Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	spirit_n	8,899	5	5.3156	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57597	Shlohavot, or, The burning of London in the year 1666 commemorated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contemplations, divided into four parts treating of I. The sins, or spiritual causes procuring that judgment, II. The natural causes of fire, morally applied, III. The most remarkable passages and circumstances of that dreadful fire, IV. Councels and comfort unto such as are sufferers by the said judgment / by Samuel Rolle ...	Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Preliminary discourses.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Physical contemplations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Sixty one meditations.; Rolle, Samuel, fl. 1657-1678. Twenty seven meditations.	1667 (1667)	Wing R1877; Wing R1882_PARTIAL; Wing R1884_PARTIAL; ESTC R21820	301,379	534

needs be the happier time of the two One was a time of provoking his adversarie the other a time of agreeing with his adversarie whilst he is yet in the way Matth. 5.25 or of kissing the Son lest his wrath be kindled and he should perish in the mid-way When thou shalt begin to take acquaintance with thy closet with thy Bible with thy own heart with the duties of meditation prayer self-examination contemplation of heavenly things to which thou hast forme●ly been a stranger thou wilt confess thou didst but then begin to live and that all thy time before thou were but like a dead body assumed and carried about by an evil spirit wert altogether like the voluptuous widdow of whom the Apostle saith that she is dead whilst she lives I know but one sort of men that may reasonably look upon life to be less desireable as to them than death and that may justly reckon it a greater priviledge to die presently than to live any longer and they are those that can say with Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the Heavens Such only may with good reason have mortem in desiderio that is long to be dissolved But yet they also must have vitam in patientiâ that is be content to live though in the midst of trouble But alas how few of these are there in the Christian world how rarely doth this flower of assurance grow even in the garden of the Church yea and amongst those that are no weeds themselves Then bless the Lord O my soul and let all that is within me bless his holy name yea let others praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together that we are yet alive though haply stript of many mercies and comforts of life which we have formerly enjoyed O Life thou art sweet though full of care and feare and hardship and trouble on ever side because thou art a day of grace a time of making our peace with God and getting the assurances of his love Art thou yet dead in sins and trespasses go to Jesus Christ for soulquicknings and thou maist come to live spiritually ere thou die temporally and be secured withall from dying eternally Hath God hid his face from thee hitherto take a right course and yet before thou diest maiest thou see his face with joy Hath he concealed himself from thee hitherto and spoken roughly to thee as Joseph to his brethren when he called them Spies yet as he at last said to them I am your brother Joseph so may God to us I am your father I am he that blotteth out your sins for mine own names sake though thou hast all this while sate in darkness and as it were in the region of death yet may the Lord be hence-forward a light to thee Some render those words Deut. 34.5 Moses died upon the mouth of God as one descants God did as it were kiss him into heaven so may he do by thee when thou commest to die Maiest thou not yet hear him saying to thee as to his Church Isa 54.11 Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempests and not comforted I will lay thy stones with fair colours and thy foundation with Saphires Lord thou knowest how to make me more thankful for life without health wealth ease honour liberty friends than ever I was for life in conjunction with all of these Cause me to improve life to those ends for which thou hast given it and give me a blessed fruit of that improvement then shall I casily acknowledge that meerly to live with such a heart and for such a purpose is more valuable than without this to live and swim in all the profits pleasures and honours of this world DISCOURSE IX Of the comfort that may be received by doing good more than ever A Man may do more good at a time when he receives less No man ever received less good from the world or more evil than Christ did yet no man ever did more good in it nor yet so much He went about doing good Acts 10.38 yea and it was meat and drink to him John 4.34 that is it was matter of great delight and comfort to him There is a real pleasure in doing as well as receiving good Psal 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them It is surely a peace which passeth all understanding that can guard the heart and mind against all that might otherwise offend David had said but just before Seven times a day do I praise thee which shews how well he imployed himself and then he presently adds Great peace have they that love thy Law I have pitched upon this consideration because there are some who since the Fire do even despaire of ever receiving so much good in and from the world as they have formerly done from their trades because they are lessned their estates because they are impaired their friends because they are impoverished Now to such it may be a great relief to think they may receive as much comfort by doing as ever they have formerly done by receiving good yea and they may do as much good as ever they did I do not say as ever they could when yet they receive nothing like so much Some Stars receive less light from the Sun which yet give more light to the world some smaller lights are greater luminaries so may the world be better by us and for us than it had wont to be when yet it was never so bad that is so unkind and so unpleasant to us and so straight-handed as now it is There are more waies of doing good than with a mans purse onely though that is one way in which all must do good that have it Men may do good with their heads hearts tongues pens lives by their prayers parts graces precepts examples most men have one talent or other wherewith to do good though many have no hearts to use their talents though they be many and great Men of great estates do not alwaies keep the best houses or give the most relief to their poor neighbours neither are the ablest men in any kinde alwaies the most useful and serviceable to the publick Some persons as able it may be as those that write Volumes have never once appeared in print yea some of meaner gifts have furnished the world with many useful Treatises which shews that they who have received less may do more for God more for themselves more for the good of the Church and of the world than those who have received a great deal more who it may be are either over idle or over-bashful or too much awed by that Proverb That he that comes in print lies down and suffers every one that will to have a blow at him being over-tender of their reputations like the delicate woman that for delicacie will not set the sole of her foot to

