds it and the design Satan drives on to captivate thy soul for ever Thy life as it is not in thy own hand and should not be at thy own dispose so 't is not in thine enemies hand to take it away at their pleasure but as God makes wicked men his Skullions to scour off the rust of his people so also his Executioners to fulfill his Decrees all is in the hands of God both the Time when the Manner how and the Instruments by whom it shall be done he knows best when his work is done and when to gather his Roses and lodge them in his bosom and the Devil and his instruments are but his drudges and when the measure of their sins are fulfilled they shall have their reward The Devil himself was not able to kill one of Jobs Sheep nor to raise one boyl upon his body without Gods leave Job 1.10 for God had set a hedge about him as he was fore't to confess And God will seal no commission to the dammage of his people for all things shall work together for their good Rom. 8.28 And why dost fear man whose breath is in his nostrils or the son of man that is vanity if the fear of God be planted in the heart the fear of men and Devils will vanish for God hath them in a chain and they cannot go a link beyond it Dan. 3.19 6.16 Nebuchadnezzar had power to cast the three children into the fiery furnace but not to burn them Darius had power to cast Daniel into the Lions den yet not to cause him to be devoured the Sodomites compassed Lots house but could not enter and Haman procured a decree to cut off all the Jewes but lived not to effect it Those that are faithful to the death Rev. 2.10 shall receive at God hands a Crown of life and shall be made pillars in the house of God if they overcome But if thou revolt and deny thy God thou art from under his protecting hand and canst not claim one promise of his assistance then thou standest upon thy own legs and must shift for thy self and a miserable shift it will be Dost contend with him about thy life that hath the keyes of life and death at his girdle he that gave thee thy life and being and thou hast no breath but what he gives thee See the grievous judgments that God brings upon Apostates which both the Scripture and Church Histories will furnish thee with the fallen Angels Adam and Eve in paradise Judas Achitophel Ananias and Saphira and many more and in after ages not a few and what think'st to get by Apostacy by denying thy God or thy Religion perhaps thou thinkest to save thy life a little longer a miserable bargain and yet the Devil cannot assure thee of that It is to be feared that many in Ireland in the late Rebellion had they been brought to the trial whether they would have forsaken their Religion or their Lives would not have chosen Death yet they suffered in the name of Protestants when 't is to be feared they had little more than the Name the question not being who were godly and who wicked but who were Protestants and who Papists and so it will be in England if ever a Massacre be there made by the Papists which God forbid good and bad are there like to drink of the same cup how much better then is it to devote thy life to God leave it at his dispose if he save it bless him for it if he take it away let his will be done if thou thus carry it in thy hand to lay down at his pleasure if he require it not thou shalt not lose thy reward as Abraham did not though Isaac was not sacrificed If thou resolvedly deny it though he require it not thou shalt not be innocent as Abraham had he denied his son though God eventually determined he should not dye yet had been a transgressour and had miss'd of the blessing yet 't is not required of thee by God to lay down thy head upon the block but use all good means for to save thy life and as Christ bids his disciples Mat. 10.23 when they are persecuted in one city to fly to another for if thou suffer without a call thou losest thy reward all lawful means for self-preservation must be used or we are guilty of our own blood but when thou must sin or suffer dye or deny the truth thou must not deny the truth for lifes sake nor do evil that good may come of it then trust God if he will he can preserve thee if not his will be done for then he sees it besâ— to take thee away from the evil to come of two evils the least is to be chosen losing thy life is not so bad as losing Gods love Psal 63.3 for his loving kindness is better than life a violent death upon this account hath been the lot of many thousand Saints that have deliberately made this choice whose souls are now attending upon the Lamb whithersoever he goes from the beginning of the world to this day no age was free from innocent blood which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted the Apostles the primitive Fathers and many thousand Christians were baptized with Christs baptism and went to Heaven in a Sea of blood The Jewes made havock of the Church in the Primitive times and when they were destroyed and their power taken from them the Roman Emperours in the Ten bloody persecutions destroyed hundreds of thousands of them and after that succeeded the Arian persecution and when that was ended and the Pope got his foot into the stirrop and sat as he pretends in the infallible Chair he exceeded in cruelty the Heathens themselves witness the Spanish Inquisition the bloody butchering of the Waldenses and Albigenses the Massacres in Paris and other Cities
