comfort The Scripture tells us Psal. 16. That in God's presence there will be a fullness of joy and by consequence there can be no scantiness of enjoyments but pleasures for evermore yea a River of Pleasures nay a bottomless and boundless Ocean of them the Infinite and Eternal God must himself be exhausted before the delights and pleasures of Heaven can be spent Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath entred into the heart of man what God in the Mansions above hath prepared and reserved for them that love him There is a feast of Love a Crown of Life and Robes of Glory There is Abraham's Bosom and the joy of their Lord which is too big to enter into them therefore they shall enter into it and be filled encompassed and swallowed up by it as a small Vessel in the Sea When once the gracious Soul hath set foot upon that coelestial Countrey and made its entrance into that stately and magnificent Palace of the great King he shall be not only filled with satisfaction but likewise rapt up into astonishment and highest admiration What am I that God hath brought me hitherto And what were all my services that they should be thus rewarded Oh how light and inconsiderable doth he now think all his former sorrows and sufferings if compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory What low thoughts will he then have of the Skin-deep beauties and transitory delights here below on which the besotted Children of men do so foolishly dote And with what an holy scorn and indignation will he call to mind that pains men did take for and that eagerness with which they did pursue the trifling vanities of the Earth and how they scrambled for them and quarrel'd about them And oh how doth he wish and long for that blessed day in which the Church militant shall be made triumphant and all his gracious Friends all his Brethren and Sisters in Christ all the chosen and beloved of God shall be taken up to the same place that they may see what he sees and be possest of that which he enjoys That so they may altogether contemplate the glory of God and be satisfied with the fruition of him and endear admire and extol Father Son and Spirit unto all Eternity Lay all these things together and you will easily see that there is great yea abundant reason why those that have seen Gods Salvation should be willing yea desirous to depart in peace and to take their flight into the other world And now I come to shut up this discourse with some application And in the first place this serves to shew us what it is that above all things should engage and draw out the vigour and strength of our desires namely the sight of Gods Salvation My Brethren I beseech you frequently to consider that we must all die there is no shift for it Death will not be bribed and it cannot be avoided It is appointed for all men once to die by a Statute-Law enacted in Heaven which admits of no repeal The aged Father of this Family is now gone and the youngest Child here must follow him sooner or later And is it not good for us to prepare for Death Will it not be our Wisdom Will your Wisdom more eminently discover it self in any thing than in this That so this King of Terrours may not be terrible unto you that you may not fear him but rejoyce in him you will die uncomfortably this is past all dispute you will die unhappily if you die unpreparedly Oh the horrour that will sieze an awakened sinner upon a Death-Bed When he shall think thus my glass is run my time is spent I must die but alas I am not fit to die I must now appear before my Judges but I have not made my peace Now then go on and consider what is to be done by you in order to this preparation A Life of vanity and folly will not fit you the more you sin the more you sharpen the sting of Death An eager minding the World and pursuing the delights of that will not fit you the more you have indulged your self in a course of prophaneness the more afraid you will be to die and the more you have set your hearts upon the Creatures the more loath and unwilling you wil be to die when you come to die the love of the World will make you unwilling to leave it and Conscience of sin and guilt will make you tremble at the thoughts of appearing before God Turn away your Eyes then from beholding vanity and pray that they may be opened to see Gods Salvation Oh study Christ get an intimate acquaintance with him Beg of God to reveal him to you and in you that you may know him whom to know is life eternal and never rest quiet nor contented till you have seen him by an Eye of Faith and laid hold upon him by an hand of Faith as one that loved you and gave himself for you and have a care that there be not a deceptio visus mistake in the case but look to this that your sight be saving and the Faith you pretend to the Faith of Gods Elect that you may upon good grounds such as the Scriptures will warrant appropriate him to your selves as your Lords and Gods and Saviour Rest not in any thing till you find and feel Christ living and commanding in you his Image drawn upon you his Law written in your hearts and his Spirit poured out Take not up with a verbal profession formal duties and unblameable Conversation common convictions and some stirrings and flushes of affection All this may be and all come to nothing Hypocrites may go so far and yet they do not go far enough but after all fall short of Heaven It is not the form of Godliness that will avail you but the power not a name to live but the life it self God is not taken with empty shews and appearances he is for reality and truth in the inward parts You can take but little comfort from Christ dying without you unless you find Christ formed and living in you notwithstanding the Death of Christ you may be for ever lost and damned unless you be made partakers of his Life Remember and consider that expression Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory When Christ dwells in you by Faith when he is in you by his Spirit and by his Graces then and not till then is there a firm Foundation laid on which you may build the hope of glory For hope so grounded is good hope such as shall never make ashamed Vse 2. The second use will be of Reprehension Those are blame-worthy and deserve reproof whose eyes have seen Gods Salvation Men and Women that do know the Jesus in whom they have believed and are made partakers of sanctifying saving grace and have had the manifestations of God's favour and Covenant love made to them and are verily
