not be in vain 1 Cor. 15. 58. Now give the full and final answer unto all my Prayers Now that I have done the fight and finished my course let me find the Crown of righteousness which thy mercy hath laid up 2 Tim. 4. 8. O Crown thy graces and with thy greatest mercies recompence and perfect thy preparatory mercies and let me be Received to thy glory who have been guided by thy counsel Psalm 73. 24. 13. Consider That Christ hath already received millions of Souls and never was unfaithful unto any There are now with him the spirits of the just made perfect that in this life were imperfect as well as you Why then should you not comfortably trust him with your Souls and say Lord thou art the Common Salvation and refuge of thy Saints Both strong and weak even all that are given thee by the Father shall come to thee and those that come thou wilt in no wise cast out Thousands have been entertained by thee that were unworthy in themselves as well as I It is few of thy members that are now on earth in comparison of those that are with thee in Heaven Admit me Lord into the new Jerusalem Thou wilt have thy house to be filled O take my Spirit into the number of those belssed ones that shall come from East West North and South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom that we may together with eternal joyes give thanks and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 14. Consider That it is the will of the Father himself that we should be glorified He therefore gave us to his Son and gave his Son for us to be our Saviour that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life All our Salvation is the product of his Love Joh. 3. 16 17. Eph. 2. 4. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 16. 26 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me c. John 14. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Say therefore with our dying Lord Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit By thy Son who is the way the truth and the life I come to thee Joh. 14. 6. Fulness of joy is in thy presence and everlasting pleasures at thy right hand Psalm 16. 11. Thy love redeemed me renewed and preserved me O now receive me to the fulness of thy Love This was thy will in sending thy Son that of all that thou gavest him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day O let not now this Soul be lost that is passing to thee through the straits of death I had never come unto thy Son if thou hadst not drawn me and if I had not heard and learnt of thee John 6 44 45. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed to me a babe an ideot the blessed mysteries of thy Kingdom Luk. 10. 21. Acts 4 13. O now as the vail of flesh must be withdrawn and my soul be parted from this body withdraw the vail of thy displeasure and shew thy servant the glory of thy presence that he that hath seen thee but as in a glass may see thee now with open face and when my earthly house of this Tabernacle is dissolved let me inhabit thy building not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. 15. Lastly consider That God hath designed the everlasting glory of his name and the pleasing of his blessed will in our salvation And the Son must triumph in the perfection of his conquest of Sin and Satan and in the perfecting of our Redemption And doubtless he will not lose his Fathers glory and his own Say then with confidence I resign my soul to thee O Lord who hast called and chosen me that thou mightest make known the riches of thy glory on me as a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory Rom. 9. 23. Thou hast predestinated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thy self to the praise of the glory of thy grace wherein thou hast made me accepted in thy beloved Eph. 1. 5 6 11 12 Receive me now to the glory which thou hast prepared for us Mat. 25. 34. The hour is at hand Lord glorifie thy poor adopted child that he may for ever glorify thee Joh. 17. 1. It is thy Promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify Rom. 8. 30. As therere is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. so now let him present me faultless before the presence of the glory with exceeding joy And to thee the only wise God our Saviour be the glory Majesty Dominion and Power for evermore Amen Jude v. 23 24. WHat now remaineth but that we all set our selves to learn this sweet and necessary task that we may joyfully perform it in the hour of our extremity even to recommend our departing Souls to Christ with confidence that he will receive them It is a lesson not easie to be learnt For Faith is weak and doubts and fears will easily arise and nature will be loth to think of dying and we that have so much offended Christ and lived so strangely to him and been entangled in too much familiarity with the World shall be apt to shrink when we should joyfully trust him with our departing Souls O therefore now set your selves to overcome these difficulties in time You know we are all ready to depart It is time this last important work were throughly learned that our death may be both safe and comfortable There are divers other Uses of this Doctrine that I should have urged upon you had there been time As 1. If Christ will Receive your departing Souls then fear not death but long for this Heavenly entertainment 2. Then do not sin for fear of them that can but kill the body and send the Soul to Christ 3. Then think not the righteous unhappy because they are cast off by the world neither be too much troubled at it your selves when it comes to be your case but remember that Christ will not forsake you and that none can hinder him from the Receiving of your Souls No malice nor slanders can follow you so far as by defamation to make your justifyer condemn you 4. If you may trust him with your Souls then trust him with your friends your Children that you must leave behind with all your concernments and affairs and trust him with his Gospel and his Church for they are all his own and he will prevail to the accomplishment of his blessed pleasure But 5. I shall only add that Use which the sad occasion of our meeting doth bespeak What cause have we now to mix our sorrows for our deceased friend with the joyes of faith for her felicity we have left the body to the earth and
