seen even these Men's Sun set and their last day come It is true then that as those mistaken fond self-flatterers have died so must I most certainly most unavoidably die 2. And I find Secondly by Observation of Multitudes whom I have seen or heard of dying that it is also a great Truth which I have been told that Men's Thoughts when dying touching things of Life namely touching Wealth Pleasures Mirth c. nay generally touching all the Actions and States of Men prove much different from what they are in the gaiety and jollity of their days Therein indeed they laugh at and reproach sober devout and mortified Men but upon their Death-beds they wish themselves in their Condition Perhaps while in the way of Gain and Business Men admire the splendor and value of Gold and think a Bag of it one of the most Sovereign Goods in the World They would venture Credit and Conscience and even Life to come by it But give Gold to any of those when dying and he 'll cry out Why do you torment me Alas that has been my Ruine Oh! that I could have but some ease of Conscience Oh! that I had but reason to hope God would have mercy upon me Oh! that I had minded Godliness as much as I have done Gain my Condition now had been otherwise Thus have we known it with people far in humane Esteem from being irreligious Yea take the lewdest and most debauch'd persons whom in their health nothing but Revelling and Lust and Hectoring and Profaneness would down with who would curse you for the least good Advice you gave them or even for beseeching God to have Mercy upon them Come to these Men when by God and a Disease or by the Magistrate and Proceedings at Law under the Sentence of Death and have they the same sense of their Bottles and Frolicks and Minions and mad Company Will they brave it as formerly Ask them which of the two you shall call to them a pack of merry Boys and Hectors or a Minister and which will they chuse Will Oaths and Damme's and Confound me Body and Soul or even their lewd Songs or but merry Stories be Musick now in their ears Far enough from it Now nothing but the Prayers of all good people is called for but too late for the most part God knows Thus much generally all Men are able to observe And it is a certain Truth if Men have their Senses and are of sound memory and reason Conscience is more awake and speaks louder and more impartially when they are in sight of death than ever They that choak'd and oppress'd it before hear and feel it then whether they will or no. And this I cannot but acknowledge to be a constant at least a general Truth 3. Nay further Thirdly Even at present do I not find within my own Breast and in my calm hours and true sense of things a great difference as well between good and evil Actions as the Effects and Products thereof Is Money unjustly gotten by Cozenage or Lying or Dissembling not to say worse so comfortably laid up as that which is the reward of my honest Pains and Industry Or would I be as content to leave my Son an Estate which I forced as out of the Fire by Oppression grinding the face of the Poor Falseness Subornations c. as one which my Ancestors fairly lest me or my own Frugality and honest Diligence acquired And so in a thousand other Cases Is not the like difference apparent Is Riot and Roaring and beastly prostituting my own and others Honour so amiable and yielding as much ease to the mind as Sobriety Gravity and Purity Nay even in others Is it as comfortable to me to hear Men lie and then swear to prove their Lies to hear them curse and damn or perhaps but even rail and rant at one another as to be entertained with grave or wise Discourse or over-hear devout people assembled at their Prayers in the Fear of God and with a decent Concord Further besides the inward Advantage of being vertuous and religious do I not see daily that Men by Vertue and Religion preserve themselves from a thousand Inconveniencies which others run into They keep and encrease perhaps their Estates their Credit their Ease their Quiet their Health the Love of their Neighbours and a good Interest in their Countrey with many more Felicities whereas others by contrary practices forfeit all So that a Man cannot but be sensible supposing him thus to go on thinking and considering with himself that Vertue and Religion give Men great advantage of others not only when going out of the World but even in the strength and vigor of their age and that as well in regard of inward Peace liking and approving or being at ease with themselves as in many worldly respects 4. Now will an outward Demureness and Hypocrisie a pretending that Religion or Vertue which Men have not do all this And truly Professors of Religion who are not religious in good Earnest are no better than demure Hypocrites Will I say deceiving the World and perhaps themselves too with a pretence to that Integrity that they have not administer Comfort to Men when dying or Content and Peace while in Life at a distance from Death Let me seriously consider of this and there will nothing appear more plain to me nor shall I be more sensible of any thing in the World than that such Temper as described would be a dying Torment to me a Hell before-hand and that it is really a reproach to me in my own sense of things at present if I am such I say if I be guilty of it my heart even now reproaches me for it 5. And after all these Thoughts thus in a train and dependance upon one another run through after such a thread of Reason spun by my Soul can I believe this Soul of mine is equal to that whereby Beasts live Is it no nobler of no longer duration than the Spirit of a Dog or of a Swine or of such vile Creatures Am I able to conceive think and put together all these things to no purpose And have I the sense and prospect of a Life to come an earnest desire too of Immortality and all this in vain Let me see Is it so as to my other Faculties Has God given me Eyes to see and yet is there neither Light nor Colours Has he given me Ears to hear and are there no sounds Has he given me a Mouth and Palate and provided a Stomach for reception of Meat and put an Appetite into it and parts and powers for digesting my Meat yet are there no kinds of Food Nothing fit to be tasted eaten digested Has he given me a Tongue to speak and an Understanding to frame Thoughts and direct that Tongue to utter them and are there no people in the World for me to converse with It is plain to me that none of my other Faculties are in
