will dwell in us long though it have not Dominion Like a rebellious Tenant Rom. 7.17 it keeps possession in spight of the owner till the House be pulled down ever his Head True the Body of Sin hath in the Regenerate received its deaths wound but it is not quite dead there is not the most sanctified Soul but hath some remainders of Corruption left in it enough to require our daily Conflict which God in his wise providence permits for the trying and exercising and humbling of us and for the making his own rich Grace in renewing his pity and multiplying his pardons so much the more exceeding glorious You find now that dying is a Duty and it is as necessary as our Bread this is daily in our petition as it is daily in our need Dying ought to be daily in our practice as it is daily at our Doors We had need to set death before us under the easiest most familiar and feasible considerations as the days of a mans life come about quickly and one of those days is the Boundary of our Cares so let it be of our diligence so to number them as to apply our hearts to this wisdom of dying daily That which must be of necessity once should be admitted into our frequent account and exercise Let us look upon dying as the Christians Business and not as the Creatures Curse and labour to attain the Art oft that we may bear the painful stroke the better The day will come ere long when it will be in vain to say I have no mind to die or I have no leisure or I am not ready not yet I 'll think on 't What if Esay's Message to Hezekiah were sent thee â— King 20. â— Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live Wouldst thou not rather live and die too Heb. 2.13 Luke 12. â—â— 'T is possible you see but what if it should be said Hâc nocte then Donec cognominatur hodie had sounded better Die whiles it is called to day thou fool for this night thy soul shall be taken from thee To die once is our Destiny and to die daily our Duty why should we not bring them into our familiar acquaintance the day of dying is not far from us by dying daily we bring it to our hand 't is in our natures why should it not be so much in our expectations as to be daily in our exercise The spirit of God every where speaks of it in reference to the Saints in the most comfortable and grateful expressions as of that which we have daily in our use and observation We ascribe this to the influence of the dying Jesus who hath so embalmed yea and cloathed Mortality by the dress of Holy Language that there is even a Sweetness Beauty and Blessing in it when a man hath worn a Suit of Apparel a great while even until it be thread-bare or it becomes foul and unseemly would he not be glad to put that off and get a new Garment on his Back therefore death is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. a putting off the Flesh and in answer to that corporal Divesture the spiritual disapparelling is so also called Eph. 4.22 a putting off the old man with his deceivable lusts and there is no hurt in that we are willing to change and shift daily When a man hath tired himself all the day at his work would he not gladly go to Bed and our sinful course is so laborious and wearisome as that it is never well with us till we come to our rest and that 's no where to be had but in Christ Matth. 1â— 28 Do we not betake our selves to our rest every Evening therefore our death is called our sleep and if we daily need our sleep 1 Cor. 15.20.51 why are we not daily solicitous for our rest and refreshment in Jesus under these apprehensions the Holy Spirit would have us bury all hard thoughts of Dying and that we would familiarise it into our daily endeavours so to practise how to die to day that we need not fear to die to morrow the main reason of the terribleness of Death is that Mortals look on it at a greater distance than it is and it is of a more ghastly and formidable aspect to those that are strangers to it And indeed what Israelite is not apt to run at the sight of this Goliah the fear of dying is natural and so far from being evil that it was incident unto the Son of God who was heard in that he feared Christianity serves not to destroy but rectifie nature and Grace regulates this passion in us and corrects its exorbitances never intending to root it out And this is the method of Grace by daily exercise to master this fear though we cannot avoid it Whiles my fear apprehends â—ust terror in the face of death let my Faith carry me to the crucified Jesus who hath both overcome and sweetned it let me in the exercise of that Faith daily set my self against sin and world and flesh and Devil and the terrors of Death disband It is an excellent Christian Temper always to dwell in the Voysinage of the Grave as we do in our frailty so should we in our faith and hope and humble preparations lie at deaths door and though nature is loath to long for the Grave because she holds dissolution her greatest enemy for what can she abhor more than a not being yet Faith perswades that to die is gain Would we not carefully trade every day in that which is lucrous Phil. 1.21 and profitable Let us therefore come into S. Paul's practice of daily living so as dying