Serenissima Anna D G Ang SccE Fran et Hiber Reg Fidei Defencor Printed Sold by N. Boddington at the Golden Ball in Duck Lane The Great Concern OR A SERIOUS WARNING to a Timely and Thorough PREPARATION FOR DEATH With Helps and Directions in order thereunto By EDWARD PEARSE Being the last that ever he preached John 9.4 I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work The Third Edition recommended as proper for Funerals LONDON Printed for J. Robinson at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard and B. Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil 1674. TO THE READER Reader IF thou art one who indeed livest in the belief of a future Life an Eternity of happiness or misery when time and days shall be more I am confident the ensuing Discourse will be grateful and welcom to thee I make no Apology for its plainness nor am I at all solicitous touching the censures I may fall under for publishing of it If thou wilt read it with an upright heart I question not but through a blessing from above it may do thy Soul good sure I am thou wilt find the Argument most weighty and the Concern thereof most important and woe be to that soul which misseth the design it tends to and aims at When men come to die and do find themselves launching forth into the vast Ocean of Eternity at least when once they find themselves incircled in that Ocean which quickly they do when once Death makes its approach then they see that their great interest lay beyond this poor vain perishing World and the things thereof then they see that their Great Concern was to have look'd and liv'd beyond time and days and have made provision for an Eternal state but alas alas then 't is too late too late then they cry out O Eternity Eternity O miserable souls that we are how did sin and the world blind and bewitch us that we could not ere now when 't is too late see the weight of an Eternal Interest O blind and bruitish Creatures that were taken with carnal and sensual things things pleasing only to a sensual appetite and forgot God the chief Good the things of Heaven and a blessed Eternity which would have made us happy for ever Now to prevent these doleful lamentations and such a dismal and remediless shipwrack of Eternal Souls as also to shew them the path of Life and to engage them to make sure of a blessed Eternity while time and days last is the design of the ensuing discourse and of the dying Author in it And the Lord the God of all Grace prosper it in order thereunto God has kept me for a full half year by the Graves side one while lifting me up then casting me down and now he seems to be speedily finishing my days to whom through the infinite riches of free Grace I can with some comfort and boldness say Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen And now farewel vain World farewel Friends and Relations farewel eating and drinking and blessed be God farewel sin and sinning within a few days I shall sin no more nor ever be in a possibility of sinning but shall be like my Lord and shall see him as he is And lastly farewel Reader E. P. READER THe first Impression of this Book was so well entertained among Ministers and others and wrought such good effects that the news thereof did very much rejoyce the Reverend Authour upon his Death-bed insomuch that be had an intent to give order for a good number to be given judging it the fittest present at his Funeral but being told there was not a sufficient number to gratifie the many thousands that would attend him to the Grave that good intention was prevented Since his death some pious persons have thought fit considering the suitableness of the subject to bestow many of these at Buryals instead of Rings Gloves Biskets Wine c Reading and Meditation much more beautifying such Solemnities than eating and drinking c. and have already found this way very instrumental to make people serious on such sad occasions Wherefore this good design is by the Generality of Ministers and others recommended to all that are desirous to mind their own Great Concern and to excite others to A Timely and thorough preparation for Death R. A. The Author hath two other Treatises viz. 1. The Best Match or the Souls espousal to Christ 2. A Beam of the Divine Glory or the unchangeableness of God opened THE Great Concern OR A PREPARATION FOR DEATH Psalm 39.13 O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more CHAP. 1. Which contains an Introduction and an Explication of the Words of the Text with the General truth of them and therein the foundation of our intended Discourse TO walk with God here on earth while we live and to be ready to live with God for ever in Heaven when we come to die is the Great Work we have to do the Great Concern we have to mind in our present Pilgrimage To grow great and high in the World to build our Names and Families to live a life of sensual pleasures and delights spending our dayes in mirth these are low mean poor things things infinitely beneath the dignity of a soul and altogether unworthy of the least of its care and solicitude but to know God to love God to obey God to delight in God to contemplate the glorious excellencies and perfections of God to live upon God and to live to God upon him as our chief good and happiness and to him as our last end and withall to be found ready at last to live with him for ever to enter upon the beatifical Vision and to pass into that life of love and holiness which the Saints and Angels live above being made perfect in the Vision and Fruition of the God of Glory this is truly noble this is worthy of the care and solicitude of Souls to promote these things and more especially the latter is my design in fixing my Meditations on this Scripture which I am the rather induced to do because I am apprehensive that the time of my going hence when I shal be seen no more is drawing very nigh The words are a holy and pathetical wish and desire breathed out into the bosom of God by the man after his own heart and that when under sore and heavy afflictions under grievous sickness say some under great straits and distresses by reason of Absolon's rebellion and conspiracy against him say others In this wish or desire of his you may note three things 1. What that is which he wisheth for or desires of God and that is sparing mercy O spare me 2. The end of this wish or desire of his and that is the recovery of strength O spare me that I may recover strength 3. The ground or motive which induced him to make
solace and satisfie them as that there shall not be room for the least tittle or iota of a desire for ever yea such sights and enjoyments as shall so satisfie them as to leave them under an utter impossibility of ever turning aside from them to any thing else and so an eternal impossibility of sinning Oh how sweet must this be and indeed the School-men I find and others from them give this as one reason why the Saints in heaven are impeccable because the sight and enjoyment they have of God there is so full and satisfying as that they cannot turn aside to any thing else O welcom death that brings us to those sights those enjoyments of God the Chief Good Once more 7. Death when ever it comes will bring you to and set you down in the enjoyment of an eternal Sabbath and oh how sweet is this There remaineth a Rest the word is a Sabbath or Sabbatism to the people of God Heb. 4.9 Ay but when shall they enjoy it why truly when death comes that will enter them upon it immediately upon the night of death dawns the eternal Sabbath True the Saints enjoy a Sabbath here and the Sabbath to them is the sweetest and amiablest day in all the week 't is a day of joy and holy feasting to their souls and oh how many times do your souls long for it but alas these Sabbaths have an end but the Sabbath death will set them down in will be an eternal Sabbath and an eternal Sabbath wherein they shall be employed in the highest acts of worship and adoration even Love Praise Admiration and Halleluja's for ever wherein there will be no weariness no faintness wherein there shall be no intermission no going to duties and break off again as here we do but an whole Eternity shall be imployed in acts of Divine Worship and Adoration wherein there shall be no deadness no dulness no spiritual indispositions no unsuitableness in us to those high and holy Exercises which this Sabbath will be fill'd with but our souls shall be perfectly suited to and fitted for those glorious employs wherein not a few only and those some Saints and some sinners some good and some bad shall joyn together in acts of worship but an innumerable company both of Saints and Angels and these all perfectly holy Heb. 12.22 23 24. Oh how sweet and glorious will this be 'T is a great saying which I have read in a worthy Divine Sabbaths here are comfortable says he and we have tasted some sweet some comfort in some Sabbaths but take all the comfort that ever you had in all the Sabbaths you have enjoyed here and all will be nothing to the comforts and sweetness of the Eternal Sabbath Alas the perpetual Sabbath that shall be hereafter that will be the accomplishment of all these Sabbaths how sweet then must that be Oh ye Saints of God lift up your heads death will set you down in this Sabbath How have some of us longed sometimes for the coming of the Sabbath and how have we grieved when it has been gone well but when death comes that will bring you to a Sabbath that shall never end 'T is a sweet saying of Austin There says he speaking of Heaven is the great Sabbath a Sabbath that hath no evening no end in which we shall rest and behold behold and love love and praise for ever Oh blessed be God for this Sabbath and blessed be God that death when it comes shall bring us to this Sabbath Well then fear not death dread not death but be found diligent and faithful in the use of the helps prescribed for the preparing of your souls for it and then 't will greatly befriend you when ever it comes and you may exult and rejoyce in it I should now conclude but I must first beg all that read this plain Discourse deeply and frequently to consider and contemplate these things 1. Every day seriously consider and contemplate the exceeding worth of your souls and the great things they are capable of 't is sad to think what low thoughts the most of men have of their souls they are content to sell their souls to lose their souls to damn their souls and all for a lust for a little of this world a little carnal sensual pleasure and delight here which is but for a moment That rebuke which Austin gave one is due to the most How comes it to pass says he that among all thy good things thou wilt let nothing be in an ill case but thy self thy Soul Truly the most of men are solicitous to have all well but their Souls they will have it go well with their Bodies their Names their Estates their Families but their Souls they mind not But my Beloved I beseech you think deeply and frequently of the worth of your