it and there is no redemption for such the redemption of the soul is precious Psal 49.8 and it ceaseth for ever Luk. 16.26 Mat. 16.26 no one can get over that great gulph that lies between heaven and hell neither can any price be found out to redeem a lost soul here is no Writ of Error can be had for the prisoner is laid in by an unerring Judge that cannot be deceived there is no Appeal to be made to any other Court for this iâ— the Supream where the Causes tried in all other Courts are called over again and fully determined and the Judge of all the earth will there do justice here can no force hinder the execution and free thee out of prison for thou hast an omnipotent God to grapple with see now what a rock of ruine thou hast run thy self upon what a remediless condition thou art plunged into for if thou deny the Lord that bought thee thou wilt run upon swift destruction and all the friends thou hast cannot help it Well but though the pains be sharp yet if they be but short here is some comfort there is some hope that an end will come though it be long first but alas this comfort here is dasht These torments are eternal as is already proved and shall never end in the pangs of death 'T is true there is hopes for though they are sharp they are momentany yet some Tyrants have kept men many daies in a dying life or living death Tiberius Caesar being petitioned by one to hasten his punishment and give him a speedy dispatch made him this answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay Sir you and I are not yet friends Such an answer will God give to a damned soul if it desire God to put an end to his torments by death those lingring deaths either inflicted by God or man though they seem long to sence yet what are they to eternity the word for ever will be a Hell in the midst of Hell for when the soul cryes out in anguish and bitterness of spirit How long Lord how long the conscience answers again Ever ever while God is God and Heaven is Heaven and Hell is Hell the miscarrying soul must remain fuel to maintain this fire that shall never go out To this second death the first is but a flea-biting this is Mors sine morte finis sine fine this is that which is call'd Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord where the poor soul must be tormented sine intervallo without ease or end for when the years of a thousand Generations are whirl'd about thy torments will be as fresh as the first day thou wast cast into them and not one farthing of the ten thousand Talents paid off nor one moment of eternity taken off Oh Eternity eternity how amazing art thou how shall we conceive of thee how shall we cast thee up Oh my soul if thou substract from eternity an hundred thousand millions of years the remainder will not be the less 't is infinite still for two finites cannot make an infinite for what is infinite is indivisible it cannot be made less should a poor creature upon the rack under exquisite tortures have his life prolonged for twenty years together without any intermission of pain we might well account him the most miserable man alive and whose heart would not ake for him but what is this to eternal torments and yet who pities them that are like to endure them nay who pities himself that lies under the danger if a man under some raging pain as of the Cholick Stone or Gout lie upon a Featherbed for many years in tormenting pain though he have friends to visit him meat and drink to support him and what comfort Nature or Art could help him to yet we look upon him as a spectacle of misery and one that deserves pity Job 9.14 to him saith Job that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friends But what is this to hell or what is a few years to eternity for in hell is no comfort no ease no refreshment neither any friend to pity nay if all the torments that ever poor creatures indured upon earth whether inflicted by God himself by man or by the Devil could all light upon one man and should lye under them for hunderds of years yet would it fall short for this would neither reach the pain nor reach the duration for when the miscarrying soul hath lain in hell as many years as there are grass piles upon the earth drops of water in the Ocean sands upon the sea shoar hairs on all the mens heads in the world and Stars in Heaven yet the hundred thousandth part of Eternity is not over Oh eternity how shall finite apprehensions conceive of thee how shall we number thee or find out what thou art we that live in time and have but a little time given us here cannot conceive of thee but by a long space of time as we cannot of Infinity of Essence but by a vast quantity we know God doth not number Eternity as we do Time one day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day For in eternity we need not trouble our selves to count the fleeting hours neither daies nor years for there is no Sun Moon or Stars to be set for times and seasons or for daies or for years but in hell is horrid darkness blackness of darkness for ever And whose heart may not tremble at the apprehension of it should all the Arithmeticians in the world joyn heart and hand and head and all to cast up the greatest summe possible that each one severally could reach and when this is done should add all these together into one summe yet it would fall short nay should the circumference of Heaven be written about with Arithmetical figures from east to west from north to south and all brought into one summe it would yet fall short for what is infinite cannot be diminished or increased such a summe added to it would not increase it such a summe substracted from it would not diminish it Oh my soul what think'st thou of it wilt thou venture upon the pikes of danger wilt thou deny the Lord that bought thee and the God that made thee to preserve a miserable life a little longer Thou seest thy wages and knowest thy reward hadst rather chuse everlasting damnation than a little temporal pain and rather thrust soul and body into eternal flames and suffer the vengeance of eternal fire rather then the pangs of a temporal death Oh what madness hath bewitched thee what folly haunts thee how doth the Devil and the world delude thee Thou that wouldst cut off a limb or joint to preserve the body from greater torture wilt not be willing to endure a little to preserve both body and soul from eternal ruine Heaven and Earth and all wise men may stand amazed at thy folly If thou turn