may be advantageous we have fair respite given us in life which at best is but a span God might shorten it into an Inch but that he lengthens the day in order to further our work and that which is sanctified by the dying Saviour for our cessation is required as our uncessant Employ 'T is a woful Conversion that we read The sting of death is sin and again The sting of sin is death both meet in man to make him miserable death could not have stung us neither had it been at all in the world had it not been for sin and sin though in it self extremely hainous yet were not so dreadful if it paid not so horrible Wages How do we owe our selves to the Mercy of our Saviour who hath freed us from the evil of both having pulled out the sting of death that it cannot hurt us and having taken such course with the sting of sin which is death that instead of hurting it shall be exceeding helpful and is translated into our daily duty and benefit Into what a safe condition hath the Lord of Life put us as that we may daily be exercised about sin and death without dread or danger O let not the patience and sparing Mercies of God be longer abused by us
I die imports the Apostles fitness for death Then is a Christian fit to die when he is furnished for a better life and daily practice breeds promptitude and the exercise of dying is a tuning and timeing us for the dying day that we may be made meet to be partakers of the eternal Inheritance It is with Christians as with tender and precious Fruits they are daily upon some incremental change till they come to be mature and mellow and fit for use and then they are every day falling to the earth as ready for the owners hand In Job 5.26 ye have an allusion to this in that Parabolical Speech of Eliphaz to Job Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in its season This was a promise of Honour and Comfort in death As a shock of corn in its season notes a readiness and ripeness for that season Thou shalt come notes a willingness and chearfulness in dying In season notes the ripeness and fitness for death Now that the allusion may fully bear our Apostle helps us to the apprehension of it in the thirty sixth Verse of this fifteenth Chapter to the Corinthians he increpates the dullness of ignorant Atheists about the Resurrection Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die Dying is in order to quickening and Growth until the Corn come to a full Grain in the Ear and be ripe for Harvest and the Ears are bound 〈◊〉 in the Sheaves and the Sheaves gathered into the Shock and the Shocks into the Barn And in this sense though a Child of God die in his Youth in the Flower and Spring of his days yet his death is as the Harvest Season to his hopes and the gathering of his Soul to God and his Body to his Fathers though in his natural capacity he be cut down whiles he is green and cropt in the Bud or Blossom yet in his spiritual capacity he never dies till he come to ripeness God ripens his Servants speedily when he intends to take them out of the world speedily he can and doth let out such warm Rays of his Spirit upon them as shall soon maturate the Seeds of Grace into a preparedness for Glory This is S. Paid's and every good Christian's profession so to live as to be daily ready for death 't was holy Job's cast of his state Job 17.1 My breath is corrupt my days are extinct the Graves are ready for me And I am ready for the Grave I am undressing my self daily to lie down in dust and sleep in death there is nothing now for me to think of I lay all aside and attend this business alone and 't is a business indeed of great necessity and no small difficulty daily to cast upon it and contrive how I may lie down in peace and rest in death I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have done my work 2 Tim. 4.7 and am going to my Bed I have nothing to do but to die and this is my daily care to sequester my Soul from this world as one that hath life and portion and Inheritance in a better I die daily Lastly And so daily dying notes a continual Exercise of Mortification for in the Christian Dialect and Scriptural Style to die daily is a spiritual sanctified Habit made up of many Acts and quotidian Exercises of suppressing and destroying the old man and the whole body of Sin and this is meant in those Scriptures which speak of putting off the old man Eph. 4.12 â— Cor. 9. â—â— beating down the body and keeping it in subjection the Spring of Grace is a living Fountain always cleansing away the dead Sediments of Dirt aâ— Mire The expression of the Holy Ghost about this 〈◊〉 worthy of our serious consideration Rom. 6.6 Known that our old man is crucified with him Christ that the bâ— of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not sâ—◠〈◊〉 For he that is dead is freed from sin Lo here 〈◊〉 Appellation and its execution the old man partly in respect of Antiquity as old as the eldest of men partly in respect of the Renovation 1 Thess 5.23 which is universal of the whole man Body and Soul Then 't is called the body of Sin partly because mans corrupt nature Coloss 3.5 like a body or stock brancheth forth into divers actual enormities as so many