ambitious rebellious Absolom to molest us or to lament No sinful scandalous or impatient friends to be our grief And which is more than all no earthly sinful inclinations in our selves no passions or infirmities no languishings of soul no deadness dulness hard heartedness or we aknesses of grace no backwardness to God or estrangedness from him nor fears or doubtings of his love nor frowns of his displeasure None of these do enter into that serene and holy region nor ever interrupt the joy of Saints The great work is yet upon our hands to fight out the good fight to finish our course to run with patience the remainder of the race that is before us And as we must look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith as our great exemplar so must we look to his Saints and Martyrs as our encouraging examples under him Put the case you were now dying and O how near is it and how sure What would you need most if the day were come That is it that you need most now Look after it speedily while you have time Look after it seriously if you have the hearts of men and sin have not turned you into Ideots or blocks What a disgrace is it to mankind to hear men commonly at death cry out O for a little more time and O for the opportunities of grace again and O how shall I enter upon eternity thus unprepared As if they had never heard or known that they must die till now Had you not a lifes time to put these questions and should you not long ago have got them satisfactorily resolved And justly doth God give over some to that greater shame of humane nature as not to be called to their wits even by the approach of death it self but as they contemned everlasting Life in their health God justly leaveth them to be so sottish as to venture presumptuously with unrenewed souls upon death and the conceit that they are of the right Church or party or opinion or that the Priest hath absolved them doth pass with them for the necessary preparation and well were it for them if these would pass them currantly into heaven But O what heart can now conceive how terrible it is for a new departed soul to find it self remedilesly disappointed and to be shut up in flames and desperation before they would believe that they were in danger of it Reader I beseech thee as ever thou believest that thou must shortly die retire from the crowd and noise of worldly vanity and vexation O bethink thee how little a while thou must be here and have use for honour and favour and wealth and what it is for a soul to pass into heaven or hell and to dwell among Angels or Devils for ever And how men should live and watch and pray that are near to such a change as this Should I care what men call me by tongue or pen Should I care whether I Live at liberty or in prison when I am ready to die and have matters of infinite moment before me to take me up Honour or dishonour liberty or prison are words of no sound or signification scarce to be heard or taken notice of to one of us that are just passing to God and to everlasting life The Lord have mercy upon the distracted world how strangely doth the Devil befool them in the day-light and make them needlesly trouble themselves about many things when one thing is needful and Heaven is talk'd of and that but heartlesly and seldom while fleshly provision only is the prize the pleasure the business of their lives Some are diverted from their serious preparation for death by the leastly avocations of lust and gâ—wdiness and meats and drinks and childish sports and some by the businesses of ambition and covetousness contriving how to feather their nests and exercise their Wills over others in the world and some that will seem to be doing the work are diverted as dangerously as others by contending about formalities and Ceremonies and destroying Charity and Peace rending the Church and strengthening factions and carrying on Interests hypocritically under the name of Religion till the Zeal that Saint James describeth Jam. 3. 13 14 c. having consumed all that was tike to the Zeal of Love and Holiness in themselves proceed to consume the Servants and interest of Christ about them and to bite and devoure till their Lord come and find them in a day that they locked not for him smiting their fellow-servants and eating and drinking with the drunken and cut them asunder and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth 24. 49 50 51. O study and preach and hear and pray and live and use your brethren that differ from you in some opinions as you would do if you were going to receive your doom and as will then be most acceptable to your Lord The guilt of sensuality worldiness ambition of uncharitableness cruelty and injustice of losing time and betraying your souls by negligence or perfidiousness and wilful sin will lie heavyer upon a departing Soul then now in the drunkenness of prosperity you can think Christ will never receive such Souls in their extremity unless upon repentance by faith in his blood they are washed from this pollution It is unspeakably terrible to die without a confidence that Christ will receive us And little knows the graceless world what sincerity and simplicity in holiness is necessary to the soundness of such a confidence Let those that know not that they must die or know of no life hereafter hold on their chase of a feather till they find what they lost their lives and Souls and labour for But if thou be a Christian remember what is thy work Thou wilt net need the favour of man nor worldly wealth to prevail with Christ to Receive thy spirit O learn thy Last Work before thou art put upon the doing of it The world of spirits to which we are passing doth better know than this world of fleshly darkened sinners the great difference between the Death of a Heavenly Believer and of an earthly sensualist Believe it is a thing possible to get that apprehension of the Love of Christ that confidence of his Receiving us and such familiar pleasant thoughts of our entertainment by him as shall much overcome the fears of Death and make it a welcome day to us when we shall be admitted into the Celestial society And the difference between one mans Death and anothers dependeth on the difference between Heart and Heart Life and Life Preparation and Vnpreparedness It you ask me How may so happy a Preparation be made I have told you in this following Discourse and more fully else where formerly I shall add now these few Directions following 1. Follow the flattering world no further Come off from all expectation of felicity below Enjoy nothing under the Sun but only use it in order to your
