keep any guard over your self will you wrestle for this blessing O what courage and comfort should you be endowed with with what a chearful countenance may you meet death and how quietly lie down in your grave being supported with the hopes of a blessed Eternity and a glorious Resurrection But I shall a little alter my discourse and turn my self to the careless ones of the world which think little of death and less of eternity I had occasion before to bewail your condition and now I might renew my lamentations as fearing that what I have spoke or may speak will have very little operation upon you but however I cannot leave you thus but I must try once more how a plain compassionate exhortation will prevail O hat I could tell what words to speak that might each your heart O that I could express my self in such melting words that might break the very stones O that you may feel this exhortation Men Brethren and Fathers give me leave to lâ—t you understand how dearly I love you and to shew my affections in the most real demonstrations that may be Sirs I am come to bâ—g of you for Gods sake to be willing to live I beseech you despise not the blessing but accept Christ and salvation while they are offered Were it a thing possible to be happy any other way but by Christ and a holy life I should spare my labour If Glory could be obtained upon easier terms than the Gospel speaks of I should ease my self and you of this trouble And if any were like to be blessed after death but such as die in the Lord I should be the more indifferent in this matter but since that cannot be methinks those three weighty words Life death eternity should have a mighty influence upon you O let not a day pass without a few serious thoughts of this I need hot perswade you to love your lives nature teacheth you to do that but there is another life which is hid from the world which most forget O think of that that 's a life indeed a life of joy happiness and pleasure Death sounds oft in the ears every passing bell tells you that your breath is going and that your turn is coming and all the Coslins that are carried by your doors say prepare do your work quickly 〈◊〉 will shortly be too late But who understands the meaning of this Preacher who takes any thought of another life makes ready for death and looks into eternity O Eternity Eternity how rarely do men think of Eternity O that now some would begin to be wise Do you think your Sun will never set will your sands be never ran out and do you know what dying is then the keepers of the house will tremble the windows shall be â—hut and instead of the Daughters of Musick the voice of groaning lamentation and weeping It may be death will lay his cold hand first upon thy feet and bind them and they are as cold as the earth and what a damp doth this put upon thy spirit and then you cry once more send for the Doctor and he comes in haste O Sir a world for breath half my estate to preserve my life a day or two longer and what answer doth he make Sir 't is but a folly to flatter you all the art in the world will not keep you alive two hours longer what did you send for me for to a dead man and so he flings away in a rage and how doth the fainting Patient hear such tidings O what shall I do what will all forsake me can no body help me well send for a Minister and what saith he Sir how have you lived did you pray in your family do you know experimentally what Regeneration is what do you say Sir I do not understand that word What did you never hear a Sermon in your life were you born in England To be regenerated is to be born again do you know what that is O no that 's impossible Why then Sir you are in a lamentable condition indeed you cannot live an hour longer and if you die in this state you must go to Hell as sure as God is in Heaven O how doth that word strike the man to the heart and what a flame hath he within and what horrour is his soul filled with It cannot be imagined what Agonies the soul as well as the body now labours under O that I might die the death of the Righteous and are all my hopes come to this woe woe woe to me poor wretch whither am I now going where shall I now dwell who shall be my companions for ever O that I had but now a little of that grace which I despised in others but it 's now too late O my heart I am pained at my heart O my breath it is going it is just a going O what shall I do O 't is too late O what shall And thus his breath goes and his friends come round about him and one lifts up his hand and that falls down again like a log and others feel upon his nose and there 's no breath and then they say he is gone and so one closeth his eyes and others strip him and lay him out and two daies after he is put into the grave but where where is the soul And thus one goes after another and shortly all this generation will be served thus And thou O careless soul as little as thou mindest all this it may be thou mayest be the next and what will become of thee if death take thee unprovided Now Sirs what will you do will you go on just as you did will you put far from you the thoughts of the evil day will you shake off the sense of this as soon as you can I believe that this is none of the pleasantest discourses to some of you But I would have you to know that my business is not to please your fancy but to save your souls and to wake you out of your dead sleep and if I do but this I have enough Once more therefore I must ask you what you intend to do will you indeavour to live to Christ that you may die in the Lord or will you do as others do put off the thoughts of these things till it be too late Is this a question so hard to be answered Well methinks the very looks of some of you speak you to be persons resolved and by this time you are ready to ask how you shall do to be of this number that shall die in the Lord and be blessed how you may trade so as to get the most durable riches and how you may live so as to gain by death In general I answer If you would have death gain you must live to Christ make it your work and business to secure an interest in Christ let Religion run thorow all you do but for your fuller information in this matter I shall refer you to