thy back upon Christ he will turn his back upon thee and be ashamed of thee If thou make light of his Supper thou shalt not tast of his daintes The question thou seest is not whether death be desirable or no Nature it self answers the contrary but whether the first or second death be the greater evil and so whether is to be chosen when both cannot be avoided The question is not whether pain be eligible but whether the pains of death or hell be the greater Not whether life be desirable but whether life or Christ be the better Whatever thy senses may say rectifyed Reason which should govern the sensitive faculties will tell thee the second death is far more formidable and that 't is better to deny thy self than deny thy Redeemer Oh my God is this the reward of Apostacy is this the wages the Devil gives his best servants Through thine assisting grace I will be thine Lord I resolve I will never forsake thee Lord do thou never leave me to my self nor forsake me MEDITAT X. Of Heavens Glory the reward of dying for Christ OH my soul thou hast seen the danger of revolting and denying Christ thou hast had a view of hell which is the reward of this sin thou hast looked into it and had a glimpse of it though it was but a little representation a true map of it the Devil himself cannot make nor give a full discription but here is enough to stay thy stomach how thinkst of it if thou trade for it canst thou make a savers bargain if thou lose thy soul to save thy life For this is the trade thou drivest if thou deny Christ here is the Devils offered wages 't is true he sugers this bitter pill with a promise of a longer miserable life in a cheating world but he cannot make good his bargain though he will not be behind hand with his wages Mat. 25.41 if thou depart from Christ now he will bid thee depart from him for ever what is thy resolution Halt not between two opinions if God be God serve him 1 Kin. 18.27 if Baal be God serve him thou canst not serve two masters God and Mammon If thou pretend to both thou art like to be cast off by both by God and the world as many hypocrites are the world hates them because they look like the godly and God hates them because they are really wicked consider therefore who is like to be the best master and who will give the best wages and if the ballances are yet equally poized I shall put in one weight more even an eternal weight of glory into Gods end which may haply turn the scales though the whole world were in the other end for if thou be faithful to the death thou shalt receive a crown of life and this crown will really over-ballance all that the Devil can put into the other end Thou hast seen there is but a little in the world worth the losing and a great deal in hell worth the fearing let us see if there be any thing in heaven worth the enjoying in the world is nothing but vanity in hell nothing but misery and in Heaven nothing but felicity now what wise man would lose this felicity and endure this misery for a little while to enjoy this vanity Thou hast seen the Devils wages that is the best of it for the worst the Devil himself cannot make thee understand for it is inexpressible and no word in humane language can set it forth to the life yet thou hast had a tast of it and a tast is better than a whole draught Now if thou would'st see what wages God will give thee thou must make a journey also into Heaven and see if there be any thing that may win upon thy affections thou seest already what the Devil and the world have bidden thee see also what wages God offers thee and then choose as thou seest cause see if there be any thing in Heaven to make up all thy losses crosses sufferings and pains which thou must be at for Christs sake and if there be not take thy course and make another choice view those celestial habitations those mansions of glory prepared for those that confess Christ before men and lose any thing for his sake view this purchased Inheritance this Crown of glory and those eternal pleasures that are at Gods right hand and see if God do not outbid the Devil and the World and so best deserves thy affections and consider whether this may not a little allay thy overmuch desire of life and fear of death and make thee willing to be at thy Redeemers will and Makers pleasure one view of this celestial Paradice may make thee disrelish all temporal felicity But how shall we sing the songs of Sion in a strange land or what conceptions can we have of these Heavenly Mansions while we abide in houses of clay Water can ascend no higher than the Fountain-head and Nature cannot transcend Nature what conceptions can a beast have of a rational being much lower must we have of a celestial being for the disproportion