and follow Christ so heavily and sadly into life But all this is long of the enemies that now molest our peace Indwelling sin and a flattering world and a brutish flesh and interposing death are our discouragements that drive us back But all these enemies shall shortly be overcome Fear not Death then let it do its worst It can give thee but one deadly gripe that shall kill it self and prove thy life as the Wasp that leaves its sting behind and can sting no more It shall but snuff the Candle of thy life and make it shine brighter when it seems to be put out It is but an undressing and a gentle sleep That which thou couldst not here attain by all our preaching and all thy prayers and cares and pains thou shalt speedily attain by the help of death It is but the messenger of thy gracious Lord and calleth thee to him to the place that he hath prepared Hearken not now to the great Deceiver that would draw thee to unbelief and cause thee to stagger at the promises of God when thou hast followed him so far and they are near to the full performance Believe it as sure as thou believest that the Sun doth shine upon thee that God cannot lye he is no Deceiver it was his meer love and bounty that caused him to make the promises when he had no need for himself to make them and shall he be then unfaithful and not fulfil the promises which he hath freely made Believe it faith is no delusion It may be folly to trust man but it is worse than folly not to trust God Believe it Heaven is not a shadow nor the life of faith and holiness a dream These sensible things have least reality These grosser substances are most drossy delusory and base God is a Spirit who is the prime Being and the cause of all created Beings And the Angels and other celestial Inhabitants that are nearest to him are furthest from corporeity and are spirits likest unto God The further any thing is from spirituality the further from that excellency and perfection which the creatures nearest God partake of The earth is baser than the air and fire The drossy flesh is baser than the soul And this lumpish dirty visible world is incomparably below that spiritual world which we believe and wait for And though thy conceptions of spirits and the spiritual world are low and dark and much unsatisfying remember still that thy head is there and it belongeth to him to know what thou shalt be till thou art fit to know it which will not be till thou art fit to enjoy it Be satisfied that thy Father is in Heaven and that thy Lord is there and that the Spirit that hath been so long at work within thee preparing thee for it dwelleth there And let it suffice thee that Christ knoweth what he will do with thee and how he will employ thee to all eternity And thou shalt very shortly see his face and in his light thou shalt behold that light that shall fully satisfie thee and shame all thy present doubts and fears and if there were shame in Heaven would shame thee for them Use 9. FRom the Enmity of Death and the necessity of a Conquest we may see what a wonderful mercy the Resurrection of Christ himself was to the Church and what use we should make of it for the strengthening of our Faith It was not only impossible to man to conquer Death by his own strength and therefore it must be conquered by Christ but it was also beyond out power to believe it that ever the dead should rise to life if Christ had not risen as the first fruits and convinced man by eye-sight or certain testimony that the thing is possible and already done But now what a pillar is here for faith What a word of Hope and Joy is this that Christ is risen With this we will answer a thousand Cavi's of the Tempter and stop the mouth of the enemies of our faith and profligate our infidelity As unlikely as it seems to flesh and blood shall we ever doubt whether we shall rise again when the Lord came down in flesh among us that he might die and rise again himself to shew us as to our faces that we shall rise This is the very Gospel which we preach and by which we must be saved that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve and after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part remained alive when Paul wrote this who was the last that saw him 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Read over this Chapter again and again where our Resurrection is proved by the Resurrection of Christ No wonder therefore that the Church in all ages ever since the very day of Christs Resurrection hath kept the first day of the week as a holy festival in remembrance of it wherein though they commemorated the whole work of our Redemption yet was it from the Resurrection as the most glorious part that the Spirit of Christ did chuse the day This hath been the joyful day to the Church this 1625 years or thereabouts in which the ancient Christians would assemble themselves together saluting one another with this joyful word The Lord is risen And this is the day that the Lord hath blessed with the New-birth and resurrection of millions of souls So that it is most probable that all the six dayes of the week have not begot half so many souls for Heaven as this blessed day of the Lords Resurrection hath done Let Infidels then despise it that believe not Christs Resurrection but let it still be the Churches joyful day This was the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce therein Psal 118. 23 24. In it Let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms Psal 95. 1 2. Every day let us Remember the Lords Resurrection but on this day let the joyful commemoration of it be our work We may see by the witness of the Apostles and their frequent preaching the Resurrection of Christ as if it were the summ of all the Gospel that this is a point that Faith must especially build and feed upon and that we must make the matter of our most frequent meditations Oh what vigour it addeth to our faith when we are encountred by the sight of Death and of a grave to remember seriously that Christ is risen Did he take flesh purposely that he might dye and rise and shew us how he will raise his members and will he after all this break his