day And yet not thou but Christ is he that hath been victorious for thee even as when thou livedst the life of Faith it was not thou but Christ lived in thee Gal. 2. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure and leave the Flesh with terrour and imagine that Satan will presently devour thee But the experience of a moment will end thy Fears and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered Foe He that saved thee from the dominion of a tempting Devil will certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee Here he would have us that he may sift us and get advantage on our weakness but Christ prayeth for us and strengthneth us that our faith may not fail Luke 22. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin will save us from the punishment and from Satans fury as he did from his fraud 2. Christs Receiving us doth include his savourable entertainment and welcoming the departed Soul Poor Soul thou wast never so welcome to thy dearest Friend nor into the arms of a Father a Husband or a Wife as thou shalt be then into the presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest and readest and partly believest now how he loveth us even as his Spouse and Members as his Flesh and Bone Eph. 6. But then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular If the Angels of God have joy at thy Conversion what joy will there be in Heaven at thy enterance into that Salvation And sure those Angels will bid thee welcome and concur with Christ in that triumphant joy If a returning Prodigal find himself in the arms of his Fathers Love and welcomed home with his kisses and his robe and feast What welcome then may a cleansed conquered Soul expect when it cometh into the presence of Glorious Love and is purposely to be received with such demonstrations of Love as may be fitted to magnifie the Love of God which exceedeth all the Love of man as Omnipotency doth exceed our Impotency and therefore will exceed it in the effects Though thou hast questioned here in the dark whether thou wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer or when thou camest to his holy Table yet then doubt of thy welcom if thou canst O had we but one moments sense of the delights of the embraced Soul that is newly received by Christ into his Kingdom it would make us think we were in Heaven already and transport us more than the Disciples that saw the Transfiguration of Christ and make us say in comparing this with all the Glory of the World Master it is good for us to be here but in consideration of the full to say It is better to be there But it must not be Earth must not be so happy as to have a moments sense of the unconceivable Pleasures of the received Soul that is the Reward and Crown and therefore not fit for us here in our Conflict But low things may by dark resemblance a little help us to conceive of something that is like them in a low degree How would you receive your Son or Husband the next day after some bloody Fight where he had escaped with the Victory Or your Child or Friend that arrived safely after a long and a dangerous Voyage Would you not run and meet him and with joy embrace him if he had been many years absent and were now come home I tell thee poor Soul thy Saviour hath a larger heart and another kind of Love than thou and other Reasons of greater force to move him to bid dice Welcome into his Presence 3. Christ's Receiving the departed Soul includeth the State of Blessedness into which he doth receive it If you ask What that is I answer It is unto himself to be with him where he is And that in general is full of comfort if there were no more For we know that Christ is in no ill place He is glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1. 3. And that the Souls of the Righteous and at last their Bodies are received to himself he often telleth us John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be John 14. 2 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also And in the mean time when we once are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and that is in the building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens V. 1. Paul therefore desired to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 23. And Christ promiseth the converted Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. And our State after the Resurrection hath the same description 1 Thess 4. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord And what it shall be he declareth himself John 17. 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. was received into Abrahams bosom where he is said to be comforted The heavens receive Christ Acts 3. 21. and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go to him even the spirits of the just made perfect Heb. 12. 23. that is that are crowned with Christ in Glory and freed from the Imperfections and Evils of this Life And so that 1 Thess 5. 10. is plain though some would pervert it That whether we wake or sleep we may live together with him Not Whether we wake to righteousness or sleep in sin for such Sleepers live not with him Nor whether we wake by sollicitude or sleep in security Nor Whether we naturally wake or sleep only But whether we live or die and so our Bodies sleep in death yet we live together with him In a word Christ will receive us unto a participation of his Joy and Glory into a Joy as great as our Nature shall be capable of and more than we can now desire and that the largest Heart on Earth can justly conceive of or comprehend And because all this tells you but to the ear stay yet but a little while and experimental sight nnd feeling shall tell you What this Receiving is even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and when we receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. DOCT. 6. A Dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received by him Though he have formerly been a grievous sinner though at the present he be frail and faulty though he be weak in faith and love and duty though his body by sickness be become unfit to serve his Soul and as to present sensibility activity or joy he seem to be past the best or to be nothing
