before him and require them to prostrate their Souls at his Footstool in seeking his Favour and Mercy in his dear Son even as their Bodies are prostrate by his Hand of Visitation V. This very Position of the Body represents unto us how the Grass withereth and the Flower falleth and admonisheth our Souls to worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our maker Psal. 95.6 and by Faith to enforce our Bodies also leaning on our staff to worship upon the head of our bed Heb. 11.21 Gen. 47.31 and 48.2 that he may straightway lift us up for ever as Jacob bowed himself to the Ground seven times at the approach of his Brother Esau Gen. 33.3 So the Lord by Sickness bows us down that we may come submissively into his presence humbling our selves under his mighty hand that he may exalt us in his due rime 1 Pet. 5.6 VI. Another Warning to think of our Latter End is that distaste of Meat and want of Appetite in Sick Persons when their life abhorreth bread and their Soul dainty meat Job 33.20 when the Staff of Bread fails and the stay of Natural Life is withdrawn then God summons the sick Persons to remember their end to double their Care for Eternal Life to seek the hidden Manna unknown and unregarded of the World Rev. 2.17 to feed upon that bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth Life unto the world John 6.33 by applying of his Promises and tasting the Sweetness that is in them VII Again when Sleep departs through Sickness this is another distinct Warning to move Men to think of their End God holds their Eyes waking that they might meditate on their present Frailty thereby are they called to commune with their heart and that their Spirit make diligent search concerning their Estate and the Means of their Comfort Psal. 77.4 5 6. God withdraws Sleep from their Eyes and Rest from their Temples that they might remember the Eternal Rest from all their Troubles and might long after it and prepare for it VIII Now precedent Pains the Sick Bed the loathing of Meats and the Departure of Sleep these are Occasions and Furtherances of Meditation to remember our End Now on the other hand there are as many Hinderances of Meditation and Disturbances of the Mind which meet with Men upon their Beds of Mortality which to avoid that Obstruction the Consideration of those Inconveniencies should prove as Motives to persuade us not to deferr our making our Peace with God to the last Moment of Time that so we may profitably forecast before it is too late IX It happens sometimes in Sickness that as some want Sleep so others in contrary Extremity are oppressed with continual slumbering and sleeping which with an unresistable Necessity invades them and this not only in Lethargies Palsies and other cold Diseases but likewise in many Burning and Pestilential Fevers during which time they lie senseless and cannot think on their present Danger nor of any thing which belongs to a due Preparation for their End this leaden Sleep is a black Cloud of Death a Night-shade and a particular Darkness of which in its measure is verified that more general Saying of our Saviour John 9.4 the night comes wherein no man can work and therefore while there is Light and Liberty of mind in the time of Health our End is to be remembred and provided for before the Hours of Oppression doth seize upon our Mind X. Sometimes in Sickness though Sleep oppress not there is a kind of raving Distraction caused by Phrensie Melancholy or other Distemperatures which doth overwhelm the Mind as Nebuchadnezzar's once was by the Finger of the Almighty Dan. 4. so that it is unfit to think of Death or to seek any Comfort against the Danger of it and from hence therefore it doth likewise appear how unwise they are that deferr the Time of their Repentance unto the Time of Death when it is uncertain whether they shall be Masters of their own Wits and Natural Understanding not to speak of supernatural Grace which is far above the reach of Man and yet necessary to Salvation XI Sometimes the very Vehemency and Extremity of Pain doth trouble and disturb the Mind and disables it that it cannot orderly and quietly dispose it self unto Godly and Comfortable Meditations but being overcome with Impatience frets and murmures it s tossed to and fro and becomes fruitless therefore are these Extremities of Anguish compar'd to a Cup of intoxicating Wine making Men as it were overcome with grief Isa. 51.17.21 22. Lam. 4.21 and even frantick with woe and sorrow that they know not what they doe Deut. 28.34 Jer. 25.16 Eccles. 7.7 and what Folly is it then for Men to be unprepared through forgetfulness of their Latter End and to remain stupified in Security all their Life till they are plunged in a Gulf of Misery Perplexity and Extremity of Anguish may justly come as a Snare upon them that abuse their present Peace and Quietness by promising themselves Liberty and Power to dispatch all that is necessary for their Salvation at the last Moment XII And commonly when Death approacheth our Adversary the Devil that goes about like a roaring Lion seeking to devour us at all Opportunities doth then especially rage knowing that his time is short Rev. 12.12 and withall seeks to take Advantage of our present Weakness by insinuating himself into each of our former Perplexities and adding frightful Dreams to our Slumbers strong Fancies to our Distraction and aggravating our Pains with great Terrours by that Voice which is within us XIII Experience may inform us what great Temptations many have conflicted with upon their Beds of Mortality and therefore the Consideration of this last Great Enterprize should alarm every one betimes to arm themselves against the Last Day of their Lives to furnish themselves with a Competency of Grace against the Day of Glory to seek Truth and Righteousness Faith and Patience to heap up store of Comfortable Promises out of the Word of God and to lay it up in their Hearts to be kept in readiness whereby they may nourish up themselves in Hope and be vigilant in praying uncessantly that having finished this last Combat and obtained the Victory they may then be translated from a State Militant to a State Triumphant for ever CHAP. VII Of the Separation of Soul and Body with other Memorials of Mortality Practically Considered THE Divine Providence has ordained that at the Hour of Death the Soul and Body shall be separated and at this Separation the Soul is conveyed away invisibly no Man knoweth how nor whither for no Humane Sense can discern the Spirit of Man ascending Eccles. 3.21 for God in his unsearchable Council orders his secret Will to be kept unrevealed from Humane Understanding Now this secret manner of translating the separated Souls by carrying some close Prisoners to endless Misery and transporting others in invisible Chariots unto Eternal Glory serves to warn and