powerfull I poor mean despicable let me forfeit all again yea take thou the forfeiture of all thy spiritual comforts again which yet I would not thou shouldst do for ten thousand Worlds DISCOURSE VIII Of its being a great mercy to most Men that their lives are continued though their livelihoods are greatly impaired I Have not forgotten the words of good Elijah when he fled into the Wilderness for fear of Jezabel who sought his life how he sate him down under a Juniper Tree and requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now oh Lord take away my life 1 Kings 19.4 Nor yet the words of Job to the same effect Chap. 7.15 My soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life nor yet that peremptory answer of Jonah when God asked him if he did well to be angry for the gourd who told God to his face He did well to be angry even unto death Jonah 4.9 These things are not recorded in honour of any of these three Men but as David speaks of himself I said this is my infirmity so may we say these were their infirmities they were good men but these were bad expressions and are delivered to us not for our imitation but for our warning and caution and as the Apostle speaks in another case 1 Cor. 10.6 These things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted But how incident is it to us to do the same thing even to wish for death when God hath deprived us of many comforts of life which formerly we enjoyed as if it were not worth while to live unless it be in wealth honour and prosperity This is such a pernicious error that I am very zealous to confute it and to establish that useful principle which is contrary to it namely that to escape with our lives is a very great mercy though we have no such comfortable livelihoods as we had wont to have yea though a bare livelihood or meer subsistence be all we have Job saith in one place I am escaped with the skin of my teet Job 19.20 meaning very poor and bare As Deodate parallels it with a proverb some use that such a one hath nothing left him but his teeth Though it may seem a paradox yet it is a very truth that it is a great mercy to most people living under the Gospel to escape viz. death and the grave though it be but with the skin of their teeth that is in as bare a condition as bare can be and live to live though it be uncler poverty disgrace restraint and many evils more Whilst the pride and passion of Men suggest the contrary Nature it self gives them the lie and votes for living when they vote for death as the fable of the Countrey-man doth ingenuously intimate who being weary with his bundle of sticks laid it by sate down and wished for death death over hearing him came and desired to know what he had to say to him Nothing replyed the Country-man but that thou wouldst help me up with my burthen Shewing that he was more willing to take up his burthen again than to lay down his life Why should a Man give all he hath for his life Job 1. if life be nothing worth when all a man hath is gone Were the enjoyment of honour riches pleasure the only or the greatest end of life when those were once taken away it would be scarce worth while to live nay death might be more elegible of the two but seeing the great ends of life are such things as are as much within the reach of those that are poor despised afflicted and that never eat with pleasure as the phrase is Job 20.25 As those who are rich renowned abounding with pleasures whose breasts are full of milk and their bones moistned with marrow who are wholly at ease and quiet as it is expressed Job 21.23 24. I say forasmuch as the great ends of life are as pursuable and as attainable by the former as by the latter of these as well the afflicted as the prosperous ought to look upon the continuation of their lives as a very great mercy Surely the great ends of life are that whilst it is called to day we should mind the things that concern our eternal peace that we should seek after God if haply by seeking after him we may finde him out Acts 17.27 That we should lay up a good foundation for the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.19 That we should now sowe what we desire hereafter to reape viz. To the spirit that we may of the spirit reape life everlasting Gal. 6.8 that we might fight a good sight finish a good course keep the faith and so become assured that henceforth is laid up for us a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 These are the things which God did principally aime at in bestowing life upon Men and to which he would have all the good things that Men enjoy subordinated yea and all their evil things made some way or other subservient these are the greatest improvements that can be made of our lives and the best uses we can turn them to therefore these are the great ends of life Had Moses thought otherwise he had not esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt or chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25.26 Job could easily have answered that question which himself puts Job 3.20 Wherefore is life given to the bitter in soul which long for death which are glad when they can finde the grave I say he could easily have answered his own question if he had not been in too great a passion for he knew full well that the great ends of life were those that I have mentioned and therefore resolved accordingly that all the dayes of his warfare he would wait till his change should come viz. preparing for it as one that did remember that if a Man die he shall never live again viz. to amend the errors and to supply the defects of his former life Job 14.14 Now what should hinder but that a poor Man may pursue such ends of life as well as one that is rich yea the Scripture speaks as if it were harder for a rich Man of the two Luk● 15.24 when Jesus saw that he was sorrowfull he said How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdome of God It is easier for a Camel to go thorough a Needles eye than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdome of God But if the poor man say whilst I seek the Kingdome of God what shall I do for other things in the mean time Let him take an answer from our Saviours mouth Mat. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you