up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Now though it may seem at first that in this kind of good works namely those usually called works of Charity only rich people are capable of laying up Treasure in Heaven or providing themselves hereafter any measure of happiness yet if we consider there are many good Offices or kind services that even the meanest sort sometimes may perform to their Superiors and that such services are of real value we may and must account that poor people endeavouring to do all the good they can to the Bodies Souls Estates or good names of others are as really charitable and if diligent to do such good as abundant in the work of Charity in their way as the most magnificent publick Benefactors in theirs and consequently will be as surely and gloriously rewarded He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Mat. 10. 41 42. In which surprising promise and as it were excess of Divine grace and goodness poor people ought for their comfort to take notice of three things 1 How small matters from them to whom little is given God esteems as Alms Even a Cup of cold water given to a fellow Christian as such or haply a little room or harbour in a corner of the poor Cottage to a weary or wet Passenger 2 How largely God will reward it with a righteous man's or a Prophet's reward according to the nature of the person we designed to do good to 3 The sureness of the reward Verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward that is by an ordinary Figure he shall most certainly receive it Let no one then think he cannot be Charitable or bountiful because he is not rich but let him not fail to do all the good Luk. 12. 33. to others that lies in his way Hereby he provides himself Bags which wax not old a treasure in heaven that faileth not That is he makes a happy preparation for another world § 9. But there is one sort of good works or of Charity to others which transcends far all other Bounty and that is Charity to the souls of Men labour in instructing those who are ignorant of God and of their Duty in retrieving and delivering men from a leud course of life to being serious and strict in Religion in bringing them home to Christ and his Church This is a Charity as far surpassing that which is meerly extended to Mens bodies as the soul in excellence surpasseth the body He that can help a soul to Heaven before him hath certainly sent an unvaluable treasure thither For if any man err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins James the last 19 20. Wherefore to conclude this Head touching good works Let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult And thus as to the third Duty in our first Period of providing for our selves a Happiness in another world against we leave this Matter and a Method suitable for Devotion to the Fourth Chapter FIrst Examine Whether ever hitherto thou hast thought in good earnest of laying up treasure or securing thy self a Happiness in Heaven Shouldest thou die this moment what reasonable hopes hast thou that thou shouldest be blessed in that other world or after death rest from thy Labours Particularly 1. Hast thou any sound clear or even tolerable conceptions and rational sense of the life or happiness of a soul abstract or separate from the body Or art thou not as it were drown'd in brutish Apprehensions understanding none but a sensual life And are not Spiritual and Heavenly things in a manner Dreams Fables and Romances to thee 2. Hast thou lookt upon it as thy Duty and Concernment above all things to secure to thy self a happiness to come 3. Didst thou ever seriously set thy self by Resolution and Prayer to chose the Everlasting God for thy happiness Does thy soul in any such measure cleave to him at present as that thou canst with any probable hope claim him for thy Portion 4. Hast thou pursued this choice by an honest endeavour of holy life and abounding in good works according to thy quality and power Or hast thou not been idle a Loiterer and secure flatterer of thy self never really active herein Or what is worse yet very frequent dost thou not meerly profess to know God but in works deniest him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. vers ult Secondly Having thus strictly examined thy Conscience in the fear of God by Serious Prayer set thy self First to Confess thy particular guilt in this case according to the true answer of thy Conscience In which behalf if thou hast practised the Devotional parts annext to the foregoing Chapters and especially the Directions of the last thou canst not be at any loss Accuse thy self sincerely and unbosom thy heart before God by going over again the Particulars Remember the Holy God loveth truth in the inward parts and will be readier both to become thine and make thee his if he see thee to be cordial in the endeavour of making him thy choice Further proceeding in Prayer 2dly Look upon Acknowledge and adore God as the only true Happiness of Man's Soul as the Father of Spirits who made thy Soul for himself and put into it this property that it can be satisfied with nothing below himself And if thou findest an inward sense hereof in thy heart immediately as another act of Prayer 3dly Bless God for this Token of good for such certainly it is to thee a sign that notwithstanding all thy neglects of God notwithstanding all thy pursuits and wandrings after Airy bubbles of happiness in this World he has not yet totally cast thee off and left thee to thy own vain heart Wherefore now 4ly By way of Petition beg of him that he will graciously through Christ Jesus vouchsafe to become thy Treasure and portion As in the foregoing Chapter directed offer him up thy heart and beseech him to accept it and both to make and keep it his Lament thy wandrings and thy long alienation from thy alone true good Acknowledge thy Disappointments of Happiness and perpetual missing of satisfaction in the World and beseech of God again and again that he will enable thee with purpose of heart to cleave unto
I were now dying and breathing out my last with that last breath would I give thee this counsel make this request impose upon thee this command or otherwise c. Take it therefore now lest thou and I should not have then opportunity for it and remember it as the Counsel Admonition or Command c. of thy dying Father Friend c. Then give thy Counsel signifie thy desire c. Counsel thus once given and as occasion may offer thus at convenient times ingeminated or repeated may have the same weight make the same impression and will every whit as much serve to the discharging of our Conscience and so for the composing our minds for death as if it were given upon the Death-bed The same may I say as to any secrets which we have to impart and which it is expedient our Friends or Relations should know convenient time in state of health and leisure may be taken and needful Prefaces used so as to impart them even at a distance from our death Or if the secrets be of such nature as it is not expedient our Friends should know them when we are in health or till we are going or gone out of the world a Letter may be writ and put up sealed with our Will to such person to whom the secret does belong Or in case we are not able to write some faithful friend with whom we can or do intrust the secrets of our Estate may be intrusted herewith to impart it to our Friends at or after our death By these or like means which common discretion will suggest may a man before hand discharge his Conscience to his Friends so as to have his mind even in reference to them composed and easie and himself at a distance as ready for death as if it were at hand § 10. Lastly whether of the main or subordinate Directions it matters not having done thy best as has been before prescribed with good Conscience to settle thy affairs and thy mind though thou presumest thy self never at so great a distance from death yet as fully and intirely as if thou wert now to die and together comfortably and quietly resign up thy self and all thine to God Let him now from henceforth work his will and dispose of thee and thine as he pleases Do thou quietly await his good pleasure Thine own person soul and body and the persons of all thy dear Relations or Friends by Faith and Prayer commit to him as into the hands of a faithful Creator and do this daily as long as thou livest Thy Estate and Goods give up according to his good pleasure he being the most wise Disposer as well as the alone true Proprietor and Lord of all Thou hast as his Instrument endeavoured to dispose of all as wisely and conscionably as thou canst but when thou art gone which way in a short time all will go whether to thine or to strangers whether to a wise man or to a fool thou Eccles 2. 