though the Tempter would aggravate his sins and weakness and dulness to his discouragement yet he may he must with confidence recommend his Spirit to Christ to be Received by him O learn this Doctrine Christians that you may use it in the hour of your last distress The hour is near the distress will be the greatest that ever you were in As well as we seem now while we are hearing this our turn is nigh The Midwife is not so neccssary to the life of the Child that Receiveth it into the world as Christs Receiving will be then to our everlasting life To say over heartlesly these words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit will be no more than a dead hearted Hypocrite may do such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing to salvation Now make such necessary preparation that at Death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ will receive your Spirits 1. And first let me bring this to the carnal unprepared sinner Poor sinner What thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour and of thy departing Soul I wonder at thee what thoughts thou hast of them that thou canst sin so boldly and live so carelesly and talk or hear of the life to come so senselesly as thou dost Thou mightest well think I wronged thee if I took thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die Thy Soul that brought thy body hither that causeth it now to hear and understand that carryeth it up and down the world must very shortly be required of thee and must seek another habitation What thoughts hast thou of thy departing Soul Will Christ receive it Hast thou made sure of that Or hast thou made it thy principal care and business to make sure O what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual worldly men that they drown themselves in the Cares of this Life and ride and run for transitory Riches and live upon the Smoak of Honour and Applause and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether Christ will receive their departed Souls That they can fill their minds with other thoughts and fill their mouthes with other talk and consume their time in other inconsiderable employments and take no more care and spend no more thoughts and words and time about the entertainment of their departing Souls When they are even ready to be gone and stand as it were on tip-toes when Fevers and Consumptions and many hundred Diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their Summons and when the Gates of Death have so many Passengers crowding in and Souls are making such haste away will you not consider what shall become of yours Will you say that you hope well and you must venture If God had appointed you nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment with Christ you might then take up with such an Answer But it 's a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to your salvation and then to say You must put it to the venture If you die in and unrenewed and unjustified state it is past all ventures for it is certain that Christ will not receive you You may talk of hoping dut it is not a matter to be hoped for Hope that God will make good every word of his Promise and spare not But there is no more Hope that Christ will Receive the souls of any but of his members than there is that he will prove a lyar He never promised to save any others and that is not all but he hath declared and professed frequently that he will not And you are no Believers if you will not believe him And if you believe him you must believe that the unbelievers the unregenerate the unholy and the workers of iniquity shall not be received into the Kingdom of Heaven For he hath professed it John 3. 3 36. Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 7. 23. If Christ would Receive the souls of all your venture then had reason for it Or if he had left it as a thing that depended only on his unrevealed will and not on any preparations of our own we might then have quit our selves of the care and cast it all on him as being his part and none of ours But it is not so I hope I need not tell you that it is not so Believe it the Question must be Now resolved and resolved by your selves whether Christ shall Receive your departed souls or cast them off as firebrands for Hell He hath made the Law and set down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand and which we must trust to It is now that you must labour to be accepted of him For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 9 10. O Sirs this is the reason of our importunity with you Knowing the terrors of the Lord we persuade men saith the Apostle in the next words vers 11. We know that the sentence will be just and that it is now in your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you And if just now your souls were passing hence before you went from the place you sit in would you think any care could be too great to make sure that they should go to happiness O that you would consider how much it is your own work and how much it resteth on your selves what Christ shall then do with you Then you will cry to him for mercy O cast not away a miserable soul Lord receive me into thy Kingdom But now he must intreat you to be saved and to be the people that he may then Receive and you will not hear him And if you will not hear him when he calleth on you and beseecheth you to Repent and to prepare as sure as Christ is Christ he will not hear you when you cry and call for mercy too late in your extremity Read Prov. 1. and you will see this is true It is you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you for the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part You are now poysoning your souls by sin and when we cannot intreat you either to forbear or to take the Vomit of Repentance yet when you are gasping and dying of your own willful self-murder you will then cry to Christ and think he must receive you upon terms inconsistent with his justice holiness and truth But flatter not your selves it will not be This is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation refuse it now and it is lost for ever O Sirs if this were the hour and you were presently to be received or refused would you blame me to cry and call to you with all the fervour of my soul if I knew that it were in your own choice whether you would go to Heaven or Hell Why now it is in your choice Life and