nor ever entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 IV. Now we ought not to forget this End but Imprint it in our minds for though we know not distinctly what the things prepared are yet we know they are Great and Glorious for so much is revealed unto us by Gods Spirit and we have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.10.12.16 and therefore O thou great being teach us to make a Covenant with our Eyes to turn them away from beholding of Vanity and ever to look at this mark and to feed our Eyes with a sight of this Glory and even afarr off to behold it by Contemplation until we approach neerer unto it and with the Psalmist be satisfied therewith Psal. 17 1â— V. And in our Fellowship with God we are not only allowed to see him but to enjoy him and all that we see in him by Covenant he gives himself to be our God Gen. 17.7.8 and is our portion and inheritance Psal. 16.5 Jer. 10.16 Lam. 3.24 in this Promise are Contained all the Riches of Glory and all the Treasures of Immortality and in all the Promises of the Gospel there is not more Comfort then that which is included in this Word for what Gift is greater then God or what can be wanting to them that have the Lord for their exceeding great reward Gen. 15.1 VI. The Comfort of this Gift is unspeakable for the present in the midst of affliction but in the last period of our lives then is the fulfilling of this and the like Promises therefore is that End ever to be remembred and longed after then especially shall it appear how his Flock shall remain as Lambs in the Bosome of the Lord their Shepherd Isa. 40.11 then will it be further revealed how God dwelleth in them and they in him 1 John 4.15 16. he that fills heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 is himself a House wherein they shall dwell and they a Mansion wherein he shall make his abode John 14.23 by this Heavenly Conjunction and Cohabitation with God shall the Elect be one even as the Father and the Son are one Christ in them and the Father in him that they may be perfect in one John 17 22. VII This thrice Blessed and most Glorious Union is that Green bed of Christ and his Spouse Cant. 1.16 an Eternal Paradise of Delights and Garden of Spiritual Comfort by this Communion God Embraceth those who are his with both armes of his love and putteth them in his bosom Cant. 2.6 chap 8.3 and in this divine Embracement there is felt more Happiness and Heavenly Joy then all the Love and Fruits of Love or whatsoever went under the Name of the Tenderest and Strongest affection in this World could ever yield unto the Heart of Man for if the first Fruits of Spiritual Joy now at this pesent in the midst of Tribulation be an Hundred fold more than all the Pleasure of Houses and Lands Fathers and Mothers Wife and Children the most desirable things of this World Mark 10.29 30. then how can it be but more then an Hundred Thousand fold Pleasure to enjoy the Beauty and Face of God in Heaven to inherit the fulness of Joy in his Presence and Pleasures for evermore at his Right Hand VIII If the infinite Blessedness of the Glorious Persons in the Holy Trinity doth appear in their mutual Union so that they were an all sufficient and Eternal delight unto themselves in enjoying one another continually before the World was and before Men or Angels were made Pro. 8.30 then may we well think how our Vessels shall be filled and overflow with Heavenly Comfort 1 John 14. when we come to Drink of that Divine Fountain and Enter into our Masters Joy Mat. 25.21.23 and taste the sweetness of that Communion this Love of God is better then life it self Psal. 63.3 and all our Life and Love of this World is to be hated in Comparison of it Luke 14.26 IX And as in Soul so in Body shall we be made like unto Christ our vile bodies shall be changed and fashioned like unto his glorious body and this according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3.21 that is as effectually and Comfortably as an Almighty Power is able to bring to pass and therefore as in the transfiguration of Christ his face did shine as the Sun Mat. 17.2 Even so shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. 13.43 as the raiment of Christ through the brightness of his Body did shine as the Transparen light and was exceding white as snow Mark 9.3 and withal white and glistring Luke 9.29 So the whole Person of the Righteous made whiter then snow in their transfiguration shall shine Glister and Sparkle with a Radient Beauty and Heavenly Brightness then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously Isa. 24.23 then he shall be glorified in his Saints and made marvellous in all them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 X. If the Face of Moses while he was yet Cloathed with Corruption when he had seen but the Back-parts of the Almighty and that but for a moment in one Vision did yet shine so Gloriously that Men fled away amazed from him and durst not behold the Brightness of his Countenance Exod. 34.30 chap. 33.23 What then shall be the Glory of the Righteous when being Cloathed with Immortality they shall see God Face to Face and that in a perpetual Vision for evermore XI From this Transfiguration of the Saints made so Glorious by the sight of God and Fellowship whith him ariseth the Glory of their Fellowship one with another which is also an unspeakable Felicity of the Second Life to enjoy all the Beauty and all the Love of all the Glorified Souls and Bodies in Heaven as Jonathan seeing the Grace of God in David was knit unto him and loved him as his own Soul 1 Sam. 18.1 So here the Saints beholding the Glory of God revealed in each other shall be link'd together in the nearest bonds of entire Affection they that first give themselves to God do then give themselves to one another by the will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 they are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 there is one body and one spirit Eph. 4.4 all are gathered together in one under one head whether things in heaven or in Earth Men and Angels whether they be Thrones or Principalities or Powers Eph. 1.10.22 all things are the Saints whether it be Pauls or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are theirs and they are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. XII Hereupon the Angels take the Souls of Men deceased into their Bosomes and convey them to Heaven and then even