19. neither canst nor shalt know nor does it truly concern thee to presage or forebode Much less shouldest thou disturb thy quiet about it thy duty 's done Thy children may Job 14. 21. come to Honour and thou know it not and they may be brought low but thou perceive it not of them Trouble not therefore thy self now as to what comes after thee If thou considerately survivest these Preparations thou maist alter things as in Christian prudence thou at leisure shalt see occasion If not thy Province is discharged God is at peace with thee thou hast a happiness Him for thy happiness to go to Happy man set thy heart at rest abandon Sollicitude address to what comes with a Christian temper and make the most Heavenly and Spiritual use thou canst of all that comes bidding still all welcome as from God § 11. This is plainly a most easeful and blessed temper able in a great measure to felicitate any person Whosoever has thus practised and continues in this state and practice is plainly prepared for death For the three aforementioned intentions beyond which in this period we could see nothing necessary are attained He has a Happiness to go to the infinite God is his Portion He has provided against all he can fear sin and the wrath due to it Sin he has forsaken and endeavoured to extirpate and the guilt of it that is obligation to the wrath due is done away for he has made his peace with God in Christ and he has disintangled himself from the world He may therefore take up good old Simeon's Hymn Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace And add thereto St. John's Response to the Churches Invitatory Come Lord Jesus come quickly Only if his Lord delayeth his coming it will concern him to watch To have his light burning and to keep oyl in his vessel with his lamp that is to maintain this blessed temper and to strengthen those things which are weak to fill up what is defective to take care his heart and his works be perfect before God that is sincere to hold fast and be faithful to the end that no man take his Crown Of which Duties we are next to consider In the mean time Blessed is that servant whom his Lord at his coming shall find so doing Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to Chapter the Fifth IN point of Examination or Inquiry into our condition here will be Matter of a new nature and different from what as yet came before us For hitherto in our Devotional engagements the enquiries we have still made were touching disorders of heart or our particular guilt Sins Habitual or Actual But now being engaged as well to settle our worldly affairs as to purge our Souls and quiet our minds and the purging disentangling and quieting our selves depending so much on our outward circumstances After such endeavours of a serious thoughtful temper and short Prayer as usual at our entring into our privacy we must look without and set our selves to consider in plain terms What estate or worldly substance we have and how it lyes What Relations also and Dependants Or what Dependencies we our selves have upon others What Dealings and Contracts we are engaged in What our Debts and Credits These questions we must seriously put to our selves and endeavour true answers and accompts in the fear of God as really making matter of Conscience of such Inquest For without this kind of practice a person that has had any thing to do in the world or has lived any considerable time therein cannot be just to the world when he goes out of it And for directing to such work as this in quality of a matter of Conscience and a work of secret or Closet-Devotion I have great reason in as much as good conscience and our peace both with God and our selves is so intimately concerned in it For 't is most certain a man cannot die a good Christian or with just hopes
Be ye also ready A METHOD AND ORDER Of Practice To be always prepared for Death and Judgment through the several Stages of Life By the Author of the Method of PRIVATE DEVOTION Behold now I know not the Day of my Death Gen. XXVII 2. LONDON Printed for R. Bentley in Russel-street in Covent-Garden and T. Bennet at the Half Moon in S. Paul's Church Yard 1694. Gospell Truth 's Psalm 119 vers 59 I thought on my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies The First Part Containing The First and shortest Course of Preparation Fitted for Beginnings or sudden Exigents Imprimatur Octob. 6. 1693. Guil. Lancaster AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IT pleased God a very few years agoe to put and as it seemed a considerable while to keep the Author of the ensuing Treatise â—ogether with divers thousands of Protestants â—n such a Condition that they hourly expected to have been sacrificed For they were in humane appearance at the pleasure of inveterate Enemies nor can they to this day look upon it as much â—ess than a Miracle that they survived those Years of Dread and Danger Then perhaps most of them lived as people that really thought themselves mortal as to one part and immortal as â—o the other Then their great care was not only â—o enquire but to practise what might both make and keep them ever prepared for Death and â—udgment which they saw perpetually at their Doors even in their Chambers and in all Places and in all their Motions In that juncture a certain good Hospitable-Lady being like Martha busied about many things and concerned she was not better prepared to entertain some Friends brought into her House upon a Surprize her nearest Friend as a kind of easie Reprimand to her put this Question at random to all What should we do to be always prepared for Heaven Something 's for the time the Author return'd but promised as soon as he should come home to put in writing for that his Friend's sake who was under some Infelicity as to his hearing a fuller and more deliberate Answer to that Question of so important a Concernment intending then only what might serve that season or our then Case and fill about a Sheet or two of Paper But all intercourse betwixt Protestants at a distance being in those Parts soon precluded the Author's Friend died and never saw the Papers designed for him However this gave occasion to the Author with deeper and more settled Attention to weigh the Case in general Which when he came to do he could not satisfie himself with so narrow and perfunctory a Consideration of it as was that which he had first taken For he esteemed the same Preparations would not be sufficient not only for all People but even for the same Persons in all Circumstances Many Omissions of the Israelites were favourably by God over-looked in their Wandrings through Wildernesses and in the State of War ensuing which were severely punished in Canaan when the Lord had given his