hope may a little comfort us in the Sun-shine of the Day but not when the dark Night of Death is coming If you would have your hope to be lively at Death examine carefully the grounds and reasons of it what footing there is for thy hope in the Scripture That hope and no other which hath been often brought to the Touch-Stone and tried is like to last when grim and frightful Death shall look us in the Face Ask your own Consciences a reason of that hope that is in you and take not up with the first answer but let this weighty and momentous question be oft repeated and as often answered and by this means you will be less apt to suspect it hereafter it will then be strong and lively when Nature is weak and feeble and afford you joy and ravishment when the Shadows of Death shall sit on your Eye-lids and your Immortal Spirits are taking Wing and flying to the other World An hope that is taken up no body knows how or why will certainly fail when there is most need of it Retire then Christian from the World and set some hours apart for this great Work and speak to thy self in some such manner as this Death O my Soul is coming and after that men go to Heaven or to Hell in which of these must I be and dwell for ever whither must I go when I die where will death land me Shall I go to God or Devils Be reeeived up into a Mansion of light above or be cast down to a Dungeon of Darkness below When I shall knock at the Gate of Heaven and say Lord Lord open to me am I like to be admitted or deny'd When thou O my Soul shalt leave this Body shalt thou under the conduct of Holy Angels go to the joyful assembly above or be drag'd by Infernal Spirits who lie watching for their Prey to the Congregations of Devils beneath Thou art going O my Soul thou art going to an ETERNAL World but is it to an happy or a miserable one to ETERNAL Joys or to ETERNAL Sorrows to Heaven where is an ETERNAL Day or to Hell where will be an ETERNAL Night It is well with me at present I am full and at ease I want nothing this World can afford The lines are fallen to me in a pleasant Psal 16. 6. place I have a goodly Heritage but how is it like to go with me hereafter Will it be well or ill with me for ever O my Soul ought I not shall I not be concern'd to know how it will fare with me for ever Hope of Heaven is very common who almost among the sons of men does not hope for it But how many are mistaken now and disappointed hereafter How many have lived in hope and dyed in hope and after all been for ever shut out Oh how many have been imposed upon by Satan cheated and deceived by their own hearts and am not I in danger of being so too Is not Satan as cunning and subtil now as he was then Is not my heart as base false deceitful and treacherous as theirs and am not I as likely to be blinded by self-love as they were How much hope is vain false and groundless serving only to delude men at present and shame them for ever How many have been buoyed up and flusht with hope on a Death-bed and in a little time Doleful moment swallowed up of total final and remediless despair What if this should be my case What if it should be so with me Do I hope for Heaven O my Soul of what kind is my hope What was the Spring What is the Nature What are the Effects What Stamp is it of Whose Superscription does it bear Is it any better is it any thing more than the hope of the Hypocrite which shall perish Job 8. 13. Will it endure a trial at the Bar of Conscience and at the Bar of God too Have I any one promise in all the book of God to countenance my hope and warrant my expectation This question is weighty and important and to mistake here may be very fatal and is infinitely dangerous Therefore tell me O my Soul what manner of hope is thine Thus and thus I find it is with them who have a good hope Is it so with me or no I am loth to be deceived afraid of being mistaken therefore O my Soul deal plainly and truly with me O my Conscience take the candle of the Lord and search me and faithfully tell me as thou wilt answer the neglect another day whether my hope be sound and good or no. If you would take this course what a confirmed hope might you have in Life and what a lively hope in Death An hope that would mitigate the terrors abate the horror asswage the pangs and sweeten the agonies of a dying hour With such a hope you may die not only safely but comfortably too go to your Graves not only in peace but with triumph While other mens Chambers are filled with disconsolate sighs and groans yours may ring with acclamations of victory and songs of praise While the awakned and despairing sinner is crying out must I die must I die O my weeping friends must I die your looks may be pleasant your countenances chearful and your hearts transported with joy You may be able to welcome Death and triumph over the Grave you may have such a glorious prospect of the happiness above that you may praise God with your last with your dying breath and Hallelujah may be your last word in this World as well as your first in the next Infer IX Hence we may learn how to carry it with reference to those Righteous and Holy Relations of ours who had such hope in their Death Are any of our holy relations dead and did they die in hope and is there no duty incumbent on us who are left behind Have we nothing to do but to provide for their funeral and follow them to the grave Alas as to them when we have done this we have done all we can for them When we have got them a Coffin purchased a Grave for and laid them in it we can do no more for them But at such a time is there nothing to be done by us for our selves Does not the Death of an Husband a Wife a Father a Mother call upon surviving Relations to improve it At such a time God calls Providence calls and Death calls upon us to mind our duty I shall not largely treat on this Head but only shew what is to be done by us with reference to them as they died in HOPE First We should take notice of and remark their happy and comfortable end We should observe register and remember Gods kindness and love to his gracious and merciful dealings with them in their last sickness and on a Death-bed It cannot but be useful to take notice of the miserable end of many wicked men Is Conscience awakned and
all their sins set in order before them Are they filled with horror and anguish Is some of the everlasting fire flasht in their Faces Does the Devil begin to torment them before the time Is God a terror to Mat. 8. 29. them and they a terror to themselves Are they weary of Life and yet afraid of Death Are they rackt and tortured and do they speak nothing but the language of Hell before they come there Are they cast at the Bar of Conscience before they are condemned at the Tribunal of their Supreme Judge Do they sensibly feel what horror attends the final doom Depart from me ye cursed Mat 25 41. Do they cry out and tremble as if they now heard it pronounced by their eternal Judge Does a righteous God commission Conscience to witness against Judge and Condemn them to sting and lash them in their last hours for the sins of their past Life And ought we not to take notice of and improve all this May not such a sight the remembrance of what we saw and heard in that hour awaken our Consciences startle our Spirits affect and warm our hearts May it not tend â—â—â—hew us the Justice of God the evil of 〈◊〉 and the infinite danger of neglectinâ— to hearken to the voice of God while it is câ—â—led to day May it not excite our diligence quicken our repentance and assist our preparations for Death and judgment May it not Arm us against the World the Flesh and the Devil and make us more resolved to hearken to the voice of the Spirit the checks of our own Conscience and the compassionate calls of mercy Would it not make us know the worth of time and put us upon husbanding redeeming and improving it to the best ends the Glory of God and Salvation of our Souls Would it not make us love Christ prize his sacrifice and value his blood more Would it not put us upon reviewing our lives searching our hearts and examining our state and amending what has been amiss Oh how much good may we get by the death of poor awakned sinners and how great is our folly and sin in case we don 't And can it be unprofitable and useless to mark observe and remember the more happy and comfortable end of the Righteous Shall we take no notice what is the end issue and conclusion of an Holy Life We should remember how they lived and how they died Did God in their sickness furnish them with patience and calmness submission and resignation to his Holy Will Were their Thoughts compos'd Minds setled Spirits calm their peace undisturb'd their Joy great and their Hope lively Was there a willingness to die and a desire to depart that they might be with Christ did God resolve their Doubts scatter the Clouds and help them to overcome their fears Has such an one been enabled to say Lord I am thine I lye at thy Foot here I am do to me dispose of me remove or continue my pains as thou wilt let me be well or sick live or die be recover'd or remov'd as thou pleasest Lord if thou hast any more Work for me to do I am willing to live and content my happiness should yet be deferr'd and I 'll acknowledg thy Grace if thou wilt yet use me and make me an Instrument of thy Glory but if my work be done and the number of my years be accomplisht I am willing Lord I am willing now to die if it be thy pleasure now to remove me if this sickness must be my last and end in death if to die now be really best for me and most for thy glory I will not draw back I am ready at thy call command and pleasure to lay down this Body and thanks be to God I can heartily say the Will of the Lord be done Have any of your Christian Friends or Holy Relations died thus Heavenly frame Blessed end Glorious triumph over Death and the Grave Ought we not and may it not be infinitely useful to mark and remember this How much may it contribute to maintain the Life of Religion and the Power of Godliness in us may not the memory of what we observ'd and saw at such a time confirm us in our holy Choice strengthen our Faith and throughly convince us Religion is not a vain thing Will it not recommend the Holy Ways of God set off Religion and make all holy exercises more sweet and pleasant to us but in particular may not an observing how they died afford matter of encouragement and support to us when we have sad and melancholy Thoughts as to our own departure how oft does many a poor sincere Christian in bitterness cry out How shall I with a Christian Patience an humble submission and an entire resignation bear long painful and tedious sickness how shall I be able to conquer the fear and submit to the stroke of Death How shall I be able to grapple with that Enemy and encounter the King of Terrors How shall I be able with joy and chearfulness without murmuring and repining to obey my Summons to Death and Judgment When I do but suppose my self sick weak and full of pain when I seriously think of my Coffin and Grave I tremble but Lord what shall I do when it comes to the trial thus it is with many and has it not been so with you at one time or other and may it not be so again and if it should how may the memory of the happy end of holy friends and relations administer to your support when thou hast the Death of such an one fresh in thy thoughts thou mayst say why art thou cast down O my â—sal 42. 5. Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me Is it because this body must die How many holy ones are dead before me They were weak frail and imperfect as I am but God furnished them with patience courage and strength quieted their Mind calm'd their Spirits and husht their ruffling passions and when my hour comes I hope God will help me to die too Have not I the same God to depend upon the same promises to encourage me the same Jesus to stand by me and the same Holy Spirit to assist me I remember my holy Father died with comfort my holy Mother made an happy and peaceable End and why may not I Death is conquered it is conquer'd And the fear of it may be overcome I have seen it may and why should the fear of it keep me in a perpetual bondage How serviceable may it be to remember how other holy Men and Women have died before us Secondly Another duty with reference to those who died in hope is to give thanks to God for those assistances and that Grace which was vouchsafed to them â—â— a dying hour Surviving Relations who were Eye-witnesses of God's goodness to them who are departed should own acknowledge and praise God for it when they are dead and gone The dead cannot
dear Relations in their sickness I have seen them sick weak and full of pain I have seen their cold sweats their mortal tremblings and heard their last and dying groans and now it 's my turn to be sick and my time to die Die how hard and difficult a work is this of what great concern and everlasting importance Die who does or can know what it imports but those who are dead and gone I thought it hard to see my Friend my Father my Mother dye but shall I not find it more difficult now I am to dye my self the Messenger of Death has laid hold on me I believe this sickness will be my last I have no hope of recovery I have been sick and God hath recover'd me at the Mouth of the Grave and God hath brought me back I have gone from my Sick-bed and Chamber to my Shop and Trade but now I verily believe I shall do so no more my Sun is setting my Glass is run there are but a few remaining Sands the Grave with open mouth is waiting for me and in a little time I shall drop into it Most Holy Lord assist me now and leave me not through thy Grace I have lived help me Lord help me now to dye as a Christian in these hours and moments prepare me more and better for my last I have lived Rom. 14. 8. Rev. 14. 13. to oh that now I might die in the Lord and fall asleep in Jesus Preparation for Death Judgment and an Eternal World thanks be to God I have not neglected I did not in health adjourn this work to a time of sickness in order to this I have made many a Prayer shed many a Tear abstain'd from sin and crucified the Flesh I spent much of my time in trying my self searching my Heart and examining my State in repenting of and amending what I found amiss I was convinc'd a few death-bed Tears and languishing Prayers extorted by fears of Death and Hell would not make amends or be a sufficient compensation for the sins of a wicked Life and therefore through the Grace of God assisting me I made it the business of my Life to prepare to dye But something more is to be done that I may glorify God in my Death and be for ever happy after it what remains and is now to be done in this my last sickness instruct me Lord and help me to do it I now stand at the Mouth of the Grave upon the Threshold of Time and at the Door of Eternity Lord increase strengthen and quicken all those Graces which are proper to be acted in a time of sickness and on a death-bed Oh! that now I am a sick oh that now I am a dying man my Faith Love and Hope my Repentance Humiliation and Sorrow my desires and breathings after God my joy and delight in him may be more lively and active than ever oh that this last work of my Life may be done best my sick bed joys may be the greatest and my dying comforts most abundant through these painful hours and days this dark and narrow gloomy and frightful passage guide direct and lead me Lord The exercise of some graces the performance of some duties are peculiarly seasonable in a time of health and life and others are so in Sickness and at Death Thou hast helpt me to live and now Lord help me to die If I have made any preparation for such a time and hour as this If I have done any of the work of my Life and conversed in this World as an expectant of a better if I have any grace and at any time have been able to act it if my love has been 〈◊〉 my zeal flaming my heart softned â—umbled broken and melted and mine eyes a fountain of tears to bewail the slips and falls I have been guilty of if I have delighted in God through Christ as my reconciled Father Portion Happiness and End if I have exercised self-denyal in keeping under the flesh restraining its appetites and denying its cravings in contemning the World and slighting those adored vanities which bewitch charm and intangle so many if at any time my hope of Heaven hath been lively my longing panting and breathing after it strong and warm if I have mortified any sin resisted any temptation performed any duty with success so as to profit my self and please God if I have done any thing whereby the glory honour and interest of God and Christ has been advanced if I have imployed improved my talents and gained more if I have brought forth fruit done any work and service in my generation and place Lord it is owing to thee to the assistances of thy grace and the influences of thy Holy Spirit and I desire to acknowledge it is so saying with thy holy Apostle by the grace of God I am what I am Not I but the 1 Co. 15. 10. grace of God which was with me Oh for the same grace and mercy aid and help now I am a sick and dying man Oh that God would help me in these painful days and sorrowful hours to glorifie him yet more by doing the work which is proper to such a time that my present sickness and death may be for the glory of God the honour of Religion the good of my self and others Particularly help me Lord to be truly thankful for all thy mercies for those innumerable favours confer'd on such a worm such a wretch as I am bring them to my remembrance and enable me unseignedly to bless thee help me O my God to exercise a serious solemn and particular repentance for my past sins Let Oh! let this heart of mine be more humble broken and penitent than ever Finally help me Lord with patience and calmness submission and resignation to submit to thy holy will to be willing to die now with faith and hope trust and confidence to commit my Soul to the care of my dear and blessed Jesus And to these ends Lord bless the following meditations to me and let neither my Eye nor Tongue out-run or leave my Heart behind II. God's goodness is to be acknowledged though he afflicts us at present An enumeration of past mercies temporal and Spiritual And solemn thanksgiving for both God is good and doth good freely constantly and unweariedly and I am fully convinced of both My faith and reason prove the former my very sense and long experience the latter And though now I am sick and weak afflicted and pained though I feel the weight of his hand and the smarting of his rod neither Flesh nor Devil shall persuade me to think otherwise Though he afflicts me now yet hath he not done me good all my days and shall not I bless him for his mercies Mercies that are more than I can number greater than I can value and far beyond my deserts Shall the afflictions of a few days the pains of a few hours make me O my Soul forget slight or
