it cannot hinder my graces from going with me to Heaven though I must at death leave my outward comforts this is mine advantage I may retain and carry with me mine integrity My soul death shall not meddle with thy best treasure be therefore content to part with thy worst enjoyments thine outward comforts whilst thy tottering tabernacle must fall thine earthly cottage must be burnt rejoyce and bless God that thou canst save any thing much more that thy best goods thy substance is escaped and secured for being herewith stored thou shalt possess an estate much more plentiful and pleasant then what thou hadst in this life and world Death cuts me off from my relations but casteth them on God SECT X. DEath will cut me off from my dear Relations whose dependance hath been on my care for them but it will then dispose them under the more immediate care protection Psal 68.5 Hos 14.3 and providence of God who is judge of the Widows case and with whom the Fatherless find mercy It peirceth my soul to hear the Wife of my bosom cry Oh Husband What shall become of me when thou the covering of mine eyes art taken from me and to hear my Children cry What shall become of us when our careful compassionate Father is gone be still my soul submit yeild unto my God even so father for so it seemeth good unto thee Is it not my duty by an act of faith to cast my fatherless Children on the Lord have I not taught and often assured my Widow she must trust in God was it not the Lord who provided for them by me in vain had I risen early gone to bed late eaten the bread of carefulness if God had not built my house Shall I think the same God cannot or shall I fear he will not provide for them without me they may be put upon some more sensible straits to exert some more special acts of faith more eminently to exercise some graces but they have the same assurance and some better security that they shall enjoy food convenient the Fountain abideth full and flowing though not by the same pipe and conduit which is cut off it is Gods property and promise to take care of the Widow and Fatherless especially of such who are so made for the testimony of his truth Why do I disquiet my self for the sadness of that condition which setteth my dear Relations in a more special dependance on God and secureth to them the more peculiar providence of God I love them I have looked after them whilst I lived I will now leave the care of them to him who expressed it by me who can and will express the same without me who is charged with them by his own property and promise who is more immediately more eminently bound to look after them by taking thus taking me from them O my God! give my Wife and Children a fear of thee submission to thee and faith in thee be thou the Husband of my Widow and the Father of my fatherless Children that to the praise of thee who failest not they may tell the world the unbeleiving world they lost nothing by loosing thus loosing me they traded to good advantage by freely willingly cheerfully contentedly giving up a most loving Husband and tender Father to the pleasure of a gracious faithful never failing God who stayeth with them and careth for them when he by death doth take me from them SECT XI AFter death Death hindreth me from knowing what is done under the sun and so I shall know no evil I must lie down in the pit I shall be covered with darkness I shall not know what is done under the Sun This will indeed be my state but yet whilst I lie down in the pit I shall abide in safety and be delivered from my brethrens rage and fury My Brother Reuben proveth most faithful and affectionate by letting me down into the pit he thereby secureth not onely my life but also my liberty against my brethrens malice their hands cannot then reach me to do me hurt they cannot draw me thence to sell and enslave me to any Ishmaelite their envy may enquire for me but they shall not find me I shall be preserved in safety and preferred to glory when their entangled state shall affect their hearts and make them with bitterness to remember and confess they are verily guilty concerning their brother in that they saw the anguish of his soul Gen. 42.21 when he besought them and they would not hear him my being put into the pit is the passage to glory God hath determined for his beloved Josephs If darkness cover me it doth the better suit my sleeping state and capacitate me thereunto light is indeed pleasant to the eye but it is perturbing preventing when men desire to sleep my gracious God layeth me in the grave as in an house of darkness and as on a bed of silence that my wearied body may the better sleep and take its rest until it shall be awakened by his last trumpet which shall summon me to meet my Lord in glory I have no great cause to be troubled for that Nothing but evil under the sun to be known I shall not know what is done under the Sun for there can be little done against me after I am dead nothing that can hurt me suppose mens foolish envy should digg up my stinking carcass to burn or bury it under the Gallows they may annoy themselves they cannot afflict me sure I am they can do nothing under the Sun which shall concerne me when I am dead why shall I be so curious as to covet the knowledge of other mens affairs I might possibly know some good by my life but that will be but very little but I were therein sure to know very much evil and