that Justice that inflicteth on him the penalty of death Especially since Mercy hath made it a usefull Castigation As some penitent malefactors have been so sensible of their crimes that they have not deprecated death but consented to it as a needfull 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 evills 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 is no 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 annoyed 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 continuall languishing and trouble to our hearts How grievous is it to us that we can love him no more 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 powerfull means and by our greatest diligence O 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 believâ—d so weakly and imperfectly and meet with so many carnall 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 shâ—â—â— 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 delightfull 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 byased by tâ—e 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 then they do nor take up our souls in more thankfull 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 wonderfull 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 stronger 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 sinfull 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 Mat. 11 12. Alas how we are continually here annoyed by the presence and the motions and the succâ—ss of sin in our selves and others It dwelleth in us night and day we cannot get it stay behind no not when we address our selves to God not in our publike 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 the 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 pained with these diseases And can we live in daily pain and weariness and not be willing of release Is there a gracious soul that groaneth not under the burden of
still answâ—red that he had enough and minded not removing without necessity so was she ever of the same mind and still seconded and confirmed him in such resolutions even to follow Gods work while they had a competency of their own and to mind no more 4. Her very speech and behaviour did so manifest meekâ—ess and humility that in a little converse with her it might eâ—sily be discerned 5. She thought nothing too mean for her that belâ—nged to her in her family and râ—lation no employment food c. saying often that What God had made her duty was not too low a work for her And indeed when we knâ—w â—nce that it is a work that God sets us upon it signifieth much forgetfulness of him and our selves if we think it too base or think our sâ—lves too good to stoop to it 6. No neighbour did seem too mean or poor for her familiar converse if they were but willing 7. She had a true esteem and cheerfull love for the meanâ—st of her husbands Relations and much rejoyced in her comfort in his kindred recording it among her experienced mercies 2. She was very constant and diligent in doing her part of family duties teaching all the inferiours of her family â—nd labouring to season them wiâ—h principles of holiness and admonishing them of their sin and danger never failing on the Lâ—rds day at night to hear them read the Scriptures and recite their Catechisms when publike duty and all other family duty was ended and in her Husbands absence praying with them How much the imitation of such examples would conduce to the sanctifying of families is easie to be apprehended 3. In secret duty she was very constant and lived much in those two great soul-advancing works Meditation and Prayer in which she would not admit of interruptions This inward holy diligence was it that maintained spirituall life within which is the spring â—f outward acceptable works When communion with God and daily labour upon our own hearts is laid aâ—ide or negligently and remisly followed grace languisheth first within and then unfruitfulness if not disorders and scandalls appear without 4. Her Love to the Lord Jesus was evidenced by her great affection to his Ordinances and wayes and serâ—ants A very hearty Love she manifested to those on whom the Image of God did appear even the poorest and meanest as well as the rich or eminent in the world Nor did a difference in lesser matters or any tolerable mistakes alienate her affections from them 5. She was a Christian of much plainness simplicity and singleness of heart far from a subtile crafty dissembling frame and also from loquacity or ostentation And the world was very low in her eyes to which she was long crucified â—nd on which she looked as a lifelesâ— thing Sensuality and pampering the flesh she much loathed Wheâ— she was invited to feasts she wâ—uld oft complain that they occasioned a difficulty in maintaining a sense of the presence of God whose company in all her company she preferred 6. She was a very carefull esteemer and redeemer of her time At home in her family the works of her generall and particular calling took her up When necessary business and greater duties gave way she was seldom without a Book in her hand or some edifying discâ—urse in her mouth if there were opportunity And abroad she was very weary of barren company that spent the time in common chatt and dry discourses 7. She used good company practically and profitably making use of what she heard for her own spirituall advantage When I understood out of her Diary that she wrote down some of my familiar discourses with serious application to her self it struck exceeding deep to my heart how much I have sinned all my dayes since I undertook the person of a Minister of Christ by the slightness and unprofitableness of my discourse and how exceeding carefull Ministers should be of thâ—ir words and how deliberately wisely and seriously they should speak abâ—ut the things of God and how diligently they should take all fit opportunities to that end when we know not how silent â—earers are affected with what we say For ought we know there may be some that will write down what we say in their Books or hearts or both And God an conscience write down all 8. In her course of Reading she was still laying in for use and practice Her course was when she read the Scriptures to gather out passages and sort and refer them to their several uses as some that were fit subjects for her Meditations Some for encouragement to prayer and other duties Promises suited