that is taken up in the lips of talkers and is the infamy of the people Ezek. 36. 3. When others are in their name as beautiful as Absalom who from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head had no blemish in him he is as Job on the dunghill overspread with defamations that are as so many putrid ulcers When others are cried up as the glory of their times he is decried as the filth and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. 4. 13. When the actions of others are blazoned as their vertues his that are in themselves commendable are censured as full of pride hypocrisy affectation and singularity Where is then the blessednesse of his condition that you spake of How can his estate that is overcast with a more pitchy darknesse then that of the night be better then the best of theirs that hath not the least shadow of any such evil stretching out it self upon it True it is that none are more evil spoken of and blasted in their names then beleevers but the ground of it springs not from their just deservings but from the worlds malice and enmity to God which is derived to them for his sake Let Nehemiah and the Jews set upon the rebuilding of the Temple and the repairing of the waste place of Jerusalem and Sanbullat upbraids them with intentions of rebellion Neh. 6. 6. Let Paul make known the Gospel of Christ and the Jews that beleeve not cry out that he is one of them that turn the world upside-down Act. 17. 6. Let the primitive Christians that cannot safely meet in the day take the opportunity of the night to worship God and the Heathens asperse their Assemblies to be full of uncleannesse and cruelty and that they have suppers not much unlike that of Thiestes as Tertullian shews in his Apology Now in these sufferings for God there are such promises from God made and fulfilled to them as that there is more sweetness to be found in the reproaches that they undergo for him from the world then there can be contentment in its smiles or favour And therefore Moses chose rather to suffer reproaches with Israel then to enjoy treasures in Egypt Heb. 11. 26. The contumelies slanders which they undergo on Christs behalf serve both to make the present comforts more sweet and their reward hereafter more glorious Blessed are ye saith our Saviour when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Mat. 10. 11. And now speak O ye worldlings that judge happinesse by as false a rule as they do that measure their height by their shadow Who is in a true estimate the better man Elijah that runs before the chariot or Ahab that sits in it John the Baptist that is cloathed with camels haire or Herod his Courtiers that are arrayed with robes and costly garments the poor whom God hath chosen to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdome James 2. 5. or the man that hath the gold ring and hath the chief place in Assemblies given unto him Which condition is now more desirable to be a stranger to the world and to be the Lords freeman or to be an Alien to God and the Covenant of promise and to be a Denizon onely of the world To be rich to God and poor to men or to be rich to men and poore to God To be the favorite of heaven and to be contemned on earth or to be the darling of earth and the enemy of heaven O therefore learn to judge of happinesse not by the light of sense but by the lamp of the Sanctuary and in time bethink your selves that nothing can be a foundation of happinesse unto you that hath not its stability from the promise of God CHAP. XX. Grounds of thankfulnesse for precious promises A Fourth application is to exhort beleevers that are made partakers of such great and precious promises to abound in all thankfulnesse to God and Christ who are the sole fountain from whence these streams of living waters do flow When old Isaac had eaten of his sonnes venison he blessed him that had prepared it for him how much more should they that have tasted how good God is have their mouthes filled with the blessing and praising of his Name that hath poured forth his love and mercy in such rich promises as are to the soul more sweet then marrow and fatnesse To this duty holy David doth quicken and stirre up himself Psal 103. when he summons all the faculties of his soul to praise the Lord Let all that is within me blesse his holy Name Vers 1. And that he may make the deeper impressions of Gods goodnesse upon his own heart he frames a short but yet a pithy compendium of his love towards him in his pardoning and healing grace Vers 3. He forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases In his redeeming and saving grace Vers 4. He redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindnesse and tender mercies In his supporting and renuing mercies Vers 5. He satisfieth thy mouth with good things thy youth is renued as the eagles And of all these blessings are beleevers made partakers in the promises it therefore becomes them to pay unto God a tribute of thankfulnesse and that upon these grounds First the end of Gods goodnesse to his creatures is his glory and that which he chiefly delights in Trumpeters love to sound where there is an echo and God loves to bestow his mercies where he may hear of them again For man to make the end of his actions in any kinde to be his own praise doth not onely taint and flie-blow his services with hypocrisie and pride so as to marre the beauty of them but also transformes them into vices that are hateful unto God and man For it is not meet that he who derives his being from another should have his actions to terminate in himself He that gives the being gives also the rule and end of its working by both which the goodnesse of its actions are denominated The rule of its working is the law and will of him who gave it a being and the end of all its actions is his glory But God who is the fountain of his own being can have in all his works no other end then his own praise and glory This is his end in all his works of creation Prov. 16. 