People rest And the Preparations of the Sanctuary were undoubtedly more exact and Abundant as well as more Glorious than those of the Tabernacle In like manner a more Tumultuary and less distinct Repentance with a kind of bold Resignation of themselves to God and a constant Trust on his Mercy through Christ Jesus for pardon of Sin together with Dependance upon his Power Wisdom and Goodness in all their Ways even shutting their Eyes many times against Dread and Doubts and still going on to commit themselves to God's good Pleasure with sorrow indeed as to multitudes of things which being done they could not undo but never letting go their hold upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus might be and certainly were a State of Preparation accepted by God from most People in those Calamitous Days when they had neither Opportunities of Privacy Self-Examination and quiet thought much less of mature and Formed Devotions nor any of their usual Helps herein We could not then think we had many Days sometimes very few Hours to prepare for our End Almost every Person we met or saw spoke Death to us and then doing what to humane Frailty was feasible was in God's favourable Interpretation doing what was sufficient But now that we are delivered from those Terrors and apprehend not those at least sudden Dangers now that we sit at Peace in our Houses and sleep whole Nights quiet in our Beds and have our Advantages of Retirement and Thought and possibly some of us are become more thoughtful than ever In these more happy Circumstances we cannot but esteem our selves obliged to a Distincter more Sedate and Perfected Course of Repentence Faith Love Good Works Alms-deeds Composedness Heavenly-mindedness and upon our Experience of former things Contempt of this uncertain insignificant World And further to the not suffering our Hearts again to cleave to the things that are seen So far ought we to be from saying within our selves Surely the bitterness of Death is past or from putting far from us as the manner of incorrigible People is the Evil Day Rather will it become Persons in our Circumstances to make Death familiar to us and however God may sweeten our Passage thereto yet to be careful we never be so taken with any good fare in our Journey as to be loath to go to our long home Certainly in whomsoever an immoderate love of Life an unwillingness to die and unreasonable Fears of Death may be by God excused they will be least born with in those who either by the Discipline they have been under might have overcome them or perhaps once had which is the Case of all such who having been once in a good Measure prepared for Heaven and thought themselves near it have again returned to an Earthly sensual Conversation The Consideration of these God's different Expectations from Men according to the Circumstances they are or have been in in reference to Death caused the Author to cast his Thoughts upon the Case put to him into the present Method or Model and to suit to the several Conditions and Circumstances into which Christian People generally fall a distinct and proper Course of Prescriptions Of which Prescriptions here follow only the First Set and that accommodated primarily and intentionally indeed to such a State as the Author and others in the Days pointed at were in but withal as is both intimated in the Title Page and more particularly set forth Chap. II. most proper and for the main necessary for all sorts to begin with yea if new to them to be by all and every one speedily and carefully practised lest any Accident or unexpected Providence should put a Period to Life before the Possibility of a maturer Repentance Not to say that as to too many people in divers Emergencies and unhappy Junctures this Part contains a Summary of all Preparations to them Practicable It may perhaps be convenient something were said here as to the Style of this Part or the
Scripture-term the King of Terrors in the face that from henceforth we may be able calmly to think of him and live prepared to encounter him The Heathens of old generally looked upon Death as a Destruction of the whole Man and conceived the Soul either in the same instant with the Body to die or at least in some time to be dissipated and vanish And even those of them who taught the Immortality of the Vltra enim ut progrediar quam ut verisimilia videam non habeo Cic. Tusc Qu. l. 1. Soul rather held it as the more probable Conjecture of the two than as a certain Truth But the Holy Ghost has taught us Christians better The Dust indeed returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccl. 12 7. And All live unto him Luke 20. 38. Nay not only does the Soul live on when the Body falls but even the Body it self shall at the last day by the Almighty hand of God be raised again Both Dry Bones and the very Dust of Bones shall live again Ezek. 37. And there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the Just and of the Vnjust Act. 24. 15. Wherefore if these things be true as no Christian questions Death can be nothing but a Temporary Separation of the Soul from the Body There may be indeed and in case of natural Deaths commonly there are some foregoing pains which we commonly call the Pangs of Death but these are rather the most uneasie part of Life than ingredients or parts of Death And when the Paroxism or strength of the Pain has once conquered Nature the instant of Death is certainly no more painful than it is to fall asleep Death puts an end to those Pains and at least for the sake of being rid of them is to be wish'd for rather than dreaded Besides both Death it self and those its Harbingers or foregoing pains in ordinary Cases are necessary and unavoidable to all Men therefore it is most unreasonable and unworthy of considering Persons to fear them rather does it become and concern us to prepare to bear them as Christianity directs and with as much ease that is as much patience as we can So that in truth upon the whole it is more that which is conceived to follow Death which makes people fear Death than its own Nature Of its followers the closest most immediate and inseparable one is Judgment Now that Judgment which immediately follows Death is no doubt chiefly if not only the determining and ascertaining each dying persons future Condition Whatsoever the Dreadful Pomp and Appearance of our Lord's Second Coming and the Conslagration of the World has in it that is not to take place till the last day and I conceive it has been scarce ever found that dying persons have been appall'd or dismay'd at the apprehensions of that So that as before said that which must make Men afraid or unwilling to die must be something which is apprehended attended to or in Men's eye as immediately following Death § 4. Now the Summ of all the troublesome Consequents of Death must either be Evils to our selves or to others some way related to or depending on us And the Evils which can besall us must affect either our persons in the other World of which Nature can be nothing but either Loss or Pain or our Names and Memories which may survive us in this World And in case we be afraid or unfit to die some or more of these we shall find and confess if we will be true to our selves to be the genuine Reasons Either first we apprehend by Death we shall lose some