study and you will see what souls they are that Christ will then Receive and what he will reject You may see also what you must now be and do if you will be then Received If you are not regenerate by the Spirit of God though you may be Sacramentally regenerate in Baptism If you are not justified by Christ though you may be absolved by a Minister If If you seek not Heaven with higher estimation and resolutions that any felicity on earth and take not God for your satisfying portion though you be never so Religious in subserviency to a fleshly worldly happiness If you Receive not Christ as your only Saviour and set him not in the Throne and Government of your hearts and lives though you may go with men for currant Christians If you hate not sin if you love not the holy image and children of God and use them not accordingly If you crucifie not the flesh and die not to the world and deny not your selves and live not unto God as making it your chief business and happiness to please him I say if this be not your case as sure as you are men if you died this hour in this condition Christ will not own you but turn you off with a Depart ye cursed You may as well think of reconciling light and darkness or persuade a man to live on the food of beasts or the stomach to welcome deadly poyson as to think that Christ will receive an ungodly earthly guilty soul Deceive not your selves sinners If God could have entertained the ungodly and Heaven could hold unholy souls answer me then these two or three Questions 1. What need Christ then to have shed his blood or become a sacrifice for sin if he could have received the ungodly he might have done it upon cheaper rates This feigneth him to have died to no purpose but to bring the unsanctified to heaven that might have been as well entertained there without his sufferings 2. To what use doth Christ send the Holy-Ghost to sanctifie his Elect Or send his Word and Ministers to promote it if they may come to heaven unsanctified 3. If the ungodly go to Heaven what use is Hell for There is no Hell if this be true But you will quickly find that to be too good news to the ungodly to be true II. In Luk. 16. Christ teacheth us our duty by the parable of the Steward that asketh himself before-hand What he shall do when he must be no longer Steward and contriveth it so that others may receive him when he is cast off And he applieth it to us hat must now so provide that when we fail we may be received into the everlasting habitations This is the work that we have all to mind We always knew that this world would fail us O how uncertain is your tenure of the dwellings that you now possess Are you provided certainly provided whither to go and who shall Receive you when your Stewardship is ended and you must needs go hence O think of these considerations that should move you presently to provide 1. Your Cottages of earth are ready to drop down and it is a stormy time there are many sicknesses abroad One blast may quickly lay them in the dust and them the flesh that had so much care and was thought worthy to be preferred before the soul must be laid and left to rot in darkness to avoid the annoyance of the living And when you may justly look every hour when you are turned out of these dwellings that you are in is it not time to be provided of some other 2. Consider if Christ should not receive thy spirit how unspeakably deplorable thy case will be I think there is no man in all this Assembly so mad that would take all the world now to have his soul refused then by Christ that would professedly make and subscribe such a bargain And yet alas how many are they that will be hired for a smaller price even for the pleasure of a sin to do that which Chirst himself hath told them will cause him to Refuse them O Sirs for ought you know before to morrow or within this week you may be put to know these things by tryal and your Souls may be refused or received And wo to you that ever you were Men if Christ receive you not Consider 1. If Chirst receive thee not thou hast no Friend left then to receive thee Thy House and Land an Riches and Reputation are all left behind none of them will go with thee or if they did they could afford thee no relief Thy Bosom-friends thy powerful Defenders are all left behind or if they go before or with thee they can do nothing there that could do so much for thee here No Minister so holy no Friend so kind no Patron so powerful that can give thee any entertainment if Christ refuse to entertain thee Look to the right hand or the left there will be none to help thee or care for thy forsaken Soul Then thou wilt find that one Christ had been a better Friend than all the Great ones upon Earth 2. If Christ then receive not thy departed Soul the Devils will receive it I am loth to speak so terrible a word but that it must be spoken if you will be awaked to prevent it He that deceived thee will then plead Conquest and claim thee as his due that he may torment thee And if the Devil say This Soul is mine and Christ do not rescue and justifie thee but say so too no heart is able to conceive the horrour that will then overwhelm thee Doth not the reading of the Sentence make thee tremble Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This is that dreadful delivering up to Satan when the Soul is excommunicated from the City of God O therefore if thou be yet unreconciled to God agree with him quickly while thou art here in the way lest he deliver thee to this terrible Jaylor and Executioner and thou be cast into the prison of the bottomless pit Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Mat. 5. 25 26. 3. The greatness of the change will increase the amazement and misery of thy Spirit if Christ receive it not To leave a World that thou wast acquainted with a World that pleased thee and entertained thee a World where thou hadst long thy business and delight and where wretched man thou hadst made thy chief provision and laid up thy treasure this will be a sad part of the Change To enter into a World where thou art a stranger and much worse and see the company and the things that before thou never sawest and to find things go there so contrary to thy expectation to be turned with Dives from thy sumptuous Dwelling Attendance and Fare into a place of easeless torment this will
