be found who are more foul but Death will pluck off their masks present them with a true glass in which all the spots and dirt and wrincles in the faces of their hearts and lives will be visible Men flatter them often but Death never flattered any It is observable that Haman the day that he died was called and named according to his desert the Adversary and Enemy is this wicked Haman Hest 7.6 Haman probably had many a Title given him before Some had stiled him Haman the Great Haman the Magnificent Haman the Prince Haman the Vertuous all before nick-named him but when he comes to dye t is Haman the Enemy t is wicked Haman then he is called by his proper name Since he was born he never heard his right name till now The Enemy and Adversary is this wicked Haman So it may be in thy life time thou art stiled Great or Gracious because in place higher then others but when Death comes those gaudy colours will be washt off and thou shalt hear Not the King of Heavens Favourite but his Fool when thou art nigh thy execution as he was it will be not the Worshipful but the Wicked Haman Satan will then play hardest upon thee with his biggest gâ—ns when his time is but little his rage is greatest This is his hour and the power of darkness As the Turkish Emperour when he hath blunted the edge of his Enemies weapons and wearied their arms with thousands of his ordinary Souldiers then falls on with his Janizaries the pride and power of his Kingdom When thou through pain of body and perplexity of mind art least able to resist then the Devil cometh with his fiercest assaults If on thy death-bed thou shouldst think of turning to God he hath a thousand ways to turn thee off from such thoughts When there is but one battel for a Kingdom what wounds and work what fighting and striving is there When the Devil who knoweth thee to be his own already hath but a few hours to wait on thee and then thou art his for ever be assured he will watch by thy sick bed night and day and if all the power and policy of hell can prevent it neither cordial shall benefit thy body nor counsel thy soul Will not this be a trying hour to thee when the cloath shall be drawn and thy bodily comforts all taken off the Table will not death search thee to the quick when those Theives in their frightful vizards all thy sins in that Night will break in upon thee As the Elders of Samaria said of Jehu when he sent to them to prepare and provide to fight with him Two Kings stood not before him and how shall we Adam and Angels could not stand before sin it laid them both low and how wilt thou Beleive it those that have been Lions in peace have carried themselves like Harts in this War Brutus whose blood seemed as warm and to rise to as great a degree of courage as any since the Roman Consuls yet when Furius came to cut his Throat he cryed out like a Child Heathen who saw nothing almost in Death save rottenness and corruption accompanying the body who lookt no farther then the Grave have esteemed Death the King of Terrors The Terrible of Terribles and have been frighted into a Feavor upon the sight of its forerunner But Death is not half so terrible to a moral Heathen as t will be to thee O wicked Christian thou knowest that thy Deaths-day is thy Dooms-day that the Ax of Death will cut the down as fuel for the unquenchable fire that as soon as thou art carried from the Earth thou art cast into Hell Thou presumest that thou shalt behave thy self like a man in the onset with this Enemy but I dare be the Prophet to foretel that thy courage will be less then a Womans in the issue for man man dost thou not know as Pilate said to Christ that Death hath power to kill thee as well as to release thee it can send thy body to the grave and thy soul to the place of endless misery and desperation Fifthly The misery of the unprepared Fifthly Dost thou not know the misery of every carnal man at death In thy life time thou doest the Devils work and when Death cometh he will pay thee thy wages sin at present is a Bee with honey in its mouth but then the sting in its Tail will appear and be felt now thou hast thy savoury Meat and sugered draughts but then cometh the reckoning Some tell us that sweet meats though pleasant to the taste are very heavy in the stomach Sure I am the sweet morsels of sin which now thou feedest so merrily on will then lye heavier then Lead on thy heart and be more bitter then Gall and Wormwood Thou mayst see now and then in this World through the floodgates some drops of wrath leaking in upon thy soul but when Death cometh the Flood-gates will be all puld up and then O then what a torrent of wrath will come pouring down upon thee Here thou sippest of the Cup of the Lords fury but then thou shalt drink the dregs thereof The pains which thou sufferest here are onely an earnest penny of thy eternal punishment It was a cruel mercy which Tamberlane shewed to three hundred Lepers in killing them to rid them out of their misery but Death will be altogether merciless and cruel to thee for it onely freeth thee from the Goal to carry thee to the Gallows t wil deliver thee from Whips but scourge the with Scorpions its little finger will be infinitely heavier then the loyns of this miserable life When God saith to Death concerning thee as Judas to the Jews concerning Christ take him and lead him away safely who can tell the mockings buffetings piercings scourgings the cursed painful and shameful eternal death which will ensue Suppose for thy souls sake in earnest as Turannius did in jest Componi se in lecto velut examinem a circum stante familia plaugi jussit Senec. de Brevit vitae cap. ult who would needs be laid in his bed as one who had breathed out his last and caused his whole family to bewayl his death that thou wert ascending up to thy Chamber whence thou shouldst never come down till carried on mens Shoulders betaking thy self to thy dying bed Thou lookest on thy body and beholdest deaths Harbinger Sickness preparing his way before him O how thy colour comes and goes at the sight of this Ax which the hand of death hath laid at the root of thy tree of life Like the Locust thou art ready before hand to dye at the sight of this Polypus Now thou art laid down on that bed whence thou shalt never rise more Thy next work is to seek for some shelter against this approaching storm thou lookest upward and seest that God full of fury whom thou didst many a time dare to his very face and
resolved since thou wouldst live without his counsels thou shalt dye without his comforts thou lookest downward and seest Satan who formerly was thy flatterer and seeming friend now thy tormentor and desperate Foe waiting like the Jaylor to drag thee to his own Den Thou lookest inward and conscience presents thee with a black Catalogue of thy bloody crimes and in the name of God whose Officer it is arresteth thee for them and chargeth thee to answer them at his dreadful Tribunal to which thou art even now going Thou lookest without thee among thy Friends and Relations and earthly comforts and seekest the living among the dead as the Angel said to the Woman living comforts amongst dead creatures but alas t is not there thy Wife and Children and Neighbours may weep with thee but cannot ease thee of one tear they may give thee occasion to call to mind thy sins but not abate the least of thy sorrows Miserable comforts are they all Physitians of no value I have read of one in Holland that being condemned for killing her Bastard when the Messenger was dragging her away to Execution looks pitifully on her Father a Person of quality then present and casts a doleful eye on her Mother Will ye not help me Where are your bowels Can ye find in your hearts to let your own Child be thus cruelly dealt with But alas they might not they could not help her Such truely is thy case thou lookest on thy right and left hand on thy Father or Mother or Husband or House or Land and dost as it were call for help but alass they cannot give thee any comfort in this groaning Hour in this thy dreadful conflict they may be about thy body as Ravens about a carkass to devour it to get something from thee but they cannot defend it Well now the Screech-owl of Death which all this while clawd about thy Windows is entered thy Chamber flyeth towards thy bed side the Messenger by this time is come to thee and sheweth thee the Warrant for thy speedy and immediate execution Now Now is the beginning of thy sorrows Live thou canst not and dye thou darest not fain wouldst thou be rid of thy pain but fearful least thou shouldst go to a worse place Thou dislikest thy dirty nasty dungeon but dost not like to exchange it for a Gibbet Thou choosest to stay but Death will not be denyed thou must go Thou sayst thou art not at leisure thou hast such worldly affairs of concernment to finish thou art not prepared thou hast the business of thy soul a work of infinite weight to begin as they for their farms so thou I pray thee have me excused thou begest on Week one Day nay one Hour Death will not wait one moment Death pulls thee as Benaiah did Job towards the place of thy eternal punishment thy soul clings about thy body as he about the Altar and still sings loath to depart Death like Solomons Officer renteth thee in peices by force and slayeth thee there Now thy soul standst quivering upon thy pale lips ready to take its flight to its everlasting home thou seest Divels looking and longing like so many ravening and roaring Lyons for thee their prey thy past sins trouble thee O how thou cursest thy pastimes and pleasures thy Companions and possessions which stole away thy time and affections and hindred thy preparation for such a dreadful hour thy future fufferings terrifie thee and Ah thinkest thou Whither am I going Where must my soul lodge this Night In what place with what persons must I dwell for ever Oh that I had provided for this before hand how many a time did God wish me Ministers perswade me Christ beseech me and Conscience warn me but fool that I was I rejected the intreaties of Christ stifled the convictions of conscience scorned the counsels of men set at nought the commands of God trample on Sabbaths and Sermons and seasons of grace as things of no worth and now my day is past my soul is lost Heavens Gate is shut and Wo and Alass it s too late The Blessed God in whose favour is life to whom I wicked wretch said Depart from me hath now fixt my doom to depart from him for ever O what unconceivable evil is there in the loss of so great a good ten thousand hells are included in my banishment from that Heaven The frightful and cruel Divels whom I defied in my words but deified in my heart and works whose lust were my laws and whose Wills were my warrant shall be my Masters Tyrants and Tormentors to all eternity My own spirit O that I could flee from my self is infinitely more greivous and painful then ever Sword was to any flesh what Wolf in the Breast what pangs of the Stone what pain of the Teeth what Cancer in the Bowels ever caused the thousandth part of that torture which the Worm in my conscience causeth but it is as impossible for me to avoid it as for the Wounded Deer to run from the Arrow that sticks in his side The fire burns me yet consumes me not gives heat to scorch me but no light to refresh me Here is blackness of darkness yet I can see the heart cutting frowns of an angry God and can see my self to be infinitely miserable I enjoy a long night but no rest I must always complain but have no releif here is crying without compassion all pain without the least pity sorrow without the smallest dram of solace or the least drop of succour If my misery were ever to end though after so many millions of Ages as all the men in the World could number my heart would have some hope but alas alas as it is intollerable so it is unchangeable as long as God is God I must fry in these flames all my tears shall not quench the least spark of this fire though I must weep for ever all this fire will not dry up the least tear though it will burn for ever O that I had never been O that I might never be What must I ever live and yet never live must I ever dye and yet never dye Consider this all ye that pass by is there any sorrow like unto our sorrows wherewith the Lord afflicteth us in the day of his fierce wrath for who can dwell in such everlasting burnings and who can abide such devouring flames O that the Mountains would fall on us and the Hills cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb because the day of his wrath is come and who can stand O what a dreadful Sunset of life will it be which brings such a dismal Night of eternal death O Friend think of this now how wilt thou do to dye If thou shouldst leave this life in the service of thy lusts thou art thus irrecoverably lost Thou art miserable beyond all expressions beyond all conceptions If Job because of some temporal