Heaven and Hell to their view and to perswade them to a wise and speedy choice that when these Houses of Clay shall be laid in the dust they may be secured of an Habitation not made with hands that is Eternal with God in the Heavens The Apostle in this Chapter doth both in the 10. Verse he tells us what a Draught is prepared for the implacable Enemies of Christ they shall drink off the Wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and they shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. The wicked may drink roar and swagger they may persecute the Members of Christ because they dare not so madly venture upon the Eternal displeasure of God as they do and sell their precious Souls for a moments joy and make light of damnation but let them know that for all these things God will bring them to Judgment an Eternity of intolerable sorrowes must pay for their short pleasures And hence it is the serious Christian that makes it his business to avoid this dreadful misery is satisfied that he doth not act irrationally and madly if the scorn and contempt of the wicked World doth not frighten him upon this account he patiently submits to any punishment rather than he will hazard the loss of his Soul and be miserable for ever that word for ever sticks much in his mind let the wicked laugh and be merry let them please themselves in his sorrows he knows 't is but a little while and all will be mended and their minds changed he is willing to stay for his happiness and joyes till he comes to another World and he doth not envy the wicked what they do enjoy let them make the best of it as long as they can and boast of their pleasures when they see themselves wrapt up in Flames The unseen world which most forget is always in the Saints eye and if he may but live happily there he passeth not if he run thorow reproaches injuries and a thousand Deaths to that glorious and endless life Here is the reason of the Saints patience this makes him judge it no folly to keep the Commandements of God and the faith of Jesus In the 13. Verse the Apostle comes to speak a word of encouragement not only to the suffering Saints of that Age but for the support of all that should be honoured with such service as to seal the truths of Christ with their blood And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write blâ—ssed are the dead which dye in the Lord from hâ—nceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them In the words you may take notice of two parts 1. A Proposition 2. The Confirmation of that Proposition 1. The Proposition in which we may observe 1. The Predicate blessed 2. The Subject the dead 3. The restriction and limitation of the Subject which dye in the Lord. 2. The Confirmation of this Proposition 1. They rest from their labours 2. Their works follow them 3. The Person affirming this the Spirit which is further cleared 1. By the manner of this Delaration it was by a voice from Heaven 2. By the specification of the Person to whom it was spoken saying unto me 3. By the particular note of Observation Write The Doctrine which I shall take notice of from these words is this Doct. That whatever miseries a Saint may meet with in this Life at Death he shall be happy or in the words of the Text That they are blessed which dye in the Lord. In the Prosecution of this Observation I shall 1. Enquire what it is to dye in the Lord. 2. I shall prove that such are blessed 3. I shall shew wherein their happiness doth consist 4. I shall make some Application 1. I shall enquire what it is to dye in the Lord. 1. Neg. They which make it their business to do what they can against God while they live are not like to be blessed when they dye They which live like Devils are not like to dye like Saints Are there not a Generation in the World who act for the Devil with all their might and count all that time lost which is not spent in his service which make a jest of Damning and are as merry within a step of these devouring flames as if Hell and a Tavern were alike Do they not carry themselves as if they could not make hast enough to misery and make sure enough of Damnation How do they wound and stab their own Souls and let flye against the Almighty How contemptible a thing is Heaven and how ridiculous is the very name of Holiness to them They are of the same mind of those which Job speaks of Job 21.14 They say unto God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways And who is the Lord that I should hearken to him And if a compassionate Minister of Christ beseech them with all the tendernesse that he can for his Soul to bethink themselves a little what these things may end in at last and to consider what a dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of a living God how are his perswasions rejected with contempt and his pitty recompensed with scorn And may I not say of most wicked Men they do flye in the Faces of them that would tell them of their danger and do what they can to deliver them from it And yet for all this how well are they contented with their own condition and laugh at the godly as if it were a dangerous and mad thing to strive to go to Heaven and the truest happiness to be miserable for ever O who would imagine that any living should be thus lamentably besotted Tell them of Hell 't is as much as their life is worth they had rather hazard the feeling of it hereafter than bear the hearing of it here They fear a little disgrace among Men more than the contempt of God They choose rather to be under the weight of God's wrath than the least affront from a Man Talk to them of Glory Heaven and a Kingdom they are light and trivial things with them they had rather hear of a Whore a Tavern or Play and yet these Monsters must be Sainted and do more confidently expect a blessed Eternity after a life of wickedness than some of the dear Children of God do but if such as these ever come to Heaven without Repentance then the Word of God is false Doth not that say That the wicked shall be turned into Hell Tribulation and anguish upon every one that doth evil and there is no peace saith my God to the wicked The Devil himself may as well expect to shake off his Chains and be restored to his lost Glory as they O be not deceived as you Sow so you must Reap do not hope that