Members partly because of its strength and for that men are as much naturally in love of their Sins as of their Limbs and are as impatient of Amputation But if ye take notice of Sins execution This old man is crucified Crucifixion is made up of many deliberate Acts and these bring on exquisite Torments and the Torments cause successive decays every hour so doth Sin by this crucifying Discipline grow weaker and weaker and nearer to its Grave and utter Abolition Regenerative Acts give Sin many wounds though as those that are crucified it dieth lingringly yet it dieth certainly Sin in the mortifying Mystery like a man in a Consumption is always wasting and dying till at last it is quite dead and the dying day of the Regenerate is the utmost date of Sins being Thus if as long as we live we give Sin a daily wound it may sprawl and move for a time but afterwards giveth up the Ghost For while Saints live though Sin be mortally wounded as the creature that hath lost its sting it may rage and stir but it abateth in strength and malignity and dieth with them In Psalm 88.4 Heman complains Thus My soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh to the grave I am accounted with them that go down into the pit I am as a man of no strength free among the dead The surest Interpretation of that sweet Singers Style and State is That he was much exercised in this sin mortifying austerity he was a great Proficient in it as we say of one that hath served a rigid Apprentiship he is his Crafts-Master he hath got the knack of it he is a Freeman at the Occupation And in this sense death is not to be looked on as a Saints expiration but as an accumulative Mystery and an high Improvement in the Faculty of Sin-slaying And some Ancients have been rare at it and some skillful Christians still are as well versed in it and they know how to encounter with Soul-Enemies as tryed Champions having been long conversant in the Artillery and Fencing-School of Christ as that they have been able to teach it by certain Rules and Rudiments and so it is one of the Gospel-Mysteries in which by frequent exercise we may grow Graduates and S. Paul had it seems commenced Doctor in it even in this rare Accomplishment of Dying Daily So then we are resolved upon the Question what this kind of Dying is It is not a natural dying consisting of many gradual Tendencies unto the Dissolution of this our mortal Body though
a foolish boldness wherein there is no mixture of wisdom or pious forecast 2. There is great gain in dying for such as by frequent exercise are got skilled in it Job tells us of some that die without wisdom certainly they that never learn'd of God to number their days are to be numbered among those Ignorants the Learned in this Arithmetick reckon their days not by multiplication but by substraction so much for God for Heaven for Christ for Soul and for the Eternity as that the least part of time if any belongs to this life There is a time to be born and a time to die says the Preacher but he allows no term for this life For as soon as a man is born that which in nature only remains to him is to die and it is a wonder since all the Records of Scripture urge the certainty of death the uncertainty of its day the horror of the day of Judgment the severity of God the dissolution of the world the necessity of our last account and from all these premises the Spirit of God makes no other Inference but that we watch and be sober and stand in a readiness that we live in all holy conversation and godliness that we repent and turn to God that we try and examine whether we are in the faith that we work out our Salvation and make our Calling and Election sure And the Doctrines and Rules and Offices and Acts of Preparation are every where interspersed in Holy Scripture yet this among the rest which is indeed the Epitome of all To die daily is looked on as a Riddle and Paradox rarely received into the Faith and Practice of Men called Christians only some choice Souls hit on 't and to such To live is Christ and to die is gain And we have seen the vast difference of managing death when some inexpert persons have been called to it and the more experienced have been brought forth as Champions in Christ on the stage of the Death-bed It must needs come from this discriminating Character some with Paul have died so oft that they are grown intimate with it and act it to the life like Jacob and are meetly furnished for their Translation as Enoch And with Stephen first see the Heavens opened and then pass in with inexpressible Joy and Ravishment certainly such have been much versed in dying whiles they lived who die their last in so lively an assurance 3. He that dies daily hath but one days task to do when he dies He is come to his Journeys end after his dayly Travel and he is like a hard Traveller in this he is less weary the last day than when he first set out he can cast up his account readily for he kept his Day-book exact and now he is ready to be offered and the time of his departure is at hand he reviews his whole life and it hath been a continual Fight 2 Tim 4 6.7.3 and now he begins his Triumphant assault he hath daily