The red Sea of his blood is the onely way through which thou canst pass into Canaan Reader since there is a flood and vengeance and wrath upon the face of the World flie as the distressed Dove to this Ark of the Covenant see how Jesus Christ the true Noah a Preacher of righteousness puts forth his hand to take thee in He is the Son of David to whom souls that are in debt and in distress may flee and seemeth to speak to thee as David to Abiathar Abide thou with me fear not for they the World and Devil that seek thy life seek mine but with me thou shalt be in safe-guard 1 Sam. 22.2 and ult A change of nature requisite Secondly There must of necessity be a change of thy nature by Repentance or Death can never be thy passage into the undefiled inheritance The new man is the onely Citizen of the new Jerusalem T is bad venturing a voyage to the Happy Islands in an old leaking bottom In the Art of navigation it was a Law and formerly seriously observed that none should be a Master or Masters Mate that had not been first a Sculler and Rowed with Owers and from thence be promoted to the Stern None are fit to Raign with God who have not wrought for God Others are more unfit for it then a Carter for a Princes Court Men must be bound Apprentices on earth to that high and holy Trade of worshipping and glorifying the blessed God and know the Art and Mystery of it which the purblind eyes of nature cannot discern before they can set up for themselves and inrich themselves by it in Heaven Men that are wholly strangers to a Country and no whit acquainted with the Language and Carriage of the natives would find if in it but a solitary place He whose eyes are so bad that he cannot see God with the help of the spectacles of Ordinances will be much more unable to see him face to face Alas what would an earthly man do in Heaven Till thou art converted and hast a sense of thy sins and miseries thou art a Rebel in actual Arms against God If Death finds thee in such a condition God takes the Fort of thy Soul by storm with thy Weapons in thy hands and therefore thou canst expect nothing less then Death eternal without mercy There is no peace to be thought of with God whilst thou maintainest War against him The sinner instead of disarming armeth Death against himself The life of sin is the life of Death and enableth it to kill the soul Till thy nature be renewed thy heart is full of enmity against God and thy life nothing else but a walking contrary to him and therefore thou canst have no delight or joy in him which is the very Heaven of Heavens There must be conformity to him before there can be communion with him God and man must be agreed before they can walk or dwell together Except ye be converted ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God and again Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Mat. 18.3 John 3.3 Which negatives can in no wise and cannot enter speak not onely the impossibility of it on Gods part because he is fully resolved against it but also the incapacity on mans part because he is wholly unprepared for it Swine are not fit for a rubd Room or a presence Chamber As Timber must be laid out and shrunk before its fit for building otherwise t will warp So God humbleth and draweth out self-â—ap and self-indisposition before they become the Temple of the Holy Ghost That building which reacheth up to Heaven must have a low foundation They that would turn Pewter by Alchimy into Silver first dissolve the Pewter or otherwise their labour is in vain Thy heart must be melted by godly sorrow for sin and hatred of sin before thou canst be a vessel of Silver for thy Masters use the Angel troubled the Waters before they were healing John 5.4 Repent that your sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 Repentance and Remission are ever Twins T is observable that nature haâ—h made the roots of many trees bitter whose fruits are very sweet They that in life sow in tears at death shall reap in joy It is the wet seed-time that hath the sunshiny harvest God is reâ—â—â—â—d that all the sons of men shall feel sin 〈◊〉 in broken Bones on Earth or broken Backs in Hell When sin hath its deaths-wound before it will expire at death for though sin brought death into the body death will cast sin out of the body When grace is before budded and blossomed at death it will ripen into glory Holiness is the Raiment of Needle-work in which thou art to be brought to thy Lord and Husband Psa 45.14 but its necessary that like Abrahams Ram thou be perplexed in these Briars before by death thou art offered up as a peace-offering to God They are foolish who Dream of being carried to Heaven in a Feather-bed None but such as are weary of the work as a sick man of his bed and heavy laden with the weight of sin as a Porter can be of his burden shall enter into the everlasting rest Naturalists observe that the Egiptian Fig-Tree being put into the Water Pliny Nat. Hist Lib. 13. Cap. 7. presently sinketh to the bottom but being well soaked contrary to the nature of other Trees it boys it self up to the top Till thy mind is inlightned to see sins deformity thy will renewed to refuse it as thy only enemy and thy affections purified to grieve for it and loath it as it is contrary to the blessed God and thy own felicity till thy soul is soaked in these bitter waters never expect to be lifted up to the Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand This howling Wilderness is the onely way to Canaan The path to Sion lyeth by Sinai God powreth the Oyl of gladness into the broken Vessel Some Phylosophers tell us that Feeling is the foundation of natural life no feeling no life It s true I am sure in Divinity no feeling no sense of sin no spiritual no eternal life Impenitency like a Lethurgy is deadly is damning God doth qualifie all whom he intendeth to dignifie Saul is qualified by receiving another spirit then he had before to reign over men much more must they be qualified by receiving a new heart and a new spirit who are to reign with God The Sun never leapt from Mid-night to Mid-day but first sendeth forth some glimmerings of light in the dawning of the day then looketh upon us with some weak and waterish beams after that beholds us with open face and even then hath many Miles to run before he can arrive at his Meridian glory God never carried a soul from Hell to Heaven from a natural condition to the beautifical Vision but through the door or gate of conversion Reader to conclude this Use and sum up
Spear he counts thy strength but as Straw and thy youth but as rotten wood he maketh a leak in a strong new Vessel and it presently sinketh though thy body be never so strong a Fort Death to take it needeth not besiege or block it up with lingering diseases Maximum vivendi impedimentum est expectatio quae pendet excrastino Senec. de brevitat vita cap. 9. but can undermine it and blow it down in a moment Think therefore with thy self this day may be the last day that ever I shall see this hour may be the last hour that ever I shall spend these words may be the last words that ever I shall speak O what a fool am I to live thus contentedly without fear next door to the eternal fire there is but one step betwixt me and Hell and for ought I know the very next step that I take may be thither and then Wo and Alass I am gone for ever Surely this consideration like an Hectick Feaver might cause an irrecoverable Consumption of all thy carnal joy Death is called War Eccles 8.8 thou knowest not but orders may come from the Lord of Hosts for thy sudden march thou mayst not have an hours warning to put on thy Armour or prepare thy self Invasions are judged far more dangerous then pitcht Battels because those are sudden and usually take men unprovided I must tell thee that when ever Death cometh t will be dreadful and dangerous for continuing as thou art t will surprise thee unprepared and unable to make any resistance O how t wil tear thy soul like a Lyon renting it in peices whilst there is none to deliver it No Chapman comes amiss to him whose shop is ever furnished but every Enemy will foil him who goeth always unarmed and naked Death to a sinner is always sudden They go down quick into hell Job 21. Thirdly When Death comes too late to prepare Thirdly Dost thou not know that whensoever Death comes t will be too late to prepare for it The Ship must be Rigd in the Harbour t will be too late to do it in the main Ocean in a storm Probably enough though now thou canst spend thy days delightfully without Christ and grace yet when the Bridegroom cometh by Death thou wilt as the foolish Virgins talk of getting Oyl because thy lamps will be then gone out but alas then t will be too late onely such as are ready enter in with him I have read of a Woman in Cambridge who lying on her death bed was visited by persons of Worth and Piety and heard much Heavenly discourse from them but they could hear nothing from her save this Call time again Call time again But time runs swiftly and being once past is irrecoverable Time saith Bernard were a good commodity in Hell if it could be bought up at any rate Ah when thou comest to dye a Week a Day nay an Hour would be more worth to thee then all the World But t will be impossible to put off the Tryal which Death hath with thee for thy soul till another time till another Term. When Death calleth at leisure or not at leisure ready or unready willing or unwilling thou shalt not deny but must go the way whence thou shalt never return The Tide will not stay for the greatest Merchants goods they must be shipt before or left behind Death will not stay for any man to fraught his heart with grace he must do it before Death cometh or it can never be done If our spiritual change be not before our natural change we are miserable unchangeably Petronius speaks of one Eumolpus who in a desperate storm was composing Verses and when the Ship split upon a Rock and they called to him to shift for himself He Answered Let me alone till I have finisht one Verse which I perceive to be lame Death will not wait whilst thou finishest the most serious works It is said of Demetrius after that though he lived a slave all his life time yet when he lay on his death-bed he earnestly desired manumission that he might descend into his grave in freedom Reader I doubt not but though thou livest a slave to sin and Satan yet thou wouldst dye the Lords freeman but God himself tells thee that if thy life be in bondage to thy lusts when Death comes there is no getting thy liberty Eccles 9 10. Either now mind thy soul and ensure thy salvation or it can never be done there is no doing it in the place whither thou art going Life is Deaths seed time and Death is lifes Harvest Expect thy Crop both for quality and quantity answerable to thy seed which thou now sowest Cicero saith of Hercules that he had never been enrolled among the Gods in Heaven if he had not layd out his way thither whilst he lived Neither canst thou live with God hereafter unless thou livest to God here Friend think of it seriously Thy preparation for Death must be now or never Bees work hard in Summer flying over this and the other field sucking this and the other flower and all to lay in Provision against Winter at which time else they must starve no honey being then to be made The Shell Fish opens and takes in moysture whilst the tide floweth in upon them that they may be supplyed when the Waters ebbe And wilt thou like a Drone now sleep and then starve Let thy reason judge Is it a fit time to dress thy soul for the Marriage feast of the Lamb in the dark night of Death Or what canst thou think to do in that dismal hour conscience will tell thee thou hadst thy candle of life set up to have wrought by and that is burnt to the snuff whilst thy work is still undone The day is past thy soul is lost because thou unworthy wretch didst defer it till it was too late Wilt thou call to the Sun of thy life as Joshua did Stand still for one hour that I may be avenged of these fleshly Lusts which hinder me of the Heavenly Canaan Alas alass it will not hear thee it cannot obey thee for time shall be no more with thee thou art entering upon thy eternity Remember that thou art warned of it and do not as Cesar being warned by Artemidorus of a conspiracy to slay him suddenly Pocketed up the Paper and was very busie in saluting the People till at last he was slayn so trouble thy self with trifles as to complement away thy soul and salvation CHAP. VI. Three Motives more A Dying Hour will he a Trying Hour The misery of the unprepared The felicity of the prepared FOurthly Fourthly Dost thou not know that thy Dying Hour will be a Trying hour When Grapes come to the Press they come to the Proof The Marriners skill is seen in a storm The Souldiers courage is known when he comes to the Combat while he lyeth in Garrison he may boast much but then he fighteth onely