a doleful sound does it make in the Ears of those who are yet alive Death the more we muse and meditate upon it the more doth it amaze and scare A short glance a fleeting thought makes poor mortals tremble a fixt and solemn a deep and serious meditation fills with shivering horror Death how do the thoughts and prospect of it damp our Joys spoil our Mirth imbitter our Life and infuse Wormwood and Gall into our sweetest Cup How do the near approaches of it cast us into cold clammy sweats and mortal tremblings How doth every day when we give our selves the liberty of thinking partake of the horror of our last Death what a serious useful and awakening Argument is this and yet how seldom do busie mortals entertain themselves with the thoughts of it Every Corps that is carried along the streets every Coffin and Death's-head we behold every Funeral we attend every Grave that is digg'd with open mouth tells us we must die We may read our own fate on every Tomb-stone Oh! how many and what powerful Preachers have the Living and how many Lectures of Mortality are daily read and yet is there not need that almost every Preacher and every Sermon should mind us of what is sure and near at hand a dying hour Death what a mournful word what a melancholy Theme is this Dead unwelcome message sad news heavy tydings to the surviving Relations is he or she dead What! an old Friend a loving Father a tender Mother dead doleful hour dismal spectacle Dead what do you now see their charming Beauty marr'd their Eyes closed their Teeth set their Countenance chang'd and the Man turn'd into a lifeless breathless Corps Anon you see him nailed up in a narrow scanty Coffin and after a few days when we have fed the sorrow of our hearts with the sight of our eyes we lodge them in a cold and deep dark and silent Grave And must we leave the delight of our hearts the desire of our eyes those whom Nature and Grace made dear to us those whom we loved even as our own Souls among an Army of crawling Worms and among the cold Clods of the Valley Must we see their faces enjoy their company and converse with them no more no more sad thought no more killing word O Death Death what a cruel Enemy art thou to Mankind What dark and gloomy what sad and melancholy thoughts are these especially when Death hath set a pattern of Mortality before our eyes and we are but lately come from the HOUSE of MOURNING upon such an occasion David burst out into tears and spoke in all the figures of a sorrowful Rhetorick O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom â— Sam 11. 33 would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son These Arrows of Death that kill one wound the many that are left behind and the wound is so deep that many times it proves mortal They only live to weep sigh and groan to bury their dead and then they come home and die too and those that lived are content to die together Life how sweet pleasant and delightful is it Life how amiable and desirable is it with what earnestness and passion is it courted by most how willing are poor Mortals to tear out their Bowels with Vomits to punish the flesh with fasting and abstinence and tie themselves up to the tedious and troublesom prescriptions of Physitians how willing are they to take the bitter Potion they loath and how patient under the cutting of the Lance and teeth of the ragged and torturing Saw how willing are they to lose a dear Member that Life might be preserved Men stick at nothing to preserve this dear thing we call LIFE How chearfully do men die daily that they may not die once for good and all Life how excessively fond are most of it Life gives us the opportunity of enjoying those pleasures that are soft and charming but Death renders us uncapable of any and who almost doth not live in bondage thro' fear of it But tho' there are many great and terrible evils in this one frightful thing DEATH yet thanks be to God we Christians are not left without something to mitigate and allay our sorrow for the death of our godly Friends and holy Relations who are gone the way of all the Earth before us and to fortifie and arm us against a tormenting and slavish fear of our own who in a little time must fall asleep too With a design to help my self and others against both these I have chosen these words to insist on But the Righteous hath hope in his death In handling of this Argument which may contribute very much to the support of living and comfort of dying Saints I intend to proceed in this Method I shall First Open and explain the Character of the person here spoken of and who is to be the Subject of our present discourse Secondly Consider what is here supposed and taken for granted with reference to this Righteous man and that is he must die Thirdly Consider and amplifie the priviledge of such an one as having hope in his death Fourthly Make some practical improvement of the whole in applying all to our selves who are yet alive but must certainly and quickly die First I shall consider and explain the character of the Person who is intended in these words and who hath some priviledge beyond the rest of mankind Here is mention made of a very great benefit and that none might think it promiscuously belongs to all the Holy-Ghost gives us the character of the Person concerned in it the Righteous for opening and explaining the character I have not time neither is it necessary to give an account of the several acceptations of the word it is sufficient to take notice that this word Righteousness which peculiarly qualifies and distinguishes the subject of our discourse is frequently used in a twofold sense First In a more limited and restrained sense and so it is no more than a particular Vertue which inclineth and disposeth a man to give to every one his right When a man doth not by any little tricks or cunning artifices which the Wits of our Age call mysteries of Trade go beyond defraud over-reach or wrong another he is Righteous this is a considerable branch of morality a duty belonging to the Law of Nature and hath its proper place among the duties of the second Table Were this Virtue more common we might deal with our fellow Creatures with more openness and freedom with more plainness and less fear we might trust another without surmise suspicion and jealousie This vertue is famous and renowned and that justly too among Heathens and would God there were more of it in the Christian World Were all men just and upright honest sincere and plain hearted in their commerce as unwilling to impose upon and wrong another as they are loth to be deceiv'd and cheated themselves did
sloth and negligence by our omissions of duty or trifling in it by too great a conformity to the World and too easie a compliance with the men fashions and customs of it by listening to Temptations and running upon the occasions of sin by the immoderate use of things lawful or venturing upon what is unlawful really in its self or at least so to us because doubtful how oft by going contrary to the light of our Minds the checks of Conscience the Motions of the Holy Spirit the Directions of the Word and the rebukes of Providence do we even the best of us displease God grieve his Spirit break our peace disquiet our Minds and wound our own Consciences and how soon doth God by frowns and rebukes by withdrawing himself hiding his face denying a sense of his love and suspending in part or in whole the witnessing and comforting presence of his Spirit tell us he is displeas'd and make us sensibly know find and feel he is so are we not hereupon on a sudden left in darkness to be scared with our own melancholy guilty thoughts and the blacker suggestions of Satan the accuser of the Brethren Are we not bowed down greatly and our Souls not only Rev. 12 1â— disquieted but cast down within us Is not the day gloomy the cloud thick the night very dark and does not the poor deserted Soul with warm affection and passionate longing cry out Oh! that I could see him Don't we at such a time mourn and complain and cry out of the sadness of our Case to God and Man Are we not forc't in the bitterness of our Souls and anguish of our Spirits to say Oh! that it were with me as in months past when the Light of Gods Countenance was bright and shining and I convers'd with the Majesty of Heaven as a Man with his friend but it is not wo is me It is not so now oh that it were Lord when shall it be How oft do the Children of Light walk in darkness question their Adoption and Sonship their Covenant-Interest in and Relation unto God! How oft is there a Curtain drawn between Them and Heaven the Face of God Vail'd and the Light of his Countenance Eclips'd How oft does he withdraw and they cannot find wrap himself up in Clouds and Darkness and they cannot see him with what a pained heart grieved Soul with what an accent of sorrow does such an one cry out My God My God 〈◊〉 hast thou forsaken me I was 〈…〉 wonted to have Communion with God in Prayer to see him at a Sacrament I have had that enjoyment of God which 〈◊〉 would not have been without for all the 〈◊〉 Time was the Sabbath was my best day I long'd for the dawning of it and with joy welcom'd the Morning Light 〈◊〉 Ordinances where my delight 〈…〉 has often said how amiable are 〈…〉 〈…〉 O Lord of Hosts My Soul 〈…〉 yea even fainteth for the Courts of 〈…〉 Heart and my Flesh drieth out 〈…〉 God but now O my Soul what a change is this I pray but he giveth 〈…〉 answer I go to his Table with this Wish Let him kiss me with the 〈…〉 kisses of his Mouth but even there month after month I do not see the King's Face if he be my God my Father and Friend why is it thus with me from how many may we hear such bitter complaints as these But the Righteous at Death hath hope of deliverance from these inward spiritual and therefore most afflictive evils and such an â—â—e in the Evening of Life may say after a â—â—â—tle while and I shall no more offend grieve or displease my heavenly Father and he will always look upon me with a smiling Face a favourable Eye and a pleased Countenance I shall noâ— see him as I now do in a Glass 1 Co. 13. 1â— darâ—ly but Face to Face I shall dwell in his Presence stand before his Throne and enjoy his Favour which is better than Life I shall love God and feel that I love him God shall love me and make me know it and tho' I have often questioned both yet then I shall douâ—t of neither I have had many cloudy days disconsolate hours and dark nights many sad thoughts perplexing doubts and tormenting fears as to my spiritual and eternal state O ETERNITY ETERNITY how have the thoughts of it amaz d troubled me and sometimes made me even tremble but in this sickness I am better satisfied than ever now my fears are gone my doubts in great part resolv'd Now Evening is come and it is neither day nor night the light of Gods Countenance â—â—ch 14. 7. shines upon me Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Psal 103. 1. Holy Name this is but the pledge of those more full and lasting Beams which shall scatter all my Clouds what I now feel is but a little a very little to what I shall Are the shadows of the Evening stretched out upon me Is night coming It is day the light of Gods Countenance makes it day and blessed be God this is but the dawning of that everlasting day which now is near hand and which will perfectly and for ever scatter all my fears Thus the Righteous hath hope in his death of an absolute freedom and final deliverance from these great and almost insuppâ—rtable evils we wretched mortals we who yet dwell in flesh are exposed to he can and he does hope that after a few hours he shall be afflicted pestered with sin buffeted by Satan deserted by God no more for ever tho' he cannot see his Lusts actually giving up the Ghost and dying yet he hopes he and his sins shall dye together tho' Satan may Dog him to the utmost borders of time yet he hopes he shall not follow him into Eternity that tho' some scruples may remain and his afflictions and pains will not be over 'till death hath done its work yet he hopes death will put an end to all Secondly The Righteous hath hope in his Death what hath he then hope of of a Convoy of blessed and holy Angels to secure his passage to the other World Man consists of a Body and Soul when he dies a separation is made the body is left the Soul is gone friends take care of the Body that it may have a decent Burial and truly some respect and honour is due to the Corps to the very dust of them who sleep in Jesus and even after death remain united to him as to this the dying Christian is not much concern'd for he knows his Lord will find it at his coming where-ever it be laid but the Soul being more noble his great care is for that and he hopes Angels will be ready to conduct in to the glorious and eternal Mansions above Holy and confirmed Angels who have as much good nature in them as they have strength and power are very serviceable to us men especially to
in Purgatory pains equal in degree to those of Hell tho' not so lasting but they immediately go to Heaven This day says our Saviour to the penitent Thief the Companion Luk. 23. 43. of his Cross shalt thou be with me in Paradise And the reason of Paul's earnest and vehement desire to depart was that Phil. 1. 23. he might be with Christ The Gates of Heaven are open'd they enter in and they happy Souls are welcomed by God Christ Angels and all their Elder Brethren who died in the Lord and went to Heaven before them With what joy does God the Father receive those Souls for whom he designed Heaven from all Eternity With what joy does the blessed Jesus welcome those Souls to Glory for whom and whose Salvation he wept and sweat bled and died Oh what a joy is it to the heart of Jesus to see them past all the dangers and hazards of a troublesom Voyage and safely arriv'd at his Fathers house With what a triumphant joy are they welcomed by Angels and the whole Assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect Oh how glad are all those kind and loving spirits to see others come to Heaven who shall be sharers with them in one and the same undivided happiness and parners with them in singing Hallelujahs to God and to the Lamb It is no small joy to them that more Voices are added to the heavenly Quire I may the dying Christian say must leave Earth the house in which I have lived so long death is about to open a door for my immortal Spirit to go out at and methinks I see my God my Jesus opening the Gate of Heaven I hope when death has turn'd it out of this frail and earthly Tabernacle God and Christ will receive it into Everlasting Habitations I shall not want a Lodging for God hath prepared and Christ hath purchased a glorious Mansion for me Go out O my Soul with holy joy and triumph hasten be gone for lo thy Throne is prepared and yet stands empty When I am dead my surviving Friends will weep for me with sighs and groans lament my departure but God Christ Angels and Saints will welcome my Soul to Heaven Surely those holy Spirits who rejoyced when I was converted and born again will sing a new Song a peculiar Psalm of Praise to their God and my God when I am born into Eternity A thought that when I shall knock at the Gate of Heaven and say Lord Lord open to me I should hear that sad word I Luk. 13. 2â— know thee not would even break my heart trouble me more than the pains and agonies of a thousand deaths But I hope for a free admission a speedy entrance and a joyful welcome And oh that I were there Fifthly They hope to go to better Friends better Company and have that Vision of God and Christ which cannot be had on this side the Grave In this World good and bad Saints and Sinners the Righteous and the Wicked live together and what a grief and torment is the very presence and company of these Devils in flesh to those who really intend and in good earnest design Heaven Here they enjoy the company of holy Relations and godly Friends who are many ways useful and helpful to them and no doubt they very often and heartily bless God for the â—ommunion of Saints But the best here are imperfect there is something in the best that their conversation is not so taking and suitable so sweet and endearing as we could with How oft do they prove a scandal and stumbling block to us or we an offence and grief to them but at death they go to better to such as love them more and wish better to them than their dearest Relations here can do To Friends who love each other as themselves To Friends in whose Conversation there is nothing but what is peculiarly delightful and pleasant sweet and amiable charming and endearing most highly grateful and obliging To Friends who are utter and perfect strangers to that four and peevish morose and selfish temper which prevails too much in this wretched and degenerate World of ours To Friends who partake of and share in one anothers joys and are as much pleas'd with the happiness of others as with their own To Friends whose tempers will be agreeable whose looks will be pleasant whose hearts will be free and open whose speeches will be ravishing and all whose discourses will be seraphick and sublime and yet set off with all the graceful Airs of a Charming Rhetorick Further while we dwell in flesh and sojourn here below we see God but thro' a glass and that very darkly too To day we enjoy and are ravisht with some views of him and perhaps to morrow nay it may be before night the Curtain is drawn or a cloud interposes and we cannot see him But after death we if we fall under the Character of the Text shall see him Face to Face by a light which is more clear constant and lasting Now we delight in believe on desire after and love that blessed Jesus whom we have not yet seen But after Death we shall see him as he is and will not every view of Jesus be transporting will 1 John 3. 2. not every glance be the Spring of a new and fresh joy What is the language of Death to a Holy Soul but this Come see and enjoy that God whom thou hast long waited for and looked after Come and see that Jesus who out of a deep pity and compassion wept and groaned bled and died for thee Come take thy place in Heaven where thou mayest glut and satisfie thâ— greedy eye with these ravishing sights dost thou long Holy Soul dost thou long for the vision of God and a sight of Christ Come and have it though my looks are Grim my hands cold Don't draw back for none but I can wast thee over to Heaven where God and Christ are to be fully and for ever enjoy'd Is this the language of Death Then what may be the language of the dying Christian Hearken don't you hear him saying The day is dawn'd the time is come the hour is now hastning that I must be gone my Physitians neglecting any further prescriptions your passionate weeping and silent tears O my sorrowful Friends The sensible decays I find in my self in those parts which live the longest and die the last all tell me my end is near Here I have Relations who are Loving Careful and Tender many Friends hath God raised up to me and made them instrumental for my good but I can willingly chearfully bid farewell to all for I hope to go to an Assembly of better Friends and more perfect Lovers I have had those sights of God in the Sanctuary that have been sweeter to me than all the pleasures of this vain World but I hope for a fuller view and a more ravishing sight of that glorious being Can't I see God
