ravishing sight Besides we shall be fitted for the Conversation of pure Intelligences that is of Holy Angels and for enjoying the familiarity of all the Blessed Saints We shall be with Saints and Angels taken up in the admiration love and praises of God and Christ We shall then know too what the Holy Ghost is and be full thereof We shall understand plainly what we at present see only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through a perspective Glass and in a Riddle how those three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are one All the desires both of the Mind and of the Will that is all our desires after truth good and any agreeables shall be at once infinitely satisfied and yet with satisfaction Eternally flowing forth to that incomprehensible Fountain of all Truth and Good the Eternal Infinite God No Memory or Sense of any thing past or of any thing here below remaining with us any otherwise than as such reflections may heighten our present transport or ravishment And all this happiness is to be Everlasting without End without Intermission without Allay This is for the main such an account as here may suffice to be given of the Heavenly Happiness But we must remember it is infinitely short of the full real Truth For 1 Cor. 11. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him â—3 Now Secondly as vast and infinite as this Happiness is that it is no presumption in a faithful Soul and such certainly are all who have so as directed made their peace with God I say that it is no presumption in such a Soul to desire pray for aim at and pursue this Happiness is evident because God has offered it in the Gospel The proposal of this and of its means together with the opening our way to it was the Great Errand and business on which Christ Jesus came into the World God sent his Son into the World not to condemn the World to keep them under that Sentence of Condemnation and Death which by Sin had taken place upon them but that the World through him might be saved For God John 3. 16. so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And accordingly our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished Death 2 Tim. 1. 10. and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Gospel publishes the conditions ways or means by which it is to be had which we have seen in part and shall further see as we proceed and requires us thus to seek it under pain of everlasting misery if we do not And that Men of all sorts and tempers might be invited thereunto and prevailed with our Lord Jesus has taken care it should be proposed under such various Notions and Characters as may comply with all Mens tempers To draw in Ambitious Men it is proposed as Honour and Glory as a Crown a Throne a Kingdom c. To gain Men of pleasure it is represented as a Banquet a Supper a Marriage Feast fullness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore c. To allure Men that love Wealth it is called a Treasure a Treasure which neither Moth nor Rust can corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal the true Riches an Inheritance incorruptible c. And to be brief to take with some others it is perhaps called by other names But in a word to take with all forasmuch as all Men love Life and most people Long Life it is called what it is most truly Everlasting Life Upon the whole God is so desirous that none should neglect it that it is propounded to all I say in a way to suit each Mans Temper Humour and Inclination The commands to pursue it are so many that it is neither needful nor indeed easie to reckon them all up The Encouragements so great that it is not possible to add to them witness that one Command and Superlative Encouragement Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. 33. What can be added to all things Yet the Kingdom of God and all things that is all things good for them shall they receive who seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Thus then we see in some measure both what this Happiness is and that it is in Strictness our Duty to seek after it or endeavour to secure it § 4. It is now high time to enquire thirdly how or by what means we may secure it How shall we convey Treasure thither Or how is it possible there to lay up our Treasure In answer hereto the Directions shall be few and easy of which the first is Whoever would have a Happiness in Heaven must By Resolution and Prayer chuse God for his Happiness for it is the Enjoyment of him that makes both Heaven and Happiness without Him is neither possible And the Almighty God all that he is Infinite as he is is content to be the Happiness of such poor Worms as are we mortal Men. He of old said unto Abraham and in him the Father of the Faithful to every even the meanest faithful Soul Fear not I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. And he says the same at present to every disposed person who reads or hears this Take God then at his Word And first resolve with thy self and say inwardly in Spirit God shall be the portion of my Soul Let others please themselves in other Goods in the Encrease of Corn and Wine and Oyl in joyning House to House and Field to Field in loading themselves with thick Clay or laying up Treasure upon Earth for many years for my part I will take up with none of these the Almighty God shall be my portion Our Lord Jesus himself for of him prophetically is that Psalm to be interpreted did while in the Flesh so resolve Psal 16. 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my Cup thou maintainest my lot Fear not then thou for whom Christ died to the end thou mightest come to the Father by a new and living Way through his bloud Fear not I say neither forbear thus to come thus to resolve And having thus inwardly resolved with thy self Take with thee words and apply thy self faithfully and humbly by Prayer to God telling him that thou art resolved to make the same Choice as thy Saviour not only by his Doctrine but by his Practice and Example taught thee Tell him whatever Portion of things below he has given thee or shall give thee thou art resolv'd not to be put off with any with all these nothing below himself shall satisfy thee for indeed nothing below him can And to insure the Choice that he may give himself to thee tell him thou givest thy self to him but be
Be ye also ready A METHOD AND ORDER Of Practice To be always prepared for Death and Judgment through the several Stages of Life By the Author of the Method of PRIVATE DEVOTION Behold now I know not the Day of my Death Gen. XXVII 2. LONDON Printed for R. Bentley in Russel-street in Covent-Garden and T. Bennet at the Half Moon in S. Paul's Church Yard 1694. Gospell Truth 's Psalm 119 vers 59 I thought on my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies The First Part Containing The First and shortest Course of Preparation Fitted for Beginnings or sudden Exigents Imprimatur Octob. 6. 1693. Guil. Lancaster AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IT pleased God a very few years agoe to put and as it seemed a considerable while to keep the Author of the ensuing Treatise â—ogether with divers thousands of Protestants â—n such a Condition that they hourly expected to have been sacrificed For they were in humane appearance at the pleasure of inveterate Enemies nor can they to this day look upon it as much â—ess than a Miracle that they survived those Years of Dread and Danger Then perhaps most of them lived as people that really thought themselves mortal as to one part and immortal as â—o the other Then their great care was not only â—o enquire but to practise what might both make and keep them ever prepared for Death and â—udgment which they saw perpetually at their Doors even in their Chambers and in all Places and in all their Motions In that juncture a certain good Hospitable-Lady being like Martha busied about many things and concerned she was not better prepared to entertain some Friends brought into her House upon a Surprize her nearest Friend as a kind of easie Reprimand to her put this Question at random to all What should we do to be always prepared for Heaven Something 's for the time the Author