be a sadder part of thy Change Here the Rich would have received thee the Poor would have served and flattered thee thy Friends would have comforted thee thy Play-fellows would have been merry with thee But there alas how the case is altered All these have done the Table is withdrawn the Game is ended the Mirth is ceased and now succeedeth Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16. 25. O dreadful Change to those that made the World their home and little dreamed or did but dream of such a day Never to see this World again unless by such reviews as will torment them never to have sport or pleasure more and for these to have such Company such Thoughts such Work and Usage as God hath told us is in Hell 4. If Christ receive thee not the burden of thy sins will overwhelm thee and conscience will have no relief Sin will not then appear in so harmless a shape as now it will then seem a more odious or frightful thing O to remember these days of folly of careless sluggish obstinate folly of sottish negligence and contempt of Grace will be a more tormenting thing than you will now believe If such Sermons and Discourses as foretel it are troublesom to thee what then will that sad Experience be 5. The wrath of an offended God will overwhelm thee This will be thy Hell He that was so merciful in the time of Mercy will be most terrible and implacable when that time is past and make men know that Christ and Mercy are not neglected refused and abused at so cheap a rate as they would needs imagine in the time of their deliration 6. It will overwhelm the Soul if Christ receive it not to see that then art entring upon Eternity even into an everlasting state of Woe Then thou wilt think O whither am I going What must I endure And how long How long When shall my misery have an end and When shall I come back and How shall I ever be delivered O now what thoughts wilt thou have of the wonderful Design of God in Man's Redemption Now thou wilt better understand what a Saviour was worth and how he should have been believed in and how his Gospel and his saving Grace should have been entertained O that the Lord would now open your hearts to entertain it that you may not then value it to your vexation that would not value it now to your relief Poor sinner for the Lord's sake and for thy Souls sake I beg now of thee as if it were on my knees that thou wouldst cast away thy sinful Cares and Pleasures and open thy Heart and now receive thy Saviour and his saving Grace as ever thou wouldst have him then receive thy trembling departed Soul Turn to him now that he may not turn thee from him then Forsake him not for a flattering World a little transitory vain Delight as ever thou wouldst not then have thy departed Soul forsaken by him O delay not Man but now even now receive him that thou maist avoid so terrible a danger and put so great a question presently out of doubt and be able comfortably to say I have received Christ and he will receive me if I die this night he will receive me Then thou maist sleep quietly and live merrily without any disparagement to thy Reason O yield to this Request Sinner of one that desireth thy Salvation If thou wert now departing and I would not pray earnestly to Christ to receive thy Soul thou wouldst think I were uncharitable Alas it will be one of these days and it is thee that I must entreat and thy self that must be prevailed with or there is no hope Christ sendeth me to thy self and saith that he is willing to receive thee if now thou wilt receive him and be sanctified and ruled by him The matter stops at thy own regardless wilful heart What sayst thou Wilt thou receive Christ now or not Wilt thou be a new creature and live to God by the Principle of his Spirit and the Rule of his Word to please him here that thou maist live with him for ever Wilt thou take up this Resolution and make this Covenant with God this day O give me a word of comfort and say Thou art resolved and wilt deliver up thy self to Christ That which is my comfort now on thy behalf will be ten thousand-fold more thy comfort then when thou partakest of the Benefit And if thou grieve us now by denying thy Soul to Christ it will be at last ten thousand-fold more thy grief Refuse not our requests and Christs requests now as ever thou wouldst not have him refuse thee then and thy requests It is mens turning away now from Christ that will cause Christ then to turn from them Prov. 1. 31. 32. The turning away of the simple slayeth them and they then eat but the fruit of their own way and are filled with their own devices See then that ye now refuse not him that speaketh for there is no escaping if you turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Heb. 12. 25. What would you say your selves to the man that would not be dissuaded from setting his House on fire and then would pray and cry importunately to God that he would keep it from being burnt Or of the man that will not be dissuaded from taking Poyson and then when it gripeth him will cry to God to save his life Or of the man that will go to Sea in a leaking broken vessel yea himself will make those breaches in it that shall let the Water in and when it is sinking will cry to God to save him from being drowned And will you do this about so great a matter as the everlasting state of your immortal Souls Will you now be wordlings and sensualists and ungodly and undo your selves and then cry Lord Jesus receive my Spirit at the last What! receive an unholy Spirit Will you not knock till the door is shut when he telleth you Math. 7. 21. That it is not every one that will cry Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven Lastly consider with what unspeakable joy it will fill thy Soul to be then received by the Lord. O what a joyful word will it be when thou shalt hear Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you If thou wilt not have this to be thy case thou shalt see those received to the increase of thy grief whom thou refusedst here to imitate There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and those that from East West North and South shall sit there with them and thou thrust out Luke 13. 27 28 29. I have been long in