is greater how canst thou view those gloryes surpassing a thousand Suns when thou canst not view one Sun when it shines in its splendour but thy weak eyes are offended how canst utter those things which the Apostle that saw them calls inutterable how canst discourse of the Father of Spirits and knowest so little of the nature of a Spirit nay art so ignorant of thy own soul or tell what it is to enjoy God in glory when those little glimpses of him here are inexpressible or how canst thou discourse of that which eye never saw ear never heard of neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive of viz. What God is and what he hath prepared for those that love him for as those hellish flames which the wicked suffer cannot be fully described by those that endure them no more can those celestial joyes by those that enjoy them much less by a frail creature that hath had very little tast of those honey-dews that fall upon the heirs of glory In this wilderness of troubles we see few of those Canaans grapes and foretasts of Glory the full fruition no man living can discover Yet let us get a Pisgah sight of Canaan a remote view of glory and judge a little of the worth of the Jewel by the richness of the Cabinet that holds it and haply thou maist by the report as the Queen of Sheba of Solomons wisdom get some conceptions of it that may make thee like her be willing to take the journey though thou hearest not the one half of what there really is to be seen and though thy conceptions reach not the matter in hand yet may they reach thy affections and serve to dazle thine eyes that all earthly glory shall seem little to it To this purpose let us view the bespangled Spheres adorned with those beauty
conceptions can a brute beast have of a Rational being no better can we have of celestial things which are so far out of the reach of sense Kings are the highest degree of honour and dignity among men and therefore all the Saints are said to be Kings Kings wear Crowns and so do they but these Crowns are not made of gold but of Glory but what that glory is we yet know not God is the Sun of righteousness that casteth abroad his beams and the Angels and glorified Saints are as the Moon that are inlightned with his rayes and by reflexion become light and shine as the Stars in the Firmament by their borrowed light and how many millions of Suns then will appear at once in this Horizon which shall never set again Oh the wonderful love and mercy of God! that this body of clay shall then shine as the Sun and be made like unto the glorified body of the Lord Christ this is the place where sin and sorrow shall be no more they shall never enter these gates or ever reach the heart of any Believer no painful pang no hard labour no sickness no sorrow nothing that bespeaks evil shall ever enter but everlaststing Joy and endless triumph those that believe this and believe that they have a have a part in this they may well say with Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ If Cleombeotus hearing Plato's discourse of the Immortality of the soul hastened his own death that he might have the pleasure of another world well may a Christian though not lay violent hands upon himself yet wait every day when his appointed time come and cry out Come Lord Jesus come quickly Thus thou seest the place is glorious and the company delightful and adding more lustre to the place and more happiness to one another Here upon earth as thou art among sorrows and troubles so in a bad Neighbourhood even among men spiritually dead most thou conversest with are so and who but mad men would live among the tombes every family have some most families have all thus dead in trespasses and sins nay not only dead but infectious also every one hath some plague-sore or other running upon him and thou art apt to take the infection nay many are infected to the danger of the life of the soul and who would live in such an infected air in such a pest-house thou livest also amongst enemies some open some secret the latter many times worst of all some seek thy Estate by unjust dealing some would rob thee of thy good Name by detraction and reproaches by lyes and slanders others of thy liberty by persecution and some of thy life but the greatest enemies seek the destruction of both body and soul and all these lay snares in thy way to intrap thee many wait for thy halting and for an occasion to do thee a mischief but in heaven here is a good neighbourhood good society the inhabitants there are free from guile free from corruption self seeking every one loving another as himself and God better than all here both the Saints and Angels are perfect in Holiness without spot or stain without sin or sinful inclination here thou shalt sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of thy Father and have no worse company than the Spirits of just men made perfect It was Socrates the wisest of the Philosophers comfort when he was to dye that he should after death converse with Homer Hesiod and other excellent men in another world It was Cato's comfort against the pains of death that now he was to leave the Colluvies as he calls them that filthy sordid base unworthy company with which he was forc'd to converse those beastly belly-gods and that he should converse with the Souls of wise men departed But of all men in the world believers may comfort themselves that they shall in Heaven enjoy the company of Saints and Angels yea with God himself and come to the City of the great