return'd but promised as soon as he should come home to put in writing for that his Friend's sake who was under some Infelicity as to his hearing a fuller and more deliberate Answer to that Question of so important a Concernment intending then only what might serve that season or our then Case and fill about a Sheet or two of Paper But all intercourse betwixt Protestants at a distance being in those Parts soon precluded the Author's Friend died and never saw the Papers designed for him However this gave occasion to the Author with deeper and more settled Attention to weigh the Case in general Which when he came to do he could not satisfie himself with so narrow and perfunctory a Consideration of it as was that which he had first taken For he esteemed the same Preparations would not be sufficient not only for all People but even for the same Persons in all Circumstances Many Omissions of the Israelites were favourably by God over-looked in their Wandrings through Wildernesses and in the State of War ensuing which were severely punished in Canaan when the Lord had given his People rest And the Preparations of the Sanctuary were undoubtedly more exact and Abundant as well as more Glorious than those of the Tabernacle In like manner a more Tumultuary and less distinct Repentance with a kind of bold Resignation of themselves to God and a constant Trust on his Mercy through Christ Jesus for pardon of Sin together with Dependance upon his Power Wisdom and Goodness in all their Ways even shutting their Eyes many times against Dread and Doubts and still going on to commit themselves to God's good Pleasure with sorrow indeed as to multitudes of things which being done they could not undo but never letting go their hold upon God's Mercy in Christ Jesus might be and certainly were a State of Preparation accepted by God from most People in those Calamitous Days when they had neither Opportunities of Privacy Self-Examination and quiet thought much less of mature and Formed Devotions nor any of their usual Helps herein We could not then think we had many Days sometimes very few Hours to prepare for our End Almost every Person we met or saw spoke Death to us and then doing what to humane Frailty was feasible was in God's favourable Interpretation doing what was sufficient But now that we are delivered from those Terrors and apprehend not those at least sudden Dangers now that we sit at Peace in our Houses and sleep whole Nights quiet in our Beds and have our Advantages of Retirement and Thought and possibly some of us are become more thoughtful than ever In these more happy Circumstances we cannot but esteem our selves obliged to a Distincter more Sedate and Perfected Course of Repentence Faith Love Good Works Alms-deeds Composedness Heavenly-mindedness and upon our Experience of former things Contempt of this uncertain insignificant World And further to the not suffering our Hearts again to cleave to the things that are seen So far ought we to be from saying within our selves Surely the bitterness of Death is past or from putting far from us as the manner of incorrigible People is the Evil Day Rather will it become Persons in our Circumstances to make Death familiar to us and however God may sweeten our Passage thereto yet to be careful we never be so taken with any good fare in our Journey as to be loath to go to our long home Certainly in whomsoever an immoderate love of Life an unwillingness to die and unreasonable Fears of Death may be by God excused they will be least born with in those who either by the Discipline they have been under might have overcome them or perhaps once had which is the Case of all such who having been once in a good Measure prepared for Heaven and thought themselves near it have again returned to an Earthly sensual Conversation The Consideration of these God's different Expectations from Men according to the Circumstances they are or have been in in reference to Death caused the Author to cast his Thoughts upon the Case put to him into the present Method or Model and to suit to the several Conditions and Circumstances into which Christian People generally fall a distinct and proper Course of Prescriptions Of which Prescriptions here follow only the First Set and that accommodated primarily and intentionally indeed to such a State as the Author and others in the Days pointed at were in but withal as is both intimated in the Title Page and more particularly set forth Chap. II. most proper and for the main necessary for all sorts to begin with yea if new to them to be by all and every one speedily and carefully practised lest any Accident or unexpected Providence should put a Period to Life before the Possibility of a maturer Repentance Not to say that as to too many people in divers Emergencies and unhappy Junctures this Part contains a Summary of all Preparations to them Practicable It may perhaps be convenient something were said here as to the Style of this Part or the
Method of effecting both § 14. Of Faith as more particularly concern'd in making our Peace with God § 15. Of Prayer in this Case § 16. Of subsequent Care and Endeavours and of the Lord's Supper as the best Seal Matter and a Method for Devotion suitable to the 3d Chapter CHAP. IV. The Third Duty advised to laying up our Treasure in Heaven § 1. THree Points necessary to be spoken to under this Head § 2. A short account what the Heavenly Happiness is which we are to endeavour to secure § 3. It is no presumption in a faithful Soul to aim at or seek after this Happiness but in strictness a Duty § 4. Directions to secure it Of chusing God for our Happiness § 5. Of being full of good Works § 6. Of good Works in a more special sence § 7. How Christians of all sorts may be rich in good Works § 8. Works of Liberality and Mercy or of Bodily Charity peculiarly accounted laying up a Treasure in Heaven § 9. Charity to Men's Souls no less Matter and a Method for Devotion suitable to the Fourth Chapter CHAP. V. Of a Composed Estate both of Affairs and Mind § 1. DIsentangling our selves from this World a necessary Christian Duty § 2. The means thereto chiefly two Putting our Affairs in order and composing our Minds § 3. Particular Directions hereto Setting bounds to our desires and designs of getting § 4. Putting and keeping our Estates or Accounts in such Order as to be just to all § 5. Of Restitution § 6. Of settling Children and Relations § 7. Care in making and keeping a Will § 8. Reconciliation to Mankind § 9. Advice to Relations Secrets c. § 10. Resigning all to God and laying aside Soliicitude § 11. The Conclusion of this part Matter and a Method for Devotion suitable to the Fifth Chapter Be ye also ready A METHOD OF Preparation for Death and Judgment Quest What Course People should take to be Ready for Heaven Or which is much the same to be always prepared for Death and Judgment PART I. Chap. 1. § 1. To be Ready for Heaven and to be always prepared for Death and Judgment are the same § 2. Yet this Question contains two Questions in it § 3. This Question no where expresly put or closely resolved in Scripture and some probable Reasons why § 4. But Preparation or being always ready for our Lord 's Coming frequently enjoyned and its Nature set forth at large throughout the whole Scripture § 5. The Design of this Treatise and general Branches of the Preparation necessary § 6. This Work must not end but with our Lives yet is to be begun as early as may be § 1. THE Holy Ghost has assured us That there is no Work nor Device nor Wisdom in the Grave Eccles 9. 10. But that after Death only comes Judgment Heb. 9. 27. And in the place where the Tree falleth there it shall be Eccles 11. 3. That is say even the Jewish Masters In the condition wherein Death finds us God judgeth us Immediately then upon the departure of the Soul out of the Body the state of such dissolved Person is everlastingly and unchangeably determined as to his future Weal or Wo and a Gulph fixed between the Blessed and the Damned so that they who would pass from one to the other cannot Luke 16. 