Kingdome which the holy shall immediately upon their deaths enter into but what is all this to thee when thou must be without it for ever thou mayst see Abram afar off and Lazarus in his bosome but between him and thee there will be a great gulf As a stranger thou mayst hear the last Will and Testament of Christ read and therein the fair rich and large portions which he hath bequeathed to his children John 17.24 Luke 12.32 but not the least mention made of any good for thee look from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation and see if there be one good word spoken to thee whil'st thou art in thy natural estate Moses like thou mayst by the prospective of Scripture have a Pisgah sight of Palestine of that good Land flowing with milk and hony but as God is true if thou diest in unregeneracy thou shalt never enjoy one foot of it The worst of a Saint is past when he dyeth but thy worst O sinner is to come there are some dregs in the bottome which thou art yet to drink down thou hast thy good things here and he his evil things but at death he is comforted and thou art tormented He hath all his hell upon earth his heaven is to come thou hast all thy heaven on earth and thy hell is to come when thou passest into another world the hell of a Saint is an easie hell But ah how hot is that hel in hel how fiery is that furnace how how terrible those torments I may conceive somewhat the damned feel most but no tongue can expresse them But it may be Friend thou art one that thrivest in this world and therefore dost not trouble thy head much lesse thy heart with the things of another world thou art unwilling to put a spoonful of those thoughts into thy sauce least it should make thy meat unsavory it would mar thy mirth and spoile thy sports As Sigismund the Emperor did not love the pronunciation of the Greek Zeta because it represented the gnashing teeth of a dying man so thou art resolved to banish such enemies as thou thinkest out of thy coasts and like a bear to go down that steep hill of death backward But know thou O man that whether thou wilt consider of thy death before-hand or no it is hastening upon thee though thou puttest it farre from thee whether thou wilt or no it draweth nigh to thee the ship moveth not so fast in the waters nor the Sun in the heavens as thou art hastening towards thy long thine everlasting home and then death will bring thee up a reckoning for all thy sweet morsels merry meetings time and talents whatsoever believe it then thou wilt have sowre sauce for all thy sweet-meats thy presumption will prove but like Hamans banquet before execution What advantage then will thy suni-shiny morning of common mercies bring thee when as on Sodome it will be followed with flakes of fire and brimstone before night Dost thou not know that when the wicked flourish it is that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92.7 The higher thou ascendest on this ladder the greater thy fall when death turneth thee off thou art but ripening for ruine and fatting on earth to fry in hell all the while thou art flourishing in a course of sinning nay thou mayest be much nearer hell then thou art aware of The mettal when it shineth brightest in the fire is nearest melting thou like a candle mayst give a blaze when thou art going out of the world into blacknesse of darknesse for ever The Hawk flieth high and is as highly prized being set upon a Pearch and set out with the gingling bells of encouragement and carried on his Masters fist but being once dead and pitched over the Pearch is cast upon the dunghill as good for nothing The Hen scrapes in the dust nothing rewarded while she liveth but being dead is brought as a choice dish to her Masters Table Thus wicked men in this life are set in high places godly men lie groveling with their mouths in the dust but being dead the former is cast into hell the latter brought to Heavens Table But that I may awaken thy conscience O secure sinner and make thee look about thee whil'st there is time and hope if the gracious and powerful God please to assist I shall give thee an estimate of the sinners losses by death by which thou mayest see what a difference there is between the death of the titular and the real Christian And here Reader thou must help me with thy conceptions for I shall come infinitely short in my expressions As none can endure it so none can declare it for who knoweth the power of Gods wrath Psa 90.11 The oratour when he would describe the violent death of the Crosse doth it by an Aposiopesis What saith he shall I say of the death of the Crosse Quid dicam in crucem tollere Tull. much more cause have I to speak so of this death What shall I say of this eternal death 1. By death thou shalt lose all thy earthly delights and carnal contentments The table of thy life possibly is richly spread with variety of outward enjoyments riches relations honours pleasures beauty and bravery but death will come in with a voider and take all away It is called an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5.4 and indeed it wil strip thee naked of all such garments and ornaments Thine eye shall no more see good Job 7.7 i. e. the good things of this life they will all die with thee as to thy use and comfort It is a doleful expression of Abram to Dives Thou hadst or thou receivedst thy good things in thy life-time Luk. 16.25 O what a cutting word was that to his heart when he was passed into another world Remember there was a time when thou and they were joyned together but now ye are parted for ever to have been happy Miserum est fuisse felicem was no small aggravation of his misery It is with thee while in this world as it was with the Jews in the Vineyards and fields of their Neighbours pluck and eat they might while there but pocket up and carry away they might not Deut. 23.24 25. Death is the great thief which will rob thee of all thy riches The wealthiest Emperor the next moment after death hath no more than the poorest beggar As thou camest forth of thy mothers wombe naked thou shalt return to go as thou camest and shalt take nothing in thy hand of all thy labour Eccles 5.15 That gold which thou lovest and trustest more than God these pebbles which thou valuest above the pearl of price that treasure on earth which thy heart is set upon more than on the true treasure in heaven will all leave thee when death findeth thee In his Treatise of love Mr. Rogers telleth us of one that being nigh death clapt a twenty shilling piece in his mouth saying Some
wiser then some I will take this with me however but alas poor fool he could not be so good as his word The Holy Ghost excellently termeth rich men rich in this world because riches will not make men rich in another world 1 Tim. 6.17 Death will seal a Lease of ejectment and turn thee out of all thy possessions and death will give thee a bil of divorce and separate thee from all thy relations The relations of Husband and Wife Parents and children are calculated only for the Meridian of this world and shall not out-live this life Thy dear husband or thy loving wife and thy most dutiful children wil all serve thee as Orpah did Ruth Ruth 1â—4 follow thee while thou art full but forsake thee when thou shalt be empty cleave to thee in thy health and life but leave thee in thy greatest danger at death and thy birth and breeding honour and respect wil serve thee in the like kind they are but a shadow which wil not be seen when the Sun of thy life is set The great distinctions in the other world wil be holy or unholy not noble or ignoble Be not afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his house is encreased for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat his glory shall not descend after him Psa 49.16 17. Death is the great leveller making Princes and Peasants equal All thy sinful pleasures will also be lost the sweet taste thou foundest in thy mouth wil be gone though they wil rise in thy stomach and after in thy belly be more bitter than gall Thy merry meetings jovial companions witty jests sporting recreations pictures for thine eyes musick for thine ears dainties for thy taste thine eating and drinking and all these delights on earth which thou solacest thy sensual soul with desiring no other heaven will all like leaves in the Autumn of thy death fall off from thee though in the short summer of thy life thou art richly laden with them yet in thy long thine everlasting Winter thou shalt be stript naked of them Thou mayest say to all the fore-mentioned delights of riches relations honours and pleasures and what ever it is which thou foolishly rejoycest in as Charles the fifth Emperor of Germany whom the world counted most happy did to his trophies treasures and things of the like nature A bite hinc A bite longe Be gone get you farre out of my sight Be assured that as a false harlot leaves her lovers wheâ— they are arrested for debt and followeth other customers so this painted strumpeâ— this deceitful world that now layeth opeâ— her fair breasts to allure thee to go a whoâ—ring after her and commit spiritual fornication with her when death shall arreâ— thee by a Writ from heaven will whollâ— forsake thee and follow them that survive now what a losse will this be But it may be thou comfortest thy self against this that all even good as well as bad will joyn with thee in this losse Reader dost thou consider that they who enjoy the stars all night and come in the morning instead thereof to enjoy the glorious Sun are no losers the Sun hath all the light of the stars and far far more Neither can the godly be properly called losers of these comforts because they enjoy them all and infinitely more in the blessed God As mony answereth all things Prov. 10.19 Mony is equivalently sheep oxen corn meat drink cloth whatsoever you want for this life is virtually in mony so God to a gracious soul after death will answer all things he will be eminently and virtually Father Mother wife child wealth honour pleasure and all things though he loseth them here he will find them there and much more but when thou O sinner losest them in this world they shall never be made up to thee in another world thou losest not only the streams but the fountain not only the beams but the Sun and therefore thy portion will be scorching drought and dismal darknessâ— Besides these things are not the portion the all of a good man they are not his estate or inheritance they are but an additional over-plus cast in over and above So much the words of Christ imply Matth. 6.33 And all other things shall be added to you As when a father giveth his son a thousand pounds worth of ware he casteth in paper and packthread or one thousand yards of cloth he doth not stand upon the bredth of the thumb which is to be allowed in measurng so God having given himself and his Son to his Saints out of his vast bounty casteth in the creatures as an over-plus they are not their estate or portion or all no when a godly man at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus shall see his house and land and outward good things in that common flame which shall burn up the earth he may then behold it with comfort Omnia mea n eoum portâ— â—ias and say with the Philosopher I have my all still But sinner thy losse of them will be a losse indeed for these things are thy all they are all thy God and all thy Christ and all thy happinesse and all thy heaven they are all the fulnesse of joy and all the rivers of pleasures and all the weight of glory which thou shalt enjoy They are all thy riches all thine inheritance all thy consolation all thy reward all thy portion and all thou shalt be worth for ever look Luk. 16.24 They have received their consolation cold comfort indeed ye have your reward * Mat. 6.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they receive it as their full pay whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an acquittance It is one of the saddest speeches in the Book of God whose portion is in this life Psal 17.14 ah poor portion Thou hast no other Paradise but thy garden no other mansion but thy beautiful building no other inheritance but thy Land no other kindred but thy wife and children no other honour but the stinking breath of thy flattering neighbours no other God but thy gold no other heaven but the earth all thy estate is in dust rubbish and lumber surely then it will be a losse with a witnesse to lose all that in a moment and that for ever wherein all thy happinesse consisteth Will it not be a sad sight for thee to stand as it were upon the shoare and to see the vessel in which is imbarqu'd all thy treasures all thy near and dear relations all thy respect and esteem all thy joy and delights sinking before thine eyes and lost for ever or to see that house in which is thy Plate and Jewels thy wife and children and all that ever thou art to be worth in a flame and nothing possible to be recovered would not thine eyes affect thine heart with unspeakable horrour Now this O Reader will be thy case if thou art unsanctified at
the person that had but gained this good and the first could not have been without this The eternal death of the soul consisteth in its farthest separation from that God whose favour is far better than life This is the lowest round in that ladder by which thou shalt descend into the bottomless pit This is the foot of this black bloody account the head of that arrow which pierceth the hearts of the damned This is the worst effect and fruit of sin that it is privative of our union with and fruition of God Vines on James 4.8 pag. 23. Depart from me is as terrible a word as everlasting fire Ah whether do they go that go from him when he alone hath the power of eternal life how dismal how dark must that dungeon be where this Sun will not shine in the least degree with the light of his countenance well may it be called blacknesse of darknesse for ever Jude 15. the hell of the hypocrites which will be hottest of all is set out by this Job 13.16 the hypocrite shall not come before God Couldst thou have all the mercies that the world can give yet in this want of God thou wouldest be compleatly miserable Ten thousand words cannot speak a soul more unhappy than those two words Without God Ephes 2.12 Thou mayest be without riches without friends without health without liberty nay without all outward blessings and yet blessed but if without God thou art cursed with a curse When God would couch all arguments in one to perswade to duty this is instead of all Obey my voice and I will be your God Jer. 7.23 when he would disswade and drive them from iniquity Sicut Sole recedente succedunt densae tene brae sic Deo recedente succedit horribilis maledictio Paraeus in â— Hos this is the stinging whip Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6.8 When he would strike Israel dead with a blow this is it Wo unto them when I depart from them Hos 9.12 How sad a saying is that of Saul I am sore distressed and well he might the Philistines are upon me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28.15 If a partial Eclipse of the Sun cause such a drooping in the whole Creation what will a total Eclipse of this Sun cause how mournfully doth Micah bemoan the losse of of his dunghil deity Ye have taken away my gods and what have I morâ—e and what is this that ye say unto me what aileth thee Judg. 18.24 surely the damned as they will have infinitely more cause so they will with more horrour and anguish bewail the losse of the true God though all the tears in hell are not sufficient to bewail the losse of this heaven If the body from which the soul is parted be such a deformed sad spectacle what shall the condition of that soul be from which God is parted for ever How unable are the children of God to bear the absence of God in this life though it be but in part and for a short time take Heman Psal 88.14 15. Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy terrours I am distracted Observe the good man is at deaths door and no wonder when as to his apprehension the life of his soul had left him for though no man can see the essential face of God and live yet no Saint can live unlesse he see the providential face of God Consider Job a man of courage one that had entered the list against Satan and foild him The Sabeans and Chaldeans were too hard for his servants and captivated his cattel but Job was too hard for them he conquered them the winde that blew down the house on his children could not blow down the tower of his confidence his hold on Christ yet when this valiant Warriour comes to encounter with the withdrawings of God how exceedingly is his courage withdrawn Job 13.24 wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Why Lord are all the appearances from heaven so black and lowring Why is it that I see not the former smiles of thy face O what is the cloud that hindereth the light of thy countenance from shining on me What sin is the mist which is gathered about the true Sun impeding my fight of thee Behold our Lord Jesus himself that could bear the spiteful buffetings of some the bloody scourgings of others the scorn and derisions of many that could suffer the treason of one Apostle the denial of another and the unkindnesse of them all without complaining yet when the Deity did but withdraw it self for a time that the humanity might suffer for our sins how mournfully doth he sigh out that expression My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth 27.46 It was not his torturing from men nor the terrours of devils not the presence of all the powers of darkness that Christ complained so much of as the absence of God Now meditate O sinner if the departure of God though partial and temporal were so terrible to his Saints to his Son how intolerable will the losse of God be to thee when it shall be total and eternal Do they mourn so bitterly when for a small moment he forsaketh them though with great mercies he gathereth them when in a little wrath he hides his face from them though with everlasting kindnesse he hath mercy on them Isa 54.7 8. How bitterly wilt thou complain when he shall forsake thee to eternity when he shall hide his face from thee for ever and not bestow on thee the least mercy or the smallest kindnesse This will be a woe with a witnesse Suffering may be the portion of Saints but separation from God the punishment of Devils As the face and comfortable presence of God is the greatest felicity of the saved Summa mors animae est alienatio à vita Dei in aeternitate supplicii Aug. de civit Dei lib. 6. so the full withdrawings or absence of God will be the greatest misery of the damned Now thou doest not value the enjoyment of God thou thinkest often that he is too neer thee the coming of God to thee is as to the Devils a torment Matth. 8.29 If he draw nigh to thee sometime in a Sermon in a private Instruction in a motion of his spirit or in a conviction of thy conscience thou wishest him farther off with his precise laws that thou mighst have more liberty for thy fleshly lusts The voice of thine hellish heart unto God is Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21.14 Well thy petition shall be granted to thy destruction and God will take thee at thy word and give thee thy wish to thy woe when thy doom shall be to depart from him Luke 13.27 Matth. 25.41 and then thou shalt know the incomparable worth of him thy understanding shall
hear a voice this hour as that wicked Pope did Veâ—i Miser in judicium Come thou wretch unto thy particular and eternal judgement what wouldst thou do where wouldst thou appear and where wouldst thou leave thy glory Isai 10.3 I would not for a world take thy turn How is it possible that thou canst eat or drink or sleep with any quietness of mind that in the day thy meat is not sauced with sorrow and thy drink mingled with weeping that in the night thou art not scared with dreams and terrified with visions when thy whole eternity dependeth upon that little thread of life which is in danger every moment to be cut asunder and thou to drop into hell Art thou a man that hast reason and canst thou be contented one hour in such a condition Art thou a Christian that believest the Word of God to be truth and canst thou continue one moment longer in that Sodom of thy natural estate which will be punished with fire and brimstone I tell thee didst thou and the rest of thy carnal neighbours but give credit to Scripture thou and they too would sooner sleep in a chamber where all the wals round the cieling above and floor below were in a burning light flame then rest quietly one moment in thine estate of sin and wrath But for thy sake thy condition yet not being desperate though very dangerous that thou mightest avoid the easeless misery of the sinner and attain the endlesse felicity of the Saint I have purposely written the next Use which I request thee as thou lovest thy life thy soul thine unchangeable good nay I charge thee as thou wilt answer the contrary at the great and dreadful day of the Lord Jesus that thou read carefully and that thou practice faithfully the means and directions therein propounded out of the Word of God 3. My third Use shall be of exhortation to those that are dead in sins to labour for this spiritual life Whoever thou art that wouldest have gain by thy death then get Christ to be thy life Hast thou read of that fulness of joy of those rivers of pleasures of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory of that Kingdom that cannot be shaken of that enjoyment of Christ of that full immediate fruition of God and in him of all good of that perfect freedom from all evil which they and only they shall be partakers of who have this spiritual life And is not thy heart inflamed with love to it thy soul enlarged in desire after it Extrema Christianorum desiderantur etsi non exâ—r iâ— Hiâ—â— thy will resolved to venture all and undertake any thing for it Surely if thou art a man and hast reason thy will and affections will be carried out after things that are good but if thou hast but a spark of Christianity thou canst not but be exceedingly ravished with things so eminently so superlatively so infinitely good The Historian observeth that the riches of Cyprus invited the Romans to hazard dangerous fights for the conquering it How many storms doth the Merchant sail through for corruptible treasures How often doth the Souldier venture his limbs nay his life for a little perishing plunder Reader I am perswading thee to mind the true treasure durable riches even those which will swim out with thee in the shipwrack of death Stephen Gardiner said of justification by Faith only that it was a good supper doctrine though not so good a break-fast one So the power of godliness this spiritual life though it be not so pleasant to live in as to the flesh yet it is most comfortable to die with When Moses had heard a little of the earthly Canaan how earnestly doth he beg that he might see it Deut. 3.25 I pray thee let me go over and see the good Land that is beyond Jordan that goodly mountain and Lebanon Thou hast read a little of the heavenly Canaan and hast thou not ten thousend times more cause to desire it Plato saith If moral Philosophy could be seen with moral eyes it would draw all mens hearts after it May not I more truly say if the gain of a Saint at death could be seen with spiritual eyes with the eye of faith it would make all men in love with it and eager after it Baalam as bad as he was did desire to die the death of the righteous and surely they that dislike their way cannot but desire their end but God hath joyned them both together and it is not in the power of any man to put them asunder therefore if thou wouldst die their deaths thou must live their spiritual lives Holinesse is the seed out of which that harvest groweth If thou wouldst be safe when thou shalt launch into the vast Ocean of eternity if thou wouldst be received into the celestial habitation when thou shalt be turned out of thy house of clay make sure of this life in Christ If an Heathen Prince would not admit Virgins to his bed before they were purified Est 2.12 canst thou think the King of Kings will take thee into his nearest and dearest embraces before thou art sanctified Believe it heaven must be in thee before thou shalt be in heaven Unless the Spirit of God adorn thy soul as Abrams servant did Rebeckah with the jewels of grace thou art no fit Spouse for the true Isaak the Lord of glory The brutish worldling indeed would willingly live prophanely and yet die comfortably dance with the Devil all day and sup with Christ at night have his portion in this world with the rich man in the other world with Lazarus There is a story of one thaâ— b iâ—g repâ—â—ved for his vicious life and pâ—rswaded to mind godliness would anâ— often Thâ—t it was but sayâ—ng three words at his death â—nd he â—as sure to have eternal life probably his three words were Miâ—erere mei Deus but he riding one day over a bridge his horse stumbled and as boâ—h werâ— falling into the river he cryeth out Capiat omnia diabolus â—o se and mâ—n â—nd all to the Devil As he l ved so he died with three words 〈…〉 such as he hoped to have had As the young swaggerer told his gracelesse companion when they had been with Ambrose and seen him on his death-bed nothing affrighted at the approach of the King of terrors but triumphing over it O that I might live with thee and die with Ambrose But this cannot be an happy death is the conclusion of an holy life The God who giveth heaven hath in great letters written in his Word upon what termes and no other it may be had He chooseth to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thess 2.13 It is as possible for thee to enjoy the benefit of the Sons passion without the Fathers creation as without the Spirits sanctification Believe the word of truth John 3.3 Verily verily I say unto thee except a