softned and broken you must renounce the Infernal Trinity the World the Flesh and the Devil your old Hearts and Natures must be changed love to God must be your governing principle the characters of the H. Gospel must be imprest upon your Hearts and there must be a sincere constant and universal obedience to all its commands in your lives you must have Faith in the Heart which works by Love and there must Gal. 5. 6. be obedience in the life the fruit evidence and proof of that Faith and what argument and motive can be more cogent to persuade you to endeavour after this compleat righteousness than this in the text Sirs when you are sick and ready to die you send for us and then you cry out for comfort oh Sir saith many an one on his Death-bed have you no comfort for a dying man Can you give me no hope it will be well with me after Death Oh that I had some hope of Heaven you that know to whom Heaven belongs tell me oh tell me if there be any ground for me to hope it will be mine and will you not labour after that righteousness without which all your hope is vain and will end in eternal desperation Shall the profits of the World or the pleasures of sin keep you from being Religious indeed infinite folly Were I now upon my Death-bed panting for Breath strugling for life beyond the hope and possibility of recovery were I now expecting which hour and moment which pulse and breath would be my last oh what would hope of a blessed Immortality be worth hope of Heaven would stand me in more stead than the riches of ten thousand Worlds Lord quicken my resolutions and endeavours awaken my drowsie Soul inspire my dead and slothful Heart with light and life with warmth and zeal let me trifle and dally no longer but mind and mind it as the main business of my life to get that righteousness which may add spirit and life to my hopes in a dying hour I resolve and purpose to do so Lord maintain and strengthen these holy purposes and grant me this hope at my death Infer VI. How unaccountable and blame-worthy is fear of death especially that which is tormenting and slavish in those who are truly righteous 'T is true in Death upon the slightest view we may behold something â—elancholy and startling frightful and gloomy something that puts Nature into a fright and makes it recoil and start back at the thoughts of it but if we consider it more distinctly in its antecedents languishing sicknesses acute pains and terrible pangs in its consequent what becomes of the young strong and honourable when death hath turn'd the man into a pale wan and ghastly corps it appears more formidable but if we farther consider it as the effect of our primitive Apostacy and the fruit of the Divine Curse as it transmits the Soul to a righteous and impartial Tribunal and as it is attended with Hell it may justly whenever we think of it surprise us with horrour But how unreasonable is it for good men who have such great and glorious hopes to be kept in Bondage all their life-long thro' fears of Death and yet how Heb. 2. 15. loth are the best of us to admit the thought of dying how loth to suppose that the next year week or day we may be laid in the Grave when sickness shakes how loth are we death should pull down this Earthly Tabernacle But how greatly are we to be blamed for this when God has provided such an antidote as hope of Heaven What is it we are afraid of What is it makes us start and draw back when Death is marching towards us and we hear the sound of its feet at our chamber doors do we fear the pains and pangs which usually usher in the King of Terrors Cannot God make our passage speedy and easie and have we not hope that when these pains are over we shall feel no more Are we loth to die because we must leave our Relations and Friends and have we not hope of going to better Are we afraid to die because after Death our separated and naked Souls must pass thro' the Devils Dominions and Territories And have we not hope of a Convoy of mighty and powerful Angels who dare fight those unclean Spirits in their own Quarters to conduct them safe to the blessed abodes above Are we afraid to die because after Death comes Judgment And have we not hope the Judge is our friend and that our trial will have a good and happy Issue Finally are we loth to die because these Bodies and this Flesh of ours must rot in dust and darkness and our eyes must no more behold this sweet and pleasant light and have we not hope towake and rise after a quiet and undisturbed sleep Oh how abundantly hath our good God provided for our comfortable passage to Eternity Let as many then as have this hope banish these unreasonable and slavish fears which are a pleasure to Satan a dishonour to God a reproach to our profession a disgrace to our hopes and a torment to our selves Infer VII Hence we see the reason of the willing and chearful joyful and triumphant departure of some believers at the hour of Death The Souls of some men are violently rent and torn from them fain would they live longer but must not some die with a quiet and silent submission and some die with abundance of joy and triumph As old Jacob's heart was revived and cheared when he saw the Waggons which were sent to fetch him to his beloved Joseph so the hearts of some Christians have even leapt for joy when they have seen Death coming to carry them to their beloved Jesus Death drest up in the most terrible shape has not been able to fright them With what courage and resolution boldness and magnanimity composedness and chearfulness with what joy and triumph did the Martyrs of old suffer and die The angry frowns the sour looks the threatning words of their enemies have not daunted them the passing sentence of Death upon them and appointing the time for their execution has neither startled nor troubled them No no they have rejoyced in their Dungeons and gone to the Flames with Psalms of Praise in their mouths With what an unshaken mind transport and joy have they passed from their Prisons to a Stake not in the least concerned at the sight of the executioner the instruments of Death and all the bloody Pomp that was carried before them How have these noble confessors endured the torture of the Rack the burning of the Flames not only with patience and submission but with thankfulness and access of joy and exultancy of Spirit though I confess there was somewhat peculiar in this case yet was not all this owing to the liveliness of their hope and strength of their assurance Faith made them Martyrs and Hope made them Triumphant How many other
Providences And what relief might we have during the days of our mourning from these and the like considerations And Thanks be to God we upon whom Death has lately made a breach have this to comfort us Concerning this Relation of ours and Servant of God I will not say any thing the secrecy she always affected and my relation to her forbids me to blow the Trumpet at the mouth of her Grave She is Dead dead She is faln asleep in Jesus the Will of the Lord is done God grant that I in particular and the rest she has left behind who a while ago had a loving careful and tender Mother but now have none may SO Live and SO Die For blessed Rev. 14. 13. are the Dead which die in the Lord they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THE END DEATH-BED Reflections DEATH-BED Reflections Suitable to the preceding DISCOURSE And Proper for a RIGHTEOUS MAN in his Last Sickness I. This World and all in it is changeable Man in particular is so Death is certain and unavoidable What is to be done by a Righteous Man in his Sickness supposing it to be his last ALL things under the Sun are subject to change and what is so sooner or later will have an end THIS World and the fashion thereof 1 Cor. 7. 31. and all that is in it is passing away God is the same yesterday to day and for Heb 13. 7. ever but nothing else is or can be so Nothing here below is like a Mountain which cannot be moved by those mighty and sportive Waves which beat and dash against it but like a Feather which is driven hither and thither with the smallest Breath This World of ours tho' vain Mortals are foolishly fond of and excessively dote upon it as it had a BIRTH so it shall have a FUNERAL day the World's Morning and Noon is past and the Evening is at hand All these things shall be dissolv'd Nature groan 2 Pet. 3. 11. die and give up the Ghost Lord how quickly shall the Angel lift up his hand and swear by him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no more the old World was drowned with Water this v. 6. v. 7. shall be destroyed or resined by Fire tho' according to his promise we look for New Heavens v. 13. and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness In this mutable World nothing is more sickle and inconstant frail and uncertain vain and changeable than Man and what belongs to and makes up his Earthly happiness How uncertain are Prov. 23. 5 Riches may they not make themselves Wings and fly away and have they not often done so may not what we have been toiling labouring and sweating for many years be gone from us in a few hours Tho' Riches and Wealth Descend from Father to Son yet how oft doth Providence cut off the entail and he never enjoy what he was born to tho' a careful and provident Father may leave his Son a fair Estate and a good Inheritance he may live in want and die a Begger and not leave enough to buy a Cossin and purchase a Grave some unhappy accident or other may strip him naked before death does How uncertain is health and strength without which all other comforts are insipid if I am strong one day may I not be weak the next if I am well in the morning may I not be sick before evening if I am at ease to day may I not be rackt tortur'd and pain'd to morrow Lord when thou with rebukes correctest Psal 39. 11. man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth surely every man is vanity All these changes are but melancholy presages of and preparatory to our great and last when we shall be changed from living Dust into breathless Clay There is a time to die Since the first Age the first Man Adam Eccl. 3. 2. death has been reigning and yet death is not satisfied nor the Grave yet glutted with Carkasses This Earth oft changes its Inhabitants one Generation comes and Eccle. 1. 4. another goes our Ancestors moulder into Dust croud closer together and at length become Graves to bury us LIFE what is it A shadow which quickly vanishes a Vapour which suddenly disappears a Flower that fades and Grass which quickly withers and dies LIFE what is it a Candle that lies at the mercy of every stormy and blustering Wind a Lamp that burns a while but will go out for want of Oil to maintain the languishing and expiring flame If we search the Records of the Grave we shall find as many proofs and witnesses of our mortality as there are rotten Bones and Skulls How many Infants are only born live weep and die So that even out of the Mouths Psal 8. 2. of these Babes and Sucklings we may learn this sad and certain truth a time to die How many young Men has Death mowed down in the Morning how many of these has the cold hand of Death undrest before Evening and laid them to sleep in a Bed of Dust even at Noon-day and do not they cry in the Ears of the living there is a time to die Does not every Feaver that scorches us every fit of the Stone Gout and Cholick that puts us on the Rack every Ague that shakes the Walls and loosens the Pins of this Earthly Tabernacle every Dropsie that threatens to Drown us every Palsie that benum's every Lethargy that lulls us asleep repeat over this melancholy and awakening truth There is a time to die verily O my Soul every Man in his best estate is altogether vanity What is true concerning all and every one of Adam's Posterity Lord help me to apply to my self in particular to believe consider weigh and work upon my Heart this common truth I must die Let me not only have some general notional and speculative knowledge but a particular serious warm and practical one a knowledge that may be useful and serviceable to the best purposes a knowledge that may awe my Conscience warm my Soul and powerfully influence my Heart and Life It is impossible to be ignorant of this but Lord how cold unactive dull and ineffectual were all thoughts of this kind when I was well and strong oh that they may make more powerful and abiding impressions upon my Heart now I am sick and weak These very pains I now feel this disease this present affliction which makes me sigh and groan this sickness which I suppose will be my last tell me I must die and call upon me to prepare for such a time that now cannot be far off Lord help me in this my great and last work oh that sense and feeling might help my Faith this fire warm my Heart and what I now feel prepare me for my last pains pangs and conflicts which are like to be much sharper I have visited others some of them my near and
pardon and save yonder penitent sinner and shall my prayer backt with the pleadings of that blood be shut out I have now but a little time my glass is almost run the day is far spent the shadows of the evening are stretched out the night will quickly come Lord be not angry if I renew my request urge thee with thy promise and lie at thy foot till I obtain my pardon and Conscience be enabled and authorized to read it I am miserable and without thy pity must be so for ever and Lord I cannot I will not take a denyal I am thine save me In this sickness I have Ps 119 94. been examining my heart searching my ways and I have done it seriously and impartially what sins I have found out I heartily bewail pardon these and those I have not Who can understand his Ps 19. 12. Errors Lord cleanse thou me from secret faults Blessed Jesus thou great friend and lover of Souls from this my sick and death-bed I look up to thee for help and mercy Oh stand my friend now plead my cause now and let me have the pardon thy blood did purchase thou didst die for me thou wast crucifyed for me and thy blood was shed for me and carest thou not if I now perish May thy Tears Mark 4. 38. Wounds and Blood speak and plead for me for I am sure they will be heard if mine cannot within a few days within a few hours I must appear before an Holy Just and Terrible God and I tremble O my Saviour I tremble to think any one unpardoned sin should meet me at that Tribunal Oh procure my pardon for me before I die if Satan meet me there to accuse me I know thou wilt answer him and plead for me But if any one unpardoned sin meet me there it will condemn me and I am lost and lost for ever I am not sinless I have not perfectly obeyed the Law but I am not impenitent To exercise repentance for my sin has been my daily work ever since my first conversion and it has been so particularly in this present sickness My heart hath been turned from the love of sin and now I loath it more than ever there 's nothing troubles afflicts and grieves me so much as sin vile sin cursed sin thou hast cost me more tears sighs and groans than all my pains have done I Repent I Repent Lord I do repent Oh! pity and spare spare and pardon pardon and love love and save me for ever Have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies and blot out Psal 51. 1. all my sin Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Psal 32. 1 2. iniquity Blessed he and only he is the blessed man though he be a poor man a pained man a sick man a dying man yet he is a blessed man Oh that this blessedness might be mine I am now sick and I have no hope of recovery my body grows weaker and weaker and nature sensibly decays this earthly Tabernacle shakes and it will quickly tumble Death Pale and Grim Death is posting towards me I am near unto eternity but I cannot die I dare not step into the other unseen Eternal World with out a pardon Believing O my God that word of thine that word which to me is of more worth than a thousand Worlds Let the wicked forsake his way and the Psal 55. 7 unrighteous man his thoughts And let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon I beg and through the mediation of thy Christ and my Jesus will expect the pardon of all my sins Let it be unto me according to thy word in which thou hast caused thy Servant to hope Amen IV. Of submission to the Divine will as to the time of our Death Many reasons to persuade to such an holy frame and resigning temper Objections Answered Suitable Petitions The Triumph and last work of FAITH I am now on my last bed this sickness for ought I do or can understand will be unto Death The warrant is issued out the commission sealed I am a dying man every moment that passeth away every clock that strikes every breath I draw every pulse that beats tells me death is near at hand and having given thanks to God for all his mercies having unseignedly repented of all my sin and begged pardon in the name and through â—he blood of Jesus and having now some hope and assurance of it what have I further to do What becomes me as a Christian as a righteous man that hath hope of great and glorious things beyond the grave but to submit to the divine good pleasure and saying The will of the Lord be done What language becomes Acts 21. 14. such an one but this O Lord who art the fountain of Life to all thy Creatures I am thine to live or die when and as thou wilt thou gavest me my Life and it is fit thou shouldst take it from me when thou wilt and as thou pleasest I submit to thy will obey thy summons and I would not live a day an hour a moment longer than God would have me God hath ordered the various circumstances of my Life in the best manner things have been much better with me than if I had been left to my own will and choice and I leave it to this wise and good God to order the circumstances of my Death To die now may be better for me than to live longer and if infinite wisdom judge it so I will readily comply and chearfully put off this Earthly Tabernacle Submissive language happy frame blessed temper thus it ought to be with all but alas how few attain to this nay how do the most even of Christians come far short of it how willing are they to live how loth to die how extremely desirous to stay here how loath to depart how passionately desirous to have a new lease granted when the old one is exspiring and almost out For one that in good earnest says I long I long to die I am willing even now to be dissolved how many with tears in their eyes cry not yet Lord not yet Oh spare me that I may recover Ps 39. 13. strength before I go hence and be no more Thus with shame and sorrow must I confess it hath been with me but in this my present sickness Lord help me to overcome my fears of Death wean me from this vain World mortify my fond affection to this present Life and oh raise and quicken in me holy earnest desires after a better Holy Paul had a desire to depart and be with Christ Oh that Phil. 1. 23. now it might be so with me let me be able to say Lord I accept the punishment of my sin I kiss the rod lie at thy foot submit
for all what the Apostle saith He that doth 1 Joh. 3. 7. Righteousness is righteous What can be the meaning what can be the import what sence can with any tolerable shew of reason be assigned but what suiteth with our present notion He that doth Righteousness i. e. He that perfectly obeys fulfils the whole Law is righteous Is this the meaning Then God help and pity us where shall we find a righteous man Is it He that doth righteousness that is he that being in a State of grace lives up to the rules of the Gospel is guilty of nothing but what is consistent with sincerity and is continually labouring after perfection is righteos Is this the import and gennine sense of this phrase Then thanks be to God some such are to be found And thus much for the first General the Character of the person here spoken of Secondly We are to consider what is here supposed and taken for granted with reference to this righteous man and that is he must die It may be you may think such an one as I have described should have a Protection be privileged from that which is the common lot of others be wafted over to Heaven from one World to t'other and not see Death be caught up to Paradise and not be put to the pain of dying But it is supposed and taken for granted in the Text that the righteous man must die 'T is true indeed our Lord Jesus the Captain of our Salvation hath perfum'd the grave conquered death and destroyed him that had the power of it He encountered this enemy conquered and triumphed over it and every righteous man shares in that victory and triumph Christ hath destroyed the power chang'd the nature pluckt out the sting of death and disarm'd it of its terrors and the righteous may boldly challenge it and with an exuberant joy triumph over it in the words of the Apostle O Death where 1 Cor. 15. 55. is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God v. 57. which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Thus O happy men may they triumph over death But yet their righteousness cannot shall not deliver them from the stroke of it No no Saints and Sinners Good and Bad the Holy and Prophane the Righteous and the wicked are under the same uncontroulable necessity of dying Though they shall not be damned yet they must die Though they shall not be sent to Hell yet they must go to the Grave Though they shall be saved from that hot fiery furnace yet not from the cold dark and silent Pit Though their Souls shall not become a Prey to Devils yet their Bodies must become a Banquet for Worms Though the Soul shall not be rackt and tortured in the dismal Regions below yet the flesh must see Corruption Though they have Mansions in Heaven yet Sickness will shake shake Alas Death will pull down the Walls and tear up the very Foundations of their Earthly Tabernacle Though they shall go to Heaven yet death will carry them thither in its cold Arms. Because Christ who is their Head and Husband Lives they shall Live also Live Where Joh. 14. 19 shall they live In Yonder glorious Heavens in Yonder blessed abodes in Mansions of light far above Yonder shining Sun there there it is these righteous ones shall live But alas They must die first Death hath been is and will be the passage to eternal Life And the Grave is in our way to Heaven As Death spares none for their tenderness and Beauty honours none for their wealth and grandure fears none for their strength and power reverences none for their Grey Hairs and Hoary Heads reprieves none for their flowing tears and passionate entreaties So neither will it pass by any for their Piety Religion and Righteousness With death there is no respect of Persons all must become a sacrifice to and lye Wounded Bleeding and Slain at the foot of it Holy Job cries I know thou wilt bring me to Death and to Job 30. 23. the House appointed for all the Living And David I go the way of all the Earth This 1 King 2. â— is among the Decretals of Heaven For Heb. 9. 27. it is appointed for men once to die Righteousness is no Armour against the arrows of Death No they will strike through and through and stick in our Hearts What is become of the holy Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles of our Lord Jesus Where are they Where Dead and Gone Where are they Their Souls are praising God in Heaven and their bodies sleeping in the dust of the Earth Your holy ancestors and progenitors that were the friends of God where are they Where Alass They are dead and gone and their Sepulchers are with us to this day Aâ—t 2. 19. they served the Will of God in their Generation and then died and after the experience of many Ages may we not ask and easily answer that Question of the Psalmist What man is he that liveth and Psa 39. 48. shall not see death Had we the meekness of Moses the Faith of Abraham the Integrity of Caleb the Patience of Job the Piety of David the Wisdom of Solomon yet we must die for lo these Men of God are gone before us for how many Ages have these righteous ones been sleeping in the bosom of the Earth our first and common Mother When we read in the Sacred History of the Holy Lives eminent Graces of Gods dear Saints how useful and serviceable they were in their time and place where and how long they lived do not we find and then he 〈◊〉 5. â— died concludes the History and makes up the Period Oh! how vast are the Dominions how extensive is the Empire of the King of Terrors In the Sacred Story we read but of two only viz. Enoch and Elias who by an especial grant and priviledge were exempted from this Law of Death they went immediately from Earth to Heaven when all others except those who shall be found alive at the end of the World must take the Grave in their way they were like living plants transplanted to the Heavenly Soil when our Bodies like Corn that is Sown must first rot and dye and then spring up again Death as things now stand is a debt that we all owe to Nature and will not be remitted no not to the Friends of God themselves The Saints are originally out of the same dust they as well as others dwell in Houses of Clay and Earthly Tabernacles and tho' they may be repaired by Food and Physick yet at last they will tumble the Body of a Saint is not made of more lasting Dust and durable Clay than the Body of a Sinner I grant that Sinners may impair their health and weaken nature by gluttony and drunkenness and other acts of intemperance how many