4. The Lord made all things for himself And this is the great end of all his works of grace in Christ Ephes 1. 6. That we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace All the eternal purposes of God concerning mans salvation from the first to the last do ultimately resolve themselves into his glory Secondly to give unto God praise and thankful acknowledgements for his great and precious promises is all the return that
not prescribe and limit any in their choise but leave them to the free use of such Scriptures and promises as themselves by experience have found to be full of life and sweetnesse yet it will not be amisse to recommend the use of some few eminent promises of divers kinds out of the full store-house of the Word which may serve as so many meet cordials to revive the spirit of drooping Christians amidst the several kindes of necessities that may afflict them Are any burthened with the guilt of sinne so as that their soule draweth nigh unto the pit of despaire What more joyful tidings can ever their eares heare then a proclamation of free mercy made by the Lord himselfe unto beleeving and repenting sinners What more glorious and blessed sight can their eyes ever behold then the Name of God written in sundry of his choice attributes as in so many golden letters for them to read The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sinne Exod. 34. 6 7. He is the Lord who only hath jus vitae necis the absolute power of life and death in his hands but he is the Lord God merciful who far more willingly scattereth his pardons in forgiving then executeth his justice in condemning like the Bee that gathers honey with delight but stings not once unless she be much provoked He is gracious not incited to mercy by deserts in the object but moved by goodnesse in himself his love springs not from delight in our beauty but from pitty to our deformity He is long-suffering bearing with patience renued and often repeated injuries which he might by power revenge upon him who is the doer He is abundant in goodnesse grace overfloweth more in him then sinne can do in any Sin in the creature is but a vicious quality but goodnesse in him is his nature He is abundant in truth as he is good in making the promises so is he true in performing them when men deale unfaithfully with him he breaks not his Covenant with them He keeps mercy for thousands former ages have not exhausted the treasures of his mercy so as that succeeding generations can finde none there are still fresh reserves of mercy and that not for a few but for thousands He forgives iniquity transgression and sinne not pence but talents are forgiven by him not sinnes of the least sise are onely pardoned but sinnes of the greatest dimensions And as this promise in which the Name of God is so richly described doth fully answer the hesitancies doubts and perplexities of such who fear their iniquities for number to be so many for aggravation to be so great as that sometimes they question Can God pardon sometimes Will he ever shew mercy to such a wretched Prodigal So likewise may that blessed promise made unto beleevers Hos 14. 5 6 7. exceedingly support such who mourne under their want of holinesse and complaine of the weaknesse of their grace fearing that the little which they have attained unto goes rather backwards then forwards God himself having promised that he will be as a dew unto them which shall make them to put forth in all kindes of growth They shall grow as the lilly and cast forth their roots as Lebanon their branches shall spread and their beauty shall be as the Olive-tree they shall revive as the corne and grow as the vine What more comprehensive summary can there be either of Gods goodnesse or of a beleevers desires then there is in this one promise wherin he hath promised to make them grow in beauty like the lilly in stability like the Cedar in usefulnesse like the Olive whose fruit serves both for light and nourishment in spreading like the vine and in their encrease like the corne God himselfe being both the planter and waterer of all their graces To them who are full of fears through the approach of dangers which they have no hope to avoid or power to overcome How full of encouragement and comfort is that promise of protection and safety When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Isa 43. 