a Curious piece out of such indisposed mean materials The Woman was made of Man so of the same dust mould and model of a reasonable immortal Soul stampt with the same Image of God In the same Spiritual Condition Subject to the same Lord bound to the same Law Capable of the same Felicity and by Sin liable to the same Punishment The Happiness of his Estate consisted in his Being 1. Made after the Image and likeness of God in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness Enjoying uninterrupted Peace and Communion with him 2. In Paradise a Place of God's own planting So delightfull as is set out by it not only the pleasantest goodliest places on Earth tho' the whole Earth was Garden-like in Comparison of what it is now (z) Gen. 13.10 Isa 51.3 but Heaven it self (a) Luc. 23.43 Rev. 2.7 3. Made Ruler over all the Creatures (b) Gen. 1.26 Psal 8.6 who submitted to him to be Governed and Ruled by him at his pleasure (c) Ge. 2.19 20. In this Estate God Entered with him into a Covenant of Works i. e. God's gracious Agreement with Adam as the Head of and all his Posterity to give them Eternal Life and Happiness upon Condition of Personal Perfect Perpetual Obedience by that strength wherewith God had endowed Him in his Creation to which he left him This Covenant was 1 an Act of Condescension Grace and Favour not of Debt for God as Creator might have dealt with him only in a way of Soveraignty and required obedience without promising a Reward which Adam could not have expected by perfect obedience having but done his Duty 2. an Agreement with him that he should obey the Moral Law written in his Heart which was the general Rule of his obedience and the positive Law of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not Eat which was the special Trial of it 3. with all his posterity which appears from the miserable Event of Adam's breaking this Covenant both as to the guilt filth and punishment (d) Psal 51.5 John 3.5 c. Rom. 5.12 c. 1 Cor. 15.21 c. Eph. 2.3 And by God's usual way or course in all other Covenants i. e. To take in Head and Members Root and Branch The second Adam and his Posterity (e) Gen. 3.15 Noâ— ah (f) Gen. 9.9 Abraham (g) Gen. 17.7 8. David (h) 2 Sam. 7.16 Israel (i) Isa 59.21 Acts 2.39 Their Seed and their Seeds seed 4. To give them Eternal Life or the continuance of them in that good Estate under the Threatning of Death for Disobedience was promised Life for Obedience assured and confirmed by the Treâ— of Life The Tree of Knowledge was so called noâ— from the Nature of the Tree but fault of Eating In respect of 1 God's Command Things are therefore Good or Evil because he allows or forbids them 2. The Event oâ— Eating Thereby he should experimentally know to his sorrow Good by the loss of it and Evil by the feeling of it Eating of it self was not Morally or Intrinsecally Evil only in respect of God's prohibition which was for 1. Clearer Discovery of his Absolute Soveraignty over Man and Trial of his Obedience and Subjection Whether he would obey meerly because God commanded 2. Greater Aggravation of Man's Sin if he should offend in so small a matter so easie to be obey'd Especially having Liberty to Eat of all the Trees else So directly against God's Authority by doing that which was to be forborn meerly because He had forbidden it Of the Fall of Man OUR First Parents being left to the freedom of their own Will through the Temptation of Satan Sinned in Eating the Forbidden Fruit. And thereby lost their Innocency Paradise Communion with and the Favour of God brought a Curse upon the Earth became Slaves of Satan lay under the Curse of the Law Died the same day they sinned In their 1. Souls Dead spiritually to all good 2. Bodies In Respect of the Desert guilt sentence and inevitable Necessity of Dying Contracted Dead in Law as a Condemned man is before Execution They then became Mortal Dissolving by degrees Liable to the Symptoms and Harbingers of Death 3. Bodies and Souls being then under the Arrest of God's Justice Wrath and Curse liable to Eternal Death the Wages of Sin (k) Rom. 6.23 The Hainousness of the Sin appears by confidering 1. The Person that sinned Adam an Innocent Happy Publick Person 2. Against whom the great Creator and Soveraign of all the World 3. The Time when the same Day as supposed He was created and commanded 4. The Place where in Paradise where God familiarly conversed and entered into Covenant with him where no Sin Sorrow or Want was 5. The Penalty threatned upon the Breach and the Promise implied 6. The great Ease and Facility of keeping it In it was Incredulity Diffidence Pride Ambition vain Curiosity Ingratitude Idolatry Contempt of God's Word and Soveraignty Rebellion Murther Intemperance Theft Discontent with their present Condition assenting to false Witness unworthy Accusations against God the Transgression of the whole Law of Nature Adam being the Root Representative and Head of all Mankind being in his loins the Guilt Corruption and Defilement of this Sin is imputed and convey'd to all his Posterity descending from him by ordinary generation and is called Original Sin because 1. We have it from our first Parents the Original of all Mankind 2. 'T is in us from our Original as soon as we have a Being 3. 'T is the Original of all other Sins Of Man's Recovery ALL Mankind being fallen into an Estate of Sin and Misery by the Breach of the First Covenant and unable to help themselves God out of his meer Love Mercy and Compassion for recovering and restoring us to his Favour makes another Covenant with us through a Mediator wherein he promises us Grace Glory and all good things and obliges us to Repentance and Faith 1. Repentance i. e. A sincere Sorrow for and forsaking of all our Sins Or a thorough Change of our Mind and Purpose of Heart and Life from Evil to Good 2. Faith i. e. Such an unfeigned Belief of all that God hath revealed as engages us to a sincere Endeavour to do all that he hath commanded Firmly to rely on all his Promises and faithfully to obey all his Commands Or an Acceptance of our Mediator as he is offered unto us in the Gospel as our Priest Prophet and King not only to Satisfie and Intercede with God but to Teach and Guide Rule and Govern us This Mediator is the Second Person in the Trinity who being true God became true Man by taking upon him our Nature God and Man united in One Person That so having Interest in both he might be a a fit Mediator or middle Person to reconcile and bring together God to Man and Man to God whom Sin had separated The God-head did not assume a Humane Person for then