such evil as would and must afflict me whilst I know nothing under the Sun I shall not know the prophaness blasphemies impieties injustice oppressions violence superstitions perfidies perjuries and persecutions which are done under the Sun all which would call for and constrain greif in my soul and tears from my eyes seeing I could not know a little good without knowing so much evil shall I not be content to be freed from a so vexatious burden as is the knowledge of things under the Sun I hate life Eccles 2.17 because the work which is wrought under the Sun is greivous unto me for it is vanity and vexation of spirit What if I do not know what is done under the Sun After death I shall know much good I shall know much better things my soul the seat and subject of mine understanding shall be acquainted with and fully apprehend the glories which are above the Sun I shall then know the depths of divine mercy the mysteries of mans salvation 1 Cor. 13.12 I shall then know as I am known I shall perfectly know God and Christ shall I stick to
the Doctrines of Mortality and cry out I must die O Chist save me O Christ save me Nor is it marvell for every Balaam ready to curse Gods Israel on the sence of deaths appraach cannot but wish to die the death of the righteous I would willingly hope those who have now the charge of your souls are tender of you as Nurses and careful for you as Parents and that with due affection and fidelity they labour to fit you for and encourage you under the stroaks of death Never I am sure had you more need never were you more likely to hear the Charmer and to receive instruction then in so sad a day of visitation from the Lord. I wish I were without any grounds of fear to the contrary I lately travelling about my rustick affairs met many Ministers from your City among other Citizens withdrawing from that place of danger their recess I could not but observe with grief and anger thinking who must minister to you ghostly councel now your souls are in the shadow of death how must it sting your serious hearts to see your lovers and friends stand at a distance and your Prophets all gone I am not so uncharitable as to conclude the recess of any not specially bound to stay in infected places to be sin I beleive men that flye from the Pestilence are no more Atheistical or to be blamed as such then those who flye from the Sword I judge the recess of many may be a prudential serving of Gods providence unto the withdrawing of the contagion naturally communicating it self in vicinity but I cannot but judge Magistrates to keep order Physitians to help nature and Ministers to prepare for and encourage against death are bound to stay and in the discharge of their duty to trust God with their lives I cannot secure Ministers their lives in contagious places I well know that Histories tells us some of the Ministers and Deacons which ministred to the Saints in Alexandria Euseb Hist l. 7. c. 22. in the great Plague which there raged dyed thereof And that the Families of Bullinger and Beza were herewith infected yet themselves escaped and were preserved yet God hath ordinarily saved the lives of those who in love to immortal souls have adventured to loose them Mr. Sam. Fisher whose meditation on death in the time of the Plague in Salop we have publique among us is yet alive to tell unto Gods praise how himself and Reverend Mr. Blake were preserved in their Ministration to that place in the time of a raging Pestilence If despised I might be so bold I would desire your present Ministers to consider the late Bishop Halls advice in this very case he having justified the receâ—â—â—f private persons thus conculdeth concerning Ministers You urge the instance of your Ministers how unequally Bp. Halls Epist Dec. 4. Ep. 9. there is not more lawfulness in your flight then sin in ours you are your own we are our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly lose nor hazard by staying we with all their souls which to hazard by our absence is to lose our own we must love our lives but not when they are rivals with our souls or with others how much better is it to be dead then negligent then faithless if some bodies be contagiously sick shall all souls be neglected to run away from a necessary and publique good to avoid a doubtful and private evil is to run into a worse evil then that we would avoid c. Whilst worthless I am dead as to my Ministry I hope I may be alive as to my Meditations And freely by an harmless Pen Minister them to you especially on a subject so innocent so necessary as is Death It s Dread and the Defence against it I beseech you receive these as ministerial suggestions for the good of your souls they were indeed onely spoken to my dying self Put your souls in my souls stead and they will speak to you the special kind of death which I dreaded may make some things seem improper to your present state but the general matter and scope of them is to obviate death as such in its general nature and so they are applicable to any kind of death I beseech you prepare your selves to dye and thereby perswade your souls to be willing to dye you and I must dye it mattereth not what kind of death we dye be we careful to dye in the Lord and for the Lord so shall death consummate our misery and conveigh our fouls into the fulness of felicity Austin well noteth Quid interest an Febris Let us say Pestis