of any necessity of death As God made us living Creatures so his power was able to sustain us immortal creatures we had bodily life by our soul in our body and spiritual life by Gods Image in both but sin brought on us death of all sorts Death spiritual in the loss of Gods Image death bodily in the begun corruption of our body and death eternal in the endless ruine of both And whom would not this single thought afflict with dread and sorrow to see what a change sin hath made in the condition of man If Adam would have lived without sin he might have lived without end But now by his credulous receiving the Serpents Poyson Death is glued to our nature necessity of evil to the freedom of our will and all misery to our selves Another dark and posing thought did arise from the progress of death which keeps no order or method It thrusts its sickle not only into the ripe corn but the green blade it nips the blossom as well as gathers the fruit it dissolves the knot that was but new made between the soul and the body as well as that which age and years had conâ—â—rmed There were I observed skulls of all Sizes There were some who had never seen the Sun to pass from one Tropick to the other Others there were whose life could not be reckoned by daies or hours but by minutes they dropt only from the Womb to the Grave And is not this amongst the secrets of God that thousands should thus pass through the world and be determined to different Estates for Eternity What can I say But that the waies of God are unsearchable and his Judgements past finding out As it now shews his Soveraignty thus to deal with his Creatures as it pleaseth him so the Great Day will manifest the Wisdom and Justice of God that is wrapt up in these mysterious providences He that is the Judge of all will be found to be righteous towards all A third sad thought The consuming power of the grave did stir up within me so that I was ready to say Can these dry bones live Can these mingled dusts be distinguished Can the dusts that are scattered into distances be ever united Doth not the Noble and the Base the Saint and the Sinner lye equally under the power of corruption Who then would not dread to descend into the Grave and make Hemans question Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him But when I consider that Believers in their ascending into heaven do only let fall their bodies to the earth as Elijah dropt his Mantle when he was taken up and that their Spirits return to God that gave them That Death striketh not on the New man but on the Tabernacle which is a common Lodging both to Flesh and Spirit my fears are greatly Alleviated for who is much solicitous for the Cabinet when the Jewel is safe Yea when I think that death which separates our persons from the world our soul from the body and every part of our body from another cannot dissolve our Union with Christ but that then we sleep in him and shall be raised by him and conformed to him as the pattern of our glory O how do these most radiant thoughts dispell both the black fears of death and the lightsome comforts of the world as the rising Sun makes the bright stars of heaven to vanish as well as the dark shades of the night How little then doth the love of this life or the difficulties of death abate the desires of a Believer to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Who can wonder at old Simeons importunity to depart in peace when his eyes had seen the Salvation of God and his arms embraced it Who would not be of the same mind that hath once tasted of the Clusters of the heavenly Canaan to long after the full Vintage How pathetical is that of Austin upon Gods answer to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Who replies with great confidence Lord is that all that I cannot see thy face and live Eja Domine moriar ut te videam videam ut hic moriar nolo vivere volo mori dissolvi cupic essecum Christo I pray thee Lord then let me dye that I may see thy face Or let me see thee that I may dye in this place I would not live I would dye I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus also have other Saints been affected who have had death in desire and life in patience O what a strange change then hath Christ made in death and the grave and his grace in the heart and affections of Believers Death which sin brought into the world is now become the only means to destroy and kill sin Death which is only contrary unto life is now turned into a Port and passage into life So that when we pass out of this life we lose neither life nor being but are admitted to a more glorious life and being than ever we had Death that before was an armed Enemy is now made a reconciled and firm friend a Physician to cure all our diseases and an Harbinger to make way for glory The Grave also by Christs lying in it is become a bed of rest in which his Saints fetch a short slumber untill he awaken them to a glorious Resurrection It is the Chamber into which he invites his beloved ones to hide themselves untill his indignation be past the Arke into which he shuts his Noahs whilest he destroyes the world with an overflowing deluge of his wrath and displeasure And therefore it is that by his grace they are not afraid to meet Death which others would shun and make it as a voluntary offering unto God which others pay only as a necessary debt Yea they esteem it as one of the choicest Jewels in that exact Inventory that Paul hath made of the riches of Believers and next unto Jesus Christ bless God for it as the greatest mercy O holy Saviour do thou then who art the Lord both of the dead and of the living unto whom all ought to live and all ought to dye enable me thy servant to love thee above life which of all blessings is the sweetest and to hate sin above death which of all evils is the bitterest to nature that so I may have this testimony of the power of thy grace in the change of my heart that for the enjoyment of perfect Communion with thee I can gladly lose my life and be separated from sin can willingly undergo death which is of all evidences the Clearest Meditation XLIX Vpon a Spring in an high ground THe additional blessing which Achsah sought of Caleb her Father was Springs of water for her south or dry land who gave her the upper and the nether Springs If the distinct recording of this particular in Scripture carry any thing of