in 12. In sum for strict close watchfull holy walking with God even her Husband professeth that she was a pattern to him As I hinted before she kept a daily acount in writing which is now to be seen from the beginning of the year 1654. especially of these particulars 1. Of the frame of her heart in every dayes duty in Meditation Prayer Hearing Reading c. whether lively of dull c. 2. Of those sins which she had especially to repent of and watch against 3. Of her Resolutions and Promises and how she kept them 4. Of all special Providences to her self Husband Brothers and others and the improvement of them As at the death of her Son who died with great sighs and groans she recorded her sense of the special necessity of holy Armour and great preparation for that encounter when her turn should come to be so removed to the everlasting habitation 5. Of her returns of Prayer what answers and grant of them she found 6. Of the state of her soul upon examination how she found it and what was the issue of each examination and in this it seems she was very exact and punctual In which though many times fears and doubtings did arise yet hath she frequent records of the discovery of evidences and comfortable assurance of sincerity Somtime when she hath heard Sermons in London that helped her in her search and somtimes when she had been reading writings that tended that way she recorded what evidences she found and in what degree the discovery was If imperfect resolving to take it up and follow the search further And if she had much joy she received it with jealousie and expectation of some humbling consequent When any grace languished she presently turned to some apt remedy As for instance it s one of her Notes Novemb. 1658. I found thoughts of Eternity slight and strange and ordinary imployments very desirable at which I read Mr. Bs. Crucifixion was awakened to Mortification and Humiliation c. The last time that she had opportunity for this work was two or three dayes before her delivery in Child-bearing where she finally recorded the apprehensions she had both of her bodily and spiritual State in these words Drawing near the time of my delivery I am fallen into such weakness that my life is in hazzard I find some fears of death but not very great hoping through grace I die in the Lord. I only mention these hints to shew the Method she used in her daily Accounts To those Christians that have full leisure this course is good But I urge it not upon all Those that have so great duties to take up that time that they cannot spare so much to record their ordinary passages Such must remember what others record and daily renew repentance for their daily failings and record only the extraordinary observable and more remarkable and memorable passages of their lives lest they lose time from works of greater moment But this excellent work of Watchfulness must be performed by all And I think it was a considerable expression of her true wisdom and care of her immortal soul that when any extraordinary necessity required it and she found such doubts as of her self she was not able to deal with she would go to some able experienced Minister to open her case and seek assistance as she did more than once to my dear and ancient friend Mr. Cross who in full age is since gone after her to Christ And therefore chose a Minister in Marriage that he might be a ready assistant in such cases of necessity as well as a continual help At last came that death to summon her soul away to Christ for which she had so seriously been preparing and which she oft called a dark entry to her Fathers Palace After the death of her Children when she seemed to be somewhat repaired after her last delivery a violent Convulsion suddenly surprized her which in a few dayes brought her to her end Her understanding by the fits being at last debilitated she finding it somewhat hard to speak sensibly excused it and said I shall ere long speak another language Which were the last words which she spake with a tongue of flesh and lying speechless eighteen hours after she departed August 17. 1659. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Our turn is coming Shortly we shall also lay by flesh this is our day of preparation There is no preparing time but this Did men but know the difference between the death of the holy and the unholy which doth not appear to fleshly eyes how speedily would they turn how seriously would they meditate how fervently would they pray how carefully would they live how constantly painfully and resolvedly would they labour Did they well consider the difference between dying prepared and unprepared and of what difficulty and yet everlasting consequence it is to die well O then what manner of persons would men be in all manner of holy conversation and godliness and all their lives would then be a continued preparation for death as all their life is a hasting towards it And now I shall only desire you for the right understanding of all that I have here said and to prevent the cavils of blinded malice to observe these three or four particulars 1. That though I knew so much of her as easily maketh me believe the rest upon so sure a testimony and saw her Diary yet the most of this History of her life is the collection and observation of such faithful witnesses as had much better opportunity than I to know the secrets of her soul and life 2. That it is no wonder if many that knew her perceived not all this by her that is here expressed For that knowledg of our outward carriage at a distance will not tell our Neighbours what we do in our Closets where God hath commanded us to shut our door upon us that our Father which seeth in secret may reward us openly And many of the most humble and sincere servants of the Lord are so afraid of hypocrisie and hate ostentation that their Justification and Glory is only to be expected from the searcher of hearts and a few of their more intimate acquaintance Though this was not the case before us the example described being more conspicuous 3. That I over-pass the large expessions of her charity which you may hear from the poor and her intimate acquaintance as I have done that I may not grate upon the modesty of her surviving friends who must participate in the commendations 4. That it is the benefit of the living that is my principal end Scripture it self is written much in History that we may have matter of imitation before our eyes 5. If any say that here is no mention of her faults I answer Though I had acquaintance with her I knew them not nor ever heard from any other so much as might enable me to accuse her if I were her enemy Yet I doubt not but she was imperfect and had faults though unknown to me The example of Holiness I have briefly proposed They that would see examples of iniquity may look abroad in the world and find enough I need not be the accuser of the Saints to furnish them And I think if they enquire here of any thing notable they will he hard put to it to find enough to cover the accusers shame 6. It is the honour of Christ and Grace in his members more than the honour of