King Heb. 12.23 the Heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven for if the Society of the Saints were so delightful here when yet they had their Sins and Imperfections what will they be there when they shall be there when they shall be healed of all their corruptions if here they were Comely though black what will they be when they are without Spot or wrinkle here on Earth they are like fire-sticks setting one another on a flame of love provoking each other to love and to good works building each other up in their most holy faith exciting each others zeal for Gods glory and the common good watching over each other sympathizing each with other and helping to bear each others aflictions but oh how sweet then wilâ— their Society be when all imperfections shall be done away and they shall be perfect in holiness when nothing will appear but perfect Love Unity and Amity one with another when all shall be of one mind and every one shall speak the same thing and there shall be nothing to interrupt their joy or break their peace or frustrate their hopes or cross their wills Oh blessed Society between whom is no strife no contention no difference in judgment no discontent can arise where there is no hypocrite dissembler or hollow-hearted person among them but all mind all pursue the same thing the praise of their dear Redeemer when there is no Error in Judgment no disorder in the affections no disobedience in their wills no trouble in the conscience no defect in the memory Oh happy day when will it come when I shall enjoy those miriads of Angels and glorified Saints in glory here the Saints are tossed to and fro in the world as if they were not fit to live in it but there they come to their resting place this is their center where they are as firm as mount Sion and shall not be moved here is their work but there is their wages here is their suffering there is their Reward here is their pilgrimage there is their Country here they are subject to infirmities there they are made perfect in holiness here are those nimble Posts of Heaven Gen. 28.12 which Jacob saw ascending and descending upon the Ladder in his Vision these are Gods Army these are Believers Guardians and in Heaven they shall be their fellow Brethren here are the Noble Army of Martyrs that loved not their lives to the death whose garments were dyed red with their own blood Rev. 14. and now are made white in the blood of the Lamb here are the hundred forty four thousand John saw with harps in their hands which follow the Lamb which way soever he goes singing Halelujahs Salvation honour power and glory be unto our God here are the innumerable company which he saw out of all Nations and Countries and Languages which no man
for him shall receive the greatest share though those that have the least measure shal have Joy unspeakable and full of glory yea as much as they can hold and who but a mad man notwithstanding this will look upon Religion as a Frenzy and the professors thereof little better than frantick because they run themselves upon the pikes of danger and expose themselves to losses and crosses to troubles and trials yea to death it self and that for conscience sake but did these men see the prize they run for the Crown they fight for they would run the same race and fight the same fight if any of them were but offered an handful of Gold for a handful of Silver they would not refuse it much less if they might have an handful of Angels for a handful of Muck but believers make a better exchange for they receive Heaven for the Earth and God for the Creatures yea eternal Life for that which is temporal did others know the reward they would do the work did they see the joy that is set before them they would endure the cross and despise the shame as well as they but how can those see that are spiritually blind or know whose foolish hearts are darkned they are at least sand blind and cannot see at a distance nor discern what it is that stands beyond death and seeing no other pleasure but what only reaches the senses take up with that and think there is no better did they see better they would desire better those that know no better than Hell never look after Heaven were they nearer to God that Spiritual Loadstone they would be drawn to him they would then contemn these fading delights and lay hold upon everlasting happiness they would contemn this unrighteous Mammon and seek after True Treasure they see indeed both wayes but cannot see to the end the one they see broad and easie green and pleasant but they see not the dangerous Precipice it leads to and the fiery Gulph it ends in they see the other also which is rough and craggy steep and hilly which few men walk in but they see not the Pleasures it ends in and therefore they choose the other and think they do wisely and think they are Fools that do otherwise but had they the Saints spectacles they would change their minds but this their way is their folly and nothing but ignorance can make them walk in it the time will come they would change their course but cannot as the foolish Virgins would have had Oyl when it was too late corrupted Reason being inchanted by sense proves a Caterer for the flesh but were it rectifyed by faith it would look for happiness elsewhere There are too many like a Cardinal I have read of that usually said I will not leave my part in Paris for a part in Paradise they are wedded to the world and are loth to be divorced 'T is true believers know little of the nature of Heavens