to various conditions and wants as her papers shew And for other Books she would meddle with none but the sound and practicall and had no itch after the empty Books which make ostentation of Novelty and which Opinionists are now so taken with not did she like writing or preaching in envy and strife And of good Books she chose to read but few and those very often over that all might be well digested Which is a course for prâ—vate Christians that tends to avoid luxuriancy and make them sincere and solid and established 9 She had the great blessing of a tender conscience She did not slightly pass over small sins without penitent observation Her Diary records her trouble when causelesly she had neglected any Ordinance â—r was hindered by rain or small occasions or if she had overslept her self and lost a morning-exercise in London or came to late â—r if she were distracted in secret duty And if she mist of a Fast through misinformation disappointments and fâ—und not her heart duly sâ—nsible of the loss that also she recorded So did she her stirrings of anger and her very angry lookâ— resâ—lving to take more heed against them Though all ought not to spend so much time in writing down their failings yet all should watch and renew repentance 10. She was very solicitous for the souls of her friends As for instance hâ—r Brothers in Law over whom she exercised a motherly care instructing them and watching â—ver them and telling them of miscâ—rriaâ—es â—nd counselling them Causing them to keep a constant course of reading the holy Scriptures and meditating on it as far as she could Causing them to learn many Chapters without Book and to read other good Books in season Eâ—rnestly praying for them in particular Much desiring one or both should be Ministers And when her Father-in-law appointed the eldest to go to France she was much troubled for fear of his miscarriage among strangers especially those of the Romish Way 11. She was a serious Mourner for the sins of the time and place she lived in 12. In summ for strict close watchfull holy walking with God â—ven her Huâ—band professeth that she was a pâ—ttern to him As I hiâ—ted before she kept a daily account in writing which is now to be seeâ— from the beginning of the year 1654. especially of these
to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.5 6. And I beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and be at peace among your selves 1. Thes 5.12 13. And mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 And if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye our joy that ye may be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better then themselves Look not every man on his own things his own gifts and graces but every man also on the things the graces and gifts of others Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equall with God but made himself of no reputation or emptied himself of all worldly glory as Isa 53.2 3 4. as if he had had no form or comeliness and no beauty to the eye for which we should desire him but was despised and rejected of men and not esteemed Phil. 2.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. It is not as you imagine your extraordinary Knowledge Zeal and Holiness that inclineth you to divisions and to censuring of your brethren but it is Pride and Ignorance and want of Love and if you grow to any ripeness in Knowledge Humility Self-denyall and Charity you will bewail your dividing inclinations and courses and reckon them among the greater and grievous of your sins and cry out against them as much as your more charitable and experienced brethren do 3. To the third sort the Papist I shall say nothing here because I cannot expect they should read it and consider it and because we are so far disagreed in our Principles that we cannot treat with them on those rationall terms as we may do with the rest of the inhabitants of the world whether Christians Infidels or Heathens As long as they build their faith and salvation on the supposition that the eyes and taste and feeling of all the sound men in the world are deceived in judging of Bread and Wine and as long as they deny the certain experience of true believers telling us that we are void of Charity and unjustified because we are not of their Church and as long as they fly from the judgement and Tradition of the ancient and the present Church unless their small part may be taken for the whole or the major Vote and as long as they reject our appeal to the holy Scriptures I know not well what we can say to them which we can expect they should regard any more then musick is regarded by the deaf or light by the blind or argument by the distracted If they had the moderation and charity impartially to peruse our writings I durst confidently promise the recovery of multitudes of them by the three writings which I have already published and the more that others have said against them 4. And for the fourth sort the Hiders and the Quakers I have said enough to them already in my Book against Infidelity and those against Popery and Quakers but in vain to those that have sinned unto death 5. It is the fifth sort therefore that I shall chiefly address my speech to who I fear are not the smallest part It is an astonishing consideration to men that are awake to observe the unreasonableness and stupidity of the ignorant careless sensual part of men How little they Love or Fear the God whom their tongues confess How little they value or mind or seek the everlasting glory which they take on them to believe How little they fear and shun those flames which must feed for ever on the impenitent and unholy How little they care or labour for their immortall souls as if they were of the Religion of their beasts How bitterly many of them hate the holy wayes commanded by the Lord while yet they pretend to be themselves his Servants and to take the Scriptures to be his word How sottishly and contemptuously they neglect and slight the Holiness without which there is no salvation Heb. 12.14 How eagerly they desire and seek the pleasing of their flesh and the matters of this transitory life while they call them vanity and vexation How madly they will fall out with their own salvation and from the errors and sins of hypocrites or others will pick quarrels against the Doctrine and Ordinances and wayes of God as if other mens faults should