incur thereby The Purity and Holiness of Religion in the truly good is by the scurrilous Reflections and bitter Sarcasms of the profane made contemptible which is as foolish and malicious as if a Slave should reproach the Son of a King for being like his Father But oh how will these abject wretches be confounded they will chuse rather to be covered under the Ruins of the World then to be a Spectacle of Abhorrence and Scorn before that Vniversal glorious Confluence when the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels (h) Mark 8.38 Sin carries with it so much Shame and Horrour that many of the Poets believed there was no Fury like the Conscience of having done Evil To avoid the worm of which so insupportable many have found it as to cast themselves into the Fire that is not quenched And the Ease the obdurate gain by being delivered from the Remorse and Regrets the Reproaches and Rebukes of Conscience is far over-ballanced by the Loss that cannot be divided from it Namely the Loss of the Joys of Innocence and of the Sense of God's Favour and Hopes of a happy Futurity There 's not an eminent Man among the Grecians saith one of the Ancients that dies an Heathen or an Infidel though they lived so If there be Atheists in company there are none in Hell or alone They tremble at that in private and at Death which they laugh at among the Jovial Crew All sorts of men in all Ages that have gone before us into an Eternal State of all Conditions Perswasions Opinions Tempers Ages Dispositions upon Experience have found that whatsoever vain thoughts men in the Heat of their Youth and Lust entertain of Religion when they come to leave the World they give Testimony unto it They confess at last that it had been their Prudence and Interest to be good betimes and not to stay till Necessity or Experience force them to it And that a strict and serious Life is not the Humour of some conceited singular Persons but the opinion of all men when they are most impartial and serious That they are wise indeed who make hast and delay not to keep God's Commandments though they expect to save no more by it but their Souls Religion abridges us of nothing but sin which is Rank poison to our Souls and exchanges the momentary Pleasures of it for the perpetual peace of a good Conscience The Pleas sinners use for their vitious Lives are all such as any man who will be but faithfull to his own Soul may as easily answer as invent and see abundant Reason to be singular rather than sinfull and careless Ask them if they ever knew any carry the Comfort of his sins out of the World with him and what themselves will be like to think of their doings when they shall think them over at Death and in Eternity If the pleasures of sin for a season be worth the venturing endless Torments and if the number of sinners that run so great a hazard are well satisfied in their minds that it will moderate all their Sufferings to remember what they have enjoy'd That Hell is not so hot nor so lasting as to keep them out of it and to be preferr'd before the necessary means of their prevention which would bring them as near Immortal Joys as their next Heir is to their Earthly Inheritance and is the better Estate for being out of this World which is of so uncertain so short a continuance Did Heaven but stand in the same account with them now as it will when that great Gulph shall obstruct their passage they would pursue it with such vigorous and continued Endeavours as never proved unsuccesfull The difficulties of Religion are insuperable only to the slothfull the coward the inconsiderate who are not to be consulted with in our Christian warfare who have never made a thorough Trial of it nor duely considered its Reward who would attain the end without the means go to Heaven by descent without discomposing themselves in putting off Dispositions and Affections incompatible to that Holy place There is no Lion in the way to a resolved mind and if there were little David grappled with and slew both a Lion and a Bear and from thence was encouraged to enter the List with the Uncircumcised Philistin and overcame him 2. Beware of that infinite hazard of a Death-Bed-Repentance of venturing Eternity upon your last Breath Makè Religion your early your continual Business your Duty your Obligation which will administer a delightfull Reflection on your following years prove the truest Frugality and Improvement of Time the greatest ease quiet comfort and safety both of Life and Death Those that now load themselves with guilt under the delusion of Pleasure that gives them secret disquiet while they are laying it on treasure up shame and sorrow for the time to come horrour and despair for a dying-hour All men seek the Lord some time or other only wise men betimes while he may be found Old Age is the Lot but of a very few grievous and burthensome enough of it self but disconsolate and opprest indeed when men come to possess