his servant that I seek 7. And I would not speak that in commendation of the living which I do of the dead who are out of the reach of all temptations of being lifted up with pride thereby Unless it be such whose reputation the interest of Christ and the Gospel commandeth me to vindicate 8. Lastly I am so far from lifting up one above the rest of the members of Christ by these commendations and from abasing others whose names I mention not that I intend the honour of all in One and think that in the substance I describe all Saints in describing one I am not about a Popish work of making a wonder of a Saint as of a Phoenix or some rare unusual thing Saints with them must be Canonized and their names put in the Calender and yet their blind malice tels the world that there are no such things as Saints among us But I rejoyce in the many that I have communion with and the many that have lately stept before me into Heaven and are safe there out of the reach of malice and of sin and all the enemies of their peace and have left me mourning and yet rejoycing fearing and yet hoping and with some desires looking after them here behind And the faster Christ calls away his chosen ones whose graces were amiable in mine eyes the more willing he maketh me to follow them and to leave this world of darkness confusion wickedness danger vanity and vexation and to meet these precious souls in Life where we shall rejoyce that we are past this howling wilderness and shall for ever be with the Lord. FINIS
saved before enquiring be too late Spend the Lords Day and what other time you can redeem in holy preparations for your endless Rest while you have such a happie day to spend O sleep no longer in your sins while God stands over you lest before you are aware you awake in Hell Patience and Mercie have their appointed time and will not alway wait and be despised O let not your Teachers be forced to say We would have taught them publikelie and privatelie but they would not We would have Catechized the ignorant and exhorted the negligent but some of them would not come near us and others of them gave us but the hearing and went away such as they came If once by forfeiting the Gospel the Teachers whom you slight be taken from you you may then sin on and take your course till time and help and hope are past The providence that called me to this work was some warning to you Though it was not the calling away your Teacher it was a removing of his helper a pattern of meekness and godliness and charitie and he is left the more disconsolate in the prosecution of his work God hath made him faithful to your souls and careful for your happiness He walks before you in humilitie and self-denial and Patience and peaceableness and in an upright inoffensive life He is willing to teach you publicklie and privatelie in season and out of season He manageth the work of God with prudence moderation and yet with Zeal carefullie avoiding both ungodliness and schism or the countenancing of either of them Were he not of eminent wisdom and integritie his name would not be so unspotted in a place where Dividers and Disputers Papists and Quakers and so manie bitter enemies of godliness do watch for matter of accusation and reproach against the faithful Ministers of Christ As you love the safetie and happiness of your City and of your souls undervalue not such mercies nor think it enough to put them off with your commendations and good word It is not that which they live and preach and labour for but for the Conversion Edification and Salvation of your souls Let them have this or they have nothing if you should give them all you have The enemies of the Gospel have no wiser Cavil against the painful Labourers of the Lord then to call them Hirelings and blame them for looking after Tithes and great matters in the world But as among all the faithful Ministers of this Countrie through the great mercie of God these adversaries are now almost ashamed to open their mouths with an accusation of Covetousness So this your Reverend faithful Teacher hath stopt the mouth of all such calumnie as to him When I invited him from a place of less work and a competent maintenance to accept of less then half that maintenance with a far greater burden of work among you he never stuck at it as thinking he might be more serviceable to God and win that which is better then the riches of this world And if now you will frustrate his expectations and disappoint his labours and hopes of your salvation it will be easier for Sodom in the day of judgment then for you Alas how sad is it to see a faithful Minister longing and labouring for mens salvation and manie of them neglecting him and others picking groundless quarrels and the proud unrulie selfish part rebelling and turning their backs upon their Teachers when ever they will not humour them in their own wayes or when they deal but faithfullie with their souls Some even of those that speak against disobedience conventicles and schism turn away in disdain if their Children may not be needleslie baptized in private houses and if that solemn Ordinance may not be celebrated in a Parlour-Conventicle How manie refuse to come to the Minister in private to be instructed or Catechised or to confer with him about their necesarie preparation for death and Judgement Is not this the case of manie among you Must not your Teachers say He sent to you and was willing to have done his part and you refused Little will ye now believe how heavie this will lie upon you one day and how dear you shall pay for the causless grieving and disappointment of your guides It is not your surliness and passions that will then serve turn to answer God Nor shall it save you to say that Ministers were of so manie minds and wayes that you knew not which of them to regard For it was but one way that God in the holy Scripture did prescribe you and all faithful Ministers were agreed in the things which you reject and in which you practicallie differ from them all What are we not all agreed that God is to be preferred before the world and that you must first seek the Kingdom of God his Righteousness that no man can be saved except he be converted and born again and that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Mat. 6. 33 John 3. 3 5. Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 9. and that you and your housholds should serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. Are we not all agreed that the Law of the Lord must be your delight and that you must meditate in it day and night Psal 1. 2 3. and that you must be constant and fervent in Prayer 1 Thes 5. 