be exceeded by you while you pretend to loath them If it be a sin to crack our faith by some particular error what is it to dash it all to pieces If it be odious in your eyes to deny some particular Ordinance of God what is it to neglect or prophane them all If it be their sin that quarrel in the way to heaven and walk not in company as love requireth them what is it in you to run towards hell and turn your backs on the holy Laws and wayes of God If it be so lamentable to the Nation and themselves that so many have faln into schism and disorder what is it then that so many are ungodly sensual and worldly and have no true Religion at all in sincerity life and power Ungodliness is all Heresie transcendently in the lump and that in practice A man that is so foolish as to plead that Arsenick is better then bread may yet live himself if he do not take it but so cannot he that eateth it instead of bread Hereticks only in speculation may be saved but practicall hereticks cannot You think it haynous to deny with the mouth that there is a God who made us and is our only Lord and Happiness and so it is And is it not haynous then to deny him with the heart and life and to deny him the love and obedience that is properly due to God It is odious Idolatry to bow to a creature as to God and is it not odious to love and honour and obey a creature before him and to seek it more eagerly and mind it more seriously then God If it be damnable Infidelity to deny Christ to be the Redeemer it is not much less to turn away from him and make light of him and refuse his grace while you seem to honour him If it be damnable blasphemy to deny the Holy Ghost what is it to resist and refuse him when he would â—anctifie you and perhaps to make a scorn of holiness If â—t be Heresie to deny the holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints what is it to hate the Holy members of the Church and to avoid if not deride the Communion of Saints
poise and all stands still or draws the pins and all the frame doth fall to pieces We shall breath no more nor speak nor think nor walk no more Our pulse will beat no more Our eyes shall sâ—e the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melodie no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comelyness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a sâ—nseless lump that feeleth not whithâ—r it is carryed nor how it is useâ— that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putrefaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the sight would tell you more effectually then my words do what an enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skuls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sin'd against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Allmighty The commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroak Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen 3.19 And thus should we remain if the Lord of life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do pass into a far more happy state then they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainfull may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible then in all that hitherto hath been spoken O could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dyeth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the Living death the dying life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dyeth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horror and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more then unbelievers do what an unsufferable loss it is to be deprived of the celelestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terror to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy the foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self-preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our fore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars I. The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadfull narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint he will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous Sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Porter affrighteth us from those grateful thoughts of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithfull Friend that is beyond some dreadfull gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way
He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a leg or an arm must be cut off or a stone cut out by a painful dangerous Incision what a striving doth it cause between the contrary passions the love of life and the love of ease the fear of death and the fear of suffering Could we but come to Heaven as easily as innocent Adam might have done if he had conquered what wings would it add to our desires Might we be translated as Henoch or conveyed thither in the Chariot of Elias what Saint is there that would not long to see the face and glory of the Lord Were it but to go to the top of a Mountain and there see Christ with Moses and Elias in a glimpse of Glory as did the three Disciples who would not make haste and say It is good for us to be here Matth. 17.1 4. But to travell so chearfully with Abraham to the Mount of Mâ—riah to sacrifice an only Son or with a Martyr to the flames is a harder task This is the principal enmity of death it deterreth our desires and thoughts from heaven and maketh it a far harder matter to us to long after God then otherwise it would be Yea it causeth us to fly from him even when we truly love him And where Faith and Love do work so strongly as to overcome these fears yet do they meet with them as an enemy and must fight before they overcome 2. And as this Enemy dulleth our Desires so doth it consequently cool our Love as to the exercise and it hindereth our hope much abateth the complacency and Joy that we should have in the believing thoughts of Heaven when we should be rejoycing in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 the face of death appearing to our thoughts is naturally an enemy to our joy When we think of the grave and of dissolution and corruption and of our long abode in the places of darkness of our contemned dust and scattered bones this damps our joyfull thoughts of heaven if supernatural grace do not make us Conquerors But if we might pass from earth to heaven as from one room to another what haste should we make in