Happiness we are here possess'd and perhaps too fond of or we fear by Death some Evil we are yet free from or lastly we have some Obligations or Ties upon us to some things or persons in this World which we would not have yet loosed or from which we cannot with Honour yet get free We are entangled with this World either in affection or besides in business of our own or others from which we judge it highly inconvenient for us yet to be dismiss'd Now let us consider each of these As to the first Perfect Happiness is all we can wish But Perfect Happiness no Man can say he is or can be possest of on Earth only he has here some Enjoyments which he sansies to be pretty Good or little inslances of Happiness and he is in hopes sometimes of some more now these Death will bereave him of But if a Man could obtain a perfect Happiness by or after Death it were reasonable to desire the exchange for then he would have all he could wish and by Death become Gainer Now this we must find a way to do if we will sufficiently prepare a Man for Death Again as to the state of Men in the other world there never was nor is nor can be any thing ever thought of terrible after Death but Judgment and the punishment of those Sins which we have committed in this life or so speak more properly perhaps according to the opinion of some the disorders of mind which these Sins have brought upon us being heightened and continued But it is plain many punishments of our Sins many disorders and inquietudes thence we meet with and shall lie under here more or less as long as we live If therefore by or after Death we can be secure of a perfect release from all these punishments and removal of all possible disorders and evils we should by such security be provided against all we could fear by or after Death Now this also is to be done There remains therefore nothing now to render a Man ready as well as willing to die but disentangling himself from this World § 5. So that in summ we have three Intentions before us to which all the Advices at least in this Period to be given are to be directed and if these three be by any means attained there is no question but such persons who have attained them are prepared for Death For more evils or inconveniencies by Death than those mentioned we cannot conceive of and therefore means sufficient to remove these must be sufficient to prepare us for Death And let a Man stand never so near the top of the Hill how large a prospect soever he has to the Gulph he is to pass he will find himself highly concerned as to these three general Intentions First he is to provide himself a Happiness to go to in the other World For a Man cannot be in any measure prepared to part hence who has no sore-sight of nor can promise to himself any good to be enjoyed hereafter Secondly He must provide against whatever he can fear in another World For a Man cannot be happy where his Fears remain And in the former Particular we have admitted He who is prepared for Death must be provided of Happiness in the other World therefore also
vain Therefore Neither was I endued with the Apprehension Sense and Appetite after another Life in vain but another Life after this there is My Conceptions and Desires of Immortality were no more put into me in vain than my Senses or natural Appetites That is there is an Immortal State that is my Soul is Immortal or capable of Immortality We see now whither we are come meerly by a little thinking § II. Let us then put all this together and see what will be the Result Whether it be tolerable or no to be as vain and formal and as meer Actors in Religion as the World of Professors of it are Or whether we are not most highly concerned to be herein more than in any other practices in the World or in any other part of Life most sincere serious and in good Earnest The Summ is I must die Though I choak and oppress Conscience and put tricks upon my self to gloss over foul Actions at present I shall not be able to do so long at least not at Death Nay even now at present I have much ado to make many things palatable which yet in practice I swallow so that I must account that at my Death if I am then in my Senses they 'll sting me with a witness and in all probability not only in my departing but eternally in that Immortal State For I cannot persuade my self but there is a Life after this I have so many Evidences of it within my self And it is not an outside Demureness or shadow of Religion which will bear me out or stand me in stead at Death and Judgment Then the Vizor will fall off Therefore it is my Concernment above all things to be early serious in Religion For I am sensible none die comfortably but vertuous Men None else when dying have either ease as to what is past or a comfortable prospect of what is to come So that the Conclusion of all is If I will follow what in my own sense of things and herein all good and wise Men all that are not beside themselves mad or vicious agree with me I must set my self to be serious in and most intent upon Religion And this is the first step of Preparation for Death and Judgment in our Stage The Second will be That we immediately go upon the reconciling our selves to God and endeavour to make our Peace with him of which in the next Chapter Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to the Second Chapter BEing retired seriously First Examine Conscience How thou hast stood affected and concerned hitherto in Matter of Religion 1. Hast thou concerned thy self any more in it or about it than in other Customs and Vsages of thy Countrey 2. In case thou hast with more outward Concernment than the generality of people espoused the Profession of Religion yet as to the Vertue it self Religion in the Soul 1. Is thy heart furnished with sound Knowledge Hast thou reasonable Conceptions of the Doctrine and Precepts of Christianity And 2. Art thou seriously in thy heart persuaded that Christian Religion is true and the alone sure way to Happiness Or else on the contrary Art thou a meer formal external Professor pretending to be zealous in this or that way but designing by such pretence only other ends than those of thy Soul in an unseen World Consider the Matter seriously For a multitude of meer worldly Bigots of zealous outward Professors are there in our World who both with themselves and others pass for religious Men. Or 3. Though thou hast been through the Grace of God enlightened and art in some measure knowing and perswaded in thy Conscience of the Truth of Religion yet is it not thy Case as it is many other religious people's that thou art as to Religion really lukewarm in love with the World and things that are seen So that thou hast been very negligent in an holy heavenly conscientious Practice and by reason of this Indifferency can'st scarce say thou hast been yet religious in good earnest Deal honestly with thy self in sifting out the Truth as near as able It will be thine own another day Secondly After this Search if thou findest thy Condition to be any of these three pause a while and consider particularly the guilt and sinfulness of it whichsoever of the three it prove As to the First supposing that to be thy Case Thou hast taken up thy Religion just as thou hast done thy cloths All civilized people wear some Cloths English people this particular Fashion and