the Diseases and Infirmities of it together with the Iniquities of their Youth bitter if not fruitless Repentance for their mispending it Yet Death observes not the Course of Nature but the Determination of God Boast not thy self of to Morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth (i) Prov. 27.1 Possibly this day may bring forth thy Death how then shall to Morrow bring forth thy Repentance or make thee another Tender of this day 's rejected Salvation Every day puts a Period to many Lives as well secured as ours and who have had the same Reason of Hope with our selves No man ever miscarried because his life was short but bad 't was no loss to Gideon that he returned from Victory before the Sun was up (k) Jude 8.13 There 's no danger of being wise and good too soon but all the wisdom to be learnt in another World comes too late to remedy any final miscarriage in this We may be instantly surprized by Death or a Disease that incapacitates us to call for Mercy in general much more to make our selves meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in life Such as delay shall have more cause to repent hereafter but less power and will Preparation for Death which requires the whole of man in his best vigour is oh how sad and deplorable usually delay'd till the melancholy Evening of Age or Twilight of Death The Trifles of this World divert them from that main Business to which all others should be subordinate No man hath a lease of his life as Hezekiah had (l) Isa 38.5 In Golgotha are Sculls of all sorts and sizes We see few Hoary Heads most Children die before their Parents The old Cammel saith the Arabian Proverb carries the young Cammels skin to the
Market A Thousand Blossoms fall to the Ground for one Ripe fruit gathered into the Basket The Glass runs whilst we are idle The swiftest things in the World have been staid but the life of man that went a Days Journey forward while the Sun stood still (m) Jos 10.12 13. we ought therefore to be always ready else when we are most unready or least think of it our Lord may come (n) Matt 24.44 Righteous Abel is slain by his bloody Brother whilst friendly talking with him in the Field (o) Gen 4.8 Zimri and Cozbi died in the Act of Lust (p) Num. 25.8 suddain Death seases upon Eglon sitting in a Summer-Parler which he had for himself alone (q) Judges 3.15 c. Sampson dies upon a Theatre making sport and Thousands with him seeing it (r) Judges 16. Rebellious Absolon meets with his Gallows a Tree in the Forrest which heard not his Father's Caveat for his Life (s) 2 Sa. 18.8 9. Elah slain drinking himself drunk in his Steward's House by his Servant Zimri who finishes his own Royalty by Fire burning the House over his own head and dies (t) 1 K. 16.8 9.18 Job's Children give up the Ghost eating and drinking in their Elder Brother's House His Table became their snare (v) Job 18.19 In the Time of our Saviour's greatest Joy and Glory when the Fashion of his Countenance was altered and his Rayment white and glistering Moses and Elias appear and talk with him about his Decease (w) Lu. 9.29 Elijah walking with Elisha is taken up into Heaven (x) 2 Kin. 2.11 and St. Stephen while he 's preaching Jesus and calling upon God (y) Acts 7. Moses is called away whilst busie about what God had set him bringing the Children into Canaan (z) Deut. 32.49 John Baptist's Head is given away at a grand Festival (a) Matt. 14.6 The Ten Virgins are summon'd at Midnight when all was silent and at rest (b) Matt. 25.6 The Rich Fool 's Soul that Night was required of him when he dream'd of many Years and that nothing could prevent them but starving (c) L. 12.16 c. Herod while glutting his aspiring Humour with popular Applause gives up the Ghost in the Midst of his vain-glorious Harrange (d) Acts 12.21 Thou shalt be King over Israel and I shall be next unto thee said true hearted Jonathan to David not knowing he was to die in the next Battle (e) 1 Sam. 23.17 c. The great Arbitrer of all things needs not Death's usual Messenger Sickness to prepare his way who can thunder the proud Emperour under his Bed And write the great King at 3 or 4 Words into trembling (f) Dan. 5.5 c. send a Fly to fetch the Tripple-Crown before his Tribunal Make a small Scratch or Bone a Crum a Hair or the Kernel of a Grape or Raisin as mortal as Goliah's Spear Unspeak the whole World into nothing Blow down a great Bubble the stateliest Building with an easie Breath undress our Souls by unpinning one Pin. By withdrawing his Hand take away the Aiery difference between Sleep and Death And oh what a sad Appearance will the Face of Death have to those that have loitered unthriftily trifled away their Time that never knew the worth of it until their last hour and then have their Work to do Eternity at Hand gives value to all Holinesâ— and Sense of God in spite of the World and lessens all things else into less than nothing and Vanity imprints a ghastliness and horror upon wickedness and sensuality The Thirty pieces are nothing worth and the Innocent Blood above all value when Men suffer in the Agonies of Conscience and fears of the approaching Judge An House-full of Silver and Gold will not buy a Man to resist God when the Terrible Majesty appears to him nothing is so precious then that a man will not fling to the Bats and Moles When the Breath is going out of the Nostrils how precious is sincere Holiness to those that have slighted it as a thing of nought As if the great Truths of God's Word were never true till a day or two before we die But these things are always so rich and valuable True Wisdom is always so precious that it disdains to borrow Esteem from a Minute of Extremity And therefore it mostly falls out that those who would have none of its Counsel and despised