calamity cursed the day wherein he was born and the Messenger that brought tidings of his birth and desired to dye rather then to endure it whom wilt thou curse or rather whom wilt thou not curse when under the sense of eternal misery surely thou wilt seek for death but not find it dig for it but t will flee from thee Though Judas could make himself away out of the Hell he had on earth yet he cannot out of the Hell he hath in Hell When thou diest thou art stated by God himself and there is no appeal from this Judge nor reversing of his judgement It is the observation of the School-men that what befel the Angels when they sinned that befals every wicked man at Death the Angels upon the first act of sin were presently by God himself stated in an irrecoverable condition of misery so wicked men upon the last act of their lives are fixt as to their eternal woful estates It is appointed for all men once to dye and after Death the judgement Sixthly The felicity of the prepared Sixthly Dost thou know the felicity which upon thy death thou shouldst enter into if thou wert prepared for it As the Good House-wife looketh for Winter but feareth it not being prepared for it with double cloathing so thou mightest expect Death but not fear it being prepared for it with Armour of proof Syrens some write screech horribly when they dye but Swans sing then most sweetly Though sinners roar bitterly when they behold that Sea of scalding Lead in which they must Swim naked for ever yet thou shouldst like the Apostle desire to depart wish for that hour wherein thou should lose Anchor and sail to Christ Phil. 1.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solvere Anchorum A Metaphor from a Ship at Anchor importing a sailing from this present life to another Port So the Syriack Chrysostom Beza Erasmus and others take it as the word signifieth Thy dying day would be thy Wedding day as the Martyrs called theirs wherein the fairest of ten thousand and thy soul now contracted should be solemnly espoused together As frightful a Lyon as Death is to others that their souls are fain to be torn from their bodies thou mightest like a weary Child call to be lay'd to bed knowing that t wil send thee to thine everlasting happy rest Bene mori est libenter mori Seuec. Epist 61. If it be an happy Death to dye willingly as the Moralist affirmeth thou shouldst give up the Ghost and be a Voluntier in that War Nature teacheth that Death is the end of misery but grace would teach thee that Death would be the beginning of thy felicity it could not hurt thee Death among Saints drives but a poor Trade it may destroy the body and when that is done it hath done all its feats like a fierce Mastiff whose Teeth are broken out it may bark and tear thy tottered coat but cannot bite to the bone This Bee fastened her sting in Christs blessed body and is ever since a drone to his Members Though the wicked are gathered at Death as the Rabbins sense that place Gather not my soul with sinners let me not dye their deaths Psa 26.9 as sticks that lye on the ground for the fire or as Grapes for the winepress of Gods fury yet thou shouldst be gathered according to the Hebrew Isa 57.2 as Women do cordial flowers to candy and preserve them Nay Death would exceedingly help thee Plutarch saith that strong bodies can eat and concoct Serpents Thou mayst like Samson fetch meat out of this Eater and out of this strong Lyon sweetness Death ever since it walked to Mount Calvary is turned to beleivers into the gate of life Nihi non à diis im nortalibus vita erepta est sed mors donata est Cicer. lib. 3. de Orat. An Heathen could say Life is not taken away from me by the immortal Gods but Death is given to me meaning as an act of grace and favour Much more may a Christian esteem Death which puts an end to his trials and sins and troubles a priviledge rather then a punishment Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 When sickness first gives thee notice that death is at hand thou mightest make the servant welcome for bringing thee the good news of his approaching Master Thy heart may leap to think that though thou art like Peter now bound in the fetters of sin and Imprisoned amongst sinners yet the Angel is coming who will with one blow on thy side cause thy shackles to fall off open the Prison Doors and set thy soul into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When this Samuel is come to thy gate thou needest not as the Elders of Bethlehem tremble at his comming for if thou askest the Question Comest thou Peaceably He will Answer Yea Peaceably I am come to offer thee up a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour acceptable to God in Jesus Christ the pale face of death would please thee better then the greatest beauty on Earth When thou lyest on thy dying bed and Physitians had given over thy body Christ would visit and give thy soul such a Cordial that thou mightest walk in the valley of the shadow of Death and fear none ill How willingly mayst thou part with the militant Members of Christ for the Triumphant Saints How chearfully mayst thou leave thy nearest Relations for thy dearest Father and Elder Brother how comfortably mayst thou take thy leave of all the riches honours and pleasures of this life knowing that though Death cometh to others with a Voider to take away all their fleshly comforts and carnal contentments nay all their hopes and Happiness and Heaven and hereby when they break at death they are quite bankrupts for ever yet it is to thee onely a servant to remove the first course of more gross fare of which thou hast had thy fill and to make way for the second which consisteth of all sorts of dainties and delicates When thy soul was ready to bid thy body good night till the morning of the resurrection thou mightst joyfully commit thy body to the grave as a bed of spices and shouldst see glorious Angels waiting on thy soul and carrying it as Eliah in a Triumphant Chariot into Heavens blessed Court. There thou shouldst be saluted by the noble Host and celestial quire of Saints and Angels welcomed by the Holy Jesus and gracious God in the fruition of whom thou shouldst be perfectly happy for ever and ever If there were so much joy in Heaven at thy repentance when thou wert but set into the way what joy will there be when through so many hazards and hard-ships thou art come to thy journeys end Thus friend wert thou but prepared Death would be to thee a change from a prison to a Pallace from sorrows to solace from pain to pleasure from heaviness to happiness Thy Winding-sheet would
encouraged him to expect mercy from God He had not concealed nor shut up Gods faithfulness from men and therefore knew that God would not conceal his loving kindness from him But David on the other hand when night in his own thoughts drew near was as importunate to fit up longer God seemed to call him to bed but he begs hard O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more Psa 39. ult Now mark the reason of this petition David as t is generally conceived was now persecuted by Absolom the unnatural Son forced his Father to flie He in his suffering reads his own sin and Gods indignation and so dreads an appearance in the other World in such a condition He who when things were clear betwixt God and his soul could walk in the valley of the shadow of Death and fear none ill could even give Death a challenge now when things are cloudy and dubious runs back like a Coward He had lost the sense of Gods favour and therefore could not think of venturing into his presence without much fear The train of his corruptions threatned to wait on him to the highest Court and he durst not appear before the Lord with such company He had been declining in his grace under a sad distemper and as a weak consumptionate man he was affraid to travail so great a journey as the way whence he should never return The Tenant who wants his rent loves not to hear of the Quarter day Friend If thou wouldst leave the World chearfully live in the World conscienciously take heed of those fiends which will fright thee in the night of Death chuse suffering before sin and punish thy body to keep thy soul pure The Ermin some say will die before she will go into the Dirt to defile her beautiful skin and the Mouse of Armenia will rather be taken and slain then preserve and pollute her self in a filthy Hole As the white is always in the Archers eye so let thy Death be in thine that it may quicken thee to diligence and exactness in thy life Logicians who regard not the premises infer wilde conclusions so if thou art careless of thy conversation expect but an uncomfortable dissolution As when God looked on all his works and saw that they were good then followed his Sabbath of rest so when thou canst reflect upon the several passages of thy life and see that through Christ they are good and thou hast not been guilty of enormities though of infirmities after this thou wilt joyfully by Death enter into thy everlasting Sabbath Thy evidence will be clear if thy conscience be kept clean but the truth is many even amongst Christians wound their souls by venturing on sin and thence flinch and start back when they come to be searcht besides they neglect casting up their accounts so long that they know not whether they are worth any thing or nothing and so may well be unwilling to have their estates ransackt into If thou shouldst fall I would not sad any Saint take heed of lying there but be as speedy as is possible in calling to Christ to raise thee up If thy conscience be raw with the guilt of any sin a light affliction much more Death will make thee kick and fling and unwilling to bear it But when thy flesh is sound thy spirit healed by the blood of Christ Death it self will be but a light burden on thy back How merrily mayst thou though thou hast not a penny in thine own purse go the way of all the Earth travel into the other World when thou art sure of Christ in thy company who will bear thy charges all the way The second Means 2 Wean thy heart from the World Secondly Mortifie thy affections more to the World and all its comforts They who love the World most leave it worst Lots Wife lingered in Sodom so much and was so loth to depart because she loved it overmuch When boards lye close one upon another they are easily parted but when they are glewed one to another t will cost some trouble and pains If thy heart be loose to the World t will be a small matter to thee to leave it but if thou art fastened to it in thy affections t will not be done without much reluctancy and opposition The Wife who hath been so faithful to her Husband as to keep her heart wholly for him is ready always to open the Door to him when she that entertaineth other Lovers though her Husband knock at the Door dares not run presently to open it but first makes a shuffling and busling up and down to hide or get them out of the way The more thy affections are set on Christ thy true Husband the more the World is taken out of thee and so the more easily wilt thou be taken out of the World He who hath laid up his heart in Heaven will comfortably think of laying down his head in the Earth When the pins of the Watch are taken out which held it together how easily doth it fall in peices When thy affections from these things below are removed how quickly how quietly will thy soul and body fall asunder If the World be as loose to thee as thy Cloak thou canst put it off at pleasure but if it be as close to thee as thy skin they shall have somwhat to do who shall perswade thee to part with it We read of some unwilling to dye for they had treasure in the field Jer. 41.8 Where their treasure was their hearts were also Make it thy work therefore by considering the Worlds vanity and deceitfulness and by pondering Heavens glory and happiness to wean thy heart from sublunary things hereby thou wilt as willingly leave them as ever infant did those breasts which long ago t was weaned from The third Means 3. Familiarize the thoughts of Death Vse thy heart to the frequent thoughts of Death When Children are frighted at a Dog or a Cat we do not give way to their foolish fears but bring the brute to them and get them to touch and handle it and shew them that it is not such a frightful thing as they imagine and hereby in time they are so far from being frighted that they can play with it familiarly Dost thou dread this King of Terrors Death give not way to this fear but bring death up to thy spirit handle it feel it there is no such hurt in it as thou imaginest nothing which should terrifie thee hereby at last thou mayst come to play upon the hole of this Asp One ground I suppose why Job made no more of dying was because he was so well acquainted with Death Strangers are startled at many things in a place which they that are home-born and used to can delight in I have said to corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worms thou art my Brother and Sister Job 17.14 Job was as familiar with Death