who will lead me into this Strong City and that will do it by diligent seeking if thou pursuest it III. This too is a City of Unity the King of Salem's Dwelling-house those Stars are the Embroideries of Peaces Coat and the Gay-beams of the Sun and Moon but the Bright Smiles of Love Triumphant Heaven is the Place where Charity was bred Faith and Hope are low born Vertues to her 1 Cor. 13.8 here they begin and here they end but this greater Grace of Love and Unity astray indeed on Earth take up their Eternal Rest in Heaven nay there were no Heaven without it Concord here ever Flows and knows no ebb springing from the undivided Trinity unto the Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets and Communion of all Saints who shining all with the same Light of Glory breath all the same Incessant Hallelujahs none envying each others Happiness Vessels all full though of several Sizes none know either want or emulation this Jerusalem is the City at Vnity with it self Psal. 122.3 IV. Next 't is a City of Safety you see Strengthned beyond all Opposition and Seated above Short-armed Danger no angry Storm can shake the Cedars of this Lebanus or blast the Ascenders of this Holy Mountain here only may we cry Peace Peace all Safety dwelling here no Enemies being left to interrupt it Sin and Sorrow the Grave and Hell are all Conquer'd by him who hath subdued all things 1 Cor. 15.27 yet were the World let loose against them Christ's little Flock need fear no ill for they are in such a Hand as who shall take them from him John 10.28 let the World totter into its first Chaos ruin should threaten them in vain whom God makes dwell in Safety Psal. 4.8 this Canaan is full of secure Vines and Figg-trees the Prophet Zachariah means this City Sure when he says Men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more destruction but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited Zach. 14.11 V. Lastly all these speak Heaven a City of Rest where there is such Strength Love and Safety needs must there be true Security first Heaven is the Center of Souls as the Earth is of Bodies and only there they rest there indeed being contentation adequate to the Soul's Capacity no further search no more desire where as here one corner of the Heart or other still is Empty Heaven satisfieth the hungry Soul with goodness Psal. 107.9 and yet this Heavenly Rest is not to be taken as some Impious Spirits only privately as a total Cessation from all Sacred Business for in that Sense Saints have no rest in Heaven never ceasing to fall down before the Throne saith St. John never silencing their Sacred Anthems to the King of Glory but as Philosophy-says of the Spheres this Holy Motion is their endless rest in respect of all molestations and wonted troubles which this World showrs on them here they are said to rest and so says the Spirit Rev. 13.14 they rest from their labours VI. And now could but divine Contemplation transport you with St. Paul 2 Cor. 12.2 but snatcht your Souls a while from out their Earthly Tenements and Elevate 'em to the Heaven we speak of what glorious Objects not to be reveal'd should you there behold there should you see Felicity walk hand in hand with Eternity and what this World can never shew you Glory attended on by Safety there 's Light never Clouded Health never Weakned Pleasure unmix'd with Grief or Beauty with Deformity a Moon without her Spots Wisdom acquainted with no Error and Life beyond the reach of Death VII There shall you see the Eternal Eternally one whom all shall love without Satiety and with unweariedness Praise him continually there likewise should your Ears with Equall Happiness Banquet themselves on the true Coelestial Melody sweeter than that feign'd of the Spheres even of Halilujah-singing Saints and Angels there shall you find as 't were an happy Marriage a Conflux of all goodness united so that there 's nothing absent that you could wish present nor any thing present that you could wish absent here then with David we may lye down in Wonder what glorious things are spoken of thee thou City of God! Psal. 87.3 and yet like as to Sheba's Queen not the one half can be told you VIII But yet this Happiness is too much for the present in this Life Pleasure is the shorter twin and therefore as an exercise of our Hope and Patience we look for one to come you see the industrious Husbandman Reaps not presently but with a costly Confidence many Days Weeks and Months waits at expectation's Gate so must we says St. James chap. 5.7 look for this precious Seed and have long Patience for it delay whets our desire and multiplieth our Estimation yet may not violate the Rule of Patience or anticipate the call of Nature like him that reading Plato's Book of the Souls Immortality made himself away to hasten it but such make more hast than good Speed IX Christians must wrap up David's Wish and St. Paul's Desire in Job's Patience Job 14 14. all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change cometh and take the Apostle's Word for it in due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 The Mariner too that Man of hopes the watry Plough-man you see endures his Voyage er'e he gains his Fraight yet for the most part somewhat he receives beforehand but his compleated Payment not till he makes his utter port so likewise in our passage to the true Elizium we patiently must cut through Winds and Waves and not expect our entire Wages till our Course be finished X. Yet in the mean time we are not without that Seal of the Spirit 2 Cor. 1.22 the earnestness of our Hopes the Co-assurance of God's Spirit with ours for we have here Heaven in the Blossom the Fruit not till hereafter here the harmonious Feast of a good Conscience which is Heaven inchoate but for the Consumation we look for that to come this one to come intimates here both the certainty and duration of this supernatural City the certainty because it bears the force of a Promise and so it is Heb. 11.16 for God hath prepared them a City the Saints then sure enough shall have it since he hath prepared it all whose promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 and if his Word be not enough we have his Oath Psal. 83.3 I have sworn by my Holiness saith he that I will not fail David for ever Woe then be to our infidelity if we believe not the Oath which he Sware in the House of his Servant David that he would give us and indeed with faithless Man what is to come may still be so but Promise-keeping is God's Attribute for so the Prophet David describes him by it Psal. 77.8 that he keepeth his promise for ever XI His Performance and his Promise differ not in Essence if in Time and therefore as St. Paul