26. Neither is there any return from either Wherefore after Death there being no preparation possible to be made for Judgment it must unavoidably follow Preparation for Death and Preparation for Judgment include one another or are much the same and he that is provided for one is also provided for the other for whoso is not prepared for Judgment before his Death can never be provided for it because after Death no Work is to be done no Provision can be made And finally Inasmuch as whosoever goes out of this World in an estate well provided for Death and Judgment shall most certainly rest from their Labours their Works following them Rev. 14. 13. receive at the last day that happy Sentence Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Matt. 25. 34. Therefore whosoever is prepared for Death and Judgment is also ready for Heaven So that all these Questions are most evidently in effect one and the same § 2. Notwithstanding the Case of Conscience as above put and 't is indeed as weighty a Case of Conscienoe as well can be put does really contain in it two Questions First What should a man do to prepare himself for Death Secondly What to maintain such prepared Temper And accordingly must in the process of this Discourse receive in Justice a double Answer For it is certain many People may have been in some part of their days for a while both in their own sense and in reality tolerably prepared for Death who yet through sundry intanglements in the World and the general deceitfulness of Sin may either totally or very dangerously relapse from this state so dangerously without doubt as that though they may not perhaps through the extraordinary Mercy of God to them finally miss of eternal Salvation yet shall they forfeit all Comfort in a dying hour and go out of this World both in their own and others apprehensions as if bound over and consigned to everlasting Torments a most dreadful degree of Misery this most certainly Which Consideration should awaken all good People always to maintain as well as at first endeavour to attain such a prepared state as we are at present about to consult of § 3. In the mean time both these being Questions whereto a full and distinct Resolution is one of the most necessary things imaginable to People of whatsoever Rank Sex or Age assignable a man would wonder that neither our Lord Jesus himself nor any of his Apostles have any where or in any one place of Holy Scripture professedly and expresly delivered an entire and close Answer thereto nay that we find not so much as either of the Questions once directly and plainly put either to our Lord or the Apostles in all the Records of their Ministry Indeed we have a Question which interpretatively may seem at first the same or somewhat near it put by some relenting persons who were in a way to their Conversion or as one may say under the pangs of the New Birth Acts 2. 37. Men and Brethren what shall we do And yet more nearly by the penitent Jailor Acts 16. 30. Sirs what must I do to be saved But in both these Instances the Persons who make the Enquiry express no respect to Death or Judgment nor seem at that time to have had immediately an eye on either Those in the first Instance being at that time by St. Peter's Sermon only under the first conviction of their Sin in crucifying the Lord of Life seem meerly to have designed by their Question What shall we do to get this so great Sin
pardoned And in the second Instance the poor Jailor having seen a Truth which the Devil spoke against his Will That the Apostles were the Servants of the most high God and shewed Men the way of Salvation v. 17. Confirmed by a Miracle from Heaven v. 26. Intended certainly by that his Question as he expresses it plainly enough What must I do to obtain that Salvation you preach As did also that Ruler Matth. 19. 16. Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal Life But none of these Questions I say primarily or directly proceed upon preparation for Death or express any immediate respect thereto Rather do they inferr an apprehension in the Proposers of them that they had a great part of their days then to come and that they had not an aim at or looked not in those Questions to their Death but at and to the whole remainder of their Life at that time before them so that I may confidently say these two Questions named are no where in Scripture expresly put nor therefore in any one place altogether or intirely and distinctly answered One Reason of their not being answered we may take to have been their not being put But as to the Reason of their not being put it is not easie to assign a better than that perhaps the Conceit of Peoples being able in a few days or as some poor mistaken Wretches are apt to imagine by a few hours Pains and Devotions to prepare themselves for Death and their appearance before the Seat of God's dreadful Judgment had not yet entred into the world or so generally seized and possessed mens minds as now God knows and we poor Ministers find it has This may be one probable cause indeed for which we may conceive this Question no where in Scripture to have been put And that our Lord Jesus and his Apostles should not of their own accord start it there is no wonder For they well knowing and considering that preparation for Death and Judgment needs to be the Work of a whole Life and not of some small part or of the Fagg-end of it as we may so speak would never so far give occasion to such a Surmise as professedly and closely to put together all that is necessary to be said to such a Question but having in general terms first described the Duty they enjoyned its performance and lastly shewn the danger of its neglect they left the Particulars of the Preparation required in a sort scattered through the whole Scriptures as indeed the Duty it self in its full Latitude or Compass runs through all the Parts and Duties of our Lives § 4. In general I say there are Terms which describe express or amply set forth to us the Duty of Preparation for Death and Judgment There are many Commands which directly enjoin and such Warnings given of the danger of neglecting it as lay it most intimately home upon all Peoples Consciences Our Lord and his Apostles seldom or never treat of his coming to Judgment but still the Application as we may call it or the practical part of their Discourse is of this nature Thus in the Whole four and five and twentieth Chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel and in the parallel places of all the other Gospels in St. Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians chap. 5. 4 5 6 c. In St. Peter's Second Epistle ch 3. 14 c. In Rev. 3. 2 3 c. Chap. 16. 15. In all these and other Places the Christian World is taught That the coming of our Lord will be as of a Thief in the night and truly it is so very oft by Death as well as to Judgment unawares upon men when they look not for him and therefore all are called upon and conjured to be always ready To watch As faithful and wise Servants to be still doing their Lord's Work To keep Oil in their Vessels with their Lamps To trim their Lamps To have their Loins girded about and their Lights burning and to be as them that look for their Lord To take heed to themselves lest at any time their hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting or Drunkenness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even with the nauseous Qualms of a full Stomach or of the Night's Intemperance or with the Cares of this world To be as Children of the Light Not to sleep that is not to be idle not to be secure flattering themselves in any Sin or suffering Guilt to rest upon their Consciences as do others but to watch unto Prayer To be sober to be vigilant To be diligent that we may be found of him in peace without spot or blemish To strengthen the things that are ready to die that is quicken exercise and by exercising ripen and confirm stir up the Grace of God in us To hold fast till our Lord come To keep our Garments lest we be found naked that is to be careful we maintain a sanctified and justified Estate the Righteousness of Faith which is of God through Christ All these and sundry like Expressions both declare and press the Duty and awaken Conscience thereto but still either