others will be the comfortable of comfortables to thee Thou needest never fear ill news in thine ears having Christ and grace in thy heart others shall not be such unspeakable loosers by death but thou shalt be as great a gainer When thou liest on thy death bed where all thy friends and riches and earthly comforts will fail thee this spiritual life is the good part which shall never be taken from thee Thou maist look upward and see as it were God smiling on thee in the face of Christ and hear him call to his angels to go and fetch thee his childe who hast been all this while at nurse home to the fathers house Thou mayst look downward on thy relations and with much faith and chearfulness commit thy fatherless children to God and bid thy weeping widdow trust in him who will be infinitely better to them than ten thousand of the richest tenderest fathers and husbands in the world Thou maist look without thee into Scripture and behold it as a garden full of sweet flowers comforting cordials refreshing heart-reviing promises and though it be an inclosure to others its open and free to thee thou maist pick and choose cull and gather where thou pleasest and needst not fear to be chidden In the multitude of those perplexing thoughts which at that time may be within thee thou mayest finde choice comforts there to refresh thy spirit If thou look within thee thou shalt not have thy conscience like an unquiet wife frowning on thee and scolding at thee but thou shalt hear a little bird singing merrily and sweetly in thy breast Lord Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seeen thy salvation How joyful maist thou leave thy dearest wife to go to thine infinitely dearer husband How willingly maist thou forsake thy lovely children to go to thy loving God and Father How freely maist thou part with all thy friends honors and pleasures to go to the Congregation of the first-born those rivers of pleasures and eternal weight of glory How chearfully maist thou bid adieu to nothing for all things to stars and streams at best for a full immediate eternal enjoyment of the Sun himself of an immense Ocean of happiness With what a lively colour in thy face and true comfort in thy heart maist thou behold that pale-faced messenger death the thought of whom though a far off is death to others entering into thy Chamber and coming up to thy bed-side how heartily welcome maist thou bid him as knowing that he cometh purposely to give thee actual possession of fulness of joy unspeakable delights a Kingdom of glory that is eternal in the heavens O the gain of godliness the profit of piety surely the price of this pearl is scarce known in this world A Merchant will in a morning gain five hundred pound by a bargain whereas poor people work hard a whole day for a shilling such a rich trade driveth the godly man godlinesse brings in thousands and millions at a clap when the moral and civil yet unsanctified man may work hard and yet earn but some poor businesse some outward blessing God may give them and his eternal wrath at last Now Reader consider if here be not abundant encouragement for thee presently and diligently to labor for this spiritual life Is it not the gainfullest calling that ever was followed the richest trade ever was driven Why dost thou spend thy strength for what is not bread and thy labor for that which will not satisfie Hearken to me and eat thou that which is good and let thy soul delight it self in fatnesse As Saul said to his servants Hear now ye Benjamites will the son of Jesse give you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds 1 Sam 22.7 So say I to thee hearken O friend will a sensual fleshly life give thee such honor as to be the son of the infinite God such comfort as to drink of the pure rivers of Gods own pleasures and will it make thee bold at death and confident at judgement an heir of heaven and so happy in every condition Can it do this Can it give thee as godliness can so much in hand and infinitely more in hope If it can I will give up my cause and leave thee to thy choice but if it cannot as doubtless thou art convinced so unlesse thou art an Heathen among Christians why dost thou labour so much and so eagerly for the pampering and pleasing thy flesh for the food that perisheth and so little and so lazily for this food which will endure unto everlasting life It was an excellent answer of one of the Martyrs when he was offered riches and honors if he would recant Do but offer me somewhat that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ and you shall see what I will say to you Reader Could the world or the flesh shew thee any thing that were equal nay that were but ten thousand degrees inferior to Christ and godliness thou mightst have some colour for thy gratifying the flesh and unwillingness to walk after the Spirit but when the disproportion is so vast that the one is not worthy in the least to be compared with the other when the difference is as great as between a sea of honey and a spoonful of gall a whole world of pearles and a little heap of dirt an heaven of happiness and an hell of horror Is it not unconceivable madness and inexcusable folly to choose that life which is after the flesh and refuse that which is after the Spirit Reader if thou wouldst be truly honorable in the esteem of God himself who is the fountain of all honor If thou wouldst have those spiritual consolations which can warm the heart in the coldest night of affliction If thou wouldst be profitable to thy dear children to thy own soul be a reall gainer in prosperity in adversity while thou livest when thou dyest If thou wouldst when thy wealth and friends and flesh and heart shall fail thee have God in Christ to be the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever If thou wouldst in thy greatest extremity when thy soul shall be turned naked of all earthly delights out of thy body escape the fury of roaring Devils and unquenchable burnings If thou wouldst in that hour of thy misery find mercy and be received into the place of endlesse blisse then get this spiritual life this true wisdom to fear God and depart from evil Get wisdom get understanding forget it not above all thy gettings get wisdom Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand
riches and honor Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a tree of life to all that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 3.13 14 15 16 17 18. ANd now Reader I have done this large Use of Exhortation which is of such infinite concernment to thy precious soul but what thou wilt do or what use thou wilt make of it I know not Could I have told what other holy bait to have laid which had been more likely to have caught thy soul it is probable I should have laâ—d it I appeal to thy conscience whether tâ—ere be not unspeakable weight and unquestionable truth in the particulars which are laid down Well what sayest thou to them and what effect have they wrought upon thee Art thou resolved through the help of heaven speedily and diligently to practice the directions which I have from the Almighty God injoyned thee Is it not a thousand thousand pities that such endlesse matchlesse happinesse should be so gratiously offered by God and so unworthily neglected by men that an empty perishing world should be so eagerly pursued and heartily embraced when the unsearchable riches in Christ the Image of the blessed God eternal weight of Glory are basely undervalued and wretchedly despised Good Lord what teares of blood are sufficient to bewail this monstrous unthankfulness Friend if thou art truly resolved to obey the counsell of God thou wilt have cause to blesse that Providence which called me to this task and I may rejoyce in thee and thou in me at the day of Christ But if thou either delayest the work till thou art more at leisure or dalliest about it doing it as if thou didst it not I am sure the greatest wrong will be to thy self for behold thou sinnest against the Lord and be confident thy sins will sooner or later find thee out I come in the next place to my last Use which will be of consolation If they who have Christ for their life shall have gain by their death what comfort is here to the new born Creature Here is wine indeed to make glad the heart of every one that is holy Reader art thou sanctified and alive in Christ then thou art freed from all the misery which is mentioned in the first Use as the portion of the ungodly I may say to thee as Gryneus when he had been reproving and threatening sinners would turning to the Saint say Bone vir hoc nihil ad te Good man all this is nothing to thee Though they are losers thou shalt be a gainer by death Come but with the mouth of faith and thou mayst suck much honey from this combe thou mayst draw much milk of consolation from this breast to thee to die shall be gain Surely here is enough to ballast thy soul and keep it steady in the most tempestuous condition and to ballance and weigh down the greatest the heaviest affliction Hierom comforted the Hermite that was in a wildernesse sad and pensive Meditare coelum tam diu non eris in eremo If thou hadst hope only in this life thou wert of all men most miserable but because thou hast hope beyond this life thou mayst be of all men most comfortable Should such a man as I fly Nehem. 6.11 Should sucha a man as thou fear that art heir to a Crown to a Kingdom Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom In thy greatest losses this may support thee that death will be thy gain by giving thee possession of a life which will make amends for all If an heathen could say It is unbecoming a Roman spirit to cry out I am undone while Cesar was safe sure it is more uncomely for a Christian to complain as if he were undone when his soul is safe his eternal estate is secure For thy help I shall digest this Use into this method briefly First to shew thee against what it is comfortable Secondly wherein it is comfortable For the first It is comfortable first against the opposition of the world The world will hate thee because thou art not of the world John 15.19 She is a Paradise to her children and lovers but a Purgatory to aliens and strangers Whilst thou art in the stormy sea of this world thou art a ship bound for the Streights He that goeth towards the Sun shall have his shadow following him but he that goeth from it shall have it flie before He that goeth towards the Sun of Righteousnesse shall be sure to have these shadows these afflictions at his heels Infinite Wisdom seeth fit to imbitter the breasts of the creatures to wean thee from them Trouble upon earth is one legacie which thy Saviour hath left thee In the world ye shall have trouble John 16. ult The Souldiers were to have his garments Joseph was to have his body His Father was to have his soul He had his crosse left and that he bequeaths to his Disciples But be of good chear he did not only leave thee his crosse but hath also made thee heir to a Crown He never lookt over the threshold of Heaven Bish Hall Heaven upon eâ—rth Sect. 14. that cannot more rejoyce that he shall be glorious than mourn in present that he is miserable Oppose thy future felicity to thy present misery thy happinesse at death to the hardships thou meetest with in life thiâ— will be the way to counterpoise the temptation and to keep thee from fainting in tribulation whilst thou lookest not at the things which are seen which are temporal but at the things which are not seen which are eternal 2 Cor. 4. I have read of one Giacopo Senzaro an Italian who having been long in love and much crossed about his match filled a pot full of black stones only one white stone among them and being asked the reason answered There will come one white day meaning his marriage day which will make amends for all my black dayes So whatsoever poverty nakednesse hunger cold pain shame losses thou undergoest here in this world how many soever thy black dayes are of trials and troubles of persecutions and opposition thou mayst say there is one white day of death one long day of eternity coming which will make amends for all It was a brave speech of Luther when he was demanded where he would be when the Emperor should with all his forces fall upon the Elector of Saxonie who was the chief Protector of Protestants He answered Aut in coelo aut sub coelo either in heaven or under heaven Why shouldst thou be discouraged at any losse considering thou hast a treasure in heaven a more enduring substance At any disgrace considering thou art heir to a Crown of glory At any pain or sorrow when thou art entitled to fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore No storm should disquiet thee that shall shortly enjoy an everlasting calm What a
you are of his honor that was so tender of your eternal welfare how you testifie your thankfulnesse to him for all the bitter agony and ignominy which he suffered for you You shall shortly never more have the least opportunitie though you would give a thousand worlds for it to do any thing in for Gods glorie your own or others good Work therefore the work of him that sent you into the world while it is the day of your life for the night of death is hastening on you wherein you cannot work Up and be doing as a Christian as a Magistrate and the Lord be with you Sir I have no more to speak to you but that the Hearer of prayers may hear often from you that I may take heed to the ministrie which I have received of the Lord and fulfil it and to assure you that my prayers at the throne of grace shall be that you and your religious Consort may continue to dwell together as fellow heirs of the grace of life and your hopeful Children may be planted with and grow up in grace till they shall be transplanted into the true Paradise the Kingdom of Glorie This through the help of heaven shall be the petition of Your real Servant in the ever blessed Saviour George Swinnocke Febr. 15. 1658. 9. Christian Reader THere are two thing which should be of highest regard with us a serviceable life and a comfortable death and they are both so inseparably conjoyned that in vain do we hope for the one without the other which of these is to be preferred was a doubt which put the Apostle to an Anxious disquisition on the one side there was service on the other side there was gain if he lived he should preach Christ if he dyed he should enjoy Christ and remain with him for ever therefore Paul was at a stand and knew not what to determine Surely he had an holy heart that could thus set duty against enjoyment and think his service worthy to come into competition with his spiritual and eternal interests that which made Paul so indifferent and incurious as to the means was the resolved fixing of his scope his end scope was Christs glory now 't was all one to him how God would use him to such a purpose as a man that is resolved upon a journey taketh the way as he findeth it fair or foul t is enough that it leadeth him to his journeys end so Christ might be glorified either by his Ministry or by martyrdom Paul was indifferent 't was enough that Christ should be glorified none have such an unfeighned respect to Christs glory but those that live in the communion of his life mens tendency is according to the principle by which they are acted carnal men that act by their own life and live upon their own root bring forth fruit to themselves water riseth no higher than its fountain but those that have life from Christ use it for him to them to live is Christ as they live in him and by him so they live for him and to him We need then to take all occasions to press men to get into Christ that they may live in the communion of his life and in the strength and influence of it be carryed out to his glory this is that which will make life serviceable and death sweet and to this we need to be pressed by all kinde of arguments both those which are taken from Gods relation to us as also those which are taken from our expectations from him Rom. 14.8 We are the Lords by every kinde of right and title and therefore owe all manner of service to him even though nothing should come of it but they that do the Lords work will not want his wages though he might require our service out of meer soveraignty yet he condescendeth to propound a reward and that so full and ample that it should ravish our hearts every time we think of it These considerations which I have here loosely discoursed of are notably improved in the ensuing treatise which being communicated to me by a friend of the Author I could not but return it with this Character that 't is a discourse grave and judicious and yet quickened with such warmth and vigor of illustration as that it may be of great use to awaken men unto more seriousness in the great concernments of their souls among which nothing can be more momentous than our living in Christ that we may live to him and then with him for evermore this being signified I leave thee to the work it self which I cannot but judge to proceed from one both of a good head and heart and profess my self Thine in the service of the Gospel Tho. Manton THE PREFACE and EPISTLE TO THE READER Especially of the Parish of Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire and Borden in Kent as also the occasion of this Treatise I Have sometime considered with my self not without some remorse and grief of spirt the multitudes of men and women that even in those places where the Word of God is plainly and powerfully taught run headlong in the broad way which leadeth to destruction And indeed if my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night though every tear were a tear of blood I could never sufficiently bewail the slain of the daughter of my people of that Parish to which the providence of God hath called me That the lying vanities of this world should by most be so greedily pursued and the reall mercies relating to a better world so wretchedly despised that a brutish flesh which must shortly be food for wormes should be so highly prized and constantly gratified and an angelical spirit the soul which must live for ever so basely slighted and unworthily neglected that every soul-damning lust should be so heartily embraced and the soul-saving Lord but coldly and complementally entertained that the road to Hell should be so exceedingly filled and the way to Heaven almost wholly unoccupied Surely this ought to be for a bitter lamentation and O what sea of blood is enough to bemoan this horrid wickednesse It hath seemed to me therefore a matter worthy of diligent enquiry what special Malefactors should be indicted for these many soul-mischeifs and soul-murders which are committed amongst us And truly by that acquaintance which I have with the Word of God and experience of the soul-affairs of men I find though many Accessaries might be named that ignorance ought to be arraigned and condemned as one of the principals The people perish for want of knowledge Hos 4.6 Inner darkness is the beaten path to utter darkness to the blackness of darkness for ever Men in this mist of ignorance like ships run upon those rocks which split them eternally As the Indians prefer every toy and trifle before their Mines of Gold so they every sensuall sinful pleasure every foolish perishing creature before the beautiful Image of God the
pardoning directing preventing mercy every day nay every moment and is not all this worth a prayer Upon no account neglect the offering up of these morning and evening sacrifices let thy prayers and of the rest in the family come up before the Lord in the morning like incense and the lifting up of thine hands at night as an evening sacrifice Do not say as sometimes I have heard of thee that thou canst not spare time for these duties thy family is great and thou canst not get them altogether thy business is great and a little time spent this way may wrong thee I answer thee Canst thou get all thy family together twice a day to set meals for their bodies and canst thou not get them together twice a day for set meals family duties for their souls 2. What greater or weighter business canst thou have then the working out the salvation of thy own and the souls committed to thy charge are not the most important affairs thou canst possibly deal about but toys and trifles to this 3. Was not Davids family greater then thine and his occasions weighter and yet he could find time though a King for family duties Psal 101.9 He and his Queen did both instruct their child in the things of God 1 Chron. 28.9 Pro. 4.3 to 10. Pro. 31. If thou art poor and saist thou art to provide for thy family see an answer to that in this book pag. 187.188.189 Though God will give you both another manner of answer to your foolish pretences when ye appear at the judgement seat of Christ Have a special care also of the sanctification of the Lords day in thy family remember the living God commandeth thee that thou thy son thy daughter thy man-servant and thy maid-servant and all within thy gate keep that day holy Do not make the sins of others thine by thy pattern or permission let not that queen of days be defloured or prophaned by idleness earthly thoughts words or actions spend the whole time which thou sparest from the publike Ordinances in secret and private duties as praying reading singing chatechising taking an account of thy children and servants what they know of the mysteries of Christ and particularly what they have learned that day Esteem it a special priviledge a great mercy that thou and thine may upon that day sequester your selves wholly from worldly imployments and enjoy communion with the blessed God in the means of grace This I shall be bold to tell thee that Religion and the service of the most high God in thy family dependeth much yea very much upon thy observation of the Lords day thou mayst expect its increase or decrease according to thy sanctification or prophanation of it In the Primitive times when the question was Servasti Dominicum the answer was Christianus sum omittere non possum Thou pretendest to be a Christian make conscience of every minute of that day of Christ Be sure that thou and as many of thy family as can possily be spared attend with all diligence and reverence at the publike place of worship there God receiveth the greatest praises and there he bestoweth the choicest mercies O blessed are they that dwell in his house blessed are they that wait at Wisdoms gates that watch at the posts of her doors Prov. 8. In all things shew thy self a pattern to them that are under thy care and charge the peop e committed to thy government will sooner imitate thy doings then obey thy sayings Sin cometh in at first by propagation but is increased exceedingly by imitation thou that hast thy children and servants following thee either to heaven or to hel hast need choose a right path even the narrow way that leadeth to life Weigh thy words considering that they will learn thy language avoid those sinful expressions of Faith and Troth let your yea be yea and your nay nay for whatsoever is more is evil of repeating others oathes of speaking irreverently of the great God and his word of wishing evil on any man for the command is Bless them that curse Mat. 5.44 let no evil communication proceed out of thy lips but let thy speech be seasoned with grace that it may administer good and be exemplary to the hearers Look well to thy works that they be agreeable to the word of God In thy Religious performances especially manifest all reverence fervency seriousness that thy children and servants may see that thou art in earnest about soul-affairs about eternity-concernments thou little knowest how profitable such a pattern may be unto them Do thy utmost use all means commanded thee to save thy self and them that dwell with thee Be confident that shortly Christ will say to thee as Eliah to David With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness What is become of the children and servants which I intrusted thee with will it be enough thinkest thou for thee then to answer Lord For my children I brought them up without any charge to the Parish or Lord I bred them Gentlemen or I put them out to trades or I left them competent estates And for my servants I paid them their wages gave them their meat and drink according to my agreement with them When Christ shall reply Man what is become of their souls which I created capable of the immediate fruition of my self which I redeemed with my precious blood what shame will then cover thy face and what horror fill thy heart when the blood of their souls shall be required of thee O therefore let Joshuahs practice and resolution be thine That thou and thy house will serve the Lord Josh 24.15 Fourthly Make Religion and the worshipping and glorifying the great God the great business of thy whole life Improve all thy time power estate interests and talents whatsoever to the utmost for the honor of God and thine own everlasting good Look on thy self as created preserved supplyed with nightly daily hourly mercies not for the service of thy flesh no that end were mean and low but that thou mightest be enabled unto and encouraged in the service of the glorious God Surely saith that noble Lord Du Plessiâ— In the epistle before Veritaes Christia Relig. If all the world were made for man then man was made for more then the world All the favors thou enjoyest are but baitslaid by God to catch thy soul as they come all from him so let them be improved all for him It is godliness alone that will hold out when thou comest to the greatest hardships at the day of affliction and the hour of thy dissolution The good man and his godliness are like Saul and Jonathan lovely in their lives and in their deaths they are not divided therefore exercise thy self unto godliness It may be thou art one to whom God hath given much in the world I must tell thee that much will be required of thee the greater thy receipts are the greater thy returns must be