all its Reproofs when they come to seek it now cannot find it but it laughs at their Calamity and their Misery confutes their Confidence A good Death is the natural consequence of a Holy Life else there 's no such thing in Nature nor Grace neither except by a Miracle of Grace The most profligate and obdurate cannot but think that they must repent and acknowledge the Prudence and Safety of the Religious whom they contemned They own their own folly and mistake when it 's too late to remedy They desire to die the Death of the Righteous and promise to live their life too if they recover from sickness And if a Holy life be then looked upon necessary to be lived it cannot be sufficient meerly to resolve it Religion never gave any a Dispensation to Sin that 's one thing We have entered into a Covenant with God to forsake the Devil and all his Works The Conditions of our Salvation are our giving up our selves Bodies and Souls not a dying but a living Sacrifice unto God (g) Rom. 12.1 To deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World (h) Tit. 2.11 12. The wicked must not only forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts return from all his wickedness that he hath committed unto the Lord but keep all his Statutes and do that which is right (i) Isa 55.7 Ez. 18.21 And 33.14 acquire and exercise the Habits of everlasting Grace as well as mortifie and overcome all corrupt Affections and vitious Inclinations Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works (k) Tit. 2.14 He bare our Sins in his own Body upon the Tree that we being dead to Sin should live unto Righteousness (l) 1 Pet. 2.24 And is it reasonable that this should be wholly frustrate by those supposed to be redeemed by him we dishonour and endeavour to make void the purpose and design of his Sufferings and Redemption if we think them to be a shelter for our ungodly Living The Gospel the highest display of Mercy is not a Salvation of men in but from Sin and by Repentance means a Reformed course of life and only by very silent Intimations the Tract of which is hardly discerned leaves it possible that he should pluck some as brands out of the Fire by giving them Repentance at last whereas this is now become the only Repentance in use the
may be found to have made unto my self Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness and when they fail be received into everlasting Habitations through Jesus Christ to whom with thy Blessed Majesty and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory now and ever Amen Another MOst glorious Creator of all things and liberal Benefactor to all thy Creatures That art pleased out of the Freedom of thy Bounty to deal out so largely to me of those good things which many others want Give me Grace to be duly sensible of thankfull for and to make a right Use of them Let them not be occasions of my Sin and Ruine but Incentives and Encouragements to love and serve thee Keep me from Pride Haughtiness Intemperance Covetousness Remisness in thy Service despising others loving the World trusting in uncertain Riches Give me Humility lowliness of Mind love and an open-handed Charity a fellow-feeling of others Necessities and to relieve them as I ought Let me not be of the number of those Fools that lay up Treasures for themselves and are not Rich towards thee But to make a true Use of all thy Blessings that when the Judge of all the World shall call me to give an Account of the same he may say unto me Well done good and faithfull Servant thou hast been faithfull in a little I will make thee Ruler over much Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord In whose Holy Name and Words I further pray unto thee saying Our Father c. Duties of the Poor BE truly Religious and bring up your Children so too that you may leave them with God who will take Care of them when you can leave them nothing else And that you may not be miserable for ever as well as Poor here miss of both the good things of the Life that now is and of that which is to Come Be Diligent and Painful Frugal and Provident Repent of and avoid those Sins that have brought you or tends to Poverty as Pride Idleness Intemperance Falshood Deceit unjust getting c. without which you can never expect your Condition should be Sanctified unto you Be not more Cruel to your selves than uncharitable men are if they keep you Poor keep not your selves ungodly and miserable The less Comfort you have or hope for here the harder the World uses you the more fervently seek after the Heavenly Treasure those that want that are Poor indeed and none but those Envy not but give due Respect to those above you let not your Eye be Evil because God's is Good Let your low Condition teach you to Contemn the World to be Humble Holy Heavenly-minded Take heed of Murmuring and Repining against the Will of God Bring and keep your Minds in a chearful contented frame with your present state well pleased with the Station and Condition he hath placed you in who must Dispose of us and ours and should be our Rest Learn to depend contentedly upon him alone for a comfortable supply of all needful things without Anxiety or Distrust Study his Provident Care Goodness Faithfulness and All-sufficiency When you have not a place or Friend on Earth Comfortably betake your selves to him for Relief who hath obliged himself to give Necessaries to all his faithful Servants his Dependent Children Those that follow Christ profess they want nothing (m) Lu. 22.53 Bethink how unfit you are to be choosers of your Condition That 's best for you which brings you to Happiness which he knows better than you and how dangerous what a great hinderance the world would be to you How few of the Rich and Rulers of it are Humble Heavenly