in general or in figurative Terms and these also as beforesaid dispersed and in distant places § 5. The Design therefore of this Treatise is to lay them all together disposing them into as easie and natural an Order as may be and representing or offering them in the plainest but together the most effectual manner we can that so no sort of people who shall read or hear read this poor plain practical Discourse may be ignorant either of the Matter or Obligation of their whole Duty in this great and most weighty Case And for the better comprehending the whole body of Directions to be given which must have compass enough to answer the Conditions of people of all sorts or of each age they may most fitly be divided by the several Distances which by course of Nature people may conceive themselves to stand in from Death and so into three Classes or Stages according to those Distances The first shall be of those who by course of Nature are at the longest distance and who therefore now are perfectly to begin their Preparations A Foundation must be laid and a prepared State attained The second of the middle Stage the Foundation must be secured and a prepared State maintained And the third nearest our End For through the Vanity and Self-flattery which attends all Men in this Life at least while Death is at any tolerable distance Men being apt to think they have time enough before them divers desects there will be in all even the most prepared Christians when nearly approaching their End And these perhaps we shall most clearly see when Death being to us as it were above the Horizon and in sight dispels those Mists under which we have formerly lain and frees our Judgments from that partiality wiâ—h which formerly we used to pass Sentence of things and persons and especially
Scripture-term the King of Terrors in the face that from henceforth we may be able calmly to think of him and live prepared to encounter him The Heathens of old generally looked upon Death as a Destruction of the whole Man and conceived the Soul either in the same instant with the Body to die or at least in some time to be dissipated and vanish And even those of them who taught the Immortality of the Vltra enim ut progrediar quam ut verisimilia videam non habeo Cic. Tusc Qu. l. 1. Soul rather held it as the more probable Conjecture of the two than as a certain Truth But the Holy Ghost has taught us Christians better The Dust indeed returns to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccl. 12 7. And All live unto him Luke 20. 38. Nay not only does the Soul live on when the Body falls but even the Body it self shall at the last day by the Almighty hand of God be raised again Both Dry Bones and the very Dust of Bones shall live again Ezek. 37. And there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the Just and of the Vnjust Act. 24. 15. Wherefore if these things be true as no Christian questions Death can be nothing but a Temporary Separation of the Soul from the Body There may be indeed and in case of natural Deaths commonly there are some foregoing pains which we commonly call the Pangs of Death but these are rather the most uneasie part of Life than ingredients or parts of Death And when the Paroxism or strength of the Pain has once conquered Nature the instant of Death is certainly no more painful than it is to fall asleep Death puts an end to those Pains and at least for the sake of being rid of them is to be wish'd for rather than dreaded Besides both Death it self and those its Harbingers or foregoing pains in ordinary Cases are necessary and unavoidable to all Men therefore it is most unreasonable and unworthy of considering Persons to fear them rather does it become and concern us to prepare to bear them as Christianity directs and with as much ease that is as much patience as we can So that in truth upon the whole it is more that which is conceived to follow Death which makes people fear Death than its own Nature Of its followers the closest most immediate and inseparable one is Judgment Now that Judgment which immediately follows Death is no doubt chiefly if not only the determining and ascertaining each dying persons future Condition Whatsoever the Dreadful Pomp and Appearance of our Lord's Second Coming and the Conslagration of the World has in it that is not to take place till the last day and I conceive it has been scarce ever found that dying persons have been appall'd or dismay'd at the apprehensions of that So that as before said that which must make Men afraid or unwilling to die must be something which is apprehended attended to or in Men's eye as immediately following Death § 4. Now the Summ of all the troublesome Consequents of Death must either be Evils to our selves or to others some way related to or depending on us And the Evils which can besall us must affect either our persons in the other World of which Nature can be nothing but either Loss or Pain or our Names and Memories which may survive us in this World And in case we be afraid or unfit to die some or more of these we shall find and confess if we will be true to our selves to be the genuine Reasons Either first we apprehend by Death we shall lose some Happiness we are here possess'd and perhaps too fond of or we fear by Death some Evil we are yet free from or lastly we have some Obligations or Ties upon us to some things or persons in this World which we would not have yet loosed or from which we cannot with Honour yet get free We are entangled with this World either in affection or besides in business of our own or others from which we judge it highly inconvenient for us yet to be dismiss'd Now let us consider each of these As to the first Perfect Happiness is all we can wish But Perfect Happiness no Man can say he is or can be possest of on Earth only he has here some Enjoyments which he sansies to be pretty Good or little inslances of Happiness and he is in hopes sometimes of some more now these Death will bereave him of But if a Man could obtain a perfect Happiness by or after Death it were reasonable to desire the exchange for then he would have all he could wish and by Death become Gainer Now this we must find a way to do if we will sufficiently prepare a Man for Death Again as to the state of Men in the other world there never was nor is nor can be any thing ever thought of terrible after Death but Judgment and the punishment of those Sins which we have committed in this life or so speak more properly perhaps according to the opinion of some the disorders of mind which these Sins have brought upon us being heightened and continued But it is plain many punishments of our Sins many disorders and inquietudes thence we meet with and shall lie under here more or less as long as we live If therefore by or after Death we can be secure of a perfect release from all these punishments and removal of all possible disorders and evils we should by such security be provided against all we could fear by or after Death Now this also is to be done There remains therefore nothing now to render a Man ready as well as willing to die but disentangling himself from this World § 5. So that in summ we have three Intentions before us to which all the Advices at least in this Period to be given are to be directed and if these three be by any means attained there is no question but such persons who have attained them are prepared for Death For more evils or inconveniencies by Death than those mentioned we cannot conceive of and therefore means sufficient to remove these must be sufficient to prepare us for Death And let a Man stand never so near the top of the Hill how large a prospect soever he has to the Gulph he is to pass he will find himself highly concerned as to these three general Intentions First he is to provide himself a Happiness to go to in the other World For a Man cannot be in any measure prepared to part hence who has no sore-sight of nor can promise to himself any good to be enjoyed hereafter Secondly He must provide against whatever he can fear in another World For a Man cannot be happy where his Fears remain And in the former Particular we have admitted He who is prepared for Death must be provided of Happiness in the other World therefore also