first mover they follow its motion thus it is with the unregenerate part of a man it hath proper ends of its own pride and flesh-pleasing and the like contrary to the ends of the spirit but in obedience to the regenerate part the Christian leaveth the former ends and follows the ends of the latter Bonum est mihi si Deus me uti pro clipeo dignetur Bern. The honour of Christ is exceeding dear to a true Christian It is dearer then his name Lord saith a Father use me for thy shield to keep off those wounds of dishonour which would fall on thy majesty Let the reproaches wherewith they would reproach thee fall upon me Prorsus Satan est Lutherus sed vivit regnat Christus Amen And Luther is called a Devil saith Luther in an Epistle to Spalatinus but be it so so long as Christ is magnified I am well apaid nay the honour of Christ is dearer than life to a believer Paul as one saith of him stood a tip-toe to see which way he might glorifie Christ most whether by life or death Neither count I my life dear unto me so I may finish the Ministry I have received of the Lord Jesus Act. 20 and 24. I come now to the second thing promised and that is to manifest wherein the christian that hath Christ for the principle pattern comfort and end of his life shall be a gainer by death And truly Reader in speaking of this gain I shall acknowledge my self at a losse though my tongue were as the pen of a ready writer it could never expresse it and if my pen were as the tongue of a ready speaker it could never describe it The land of Canaan notwithstanding all the helps we have is still for the most part terra incognita an unknown land The sights there are light inaccessible as to mortal eyes 1 Tim. 6.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. quod fando explicari à quopiam homine non potest Beza â—rasm ita eo ponunt and the sounds there are words not audible as to mortal eares 2 Cor. 12.4 words which may not or cannot be uttered or both One being asked what God was answered that he must be God himself before he could know God fully I am sure it is requisite that that Christian should be in heaven first who would know heaven fully Fame which in other things is too free and prodigal in this is too sparing and penurious and that in so great a degree that Reader after thou hast heard it set forth by the holiest heavenliest man alive though of the greatest capacity and oratory yet if ever thou gettest thither thou wilt finde cause to speak as the Queen of Sheba did in another case 1 Kings 10 6 7. It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy glory and thine excellency Howbeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told me the delight and happiness exceedeth the same which I heard There it is indeed that God doth more for the believer then he is able to ask or think As the losse of the damned will be beyond the most melancholy mans fear so the gain of the saved will be above the strongest christians faith The eye of a man may see much good the ear of a man may hear more the heart of a man may conceive most of all but yet neither hath eye seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 They which have written most of this subject might have added at the end of their books as in other Treatises some have done Desiderantur nonnulla or plurima desunt More is desired or more is wanting It is as easie saith one to compasse the Heavens with a span to contain the Ocean in a nutshel as to relate heavens happinesse Reader I shall speak to this subject but briefly Set the Holy Land before thee as it is in a Map in a little room yet by what I shall speak in this place and in the the last use as the spies by the clusters of grapes thou maiest gather the land is good it floweth with milk and honey and this is some of the fruit of it Numb 13.27 The christians gain by death will appear in these two particulars He shall gain a freedome from all evil the fruition of all good and is not this man a gainer Ademptio omnium malorum First he shall by death be freed from all evil the immediate and full presence of the chiefest good which the believer shall enjoy after death will cause the absence of all evil The influences of that Sun will scatter every mist and disperse all clouds which now darken the conditions of pious souls The day of a christians dissolution will be the day of his redemption Luke 21.28 this may be the reason why the Apostle placeth redemption last saith an Expositor 1 Cor. 1.30 Now we have Christ made into us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification but then redemption When the Saint is passed through the red Sea of death and landed at the true Canaan he shall then see all his bodily and spiritual enemies dead on the shore In the middle Region there are storms and tempests and so here below but above all is calm and quiet While the christian is upon earth evils like Jobs messengers follow him one upon the heels of another but when he leaveth the earth every evil will take it's eternal leave of him Therere are two evils which are indeed the onely evils though the first is by much the worst the evil of sin or defilement and the evil of suffering or chastisement Now a believer by death shall be freed from both these First from the evil of sin and in this take notice that death will deliver the christian both from the commission of it and from all suggestions tending to it First Death will free the Saint from the commission of sin In hell there is nothing but wickednesse In heaven there is nothing but holiness The unregenerate man is never so wicked as after death now sin is in its minority then it will be in it's maturity now it is but the sinners evening but then iâ— will be a perfect night of blacknesse oâ— darknesse The godly man is never so holy as after death grace is now in its infancy then it will attain to its full age now it is as the morning light then it will attain to its noon-day brightnesse Sin is now by a spiritual life mortified that it doth not raign but then by death it shall be nullified that it shall not so much as remain in a believer The ungodly after death shall be perfectly like the Divel the Indians some write have a conceit that death will transforme them into the ugly shape of the Divel and
therefore in their language they have the same word for a dead man and a Divel and the godly after death shall be perfectly like God They are now partakers of the divine nature and so like him yet how much unlike him but when they shall see him in heaven then they shall be like him indeed 1 Joh. 3.2 a Pet. Martyr tells us of a deformed woman married to an uncomely man that by looking much on beautiful pictures brought forth lovely childâ—en Loc. Com. pars 1. cap. 6. Vision causeth an assimulation in nature Gen. 30.37 38. in grace 2 Cor. 3.18 so here in glory The Schoolmen put the question How the Angels and souls of men in heaven come to be impeccable or without sinne * Visâ—o beatifica impotentes reddit ad peccandum and answer that it is by the beatifical visions The Apostle seemeth to intimate as much in the fore-quoted place When he shall appeare we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is As the Pearl by the often beating of the sun-beams upon it becomes radiant so the Christian being ever beheld by the Lord and alwayes beholding the face of his Father in heaven shall be more like him then ever child was to father on earth then that Profession of Christ will be abundantly verified Behold thou art faire my love behold thou art faire thou art all faire my love there is no spot in thee Cant. 4.1 7. Then the end of Christs passion shall be fully attained when he shall present to himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinckle or any such thing Ephes 5.27 not only in regard of imputed righteousnesse or justification but also in regard of imparted righteousnesse or sanctification Here the heart of a Christian is like Rebeccahs womb it hath twins struggling in it the appearance of the Church is as it were the company of two Armies Cant. 6.13 the old man and the new man flesh and spirit the Law in the members warring against the Law of the mind As there was war betwixt Asa and Baasha all their dayes so there is betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate part all the time of this life but this gracious conflict shall then end in a glorious conquest when the death of the body shall quite destroy this body of death Sin in the heart is like the leprosie in the house which would not out till the house was pulled down Levit. 14.44 45. But when soul and body shall be parted for a time sin and the soul shall be separated to eternity And as the heart so the life of a Christian is like a book which hath many errata's in it and therefore legendus cum veniâ the whitest swan hath her black feet the best gold must have its grains of allowance There is no man that liveth upon earth and sinneth not Eccles 7.20 All of us offend in many things and many of us in all things Jam. 3.2 * Omne opus justi damnabile est si judicio Dei judicetur Luther in Alsert Our righteousness as a filthy rag Isa 64.6 Our graces not without their defects Lord I believe help mine unbelief Mark 9.24 Our duties not without their defaults When I would do good evil is present with me Rom. 7.21 The purest fire hath some smoak the richest Wine some dregs but death will turn sinne out of all its holds and leave it not so much as a being in the Christian The bodies of men have usually a mighty shoot at death but O what a shoot will the soul of a Saint have when it shall be carried by Angels to the place where the spirits of just men are made perfect Heb. 12.23 2. The soul alive in Christ shall be freed at death from all suggestions and temptations to sin Then a Christian shall be above the reach of all Satans batteries then that promise will be performed That the God of peace will tread Satan under the Saints feet Rom. 16.20 Now Peter is winnowed Paul is buffeted David is stirred by the wicked one to number the people If Joshua be ministring unto the Lord Satan will be at his right hand to resist him Zach. 3.1 It 's no small unhappinesse to a Saint that he is here followed with unwearied assaults that the Prince of darknesse is restlesse in casting in his fire-balls to put the soul into an hellish flame though he should never be conquered yet for the Christian to have his quarters beaten up night and day must needs disquiet him To have blasphemous thoughts of a God infinitely great and gracious to have mean and vile apprehensions of a Saviour imcomparably precious cast into him though he close not with them cannot but wound him to the heart As for a chast Matron that loatheth the thoughts of dishonesty to be continually solicited to folly is a sore vexation The temptations of our Lord Jesus were a sad part of his humiliation But death will ease the soul of this trouble As in heaven there shall be no tinder of a corrupt heart to take so no divel like steel and flint to strike fire The crooked serpent could wind himself into the terrestrial but shall never creep into the celestial Paradise his circuit is to go to and fro in the earth he cannot enter the confines of heaven when he fell from his state of integrity he left that place of felicity and cannot possibly recover it again The Saints on earth indeed are militant fighting with him but the Saints in heaven are all Triumphant wholly above him more than conquerours through him that loveth them Rom. 8.37 There the children of God are gathered together and no Satan among them there the son of David delivereth his true Israelites from all their fears of this uncircumcised Philistine When the heavenly Mordecai comes to be a chief favourite in that high and holy Court he shall be freed from all his frights about this enemy and adversary this wicked Haman The Ark and Dagon could not stand together in one house much lesse can light and darknesse Michael and the Dragon God and the Divel dwell together in one heaven If Ireland as some write be so pure a soyle that it will not nourish any venemous creature I am sure heaven is so pure that into it can in no wise enter any thing that defileth Rev. 21. ult it will not harbour those poisnous serpents Heaven once saith an Author spued them out and it will not return to its vomit or lick them up again no such dirty dog shall ever trample on that golden pavement There is such a cursed irreconcileable contrariety in their natures to the blessed company and exercises in heaven that certainly they cannot desire much lesse delight in that place If the Presence of Christ were such a torment to them in his estate of humiliation what a torment would it be in his estate of exaltation it is observable they left their own habitation Jude ver 6.
there are some diseases which are called opprobria medici because they cannot cure them but none are opprobria Christi he healeth all whom he undertaketh If the higher an house standeth on earth it be esteemed the healthier surely then the highest heavens must be a pure air and all health Revel 20.4 there shall be no more death nor any more pain for the former things are past away So that every christian that dieth in the faith how diseased soever he were before shall then immediately as in the Gospel be made every whit whole John 7.23 Thirdly As death will free the believer from diseases in his body so also from sorrows in his soul The christian liveth upon earth as in a valley of tears and often mingleth his drink with weeping As he is a man he is born to sorrows as the sparks fly upward he cometh into the world crying and goeth out groaning and his whole life from the womb to the tomb is in some regard a living death or a dying life But as he is a christian he drinketh deepest of this cup of sorrows the world is a tender mother to her children but a step-mother to strangers Sometimes the afflictions of the good cause high-water in the Saints heart by the rivers of Babylon he sits down and weepeth when he remembreth Zion Psal 137.1 He cannot but sympathize with the miseries of his fellow-members as being himself in the body Sometimes the transgressions of the bad cloath him with mourning like Croessus son though dumb before yet he cryeth out when his father is wounded As with a sword they pierce his bones when they blasphemously say unto him Psal 42.10 Where is thy God rivers of tears run down his eyes because the wicked forsake Gods Law Psal 119.136 Sometimes his own corruptions like so many daggers stab him to the heart that he should abuse such an Ocean of unspeakable love by so unsuitable a heart and so unanswerable a life He confesseth his iniquities and is sorry for his sins Psal 38.18 Sometimes divine desertions darken and cloud all his comforts When God hides his face he is troubled Psal 30.7 As there are no joyes like to those joyes wherewith God reviveth him in the day of his favour so there is no sorrow like to those sorrows wherewith God depresseth him in the day of his anger Thus his life is a circle of sorrows but death will be the Funeral of his sorrows and resurrection of his joyes now he soweth in tears but then he shalâ— reap in joy The day of death is a Saints Marriage-day Sampsons wife indeed wepâ— on her wedding-day Judg. 14.16 but when the soul which in this life is contracted shall at death be solemnly espoused and more neerly conjoyned unto Jesus Christ all tears shall be wiped from its eyes there shall be no more sorrow Revel 21.4 At that Marriage-day Christ will turn all water into wine all mourning into mirth all sighing into singing and cause the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce Now the Saints sorrows are not perfect sorrows non dantur purae tenebrae to the believer it shineth and showreth at the same time he sorroweth not as they which have no hope but his joy at death shall be perfect joy fulness of joy Psal 16. ult and permanent joy when they shall see Christ at death their hearts shall rejoyce and their joy shall no man take from them John 16.22 then the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isa 35. ult So much for the privative gain of a christian by death or his freedome from evil There is a second thing which is positive Adeâ—pt â—o omnium bonoruâ— and that is the fruition of all good which a believer shall gain by death and in this Head I shall observe these three gradations First a believer by death shall gain the company of perfect Christians Death wil exempt him from all commerce with sinners and teach him fully the meaning of that article The communion of Saints In the field of this world the tares and the wheat grow together but in that heavenly Garner they are parted asunder There is no treacherous Judas among the Apostles no covetous Demas among the Disciples no Amorites to be prickes in the eyes and thorns in the sides of the Israelite no bestial Sodomite to vex righteous Lot with their unclean conversation no flattering Doeg sets his foot in that heavenly Sanctuary David doth not there complain Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace Psal 120.4 5. nor Isaiah that he dwelleth among a people of unclean lips Isa 6.5 nor Elijah that he is left alone Hell holdeth none but sinners heaven hath onely Saints He that dieth in the Lord goeth to the congregation of the first-born to the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 And questionlesse the sweet company will be part of our felicity If Platinus the Philosopher could say Let us make haste to our Countrey there are our parents there are all our friends and if Cicero the Orator could say O praeclaruÌ„ diem cùm ad illud animorum concilium coetumque proficiscar Cic de Senect O what a brave day will that be when I shall go to the councel and company of happy souls to my Cato and other Roman Worthies How much better will it be with the Christian when he wall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven when he shall leave the rout and rabble of wicked ones and be admitted into the society of all that died in the faith and be joyfully welcomed by the melodious quire of Angels and be heartily embraced by the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles yea all the Saints Surely if ever thar Proverb were true it is here The more the merrier The fair streams there will never be drawn dry though it be divided into many channels the musick there is not the lesse harmonious because many hear it nor the light of the Sun of righteousness the lesse pleasant because many see it and O what a gain will this be to enjoy the company of them that are holy If Aaron when he met Moses on earth was glad at his heart certainly there was greater joy at their meeting in heaven If David placed all his delight in the Saints here below when they shined a little with the light of purity like the Moon and had their spots in them what delight doth he take in them above now they have perfect purity and shine like the Sun in the firmament of their father Matth. 13.43 If it were so lovely a sight to see Solomon in his rags of mortality that the Queen of Sheba came so far to behold it what will it be to see him in his
robes of glory Mr. Thomas Wilson Minister of Maidstone in Kâ—nt an eminent servant of the Lord Jesus I remember I have sometimes heard an able holy Minister now with Christ say that that sight of five hundred Saints and Jesus Christ among them 1 Cor. 15.6 was one of the bravest goodliest sights that ever eyes beheld on earth Sure I am they that are in heaven see a far better beholding Jesus Christ in the midst of many thousands Secondly A Christian shall gain by death the neerest communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and O what happinessâ— is included in this Head The presence of Christ on earth can make a mean cottage a most delightful court to the three children it turned the fiery furnace into a delectable palace what will it do then in Heaven Bernard saith he had rather be in his chimny-corner with Christ Mallem in camino meo cum Christo quam in coelo sine Christo Bern. than in heaven without Christ Luther saith he had rather be in hell with Christ than in heaven without Christ communion with Christ can sweeten the bitterest condition Christ alone is the salt which seasons all the Saints comforts without which nothing is savoury to the spiritual taste A duty without Christ is like a body without a soul which hath neither loveliness nor life in it Communion with Christ is one great motive which inciteth the Saint to and encourageth him in the Ordinances of God He attendeth on Scriptures because they are they that testifie of Christ the pearl of price is hid in that field Cant. 5.1 In them the lips of Christ like lillies drop sweet-smelling myrrhe and O how his heart burneth within him with love to Christ whilst Christ is opening to him the Scriptures He frequenteth prayer because therein Christ and his soul converse together in that Ordinance he enjoyeth much of Ch ists quickning presence he speaketh to Christ by holy supplications and Christ to him by heavenly consolations He mindeth fasting because therein his soul may with Jesus Christ have a spiritual feast or the greatest cause of his weeping is with Mary They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him The means of grace are therefore so desirable and delightful because rhey are the Galleries wherein he walketh talketh feedeth and feasteth with the Lord of glory The highest duty without Christ is as a dish without meat from which he goeth as empty and unsatisfied as he came to it It is to him as Tullies Hortens to Austine of little worth if the Name of Jesus be not there If he love the Saints with a love of complacency 't is because they are Christs seed if he love the sinner with a love of pity 't is for Christs sake his affections are contracted or enlarged towards any thing as it hath lesse or more relation to Christ and nothing is of true value or worth in his esteem which hath not aliquid Christi something of Christ in it Now consider Reader if the presence of Christ be so precious so pleasant to the Christian here when he can see so little of his excellent beauty and receive so little of his infinite bounty what will it be when he shall appear to the soul in all his royalty and fill the water-pots of the soul up to the brim with the riches of grace and glory Demorrhathus of Corinth saith they lost the chief part of their lives happinesse that did not see Alexander sit on the throne of Darius if that were such an happy sight what a sight shall the Saints have to see Christ on his Fathers Throne O how much is included in those few words To be with Christ which is the description of the Saints gain by death Philip. 1.23 This was the great Legacy and portion which Christ bequeathed his in his last Will and Testament John 17.24 This was the great promise and sweet meats which the tender father provided to comfort his fainting children with at his own Funeral John 16.22 This was the great prayer which Paul maketh for his beloved Timothy 2 Tim. 4.22 This was the enlivening cordial which the good Physician administred to the dying patient Luke 23.43 This is the great reason for which the godly long for death Philip. 1.23 I desire death saith Melancthon that I may enjoy the desirable fight of Christ Ut desiderato fruar conspectu Christi and O when will that blessed hour come when shall I be dissolved when shall I be with Christ said holy Mr. Robert Bolton on his Death-bed Surely then this gain is great which the Saint shall have by death He that hath Christ with him by grace may say with Peter Master it is good to be here but he that is with Christ in glory may say with Paul To be with Christ is far better without doubt best of all They were blessed which saw him in his estate of debasement Luke 10.23 but much more blessed will they be that shall see him in his estate of advancement Thirdly the Saint by death shall gain the full and immediate fruition of God The former were excellent but this as the Sun among the Planets surpasseth them all The other were as Rivers this is the Ocean they were as branches bearing goodly fruit but this is the root upon which they grow they all as lines meet in this center this is the top-stone of the celestial building this is the highest stair the apex of the Saints happinesse This is the greatest gift which the creature can possibly ask or the infinite God bestow The boundlesse God cannot well give a greater mercy than this Is any thing yea are all things in heaven and earth equal to God God alone is the highest object of faith 1 Pet. 1.21 and therefore the greatest ground of joy and satisfaction to the soul Psalm 17. ult The Vision of God is the beatifical vision 1 John 3.3 and therefore the fruition of God will cause perfection in the soul The enjoyment of God is the great desire and delight of the Saints on earth Psalm 42.1 2. nay it is the happinesse of the humane nature of the Lord Jesus Psalm 16.5 6. without question then it will be the Heaven of Heaven That excellent description of Heaven mentioned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.28 That God may be all in all 1 Thess 4. ult is a being ever with the Lord. This is all the most fluent tongue must be here silent and the most capacious understanding will be soon at a stand in the consideration of the felicity which floweth from the fruition of God The presence of this King will make the Court indeed For the Lord to be with us is our chiefest security though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will feare no evil for thou art with me Psal 23.4 but for us to be with the Lord will be our choicest felicity In his presence is fulnesse of