what is the reason of all this but because nature must have its rest and delight from that only which is sutable to its own appetite and desire Hence it is that though God be so perfect a good yet he is not the happiness of evil Men or evil Angels for he is not sutable to their vitiated depraved natures The carnal mind which beareth sway in unregenerate men is enmity against God and Devils are as contrary to Gods nature as fire is to water Hence it is that spiritual men place and enjoy happiness in the Father of Spirits because he is the savoury meat which their souls love Though the sinner can live upon dregs as the swine on dung yet the Saint must have refined Spirits and nothing lesse then Angels food and delights It is an unquestionable truth that nothing can give true comfort to man but that which hath a relation and beareth a proportion to his highest and noblest part his immortal soul for his sensitive faculties were created in him to be subordinate and serviceable to their Master Reason therefore he is excelled in them by his inferiours as the Eagle in seeing and the Hound in scenting nature aiming at some more sublime and excellent design the perfection of the rational part in those lower particulars was lesse exact therefore the blessed God alone being a sutable Good to the heavenly spiritual soul of man can only satisfie it Philosophers tell us the reason of the irons cleaving to and resting in the load-stone is because the pores of both bodies are alike so there are effluxes and emanations that slide through them and unite them together One cause of the Saints love to and delight in God is his likeness to God Creatures are earthly the soul is heavenly they are corporeal the soul is spiritual therefore as when friends are contrary in disposition the soul cannot take up its rest and happiness in their fruition but God is sutable and therefore satisfying I am God All sufficient Gen. 17.1 Some derive the word Shaddai from Almighty Alsufficient from shad a dug for as the breast is sutable to the Babe nothing else will quiet it so is God to his Children A man that is hungry finds his stomack still craving something he wants without which he cannot be well Give him musick company pictures houses honours yet there follows no satisfaction these are not sutable to his appetite still his stomack craves but set before this man some wholesome food and let him eat his craving is over They did eat and were filled O miserabilis hâ—mâ—a cordâ—â— sine Châ—isto Oâ—nâ—um omne â—uod viviâ— â—lâ—â—e om Epit. Nep. Tim 1. p. â—5 Neh. 9.25 So it is with mans soul as with his body the soul is full of cravings and longings spending it self in sallies out after its proper food give it the credit and profits and pleasures of the world and they cannot abate its desire it craves still for these do not answer the souls nature and therefore cannot answer its necessity but once set God before it and it feeding on him it is satisfied it s very inordinate dogged appetite after the world is now cured He tasting this Manna tramples on the Onions of Egypt He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again but he that drinketh of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst John 4. CHAP. XII God the Saints happiness because of his Eternity and the Saints propriety in him GOD is a permanent good That which makes a man happy must be immortal like himself as man is rational so he is a provident creature desirous to lay up for hereafter and this forecast reacheth beyond the fools in the Gospel for many years even for millions of ages for ever by laying hold on eternal life He naturally desires an immortality of being whence that inclination in creatures say Philosophers of propagating their kind and therefore an eternity of blessedness The soul can enjoy no perfection of happiness if it be not commensurate to its own duration For the greater our joy is in the fruition of any good the greater our grief in its amission Eternity is one of the fairest flowers in the glorified Saints garland of honour It s an eternal weight of glory 2. Cor. 4.17 Were the triumphant spirits ever to put off their Crown of life the very thought thereof would be death and like leaven would sower the whole lump of their comforts The perpetuity of their state adds infinitely to their pleasure We shall ever be with the Lord. 2. Thes 4.16 Here they have many a sweet bait but there God will be their standing-dish never off the Heavenly Table The creature cannot make man happy Laâ—itia saeculi cum ma na expect â—oâ—e speratâ—r ut veniniâ—t â—oâ—â—â—test tenâ—râ— câ—nvenit Aug. tract 7 in Job because as it is not able to fill him so it is not fast to him like the Moon in the increase it may shine a little the former part of the night but is down before morning Man is not sure to hold them whilst he liveth How often is the candle of outward comforts blown out by a suddain blast of providence Many as Naomi go out full but come home empty some disaster or other as a Theif meets them by the way and robs them of their deified treasure The Vessel in which all of some mens wealth is embarqued while it spreadeth fair with its proud Sails and danceth along upon the surging waters when the Factor in it is pleasing himself with the kind salutes he shall receive from his Merchant for making so profitable a Voyage is in an instant swallowed up of unseen quick-sands and delivereth its Fraught at another Port and to an unknown Master Those whose morning hath been sunshiny and clear have met with such showres before night as have washed away their wealth However if these comforts continue all day at the night of death as false lovers serve men in extremity they leave us the knife of death which stobs the sinner to the heart Le ts out the blood and spirits of all his joyes and happiness But God is the true happiness of the soul because he is an eternal good As this Sun hath no mists so it nevey sets so that the rest of the Soul in God is an eternal Sabbath like the new Jerusalem it knoweth no night Outward mercies in which most place their felicity are like land floods which swell high and make a great noise but are quickly in again when the blessed God like the Spring-head runeth over and runneth ever Fourthly Because of the Saints propriety in this God though God be never so perfect suitable sure a good Yet it s litle Comfort to them that have no interest in him Another mans health will not make me happy when sick What Happinesse hath a begger in the shady walkes pleasant garden stately buildings curious roomes costly furniture and precious jewels of
are ever Hooded within doors Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit Cypr. de mortal blind at Home and never use their eyes but Abroad to the hurt and censuring of others The Egyptian slaves drank Wine freely and wrapt their heads in Vails that they might dye without sight or sorrow I know many drown the thoughts of their future mourning in carnal pleasure and present mirth but such mirth like Nabals will last no longer then while they are drunk with ignorance and senslesness for they no sooner come to themselves to understand the state they are in but their hearts dye within them Besides hereby they put themselves upon a necessity of perishing for alas how will they do to dye who consider not before hand of their latter end Naturalists tell us of a Cockatrice that if men see it first that dyeth if that seeth a man first the man dyeth It s most true of Death if we see it first by an holy preparation for it we kill it it cannot hurt us but if Death see and seise us first it kills us eternally O believe it sirs It s another manner of thing to dye well then the sleepy World dreams of The lustiest of you all must expect that ere long Death will trip up your heels and give you a fall Ask your souls whither you are ready for it Will it not prove your downfal When Death throweth you will it not be your eternal overthrow It s possible ye think of preparing for Death hereafter but why not now Do any of you say To morrow I will repent What if God say Thou Fool this Night thy soul shall be required of thee Where are you then It s one of the greatest stratagems of the Devil whereby he hath undermined millions of souls by prevailing with them to delay till it was too late O Consider Death like Thunder and Lightning blasteth the green corn and consumeth the strongest buildings Job 21.23 24. One dyeth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet His breasts are full of Milk and his bones are moistened with Marrow The Cock in the Arabick Fable having overcome another Cock in a Battel thought now that he had no Enemy Vide. Locmu and therefore got to the top of an House and began to crow and clap his Wings in token of Triumph When behold on a sudden a Vulture cometh and snatcheth away this braging Champion and Conquerour If nature in any of you have mastered one distemper it gives you not leave to be secure for an outward accident or inward disease will on a sudden Master you It is observable in the days of Solomon when Israel enjoyed the greatest peace they made strong preparation for War 1 Kings 4.25 26. And Israel and Judah dwelt every man under his own Vine and Fig-tree And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of Horses for his Chariots and twelve thousand Horsemen Iphicrates the Athenian General in times of peace entrencht his Army ordered his outworks set his watch kept his guards and observed all Martial Discipline as if he had been in the height and heat of War And being asked the reason by one of his Familiars and what he feared He answered to be surprised and least it should so fall out that he should be constrained to say I thought not on it O that we were as wise who are Listed under the Captain of our Salvation for that War wherein there is no discharge Beloved friends Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh Mat. 25.13 The Brachmanni had their Graves before their doors The Sybarites at Banquets had a Deaths-head delivered from hand to hand by every guest at the Table The Emperour Ferdinand had one appointed at certain times to salute him with Vive memor Lethi Ferdinand O Ferdinand live as one that is mindful he must dye Joseph of Arimathea had his Tomb in his Garden When the blessed Saviour was in his glorious transfiguration in Company with those heavenly Courtiers Luk. 9.31 they spake to him of his decease Could you think but one quarter of an hour every day what a searching trying day the day of Death will be Ah how holy would you live how exactly would you walk Were death at your doors at your tables in your gardens in your shops present before your eyes in all your projects and pleasures how would it deaden your hearts to these sublunary vanities and quicken your affections to celestial felicities I have read of one that prayed six times a day and being asked the reason said no more but this I must dye If any argument in the World will disswade from wickedness and perswade to godliness and abounding in the work of the Lord Death will They who steer the ship aright sit in the hindermost part of it They who order their conversations aright dwell in the thoughts of their dissolutions When our time is short we must work the harder It s reported of the Birds of Norwey O Laus Mag. Hist Septentrion that they flye faster then the Birds of other Countries not because they have greater nimbleness of wing but by a natural instinct they knowing the day in their Climate to be very short not above three hours long say some make the more hast to their Nests Your time is little your accounts will be great your work must be done now or never O work the work of him that sent you into the World while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 I am bound to tell you that God hath committed many Talents into the hands of several amongst you ye are higher in place and power ye have more opportunities then others to serve the interest and honour of Christ and therefore God expecteth that you should do more for him then others Indulge the Drunkenness and Swearing and uncleanness and Sabbath breaking of others least ye should be counted busie-bodies or precise persons and you destroy both your own and their souls There is no such cruelty to mens souls as clemency to their sins He loves his friend best who hates his lusts most Besides the wrong your sinful compliance doth to others whilst ye bear the Sword as Women wear their Artificial teeth for shew onely not for service ye treasure up wrath on your own heads against the day of death for as a reverend Divine now with God said truly Nothing more sads the heart when one comes to die then his neglect of those opportunities which Gods providence or his own place have put into his hand of doing or receiving good Neither is there a sharper Corrosive then the reflection upon those days and times which have passed over him male aliud nihil agentem It s Cronicled of Philip the third King of Spain that though he never committed gross sin Val. Max. all his life time yet when he came to