believe that thy blessing only so maketh rich as to add no sorrow therewith and let us never forget or misdoubt what thou saidst to thy servant Abraham I am God all-sufficiernt walk thou before me and be upright Doubtless a little which a righteous man hath is better than great treasures of the wicked Let me ever be perswaded as I hope I now am that innocent poverty is much more elegible than ill gotten prosperity DISCOURSE XXVII Of preparing for our own dissolution now we have seen the destruction of London O London art thou gone before us who thought to have seen thee in ashes first who thought that the stakes of his Tabernacle would not be removed and the cords thereof loosned whilst thou wert left standing like a strong tower not easie to be demolished and as like as any thing to endure till time its self shall be no more How much less difficult had it been for a burning seaver to have consumed me and thousands more such as I am than for such a fire as did that work to have consum'd London For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass as Job speaks chap. 6.12 Such was the strength of that City and yet see where it lieth As for London its self it was a glorious City beautiful for scituation and I had almost called it the joy of the whole earth alluding to what was said of Mount Sion Psal 48.2 to be sure the joy of the three Kingdoms but the inhabitants of London as to their bodies what were they but dwellers in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which might be crusht before the moth Job 4.19 Who look not upon strong-built houses as things more durable than their inhabitants who did not hope if they were their own to transmit them to their children and childrens children to many generations And yet we see that they are in the dust before us And is not that a fair warning to us as it might be to an aged infirm person to follow a young lustie person to the grave If this were done to the green tree what may not the dry expect If the best houses in London were half a year since not really worth three years purchase how ever men did value them how small a purchase may our lives be worth for ought we know Many might reckon to lay their ruins their carcasses I mean in the bowels of London but who ever thought to have had his carcass interred in the ruins of London as some have had already A little time hath produced a greater change than our great change would be why then should we put the evil day of death far off why should we promise our selves length of daies as if the present year might not put a period to us as well as to a strong and stately City that was likely to have out-lasted a thousand of us How reasonable is it then for us whose lives are but a vapor to expect but a short continuance in this world at leastwise not to expect any long duration here to say with the Apostle The time is short Yea how needful is it we should take the counsel which Christ gives Luke 12.35 Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning And your selves like men that wait for the Lord that when he knocketh they may open to him immediately As there is no preparing for death without thinking of it so who can think of death and not desire to prepare for it if the destruction of London admonish us to number out dayes it doth no less to apply our hearts to wisdome Who would be willing to die unpreparedly that thinks at all of dying That you may know what I mean by preparedness for death take this account Then is a man fit to die when he is in a condition to die both safely and comfortably when he is translated from spiritual death to life and knowes himself so to be He that is not so translated hath no fitness at all to die he that is and knows it not is fit in one sense and unfit in another is partly fit but not so compleatly but he that both is so and knows himself to be so hath all the essentials of fitness for death though if a man be in the actual exercise of grace and discharge of his duty it must be confessed that doth give him somewhat more of an actual and accomplished fitness than the meer habits of grace and of assurance can do He that hath made his calling and election sure he that is sealed up to the day of redemption by the spirit of promise he that can say with Paul he knows in whom he hath trusted and as St. John we know that we are of God I say is fit to die He that hath not that fitness for death but yet desires to have it let him make it part of every daies work to get it let him be daily learning how to die Hath God afforded no meanes whereby to bring us to a fitness for death what is prayer reading the Scriptures hearing the word converse with Christians examining our selves serious meditation of spiritual and eternal things avoiding the occasions of evil keeping our hearts with all diligence Is it likely that a man should conscionably use all these meanes and not attain the end of them why then is faith said to come by hearing the word preached why is the word called the ministration of the spirit why saith Paul to the Galathians Received ye not the spirit by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 why did Christ counsel men to search the Scriptures seeming to approve their thinking that in them we have eternal life why doth Christ speak of our heavenly father giving his spirit to them that ask him why doth he say Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde knock and it shall be opened to you Mat. 7.7 For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened vers 8. why must all that come to God believe that God is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently Heb. 11.6 It seems to consist but ill with such texts as these for us to look upon the means which God hath appointed as insignificant and ineffectual And seeing they are not so let us diligently use them in order to our preparation for death now at leastwise that God hath spared us so long as to see London laid in the dust before us Now God hath fired your nests over your heads dear friends and much lamented Citizens will not each of you say as David Psal 55.6 O that I had wings like a Dove which is the embleme of innocency for then would I flie away and be at rest I see no great reason we now have to be fond of life if we were but fit to die May we not say with Solomon we have seen an end of all perfection Seeing we have brought forth an Icabod so far as concernes our selves only and in reference to this World what great matter had it been if with Eli's daughter in Law we had died in Childbed Now who would not long to be dissolved as Paul did if he could but say with him We know if our Earthly House were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 O see then as concerning Death there are three lessons to be learnt from this sad providence viz. to expect it to prepare for it and to be willing to it To expect it is the way to prepare for it and when once prepared for it we have no great reason after such a desolation to be unwilling to it