joy at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Solus tues jucunditas totus mundus est amaritudine plenus Aug. in Psa 85. Psal 16. ult God is not wealth or honour or comfort or friends or earth or heaven but something infinitely beyond all these God is an immense Ocean of all excellencies and perfections without either banks or bottome God is virtually eminently every thing all things As in the Wars between Charles the fifth and Francis the first King of France when the Emperours Herald had bid defiance to the King Heil Geogra from Charles Emperour of Germanie King of Castile Leon Arragon and Naples Arch-duke of Austria with the rest of his Titles the King commanded the Heralds to return the challenge from Francis King of France commanding them to repeat France as many times as the other had Petty Earledomes in his stile intimating that one France was worth them all so truly one God answereth all things He is health and strength riches and relations joy and pleasures light and life and much more all the excellencies scattered and shadowed in the creature are united and reallized in the Creatour who is blessed for ever One God is worth more than all his creatures can sum up in millions of ages This is the gain of a Saint by death he shall gain the fruition of God He who hath lost God hath nothing more to lose he hath lost all the losse of God is hell 2 Thes 1.7 But he that hath gained God hath nothing more to gain He hath got all the gain of God is heaven It is worthy our observation that Job speaking of God Job 13.16 saith He shall be my salvation An Expositour observeth on that Text Job doth not say He shall giue me salvation but he shall be my salvation Car. in loc It more pleaseth a Saint that he enjoyeth God then that he enjoyeth salvation As nothing that a godly man giveth God will content him unlesse he give God himself so nothing which God giveth a godly man will satisfie him Fecisti nos proptertâ— inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te Aug. confes lib. 1. cap. 1. unlesse God giveth himself to him His voice is non tua sedte Domine Lord not thine but thee he is better pleased that God is his salvation then that he saveth him Whom have I in heaven but thee saith he There are Saints Angels Arch-Angels saith Musculus but in the presence of this glorious Sun those stars must vanish and disappeare What are Saints what are Angels without God and it 's true of things as well as persons what is the glory what the pleasures what the joys of heaven without God What 's all the robes and riches what 's all the crowns and comforts what 's all the delights the delicates the diadems of heaven without the God of heaven but as the Funeral-banquet for some eminent Prince where is large provision and great cost but no chear No it is God alone that is the centre to which the Saint moveth and in which he resteth O what happinesse shall the holy man have at death to be ever with God! If that Queen could say of Solomons attendants Happy are thy men happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdome 1 King 10.8 how happy are they that dwell in Gods Mansion-house ever beholding his face and hearing his voice It is reported of Eudoxius that he was so extream desirous to be near the Sun that he might see it and know its nature that he profest so he might obtain his desire though but for one hour he would willingly be burnâ— up by it the next hour how much worth then is the sight and knowledge of this Sun of righteousnesse and what gainers are they by death that come thereby to see him as he is and to know him as they are known of him 1 Joh. 3.2 1 Cor. 13.12 But the Christian shall not barely enjoy God after death for that he doth in this life but he shall enjoy God fully Now the Saint enjoyeth a little of God and O how refreshing is it to his weary soul but then he shall have as much of God as his heart can wish or hold In this life there is a Communication of God answerable to the capacities of men and the fault is in us not in God that we receive no more of him on earth The ground is not in the Sun but in the narrownesse of our windowes that we partake no more of its light the cause is in the smallnesse of our vessels not in the well that we carry away no more of its water If our mouths were never so wide-opened God would fill them now But then the windowes of the soul shall be widened and the vessels of the heart enlarged and so fitted for and filled with a greater participation of God There is not the least complaint of want All the Patriarchs sacks are there filled with corn There Davids cup runneth over there the holy Ephesians are filled with all the fulnesse of God In that Fathers house there is bread enough and to spare for all his children There is given to all good measure pressed down shaken together and running over Luk. 6.38 We say there is no fishing like to the Sea because the Sea hath the greatest plenty and the vastest capacity there are fish enough to fill all our nets and lade all our ships I may more truly say there is no fruition like to the fruition of God he hath enough not only to supply all our indigencies and to satisfie all our necessities and desires but he can do abundantly for us above what we are able to ask or think Ephes 3.20 God hath enough to fill himself as boundless a being as he is surely then he hath enough to fill the limited soul of man that which can fill the Ocean may well fil a spoon Now a Christian is described by his hungring and thirsting his panting and breathing after a perfect conformity to God that thereby he may be prepared for perfect Communion with God but blessed are they which now thus hunger and thirst for then they shall be filled Matth. 5.6 Well 〈…〉 a good bait as the word used by our Saviour doth signifie He that drinketh of that water which God shall there give him shall thirst no more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc proprie dicitur de armentis nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prati vocant gramen aut pabulum That God who filleth the bellies of his enemies on earth with the hidden treasures of common bounty will surely fil the souls of his children in heaven with the precious treasures of special mercy The soul that now sippeth of the water of life shall then drink a full draught out of the Rivers of â—ods pleasures The Christian who can now only taste God to be gracious shall then have a full meale when
he shall eat bread in the Kingdome of God They are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them they shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters Rev. 7.15.16 17. Observe Reader I say a Christian shall gain by death Immediate fruition of God a full immediate fruition of God now the Saint drinketh of the waters of life and they are pleasant though through the Conduits and Cisterns of Ordinances but with what joy will he draw water immediately out of the Well of salvation Dulcius â—x ipso fonte c. We read in Joshua 5.12 when Israel came to Canaan Manna ceased and they did eat of the fruits of the Land While the Saint is in the Wildernesse of this world he needeth and feedeth on the Manna of the Word Sacraments Prayer and the like but when death shall land him at that place of which Canaan was but a type the Manna of Ordinances shall cease he shall eat the fruits of that Land Ordinances are necessary for and suitable to our state of imperfection Jacob drove his flocks as they were able to go so doth Christ his sheep Here we are in a state of uncleanenesse and therefore want water in Baptisme to wash us saith an Eminent Divine in a state of darknesse and therefore want the light of the Word to direct us in a state of wearinesse and therefore want a Lords day of rest to refresh us in a state of weaknesse and therefore want bread in the Supper to strengthen us in a state of sorrow and therefore want wine to comfort us in a state of beggery and therefore want prayer to fetch some spiritual alms from the beautiful Gate of Gods Temple Whil'st the Saint is as a child he thinks as a child speaks as a child understands as a child but when he shall come to be a perfect man he shall put away these childish things when every earthly member shall be mortified and the body of death wholly destroyed when the faculties of the soul shall be enlarged and the sanctification of the inner man perfected when the rags of mortality shall be put off and grace swallowed up in glory The Sun shall be no more thy light by day nor the Moon thy light by night but the Lord thy God thine everlasting light and thy God thy glory Isa 60.19 Apostles Prophets Pastours Teachers are for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ no longer then till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.11.12 13. When God shall be all in all then and not till then Ordinances will be nothing at all When the Saint comes to his journeys end he may throw away his staffe Now how much will this adde to the former that the Christian shall without ordinances enjoy God! How lovely is the face of God though it be but in the glasse of the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.18 this was the one thing which David begg'd that he might dwell in the house of the Lord to see the beauty of his face Psal 27.4 Ah how lovely will he be when the Christian shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 If it be so good to draw neer to God on earth Psal 73. ult and if they are blessed that watch at Wisdomes gates and wait at the posts of her doors Prov. 8.34 how good will it be to draw neer to God in heaven and how blessed are they that wait not at the door but dwell in that house How pleasant will it be for the soul when it's eyes shall be strengthened to see God as he is without the spectacles of Ordinances We esteem that honey sweetest which is suckt immediately out of the comb though hony out of a dish is sweet and we do with more delight eat that fruit which we gather ourselvs from the tree than we do that which is brought to us through others hands The enjoyment of God is so sweet in the dish of a Duty that a Christian would sooner lose the best friend he hath than it But O how sweet will it be in the comb of immediate communion This fruit is very delightful and pleasant as it is conveyed through the hands of Ministers though the liquor will sente of the cask but O with what delight Christian canst thou read it and thy heart not warmed with joy with what pleasure wilt thou with thine own hands gather this fruit from the Tree of life that standeth in the midst of Paradise Rev. 22. Thus I have given thee a little of that great gain which a Saint hath by death death will free him ftom all evil both of sin and suffering it will give him the fruition of ali good in the enjoyment of perfect Saints and the blessed Saviour and in full immediate communion with the infinite God who is blessed and blessing his for ever This is the heritage of a righteous man from God and this is the portion of his cup thus shall it be done to the man whom the King of heaven delights to honour There is but one thing more required to make the Christian perfectly happy and that is the eternity of all this but I shall speak to that in the last use I now proceed to the application of the Point The first use which I shall make of this Doctrine shall be by way of information If such as have Christ for their life shall have gain by their death it informeth us of the difference betwixt the deaths of the sinner and the Saint the one is an unspeakable gainer the other an unconceivable loser by death Death to the good is the gate through which they go into the kingdome of heaven death to the bad is the trap-door through which they fall into hell The godly dyeth as well as the wicked but the wicked man dieth not so well as the godly The metal and the drosse go both into the fire but the metal is refined and the drosse consumed As the cloud in the wildernesse had a light side to the Israelite but a dark side to the Egyptian so death hath nothing but light and comfort for the Israel of God nothing but darknesse and sorrow for the sinful Egyptians Death to every one is a messenger sent from the Lord of life it cometh to the regenerate as the young Prophet to Jehu I have an errand to thee O Captain and what was his errand he poured the oil on his head saying Thus saith the Lord I have anointed thee King over Israel 2 Kings 9.5 6. It is a messenger from God to call
every messenger welcome for his sake that sendeth him thou needst not fear any servant can night or day knock at thy door with ill news how willingly wilt thou go to duty and with what alacrity perform them knowing the God whom thou drawest nigh to is thy loving Father the Christ in whose Name thou approachest is thy lovely Saviour nay how joyfully maiest thou think of death as the portal through which thou shalt go into thy Masters joy and endlesse life Believe it thy life will be an heaven upon earth And shouldst thou find thy estate lost will it not be an infinite mercy to thee that thou didst know it before it was too late how will it awaken thee out of thy security and affrighten thee upon the apprehension of thy misery how will it quicken thee to mind thy duty in loathing thy self in leaving thy sins and in flying to thy Saviour Sound conversion begins at self-examination First we search and try our wayes and then turn to the Lord Lament 3.39 The way to have our sores cured is first to have them throughly searched I considered my wayes and turned my feet to thy testimonies Psal 119.59 If thou wouldst have thy face clean look into the glasse of the Law and view thy spots He that knoweth not that he is in a wrong path will not turn back though the farther he goeth the greater is his deviation and danger Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed or after I was made known to my self I repented As Abigail said to David if thou hearken to thy servant it will be no grief of mind hereafter to my Lord that thou art kept from shedding of blood so say I to thee If thou wilt faithfully examine thy self it will be no cause of sorrow hereafter to thee that thou wert thereby kept from a further shedding the blood of thy soul Bish Halls Meditat. Vows Cent. 2. Meditat. 4. I will conclude this motive with the meditation of the learned and holy Bishop now with Christ That which is said of the Elephant that being guilty of his deformity he cannot abide to look on his face in the water but seeks for troubled and muddy channels we see well moralized in men of evil conscience who know their souls are so filthy that they dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquity with the excuses of good fellowship Whence it is that every small reprehension galls them because it calls the eye of the soul home â—o it self and makes them see a glimpse of what they would not So have I seen a foolish and timerous patient which knowing his wound very deep would not endure the Chirurgion to search it whereon what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body so have I seen many prodigal wasters run so far in books that they cannot abide to hear of a reckoning It hath been an old and true Proverb Oft and even reckonings make long friends I will oft summe my estate with God that I may know what I have to expect and answer for neither shall my score run on so long with God that I shal not know my debts or fear an audit or despair of pardon I come now to the touchstone by which thou must be tried whether thou art true gold or counterfeit it is likely thou presumest thy estate is good well art thou willing the Word of God that must whether thou wilt or no judge thee for thy eternal life or death at the last day Ad bunc librum ut judicem ad alias ut â— judex divenio saith Melancth of tâ— â—ble should try thee at this day If thy wares be right and good thou wilt not be afraid to bring them out of thy dark shop into the light If thy title be sound and good I know thou wilt be ready for a fair Trial at law even at the Law of God I shall try thee two wayes though both will lead to the same place I must first intreat thee to put those four particulars to thy soul which in the beginning I told thee were included in that expression To me to live is Christ 1. Ask thy soul what is the principle of thy Religious performances what is the spring of thy obedience men indeed judge of others principles by their practices because they cannot discern the heart whether it be right in a duty or no but God judgeth of mens practices by their principles as we may see by his speech of Paul Behold he prayeth Act. 9.11 Paul was a Pharisee one of the strictest of them and they were much in prayer but God who knew his heart was wrong in former duties takes not any notice of them now behold he prayeth he might say a prayer before but he never pray'd a prayer til now when he had a right principle being regenerated by the holy Ghost then and not till then he made a right prayer Til the Tree be good the fruit can never be good Matth. 7.17 Now Friend what is the principle of thy duties is it fear of men hope of honour desire of gain or mearly the stopping the mouth of conscience or custome are these the weights that make thy Clock to go and if these were taken off would thy devotion stand still then thy heart is not right in the sight of God intreat him for the Lords sake that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Or do thy pious actions flow from a renewed will and renewed affections Doth the outward correspondency of thy life to the Law of God proceed from an inward conformity in thy heart to the nature and Law of God from the Law written within if it be thus thy condition is safe for the deeper the spring is from whence the water comes the sweeter the water is and thy services the more acceptable to God Speak thy self whether thou prayest readest hearest singest from the Divine nature within from love to the infinitely amiable God from the delight thou takest in communion with him in duties O how sweet is that hony that drops of its own accord from the comb and how pure is that Wine which floweth freely from the grape So grateful and acceptable is that sacrifice to God which is season'd with sincere love Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandments Psal 128.1 Or dost thou worship God from the same principle the Sadduces do who deny the Resurrection only from a desire it may go well with thee in this life or from the same principle from which the Persians do the divel only from fear least he should do thee hurt surely that service will be sowr which like verjuice is squeezed out of the crabs To serve God with a filial fear is commendable but to serve him from a servile fear is unacceptable The upright Christian worketh from an inward principle the new Creation within and
and ten thousand times more Besides for what reason dost thou suppose God to have given thee these things Surely thou canst not be so brutish as to think that the great God made thee and serveth thee in daily with such variety of mercies health strength food raiment influences of heaven and fruits of the earth onely or chiefly that thou should eat and drink and follow thy calling and provide for thy family were such low ends the ground of his kindness or is it not that thou mightest ravish that pure and virgin inheritance by an holy and heavenly violence that thou mightest imploy them and improve them to the utmost about his service and thy own salvation Reader I must desire thee to consider and grant me these two or three suppositions in prosecution of this my second request to thee 1. Suppose thou hadst seen the Son of man who now sitteth at his Fathers right hand rising from his place and attended with the thousand thousands that are before him and with the ten thousand times ten thousand that minister to him coming and sparkling so gloriously through the firmament that he dazaleth the very eyes of the Sun and makes him to hide his head for shame and sitting down in the cloudes with the glory of his Father a fire devouring before him and behind him a flame burning Conceive now with me that thou hearest him call to the Archangel Sound the last Trump that the dead may arise and come to judgement Harke to the sound of the Trump how it rendeth rocks melteth mountains breaks in pieces the bands of death and bursts asunder the gates of hell how it pierceth the ocean and fetcheth from the bottom of the sea the dust of Adams seed how it descendeth into the belly of the earth and forceth it to vomit up all the bodies which it had ever taken down how it openeth the marble tombs of Princes and Potentates and makes their Highness and Majesty stoop as low as the meanest to the King of glory Dost thou not see the bodies of the Saints look how they flie upon the wings of the wind to their souls and both to the bosom of their beloved Saviour See how the spirits of unregenerate ones leave for a little while the dark vault of hell and enter though most unwillingly into the stinking carrion of their bodies and both haled by angels to the judgement seat of Christ When the Court is thus set conceive the Commission read wherein Jesus Christ is authorized in his humane nature by his Divine Power to be Judge of the quick and dead the law is produced both of nature and Scripture the books are opened hoth of Gods omniscience and mans conscience by which all men are to be tryed for their everlasting lives and deaths The holy ones are now called their persons through the righteousness of Christ acquitted by publike proclamation before God Angels and men their performances duties graces services sufferings punctually related to their glory and infinitely rewarded in their perfect freedom from all evil and eternal fruition of the chiefest good Behold how the unholy are with violence draged to the bar examined strictly by the covenant of works have all their sins secret open personal relative of nature and practice in thoughts words and deeds revealed publikely and aggravated fully with all their crimson crying bloody circumstances heark how pitifully they plead what poor evidences they had for salvation what sorry excuses for their Atheisme and abominations their conscience instead of a thousand witnesses accuseth them the law casteth them the Judge pronounceth against them a most severe sentence of condemnation the devils feise on them for its speedy execution Now what confusion and shame of face what lamentation and forrow of heart possesseth them what doleful screechings what bitter yellowâ—ngs are heard among them Here is body cursing the soul for being so ungodly a guide and soul cursing the body for being so unready an instrument and both cursing the time that ever they met together and wishing though in vain that they might for ever be parted asunder Now the worldling curseth his flocks and his Farm his gold and his silver that had more of his heart and of his care and time then his precious soul Now the lazy Christian curseth his madness and folly that he should think a little formal preparation were sufficient for such a strict examination A bloody husband hast thou been to me saith the wife thou mindedst provision for me for a little time and never regardedst my instruction about the things of eternity A cruel father hast thou been to me saith the child for generating me a child of wrath an heir of hell and never endeavoring my regeneration whereby I might have been a child of God and an heir of heaven and thus cursing crying roaring raging they are sent to the place where is mourning without mirth sorrow without solace darkness without light death without life pure wrath without mixture perfect pain without measure nothing but weeping and wailing sighing sobbing and gnashing of teeth for ever ever ever Suppose I say that thou hadst heard and seen all this and God should after it try thee in this world fourty years wouldst thou not night and day be strugling and striving with God by prayer watching over thy own heart waiting upon thy Saviour With what earnestness wouldst thou pray with what seriousness wouldst thou read and hear with what exactness and exemplariness wouldst thou live how diligent and laborious wouldst thou be in a faithful improvement of all thy time talents and opportunities that thou mightest find mercy at such a day even the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Wouldst thou after such a sight think any time too much or any pains too great for thy eternal good Couldst thou give the world and the flesh the choicest place in thy heart and the chiefest part of thy life as now thou dost shouldst thou dare to be nibbling again at the devils baits or to be playing with the eternal fire or to put off God with a few cold formal prayers and that by fits in stead of hearty fiery continual supplication or to put off Jesus Christ with a complement that thou wearest his livery and professest thy self a Christian in stead of a sincere resolved dedication of heart and life to his word and law What saist thou man And why wilt thou not be as diligent and as holy now thou maist in the glass of Scripture see all that I have spoken for the substance of it at least if thou hast but an eye of faith and without question the sight of faith is as sure and true as a sight of sense what reason canst thou have why thou shouldst not work as industriously to escape hell and obtain heaven as if thou hadst known these things experimentally when the word of the living and true God speaketh it so expresly look 2 Cor. 5. 10. Acts