provided against what he may fear there Thirdly He is to disentangle himself from this World and all secular Concerns that he may be able easily to part hence whensoever the appointed hour shall come For it is certainly a great misery to be torn hence instead of quietly and willingly yielding up all These three Intentions whoso has obtained is as well provided sor Death as at a distance a Man can be well conceived to be nor is it easie to comprehend at least I must confess I do not see what can be in those of this Order required more But for attaining these there are sundry Counsels to be taken and much Work to be done § 6. And first above all things such persons are to bend their minds to Religion in good Earnest and really to make that their Business Religion of all Doctrines in the World alone can pretend to bring a Man to the knowledge of his true Happiness And of all Religions none does that but the Christian Our Lord Jesus has pronounc'd it I am the Way the Truth and the Light that is I alone have effectually brought to Light the true way to Life 2 Tim. 1. 10. He hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Whosoever therefore thou art that wouldst provide to thy self a Happiness in another World which indeed is the only true Happiness all else is but Spectres meer Ghosts and Apparitions of Happiness resolve on being Religious in good Earnest and give thy mind thereto § 7. This the generality even of them which profess Religion do not do Religion God help us is taken up by most of us as other Fashions of the Countrey are meerly of course and in compliance with the multitude and if Men perform some outward Exercises thereof in the mean time not living very extravagantly bad they are look'd upon by their Neighbours as Religious Men. And as long as they do not believe contrary to the Doctrines of Christianity but look upon them as things which perhaps may be true and have been taken for Truths never doubted of time out of mind they themselves esteem themselves to have a very tolerable Faith and then a few customary Formalities observed will easily pass in their savourable Judgment of themselves for a Christian Practice And thus alas we have many a current Christian without real Christianity a religious Multitude without a grain of true Religion For Christianity or True Religion consists in a changed heart and a changed life But the generality of people rise not hereto much less contents them As to the getting into their hearts a solid and rational Persuasion of the being of a God and of a World to come as to affecting themselves with a sense of Sin and putting themselves into a state of Pardon through the Blood of Christ and then settling and maintaining in themselves a Love and Fear of God Resolutions and Endeavours of Justice Charity Purity and Humility and finally keeping to this Temper these are things which either they never thought of or have put off the concerning themselves with them till they have done what they account the business of Life that is gotten a fair Estate and in the end of their days may as they hope time enough have leisure and ease to consider of these Matters and settle them to their hearts desire This as far as can be judged by ordinary Fruits is the state and pitch of Religion with the Multitude Nay there are many touching whom it is a high degree of Charity to think even thus much Now he who will be prepared for Death and Judgment must be religious at another rate § 8. He must first look upon Religion not meerly as a thing probable or which perhaps may be so as it is pretended a possible Truth but as indeed it is actually the greatest Truth and Matter of most pressing Concernment in the World Whether this Imployment Trade and Way of Life or whether that be the surest and speediest Method for me to get an Estate is uncertain They are both probable and perhaps there may be a third or fourth way as probable And whether I ever be rich or no the Matter is not of the greatest moment Man's Life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he doth possess many Men live happily who have but from hand to mouth But whether I be saved or damned whether I be everlastingly blessed or everlastingly tormented with the Devil and his Angels this is a Matter of Concernment indeed And then that there is not Salvation in any other but in the Crucified Jesus nor any other name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved No Blessedness to be had but by true Religion is a thing most certainly true and 't is most vain to think of any other course but this which the Gospel has laid down Now to the end that a Man may be truly convinced of thus much he must give his mind first to understand the Doctrine of Christian Religion that is in plain Terms the Articles of our Christian Faith he must read if he be able honest and easie Expositions of them having before treasured up in his memory the Articles of Belief and Rules of Life and if he be not able to read he must diligently hear enquire particularly of his Minister and Friends touching any thing he understands not which he conceives necessary to Salvation He must not rest till he has satisfied himself in some plain Notion or Conception of that whereof he is ignorant This being done in the next place he must attend unto the Reasons and Evidences which there are of the Truth of such Doctrines Why should I believe there is a God and he Almighty and the Maker of all things seen and unseen My Reason if I will but take the pains to think tells me it must necessarily be so For no Man nor all Men together could ever make this World the visible Heaven and Earth the Sun and Moon and Stars and put them all into that orderly motion in which they circle rising moving setting then hidden to us but enlightening and chearing others Nor can any stop the Heavens from moving nor stir the Earth or make it bring forth otherwise than in season All the Powers we know cannot alter Spring or Harvest Summer or Winter They cannot make the Sun rise sooner or set later Theresore some Being of greater and indeed of infinite Power there must be that is the Almighty God must have made and doth uphold and govern Heaven and Earth and all therein Again Holy Scripture gives Account and farther Proof of all these things There I read or thence I may hear the whole History of the Creation how all and every of these things were made and how they have been governed ever since and what God made them for and what he will do with them These and the like Evidences of the Truths of Religion must such
vain Therefore Neither was I endued with the Apprehension Sense and Appetite after another Life in vain but another Life after this there is My Conceptions and Desires of Immortality were no more put into me in vain than my Senses or natural Appetites That is there is an Immortal State that is my Soul is Immortal or capable of Immortality We see now whither we are come meerly by a little thinking § II. Let us then put all this together and see what will be the Result Whether it be tolerable or no to be as vain and formal and as meer Actors in Religion as the World of Professors of it are Or whether we are not most highly concerned to be herein more than in any other practices in the World or in any other part of Life most sincere serious and in good Earnest The Summ is I must die Though I choak and oppress Conscience and put tricks upon my self to gloss over foul Actions at present I shall not be able to do so long at least not at Death Nay even now at present I have much ado to make many things palatable which yet in practice I swallow so that I must account that at my Death if I am then in my Senses they 'll sting me with a witness and in all probability not only in my departing but eternally in that Immortal State For I cannot persuade my self but there is a Life after this I have so many Evidences of it within my self And it is not an outside Demureness or shadow of Religion which will bear me out or stand me in stead at Death and Judgment Then the Vizor will fall off Therefore it is my Concernment