of our Death let it then be the Care of us all whilst we live to live to the Glory of our Creator every one of us in our Station Consecrating our selves to and Employing our Talents in his Service and for his Glory and whensoever that time shall approach whether sooner or later to any of us we may like good Stewards give up our Accompts with Joy and not with Grief and receive that happy Commendation of Well done goood and faithful Servants enter into the Joy of thy Lord. XV. It was reasonable Advice and a proper Instrument of Vertue which Pythagoras taught his Scholars Let not Sleep seize upon the Regions of your Senses before you have three times recalled the Conversation and Accidents of the day Examine what you have Committed against the Divine Law what you have Omitted of your Duty and what Use you have made of the Divine Grace to the purposes of Vertue and Religion joyning the Iudge Reason to the Legislative Mind or Conscience that God may Reign there as a Law-giver and a Judge then Christ's Kingdom is set up in our Hearts then we always live in the Eye of our Judge and live by the Measures of Reason Religion and Sober Counsels THE Third Branch CHAP. I. Containing Spiritual Remedies against immoderate Grief for the Loss of Relations and Friends Practically considered SAint CYPRIAN affords us these two Golden sayings That we should not too much bewail the departure of our dearest Relations and when the day of our Dissolution doth approach that we readily and chearfully Obey God's Call Let the Comfort then which Death brings moderate our Sorrow for our Friends who Sleep in Jesus why should we be troubled for them who are at Rest and sit down in Sorrow for them who are entred into Joy why are we Clad in Black for them who Walk in White and so many Tears flow from our Eyes for them who have all Tears wiped away from theirs It is Storied of the Thracians that they mourn at the Birth and rejoice at the Death of their Friends nor was it without Reason that they should account those fit to be bewail'd who are launching forth into the Tempestuous Sea of this World and attend them with Joy who are got into the Harbour of Rest. II. We read concerning Lazarus that Christ Rejoyced when he was dead but Wept being to raise him to Life and Chrysologus his Note is very apt to our present purpose Christ bewaileth not the losing but restoring of his Life according to which the Greek Fathers make the Reason of our Saviour's Tears to be that he should now call him back to a miserable Life indeed as St. Hierom saith concerning Nepotian we may say of every one who departeth in Christ We are not so much to condole his loss of this Life as to Congratulate his deliverance from the miseries of this Life III. Thou wilt say perhaps it is my Friend my dearly beloved Friend who is dead and can I choose but Mourn But is he thy Friend and dost thou envy him his Happiness dost thou dearly Love him and yet grieve at his Welfare he is thy Friend and Death is his Benefit and shall the Benefit of another especially of thy Friend be thy Sorrow I but he is snatch'd from my Arms and I have a great Loss in his departure and that is my Trouble True this nature prompteth to that we should be sensible of our own Loss yea Grace requireth that we should be sensible of such a Loss as it is a Cross inflicted upon us by divine Providence IV. Thus Patient Job Chap. 1.20 When the News came to him of his Childrens Death Shaved his Head and rent his Mantle Signs of that Sorrow which natural affection put him upon yea he fell down upon the ground and Worshipped Signs that in his Sorrow he looked higher at the Hand of God which had done it but as with one Eye we look on our Loss and Weep so with another Eye we must look on their Profit and Rejoyce as it is a Chastisement we must be affected with Sorrow and as a Mercy to them we must express our Joy and thus whilst we mingle these affections together our Sorrow will not be Exorbitant V. Indeed when any die to whom we have reason to fear Death is the beginning of Sorrow and there is sad Cause of bitter Mourning but not for them who die in the Lord David justly bewailed dead Absolom because he died in his Rebellion and therefore despaired of his Bliss but when the other Child died he drieth his Eyes as not doubting its Happiness they indeed cannot sufficiently be lamented at their Death who dying in their Sins drop into Hell not they who are carried into those heavenly Mansions saith Isidore Excellently VI. Let not I beseech you immoderate Grief too much overwhelm you but when you have shed your solemn Tears and paid your due Sighs to the memory of your Friends then wipe â—our Eyes with the Comfort of Hope and change your Grief into a Charitable Joy Remember the Friends you Mourn for are delivered from the Miseries of this Sinful World and all the Miseries you so Justly deplore their Frail Bodies Tremble no more with a shaking Palsie nor Burn with the violent Flames of a scorching Feaver they cry out and lament no more for want of Sleep nor tumble and roul up and down their uneasie Beds but quietly rest in the silent Grave till they rise again to Immortal Glory which while their Bodies there expect in Peace their Souls are enlarg'd to a spacious Liberty no longer are they Confin'd to this Prison of the Body but gone to dwell in the Region of Spirits they are no longer exposed to these Stormy Seas but are gladly arrived at their safe Harbour VII Comfort your selves with this firm belief that they are not lost but gone before us that the living Body which thou now sowest with Tears shall rise again with Joy a Glorified Creature that we shall meet in Heaven and never part again and that with greater advantage of Love and Perfection the most perfect Secular Amity hath some bitterness because the best hath some imperfection but there shall be no Animosity in Friends to disturb each other because no Sin nor imperfection Now indeed if we are Confident of such a Resurrection Why should we bewail the Dead Why too much if we believe they are not lost Why should we impatiently take it that they are withdrawn for a time whom we believe returning to Eternity why should we immoderately grieve that our Friends go before us seeing we must quickly follow after VIII Moderate weeping is most highly Commended for it expresseth a natural affection we had to the departed but with a Christian-like Moderation of our Grief whereby our Faith to God-ward is demonstrated and the reason is manifest for they rest from their Labours and their Works follows them why should we then weep since they are received