unclean persons who have frequented the House of the strange Woman have found that her House inclineth Prov. 2. 18. to death and her path unto the Dead Ah wretched men sottish sinners What do they do but violently break the thred of Life When it might have been spun out to a further length by sinning against God they murder their Bodies as well as damn their Souls send one to the Grave and the other to Hell before the time Infinite folly But yet the most holy and righteous have the seeds of corruption in them and are mortal as the Garment breeds the Moth which frets it So we the Diseases which sooner or later will send us to our long home The righteous Eccles 12. 5 are subject to the same sicknesses and diseases as others are to burning Feavers pining Consumptions and to Old Age which is attended with 100 and 100 infirmities and is of all diseases the most incurable Life is a Candle which if no Stormy and ill-natur'd Winds blow out when it is burnt down into the socket will go out of its self a thred which if no scorching Feaver burn time will wear and old age will fret asunder This body tho' there be an Holy Soul inhabiting in it is such an house that if it be not pulled will tumble down of it self Tho' Wisdom hath length of days in her right hand Prov. 3. 16 many of her Children go to Bed late yet an immortality here is not in her power to confer upon any they may hope for it in another World but they cannot have it in this this is a priviledge peculiarly belonging to the future State Now righteous men undergo Death upon a double account 1. As the fruit and consequent of sin Immortality was the priviledge of Innocent Death is become the punishment of faln man If we search the Sacred Records we may easily find from what and whence to derive Death's Pedigree sin ah cursed evil ushered Death into the World That threatning In the day thou eatest thereof Gen. 2. 17. thou shalt surely dye upon the Apostacy of our first Parents was turned into a standing sentence involving them and their whole Posterity for by one man sin Rom. 5. 12. entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men in that all have sinned Death is not owing to an irresistible Fate to the weakness of our primary constitution but to Sin as the deserving cause it was sin set Death upon its Pale Horse and nothing now can dismount him as the Tree brings forth fruit as the seed sown brings forth Corn so sin when Isa 1. 17. it is finished brings forth death Sin open'd the Door and then Mortal Sicknesses Deadly Distempers Killing Diseases and Death it self entered in Sin draws Death after it as the Needle doth the Thred and attends on it as the Shadow doth upon the Body Could all Graves be open'd could we stand in some convenient place and at one view behold the many thousands Death hath captivated and slain could we see all the Carkasses that have dropt into and are now rotting in dust we might say Lo all these were first the spoils of sin and then the Trophies and Triumphs of Death This is the account Scripture gives of Deaths Universal Empire Sin cursed Sin oh what Fools are we to be fond of it oh what infinite and unaccountable madness is it to lay and hug that hissing Serpent in our Bosoms which will sting us to Death is the cause of all those Funerals which have been are or shall be in the World Now tho' the Righteous are renew'd and sanctified they are so but in part they have sin in them the meritorious and deserving Cause of Death and therefore that Sentence that carries Death in it DUST thou art and to Gen. 3. 19. DUST THOU SHALT RETURN must be executed even upon them Tho' they are pardon'd yet their Pardon runs with an exception of Death 'T is true for Christ's sake upon the score of that painful shameful death he in their place and stead underwent upon the Cross the SECOND Death which is Death with an Emphasis shall have no power over them but notwithstanding all he hath done and suffered because they are sinners the FIRST must and will How far death to good men is a penal evil and yet retains the nature of a punishment I shall not in this wrangling age offend any by attempting to determine It may suffice that sin brought death into the World and furnished it with those Weapons wherewith it wounds and kills all If any say since the death of Christ and the effusion of his blood upon the Cross Death is rather an advantage to his followers I grant and thanks be to God it is so but may not death be the Wages of sin tho' a good and kind God makes it the path to Heaven and this leads me 2. To consider the death of the righteous as a Means of their deliverance from sin and the appointed way to the glorious Mansions which are above 'T is true God could make us perfectly holy take away the life and destroy the very being of sin the first moment of our conversion when we have done his will served the purposes of his Grace and attain'd the end of our being born by an happy pleasant and easie translation he could take us up Body and Soul to Heaven but he hath otherwise determin'd and made Death necessary in order to both According to the Divine Constitution they must first dye and then be perfectly holy and finally happy Do you ask why the righteous die why that sin might be destroyed as Sin brought Death into the World so Death shall excellent contrivance of Infinite Wisdom for ever abolish Sin tho' death had its sting strength power nay its very being from sin yet it proves by the ordination of God the destruction of it Those Arrows of Death which kill the Christian strike thro' the very Heart of his Sins and Lusts and they both die together A Saint puts off the Garments of Mortality and his filthy Raiment at once the sin that was born with them and lived with them and accompany them from place to place in their last moments takes leave of them for ever The Christian dies that Sin may do so too To this more will be said hereafter Moreover the Righteous here are Strangers and Pilgrims this is their Character and it is expressive of their Frame and Temper While they live they are in a strange place among a strange People and at a distance from their own Oh! How do they wish long pant desire and groan to be elswhere They are born from Heaven belong to it and wish to be there They are Citizens of the new Jerusalem in it are Mansions designed purchas'd prepared and standing empty for them but they must dip there feet in the cold fatal stream that runs beween this World
of such a Christian had I been as useful in the World and as serviceable in the Church as others then I could hope But poor doubting Christiaâ— why mayst thou not hope for all this Must all the Trees in God's Vineyard be equally fruitful Must all his Children be of the same size Must all that have true Grace have the same measure and degree of it thou canst not think so and why then may not such a one as thou art hope hast thou sincerity and uprightness then thou mayest for the Promise that is the 1 Pet. 1. 3. formal reason of hope is made to Grace as true not as strong All who are born of God are begotten again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead Tho' I must add 2. As to actual hope all that fall within this Character have it not either living or dying in the same degree The hope of some Christians is so firmly settled so deeply rooted it hath been so oft try'd and prov'd and found of the right stamp that come what will they will hold fast their confidence to the end It is well-grounded and like an house founded on a Rock Mat. 7. 25 it stands fast tho' the Winds blow the Floods come and the Rain descend Satan as cunning and subtil a Sophister as he is cannot argue them out of their hope of Heaven But on the contrary the hope of another Christian is so weak wavering and staggering that the least breath of a Temptation miserably shakes it and a few secret whispers of the malicious one make them call all into question Oh! how soon doth the poisonous breath of this hissing Serpent damp and kill all their hopes Oh! how many sincere Christians have a right to Heaven but do not know it how many are there who cannot get their doubts resolv'd their fears expell'd whose Sun sets in a Cloud and Luk. 10. 20. whose Evening is very dark their names are written in Heaven but they do not cannot rejoyce because they do not know it is so Death lands them safe on the Shore of a Blessed Eternity thro' God's Infinite Mercy they get well into Harbour but poor Souls how do they go off with weeping eyes sad thoughts and great fears of shipwrack and drowning It is not every Christian that in a dying hour can say God is my Father Christ my Saviour Heaven my home and in yonder yonder blessed World there is a Mansion for me How many after a long profession many tears prayers and holy duties both publick and private thro' the weakness of their knowledge unacquaintedness with themselves the temptations of Satan a melancholy temper and an unaccountable timerousness of spirit are not able to read their Evidences Others die with a full assurance of hope go to their Fathers house with joy and triumph and are able to give a reason of that hope that is in them both 1 Pet. 3. 15. to themselves and others How confidently doth the blessed Apostle Paul assert this hope We know if our earthly 2 Cor. 5. 1. house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens How expressive of a strong unshaken and lively hope are those words of the same Apostle even when death was within sight I am now ready to be offered 2 Tim. 4. 6. v. 7. and the time of my departure is at hand I have sought a good fight I have finished my I have kept the Faith henceforth there is 〈…〉 â—ad up for â—â—e a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give 〈…〉 day What an unshaken confiâ—â—â—ce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such an hope peculiar to an Apostle are such expressions only fit for the mouth of a Paul who had the priviledge to be caught up into Paradise No verily others have had the same lively hope Oh what strong assurance what clear evidences what blessed forecasts and what lively hopes is God pleased to give to some in a dying hour when their Souls stand upon the threshold of time and at the door of Eternity insomuch that they have been able to bid farewell to their dearest Relations submit to the stroke and kiss the cold hand of Death with a wonderful and triumphant Joy with a Joy too great for themselves to express and others to behold This hath made many a Christian say My work is done and blessed be God I have hope of the Reward The hour of my departure is at hand Oh my 〈◊〉 I must leave you and go unto my Father Death is welcome indeed it is welcome for I have hope of an Immortal and better 〈◊〉 know 〈◊〉 thanks be to God I can how long Lord how long come Lord Jesus come quickly I have hope of Heaven and Lord I long I long to be there What sweet what reviving Language is this how pleasing is the meditation of it is it not enough almost to put a man upon coursing Death that he might experience what it is to be in such a blessed frame Lord grant when ever I or my Reader come to die it might be thus with us This is my prayer for thee whoever thou art who readest these Lines the like prayer put up for me with a warm heart a fervent Soul and a lively Spirit and God for Jesus sake say Amen to both This caution premised I shall now consider what is the Object of this hope what good men may and do look for and expect at Death This shall be dispatcht in these following particulars First The Righteous at Death hath hope of a full and perfect freedom from all those evils they are liable to and must conflict withal in this present state In this valley of Tears and shadow of Death to how many and what great evils are we expos'd Man Job 14. â— that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble Man is born oh Cap â—â— what a fine World is this to be fond of to trouble as the sparks flies upwards We come into the World with cries and tears we dwell in it in pain and sorrow We go out of it with sighs and groans How many tears do we shed how many groans do we utter how many complaints do we make upon the account of those evils which befall our selves or others for whose welfare we are and can't but be as much concern'd as for our own This World is a place of sorrow and tears and nothing can wipe away all tears from our Eyes till the hand of Death does The evils which befall us are so many and great so painful and afflictive the memory of what is past is so bitter the weight of what is present is so heavy the fear of what is future so vexing that we cannot be at rest till we close our Eyes and die and Death lays us fast asleep in the bosom of our Mother Earth Here
Duties in my Praying Hearing ay in my Sacramental Communions and Sin is mixt Oh that I had Tears to bewail it with all my graces I do not Love God and Christ so much as I ought and do desire my Faith is weak my Love declined my Zeal abated my Heart cool my Affections chill'd Oh wretched man that I Rom. 7. 24. am Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death These have been are and will be the complaints of Holy men in this present State But the righteous man hopes the time will come and when sickness hath laid him upon a Death-Bed he knows the time is near at hand when he and sin shall for ever part and in that hour such a one may say now I am dying I am going to a sinless State all my Prayers and Tears Watching and Fasting Wrestling and Striving could not root sin out but Death will now come in to my assistance give me a final and perfect Victory and carry me a conquerour out of the Field When I die this War will end in Victory this conflict in a perfect Conquest None of my sins shall follow me to Heaven I shall not have so much as a wandring dull or cold thought for ever but with Life and Vigour Heat and Rapture a Flaming Zeal and Fiered Affection sing Hallelujah to God and to the Lamb. A good man is so disturbed with the Life of his Lust that were it not for breaking of one commandment that he might be for ever beyond all possibility of breaking any of the rest he would even with his own hands pull down this Earthly House on the Head of these uncircumcised Philistines though he himself be crusht with the fall But he patiently expects the time when God will give Death a commission to do it and this is his hope in his last and sorrowful moments 3. The righteous man at Death hath hope of a full and final deliverance from Satan 2 Cor. 4. 4. and all his temptations The Devil is stiled Eph. 2. 2 The God of this World The Prince of the Powers of the Air which words imply he hath no power in the Blissful Regions beyond Is not this World the Devils Circuit and does not this Roaring Lion walk up and down seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5 8. Are not the best buffeted and sollicited to sin tempted molested and disquieted by him Oh how oft does he shake us in his Teeth though a good God and a merciful Jesus will not suffer him to rend and tear us in pieces tho' Satan hath been bafled and conquered by the Captain of our Salvation yet does he not ever and anon enter the List and give a Challenge to the Followers of the Lamb Have we not a War to manage with these insernal Spirits and powers of darkness and must we not always stand upon our Guard maintain our Spiritual Watch keep on our Armour have our Weapons always in readiness that if we get the better to day we may be prepared for a fresh and more violent assault to morrow Does not Satan one while transform himself into an Angel of Light that he might deceive At another time appear in his onw proper hue as Black as Hell I mean in some horrid and blasphemous suggestions that he might affright and scare us Has he not 2 Cor. 2. 11. his cunning Artifices and suttle Methods to beguile and his Fiery Darts and Eph. 6. 16. Flaming Arrows to Wound and in whatsoever shape he appears whatsoever course he takes is he not a very troublesome and dangerous enemy This is our condition at present and Oh how uneasie and tedious is it to a Child of God to be assaulted with Legions of sins within and an whole Army of Devils without If the temptation doth not prevail it is a torment to be tempted and there cannot but be some fear lest it should In what Agony does the Christian cry Oh what if this temptation should prevail or if I have Grace to resist and overcome this what if the next Temptation should be more fierce the second assault more violent what if at last I should yield constant and be overcome How do such Storms drive them to their Knees and make them with earnestness and affection pray Lord lead us not into Temptation Mâ—â— 6. 13 This World in which we live is haunted with these unclean and ugly Spirits and don 't the best of us at one time or other find it so But the dying Believer hopes for Deliverance if we can keep our integrity maintain our Post stand our Ground defend our selves while we Live we shall be Conquerors take heart Christians we shall be more than Conquerors when we dye 'T is true the assaults of Satan may be most violent in a Dying hour The last Onset most furious and the concluding Battel most bloody but Death will decide the controversie end the Combat and give us the Victory Methinks I hear the dying Christian thus encouraging himself ever since the strong man hath been turned out by the Holy Spirit and Victorious Grace of my Redeemer I have 〈◊〉 little or no peace this Enemy this adversary of my God my Redeemer and my Soul has been ever and anon beating up my quarters many and many a time in the name and strength of the Living God under the conduct of my blessed and victorious Jesus have I accepted the challenge and given battel to these Legions of Darkness and tho' I have been foil'd blessed be God I am not conquer'd tho' I have received some wounds thanks be to God none of them are Mortal I yet live or rather Christ liveth in me and now methinks Gâ—â— 2. 2â— I have and oh how delightful is it the prospect of a final and entire victory Satan hath now almost done his worst he may rage because now his time is short and he knows it to be so but hold out O my Soul stand thy ground resist a little longer play the man act thy part well in this last Combat and the God of Roâ— 10. 2â— Peace shall tread Satan under thy Feet shortly In Heaven and oh how near am I to that blessed place there is no Tempter no Temptation no no when I am lodg'd in Abraham's Bosom or rather in the Arms of my blessed Jesus I am out of Satan's reach for ever when I shall be Dead the Devils Game will be over this Evil One has followed me from my Closet to the Church from my Table to my Bed he has ever stood at my Right Hand to resist me but he shall not dogg my Soul to Heaven no no the purity and holiness of that place cannot admit the Presence of any of these impure filthy and unclean Spirits 4. Dying Christians hope to be delivered from all Spiritual desertions and those doubts and fears which are consequent thereupon How oft by too too wilful falls and sins by allowing our selves in