good and comfort which he expects and waits for he goeth out full of hopes and returns home blank He looks for much but gets little he cannot see his Fathers face that is covered with a Cloud nor can he hear his Saviours voice for he hath withdrawn himself and is gone he cannot find those kindly meltings and warmings and quickenings and enlargings that he desires but he goeth with a pittifully cold hard straitned dead heart so that he begins to question Gods Love and his own Faith If he doth at any time meet with his gracious God and is sensible of his doing so If he can say God was with me of a truth I have this day sate under the shadow of my dearest Saviour with great delight and his Fruit hath been sweet to my taste Alas it is but short Rara hora brevis mora it comes but seldom and it lasts not long It is but a little visit and no sooner it may be hath the gracious Soul done blessing himself in his enjoyments but he sees cause to bemoan himself for his loss But however it be with some particular Saints upon whom the Sun of Righteousness stands and shines with constant beams yet this is most certain as to all the Saints that the most sweet and full enjoyment which they have of God while they are here the most pleasant and comfortable communion they have with him is but mediate Christ looks upon him through the Lattice and they see him but as in a glass darkly All their refreshings are conveyed by Pipes they do not lie at the Fountain-head When they are most present with the Lord they are even then absent from the Lord and upon this account it is no matter of wonder to see or hear that they are willing to exchange a dark vision for a clear one seeing in a glass for a seeing face to face to exchange interrupt pleasures for permanent and abiding ones and mediate fellowship for that which is immediate Love is an uniting affection and is set for the strictest and closest embraces of it's indeared object And so a Soul that truly loves God cannot but desire to be as near to him as it can be and ready to exchange the comforts of the way for the joys and pleasures of the Countrey 3. He that hath seen God's Salvation hath seen enough to deliver him from the dread and terrour of Death for this is evident and obvious that if Christ be any mans Salvation it is utterly impossible that Death should be his destruction A man that is in Christ is not out of the reach of Death but he is secured from the hurt of Death Take an unregenerate man one that is a stranger unto Christ and he cannot see any thing in Death that should commend it to him It hath a dreadful aspect and a worse issue he hath cause to fear both Death and its Followers He is stript at Death and lasht in Hell Death to him is a dark passage to outer and endless darkness But now as grim as Death looks a Believer can easily discover a great deal that will make it lovely even Death it self hath its beauty as thus It is a conquered Enemy Christ went into the Grave it 's strongest hold and there he baffled it broke its Chains and carried away its Gates he disarmed and unstung it so that Holy Paul did and every true Believer may play with it and triumph over it 1 Cor. 15. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory the sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Though Death kill the Believer yet it doth not dammage him and though it separate between his Soul and Body yet not between him and God who shall separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord Shall Death saith Paul no saith he in that as well as in other things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us Nay through Christ death is not only conquered but also reconciled to all the Saints it is now become your Friend and Servant and doth you a real kindness So that as Solomon tells us The day of your Death is better than the day of your Birth You came into the World crying but you may go out of it Triumphing and with the voice of melodie The Primitive Christians did not array themselves in Sables at the Funerals of their Friends but in White looking upon their Dying Day as the Day of their Nuptials It was most terrible to Nature to be torn in pieces by Wild Beasts to die at a Stake to breathe their last in Flames yet in such a Death did they glory counting Martyrdom their Crown What though Death carry you from all your present comforts it doth at the same time set you out of the reach of all troubles and as it carries you from comforts so it carries you to comforts yea to such comforts as are far better than those you part with It pulls down this decaying and tottering Tabernacle that a more beautiful and stately Fabrick may be erected It takes you out of your sorry Cottages and carries you to those Blissful Mansions which are in your Fathers House The Grave it self though it be darksome and lonely yet it is a good resting place ever since our Lord lay there He hath perfum'd it and made it both soft and safe That Bed of Dust is now better than a Bed of Down or Roses It is true in the Grave though Christ's Body did not yet ours must see Corruption they must putrifie and at last be Converted into Dust but that Dust is more precious than Gold Oar and shall accordingly be most curiously preserved not an Atome of it shall be lost And that Body which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power and cloathed with immortality and made like unto Christ's own most glorious Body 4. And Lastly That man who hath seen Gods Salvation hath also seen all things amiable and desireable in the other World whither Death will carry him He hath looked within the Vail and had a prospect of that better Countrey There hath he by the Eye of Faith seen incomparable beauties to enamour him an excellent Glory to adorn him unspeakable comforts to delight him the best of Friends to invite him and an innumerable Company of Angels and Saints to bid him welcome There shall be nothing at all that may offend nothing in him to offend God nothing without to offend him nothing of sin and nothing of sorrow no temptation no affliction no danger no loss no frown no fear no sickness no pain no want no angry withdrawings not one pricking Briar nor one vexing Thorn But there shall be all things that you can desire and are suitable to that glorious State unto which you shall be advanced all things that will contribute to your happiness and