so thou wearest Cloths of this Fashion rather than of that of the Turks and Persians c. because thou art amongst the English and an English Man In like sort all Nations have some Religion Thy Countrey or thy Friends this and therefore thou art of it Thou hast been bred to it as they say Good God! what a monstrous profane thing is this That one who has the use of Reason should make no more matter of Religion than of the fashion of a Suit of Cloths And perhaps not so much as some vain wretches do who are more concerned about their garb than the state of their Souls O dreadful As to the Second To pretend Zeal for God and Heaven meerly for the driving on a poor worldly or carnal Interest when really I neither believe God or Heaven or care for either what abominable Hypocrisie is this What incarnate Devils white Devils as the people speak are such Men As to the Third To be persuaded that there is no true Happiness but in God that this World is but a Dream in comparison of that to come at the utmost that this Life is a state of Trial according to my behaviour wherein I am to be everlastingly happy or miserable and yet to be indifferent and cool in my Affections and pursuit of heavenly Goods to be intent on and ever busied about the things that are seen all which perhaps I may part with tomorrow and to be negligent of my Life and Actions according to which I shall one day be justified or condemned Matth. 12. 37. and so eternally happy or miserable What an inconsistent and an unreasonable thing is it Am I not while thus guilty condemn'd and unexcuseable even in the sense of my own mind Thirdly According to thy Condition now betake thy self to God by Prayer 1. Lifting up thine heart to him and conceiving of him as a God that searcheth and knows thee that possesseth thy Reins and discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart who therefore most intimately sees whether thou dissemblest or no That will be sanctified of all who draw near unto him and has accursed all Hypocrites and double-hearted Men who therefore will be content with nothing less than all thy heart and mind and soul In the beginning of thy Prayers set God before thee as such 2. Confessing to him according as thou hast found the Summ of thy Guilt Either Thy regardlessness of him and of thy Soul
easie to demonstrate the sinfulness unreasonable and mischievous consequents of worldly incumbrances than to cast them off or find our a proper way to be rid of them And the mischief is Men are usually unwilling to be delivered of this Evil. They are golden Chains which this World casts about us and those Men think too precious to fling away However let me consider have I a Treasure in Heaven Is God my Happiness Does this World only put me at enmity with God at least keep me at a distance with him Does it debase and enslave my Soul as I cannot but be sensible Shall I not then be willing to be free from business and slavery To be in perfection and possess'd of a blisful State To behold God face to face To love admire and enjoy him rejoycing before him and in him Eternally Without Weariness without Satiety nay even without Intermission or Allay of the highest pleasure my Nature is capable of Can I refrain desiring at least consenting to be thus blessed Can I choose but long for such Change and to that purpose shall I not sit loose to any thing that shall hinder it Now if I duly attend to my own daily Experience my worldly Affairs Cares and Business do much hinder any present Relish of or Preparedness for these Joys They take me off even from minding them and if I suffer them still to possess my Thoughts and Affections they will hinder me in my very passage to them nay possibly obstruct it totally Let me then resolve to put both my Self and Affairs into such Order as that I may at any time be ready to quit them whensoever and howsoever my Lord shall Call Let my mind be so composed and my worldly Affairs so disposed as that if God please suddenly to Call me hence there may be nothing in my Affairs which may much require my longer attendance on them and I my self may be as willing to leave them as they are fit to be left which is the Fourth Duty in Order to a Happy Death and what we are at present to consider more narrowly Here indeed may seem to be Two distinct Duties put together under one Head The Reducing our Worldly Affairs into such Order and our Minds to such a frame as that we may be ready for a sudden removal But the main intention and effect aimed at being one and single namely the Soul's disintanglement or freedom for its flight and that not being to be obtained but by these two joynt means and they too so interfering as we shall see there was reason thus to joyn or unite them For supposing a Mans Worldly Affairs in confusion and disordered it will be very hard for him even upon the most evident and unavoidable approach of death so to quiet himself as to be willing to go instantly out of this World and leave them so Again suppose a Mans Affairs never so well modelled and settled but yet his heart running out after the World and fixing upon it it will be impossible for him with ease to quit or bid adieu to what he desires so much and so passionately delights in or dotes upon These two therefore in practice cannot and must not be separated nor is there any disentanglement except both be effected But suppose such care and practice as to both as here directed there will ensue a certain disentanglement from this World in the Soul which so practises § 3. Now for proper directions to this purpose the following particulars may be effectual 1. Set bounds to thy own desires and even to thy designs of getting Consider with thy self what may suffice thee and thine and resolve to acquiesce therein not concerning thy self to be farther rich And for adjusting and determining what may be sufficient Consult not so much with the Cravings of unreasonable Appetite or with Opinion I might say Pride and Ambition as with the Necessities and Conveniences of Nature and of thy Degree Station or Condition Plain and Common People ought not to think of living equal to the Gentry Gentlemen not of living like Nobles and proportionably is it to be resolved touching Men of other Orders and Degrees Now such measures being taken and according to them Men propounding to themselves no more than what may comfortably carry them in such or such a rank through the World leaving to theirs what may also with Vertue and Industry as beforesaid support them like their Relatives we shall find the generality of Men might most reasonably take up within much narrower bounds than usually they do and so make their Lives much happier their Hopes of future blessedness much more assured and their Death 's much more Comfortable than are the Lives Hopes and Deaths of most Common Christians For such People can neither live happily nor die comfortably who still spend their whole time in getting or in aiming at more There must be time to use to enjoy and then to dispose of as well as to get if we will have comfort either in Life or Death And such times those can never have who never think they have enough but are still crying and designing More More and plodding for it How soon might that Man be rich who would satisfie himself with the Necessities or even decent Conveniencies