O Lord I dare not say as Elijah did 1 Kings 19.4 It is enough take away my life He might better say so than I. Possibly he foresaw by a spirit of prophesie that fiery Chariot which was intended to carry him to heaven 2 Kings 2.12 Yet neither he nor I may say so by way of discontent O Lord I have many things to desire as in reference to death let me not die till I am willing make me willing when I am fit let me know I am fit when I am really so that I may be willing make me early fit that I may be timely willing yea desirous to be dissolved and whensoever 〈◊〉 am desirous to dye let me also be contented to live if thou have any work to do for me Let me only desire that thou maist be glorified in me whether by life or death Lord what work do I and some others make of dying as if it were more for us to die than for London to be burnt to ashes Did Aaron make any such stir about it Up he went to Mount Hor. Moses stript him of his Garments and put them upon Eleazar his Son Numb 20.26 And me thinks he made no more of it than if he had put off his cloaths to go to Bed or than if with Enoch he had been about to have been translated rather than to have seen death or with Christ after his resurrection rather about to ascend than to die O Lord have not some of thy servants known the time of their approaching Death and knowing it called their friends about them prayed together suing Psalmes together chearfully confer'd about that better world they were going to took their solemn leave of all their relations and friends as if they had only been about to travel into some far Country from whence they were never like to return again and then composed themselves to die as if they had only laid themselves to sleep and commended their souls into thy hands with no less chearfulness and confidence than Men do their bags and bonds into the hands of faithful friends May I not with submission desire to die upon the same termes yet if it may stand with thy blessed will let me live to see London rebuilt in some competent measure thy people re-united England resetled Protestant Nations reconciled each to other thy Gospel every where spread this Land a Mountain of holiness and a valley of vision or if not all yea if none of these at leastwise clearly to see and read my own name written in the book of life then shall I say with good old Simeon Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation FINIS

avoid a greater than that all that can be said is No man can be forced if he consent Volenti non fit violentia is true but not Volenti non fit injuria If you have not wronged the poor Citizens whether with or against their consents as it was partly both never were men wronged How many think you did lose all or the most of their goods because they had not wherewithall to give those unreasonable rates which you demanded who yet could and would have honestly paid you as much as you in reason and conscience could have demanded for the removal of their goods Will not the great God think you place the loss of those goods and the undoing of those poor families to your accompt Therefore O Countrey men honest Countreymen I must not call you till you better deserve it let my advice be acceptable to you Blush for what you have done repent restore make satisfaction to the full What you have gotten in that way unlesse it be such of you as ventured your own lives or the lives of your beasts by going near the fire will never thrive with you yea may prove a moth and canker to all you have besides Who were the large contributers to all Briefs when your Towns and Houses were at any time burnt but these very Citizens whom you have used thus unkindly If fire should happen in your thatch which may easily be and which you have provoked God to send how dearly would you miss that City which you have so inhumanely oppressed You that have not pitied Londoners pity your own souls and remember that true saying Unjust gain is not remitted that is forgiven unlesse intentionally by those that cannot and actually by those that can restitution be made MEDITATION V. Upon those that stole what they could in the time of th● Fire IT should seem it was not enough for Londoners to have their houses consumed by fire and their faces grownd by unconscionable Carters demanding half as much for carrying away their goods as some of them were worth yea ten times so much as was their due but as a further aggravation of their misery God was pleased to give London as he gave Jacob to the spoil and as he gave Israel to the robbers How many under pretence of rescuing their neighbours goods out of the fire carried them away for altogether as if all things now had been common because the fire had broken down mens inclosures Was this your kindnesse to your friends Was this the pity that should be shewed to them that are in misery I have heard indeed of Janizaries that is Turkish Souldiers that when fires have been in Constantinople would sall to plundering but are you Turks Some living upon the Sea-coast may perchance gain now and then by racks bringing rich goods to their hands but then it is presumed the owners are cast away or cannot be known They say some Nurses that use to attend on such as have the plague are wont to make away all they can lay their hands on but then they stay till the people whose goods they take be dead and have no further need of them But you barbarous wretches stript the poor Citizens being yet alive and likely to live and to need all they had and more Do you think much to be chid for what you have done Alas yours is a great crime It is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges yet I had rather you would judge your selves for it satisfie for the wrong you have done and so avoid the punishment both of God and Men. You make me think of the Eagle that stole away a coal from the Altar and fired his own nest with it Were they not fire-brands snatcht out of the fire that you stole away If you continue to keep them in your Nests sure enough they will set them on fire I mean they will bring a curse upon all the rest of your substance You have done that which one would have thought no mans heart could serve him to have done If other Thieves deserve hanging you are worthy of a Gallows as high as Haman's for the circumstance of time makes your sin out of measure sinful Would you offer to be stealing when God was burning Would you take from those to whom you had more need to have given Now you are told of your fault be not worse than Iudas himself who when admonished but by his own conscience came and brought back that wages of unrighteousness which he had received viz. The thirty pieces of Silver I do not advise you by any unnecessary confession to bring your selves into danger so you do every man right what matter is it whether they know who it was that wronged them If ever God pardon you