this part of my application having to do with Souls that are ready to depart and are in so sad an unprepared state as is not to be thought on but with great compassion I am next to come to that part of the application which I chiefly intended to those that are the Heirs of Life II. O You that are members of Jesus Christ receive this Cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of Death Let it come when it will you may boldly recommend your departing Souls into the hands of Christ Let it be by a lingring disease or by an acute by a natural or a violent death at the fulness of your age or in the flower of your youth death can but separate the Soul from Flesh but not from Christ Whether you die poor or rich at liberty or in prison in your native Country or a forein Land whether you be buried in the Earth or cast into the Sea death shall but send your Souls to Christ Though you die under the reproach and slanders of the world and your names be cast out among men as evil doers yet Christ will take your Spirits to himself Though your Souls depart in fear and trembling though they want the sense of the Love of God and doubt of pardon and peace with him yet Christ will receive them I know thou wilt be ready to say that thou art unworthy Will he receive so unworthy a Soul as mine But if thou be a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted Thou hast a worthiness of Aptitude and Christ hath a worthiness of merit The day that cometh upon such at unawares that have their hearts over-charged with surfeiting drunkenness and the cares of this life and as a snare surprizeth the inhabitants of the earth shall be the day of thy great deliverance Watch therefore and pray alwayes that you way be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man Luke 21. 34 35 36. They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world can die no more for they are equal to the Angels and are the children of God Luke 20. 35 36. Object O but my sins are great and many and will Christ ever receive so ignorant so earthly and impure a Soul as mine Answ If he have freed thee from the reign of sin by giving thee a Will that would fain be fully delivered from it and given thee a desire to be perfectly holy he will finish the work that he hath begun and will not bring thee defiled into Heaven but will wash thee in his Blood and separate all the remnant of corruption from thy Soul when he separateth thy Soul from flesh There needs no purgatory but his blood and Spirit in the instant of death shall deliver thee that he may present thee spotless to the Father O fear not then to trust thy Soul with him that will Receive it And fear not death that can do thee no more harm And when once thou hast overcome the fears of death thou wilt be the more resolute in thy duty and faithful to Christ and above the power of most temptations and wilt not fear the face of man when Death is the worst that man can bring thee to It is true Death is dreadful but it is as true that the arms of Christ are joyful It is an unpleasing thing to leave the Bodies of our friends in the earth but it is unspeakable pleasure to their Souls to be Received into the Heavenly society by Christ And how confidently quietly and comfortably you may commend your departing Spirits to be received by Christ be informed by these considerations following 1 Your Spirits are Christs own And may you not trust him with his own As they are his by the title of creation All Souls are mine saith the Lord Ezek. 18. 4. So also by the title of redemption We are not our own we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 19. Say therefore to him Lord I am thine much more than my own Receive thine own Take care of thine own Thou drewest me to consent to thy gracious Covenant and I resigned my self and all I had to thee and thou swarest to me and I became thine Ezek. 16. 8. and I stand to the Covenant that I made though I have offended thee I am sinful but I am thine and would not forsake thee and change my Lord and Master for a world O know thine own and own my Soul that hath owned thee though it hath sinned against thee Thy sheep know thy voice and follow not a stranger Now know thy poor sheep and leave them not to the devourer Thy Lambs have been preserved by thee among Wolves in the world Preserve me now from the enemy of souls I am thine O save me Psalm 119. 94. and lose not that which is thine own 2. Consider that thou art his upon so dear a purchace as that he is the more engaged to receive thee Hath he bought thee by the price of his most precious blood and will he cast thee off Hath he come down on earth to seek and save thee and will he now forsake thee Hath he lived in flesh a life of poverty and suffered reproach and scorn and buffetings and been nailed to the Cross and put to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And will he now forget his love and sufferings and himself forsake thee after this Did he himself on the Cross commend his spirit into his Father's hands and will he not receive thy spirit when thou at death commendest it to him He hath known himself what it is to have a humane soul separated from the body and the body buried in a grave and there lamented by surviving friends And why did he this but that he might be fit to receive and relieve thee in the like condition O who would not be encouraged to encounter death and lie down in a grave that believeth that Christ did so before him and considereth why he went that way and what a Conquest he hath made I know an Argument from the Death of Christ will not prove his love to the souls of the ungodly so as to infer that he wil receive them but it will prove his Reception of Believers souls He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. is an infallible argument as to Believers but not as to those that do reject him Say therefore to him O my Lord Can it be that thou couldst come down in flesh and be abused and spit upon and slandred and crucified that thou couldst bleed and die and be buried for me and now be unwilling to receive me that thou shoulds pay so dear for souls and now refuse to entertain them that thou shouldst die to save them from the devil and now wilt leave