17. Luke 18. 1. c. and that all that name the name of Christ must depart from iniquitie and that if you live after the flesh ye shall die 2 Tim. 2. 19. Rom. 8. 13. You shall find one day that it was you only such as you that practicallie differed from us in these points but we differed not in these or such as these among our selves I never read that a man shall not see God because he is Episcopal Presbyterian Independant no nor Anabaptist or because he readeth not his Prayers or such like But I read that no man shall see God without holiness Hebrews 12. 14. It will not serve your turn in judgement to say that you were for this side or that side and therefore you hearkened not to the other side as long as all those sides agree in the necessitie of holiness which you neglect Why did you not learn of your own side at least to forsake your tipling and swearing and worldly-mindedness and to make it the daily trade of your lives to provide for life everlasting and make sure work in the matter of your salvation If you had learnt but this much of any side you would cast away your siding more and have loved and honoured them that fear the Lord of what side soever Psal 15. 4. and have contemned the ungodlie as vile persons though they had been of your side The Catholick Church is One and containeth all that heartilie and practicallie believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and live a holy heavenlie life Leave
and the excellency of the Redeemers grace Adam was but to seek the continuance of his life and a translation to Glory without the terrors of interposing death He was never called to prepare to die nor to think of the state of a separated Soul nor to mind and love and seek a glory to which there is no ordinary passage but by death This is the difficulty that sin hath caused against which we have need of the special assistance of the example and doctrine and promse and Spirit of the Redeemer Adam was never put to study how to get over this dreadful gulf The threatning of death was to raise such a fear in him as was necessary to prevent it But those fears did rather hold him closer to the way of life then stand between him and life to his discouragement But we have a death to fear that must be suffered that cannot be avoided The strange condition of a separated soul so unlike to its state while resident in the body doth require in us a special Faith to apprehend it and a special revelation to discover it To desire and love and long for and labour after such a time as this when one part of us must lie rotting in the grave and the separated Soul must be with Christ alone till the Resurrection and to believe and hope for that Resurrection and to deny our selves and forsake all the world and lay down our lives when Christ requireth it by the power of this faith and hope this is a work that innocent Adam never knew This is the high employment of a Christian To have our hearts and conversations in Heaven Matth. 6. 21. Phil. 3. 20 when Death must first dissolve us before we can possess it here is the noble work of faith SECT VI. Use 4. MOreover this Enmity of Death may help us to understand the reason of the sufferings and Death of Christ That he gave his life a Ransome for us and a Sacrifice for sin and so to make satisfaction to the offended Majesty is a truth that every Christian doth believe But there was another reason of his death that all of us do not duly consider of and improve to the promoting of our Sanctification as we ought Death is so great an Enemy as you have heard and so powerful to deter our hearts from God and dull our desires to the heavenly felicity that Christ was fain to go before us to embolden the hearts of believers to follow him He suffered Death with the rest of his afflictions to shew us that it is a tolerable evil Had he not gone before and overcome it it would have detained us its Captives Had he not merited and purchased us a blessed Resurrection and opened heaven to all believers and by Death overcome him that had the power of death as Gods executioner that is the Devil we should all our life time have been still subjected unto bondage by the fears of Death Heb. 2. 14. But when we see that Christ hath led the way as the victorious Captain of our Salvation and that he is made perfect by sufferings in his advancement unto glory and that for the sufferings of death which by the grace of God he tasted for every man he is crowned with glory and honour Heb. 2. 9 10. this puts a holy valour into the soul and causeth us chearfully to follow him Had we gone first and the task of conquering Death been ours we had been overcome But he that hath led us on hath hew'd down the enemy before him and first prepared us the way and then called us to follow him and to pass the way that he hath first made safe and also shewed us by his example that it is now made passable For it was one in our Nature that calleth us his Brethren that took not the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham that is one with us as the Sanctifier and the sanctified are and to whom as children we are given Who hath passed through Death and the Grave before us and therefre we may the boldlier follow him Heb. 2. 11 12 13 16. Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name Phil. 2. 8 9. Hereby he hath shewed us that Death is not so dreadful a thing but that voluntary obedience may and must submit unto it As Abraham's faith and obedience was tryed in the offering up his Son to death at Gods command so the children of Abraham and the heirs of the promise must follow him in offering up themselves if God require it and in submitting to our natural death for that he doth require of all Examples work more then bare precepts and the Experiments of others do take more with us than meer directions It satisfieth a sick man more to read a Book of Medicinal Observations where he meets with many that were in his own case and finds what cured them then to read the Praxis or medicinal Receipts alone It encourageth the Patient much when the Physitian tells him I have cured many of your disease by such a Medicine nay I was cured thus of the same my self So doth it embolden a believer to lay down his Life when he hath not only a promise of a better life but seeth that the promiser went that way to Heaven before him O therefore let us learn and use this choise remedy against the immoderate fear of Death Let Faith take a view of him that was dead and is alive that was buried and is risen and was humbled and is now exalted Think with your selves when you must think of dying that you are but following your Conquering Lord and going the way that he hath gone before you and suffering what he underwent and conquered And therefore though you walk through the valley of the shaddow of death resolve that you will fear no evil Psal 23. 