an ferrum nos de corpore solverit noli qua occasione Aug. Epist 122. ad victori sed quales ad se exeant dominus attendit inservis suis It mattereth not whether Sword or Plague kill us Saints are subject to any to every of them God doth more regard the disposition of his Dying Servants then the means of their death the change of quality in us changeth the quality of death unto us Now that God may fit you for death familiarize to you that King of fears fix your souls on Christ who is life in death and so fill your hearts with those comforts which may prevail with you to dye willingly untill he please to accept an attonement and call back the destroying Angel is and shall be the most affectionate and constant prayer of Yours in the Lord foâ— the good of youâ— souls whilst he is Z. C. July 20 th 1665. A DEFENCE Against the Dread of DEATH OR Z. C. his serious Soliloquies and Meditations of Death under the alarms thereof sounded in the time of his Imprisonment in the Tower of London An. 1661. The PREFACE THe wrath of the King is the messenger of death O sad messenger O evil tidings what is more unwelcome to man what is more distasteful to nature can it chuse but dismay my soul and affect my spirit is not Death that which nature hath determined to be of Terrible things the most Terrible doth not the Scripture denominate it Job 18.14 The King of Terrors doth not the sence of death daunt the courage of the stoutest men of War damp the comforts of this World doth not this discompose the most composed Christian and most serious Saint were not the snares the sorrows the shade of Death the things which David that good that stout man did so passionately bewail Ps 18.4 5. 116.3 and pray to be delivered from the fear of Death made upright Hezekiah Isa 38. To chatter like a Crane and mourn like a Swallow The Devil well knew what he said Job 2.4 when he said All that a man hath he would give for his life The Lord of life entred not the List to encounter Death without an heavy spirit he needed some comfortable companions to watch with him under this conflict he was not ashamed to profess My soul
entertain such an exchange of objects to mine understanding is not my loss great and greatly to be lamented by which I onely loose the knowledge of vanity which would not make me happy and iniquity which would make me miserable but gain the knowledge the perfect knowledg of good much good true and substantial good only good without the least mixture of evil and that in an estate in the enjoyment of perfect glory SECT XII AFter death there shall be no remembrance of me No remembrance of me after death nor of my sin but it s no matter a great name foolishly purchased by the great precipitacie of some in the world is nothing but a great bubble of vanity which will wear out at last time will eat it out of the strongest Cities or marble Monuments and I hope when I am forgotten my sin shame will also be forgotten serious thoughts suggest unto me content the little good I have done should be forgotten so that my folly and wickedness may not be remembred and yet My soul be not dismaid the Scripture doth declare the memory of the just is blessed Psal 10.7 112.6 and the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance God hath provided that his peoples names shall live when their dead bodies shall consume in the grave the Lord hath used me whilst I lived as an instrument of his truth and honour can I dye and be forgotten in his Church or among his people shall not my works follow me shall not my works praise me in the gate can the sinners by me reproved or the Saints by me converted to or confirmed in the truth remember themselves their sin or duty and forget me God hath blessed me with many lasting memorials of nature a fruitful progeny I need not build tombs or Cities and call them after my name for when I am dead my sons will preserve the memory of my name the rotting of the name is a curse entailed on men of rotten lives and is ordinarily effected by Gods cutting off the budding race and hopeful progeny whatever hath befallen me in this life God hath not suffered this cause procuring or producing this effect to be my lot I will not therefore torment my self with a fear that it should follow me when dead Notwithstanding my sinfulness my care shall be that my life and death may make it legible that my name is written in the book of life and therein I have cause to rejoyce more then if the devils weâ—â— subject to me Luk. 10.20 I have laid hoâ—d on Gods Covenant he hath given me a place in his sanctuary better then a name of sons and daughters my name can never be blotted out of that book mine interest and relation by that covenant shall ever be acknowledged and remembred I therefore cannot possibly be buried in oblivion SECT XIII DEath will remove me from my place Death wil remove me from my place but it is movable that it shall know me no more it will so but shall this dismay me am not I a pilgrim in this earth as all my fathers were the Patriarchs passed their time on earth in moveable tents Looking for a City whose founder and maker is God Heb. 10.10 the houses in which I have lived have seemed to be more lasting structures yet they never were to me any durable stations I have not indeed removed my tents but I have been often removed from my tents I have ever been in a shifting state moving from one house unto another