that is our lawful sorrow for it is the fruit of sin But her spirit is Received by Jesus Christ and that must be our joy if we will behave our selves as true Believers If we can suffer with her should we not rejoyce also with her And if the joy be far greater to the Soul with Christ than the ruined state of the body can be lamentable it is but reason that our joy should be greater for her joy than our sorrow for the dissolution of the flesh we that should not much lament the passage of a friend beyond the Seas if it were to be advanced to a Kingdom should less lament the passage of a Soul to Christ if it were not for the remnant of our woful unbelief She is arrived at the everlasting Rest where the burden of corruption the contradictions of the flesh the molestations of the Tempter the troubles of the world and the injuries of malicious men are all kept out and shall never more disturb her peace She hath left us in these storms who have more cause to weep for our selves and for our Children that have yet so much to do and suffer and so many dangers to pass through than for the Souls that are at Rest with Christ We are capable of no higher hopes than to attain that state of blessedness which her Soul possesseth And shall we make that the matter of our lamentation as to her which we make the matter of our hopes as to our selves Do we labour earnestly to come thither and yet lament that she is there You will say It is not because she is cloathed upon with the house from Heaven but that she is uncloathed of the flesh But is there any other passage than Death unto immortality Must we not be uncloathed before the garments of Glory can be put on She bemoaneth not her own dissolved Body The glorified Soul can easily bear the corruption of the flesh And if you saw but what the Soul enjoyeth you would be like minded and be moderate in your griefs Love not your selves so as to be unjust and unmerciful in your desires to your friends Let Satan desire to keep them out of Heaven but do not you desire it You may desire your own good but not so as to deprive your friends of theirs yea of a greater good that you may have a lesser by it And if it be their company that you desire in reason you should be glad that they are gone to dwell where you must dwell for ever and therefore may for ever have their company Had they stayed on earth you would have had their company but a little while because you must make so short a stay your selves Let them therefore begin their journy before you and grudge not that they are first at home as long as you expect to find them there In the mean time he that called them from you hath not left you comfortless He is with you himself who is better than a Mother or than ten thousand friends When grief or negligence hindereth you from observing him yet he is with you and holdeth you up and tenderly provideth for you Though turbulent passions injuriously question all his Love and cause you to give him unmannerly and unthankful words yet still he beareth with you and forgiveth all and doth not forsake you for your peevishness and weakness because you are his Children and he knoweth that you mean not to forsake him Rebuke your passions and calm your minds Reclaim your thoughts and cast away the bitterness of suspicious quarrelsome unbelief and then you may perceive the presence of your dearest friend and Lord who is enough for you though you had no other friend Without him all the friends on earth would be but silly comforters and leave you as at the gates of Hell Without him all the Angels and Saints in Heaven would never make it a Heaven to you Grieve not too much that one of your Candles is put out while you have the Sun Or if indeed it be not day with any of you or the Sun be clouded or ecclipsed let that rather be the matter of your grief Find out the cause and presently submit and seek reconciliation Or if you are deprived of this Light because you are yet asleep in sin hearken to his call and rub your eyes Eph. 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Rom. 13. 11 12 13 14. Knowing that it is now high time to awake out of sleep our salvation being nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day of eternal light is even at hand cast off therefore the works of darkness and put on all the armour of light walk honestly and decently as in the day And whatever you do make sure of the friend that never dyeth and never shall be separated from you and when you die will certainly Receive the souls which you commend unto him And here though contrary to my custom I shall make some more particular mention of our deceased friend on several accounts 1. In prosecution of this Use that now we are upon that you may see in the evidences of her happiness how little cause you have to indulge extraordinary grief on her account and how much cause to moderate your sense of our loss with the sense of her felicity 2. That you many have the benefit of her example for your imitation especially her Children that are bound to observe the holy actions as well as instructions of a Mother 3. For the honour of Christ and his Grace and his Servant For as God hath promised to honour those that honour him 1 Sam 2. 30. and Christ hath said If any man serve me him will My Father honour John 12. 26. So I know Christ will not take it ill to be honoured in his members and to have his Ministers subserve him in so excellent a work It is a very considerable part of the love or hatred honour or dishonour that Christ hath in the world which he receiveth as he appeareth in his followers He that will not see a cup of cold water given to one of them go unrewarded and will tell those at the last day that did or did not visit and relieve them that they did or did it not to him will now expect it from me as my duty to give him the honour of his Graces in his deceased servant and I doubt not will accordingly accept it when it is no other indeed than his own honour that is my End and nothing but the words of Truth and Soberness shall be the means And here I shall make so great a transition as shall retain my discourse in the narrow compass of the Time in which she lived near me and under my care and in my familiar acquaintance omitting all the rest of her life that none may say I speak but by hear-say of things which I am uncertain of and I