joyes these know nothing of it the former have some glimpses of the glory some foretastes of the sweetness of Canaans fruits this sets them a longing the other are strangers to it ignotus nulla cupido The godly know not the quantity of it for how can that be discovered that is unspeakable or conceived of that is inconceivable or how can that be measured that is infinite this we may build upon 't is our masters Joy and therefore great it cannot enter into us but we must enter into it methinks when we speak or hear of Joy unspeakable of Light inaccessible and of Glory immortal our hearts may burn within us like the Disciples which were going to Emaus when Christ spake to them it should make us cast a despising eye upon all the worlds glory and make us think no pains too much nor cost too dear to come to the enjoyment of it it might make us run that we may obtain fight that we might conquer and travel hard to come to our journeys end for then all our work will be done all our pains over and we shall have nothing to do but to praise the Lord which will be our wages as well as our work for when we are spiritualized and the dross of corruption left behind it will be as natural to us as to live and as now it is to breathe for there is nothing but our corruption now that makes this Angelical duty troublesome And is there enough in Heaven to make amends for all our losses and crosses upon earth let us then never stick at the price for whatsoever we expend for Christ or Heaven it shall be paid back with advantage If Solomons Servants were so happy in seeing his glory and hearing his wisdom Oh what a happiness will it be to see his glory in Heaven when it will be increased and hear his wisdom when 't is perfected nay in enjoying Solomons God and partaking both of his glory and wisdom and Oh the Honour that believers will have in such a Relation where they will have God for their Father Christ for their Husband the Angels and Saints for their Brethren and companions and not only seed upon Angels food but be set upon an Angelical Employment and have the Angel reward And if this be not enough to satisfie for all the pains troubles losses and crosses thou sustain upon this account never take upon thee the profession of Religion but I am sure there is punishment enough in hell for all those that make light of Christ and slight the offers of the Gospel Oh the purblind world that can see nothing but what is under their feet had they but such a sight of God and Glory as some others have had they would desire with Paul to be dissolved Phil. 1.23 Rev. 22.20 and with the Church Come Lord Jesus come quickly Here thou complainest of vain thoughts and roving imaginations and well thou maist but thou wilt never be cured of them but by death and after death thou shalt never be troubled with them more but shalt serve God without distraction In the world thou couldst never meet with content in Heaven thou shall never meet with discontent and art thou yet content to be in the world here thou meetest with no satisfaction and art thou satisfied without satisfaction well whatever thoughts thou hast of Christ now the time is coming thou wilt have use of him and need of him for at death one glimpse of his favour one smile of his countenance will do thee more good than all the Cordials thy Doctors can give thee Moses saw but his back-parts and his face did shine how doth he shine now in beholding his glory the fruition of God in glory is the souls happiness and happy are they that do enjoy him but what this fruition is we neither know nor can know in this world no word in humane language can express it for how can a Cockle-shell comprehend all the water in the Ocean we can
how confounding art thou to the workers of Iniquity but how amiable and delightful are the thoughts of thee to the godly for they have Eternity added to their Happiness the other to their Misery Oh what a long Lease will this be of Heavens glory that shall never expire the want of duration makes the worlds glory of little worth but Eternity makes Hells torments so Tormenting and Heavens Joy so desirable these shall never wax old nor know end Here thou â—eedest not weary thy self in Counting he fleeting hours or the return of weeks or months or years here is neither Clock nor Watch nor Dial to observe Time by nor Sun nor Moon nor Stars to distinguish Day from Night or Summer from Winter for Time shall be no more it will be swallowed up of Eternity one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day God reckons not time as we do their Sun shall know no Eclipse nor their Moon no Change When death opens the door for the soul to enter into Eternity it shall not float there but be immediately posted into glory the Spirit shall return to God that gave it where it shall enjoy for ever those good things which it hath laboured for and thirsted after and reap the fruit of all the pains it hath taken for Heaven Oh my soul Eternity will be the very Crown of thy Crown and the Crown of Heaven it self for if thou didst certainly know thy Joyes would expire Heaven would be filled with sad thoughts and sowre sawce to thy sweet meat and spoil all thy mirth Oh my soul thou hast noâ— a price put into thy hands the Lord give thee a heart to get wisdom let not the thoughts of a short trouble or a little pain make thee loâ—e the race and mis the prize but rather suffer any temporal pain than eternal and suffer any loss rather than the loss of thy soul the loss of thy God thy Heaven and thy happiness