from one place to another and this hath been to me very tedious and irksom my Father did indeed raise many stately structures In Dublin in Ireland not one of all his sons possessed them or any of them the brick walls may bear his name none of his children do or can inhabit them God hath made constant motion my condition he hath wisely moved me from place to place that I might be in love with no place under the sun if I have liked mine house place never so well I have by one means or other been forced to leave it and that either because it was none of mine or else mens persecuting rage would not suffer me in peace to possess it or because my Masters work hath been done in that place and called me to another How often have I been forcibly removed from people whom I have dearly loved and from places where I thought I had pitched my tent and resolved to rest I digged a grave for my children wherein I intended to have been intombed my self and yet my dead babes are dispersed their graves are at a distance each from other and t is very unlikely my grave should be with any of them If Death remove me from my place it doth nothing but what hath been common to me all my life I will not therefore think it strange once more to remove my place but will readily contentedly pack up and be gone for this remove shall be my last remove for this remove shall be my best remove for this remove shall move me from Earth to Heaven and there I have an house of mine own a better house then any this world affordeth an house not made with hands an eternal house whose builder and maker is God a Mansion house prepared by Christ my precursor for to entertain me and wherein I must and shall abide for ever an house which time cannot waste or ruine nor humane force pull down or raze an house most pleasantly scituated accommodated with all conveniencies exempt from all annoyances and amply furnished with what may make it to me an happy habitation an house it is for which I shall pay no rent or taxes in which I shall not live a tenant at will but I shall possess this house fully freely and for ever being once settled in it I shall not desire to leave it I shall not be sequestred out of it and that which is worth all this house is mine own house mine inheritance purchased for me by my Saviour and passed unto by the gift of my gracious Father none can dispute my title or by an Ejectione firma force me out of my house My soul Shall I not be willing to go to and live in mine own house and that being so well scituate so conveniently formed so well furnished rather then in a strangers inconvenient house Shall I not prefer an house of Gods building before the best of mans shall I not chuse an eternal rather then a decayed falling ruinous habitation My soul be not troubled at this remove thou beleivest in God beleive also in Christ he hath said in his Fathers House are many mansions John 14.1 2. if it were not so he would have told us he is gone before to prepare a place for his removing people shall I not up and after such an harbinger to possess the glorious mansions of his most gracious provision Why is my remove by
and subsist with my very self I cannot be and be without them I cannot lay them down without laying my self aside vanity vexation and trouble qualifie my life as inseperable to it why am I perplexed with an apprehension that such a life draweth to a period I have all my days been persecuted by humane rage and power and so should be still if I live longer I may well be contented to be resolved into an estate of peace when men have killed my body they have done their worst their all they have me not to insult over they do much better for me then they are aware of they give me a writ of ease from all my travel and trouble in the grave the wicked do and shall cease from troubling Job 3.17 18. the weary shall be at rest the prisoners do rest together and they hear not the voice of the oppressor My soul were there no more in death but this release from greif pain sorrow and travel thou mayest well resign me up to the stroak of death I may be content not to be that so I may not be so miserable well may death be sweet to me to whom my whole life hath been so bitter how many have desired death because of the danger distress and dolour of their lives how many have sinfully destroyed their lives to deliver themselves from their cares fears greifs wants and woful pains I desire not I dare not I will not tempt God and murmur against his providence by hastening my death by a violent untimely unlawful unnatural act of self-violence all the days of mine appointed time I will wait till my change come but I may very cheerfully willingly yeild unto that stroak which is sent of God to ease me of so great a burden the rather because Death is my discharge from sin as well as from sorrow and death onely can be the discharge thereof In iniquity I was conceived Psal 51.5 in sin did my Mother bring me forth sin is to me as natural as my self it is inherent in my being it was born with me it hath grown up with my â—ody that will not that cannot be divided from this this corruptible body is the uphold of the body of corruption these two do stand and will fall together This dying flesh is not only the subject of sence but also the seat of sin the members of my body are the instruments of sin unto and until death how tormenting hath life been unto my