poor Sinners be wise while you may and know assuredly it is best going to him now for a pardon and grace and acceptance before you go to him to receive your final Sentence If you will not now go to him as humble Penitents with Confessions and Supplications that your Sins may be blotted out you shall come to him as Criminals in order to execution and if you desire to know aforehand what your punishment will be you may read it in 2 Thess. 1. 8. Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Secondly We may from hence learn what our life in the world should be It is a matter of very high and near concernment for men and women to understand themselves well in this particular to know what they should be and do and how they should live that they may be approved and truly our life should be a coming to God and a walking with him In the first Conversion there is a facing about a turning of the mind and heart to God Christ sent Paul to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God And after the first turn is made there should be a further returning all the actions of the life should be so many steps back to God This was the great design and end of our Lord Iesus in his dying not only that he might bring pardon and peace to men but also that he might bring men to God bring them into favour with God yea and into obedience and conformity to him and into a communion and conversation with him 1 Pet. 3. 18. He suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Now since that was the gracious design of Christ the blessed and noble end he had in his eye and was willing to be at so much cost for the accomplishment of shall not we comply with him therein shall it not be in our heart as well as in his And since we have so great an excellent Person to take us by the hand and introduce us and bring us in and present us to the Father let us go let us not draw back let us not stand questioning and disputing and saying Shall I shall I this is a meer loss of time let us go presently the sooner the better You have heard that you must go at last yes you must there is no possibility of avoiding it and therefore let us all be persuaded and heartily willing to go now To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Go now to God in your Mind and Thoughts in your Hearts and Affections before you go in your Persons Get as much of Heaven as you can before-hand The Psalmist said Psalm 73. ult It was good for him to draw night to God And without peradventure it is full out as good now as it was then as good for us as it was for him It is both a pleasant good and a profitable one Let us therefore do it yea and be drawing nearer and nearer to him every day never thinking our selves near enough so long as we are in a far Country and till we come to be with him in Heaven And yet again let us not think it enough to to be making frequent approaches to him in Holy Duties and in Gospel Ordinances which are as a Iacob's Ladder upon which the holy Soul ascends and makes its spiritual advances but keep up a daily Walk with God as Enoch and Noah did in their Generations maintain an intimate and constant Communion with him that you may be able to say with Paul Our Conversation is in Heaven And with Iohn Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son the Lord Iesus Christ. Oh how Noble is it to converse with God! it meliorates and raiseth and spiritualizeth the Soul it never is with him but it comes away better from him and how sweet is it God being pleasant for delights for certain you will find and judge it so when you do once come by experience to know what it is you will then say as Peter did upon the Mount of Transfiguration It is good Lord to be here Thirdly We may from hence learn that It is very much our Interest and therefore our wisdom to bid God heartily welcome whensoever he is geaciously pleased so far to condescend as to come to us You have heard and I hope you believe that it is appointed for all Men once to dye and when we do dye let it be in what way it will and by what stroke it will and let us be in what State and Frame we will we must all of us go to God all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ. And let us think with our selves what Entertainment we would have then how we would have Christ carry toward us Do not we desire that he should receive us graciously and bid us welcome as some of his old Friends and Acquaintance Would we not be glad to hear him owning us before his Father and the Holy Angels and saying to us Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you I do not in the least question but you would Then I counsel you that in order thereunto you would now carry kindly toward God and receive him as it becomes an infinite Great Holy and Glorious Majesty to be received Know this such is his Goodness that he often comes to you Frequently in his word therein he discovers and reveals his Mind and Will concerning you opens to you the Mysteries of his Kingdom that were kept hid from Ages and Generations from the Wise and Prudent of the World Bid him welcome and his Word welcome say with Hezâ—kiah Good is the word of the Lord yea those Precepts of it that are most contrary to corrupt Nature and those threatnings of it that are most tremendous and startling Receive it into your Hearts as well as into your Heads and let it dwell richly in you Do not imprison any word of God as Asa did one of the Messengers that brought it do not rebel against the Light do not hold any truth in unrighteousness Sometimes he comes to you by his Spirit in such and such an holy Motion awakening you out of your Sleep and Sloth reducing you from such a wandering calling you to such a Word and Duty Now do not you resist him but submit and comply do not you quench him but bring fewel rather do not grieve him but labour to be his Delight and Joy Carefully listen to his Voice and make speed to follow his Ducture as Paul did immediately not consulting with Flesh and Blood when God had once revealed his Son in him The Spouse was guilty of vile Ingratitude and sinn'd grievously in lying lazily and asking her self a company of simple questions I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Which