Sinning and thence how Restless think you is the Guilty Conscience only in this particular like God that it never Slumbers nor Sleeps the Clamour of this inward Voice deadens the Voice of Ravens or of Thunder not only audible to us Waking but interrupting of our best Repose Job 7.13 When I say my bed shall comfort me and my couch shall give me rest then thou frightest me with dreams and terrifiest me with visions XIII To be thus uneasie is enough to make one with David ones own Metamorphosis Psal. 55.6 O that I had the Wings of a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest at rest from the distracting Cares that follows this vain Worlds Affairs at rest from the impetuous Solicits of the Flesh at rest from the importunate Temptations of the Devil at rest from the refractory Impieties of wicked Company All which make every honest David sigh out here Wo is me that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech and have my habitation among the tents of Kedar Psal. 120.5 Thus is our Life a tossed Ark tumultuous without sick within and the poor Soul like Noah's restless Dove can find no ground to fix on till she return from whence she flew at first and then indeed she rests Rests from her Labours so says the Spirit Rev. 14.13 XIV But here we have no continuing City no City of Rest Now Job summs up all the Particulars and produces the Total in his 14 Chap. v. 1.2 Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not that is hath no continuing City And having thus demolish'd this Earthly City how can we now choose but with Metellus sacking Syracuse lament the transient vanity thereof and bewail our strong Desires of so weak an Object as no Continuing City CHAP. XI That there is nothing in this World worthy of taking off our Affections from Heavenly Things Practically considered THere is a Place where the Woman is cloathed with the Sun and the Moon under her Feet Rev. 12. where the Church and every Member of it is robed with Glory and far above the reach of any Mutability But as St. Bernard says this is in the City that 's above it is not here this Place is the Moon 's chief Region her very Exchange as it were to vent all her Varieties and nothing save alteration continues here Earth you see is the least of Elements and to the Heavens no more than is a single Atome to the Sun an infinite substance then such as the Soul is must needs be straightned here this little Circle can never fill the Hearts vast Triangle no nothing but the Trinity Vain it is therefore to think of placing our Affections here II. This again is the lowest and most dreggish Element the Sink of all and so the Shop of Dangers and Diseases and they both so destructive that they obstruct our abiding here 'T is the Valley of the World Earth the Valley of Tears Tears indeed where we enter Life with Cries continuing with Sighs and going out with Groans This is our Musick here here where Mirth is but apparant Grief is real where we eat the Bread of carefulness and mingle our Drink with weeping and all our Actions with sinning this is our Diet here here we only tast of Joy but glut in Sorrow we walk in Happiness but journey in Calamity this is our Travel here here where Riches are but Thorns Honours but Pinnacles and Pleasures Bees that leave more Sting than Honey these are our Treasures here So that the World you see with all its Pomp makes but up a Nebuchadnezzar's Image Dan. 2. though the Head be Gold the Breast of Silver Belly Brass and Legs of Iron yet are the Feet of Clay let one be honourable another rich a third beautiful and a fourth never so vigorous yet are the Foundations of them all but Clay and a small Stone from out the Sling of Death does break and liken them to Dust and this is the End of all Things III. Now methinks by this time we should be all of Holy Monica's Mind St. Augustine's Pious Mother who as he tells us having thus discours'd over the Frailty of the World together melted into this Expression For my own part says she I am now delighted with nothing in this World and what do I longer here but practise Jobs attendance So after all this Colloquy of ours anatomizing the vain World what can we find here worthy our Affections and not worthy our Disdain Then what do we here here in our unsatisfied Desires our eager Prosecutions treasuring for the Moth and Thief like Spiders spending our Bowels to catch Flies and as Menot says of sharp Hunters who lose a Horse of a Price in pursuit of an Hare worth nothing here being neither a City of Strength Unity Rest nor Safety What do we then here but Ixion-like grasping of a Cloud for Juno IV. It was a Question once debated in the Court of Alexander What was the Greatest Thing in the World and having many about him of all Sciences a Geographer answers him the Mount Olympus that Hill indeed being so vast and high as frequently is took for Heaven it self An Astronomer he answer'd 't was the Sun that World of Light so many times bigger than the Earth a Parasite tells him his own Victory but an honest Moralist standing by affirmed the greatest thing in the World was to be an Heart that could Contemn the greatest this Philosopher answered as though he had heard Christ himself Preach on that 14. of Luke 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple a pair of imitable Examples and one of them a Heathen and shall Christians come behind such in Contemning of the World and the greatest things in it then let us even change Names with them but let our Souls aspire with Monica's that Glory of one Sex and Copy of the other what do we here like David thirst for better Waters Psal. 42. and yet as 't was with Monica one thing Necessary one thing there was which made that Female Saint desire a little longer Continuance here which was her Sons Conversion and to see him Baptiz'd a Christian. V. So one thing must our Soul desire of God that we may live to see that Christened Baptized in the Tears of Penitence and then away to our continuing City what do such Eagles here when as their Carcass is in Heaven indeed what do we so long looking on this Terrene Globe whose Zones are all Intemperate Freezing Charity or Scorching Envy Avaritious Drought or Riotous Profuseness whose Paralells are Equal Cares and Fears whose Circumference is Vanity and Centre is Corruption hark how the Philosopher calls us off Behold now the Beauteous Frame of Heaven and desist at length to Admire base Earthly things let the Bodies Figure be
able sufficiently to declare that we cannot yet make an Estimate of it AND as our Sorrows cannot but be justly Expressed in the Loss of so Excellent and so Vertuous a Queen yet let us offer up our Praises unto God from whom every good and perfect Gift cometh that he has not left us Comfortless that he has not cut down the principal Cedar that he has not deprived us of our chiefest Support and Royal Defender but that we enjoy and have a good King to Sit upon the Throne to Sway the Scepter and to go in and out before us to Protect us from the force of France and the danger of all Europe and that our Dear and Dread Soveraign may be for ever Happy in us his Loyal Subjects and we in so Good and Gracious a Prince let us Implore the Divine Powers to Protect Guide and Defend him in Spirit Soul and Body as for his Enemies let them be Cloathed with Shame but upon himself let his Crown for ever Flourish and let all the People say Amen AND now O all you Sons and Daughters of Sorrow and Affliction that faithfully Lov'd and Honour'd our Renowned Princess Lament your Loss but seem not to Bewail her Felicity do not immoderately drown your Eyes because God has Wiped away all Tears from hers and though in such a National Concern of highest Grief Natural Duty shews us to be Mortals yet let us not forget to