by his Lord Gen. 24. to provide a Wife for my Masters son I do here in the presence of the living God by commission from his Majesty tender thee the most honourable profitable delightful match that was ever offered to mortals It is the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of life and glory the onely begotten of the Father the fairest of ten thousands to be thy head and husband hereby thou shalt have the King of Kings the Lord of heaven and earth for thy Father a Queen the Church for thy Mother the Saints those truly excellent noble illustrious ones higher then the Kings of the earth for thy brethren and sisters the Covenant of Grace in comparison of which all the gold of the Indies is but dirt and dung for thy treasure glorious Angels for thy servants the flesh of the Son of God for thy meat and his precious blood for thy drink perfect Righteousness which is more beautiful then the unspotted innocency of Adam or Angels for thy rayment a palace of pleasures a place of glory a building of God an house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens for thy habitation And all this only upon these termes that thou wilt be a loving faithful and obedient Wife which the poorest beggar in the country expects from his wife that thou wilt heartily give up thy self and all thou hast to his service and glory and this he desireth also for thy good and benefit that he may make thee a more excellent creature and render thee more acceptable to God and more capable of his dearest love and eternal embraces as the rain is sent up from the earth in thick and foggy vapours but the heavens return it in pure and silver showers so though thou givest an unbelieving hard earthly heart unto Christ he will return it unto thee again believing tender heavenly such an heart as shall be more pleasing both to God and thy self and for this he is pleased though ten thousand Suns united into one are but darkness to him so great is his glory to condescend to become a Suiter to thee to beseech thee to accept of him who knoweth thy portion to be misery and beggery who seeth thy person to be full of ugliness and deformity who gaineth no addition to his happiness by thine acceptance of his love nor suffereth the least diminution by thy refusal Well what sayest thou to this match Art thou heartily willing to take Jesus Christ for thy wedded Husband to protect and direct thee to purifie and pardon thee to sanctifie and save thee to guide thee by his counsel and afterwards to receive thee to glory And wilt thou here in the presence of the Lord and before thy conscience which is as ten thousand witnesses promise and covenant to obey him universally to love him unfainedly to resign up thy self and all thou hast to his disposal unreservedly What sayest thou Art thou willing or no Take heed of dallying in a match that is so unquestionably and infinitely for thy advantage Believe it thou shalt not have such offers every day Doe not stick at any of his Precepts for he can require nothing but what is equal excellent and honorable doe not trifle or defer it if thou lovest thy soul for this may be the very last time of asking If thou wilt deal kindly and truly with my Master tell me or if not tell me that I may return an answer to him that sent me Gen. 24.49 These four directions which I have laid down already are without question the whole of Christianity and that soul shall be certainly saved by whom they are uprightly practised yet there are two special means which God hath appointed for the enabling the soul to perform them which I shall speak briefly to and for method sake joyn them altogether Five Directions Attendance on the Word Fifthly If thou wouldst attain this spiritual life be much conversant with the Word of God be often reading it meditating on it but especiall frequent it in publick where it is preached by losing one Sermon for â—ought thou knowest thou mayst lose one soul Death at first entred into the world by the ear Gen. 3. and so doth life Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 thou seest in the Gospel that Faith and Repentance are this spiritual life Mark 16.16 Gal. 2.20 and thou mayest see as clearly that they are both the fruits of the ministery of the Word For Faith that fore quoted place Rom. 10.17 is full and for Repentance that of Acts 2.37 speaketh home When they heard these things they were pricked to the heart mark When they heard these things The Word of God is an hammer with which God is pleased to break the stony heart and a fire wherewith he melteth the hard mettal Jerem. 23.29 In this respect it is that the Minister is called the Father of some Converts namely those whom he begetteth through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4.15 Joâ— Isaac a Jew was converted by reading the 53. of Isaiah Junius by the first of Johns Gospel Augustine by the 13. of Romans I will never forget thy precepts for by them thou hast quickened me David Psal 119.93 There is a resurrection of souls at this day when Ministers lift up their voice like a trumpet Isai 58.1 Acts 2.37 as well as there shall be a resurrection of bodies at the last day by the Trump of the Archangel This is the net which God is pleased to cast into the sea of the world and wherewith he harh caught many a soul three thousand at one draught Acts 2.41 Spiritual life is the gift of God as well as eternal the gift of all grace is of grace but ordinarily of his own will he begetteth souls by the word of truth Jam. 1 18. If thou wilt have Wisdomes dole thou must wait at Wisdomes gate for there it is given Prov. 8.34 Grace is the law written in the heart and usually the ministry of the Word is the pen wherewith the Spirit of God writes it That is the bed wherein the children of God are begotten Cantic 1.16 That is the school wherein the Disciples are taught of God and learn the truth as it is in Jesus The Ministers Commission doth abundantly evince this I send thee saith God to Paul to open the eyes of the blind and to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the living God God indeed is a most free Agent and can work when and how he pleaseth but it hath pleased him to make the Gospel of Christ his own power unto salvation Rom. 1.16 and it pleaseth him by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus to the eye of sense may seem better then all the waters of Israel but Jordan can cleanse and heal when those cannot because it hath a divine precept and promise annexed to it Nay observe how God is pleased to dignifie his Word
yet he doth not see the wealth the infinite riches that lye buried in them So wicked men see the waters the afflictions the conflicts but not the wealth the comforts the inward joy of the children of God Thirdly as this spiritual life is the most honorable and comfortable so it is the most profitable life no calling bringeth in such advantage as Christianity godliness is profitable unto all things 1 Tim. 4.8 There is an universal gainfulness in real godliness Plutarch telleth us that the Babylonians make above three hundred several commodities of the Palme-tree but there are many thousand benefits which godliness bringeth no Merchant ever had his vessels returned so richly laden as he that tradeth heaven-ward Observe Reader after the Apostles affirmation his full confirmation of it Godliness saith he is profitable unto all things It hath the promise of this life and that to come i. e. It hath heaven and earth entailed on it and therefore it must needs be profitable It giveth the Christian much in possession the promise of this life but infinitely more in reversion the life that is to come The promises of God are exceeding great for their quantity and precious for their quality promises and they all belong to a godly man he is called an heir of the promises Heb. 6.17 Whensoever the tree of the Scripture is shaken whatsoever fruit of those precious promises falleth down it falleth into the lap of a godly man If at any time that box of costly ointment be broken and sendeth forth its fragrant sent and vertue it is to the refreshment only of the Saints Godliness is profitable to thy self If thou art wise thou art wise for thy self and if a scorner thou alone shalt bear it Prov. 9.12 The sinner is no bodies foe so much as his own the murdering peices of sin which he dischargeth against God miss their mark but do constantly recoyle and wound himself The Saint is no bodies friend so much as his own others fare the better for his great stock of grace but the propriety in all the comfort of all and the profit by all is his own It enables him to give away the more at his door but how rich a table doth he thereby keep for himself Godliness is profitable for thy children the just man walketh in his integrity and his children are blessed after him Prov. 20.7 personal piety is profitable to posterity yet not of merit but mercy Though grace come not by generation but donation and though God hath mercy on whom he will yet the seed of the Saints are visibly nearer the quickning influences of the spirit then the children of others When God saith he will be a â—od to the godly man and his children I believe he intendeth more in that promise for the comfort of godly parents then most of them think of Acts 2.36 Gen. 17.7 The children of believers are heirs apparent to the covenant of grace in their parents right Godliness is profitable in prosperity it giveth a spiritual right to temporal good things a gracious man holdeth his mercies in capite in Christ that is his tenure as Christ is a co-heir of all things he being married to him by this spiritual life is a co-heir with him he enjoyeth earthly things by an heavenly title and one peny enjoyed by special promise is far more worth than millions which ungodly men enjoy by a general providence as the beasts of the field do their provender It is godliness that causeth a sanctified improvement of mercies Grace alone like Christ turneth water into wine corporal mercies into spiritual advantages The more God oiles the wheels the more chearfully and swiftly he moveth in the way to heaven the more showers of heaven fall down upon him the more fruitful and abundant he is in the work of the Lord as we see in that gracious King Iehosophat 2 Chron. 17.5 6. The Lord established the Kingdom in his hand and all Iudah brought presents unto him and he had riches and honor in abundance and his heart was lift up in the wayes of God Mark the more Gods hand was enlarged in bounty the more his heart was enlarged in duty The more highly God thinks of David the more lowly he thought of himself 2 Sam. 7.18 Outward mercies to a believer are a ladder by which he mounteth up nearer to heaven Thus godliness like the Philosophers stone turneth iron and every thing into gold but the want of this spiritual life causeth a cursed hellish use of mercies ungodly men like the spider suck poison out of those flowers out of which the Bees the Saints suck honey Their mercies are like cordials to a foul stomach which do but increase the peccant humor He feedeth on such plenty that he surfeits himself because of their abundance Job 21.7 8 9 to 14. Therefore they say unto the Almighty Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes like the Israelites they make of the jewels which God giveth a golden Calf and worship that in stead of God Godliness is profitable in adversity it maketh a Christian like a Rabbit to thrive the better in frosty weather The child of God learneth the better for the rod Before he was afflicted he went astray but now he keepeth Gods word Psal 119.67 Well may grace be called the divine nature for it can bring not onely light out of light spiritual comfort and good out of outward good things but also light out of darkness good out of evil gain out of losses life out of death It will like Sampson fetch meat out of the eater like the Ostrich digest stones like Mithridates fetch nourishment out of poison When wicked men like Ahaz in their distress sin more against the Lord as fire the more it is kept in in an Oven the more it rageth so doth corruption but godly men far otherwise are by the fire of affliction the more refined and purified for their masters use Godliness is profitable to thee while thou livest In doubts it will direct thee as a light to thy feet and a lanthorn to thy paths In dangers it will protect thee by setting thee on high and giving thee for a place of defence the munition of rocks in wants it will supply thee by affording thee bread in the word when thou hast none on the boord and money in the promise 1 Tim. 4.8 which is by thousands the better when thou hast none in thy purse in thy pain it will ease thee in disgrace It will honor thee in sorrows it will comfort thee in sickness it will strengthen by causing thee to count the crosses of this life as nothing and unworthy to be compared to the pleasures and glory which shall revealed in all distresses it will support thee and make thee more then a conqueror over all through him that loveth us Rom. 8.37 Lastly godliness will be profitable to thee when thou diest death which is the terrible of terribles to
birth without which it is impossible for thee to escape the second death I have in the third use of this Treatise endeavoured to awakeâ— thee to and to direct thee about this great work as in the first use I have discovered the unspeakable endless misery of them that dye before it be done Those which had the Sudor Anglicus or sweating sicknesâ— dyed assuredly if suffered to sleep those were their best friends that kept them waking though they possibly had little thank for it It may be thou mayst think I am too sharpe but truely the wound is deep dangerous yea deadly and therefore though I put thee to pain by lancing it I am forced to it otherwise thou wilt not be cured Sin and hell and holiness and sanctification are other manner of things then the sleepy world dreameth of The Lord give thee an heart to obey his counsel in order to thy conversion and then I am sure thou wilt have cause to give him thanks that I would not let thee sleep quietly on a bed that was in a flame nor in an condition that was next door to infinite misery and eternal desperation Thirdly exalt godliness in thy family If once Christ be chief in thy heart I am confident he will to thy utmost power be so in thy house that thou art really which thou art relatively Labor that thy children and servants may know and serve God Dwell with thy wife as a man of knowledge as heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3.7 Bring up thy children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Eph. 6 4. Teach thy servants their duty to God and their own souls Consider these are the laws of the righteous God and ere long when thou shalt leave all the dying and lying vanities of this world thou must give an account in the other world how thou hast obeyed them God hath committed a great trust to thee even the charge of the souls of all in thy family and doth not thine heart tremble to think of soul-blood of soul-murder I assure thee thou mayst be as truely and really guilty of their deaths and damnations by starving them as by poisoning them I mean by not instructing chatechizing and principling them in the things of God by not praying with them and over seeing that they mind the worship of God as in making them drunk and teaching them to steal and swear For thy children Dost thou not know that they are born children of wrath and heirs of hell and canst thou be quiet till thou seest in them some signs and hopes of regeneration an interest in Christ and thereby a right to heaven When thou readest of Herod how he murdered poor children thou condemnest him thou thinkest Ah hard-hearted Herod But dost not thou do ten thousand times worse in murdering the souls and bodies of thy dear children for ever Ah hard-hearted ah bloody father Herod was a man of bowels a merciful man to thee Is it any wonder to hear saith one of that ship sunk or dasht upon a rock that was put to sea without card of compass nor is it a wonder to hear of children sinking in perdition who are thrust into the world which is a sea of temptations without any knowledge of God and their duty One would think every time thou readest and hearest of the extremity and eternity of hells torments of the multitudes that must undergo them of the few even of those within the visible Church that shall be saved and of the difficulty of obtaining salvation that thy loyns should tremble and thy joynts smite together that thy head yea heart should ake for fear any of thy dear children should be among those many that must drink that cup of the Lords pure wrath that thou shouldst be restless night and day in wrastling with â—od and instructing them in using all means to prevent their endless ruine surely if thou hadst a spark of true love to thy children thus it would be with thee And for thy servants unless thou art careful that they serve the Lord they are but little beholden to thee for thy service thou givest them possibly food and outward things convenient but dost thou not do as much for thy cattel And is it thinkest thou enough to do no more for those souls which must live in unspeakable pain or pleasure for ever then for thy beasts If he that provideth not for the bodies of his family be worse then an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 surely he that provideth not for their souls is kin to a devil say not they are stubborn and will not be taught Hast not thou power in thy hands either to teach them or turn them out of doors Let none serve thee that will not serve God Thou wilt not keep a servant that knoweth not how to do thy work at least if he will not learn and then follow it with diligence Now let thy conscience be judge Is not Gods work the pleasing and glorifying his infinite majesty of far greater concernment than thy greatest and weightest work and darest thou keep one that neither knoweth how to do it nor will learn Follow the man after Gods own heart Ps 101.2.9 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me It is said of Constantine that in this he was truely great that he would have his whole Court gathered together and cause the Scriptures to be read to them and instruction to be given them from the Word of God Besides if thou didst but regard thy own temporal good thou wouldst instruct thy servants and children in spiritual things for they that are unfaithful to their Master and father in heaven will be unfaithful to their master and father on earth They that make no conscience of their duty to God but rob him of his service and worship will never make conscience of their duty to thee but if they have opportunity will rob thee of thy time service and goods Be sure that thou performe family duties as praying reading and the like morning and evening do not serve the flesh and the world all day and then put God off with a few cold sleepy petitions at night the command is Pray continually 1 Thess 5.17 Daniel was at it three times a day Dan. 6.10 David seven times a day Psal 119.164 Gods mercies are renewed on thee every morning and should not thy prayers and praises be renewed every morning Doth not the preservation of thy family every night deserve family acknowledgement in the morning Wearisome nights are appointed to others the beds of others prove their graves thou and thine might have awaken in hell doth this distinguishing mercy deserve no thanks Is not thy family every day lyable to many dangers both bodily and spiritual doth it not need pitying sanctifying
souls of them to whom the Sermâ— was preached and of the Parish whâ— the Lord had committed to my chaâ—â— I considered with my self that by râ—son of my sickly and infirm body I â— not likely to continue long with tâ— people to which the providence of â— did at first joyn me and from whicâ— far greater things could never divorce â— and therefore it might not be needâ— to leave them some testimony of my â— fained desires of their eternal welfaâ— Who knoweth what this mean piâ— may do if the divine power pleasâ— accompany it Possibly out of the â— that is here sown when the husbâ—â— man is dead an harvest may be â—ed of glory to God and good to souls Reader If thou gain any spiritual profit by it let God have the praise and let him be remembred in thy prayers who is Thy Servant for Christs sake George Swinnocke Febr. 22. 1658. 9. THE Contents TWo great Lessons to be learned of all page 1 The division of the Chapter p. 2 3. The meaning of the words p. 4 5. Doct. They that have Christ for their life shall have gain by their death p. 6. What is implyed in To me to live is Christ p. 6. 1. Christ the principle of a Christians life p. 6 7 8. 2. Christ the pattern p. 9 10. 3. Christ the Comfort p. 11. 12 13 14. 4. Christ the end p. 15. Wherein a Christian is a gainer by death p. 19. 1. He gaineth a freedom from all evil ibi 1. From the evil of sin p. 20. 1. From the commission of it p. 20 21 22. 2. From temptations to it p. 24 25 26. 2. From the evil of suffering p. 27 28. 1. From ignominy in his name p. 29 30. 2. From infirmities in his body p. 31 32. 3. From sorrow in his soul p. 33 34. 2. He gaineth the fruition of all good p. 3â— 1. The society of perfect Christians p 36 37. 2. Nearest communnion with Jesus Christ p. 38 39 40. 3. The enjoyment of the blessed God p. 42 43 44. which shall be Full p. 47 48. Immediate p. 49 50 51. 1. Use by way of Information The difference betwixt the estates of the good and bad at death p. 54. to 63. 1. The sinner loseth by death p. 64. 1. All his carnal comforts his relations wealth honor mirth and that for ever p. 65. to 68. The difference between a Saints loss of outward things by death and a sinners p. 68. to 73. 2. All the means of grace p. 73. to 78. 3. The society of all the Saints p. 78. to 82. 4. All his hopes of heaven p. 82. to 87. 5. His precious soul p. 87. to 95. 6. The blessed God p. 95. to 102. 2. The sinner gaineth by death 1. Fullness of sin p. 102. to 105. 2. Fullness of suffering In regard of intension p. 105. to 111. In regard of duration p. 111. to 122. 2. Use by way of Examination To try our title to happiness p. 122. to 127. 1. Arguments to inforce this use 1. It is easie and ordinary to mistake p. 127. to 132. 2. True Christians are very few p. 132. to 139. 3. The benefit of a faithful tryal p. 139. to 144. 2. Marks of a true Christian 1. To him to live is Christ 1. Is Christ the principle of thy life p. 144. to 147. 2. Is Christ the pattern of thy life p. 147. to 150. 3. Is Christ the comfort of thy life p. 150. to 152. 4. Is Christ the end of thy life p. 152. to 155. 2. He hath the Spirit of God p. 155 156. which is 1. A purifying Spirit p. 156. to 160. 2. Enabling to pray p. 160. to 163. Fervently p. 163. to 166. Frequently p. 166. to 170. Counsel to a Christian that upon tryal findeth his estate good p. 170. to 173. To him that findeth his estate bad p. 173 174. 3. Use by way of Exhortation To Labor for this spiritual life and thereby for this gain p. 175. to 180. Rich men should labor for it p. 180. to 185. Poor men should p. 185. to 190. Two requests to all that desire this spiritual life 1. Req To set about it speedily p. 190. to 195. 1. Hath not God waited on thee long enough already p. 195. to 198. 2. Hast thou not served sin long enough p. 198. 3. Thou wouldst not defer things of lesse concernment p. 199. 4. The longer thou delayest the farther thou wandrest from God and happiness p. 200. 5. Thou canst not promise thy self the next hour p. 201. 6. Art thou sure God will accept thee hereafter p. 202. 2. Req To set about it seriously and with all thy might p. 203. to 208. Inforced by a fourfold supposition 1. Sup. Thou hadst seen the terror of the day of judgement p. 208. to 213. â— Sup. Thou wert sure to dye this day moneth p. 213. to 217. â— Sup. Thou couldst speak with thy carnal sloathful neighbors in hell p. 217. to 218. 4. Sup. Thou hadst seen the Majesty and purity of the infinite God p. 219. to 222. Directions for the attaining this spiritual life 1. Direct Labor for the knowledge of thy sins and misery p. 224. to 234. Mark that six sheets are false figured in this place in the book 2. Direct Get thy heart truly affected with and throughly humbled for thy sins and misery p. 234. to 271. 3. Direct When thy heart is humbled cast thy self wholly and onely upon the merits of Jesus Christ p. 171. to 186. 4. Direct Dedicate thy self and all thou hast to the service commands and glory of Christ p. 186. to 200. 5. Direct Be diligent in reading hearing and meditating on the word of God p. 200. to 208. 6. Direct Be frequent and fervent at the throne of grace p. 253. to 263. Motives to labor for this spiritual life 1. It is the most honorable life p. 263. to 267. 2. It is the most comfortable life p. 267. to 275 3. It is the most profitable life p. 275. Conclusion of this large use to the unconverted p. 287. 4. Use by way of consolation to all that live spiritually p 288. It is comfortable 1. Against persecution from the world p. 290. 2. Against the temptations of the devil p. 294. 3. Against the corruptions of thy own heart p. 297. 4. Against our own deaths p. 300. 5. Againgst the death of our godly friends and relations p. 303. It is further comfortable if we consider 1. The excellency of this gain which will appear p. 305. 1. By the foretastes of it p. 306. 2. By the price paid for it p 309. 3. By the titles given to it p. 311. 2. The certainty of this gain p. 315. It is ensured by promise ibid. By witness by oath by seals p. 317. 3. The eternity of it p. 318 REader I desire thee to excuse the unsuitableness of some of the page titles that being the work of the Printers I intended a running Title according to the several heads which