souls and the concerns of them O 't is your soul that is your principal part Christ who best knew the worth of souls tells you that the whole World is nothing to one soul and that the gain of the one can't recompence the loss of the other no not in the least Mat. 16.26 and you know what a price he was pleased to pay for souls even his own Blood his precious Blood Life and all 1 Pet. 1.19 Besides there are two things which speak the soul to be a thing of unspeakable worth and value its vast capacity and its absolute immortality 1. The capacity of the soul speaks its worth Oh what great things is the soul of man capable of there is a kind of infiniteness as a worthy Divine observes in the soul of man 't is capable of even an infinite happiness or an infinite misery 't is capable of eternal life or eternal death 't is capable of unconceivable communications both of love and wrath and must one day be fill'd with the one or the other of them 't is capable of knowing God of bearing his Image of enjoying glorious communion with him yea of living Gods own life and in a participation of his own blessedness look whatever the Angels enjoy look whatever the humane soul of Christ enjoys that thy soul is capable of the enjoyment of Sinner O how precious does this speak it to be and how great should thy concern be for it while day and season lasts contemplate it therefore a little and say O how precious is my soul and what great things is it capable of and it being so why do I take up in such low poor dungy drossy things as the best of sin and this world are 2dly The immortality of the soul argues its worth the soul that never dies 't is indeed but as it were a spark a beam of God's own immortality breathed into the body at least there is a stamp and impress thereof upon it the body that dies that returns to dust but the soul that lives that goes to God Eccles 12.7 As the mortality of the body as a Learned man
terrible as the wit and malice of men can possibly make it He can converse with his last enemy as one that hath lost his sting and power and so without the least fear or dismayedness of spirit None of these things move me sayes Paul neither count I my life dear unto my self that I may finish my course with joy His Afflictions did not move him did not terrifie him but if death should come what then Why that shall be welcom too saith he Acts 20.24 Who is afraid of a conquered enemy an enemy which a man seeth dead and slain in the field One that has all things ready for a dying hour he sees death to be a conquered enemy an enemy conquered by the death of Christ and so is carried above the fear of it 2. Hereby the soul is inabled in a holy manner to triumph over death and even to scorn and contemn it which is an higher Conquest still A man that has all things set right and well ordered in the matters of his soul he is not only carried above the fear of death but he rides in triumph over it as one that divideth the spoil He can with boldness and comfort challenge this last Enemy of his and even dare it to do its worst to him O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory saith the Apostle The sting of death is sin the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. As if he should say Death you talk of a Sting but where is it Grave you would threaten us with Victory and overthrow but do your worst conquer us if you can As a man that has disarmed his Enemy thrown him upon his back sayes to him O Sir where is your Sword Where is your Pistol Where is the execution you threatned Do your worst 3. Hereby the Soul comes to be able solemnly to choose and desire Death yea to exult and rejoyce in Death as that which of an Enemy is become a Friend and an in-let into all happiness to him So 2 Cor. 5.5 6 8. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who hath also so given unto us the earnest of his Spirit Therefore we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So Phil. 1.22 23. But if I live in the flesh this is the fruit of my Labour yet what I shall choose I wot not for I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Mark he desires Death he chooses Death as that which is a Friend to him and an in-let into his happiness Such an one can say as I have read a German Divine did when dying I am ready sayes he and desire to be gone out of this life in which all things are not only full of miseries and calamities but which is to be lamented all things are full fraught with sins I say I desire to pass into that life in which there is no sin no misery Yea more such an one can exult and rejoyce in death Luke 2.29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation They are words of joy and exultation in the sight of Death's approach The Child of some tender and indulgent Father being abroad at sojourn and seeing a Messenger come from his Father to fetch him home how does he exult and rejoyce O sayes he my Father has sent for me home now I must go to live with my Father to eat and drink at my Father's Table to live in my Father's presence enjoy my Father's love and counsels and this he rejoyces in and exultingly embraces the Messenger 'T is the very case here the soul having all things ready all things set right within when Death comes 't is but as a Messenger to him to fetch him home to his Father's house which he can welcome and embrace with joy O sayes he my Father has sent for me home home to Heaven there to live immediately in his presence and upon his fulness and now I shall be for ever with my Father now I shall for ever feast my Soul with my Father's love and the constant views of my Father's face now I shall see him face to face whom here I could never see but through a glass darkly now I shall see and be for ever in the embraces of my sweet Lord my Lord that bled for me that died for that trod the Wine-press alone for me Now shall I enter into the glorious liberty of the Children of God I have hitherto been in bondage in bondage to Satan in bondage to my own heart which has all along wretchedly imposed upon me but now I shall enter upon the glorious liberty of the Children of God Now I shall partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in light Now I shall bathe my soul in the Chrystal streams of undefiled pleasures running fresh along the banks of Eternity at my Father's right hand Now I shall spend a whole Eternity in Praises Doxologies and Hallelujah's to God and the Lamb Now I shall have all my spots and wrinkles my sins and sorrows done away at once Now shall I sigh no more and which is infinitely better I shall sin no more for ever no more complain of dark visions and short visits from God no more complain of distances and alienation between him and my Soul for ever There shall be no more interruption of communion with my sweet Saviour but I shall stand in his presence and behold his face for evermore In a word hereby death the King of Terrors becomes the King of Comforts to the Soul and a man comes to die both happily and comfortably Some men die neither happily nor comfortably and such is the case of all who die out of Christ they die in their sins they die to be damned for ever Some die happily but not comfortably such is the case of poor Christians dying under dissertion whose Sun sets in a Cloud they die in the dark not knowing what shall become of their Souls to Eternity which yet go safe to Heaven being built upon the Rock of Ages the Lord Jesus Christ Some die both happily and comfortably such is the case of all those who have all things set right between God and them all things ready and in order before a dying hour comes Some die presumptuously thinking all is right and well in the matters of their souls when indeed nothing is so that is sad for Eternity The Lord deliver your souls and mine from such an Exit Some die tremblingly or doubtingly not knowing how things are with them whether well or ill but they fear ill that
is sad at least for time the Lord carry us above such an Exit Some viz. well ordered souls die fiducially knowing things to be right between God and them and that is comfortable both for time and eternity Well then if hereby we come to have such a glorious Victory over Death and the Grave it must then be a great attainment to have all things in order between God and us and consequently greatly our concern to have things so 2. Hereby we come to have a rich and glorious entrance ministred to us into everlasting life and glory into Heaven and blessedness As hereby we come to be glorious Conquerours over the natural death so hereby we come to have a rich and glorious entrance ministred to us into the eternal life which also carries much sweetness and blessedness in it 2 Pet. 1.5.11 And besides this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge c. that is grow as compleat in Grace as possibly you can make sure of your salvation make all ready in the matters of your souls and what then So an entrance shall be ministred to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And is not this a blessed attainment Take this in three things 1. Hereby the soul comes to enjoy much of Heaven here upon earth much of blessedness and glory whilest on this side blessedness and glory then hath a man an abundant entrance ministred unto him into heaven and glory when he hath much of heaven and glory given out to him here on earth large earnest and first-fruits and this the soul has that hath all things right in the matters of his spiritual state all things ready and in order within Hence we read sometimes of the earnest sometimes of the first-fruits of the Spirit Eph. 1.14 Rom. 8.28 And the soul that is most ready has the greatest earnest and first-fruits that is to say the greatest beginnings of Heaven here upon earth For that which makes us ready for a dying hour is something of heaven dropped into the soul here 2. Hereby he comes to go triumphingly from Earth to Heaven to go to Heaven and Glory with a Crown upon his head and is not this a sweet attainment Then hath a man an abundant entrance into Heaven and Glory when he goes triumphingly thither When a man passes to heaven and glory with visions thereof in his eye and prelibations thereof in his soul with a clear witness and evidence in his Spirit that he is going to possess the fulness thereof with God and Christ for ever when a man enters into life without any rebukes from God or his own Conscience without any stumbling through doubting or unbelief This is the happiness of such as have all things well in their souls before a dying hour comes It is with such in death as it was with John in a Vision Rev. 4.1 They as it were hear a voice from Heaven saying Come up hither and immediately they are in the Spirit Some poor souls croud into Heaven through a throng of doubts and unbelief difficulties and despondencies through many fears and temptations insomuch that it might be truly said of them that they are searcely saved as the Apostle's expression is but others go through none of these they go triumphantly with a Crown upon their Heads as it were So Paul 2. Tim. 4.6 7 8. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not unto me only but to all them also that love his appearing Methinks I see how this holy soul went triumphingly to the Throne of God and the Lamb. When David and the house of Israel brought up the Arke of the Lord it was with shouting and with the sound of the Trumpet So when such a soul goes to rest 't is with a kind of shouting and triumph among the Saints themselves who all reach the same heaven and glory at last There is a very great deal of difference in their death and in their going to that heaven and glory As you know two Ships may arrive at the same Harbour yet with much difference as to the manner of their coming in The one makes a shift to get in but 't is with her Anchors lost her Sails rent her Flags down her Masts broken and the like but the other comes in bravely riding as 't were in triumph with her Sails spread her Anchors safe her flags flying her Trumpets sounding and her Mariners shouting So great a difference there is in the passing of Saints to Heaven and Blessedness Now what an attainment must it be to go with shouting and triumph 3. Hereby the soul comes to be admitted to and invested with an eminent fulness of Blessedness and Glory with God for ever Then has a man an abundant entrance into heaven and glory when he is admitted to and invested with an eminent fulness of glory and blessedness in heaven for ever and this he hath who has all right and ready in the concerns of his soul when he comes to die Such a one receives a full reward as the expression is 2 Epistle of John 8. and has much fruit abounding to his account Phil. 4.7 And O what a sweet and blessed attainment does this speak it to be to have all in order against a dying hour comes Now if it be such an attainment to have things set right and in order in our souls against a dying hour then surely it must needs be highly our concern to have all things so CHAP. IV. Which shews the state of men and women under death as a further evidence of our assertion AS to have all things ready and in order when a dying hour comes is an high and glorious attainment so such is the state and condition of men and women under death that it cannot but be highly their concern to have all things set right all things ready in the matters of their souls when they come to die This I will set before you in three Propositions First Proposition is this That such is the state and condition of men and women under death that there is no return for them into this life any more for ever When once a man's Sun is set it never rises more when once a man has his Exit is gone off the stage of this world he never enters more there is no more any part to be acted here by him this you have in the Text Before I go hence and be no more that is no more in this World So Job 7.7 8 9 10. O remember that my life is wind mine eyes shall no more see good The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more Thine eyes are upon me and
in the day of visitation and whither will you flee for help When death comes what will you do which way will you look will there be any hope any help any refuge for your souls to flee unto Alas there will be none Wilt thou then run to the mercies of God and cry Lord Lord Alas it will be in vain he will then say unto you Depart from me I know you not Mat. 25.11 12. Wilt thou then labour to get grace and pardon Alas it will be too late then the door will be shut against thee Mat. 25.10 Wilt thou then desire others to spare thee some of their Oyl Alas that will be a vain thing they will tell thee they have but enough for themselves Mat. 25.9 Wilt thou then plead thy gifts parts and services for Christ Alas it will be to no purpose unless thou hast done the main work notwithstanding all thy gifts and services he will send thee away with the workers of iniquity Mat. 7.22.23 Wilt thou call upon the Rocks and Mountains to cover thee and hide thee from the wrath of him that sits upon the Throne Alas it wil be in vain Rev. 6. latter end O sinner when thou shalt see thy self launching out into the great Ocean of Eternity and God shall as it were say to thee by the Mouth of thy own Conscience Well now time and days are at an end with you and will never dawn more what hast thou done for thy Soul What provision hast thou made for another world Is Christ thine hast thou gotten thy sins pardoned and the like When it shall be thus I say what wilt thou then do and whither wilt thou then look how wilt thou then cry out Undone undone I am lost for ever my day is ended and my work is still to do woe is me what a God a Christ a Heaven a Blessedness a Glory have I wilfully and foolishly lost truly thou and such as thou are the only persons whose death will be truly lamentable I remember a saying I have read in one of the Ancients They saith he are to be bewailed in their death whom the Devils drag away to the torments of the Infernal Pit not they whom the holy Angels do conduct to the joys of Paradise they are to be bewailed who after death are by the Devils turned into Hell and not they who by the Angels are placed or set down in Heaven O that these things might convince you of your folly and awaken your souls and that so as yet to know the things of your peace in your day and the time of your visitation CHAP. VI. Being a Call to all Good and Bad Saints and Sinners to address themselves to the great work of making all ready for a dying hour WHat is the language of all this Verily it calls aloud upon us all Good and Bad Saints and Sinners to make it our great business to set all things right in the matters of our souls and make all ready for a dying hour And O that we would make this improvement of this great truth and of God's sparing goodness to us he spares us and why does he spare us but that we should set all things right and make all things ready Oh that we would now fall in with the end and design of God herein making it our great care and business in time to provide for Eternity in life to make ready for death Some of you I verily believe are about this work and the Lord prosper you in it You know you were born for Eternity and you do endeavour to live for Eternity your great work in time is to make provision for a blessed Eternity O happy souls that you are Others of us and those by far the most I fear are utterly negligent in this business Death and Eternity are little minded by us but we are in a sleepy drowsie secure spirit and to such methinks this truth speaks in a language much like to that of the Ship Master to Jonaâ— Jon. 1.6 What meanest thou O sleeper Arise and call upon thy God if so be he will think on us that we perish not So what mean you O you sleepy drowsie secure souls arise make ready for a dying hour set all things right all things in order in your spiritual concernments lest death come upon you at unawares and you be lost for ever And to such of us I would say as sometimes God did by the Prophet to Hezekiah Isa 38.1 Set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live So say I to you set your hearts in order your spiritual concerns in order make all even between God and you for you shall shortly die and not live you shall shortly go hence and be no more and why should we not all do so if you be to change your condition in the world how careful and solicitous are you to have all things ready and in order for that change Why my Beloved you are shortly to pass under that great and last Change a Change from Time to Eternity and will you have no care no solicitude to make ready for that Change if you are to take a journey though but a few miles or to make a Voyage into a strange Land O how are you concerned to have all things ready all things in a prepared posture in order therreunto And my Beloved should not you be more concerned to make ready for your great journey your last and great Voyage you are making a journey a voyage out of Time into Eternity you are just launching sorth into the great Ocean And what nothing in order nothing ready nothing set right in order thereunto That is strange If you have some great business a business of more than ordinary importance to be done or a Suit at Law to be tryed and determined O how close do you follow it and how careful are you to have all things ready in order thereunto And my Beloved should you not be as careful and diligent to prepare and set all things right for the great business of your souls in another world Have you any business any concern of greater importance to you than the concern of your Souls and Eternity if you are to appear before some Earthly Judge especially if it be about a matter that concerns your life O how thoughtful are you to have all things ready and in order in reference thereunto And my Beloved should not you be as thoughtfull and solicitous to make all ready and to set all right in order to your appearing before the Judg of all the Earth and that about a matter which concerns the life of your souls about a matter of eternal life or death Well what shall I say will you set about this great business this great concern or is it all one with you whether you live or die are saved or damned to Eternity God yet spares you blessed be his Name Will you now set all right before you go