to eternity 1 Thess. 4. 16 17. The dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air so shall we ever be with the Lord. After that meeting there shall not be a parting any more Secondly When holy Souls go to God they shall he heartily welcome and find as loving and gracious a Reception as they can desire When a Sinner doth here in this life by a sincere Repentance break off from his Sins and returns to God there is rejoycing above Luke 15. â— and 10. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Where upon Bernard said The Tears of a Sinner are the Wine of Angels At such a time indeed and upon such an account Hell is in an uproar and the Devils fret and rage they cannot endure to think that they should lose any of their Prey and that one of their Vassals should be brought into the liberty of the Sons of God But in Heaven there are Triumphs and singing of Allelujahs This our Lord sets out in the Parable of the Prodigal Son upon whose return to his Father and his Duty there were Kisses and Embraces Feasting and making Merry The good old Man forgot his Age and found his Legs ran to meet him and the Family following so good an example was in a transport Just so there is in Heaven upon a gracious Soul's arrival there after its dissolution The great God doth welcome it even the whole Trinity the Father who elected it the Son who redeemed it the Holy Ghost who sanctified it It s old Relations and godly Friends do welcome it for they will not then be Strangers to one another but both know and be known It shall be welcom'd by an innumerable company of Angels who are now ministring Spirits unto the Heirs of Salvation and by the general Assembly and Church of the First-born by all the Spirits of just Men made perfect in Heaven Whatever weeping and mourning bitter sighs and lamentations there are here for being deprived of a faithful Friend a comfortable Yokefellow a pleasant and hopeful Child a learned orthodox and painful Minister an useful warm and exemplary Church-member that did adorn Religion and credit his holy Profession there are Triumphs above for the addition of another Star that will for ever gloriously shine in that celestial Orb. Then indeed is that fulfilled which is written in Psal. 45. 14 15. Those thrice-happy Souls are brought unto the King in rayment of needle-work a curiously embroidered garment a spotless beautiful robe of righteousness wrought for them by the hand of Christ himself with gladness and rejoicing are they brought they do enter into the King's Palace So shall they be received with the highest demonstrations of affection Christ hath most graciously and faithfully promised that when Sinners do now come unto him he will in no wise cast them out And when Saints do at death come to him he will in no wise shut them out but an abundant entrance shall be ministred to them into the glorious Kingdom of their God and Saviour Yea and when the Lord Jesus shall have delivered up his Mediatorial Kingdom to the Father they shall still keep the Mansions prepared for them in their Father's house and God himself shall be all in all to them Thirdly These holy Souls shall not only meet with an hearty welcome from God and all the blessed Inhabitants of that Region of Light and Love but also they shall find a most splendid and glorious entertainment such as will evidently shew forth the Love and Greatness and Glory of God himself and not only issue in their full satisfaction but likewise excite and keep up in them eternal Admirings There are many Mansions and a place provided for every one of them in which they shall have room enough and whatsoever will be pleasant to them for Delights A Throne a Robe of Glory a Crown of Righteousness hidden Manna the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God and to render their happiness complete those bodies of theirs which are now bodies of vileness when they come to be raised out of their Bed of dust by the Divine Power and reunited to their Souls shall be made like unto Christ's own most glorious body Philip. 3. 