you may do the Devils work as long as you can and that then God should reward you with Salvation no such matter You may more rationally expect that God should for your sake pull the Sun out of the Firmament than that he should remove holiness out of Heaven and bring Hell in its place If wicked Men will please themselves with their own Delusions and look for Glory still they must thank themselves when they see how infinitely they are disappointed but I leave these as despairing to convince them of their folly till Judgment and Flames make them to understand it 2. All that live upon the goodness of God here are not like to be blessed after Death There is a vast difference between common and special mercies many partake richly of God's common bounty that have not the least interesâ— in his love God gives this World often times to his greatest Enemies he gives Glory in an other World to none but his Friends and Children Nay let me speak it freely I am sure I have Christ and Scripture to warrant what I say That they which gain this World with their neglect of Heaven shall at their Death lose both Many receive temporal mercies that shall never enjoy Eternal Job 21.9 Luk. 16.25 O how greatly are they mistaken who think that Earl Lord Knight c. are words of any significancy after Death that hope that their honours here will procure them any real respect hereafter that reckon Gold and Silver will go currant in that Country Many that would be counted Persons of some depth and wisdome make a World of stir about trifles that drive a great Trade for that which is next to nothing and that lay in no better Provisions than Gravel Clay or Dung when they are bound for Eternity and yet how do they bless themselves and say I am rich and increased in Goods and have need of nothing Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry They think they make a very wise bargain when they sell their Conscience God and Heaven for a little of that which some call Riches not considering that a few Hours experience may make them know though it may be not cure this mistake O that I could but bring my hearers out of this Delusion O that their apprehensions were but rectified and that they might know the real worth of things and Persons O that I could but bring down the price of sublunary things and raise the things of that other World to their true worth Consider that that holiness as meanly as you think of it is the most excellent thing that that is the greatest Riches and Man's highest dignity God knows no difference between a Lord and a Beggar a Prince and a Subject He is no respecter of Persons If there be any difference it lies here that God hath more wrath in store for them that had greater ingagements and better advantages to serve him than other had I pitty the poor Lords of the World and I am confident he that knows the worth of Christ and the nature of his own Soul can't much envy them they swell like Bladders upon Water for a Moment and God blowes and where are they Now indeed they reckon themselves very secure and their houses are free from fear neither is the Rod of God upon them they take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ Job 21. They think them Fools that can spare their Riches and want their greatness so they may but have an estate in invisibles and secure an Inheritance that will last for ever These are the Men that hate seriousness and holiness which is the beauty of Earth and Heaven too is undervalued by them And how can they expect sanctity should be delightful to them hereafter when it is abhorred now how can they look for Heaven when they dye when they thought it not worth their minding while they lived No no verily they have their reward they have now their good things and much good may they do them O let me rather gain Christ at Death though I loose all besides than possess Ten Worlds here and after all lose my Soul Could the mighty ones of the World have but one Hours discourse with one of their Brethren in Hell I believe their Judgments would be hugely altered and they would soon tell them that Riches and Honours and whatsoever else most Men do pursue let it be what it will below Christ will yield them but little happiness and comfort in another world Riches profit not in the Day of wrath Do but read Luk. 16.19 25. I am the larger that if possible I might prevent mistakes in matters of Eternal consequence Thirdly There are Thousands that seem to have a far better title to this blessedness that will fall short of it and they are Professors that call themselves by the Name of the Lord. Not all that are called yea and esteemed Christians are like to have any great benefit by Death To be Christned and to be Christians are two things not every one that weareth Christ's Livery shall have his Wages O how many Millions are there that have no better shelter than a meer Name to themselves from the wrath of God! Is it not more than possible to hear read pray and to be esteemed a Saint and yet to miscarry everlastingly How many seeming Saints shall gain nothing at Death but a thorow knowledge of their own folly And if to know what God's anger is be an advantage when there is no escaping of it and if to have their hearts wounded when there is no Cure to be had be any profit and if to be quite freed of Conscience searching Ministers be a happiness when they are out of the reach of their help or pitty then such may be esteemed blessed but if all this will but make the Flame hotter then I leave any serious Person to judg whether it doth not concern Men and Women to look after better security than this amounts to Did you ever well study Mat. 7.21 I hope you will believe Christ though you will not me read that Scripture and what saith Christ O consider seriously that to be an Heir of Glory is no such light matter as most judge it to be To be born to a Crown and a Kingdome and to have a good title to it is a dignity indeed but a Mad-man in Chains and Rags may say he is a King or a Lord. O please not your selves with fansies Sickness and Death is coming and then you will know better whether I had not some reason to be earnest with you in this matter I am most afraid of the confident Pharisee that trusts in his poor sorry Prayers and his own righteousness O that I could but shake him and his hopes before Death and Judgment doth it O that I could but perswade him to maintain a jealousie over himself and to search and try his Heart and to bring himself to the