pursue Soul-work there is much contempt of Christ and Grace and this is that whieh makes it to be exceeding sinful Christ offers himself and his Grace to you he offers you life he offers you peace he offers you pardon he offers you righteousness he offers you strength he offers you all the treasures of heaven and withal calls upon you to accept these offers and to take home these things to your selves but you by your delays powre contempt upon all you in effect say neither Christ nor his grace neither Christ nor the purchase of his Blood are worth minding worth looking after Oh what contempt is this and what sin is this by delays you do in effect say there is something better than Christ and something of greater concernment to you than Salvation by Christ you plainly say that indeed you will have Christ hereafter and Salvation hereafter but for the present you had much rather have your lusts and worldiy pleasures Oh tremble at the thoughts of this and let it affright you out of your delays and put you immediately upon Soul-work In a word never any pretended that they minded the concerns of their souls union with Christ walking with God making sure their Calling and Election so soon many have repented that they have minded these things so late I remember a bitter complaint of Austin in his Book of Confessions I have loved thee too late saith he O thou so ancient and yet so new a beauty I have loved thee too late He bewails that he had so long laid out his love upon the creature and not given Christ his love could you ask all the Saints in Heaven whether ever they repented that they minded the work of Christ and their souls so soon they would tell you no they repented of nothing but that they minded it so late once more therefore let me call upon you to fall immediately upon Soulwork and never rest till thy heart cries out to God as Austin did when God had really shewed him himself and made him sensible of his sins when God saith he had shewed me my sin and misery there arose a great storm within me which carried with it a great showr of tears and indeed I let loose the reins to tears crying out to God in such words as these O Lord how long how long wilt thou be angry how long shall it be said to morrow and to morrow wherefore may it not be now why may there not an end be put to my sin and filthiness this very hour And indeed God made that very season the season of his Conversion So labour to see thy sin and misery so far as that thou maist cry out with a holy restlesness to God how long shall it be to morrow and to morrow why may I not be turned to thee now why may not my soul be engaged in the work of Heaven and Eternity now Fifthly would you indeed set all right in your souls and make all ready for a dying hour then be much and importunate with God in prayer to teach you so to number your days as to apply your hearts to wisdom This I ground upon Psal 90.12 where Moses the man of God is found in this practise Lord saith he teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom To number our days is not to number them in an Arithmetical but a spiritual way it is not to cast up how many days the life of man consists of that is easily done but it is spiritually and practically to consider and lay to heart the shortness and uncertainty of our lives together with the various miseries and calamities that do attend them So Mollerus It is seriously and fiducially to contemplate the vanity of life as short and uncertain and as attended with sorrows miseries and innumerable troubles and to apply the heart to wisdom 't is to make Religion and the work of a man's soul his main business it is to make it his great business and endeavour to get an interest in God and Christ in the Covenant of Grace and Eternal life and in time to provide for and make sure of a blessed Eternity it is to set a man's whole soul to the work of God and his own salvation Now as ever you would indeed make ready for a dying hour beg of God to teach you thus to number your days and thus to apply your hearts to wisdom There are two things I would observe and so close this First That such a numbring of our days is what the best of Saints need and may make great use of Moses was a very holy man and yet he looked upon it as a work useful and of great importance to him to contemplate the vanity of life and to think of the shortness and uncertainty of his abode here the most holy souls need this the most holy souls need humbling they need weaning from this world they need quickning unto duty they need to have their hearts awakened to mind heaven and a future life and the right numbring of our days is that which greatly conduceth hereunto Secondly observe that as this is a work needful and useful for the best of Saints to be employed in so it is a work above their own strength and that which they need Divine Assistance to enable them unto Moses was an eminently holy man and yet as he saw he had need of this so he saw it was a work above his power and therefore he goes to God and puts in himself among the rest and prays for his teachings herein let us do 〈◊〉 let us lye much at the foot of 〈…〉 his teachings whereby we may be enabled so to number our days as thus to apply our hearts unto wisdom beg him to make us see the vanity and uncertainty of our lives and that so as effectually to engage us to make out after a better life CHAP. VIII Wherein more particular helps and directions are laid down in order to the setting of things right and making all ready for a dying hour BUt I would come nearer this great business and give you some more particular directions in order to your making all ready for a dying hour and First would you indeed have all things right in the matters of your souls for a dying hour then get into Christ get union with Christ and an interest in Christ by believing union with Christ and an interest in Christ is most requisite and necessary to fit and prepare us for a dying hour and without it we have we can have nothing set right nothing in order nothing in readiness for that hour You know how the Scripture speaks He that hath the Son hath life but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 and there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 O my beloved we shall live or die be saved or damned for ever according as we do or do
not get union with Christ and an interest in Christ This is what lies at the bottom and foundation of all of all our hopes of all our mercies of all our comforts of all our acceptation and communion with God of all Grace on Earth and of all Glory in Heaven and without it whatsoever our attainments in Religion are whatever our Profession may be whatever place or esteem we may have to the Church of God though never so raised and eminent yet we have nothing that will avail us in a dying hour I remember a saying of a learned man That thou maist live in death saith he get into Christ implant thy self into Christ by believing Faith joyns and unites us to Christ and they that are in Christ cannot die for Christ is their life And indeed if we have union with Christ he will be life in death it self to us Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord that is die having union with Christ being implanted into Christ Rev. 14.13 If we have union with Christ he will not be only life in death to us but he will even turn death it self into life the King of Terrors into a King of Comforts insomuch that the soul shall be able to triumph over it as the Apostle doth 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. whereas without this without union with Christ and an interest in Christ we shall never be able to look death in the face with comfort but shall when we come to die be some of the miserablest spectacles in the world It is the speech of a worthy Divine who is long since gone hence A Christless dying man or woman says he is one of the saddest spectacles in the world For a man to be dying and not Christless that is comfortable for such an one dies but to live for ever he dies the death of Nature to live the life of Glory for a man to be Christless and not dying is something tolerable for who knows but that the next meeting at an Ordinance may be the time of God's love to him of drawing him into Christ but for a man to be dying and Christless Christless and dying too that is intolerable that is terrible indeed for such an one dies to be damned and he is going off from all hopes and possibilities of mercy for ever Oh therefore above all press after union with Christ and an interest in Christ this was Pauls great care and solicitude to the very last that so he might go off the Stage with comfort and that for which he accounted all things but dung as most base and vile Phil. 3.8 9. O Soul didst thou indeed know and consider of how much weight and importance an interest in Christ is to thee with reference to thine eternal happiness thou would cry out as eagerly for Christ as ever Rachel did for children saying Give me Christ or else I die give me union with Christ and an interest in Christ or I am undone eternally Oh look to the great uniting act of Faith make a right choice of Christ chuse him as your Lord and Head your King and Saviour and renew your choice of him every day resigning up your selves entirely to him to be saved and governed by him in his own way Secondly Would you indeed have all set right and made ready in the matters of your souls for a dying hour then press after a firm and unshaken assurance of an interest in God and his love and of your right and title to eternal life of another and a better life than this is here without some good evidence for Heaven and some well-grounded assurance of an interest in God and Eternal Life things are not ready with us nor are we in such a preparedness for a dying hour as we ought to be though a man hath an interest in God and his love though he hath a right and title to eternal life and happiness yet as long as he is in the dark and at an uncertainty in his own soul about it things are out of order with him and he is greatly unready for a dying hour For pray mark as our interest in this is requisite to our dying happily so the sight and assurance of that interest is requisite to our dying comfortably Indeed when a man hath attained to some good evidence for heaven to some well-grounded assurance of his interest in God and Christ then are things in a good posture with him in reference to a dying hour then he can play with Death and triumph over it as Job did when he could say I know that my Redeemer liveth Job 19.25 26. And as the Apostle seems to speak of it 2 Cor. 5.12 We know that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven None of you do comfortably leave your house unless you have another to go unto much less can you comfortably quit this world unless you have some well-grounded assurance of another and a better life Take a man that is in the dark and at a loss as to his interest in God and Christ and he knows not what Death will do to him nor where it will lodge him whether in heaven or in hell whether upon the Throne of Glory or in the Prison of eternal Darkness in the Bosom of Christs love or under the Revelations of his infinite and eternal wrath and is such a one ready for a dying hour Surely no As ever therefore you would have things right and ready within indeed for a dying hour you must press after an assurance of your interest in God and Christ you must do as the Apostle exhorts give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 You must every day prest after a fuller and firmer assurance as to your eternal interest you must be much in faith much in prayer much in examining your evidences much in proving your state much in looking after the seal and evidence of the blessed Spirit which is indeed all in all and never rest till you can say My Lord and my God my Heaven my Glory God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever O then all will be sweet and well with you this is that which the Saints of old have laboured after with their whole might Say unto my soul saith David to God I am thy salvation Psal 35 3â— set me as a seal upon thy heart and as a seal upon thine arm Cant. 8.6 This Austin pressed much after Lord saith he tell me what thou art to me say unto my Soul I am thy salvation so say it that I may hear it behold the ears of my heart are before thee open them O Lord and say unto my Soul I am thy Salvation O my Beloved this is worth pressing after for this is the