see one Condition that must be performed by you Ezek. 33.15 If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he hath robbed he shall surely live he shall not dye MEDITATION VI. Upon unconscionable Landlords demanding excessiv● Fines and Rents since the Fire IS it a good Rule that men may take as much as ever they can get for such things as men cannot live without Surely that is the Rule you go by in asking and taking such vast Fines and Rents for the houses you lett By that Rule if some few men could be supposed to have all the Corn in England in their hands they might sell it for five pounds a bushel for men would give it if they had wherewithall rather than be without bread which is the staffe of life But how would you curse them that should serve you so You seem to have made a Covenant with fire as some are said to have done with death Isa 26.15 and with slames as others with hell to be at an agreement that if an overflowing scourge should passe thorough it might not hurt you as who should say If your houses be burnt hereafter yet they are paid for such Fines may be sufficient to build them again Methinks I hear the great God saying Your Covenant shall be disannulled and your Agreement shall not stand when the overflouring scourge shall p●sse thorough you shall he trodden down by it as it is verse 18. Like the builders of B●b●● you seem to have been raising a Tower to fortifie your selves against heaven but God will confound your Languages Would you anticipate the rebuilding of the City by obliging men alwayes to remain in the Suburbs I wish it may not be said of you in a bad sense what the Psalmist sayes of others in a good that You take pleasure in the stones of London as they of Zion and savour the dust thereof Psalm 102.14 because its ruine hath been your rise I doubt not but the Fines you have taken and the Rents you have agreed for will be the undoing of many a poor Family that but for those exactions might have made a shift to live Possibly all the gains of your Tenants trading being so dead as it is and

for Countrey houses If men had had materials as at other 〈◊〉 wherewith to have built strong and 〈…〉 tations where their booths now stand 〈…〉 scarce have done it because they wait for a remove and expect the good time when they may have opportunity to dwell in or near the places where they dwelt before Is there nothing to be learnt from thence Why should not all the provision we make for this World be only such and so slender as may argue us mindful that We have here 〈◊〉 City but look for one to come a City that hath Foundations whose maker and builder is God MEDITATION LVII Upon certain slight Timber-houses that did escape the Fire though better Houses were burned on each side of them IT is plain this Fire had a Commission from above what to take and what to leave else it had never come to pass that those houses should escape that were in most danger viz. Slight Old Timber-houses that were like so much tinder and some such did escape whilst so many goodly Buildings and stately Fabricks of Brick and Stone that seemed able to have made their own Defence were cousumed by the Fire It makes me think of Gods words to the Prophet Jeremy 1.18 Behold I have made thee a defenced City and an iron pill●r and brazen walls against the whole 〈◊〉 They shalt sight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee ver 19. Alas What was one poor Prophet against so many Kings of Ju●oh Princes Priests and People as is there expressed yet God said He would make him as a brazen Wall against them all they should not be able to prevail against him So stood these poor Old-houses at a very small distance from that Fire which destroyed others at their right hand and at their left they stood I say so securely under the wing of Divine Providence as if they had been so many Iron Pillars or Walls of Brass It calls to mind that passage where the Prophet speaking of God saith That he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength Isa 40.29 To be sure those houses had no might or strength of their own against such a Fire had it seized them it would have made but a blaze of them it would have swallowed them up quick unless the great God had interposed as he did on behalf of the three Children in the fiery Furnace The preservation of those houses I reflect upon not as if it were a Miracle but as a very great wonder and demonstration of Divine Providence Mira Miracula that is Wonders and Miracles are usually distinguished Miracles put Nature out of its course as when the Sun was made to stand still the Red-sea dried up c. but I cannot say that in this case any such thing was done Possibly the wind say still or blew another way at what time the Fire came near those houses but Who was it that called the wind into his treasurie again at that very time or else appointed it to blow from another Coast Was it not that Great God who is said to ride upon the wings of the wind and to make the Clouds his Chariots and for that end as may be meet for us to conceive that he might convince the world that all Safety and Danger is as he pleaseth to make it that he can expose those things which seem to be most secure and secure those things which are most exposed Of this we have many Instances In the time of the last great Plague how many persons were there infected with it yea and died of it who to all appearance were out of harms way whereas others again who lived as it were in the mouth of danger and jaws of death as namely in infected families yea some in Pest-houses were preserved and are alive to this very day When the Arrows of God slew about some stood not knowing how to help it as it were at the very mark and yet it was the pleasure of him that had the bow in his hand not to shoot them others stood either wide of the Butt or far beyond it and yet a Dart struck thorow their Liver an invenomed Arrow took hold of them and drunk up their Spirits So it fals out in Spiritual things How great was Lot's danger in Sodom the very air of which place seemed to be infectious as to matter of filthiness yet there he continued chaste how safe would one have thought him upon the Mountains as for any such matter yet God leaving him there he became incestuous with his own Daughters The Almighty seemeth to take pleasure yea and to glory in doing unlikely things The Prophet Isa 64.3 ascribeth to God terrible things such as men looked not for Having the issues of life and death in his hands he so ordereth it many times for his own glory that persons notoriously weak and crazy should hold out a long siege of distempers yea and overcome them at last after several years of drooping whereas others of Sampson-like strength in comparison of them fall sick and die within a few days So weak Christians both as to grace and gifts are many times kept unspotted of the present world