2. Water and fire are two evils in which none can be with their nearest friends without perishing with them Who can save a Jonah when cast into a boisterous sea but God And who can walk in the fiery furnace with the three children and not be consumed but the Son of God In the prison one friend may be with another in banishment he may accompany him in the battel he may stand by him and assist him but in the swelling waters and in the devouring flames none can be a reliefe to any but God and he hath promised to beleevers to be with them in the midst of both these that so in the greatest extremities which can befall them they may fully rest assured that nothing can separate God from them but that he will either give them deliverance from troubles or support them under troubles Martyres non â—ripuit sed nunquid descruit saith Austin He did not take the Martyrs out of the flames but did he forsake them in the flames Lastly to them the meannesse of whose condition may seeme to expose them above others to hunger cold nakednesse evils that make life it self far more bitter then death how full of divine sweetnesse is that blessed promise of provision The young lions do lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing Psal 34. 10. The Septuagint renders it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great wealthy men of the earth who like beasts of prey live upon spoile and rapine who think that in the hardest times that can come they shall be eaten up last they shall be bitten with hunger and perish by famine when they who fear the Lord shall be in want of nothing The widows little barrel of meale in the famine yielded a better supply then Ahab his storehouse and granary her cruse had oile in it when his Olive-yards had none Oh! how securely and contentedly then may a beleever who acts his faith in such promises lay himself down in the bosome of the Almighty in the worst of all his extremities not much unlike the infant that sleeps in the armes of his tender mother with the breast in his mouth from which as soon as ever it wakes it draws a fresh supply that satisfies its hunger and prevents its unquietnesse SECT 3. Rule 8. Consider of the examples to whom promises have been fulfilled The eighth direction is in the making use of any promise to parallel our condition with such examples which may be unto us as so many clear instances of the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God in his giving unto others the same or
the like mercies which we seek and beg for our selves As the promises are useful to strengthen faith so are examples to confirme and assure sense which is continually apt to implead what faith beleeves and to question what God hath spoken God hath promised that though our sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be white as wooll Isa 1. 18. But sense suggesteth What possibility is there that ever such a change should be can sope nitre water make scarlet to be as white as undipped wool no more can it be that the ingrained spots and staines of sinnes so often reiterated so long persisted in should be done away and the sinner be cloathed with the white robe of innocency God saith He will heale backslidings and love freely Hos 14. 4. He will love freely without respect of persons he will pardon freely without respect of sinnes but sense that shutteth the doore of hope which he hath opened Sometimes calleth in question his power Can he work wonders among the dead Can he raise from the rottennesse of the grave such as have laine long putrefying in it Sometimes disputeth his mercy Will he ever remember the chiefe of sinners Will he be gracious to the rebellious that have both neglected and refused the tenders of salvation which have been often made Now when a beleever beholds the pregnant examples both of his power and love set forth in the Scriptures in his converting a stubborne Maâ—asseh in his translating into Paradise a bloody robber in his casting forth of devils out of Mary Magdalen a notorious harlot in his changing Paul a persecutor into an Apostle in his compassionating and healing Peter that sealed his backsliding with a curse in his bringing salvation to Zaccheus a hateful extortioner then the expostulations of sense and carnal reasonings are put to silence then he concludes with confidence that the promises are a sanctuary for the penitent and lifts up his feet with chearfulnesse to runne unto them then he pleads the bounty and faithfulnesse of God in the performance of his promises unto others as a strong argument to shew the like mercy unto him Thus David in his low condition strengthens his faith and hope in God from this ground Our Fathers trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal 22. 6 7. This direction is alwayes of use to beleevers in the ordinary and daily application which they make of the Promises because examples as they are powerful in perswading obedience to every precept which commands it so are they also efficacious to strengthen confirm faith when exercised on any promise But it is chiefly useful in extremities when dangers which are insuperable do at any time inviron us Besides the promises which faith useth as a support it is good to have in our eye some such example as Daniel whom God preserved in the lions den sealing up their mouthes by his power that they should not hurt him before the King had sealed the mouth of the den with his signet that he might not come forth When sad desertions and temptations do afflict us it is usefull to call to our remembrance some such instance as Heman who complaines that he was laid in the lowest pit that he was afflicted with all Gods waves that he was ready to die from his youth up that he was distracted while he suffered his terrors Psal 88. And yet afterwards he becomes the Kings Seer in the words of God to lift up the horne 1 Chron. 25. 