the end of this City will be the same with all her Predecessors What he spake of places is as true of persons though men may admire them for a while yet the stateliest and most curious buildings of their bodies will fall to the ground as their Ancestors have done before them Job 3.15 This storm will beat on the Princes Court as much as on the Peasants Cottage What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah Psal 89.48 The interrogation is a strong negation The Prophet challengeth the whole World to find out a person that can procure a protection against Deaths Arrest The Psalmist was gracious yet grace gave way to nature death will like hail and rain fall on the best gardens as well as the wide wilderness The Wheat is cut down and carried into the Barn as well as the Tares A godly man is free from the sting but not from the stroke from the curse but not from the Cross of death Holy Hezekiah could beg his own life for a few years but could not compound for his death he did obtain a reprieve for fifteen years but not a pardon the best fruit will perish because it is wormeaten The gold and the dross the good and the bad go both into this fire the former to be refined the latter to be consumed The whole World is a charnel house and the several inhabitants thereof so many walking carcasses The voice said Cry and he said what shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass Isa 40.6.7 The words speaks mans mortality He is grass withering grass a flower a fading flower Secondly Its certainty the voice said cry The Prophet had a charge in a Vision given him to proclaim so much from God to his people surely the people is grass Thirdly the Vniversality the flesh of Kings and Counsellors the flesh of Saints and Martyrs the flesh of high and low rich and poor All flesh is grass Man is sometimes compared to the flower for its beauty but here for its frailty a flower will quickly fade if it be not cut down by an instrument of Iron nor cropt by the hand yet the gentle breath of Wind quickly bloweth off its beauty Besides an Expositer observeth t is to the flower of the field not of the garden flowers of the garden have more shelter and are better lookt to then flowers of the field these are more open to hard weather and more liable to be pluckt up or trod down Naturalists tell us of a Flower called Ephemeron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. ad Apol. because it lasteth but a day Man is such a Flower his life is but a day whither longer or shorter a Summers or a Winters day how quickly do the shadows of the Evening stretch themselves upon him and make it night with him Pliny speaks of a Golden Vine which never withereth The bodies of Saints shall be such hereafter but at present the best Hearbs wither as well as the worst Weeds Neither the Dignity of a Prince nor the Piety of a Prophet can excuse from enrting the List with this Enemy Against this Arrest there is no Bail CHAP. III. The Reasons of the Doctrine Mans Corruptibility Gods fidelity and Mans Apostacy from God Reasons of the Doctrine I Shall onely lay down in the explication of the point two or three Reasons and then proceed to that which will be practical 1 Man corruptibility The first ground of the Doctrine is the corruptibility of mans body It s called in Scripture an house of clay Job 4.18 and an earthly Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 The body of man at best is but a clod of clay curiously moulded and made up The Greek Proverb hath a truth in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is but an earthen Vessel Some indeed are more painted then others in regard of dignity and place others are stronger Vessels then the rest in regard of purity of constitution Profecto omni moda vanitas Iun but all are earthen Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Psa 39. All Adam is all Abel Man nay every man when most high in regard of his hopes and most firm in regard of his foundation is even then the next door to and but one remove from corruption What the great Apostle said in a proper every one may say in a common sense I die daily We carry our bane every moment about us The very food which preserveth our lives leaves that be hind it which will force our deaths It s holden for certain saith one that in two Years space The Netherland cure there are in the body of man as many ill humours ingendred as a Vessel of a hundred ounces will contain Ipsa suis augmentis vita ad detrimenta impellitur inde deficit unde proficere creditur Greg. Against some these enemies appear in the open field often skirmishing with them but against all others they lye in ambush and wait for an opportunity to fall on and destroy them In the best timbered body they are but like fire raked under the ashes and reserved to another day when they will flame out and burn it down We are all like the Apples of Sodom quae contacta cinerescunt Tertul. Apol. cap. 40. which being touched crumble into dust or as the Spawn of Locusts which being handled dissolveth Arist Hist Animal according to the Philosopher God needs not bring out his great Artillery to batter down the building of mans body a small touch will tumble it down nay it s every moment decaying and will at last fall of it self There is rottenness at the core of the fairest fruits Our flesh is no match for the Father of spirits An ordinary Besome will sweep down the Spiders Web. Though it hath accurate weavings and much curiosity yet it hath nostability As it was with the Gourd of Jonah so it is with the Children of men we breed and feed those Worms which will devour and destroy us Every Mans passing Bell hangs in his own Steeple The second Reason is Gods fidelity 2 Reas Gods fidelity The righteous and gracious God hath threatned eternal pains to the wicked as the wages of their sins and hath promised endless pleasures to the godly as the reward of Christs sufferings now the place of payment where these threatnings and promises shall be accomplished is the other world to which death is the passage Man dieth that Gods Word may live and falleth to the earth that Gods Truth might stand Sin though it be finite in regard of the subject as being the act of a limited creature In peccaeto duo sunt Quo cum unum est aversio ab immutabili bono quod
est infinitum unde ex hac parte peccatum est infinitum Aliud quod est in peccato est inordinata conversio ad immutabile bonum ex hac parte peccatum est finitum Ex parte aversionis respondet peccato poena damni quae enim est infinita Est enim a missio infiniti boni scilicet Dei En parte conversionis respondet poena sâ—nsus Aquin. 1 2 quest 87. Act 4. yet it s infinite in regard of the Object as being committed against a boundless Creator therefore it s punished with the absence of all good which is an infinite loss and the presence of all evill which is infinite in duration though not in intension because of the incapability of the sinner The infernal pit is the place of those punishments into which by the ladder of death men descend Matth. 7.23 and 25.41 Mark 9.49 Death is but the sinners trap door into Hell The English capital malefactors when cast are carried into a Dungeon and from thence to the Gallows Ungodly men being cast by the Law of God and not suing out their pardon from the Gospel which is an office set up for that purpose do go through the Dungeon of death to the place of their dreadful and everlasting execution God hath also engaged to bestow on the members of Christ an incomparable and unchangeable Crown It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom but Death is the young Prophet that anointeth them to it and giveth them actual possession of it They must put off their rags of mortality that they may put on their robes of glory It is in the night of Death that Saints go to their blessed and eternal rest The corn must first die before it can spring up fresh and green Israel must die in Egypt before he can be carried into Canaan There is no entrance into Paradise but under the flaming sword of this Angel Death that standeth at the gate The soul must be delivered out of the prison of the body that it may enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of God This bird of Paradise will never sing merrily nor warble out the praises of its Maker in a perfect manner till it be freeed from this cage The sinner dieth that according to Gods word he might receive the bitter fruits of his evil ways Death is to him as the gate through which condemned and piacular persons pass to their deserved destruction The Saint dieth that according to Gods promise he may enjoy the purchased possession Death to him is as the dirty lane through which Chrysostom passed to a feast a dark short way through which he goeth to the marriage Supper of the Lamb. His body is mortal that his sins and sufferings might not be immortal The third Ground of the point 3 Reas Mans apostacy from God may be Mans apostacy from God Death broke in upon man by reason of mans breaking the commands of God We had never fallen to dust if we had not fallen from our duties Sickness had never seised on our bodies if sin had not first seized on our souls Mors est conditio naturae non peccati argumentum vel poena Son Suas 7. The Pelagians and Socinians say That death is not a consequent of sin but a condition of nature The blasphemous Jews tell us that Adam and his posterity were therefore condemned to dye because there was one to come out of his loyns who would make himself a God meaning Christ but the God of truth hath resolved the genealogy of death into another cause even the first Adams aspiring to be like God and ambition to cut off the entail and hold onely from himself Gen. 3.15 Rom. 5.12 As a Lethargy in the head diffuseth universal malignity through the whole body and thereby corrupteth and destroyeth it Ideo factum est par peccatum non mortale quod erat sed mortuum quod non fieret nisi peccaret Lâ—mb Sent lib 2. dist 19. The apple which Adam did eat was poisoned which entred into his bowels and being the venome of it is transmitted all along like Gehazi's leprosie to his seed Some tell us that he would often turn his face toward the Garden of Eden and weep reflecting upon what he had done Sure I am it was not without cause for we all got the infection from him and by him it is that the whole world is tainted and turned into a pest-house Whatsoever delight he had in the act there was death in the end Vide Vossium Disputat Theol de peccat pr hom quaest 3. p 43. It seemeth unquestionable that man in his estate of innocency had a conditional though not an absolute immortality T is true he was mortal ratione corporis being a compound of corruptible Elements but immortal ratione foederis being free from the Law of death by vertue of the covenant As before he fell he had a posse non peccare a possibility not to have sinned but since a non posse non peccare a necessity of sinning So in his estate of purity he had a possibility of not dying but in his estate of Apostacy a necessity of it If he had stood he should like Enoch have been translated that he should not see death he should have entred into his Fathers house but not have walkt thither through the dark entry of death Psa 90.7 Rom. 8. The flesh faileth us because sin hath defiled it Mans flesh at first was fly-blown with pride and is ever since liable to putrefaction Sin is therefore called a body of death because it causeth the death of the body When one asked who set up the stately Edifices in Rome it was answered The sins of Germany meaning the money which the Popes Agents received for Pardons granted to the Germans If it be demanded Who pulleth down the goodly building of mans body it may be answered The sins of man It is sin which turneth such costly curious houses into confused ruinous heaps Draco the Lawgiver appointed death the punishment of every offence for which cause his Laws are said to be written in blood and being demanded the reason he gave this answer that though when crimes were unequal he seemed to be unjust in making all equal in punishment yet herein his justice appeared that the least breach of the Law deserved death The light of Nature taught them that those that sin are worthy to die Rom. 1.32 The estate of all sinners lyeth in the valley of the shadow of death Wheresoever sin hath but a finger death will have a hand Sin though never committed but onely imputed did put to death the very Lord of life It is like that wilde Caprificus which if it get but rooting though in the substance of a stone in the wall it will break it asunder CHAP. IIII. First Vse discovering the folly of them that mind the flesh chiefly First Use of Information The folly of them that