and enabled to quench all the fiery darts of Sathan whilst some that excell them both in gifts and graces are sometime left of God in order to their greater humbling to take shamefull falls and for a time to be overcome of the evil one witness David and others So the soft Scabbard much more in danger as one would think oft-times receiveth no hurt by lightning whilst the same lightning passing thorough it doth melt the Stee within Paul observed by himself that when he was weak then he was strong meaning stronger or more strengthned by God than at other times which words imply that when he was strongest to his own thinking then was he really weaker than at other times because then he had less of the presence of God with him All these Instances are such like things in effect as was the preservation of old timber-houses whilst newer Buildings of Brick or Stone that stood near to them were presently demolished It refresheth me so much the more to think that all this came to pass without any thing of a Miracle because the working of Miracles we ought not to expect in these dayes nor can we without presumption and tempting of God pray to him to supersede over-rule or invert the course of Nature for our sakes but to seek a wonder of God when need requires is no presumption or sin at all and the instance before us doth make evident that Wonders may sometime stead us as much as Miracles even as the Houses I am speaking of as near to danger as they were were as effectually secured by God's either stilling or diverting the Wind in the very nick of time as they could have been by the working of the greatest Miracle We

we have pierced by sin and truly mourned when we have confessed our sins and forsaken them both actually for the present and in sincere resolution for ever after and when we have lifted up all eye of faith to Christ as to the antitype of that brazen serpent which was lifted up in the wilderness as he that is able to take out the sting of sin out of the fiery serpent and by faith laid hold upon his grace as upon the horns of an altar I say when this is done then is that conscience which was bad become purely good and when we can reflect upon what we have done then do they become not only pure but peaceable and consequently good upon all accounts Now I see not what notion can be more comfortable to those that have brought a bad conscience into a bad condition than this that a conscience extreamly bad may be made good that which is impure may become very pure and that which is unquiet may become calm and peaceable yea full of joy and triumph This premised I think it no hard matter to tell many a man how he may be much more happie in a mean and impoverished condition than he had wont to be in midst of all his plenty and prosperity Get but a good conscience instead of a bad one Get but peace within viz. that peace which passeth all understanding get but the pardon of thy sins and the well-grounded perswasion of that pardon get but a vision of thy sins as drowned in the red sea of Christ his blood get but to look upon God as thy friend and father and upon death as none of thine enemie and where it is no enemy it is and will be a great friend get but the Spirit of God to witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God get but this for thy rejoycing which Paul had viz. the testimony of thy conscience c. and let me be miserable for thee if thou who hast wanted these things in times past when thou hadst the world at will when once possest hereof dost not become more happie in the enjoyment of meer food and raiment than ever thou wert formerly when waters of a full cup were wrung out unto thee Some have said Bread and the Gospel are good cheere It is as true that brown bread and a good conscience are so He that hath those two will finde no cause he hath to complain And as the Prophet speaks Isa 33.24 The inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity so neither will men repine that they are poor and despicable and otherwise afflicted if they come but once to know for certain that they are pardoned The true reason why many men do want so many outward good things as namely so much wine so much company so much recreation c. is because they want better consciences had they more of a good conscience to cheare and to refresh them they would need less of other things If Saul had not been possessed with an evil spirit be had not wanted David to have plaied to him upon the Harp 1 Sam. 16.16 One saith that the life of a wicked man is a continual Dversion If men were not wicked they would not need the one half of those diversions which they betake themselves to as reliefs against the sting of an evil conscience Notable is that counsel of the Apostle Eph. 5.18 Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be ye filled with the spirit v. 19. making melody in your hearts to the Lord. When men want the comforts of Gods Spirit and melody in their own hearts they would supply that defect if they knew how with more than ordinary refreshments from those good comforts of God which do gratifie and entertain their senses and thence probably it is that St. Jude joines those two together Jude 19. Sensuel having not the Spirit They that frequently use Cordials are supposed to be apt to faintings for others had rather let them alone Wine is observed to be a narcorick or stupifying thing witness the proneness of men to fall asleep when they have drunk freely of it and it is to be feated that many do use it but as opium to conscience Now as Physitians say the body is much endangered by the over-frequent use of opiates natural opiates so is the soul much more by those things which cast it for the present into a dead sleep for they do but keep that worm from gnawing at the present which will afterwards gnaw so much the more and never die stupifying things remove not a disease but fix it so much the more I see then O Lord what men must do if they would not only think themselves happy but be so indeed if they would not be like hungry men that dream they eat but finde themselves empty when they awake or thirsty men that dream of drink but awake and finde themselves deceived Isa 29.8 If they would feast in good earnest it must be by means of a good and quiet conscience That men may want though they have houses full of Gold and Silver that men may have though Gold and Silver they have none Riches cannot give it poverty cannot hinder it I am or would be at a point whether my body feast at all more or less but for my soul I desire not only a good meale now and then but that continual feast of a conscience both pure and peaceable I prefer that to all the far fetcht and dear bought varieties of fish flesh and fowle which are at Princes tables I see then men need not bid adieu to feasting or reckon upon a bare commons after all the spoile this fire hath made