4. And if he call you after him follow him with a Christian boldness As Peter cast hinself into the Sea and walkt on the waters when he saw Christ walk there and had his command so let us venture on the jaws of death while we trace his steps and hear his encouraging commands and promises John 21. 7. Mat. 14. 28 29. SECT VII Use 5. MOreover from this Doctrine we may be informed of the mistakes of many Christians that think they have no saving grace because they are afraid of dying and because these fears deterr their souls from desiring to be with Christ And hence they may perceive that there is another cause of these Distempers even the ENMIMY of Death that standeth in the way You think that if you had any Love to Christ you should more desire to be with him and that if your treasure were in heaven your hearts would be more there and that if you truly took it for your felicity you
dare not stand the charge of Death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then be foiled and nonplust if we must be found in no other righteousness but what we have received from the first Adam and have wrought by the strength received from him But being gathered under the wings of Christ as the chickens under the wings of the Hen Mat. 23. 37. and being found then in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith we may boldly answer to all that can be charged on us to our terrour If we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and are made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 9 10. if we are dead with him to the world and risen with him to a holy life if we have believingly traced him in his sufferings and conquest and perceive by faith how we participate in his victories we shall then be able to grapple with the hands of Death and though we know the grave must be for a while the prison of our flesh we can by faith foresee the opening of our prison-doors and the loosing of our bonds and the day of our last and full Redemption It strengtheneth us exceedingly to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God When we consider what he endured against himself we shall not be weary nor faint in our minds Heb. 12. 2 3. DIRECTION III. LIve also by faith on the Heavenly Glory As one eye of faith must be on an humbled crucified Christ so must the other be on Heaven on a glorified Christ and on the glory and everlasting Love of God which we shall there enjoy This is it that conquereth the fears of Death when we belive that we shall pass thorow it into everlasting life If a man for health will take the most ungrateful potion the bitterness being short and the benefit long and if he will suffer the Surgeon to let out his blood and in case of necessity to cut of a member how light should we make of Death that have the assured hopes of glory to encourage us What door so streight that we would not pass thorow if we could to our dearest friend What way so soul that we would not travel to our beloved home And shall Death seem intolerable to us that letteth in our souls to Christ Well might Paul say To dye is gain Phil. 1. 21. when we gain deliverance from all those sins that did here beset us all those sorows that sin had bred We gain the accomplishment of our desires the end of our faith the salvation of oursouls We gain the Crown that fadeth not away a place before the Throne of Christ in the Temple of God in the City of God the New Jerusalem to eat of the hidden Manna and of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 3. We gain the place prepared for us by Christ in his Fathers house Joqn 14. 1 2. For we shall be with him where he is that we may behold his glory Joh. 17. 24. We shall gain the sight of the glory of God and the feeling of his most precious love and the fulness of joy that is in his presence and the everlasting pleasures at his right hond Psal 16. 11. And shall we think much to dye for such a gain we will put off our cloaths and welcome sleep which is the Image of death that our bodies may have rest and refuse not thus to dye every night that we may rise more refreshed for our employments in the morning And shall we stick at the uncloathing of our souls in ordâ—â— to their everlasting Rest Set but the eye of Faith to the Prospective of the Promise and take a serious frequent view of the promised Land and this if any thing will make Death more welcome than Physick to the sick than uncloathing to a beggar that puts on new or better cloaths Shall a poor man chearfully ply his labour all day in hope of a little wages at night and shall not a believer chearfully yield to Death in hope of everlasting glory so far as Heaven is soundly believed and our conversations and hearts are there the fears of Death will be asswaged and nothing else will well asswage them DIRECTION IV. MOreover if you will conquer the enmity of Death do all that you can to encrease and exercise the love of God in you For love will so encline you to the blessed object of it that Death will not be able to keep down the flame Were God set as a seal upon our hearts we should find that Love is as strong as Death and the coals thereof are coals of fire and the flame is vehement many waters cannot quench it nor can the floods drown it Cant. 8. 6 7. If carnal Love have made the amorous to chuse Death that they might passionately express it especially when they have heard if the death of their beloved and if natural fortitude and love to their Country have made many valiant men though Heathens to contemn Death and readily lay down lives and if the love of fame and vain glory in a surviving name have caused many to dye through pride how much more will the powerful love of God put on the soul to leave this flesh and pass through Death that we may see his face and fully enjoy the object of our love So much as you love God so much will you be above the terrours of the grave and past through Death for the enjoyment of your beloved Perfect Love casteth out fear and he tqat feareth is not made perfect in love in Death and Judgement we shall have boldness if our love be perfect 1 John 4. 17 18. This maketh the Martyrs chearfully lay down their lives for Christ and love is glad of so precious an opportunity for its exercise and manifestation Love is a restless working thing that will give you no rest till your desires are attained and you be with God Nothing is so valiant as Love It rejoyceth when it meeteth with difficulties which it may encounter for the sake of our beloved It contemneth dangers It glorieth in sufferings Though it be humble and layeth by all thoughts of merit yet it rejoyceth in sufferings for Christ and glorieth in the Cross and in the participation of his sufferings and in the honourable wounds and fears which we receive for him that died for us DIRECTION V. TO overcome the terrours and enmity of Death it is necessary that we keep the Conscience clear from the guilt of wilful sin and of impenitency If it may be see that you wound it not if you have wounded it presently seek a cure