soul by reason of temptation unto sin the constant militation of my flesh hath made my life a continual conflict how have I feared to nourish my body because thereby I made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof I could never yet tame sin but by buffetting my flesh and by abstracting from the supports of my being I cannot be rid of sin till I be released of life Oh the care to avoid fear to commit sin to which I have been subject how many times have I been forced to embrace sorrow to shun sin and to sit alone exposed to scorn and misery because I durst not run to the excess of riot with other men Mortification of sin hath been the main of my business since I saw the sinfulness of sin and yet do I what I could it would and doth exist in me and prevail upon me to the often checking my comforts hindring my communion with God and wounding my conscience by omissions of and defects in duty by commission of hainous sins and many abberrations from my heavenly father forced to fetch me home by paternal castigation though Gods grace hath maintained in me a constant militation thaâ— sin could not reign in my mortaâ— body and my Father hath ever kept me under the rod of correction yet the law in my members hath rebelled against the law in my mind and led me captive unto sin the best of my life hath been a candid confession and a continual complaint that the good I would do I do not and the evil I would not do that I do and an affectionate outcry Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin I must I may whilst I live make it my care to keep under my body lest my sin overcome me and yet whilst I abide in the body I shall bear about a body of corruption the death of this shall be and it onely can be the destruction of that Onely in the grave I shall cease to sin when I am not I shall not be sinful I shall not be a sinner My Soul Dost thou desire to be freed from the suggestions temptations and inclinations to sin and yet tremble at the thoughts of dissolution which will and onely can deliver thee from them all be assured after death thou shalt not be greived for because thou shalt not be stained with thy daily guilt thy sinful nature shall then no more greive the Spirit of thy holy God Hast thou waged a mortal warfare against thy sin all my life and wilt thou now give back in the last mortal stroak though this fall upon thy self with some violence it will certainly give thee the full conquest over thy lusts with which thou hast so long contested fall willingly under that fall which will make thee full victor over these cursed Philistines Come O my soul be willing to stoop that thou mayst lay down thy load submit freely to that stroak which will for ever set thee free from all sin and from all sorrow cease to complain that thy life hath been tedious and tiresom troubleous and toilsom or shew thy self content and truly glad to be eased desire to be dissolved that thy burden of sin and sorrow may be discharged Be still O my soul the stroke of death is dreadful but it once struck doth for ever dismiss and destroy the suggestions of Satan the motions of sin the actings of unrighteousness the apprehensions of Gods wrath and afflictions by mens rage and envy with all other evils who would not bear some dread to be delivered from so great distress when I am dead I shall cease from my labour I shall rest from mine own works of sin and sorrow these are indeed most properly mine own works produced procured by my self created continued by and with my self acted by existent in and with my self to be only desolved and destroyed with my self whilst I am I am as yea above others of my brethren the Butt of Satans rage and mens malice the subject of strong passions and finful motions whilst I have lived I have not done duty to God without great defect I have not delivered my Masters message among men without great danger Satan hath hunted me into sin and wicked men hath hunted me into sufferings they have lien in wait for me they have laboured to make my tongue my trap and to ensnare me by my words but I may now be content these can follow me no further they
may exist to enjoy my redemption by him and my relation to him though the Lords special care is for my soul as my better and more noble part he hath not excluded he doth not despise he will not neglect my body My soul and body are now joynt subjects of grace they must therefore hereafter be joynt subjects of glory they have in this world been joynt agents oâ— duty to God and joynt patients in dolour for God they must therefore in the world to come be joynt heirs of dignity and joynt possessors of comfort from the Lord. After all the changes which shall or can pass and return upon my body God will gather up my dust bring together my scattered bones raise up this very body and reunite it to this very soul my body which shall corrupt and consume to nothing shall be raised the very same for substance that it now is but it shall then be cloathed with more excellent qualities most suitable to the excellency of my soul in that estate of glory it shall be raised up to enjoy my body is now sown in corruption 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. but it shall be raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it shall be raised in Glory it is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown a natural body it shall be raised