Touchstone and not to be satisfied till he findes that he hath got more than ever any Hypocrite yet had or can have The best of God's Children are most suspicious of themselves and afraid of their own deceitful hearts Do but see how David carrieth it in Psal 139. What is his great request that he must have granted or he can't be satisfied Is it not that God would deliver him from mistakes in matters of everlasting consequence so Psal 119.80 Pardon this tediousness upon these things if most of the Professors of the World did not split upon these Rocks I should pass these things over with silence Fourthly All that dye quietly are not happy after Death It 's no unusual thing for the wicked to carry their false peace with them to the Grave I have heard indeed many poor People boasting of their deceased Friends and pleasing themselves to think how happy they were Because they dyed like Lambs to use their own expression Alas alas how many thousands are there that dye like Lambs that are but Swine and have the Devil 's Brand upon their Foreheads It 's dangerous arguing from peoples carriage upon a Death-bed what their state is in another World such is the hardness of Mens hearts so dreadful the searedness of their Consciences and so great the subtilty of Satan that many are carried very quietly to Hell and fear nothing till they feel and are not brought to their senses till unspeakable horror and anguish doth it And on the other side how many of the precious Sons of Zion have seat in a Cloud how many of the dear Children of God may go out of the World thorow a painful Death are not their intellectuals sometimes impaired their reason Clouded and their Bodyes upon the Rack and yet in a moment they feel themselves swallowed up of that Glory and the doleful antecedents of their happiness did but make their rest more sweet and welcome and put an accent upon their bliss The truth of it is it hath not a little puzled some as well as David to construe God's dispensations to see the wicked dye quietly Psal 73.4 and the godly to have a strange Death but God will shortly resolve this Riddle and I think it were no very difficult thing for a serious understanding Man to give himself considerable satisfaction in this business May not the wicked dye quietly because his Conscience is quite seared and he may perswade himself that he hath made an agreement with Death and Hell may he not hope that there is no such place as Hell or if there is that it is tolerable may he not make himself believe that the Word of God is not true and invisibles are all but fansies or that God is so merciful as that he will not damn him and many such things the Devil helps his Servants with that so his service may not be disparaged and that he may have the better advantage to tempt others There is much also in the nature of the Disease and it may be God may try his own Children with acute pains and let Sathan buffer them to manifest the excellency of his Power and their Grace to try others of his Children whether for all this they will serve him and some Persons of admirable attainments and great experiences while in health may have some considerable Tryals upon a Death-bed that poor Christians which were ready to fear because they had not their enjoyments that therefore they had nothing at all might see that great Saints have their Tryals as well as they but I shall be far briefer in other things I come now to shew you who they are that are blessed at their Death and to give them a brief Description of those which dye in the Lord. First They are such who are made thorowly to understand that they were sometimes quite dead in sins and trespasses that they were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant of Grace Secondly They are Persons which are convinced of that misery of such a state and made to know that if they dye in their sins they must be buried in Flames Thirdly Vpon this they are out of love with their most beloved sins and count that which was their life joy and pleasure to be a very Death misery and Hell whereupon they set themselves in good earnest against sin as the greatest evil in the World they believe now That if they live after the Flesh they shall dye but if through the Spirit they mortifie the deeds of the Flesh they shall live Upon this account they use all the means that they can to get their corruptions weakned an inward principle Divine Life Now he begins to act them which is as contrary to Sin as Heaven to Hell a Spirit of ingenuity restrains them How shall they do this and sin against God They now see sin in its colours as it is contrary to the best good God they can see its killing and damning Nature in the Agonies and Sufferings of Christ and they feel the doleful effects of sin in their Soul and body both and upon this account they can say what have I to do with Vanity any more Shall I still hug this Serpent shall I still Sail with this Jonah in my Vessel and shall I after all this keep this Dalilah in my Bosom No but O that I could hate it Ten Thousand times more than I do There is an enmity raised in the Soul against sin which can't be satisfied till it see the Death of Sin now this is a Person that is fit for Death and Death it will as you shall hear afterwards do him a World of kindness in shewing him the Heads of all his Enemies 4. An other quality of this Person which is like to make such a blessed end is this he is one that is dead to the World Faith hath discovered a better Country to him it hath spyed that new Jerusalem and those blessed Regions and now the Soul thinks the World scarce worthy of a serious thought or look he takes himself to be a kind of Prisoner here and the whole World but a Dungeon if compared with that state of liberty and glory he now joyns with David and says Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I can desire beside thee This is the Man that is like to be a gainer by Death he who contemns Earth and makes Heaven his choice shall never finde himself a loser 5. Another property of the Man which shall be blessed at Death is this he is one that takes Christ for life and happiness Time was indeed he was of an other mind sin was his delight and none so despicable in his Eye as Christ but God in free and rich grace hath taken away the Scales from his Eyes and healed him of his miserable blindness and let him see such a loveliness in the Lord Christ as that now he is able to say