They need only change their diet for that which is much better than they had wont to live upon and they may feast hereafter ten times for once they did heretofore and be said in a nobler sense than ever Dives was to fare sumptuouslie every day Peace of conscience is a feast of fat things full of marrow and of wines on the lees well refined as I may allude to Isa 25.16 DISCOURSE VII Of getting and living upon a stock of spiritual comforts AS it fareth with children whose nurses have milk enough in both breasts but one is much hardet to be drawn than the other they would willinglie lie altogether or mostlie at that breast which may be drawn with most ease so with many Christians who have an interest both in Spiritual and temporal things wherewith to solace themselves they are too too prone to live upon the breast of their worldlie comforts which may be suckt as it were by sense rather than upon that of their Spiritual priviledges and advantages which breast though much the sweetest and fullest can no otherwise be drawn than by the exercise of faith Now sad experience convinceth us that it is much more hard to exercise our faith than to use our

upon them never lie down and die whilst you have wherewithall to live yea and to live nobly A stock of well-grounded spiritual comforts or a well-bottomed hope of glory will maintain a man at a great rate though he have little else yea like a Prince if it be well improved Have you not known men live chearfully and joyfully upon the expectance of great things in reversion though they have had but little in possession One would think the assurance or what is next to it of a Crown and Kingdome after a short time of suffering should raise and revive us more than the present fruition of a great Lordship being all that ever we look for He that upon Scripture-grounds believes himself to be an heir of heaven let him but reflect upon what he believes and that alone will be a heaven to him upon earth But do I not hear some say they want a stock of spiritual comforts or grounds of comfort they have no upper Springs to fetch water from none of those Rivers which make glad the City of God and therefore it is that their hearts fail● them in an evil day Yea doubtless therefore it is that their hearts do faile them because they either have not an interest in God or if they have they know it not Now as that holy man said to his friend touching assurance verily assurance is to be had and what have we been doing all this while so say I to you verily an interest in God is to be had and see that you labour for it It was a great fault and oversight not to look after it whilst we had a confluence of other good things but now other things are taken away it were utter madness to neglect it From this time forward make it thy business to get an interest in eternal mercies the sure mercies of David and to know that thine interest and then live upon the comfort of it and then thou that never hadst it before though God have cast thee as it were from the throne to the dunghil even upon that dunghill shalt thou live better than ever thou didst in all thy life before Doubtless a man may live more happily upon a great deale of assurance having but a small pittance of other things than upon great abundance of worldly enjoyments having little or no assurance O Lord my heart deceives me if the consolations of God be small with me or in my accompt if I could not live more contentedly upon bread and water with calling and election made sure than they who have their portion in this life do when their Corn and Wine increase Oh why do I press no harder after that which I take my self to have so great a value for That is the only thing that makes me fear least my heart should in this case deceive me For it is not that God hath been wanting to incourage the endeavours of men in pursuite of spiritual and eternal mercies so that we should have cause to fear our labour would be in vain for hath he not declared he is a rewarder of all them that seek him diligently and that to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory he will give eternal life Rom. ● And what more could have been said I see then there are three sorts of men Some have matter and ground-work for spiritual joy but will not take pains to improve it they have as it were the breast in their mouths but will not draw it because the milk is hard to come by that is they have good evidences for heaven but will not trouble themselves to clear them up and to be ever and anon reviewing and reading them over Lord if I be one of them give me to see how much I stand and have stood in my own light how much I have lessened my comforts by grudging my paines how I might have doubled and trebled my joyes if the fault had not been my own others there are that content themselves with a portion in this life seeing and knowing themselves as yet to have no interest in better things Lord how desperately do they adventure how great a hazard do they run If death should come and finde them provided only for this present World what would become of them And yet there is a sort of men more desperate than these if more can be and they are those who are destitute of this World 's good things and yet neither have an interest in spiritual comforts nor yet regard to have any God hath taken the World from them and possibly will never give it them again do what they can and yet they look not after that better portion that can never be taken away from them To such I may say not only what will they do in their latter end but what will they do at present what shift can they make so much as for the present can men live of nothing without either heaven or earth God or the creature comforts for either soul or body where are they but in hell who are neither in heaven nor yet upon the earth in the World I mean Surely such men care not what becomes of them I cannot better compare them to any thing than to a ship turned adrift in a mighty storm whose Pilot steeres her no longer but exposeth her to the mercy of winds and waves and rocks and sands and it is a thousand to one if ever she get safe to harbour Lord of all sorts of men let me be none of this last Let me secure one World at least and if but one let it be the World to come The more thou abridgest me of earthly comforts the more insatiable let me be in my desires of those that are heavenly The more hungry thou keepest me as to a supply of earthly things the more thirsty let me be after those rivers of pleasure which are at thy right hand for ever more O Lord if I want a ground-work for spiritual joy a root of peace within my self let me want it no longer if I have a foundation for joy within me but know it not oh thou who hast given me to have it give me also to know it and when I once know it give me often to review and recollect it to ruminate and chew the cud upon it that I may enjoy the sweetness of that whereof I am really possest that I may eat the fruit of the Vineyard which thou hast planted within me Lord trust me with a stock of spiritual comforts with plenty of good hope thorough grace kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth and let thy barner over me be love and give me to sit under the shaddow of thy favour with delight and if ever I envy those pittiful worldlings that have more of this than heart can wish but no more of any World but this if ever I be willing to change conditions with them all things considered though they be wealthy honourable