sometimes by the Root sometimes by the Taste when the likeness of the Leaf is perfectly the same The Cautious Receiver that he be not couzened by adulterated Coyne for true makes an Artificial Touchstone of his Senses he bends it he rings it he rubs it and smells to it that thereby he may finde out what it is The circumspect Merchant contents not himself with the seeing and feeling of his Cloth as it lies made up but he puts it upon the Perch and setting it between the light and himself drawes it leasurely over and so discovers not onely the rents and holes that are in it but the inequality of the threads the unevenness of its spinning the spots and staines that are in it and what not that may make it either to be rejected for its defects or approved for its goodness O how impartial a Judge is light which neither flatters friends nor wrongs enemies which manifests the good as well as the evil to what ever it is applyed This kinde of triall hints to me the best manner of doing that work which every Christian ought to perform with the greatest care the searching and examining of his own wayes I may learn from what is done to the Cloth to do the same Spiritually to my self by setting my actions between the light of the Word and the Discerning power of Conscience that so the one may discover and the other may judge what their rectitude or pravity is and this is best done when every parcel of the Conversation is looked into and scanned as the Cloth that is drawn over the Perch then it is that I find the unevenness of my Duties the distractions of my Thoughts and the unbelief of my Heart which runs as a continued Thread from one end of the Duty unto the other Then it is that I espy those secret staines of Hypocrisie which discolour my services and blemish them to God when they seem fair to the eye of Man Then it is that convinced of my filthiness I cry out My Person wants a Priest which is deformed with infinite guilt that without him cannot be covered My nature wants a Priest which is over-run with an universal leprosie that without him cannot be cured My Sins want a Priest which are for their number as the sands and for their greatness as the Mountains that without him can never be pardoned My holy things want a Priest which are defiled with the daily Eruptions of sin and folly that without him can never be accepted And who is it that thus vieweth himself by this perfect Law of Liberty that is not thus affected What faith Paul of himself I was alive withcut the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I died who was once more full of conceired abilities to perform the Righteousness of the Law without blame Who was more presumptuous in self-Justifications and elated thoughts of his Perfection than the Apostle while he was without the Law that is not without the Letter but without the Spirituall sense and penetrative power of it but when the Commandment came in its Vigour and Life how suddenly did all those misperswasions of his own Righteousness vanish into nothing He then lost his confidence of being Saved by his obedience to the Law and by the light of it discovered those inward Lustings and desires to be sinfull and such as subjected him unto Death which before were wholly neglected and unseen As I would therefore incite Christians to an Exâ—ct discussion of their wayes so would I also direct them to look upon them through no other medium then the Light of the Word Wherewith saith David shall a young Man cleanse his wayes or as the Original imports make clear as Christal by taking heed thereto according to thy Word The Heathen were not altogether Aliens to this Duty of Self-Examination it was Sextius his custome as Seneca reports it when he betook himself to his Nights Rest to question his Soul Quod hodie malum tuum sanasti cui vitio obstetisti What Malady hast thou this day cured What vice hast thou withstood It was also Pythagoras his counsel to his Scholars that each Man should demand of himself Wherein have I offended What good have I done But alâ—ss how confused and in-distinct was that light by which they made this search How little can the Candle-light of Nature discover of the evil of Sin whose Rules and Principles do so much fall in and sute with the wills of the Flesh What Camell Sins did the very best of them swallow down without the least straining at them What swarmes are there of sins which Christians complain of that the Natural Man is totally ignorant of and can no more discover without the aid of the Word than the Eye can discern its own Blood-shed without the help of a Glass We have Pauls own confession in this particular I had not known lust except the Law had said thou shalt not covet Before he onely saw some sins that were as beames for their magnitude but now he is sensible of the smallest motes To the Law then and to the Testimony do you betake your selves O ye sincere and upright ones when you go about this Work fear not its Purity but love it shrink not at its Searching Power but yield up your selves to a free and voluntary admission of its light yea rejoyce and be exceeding glad that by the Light of the Word ye can trace sin home unto its receptacle and can both judge it and mortifie it in the seed and root of it which is the surest and best Way of destroying it He is amongst the First-borne of Christians who communes most with his own heart and looks oftenest into the Books of Conscience which Writes Journalls and not Annalls and is most likely to obtain a double Portion both of Peace and Grace but when he hath done all let him make Davids Prayer the close Search me O Lord and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Meditation XLVIII Vpon the sight of a Grave newly made IT is happily no pleasing sight but questionless very profitable to look sometimes into the house appointed for all living as holy Job calls the Grave Though nothing less than beauty can be seen which may delight the Eye yet much may be beheld that may passionately affect the heart The thoughts which it sugested to me were like unto the Cloud that was between the Camp of the Egyptians and the Camp of Israel which had both a dark and bright side The one casts down and the other raiseth up but both are useful My dark and sad thoughts sprang from the consideration of the entry of death which came into the world by sin it is sin that hath made all the Funerals that ever have been In our Creation death had neither matter in us nor right over us Our Innocency was free