been in his course and now comes to finish it and to pass to his Crown O the desperate state of such as instead of dying daily are sinning daily and so are dead whiles they live such are they as are drunk daily swear and whore and prophane and debauch daily Epicures Ephesian Beasts Cretian Liars daily who eat and drink to day though they die to morrow O take heed of dallying with death and since all our life we are dying and this minute in which I now speak death divides with me and hath got the surer part and more certain possession it is but reasonable we should be daily upâ—â— the â—â—â—â—ces of preparation If to day we were not dying and passing on to our Graves then we might with more safety protract our work till to morrow but the age of every day is a beginning of death and the night going â—â—ing us to sleep â—â—ds us go to our lesâ—â—â—â—â— because that night which is the end of the preceâ—â—ng day is 〈◊〉 a lesser death and 〈◊〉 â—â—d but a sâ—ster and 〈◊〉 Gâ—â—â—â— and whereas now 〈◊〉 have died so many days the last day of our life is but the dying so many more and when that last day of dying will come we know not methinks this very consideration should put us speedily upon the Religion of dying There is nothing to be added but the circumstances of sickness which also happens many times before only men are pleased to call that death which is the end of dying when we cease to die any more and therefore to delay dying till then is to put off the work of all our life till the time comes in which it is to cease and determine Remember how it was in thy purposes on thy last Sick-bed O that thy health might be such as thy sickness promised then thy mind was fixed on pious things and thou prayedst for sparing mercy and wert vowing religiously and thought on thy sins with sorrow and shame and the Prayers of the Church were needful and comfortable and the Ministers company and counsel desirable and good discourse acceptable and O if thou hadst time in hand again what a new man thou wouldst be Thy case is the same still if thou flatter not thy self thou art no farther from thy Grave when on thy feet than when on thy sick Bed only thou hast now in health better strength and better helps and better opportunities than when thou last wert dying return then to thy sickly but serious purposes and perform them now in thy health and freedom and practise to die now and 't will be an easier and happier task at last And to facilitate all look still on the dying Jesus thoâ— art called to a conformity with him whose name thoâ— bearest and if thou name the name of Christ depart from iniquity decline and abandon all such Acts in life 〈◊〉 might not be done if thou wert dying Every day tâ—â— view of your last and think either it is this or might be and remember Christ in the flesh was always doing his Fâ—ther's Work which was to die for Sinners O let us not live in the love of Sin because Christ so loved us as to die for our Sins and to save our Souls from the second death He began his Works betimes all his days were dying days till the hour came that he died for all Phil. 3.10 he was always waiting for his Fathers appointed time he was always faithful to his Fathers work and trust He held his life upon his Fathers Terms resolved himself into his Fathers Will and at the last resigned his life into his Fathers Hands Abi in fac similiter Go thou and do likewise Being made conformable to his death Christ died for Sin in way of Expiation Satisfaction and Pacification betwixt his Father and us we die unto Sin in a way of Crucifying Mortifying and destroying it in our selves O 't is a painful Task but it is a gainful State It sequesters us from the comforts of life I say it sweetens and sanctifies and makes all comforts savory 'T is hard and irksome only to corrupt flesh It rebates only the grosser and more feculent parts of our present Contents and Secular Enjoyments 'T will keep death in our minds in the height of our merriments 't is as a deaths head in the Lordly Dishes of our Feasts it is to corrupt minds no other than all Salvation work is grievous and burdensome but to the Faith of God's Elect easie and delightsome to pluck out the Right Eye is by interpretation not to have eyes full of Adultery to cut off the hand is to eschew all Acts of Violence Oppression Theft or Fraud to crucifie the flesh is but to keep the lower Faculties and bruitish Appetites from rebelling and rising against the supremacy of Reason and Virtue And so the Spirit of this Letter To die daily is no other than to order our selves and our conversations aright as Men and as Christians in hope of a better life when this is done which God shall shew us in Christ and here Seal unto us by his Holy Spirit to which our temporal Death shall translate us even our full Salvation Which God of his infinite Mercy grant c. Newly Printed THe Glory and Happiness of the Saints in Heaven or a Discourse concerning the blessed State of the Righteous after Death with Motives and Encouragements unto all Christians to secure to themselves an Interest therein Sold by Nathanael Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard FINIS