welcomest news a poor soul can possibly hear to be told that God is his and Heaven is his and Eternal Life is his and when once this news is come then welcom life and welcom death welcom time and welcom eternity then the Soul can say O sweet Eternity O blessed Eternity O Sirs be not satisfied without some good assurance of Gods love to your souls and your right and title to heaven and eternal life yea without the fullest assurance that is attainable here for know that there are degrees in Assurance it self the Scripture mentions three degrees of assurance First there is assurance The work of righteousness is peace and the fruit of righteousness is assurance for ever Isa 32.17 and give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure as in the place before quoted Secondly there is much assurance Our Gospel came unto you not in word only but in power and in the demonstration of the Spirit and much assurance 1 Thes 1.5 Thirdly there is a full assurance We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end Heb. 6.11 Now my Beloved I would not have you satisfied without assurance without much assurance yea without a full assurance the more full your assurance is the more chearfully joyfully and triumphingly will you die Thirdly Would you indeed have all all right all in order in the matters of your souls for a dying hour then labour to maintain a constant actual peace with God every day making even with him and renewing the sense of his pardoning love in your souls as a firm union with Christ and a well-grounded assurance of an interest in God and eternal Life so also an actual peace with God and a daily renewed pardon from him is requisite to a thorough readiness and preparedness for a dying hour David had an interest in God yea and his interest was clear to him yet how sollicitous was he to get all even between God and him and how uncomfortable was it with him till he had renewed his peace with God when by his fall it had been broken Psal 51.8 12. This also is what is evidently held forth Job 7.21 where Job pleads thus with God Why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity and take away my transgression for now shall I sleep in the dust thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be In the verse before he acknowledged he had sinned and here he intimates that God frowned on him for his sin the sense of pardoning love was not renewed in his soul which here therefore he pleads for and that upon this account because he was speedily to die intimating he could not die with comfort till he had a renewed sense of Gods pardoning love And this is the very thing which David begs in the Psalm of my Text in order to his comfortable going hence viz. that God would take away his transgressions Psal 39.8 As long as there is any sin any guilt lying upon our Consciences any sin unpardoned any difference between God and us any frowns in his face towards us we are unready for death and cannot with that comfort and boldness of spirit welcom it as we ought but when our peace with God is maintained and we have a renewed sense of his pardoning love in our souls then are things right and in order with us indeed deed and we may think of death with boldness and comfort and therefore mind this as ever you would be found ready for a dying hour every day even things between God and you every day get a fresh sense of pardon from him First as near as possible may be do nothing that may occasion any breach between God and you or raise any frowns in his face towards you if you do not break with God he will not break with you all breaches as to peace and friendship between God and us begin on our part yea neither will God break with us for little things in case they be not allowed by us but watched and striven against therefore as near as possibly you can do nothing to break and interrupt your peace with God for one moment And because when you have done all many things may and will fall out we having sinful sinning hearts and living in a world of snares and temptations for which God may justly frown upon us let us Secondly every day make even with him in the close of every day let us consider wherein we have broken with God come short of duty given any grief any distaste to his Holy Spirit and by Faith and Prayer let us sue out the pardon of it and let us not lie down if possible without some intimation of his pardoning love for which end First We should act Faith on the Blood and Advocateship of Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for remission of sins Rom. 3.24 25. And indeed Christ hath set up a Standing Office in Heaven which we may call the Pardon-Office he procureth new Pardons for his People daily under their new sins We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Have daily recourse to the Blood of Christ truly without it there is no living the best the holiest on earth have daily need of his Blood and should have daily recourse unto it for the maintaining of their peace and for the renewing of Gods pardoning love in their souls Secondly We should be humbly and earnestly importunate with God in prayer resolving not to let him go without this blessing carrying upon our spirits the sense of the worth and also of our unworthiness of it Thus the holy men of God of old have done they have sued out the pardon of their sins by Faith and Prayer and gotten a fresh sense of Gods love when they have broken with him as I might instance in Job in David and others we should every day pray as that Father did O Lord saith he do not after the manner of a Judge weigh or consider what I have done what I have spoken what I have thought but blot out all my sins with thy own Blood And as another of them did Lord saith he there is that in me which may offend thy holy eyes I know and confess it but who shall cleanse me or to whom shall I fly for relief but to thee O hide not thy face from me Truly when we have walked most watchfully most circumspectly many things may and will fall out that may offend the pure eyes of Gods Glory which we should confess and bewail before him suing out the pardon of them by the Blood of his Son Some of the Saints have made this their daily practise and so have maintained their peace for many years together and when they have come to die have gloricusly triumphed over Death
that happiness for ever Therefore if you would have all things right all things ready indeed for a dying hour then labour for the exactest purity and holiness that possibly you can This is that which the Apostle aims at and prays for on the behalf of the Thessalonians as most conducing to the preparing of them for their latter end 1 Thes 3.12 13. And the Lord make you to abound and increase in love one towards another and towards all men even as we do towards you to the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints The posture he would have them to be in at the coming of Christ is the posture of unblamable holiness which indeed is the best and readiest posture The same thing he prays for in order to the same end in 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ This is that also which that other Apostle injoyns in order hereunto 2 Pet. 3.14 Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless the more spotless and blameless we are in our spirits and ways the more ready we are for Death and Judgment O press after an eminency in holiness admitting of none no not the least taint or tincture of sin or sinful defilement upon any terms whatsoever unholy souls are unready souls they are unready for Death unready for Judgment unready for the future life and for men to talk of being ready for these and yet be unholy is the greatest folly in the world therefore labour for much purity and holiness First Labour for much purity and holiness in your lives and walkings this is what God indispensably calls for 1 Pet. 1.15 16. As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy We should press after universal holiness there should be a vein and tincture of holiness run through all we do even our Civil as well as our Religious actions we should as near as possibly be dedicated and devoted to God and our Lives should be lives of walking with him they and they onely who walk with God while they live are those who will be found ready to live with God when they come to die As for all careless licentious ones let them never talk of being ready for death and the future life for they are at an utter distance from any such thing indeed ready they are but for what ready for Hell ready for the wrath of God ready for destruction but they are not at all ready for a blessed Eternity The Apostle weeps over such as being indeed thus ready Phil. 3.18 19. Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Many there are who profess and hope well of themselves as to another life who yet are loose and carnal wicked and licentious in their lives and walkings they do not watch and keep their garments but wallow in the mire of their lusts and pollutions they stain their profession with foul gross and scandalous sins at least they live and allow themselves in some secret way and haunt of sinning indulging this and the other Lust But my Beloved these are far indeed from being ready for a dying hour and must expect to be cast off from God and Christ for ever Such were those Mat. 7.22 23. They came and cried Lord Lord came with their gifts parts and privileges but Christ sent them away with a depart from me ye workers of iniquity So in Jer. 7. and beginning we read of some that made profession of God and his ways and yet walked in sin and wallowed in all manner of abomination And what is the issue Verse the 15th saith God I will cast you out of my sight God will at last cast off all loose licentious walkers Psal 21.9 David prays thus Gather not my soul with sinners And truly if you would not be gathered with sinners at last you must not walk in sin with siners now and as for the Saints themselves so far as they let down their watch and neglect their walking with God so far as they give way to a loose vain heedless way of living so far they have things out of order with them and they are unready for a dying hour Behold I come as a Thief saith Christ blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame Rev. 16.15 So far as the Saints carry it unbecoming their high and holy Profession which is too too frequent with them so far they are short of that compleat readiness for Death and Eternity they should press after Secondly Labour for much purity and holiness in your hearts and affections we must be pure and holy within as well as without in our hearts and affctions as well as in our lives and walkings if we would have all right indeed for a dying hour Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place The answer is He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Psal 24.3 4. And Christ expresly tells us Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5.8 Indeed impure hearts are unfit to see God he is a pure and holy God nor may impure-hearted ones expect that blessed sight I remember a saying which I have read in one of the Ancients which I look upon to be a great saying Woe and alas O Lord saith he how preposterous is it how rash and unadvised how inordinate how remote from the rule of the Word of thy Truth and Wisdom for a man to desire to see God with an unclean heart Oh have a watchful eye upon your hearts and labour to keep them as free from any taint and tincture of sin as possibly you can First Be sure you suffer no lust to get up into the Throne where it is too too often found When sin is consented to by the Will the lust is on the Throne in the heart and indeed it is wonderful to think how soon one or another corruption will mount up into the Throne in the Soul if we let down our Watch but a little But oh take heed of this so far as any one lust whatsoever is predominant within us so far we are marvellous unready for a dying hour And not onely so but Secondly Watch narrowly against the very first risings and motions of sin within Nip Lust if possible in the very Bud and Blossom It is true this calls upon us to have a very curious eye upon our hearts