the Christian to a Kingdome which cannot be shaken But it commeth to the unregenerate as Ehud to Eglon And Ehud said I have a message from God unto thee and what was his message Judges 3.20 21. And Ehud put forth his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into Eglons belly It is a messenger from God with a mortal wounding killing stabbing message to a sinner The pale white horse of death rides before and the red fiery horse of hell follows after The people of God pass safely through this red Sea of death which his enemies assaying to do are drowned are damned There is a great dis-agreement in the lives of the holy and unholy but O what a vast difference is there in their deaths they are like two parallel lines how far soever they go together they never touch in a point Their wayes differ and therefore their ends must necessarily differ Every mans end is virtually in his way their ways differ as much as light and darknesse and therefore their ends must differ as far as heaven and hell The one walketh in his own wayes Prov. 14.14 in the wayes of his own heart Eccles 7.9 in the broad way of the flesh and the world Matth. 7.13 and so his end is damnation Phil. 3.19 his latter end is that he shall be destroyed Fine discernuntur improbi ab electis Moller in Ps 37 for ever Numb 24.20 The other walketh in the way of the Lord Psal 119.1 in the way of his testimonies ver 14. in the narrow way of self-denial mortification and crucifying the flesh Maâ—t 7.14 and so his end is peace Psal 37.37 Such as the seed is which is sown such is the crop wich is reaped the unregenerate man soweth to the flesh and of the flesh reapeth corruption The sanctified soul soweth to the spirit and of the spirit reapeth life everlasting Galat. 6.6 7. The blind world indeed as it seeth not their difference in life the life of a Saint is an hidden life Col. 3.3 the Kings daughter is all glorious but 't is within Psal 45.13 the jewels of her graces are laid up in that privy Drawer the hidden man of the heart so it beholdeth not the difference in their deaths As dieth the wise man so dieth the fool to the eye of sense and they want the eye of faith Eccles 2.16 We see no difference say they betwixt the death of them you call prophane and your precise ones they die both alike to our judgments But this conceit Reader if thou art such an Athiest proceedeth from thy blindnesse and unbelief Thou art probably in the chamber when a drunkard a swearer or a civil moral yet unsanctified neighbour departeth this life thou seest his body trembling panting groaning dying but thou doest not see the ten thousand times worse condition his poor soul is in thou seest his kindred or relations weeping but thou doest not see the infernal spirits rejoycing thou dost not see the greedy Devils that waited by the bed-side like so many roaring lions for their desired deserved prey thou doest not see when the soul left the body how it was immediately seised on by those frightful hell-hounds in a most hideous horrible manner and haled to the place of intolerable and eternal torments thou doest not see the shoutings of those legions in hell at the coming in of a new prisoner to bear a part in the undergoing of divine fury in their blasphemies against heavens Majestie and in their estate of hopelessnesse and desperation Men saith a modern writer like silly fishes see one another caught and jerkt out of the pond of life but they see not alas the fire and pan into which they are cast who die in their sins Oh it had been better surely for such if they had never been born as Christ said of Judas then to be brought forth to the murtherer that old man-slayer to be hurled into hell there to suffer such things as they shall never be able to avoid or abide On the other side thou standest by a scorned persecuted Saint when he is bidding adieu to a sinful world thou seest the struglings and droopings of his outward man but thou seest not the reviving cordial the Physician of souls is preparing for his inward man thou doest not see those glorious Angels which watch and wait upon this heaven-born soul That waggon or chariot which the son of Joseph sendeth to fetch his relation to a true Goshen Never Roman Emperor rode in such a Chariot of Triumph as the Saint doth to heaven the inheritance of the Saints in light is as invisible to thee as those chariots of fire on the mountain were to the servant of the Prophet When the soul biddeth the body good night till the morning of the resurrection thou doest not see those ministring spirits sent down for the good of this heir of salvation presently solacing and saluting it Thou doest not see how stately it is attended how safely conducted how gladly received into the bosome of Abraham into the fathers house into that City whose builder and maker is God Thou doest not see the soul putting off with the cloathing of the body all sin and misery and putting on the white linnen of the Saints even perfect purity matchlesse joy and eternal felicity When thou canst see these things with the eye of faith thou wilt easily grant a vast difference between the death of the gracious and gracelesse Reader if thou art dead in thy sins and unacquainted with this spiritual life which I have before described nothing of that endlesse gain which the godly shall enjoy at death belongs to thee none of that fulnesse of joy of those rivers of pleasures of that eternal weight of glory shalt thou partake of I may say to thee as Simon Peter to Simon Magus thou hast no part nor â—â—t in this matter for thine heart is not right in the sight of God Thou mayest like the mad-man at Athens lay claim to all the vessels that come into the haven but the vessels of the promises richly laden with the treasures of grace and love do not at all appertain to thee If like a dog thou snatchest at the childrens bread thou art more bold than wel-come and wilt one day be well beaten for thy presumption Reader if thou art unregenerate and so diest look to thy self for thy lot must fall on this side the promised Land Thou mayest like a Surveyour of Land take a view of anothers Mannor and bring a return how stately the house is how pleasant the gardens how delightful the walks how fruitful the Pastures how finely it 's seated how fully it 's woodded how sweetly it is watered how fitly it is every way accommodated but as long as the Pronoun is wanting it can be but little comfort it is none of thine So thou mayst read and hear much of that comfort joy and richnesse of that incomparable
death when thou lyest upon thy death-bed and art going out of the world thou mayst take thy leave of thy friends estate honour and delights in such language as this Farewel my dear wife children and all my friends farewel for ever I am going where lovers and friends will be put farre from me I must never never have any friend more but shall remain friendlesse to all eternity Farewel my house and Land my silver and gold farewel for ever I shall from henceforth and for ever be a beggar and though I beg but for one drop of water to coole my tongue when this whole body shall be in unquenchable flames I must everlastingly be denied Farewel my honours and delights farewel for ever I shall never more be respected or comforted confusion of face and easelesse pains are to be my endlesse and unchangeable portion Thus man thou wilt most miserably even out-live thy felicity and when thou comest to live indeed i. e. in the other world want all thy comforts and joys 2. Thou shalt lose by death all thy spiritual preferment It is now no mean mercy to thee hadst thou an heart to prize and improve it that thou enjoyest the Ordinances of God the means of grace many golden seasons for the good of thy soul that thou mayst sit at Gods feet and hear his voice out of Scripture fall down on thy knees and seek his face by prayer but know to thy sorrow death wil rob thee of all these Jewels Now thou hast the tenders of mercy the intreaties of the Minister the motions of the Spirit the invitations of Christ liberty to cast thy self down at the foot-stool of Heavens Majesty and to be as fervent and instant as thou wilt for mercy but then the gate wil be shut and there wil be no praying or hearing or preaching in the place whether thou art going Psal 88.11 Shall thy loving kindnesse be declared in the grave or thy faithfulnesse in destruction the interrogation is a strong negation There is no preaching of Gods clemency or fidelity either in the grave or hel All the Lectures read in the former are by worms of mans mortality and all the Sermons heard in the latter are of mans misery and Gods severity Reader I assure thee from the living God that though in this life thou art now and then bungling about a duty and giving God thy stinking breath a few cold lazy petitions which proceed from thy corrupt lungs thy cursed heart thou shalt do so no more after death As the Saints shall be above this mediate enjoyment of God so thou shalt be below it And truly hadst thou ever had Communion with God in a duty this losse would go near thee How amiable is the worshipping of God to a gracious soul he prizeth Ordinances because they are the means of it in this world above his estate and food or what ever is deare to him Psa 119.14 72 111. Job 23.12 Psa 84.1.2 3. And this priviledge he shall have by death to be employed stil about the same work of pleasing glorifying worshipping and enjoying God only he shall do it in a more excellent and more delightful way He continueth as it were in the same School death only removes him to an higher form or if you will death sends him from the School in which he was fitted and prepared to the University of heaven but O sinner thou must be deprived of this happinesse indeed now thou esteemest the Ordinances of God a burden as precious as they are to others they are tedious to thee The Church is thy Goal the Sabbath is thy ague-day the commands of Christ are bonds and fetters to thee Psa 72.3 The voice of thy carnal heart is when wil the glasse be out when wil the duty be done when wil the Sabbath be over that thou mayst follow the world Amos 8.5 Thou thinkest the prayer is too long the Sermon is too long the Sabbath is too long the duties are all too long wel be patient but a little a short time and thou shalt never be troubled with these long duties more The night is coming when there is no working Joh. 9.4 There is no enjoying Sabbath or Sacraments or seasons of grace no wisdome knowledge or device in the grave to which thou art hastening Eccles 9.10 Now the Minister exhorteth thee to cast away thy sins and come to thy Saviour to reject thy soul-damning lusts and accept of a soul-saving Lord The Father commandeth thee by his Soveraignty over thee and propriety in thee as thy Creatour The Son entreateth thee by presenting his bloody sweat and sufferings unto thee as he is thy Redeemer The Spirit stirreth thee to pity thy precious soul and to minde thine unchangeable estate to consider seriously in this day of Gods patience the things which concern thy eternal peace The Gospel is a Treasure of inestimable value freely offered to thee upon condition thou wilt but heartily embrace it and the easie yoke of Christ together The Word of God chargeth inviteth allureth beseecheth promiseth threateneth all these like so many Trumpets do loudly sound a retreat to call thee off from thy slavery to the world and flesh unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God but thou art as deaf as the Adder and wilt not hear the voice of these heavenly charmes as hard as the Rock the waves of threatenings which dash unweariedly against thee stirre thee not the showres and dews of promises which fall on thee continually make no impression neither mercies nor judgements neither men nor God can prevaile with thee Well sinner think of it again and again and thy heart is hardened with a witnesse if it do not tremble to think of it the hour is approaching when thou shalt never have these tenders these invitations these means these motions more though thou shalt earnestly and uncessantly desire them and willingly accept of them if they could be granted thee after thou hast fryed as many millions of yeares in hell as there are stars in the heavens piles of grasse on the earth and sands on the sea shoar yet thy intreaty upon such an hard condition shall be denied then thou wilt befool thy self to purpose for staying til the day after the faire for not accepting when thou wast wel offered then mercy wil be mercy indeed then grace wil be grace indeed then the Gospel wil be glad-tydings indeed when by the want of them thou shalt fully know the worth of them Now God holdeth the Candle of his Word to thee and instead of working thou playest instead of working out thy own salvation instead of working the works of him that sent thee into the world thou playest the fool the drunkard the beast the hypocrite the Atheist wel thou shalt go into utter darknesse where those lights which thou now enjoyest will never shine Plutarch observeth of Hannibal he might once have taken Rome and would not afterwards he would and could not now
restest quietly but O friend God hath * Job 8.14 15. a besome of death which will sweep this down This and all the rest as nigh as they seem to be to heaven will prove but a Castle in the air whether any or all these or something else be the Pillars by which thy hope is upheld in life they wil fail thee at death and then the rotten props being taken away the house of thy hope wil fall These are all but a sandy foundation and therefore when that great storm comes they will down to the ground Matth. 7.26 27. It is possible thou mayest hope all the time thou livest but thy life and hope wil depart together like thy neighbours thou mayst be ful of hope even when thou art going into the pit of despaire and die in peace though thou art going unto the place of eternal war but the next moment after death thy hopes wil take wings and flie away Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dieth his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth He died perhaps with his head ful of hopes and expectation as those seemed to have done that came bouncing at heavens gate with Lord Lord open to us but soon were their hearts filled with desperation when they heard Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Etiam spes valentissima periit as some read that fore-cited place His great hope shall be little worth A false heart and false hope can never hold out in such a real hardship Job 27.8 What is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when God shall take away his soul An Expositor glosseth on it thus The anchor of a wicked mans hope entereth not within the vail as a godly mans doth closing with God himself in Christ Hebr. 6.19 which anchor in all storms is sure and stedfast but is cast upon false and loose ground and therefore when the storm comes his Anchor drives and is unstedfast and so his hope and heart fail together The stoutest unregenerate man alive wil drop at last when God cometh to take away his soul then his crest falls and his plumes flagge The wicked is driven away in his wickednesse Prov. 14.32 He being arrested by death as a cruel serjeant in the divels name is hurried away and hurld into hel as Syrens are said to sing curiously while they live but to roare horribly when they die so thou that art high in hope on earth wilt be lower in grief in hel when thou shalt see all thy hopes like Absoloms Mule to fail thee in thy greatest extremity We say if it were not for hope the heart would break what wilt thou do then when thy hope shall depart and thy heart continue How sad wil thy condition be when thou shalt fall from the high pinacle of thy presumption into the bottomelesse gulph of desperation surely thy raised expectation disappointed wil prove a sore vexation how extreamly wilt thou be perplexed when thou shalt fall as low as hel whose hopes were raised as high as heaven If hope deferred make the heart sick Prov. 13.12 then hope of such happiness wholy frustrated wil kil it with a thousand deaths ImprobiduÌ„ spirant sperant justus etiam cum expirat sperat When a gracious man dieth his hope is perfected in the fruition of all and ten thousand times more then he hoped for when a graceless man dieth his hope perisheth in an utter disappointment of all that he though with little reason so much expected 5. Thou shalt lose by death thy precious soul this wil be a losse indeed the price of this pearl is not known to thee on earth but it wil be fully known in hel this one head Reader didst thou but understand what is included in it would stab thee to the heart and the thought of this one losse would be enough to imbitter the comforts of thy whole life The soul of man is called the man Job 4.19 though not in a natural Quia animaest principalior pars hominis unumquodque autem consuevit appelâ—ari id quod in eâ— est principalius Aquin in Job 4.19 yet in a moral consideration saith one upon that place it being the most noble the most excellent part of man and 't is usual to denominate the whole from the better part The body is but an house of clay its foundation is in the earth but the soul the inhabitant in this house is of an Angelical spiritual nature The generation of this was from heaven Zachariah 12.1 The operations of this are most noble the Redemption of this cost the blood of God Psal 31.5 Acts 20.28 this is that part of man which is capable of the Image of his Maker Col. 3.10 Ephes 4.24 the working out the salvation of this is the whole of a Saints care and labour Phil. 2.14 't is upon the welfare of this that the body dependeth for its unchangeable estate what a losse then wil the losse of this be Faciâ—is jactura sepulcri An Heathen can tel us that it is an easiy matter to beare the losse of an earthly house for our bodies when we die but certainly it wil be hard to beare the want of an heavenly habitation for thy soul Let him that bought this ware speak to its worth and thy losse What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Matth. 16.26 Behold what an incomparable what an irreparable losse is here It is such a losse there is none like it The gain of the whole world cannot ballance the losse of one soul If a temporal life be more worth then meat and the body then rayment what is an immortal eternal soul worth Couldst thou set thy soul to sale for all the world yet for all that thou wouldst be a loser nay as the rich man a beggar This is an irrecoverable losse If thou losest one eye thou hast another if thou losest one limb thou hast more if thou losest thine estate thou mayst recover it again if thou losest thy life thou mayst be a gainer by it thou mayst find it again Matth. 16.25 but if thou losest thy soul at death thou hast no more there is no second throw to be cast no after-game to be play'd thou art gone thou art undone for ever Here is a losse man that may make thy hair stand an end thy head yea thy heart to ake when thou readest or thinkest of it do not thine eares tingle and thy loines tremble to hear of it When God would smite the rich fool under the fifth rib as it were and strike him so home as that there need not a second thrust he doth it in these words Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee Luke 12.20 Ah! sad sentence wherein every word speaketh wo every syllable sorrow and sighs Had it been Thou wise man
be cleared though not changed that thy knowledge may increase thy sorrow Thou art now wilfully ignorant of him and his Will some never look up to the Sun but in an Eclipse but then thou shalt know so much of him to grind thee with tormenting grief for thy losse of him As a prisoner through the grates may see the costly apparel the precious liberty the pleasant and plentiful provision which others enjoy whâ—lest he is vexed with hunger nakednesse cold and bondage So thou shalt see bread enough in the Fathers house and the children sitting round about his table eating bread and feasting in the Kingdom of heaven while thou art perishing with hunger Thou shalt see those Rivers of pleasures wherein the godly bathe their souls those soul-ravishing delights which they enjoy in God the fountain of all good whilest thou art sentenced to an eternal separation from him Now tell me whether the sinful wretch be not a loser by death when he shall lose all his wealth friends and opportunities of grace the company of all the Saints all his false hopes of heaven his precious soul and the ever blessed God tel me whither sin how sweet soever it be in the commission will not be bitter in the conclusion whether in such an hour the Devil will not pay thee thy full wages for all thy wicked works whether it be worth the while to continue in thine unregenerate estate though thou couldst gain never so much when it will certainly end in such inestimable losse In a word answer me whether the greatest pleasure thou canst gain for thy flesh the greatest addition thou canst gain to thy estate by a sinful irreligious life can countervail the everlasting losse of God and thy soul But this is not all sinner I have not done with thee yet I have told thee a little of thy losse for the whole of it no tongue can tell no pen can write I will now tell thee thy gain by death and then do thou cast up the accompt and tell me whether thy wickednesse will not end in woe First By death thou shalt gain a cursed perfection of sin if it may be called a perfection Upon earth the most notorious sinner is a lion chained up and kept in but in hell he will be let loose and then his ravenous nature and cruel disposition will appear to purpose Gurnals Armour Part. 1. p. 257. Thou yet standest in a soil saith that accurate Writer not so proper for the ripening of sin which will not come to its fulnesse til trans-planted unto hel Thou who art here so maidenly and modest as to blush at some sins out of shame and forbear the actings of others out of fear when there thou shalt see thy case as desparate as the Devil doth his then thou wilt spit out thy blasphemies with which thy nature is stufft with the same malice that he doth The vilest man in this world Is like a swine in a fair meadow but in the other world there wil be the wallowing in the mire Thy heart now Is like the Sea which cannot rest but is ever casting up mire and dirt of sin foaming out thy own shame yet still it is shut up with bars and doors of restraining grace hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shal thy proud waves be stayed but then the doors wil be opened the banks broken down and the flood-gates taken up and ô what a deluge what an overflow of sin will be there Here if God should not put a bridle into the mouth of these unruly beasts and hold them in there would be no living for a Saint among them but then when the good shall be parted from them the reins shall be laid in some respect on their own necks and then they wil run to the same excesse of riot and sin with the very divels Voluntas morientis confirmatur in eo statu in quo moritur All the weeping in hell will not wash thee a whit the cleaner and all the fire there wil not consume the least of thy drosse He that is filthy at death will be filthy still and he that is unjust then shall be unjust for ever Rev. 22.11 Arcem omnium turpitudinum Hell may fitly be called as Tertullian called Pompeys theatre the glory of old Rome a stye of filthinesse Every bottle of wickednesse wil be there filled with those bitter waters thou that now makest a match with mischief shalt then have thy belly full Here sin is thy sin and defilement but there it wil be thy hel thy punishment Here thou sportest with it but there thou shalt smart for it now it is thy pleasure but then it wil be thine everlasting pain Sin is ugly to a Saint on earth notwithstanding all her gaudy attire and painted face but O what a deformed monster wil she be in hel when she shall be stript of all her ornaments of pleasure and profit and when all her paint shall be washt off with Rivers of brimstone I thus preach and thus think saith Chrysostome that it is more bitter to sin against Christ then to suffer the torments of hell And holy Anselm saith that if the evil of sin were proffered to him and the torments of hell he had rather choose hell then sin Thus odious sinne is to a godly man in this world and surely it will not be amiable to a wicked man in the other world but they who now glory in their shame will then be ashamed of their glory and find their lusts more burthensome to them how lightly soever now they go with them then ever Prisoners did their chains and fettets If thy soul be so unhealthy in so pure an air as this comparatively is among the Saints of God how diseased will it be in that misty Region of darknesse in that Pest-house among Divels and infectious spirits 2. Thou shalt gain by death a fulnesse of sorrow when thy sins come to their highest degree then will thy sorrows likewise both in regard of intention and duration 1. In regard of intention and how great this will be I am not able to tell thee When one was desired to paint the Spanish Inquisition he took a Table and besmeared it with blood implying the torments were so cruel and bloody that his pencil could not delineate them Sure I am Phaleris Bull Low-countrey wracks and all out-landish tortures whatsoever are but plays and bug-bears to the sufferings of the damned There are no sorrows like to their sorrows wherewith the Lord afflicteth them in the day of his fierce wrath Unum guttula malae conscientiae totum mare mundani gaudij â—bsorbet Lu If the wrath of God be kindled but a little and a spark thereof light into the conscience of a Saint what a work doth it make there is no rest in his flesh nor quiet in his bones when the arrows of the Almighty stick within him the poison thereof soon