be Christians and as our Saviour said to the Holy Women so may I with all Awful Reverence Express Weep not for her Blest Soul but for your selves that you are not so Happy AND this Sweet Advice Saint Hierom gives us Let us not Mourn as for one Lost but rather be thankful that we have had so Good and so Gracious a Pattern nay that we still have her for all still live in Christ yea though they die and whomsoever he thus takes unto himself are still within his Family THINK that you heard her Royal Tongue Express the great Farewel and in the most Tenderest Affection was pleas'd to say Farewel my dearest Soveraign Lord farewel I hear Heaven's call and the mighty Hour is come that we must part farewell my Royal Family and all my mournful Subjects now farewell each in your own order all must prepare to follow me Follow her then first in her Pious Example Fight the good Fight keep the Faith finish your Course as she did and henceforth is laid up for you what she Blest Saint hath now received a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge hath prepared for all those that Love and Fear him G. B. Advertisement For more particular Concernment in Devotion read these Books following THE Whole Duty of Prayer Containing Devotions for every Day in the Week and for several Occasions Ordinary and Extraordinary By the Author of The Whole Duty of Man Necessary for all Families The Fourth Edition Price 1 s. THE Whole Duty of Divine Meditation in all its Various Parts and Branches By the Author of The Whole Duty of Man Price 1 s. Both Printed for John Back at the Black-Boy on the middle of London-Bridge THE Whole Duty OF Mourning AND THE GREAT CONCERN Of Preparing Our Selves for DEATH Practically Considered PSALM lxxxix ver 68. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the grave The INTRODUCTION THat needs no Proof where all are Examples to themselves such is that easiest and hardest Lesson that all must die that Death is the undoubted issue of Sin and that it is a Separation of the Soul from the Body for a time but because it stealeth on as they that sleep in a Ship-under Sail who arrive at their Port while they think not of going so we go on with a restless pace to the Grave and Silence and the unknown Limit of our present Life consuming while we are not sensible of it and because it is terrible to flesh and bloud our main care must be to inform our selves first what Preparation we are to make that neither our Life may prove uneasie nor Death terrible Secondly How to fortifie our selves against the Fear of Death And Thirdly How to comfort our selves with Spiritual Remedies against immoderate Grief for the Loss of Relations and Friends These Three Branches shall be the Heads of my Discourse I. First We must prepare for Death for Solomon tells ye 11 Eccles. 3. in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be and as Death leaves us so Judgment shall find us now as the Passage to the promised Rest which was a Type of Heaven to the Israel of God appear'd terrible Deut. 1.19 so likewise is our Journey to the Celestial Canaan we are instantly ripe though not ready for dying are all subject to this pale Prince to whom we are visiting every moment this day we now live we divide with Death and that which is gone is irrecoverably lost II. The Hour is uncertain to all Men but they are certainly Happy who are then provided Luke 12.37 many are apt to watch against the coming of Thieves who can take nothing from them but only that which a little Time must then what a stupid Negligence is it not to watch and provide for Death which they know will certainly and may quickly come and take away Body and Soul nay Heaven it self to all Eternity from the securest Sinner Thinkst thou of Youth and Strength alas how many that are young and in the Vigour of their Age have died before thee Dost thou at the Funerals of others think with the proud Pharisee Luke 18.11 God I thank thee that I am not as other men are seeing then that thou art exempted from the Privilege of Immortality of Body let not Satan delude thee but seriously prepare for that day which may prove thy happiest III. Consider That God is the Great Creator of the World and the Sovereign Judge of all Mankind Remember he sits above on his glorious Throne in whose hands are the Keys of Life and Death that whatever he pleases he brings to pass and none can resist his Almighty Power whatever he does is surely the best and none can accuse his All-knowing Goodness IV. Next If we consider our own sinfull State we may well cry out and say Unhappy we the Children of Dust and Ashes Why were we born to behold the Sun Why did our Mothers conceive us and bring us forth to a miserable World and unkindly rejoyce to hear us cry Whether alas has the Errors of their Lives lead us and in how deplorable a Condition do's our Birth engage us We enter this vain World with weeping Eyes but upon Death's Summons we go out with sighing Hearts V. All the few Days we live are full of Folly and Vanity and our choicest Pleasures are mixt with Bitterness the Time that 's past is vanish'd like a Dream or Shadow and that which we expect to come is not yet
at all the present Time we enjoy tarries but a moment and then takes Wings and flys away and never returns again already we are dead to all the years we have liv'd and vain 't is to expect to live them over again But the longer we live here the shorter is our Life and in the end we become a Lump of Clay and a Feast for Worms CHAP. I. Several Notions of Death what it is its Author Name and Nature FIrst If we would know what Death is the Philosopher tells you To die is to be no more Vnhappy and if we consider Death according to the right Notion it is but a departed Breath from dead Clay enlivened at first by Breath cast upon it Now Job tells you Death is a Moth and as the Moth breeds out of the Garment so Death do's out of the Body The Heathens were of Opinion that Death was an Eternal Sleep the Fear of the Rich and the Desire of the Poor but Pious St. Augustine often breathed forth this heavenly Wish saying O that I could see Death not as it was but as thou O Lord hast now made it Death is the supremest Monarch in the World as he hath the Dominion over Sin and he is the antientest King whose Reign began from Adam yet St. Paul tells ye 1 Cor. 15.26 at last this King shall be vanquished the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death and Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life pronounces this Sentence O Death I will be thy Death II. Whoever was the Author and Father of Death Sin was the Mother for the Apostle tells ye 1 James 15. that Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death and Eve the Mother of all Living was delivered in Child-bed of Death Now Adam falling Sin follows him and Man being tempted Death assaults him and by Sin Death