and indeed such an eye we should have upon them we must have upon them if we mean to be Christians indeed Grace will teach a man not onely to oppose the acts of sin and to watch against the reign of any heart-lust but also to oppose the very first motions and risings of sin in the Soul And the more you do this the better posture you are in for a dying hour CHAP. IX A further Direction in order to a compleat Preparation for Death to press after the noblest strains of Grace Several of these pointed at and insisted on as tending hereunto Sixthly WOuld you indeed have all ready and in order in your souls for a dying hour Then rest not in low and ordinary but aspire after the highest and noblest strains of Grace The better to understand this you must know that there are some higher and more noble strains of Grace than ordinary strains of Grace that carry a peculiar glory and excellency in them and do in an eminent manner delight the heart of God indeed every strain of Grace even the least and lowest has a beauty and glory in it and is a pleasure to Gods heart the least dram of godly sorrow the least holy awe of God and trembling at his Word the least breathing of love and desire towards him the least leaning upon him in a way of hope and dependance Oh it has a great glory in it and is a delight to Gods Soul The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 But my Beloved there are some more choice and eminent strains and actings of Grace that are above the ordinary rate and do peculiarly delight the heart of God and bring honour to him and the more you come up to these and live under the power of these the more ready posture you are in for a dying hour Grace is the beginning of Glory 'T is as a worthy Divine expresses it the infancy of Heaven and Glory and the higher it rises in us the nearer it comes to Glory and the more it fits us for it therefore I say rest not in low and ordinary but covet and press after the highest and noblest strains of Grace some of which I shall here set down and insist a little upon in order to this great end of being found under the exactest readiness for a dying hour The noble strains of Grace I would have you come up unto are these 1. For a man to be high and yet low high in worth and attainments but low in spirit low in his own thoughts and apprehensions of himself to be humble under high and great acquirements this is noble Grace 'T is said of Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he was high in worth but low in spirit he had great attainments but was very humble and lowly under all which is mentioned as a peculiar excellency in him and I remember a saying which I have read in one of the Ancients speaking of Hamility For a man to be humble says he in a low despicable abject condition this is no great matter but honourable humility that is to say for a man to be humble in an high and prosperous condition to be humble under eminent enjoyments this is a great thing a rare vertue indeed Oh for a man to be high in attainments high in gifts high in graces high in comforts high in services high in successes high in place and esteem among men and yet at the same time to be low in mind low in heart low in his esteems and apprehensions of himself this is an high and eminent strain of Grace this Paul excelled in and 't was his Crown and Glory he was a man of as high attainments and accomplishments as most that ever lived he was high in gifts high in graces high in comforts high in services high in successes high in all true worth and excellency and yet how low how humble in spirit was he how little in his own eyes and how vile in his own esteem You know how he speaks of himself The chief of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 less than the least of all Saints Ephes 3.8 I am the least of the Apostles not worthy to be called an Apostle 1 Cor. 15.9 I am nothing 2 Cor. 12.11 This also was a part of Christs Crown and Glory who ever so eminent in gifts and graces who ever abounded with such glorious endowments as he and yet who so meek so humble so lowly as he Learn of me says he for I am meek and lowly of heart Mat. 11.29 In a verse or two before he had told us that all things were delivered to him by the Father and yet here I am meek and lowly in heart He was humble under all his advancements and attainments Oh labour to be like him herein whatever your attainments are labour to be humble under them and that because he was so Blush O dust and ashes blush to think of being proud be ashamed to be proud God humbles himself and dost thou exalt thy self so one speaks And again elsewhere 'T is intolerable impudence says he that when Majesty empties and humbles it self a vile worm should swell and be blown up with pride O be humble whatever your attainments are the more humble you are the more precious you are in Gods sight for he hath respect unto the lowly but beholdeth the proud afar off Psal 138.6 yea he resisteth the proud he sets himself in battel array against the proud Jam. 4.6 Arrogate nothing to thy self of those things that are in thee but thy sins by so much the more precious thou art in Gods eyes by how much the more vile and despicable thou art in thy own eyes says Bernard And to say no more none more ready to die than the humble and lowly person none more unready than the proud and high-minded 2. For a man to be full and yet empty full of the enjoyments and yet empty of the love of the world for a man to enjoy an affluence of this worlds good a fulness of all creature comforts and contentments and yet to be dead to all and fit loose from all placing his whole happiness in God and Christ this is a choice a noble an excellent strain of Grace indeed We read of some and but of some in Scripture who under an affluence of outward enjoyments have been weaned from all and sate loose from all and have kept up their communion with God placing the whole rest and happiness of their Souls therein some such I say we read of in Scripture but truly there are but very few and indeed 't is both a rare and a difficult thing for a soul thus to do These things especially when enjoyed in the fulness of them are so apt to ingross the heart to themselves and to alienate it from God and communion with God that 't is indeed a very rare and difficult thing for a man under an affluence
Jerusalem was broken down and that the gates thereof were burnt with fire So verse 3. Now when I heard these words I sate down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven and in Chap. 2. beg his countenance 't is said was sad upon this account Oh this vvas rare Grace choice Grace no personal affliction yet deeply afflicted in and vvith the afflictions of the Church so deeply afflicted that all his personal comforts though great were nothing to him The like you find in Daniel Dan. 10.2 3. Oh labour to come up to this strain of Grace it may be things are well with you and you have all that heart can wish but if they are not so vvith the interest of Gods name and people you should be deeply afflicted for this in the midst of all your personal comforts and the more of this spirit is in you the more excellent your Grace is 5. For a man chearfully to submit to and acquiesce in the vvill of God when most sharp and severe upon his outward interest this is a noble strain of Grace When God shall exercise a man with rending tearing dispensations adding sorrow to sorrow to him breaking him with breach upon breach causing all his waves and his billows to go over him and yet then for him quietly to acquiesce in and chearfully to submit to what God does this is choice Grace such Grace was found in Aaron Lev. 10.3 God slew two of his Sons at once and the dipensation was attended with so many aggravating circumstances as made it almost unparallell'd not to be equall'd so terrible was it and yet under that great stroke Aaron held his peace he submitted freely and acquiesced chearfully the like was found in Job when God had broken him all to pieces he worships him and blesses his name Job 1.21 22. and this was eminent in Christ himself and was indeed his crown and glory Father not my will but thy will be done Mat. 26.39 he freely submits his will to the Fathers though he saw the Father coming forth against him in a most terrible dispensation O for a poor soul to lie down at the foot of God and to be so melted into his will as chearfully to bow to it and acquiesce in it under the sharpest dispensations this is noble Grace indeed Oh press after this this is very necessary to prepare us for a dying hour and the more of this the more ready for that hour 6. For a man to maintain the actings of his Faith in God and to think honourably of him when yet he frowns and all things seem to make against the soul this is a noble strain of Grace Such Grace was found in Abraham who 't is said against hope believed in hope and so was strong in faith Rom. 4.18 19 20. when he had no encouragement yea when all things opposed him yet then he maintained his faith in God So Job chap. 13.15 though he slay me yet will I trust in him O to love a smiting God and to trust in a slaying God this is noble Grace for a man to maintain the actings of his Faith in God when he comes forth as an enemy against him this God calls for he expects that when we walk in darkness and see no light then we should trust in the name of the Lord and so to do is noble Grace Isa 50.10 11. truly 't is oftentimes the case of Gods people that they walk in darkness and see no light all things seem to be against them Possibly God frowns and afflicts he frowns within and he afflicts without yea the poor soul sees nothing but difficulties and discouragements look which way he will he looks into his own heart and there he cannot find any one grace or gracious disposition he looks into the Word and there perhaps