21. What shall I say Had I the Tongues of men and Angels I could not speak more than is the largest descriptions will fall unspeakably short when you come there you will say not one half was told you I may say this in general in Heaven you will meet with that which will far more than defray all the Charges you were put to here that which will abundantly compensate and make amends for all the hardships you endured here Those that have been the greatest Sufferers in this world when they come into the next will thankfully and chearfully acknowledge they are no Losers They shall receive that which shall richly reward all their pains so that instead of complaining their labour is lost they shall wonder such sorry services should be so recompenced and cry Grace Grace to it They shall have the accomplishment of all their hopes their former askings and thoughts being outdone That which is laid up for them and shall be given out to them will transcend their highest expectations be a full and complete answer to all their Prayers satisfy silence and put an everlasting period to all their desires for their enjoyments will be so great and their capacities so fill'd that there will be no room left for more God will then make good all his Promises which are exceeding great and precious so that not one tittle of them shall fail and by this means all tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and sighing shall flee away never more to return and they shall enjoy an endless Sabbath an everlasting Triumph being fill'd with joy unspeakable and full of glory In short there is that which mortal eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man and though the holy and blessed Angels which kept their standing and continue to be Heaven's Courtiers do both see and enjoy it yet they are not able to express it there is all that which our dearest Lord Jesus did purchase at the inestimable price of his own heart-blood Now from all this which hath been spoken there is abundant reason to conclude Lastly That those holy and truly happy Souls are better with God in Heaven than they were while here or could ever possibly have been True love is free and liberal to its endeared object it studieth to be so and takes singular pleasure in it Those that are kind and affectionate Husbands and live up to the Law of their Relation do and will make it their business and endeavour to make the Lives of their Yokefellows not only easy to them
and long to be Father I come as soon as ever I have drunk off that Cup which thou hast given me to drink of I come and how am I straitned till that be accomplished and glad I am at my very heart that thereupon I come to thee Now I come it will be but a little while first and the sooner the better I am willing to leave all for thee to leave the World for thee yea to leave my dear Disciples for thee tho they be my Friends the Men of my Choice the Purchase of ray Blood the Members of my Mystical Body yet do I freely leave them for thee Only Father I consider where I leave them in a World that hates me and will be sure to hate them for my sake and therefore while I leave them for thee I would leave them with thee I put them into thy hand let that uphold and defend them I shelter them under thy Wing let that secure and comfort them I have kept them while I was with them when I shall be gone do thou undertake and be Surety for them for good that they may be safe in the midst of Enemies and stedfast in the midst of Temptations and Assaults yea and chearful too in the midst of Sufferings and Troubles having my Joy fulfilled in themselves And now come I to thee The Doctrine which from hence I shall observe and speak to in the following Discourse is this Doct. An Holy Soul is and very well may be willing yea heartily glad to leave the world because when it doth so it will go to God I look upon the words of the Text as the Words of one rejoycing the Language of one whose heart did even leap within him of one whose Soul was upon the wing of holy Desires longing to be at its home Now come I to thee and when I once am with thee I shall be where I would be and with whom I would be in the best place and with the best Company what suits me most and therefore must needs please me best Now I come to thee whom I like abve all being infinite in all Perfections and whom therefore I love and prefer before all Now I come to thee who art mine Eternal Father and wilt be my Eternal Satisfaction Our Saviour had before told his Disciples in John 14. 28. That if they loved him they would rejoice because he said I go to my Father because that his departure would be glorious to himself and advantagious to them but whether they through want of a judicious Love would rejoyce in it or no he himself would perfectly understanding how things were and would be Now come I to thee Once I came from thee to do thy will and that was pleasing to me I delight to do thy Will O my God thy Law is within my heart Now I come to thee to enjoy thy Presence and that will be to me incomparably inexpressibly sweet Thus it was with our dearest Lord and Saviour this was the frame these the actings of his Spirit and thus likewise it ought to be with all his People who were predestinated to be conformed to his Image and who ought to have the same mind in them that was in him for he acted and suffer'd he liv'd and died leaving us an Example that we should tread in his Steps In the Doctrine which I have laid down there are three things which we ought to take notice of First That Gracious and Holy Souls must leave this World The World to come will be their Eternal Habitation but in this present evil World they will have but a short stay Those that have the largest share of its good things those that are most useful in it and live to the best purpose serving their Generations according to the Will of God must leave it Their loving Father never intended this for the place for their constant Residence nor the Comforts and Enjoyments here for