5. That is he as a Prophet is especially employed to set forth the mighty acts of Gods power in Psalmes and Songs of praise and thanksgiving When sore afflictions are multiplied upon us which for their weight are more heavie then lead for their bitternesse more bitter then gall and wormewood it is good to have in our thoughts some such example as Job that we be not wearied and faint in our minds Take my brethren the Prophets who have spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord as examples of suffering affliction and of patience saith the Apostle James 5. 10 What a mappe and spectacle of myserie is Job made above others How various and how great were the afflictions with which he was exercised Sabeans Chaldeans destroy his substance fire from heaven consumes his servants a great winde smites the foure corners of the house and destroyes all his children ulcers boyles break forth upon his body keen and unjust censures from his friends vex his soul And yet the happy close and end that the Lord makes with him is as famous as his miseries were His riches and substance are doubled his number in children equalled his body healed and his name cleared by God himself These and such like instances when suited with a beleevers condition do contribute much to the suppressing and keeping of that despondency and dejection of minde which the extremity of trials in any kinde is apt to subject the best of Christians unto and cause them to renew their confidence in the promises and in hope to expect the performance of them because that others in the same or not unlike case with themselves have found the faithfulnesse and goodnesse of God in his supporting them under their burthens and giving perfect deliverance from them according to his promise SECT 4. Rule 9. Preserve communion with the holy Spirit entire The ninth rule or directions is To keep and preserve entire our communion with the holy Spirit The dependency which every beleever hath on the Spirit is very great he being unto the soul as the soul is unto the body the originall and principle of all spirituall life and motion What are any untill he quicken them and by his power fashion them unto holinesse but as so many livelesse lumps of undigested clay And what are the best without his continual breathings upon them but as so many disjoynted and weak members which have neither constancy nor uniformity in their motions or actions Grace in its vigour and strength abides in the heart as light in the house by way of emanation and effusion rather then by inherency An instrument when it hath an edge set upon it doth not at all cut any thing till it be guided and moved by the hand of an artificer no more doth a Christian when he hath an habituall aptitude through grace to work yet do or performe any service without the concurrence and assistance of the Spirit of Christ quickning exciting and applying the habitual power unto particular duties Necessary therefore it is that beleevers be circumspect in maintaining their communion with him and not to provoke him to stand at a distance from them who is the fountain both of their grace and comfort But the necessity of it will more particularly appear if we consider in how much need we daily stand of the constant assistance and powerful operations of the holy Spirit to make the applications of all
was honoured with the dispensation of the Gospel and had his labours crowned with the conversion of many thousand soules Let not therefore such who have fallen by their iniquities but yet return again by sincere repentance say that all their dayes shall end in darknesse that their names shall ever be unsavoury that themselves shall alwayes be as barren and dry trees but let them remember that comfortable promise that God made to repenting Israel Zeph. 3. 19 20. who tells them that he will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame CHAP. XIV In which the third Query is resolved viz. What use may be made of such promises as we cannot expect to see the performance of THe third Query which I shall propound and endeavour to satisfie is What use a believer may make of all those glorious and rich promises which he can never expect to see the performance of such as are the beauty and prosperity of the Church in peace and holinesse when all pricking briers and grieving thornes shall be removed out of the midst of it The calling and conversion of the Jewes The downefall and ruine of Antichrist All which seeme to be as blessings reserved for future ages and not to be hoped for in the present times To this I answer that true it is that the promises of God are as bonds of a different date and do successively take place in several ages and generations of the Church being so purposely ordered by the infinite wisdome of God that though he be continually accomplishing some one or other of his blessed promises unto his people there might yet be a most plentifull reserve of new mercies unto the last ages of the world that so it might appeare that former generations have not exhausted or diminished the treasure of his love and bounty to the prejudice of those that should succeed them But yet such promises which future times and not the present shall see to be fulfilled are of much use unto present believers and by the due application of them may yield much satisfaction and comfort unto those who like the Patriarchs can see them afarre off and being perswaded of the truth of them do joyfully imbrace them as Mariners do the desired port at a distance Heb. 11 13. It was a great comfort and contentment unto Moses that though God would not let him enter into the land of promise yet before his death he would from the top of Pisgah give him a full prospect of its glory and beauty Deut. 34. 