our desires How joyfully should we think and speak of Heaven Then we might live in the joy of the Holy Ghost and easily delight our selves in God and Comfort would be our daily food 3. Moreover as our Natural Enemy doth thus occasion the abatement of Desire and Love and Joy so also of our Thankfulness for the Glory that is promised us God would have more praise from us if we had more pleasing joyfull thoughts of our inheritance We should magnifie him from day to day when we remember how we shall magnifie him for ever Our hearts would be turned into thankfulness and our tongues would be extolling our dear Redeemer sounding forth his praise whom we must praise for ever if dreadful Death did not draw a veil to hide the heavenly glory from us 4. And thus the dismall face of Death doth hinder the heavenliness of our Conversation Our Thoughts will be diverted when our complacency and desire is abated Our minds will be willinger to grow strange to Heaven when Death still mingleth terror in our meditations Whereas if we could have come to God in the way that was first appointed us and could be cloathed with glory without being stript of our present cloathing by this terrible hand how familiarly should we then converse above How readily would our Thoughts run out to Christ meditation of that Glory would not be then so hard a work Our hearts would not be so backward to it as now they are 5. Faith is much hindered and Infidelity much advantaged by Death Look either to the state of soul or body and you will easily perceive the truth of this The state of a Soul incorporated we know by long experience what kind of apprehensions volitions and affections belong to a soul while it acteth in the Body we feel or understand But what manner of knowledg will or Love what Joy what sorrow belong to souls that are separated from the Bodies it is not possible for us now distinctly and formally to conceive And when men find themselves at a loss about the manner they are tempted to doubt of the thing it self The swarms of irreligious Infidels that have denied the Immortality and separated existence of the soul are too full a proof of this And good men have been haunted with this horrible temptation Had there been no death we had not been liable to this dangerous assault The opinion of the sleeping of the soul till the Resurrection is but a step to flat Infidelity and both of them hence receive their Life because a soul in flesh when it cannot conceive to its satisfaction of the being state or action of a separated soul is the easier drawn to question or deny it And in regard of the Body the difficulty and tryal is as great That a corps resolved into dust and perhaps first devoured by some other body and turned into its substance should be reunited to its soul and so become a glorified body is a point not easie for unsanctified nature to believe When Paul preached of the Resurrection to the learned Athenians some mocked and others turn'd off that Discourse Acts 17.32 It is no easier to believe the Resurrection of the Body then the Immortality or separated Existence of the Soul Most of the world even Heathens and Infidels do confess the later but few of them comparatively believe the former And if sin had not let in Death upon our Nature this perillous difficulty had been prevented Then we should not have bin puzzled with the thoughts of either a corrupted Body or a separated Soul 6. And consequently by all this already mentioned our Endeavors meet with a great impediment If Death weaken Faith Desire and Hope it must needs dull our Endeavors The deterred discouraged soul moves slowly in the way of life Whereas if Death were not in our way how chearfully should we run towards Heaven Our thoughts of it would be still sweet and these would be a powerfull Spring to action When the Will goes with full Sails the commanded faculty will the more easily follow We should long so earnestly to be in Heaven if Death were not in the way that nothing could easily stop us in our course How earnestly should we pray How seriously should we meditate and conser of Heaven and part with any thing to attain it But that whâ—ch dulls our Desires of the End must needs be an Enemy to holy Diligence and dull us in the use of means 7. This Enemy also doth dangerously tempt us to fall in love with present things and to take up the miserable Portion of the worldling when it hath weakened faith and cooled our desires to the life to come we shall be tempted to think that
these miseries yea in every prayer what do we else but confess them and lament them and groan for help and for deliverance And yet shall we fear our day of freedom and be loth that death should bring us news that our prayers are heard and our groans have reached up to heaven and that the bonds of flesh and sin shall be dissolved and we shall have need to watch and strive and fear and complain and sigh and weep no more Shall the face of death discourage us from desiring such a bessed day When we have so full assurance that at last this enemy also shall be destroyed The Lord heal and pardon the Hypocrisie of our complaints together with the unbelief and cowardliness of our souls Do we speak so much and hear so much and seem to do so much against sin and yet had we rather keep it still then be stript of it together with the rags of our mortality and yet had we rather dwell with sin in tempting troubling corruptible flesh then lay them by and dwell with Christ O Lord how lamentably have we lost our wisdom and drowned our minds in flesh and folly by forsaking thee our light and life How come our reasonable souls to be so bewitched as after all our convictions complaints and prayers to be still more willing of our sickness then of the remedy and more afraid of this bitter Cup then of the poyson that lodgeth in our bowels which it would expell and that after all the labour we have usâ—d we had yet rather dwell with our greatest enemy then by a less to be transmitted to our dearest friend and had rather continue in a troublesome weary restless life then by the sleep of death to pass to Rest And this sin in others also is our trouble though not so much as in our selves It maketh those our bitter enemies whose good we most desire and endeavour and causeth the unthankfull world to requite us with malicious usage for telling them the ungratefull truth and seeking their salvation