of Nature And these certainly most People ought to satisfie themselves with But what Man can ever be rich who accustoms himself to esteem nothing to himself a superfluity and so nothing enough Alas how little is it that Nature requires and what a little more with Frugality and Prudence would supply or administer decent conveniencies It is Si ad Naturam vives nunquam eris pauper Si ad Opinionem nunquam eris dives Exiguum Natura desiderat Opinio immensum Epicurus Vt Seneca Epist 6. still I say only Opinion that suffers not Men of Ordinary Estates to be rich for Opinion indeed never will be satisfied Those therefore who will not set due bounds to their desires with respect to the requisits of Nature and the Condition of themselves and theirs must in the greatest plenty still be poor unsatisfied unquiet in perpetual turmoil and in most uneasie concernment and consequently most unfit for Death Indeed such Persons cannot be conceived in the greatest abundance to have either Mind or Estate settled This therefore must be resolv'd on in the first place Now to be short such competency either thou hast or thou hast not If thou hast thy business is as soon as may be so to settle all as will presently be directed If thou hast not consider what way of living thou art in Is it such as therein thou hast a reasonable prospect before thee that by industrious proceeding in thy Calling or way of Life thou shalt get what thou judgest may be a Competency Or else art thou a Person of an unsettled rambling Mind and Life fixt in no Calling living at large or what is the same in effect living befides or beyond
but to provide for Praecipua Cura esse debet non legatorum institutionis haeredis sed ut eorum quos dominus Curae nostrae commisit saluti consulatur the salvation of those whom God has committed to our care This I say and am content to think the Author supposed ought to be practised at a covenient distance as near as we can from death and before we make our wills for then commonly it is of the latest However this leads to the next particular § 7. 5ly If thou wouldest have thy mind in such frame and thy worldly matters in such order as to be ever ready at thy Lord's call Live not without a Will by thee supposing thou hast any thing to dispose of This is not only prudence but ordinarily duty For in case we should be suddenly taken away how else can we be just to others either to our neighbours abroad or to those at home of our own Blood and Family It was we know in express terms by God commanded to good Hezekiah as a preparative for Death Isa 38. 1. And we may observe some who have had little care of making any other preparation for Death not to have been negligent in this behalf Achitophel would set his house in order though his next business was to hang himself A dreadful instance of a worldly wise but irreligious desperate man Notwithstanding what may well mind us of our Lord's observation on Mammonists The children of this world are in their generation wise than the children of light Luk. 16. 8. Let us not then disdain to imitate any in whatsoever they do wisely as long as it is consistent with good conscience And such certainly is what at present is urged Now as concerning making our wills let us consider it is one of the solemnest and weightiest acts of our lives and therefore to be done 1 In the fear of God and with great consideration and conscience without Passion and fond Partiality For a Man's last Will and Testament is to survive him let it not therefore be a Monument of the Testator's folly injustice or Vice and the effects of it may be almost immortal Wherefore 2. it will not be amiss ordinarily to take advice not so much of Learned Lawyers though in many cases that also is to be done as of prudent and serious Christian Friends by whose direction if not on our own heads we may insert into our wills some Tokens of our Faith and Christian Hope some Injunctions Proviso's or Conditions which may oblige our posterity to what they perhaps would otherwise neglect we may hereby be Benefactors to their souls a long time after our death However certainly a Christian Man's Will should bespeak him seriously a Christian And Lastly If we have wherewithal let us not forget the Poor It were better indeed to do that sooner that we might have the Prayers of the Poor to accompany our departing souls Luk. 16. 9. But whether we have been liberal before or not something of this kind ought not to be omitted in any able persons last Will. The best of us commonly have some odd ends of Debts of Charity if not of just recompence to the Poor which it is needful we pay when going our long journey § 8. 6thly Besides this Charity in giving there may be also another part in forgiving very necessary to the composing of most persons minds especially when they are looking toward death as well as otherwise requisire to the qualifying them for appearing before God For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Mat. 6. 14 15. Reconcile therefore thy self as far as possible to Mankind and take care to live so reconciled As to making amends for any satisfiable wrong done by our selves as it is comprized in the nature of true repentance so it has been there and lately lookt to and prest and is supposed already done But we may also have suffered as well as done wrong and whether all men may have been just to us or no we are as we have seen by the condition assigned by our Lord for our very own pardon obliged to be charitable to them Let therefore no mans injustice imbitter our spirits for any revengeful inclination or affection will be doubly to our own injury first in obstructing our pardon in the Court of Heaven then in disturbing our peace within our selves The desire of revenge is very far from being in it self at any time an easie and tame passion much less can it be matter of comfortable reflection to any one of good Conscience or consisting with inward peace And certainly we have need of all good Conscience of all comforts and peace possible to fortifie us against death that last Enemy Nor will a good man only take care that his own heart be pacified but he will have so much charity for others who perhaps have been uncharitable enough to him to endeavour the pacification of theirs also before he go out of the world If any man bear me a grudge though without my fault I cannot give a more Christian Testimony of my forgiving him than by endeavouring to deliver him before I die from under that sin And I ought to be the more careful herein because I cannot tell but some sinful infirmities of mine own may have more provoked him and given him in his opinion juster cause of offence than I am aware of and what is just in his opinion it is reasonable for him to adhere to till he be convinced otherwise Now what so happy way to bring such person to reason as the melting addresses of a dying man or of one who is as dying The making up therefore of all quarrels betwixt us and others yea though we are the injured not the injurious party is very requisite where possible to compleating our peace both with God and in our selves The Apostle's Rule is If it be possible as much as in you lieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather as to your part else it seems a little Tautological if it be possible ON YOVR PART says he live peaceably with all men and much more die so § 9. 7thly As to parting with Friends and Relations as well as with persons more estranged from us some consideration is to be had But the larger Directions will be of another place Mean while as to any Admonitions and the words of dying men or of men speaking as if upon their death-bed sink deep and stick long whatsoever serious counsels there are which we should give to any of our Friends were we now at point of death nothing hinders but at some convenient time even in the state of health we may gravely and affectionately give them these Prefacing them in this or such like manner My Dear Child Friend or otherwise as occasion requires I must die I know not how nor how soon but if