their Portion The highest Heaven in his Throne the Habitation of his Holiness and Glory and he was always resolved to have his Children about him there This World is but your School to learn in during your Minority your House to work in till you have finished what was given you to do your Tyring-room to dress in that you may be ready for the Marriage of the Lamb a Stage to act your Part upon see that you so quit your selves as to be at last found to Praise and Honour but it is not to be your rest because it is polluted God hath too much of the heart of a Father and loves his Children too well to keep them always in a Vale of Tears where they shall be frequently Suffering and Sighing Complaining and Groaning always in a Wilderness that is over-run with Briars and Thorns and an innumerable company of Beasts of Prey the wicked of the World are their irreconcilable Enemies and implacably hate them therefore they shall not always have them to wreak their Malice and Rage upon They will for ever envy and gnash their Teeth at them because of their happiness in Heaven but they shall not for ever exercise their Patience and disturb their Peace upon Earth Often O Saints repeat in your thoughts that this World is but the House of your Pilgrimage therefore let not any of you love it too well but while you live in it be you weaned from it remembring there is a better place prepared and taken up for you whither the forerunner even Jesus is entred an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens whose builder and maker is God Secondly Whensoever Gracious and Holy Persons leave this World they go to God The decayed and crazy Body doth no sooner cease to be any longer capable of housing so noble and excellent a Guest as the Soul and the Soul doth no sooner dislodge and leave that once-beloved Structure but that it doth immediately take its flight and mount up with a swift and speedy Motion and a direct tendency without the least and shortest Digression to its great Creator even to him who alone is the Father of Spirits It cares not for any further Converse with things below being intirely set for Communion with him by and for whom it was made and on this side of whom it is and cannot but be resiless and unquiet Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him i. e. he took him home he took him to himself into the presence of his Glory into the bosom of his Love And thus it hath been is and will be with all those who walk as Enoch did who tread in the same Steps and keep up the same Communion tho indeed they do not all go the same Way yet they go to the same Place and to the same God Enoch was translated that he might not see death Hebr. 11. 5. He was presently carried up to Heaven having his Soul purified and his Body freed from Corruption He was soon
cloathed with a glorified Body as for other holy Ones tho they see Death yet they are translated too carried from Earth to Heaven from Creatures to God The Body must descend into the Grave and there lye putrifying corrupting crumbling until it return to Dust as it once was but the Spirit returns to God that gave it I desire you all frequently to call this to mind and consider it with the greatest seriousness and see that you have sanctified Souls Souls rightly prepared brought into such a frame as may be fit to appear in so glorious a Presence and converse with so pure and holy a Majesty that when they return to God they may be welcome to him and being come into his Presence for ever dwell and abide there and not afterwards cast out and banisht as the Object of his loathing Thirdly Holy Souls may very well be willing yea glad to go to God As a Bride is to go to her endeared Husband and as a Child at School under severe Discipline is to go to his most affectionate and tender Parents from whom instead of hard Blows he shall meet with soft Embraces Some Saints upon record in Scripture we find were in such a frame Good old Simeon was in haste and prayed for his Dismission Luke 2. 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Having seen Christ he would sain see the Father too Having got Christ in his Arms he would have the World on his back He reckon'd that he had liv'd long enough here and would needs be gone He had now got his full freight and therefore desired to set up his Sail for the other World Having beheld so great a sight as the Lord of Glory tho but in his Infancy and Swathing-bands he was loath that his Eyes should be embased with the beholding of earthly Vanities any more Paul likewise had the same thing in his desire so he told us in Phil. 1. 23. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. He would go from all that he may go to him and leave all that he might be with him and he understood himself and acted rationally in this desire for it is saith he in the next words far better Heaven is inconceivably better than Earth when it is in the greatest Peace when it expresseth the greatest Kindness He very well knew what he said he was a competent Judge having been an Eye-witness of the Felicity and Glory above taken up into Paradice into the Third Heaven And tho others have not been partakers of that Priviledge not so rapt as Paul was yet they are of the same Judgment and have the same Desires working in them therefore he speaks of it as a Spirit and Disposition common to all the Saints while they are in this Tabernacle Their hearts stand Heavenward as the Needle doth to the North-Pole when it hath been once touch'd with the Loadstone as you may see in 2 Cor. 5. 2. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven They had not only some small Inclinations that way and languid faint Desires but earnest Groans And again verse 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. We are willing not only out of necessity because this is a thing must be but out of choice we had rather leave the Body that we might go to God But now we are to enquire why it is thus And you will find there is sufficient yea abundant reason for it if you do consider these four following Particulars First In going to God they go to their Father This was the comfort and joy of our Saviour's heart with this he comforted himself and with this he comforted his Disciples looking upon it as a Cordial strong enough for them all John 20. 17. Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Mine by Nature yours by Adoption I am now going to one that I am most nearly related to and most fully interested in And in Iohn 17. we find him insisting and dwelling upon this as that which he took singular delight in and suckt a great deal of sweetness from verse 1. Father the hour is come Verse 5. O Father glorify thou me with thine own Verse 11. I come to thee Holy Father Verse 21. Thou Father art in me and I in thee Verse 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Verse 25. O righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee c. It is certain that when wicked Men the worst and vilest of them dye they go to God Did I say Go Rather they are forc'd and drag'd against their will they cannot help it It is to a God that many of them did not believe but laboured with all their might to obliterate the Notion of his Being because troublesome and tormenting to them Psalm 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God It is to a God that none of them cared to know and be acquainted with Job 21. 14. They say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Neither of his ways nor of himself They go to God as their Righteous Judge but not their reconciled and gracious Father They are brought before his Tribunal as Malefactors to receive their Doom but they do not enter into his Kingdom as Children to take Possession Whereas those that are truly gracious go to him as a Father as a Father of Mercies yea and as their Father in Christ to him as a God yea and to their God in Covenant to a God and Father by whom they were begotten of whom they were born whose Spirit they have received and whose Image they bear Wicked Men go to God to give an account of what they have done in the Body and when once Sentence is past upon them and they adjudged to their Place and eternal State they go to Devils Matth. 24. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels You followed his Conduct you did his Drudgery now take your Wages with him Where he is there shall his Servants also be When the Saints go to God they go to stay and to take up their everlasting abode with him Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall 〈◊〉 no more out As they shall be exalted so fixed their Happiness shall never be abated their Glory never eclipsed Once in Christ and ever in Christ there is no total and final falling from Grace they that are indeed planted in the house of the Lord shall never be pluckt up and so in the present case once in Heaven and in Heaven
things are not so much to be insisted upon Were they Holy and Gracious Were they born twice before they died once Were they partakers of the Holy Ghost in his renewing Influences Was their Walk with God and their Motions toward Heaven Did they carry Grace along with them into the other World and leave good ground of Hope in this concerning them Then keep your Grief within its due bounds You may yea you ought to be sensible of God's hand and of your own loss and of the Nations and Churches loss God would not have his Children stupid he allows not in them a Stoical Apathy Paul doth not forbid all Mourning upon this account but would not have yours like that of theirs who mourn without hope You may be sensible but not sink drop some Tears over such an o 〈…〉 s Herse but not be drown'd in Sorrow While by your Sorrow and Tears you express the dearness of your Affection to your deceased Friend be sure that by your patient Submission and humble Silence you do equally manifest your Faith and Hope And to that purpose I offer these Four following Particulars to your Consideration First Your departed Relations and Friend◠are gone to him that loved them best and that both can and will do most for them To him that is all Love and hath all Power To him who hath Earth with all its fulness Heaven with all its Glory at his own dispose and is himself alone better than both They are gone indeed and shall not return their Places here will know them no more Oh! saith one my Husband is gone and he was my Guide and my Support He lived with me as a Man of Knowledge and helped me on in the way everlasting And saith another My Wife is gone and she was a suitable Yoke-fellow a delightful Companion the desire of mine Eyes And saith another My Child is gone and it was a pleasant One the Child of my Hopes but now that is gone that Bud is nipt and those Hopes are blasted And say others Our Shepherd is gone who led us by the skilfulness of his Hands brake to us the Bread of Life and