Self-denying Mortified men and no wise man hath Reason to long for a hinderance of his Salvation or to Pray to God to make it as hard a Thing for him to Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as for a Camel to go thorough the Eye of a Needle (n) Mat. 19.24 Remember your Fore-runners Christ and many of his faithful followers chose or were contented in a life of Poverty that had not where to lay their Head A state so Tolerable and Advantageous that it hath been Courted and Elected by many before ever any particular Providence pointed out the Necessity or lay'd the Constraint and Recommended by such as have dedicated their lives to Wisdom and Philosophy Nor hath Christ spoken a much harder thing in the Gospel than what relates to a Confidence in Riches allowing only a possibility with God for the Refuge and Salvation of the wealthy as it were not Receiving them within the ordinary Extensions of his love and tenderness but referring them to the Omnipotency and last reach of his Mercy (o) Mat. 19.26 You little know the Troubles Cares Fears and Vexations of the Rich who in a little while dye as Poor as Naked as you but usually with more guilt unwillingness discomfort and regret The Thirst of Greatness and Riches is the Root of Wars Factions Slaughters Disguises Disquiets Toils Dangers Hazards and Ruin You have no Cause to fear the Rumors of Wars unfaithful Servants the sly Thief crafty Lawyer abuse of Flatterers bloody Designs spiteful Machinations no Man whets his Ax to cut down a shrub Be not sorry that your Condition subjects you to Contempt rather than Envy Flattery and those Temptations opportunities and assistances to be wicked Pride Intemperance oppressing and despising others abusing God's Creatures trouble and noise of Company Vanity and loss of Time by Impertinent Ceremonious Visits Mutual Entertainments perpetual Dreads and Suspitions Sutes and Turmoils of a great Family declension of Estates Impatience of Losses and Disgrace the neglect or scorn of some great one makes all their grandure unsatisfying Your Condition Exercises you in man-like Labour renders you and yours more healthy strong able to abide Cold and Hardship furnishes you with a pleasant Appetite sweet unmolested Rest brings you acquainted with Truth and Plainness teaches you to place your Hopes only in God and to Contemn all other things frees you from Surfeits and many Diseases presses you to be more certain in your Devotion more resolved in Danger more undaunted to maintain the Truth fitter to flie in Times of Persecution better disposed at all times to welcom Death without casting a back look upon the World having nothing to lose or leave but trouble no Lands to settle no Executors to mistrust no answerable Portion to raise no Cry of Orphans Widdows Tears Complaints of the Oppressed to disquiet you in your passage which use to follow the Oppressor to the Gates of Hell Their Prayer MOst Gracious and All-sufficient Lord God who art the Maker of the Rich and the Poor and no Respecter of Persons In an humble sense of my own vileness and unworthiness 〈◊〉 prostrate my self before thee acknowledging it thy Infinite Mercy and Goodness that I am on this side Hell and the Grave and have any of the Necessaries of this Life O Pardon my unthankfulness for so many Mercies that
and evidence the same unto his Soul give him seasonable Ease Rest and Sleep and patience under his Sufferings and let these light Afflictions that are but for a Moment work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory let the Lord Jesus be unto him both in Life and Death great Advantage Take him not out of this Life untill thou hast fitted him for a better Let not the Enemy have any Advantage over him or be able to shake his Faith and Confidence in thy Mercy through Jesus Christ to whom with thy Blessed Majesty and Holy Spirit be all Honour Glory and Praise now and evermore Amen Another WE prostrate our selves before thee O great Physitian of Soul and Body in a deep sense of our own vileness and unworthiness acknowledging it of thy free grace and mercy that thou hast not cut us off in the midst of our Sins without giving us space to beg thy Pardon and Mercy Beseeching thee for the sake of our All-sufficient Mediator to be reconciled unto us and at Peace with us Wash us throughly from our Iniquities and cleanse us from our Sins In particular be very gracious and mercifull to this thy Servant Thou hast all Distempers at thy Command if thou sayest go they go come they come unto God the Lord belong the Issues from Death O raise him up from his Bed of languishing Return O Lord deliver his Soul O save him for thy mercies sake for in Death there is no remembrance of thee in the Grave who shall give thee Thanks O let him live that he may bless thee and be instrumental for thy Glory But if his days are determined to end now prepare him for leaving the World Make him truly sensible of all his Offences and accept of the Death and Passion of thy beloved Son as an Expiation for them Let him sleep in Jesus die in the Lord and rest from his Labours Take away all sad disquieting discouraging perplexing thoughts Quiet compose support his Spirit Inable him to wait in an humble Submission for that peaceable joyfull Repose and Rest which thou hast prepared for thy Servants for his sake who subjected himself to Mortality who died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and intercedes for us at thy Right-hand the Anchor of our Hope and Foundation of our Happiness in whose Holy Name and Words we further pray unto thee saying Our Father c. How to spend every Day well WAste not your precious Morning hours sluggishly in your Bed Allow your selves so much sleep only as is necessary for your Health Begin the day with