and loatheth himself for all his abominations and is possessed with that Justice that provoketh him to self revenge in an ordinate sort and therefore doth love and honour that Justice that inflicteth on him the penalty of Death Especially since Mercy hath made it a useful Castigation As some penitent malefactors have been so sensible of their crimes that they have not deprecated Death but consented to it as a needful work of Justice as it s written of the penitent Murderer lately hanged at London So Holiness doth contain such a hatred of our own sins and such impartial Justice on Gods behalf that it will cause us to subscribe to the righteousness of his sentence and the more quietly to yield to the stroke of Death DIRECTION IX IT will somewhat abate the fears of Death to consider the Restlesness and troubles of this life and the manifold evils that end at Death And because this Consideration is little available with men in prosperity it pleaseth God to exercise us with adversity that when we find there no is hope of Rest on earth we may look after it where it is and venture on Death by the impulse of necessity Here we are continually burdened with our selves anonyed by our corruptions and pained by the diseases of our souls or endangered most when pained least And would we be thus still We live in the continual smart of the fruit of our own folly and the hurts that we catch by our careless or inconsiderate walking like children that often fall and cry and would we still live such a life as this The weakness of our faith the darkness of our minds the distance and strangeness of our souls to God are a continual languishing and trouble to our hearts How grievous is it to us that we can love him nomore nor be more assured of his love to us that we find continually so much of the creature and so little of God upon our hearts that carnal affections are so easily kindled in us and the Love of God will scarce be kept in any life by the richest mercies the most powerful means and by our greatest diligence Oh what a death is it to our hearts that so many odious temptations should have such free access such ready entertainment such small resistance and so great success that such horrid thoughts of unbelief should look into our minds and stay so long and be so familiar with us that the blessed mysteries of the Gospel and the state of separated souls and the happiness of the life to come are known so slightly and believed so weakly and imperfectly and meet with so many carnal questionings and doubts that when we should be solacing our souls in the fore-thoughts of Heaven we look toward it with such strangeness and amazement as if we staggered at the promise of God through unbelief and there is so much Atheism in our Affections God being almost as no God to them sometime and Heaven almost as no Heaven to them that it shews there is too much in our Understandings O what a Death is it to our minds that when we should live in the Love of Infinite goodness we find such a remnant of carnal enmity and God hath such resistance and so narrow so short so cold so unkind entertainment in those hearts that were made to love him and that should know and own no love but his What a bondage is it that our souls are so entangled with the creatures and so detained from the love of God and that we draggle on this earth and can reach no higher and the delightful Communion with God and a Conversation in Heaven are things that we have so small experience of Alas that we that are made for God and should live to him and be still upon his work and know no other should be so byassed by the flesh and captivated by self-love and lost at home that our affections and intentions do hardly get above our selves but there we are too prone to terminate them all and lose our God even in a seeming Religiousness while we will be gods to our selves How grievous is it that such wonders and glorious appearances of God as are contained in the incarnation life and death of Christ and in all the parts of the work of our Redemption should no more affect us than they do nor take up our souls in more thankful admiration nor ravish us into higher joyes Alas that Heaven commands our souls no more from Earth that such an infinite glory is so near us and we enjoy so little of it and have no more savour of it upon our souls That in the hands of God and before his face we do no more regard him That the great and wonderful matters of our Faith do so little affect us that we are tempted thereby to question the sincerity of our Faith if not the reality of the things believed and that so little of these great and wondrous things appeareth in our lives that we tempt the world to think our Faith is but a fancy Is not all this grievous to an honest heart and should we not be so far weary of such a life as this as to be willing to depart and be with Christ If it would so much rejoyce a gracious soul to have a stonger Faith a more lively hope a more tender Conscience a more humble self-abhorring heart to be more fervent in prayer more resolute against temptations and more successfully to fight against them with what desire and joy then should we look towards Heaven where we shall be above our strongest Faith and Hope and have no more need of the healing graces or the healing Ordinances nor be put upon self-afflicting work nor troubled with the temptations nor terrified by the face of any enemy Now if we will vigorously appear for God against a sinful generation how many will appear against us how bitterly will they reproach us how falsly will they slander us and say all manner of evil against us and it is well if we scape the violence of their hands and what should be our joy in all these sufferings but that Great is our reward in Heaven Matth. 11. 12. Alas how are we continually here annoyed by the presence and the motions and the success of sin in our selves and others It dwelleth in us night and day we cannot get it to stay behind no not when we address our selves to God not in our publick worship or our secret prayers not for the space of one Lords Day or one Sermon or one Sacrament in ordinary or extraordinary duty O what a blessed day and duty would it be in which we could leave our sin behind us and converse with God in spotless innocency and worship and adore him without that darkness and strangeness and unbelief and dulness and doubtings and distractions that are now our daily miseries Can we have grace and not be weary of these corruptions Can we have life and not be