thy immortal soul against the coming of the bride-groom When thou diest thou throwest thy last cast for thine everlasting estate thou shalt never be allowed a second throw An Error in death is like an Error in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second Where thou lodgest that Night thou dyest thou art hous'd for ever That work which is of such infinite weight and can be done but once had need to be done well God hath given thee but one Arrow to hit the mark with Shoot that at randome and he will never put another into thy Quiver God will allow no second Edition to correct the Erratas of the first therefore it concerns thee with all imaginable seriousness to consider what thou doest when thou diest One would think thou shouldst take little comfort in any creature whilst thy eternal state is thus in danger Augustus wondered at the Roman Citizen that he could sleep quietly when he had a great burden of debt upon him What rest canst thou have what delight in any thing thou enjoyest who owest such vast sums to the Infinite Justice of God when he is resolved to have full satisfaction either in this or the other world When David offered Barzillai the pleasures and preferments of his own royal Palace he refused them because he was to die within a while How long have I to live that I should go up with the King unto Jerusalem Let thy servant turn back that I may dye 2 Sam. 19.34 35 36. i. e. Court me no courts I have one foot in the grave my glass is almost run let me go home and dye Without controversie thou hast more cause to wink on these withering comforts and to betake thy self wholly to a diligent preparation for death The Thebans made a law That no man should build a house before he had made his grave Every part of thy life may mind thee of thy death Mortibus vivimus Senec. The Moralist speaks true Thou livest by deaths thy food is the dead carkasses of birds or fish or beasts thy finest rayment is the worms grave before t is thy garment Look to the Heavens the Sun riseth and setteth so that life which now shineth pleasantly on thee will set how much doth it behove thee to work the work of him that sent thee into the world while day lasteth that thou mayst not set in a cloud which will certainly prognosticate thy foul weather in the other world Look down to the Earth there thou beholdest thy mother out of whose womb thou didst at first come and in whose bowels thou shalt ere long be laid The dust and graves of others cry aloud to thee as Gideon to his Souldiers Look on us and do likewise O trim thy soul against that time If thou risest up and walkest abroad in the streets thou seest this house and that seat where such a woman such a man dwelt and lo the place which knew them shall know them no more they are gone and have carried nothing with them but their godliness or ungodliness If thou liest down thy sleep is the image of death thou knowest not whether thou shalt awake in a bed of feathers or in a bed of flames but art certain that shortly thy body shall lye down in the grave and there remain till the resurrection Look on thy companions thou mayst see death siting on their countenances its creeping on them in the deafness of their ears in the dimness of their eys nay it s posting towards them in the very heighth and Zenith of their natural perfections Look on thy own house of clay death possibly looks out at thy windows however it looks in at thy windows thou wearest it in thy face thou bearest it in thy bones and doth it not behove thee to prepare for it Naturalists tell us that smelling of earth is very wholesom for consumptionate bodies O Reader a serious thought of thy death that thou art but dust would be very wholsom for thy declining and decaying soul Hard bones steept in vinegar and ashes grow so soft that they may be cut with a thread Give me leave for one half hour to steep thy hard heart in such a mixture possibly it may be so softned through the operation of the Spirit with the Word Drexel Eternit that thou mayst become wise unto salvation It s reported of one Guerricus that hearing these words read in the Church And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years and he died And all the days of Enos was nine hundred and five years and he died And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty nine years and he died Gen. 5.5 He was so strongly wrought upon by those words And he died And he died that he gave himself wholly to devotion Friend if thou hast any dram of true love to thy soul and its unchangeable condition in the other world the consideration of death would make a deep impression upon thee But that I may awaken and rouse thee while there is time and hope and then help and heal thee I shall in the prosecution of this Exhortation First Speak to somewhat that may be perswasive Secondly Offer to thee somewhat that is Directive First I shall offer thee some thoughts which may quicken thee to a diligent provision for this time Motives 1 Death will come certainly First Dost thou not know that Death will come certainly As the young Prophet said to Elisha Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy Master from thy head to day 2 Kings 2.3 Reader Dost thou know that the Lord will take thy soul out of thy body and send it to the unknown regions of the other World where thou shalt see such things as thou never sawest hear such things as thou never heardst and understand such things as thou didst never understand Possibly thou wilt answer me as Elisha them I know it hold your peace But truly I am ready to urge it again being assured that thy knowledge is as Cicero speaks of the Athenians like artificial teeth for shew onely thou dost not yet know it for thy good Therefore give me leave to inforce it still Dost thou know that God will bring thee to death and to the house appointed for all the living Dost thou know that thy ruddy countenance will wax pale thy sparkling eyes look gastly thy warm blood cool in thy veins thy marrow dry up in thy bones thy skin shrivel thy sinews shrink nay thy very heart strings crack And hast thou provided never a cordial against this hour Dost thou not read in the writings of God himself That no man hath power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war Eccles 8.8 No man hath power either to resist deaths force or to procure termes of peace The greatest Emperor with the strength of all his
2 Sam. 23.5 Mark how the pious King draws all the Wine which made his heart glad in one of his last hours from this Pipe Death is one of the sowrest things in the World and such things require much sugar to make them sweet David found so much honey in the Covenant that therewith he made Death it self a pleasant a desireable Dish If you observe the beginning of the Chapter you will find that his end was near Now these be the last words of David But this this was the quiet and ease of his heart that Gods Covenant with him was everlasting and without end As Death is famous for its terror being King thereof so also for his power it brings down the mighty Princes and Potentates of the Earth Cant. 8.6 Samson was but a Child in Deaths hands hence we read when Scripture would draw strength in its full proportion and length As strong as Death but as strong as Death is David knew it could not break in sunder the Covenant between God and him nor dissolve the union betwixt his Saviour and his soul The firmness of this Covenant being sure footing for faith to stand on is that which puts life into a dying Christian As Death though it parted the soul and body of Christ parted neither of them from the divine nature they were as a Sword drawn by a man the Sword is in one hand separated from the Sheath in the other hand but neither of them separated from the man so though Death break the natural union between the beleivers soul and body it cannot break the mystical union between Jesus Christ and the soul therefore Saints are said to sleep in Jesus 1 Thes 4.14 And truely by the vertue of this Cordial this Covenant they are so far from flying back at the sight of their Foe Death that they can look him in the face with courage and confidence See how they triumph over him as if he were already under their feet O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 58. The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Hark they speak as Challengers daring their disarmed enemy to meet them in the field and they speak as Conquerors being assured through the Captain of their salvation of the victory before they fight Epiphanius faith Epiph. lib. 1. cap 33. that Adam was buried in Calvary where Christ was crucified Sure it is that Christ at Calvary did somewhat which made the Christians bed soft and easie that whereas it would have been a bed of Thorns he turned it into a bed of down and thereby the beleiver comes to lye on it so contentedly and to sleep so sweetly and comfortably By this time Reader I hope thou understandest the necessity and benefit of this relative change With this Covenant thou art armed Cap a pe with armour of proof with the righteousness of Christ which is law proof death proof and judgement proof and leavest Death wholly disarmed and naked Without this thou hast no Weapons and findest Death a man of War In the forequoted place thou seest that sin is the sting of Death and the strength of sin is the Law The Law binds the soul over for disobedience to its precept to its malediction and punishment passeth a sentence of condemnation already upon the creature and beginneth its execution in that bondage and fear as flashes of the unquenchable fire which seize on men in this life Rom. 7.6 John 3.18 Heb. 2.14 And as sin hath its strength from the law the law making it so powerful to curse and condemn so Death hath its strength and sting its venome and vertue to kill and damn to destroy soul and body for ever from sin Sin makes Death so deadly that its the poyson in the cup which makes it so mortal and loathsom a draught Thy work and wisdom therefore is as the Philistinos when they heard that the great strength of Samson the destroyer of their Country lay in his hair were restless till they had cut it off and became weak so now thou hearest wherein the strength of Death the great destroyer and damner of souls consisteth to be unquiet night and day to follow God up and down with sighs and sobs strong cries and deep groans for pardon of sin and to give thy self no rest till thou attainest an interest in this Covenant through Jesus Christ Pious Job though not in thy case was for this cause exceeding importunate for a sense of this pardon And why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my trasgressions for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning and I shall not be Job 7. ult He cryeth out as one fallen into a deep dirty ditch or one whose house is fired Water Water for the Lords sake to clease this defiled soul and to quench this scorched conscience Lord Why doth the messenger who useth to come post to me a poor condemned Prisoner with a pardon lingring so long Alas I wish he may not come too late But what is the reason of this importunity for expedition Why Job in his own thoughts was going to appear before his Judge and he durst not venture without a pardon in his hand for now shall I sleep in the dust The child did not dare to go to bed at night till he had asked his Father Blessing and begd and obtained forgiveness of his disobedience in the day Nothing in the whole creation can pacifie the conscience awakened with the guilt of sin and frighted with the fear of death but a pardon in the blood of this Covenant for want of this it was that the Heathen were either desperate or doubtfull in their deaths and their Orator ingeniously confesseth that notwithstanding all the Medicines they could gather out of their own Gardens the Disease was still too strong for the Remedy But a plaister spread with the blood of Christ and applied by faith to the sore is a soveraign and certain cure Faith in Christ is such a Shield that under its protection a Christian may stand in the evil day of Death keep his ground and secure himself from all the shot which the Law Satan or conscience can make against him I am the resurrection and the life He that liveth and beleiveth in me shall live though he dye Joh. 11. Willet Hexapl. in Levit. c. 11. The Death of the King of Saints is the onely comfort and help against Death the King of Terrors It s a strange property which some report of the Charadrion that if any man have the jaundise and look on the bird and the bird on him the bird catcheth the disease and dieth of it but the man recovereth Christ took mans disease and dyed that all who look on him with an eye of Faith might recover and live