perswaded that it shall be well with them when they dye and that they shall go to Heaven when they go from Earth and yet they are loath to dye and thoughts of their departure from hence are afflictive to them When the message of Death was brought by the Prophet to good Hezckiah he turned his face to the wall and prayed and wept sore And good David himself though he knew that God had made with him an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure yet he cryed O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and he seen no more He would fain live a little longer and see a few more days past over his head I do not wonder that wicked men are loath to dye for they get nothing by it nay they lose all by it they are utterly ruined and undone by it Death takes them from all their good things jovial companions and pleasant enjoyments and carries them into that Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Therefore who would think it strange that they should put from them the day of their Death which will be to them such a day of evil They have reason to desire Life yea to say I would live always because it is better for them to live than to dye if you kill them you spoil all Such men may well say to Death as Ahab did to Elijah hast thou found me O mine enemy But here is the wonder that a Godly man should firmly assent unto this truth that there is another life after this and that that life is unspeakably better than this There is no compare between the comforts of this and the glory of that and they are also confident that when once they are absent from the body they shall be present with the Lord and when once this frail uncertain troublesome life shall come to an end they shall live that better life when once they are got off this stormy tempestuous Sea they shall bath themselves Eternally in those Rivers of Pleasures which are at God's Right-hand And yet Death is a word that sounds harsh in their ears they care not to hear of it when they think of it they are troubled A Deaths head upon the board spoils the Mirth and marrs the Feast it doth not only make them serious that it should do but it also makes them sad and dumpish and still they have desires that they may and some hope that they shall have a longer continuance in the World and draw out some more years yet before they come to the end of their line I must and do most readily grant that long life is a blessing a great blessing as such it is the matter of the promise but withall know Eternal Life is a greater blessing and he is no loser that lives but a little while here and then goes to live for ever with God For gracious persons that have seen God's Salvation and know they have seen it I say for such to be unwilling to dye carryes two evils in the Bowels of it 1. It is too great a magnifying of this present evil World an over-valuing of it and a setting too high a rate indeed an unreasonable price upon the enjoyments and delights of it Your esteem of them are far above their intrinsic worth what will carnal men say who stand by and see how you are wedded to the World and unwilling to be divorced from it What have they reason to say but that you find a great deal in it You tast the fatness of the Olive and the sweetness of the Vine and so think it is good to be here Certainly this speaks your setting your hearts too much upon the Creatures And hereby you do justifie and encourage them in their Worldliness they are strengthened in their love of the World and devotedness to it And also you do hereby cross and thwart God and run counter to him in one of his grand designs which is to wean his People from the World and to take their hearts off from creature delights which do ingross so much of their time and cares and do so much distract their thoughts and embase their Spirits and hinder them both as to their service of God and Communion with him And indeed how indecorous and unbecoming is it for Heaven born Souls to embrace Dunghills and for those that profess themselves risen with Christ to set their affections upon those things that are here upon Earth And for you who are the children of God and heirs of Heaven to mind carnal things It is far more unseemly than to see the heir of a Crown stopping Ovens or raking Kennels After these things saith our Saviour do the Gentiles seek that is those who know no better who are without God in the World who are drowned in the flesh and understand not the worth of an immortal Soul and upon these things let them dote still alass their portion is in this life being Aliens from the Covenants of promise and having no hope But as for you who have been taught of God who have heard of a blessed immortality who have seen those invisible glories that are within the vail you should be disingaged from all inferiour delights and carry towards them with a Spirit of indifference You should use the world but do not love it make it serve your occasions but suffer it not to command your affections While you have it in your hands and in your chests keep it out of your hearts The world is as we use to say of fire a very good servant but a very bad master Things are usefull and beautifull in their places so is the world but when it is in the heart it is out of its place and then it is stark nought and doth much hurt 2. For those who are the people of God and do know they are so who have seen God's Salvation I say for them to be unwilling to dye is a great reproach and disparagement to those glories which are above Christians you do hereby bring up an ill report upon the Land of promise as if the Honey and Milk of Canaan were not so good desireable as the Garlick Onions of Egypt what is the interpretation meaning of such a Spirit but that you fear it will be to your loss to exchange Earth for Heaven to leave delights Temporal for those that are Eternal What shall I say this averseness from Death and loathnesses to depart from hence is a piece of practical blasphemy as if these sorry cottages were better to inhabit than those stately Pallaces that these puddle delights and muddy streams were more delicious and desireable than that pure River of water of life which is clear as Chrystal and proceeds out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb as if these childish and trifling vanities did out-weigh and out-worth the glories which are above And these pitifull contemptible glow-worms did out-shine and obscure the Eternal Sun of