full everlasting freedom from evil or any imperfection 2. It consists in a compleat perfect and eternal enjoyment of all the good that our natures are capable of First It consists in a full and everlasting freedom from evil or any imperfection And here I shall insist upon some of those evils and imperfections which a Child of God shall be freed from as soon as ever Death hath let the Soul out of the Body First The Saint is free from all sin The Bolts shall be knockt off the Prison walls broke down and the poor Captive set at liberty O blessed Jubilee How glad would Paul have been if when he cryed out in such an agony O wretched Man who shall deliver me if he had heard a voice from Heaven saying thy groans have pierced the Clouds thy Prayer hath reached the Heavens thy Petitions shall be granted immediately would not this have been grateful news When before a few days be at an end this shall be the condition of every one of God's People Now indeed if you lissen to their Closets you should hear how dolefully they bemoan their condition if you follow them into their Families what is it that they would most desire of God is it not freedom from sin what complaints do they make of themselves that there should be so great an unsutableness in them to God that their hearts are unsensible of the worth of divine things that they should have so little love to the Lord Christ and be so little taken with the kindness of the Redeemer How weak and faint how cold and dull in duty how ready to betray their Lord how cowardly in the cause of God But death will for ever silence these complaints death tares off Joshua's rags and presents him before the Lord without spot or wrinckle or any such thing sin indeed accompanyeth the ungodly into another World he rests from his pleasures and his wicked works follow him but it is far otherwise with the godly sin was his burden and Death shall unload â—im sin shall be confined to Hell Heaven enterâ—ains no such deformity This Tyrant shall no more inslave any of Christ's subjects The house of Saul and the house of David shall no longer â—ontend that bloody conflict between the flesh and spirit shall then be determined by a final Victory then the Soul will say farewell my hard heart farewell unbelief farewell ingratitude then thou shalt never entertain an unkind thought of God more the lame and the blinde and the Jâ—busites shall be smitten when King David comes to make his Palace in Zion thy sins must dye when the Lord cometh to take the full possession of this Fort Royal confession of sin shall shortly be needless no darkness shall cloud the understanding no perversness the will no disorderliness in the affections no treachery in the memory the Eyes shall be better employed than in beholding of vanity the Eares shall not be locked against truth the Hands far from violence the Tongue from deceit and the Feet from walking in ways of wickedness And seems this a light matter to you who have gone bowed all your dayes under the pressure of sin is it nothing to you to have all your iniquities done away as a Cloud and your transgressions as a thick Cloud Thus see what a kindness that formidable enemy doth to all the subjects of Christ's Kingdom what prayers teares and groans did gradually it doth at one blow Thus the oppressed is delivered the mourner made to rejoyce and the great make-bate between God and the Soul for ever discarded and turned out of Doors Eph. 5.27 Es 44.22 2. When a Christian ayâ—th he shall be freed from all the temptations of Sathan Death sets the Soul out of the Devils reach this Angel hath nothing to do in Heaven this Serpent shall not come into the higher Paradise nor Sathan creep into this Eden Now indeed he goes up and down like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour novv he sets his Ginnes every vvhere to catch the unvvary Christian he useth his stratagems to surprize them but then this adversary shall be trod under Foot his Fiery Darts shall be quenched and his designes broken O happy Day vvhen will it come vvhen the Devil shall be as unlikely to tempt as our hearts to close vvhen vve are got once safe to rest the Devil shall as easily shake God's Throne as our happiness Death turns the Key Bolts and Bars this Enemy out then O then thou shalt see this Pharaoh cast dead on the shore and for ever disabled from making any resistance against thee or in the least disturbing thy peace Rev. 20.10 3. The blessedness of the People of God consisteth in their being freed from the frownes and flatteries of the World In life time thou art fain to fight thy way to peace to dispute every step thou goest and canst never have a quiet Hour vvhile thou hast such ill Neighbours There is an old quarrel between the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent and the enmity is radicated and the â—end can be cooled with nothing but Death Christian expect not as long as any of that Cainisâ— Generation breath that thou shouldest be long â—â—cure In the World you shall have tribulation â—ut be of good cheer Christ hath overcome the World Joh. 16.33 What though they speak â—â—eat words Prison Halters Faggot Thou shalt â—e long ride in state to glory and then let them 〈◊〉 their worst When thou art in Heaven they â—ay curse and increase their own misery but â—â—ey shall not in the least diminish thy tranquillity â—â—d as for their flatteries they shall signifie nothing thing the beauty of this inseriour World will be darkned by the brightness of that Light which Death leads thee into its excellencies will be quite eclipsed its allurements will lose their power Who can choose but contemn the Earth that knows what Heaven meaneth O how low an esteem have the most experienced Men here oâ— the World Honours and riches are accounted very inconsiderable things to them which understand the difference between finite and infinite the disproportion between time and Eternity Death bloweth the dust out of our eyes it pluckâ— off the Vail and shews one quickly the glory oâ— both Worlds and so it is not lest long to determine which is to be preferred dross or silver brass or gold a dunghil or a Palace there wiâ—â— be no thought of returning to Egypt or Gosheâ— either in them which know the fruitfulness of thâ— spiritual Canaan the accommodations of the neâ— Jerusalem the pleasure of the holy Court 4. At Death he shall rest from all his pains there is no fear of sickness sorrowes and achâ—â—â— The Stone Gout and Plague are Distempers thâ—â— none labour with there that Aire is clear anâ— sin which infecteth other places never got footing there they that scarce know what a Dayâ—â— ease now means shall then forget their sorrow their constitutions shall be mended their