he can't see any one Promise that he dares lay hold upon he looks back for former experiences and they are all out of sight he runs to his evidences and they are all blotted that he can't read them Thus he is beset vvith difficulties and all things seem to make against him both vvithin and vvithout and yet now vvhen thus in the dark for the soul to believe in God and think vvell and honourably of him this is noble Grace indeed this is Faith in lustre to call Christ Lord vvhen he calls us Dog and to fasten by Faith upon him vvhen he is beating us off as to sense at least as 't was with the vvoman Mat. 15.26 27 28. this is glorious Grace for a man to think vvell and hope vvell and believe vvell in the face of frowns and discouragements for a man when God is frowning and smiting cordially to say This is but for a time he will smile again he is but behind the Curtain and will appear again his desire is not to ruine me but refine me he is but making me to prize his Grace and presence more there is love in all this O for a man to believe that there is love in Gods heart when he sees nothing but frowns in his face and meets with nothing hardly but blows from his hand for a man to believe that God intends nothing but good when he inflicts variety of evils surely this is glorious Grace O that you would labour for such Grace such Grace will look death in the face with boldness 'T is a great speech which holy Rutherford hath I lay inhibitions on my thoughts says he that they receive no slanders of my onely onely beloved let him even say out of his own mouth there is no hope yet I will die in that sweet beguile it is not so but I shall see the salvation of God it is my joy to believe under the water and to die with faith in my hand griping of Christ Beg such Grace of God 7. For a man to see a beauty and excellency in service as well as in enjoyment in work as well as in reward and accordingly to have his heart lie in it this also is noble Grace Sirs there is a beauty and excellency in service for a man to be used and employ'd for God and to act for him in the world is the highest honour and excellency next to union and communion with him that can be put upon a poor creature 't was the honour of Christ it is the honour of Angels service is better than enjoyment 't is a more blessed thing to give than to receive Acts 20.35 now when a soul has answerable thoughts and apprehensions about it does practically and indeed see a beauty and excellency in service for God and accordingly is active for him willing to be employed by him and that though he has no reward at present from him this is noble Grace This was found in Paul Vnto me says he is this grace given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes 3.8 he look'd on 't as an honour a favour to be
converse and communion with God in such ways as are suitable to this present state and the highest happiness souls are capable of eternally in heaven is to live in the Divine presence and to see Gods face continually and to lodge for ever in the bosom of his love we may run out to a thousand things and when we have done all this will be the highest and indeed the only happiness of souls viz. to converse with God and to enjoy communion with God and they that miss of this will miss of all happiness for ever accordingly we should prize it and press after it we should account all things as nothing on this side God and communion with God in Christ the Saints of old have done so Many saith David will say who will shew us any good but Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Psal 4.6 as if he should say While others are seeking their happiness from carnal and earthly enjoyments Corn Wine and Oyl the happiness we desire is thy love thy favour the beamings out of the light of thy countenance upon our souls So Psal 39.7 Now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee I have done with the streams as if he should say and I desire to cleave wholly to the fountain I have done with the creatures of which I have formerly been too fond and I would now take up my whole rest solace and satisfaction in thy self alone and also Psal 73.25 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth I desire in comparison of thee my heart and my flesh faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever The same spirit dwelt and acted in Austin All fulness and plenty says he which is not my God is want and poverty And again elsewhere Thou Lord art my God my happiness and unto thee and after thee do I breathe and suspire day and night O my Beloved did we indeed prize communion with God more we should live more in communion with him and this take for a certain truth that it will never be well with us indeed till we see all in God and account we enjoy all happiness in enjoying communion with him Secondly In the close of every day take a serious view of and diligently consider what hath passed between God and you what transactions there have been between God and your souls that day there doth not a day pass wherein there do not many things pass between God and his people and he that wouuld prevent distances and estrangements between God and him should seriously ponder and lay to heart vvhat hath passed between God and his soul vvhat tranfactions there hath been between God and him that day On the one hand ponder and consider vvhat hath passed from God to you and vvhat his carriage towards you hath been vvhat approaches he hath made to you vvhat intimations of love vvhat overtures of communion vvhat discoveries of himself and his glory how far and in vvhat vvay God hath been dealing vvith your spirits convincing enlightning quickening or comforting of them vvhat calls he hath given you vvhat myrrhe he hath dropped upon the handle of the Lock what tastes you have had of his sweetness and Grace vvhat holy impressions he hath made upon you and the like On the other hand ponder and consider what hath passed from you to God and what your carriages towards him have been what reception and entertainment you have given him making his approaches to you what value you have put upon his presence and the intimations of his love how far you have embraced and improved the overtures he made you of farther communion with him what awe there hath been upon you of his holiness and his all-seeing eye what out-goings of heart there have been found within you after him what breathings of love what holy longings and desires what springings and workings of spiritual joy and delight of soul to him and in him what place he hath had in your thoughts and contemplations how far you have lived to him and upon him wherein you may have either grieved or delighted his Spirit and the like Thus in the close of every day ponder and consider what hath passed between God and you and accordingly deport demean your selves before him wherein you have failed or been defective in any thing in order to keeping up communion between God and you be humbled and set all right by Faith and Prayer adore God in his acts of Grace and Condescension as to be sure you will find cause to do and loath your selves for any acts of sin or unkindness undutifulness or disrespect that you have been guilty of towards God O this would be a blessed course indeed to prevent distances and estrangements between God and you This David calls a communing with his own heart and enjoyns it as a duty of the highest importance Stand in awe and sin not commune with your hearts and be still Psal 4.4 it is what he lived in the practice of Psalm 77.6 if he were the Author of that Psalm I communed with my own heart and my Spirit made diligent search O be punctual in this work Thirdly Be much conversant and that with all spiritual diligence in the ways and duties of Communion those ways and duties wherein God is wont to meet his people and maintain converse and communion with them and in all of them wait for God and his approaches to you there are those which we may call ways and duties of communion ways and duties wherein God and his people do hold converse with each other wherein God visits and communicates himself unto his people and wherein his people may be said to visit God and make out after God and these are the use of the Word and Sacraments the exercise of Prayer Meditation Self-examination and the like now as ever you would prevent the growing up of distances and estrangements between God and you see that you are much conversant in these and that with a holy and spiritual diligence waiting for God and the manifestations of God to your souls in them these are the galleries wherein Christ and his People do take sweet turns together the green beds wherein they lie down in the bosom of each others love therefore keep up a constant and diligent attendance on God in these and in all your attendances on him look after converse with him let it be your solemn aim to converse with him and see his face to have a visit a smile a descent of love from him I do suppose you to be such as do and will attend on publick Ordinances and wait for God there as they waited for the Spirit at Jerusalem that only then which I would press you to in this present case shall be to be much conversant in Prayer and Meditation between God and your own souls in these two great duties of communion with God secret
seen while God looks upon us as cloathed with the righteousness of his Son and we by faith do live upon that righteousness as the sole matter of our Justification and acceptation with him and let me tell you the more clear and distinct the actings of our Faith are in carrying us out of our selves and all self-righteousness and relying wholly on Christ and his righteousness the more ready and comfortable posture we are in for a dying hour This was the great thing Paul coveted and pressed after to the very last and which he accounted all things but dung for Phil. 3.8 9. I count all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is by the Law but the righteousness of Faith the righteousness which is of God by Faith He dreaded the thoughts of being found in any thing of his own he trembled to think of standing upon his own bottom the bottom of his own worth and righteousness when he should come to die and he cleaved intirely unto and relied wholly upon Christ and his most perfect righteousness Oh let me tell you Paul had as much and perhaps more to have rested upon than ten thousand of us for gifts for graces for privileges for services for successes for sufferings for Christ he went beyond any meer man that ever lived and Chrysostom observes of him That he feared nothing but sin to displease God and to dishonour him was the onely thing that was terrible to him and the Scripture gives a large and frequent account of his other attainments but still he goeth out of all and his language is None but Christ none but Christ not but that also he presseth after the greatest eminency and exactness in holiness as you find in the following