such as are Heirs of Salvation we are under God Heb. 1. 14. very much beholden to those kind loving and generous spirits for those innumerable and unknown offices of kindness and good turns they have done us They are our Life-guard from the Cradle to the Grave a whole body of these invisible Beings encamp round about us How carefully do they watch over us how diligently do they observe us how constantly do they bear us up in their Arms and by what unaccountable and to us unknown methods do they prevent imminent dâ—ngâ—rs and save us from the Snares lâ—id for us how ready are they to encourage assist and help us in any Spiritual work in any great and difficult undertakings how do they long for our Repentâ—nâ—e rejoice at our Conversion and what haste do they make to carry the happy tidings of it to Heaven that others 〈◊〉 rejoice with them with what a â—iâ—â—ty concern do they drive and chase aâ—ay evil â—â—irits with what courage do they 〈◊〉 â—s from the râ—ge and fury 〈…〉 â—illing are 〈…〉 in thiâ— dangerous 〈…〉 we have been foil'd 〈…〉 how seasonably have 〈…〉 what 〈◊〉 have they made to espouse our quarrel and fight out the remaining battle for us How off have they kept us from being hurt by those Apostate and Malignant Spirit which in vast numbers rove about in the Air and wander up and down in this lower World upon no other errand than to do mischief and prey upâ—n immortal Souls These good Angels are further beneficial to holy men at death in that they immediately take the Souls of such into their custody and guard them in their Journey from one World to the other and never leave them till they come safe thither How unacquainted are we with the way to yonder inviâ—â—â—le World it is a pâ—th we have never â—one a râ—â—d we have never yet travelld neither can we discover any footsteps of those who are gone before us How hard is it for Souls that have been so long embodied in flesh to find which is the right 〈◊〉 and tract in those vast wide anâ— uâ—known Regiâ—â—â— of Air how impossâ—bâ—â— is this but by the direction of son 〈◊〉 â—â—perienced 〈◊〉 and who can 〈◊〉 â—ore or bâ—â—â—er experience than 〈◊〉 Messâ—nger of Heaven who hâ—â—e 〈◊〉 velled a thousand and a thousand nay innumerable times from that World to this and from this back again to that Moreover what a melancholy and frightful thought is it that my separated Soul must pass thro' the lower Regions of the Air which are the Dominions of Apostate Spirits the Devil's Camp and Satan's Head-quarters and this lonely and solitary having none either to accompany or defend it But that this might not amaze departing Saints they shall have as many Angels as are necessary to guard and defend them That holy Soul may pass safely thro' the Territories of their Enemies that they might not be scared terrified or daunted by those swarms of unclean spirits which lie up and down in the Air a good God hath appointed a Convoy of Angels to attend them and no doubt a convenient number of them stand round about the Death-bed of every good man and immediately receive his Soul when it is expired Some think that the fiery Chariot and Horses in which Elijah mounted up to Heaven was a Convoy of Angels however for this they have a commission and those good and kind spirits do not disdain to perform this last act and office of love to the meanest Saint for the Beggar died and the sacred Story tells us he was carried by Angels into Luk. 16. 22. Abraham 's bosom How comfortable is it to study the Commission given to Angels in this particular and how supporting to hope nay to be assur'd they will act according to it Lo this is the hope of the Righteous at death Gloririous Priviledge Thirdly The Righteous have hope of deliverance from Hell and the torments of the Damned The afflictions of time are nothing to the miseries of Eternity The distress and anguish of a poor creature stretcht on the Wheel rackt and tortur'd in every limb part and member is but a weak and faint resemblance of the horrous and agonies of despairing Souls in Hell The pains of the first are nothing to the pangs of the second and Eternal Death There is a fire kindled that shall never go out flames burning which shall never be quencht a Worm to gnaw that shall never die and Devils to torment who shall never be weary of that bloody and hellish work There impenitent sinners oh how terrible and dreadful a place is Hell must feel the strokes of Revenging Justice the â—â—â—â—es of their own Enraged Consciences drink of the Cup of the Wine of the Wrath of God and be scared with the sight of ten thousand ugly Devils They must burn and not be consumed be tortured and never die have pain and no case trouble and no rest sorrow and no joy tho' they go laughing to Hell they shall never laugh more they shall have an eternal night and no day be fill'd with despair and have no hope Hell what an amazing word is it Hell how extreamly melancholy are the thoughts of it Hell whose heart does noâ— tremble at the hearing of it Hell what unknown miseries are wrapt up in it Hell Hell how many wretched sinners have voluntarily run into it to escape the beginnings of it in their own Consciences but yet all we â—â—n imagine and fansie in this World is infinitely short of what this single this little word Hell imports and must be felt in the next But a Righteous man Lord what must be the joy of his departing Soul hath hope in his death he shall be delivered from all this I must die may he say but I shall not be damn'd I must go to a cold dark silent and solitary Grave my Glass is run the number of my years months hours and moments is now finisht I am going to my long home but I shall not be sent to an hot burning and flaming Hell My flesh this Body of mine must ror in dust but my Soul shall not burn in that fiery Oven the way which leads to those Chambers of horrour and darkness is broad exceeding broad the Gate that leads to Hell is wide and standeth open day and night and thousands go in thâ—reat but I hope I shall take another path 'T is true I sinful I have deserved Hell again and again and I might have been in it long ago but I do hope thanks be to God I do hope and will hope my blessed Jesus will snatch me as a firebrand out of those everlasting burnings Amen Amen Fourthly The Righteous at death hath hope of being immediately received into Heaven and welcomed by all that are there The Souls of Believers being separated do not wander up and down in yonder vast large and capacious Regions much less are they according to the Roman Fable to suffer
believe a future final and general judgment but I hope may the departing Saint say things will go very well with me in that day I have often pray'd God grant that I may find mercy of the Lord 2 Tim. 1. 18. in that Day and I hope I shall I hope that mercy and not rigorous justice will pronounce my sentence that I shall find a friend in Court that the judge himself will be so that blessed Jesus who is nay Advocate and elder Brother who died for me and washt me in his Blood who Sanctified me by his Spirit and reconciled me to God is to be my Judge and therefore I hope when I am judged I shall not be condemn'd The sentence of absolution stands upon record Mat. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the Foundation of the World This this Oh! this is the blessed sentence that belongs to me I have read it again and again I have meditated upon it till I have been ravished and transported with joy What sweet what reviving words are these how worthy is each of them of a particular remark Come glorious invitation Ye blessed of my Father endearing title Inherit the Kingdom No less still more joy Prepared for you for me Lord for Worms for Men for Sinners Soveraign Grace Before the Foundation of the World what so long ago so early designed was my name written upon a Mansion above long before any of my members were written in thy Book Grace Grace Lord I admire and adore that love that free and generous and early love of thine I cannot comprehend if the reading and meditating upon these words be so delightful what will it be to hear them spoken and spoken to ME I hope now I am a dying man I hope to hear this Sentence from the Mouth of my Saviour and when these words of Life and Joy shall drop from those sweet and blessed Lips Lord what Joy shall I feel a joy which now I can neither comprehend nor bear Is this the Sentence I expect to hear O my weeping friends stop your flowing tears silence your groans hush those sobs and sighs and let us sing Psalms of praise to God oh begin and help me to praise him and with my latest breath I will say Amen Hallelujah Eighthly The Righteous hath hope in his Death what hath he hope of what of the full entire and eternal happiness of the whole man when the final judgment is past and over Sentence being past judgment being over and the Court broken up all pass to their Eternal abodes some ay and the greatest part too of that vast assembly to the Regions of horrour and darkness beneath others viz. the Righteous to the Mansions of Bliss and Light above Now oh joyful day Christ and all his friends immediately march in triumph to Heaven those everlasting Gates are open'd they all enter into those peaceable quiet and undisturbed Regions and so shall they be for ever with the Lord. 1 Thes 4. 17 Before one part was praising God in Heaven and the other silent in the Grave the Soul was the Companion of Angels the Body the Food of Worms the one as distant from the other as yonder Heaven is from the Bowels of this Earth but after the great and solemn transactions of that day the WHOLE MAN the WHOLE CHRISTIAN shall be admitted into the Heavenly State Christ their head and husband shall bring them to Heaven with a lo O my Father here are the Men thou gavest unto me here are the Men for whom I suffered and died while they were in the World I kept them and have now ransom'd them from the Power of Death and the Grave I have brought them safe to glory I present them to thee without spot or wrinkle and Father I will they be where I am that they may behold and partake of my Glory Joh. 17. 24. This perfect happiness of the whole man the Righteous hath hope of he looks beyond Death to the Resurrection beyond that to judgment and beyond judgment to Heaven and Heaven is the summ of his desires Heaven it is the center of all his hopes and wishes and such an one in his last hours may say methinks I foresee the time when my Lord and the judge of all will come methinks I hear the Trumpet sound and see the dead raised from my death-bed I have a prospect of the transacâ—ious of the last day I see by faith I see what shall then be done to the men whom the King of Heaven delights to honour methinks I see the redeemed and ransom'd of the Lord marching in triumph to the City above and the glorious blessed Jesus leading the way I shall not be left asleep or stay behind but accompany them to the everlasting Kingdom and this Flesh of mine which now must see corruption this body of mine that now must rot in darkness shall then be united to my Soul and not only my Soul but my Body shall have the happiness it is capable of This is my Faith and this is my Hope Come Lord Rev. 22. 20. Jesus come quickly and accomplish what thou hast promised and I and all thy Followers live and die in the hope of Thus we have finished the Doctrinal part and now proceed Fourthly and Lastly To make application of what hath been said upon this argument to our selves The most serious and weighty the most plain and searching the most important and awakening truths have little or no influence upon our hearts and lives for want of a close warm home and particular application Shall I apply what hath been said Would to God I might come to the quick reach the heart alarm the Conscience of every one that shall read these lines where shall I sharpen my Arrows that they may pierce and wound what words shall I use that drowsie sinners may be startled Lord help me Lord help the reader Lord help us both and that I might not lose my Labour and you your Souls I solemnly charge and in the name of the Eternal God I Sub-poena thee O CONSCIENCE closely and impartially to apply to the Heart what the man shall read with his Eye Conscience Now 's thy time to speak hereafter it may be too late for ever when once the man is dead and damn'd thou may'st torture and torment him but it will be impossible to fright him into Repentance Is the man drowsie O Conscience Conscience thunder in his Ears is he asleep jog and awake him is he unconcern'd as to any preparation for death judgment and an Eternal world tell him of this misery forewarn him of his danger call cry in his Ears till he is startled what shall be said in general do thou according to thine office as thou wilt answer the neglect of it to God thy Judge hereafter apply in particular if any thing be said suitable to the case of the man whose Conscience thou art be
not meal-mouth'd don't mince the matter but plainly and roundly say THOU ART THE MAN rebuke reprove exhort persuade comfort chear as the state of the Man requires O Conscience Conscience I call upon thee again to give them warning from God be serious particular and impartial lest they die in their sins and the blood of their Souls Ezek 3 18. be required at thine hands as the man turns over these pages read thou over those records thou hast in thine own keeping and witness for or against chide or smile accuse or condemn as thou seest occasion if he be a wicked man be thou a Boanerges a son of Thunder if he be a righteous Person be thou a Barnabas a son of consolation Could I but awaken Conscience I should hope these plain lines would be read with some success Lord jog Conscience that Conscience may jog the Man that this word of thine may be thy Power unto Salvation In hope Rom. 1. 16. that Conscience will assist and second me and the great God will help both I shall attempt the application of what has been said in these following Inferences Inference 1. How terrible must Death be to the wicked who have no ground to hope for any of these great blessed and glorious things However sports and pastimes Carnal mirth and worldly Business charming pleasures and frothy company may keep out and banish the thoughts of their departure yet when the fatal hour is coming when grim Death is mounted on its Pale Horse and is posting toward them how suddenly are they struck with horrour how concern'd at the heavy tidings that they must dye After many pleasant years behold the man is seizeâ— by some mortal sickness his decayinâ— strength and languishing Spirits his wear Pulse and short Breath his cold anâ— faint sweats tell him death is coming anâ— his end is near his Physitians after many troublesome prescriptions and vain attempts leave him his mourning anâ— weeping friends are expecting when â—â— will send forth his last breath are waitinâ— to close his dying Eyes and yet miserable man he has no hope Hath hâ— no hope and yet must he die dolesâ— consideration Hope of Heaven is very common as the Drunkard and Swearer the most Rebellious and Stubborn Perverse and Obstinate sinner what he thinks will become of him after Death and he will either by a scornful silence shew his disdain or readily answer he hopes to be saved How fashionable is this form of speech as I hope to be sav'd but alas most of that hope which is the World 's is vain and groundless false and spurious begotten by a flattering Heart and subtile Devil it is like common Metal without the Royal Stamp which none will take for Currant Coin and how oft Does it appear so when Death and the Grave Judgment and Eternity come in view you have hope but in the name of God Man tell me what kind of hope is it Is it accompany'd with any sweet pleasant and delightful thoughts with any hearty groans earnest longings passionate desires after possession Does it withdraw your Hearts and affections from Earth to Heaven and render you patient under all the sufferings and afflictions of this present state In a word does it put you on to get more purity and holiness A genuine hope will as appears by the Apostles words he that hath this hope in him 1 John 3. 3. will purifie himself even as he is pure He that hopes to see the infinitely Holy God won't stain his Garments and defile his Soul by wallowing in filth and mire he that hopes to be like God in Glory will endeavour to be like him in purity he that hopes to resemble the best of Beings God won't make himself like the worst of Creatures the Devil by open and known wilful and presumptuous violations of the Divine Laws This hope will put him upon endeavouring after a purity like that of God in Nature and Kind tho' it cannot be so in Degree and Measure Do you hope for Heaven and doaâ— upon Earth hug your Riches and make the World your God Do you look for a Kingdom and Crown Immortality and Life for an happiness beyond all youâ— thoughts and bigger than your hopes and do you do nothing or next to nothing to obtain it Do you hope for a Mansion in yonder Heaven at the end of your Journey and walk in the broad Road that leads to Hell Do you hopâ— to be like blessed and Holy Angels and do you now sometimes play the Beast and sometimes act the Devil Do yoâ— hope for the reward and do none of thaâ— work God hath appointed or do it in a lazy slothful and careless manner Do you hope to hear Well done good and faithful Servant and wrap up your Talents in a Napkin or bury them in the Earth Do you hope to be happy and take no care to be holy Do you hope Christ will save you and do you make nothing of running over the tears wounds and blood of the blessed Jesus to get at the forbidden Fruit Do you hope to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob with the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles in the Kingdom of Heaven and do you now sit with Publicans and Sinners Is this your hope poor men what kind of hope is it and what little service will it do you This hope is slight and superficial it is the fruit of ignorance and want of consideration perhaps an awakening Sermon of Death and Judgment Hell and God's Eternal wrath some cross Providence and smart affliction may miserably shake it While the Sun shines and the day of Prosperity lasts thy hope may seem fresh and flourishing but when the Night of Affliction comes thou mayest be wrapped up in Clouds and Darkness and thy hope will languish wither and die Dreadful thought This hope is vain and groundless God's Promise is the only Ground and solid Foundation to build our hope upon to hope for what God hath never promised or upon other terms and conditions that are annext to the promise is ignorant and blind and bold and daring presumption This hope is wicked and foolish It is wicked is it not a dis-believiâ—â— Gods peremptory threatning an affronting Divine truth and imputing falshooâ— to his comminations Hath the Just True Holy and Eternal God said thoâ— shalt not be saved and dost thou secretlâ— say I hope I shall what is this but aâ— the same time to hope God will be a liâ—â— It is also foolish is it not folly to hope against Reason Scripture and all Goâ— has said Is it not folly to think a pooâ— Worm can snatch Salvation out of the hands of mercy when God is resolveâ— he shall never have it To think a sinfuâ— wretch can force his way through a thousand threatnings and the peremptory Sentence of the Law to the Blissful Regions above This hope what shall I say of it is perishing it will end in confusion disappointment and