Thou hast seen what death is both to the godly and wicked that it is common to both but no enemy to a Believer that there is nothing in the world of equal value with celestial Treasures that Death can do thee no hurt but much good in freeing thee from evil and putting thee into the possession of all that is really good thou hast seen the reward of Obedience and the punishment of denying Christ what is thy resolution Wilt thou be faithful to the death then here is offered a Crown of life Rev. 2.10 If thou wilt prove an Apostate thou must have thy portion with Judas and go down to thy place Heaven and Hell Life and Death are set before thee choose which thou wilt Oh my God I see reason sufficient why I should give up my Life to thy dispose I am convinc'd that it is my Duty and my Interest Lord suffer not this treacherous heart to deceive me let me consult with Faith and not with Sence let me never trust in my own strength neither distrust thine Lord through thy strength I can do all things but without thee I can do nothing Lord I believe help my unbelief let me honour thee both by my life and by my death if thou wilt thou canst let this Cup pass from me yet not my will but thine be done Lord fit the back before thou lay on the burden enable me to obey and then command what thou wilt if it be thy will I shall be sacrificed Lord accept of the Sacrifice and thy will be done let thy strength be seen in my weakness and Lord Jesus receive my Spirit FINIS ERRATA PAge 24. line 25. add some P. 36. l. 24. for may r. many P. 79. l. 6 blot out to P. 114. l. 30. blot out the p. 117. l. 9. add or p. 145. l. 22. for they were r. thou wert p. 147. l. 24. add out p. 188. l. 28. blot out from p. 195. l. 22. for defirmity r. deformity p. 212. l. 27. for stench r. stink p. 214. l. 22. for him r. it p. 229. l. 29. add he p. 236. l. 23. no comma after in p. 241. for transfigurati r. transfiguration p. 254. l. 20. blot out have a p. 267. l. 10. for it r. thee p. 268. l. 23. blot out nay l. 27. for be r. by p. 282. l. 19. for ignotus r. ignotis EPISTLE DEDICATORY Page 3. line 18. for triffs r. trifles p. 10. l. 16. add si p. 17. l. 10. for nescit r. scivit TO THE READER Page 15. line 12. for parllael r. parallel p. 23. l. 10. for iguotus r. ignotis Books Sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers Chappel DAille on the Colossians Taylor on Christs Temptations Burgess on the Third Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Pareus on the Revelations One hundred select Sermons By Dr. Horton Quarto Scandret against Quakerism Bulkly on the Covenant Elton on the Commandements The Fiery Jesuit Morgan of Dialling Separation no Schism Dr. Collings upon an Opining Conscience Hodges's Creatures Goodness Considerations for Peace By the same Author Mr. Janeways Funeral Sermon The Morning Exercise against Popery Four useful Discourses By Mr. Burroughs Dr. Wilds Letter of Thanks Brightman on the Revelations Large Octavo Heywoods Sure Mercies of David Cobbet on Prayer Polwheils Quenching of the Spirit Sober Singularity Heaven taken by Storm Lye's Spelling Book Aesops Fables Doolitels Catechise Whitakers 18 Sermons Dr. Stauntons Life Venning of Sin Normans Cases of Conscience Swinnock on the Attributes Hurst of Grace Calamy's Art of Meditation Shepperdice Spiritualized Wadsworths Remains Lewis's Grammar A POEM wherein is set forth the Vanity Frailty and Brevity of Mans Life as also the Certainty of Death with the Benefit of it to Believers THE Life we live resembles much a Play Where each man acts his part and so away The best act Comedies which Joyfully end Most Tragedies which to confusion tend Men are the Actors and the World 's the Stage Whereon appears persons of every age The good the bad the noble and the base Both Males and Females even all Adams race None are exempt each have some part to play Yet some have lesser some have more to say Some Childrens parts do play they cry and then March off when others act the parts of Men. Some on the Stage do fetch a turn or two Some look about them and no more adoe Some act their own and some anothers part In a disguise they 're honest Knaves in heart The worst in Royal Robes sometimes do dress them Those that their inside view have cause to bless them In their disguise like painted Tombs they shine They 're fair without but foul enough within In Silks and Sattins many men are clad When Dunghill-rakers are not half so bad But when Death comes in their own shape we find them Their borrowed Robes they then must leave behind them Some act in thred-bare Coats
at liberty 't is but the bodies sleep and the Souls awaking the bodies death and the Souls resurrection wherein the Soul shall be freed from all those clogs which now presseth it down that it cannot mount up into those heavenly Regions and it shall live with God blessed for ever to eternity and is this a thing to be feared Hast not already had a sufficent time in the world that yet thou desirest more a thousand thousand have not lived so long and yet none of those in Heaven complain their time was too short upon Earth or that they came thither too soon and it would be hard to perswade them to return with a promise of all the Excellencies that the world affords This is the godly mans Purgatory and should he not rather pray to be delivered out than continued in it 't is his Hell all the Hells he is like to have and shall he take up his station here among miseries and troubles hadst thou in thy youthful daies had liberty to appoint out