Verses of this third to the Philippians and indeed this is the true Spirit of the Gospel to press after the greatest eminency and exactness in holiness to covet to attain if possible unto Angelical holiness and yet under and after all to live singly and entirely on a naked Christ and his righteousness for justification and acceptation with God and the more you come to and live in this Spirit the more ready you are for Death and a blessed Eternity this was a great part of the ground of the Churches rejoycing Isa 61.10 I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath cloathed me with the Garments of Salvation and hath covered me with a Robe of Righteousness which Chrysostom and others both Ancient and Modern interpret of the Righteousness of Christ and indeed no greater ground of rejoycing to a man or woman whether living or dying than to be cloathed with the Robe of the Righteousness of Christ I shall only put you in mind of a saying I have heard from a holy man the day before he died My Friends saith he speaking to my self and others I have walked with God these thirty years and have enjoyed a good measure of the assurance of his love but now that I am come to die I do not place my comfort on any of all these but on the infinite satisfaction of Jesus Christ Oh there there when we have done all we must lay the weight and stress of our Souls Comfort Salvation and all and therefore be sure you live out of your selves upon Christ It is a great saying Luther hath to this purpose Lord Jesus saith he thou art my righteousness and I am thy sin thou tookest mine meaning his sin and thou gavest me thine meaning his righteousness thou tookst that which thou wast not and thou gavest me that which I was not intending the exchange that Christ had made with him giving him his righteousness for his sin Oh let this be the language of our souls to Christ so shall we be sound ready when a dying hour comes Tenthly Would you indeed die with comfort then beg God to stand by you and give you actual Grace in a dying hour and make it one of your great works to treasure up many Prayers for this before-hand When you have done all should God withdraw his presence and the influences of his Grace and Love from you when you come to die Death would be in a great measure uncomfortable to you but if God will be with you if God will stand by you if he will vouchsafe you the influences and communications of his Grace in a dying hour then how will your souls triumph over death this indeed will sweeten death they are great words of David in Psal 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me having the presence of God with him he was not he would not be afraid even in the very valley of the shadow of death truly without the presence of God we cannot live comfortably whatsoever our attainments in Grace have been yet if God withdraw his presence from us we can do nothing we can bear nothing we cannot perform the least duty we cannot resist the least temptation we cannot grapple with the least corruption nor carry through as we ought the least difficulty much less shall we be able to die with comfort if God withdraw therefore I say beg God to stand by you in a dying hour Let it be your daily prayer to God First That he would be with you in the difficulties of life Secondly That he would not leave you in the conflicts and agonies of death And indeed we should not pass that day wherein we do not treasure up one prayer for this before-hand and thus doing God will not leave us God will not fail us in that last and great difficulty at least he will not leave us in point of Grace our Lord himself was left in the agonies of death by the Father in point of comfort which put him to that out-cry Why hast thou forsaken me but he was not left by him in point of Grace still a Spirit of Faith and Holiness acted him and therefore though forsaken he cries out My God my God if possibly in conformity to our Head we should be left in that hour in point of comfort yet if we carry our selves as we ought we shall not be left in point of Grace and if we be not left in point of Grace all will do well though not so sweet and joyous with us as otherwise it would be And thus I have given you these more particular directions in order to a preparation for a dying hour which if you live up to you may not only live above the fear of death but also in the joyful expectation thereof daily CHAP. XI Being a Consolatory Conclusion of the whole Discourse containing Encouragements against the sear of Death unto all such as are found in the practice of the foregoing Directions NOw for a Conclusion of the whole matter upon all that hath been declared Soul let me ask thee
one Question Dost thou indeed see thy particular concern in this business so see it as really to make it thy great work and solicitude while living to set all things right and make all things ready for a dying hour Some there are that are so happy as so to do and art thou one of them then why shouldest thou fear death yea why shouldest thou not exult and thy heart leap within thee in the sight and thoughts of its approach true it is a dark Entry but it leads to a fair and stately Palace even the Fathers house 't is a rough and difficult passage but it sets thee safe on shore in a large and fat land true it carries with it some what a black lowring and ghastly aspect to nature and nature may at first possibly be startled and recoil at the sight of it but open the eye of thy faith and behold it in the glass of the Gospel view it in the death of thy Lord and Head and it vvill not appear half so terrible yea thou vvilt find it to be not so much an enemy as a Friend not as a King of Terrours but rather as a King of Comforts not as an object to be dreaded and trembled at but rather to be rejoyced in and triumphed over by thee it vvill appear to be not loss but gain For me to die is gain says Paul Phil. 1.21 yea it vvill be thy great gain 't will be the period of all thy misery and the perfecting of all thy happiness and the truth is vve are never perfectly happy till death comes But for thy further encouragement I shall in a few particulars shew you vvhat Death come vvhen it vvill doth and vvill do for such as make all ready for its coming 1. Death vvhen ever it comes vvill translate thee thou ready soul from Earth to Heaven from a strange land to thine own home and Fathers house and vvill not this be a kindness as for this vvorld vvhat is it to the poor Saints but a strange land 't is Heaven is their home and Countrey hence they have confest and do confess themselves to be Pilgrims and Strangers upon earth Heb. 11.13 and the Psalmist in the words immediately foregoing my Text Psalm 39.12 owns it to God I am a Sojourner and a stranger here yea this world is not onely a strange land but a waste howling wilderness to such wherein they live among wild Beasts Lions Bears Wolves Tygers and the like Lusts within and Devils without ready daily to devour them but now when Death comes that carries them off from this strange land this waste howling wilderness to their own home and countrey which is Heaven yea to their Fathers house there to live with him to enjoy his presence and to adore his grace We know says the Apostle that when our earthly house of this tabernacle speaking of the Body shall be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And you know how Christ speaks to his Disciples Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you and thither does death carry you when it comes Oh sweet Oh my Beloved to go home to go to our Fathers house and to possess our Mansion there that Mansion which our dear Lord and Head is gone before to prepare for us how sweet is this to think of and how many deaths may it sweeten Suppose one of you were some thousand miles distant from your home Country and Comforts and you were in a waste howling Wilderness among Lions and Bears ready to devour you a wide Sea also being between home and you and suppose withal that a Ship should come and take you into her and in a short time set you down in your own Country and among all your Friends and comforts would not this be a kindness why this is your case here O ye preparing souls and this is the kindness death does for you when it comes while here you are ten thousand miles distant from your home and Country your Friends and Comforts and in a waste howling Wilderness but Death that swift Sailer comes and in a moment sets you down in Heaven your home and Country O how welcom should it then be to you 2. Death whenever it comes will carry thee from trouble to rest from a tempestuous Sea to a quiet Haven there to lie at an eternal Anchor in the bosom of thy sweet Lord. This world ever was and for any thing I know ever will be a place of trouble to the people of God sure I am Christ hath told us In the world you shall have tribulation Jo. 16.33 And who of us does not find it made good This world is a tempestuous Sea wherein the Waves lift up themselves and the poor Saints are afflicted and tossed with tempests and oftentimes not comforted Isa 54.11 We read in Jonah 1.13 that the Sea wrought and was tempestuous and the Mariners were fain to row hard to get the Ship to shore And truly thus 't is often in the case in hand the Sea of this world is tempestuous it works and the poor Saints are fain to row hard to get safe to shore yea as we read Acts 27.14 that an Euroclydon a tempestuous East-wind arose and beat upon Paul and others in the Ship with him which was ready to break all in pieces So truly the Saints in this world do meet with Euroclydons tempestuous winds not a few which beat upon them and are ready to split all and sink all but now when death comes those stormes are all made a calm and they I mean the Saints are brought into the desired Haven Death sets them at rest 't is indeed their dismission to rest There says Job speaking of the Grave the weary be at rest Job 3.17 Death sends the body to rest it frees it from all sensible sufferings when Death comes thy weak body thy sick body thy pained body thy consumptive body shall have its dismission to rest and Death sends the soul to rest that rests in God and with God Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord henceforth they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 and you have I think both together in one Scripture Isa 57.2 where speaking of the righteous 't is said They shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Hence we read that there remaineth a rest to the people of God Heb. 4.9 indeed it remains 't is not here but when death comes that sets them down in this remaining rest Oh what a kindness must this be Rest O how sweet is rest how desirable is rest and rest too after long and hard labour and trouble how sweet is rest to the labouring man that hath wrought hand all the day how sweet is rest to the weary traveller that hath gone a long and dirty journey how sweet is rest to the solicitous Mariner and how