shame and at last die in horror and despair Sickness and Death O vain man will shake thy hopes The Sentence of thy Judge and and the Flames of Hell will dash them Hope may accompany thee while thou livest go with thee to the very borders of the Eternal World and then at farthest it will bid farewel to thy amazed and trembling Soul The time will come believe it Sirs the time will come when you shall hope no more no more no more for ever This hope is worse than none for it hinders Mens repentance and all the kindness it does them is first to hood-wink and then damn them How fatal is this hope A wicked man can have no good hope either living or dying and that false hope he maintains and cherishes in health when sickness comes many times takes the wings of the morning and flies away In an hour he must remove out of one World into another but he hath no hope it shall be into a better He bequeaths his body to the dust his Estate and Goods to his surviving friends but he can not Lord what an Agony must the departing Soul be in with confidence commend his Spirit into the hands of Jesus He may hope his Friends will give his body a decent burial but he has no hope alas he has no hope Angels will conduct his Soul to glory Oh Death Death how terrible is it when there is no hope of a better life To awaken such let me add to die without good hope though it be bad is not all For the wicked as it is in the former part of this verse is driven away in his wickedness Sad words miserable ends Prov. 14. 32. Ere long Sinners Death will grasp thee in its cold Arms ere long Pale Death will sit in that face of thine that now is Fair and Ruddy and the seat of a Charming Beauty ere long Death will shackle those feet which brought thee to this assembly shut those eyes which are a window to let in vanity into thy mind stop those ears which have been delighted with filthy and unsavoury discourse ere long Death will drive thee out of the World thou must be confâ—â—ed to a narrow Coffin sleep in a Bed of dust under a coverlet of crawling Worms but this is not all no nor the greatest part of thy misery for thou shalt be driven away in thy wickedness Go out of the World guilty and accompanied with the sins of thy whole Life Death unties the knot and thy Soul is gone gone Whither is it gone Into the invisible World to the illightned Tribunal of a Just Impartial and Inexorable Judge Death sets open the Door and thy immortal Spirit immediately flies away and all thy sins like so many black and frightful Devils hasten and post after Thy Sins O man thy sins mount and ascend as fast as thy Spirit and will be at the Judgment-seat as soon as it Methinks a thought of this should make thine heart ake thy lips quiver rottenness enter into thy bones and force thee to cry out Good God! Whatever becomes of me let me not die in my sins An impenitent sinner goes into Eternity dogg'd by Devils and his own impure Lusts When he dies that hope which with artifice and cunning he maintain'd in his life-time forsakes his wretched and trembling Soul In one instant it is gone and gone for ever follow him from one World to to'ther from his sick-bed to the Bar of God Doleful Hour Infer II. Do and must the righteous die Then how does it concern us to make a good use of them while they live The righteous are the lights of the World like the Sâ—â— in the Firmament profitable and beneficial to all Though hereafter these wise Virgins cannot supply us with Oyl out of their Vessels to recruit our Lamps and maintain the expiring Flame yet at present they may like the Sun communicate of their light and heat to us How much Spiritual good may we receive by them and how careful should all be to make a wise improvement Have you an Holy Father a Godly Mother who pray for weep over and daily instruct you Hearken to their instructions follow their example take their counsel for they must die That Holy Father of thine who with compassion and tenderness begs of thee to remember God and thine own Soul that Godly Mother of thine who brought thee forth with pain and sorrow and is in travel with thee again till Christ be formed in Gal. 4. 19. thee must die And if thou dost not hearken to and improve their serious reproofs godly counsels and wholesome advice what a torment may the thought of it be when they are dead and gone Methinks I hear a negligent and careless Son being lately come from the grave of his holy Father or godly Mother in bitterness crying out God in giving me such holy Parents gave me a great mercy but I Oh wretched man that I am neither valued nor thankfully improved so great a blessing as should and might have done My Father my Mother that is now dead very often and that with tears told me of my sin and danger with abundance of kindness in the Spirit of meekness reproved me for my youthful follies and vanities with much Plainness and Holy Zeal they instructed and counselled informed and directed me they brought me to the Solemn Assembly and taught me at home they wept over me and prayed to God for me and put me upon secret Prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures but all this labour in whole or at least in great part has been lost as to me Might I not have been much better might I not have had more grace and holiness had I improved this blessing I had the same advantage may the wicked and disobedient Son say but I slighted the instructions of my holy Father and contemned the counseâ—â— of my godly Mother and now they are dead and gone how likely am I to die in my sins having not the same helps and advantages as I had when they were with me Such reflections Conscience being awakned by the hand and rod of God may be made when such holy Relations are taken away to prevent which let all especially the Children of Holy Parents improve the lives and company of such The like might be said as to Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants c. Labour to get as much good as you can by holy Relations Christian Friends and Acquaintance for these you shall not have always with you Infer III. How great is the mercy and goodness of God to his People though they are not exempted from Death Death sounds harsh the Grave is very frightful When we think the Friends of God the Members of Christ the Favourites of Heaven and the Followers of the Lamb must die are we not sometime posed and almost at a stand Are we not puzzled to reconcile the Death of such men with the goodness and love of God and those
tender bowels he has toward such Are we not ready to say How and why is it that such must die Since their door-posts are sprinkled with the Blood of the Lamb why may why does not the destroying Angel pass over them Since God hath such a love to delight in and wishes so well to them why must they Taste Death before they can drink of those Rivers of Heb. 2 9. pleasure which are at Gods right hand forevermore Psal 16. 11. Why does not such love and mercy pleasure them with an easie and instantaneous Translation These may be the arguings of carnal reason but to consider with what great and vast blessed and glorious hopes they die may help us to silence every thing of this kind Why should we entertain any hard thoughts of God or think him in the least unkind because we must first die before we can be happy When he has given us such sure and certain hopes to carry us through the Pains and Conflicts Agonies and Terrors of that hour When you hear or see that the Righteous must die do you cry out How severe and inflexible is Divine Justice Then remember they die in hope and cry out How tender is Divine Mercy How great is the Mercy of God that he sweetens this Cup with some fore-tasts of Heaven When sickness shall Summon me to die when I shall lie weak and pain'd on my last bed Lord Let me have a strong and unshaken a vigorous and lively hope Give me in that dark and gloomy hour but a prospect of Heaven and an assurance it shall be mine While with one eye I look into the Grave with the other let me look to Heaven and be able to say Yonder is a Mansion for me And I will never think much that I must die O my God I will not think thy justice is too severe but adore and Bless Love and Praise thee while I have Strength and Breathe that I have hope to comfort me in my Passage Infer IV. How evident is it that serious Religion and practical holiness is not a vain thing To mourn for our sins and repent of our past wickedness to watch our Hearts which have so oft so easily and fatally betray'd us to resist the Temptations of Satan who waits for an opportunity to destroy us to abstain from fleshly and sensual pleasures which have drowned thousands in Perdition and may ensnare and defile us to be strict and accurate in all our ways to follow the Directions of the Word the Conduct of the Holy Spirit and the light of a well-informed Conscience in all we do to be warm fervent and frequent in Prayer both in our Families and Closets to be serious and reverent when ever we have to do with God and meddle with sacred things to love our Enemies and do good to all and hurt to none to deny self take up the Cross and suffer rather than sin to be humble meek and condescending to govern our thoughts make a Covenant with our Eyes and to set a Watch on the Door of our Lips and Bridle our Passions to contemn the World and the three grand Idols of it RICHES HONOURS and PLEASURES to be contented with little and thankful to God for any thing to obey the commanding and submit to the Providential Will of God is accounted by some men and those who think themselves Wits too ridiculous and vain What profit is there in serving â—â—e Almighty Job 21. 15. Is the Language of some Men's Tongues and more Mens Hearts but Lord what mad and foolish talk is this is that vain which ends so well and has such an happy issue at last The whole Life of a sinner is but one continued vanity but one entire piece of a more solemn folly your carking and caring for your pampering a dying Body while you neglect an Immortal Spirit your thoughtfulness for Earth while you forget Heaven your heaping up Riches while you lay up no treasures for your selves in another World your purchasing Lands and Houses while you do not seek a Title to a Mansion above your sinful Laughter and carnal Mirth your ridiculing Religion and making a scorn of the Righteous your beastly pleasures and bruitish delights are all vain of these we may say Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity Should I come to you when you lie sick cold and trembling on a Death-bed and ask Sir what fruit have you of your former sinful Life would you not shake your head and with an heavy Heart say Fruit alass no fruit nothing but shame and sorrow dreadful fears of an after reckoning and frightful thoughts of Hell and Judgment to come But Righteousness and Powerful Religion is no vain or unprofitable thing suspend thy judgment a little while stay till the Righteous man comes to the end of his Journey behold him weak and languishing and yet full of hope and joy See him looking grim Death in the Face with courage and going out of the World in triumph hear him saying with a pleasant voice Oh that Death would come I long I long to dye and then judge if righteousness be vain This Doctrine exemplified in the triumphant and joyful Death of a Righteous Man is enough to convince the most sottish and stupid sinner that serious religion is no vain and empty thing Infer V. How industriously and diligently should all labour after this righteousness That Death is certain and unavoidable near at hand and will quickly come I suppose you take for granted You are dying verily my friends you are dying men and women the time is coming and how quickly will it be here when you must breath your last when neither the tears of Relations the pity of Friends the skill of Physitians nor any vertue there is in Medicines can prolong Life or keep off Death Lo this is thy Motto DUST thou art and to the Dust shalt thou return and should not you labour to be such persons while you live that you may have hope in your Death To be a stranger upon Earth is your character to get an hope of an abiding City should be your endeavour and this cannot be had without Gospel-righteousness It is not a superficial sorrow and slight repentance for your past sins a few good thoughts or wishes a few cold and lifeless Prayers in the Church or Closet it is not an escaping the gross pollutions of the flesh or doing some acts of Charity and Justice Sobriety and Temperance that will be a sufficient ground of hope in a dying hour it is nothing short of a through Universal change of Heart and Life nothing short of a supernatural principle in the Heart exerting its self in suitable actions in the life will warrant and legitimate your hope and oh how speedily and diligently should every one labour after it If you would have hope in your Death you must solemnly repent of all your sins that Heart of thine which is as hard as a Rock must be
Christians who were never called out to endure the Fiery Tryal who never had the honour of Pet. 4 12. Martyrdom conferred on them have been fill'd with the greatest joy in their last moments how many have discours'd of their death given command concerning their Burial and taken their leave of this World with joyful hearts pleasant looks and chearful countenance how many have gone to Heaven not only with quiet still and silent affection but with acclamations of Joy and with verbal Praises of God in their mouths have not their comforts been strongest when Nature has been weakest Have not their Death-Bed Joys exceeded all that they ever felt before and has not their last breath been employed in praising God Did you never hear a dying Christian express himself to this purpose I thank God I am as willing to die as others are to live the thoughts of my Coffin and Grave don't trouble me trouble me They are as sweet as the thoughts of my Bed wont to be after the Toil and Labour of the day Is my end drawing on Must I now die Welcome News Joyful Tidings Weep O my dear Friends weep no more for me for nothing troubles me but your excessive grief and sorrow I am willing to die and do you be willing I should I am willing to wait with patience till Gods time is come but I could be very well contented now even now this hour this moment to be gone I see nothing in this Vain Sinful and Wretched World that should make a wise man fond of it but on the other side the grave what great what blessed Lord What glorious things do I see See so much that I am willing to die that I might see and enjoy more The blessed and loving Jesus has purchased and prepared a mansion for me and now he calls me to come to it and shall I be loth backward and unwilling If I should wou'd not my Saviour take it ill Unwilling to die What 's that but to be unwilling to be happy There will be joy in Heaven when I am there and I would there should be joy on Earth now I am going thither Though all cannot thus Triumph over Death and the Grave yet thanks be to God some can and what is the ground of all this but that lively hope their departing Souls are inspired with Without hope how impossible were any thing of this kind Hope attends them in their last sickness hope shoots the gulf with them carries them to the gates of Heaven and never leaves them till they take possession of the immortal and undefiled inheritance and this hope is the reason of that peculiar joy other men are strangers to in a dying hour What great things can hope do Infer VIII How carefully should every righteous man endeavour that his hope may be strong vigorous and lively in a dying hour Ere long God in whose hands is our time our Life and Breath will grant Death a commission Ere long Death inexorable Death impartial Death Death that has conquered all who lived before us will enter our Chamber lay close seige to our hearts the secret spring of Life rend and tear us from the embraces of our dearest Friends who shall have nothing to do but to behold and lament the victory And what shall we then do if we have no hope or but a weak one There is a very great difference in the Death even of righteous men themselves Some go weeping others triumphing through the dark valley Some excellent Christians have many doubts and fears in that hour Death terrifies though it cannot hurt them They have only some secret support but have not the joy of hope Since the righteous may have hope and such hope to be a cordial to them in their last and most sorrowful moments Oh how greatly does it concern us to look to our selves and use our utmost endeavours that we may have hope and not only so but that our hope may be strongest when Nature is weakest and lively in our dying Agony and that our best richest and sweetest Wine may be reserved to the Last Hope how can we live without it Hope what shift can we make to die without it Hope how insipid are the pleasures of Life Hope how uncomfortable are afflictions how overwhelming are the terrors of Death without it Hope how does it lighten every Burden sweeten every Cup and make every Cross the more easie Hope what safety may we have from it in every conflict as it is our Helmet what security in every storm 1 Thes 5. 8. Heb. 6. 19. as it is our Anchor Hope how does it raise our Spirits warm our Affections invigorate our Endeavours encrease our Love inflame our Zeal Hope how does it enable men to contemn flight and despise all the admired and adored vanities of an empty and perishing World Hope what a pleasing relish does it give of every promise What a sprightful accent to all our praises and what a captivating power to every thought and prospect of Heaven Hope how doth it make us more moderate in our desires more modest in our requests and more indifferent in our endeavours after these mean and little things here below Of what use and benefit is this hope to us A strong and confirmed hope will be of great use when a weak and wavering one will do us but little service And how careful should you Righteous one 's be to get and keep cherish and maintain a good hope How industriously should you endeavour to live in Hope and above all to die in hope That you may have this hope and the comfort of it too when your Sun is going down and night is coming You should labour after this lively hope 1. For God's sake The infinite doubts fears and jealousies which many sincere Christians cherish their drooping and desponding complaints their melancholy walking and uncomfortable lives reflect on that God they serve as if he were unkind and disgrace that best of Religions which they have espous'd as if it were good for nothing but to make men dull sad and mopish Men see so little pleasure in Religion because they see so little comfort in the lives of its Votaries and if an uncomfortable Life do so much will not an uncomfortable Death do much more For such men to be dejected and cast down in sickness to shiver and tremble when death approaches to question their right and title to Heaven when they are going to it may very much dishonour God reflect upon Religion and prejudice the Wicked should any of these men be in the Chamber of such a dying Christian how would they at least secretly pity him for his easiness and credulity deride Religion and scorn an holy life with what disdain would they be ready to say See what all his Religion is come to what is the fruit of his praying and hearing his precise and circumspect walking Death is as terrible to him as it would be to