crazâ— Bodies that needed to be propped up by Aâ—â— have now no need of such helps the lame shaâ—â— leap the blinde see the weak shall be strong thâ— crooked strait they which were in deaths oft shaâ—â— be never in danger O happy alteration thâ— Grave will refine and alter our Bodies and theâ— shall there bury all imperfections and this mortâ— shall put on immortality and this corruptible incorruption There the weary shall be at rest Esa 61.3 33.24 60.18 Job 3.17 5. The blessedness of the deceased Saints consisteâ—h in their perfect freedome from all wants and fear of want Here they have their daily want and in the sweat of their brows they must eat their Bread The World in its best estate is made up of vanities and troubles How much need have we of the help of our fellow-creatures we can't live without the use of their bodies and lives we want their service to till our Grounds and to carry our weak Bodyes that can sometimes scarce go under their own burden What shift could we make if the influences of the Sun Moon and Stars were suspended what lamentable complaint should we make if God should seal up the Fountains of Water how soon should we faint if he should make the Heavens as Iron and the Earth as brass What Element can we want what Creature could we well spare But the time is coming that Day will shortly begin whose brightness will make the Sun dark and the Moon to disappear and all the Stars to leave their Spheres as useless O unbelief how miserably dost thou rob us of the comforts which the very fore-thoughts of that hour might bring in Dwell O my trembling Soul upon the Meditation of these things Is there no truth nor weight in â—hose Scriptures Es 60.19 Es 21.29 Give in thy Answer Why then art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within me Wait upon the Lord and be of good courage wait I say upon the Lord. 6. This happy Man shall be quite freed of whatsoever may argue an imperfect state Some of those very graces that are now so useful and necessary when their work is done shall be laid aside as useless I mean Faith Hope Patience desire all which speak something of imperfection shall then be swallowed up of love They now help to lead the Soul out of Egypt conduct thorow the red Sea and Wilderness and send Spices into Canaan and bring good tidings out of that Land they see Sihon Og and Amaleck discomfitted and their Power broken they go to the Borders of the promised Land nay they get up to Pisga and upon Mount Nebo there they bid the Soul farewell Faith like a skilful Pilot keeps close to the Ship till it see it out of danger Faith like loyal Barzillai brings in abundant provisions for the Soul in all its streights and comes with it to the banks of Jordan to the brink oâ— eternity but there there it takes its final leave and sends over young Chimham to wait upon the King at Jerusalem it sends love over into Heaven tâ— dwell there with the Lord for ever O blessed state when faith shall be swallowed up of sight Here we live by faith and not by sense or sight in glory we shall live by sense and sight and not by faith The shaddow shall vanish when the substance is come hope patience desire and fear shall all pass away and be swallowed up with an eternal fruition possession and security Happy are the People that are in such a case their clouds are quite blown over they need neither Wind or Sails now they are safe landed What think you now of a Child of God is it worth the while to be religious is holiness a folly now and yet this is not all come a little further and I will shew you greater things still All this is buâ— the privative part of their happiness I come now to touch a little upon the positive part but what an Ocean am I now lanching into who can tell all the priviledges of a Citizen of Zion what Pen can describe the honour and dignities of the Sons of God But that I may heighten your spirits and a little antedate your comforts I shall in the next place shew something of the positive part 2. The blessedness of those which dye in the Lord consists positively First in this that they shall enter into the Society of the Angels they shall leave any longer conversing with mortals and instead of weeping friends see themselves compassed with singing Angels How do you think that Lazarus was affected who instead of Beggars Crippels and Dogs had a Guard of Angels waiting upon him What an extasy of joy was he surprized vvith Luk. 16.22 This honour have all the Saints We think the sight of a King the look of a Prince the company of a Lord a great matter what are they it compared with the least of the Captains of the Lord's Host How vast is the difference between Flesh and Spirit and yet this favour the Lord is pleased to confer upon the least of his Children And how glad are the Angels themselves of the society of the poorest Saint they are glad even here to be doing offices of love for them many a danger they delivered them from many a mercy they conveyed from their Father to them but these earthly Bodyes were scarce capable of communications with such noble and spiritual Creatures but at Death they shall know their old friends and fellow-servants and bless God with them and for them for ever Heb. 12.22 And these Chariots and Horsemen of Israel shall carry up Joseph to his Fathers House and there the Sons of God shall shout for joy Time was the sight of an Angel would make a Saint tremble but then it shall make them to Triumph and what stories will they tell them of the providences of God toward them and joyn with them in the high praises of his goodness and love But all this is but little to what follows 2. At Death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness How will they in a moment see themselves as white as Snow how glorious shall the Kings Daughter be when her beauty is perfect how lovelily will she look when she 's clad with innocent purity how excellent when her royal Husband the Lord Christ shall be infinitely taken with her Will he not then say thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee Come with me from Lebanon my Spouse with me from Lebanon from the top of Amana from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the Lyons Dens from the Mountains of Leopards Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou with one Chain of thy Neck How fair is thy love my Sister my Spouse c. Cant. 4.7 8 9 10. If the Lord see so much beauty here in his Church what will he do hereafter when he shall have wash'd away all her