sed us with sound Knowledge and Understanding These are gone and gone for ever and they will not return any more and you say true for they cannot Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again Yes in another World Iob did not question that but rejoyced in the Faith of it but not again in this World The most holy Persons that lived best and pleased God most cannot return to live again here and indeed as they cannot so they would not if they could they would not For remember this as they are gone from hence and from you so they are gone to God and to Heaven They are gone but it is from their Labour to their Rest to an undisturbed and everlasting Rest after a wearisome and tedious Life They are gone but it is from the Work of their Lord in which they were faithful and industrious to the Joy of their Lord which nothing shall imbitter neither can any take it from them God will not Enemies shall not They are gone but it is from a life of Conflicts which they had with the Corruptions of their own Hearts and the Temptations of Satan to maintain an everlasting Triumph with the Lord Jesus the Captain of their Salvation In short They are gone but it is out of the Wilderness which was over-run with pricking Briars and vexing Thorns and full of Beasts of prey Lyons roaring and Serpents hissing the Devil and his Instruments creating them all the trouble they can and now they are entred into the Coelestial Canaan a Land flowing not with Milk and Honey but unspeakably better Enjoyments infinitely purer and higher Delights Do but you tread in their Steps and follow them in their Faith and Holiness considering the end of their Conversation and then you shall meet them again and that meeting shall be with Joy Secondly Tho they be gone yet their time of going was first come The Apostle Paul speaks of a time of departure 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand The time which God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness had ordained and prefixed by an eternal and unalterable Decree They liv'd till the last Sand in their Glass was run out till they had reached those Bounds which they could not pass There is one thing which some surviving Relations do most unreasonably afflict and torture themselves with notwithstanding all the care they have taken it is this they think if this or that had been done their deceased Relation might have been still alive but that is a foolish Fancy and I am apt to think it a Suggestion of the Devil who thereby would pour Vinegar into that Wound which Providence hath made for if this and that and an hundred nay a thousand things more had been done they all would not have kept them here It is indeed unquestionably our Duty to be in the diligent use of all lawful means for the preservation of Health the cure and removal of Diseases and the continuance of our own and our Relations Lives and a known wilful neglect of any doth bring guilt with it and may breed a painful sting in the Conscience but all the means that can be used cannot possibly hinder the accomplishment of any of the divine purposes Who hath resisted his Will and who can resist it Will you consider this and work it upon your hearts by repeated thoughts such Friends and Relations of yours are gone but not before they were sent for God bid Moses go up to Mount Nebo and die there the same God in whose hand our times are did also bid them lie down upon such a Bed and die there Death was God's Messenger he commission'd it and gave it his order its work was to cut off the thread of their lives and fetch them home and that work must be done how unacceptable and afflictive soever it is to any yea and it must be done at that very time too Tho in other things God exerciseth admirable patience waiting that he might be gracious and being exulted that he might have mercy upon sinners yet in this case he will not stay nor is it at all fit that he should nor is it lawful for any to desire it What reason can be given why Infinite Wisdom should give way to humane weakness and folly or why God should in the most minute and smallest Circumstance act counter to his own most Holy Will and Purpose for the gratifying of our humour and imprudent desires let us leave God to chuse and order as being best able and learn our selves to submit and accept and since Death must and will do its work at its time let us be before-hand and do our work in our time since Death will not stay for us nor any body let us so prepare and
get ready that we may not have cause to desire its stay Thirdly Though they be gone yet it was not before they were fit to go Some of thm liv'd but a little time but they liv'd much in a little time and how are they to be commended and the grace of God to be admired in them who do happily dispatch that work in twenty years or less which others and those holy Souls too are threescore or seventy years about Some die young it is a sign they ripened apace The Husband man careth not when he plucks up his Weeds because they are either for the Furnace or the Dunghil but his Corn shall be white to the Harvest before he puts in his Sickle So a wise man will let the Fruit of his Orchard hang till it be ripe and when it is so he gathers it So doth the wise and ever-blessed God as for wicked men he is not so curious about them they only cumber the ground they bring forth wild Grapes down with them saith Justice it will be a good riddance