thy own time and bound the tearm of thy life haply thou mightest have thought the time thou hast already lived had been competent and truely if there be much more behind thou maist well fore-see it will be burthensome to thy self and troublesome to others by reason of thine infirmities The world hath not been so great a friend to thee as thus over eagerly to desire it thy Lord and Master and the most and best of his Servants have not found it so kind and thou hast had thy share of affliction even from thy youth up upon the account of Christ and his Gospel and must God put more gall and wormwood upon the breast to wean thee from the world wilt thou still linger and draw back like Lot in Sodom or like Israel dost quarrel at the promised Land because there are some Anakims to be subdued some troubles in the way and art ever and anon returning back into Egypt and longing after the Onions and Garlick and the Flesh-pots thereof Thou hast long since taken press-money and art now running away from thy Colours thou hast promised to be alwaies in a readiness and dost thou now frame excuses and woudlst be at thy own dispose and not at thy Captains Thou art in a journey and dost thou sit down at the stile and art glad when thou meetest with some stop by the way to hinder thee and is there nothing that thou fearest more than that thou shouldst come to thy journeys end too soon but haply thy work is not done and therefore thou darest not come into thy Masters sight but how dost create thine own shame in so saying hadst thou any greater business to do and of greater importance hast thou had time for every thing else and this not done art thou in a race and is a Crown of glory the prize if thou win and thy own Soul at the Stake if thou lose and hast been hunting Butterflies as thou wentest which when they are taken serve but to soul the fingers when thou didst expect the Bridegroom hast thou Slept and neither trimmed thy Lamp nor provided thy Oyl when thou wast bid to the Wedding hast provided no wedding-garment Thou hast been oft minded of this day yea thou hast often minded others also thou hast often had resolutions to do it how have these dyed and come to nothing many a time thou hast renewed thy Covenant with God and ratified thy baptismal vows In many a danger thou hast made large promises if he would deliver thee what thou wouldst do and what a reformed man thou wouldst be that thou wouldst double thy diligence and amend thy pace and have these resolutions been stifled and these promises broken Oh horrid Ingratitude what wouldst thou now desire of God mightest thou have thy wish wouldst thou desire to be immortal and never dye why this is impossible Gods decree is otherwise 't is contrary to Nature for this composition will work our destruction and 't is also inconstent with Grace then it might be thy trouble that thou wast made a man Or wouldst thou live to old age but how old wouldst thou desire to spin out thy life to an hundred alas what a life of misery wert thou like to lead and when that time came haply thou wouldst be as unwilling as now and would not Thirty or Forty years be as delightfully spent in Heaven as upon the Earth thou hast far more cause to complain of the wickedness than the shortness of thy time Many that have had a shorter time have done a great deal more work in it than thou hast done If thou live long thy corruptions will not dye for age a hard winter will not kill the weeds of sin these may flourish when thy body decayes and old age is not the fittest time for reformation and for preparation Old age is like an old Tree it will hardly bend when a young tree is pliable when thou comest to give an account of ill-spent time thou wilt think the reckoning large enough if thy receivings are great thy account will not be small If thou improve thy talents well and God take them quickly out of thy hand he will never blame thee thou hadst them no longer nor require an account of thee for the time thou hadst them not 't is fit the Master not the Servants should determine what talents each one should have and how long for 't is fit he dispose of his own goods as he pleaseth The longer God makes the lease of thy life the greater fine or the more rent is to be paid for God will not be a loser by thee well if nothing else will serve God may deal with thee as he hath dealt with others whip thee home by some severer scourge than yet thou hast met with and punish thee seven times more for this sin and make thee glad to return home as he did holy Job whose afflictions were so great that he chose strangling rather than life he may lay thee under some raging pain some torturing disease some tormenting distemper and so make thee weary of thy life or he may make thee spend the rest of thy dayes in prison and suffer hardship there or he may make thee to be a Turkish Gally-slave as many are chained to thy Oars or he may reduce thee to extream wants and penury to beg thy bread from door to door to endure much hardship hunger and cold as many Protestants did in the Irish Massacre and thus by putting more gall and wormwood upon the worlds Nipple he can wean thee from the immoderate love of it and the immoderate desire of life Oh my soul wilt thou force thy loving Father to lay heavier stroaks upon thee than ever he did Oh how unsuitable is this immoderate desire of life and fear of death and murmuring under a divine dispensation of Providence to a Christian to an ancient Professor to a Minister can any reason be given why God