is above the pride and vanities of this world and doth converse by a life of faith above and is usefull and exemplary in their generation alas how soon are they snatcht away and we are left in our temptations ripening and murmuring at God as Jonah when his gourd was withered as if the Lord had destinated this world to be the dwelling of unfaithfull worthless men and envied us the presence of one eminent Saint one faithful friend and one that a◠Moses when he had talkt with God hath a face that shineth with the reflected raies of the heavenly glory when indeed it is because this world is unworthy of them Heb. 11. 38. not knowing their worth nor how to use them nor how to make use of them for their good and because when they are ripe and mellow for eternity it is fit that God be served before us and that Heaven have the best and that be left on earth that is earthly Must Heaven be deprived of its inhabitants Must a Saint that is ripe be kept from Christ and so long kept from his inheritance from the company of Angels and the face of God and all lest we should be displeased and grudge at God for glorifying those whom he destinated to glory before the foundations of the world and whom he purchased and prepared for Glory Must there a place be empty and a voice be wanting in the Heavenly Chore Iest we should miss our friends on earth Are we not hasting after them at the heels and do we not hope to live with them for ever and shall we grudge that they are gone a day or week or year before us O foolish unbelieving souls We mourn for them that are past mourning and lament for our friends that are gone to Rest when we are left our selves in a vexatious restless howling wilderness as if it were better to be here we mourn and weep for the souls that are triumphing in their Masters joy And yet we say we believe and hope and labour and wait for the same felicity Shall the happiness of our friends be our sorrow and lamentation O did we but see these blessed souls and where they are and what they are enjoying and what they are doing we should be ashamed to mourn thus for their change Do you think they would wish themselves again on earth or would they take it kindly of you if you could bring them down again into this world though it were to reign in wealth and honour O how would they disdain or abhor the motion unless the commanding will of God did make it a part of their obedience And shall we grieve that they are not here when to be here would be their grief But thus our lives are filled with griefs Thus smiles and frowns desires and denyals hopes and frustrations indeavours and disappointments do make a quotidian ague of our lives The persons and the things we love do contribute to our sorrows as well as those we hate If our friends are bad or prove unkind they gall and grieve us while they live If they excell in holiness fidelity and suitableness the dart that kills them deeply woundeth us and the sweeter they were to us in their lives the bitterer to us is their death We cannot keep mercy but sin is ready to take it from us or else to marr in and turn it into Vinegar and Gall. And doth not Death accidentally befriend us that puts an end to all these troubles and lands us safe on the Celestial shore and puts us into the bosome of perpetual Rest where all is calm and the storms and billows that tost us here shall 〈◊〉 or trouble us no more And thus Death shall make us some recompence at last for the wrong it did us and the mortal blow shall hurt us less then did the dreadful apparition of it in our fore-thoughts Let not our fears then exceed the cause Though we fear the pangs and throws of travel let us withal remember that we shall presently rejoyce and all the holy Angels with us that a soul is born into the world of glory And Death shall gain us much more then it deprived us of DIRECTION X. THE last Direction that I shall give you to conquer the Enmity of Death is this Give up your wills entirely to the will of God as knowing that his will is your beginning and your end your safety your felicity and rest in which you should gladly aquiesce When you think of Death remember who it is that sends it It is our Fathers messenger and is sent but to execute his will And can there be any thing in the will of God that his servants should inordinately fear Doubtless his Will is much safer and better for us then our own And if in generall it were offered to our choice Whether all particulars of our lives should be disposed of by Gods will or by ours common reason might teach us to desire to be rather in Gods hands then our own The fulfilling of his will is the care and business of our lives and therefore it should be a support and satisfaction to us at our death that it is but the fulfilling of his will His Justice and punishing Will is good though selfishness maketh it ungratefull to the offendor But his children that are dear to him and tast no evil but that which worketh for their good have no cause to quarrell at his will Whatsoever our surest dearest friends would have us take or do or suffer we are ready to submit to as being confident they will do nothing for our hurt if they do but know what is for our good And shall we not more boldly trust the will of God then of our dearest friend He knows what he hath to do with us and how he will dispose of us and whither he will bring us and his interest in us is more then ours in our selves and shall we then distrust him as if we had to do with an enemy or one that were evil and not with love and infinite goodness It is the will of God that must be the everlasting Rest the Heaven the pleasure of our souls And shall we now so fear it and fly from it as if it were our ruine Look which way you will through all the world your souls will never find repose nor satisfying quietness and content but in the will of God Let us therefore commit our souls to him as to a faithful Creator and desire unfeignedly the fulfilling of his will and believe that there is no ground of confidence more firm Abraham may boldly trust his Son his only Son on the will of God And Christ himself when he was to drink the bitter Cup submitteth his own naturall love of life to his Fathers will saying Not my will but thine be done 'T is a most unworthy abuse of God that we could be quiet and rejoyce if our own wills or our dearest friends might dispose of our lives and