us he talkt of Heaven all his Life-long but now where is his hope what is become of his confidence When he had heated his brain and phansie with some religious exercises how pleasantly could he talk of Heaven But now Death is approaching what little support has he from those thoughts Thus may your doubts and fears strengthen the hands and harden the Hearts of the wicked and tell me Christian is it not a trouble to thee to think thou shouldest dishonour God and discredit Religion and that Religion which should be dearer to thee than thy Life in the very last part and concluding act of it Can the thought of it be tolerable to thee Therefore for God's sake and Religions sake get HOPE for if you be comfortable and joyful then and if your hope be lively you may and will be so you may convince however you will silence These foolish men and perhaps after your decease they may bethink themselves and say surely Religion is no vain thing there is more in it than we know of for how â—as this man filled with joy when grim death stared him full in the face Such a death commends Religion more than an hundred Panegyricks written in the praise of it having this hope by your death-bed carriage and dying speeches you may bring more glory to God honour to Christ and credit to Religion at your death than you did in your Life 2. For your own sake Is not death tertible and do you want nothing to arm and fortifie you against it but what will or can if you have no hope Death how cold do the thoughts of it strike to our Hearts especially when we see the departing pangs hollow eyes pale looks ghastly countenances short breath trembling limbs and clammy sweats of our dying frends and then think one day this will be our own â—aie when we walk thro' Church-yards and see rotten Skulls scattered Bones what a frightful thought is it to think ere-long it will be so with us but when death really comes to act all this over upon us what a difference shall we find between seeing another die and dying our selves will you need no support at such a time will you want no cordial in such an hour will you need no refreshment when Heart Flesh and strength and all does fail Will you want nothing to help you when you come to grapple with this huge Goliah this mighty Conquerour DEATH verily you will and what can succour support and help you in that hour but a lively hope Would you not have your Hearts sink and die within you Would you be able to receive the Sentence of Death in your selves with a quiet and calm submission to God's Will Would you die in peace and go off with triumph then get and maintain a lively hope 3. For the sake of those Relations you shall leave behind Whenever you die you will leave them in Tears it will trouble them to think that you are dead but they will sorrow most of all to remember you did not die in hope Out of respect and pity to them get this lively hope that they may have this to comfort and support them when you are dead and gone That they may be able to say my Husband my Wife my Father my Mother my Son my Daughter is Dead but thanks be to God they died with a living with a lively hope If they have any love for you any sense of Religion any belief of another World nothing will be so serviceable as this to check their immoderate sorrow If you have no hope or but little tho' it is not their place to sit as judges upon you yet may they not fear the worst may they not take up a bitter lamentation at the Mouth of your Grave and say My loving Father my dear Mother my Son my Child is dead alass here is the breathless Carkass that is left behind but woe is me woe is me what is become of the Immortal Soul Oh! get this hope that you your selves and others too may know where death will Land you why should you be ambitious of going to Heaven incognito and as it were by stealth Why should you not let all know that that is the blessed Port you are bound for before you go off from Land That when you are praising God in Heaven your surviving Friends may be giving Thanks to God on Earth for your safe arrival Now that you who are Righteous may have a lively hope in your Death I shall lay down and do you practise these following directions First Get and maintain a firm and setled belief of a future happiness Content not your selves with the guesses and conjectures of an Heathen with a cold and naked opinion that is easily shaken with the breath of the next Temptation with a Faith which is the fruit of a Religious and Virtuous Education and is only the consequent of having been born and brought up among a sort of men called Christians an avowed Article of whose Creed is the Life everlasting but let your Faith be built upon sure Grounds Divine Revelation and let it be quickned and rais'd to that degree that it may presentiate the future glory to you that it may stand as a Rock unmoveable in the midst of Storms and like a brazen Wall blunt and beat back all those Arrows of Temptation which are shot against it Faith lays the Ground-work and Foundation for hope the Creed of a Sadducee and the hopes of a Christian are not reconcileable if I believe there is no other World but this how can I have hope of any thing beyond the Grave and if my Faith be weak and wavering a dead and lifeless thing will not my hope be so too As the Lamp goes out unless there be Oil to feed it so hope will wither languish and die except Faith maintain it Hope springs from Faith is nourished by and is in proportion to it In order to a lively hope it is necessary we conquer our infidelity and watch strive and pray against an evil Heart of Vnbelief Hope Heb. 3. 12. will not indeed none of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit can thrive or flourish while this root of bitterness is in the Heart Let us then use all the means appointed that we may be strong in Faith the life of our Rom. 4. 20. hopes nay the life of all our Religion depend's upon the certainty of a future state blot this Article out of our Creed and you stab Religion to the Heart the whole of Religion in a manner depends on the truth of this one single Article a life to come and thanks be God we are not left without plain abundant and sufficient proof of it and they who are Insidels in this age and in this part of the World they are so not out of necessity but rather out of choice Let us then with the greatest seriousness of Spirit intention of mind apply our selves to consider the many
expiated our sins conquered the Devil and disarmed Death he paid our Ransom Redeem'd us from Hell which we can hardly think of without horrour and trembling and purchased Heaven where we long and desire to be he hath opened the Gates of Heaven and invites and beckons us to enter in and oh how powerful are the thoughts of a weeping bleeding groaning and dying Jesus to revive and recover the dying hopes of poor Sinners Do I stand amaz'd at the thoughts of my guilt overwhelm'd with the sight of my sins terrified with apprehensions of Divine Severity and Justice Do I in the depths of a melancholy grief cry out my hope is gone woe is me my hope is gone can there be any happiness any Heaven for such a wretch as I am how can I how dare I hope oh that I could hope but alass the Law Curses and Condemns me and I O miserable man have little or no hope I would think of Christ our Passover 1 â—or 5. 7. Sacrificed for us In this case what is to be done Shall I sink under the burden abandon all hope indulge my sorrow and fear and give way to a self-tormenting despair No I would go to mount Calvary and set my self at the foot of my Redeemers Cross I would often look up to a bleeding and dying Jesus think what he suffered for whom and for what end and then I would embrace this dying Jesus in the Arms of my Faith and after this how soon would hope begin to stir Christ dying on the Cross and Christ living in the Heart is the foundation of our hope and thanks be to God 't is such a Foundation as cannot be shaken I add further it is infinitely useful to consider and act Faith in Christ as risen from the Dead Had our Lord Jesus onely died and not risen again had he been yet sleeping in the Grave as Death's Eternal Prisoner had he not after a little time reviv'd and rose and lâ—v'd again all our hope must have been buried with him in the same Grave but tho' he was Dead he is Alive and lives for evermore Rev. 1. 18. and to Eye him as risen is very serviceable to quicken our hope how fully even beyond all possibility of doubting does the Resurrection of Christ assure us that his Death was valid his Sacrifice accepted our debt paid and justice satisfied that he did all that was necessary to expiate our sins and finished the work of our Redemption before he gave up the Ghost and Died on the Cross with his last with his dying Breath he cried out It is finished and is not his Resurrection Joh. 19. 30. a full convincing and undeniable evidence of the truth of that saying did Justice release and Divine Power bring him out of Prison Did God give him an open and publick acquittance And is there any ground to suspect the payment of what we ow'd and he undertook to satisfie for may we not from hence conclude to our unspeakable comfort incouragement and joy the efficacy of his Death the validity of his sufferings and the perfection of his sacrifice Moreover does not the Resurrection of Christ discover the possibility of ours nay is it not the cause and reason the earnest and pledge of it Did he roll away the Stone from his own Sepulchre and can he want power to roll it away from the Graves of his People Is the Head Risen and now in Heaven and shall the Members always be the Prisoners of Death is he Risen as the First 1 Co. 15. 23. Fruits and shall there not be an Harvest at the end of the World Oh what influence hath the Resurrection of Christ upon our hope as we are Christians therefore we are said to be begotten again 1 Pet. 1. 2. to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead and God raised him 21. up from the Dead that our Faith and Hope might be in God A daily and lively exercise of Faith in Christ as Crucified and Risen would contribute very much to the Strength Life and Vigour of our Hope Fifthly Beg of God to fill you with and give you his Holy Spirit to beget and nourish it in you We can have no good and solid well-grounded and lasting Hope except it be given us from above we cannot get it our selves we must be begotten to it it does not grow and spring up of it self but must be planted in us by a Divine Hand and if it be not watered too by the same Hand how soon will it wither and die if we have good 2 Thos â— 16. Hope we have it thro' Grace and as God's gift It is nothing but the Breath of God can scatter those Fogs and Mists which darken our Souls and cloud our Hopes If we are without Hope let us look up to God for it if our Hope decline and wither if that which remains be ready Rev. 3. 2. to die let us beg of him his Holy Spirit to quicken and recover it The Spirit of God Works Grace and then enables the Soul to see it and then helps him to rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God Oh Rom. 5 2. how soon can he scatter those fears that torment us answer those doubts which for many years have been unresolved and fill that Heart with Hope which was almost swallowed up of Despair How necessary is frequent fervent Prayer to keep our Hope alive If you want go to God for it fall on thy Knees and say I have heard and Lord I believe there is an Heaven and thro' Grace it is possible to me even to me I see many of my fellow Christians with whom I pray hear and daily converse living in the joyful hope and expectation of it but I am full of doubts and fears Lord I have little or no hope and if Death should come while matters are thus with me how should I ever be able to die it is bad to live but Lord it's worse to die without hope oh for hope oh for a lively hope of Heaven oh that on my Death-bed when I shall have no hope of Life I may have hope of Glory oh give me thy holy Spirit to scatter my fears resolve my doubts calm my Conscience and enliven my hope whatever I am deny'd while I live Lord let me have hope at last let this Prayer be heard now and fully answered when a dying hour comes Sixthly Frequently and seriously examine the groâ—â—â— and reason of your Hope Many take up their Hope upon very slight and insufficient grouâ—ds and the least blast of affliction blows down these Castles thâ—y build in the Air many times their hope is like Jonah's Gourd which Joâ— 4◠〈…〉 sprung up at night and withered the next Morning A sound hope is the fruit of many Prayers and Tears much watchfulness and holy walking and we have reason to suspect that hope we come easily and quickly by Such an
thought my Soul must go to judgment stand at the Bar of that God whose purity is untainted whose holiness is unspotted whose justice is impartial whose power is irresistible whose truth is invariable whose anger is as a flaming Fire whose glory is amazing whose Majesty is tremendous and whose sentence will be righteous final and irreversible and shall I be vain and worldly slothful and negligent careless and secure merry and sportive when I may have such a speedy summons Shall I dare to be so with the last groans of my dying Father or Mother in mine Ears when the language thereof was O my Children prepare to follow me When Ienter'd the dark and silent Chamber stood by the Bed-side of my dying Father of my departing Mother when I saw the last breath and what a change one minute made when I heard the last sob and groan the sight of mine Eyes and the hearing of my Ears did affect my Heart every thing I then saw and heard made some impression upon me my thoughts of Death Eternity and a World to come were more serious affecting and moving than at other times when I saw with what peace and comfort hope and joy they died then thought I with my self Lord what is Grace Christ and Pardon of sin thy favour love and hope of Heaven worth oh that I might thus die and shall these thoughts die and come to nothing when my dead are buried out of my sight shall I forget their hopes and my own wish purpose and resolution when their Funeral is over shall my care to provide for my own be over too Lord revive these thoughts and let them not wear off having seen the happy death the comfortable end of so near and dear a Relation I hope I shall wisely improve this Memento of my own Mortality be more speedy and solemn in making preparation for my own Change assist and help me Lord Fifthly Another duty is to moderate sorrow for the death of such holy Relations and Friends who died in Hope Mourning for the dead is neither uncomely nor unlawful Nature commands and Religion allows us to pay this Tribute at the Grave of deceased Relatives Religion only corrects it does not root out natural affections it is only a Pruning Knife to cut off the luxuriant Branches not an Axe to cut down this Tree at the Root Religion is a Bridle to curb and restrain but not an Opiate to stupifie We are not required to cease to be Men when we become Christians Grace and good Nature are not such Enemies that they cannot dwell together nay usually the former thrives and flourishes best where there is most of the latter We may lawfully shed some Tears over the Grave of deceased Friends upon such occasions have not holy men had their set and appointed days of mourning To die unlamented to be thrown into a disconsolate hole of the Earth without the solemnity of a sigh groan or tear is it not a sign there was but little worth in the dead or a great deal of ill nature in the living nay is it not threatned as a punishment Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehojakim the Son of Josiah King of Judah they shall not lament for him saying Ah my â—rother or ah my Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his glory Jer. 22. 18. Holy Job mourned for his Children when Dead he met with many trials and afflictions before the Sabeans and Chaldeans had rob'd and plunder'd him Fire from Heaven had destroyed his substance and yet he bore this with an heroick patience and a noble greatness of mind we don't find he utter'd a groan or dropt a tear upon this account but when he received the heavy tydings that his Sons and Dâ—â—â—hters were dead then he arose and renâ— his Mantle and shaved his head the usual signs of a solemn mourning in this he was not guilty for God himself bore him â—itness that in all this he sinned not Job 1. 20 22. To cry out at such a time Alass my Father alass my Mother alass my Brother is but to speak in the language of a Prophet 1 Kin. 13. 30. A Father dead a Mother dead and may we not be sensible of such a stroke and mourn for such a breach Are they dead who under God were the Authors of life to us and ought we not to mourn mourning at the Funeral of such Relations was permitted even to the Priests Lev. 21. 1. David when he would express the greatness of his sorrow sets it out by this I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his MOTHER All funeral Psal 35. 14. sorrow is not unlawful Shall death pale cold grim and frightful death knock at our door enter our house come into our family captivate and snatch away a principal member of it shall death turn the desire of our Eyes into a breathless corps spoil the beauty tâ—e the Tongue close the Eyes stop the Ears Fetter the Hands and shackle the Feet of a dear Relation is their life gone and breath stopt and are they turn'd into cold clammy Earth must we see their faces hear their voices enjoy their company which many and many a time we have with so much delight and pleasure no more must we have the benefit of their instructions and counsels prayers and tears no more are they who a while ago were many ways useful to us now in one single moment become like to the Heathen Idols which have Eyes and See not Ears and Hear not Noses and Smell not a mouth and Taste not Hands and Handle not Feet and Walk not and have we not cause to mourn what can we see our dear friends those whom we laid in our Bosoms and Loved as our selves become the spoil and triumph of our common Enemy Death and not weep what can we thrust a Wife a Mother into a scanty Coffin croud them into a narrow Grave without a Tear Solomon tells us there is a time to weep and a time to mourn is not such a time as this the season for Ecles 3. 4. both But tho' we may and ought to mourn yet we Christians who are acquainted with that life and immortality which is brought 2 Tim. 1. 10. to light by the Gospel should bound our grief and moderate our funeral sorrows especially with reference to such as died in Hope How many with Rachel mourn for their Children and will not be comforted because they are not how many upon such sad occasions abandon themselves to an obstinate sorrow lay the reins loose upon the neck of their head-strong passions and then foolishly cry out they cannot bridle them how many have weaken'd Nature destroyed their Health and hasten'd their own Death by excessive grief for that of another when these Waters swell too high o'reflow the Bank and threaten to Deluge us it is time to sink them Now to check an immoderate sorrow what can be more useful and