let better be planted in their room but he doth otherwise with the Trees of Righteousness the souls of holy persons are prepared for glory by that time their bodies drop into the Grave The marriage of the Lamb will not come before his Bride hath made her self ready Now is not this enough to satisfy you give one good reason if you can why any should remain upon earth after they are once truly fit for Heaven why they should have their days prolonged when their work is finished they shall not die before it why should they live here after it why should they not receive the Crown of Righteousness when they have fought the good fight and finished their course and kept the faith To what purpose I beseech you should they live when they have no more grace to get here and no more good to do To such an one as loves God dearly and is set for his glory an useless barren and unprofitable life would be an heavy burden and a great deal worse than death Such an one in such a case would not know how to enjoy himself an hour but would long and pine and cry out for the coming of death as the Mother of Sisera did for her Son Why is his Chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Fourthly As they are gone to God so they had excellent company by the way It is not a little distance between this earth which the Saints now inhabit and the highest Heaven unto which at death they go the habitation of God and seat of the blessed and tho the holy Soul be exceeding swift in its motion when it is once freed from the heavy clog of dull flesh and got upon the wing yet will it be some time before so long a Journey can be dispatch'd and it arrive at its desired home At the beginning of Daniel's supplication the Commandment came forth and the Angel Gabriel was caused to flee swiftly yet he came not to him till the time of the evening oblation And there is an innumerable number of wicked spirits in the way Legions of Devils in the Regions of the Air which envy the happiness of those who are to have an everlasting abode in those places out of which they themselves were cast and therefore will be sure to do their utmost for the disturbing them in their ascent But for the preventing of it the great and holy God hath appointed them a strong Guard in Hebr. 1. 14. the holy Angels are said to be initistring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation and they take pleasure in doing so Little do we know the obligations we lie under to them how much we are beholden to them how they watch over us and pitch their Tents about us and are Assistants to us Many and many are the good offices which the good Angels do for the Saints while they live and when they die they are a strong Convoy to their Souls that will keep off from them all Enemies and Dangers and bring them with safety and honour into the King's Palace the Presence-Chamber of their God and Father Upon all these accounts I counsel you not to lay the reins upon the neck of your passions nor to mourn over them who died in the Lord as those who have no hope for they are blessed When they lived they were the habitations of God through the Spirit when they died they died in the Lord and their bodies sleep in Iesus their Souls upon dissolution are the charge of Angels It was they that carried the Soul of poor but precious Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham tho the rich Glutton suffer'd him to lie in his Rags and Sores starving at his door neglected and despis'd and both their souls and bodies at the Resurrection of the Just shall have a consummate happiness in the full uninterrupted and eternal enjoyment of God Therefore I say again mourn not for them there is no cause they are in a far better condition than you turn your Grief into another Channel and as our Saviour directed weep for your selves and for your children on the score of what you have lost and what you may feel in this world of sin and uncertainty The second Branch of this Use of Exhortation will be this Be you willing to go to God also whensoever he shall please by death to send for you You I mean who have been indeed made partakers of grace who love God and have made him your choice and have good hope yea assurance of your interest in him It would be a shame for any of you to be unwilling and loth to die God may very well take that unkindly at your hands and you for it have reason to be displeas'd and angry with your selves What is there upon earth that should make you unwilling What is there in Death that should affright and scare you Have you great affliction and trouble here would it not be better for you to be out of it to exchange a tempestuous Sea for an Haven of Peace Do you now swim in Delights and abound with Creature comforts shall you not find better in Heaven than those you leave behind you Would you stay yet longer that so you might provide for your Children and see them setled well and comfortably in the World Will you not commit them to the care of your heavenly Father who is their God in Covenant as well as yours Can you trust God with your Souls and will you not trust him with your Seed Do you think it is an hard thing to die cannot God strengthen you for it Is there a bitterness in it cannot God sweeten it to you Cannot he make it easy to you as he hath made it to many of his People Cannot he by the light of his Countenance and the witness of his Spirit and the shedding abroad of his love