God Offer up unto Him who giveth his Beloved sleep and careth for you when you cannot for your self the first of your Thoughts and Affections As soon as you awake lift up a Thankful Heart for your Comfortable Rest and Sleep and Preservation Let not the Continuance and Commonness of the Mercy make it seem less but Encrease your Thankfulness Beg of Him to preserve you from all Evil especially Sin To Protect direct assist and Bless you in all your lawful undertakings and ingage in none wherein you cannot expect it Resolve not to lose or mispend the Day before you which when gone you shall see again no more for ever Think what a Blessed Rest you shall have in the presence of his Angels and of the Happiness and Privilege of being in his Love and under his Protection Let the naked ness of your Body mind you to avoid Sin the Cause of Shame your Rising out of Bed of the general Resurrection at the last Day before the Judge of all the World The light of the Day of the Sun of Righteousness the several parts of your Cloaths of taking unto you the whole Armour of God c. This is the way to keep out vain Thoughts and your selves in a Better frame all the Day which is usually spent well or ill according as we set out in the beginning of it Let your Apparel be Modest Decent according to your Place Condition and Station and not Expensive of Time in putting on not to nourish Pride or occasion Lust It 's not enough to look to our own Thoughts except we beware also of provoking others Affectedness in any thing is Commendable in nothing Night and Morning Devotion keeps the fire of the Altar always alive Enter upon no Business until you have offered up your Morning Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving Recommend your self and your Affairs unto God by Solemn Prayer and Return him Thanks for his Care of you and goodness unto you the last Night and all your Days And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (b) Mat. 6.6 Call to mind and arm your selves against the Temptations and failings you are liable to by-Reason of your Company Imployment Inclinations and watch over them continually Look for Evils every day and cast all your Cares and Fears upon God Let your Carriage be such all the Day as those that must appear before him at Night In all Difficulties ascend to him for Counsel and Direction in all Troubles for Support in all your Undertakings for a Blessing Be still asking whose am I what do I here am I in my way Is this my last Day or do I look for another Entertain not vain Desires or worldly Lusts but resist reject them Turn and fix your Thoughts upon something that is good frequently lift up your Souls to God in mental Praises and Supplications Make a Covenant with your Eye and Ear the Inlets of Lust and Vanity Set the Lord always before you Do nothing that may Create sorrow at Night or Confusion at the great Day Resolve to spend the day as usefully as possible to God others your self to speak for God and his Glory what ever it cost you not to be terrified from or ashamed of him or his Service so as the Testimony of a good Conscience may be ground of your Rejoycing Your Heavenly work is to run a Race to fight a good fight to strive and wrestle which cannot be done without giving all Diligence Care and Watchfulness Follow your Earthly Imployment though Difficult with Chearfulness and a Heavenly Mind Be Industrious in your Business and Honest in your Dealings Take no Advantage of any oversight work not upon the Ignorance Unskilfulness Weakness or Necessity of others Do as you would have done to your selves or yours It 's better to suffer wrong than do it Use not many words and those understood by the Contractor All the Business of a Bargain is summed up in a few He that speaks least usually means fairest and He that deceives by speaking what is true in a sence not intended or understood by the other is a Liar and a Thief Avoid not only what is false but that also which deceives all Equivocating Intricate Crafty speeches speak the sence of your Mind a Bargain may be as unmerciful as a Robbery God still takes the weakest part and
will be unto us we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies let us serve thee without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all our Days through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose Holy Name and Words I further pray Our Father c. How to Prepare for a Comfortable Death I. BE sure your State and Condition your Nature Disposition and Inclinations are changed That you have an Interest in Christ the only Ark that can carry us safe to shore after that General Shipwrack made in Adam An inward principle of Piety and Holiness a renewed Soul a reconciled mind to God and True goodness which is nothing else but an Harmony or Right order of Heart and Life That you are possessed of the Sanctifying Spirit made partaker of the Divine Nature and Image Temper and Dispositions resembling Him in his Imitable Perfections of Justice Truth Goodness Kindness Clemency Bounty Benevolence c. Absolutely and Intirely resigned and devoted to him without Reserve or Exception to be govern'd wholly by his Laws You are then reconciled to God you have the Judge for your Friend and Advocate and the Earnest of your Future Inheritance He deserves not the Name of a Christian saith St. Jerom who lives in such a state in which he would not die Good men neglecting clearing up their Evidences and Hopes Their Claim and Title to Heaven hath made them live Comfortless and die Heartless 'T is dreadful entering Eternity upon loose Hopes and fluid Peradventures To die and not to know how we shall speed in another world To fall into the Hands of Death as the Lepers into the Syrians not knowing whether we shall meet with