enough of lust and lasciviousnesse when he shall imbrace deformed Devils and lie down in a bed of fire instead of feathers surrounded with curtains of frightful fiends In thee it is that the drunkard wil have enough of his cups when a cup of the pure wrath of an infinitely incensed God shall be presented to him and he forced to drink it all up though there be eternity to the bottome In thee it is that the Sabbath-breaker shall have enough of disturbing Gods rest when he shall be tormented and have no rest day nor night for ever and ever Revel 14.16 In thee it is that the Atheist in his family shall have enough of his prayerlessness and regardlessenesse of God when he shall be ever ever praying with his whole heart for a drop of water to cool his tongue and God shall never never shew the least regard towards him In thee it is that the hypocrite wil have enough of putting off God with a painted holinesse when he shall find a real Hell In thee lastly it is that the covetous worldling that like Corah is swallowed up of earth alive and yet hath never enough shal have fire enough pain enough and wrath enough in Hel. Consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces when there is none to deliver you Psal 50.22 Good God! whether is man fallen what desperate hardnesse hath seised on his heart that he should be every moment liable to such a boundless bottomlesse sea of scalding wrath and yet as insensible of it as if it did no whit concern him Ah did but the seduced world believe thy word they would mind other works than now they do But Reader what is thy judgment is not the mirth of every sinner that maketh a mock of sin worse than madnesse Should not the sting in sins tail deterre thee more than the false beauty of its face allure thee Shalt thou look hence forward upon the most delightful sin as any better than Claudius his mushrome pleasant and poison Well whoever thou art that readest this Use be confident all this and ten thousand times more is thy birth-right thou art by nature an heir to this estate that lieth in the valley of Hinnom All this is the wages due to thee for thy service to sin sin payeth all that die its servants in such black mony and shouldst thou go out of this world before thou art new-born thou shalt as certainly find and feel more than all this in the other world as there is a God in heaven and as thou art a living creature on earth The God of truth hath spoken it and who shall dis-annul it Matth. 18.3 Matth. 5.20 John 3.3 though thou art not actually under it yet then art every moment liable to it this cloud of blood hangs night and day over thy head and thou knowest not how soon it may break and showre down upon thee The decree and sentence is already pass'd in heaven that thou who turnst not in time shalt burn to eternity and thou canst not tell how soon God may seal the warrant for thy execution Bellarmine is of opinion that one glimpse of hel-fire were enough to make a man turn not only Christian but Monk and to live after the strictest order Drexelius tells us of a young man given to his lust that he could not endure to lie awake in the dark and on a time being sick he could not sleep all night and then he had these thoughts What! is it so tedious to lie awake one night to lie a few hours in the dark what is it then to lie in everlasting chains of darknesse I am here in my house on a soft bed kept from sleep one night O to lie in flames and in darknesse everlasting how dreadful will that be this was the means of his conversion O that Reader what I have written might work such an effect upon thy soul how abundantly should I be satisfied for all my pains how heartily should I blesse that God who by his providence call'd me to this task Shall I entreat thee as thou hast the least spark of true love to thy dying body to thy immortal soul to thine eternal peace to break off thy sins by repentance and flie all ungodlinesse as hell for dost thou not perceive out of the Word of the living and true God that though thy lust may be sweet in the act yet her end is bitter as worm-wood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell Prov. 5.4 5. And in order hereunto I desire thee to observe faithfully those directions I shall give thee in the third use for I would not only open the sore and shew its danger but also by the help of the Physician of souls prepare a plaister the Lord enable thee to apply it for thy cure Take a man that is most addicted to his pleasures and bring him to the mouth of a furnace red hot and flaming and ask him How much pleasure wouldst thou take to continue burning in this furnace for one day he would answer undoubtedly I would not be tormented in it one day to gain the whole world and all the pleasures of it ask him a second time what reward would you take to endure this fire half a day propound what reward you wil there is nothing so precious which he would buy at so dear a rate as those torments and yet how comes it to passe O God that for a little gain and that vile for a little honour and that fugitive for a little pleasure and that fading men so little regard hel-fire which is eternal By this time I hope it is day in thine understanding Drex of etern third consid Rhododaphne and thou seest clearly that there is a difference between the death of the righteous and the wicked that as the same perfume which is mortal to the ravenous vulture is refreshing to the true Dove that as the same hearb which cureth men stung with Serpents killeth beasts so the same mortal disease which cuteth the Godly of all their spiritual and bodily distempers killeth the wicked they are killed with death Rev. 6. Heavinesse to a Saint may endure for the night of this life but joy wil come in the morning of death whereas the freshest streams of sinful delights wil end in a salt sea of sorrows and tears I come now to a second use and that will be by way of examination If it be so that they who have Christ for their â—ife â—â—ll have gain by their death then examine whether thou art one of them to whom to die will be gain Like a Merchant cast up the accompts between God and thy soul and see how much thou art worth for another world It is good husbandry to know the state of thy flock Prov. 27.23 but there is a greater necessity of knowing the state of thy soul of communing with thy own heart Psal 4.5
if it were as good as the best so there is a great deal of counterfeit holinesse in the world a great deal of civility of morality of common grace which is taken or rather mistaken by men for true saving grace much fancy is taken for faith presumption for hope self-love for Saint love and worldly sighs for godly sorrow What can the Saint do but as to the outward appearance the sinner may do the same as the divel is Gods ape so is the self-deluding soul not seldom the Saints ape Doth the Saint abstain from grosse sins so doth he whose Religion consisted so much in Negatives Luke 18.11 Doth the Saint pray so do the Pharisees and make long prayers too Matth. 23.14 Do the Saints fast Nehem. 1.4 Dan. 9. So do they Matth. 6.16 9 14. and it may be twice in one week Luke 18.11 Do the Saints give alms Acts 10. so do they Matth. 6.1 2. Do the Saints confesse sin the sinner can do it in the very same words 1 Sam. 15.24 Doth Ephraim repent Jer. 31.18 so doth Judas Matth. 27.3 Doth Abram believe Rom. 4. so doth Simon Magus Act. 8.13 Doth Hezekiah humble himself 2 Chron. 32.26 so doth Ahab and walk softly into the bargain 1 Kings 22.15 Doth the man after Gods own heart fulfill all Gods will Act. 13.22 you shall hear that a Jehu shall do very much and that by a testimony from Gods own mouth 1 Kings 10.31 Thou hast done well in executing that which was right in mine eyes thou hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart What a great resemblance is there in all these outwardly but a vast difference inwardly The ungodly sometimes do attain to the outward actions but never to the inward sanctified affections of the godly As the painter may paint fire but he cannot paint heat that is beyond his skill Many titular Christians are like the Onyx-stone of which Naturalists write that it is clear and bright in the superficies but dark and muddy at the center men of civil conversation but not of sanctified affections Now all this calleth aloud to thee to try thy self whether thou goest beyond them that do all before-mentioned and yet come short of heaven Besides it is not seldome that a true Christian for want of a prudent trial judgeth himself unsound As the face of Moses so his heart shines with grace and he knoweth it not Christ is in him as he was with the two Disciples and he as they is ignorant of it Many Christians like Hagar weep and mourn that they must die for thirst when the water of life is by them yea within them There is that maketh himself rich full of peace and joy from assurance of Gods favour and his salvation yet hath nothing not one jot of grace or true ground of joy there is that maketh himself pooâ— perswadeth himself to be in a most wretched estate and yet hath great riches Pro. 13.7 is highly in Gods favour and hath great store of saving grace But most coÌ„monly the error is on the other side how doth every swaggering or at best civilized sinner presume that he is a Saint how often hath he blear-eyed Leah lying by him all night and he thinketh it is beautiful Rachel til the light of the morning discover the contrary how many have the Devil and the world lodging in their arms and embraces and think it is Christ the fairest of ten thousand till upon examination it be found otherwise Reader take heed this be not thy case that thou like Uriah carriest letters about thee importing thy own execution and yet thou not know of it it is ordinary for men to think they are spiritually rich and increased with good and to have need of nothing and not to know that they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Revel 3.17 they cry like Agag Surely the bitternesse of death is past there is no fear of death of wrath of hell or damnation when they are liable every moment to be hewn in pieces before the Lord to be torn in pieces by the roaring lion O how many a precious vessel soul I mean hath been split upon this rock of presumption Doth it not therefore concern thee to be serious and faithful in searching thy heart lest thou shouldst as the most deceive thy self about a businesse of such unspeakable consequence Secondly consider the fewnesse of them that have Christ for their life or that live this spiritual life every one almost that liveth within the visible Church is ready to say that heaven is his inheritance and he shall escape the wrath to come when the Word of God and the works of men do clearly and fully speak the contrary The Devil hath his droves all the earth wandreth after the beast Rev. 17.8 The whole world lyeth in wickedness 1 John 5.19 The enemies of God cover the earth like grasshoppers for multitude Judg. 7.12 they fill the Countrey when the Israeliter are like two little flocks of Kids 1 Kings 20.27 The good and the true shepherd calleth his flock a little flock Luke 12.32 nay a little little flock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being in the original two diminutives to shew ther fewnesse When four if not five Cities were destroyed one righteous Lot with his small family is delivered Gen. 19.15 When an whole world is drowned a few that is eight souls are saved 1 Pet. 3.20 Therefore the children of God are called a remnant Micah 7.18 two or three yards remaining of fourty or fifty and compared to the gleanings after the vintage Isa 17.6 one or two bunches may be left under some thick or outmost bough but what are they to the many baskets full that were gathered before The Saints are jewels now how few are there of such pearls in comparison of pebbles Mal. 3.17 and strangers Psal 119.19 how small is their number to natives which are the worlds own Joh. 15.19 The Church of Sardis hath a few names onely that have not defiled their garments Rev. 3.4 Some have divided the world into thirty parts and have affirmed nineteen of those to be without Christ in whose name alone is salvation and six of the remaining eleven to be â—apists which certainly are in no safe way to heaven and five parts of thirty only to be Protestants amongst whom they that read of their way of worship beyond the Seas will find many of these to be but mungrel-Protestants But to wave this and to come to England where it is generally by godly men believed that God hath as numerous an issue of new-born children as in any such quantity of ground in the world and Reader take the publick congregation thou dost joyn with in the solemn worship of the ever-blessed God upon his own day and suppose one should come and sweep out of it in the first place all notorious sinners drunkards swearers adulterers extortioners liars railers scoffers at
be farthest from and most opposite to Christ when they receive the most light of prosperity from him and art fullest of the blessings of his goodness Take heed thou be not like the Horse and Mule Psalm 32.9 to drink plentifully of the streames and never look to the Fountain but let thine eyes as the Churches be Doves eyes When the Dove hath pecked her corn she turneth her eyes heavenward she looketh up Cant. 1.15 It is reported of the Spartans that they use to choose their King every year during which year he liveth in all abundance but is after the year be expired banisht into some remote place for ever One King knowing this being called to be King did not as others prodigally spend his revenues but heaped up all the treasure he could get together and sent it before to that place whither he should be banisht and so in the year of his Government made a comfortable provision for his whole life So wise are they that lay up a treasure in Heaven against the time of their departure out of this world Art thou poor Labour for this spiritual life it will make thee rich indeed Thou hast little on earth but thou mayst have a treasure in heaven God offereth thee Grace Christ and Life as freely as others take heed thou neglect them not and think as they in Sweden that it is only for Gentlemen to keep the Sabbath that its only for Gentlemen to mind Religion thou hast a soul to save an endlesse estate to provide for an hell to escape an heaven to attain a dreadful day of judgement to prepare for as well as they It is a great mercy that though God difference thee from others in temporals yet not in spirituals Among the Israelites the price for their ransome was equal half a shekel the rich shall not give more nor the poor lesse Exod. 30.12 15 16. thereby * Willet in loc signifying that the same price was paid by Christ for the redemption of all poor as well as rich and that the vertue and merits of Christs passion belong equally to all thy outward condition doth not exclude thee from an interest in Christs death and intercession Poor Lazarus may lie in the bosom of rich Abraham The poor may be gospellized as that Matth. 11.5 is sometimes read not only have the Gospel preached to them but be changed by it God accepted the Lamb and Dove in sacrifice when he rejected the Lion and Eagle But thou must be one of Gods poor not of the Devils ragged Regiment Will it not be sad for thee to have two hels one on earth in cold hunger and thirst and wants and another in hell in heat and unspeakable woe How many of thy condition serve the Devil and the world all their dayes in drudgery and slavery and are turned into hell as a Sumpter-horse at the night of death after all his hard travel with his back full of gals and bruises A low man if his eye be clear may look as high as the tallest B. Hall Contempl. the least Pigmie may from the lowest valley see the Sun as fully as a Gyant upon the highest mountain Christ is now in Heaven it is not the smalnesse of our person nor the meanness of our condition that can let us from beholding him The soul hath no stature neither is heaven to be had with reaching If God clear the eyes of our faith we shall be high enough to beho d him Do not say thou art to provide for thy wife and children and hast no time to regard thy soul in a solemn serious performance of duties remember the same God that commandeth thee to follow thy particular calling as a man injoyneth thee likewise to follow thy general calling as a Christian and that in the first place Seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 and also with the greatest labour John 6.27 Phil. 2.12 Labour not for the food that perisheth but for the food that endureth to everlasting life Where our Saviour doth not indeed absolutely forbid labour for the body but comparatively thy labour for thy soul should be so much so great that thy labour for thy body should be no labour at all not deserve the name of labour in comparison of it Now consider what answer thou wilt make to the great God when he shall plead with thee for the breach of these commands besides hast not thou many spare hours in many evenings and on wet dayes wherein thou mightst go to God in secret and with thy family and humble thy soul in a mournful confession of thy sins and sensible apprehension of the wrath which is due to thee and wherein thou mightst be importunate for pardon and grace without which thou art lost for ever Nay the Lord knoweth how many Lords dayes thou hast enjoyed which dayes he hath set apart as well out of mercy as out of soveraignity not only for the glory of his Name but also for the good of thy soul wherein thou mightst both publickly privately and secretly have furthered thy spiritual and eternal good but how dost thou squander away those precious hours sometime in corporal labour alwayes in spiritual idleness in sleeping or walking or sitting at thy door or talking with thy neighbors and yet thou hast no time for thy soul But lastly tell me hast thou time to eat and drink and work and sleep and no time to work out thy salvation to fit thy soul for death for judgement for eternity If thy house were in a flame thou wouldst not let it burn and say I have no time to quench it If thy neighbor call thee to sit or talk or dine or it may be to go to the Ale-house with him thou dost not answer him I must provide for my family I have no time but when thy Maker and Preserver the blessed God calleth upon thee by his Spirit and Word to be diligent for the making thy calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 thou must provide for thy family thou hast no time for this Foolish worm leave off thy vain and cursed pretences and set upon the business for which thou wast sent into the world even the glorifying and obeying the Lord or thou shalt have another manner of answer to thy simple excuses from the Judge of quick and dead when for thy want of time to serve him in he shall give thee an eternity to suffer in Reader I have two things to desire of thee before I deliver thee the directions which I have received of the Lord for thee and indeed unlesse thou grant me or rather God and thy soul these two requests all that I have to say will be to no purpose at all my requests are that thou wouldst follow the counsel of God in order to the recovery of thy soul out of its bottomlesse misery with all speed and with all diligence Now because
there how high and noble their works how holy and pure their worship and hadst known the infinite power holiness wisdom and justice of God as they do and God should turn thee again into this world wouldst thou slubber over thy duties and play with his Ordinances as now thou dost wouldst thou pray to this God as if thou prayedst not or hear from his Majesty as if thou heardest not or attend on him so carelesly as if thou didst not attend on him at all or wouldst thou not rather think I can never be too serious in the service of such a God I can never wait on him with humility enough and with watchfulnesse enough with uprightnesse enough and with care and diligence enough Shouldst thou not be laborious in the service of such a good God Give me leave to urge this thought a little farther and to give thee a Scripture or two which through the free grace of God have sometimes helped me against deadness and dullness in duties The one is 2 Chron. 2. and 5. where Solomon telleth us The house I am to build must be great mark the reason for great is our God above all gods If God be so great a God how greatly is he to be reverenced canst thou do too much service for him or give too much glory to him Can thy love to him be too great or can thy fear of him be too great or can thy labor for him be too great when this God is so great That he measureth the ocean in the hollow of his hand and meteth out the heavens with a span and comprehendeth the dust of the earth in a measure and weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance Behold the Nations are as a drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance Behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him as lesse then nothing and vanity Isa 40.12 15 16 17. God is a great God and therefore greatly to be feared Psal 89.7 God is a great God and therefore greatly to be praised for his greatness is unsearchable Psal 145.3 If he be a great God he may well require a great house to be his material temple and if he be a great God may he not justly call for a great part of yea all thy heart to be his spiritual temple It is likely the Son Solomon learned this of his father David who giveth us this as the reason why he danced before the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord of the whole earth with all his might 2 Sam. 6.14 21. It was saith he before the Lord as if he had said Had it been before men only or in their service I might have been cold and careless slothful and sluggish but it was before the Lord the infinite incomprehensible and holy God to whom I am unspeakably obliged for his distinguishing mercy and therefore all my might and all my strength was little enough for such a God I might mind thee further that thou hast wrought hard in thy slavery to the world and thy flesh in thy drudgery to the devil and thy lusts whose reward and wages is nothing but disappointment and vexation hell and damnation and shouldst thou not be fervent fiery seething hot as the word signifieth in spirit when thou art serving the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.12 Rom. 11.12 I might also ask thee to whom thou owest thy whole strength and thy whole heart if not to God Art thou so much indebted to the world and thy flesh those enemies of thy salvation as thou art to the blessed God and who will at last pay thee best for thy strength and time God or the world Christ or the flesh But I may speak more to this in another place Well Reader have I yet or rather the Lord by me perswaded thee to set about this great business upon which thy eternal felicity dependeth timely that is presently throughly that is withal thy strength as the main chief and onely work thou hast to do Art thou resolved to do thine utmost endeavor and through the strength of Christ faithfully to follow the directions which I shall commend to thee from the Lord in order to thy recovery out of that bottomlesse misery into which thou hast plunged thy self Is there not abundant reason in what thou hast read Are they the words of a sinfu◠dying man or of the jealous everliving God Is it I only that call upon thee to mind this spiritual life or do not the daily and nightly mercies which thou unworthy wretch injoyest do not the dreadful judgements which others feel and thou hast too much cause to fear do not thy sweet babes thy dear children cry often and aloud in thine ears O thar there were an heart in our Father in our Mother to fear the Lord and keep all his Commandements alwayes that it might go well with them and with their children for ever Deut. 5.29 Nay doth not the Almighty God who observeth all thy wickednesse in whose hands thou art every hour who can with a word speak thee into that place of wo where the worth of grace and holinesse is better known and where the weight of sin and ungodlinesse is more felt In hope that thou wilt not be such an enemy to the God that made thee that thou wilt not do that despight to the Spirit that moveth thee that thou wilt not be such a wilful murderer of thy precious soul as to neglect them I shall set them down the Lord set them home to thy heart Come along with me and I will shew thee the Bride the Lambs Wife how she must be trimmed and adorned for the marriage First Get thine understanding inlightned in the knowledge of thy sins and misery 1. Direction Illumination The knowledge of thy disease and danger must precede thy recovery and cure O how many thousand souls have miscarried in the dark of ignorance Did men know surely they would not daily by their sins crucifie the Lord of glory Did they know their misery they would not be so merry as they are in wayes of iniquity they rush into sin as the horse rusheth into the battel not knowing it will be to their death to their destruction I have sometime read a story of a King that was ever pensive and never seen to smile and being asked by his Brother the cause of it he put him off till the next day for an answer and in the mean time caused a deep pit to be made commanding his servants to fill it half full with fiery coals and then causeth an old rotten board to be laid over it and over the board to hang a two-edged sword by a small slender thred with the point downwards and close by the pit