above all things to be early serious in Religion For I am sensible none die comfortably but vertuous Men None else when dying have either ease as to what is past or a comfortable prospect of what is to come So that the Conclusion of all is If I will follow what in my own sense of things and herein all good and wise Men all that are not beside themselves mad or vicious agree with me I must set my self to be serious in and most intent upon Religion And this is the first step of Preparation for Death and Judgment in our Stage The Second will be That we immediately go upon the reconciling our selves to God and endeavour to make our Peace with him of which in the next Chapter Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to the Second Chapter BEing retired seriously First Examine Conscience How thou hast stood affected and concerned hitherto in Matter of Religion 1. Hast thou concerned thy self any more in it or about it than in other Customs and Vsages of thy Countrey 2. In case thou hast with more outward Concernment than the generality of people espoused the Profession of Religion yet as to the Vertue it self Religion in the Soul 1. Is thy heart furnished with sound Knowledge Hast thou reasonable Conceptions of the Doctrine and Precepts of Christianity And 2. Art thou seriously in thy heart persuaded that Christian Religion is true and the alone sure way to Happiness Or else on the contrary Art thou a meer formal external Professor pretending to be zealous in this or that way but designing by such pretence only other ends than those of thy Soul in an unseen World Consider the Matter seriously For a multitude of meer worldly Bigots of zealous outward Professors are there in our World who both with themselves and others pass for religious Men. Or 3. Though thou hast been through the Grace of God enlightened and art in some measure knowing and perswaded in thy Conscience of the Truth of Religion yet is it not thy Case as it is many other religious people's that thou art as to Religion really lukewarm in love with the World and things that are seen So that thou hast been very negligent in an holy heavenly conscientious Practice and by reason of this Indifferency can'st scarce say thou hast been yet religious in good earnest Deal honestly with thy self in sifting out the Truth as near as able It will be thine own another day Secondly After this Search if thou findest thy Condition to be any of these three pause a while and consider particularly the guilt and sinfulness of it whichsoever of the three it prove As to the First supposing that to be thy Case Thou hast taken up thy Religion just as thou hast done thy cloths All civilized people wear some Cloths English people this particular Fashion and so thou wearest Cloths of this Fashion rather than of that of the Turks and Persians c. because thou art amongst the English and an English Man In like sort all Nations have some Religion Thy Countrey or thy Friends this and therefore thou art of it Thou hast been bred to it as they say Good God! what a monstrous profane thing is this That one who has the use of Reason should make no more matter of Religion than of the fashion of a Suit of Cloths And perhaps not so much as some vain wretches do who are more concerned about their garb than the state of their Souls O dreadful As to the Second To pretend Zeal for God and Heaven meerly for the driving on a poor worldly or carnal Interest when really I neither believe God or Heaven or care for either what abominable Hypocrisie is this What incarnate Devils white Devils as the people speak are such Men As to the Third To be persuaded that there is no true Happiness but in God that this World is but a Dream in comparison of that to come at the utmost that this Life is a state of Trial according to my behaviour wherein I am to be everlastingly happy or miserable and yet to be indifferent and cool in my Affections and pursuit of heavenly Goods to be intent on and ever busied about the things that are seen all which perhaps I may part with tomorrow and to be negligent of my Life and Actions according to which I shall one day be justified or condemned Matth. 12. 37. and so eternally happy or miserable What an inconsistent and an unreasonable thing is it Am I not while thus guilty condemn'd and unexcuseable even in the sense of my own mind Thirdly According to thy Condition now betake thy self to God by Prayer 1. Lifting up thine heart to him and conceiving of him as a God that searcheth and knows thee that possesseth thy Reins and discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart who therefore most intimately sees whether thou dissemblest or no That will be sanctified of all who draw near unto him and has accursed all Hypocrites and double-hearted Men who therefore will be content with nothing less than all thy heart and mind and soul In the beginning of thy Prayers set God before thee as such 2. Confessing to him according as thou hast found the Summ of thy Guilt Either Thy regardlessness of him and of thy Soul
Righteousness And thus in him and through him thou shalt find Peace § 16. Whoso has thus proceeded may be presumed for the present as to what can be effected by private Applications to have made their Peace with God Only they must be careful in the sequel or following part of their Life to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance and as both has been suggested and will be further given in directions to pursue or go on in Holiness and to maintain this temper and state by all suitable Endeavours to their lives end And it will be highly convenient if any possible opportunity offer to come solemnly to the Great Sacrament of Reconciliation the Lord's Supper the best Seal in this kind and thither to bring our Resolutions and Vows there to ratify them to God and form them into a Covenant with him publickly before Men and Angels devoting and consecrating our selves to him in the Union of his Church through our Crucified Lord. And thus upon the whole of a Man's present making his Peace with God Which is a Second step in our First Stage of Preparation towards a happy Death Matter and a Method for Devotion suitable to the Third Chapter 1. IN secret having at least briefly prayed and being composed Examine Conscience First touching the more remarkable preventions of Grace which through thy life as well in thy younger as especially in thy later Years God has vouchsafed thee and what effect they have had upon thee That is 1. What Convictions or sense of particular Sins their guilt and danger has God at such and such times affected thee with or made thee feel And didst thou yield thereto Didst thou acknowledge thy Sin hateful deserving God's Wrath and Curse both here and Eternally Thou couldest not it may be but be offrighted at the sense of thy danger But notwithstanding thou sawest thy Sin thus provoking to God and thus dangerous to thy self Didst thou not then nay even now dost thou not still love it as much as ever if thou couldst but safely enjoy it Didst thou by what sins thou sawest in thy self go on to enquire after other sins of which thou mightest be ignorant to search thy heart to the bottom that thou mightest attain a full sight of all thy sins if possible and so a full sence of thy sinful and miserable Estate Or didst thou stifle these first impressions divert them by Company Pleasure or other Employment put them off to a convenient season And though perhaps that season has come didst thou ever yet resume or endeavour to recover and improve them Answer each of these Questions faithfully to thy self 2. What Contrition or Sorrow for Sin upon such sight and sence of thy sin as beforesaid hast thou ever conceived by God's moving thy heart even without any endeavours of thine And when thou hast felt those meltings of heart and that mourning temper hast thou cherish'd it retired or gone alone and considered the particular grievousness of thy Sins the vast multitude of them the Mercy Love and Goodness thou hast sinn'd against c. That by this means thy sorrow might bear in some measure a due proportion to thy guilt or hast thou endeavoured to put off the