desire besides thee Surely if Heaven which hath legions of beauties and perfections in it yield nothing worthy of his love and affection but God and Christ we may well conclude that Earth which is as void of good as Heaven is full can have nothing in it that is to be desired by us Why then should any in whom Christ is the hope of glory be as the men of the world who cry out Who will shew us any good For them to be unsatisfied who feed upon vanities is no wonder but for those who possess him that is and hath all things it is strange that they should seek any thing out of him Quid ultra quaerit cui omnia suus conditor fit aut quid ei susficit cui ipse non sufficit What can be seâ—k further saith Prosper to whom his God is made every thing Or what will susfice him to whom He is not sufficient I know but one wish that any Believer hath to make and that is the wish of St. John with which he seals up the Book of God as the common desire of all the Faithful with which I shall shut up this Meditation as with the best of wishes Come Lord Jesus even so come as thou hast promised come quickly in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Meditation LI. Vpon first Fruits and Gleanings VVHat the Apostle saith of the heavenly Bodies that one Star differeth from another Star in glory is true also of the heavenly Laws and Commands of God as well Ceremonial as Moral that they differ from each other in their weight and worth Some of which set forth the greater things and others the less as may be easily seen in this double Command of First fruits and Gleanings one of which is far greater than the other though the less is not to be neglected because it is a stream that flows from the same Fountain the Soveraign will and appointment of God But that we may the better take the Dimensions of this Law of First fruits let us view it by the help of some Considerations as Astronomers by instruments judge of the Altitude and Magnitude of a Star We may first see it in the extent of those things in the offering of which God would be honoured and acknowledged he required the firstlings of Men and Cattel the first fruits of trees and of the Earth in the sheaf and in the threshing floor in the dough and in the loaves It did reach to all their Substance and the encrease which without this Service was but a polluted and an unclean heap Secondly In the solemn manner of the offering of them unto God which was to be done with an humble Confession of their Fathers poverty A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and of the hard bondage in Egypt sustained by them and with acknowledgment of Gods gracious looking upon their Affliction Labour and Oppression bringing them also forth with a mighty hand and out-stretched arm with great terribleness and with signs and wonders and giving them a Land that floweth with milk and honey Thirdly In the express command for the speedy payment of them they were not to be delayed much less withheld to keep them back was robbery to defer them was disobedience and rendred them rather to be of the Gleanings and Corners of the field which God had appointed to be reserved for the poor then of the First fruits which he required for himself It was an injury to the moral duty which they did teach of Consecrating to God the first and prime of their years and abilities which is to him far more acceptable than all Offerings and Sacrifices whatever for how could it be that he who was careless of the Rite and Ceremony which typified his duty to him should ever be mindful of doing that which was the marrow and substance of it And now when I think that First fruits only were the shadow of our early honouring God and remembring him in the day of our youth when all the faculties both of soul and body are in their vigour and strength I cannot but wonder as well as mourn to see that under the Doctrine of the Gospel which reacheth men to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts that thereby they might become a kind of first fruits unto God and the Lamb. So few make Religion the work of the morning of their Age and so many of the Evening What else is this but to give the First fruits to Satan and the Gleanings to God To him the finest of the flower and to God the bran But tell me O ye deferrers of holiness who make it both the least and the last work of your lives Is it only necessary to die to God and not 10 live to him Or is it reasonable to say as that young man did to his Companion when he saw Ambrose dying Tecum viverem cum Ambrosio moriar I would live with thee and dye with Ambrose Is not this to mock God whom yet you would have to save you And to minister matter of triumph to the God of this world whose Captives you have been that though the God of heaven pay you your wages yet you have done wholly his work Unto you therefore O men I call and my voice is unto the Sons of men be not deceived God will not be mocked It is not the owning of him when you can serve neither your selves nor your Lusts any longer that will be acceptable unto him It is not a few bedrid prayers that are as those Ears of Corn which Pharaoh saw in his dream withered thin and blasted with the East wind that will expiate those black Crimes with which your ill-spent life is overspread Can an Offering of Gleanings which is made up of robbery and disobedience of wronging the poor and violating the Command of God ever hallow the whole Harvest No more can such duties be availing to reconcile you to God who requires that you should seek him early Yea hath he not cursed the deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing And what are you but deceivers Who waste the Lamp of time that God hath given you to work by in the sinful delights of the flesh and alienate the chief of your strength and parts from him that should have been honoured both with the first and best of your abilities and in your Age have nothing to offer to him but a large bedroll of hainous enormities which may justly bring down your gray haires with sorrow unto the grave How blessed a thing is it then for Men to give to God the first-fruits of their Youth that he may not give them bitter after-fruits and cause them to feel more smart of their sins in their Old Age then ever they found pleasure or delight in them in their Youth and what better Perswasions can I suggest then to consider First That early