to set a table full of all manner of delicacies His Brother coming next day for an answer was placed at the board and four men with drawn swords about him and with all the best musick that could be had to play before him Then the King called to him saying Rejoyce and be merry Brother eat drink and laugh for here is pleasant being But he replied O my Lord and King how can I be merry being in such danger on every side Then said the King Look how it is now with thee so it is alwayes with me for If I look above me I see the great and dreadful Judge to whom I must give an account of all my thoughts words and deeds if I look under me I see the endlesse torments of hell whereinto I shall be cast if I die in my sins if I look behind me I see all the sins which I have committed and the time which I have spent unprofitably if I look before me I see death every day drawing nearer and nearer unto me if I look on my right hand I see my conscience accusing me of all the evil I have done and good I have left undone in this world and if I look on my left hand I see the creatures on their Makers behalf crying out for vengeance against me a Rebell Now then cease hereafter to wonder why I cannot rejoyce in the things of this world This is the condition of every unsanctified man and woman and did they but know it they would see but little cause to spend their dayes in pastimes and pleasure but what the eye seeth not the heart greives not Had Haman known he had been so nigh his funeral he would hardly have boasted so much to his friends but it is the policy of the God of this world to blind mens eyes least they should see and avoid damnation As when a Malefactor is for some capital crime cast at the Assize Diogenes being demanded what burthen the earth did dâ—d beaâ— most heavy answered An ignorant man he is then carried into a dark dungeon and thence to execution So the Devil knowing that all the Sons and Daughters of Adam are cast by the Law of God the Law shutting them all up under sin and wrath endeavoureth to keep them in the dungeon of ignorance till the day of their execution When Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Zedekiah 2 Kings 25. and 7. he put out his eyes bound him in fetters and then carried him away to Babylon Thus Satan as soon as he entereth into the soul laboureth to put out the eyes of the understanding and so to lead them hood-winkt to hell Did men know what they had done against God and how they had undone themselves they would be restlesse till they attained a remedy Did the sinner but know the purity jealousie power and justice of that God whom he daily provoketh Did he but know the love and kindness the blood and bowels of that Saviour whom he undervalueth Did he but know the pleasures and joy and happinesse in heaven which he neglecteth Did he but know the beauty and amiableness the delights and comforts of grace and holinesse which he despiseth Did he but know the emptinesse and vanity of this deceitful world which he so heartily embraceth Did he but know where sin is in the premisses sorrow and hell without faith and sanctification must be in the conclusion Did men I say but know these things how quickly would they turn from sin unto God giving a bill of divorce to their most beloved lusts and entring into a most solemn covenant with the Lord But having their understandings darkned they are alienated from the life of God that is a life of holinesse through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts Eph. 4.18 Observe how expresly the Spirit of God speaketh ignorance to be the reason why men are such strangers to the power of Religion Reader thou mayst by all this see the necessity of knowledge if ever thou wouldst be converted and saved The Devil as I said before carrieth men hood-winkt to hell but God will never carry thee blindfold to heaven The end of a Saint is the inheritance in light Col. 1.12 and the way thither is a way of light The path of the just is as shining light Prov. 4.18 and surely in respect of knowledge as well as in other respects Do not please thy self that though thou art not book-learned yet thou hast as good an heart as others as thy foolish ignorant neighbors will prate for when thou thus speakest thou speakest beside thy book for the Book of God telleth us otherwise The soul without knowledge is not good Proverbs 19.2 There may be a clear head without a clean heart the light of knowledge without the heat of grace but a gracious heart in a grown person not distracted was ever accompanied with a competency of knowledge in the head And indeed knowledge is so near a kin to grace that it is often in the Word of God put for it John 17.3 It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So 1 Cor. 2.2 Phil. 3.8 Isai 53.11 If thou would be sanctified and saved get knowledge seek knowledge as silver and search for it as for hid treasure Prov. 2.3 4. This is the first thing to be done it is first in the Ministers Commission Acts 26.18 I send thee saith God to Paul to open the eyes of the blind and to turn men from darkness unto light and this is first in the Spirits operation on the soul It convinceth the man of his sins John 16.10 11. It presenteth to the understanding a catalogue of its many and bloody provocations Imprimis thus Guilty in Adam of high treason against Heavens Majesty and thereby of want of original righteousnesse and of a deep deadly pollution in the whole nature Item so many hundred ungodly actions so many thousand unholy and idle expressions so many millions of evil thoughts and suggestions Item so many omissions and so many commissions Item so much precious time mis-spent a moment of which cannot be recalled or purchased with the revenues of the world Item so many talents of health strength food rayment esteem riches and the like misimployed Item so many Sacraments Sabbaths seasons of grace mis-improved Item so much uncorrigiblenesse under afflictions so much unprofitablenesse under mercies Thus the Spirit inlighteneth the sinners mind to see his sins with their circumstances and black aggravations as also what is like to be the fruit and effect of sin even nothing lesse than suffering everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord. It may be the Spirit may cause him as it were to see the smoak that ascendeth from the bottomlesse pit to smell the scent of that infernal brimstone and fire to hear the roarings and howlings of the damned nay possibly to feel a very hell in his own conscience
thou therefore meditate much on the love of God and Christ to thy unworthy soul Think what love is it that still spareth thee notwithstanding all thy God-daring and soul-damning provocations and that when others probably better than thy self are every day and night sent to that place where God hath large interest for his long patience What love is it not only to forbear thee but also to doe thee good thou his enemy art hungry he feedeth thee thou art thirsty he giveth thee drink If a man find his enemy will he let him goe 1 Sam. 24.19 but lo God findeth thee every moment as all thy sins are within the reach of his eye so thou thy self art continually within the reach of his arm he can as easily turn thee into hell as tell thee of hell And yet he letteth thee goe and more than that doth thee good Thou spendeth every hour upon the stock of mercy God is at great charge and much cost in continuing meat and drink and health and strength and time which thou dost ravel out and wanton away unprofitably What love was that in the Father which sent his own Son to die that thou mightst live Well might the beloved Disciple say God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 In this the bowels of divine love are naked as in an Anatomy In other things the love of God is as the beames of the Sun scattered which are warm and comfortable but in this it is as the beames of the Sun united in a burning-glasse hot fiery burning love God so loved the world so dearly so intirely so incomparably so infinitely It is a sic without a sicut as one observeth a pattern which can never be parallel'd In this God commended his love towards us in that when we were sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 when God sent his Son into the world he did as it were say to him My dear Son thou Son of my chiefest love and choicest delight go to the wicked unworthy world commend me to them and tell them that in thee I have sent them such a love-token such an unquestionable testimony of my favour and good-will towards them that hereafter they shall never have the least colour of reason to suspect my love or to say Wherein hast thou loved us Malachi 1.2 What love was that in the Son of God which moved him to become the son of man that thou mightst become the son of God What love was that which made him so willingly undergo the scorns and flouts and derisions of wretched men the rage and malice and assaults of ravenous devils the wrath and fury of a righteous God such pangs and tortures in his body as no mouth can expresse such sorrows and horror in his soul as no minde can conceive and all that thou mightest escape such misery and obtain everlasting mercy Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend John 15.13 The passion of Christ was the greatest evidence of his affection The laying down of life did abundantly proclaim his love His love before was like wine in a cask hardly seen but O how did it sparkle and cast its colour in the glass of his sufferings This Diamond before hid in the shell doth shine radiantly in the ring of his death If his tears did so much speak his love to Lazarus that the Jews who saw him weeeping cryed out Lo how he loved him surely his heart-blood doth far more demonstrate his love to his members They that beheld him bleeding in the garden had far more reason to say Look lo how he loved his What love is that which did all this for such a worm as thou art such a sinner such a rebel what would God lose if thou wert eternally lost the least tittle of his happinesse would not be diminished this Sun is no loser when men shut their eyes and will not behold its light what gaineth God if he gain thee to himself to his service thou canst not adde the least cubit to the stature of his perfections the refreshment is to men not to the Spring when the weary passengers drink of it He doth not command thee to repent from any need he hath of thee but from the pity he hath to thee He entreateth thee to return not that he may be blessed and happy but that he may be bountiful liberal in bestowing on thee those blessings which accompany salvation Methinks the apprehension of Gods great love and goodnesse should have such an impression on thee as to make thee little and low in thine own thoughts Is it not a wonder that God should vouchsafe a gracious look upon such a clod of earth a piece of clay as thou art but what admiration can answer this love and condescension that God should wait and intreat to lift thee up who wouldst cast him down That an Emperour should sue to a traitour that Majesty should thus stoop to misery that the Lord of life and glory should prepare for thee exceeding rich and precious promises a crown of life a purchased possession and beseech thee to accept of them Were thy heart never such hard metal one would think that such an hot fire of burning love should melt it I hsve in two or three Authors read of five men that met together and asked each other what means they used to abstain from sin The first said The thoughts of the certainty of death and uncertainty of the time moved him to live every day as if it were his last day The second said He meditated of the day of of judgment and the torments of hell and they frighted him from medling with his dangerous enemy sin The third considered of the deformity of sin and beauty of holinesse The fourth of the abundant happinesse provided in heaven for holy ones The last continually thought of the Lord Jesus Christ and his love and this made him ashamed to sin against God Reader if thou hast but any ingenuity the abuse of such love and kindnesse should work upon thee Some say the blood of a goat will soften an Adamant shall not then the blood of this true goat dissolve thy adamantine heart Beasts themselves have been won by kindnesse and wilt thou be worse than a beast that such Philanthrophy and kindnesse of God shall no whit stir thee or humble thee There is a twofold necessity of a deep serious humiliation for which cause I have been the more large upon it though indeed I have added very much more than I first intended in order to the two next directions which I shall prescribe thee First in order to thy hearty acceptation of Jesus Christ Humiliation is like John Baptist to prepare the way of Christ before him Christ will not be a Saviour to them that do not set an high valuation upon him now
men come to be prickt at the heart Acts 2.37 That thou must believe or perish and how shalt thou believe on him of whom thou hast not heard Rom. 10. As ships will ride a long time in a road-steed when they might be in the haven for this end that they may be in the winds way to take the first opportunity that shall be offered for their intended voyage So do thou ride in the road of Gods Ordinances waiting for the gales of the Spirit thou knowst not how soon that wind may blow on the waters of the Sanctuary and drive the vessel of thy soul swiftly and land it safely at the haven of happinesse of Heaven Direction If thou wouldst attain this spiritual life be frequent and fervent at the throne of grace Prayer that the God of all grace would infuse grace into thee and breath into thy soul the breath of this spiritual life As Abram pleaded for Ishmael Gen. 17.18 O that Ishmael might live before thee so do thou for thy soul O that my soul might live before thee And â—s the Ruler for his son Lord come down quickly ere my soul die yea ere it die eternally Go to God with a sense of thy own unworthiness and iniquities that though thou comest to his Majesty for the greatest favours yet thou art lesse than the least of all his mercies acknowledging that thou hast sinned hainously against heaven and before him and art unworthy to be called his son Confesse thy original actual heart life sins with their bloody aggravations and intreat him to pardon and purifie thee O with what humility reverence and self-abhorrency should such a guilty prisoner approach the Judge of the whole earth Arraign accuse and condemn thy self and thy sins if ever thou wouldst have God to acquit thee Pray also with a sense of thy own impotency and weaknesse That though there be a necessity of humiliation if ever thou wouldst escape damnation yet thou canst as soon fetch water out of a rock as teares from thine eyes or sorrow from thine heart for thy sins till the wind of the Spirit bloweth those waters will never flow It is God that must give to thee a poor Gentile repentance unto life Non minus difficile est nobis velle credere quam cadaveri volare Beza Confess p. 22. Acts 11.18 That thou must believe or thou canst not be saved yet thou canst as easily cause iron to swim as thy soul to believe in the Son of God Faith is the gift of God Phil. 1.29 Zeph. 8. It is as hard a work to believe the Gospel as to keep the Law perfectly Nothing lesse than omnipotency can enable the soul to either As thy first birth and generation so is thy second birth and regeneration from the Lord. Men and meanes may be instrumental and subservient but their efficacy and successe dependeth on God As Protogenes when he saw a line curiously drawn in a Painters shop cried out None but Apelles could draw that line so when thou seest the new Creation thou mayst say None but a God could doe that When thou hast through the strength of Christ wrought thy heart to some sense of thy weakness and unworthiness then look into the Scriptures and fetch arguments from Gods own mouth weapons from his own Armory whereby thou mayst prevail with him and overcome him Beseech him to consult his glorious Name and gracious Nature mind him that he is the Lord the Lord God gracious merciful long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.6 Tell him that he delighteth not in the death of sinners that he taketh more pleasure in unbloody conquests in the chearful services than in the painful sufferings of his Creatures That he had much rather have trees for fruit than for the fire Say Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness and after the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out mine offences Psal 51.1 O thou that art rich in mercy for the great love wherewith thou lovest souls quicken me in Christ that by grace I may be sanctified and saved Since thou delightest in mercy be pleased Lord to delight both thy self and thy servant by extending thine hand of mercy to pluck me out of this bottomlesse depth of misery Intreat God to consult his own Honor as well as his gracious Nature Mind him that if he condescend to convert and save thee he shall have the glory of his patience in waiting thus long to be gracious the glory of his providence in causing all things to work together for thy good the glory of mercy in pitying and pardoning such a greivous sinner the glory of his justice in that noble satisfaction it shall have from the death of his Son the glory of his power in bringing such a rebellious heart into subjection unto Jesus Christ Intreat his Majesty to consider that he may pardon and cleanse thee through Christ without the least diminution to his glory nay that far more revenues will come to his crown from thy salvation then from thy damnation That the forced confessions of them that perish as of Malefactors upon a wrack do not sound forth his praises so much nor so well as the joyful hearty acclamations of his saved ones Say Lord if thou suffer me to continue in my filth and pollution and never wash me by the blood and spirit of thy Son and suffer me to perish eternally thou art righteous but Lord if I perish I shall not praise thee thy glory will rather be forced out of me with blows as fire out of a flint thou delightest to see poor creatures volunteers in thy service The damned do not celebrate thy praise Psal 30.9 they that go into the infernal pit give thee no thanks The living Psal 88.10 11. Isa 38.19 the living they shall praise thee they that live spiritually and they that live with thee eternally O what Hosanna's and Halelujah's what honor and glory and blessing and praise do they give to the Lord and to the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne for ever O let my soul live and it shall praise thee Thine is the kingdom and power do thou work within me by thy grace and thine shall be the glory Desire God to consider his own promise as well as his praise Urge his own word That they that ask shall receive that seek shall find that knock shall have heaven opened That if men know how to give good gifts to them that ask how much more will the Father in heaven give his holy Spirit to them that ask That he will circumcise the hearts of men and women to love him Deut. 30.6 That he will put his fear into their hearts and they shall never depart away from him Jer. 32.40 That he will write his Law in their hearts Ezek. 31.33 Go in to him when thou art full of heaviness as Bathsheba did to David and say 1
of Jesus Christ at death will quite dry up that issue of corruption Death will give thee a Writ of ease from all those weights and sins which do so easily beset thee Thou shalt be without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 Will it not indeed be a brave world with thee in the other world when thou shalt have as much holiness as thy heart can wish or hold If God should grant thee such a request upon earth that thou shouldst have as much of his Image and of his Spirit as thou couldst desire wouldst thou not think thy self the happiest man alive I am confident thou wouldst and also that nothing lesse than perfect purity would be thy prayer Well death will help thee to this When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse Psal 17. ult Now thou hast enough to stay thy stomack but then thou shalt have a full meal When the Israelites went out of Egypt towards Canaan there was not one feeble person among them When the Christian entereth into the true Canaan he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David nay as the Angel of the Lord before him When thy frame of nature shall be ruined thy frame of grace shall be perfected and raised to the height of glory 4. It is comfortable against thy dissolution To thee to die is gain death will be thy passage into eternal life Thou needst not fear death as a foe it will be one of thy best friends How did this hope of happinesse at death hold up the Martyrs heads above water and carry them through those boistrous waves of violent and cruel deaths with the greatest serenity and alacrity of spirit Xenophon Agesilaus King of Sparta used to say that they which live vertuously are not yet blessed persons but they had attained true felicity who died vertuously What is there in death that thou art so afraid of it Wilt thou fear a Bee without a sting Dost thou not know it had but one sting for Christ and Christians and that was left in Christ the head whereby now though it may buz and make a noise about their ears yet it can never sting or hurt the members The waters of Jordan though tempestuous before yet were calm and stood still when the Ark was to passe over If thou hadst been banished many years from thy dear Relations whom thou lovedst as thy own soul and from thy rich possessions and comforts which might have made thy life pleasant and delightful into a place of bondage a valley of tears a prison where thy feet were fettered with irons and thy face furrowed with weeping Mors non vitamrapit sed reformat Prudentius wouldst thou be afraid of a messenger that came to knock off thy shackles and fetch thee out of prison and carry thee to those friends and comforts And why art thou afraid of death which cometh to free thee from thy bondage to Satan sin and sorrow and to give thee present possession of the glorious liberty of the sons of God Art thou afraid to be rid of thy corruptions of Satans temptations of the worlds persecutions Art thou afraid to go to â—aints where are no sinners to Christ without his cross to the full immediate eternal fruition of the blessed God then why art thou afraid to dye and dost not rather desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ knowing that while thou art present in the body thou art absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Calvin in loc Jâ—el was offended at one that in h s sickness prayed for his life Well the best of it is thou art more afraid then hurt It is well observed by a judicious expositor that the Periphrasis of death mentioned John 13.1 where it is called a departing out of the world and a going to the father doth belong to all the children of God it is to them but a going out of the world to their dear and loving father And questionless this was that which made the Saints so desirous of death Basil when the Emperors Lieutenant threatned to kill him said I would he would for then he would quickly send me to my father to whom I now live and to whom I desire to hasten Calvin in his painful sickness was never heard to complain but often lifting up his eyes to heaven to cry out How long Lord How long Lord Plutarch in vit It is reported of an heathen Epaminondas that when he was wounded with a dart at Mantinea in a battel against the Lacedaemonians and told by the Chirurgions that when the dart was drawn out of his body Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo c. he must needs dye he called for his Squire and asked him Whether he had not lost his shield Non est timendum quod nos liberat ab omni timendo Tertull. he told him no whereupon he bade them pull out the dart and so died Surely Christian thou hast more cause to dye with courage when thou hast not lost thy God nor thy soul nor any thing that was worth the keeping 5. It is comfortable against the death of thy friends and relations which dye in the Lord. To dye is gain if it be their gain why should it be thy grief nature will teach thee to mourn but grace must moderate that mourning We may water our plants but must not drown them We may sorrow but not as they which have no hope least we sin When Anaxagoras was told that both his sons were dead he boldly answered the messenger I knew that I begat mortal creatures The people were enraged and perplexed at the death of Romulus but were afterwards quieted and comforted with the news which Proculus brought That he saw him in glory riding up to heaven So when thou art sorrowing for the death of thy child or husband or father or mother or brother or sister that sleep in Jesus thou shouldst hearken to the news which faith brings that it saw them filled with joy mounting up to heaven and there enjoying rivers of pleasures and a weight of glory and surely if after such news thou shouldst continue weeping it should be for joy Friend this text containeth choice sweet meats for thee to feed on at the funeral of thy dearest godly friend Lugeatur mortuus sed ille quem gehenna suscipit quem Tartarus devorat Hier. I suppose if thy relation died out of Christ thou hast not a little cause of sorrow and probably that was the sharp edge of the sword which wounded the soul of David for the death of Absolom that he died in his sins his fear was that his son died not only in rebellion against the father of his flesh but also against the father of spirits But when thy relation dyeth in the Lord thou hast surely more cause to rejoyce that thou ever hadst such a friend or relation who shall to eternity be employed in the chearful