melancholy mood as thou hast accounted it and returned to the commission of the same or like Sins as formerly Further Examine In case thou hast made any improvements of the first workings of Grace What has been thy progress How far hast thou gone in the work of Repentance and making thy peace with God That is 1. Hast thou endeavoured fully to confess thy sins before God Not excusing this Act or reserving and flattering thy self touching that beloved Practice as if no Sin but heartily and impartially before God accusing thy self of all acknowledging thy full guilt and condemning thy self giving glory to God and owning his Justice whatever becomes of thee yet together deprecating his Wrath and supplicating for Pardon And in case thy Sins have been such which need Confession to men hast thou been free herein and faithful to thy own Soul Or hast thou through tenderness of face concealed together thy shame and sore Poor Soul Consider be faithful 2. Hast thou upon such Confessions and Deprecations really resolved on a new Life and set thy self seriously to study it Hast thou consulted of fit Methods of Amendment and Means proper to thy Condition for obviating the Wiles of the Devil and the Course of Temptation by which thou hast fallen Hast thou then particularly resolved upon these Means and Methods and endeavoured faithfully the Use and Practice of them 3. Hast thou then afterward by Faith betaken thy self to the Blood of Jesus as having a Sentence of Death in thy self lost and undone without that all-sufficient Sacrifice on the Cross but casting thy self on God's Mercy according to his Covenant of Grace and resolving to abide by it Lastly What have thy solemn penitential Prayers been in this Case What thy Vows And hast thou been at the Lord's Table according to thy Duty Hast thou used tolerable endeavours to perfect thy peace Or in what part of the fore-mentioned practice of Repentance hast thou stuck In what of these hast thou failed Be faithful remember Matters of greater concernment to thee than are these never did never can fall into thine enquiry Now secondly As to fuller present Prayer suitable to these Advices and the Penitent's Condition whosoever hath thus faithfully examined Conscience cannot be at a loss either 1. For Confession Every Particular to which Conscience pleads guilty is most easily by accusing ones self of it before God turned into proper and particular Confession As for example in the first point of Examination If guilty I accuse my self thus I have not yielded to these Convictions of my particular Sins of my of my c. their guilt and danger which yet thou O Lord hast affected me with and made me feel I did not acknowledge or inwardly agree that my Sin was so hateful so deserving thy Wrath and Curse as I begun to see it I could not indeed but be affrighted c. But if any should be so weak as that they cannot turn these and like Materials into Confession let them but again before God on their knees read over the Questions and putting them to their own Souls make answer to them This Answer I say is true proper and particular Confession most certainly engaging the heart made with understanding and attention as are not always some elegantly prepared and formed Confessions For instance as to this kind of Practice also in the 〈…〉 part of Examination 〈◊〉 Contrition or sorrow for sin upon such sight and sense of thy sin as beforesaid hast thou ever conceived by God's moving thy heart without any endeavours of thine own Answer More O God than I have now Or more than I have improv'd cherish'd kept or maintain'd Again Quest. When thou hast felt those meltings of heart and that mourning temper hast thou cherish'd it
up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Now though it may seem at first that in this kind of good works namely those usually called works of Charity only rich people are capable of laying up Treasure in Heaven or providing themselves hereafter any measure of happiness yet if we consider there are many good Offices or kind services that even the meanest sort sometimes may perform to their Superiors and that such services are of real value we may and must account that poor people endeavouring to do all the good they can to the Bodies Souls Estates or good names of others are as really charitable and if diligent to do such good as abundant in the work of Charity in their way as the most magnificent publick Benefactors in theirs and consequently will be as surely and gloriously rewarded He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Mat. 10. 41 42. In which surprising promise and as it were excess of Divine grace and goodness poor people ought for their comfort to take notice of three things 1 How small matters from them to whom little is given God esteems as Alms Even a Cup of cold water given to a fellow Christian as such or haply a little room or harbour in a corner of the poor Cottage to a weary or wet Passenger 2 How largely God will reward it with a righteous man's or a Prophet's reward according to the nature of the person we designed to do good to 3 The sureness of the reward Verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward that is by an ordinary Figure he shall most certainly receive it Let no one then think he cannot be Charitable or bountiful because he is not rich but let him not fail to do all the good Luk. 12. 33. to others that lies in his way Hereby he provides himself Bags which wax not old a treasure in heaven that faileth not That is he makes a happy preparation for another world § 9. But there is one sort of good works or of Charity to others which transcends far all other Bounty and that is Charity to the souls of Men labour in instructing those who are ignorant of God and of their Duty in retrieving and delivering men from a leud course of life to being serious and strict in Religion in bringing them home to Christ and his Church This is a Charity as far surpassing that which is meerly extended to Mens bodies as the soul in excellence surpasseth the body He that can help a soul to Heaven before him hath certainly sent an unvaluable treasure thither For if any man err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins James the last 19 20. Wherefore to conclude this Head touching good works Let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult And thus as to the third Duty in our first Period of providing for our selves a Happiness in another world against we leave this Matter and a Method suitable for Devotion to the Fourth Chapter FIrst Examine Whether ever hitherto thou hast thought in good earnest of laying up treasure or securing thy self a Happiness in Heaven Shouldest thou die this moment what reasonable hopes hast thou that thou shouldest be blessed in that other world or after death rest from thy Labours Particularly 1. Hast thou any sound clear or even tolerable conceptions and rational sense of the life or happiness of a soul abstract or separate from the body Or art thou not as it were drown'd in brutish Apprehensions understanding none but a sensual life And are not Spiritual and Heavenly things in a manner Dreams Fables and Romances to thee 2. Hast thou lookt upon it as thy Duty and Concernment above all things to secure to thy self a happiness to come 3. Didst thou ever seriously set thy self by Resolution and Prayer to chose the Everlasting God for thy happiness Does thy soul in any such measure cleave to him at present as that thou canst with any probable hope claim him for thy Portion 4. Hast thou pursued this choice by an honest endeavour of holy life and abounding in good works according to thy quality and power Or hast thou not been idle a Loiterer and secure flatterer of thy self never really active herein Or what is worse yet very frequent dost thou not meerly profess to know God but in works deniest him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. vers ult Secondly Having thus strictly examined thy Conscience in the fear of God by Serious Prayer set thy self First to Confess thy particular guilt in this case according to the true answer of thy Conscience In which behalf if thou hast practised the Devotional