it makes our friends to be but half-friends and some of them too like our enemies It puts a sting into the sweetest friendship and mixeth smart with all our pleasures It worketh us grief from precious mercies and abateth the comfort of our near Relations So that our smart by the pricks is often greater then our pleasure in the sweetness of the Rose No friend is so smoothed and squared to the temper and interest of another but that some in equality and unevenness doth remain which makes the closure to be less near and stedfast Even family relations are usually so imperfectly jointed and cemented that when the winds of tryal are any thing high they shake the frame and though they are but low they find an entrance and cause such a coldness of affections as is contrary to the nature and duty of the relations Either a contrariety of opinions or of natural temperature and humours or else of the dispositions of the mind Sometime cross interests and sometime passions and cross words do cause such discontents and sowrness such frowns or jealousies or distances that our nearest friends are but as sackloth on our skins and as a shoo too strait for us or as a garment that is unmeet which pinch and trouble us in their use and those that should be to us as the Apple of our eyes are as the dust or smoak to them that vex or blind them And the more we Love them the more it greiveth us to be crossed in our love There is scarce any friend so wise so good so suitable to us or so near that we can alwayes please And the displeasure of a friend is as gravell in our shoos or as Nettles in our bed oft-times more grievous then the malice of an enemy There is no such doing as this in heaven because there is no such guest as sin We shall love each other far more then we do here and yet that Love shall never be inordinate nor in the least divert our love from God but every Saint and Angel in the Society shall be loved with most chaste and pure affections in a perfect subordination to the love of God and so as that God himself in them shall be the chiefest object of that love It is there that our friends being freed from all their imperfections do neither tempt us to a carnal Love nor have any thing in them to discourage the love that is spirituall and pure We have here our passionate friends our self-conceited friends our unkind unthankfull selfish friends our mutable and unfaithfull friends our contentious friends that are like to enemies and who have used us more hardly then our friends But when we come to God we shall have friends that are like God that are wholly good and are participatively turned into Love and haveing left behind them all that was unclean and noysome and troublesome to themselves they have also cast off all that could be troublesome to us Our love will be there without suspicions without interruptions unkindnesses and discontents without disappointments frustrations and dissatisfactions For God himself will fully satisfie us and we shall love his goodness and glory in his Saints as well as immediately in himself Our friends are now lost at the turning of a straw the change of their interest their company their opinions the slanders of back-biters and mis-representations of malicious men can cool their Love and kill their friendship But Heaven is a place of constant Love The Love of Saints as all things else is there eternal And yet it declineâ—h not with age It is a world of Love that we are hasting to It is a life of love that we must there live and a work of love and perfect love that we must be there employed in for ever If here we have a pure a dear a faithful friend that is without false-heartedness and deceit that loveth us as his own soul how quickly is he snatcht away by death and leaves us melted into tears and mourning over his earthly relicts and looking upward with grieved hearts as the Disciples did after their ascending Lord Acts 1. 9 10 11. We are left almost as lifeless by such friends as the body is left by the departed soul We have nothing but grief to tell us that we live and that our souls are not departed with them we are left in greater lamentation then if we had never known a faithfull friend And alas how quickly are they gone when once God sees them ripe for heaven when Droans and Dullards live much longer If we see a Saint that 's clear of judgement and low in humility and naked-hearted in sincerity and that abounds in love to God and man that 's faithfull and constant to their friend and 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
if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God It could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Answ The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to aâ— far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Vse 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and Praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with us for ever nor malice follow us to our Rest The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And me thinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeping now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we foresee the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tendeâ— hand of our mercifull Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us foâ— ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal love hath perfected our Love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithfull friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithfull Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths for no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the Sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournfall tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continuall burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortall venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but grievous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealt with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours oâ— alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then indeed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth is ordinarily endured to prevent a longer A woman doth bear the pains of her travail because it is short and tends to the bringing of a child into the world Who would