1. And so to a believer it must needs be a matter of much joy and delight that though he cannot live to partake of the future mercies that God hath reserved for his Church yet he may by the eye of faith have a distinct view of them in the promises as in a lively map and may behold the glory of that portion of blessing and goodnesse which God will bestow upon his people in the ages that are to come But more particularly there may be a foure fold use made by a believer of all such promises whose accomplishment do seeme to be at a remote distance and period of times First they are usefull to support and beare up believers under present troubles and sore afflictions that the Church may be exercised with that it shall not be ruined and undone by them Navicula est quae turbari potest sed mergi non potest The Church is as a ship saith Austine which may be tossed with tempests but cannot be sunk and shipwrackt by them It being the onely heir of all the promises that God hath made it must live to enjoy them else they must become void and of no effect or be as Bona adespota Goods that have no person or Lord to lay claime unto them And if we consult the Scriptures we shall finde that in the times which were most dark and over-cast God did most frequently use such promises to confirme to his people their deliverance out of present straits that were not to take place till many ages after that from thence they might conclude their condition not to be hopelesse and desperate in regard of future blessings which God would performe to their succeeding generations Thus when Jacob was in Egypt where his seed were oppressed with a long and heavie bondage he prophesieth that the scepter should not depart from Judah till Shiloh came Gen. 49. 10. So when Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Israel joyned in a confederacy against Judah and that the hearts of the people through feare were as the trees of the wood when moved with the winde Isai 7. 3. the Lord to assure his people that they should be delivered and that their attempts against Jerusalem should not come to pass gives no other signe but this Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a son and ye shall call his name Immanuel vers 14. It was the land in which the Saviour of the world was to be borne and they the tribe from which he was to descend And therefore they might be fully confident that for that very promise sake ruine and extiâ—pation should not be fall them So again in Israels long captivity of seventy yeares though multitudes of them in that long tract of time could expect no other liberty then to be free among the dead yet the Lord in the beginning of it doth by the Prophecy of Jeremiah which was to be read unto them promise deliverance out of it and comforts them with the assurance of their freedom and their enemies ruine of both which he makes the casting of the Prophets book into the midst of Euphrates to be a signe unto them Jer. 51. 63 64. And why then may not we in these distracted and divided times both in regard of opinion and practice yet hope and believe that those blessed promises of Peace and Union with which God hath promised to beautifie his Church shall at length be performed and from thence gather so much present comfort as not to deeme our breaches incurable and past all healing True it is that Christians are like bees gone forth into so many swarmes as that to reason it seemes beyond possibility that ever they should by the sound of the Word as by a golden bell be brought under one hive But yet that one promise of Gods giving his people one heart and one way that they may feare him for ever for the good of them and their children after them Jer. 32. 39. is enough to support those that are peace-makers that their labour shall not be in vain and to comfort those that mourne for the sad rents that are made that there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Secondly such promises are useful to believers as a firme rock to bottome their prayers upon which they make on the behalfe of the Church To pray that Christs Kingdome may come and that it may spread it self unto the utmost ends
of the earth is the duty of every Christian But the ground of their making such prayers and of their confidence in obtaining them doth wholly arise from the promises that God hath made He it is who hath promised that Christ shall reigne till he hath put all his enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15. 25. He it is who hath said that Zion shall suck the milk of the Gentiles and shall suck the breasts of Kings Isa 60. 16. That her Horne shall be iron and her hoofs brasse to break in peeces many people Micha 4. 13. And thereby are they encouraged to seek his face and to put him in minde of his gracious promises unto his people True it is that the times and seasons when these things shall be are unknown unto them neither are they to be curious and anxious about them God having put them in his own power Acts 1. 