a spiritual body what then do I loose by having my body for a time resolved into nothing consumed into dust I loose nothing but the enjoyment of my self for a little season which being expired I shall return and re-enjoyn my self to very much advantage doth not the Husbandman joy to see his seed rot in the ground because he hopeth to receive the same body with better qualities shall not I through grace be willing to be resolved into nothing that I may be restored better O fool 1 Cor. 15.36 no seed is quickened unless it first dye my soul resist not the pleasure rebuke not the order of my Maker if he kill to make alive dissolve that he may restore my body with the most blessed change of qualities to the same substance wilt thou dispute or decline his will come be content cheerfully shake hands with my body and let it go leave it look no more after it though it be lost from thee it is not lost from God or Christ nor is it lost for ever when Christ shall appear I my self shall my whole self consisting of soul and body Col. 3.4 shall appear with him in glory for he will raise me from the dead Phil. 3.2 and change my vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body I cannot but pray that God would deliver me my body from wicked men who are his sword his hand to cut it down and reduce it into nothing yet my father not my will but thy will be done I will submit I will be content I will wait my appointed time till my change shall come and I will retain the confidence and possess my soul in the comfortable expectation of my resurrection for as for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness Psa 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I awake and arise in thy likeness SECT XX. DEath is that dreadful gulf Death entereth mâ— into eternity buâ— it is of good which once shot lancheth mine immortal soul into the ocean of Eternity Eternity what is that a word of astonishment an estate of amazement I cannot look into it without heart-sinking thoughts soul-troubling apprehensions It is a depth unfathomable a length and breath immeasurable an height undiscernable a continuance undeterminable and unexspirable but yet Eternity is in all these respects an estate most proper to mine immortal soul herein an eternal subject shall solace it self in its eternal object unto all Eternity Times return hath been the lamentation of my life Times return is troublesome because it was the limitation of my comforts were mine estate never so pleasant to me in respect of my health wealth plenty peace friends and familiars or the like enjoyments the discernable approaching period of them hath bidden a stand to my delight in them and damped mine affections towards them The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 sensual pleasures have the wings of the morning they pass away with time but Eternity is an adjunct a property which stampeth no mean degree of excellency on those glorious invisible objects which are proposed to our faith to counterpoise those visible but temporal good things which captivate our sence My soul in Eternity thou shalt not be tired with telling the fleeting hours with observing the rerurning days moneths or years thine expectation of good or evil shall not then be tedious thou shalt be by death transported and resolved into perfect full and for ever enjoyment of perfect good and that without alteration or degree without encrease or diminution without consumption or expiration Thou shalt now possess an everlasting noon day thy sun shall no more rise nor set time shall be to thee no more thine autumne shall abide fresh and green fair and fruitful without the least change by the encreasing reviving spring or by the chilling clouding killing winter thy stars shall not be clouded thy moon shall know no changes in this estate of Eternity There shall be no Sun Moon or Stars thou shalt not need and therefore thou shalt not have those directions and determinations of time for thy day shall abide in its perpetual brightness without any dawning or the least approach of night Eternity existeen not in it self Eternity an adjunct to the best things it is a property which passeth on some condition 〈◊〉 adjunct quality which standeth not alone but existeth in its subject My soul look unto and secure the subject then wilt thou soon see that Eternity is a quality greatly desirable an adjunct unto thy great advantage when death shall determine thy days it shall lanch thee into but it shall not leave thee fluctuating on the uncertain waves of Eternity for the spirit goeth unto God who gave it and as the tree falleth so it lieth thou shalt most certainly be set in that estate which must be thine Eternal estate without any possibility of alteration or expiration thou by death sailest into the sea of Elernity or rather thou passest through the red sea unto the resting refreshing shores of eternal salvation an eternal inheritance eternal glory and eternal life these are the blessed subjects in which thinâ— Eternity must and shall exist Haâ—â— thou not in this life tasted the â—weetness of those objects hast thou not proposed these as that silver bell for which thou hast run the race of righteousness are not these the recompence of reward at which thou hast looked as thine encouragement to all thy travel and in all thy trouble in expectation of these I have despised the shame and endured