its best take such pleasure as may here be had and feed on that where a sensual mind hath less discouragement Whereas if Death did not stand in the way and darken Heaven to us and turn back our desires how easily should we get above thesâ— trifles and perceive the vanity of all below and how unworthy they are to be once regarded 8. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that God is so dishonoured by the Fears and droopings of believers They are but imperfectly yet freed from this bondage and accordingly they walk Whereas if the King of terrors were removed we should have less of Fear and more of Love as living more in the sight and sense of Love And then we should glorifie the God of Love and appear to the world as men of another world and shew them the faith and hope of Saints in the heavenly chearfulness of our lives and no more dishonour the Lord and our profession by our uncomfortable despondencies as we do 9. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that many true Christians cannot perceive their own sincerity but are overwhelmd with doubts and troublesome fears lest they have not the faith and hope of Saints and lest the Love of God abide not in them and lest their hearts are more on earth then Heaven When they find themselves afraid of dying and to have dark amazing thoughts about eternity and to think with less trouble and fear of earth then of the life to come this makes them think that they are yet but worldlings and have not placed their happiness with God when perhaps it is but the fear of death that causeth these unjust conclusions Christian I shall tell thee more anon that God may be truly loved and desired by thee and Heaven may be much more valued then Earth and yet the natural fears of death that standeth in thy way may much perplex thee make thee think that thou art averse from God when indeed thou art but averse from Death because yet this Enemy is not overcome 10. Lastly this Enemy is not the smallest cause of many of our particular sins and of the apostacie of many hypocritâ—s Indeeed it is one of the strongest of our temptations Before man sinned none could take away his life but God and God would not have done it for any thing but sin So that man had no temptation from the malice of enemies or the pride of Conquerours or the fury of the passionate or the power of Tyrants to be afraid of death and to use any unlawfull means to scape it An avoidable dâ—ath from the hand of God he was obliged moderately to fear that is to be afraid of sinning lest he die else God would not have threatened him if he would not have had him make use of a preventing fear But now we have an unavoidable death to fear and also an untimely death from the hand of man by Gods permission And the fear of these is a powerfull temptation Otherwise Abraham would not have distrustfully equivocated as he did to save his life Gen. 20.11 and Isaac after him do the same when he sojourned in the same place Gen. 26.7 If the fear of Death were not a strong temptation Peter would not have thrice denyed Christ and that after so late a warning and engagement nor would all his Disciples have forsaken him and fled Matth. 26.56 Nor would Martyrs have a special reward nor would Christ have been put to call upon his Disciples that they Fear not them that can kill the body Luke 12.4 and to declare to men the necessity of self-deniall in this point of Life and that none can be his Disciple that loves his Life before him Matth. 16.39 Luke 14.26 He is a Christian indeed that so Loveth God that he will not sin to save his Life But what is it that an hypocrite will not do to escape Death He will equivocate and forswear himself with the Jesuite and Familist He will forsake not only his dearest friend but Christ also and his Conscience What a multitude of the most haynous sins are daily committed through the fears of death Thousands where the Inquisition ruleth are kept in Popery by it And thousands are kept in Mahometanism by it Thousands are drawn by it to betray their Countries to deny the truth to betray the Church and cause of Christ and finally to betray their souls unto perdition some of them presume to deny Christ wilfully because that Peter had pardon that denyed him through surprize and through infirmity But they will not Repent with Peter and die for him after their repentance He that hath the power of an Hypocrites life may prescribe him what he shall bâ—lieve and do may write him down the Rule of his Religion and tell him what changes he shall make what oaths he shall take what party he shall side with and command hâ—m so many sins a day as you make your horse go so many miles Satan no doubt had much experience of the power of this temptation when he boasted so confidently of it against Job 2.4 Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And its true no doubt of those that love nothing better then their lives Satan thought that the fear of Death would make a man do any thing And of too many he may boldly make this boast Let me but have power of their Lives and I will make them say any thing and swear any thing and be for any cause or party and do any thing against God or man When lessâ—r matters can do so much as common sad experience sheweth us no wonder if the fear of death can do it In brief you may see by what is said that Death is become an Enemy to our Souls by being first the Enemy of our Natures The Interest of our Bodies works much on our Souls much more the Interest of the whole man The principle of self-love was planted in Nature in order to self-preservation and the government of the world Nature doth necessarily abhor its own destruction And therefore this destruction standing in the way is become an exceeding great hindrance to our affections which takâ—s them off from the life to come 1. It is a very great hindrance to the Conversion of those that are yet carnal imprisoned in their unbelief It is hard to win their hearts to such a state of Hapâ—inâ—ss that cannot be obtained but by yielding unto death 2. And to the truly godly it is naturally an impediment and a great temptation in the points before expressed And though it prevail not against them it exceedingly hindereth them And thus I have shewed you that Death is an Enemy further then I doubt the most consider of If the unbeliever shall here tell me that Death is not the fruit of sin but natural to man though he had never sinned and therefore that I lay all this on God I answer him that