7. But yet knowing that he who hath promised is faithful they do with delight plead them in their prayers and with faith embrace them in their armes Thirdly such promises are usefull to try the sincerity of a believers affection and love to Gods glory and to the welfare of the Church Promises wherein mens present interests aâ—e concerned self-love may make them to put a value upon them and quicken an ardency both in their prayers and desires to begge the performance of them as judging themselves to be most happy in the enjoyment of those blessings which are held forth in them And surely from this very principle are many stirred up to plead with much earnestnesse the promises of protection when they are under some imminent danger the promises of provision when under some pinching want the promises of comfort when under some sore affliction But when a Christian can rejoyce in such promises which speak the future happinesse of the Church when he is dead and gone When it is sweet to him to thinke that Christs throne shall hereafter be more exalted his Name more known his Spirit more plentifully poured forth that the Church shall triumph over its enemies and be an habitation of peace of love It is an argument of a noble frame of heart and of a spirit that is truly affected with the love of Gods glory When a man can ruminate upon such promises with delight and can in prayer manifest that it is the desire of his soul that these things wherein God will be so highly honoured may be effected it is a comfortable evidence that the white at which he levells and the end which he propounds to himself do not terminate in his private interest but in the exaltation of the Name of God which by faith he is perswaded shall be magnified throughout all ages of the world Fourthly such promises are usefull to comfort believers in regard of their posterity It is oft-times a perplexing thought to tender parents especially in difficult times to think what will become of their children if they should be taken from them and their seed be deprived of the benefit of that care and counsel which while they live they constantly partake of And this very thing doth beget as much anxiety in their hearts as the departure of Christ did in his disciples it being an evil that though foreseen they scarce know how satisfactorily to provide against Now besides those generall considerations drawne from those compassions and bowels that are in God and his faithfulnesse in providing for the righteous and their seed according to his promise All which may help to allay such distrustful thoughts and cares There may also not a little support and comfort be taken from the exercising of faith on such eminent promises as declare the riches of Gods goodnesse to the ages and times that are to come All which God will according to their appointed seasons fulfill untill that grand and last promise of gathering all his elect unto himself in glory be accomplished So that believers may comfortably hope that what promises themselves do fall short of their posterity shall in one kind or other be partakers of And though through the dark dispensations of present providences the Church may seem to be in the midst of an howling wildernesse rather then near the borders of a Canaan yet surely the Land of rest is not afarre off though it may to us be out of sight CHAP. XV. Wherein the fourth Query is resolved viz. Whether believers alwayes enjoy the comfort of assurance in death THe fourth Query is Whether believers who are most diligent in the daily application of the promises and in the use of all means to make their calling and election sure do alwayes enjoy the comfort of assurance in death Or have as the Apostle expressed it an entrance abundantly ministred unto them into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1. 11. The answer that I shall give unto this Question will consist of diverse branches which I shall lay downe in four Propositions The first is that a believer as he meets with many brunts and conflicts in his life so he may and often doth meet with worse at his death Christ his agonie and sufferings were sharpest towards the close and end of his life And then though he complains not of God yet in a most vehement expostulation he complains to God My God my God why hast thou for saken me Mat. 27. 46. Lamb-like and silent deaths are not alwayes the portion of Gods dearest Children The wicked may have no paines and bands in their death Psal 73. 4. when the best of Saints may be environed with terrors The one may be as a man in a sleep who may have pleasant and golden dreames and the other as a man awake that is afflicted and disquieted with grievous and sore paroxismes Thus good Hezekiah in that sicknesse in which he was by the Prophet summoned to prepare for death through the sad apprehensions of Gods displeasure poured forth his soule in bitter complaints Isay 38. he saith ver 13. I reckoned till morning that as a lion so will he break all my bones And. ver 14. Like a Crane or swallow so did I chatter Grief and paine had both so filled and wasted him as that he could onely make an indistinct and confused noise as those birds do when they are deprived of their young ones And therefore Christians are not to be discouraged as if some new thing had befallen them if in the close and shutting up of their lives instead of comfortable gales and breathings of the Spirit they finde contrary to their expectation Satan to assault them or God to withdraw himself from them who for a moment hides his face but with everlasting kindnesse will embrace them Isay 54. 8. The second Proposition is that our diligence to clear up our interest in the promises and the using of all meanes to make our calling and election sure is the ordinary and regular way to obtaine comfort and enlargement in death