Kindness or Cruelty like that dying Philosopher Dibius vixi Anxius morior nescio quo vado But what is it to be put into the Bill of Mortality when our Names are written in the Book of Life where Guilt is Removed Death is disarmed We may well desire to be dissolved when we know our Redeemer liveth That He shall be our Judge who hath taken upon Him our Flesh who hath given us his Spirit upon whom we have fixed our Expectations of Happiness for whom we have suffered from this vile world whom we always looked on as our Treasure and Portion whose coming we have so long looked for and desired who hath the Keys of Heaven Hell and Death our Friend our Brother our Husband our Head He will not endure to have his own Members cast off He will never disown those that shall be found in Him He will vindicate his own Claim and Title to us He will not lose his own Purchase not deny his own work not condemn us for that Debt himself hath undertaken to pay for whom He came to be Surety was Sentenced Condemned and Suffered There is no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (d) Rom. 8.1 If upon Gospel grounds our Hearts Condemn us not but Testifie we are reconciled to Him we may be sure He is reconciled to us and may have Confidence in the Day of Judgment II. In your several places and stations Imploy well your Talents your Trust your Stewardship your Time fill up every space of it by well spending it Do all the good you can while you are Here not only by a daily Exercise of Publick and Private Devotion but by being in any kind useful and beneficial to others which is a great part of our Business in this world by a Charitable helping the necessitous and distressed allaying their Sorrows removing their Burdens supporting them under their Calamities by all Offices of Kindness and Friendship hindering Injurious Contentions promoting Love Peace good will amongst Men by furthering their welfare by being Courteous and Affable long-suffering mild easie to be intreated and reconciled of a Benign Compassionate Sympathizing Temper assisting and standing up for the injured and oppressed Contributing as much as we can that every one may live as Happily by us and be as good as may be More especially doing good to Mens Souls by seasonable frequent Reproofs and Admonitions good Advice and Example to bring them into love with Goodness and Virtue and Rescue them from the Dominion of Sin and Satan and an Intollerable Damnation A good and generous man is Ambitious and heartily glad of an Opportunity to save a Man's Life or Estate when in Danger but He that 's an Instrument of Anomer's Eternal Salvation saves the most precious thing in the world and furthers his own (e) Dan. 12.3 Jam. 5.19 We may do a great deal of good in a little Time Husbanded well and suffering none of it to be swallowed up without endeavouring to do some real good to our selves or others We account Him Happy that 's taken hence whilest He 's well Imploy'd and every man wishes to Die so we cannot choose the Circumstances of our own Death but may certainly make it Comfortable by imploying our selves so that when God shall call us we cannot be accused of any gross mis-spence of our Time or the neglecting any Opportunity of doing or receiving good the Providence of God hath put into our Hands One of the most principal Rules of solid Devotion saith St. Cyprian is that we let not pass the least occasion of serving God III. Exercise Charity and Mercy according to your Opportunities and Abilities Alms delivers from Death (f) Isa 1.17 Dan. 4.27 Ecl. 3.9 Tob. 4.10 Come up for a Memorial before God (g) Act. 10.4 Charity covers the multitude of Sins (h) 1 Pet. 4.8 Forgiving others Intitles us to the Pardon of our Offences (i) Mat. 6.14.15 We can challenge no Reward from God for our Duty because the Service of our whole Lives is Antecedently due to him and we Receive all from him but a good life qualifies and disposes us for that Happiness He hath promised to Holy and pure Souls and no Grace or Virtue more immediately prepares and fits us for it than works of Mercy which are like to have a greater Influence on the last Day 's Proceedings than most are aware of (k) Lu. 12.33 and 16.9 1 Tim. 6.17 c. All the Actions of Men shall be brought to account but Christ Representing to us the process of the last Judgment and instancing only in Works of Mercy (l) Mat. 25.32 c. signifies at least thus much to us that he hath a peculiar Regard to those in acquitting or condemning men at that Day He looks upon the Performance or Neglect as Redounding upon himself and Intimates there 's something peculiar in the Exercise or Neglect of this Grace to intitle us to his favour or expose us to his wrath The marble-hearted Cruelty of wicked men is the only thing mentioned that makes the Bill be found against them whilst the Righteous are strangely surpriz'd when told they had shewed savour to their Judge to him that sat on the Throne whom they had never seen in