his creature between whom and him there is an infinite distance and disproportion nay not with the Noblest House among those creatures not with Angels those heavenly Courtiers He is their Head not their Husband though by matching with them he had matched somewhat more like himself but with sinful polluted Dust and Ashes That our spiritual souls should be joyned to our earthly bodies is much yet here is some proportion both are limited created beings but that God should marry with Man is infinitely more It s said of the King of Babylon that he lifted up the head of Jehojachin out of Prison and spake kindly to him and changed his Prison Garments and set his Throne above the Throne of the Kings that were with him 2 Kings ult cap. 27 28 29. Man was a poor Prisoner bound and fettered with his own corruptions kept up close by the Devil his Jaylor and condemned to suffer the pains of eternal death but loe the Philanthropy and kindness of God he sendeth his onely Son to open the Prison Doors having first satisfied the Law for the breach of which they were cast in and removed its curse which was as a Pad-Lock on the Prison Gate to to keep it fast set the poor captives at liberty change their nasty Prison weeds and to exalt their nature above the nature of glorious Angels by marrying it to himself Canst thou find in thy heart Friend to abuse such Matchless Grace and Favour Is not that begger mad that should refuse the real offers of a Match from a Gracious Emperour Shall Majesty thus stoop to Misery in vain I must tell thee its infinite abasement in God thus to make suit to thee but it s the highest preferment thou art capable of nay such as it had been blasphemy to have desired it had not God offered it to close with him I come now to the Articles of this Marriage which truely are no more then thou requirest of thy own wife if thou hast any and therefore thou canst not but think them reasonable I shall propound them to thee in these two Questions First Art thou heartily willing to take Jesus Christ for thy Saviour and Soveraign Canst thou love him with the hottest superlative love as thy Husband Its one thing to love a man as a Friend and another thing to love him as thy Husband canst thou give him the keys of thy heart and keep thy affections as a fountain sealed up from others and opened onely for him and in subordination to him Wilt thou honour him with the highest honour as thy Lord submitting to his spirit as thy guide and to his laws as thy rule Is thy soul so ravished with the beauty of his person the excellency of his promises and the equity of his precepts that thou darest promise through his strength to be a loving faithful and obedient wife Have the hot beams of that love which have been darted forth from this Sun of Righteousness as the rays of the Sun united in a glass turned thee into a flame that thy heart is now ascending and mounting to Heaven where thy Beloved is and thou canst no more live without him then thy body without thy soul Art thou willing to be sanctified by his spirit that thou mightest be prepared for his bosome and embraces and to be saved alone by his merits as the onely procuring cause of all thy hopes and happiness Wilt thou take him for better and for worse for richer and for poorer with his cup of affliction as well as his cup of consolation with his shameful Cross as well as his glorious Crown chosing rather to suffer with him then to reign without him to dye for him then to live from him Such as marry thou knowest must expect trouble in the flesh Christianity like the Wind Caecias doth ever draw clouds and afflictions after it but thy future glory and pleasure will abundantly recompence thee for thy present pain and ignominy Secondly Wilt thou presently give a bill of Divorce to all other lovers and keep the bed of thy heart wholly for him Shall the evil of sin never more have a good look from thee but as Ammon served Tamar shall the hatred wherewith thou hatest those filthy strumpets with whom thou hast had cursed dalliances and committed spiritual fornication be greater then the love wherewith thou hast loved them Canst thou pack away the bond-woman and her son and these things not at all be greivous in thy sight that thy whole joy and delight may be in and all that thou art worth preserved for the true Isaac Shall this Sun reign alone in the Heavens of thy heart without any Competitour As when a Dictatour was created at Rome there was a supersedeas to all other authority so if Christ be exalted in thy soul there must be a cessation of all other rule and power Christ will not be a King meerly in dirision as the Jews made him nor as the stump of Wood was to the Frogs in the Fable whom every lust may securely dance about and provoke These are the terms upon which this match so honourable and profitable is offered to thee give up an hearty Yea to these two equitable Articles and thou art made for ever Refuse it and thou art miserable above all apprehensions and beyond Millions of ages even to all eternity What sayst thou to it Shall I put the same Question to thee which they put to Rebekah Wilt thou go with this Man In thy denyal there is no less then eternal Death Methinks the thoughts of that fire and Brimstone should force thee to flye to this Zoar In thy unfeigned hearty acceptance there is no less then Heaven and eternal life What wouldst thou not do to continue natural life What then shouldst thou not do or suffer for eternal life It may be thou desirest time to consider of it as Rebekahs Mother thou art willing to the match but wouldst not have it yet concluded Austin bewails it in himself that when God was drawing him to Christ his carnal pleasures represented themselves before his eyes Saying What wilt thou leave us for ever and shall we be no more with thee for ever And then he threw himself down and weeping cryed out O Lord how long how long shall I say to morrow why not to day Lord why not to day Why should there not be an end of my sinful life this hour But beleive it delays are dangerous especially in works of such weight If thou answerest as Rebekah did I will go Chear up poor soul what ever thy course or carriage hath been thy Husband is able and willing to pay all thy scores were they a million for a mite and come forth behold thy beloved in his imbroydery and glory see how his Arms are stretcht out to embrace thee his Lips are ready to kiss thee O what a look of love he giveth thee sure I am thou art more in his heart then in thine own
little dost thou think what Rings and Robes what dainties and delicates what grace and mercy and peace he provided on purpose against the return of thee a wandring prodigal Thou needst now no longer run a score with the World for any of its course carnal fare thy beloved will entertain thee at his own table with curious and costly feasts thou shalt have bread to eat which the world knows not of If dangers and evils pursue thee thou hast thy City of refuge at hand wherein thou mayst be secure from the fear and fury of men and Devils T will be life to thee now to think of Death thou mayst lift up thy head with joy when that day of thy redemption draweth nigh Death will give thee a writ of ease both from sin and sorrow then thy Indentures will expire and thy soul be at liberty Thou hast now taken in thy full lading for Heaven and mayst therefore call like a Merchant that hath all his goods on shipboard to the Master of the Vessel to hoise up sail and be gone towards thy everlasting harbour O how may thy heart revive with old Jacobs to see those wagons which are sent to fetch thee to thy dear Jesus for thou knowest that he is Lord of the Countrey and able to make thee welcome when thou comest thither Now thou art present in the body and so absent from the Lord but then thou shalt ever ever be with the Lord but if thou refusest so great and so good an offer chusing slavery to the flesh before this Christian liberty and resolving as many wicked ones do rather to be free for many Harlots then to take one Wife rather to love and serve divers lusts and pleasures then to be wedded to Jesus Christ go on take thy course but be confident that thy fleshly life like the head of Polypus though pleasant at present will afterwards cause troublesome sleep and frightful Dreams If thou intendest to lanch into the Ocean of eternity without this Pilot the blessed Saviour who alone can steer the Vessel of thy soul amidst those dangerous shelves and sands aright and the ballast of grace not regarding what passage thou hast nor at what Port thou arrivest in the other World whether Heaven or Hell prepare thy self to take up thine eternal lodging amongst frightful Devils and to bear thy part in the endless yellowings and howlings of the Damned and know withal to thy terror that this very tender of grace will one day like Joabs Sword to Abner stab thee under the fift rib cut thee to the very heart and like a mountain of Lead sinck thee deep into that Ocean of wrath when thou shalt have time enough to befool thy self for refusing so good an offer and where thou shalt be tormented day and night for ever and ever I have this day set before thee life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live That thou mayst love the Lord thy God and that thou mayst obey his voice and that thou mayst cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days Deut. 30.19 20. CHAP. VIII The Second Exhortation To the serious Christian shewing how a Saint may come to dye with courage I Shall now speak in this Use of Exhortation to the Serious Christian If thy flesh will fail thee so fortifie thy Spirit 2. Exhortation To the serious Christian to be valiant in Death that thou mayst give the flesh a chearful farewel Thy care must be to dye with courage A good Souldier in all his Armour may be daunted at the sight of that Enemy whom he meeteth on a sudden Mary was troubled at the sight and sayings of that Angel which brought the best news that ever the world heard Luk. 1. T is true thou canst never dye before thou art ripe for Heaven but thou mayst dye in some sence before thou art ready in thy own apprehensions to leave the earth Many go to Heaven certainly who go not to Heaven comfortably Tertul. de Spectat cap. 1. It was Tertullians character of the Christians in his time that they were Expiditum morti genus A sort of people prepared for death When a son hath loytered in the day he may well be affraid to look his Father in the face at night but when he hath laboured faithfully he may come into his presence without fear Though he that is sober at home be more ready to put off his cloaths and go to sleep then he that is drinking and vomiting in a Tavern yet even this man may think of some business which he neglected in the day time that may make him unwilling to lye down Surely somewhat is the cause that the children of God are so unquiet when night cometh and so many of them go wrangling to bed Christian I would in a few words direct thee how thou mayst put off thy earthly Tabernacle as chearfully as thy cloaths and lye down in thy grave as comfortably as ever thou didst in a bed of Down It is thy own fault if thou dost not keep such a good fire all day I mean Grace so flaming on the hearth of thy heart that thou mayst encrease it at night and so go warm to bed even to thy Eternal Rest The first Means Take heed of blotting thy Evidences for Heaven Darkness we know is very dreadful 1 Blot not thy evidences for Heaven when men by great or willful sins have so blurred the deeds which speak their right to Heaven that they cannot read them no wonder if being thus in the dark they are affraid to leave the earth It is reported of good Agathon Doroth Doct. 2. that when death approached he was much troubled whereupon his friends said unto him What dost thou fear He answered I have endeavoured to keep the commandments of God but I am a man and how do I know whether my works please God or no for other is the judgement of God and other is the judgement of men He must needs be troubled to be removed from present pleasures who knoweth not that he shall go to a better place Twenty pounds a year certain is counted better then and a man will be unwilling to part with it for forty pounds a year that is doubtful It is assurance onely of a better life which will carry the soul with comfort through the bitter pangs of death Hence it was that Job called so frequently and cried so earnestly to be laid to bed O that I might have my request that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that he would let loose his hand and cut me off then should I yet have comfort Let him not spare for I have not concealed the words of the holy one Job 6.8 9 10. Job had lived with a good conscience and therefore feared not to dye with great comfort His fidelity to God