enters Every Parent is an Adam to his Child infusing Corruption in his Generation Since then Death by Sin crept in at the Window or rather at the Ear which is prone to listen to Evil Counsel let us cast it out by the Sense of Faith in hearkning to God's Word which will make us wise unto Salvation III. As for the Name of Death it is called a Sleep so St. John terms it Chap. 11.11 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and of St. Stephen it is recorded in Holy Writ after he had done praying for his Persecutors When he had said this he fell asleep 7. Acts 60. it is likewise said of the Patriarchs and Kings of Judah that they slept with their Fathers and Job expresseth That man lieth down and riseth not he shall not be awaked out of sleep till the heavens shall be no more Likewise Saint Paul mentions in his Mystery We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed 1 Cor. 15.51 The Night is the Emblem of Sleep and Mortality Now Sleep is but the Shadow of Death and where the Shadow is the Substance cannot be far off Lastly the Grave it self is but a withdrawing Room to retire in for a time it is going to Bed to take rest which is sweeter than Sleep and when it is time to awake and rise we shall as the Royal Psalmist says be satisfied IV. Next as to the Nature of Death few or none know it though all must sensibly feel it there is nothing after Death and therefore Death is nothing it is without Essence or Substance but a privation which kills he Creature therefore curiously to â—quest the Efficiency of it were but to employ the Eye to behold Darkness Salomon in his Book of Wisdom Chap. 1.13 mentions that God made not Death but created all things that were good this caused good St. Augustine to breathe forth this Supplication Lord thou hast not made Death wherefore I beseech thee suffer not that which thou hast not made to reign over that which thou hast made Now Death came into the World by Man only whose Soul was affected to know that which God never made which was the Evil of Death thinking it had been very good by desiring to know the worst of Evils But so Divine a thing is Knowledge that we see Innocency it self was ambitious of it from whence that Proverb is derived That Evil is not known but by good V. Pet no Learned Man knows so much but Ignorance may suffer him to commit Evil for none of a sound Judgment and right understanding can be guilty of Wickedness and there is no fear of knowing too much Good but there is much Fear of practising too little But since the Almighty has revealed in his word more than we can comprehend and enough to work out our Salvation let us attain to sober Knowledge and not repine but be content with our Ignorance Indeed Knowledge and Power are the Worldling's Idol but let every Man endeavour fully to know himself and then Pride and Ambition will soon vanish CHAP. II. That Death hath no respect of Persons but we are continually dying whilst we live ALthough Men cannot or are unwilling to pay those Worldly Obligations they lye under yet they must pay this Debt to Nature and it is a Favour afforded by Nature that what she hath made most vexatious she hath made Common that the Equality of Fate might mitigate the Cruelty of it and this Question the Psalmist asketh What Man is he that liveth and shall not see death II. Our Saviour told the Jews their Fathers did eat Manna in the Wilderness and are dead 6 John 49. and the Apostle tells ye Phil. 2.8 that Christ being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross. So that we see it is as natural to die as to be conceived and born yet it is improper for us to say Men die Naturally for Man dies not as a Beast by an Annihilation but by a Decree from Heaven it is appointed for all Men once to dye Heb. 9.27 III. Sickness the Messenger of Death respects not the best Complexion the Sores of Lazarus will make as good Dust as the Paint and Washes of Jezabel and like Jonas his Gourd we come up in a night and are gone in a moment we come naked into the World and no sooner we are born but the Grave waits for us but to continue in the Body is not the request of those which desire Heaven for the Apostle he desired to be dissolved and the Psalmist crys out As the hart pants after the Water-Brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God Psal. 42.1 Death only shortens Time not Life and the Merit of Death is the Debt due to Sin both impos'd on Mankind for Sin IV. Now if we cast never so bright a Lustre in the World yet alas our brittle Bodies how quickly are they broken Man says Jeremiah fades like a leaf and sin like a wind takes him away Let a Man live never so long yet at last Death seizes him but to consider aright
Body for hunger is a Worm gnawing the Intrails calling for Meat or threatning Death Jer. 11.22 Lam. 4.9 Men being hungry and thirsty their soul fainteth in them Psal. 107.5 and by this infirm condition whereunto God hath subjected our nature he calls us to think on Death IV. Our Table as oft as we come to it is the Memorial of our Mortality and our food before it enters the Body for nourishment is diversly prepared as Corn and the like are made to grow by the dung of beasts Luke 13.8 and from hence is the strength of our corruptible Life So that we may say with Holy Job to Corruption thou art my Father chap. 17.14 But this not all but we feed upon Death it self and that by the allowance of the Almighty Gen. 9.3 in taking away the lives of other Creatures to maintain our own this is seriously to be thought upon as a wonderful Work of God that our lives are preserved by the Death of the Creatures our living Bodies are sustained by their dead Carcasses in their Blood Swims our Life and from their pangs of Death spring the Pleasures of our Life our Feasts and daily Food Now if those that in part were maintained by Sin-Offerings were said to eat Sin Hos. 4.8 then those that in part were maintain'd by the death of Creatures may be said in the like Phrase to eat Death So often therefore as we eat the Flesh of the dead Creature and make our bodies to become their Graves So often are we called to remember our own Death and our own Grave in the body of the Earth V. Another Help to preserve our frail Bodies is our Apparel which God hath given us to cover and defend them from Cold to preserve Health and herein we have a double or treble memorial of Death considering that our Apparel was given us when by our Sin we came first into the World to the state of Death Gen. 2.25 and when God first gave us our Garments he took 'em out of Deaths Wardrobe they being made with the death of the Creatures from whence they were taken God made coats of skin for Adam and his Wife and his Posterity Gen. 3.21 Heb. 11.35 our Garments therefore being Badges of Mortality and Cognizances of Death so oft as we look upon them we are called of God to remember Death