this Congregation what a ghastly sight would it be should God strike all them dead which lye in their sins and know not Christ it is to be feared that the Assembly would be far thinner than it is should the Graves open and the Souls and Bones say to us make hast make hast up get your Souls dressed for within three Days you must lye in this black and cold Chamber with us How would this make most of our Faces to gather paleness and our joynts ready to knock one against another but what if another Voice should second it and one should come roaring out of Hell wrapped about with Flames and should say it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God they that dye in sin must be buried in Hell and if this very moment you do not turn you must take a place with us in those torments from which there is no redemption Would this move you why sirs is there not as much reason that you should believe God as the domned O what wonders are stupid sinners how unconcerned do they go up and down as if it were a very easy thing to prepare for Death and a needless thing to think of Eternity O you that know a little what the life and death of a Soul is come help us to mourn over our dead Doth not the very Aire smell of the dead Are not their numbers scarce to be computed who le Families Towns Cities and scarce one living Soul amongst them O where where is our pity how can we bear to see so many millions go to the Pit and not bestow one tear upon them what 's the matter O my Soul that thou art no more compassionate would Hester Jeremiah Paul nay would the King and Princes of Niniveh have been no more troubled if Souls had been in the same danger in their Days as they are in ours But that I may a little move my self and others let me commune a little with you you are yet in your senses and have the use of your understandings and are not brutes nor stones shall I have leave to reason the case a little with you do you never use your reason have you not a principle of self-preservation do you never consider whither you are going while you make hast to Hell Do you never think of Heaven and is it so frightful a place that you should be afraid of it will it undo you to be saved and is that blessedness which I have set before you so contemptible a thing that you will not so much as give the thoughts of it one Hours entertainment in your Soul Can you be contented without it and prefer your short lived pleasures before it if the case be so thank your selves if you have your choice blame not God if he deny you that which you thought not worth the accepting As for us Ministers we call God Angels and Men to witness that we have told you of your danger and if you will not take warning who can help it if we knew what in the World to do to prevent your ruine God forbid but that we should readily do it but if after all your threatnings perswasions and intreaties you will go on still why your blood be upon your own Souls but though I speak thus I hope better things of many here present and things that do accompany salvation I shall speak for your incouragement in the next Use USE IV Is it so that they are blessed that dye in the Lord why then should the believer be so much afraid of Death What though it be the King of terrors is it so to all Have not some handled this Serpent without any fear What have I been proving all this while Is there not one word of sense in all that hath been spoken get but this secured that you are a Child of God make but the King you friend and then neither his Serjeant nor his Porter will do you any hurt except to arrest your enemies and to open the Gates of his Palace to you and to admit you into his presence be counted an injury who would be afraid of everlasting rest why should any one be so loth to have his diseases healed why should we be so unwilling to receive that which we seem with much earnestness to ask Will the Prisoner choose always to live confined will he fall in love with his Chains or be angry with him that comes to knock off his shackles Is the miserable Captive afraid of his liberty why do you hear pray and read to what purpose do you strive watch and hope Is it all for that which you tremble to have what report doth faith bring of an other World Doth it tell you that it is a Land of Darkness and sorrow or that it is a place of joy pleasure and happiness and what still loth to depart is this World the more desirable of the two and are thy sins and carnal Companions more lovely than Christ If the case be so then why dost thou talk of believing Is this your faith the truth of it is if this be thy case thou hast no great reason to be over desirous of leaving this World for I perceive thou hast built thy House here and dost not take Heaven for thy Rest but in case of absolute necessity thou thinkest it a more tolerable place than Hell and Torments But thou art not the Person that I have now to do with I shall speak a word or two to such by and by my errant it is to thee O praying and believing Saint I would fain hearten thee up a little that thou may'st shew the World that Heaven is not so sorry a preferment as that one should hardly be perswaded to accept of it but that it is indeed what the Scriptures Ministers and the Children of God say it is O contradict not your profession and let the wicked see that you have got something in an other World and that your happiness begins there where theirs ends You work hard and will you be afraid when Night comes to receive your wages I hope you will not say that the Lord is a hard Master and that his wages are not worth the receiving Let the wicked trouble and the enemies of God fear and let the workers of iniquity be afraid of their appearance before their Judge But let not the faithful subject dread his King the Wife her Husband nor the Child his Father I would sain argue my self and others out of those slavish fears Consider sâ—rs that now death hath lost its sting and the Grave its bitterness and a Saint if he will but be as careful in keeping his watch as he ought may be able to speak the same Language as Paul did O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15 55. And to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ If Death