what holy motions and breathings what enlivening quickening and comforting influences of the Holy Spirit have I had how oft hath God supported my drooping and reviv'd my dying Spirits answered my doubts expell'd my fears and treated me as a Friend nay more as a Son how hath God in mercy restrained the Tempter or wisely ordered the Temptation as to the nature strength and continuance of it what succour and support what strength and assistance have I experienc'd at such a time and how oft through Grace have I been more than a Conquerour when I sinn'd and fell God did not cast me off banish me his family and null the former Relation but pittied me a faln Christian when he heard my groans and saw my penitential Tears his Bowels yearned he took me up and embraced me in the Arms of his Mercy wiped my weeping Eyes comforted my sorrowful Heart and said Son be of good chear thy sins are forgiven Mat. 9. 2. thee Oh! the joy oh the unspeakable joy of that hour methinks I yet sensibly feel what lively and warm impressions those words made upon my Heart upon my Heart that the moment before was ready to sink and dye within me when I was covered with Tears Blushing and Shame when I lay sighing sobbing and groaning at his Foot-stool crying out in the bitterness of my Soul I have sinned I have sinned before I rose from my knees before I said Amen my God came and said I have pardoned I have pardoned and now go in peace For the mercy and kindness of that hour Lord I bless thee now When through the weakness of my Grace the strength of my Corruptions and the power of Temptation I have wandred and gone astray when my zeal has abated my affections been cooled when I have been remiss negligent and careless back-sliding and on the declining hand he sent some affliction or other to call me back to awaken warm quicken and recover me When I have loved the World too much and my God too little when my affection to Earth has been too warm and to Heaven too cold when duties have been neglected or performed without life vigour and zeal when I begun to be too Worldly Earthly and Sensual he suffered me to meet with disappointments took away part of my Estate snatcht away a bosom Friend a dear Relation filled my Body with pain shook me over the Grave and threatned to cast me into it and all this with a merciful design to reform and make me better And Lord I thank thee any afflictions have been sanctified to such an end that the voice of the Rod has been accompanied with that of thy Spirit and both were effectual to reclaim me that at any time I came out of the fire more refin'd and purg'd and that those Waters of Affliction washt away my filthiness Lord I can do and will bless thee for seasonable corrections and the discipline of thy Rod. So good and kind so liberal and bountiful so merciful and gracious hath God been to me I have had so much for Body and Soul for time and eternity that I am fill'd with wonder and must cry out Oh the heighth and depth length and breadth of the love of God! my mercies have been more than my moments and every single mercy deserves and calls for a Psalm of Praise Lord when I am dead and in a silent Grave I cannot praise thee and therefore now I will blessed be God I lived till I was born again that ever I heard of that sweet that blessed that charming name JESUS and that I was enabled to believe on him for all the Mercies I have had in this World and for the hope and prospect of more and better in the next Blessed be God for Pardoning Mercy Sanctifying Grace and the Blood of Jesus to wash and cleanse me a sinner Blessed be God for the supports and comforts I have in this sickness that Satan is restrain'd and my own corruptions curb'd Blessed be God I am made meet for Heaven and that I know I am Lord what Grace is thine how free and sovereign What love is thine how constant and matchless how sweet how exceeding sweet is the thought that God hath loved doth love me and will do so unto the End I 'll bless thee Lord while I live thank thee with my last Breath and O my God through Christ thy Son and my Saviour accept my dying praises Bless the Lord O my Soul bless the Lord for me O my Friends bless the Lord O ye his Holy Angels my single voice is not sufficient may every Tongue all breath praise his holy name Amen HALLELUJAH III. After Death cometh Judgment what an awakening Thought this is and ought to be How this Thought may and should be improv'd by us in our last Sickness particularly to put us upon Confession the exercise of Repentance and earnest Prayer to God for Pardoning Mercy SICKNESS Summons Men to die Death Summons them to Judgment May this Sickness be my last and do I suppose it will hearken O my Soul and thou may'st hear Deaths Voice Come unto the Bar come give an account of thy Self to God in the NAME of the ETERNAL GOD whose Servant and Messenger I am I cite thee O Man to make thine appearance before the Tribunal of thy Maker Sovereign and Judge in the other World Awful Tidings what awakening and startling words are these must I O my Soul quickly Dye and after that be judg'd go from my Death-bed to the Bar of an Infinitely Holy Just and Jealous God must my Life be examined all my Actions scanned and my everlasting state in that moment be determined must a Righteous and Irreversible Doom pass upon me must I Dye in one moment and in the next be Judg'd and shall not I search my ways examine my state take a survey of my Heart and Life before I pass to that final and irreversible Judgment and hold up these guilty hands of mine at God's Tribunal shall I not endeavour to know what has been amiss that I may confess be humbled for repent of it and beg pardon Lord help me a sick Lord for Jesus sake help me a dying man in this serious solemn work help me to find out my sins to repent and implore thy mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ who is my only hope in Life at Death and after Death I was born a sinner and came into the World guilty and polluted behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother Psal 51. 5. conceive me As I am a Child of Apostate Adam dreadful thought I am unlike to the Holy and Blessed God and resemble the Devil the worst of Beings and had I no other sin this were enough to shame confound silence and condemn me But alas have I not found this original sin active in my Heart and fruitful in my Life with what force and violence has it hurried me to the commission of sin oh
Life without this superlative and predominant love I am I can be no Christian But O my Soul is not my lothness to die when God calls and would have me an ill sign my love is not so strong my affection so warm and this flame so bright and burning as it ought to be doth a Man love God what and wish to be at an eternal distance from him what a flat contradiction is this do I love my God my Saviour and the H. Spirit my guide and comforter as much as I ought and not care how long I am absent from this Blessed Trinity oh how weak and defective is my love did I love my God as strongly as I love my Friend my Relations should I not think it long till I am with him were the glowing sparks blown up into a flame did I love and love as much as I ought how passionately should I cry out My Soul thirsteth for God for the living Psal 42. 3. God when shall I come and appear before God How long must I be at this lamented distance HE is my God my Life my Joy my Happiness my All oh that I were with him oh blessed are they who dwell in his Presence stand before his Throne and continually behold his Face when shall it be so with me O my God I love thee and long to see thee O my Saviour I love thee and I long to see thy Face and have thy company that I may love thee more for every view of thee my glorious Jesus will increase the Flame How long how long Lord how long is the voice of love of a strong and burning love Doth God by this present sickness call me to come from Earth to Heaven from my Friends to him from my Relations who love me pity me pray for and weep over me to my Saviour who loves me more and is able to help me and am I unwilling do I shrink draw back and wish to tarry longer is there not some great defect in my love doth it not want many of those degrees it ought to have Holy Lord Blessed Jesus I am troubled I am ashamed to find so much unwillingness in my self to die now because I am convinc'd my love to thee is not so strong as it should be O pity and pardon me oh help me to love thee more and better and then I shall obey thy Summons and be willing to come to thee tho' Death and the Grave be in my Way that I may let me love thee more and better Lord Hath not God O my Soul promised me a future Glory and confirmed that Promise with an Oath Hath he not revealed much of Heaven to me that I might not be an utter stranger to that unseen World hath he not given me many sweet foretasts of it in Meditation and Prayer in Sermons and in my Sacramental Communions that I might desire long and thirst after more What delightful hours what holy Communion with God Father Son and Spirit what joyful views what ravishing prospects of Heaven have I sometimes had have I not had those sights of God in the Sanctuary those discoveries of his love and that sense of his favour that I have cried out Lord it is good for Mat. 17. 4. me to be here Have I not had that Communion with God in my secret retirements and have I not been fill'd with those joys on my Knees that I have had no more mind to the little things of time to the Vanities here below have not I sometimes been so refresht reviv'd and comforted so satisfied and transported with joy that I have long'd for Heaven that I might be capable of and enjoy more can't I remember the time tho' alass it hath been too seldom so when I would have been glad to have gone from my Closet and from my Knees to Heaven and shall I be unwilling now what did a good God vouchsafe all this to me for but to make me long for Heaven and willing to die why did he give me these first fruits but that I might long for the Harvest these Clusters of Canaan but that I might long for the Vintage These Tasts but that I might long to drink a full Draught of those Rivers of Pleasure which are at his Isa 16. 11. Right Hand for evermore Lord continue and increase those joys now and I will readily dye Moreover O my Soul hath not God continued me in Life and being a great while I might have died in my Infancy Childhood and Youth but I did not I might have died in the Morning or at Noon but I have lived unto the Evening How many are dead and gone while I am yet spar'd how many thousands hath Death removed out of the World since I came into it how many Funerals have I survived how many younger persons have I out-liv'd I have sometimes been sick but did not God recover restore and raise me up again this House of Clay hath often totter'd but hath not God repaired and yet kept it standing the Arrows of Death have been flying about me and many thousands have fallen on my right hand and many on my left but they have had no commission to touch me many have been called out of the Vineyard at the first third and sixth hour and I have been continued to the ninth nay to the eleventh Have not I lived thirty forty fifty sixty years when thousands have not lived so many months weeks or days and is it not shameful for me to be unwilling to dye now after I have lived in the World so long shall I be as loth to dye as those who are but newly come into it unthankful Soul is this the return thou makest to God for so much time and patience the poor Infant of a few days may say must I dye almost as soon as I am born go from one Grave to another come upon the Stage only to look about me take a short turn and so go off the young man may say am I arriv'd at that period of Life wherein Nature is strongest and I am most capable of relishing the pleasures of it and must I go now to a lonesome and solitary Grave must I go to Bed in the Morning and my Sun go down at Noon-day must my Candle be blown out by the Breath of Death when it might Burn much Longer must I in my Youth Strength and the Flower of my Age be thy mark and game O heard-hearted Death when so many old and decrepit ones who in civility may be willing to retire to the Grave and make room for others and of whom the World is weary are passed by O Death Death dost thou refuse the halt the lame and the blind and must I one of the best of the Flock be singled out and be laid as a Sacrifice on thine Altar If this be the Young Mans complaint what can be the old Mans Apology will it not be as weak as himself Have not I
had a sufficient time to prepare for Death and Judgment Have not I lived long enough to make an experiment of what the World can do for me Long enough to confirm that old maxim Vanity of vanities all is vanity and is not my unwillingness to die now Eccl. 1. 2. inexcusable How shameful O my lingering Soul is it for me an old Disciple after I have been trained up in the School of Christ so many years after I have heard so many plain and convincing Lectures of the vanity of the World the certainty of Death the glory of Heaven and happiness of eternity to shrink and draw back when so many younger have chearfully submitted to the will of God! Dost thou not O my Soul by this time see there is reason why thou should'st be willing now to put off this earthly Tabernacle Let me now hear what thou canst object against this which is thy duty honour and interest Am I loth to die now because I shall leave relations who have their dependance on me and to whom I have been useful Foolish talk cannot God who provided for 'em by take care of them without me And if they are his will he not Cannot God who is the Fountain be better than I who am but a Cistern and a broken Cistern too May I not leave my solitary Widow and Fatherless children with God Am I loth to die now because I must take my final leave of Friends and Relations whom I have lov'd with whom I have liv'd and conversed with much delight Foolish Soul loth to leave them what to go to God Christ and company infinitely better to enjoy which for one hour is much better than to enjoy theirs for an age Am I unwilling to die now because of those pains and pangs those sharp conflicts and agonies I must endure before body and Soul do part Fond reasoning must not these pains be endured at one time or other will not Death be Death that is be attended with some pains whenever it comes Had I not better take heart and undergo them once and that now than be terrified many years longer with the fears and melancholy prospect of them Will not these pains be my last and when they are over and in a few hours they will shall not I be at perfect ease and rest Hath God done and the blessed Jesus suffered so much for me Is Heaven so blessed and glorious a place that it transcends all I can imagin And shall I make excuses and frame Apologies resist and struggle be backward and unwilling to endure a little pain that I might go to God and Christ and be in Heaven Have not many endured more and greater pain in hope of less advantage Have I not a Saviour who experimentally knows what it is to be pain'd and die to stand by succour support and assist me in this terrible passage from Time to Eternity Finally O my trembling Soul may not the pains of that hour be much less than I fear think and apprehend they will be Am I loth to die now because this body must go to the grave rot and putrifie and lie a long time among Worms Fond affections to a lump of Clay is this the reason of my unwillingness O wretched sinful Soul where 's thy Faith concerning that fundamental Article the Reâ—urrection of the Dead Is not Christ risen and shall not they that sleep in Christ rise too Will not the glorious morning quickly dawn Will not the day of redemption of the body ere long come And shall not this Body this very Body of mine be quickned raised and in all respects be much better than now it is Will it not be a Beautiful and Comely a Strong and Healthful a Powerful and Active a Spiritual and Immortal Body Will not a time come when our last enemy DEATH shall be destroyed and mortality be swallowed up of LIFE When I shall sleep in the dust I shall not think the time long and when my Lord shall come and the trumpet sound and arise ye Dead shall be spoken by the mighty and powerful Jesus shall I not live and dye no more Therefore let me be willing to die once and since I must once let me be willing to die now What is there O my Soul in this vain wretched and sinful World that I should desire to stay yet longer in it What is this Flesh this Body that I should be loth to lay it in the grave What can be frightful and terrible in death since Christ hath conquer'd disarm'd it and taken out the sting What is there in the other World I am so loth to go unto it Have not I sinn'd and suffer'd sorrow'd and griev'd groan'd and wept long enough already Have I not been afflicted tempted and buffeted long enough already Why do I not long for deliverance Look O my Soul Heaven is prepared the gates are open and there 's a mansion for thee Hearken listen thy God thy Jesus calls saying come Christian come away from a dark and sinful miserable and defiled World to this World of Life Light and Love Angels and Saints O my Soul are longing for thy arrival with one consent they wish thee safely landed The former are ready to be thy convoy to yonder glorious World the latter with a triumphant joy will welcome thee as soon as ever thou comest thither Linger no longer but go out O my Soul go out with Joy and Triumph My God hath prepared Heaven for me an happiness beyond infinitely beyond all my thoughts hopes and wishes an happiness that will amaze and transport me as soon as ever I am landed on that blessed shore an happiness that is perfect without any defect and eternal without any end My blessed and loving Jesus hath by his sufferings blood-shed and Death purchased Heaven and a Mansion for me What a glorious blessed Heaven must that be which was the purchase of such sacred pretious and invaluable blood is Heaven the purchase of my Saviours warmest blood Excellent place This all this am I now called to take possession of but oh how loth and unwilling am I to go it is my sin my shame and folly that I am so pardon pity and help me Lord I have been speaking to my self chiding reproving blaming and persuading this sinful silly and backward heart of mine but to what little purpose And now dear Lord I turn my self and speak to thee for I shall never be willing except thy Spirit and Grace make me so I see that Heaven is on the other side but yet how loth am I to step into a dark cold and solitary grave I am convinc'd that Heaven is better than Earth that it is worth a dying to go to God and Christ and yet I cannot ah what a sinful wretched heart have I I cannot long and wish to die Oh pardon my lothness and backwardness and give me a more humble obedient submissive and resigning frame that if this Cup
must not now pass from me I may imitate my dear Saviour in the like circumstances chearfully saying Father not my will but thine be done The arguments I have â—uk 22. 42. used are weighty and serious sufficient to convince my judgment stop my mouth and make me silent but after all O pity pardon and help me I find I am backward and loth to die now Lord make me content content that 's too little make me desirous to die and to die now God forbid that after all my Soul should be violently rent and torn from me Lord Let me have such a firm belief of a future happiness such lively hopes and clear evidences of my right and title to it such a burning and flaming love to thee my God to thee my Saviour such pleasing foretasts of Heavenly joys such a reviving prospect of that glorious future state that I might overcome the fears of Death the terrors of the Grave and Triumph over both That I may long and pant desire groan and wish to be with Christ which I must and do acknowledge to be far better Lord inspire my departing Soul with that Faith Hope and Love that I may now glorifie Thee credit Religion and commend thy holy Ways that I may strengthen the weak and encourage the fearful by a chearful and willing comfortable and triumphant departure Sanctifie these afflictions and pains and this present sickness to me and let them put me upon longing after Heaven where are none answer my doubts expel my fears arm and fortifie comfort and encourage my weak drooping and trembling Soul and the nearer I draw to my end the more warm and earnest let my desires be Oh for thy holy Spirit to excite those Heavenly and Spiritual desires in me which I cannot raise in my self O thou almighty and victorious Jesus who hast conquer'd Death and the Grave enable me in these my last moments to triumph over them saying O DEATH where is thy Sting O GRAVE where is 1 Cor. 15. 55. thy victory Many experiences have I had of thy Grace and Mercy love and kindness O my Saviour forsake me not now in this my last extremity O Blessed Jesu who hast been my support and help in Life be my Strength my Comfort and my Joy at Death While in this my last sickness I have been speaking sometimes to my self and sometimes unto God I have obtain'd the Mercy I wanted and laboured after a willingness to die now my doubts are answered my fears remov'd my sins are pardoned God is reconciled my Conscience pacified my hopes are lively my evidences clear my assurance strong and my joy full and now thanks be to God how do I long to dye shall I be afraid of Death What! of a baffled vanquisht and conquer'd Enemy I am not I was but now blessed be God I am not Am I a Member of Christ a Son of God an Heir of Heaven and shall I be afraid of thee O Death through Grace O mine Enemy I am not Methinks I am already in the Suburbs of Heaven and I long to enter into that holy City I have a prospect of yonder blessed World and this prospect is so ravishing and transporting that I wish for a present possession No Heir ever longed more for his Inheritance no Captive ever longed more for Liberty no sick and pained man ever longed more for ease than I now do for Heaven When I am there what charming musick shall I hear what glorious sights shall I behold what blessed and delightful company shall I have what joy will enter into possess and fill this Soul of mine what a Mansion of Light and Glory shall I enter into when I have put off this earthly Tabernacle how does a thought of this make my fettered and yet imprisoned Soul cry out How long Lord how long farewel vain World farewel not Earth but Heaven is my home and I long groan and wish to be there Is the time of my departure at hand Is the time come that I must die Lord I do submit thy holy will be done My Body I chearfully bequeath unto the dust O faithful grave keep what I commit unto thee this Body till my Lord shall come and then deliver it up In the dust shall this flesh of mine sleep and rest in hope My Soul my pretious and immortal Soul O my God I resign to thee into thine hand I commit my Spirit Thou Psal 31. 5. hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth Father into 〈◊〉 â—ands I commit my Spirit Lord Luk. 23. 46. Acts 7. 59. Jesus 〈…〉 Must I die now Lord 〈◊〉 in thy will believing thy promise trusting in thy mercy thro' the ALL-SUFFICIENT MERITS of thy Son and my Saviour I wait wait Lord I long for the happy moment And my last Petition and dying prayer shall be Come Lord Jesus come qickly Rev. 22. 20. 1 Thes 4. 17. that I might be for ever with the Lord come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen Amen FINIS