I have spoken to the great ends of life and the attainableness of them as well by persons of low as of high degree But alas how few in comparison of the lump of mankind or of Men called Christians have yet attained those end for which they live viz. have laid up a good foundation for eternity c. and they are yet fewer who are able to say they have done it For some may have attained thereunto and yet not know it How unsafely do they die who die before they have attained the ends for which they did live and how uncomfortably must they also die who die before they know they have attained them Therefore I say it is a great mercy to the greatest part of Men and Women to be reprieved from Death and from the Grave David as good a Man as he was beg'd hard for this Psal 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more yet was his condition at that time very afflicted for he saith vers 10. Remove thy stroke from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand vers 11. when thou dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Which he seems to speak of as his own case at that time when he cried out O spare me before I go hence Is it not with most people in the World as with idle Boyes in a School at a time when their Master is absent when it is almost time to give over they have scarce lookt into their books or done any thing they came for but played all the while How necessary is it for such Men to live a little longer How sad would it be with them if God should say to them as to that secure fool This night shall thy soul be required of thee were they sensible of their own concernment would not such men prize a little time in the World as those poor Levellers did that were shot at Burford about ten years since Oh that they might live but one day or but one hour longer to enjoy those Ordinances of God which they had formerly despised or as she that in horrour cried out upon her death-bed Call time again call time again If life be necessary for thee as if thou hast not yet attained the ends of life I am sure it is more necessary for thee than any worldly thing by how much it is more necessary that thou shouldst be saved than that thou shouldst be rich or honourable I say if life be more necessary for thee than riches and honour and any thing of this World as it is because upon that moment eternity depends then hast thou cause to look upon it as a great mercy and to be very thankfull for it May it not be said of some men that are dead gone that if they had died but one year or one moneth sooner they had been damned The last year or the last moneth was more to them than all their life before for that they were born I mean born again not long before they died He that can cause the earth to bring forth in one day and a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 How great a change can he make in the souls of men in a very short time Yea I remember an excellent Divine of our own hath a passage to this purpose viz. That one day spent in serious meditation of God and Christ the joyes of Heaven the torments of Hell the evil of sin the excellency of grace the vanity of the creature the necessity of regeveration and such like things might contribute more to the conversion and salvation of a sinner than all that hath been done by him in all the time past of his life though possibly he hath lived many years in the world We shall never know what the worth of life and of time is till we come to improve it to those high ends and purposes for which God hath chiefly given it as namely unto making our calling and election sure c. but when we have done finding how great a pleasure a little time hath done us of what unspeakable use and advantage it hath been to us we shall reckon our selves more bound to God for it than for any other temporal enjoyment we shall think a little time to speak in the language of our Proverb to have been worth a Kings ransome Consider life as an estate of hope as Salomon saith Eccles 9.4 To all the living there is hope and death to the wicked as a hopeless state Job 27.8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained when God taketh away his soul and then tell me if it be not a great mercy but to live But on the base heart of man that will not suffer him to know how great a mercy life is because it will not serve him to improve it A life so spent as multitudes of people do spend theirs will prove a curse rather than a blessing as having done little in it but treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Nor is it ever to be expected that they will bless God for life who have cause to curse the time that they have lived though all thorough their own default He that would comfort himself in the thoughts of his being yet alive and take it for a great mercy that his life though little else is left him for a prey let him sit down and confider what earnings he may make of that time which is left him in the world be it little or much If from henceforth he shall set his face towards Zion set out in the waies of godliness give up his name to Christ engage in the work he came into the world about enter upon the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom set himself to seek the Lord with all his heart or at leastwise repaire to the pool of Bethesdah and wait there for cure follow on to know the Lord that he may know him strive to enter in at the straight gate dig for wisdom as for silver and for knowledge as for hidden treasure make it his business that his soul may be saved in the day of the Lord I say whosoever shall do so and persevere in so doing will finde so happy a product of that work whereunto he hath consecrated and devoted the remainder of his life as will make him prize and value one day so spent more than many daies and moneths ●n which all the comfort of his life as he accounted it came in by eating and drinking and company-keeping by hunting hawking di●ing carding and such like divertisements He will look upon that time as spent in damning his soul as much as in him lay but the other in saving it and therefore he must needs value this more than that One was a time of running into debt the other of getting old scores paid off or blotted out and therefore must