was in an extasie of comfort and felt what those joyes unspeakable in believing meant in former times he had great manifestations of Gods love but never any broke into his soul with such power and clear evidence as then he had as it were a prospect of glory and some foretastes of that happiness that was prepared for him before the foundations of the world and O how did his heart even leap within him to think that within a little while he should fully and eternally enjoy what he now had a little glympse of Upon Munday I went to visit him and found him in a very sweet frame so taken up with Heaven that he did even wonder at himself I am saith he so overcome with the love of Christ and the glory of Heaven that all manner of fear is hid from mine eyes and I cannot so much as think of Hell or if I do it is with joy that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus but what do you think of these things is it possible that they should be delusions O Sir I beseech you be faithfull to my soul and tell me as you will answer it at the barr of God what you judge of my state I would not for a World be now in a fools Paradice and then he told me his experiences and intreated me to search and try him and again and again he expressed his great joy under the apprehensions of death and that glorious Eternity that he was passing into I desired earnestly to discourse with you said he because I expect to lose the use of my reason and am not like to be capable of speaking my mind to you hereafter and then he intreated me to give him a Funeral Sermon And all this he spoke with as much cheerfulness as can well be imagined speaking of death as the most desirable thing O saith he that I were but ten times sicker I long to dye I am ill but I would be ill to purpose O dear Jesus I long to be with thee Upon Tuesday his distemper grew much upon him and began a little at times to impair his intellectuals and yet by fits he would speak excellently of the things of God being asked whether he was willing to dye he answered That Eternity was too little for him to praise God in for his rich mercy to such a poor creature as he was that the Lord should prepare such an inheritance amongst the Saints in glory for him and that his life was hid with Christ and that when Christ who was his life should appear he also should appear with him in glory This morning he prayed for an exhorted those that were in the family to prepare to meet him in glory Upon Wednesday when he had any intermissions he broke out into such expressions as these Dear Jesus what art thou doing preparing Mansions for me I am coming sweet Jesus I am coming It is but a little while a little thread and when that is cut I shall be safe in glory Being very ill he said What if I should live two hours or two dayes what is that to a glorious Eternity Death what is it but a Porter to open Heaven-gate for me What is all the World compared to that Crown which I shall receive Being asked how he did he answered very well one standing by said no you are very ill he replyed I know I am very sick but I say I am well because I am as God would have me be When I came to him in the afternoon I found him exceeding ill and betraying some weakness in his intellectuals and his discourse being very impertinent I said to him your language was wont to be spiritual but now you forget your self It is true Sir said he but you know what the condition of my body now is blessed be God the root of matter is in me After this he was very still and quiet whilest I read to him and seemed to be much pleased at the reading of the fifty fourth and fifty fifth of Isaiah and gave a very rational account of any spiritual question that was put to him and very desirous that I should pray with him Upon Thursday because of extraordinary business of my own I could not be present with him Upon Friday he was taken speechless for many hours together but according to our Prayers at last he recovered the use of his reason more than before and could speak that we might well understand him then I asked him how he did he answered me Still alive After a considerable pause he cryed out Gracious Father thy Will be done Then I opened several Scriptures to him which speak the blessed state of Saints in another World and when I asked him whether he did understand me He answered Yes Yes and wept several times for joy Now the Symptomes of death approaching come upon him scarce any pulse and a dying sweat and the last words that I heard him speak were Glory Glory After that he continued in very great Agonies and his pangs were strong till about 11 of the Clock then he slept in Jesus being exceedingly lamented by the young men of his Society many of which were about him FINIS An Accompt of Gods Dealings with this Young man before and at his Conversion with some Remarks upon the same as it was Delivered to me under his own hand after I had Discoursed with him by way of Dialogue between a Minister and himself Minister WHat ought to be the great care and duty of every professing Christian in these our dayes Convert Pray What may be the reason of this your Question Min. I have very many reasons but one is this Because it is daily seen that very many who have made great profession of Reâ—igion and are accounted amongst the wise Virgins fall away which is very sad to conâ—ider and I fear that the reason is because there is not that care taken about the state of their souls which there ought to be now I pray you answer me my Question viz. What ought c. Conv. With respect to the former It ought to be every Christians great care to examine himself whether he be in the state of grace or no and which way the Lord was pleased to bring him into that blessed condition sith it is to be feared the want of this is the great and chief cause of mans apostasie from Religion for had he ever been truly wrought upon by the spirit of God had his convictions which more or less all have had turned to a true conversion and had his pangs of sorrow for sin but brought forth regeneration then surely he would have been in such an estate from which all the malice of the powers of darkness could not have drawn him Min. The Answer doth somewhat savour of goodness and that you understand with your heart what you express with the tongue conversion or regeneration is a mighty work and on whomsoever it is truly wrought