be blackness of darkness for ever There will be no end of his misery no exit to his tragedy He will be fetterred in those chains of everlasting darkness and feel the terrors of an eternal death But the portion of a Saint is like the wine which Christ provided for the wedding best at last he shall never know its full worth till he appears in the other world and then he shall find that as money answereth all things so his portion will protect him from all misery and fill him with all felicities and answer all the desires and necessities of his capacious and immortal soul The cup which he shall drink of is filled out of the rivers of Gods own pleasures and how sweet that wine is none can tell but they who have tasted it The thought of it hath recovered those who have been dying and recalled them to life what then will a draught of it do All the men in the world cannot describe the rich viands and various dainties which God hath for his own provided diet Nay the most skilful Cherubim can never count nor cast up the total of a Saints personal estate Till Angels can acquaint us with the vast millions that the boundless God is worth they cannot tell us the utmost of a Saints portion It is said of Shusa in Persia that it was so rich that saith Cassiodorus the stones were joyned together with gold and in it Alexander found seventy thousand talents of gold This City if you can take saith Aristagorus to his souldiers you may vie with Jove himself for riches But what a beggarly place is this to the new Jerusalem where pure gold is the pavement trampled under the Citizens feet and the walls all of precious pearles who entereth that City may vie with thousands of such Monarchs as this world can make and with all those heathenish Gods for Riches The Infinite God quantus quantus est as boundlesse a good as he is to whom Heaven and earth is lesse then nothing is their portion for ever But of this more in some of the following Chapters CHAP. XVI A Vse of Tryal whether God be our portion or no with some marks 2. The second Use by way of Tryal whether God be our po tion or no. THe Doctrine may be useful by way of tryall If the comfort of a Christian in his saddest condition be That God is his portion then Reader examine thy self whether God be thy portion or no. I must tell thee the essence and heart of Religion consisteth in the choice of thy portion nay thy happiness dependeth wholly upon thy taking of the blessed God for thine utmost end and chiefest good therefore if thou mistakest here thou art lost for ever I shall try thee very briefly by the touchstone which Christ hath prepared Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Matth. 6. Now Friend Where is thy heart is it in earth is it a diamond set in lead or a sparkling star fixt in heaven Are thy greatest affections like Saul's person among the stuffe and rubbish of this world or do they like Moses go up into the Mount and converse with God Do they with the Wormes crawl here below or like the Eagle soar aloft and dwell above A man that hath his portion on earth like the earth moveth downward though he may be thrown upward by violence as a stone by some sudden conviction or the like yet that imprest vertue is soon worn out and he falleth to the earth again but he who hath his portion in heaven like fire tendeth upward ordinarily though through the violence of temptation he may as fire by the wind be forced downward yet that removed he ascendeth again It may be when thine enemy Death beats thee out of the field of life thou wilt be glad of a God to which thou mayst retire as a city of refuge to shelter thee from the murdering piece of the laws curse but what thoughts hast thou of him now whilst thou hast the world at will Dost thou count the fruition of him thy chiefest felicity Is one God infinitely more weighty in the scales of thy judgement then millions of worlds Dost thou say in thy prevailing setled judgement of them that have their garners full and their floeks fruitful Blessed is the people that is in such a case or yea rather happy is the people whose God is the Lord Psal 144.13 14 15. Every man esteemeth his portion at an high price Naboth valueth his earthly inheritance above his life and would rather die then part with it at any rate God forbid that I should sell the inheritance of my fathers saith he O the worth of the blessed God in the esteem of him that hath him for his portion His house land wife child liberty life are hated by him and nothing to him in comparison of his portions he would not exchange his hopes of it and title to it for the dominion and soveraignty of the whole world If the Devil as to Christ should set him on the pinacle of the Temple and shew all the honours and pleasures and treasures of the world and say to him All this I will give thee if thou wilt sell thy portion and fall down and worship me Who can tell with what infinite disdain he would reject such an offer He would say as a Tradesman that were bid exceedingly below the worth of his wares You were as good bid me nothing and with much scorn and laughter refuse his tender This man is elevated to the top of the celestial orbes and therefore the whole earth is but a point in his eye whereas a man who hath his portion in outward things who dwelleth here on earth heavenly things are little the glorious Sun it self is but small in such a mans eye earthly things are great in his esteem Reader let me perswade thee to be so much at leisure as to ask thy soul two or three Questions 1. In what chanel doth the stream of thy desires run Which way and to what coast do these winds of thy soul drive Is it towards God or towards the world A rich Heir in his minority kept under by Tutors and Guardians longs for the time when he shall be at age and enjoy the priviledge and pleasures of his inheritance Thou cravest and thirsteth and longest and desirest something there is which thou wouldst have and must have and canst not be satisfified till thou hast it Now what is it Is it the husks of this world which thou enquirest so earnestly for some-body to give thee or is it bread in thy Fathers house which thou hungrest after Dost thou pant after the dust of the earth according to the Prophets phrase Amos 2.7 or with the Church The desire of my soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee Thou art hungry and thirsty unquiet unsatisfied what is the matter man Dost thou like the dry earth gape and cleave for
heart of man Isai 32.24 Is thy body sick thy soul is sound and so long all is well The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Is thy life in danger If thine enemies kill thee they cannot hurt thee they will do thee the greatest courtesie they will do that kindness for thee for which thou hast many a time prayed sighed wept even free thee from thy corruptions and send thee to the beatifical vision When they call thee out to die they do but as Christ to Peter call thee up to the Mount where thou shalt see thy Saviour transfigured and say Let us build Tabernacles O 't is good to be here Though Saul was frantick without a Fidler and Belshazar could not be chearful without his cups yet the Philosopher could be merry saith Plato without musick and much more the Christian under the greatest outward misery What weight can sink him who hath the everlasting armes to support him What want can sadden him who hath infinite bounty and mercy to supply him Nothing can make him miserable who hath God for his happiness Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. O Christian thou maiest walk so that the world may know thou art above their affrightments and that all their allurements are below thy hopes In particular the Doctrine is comfortable against the Death of our Christian Friends and against our own deaths First It is a comfort against the death of our friends God is a godly mans portion therefore they are blessed who die in the Lord without us and we are happy who live in the Lord without them It s a comfort that they are happy without creatures what wise man will grieve at his friends gain In the ceremonial law there was a year of Jubile in which every man who had lost or sold his land upon the blowing of a trumpet had possession again The deaths-day of thy believing relation is his day of Jubile in which he is restored to the possession of his eternal and inestimable portion Who ever pined that married an Heir in his minority at his coming to age and going to receive his portion Their death is not paenall but medicinal not destructive but perfective to their Souls It doth that for them which none of the ordinances of God nor providences of God nor graces of the Spirit ever yet did for them It sends the weary to their sweet and eternal rest This Serpent is turned into a rod with which God works wonders for their good The Thracians wept at the births of men and feasted at their funerals if they counted mortality a mercy who could see death only to be the end of outward sufferings shall not we who besides that see it to be the beginning of matchless and endless solace A wife may well wring her hands and pierce her heart with sorrow when her Husband is taken away from her and dragd to execution to hell but surely she may rejoyce when he is called from her by his Prince to live at Court in the greatest honours pleasures especially when she is promised within a few days to be sent for to him and to share with him in those joyes and delights for ever Some observe that the Egyptians mourned longer for they mourned 70 dayes for old Jacobs death then Joseph his own Son and the reason is this because they had hopes only in this life when Joseph knew that as his fathers body was carried to the earthly so his Soul was translated to the heavenly Canaan I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others that have no hope 1 Thes 4.12 As they are happy without us for God is their portion so we are happy without them We have our God still that stormy wind which blew out our candles did not extinguish our Sun Our Friend when on his or her death-bed might bespeak us as Jacob his Sonnes I die but God shall visit you I go from you but God shall abide with you I leave you but God will find you he will never leave you nor forsake you Reader If God live though thy friends dye I hope thou art not lost thou art not undone May not God say to thee when thou art pining and whining for the death of thy relations or friends as if thou wert eternally miserable as Elkanah to Hannah Am not I better to thee then ten Sons Am not I better to thee then ten Husbands then ten Wives then ten thousand worlds O think of it and take comfort in it 2. It s comfort against our own deaths Secondly It is comfortable against thy own death God is thy Portion and at death thou shalt take possession of thy vast estate Now thou hast a freehold in law a right to it but then thou shalt have a freehold in deed make thy entry on it and be really seised of it It s much that heathens who were purblind and could not see afar off into the joys and plesures of the other world the hopes of which alone can make death truly desireable should with less fear meet this foe then many Christians Nay 't was more difficult to perswade several of those Pagans to live out all their daies then 't is to perswade some amonst us to be willing to die when God calls them Codrus could throw himself into a pit Plut. in vit Vtic. Ca. that his Country might live by his death Cato could against the intreaty of all his friends with his own hands open the door at which his life went out Platinus the Philosopher held mortality a mercy that we might not alwaies be lyable to the miseries of this life When the Persian King wept that all his army should die in the revolution of an Age Artabanus told him that they should all meet with so many and such great evils that they should wish themselves dead long before Lysimachus threatened to kill Theodorus but he stoutly answered the King that was no great matter the Cantharides a little flie could doe as much Cleombrotus having read Plato of the Souls immortality did presently send his own Soul out of his body to try and taste it The bare opinion of the Druides that the Soul had a continuance after death made them hardy in all dangers saith Cesar and fearless of death Câ—s lib. 6. de bell 6. Christians surely have more cause to be valiant in their last conflict and it s no credit to their Father that they are so loth to goe home The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe Heaven to be so glorious a place as they talk of for if they did they would not be so unwilling to goe thither It may make the world think the child hath but could welcome at his Fathers house that he lingers so much a broad certainly such bring an ill report upon the good land Christian