all their lives He assures us while we are feeding the meanest of his Brethren as such we have Himself our Guest are Treating Him whilst we Relieve the real Sufferer that asks it in his Name And who would not gladly pare off all the Superfluities of life that he might always have ready an Entertainment for so great a Personage as Him when he Craves an Alms If we have been kind compassionate and merciful to others we have the greater ground to hope we shall find him so to us who that he may Encourage us to Imitate his Love and Goodness Proportions his Dealings to us to ours with others forgive and ye shall be forgiven give and it shall be given unto you (m) Mar. 11.25.26 Luke 6.37 None have more reason to dread his Justice and Severity than those that shut up their Bowels of Compassion towards their Brethren for He shall have Judgment without Mercy that hath shewed no mercy (n) Jam. 2.13 I do not Remember saith St. Jerom to have read that ever any Charitâ—ble Person dy'd an Evil Death God will notreject him in his greatest Needs in his passionate Requests for God is Love and every degree of Charity that dwells in us is a participation of his Nature And therefore when on our Death-Bed we have many things to trouble us and our Friends have forsaken us or prove miserable Comforters to us we may call to mind the Alms we have given the Injuries we have forgiven how we have sought objects for our Charity imbraced and followed Peace with all Men and with the Eye of Faith look up to God coming to pronounce the last Sentence according to his mercy and ours I have been saith Cyrus the Persian on his Death-Bed a lover of Mankind and a friend and merciful and now I expect to Communicate in that great kindness which he shews that is the great God and Father of Men and Mercies IV. Die daily towards all Carnal Comforts and Delights disuse disingage your self from them deny your self in them wean your self from the World let your Heart grow strange unto it get right Apprehensions of it by diminishing its seeming Excellencies and considering its real Inconveniences Judge not of it by that Repute and Entertainment it finds amongst Men but ill it doth them how defiling dangerous unsutable unsatisfying commonly given to the worst transitory unusefull in our greatest Need. Present the Soul with that Bill of Divorce which Death will shortly give to all your indearing Enjoyments The serious thoughts of which will presently sweep down all Cob-web Designs and false Felicities precent Deceit and every thing which breeds the worm of Conscience Fix your Residence above you will then behold this Mole-hill of Ants this World's bustle and grandieur vanish and disappear Its Castles and Mountains become Warts and all the Provinces of it for which men swell and fight as the Cabins of an Honey-comb And it s Idoliz'd Silver and Gold Earth and useless Mettle uncurrent Coin in the other World where nothing passes but true Goodness When the Scepter and the Spade shall have one common Grave and Royal Dust be blended with the Beggar 's Ashes and the Righteous and the Wicked shall be separated by a vast Gulph and an amazing Difference Take it but for your Pilgrimage your passage to Life be as indifferent in these things as Travellers in the Affairs of a Foreign Countrey Receive with thankfulness what comes with a fair Providence upon Honest Endeavours but let your mind be upon your Home Contentedly suffer Losses and Inconveniences in your way to it He that hath unfeignedly made Heaven his End will readily pass to it on the hardest Terms and Comfortably think of laying down his Head in the Earth for every man is willing to obtain his End to receive his Reward to enter upon his Estate 'T is much for the sake of the Flesh that most Perish that Death is so unwelcom to us O could we subdue that and live above its Pleasures and Desires we should easily bear its Dissolution a Picture that hangs loose on the wall is easily taken down and removed but with much â—ending if fastned to it V. Live so as you may be always Ready to give an Account Be sure you be sincere was the dying Advice of my dear departed Friend E.G. Perform every Duty with all your might and as if it were your last Do every thing with Respect to an after Reckoning will this bear the Tryal turn to a good account at the great Day Would I do thus were I now going to stand before Christ's Tribunal The Consequences of all our Actions extends as far as another World The Apostle seems to be startled at such like Thoughts seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness (o) 2 Pet. 3.11.14 As if all were little enough to qualifie us for a Happy Eternity Have a special Regard to the Duties of your particular Calling be Diligent and Honest in it God judges of men by the general course and tenor of their lives rather than by any single or extraordinary Action which is best seen by their demeanour in that place and station his Providence hath set them in Take Heed of offering violence to your Conscience of doing any thing you know to be a Sin or neglecting any thing you know to be a necessary Duty for that 's to Sin deliberately to provoke God to give you up to hardness of Heart to withdraw his Grace and Spirit from you Have always a clear unspotted Conscience void of offence Behold I come as a Thief Blessed is He that watcheth and keepeth his Garments (p) Rev. 16.15 Beware of those things that will fright you in the Night of doing any thing now which will make Conscience flash in your face another day and reproach you with the Remembrance of what you was told would be bitterness in the latter End when no Sanctuary to shelter no Cordial to revive no bosom Friend to stand by and hearten you Then Spots will appear in their Breadth and Blackness Sin and Wrath another thing than in your Health and Ease Be not wicked in thy own sight was the good Counsel of an old Rabby Reverence thy self Do nothing but what you can review with Quiet and Content Conscience is a tender thing that always writes tho' it doth not speak and what we account small in our Health may make a dying Bed very uneasie to us Innumerable Actions which we thought innocent may appear to be Sin and what we made light of infinitely Evil. So black and deformed is that Shape wherein Sinners appear unto themselves upon a Review of their past Crimes that then they abhor their own Image much more those Sins that have deformed them Conscience speaks loudest when men grow speechless Whilst all seems calm and quiet without and their Flatterers fawn upon them their minds