parts annext to the foregoing Chapters and especially the Directions of the last thou canst not be at any loss Accuse thy self sincerely and unbosom thy heart before God by going over again the Particulars Remember the Holy God loveth truth in the inward parts and will be readier both to become thine and make thee his if he see thee to be cordial in the endeavour of making him thy choice Further proceeding in Prayer 2dly Look upon Acknowledge and adore God as the only true Happiness of Man's Soul as the Father of Spirits who made thy Soul for himself and put into it this property that it can be satisfied with nothing below himself And if thou findest an inward sense hereof in thy heart immediately as another act of Prayer 3dly Bless God for this Token of good for such certainly it is to thee a sign that notwithstanding all thy neglects of God notwithstanding all thy pursuits and wandrings after Airy bubbles of happiness in this World he has not yet totally cast thee off and left thee to thy own vain heart Wherefore now 4ly By way of Petition beg of him that he will graciously through Christ Jesus vouchsafe to become thy Treasure and portion As in the foregoing Chapter directed offer him up thy heart and beseech him to accept it and both to make and keep it his Lament thy wandrings and thy long alienation from thy alone true good Acknowledge thy Disappointments of Happiness and perpetual missing of satisfaction in the World and beseech of God again and again that he will enable thee with purpose of heart to cleave unto
easie to demonstrate the sinfulness unreasonable and mischievous consequents of worldly incumbrances than to cast them off or find our a proper way to be rid of them And the mischief is Men are usually unwilling to be delivered of this Evil. They are golden Chains which this World casts about us and those Men think too precious to fling away However let me consider have I a Treasure in Heaven Is God my Happiness Does this World only put me at enmity with God at least keep me at a distance with him Does it debase and enslave my Soul as I cannot but be sensible Shall I not then be willing to be free from business and slavery To be in perfection and possess'd of a blisful State To behold God face to face To love admire and enjoy him rejoycing before him and in him Eternally Without Weariness without Satiety nay even without Intermission or Allay of the highest pleasure my Nature is capable of Can I refrain desiring at least consenting to be thus blessed Can I choose but long for such Change and to that purpose shall I not sit loose to any thing that shall hinder it Now if I duly attend to my own daily Experience my worldly Affairs Cares and Business do much hinder any present Relish of or Preparedness for these Joys They take me off even from minding them and if I suffer them still to possess my Thoughts and Affections they will hinder me in my very passage to them nay possibly obstruct it totally Let me then resolve to put both my Self and Affairs into such Order as that I may at any time be ready to quit them whensoever and howsoever my Lord shall Call Let my mind be so composed and my worldly Affairs so disposed as that if God please suddenly to Call me hence there may be nothing in my Affairs which may much require my longer attendance on them and I my self may be as willing to leave them as they are fit to be left which is the Fourth Duty in Order to a Happy Death and what we are at present to consider more narrowly Here indeed may seem to be Two distinct Duties put together under one Head The Reducing our Worldly Affairs into such Order and our Minds to such a frame as that we may be ready for a sudden removal But the main intention and effect aimed at being one and single namely the Soul's disintanglement or freedom for its flight and that not being to be obtained but by these two joynt means and they too so interfering as we shall see there was reason thus to joyn or unite them For supposing a Mans Worldly Affairs in confusion and disordered it will be very hard for him even upon the most evident and unavoidable approach of death so to quiet himself as to be willing to go instantly out of this World and leave them so Again suppose a Mans Affairs never so well modelled and settled but yet his heart running out after the World and fixing upon it it will be impossible for him with ease to quit or bid adieu to what he desires so much and so passionately delights in or dotes upon These two therefore in practice cannot and must not be separated nor is there any disentanglement except both be effected But suppose such care and practice as to both as here directed there will ensue a certain disentanglement from this World in the Soul which so practises § 3. Now for proper directions to this purpose the following particulars may be effectual 1. Set bounds to thy own desires and even to thy designs of getting Consider with thy self what may suffice thee and thine and resolve to acquiesce therein not concerning thy self to be farther rich And for adjusting and determining what may be sufficient Consult not so much with the Cravings of unreasonable Appetite or with Opinion I might say Pride and Ambition as with the Necessities and Conveniences of Nature and of thy Degree Station or Condition Plain and Common People ought not to think of living equal to the Gentry Gentlemen not of living like Nobles and proportionably is it to be resolved touching Men of other Orders and Degrees Now such measures being taken and according to them Men propounding to themselves no more than what may comfortably carry them in such or such a rank through the World leaving to theirs what may also with Vertue and Industry as beforesaid support them like their Relatives we shall find the generality of Men might most reasonably take up within much narrower bounds than usually they do and so make their Lives much happier their Hopes of future blessedness much more assured and their Death 's much more Comfortable than are the Lives Hopes and Deaths of most Common Christians For such People can neither live happily nor die comfortably who still spend their whole time in getting or in aiming at more There must be time to use to enjoy and then to dispose of as well as to get if we will have comfort either in Life or Death And such times those can never have who never think they have enough but are still crying and designing More More and plodding for it How soon might that Man be rich who would satisfie himself with the Necessities or even decent Conveniencies of Nature And these certainly most People ought to satisfie themselves with But what Man can ever be rich who accustoms himself to esteem nothing to himself a superfluity and so nothing enough Alas how little is it that Nature requires and what a little more with Frugality and Prudence would supply or administer decent conveniencies It is Si ad Naturam vives nunquam eris pauper Si ad Opinionem nunquam eris dives Exiguum Natura desiderat Opinio immensum Epicurus Vt Seneca Epist 6. still I say only Opinion that suffers not Men of Ordinary Estates to be rich for Opinion indeed never will be satisfied Those therefore who will not set due bounds to their desires with respect to the requisits of Nature and the Condition of themselves and theirs must in the greatest plenty still be poor unsatisfied unquiet in perpetual turmoil and in most uneasie concernment and consequently most unfit for Death Indeed such Persons cannot be conceived in the greatest abundance to have either Mind or Estate settled This therefore must be resolv'd on in the first place Now to be short such competency either thou hast or thou hast not If thou hast thy business is as soon as may be so to settle all as will presently be directed If thou hast not consider what way of living thou art in Is it such as therein thou hast a reasonable prospect before thee that by industrious proceeding in thy Calling or way of Life thou shalt get what thou judgest may be a Competency Or else art thou a Person of an unsettled rambling Mind and Life fixt in no Calling living at large or what is the same in effect living befides or beyond