of Heaven except he die to his power a just man In plain English then 1. The first business here thou hast to do is To make a true and plain Inventory of thy Estate Debts and Credits This however it may be too tedious to be done by thy self in secret yet it must be here resolved upon ordered to be done and a general contrivance of it laid At least when done it will be expedient in secret between God and thy self to View Examine and Consider it 2. Next being thou art upon Preparation for Death which strips thee of all thou must set thy self in good earnest to think of parting with all and bidding adieu at least in heart and affection at the very present to this world To make thee serious in such thought Possess thy self by way of Meditation of the following Points briefly 1. It is appointed for all men once to die and this fate most certainly and unavoidably attends thee in particular Thou must die But thou knowest not that is men in health and common Circumstances generally know not How by what mean in what condition c. nor when nor where whether by a disease or by accident as we speak Whether in thy senses and with use of speech c. or not Whether to morrow or the next Day or next Week or Month or even this night may thy soul be required of thee Whether at home in thy bed or in the field c. 2. Death deprives thee of the enjoyment of all things and persons here No possible fruit to thee of any the least part of what thou hast after death 3. Is it not then much better and more becoming a reasonable being much more a wise discreet person as we would be thought to be to part with all considerately gravely willingly and in good order than by constraint in a hurry to be snatcht away with both Mind and Estate all in confusion 4. Thou art no whit the nearer Death when a wise creditable Religious disposal of all is made than before Only thou art readier for it let it come how and when God pleases A brief Meditation upon these reasonable Heads methinks should dispose a man to the practice of all the Directions delivered in the Body of the Chapter 3. As to point of Prayer the matter hereof will be to several persons different according to their different condition as to this world Yet I think men of all conditions rich and poor may agree in the following Particulars as too commonly pertinent and seasonable enough unto all sorts 1. By way of Confession setting forth and bewailing their adhesion to this world 2. By way of Petition beging of God a disentangled heart a mind content with such things as we have Heavenly affections true Christian contempt of this world c. But as to the differences of mens concerns in this Point By the result of the first Point of Enquiry above mentioned Particular persons will find themselves in different Conditions namely either Rich or Poor or in a midling condition And it is to be remembred here what has been above suggested we must estimate our selves Rich or Poor with Relation to our Degree or Rank An ordinary person that is worth five hundred Pound is truly richer than a Person of Quality or a Nobleman that dies worth five thousand perhaps fifty thousand Now in case upon such Enquiry or Examination as above we find our selves rich or considering our Quality not Poor but in good midling condition Here will be 1 Matter of further Enquiry or Examination whether this Estate was gotten by our own Industry or left us If the former have we got it justly in a fair industrious way of following our Vocation Or have we not opprest some particular Persons or Families to inrich our selves In such case 2 Here is Confession necessary in the first place at least to God Then pursuant to the second Direction in the Body of the Chapter must follow 3 A Resolution of being just and this cannot be in the present case without restitution to the injured person according to Direction the third In which behalf it will be necessary 4 To take Advice so that here there must be something of Confession to Man at least to a Friend or Spiritual Guide Which being done or for the present honestly resolved upon 5 Prayer and Supplication to God for pardon must succeed The sin and its aggravations are to be considered how long lived in Against what light what checks of Conscience And accordingly our Prayers must be more earnest and so in due method peace is to be made with God On the other side if the Body of the Estate we have were left us yet here again will be 1 Matter of Enquiry and Self-examination What Stewards we have been Have we encreased our Patrimony or been Prodigal Have we been the better for being so early provided for Have we more improved our Souls in Knowledge and in Vertue by means of the liberal fortunes left us by our Ancestors or of our liberal Education consequent to that and of leisure consequent to all Have we done good to our Poor Neighbours Relations c. And in case we have increased our Paternal Estate by what means did we so encrease it By just or unjust practices According to all those and possibly more differences which enquiry will suggest 2 Suitable Confessions and Supplications are to be addrest to God But admit all be found to be just or indeed whether it be or no it will still concern all rich persons in Prayer 1 To beg of God pardon for all unknown sins in way of inriching themselves or but of keeping and maintaining what they have for unknown sins all men have 2 To give Praise and Thansgiving to that Bountiful God whose blessing alone maketh rich and who has not taken vengeance on them to blast their Estates 3 To implore of God both Wisdom and Will to dispose of all so as may turn to his Glory and their own future accounts Again in the other case suppose we find our selves poor or which is little better incumbred Here will be fit matter of Self-Examination whether our Poverty and Incumbrances be our fault through some improvidence of our own or only our misery and inselicity If the former such sin or sins of ours which have occasioned our Poverty or Incumbrances are to be repented of according to the Directions given for repenting of other sins If the latter we are to consider No misery befalls man by chance Afflictions come not out of the dust but Lam. 3. 33. from the hand of God Nor does God afflict willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mero motu 〈◊〉 arbitrarily grieve the children of men There is certainly in thee some reason of this thy Poverty Search what it is Humble thy self for what thou conjecturest it to be and quietly submit thy self to his Wisdom and Will acknowledging thy self to hae deserved worse than thou