as they Am I now in flesh in fears in griefs so was David and Paul and all the Saints a while ago yea and Christ himself Am I beset with sin and compassed with infirmities and racked by my own distempered passion so were the many saints now glorified but the other day Elias was a man subject saith James to like passions as we are James 5. 17. Am I maliced by dissenting adversaries Do they privily lay snares for me and watch my halting and seek advantage against my name and liberty and life so did they by David and many other now with Christ But now these enemies are overcome Art thou under pains and consuming sicknesses are thine eyes held waking and doth trouble and sorrow wast thy spirits doth thy flesh and thy heart fail thee and thy friends prove silly comforters to thee So was it with those thousands that are now in Heaven where the night of calamities is past and the just have dominion in the morning and glory hath banished all their griefs and joyes have made them forget their sorrows unless as the remembrance of them doth promote those joyes Are thy friends lamenting thee and grieved to see the signs of thy approaching death do they weep when they see thy pale face and consumed body and when they hear thy sighs and groans Why thus it was once with the millions that are now triumphing with their Lord They lay in sickness and underwent the pains and were lamented by their friends as as thou art now Even Christ himself was once in his agony and some shake the head at him and others pitied him who should rather have wept for themselves than for him This is but the passage from the womb of mortality into the life of immortality which all the Saints have past before thee that are now with Christ Dost thou fear the dreafdul face of death Must thy tender flesh be turned to rottenness and dust and must thou lie in darkness till the Resurrection and thy body remain as the Common earth And is not this the case of all those millions whose souls now see the face of Christ Did they not lie as thou dost and die as thou must and pass by death to the life which they have now attained O then commit thy soul to Christ and be quiet and comforted in his care and love Trust him as the Mid-wife of thy departing soul who will bring it safe into the light and life which thou are yet such a stranger to But it is not strange to him though it be strange to thee What was it that that rejoyced thee all thy life in thy prayers and sufferings and labours was it not the hopes of heaven And was Heaven the spring and motive of thy obedience and the comfort of thy life and yet wilt thou pass into it with heaviness and shall thy approaches to it be thy sorrows Didst thou pray for that which thou wouldst not have Hast thou laboured for it and denyed thy self the pleasures of the world for it and now art thou afraid to enter in Fear not poor soul Thy Lord is there Thy husband and thy head and life is there Thou hast more there a thousand fold more than thou hast here Here thou must leave poor mourning friends that languish in their own infimities and troubled thee as well as comforted thee while thou wast with them and that are hasting after thee and will shortly overtake thee But there thou shalt find the souls of all the blessed Saints that have lived since the Creation till this age that are all uncloathed of the rags of their mortality and have laid by their frailties with their flesh and are made up of holiness and prepard for joy and will be suitable companions for thee in thy joyes Why shouldst thou be afraid to go the way that all the Saints have gone before thee Where there is one on earth how many are there in Heaven and one of them is worth many of us Art thou better then Noah and Abraham and David then Peter and Paul and all the Saints Or dost thou not love their names and wouldst thou not be with them Art thou loath to leave thy friends on earth And hast thou not far better and more in heaven Why then art thou not as loath to stay from them Suppose that I and such as I were the friends that thou art loath to leave What if we had dyed long before thee If it be our company that thou lovest thou shouldst then be willing to die that thou mayst be with us And if so why then shouldst thou not be more willing to die and be with Christ and all his holy ones that are so much more excellent than we Wouldst thou have our company Remove then willingly to that place where thou shalt have it to everlasting and be not so loath to go from hence where neither thou nor we can stay Hadst thou rather travel with us than dwell with us And rather here suffer with us than reign in Heaven with Christ and us O What a brutish thing is flesh What an unreasonable thing is unbelief Shall we believe and fly from the end of our belief Shall we hope and be loath to enjoy our hopes Shall we desire and pray and be afraid of attaining our desires and lest our prayers should be heard Shall we spend our lives in labour and travel and be afraid of comming to our journeys end Do you love life or do you not If not why are you afraid of death If you do why then are you loath to pass into everlasting life You know there is no hope of immortality on earth Hence you must pass whether you will or not as all your Fathers have done before you it is therefore in Heaven or no where that endless life is to be had If you can live here for ever do Hope for it if any have done so before you Go to some man of a thousand years old and ask him how he made shift to draw out his life so long But if you know that man walketh here in a vain shew and that his life is a shadow a dream a post and that all these things shall be dissolved and the fashion of them passeth away is it not more reasonable that we should set our hearts on the place where there is hopes of our continuance than where there is none and where we must live for ever than where we must be but for so short a time Alas poor darkned troubled soul Is the presence of Christ less desirable in thy eyes than the presence of such sinful worms as we whom thou art loath to part with Is it more grievous to thee to be absent from us than from thy Lord from Earth than from Heaven from Sinners than from blessed Saints from trouble and frailty than from glory Hast thou any thing here that thou shalt want in Heaven Alas that we should thus draw back from Happiness