and so oft as we cloath our selves with them to be mindful that we put on the Livery of Death VI. As Food and Raiment are Means to preserve Life so Labour of Man in his Vocation is a means to get both Food and Rayment and therefore an Help of Helps to maintain Life and yet in and by this Labour also we are called to remember our Latter End and to think of Death for upon Labour attends Weariness and Faintness even a failing and decay of Life Painful Labour sometimes maketh Men weary of their Lives and to think of Death and wish for it as for hid Treasure Ex. 1.14 Job 3.17.22 considering that in Death Men rest from their Labours Rev. 14.13 VII And above all consider the Labour Vigilancy and Care that is found in the highest Callings how many Thorns is there platted in every Crown Likewise in the Magistracy what Troubles is there in distributing Justice and in the painful Work of the Ministry who watch over Souls all these have through their indefatigable Weariness in Affairs of Church and State have thought it as the best Expedient to think of Death nay even to wish for it and consequently to prepare for it Numb 11.15 1 Kings 19.4 VIII And not only by the Weariness thereof but by the divers Kinds of Labour in several Vocations God takes occasion to shew the Vanity and Shortness of Life present and summons them by their Callings and by the Quality of their Works to think of Death For the Weaver by finishing every Web God teacheth him how his Days are cut off and the Web of his Life finished Isa. 38.12 yea before the Web is finished by the running of the Shuttle at every Stroke and every Thred added to the Web the Lord admonisheth how swiftly the days of his Life run away Job 7.6 Then the Shepherd in the Field by the removal of his Tent or Fold he is taught to think of the Removal of his Life IX The Travel that Men have by Land is appointed of the Almighty to put us in mind that our days are swifter than a Post Job 9.25 that we ride Post as on Dromedaries that run by the way in all hast to their Journeys end And the Voyages that Men have by Sea in the most swiftest sailing Ships is mention'd by the Almighty to represent the swiftness of our Time that carries us night and day sleeping or waking to the Haven of Death Job 9.26 and according to this Wisdom of God and his Example should Men make right use of their respective Callings Employments and Affairs of the World to see before their Eyes continually their Lawes End X. As Labour and Toil in the Day so Sleep and Rest in the Night-Season is also a necessary Help to preserve this Mortal Life and this Sleep is a lively Image of Death for in Sleep Men lye down as dead Men without Sense or Motion ceasing from their Works and taking no notice of the things that are done by others and therefore the Holy Scriptures describeth Death by the Name of Sleep or lying down to sleep Job 14.12 Psal. 76.5 Matth. 27.52 John 11.11 1 Cor. 11.30 1 Thes. 4.13 Now when Sleep assails us and like a Giant throws us down we ought to think of Death and by sight of our Bed to remember our Grave to look upon it as a Tomb or Sepulchre and every Night before we go into it to labour for reconciliation with God that so we may lie down and sleep safely IX Whenever Sleep seizes upon us let us seriously meditate and think how securely and sweetly do they sleep that take care to go to Bed with a just and quiet Conscience who after a toilsome day of Faithfull Diligence and Industry in a Course of prudent just and pious Living lay down their carefull and wearied Heads in Peace and Tranquillity and safely rest securely in the Bosom of the Almighties Providence if they awake at midnight their Conscience void of Offence comforts them in the dark and with Christian Courage bids them not tremble or be afraid at the Shadow of Death no nor even at the grim Majesty of Death it self but confidently and with good Assurance look up with the Eye of Faith and long for the Dawn of that Eternal Day this indeed should be our chiefest care to note and censure and correct our selves to strive for Mastery over our Passions and to dismiss from our Thoughts what no ways concern us CHAP. V. Of Sin the Means of Death of Sickness Youth and Old Age. OVR Sins the Works of the Flesh in Scripture are called dead Works Heb. 6.1 and 9.14
admonish us to remember the Evident Monuments of our Frailty when secret Things are hidden from us by the Almighty those which are Revealed are the more to be observ'd by us Deut. 29.29 II. The Scriptures will inform us how some Persons Men or Angels have vanished out of the sight of those they had convers'd with and from thence we are to observe that it is not requisite for us to know what they had heard and seen or to pry narrowly into that which the Divine Wisdom has ordered to be kept from us Luke 24.31 32. Acts 8.39 Judg. 6.21 22. Moreover God hath appointed that they should not be suffered to live which attempted to converse with the Spirits of those which were departed from us Lev. 20.27 1 Sam. 28.8 9. c. But by all this we are so much the more lead to observe the common visible Memorials of Mortality shewed unto us in them that die before us III. Furthermore it is to be observ'd that when the Spirit is return'd away presently to God that gave it yet the Body remains and returns to the Dust from whence it was taken Eccles. 12.7 If the Almighty by Death had taken away both Soul and Body or if it had pleased him to take away all Men as Enoch and Elias were Heb. 11.5 Gen. 5.14 2 Kings 2.11.17 or to bury all Men so as Moses was Deut. 34.6 namely so as their Bodies should be seen no more among Men yet even then there were occasion enough to remember that wonderful great and final Translation but now seeing every Man departing this Life leaves a part of himself on Earth among his Friends yea and that visible Part even the Body which was best known among Men God by this frail Part of Man that is left gives us occasion to contemplate what is done with the immortal part and to keep in Memory the Death past to prepare us for the Death to come As Elias ascending to Heaven let fall his Mantle for a Remembrance unto Elisha that took it up 2 Kings 2.13 so we ascending do let fall our Flesh that hath been the Mantle of the Soul under which it was veiled and covered in the Days of our Mortality Now by this Pledge the dead warns the living to part from the love of Vanity and to make ready for this Change when the Soul departs more naked out of the World than it came into it V. Besides the Body is left behind as a Pledge of our Corruption to imprint into our minds the horrour of Death through that putrefaction which soon invades it when it is deprived of the Souls presence had the Body remained only without Life and retained its former Comeliness and Beauty and not been liable to putrefaction how then would their dearest Relations and Friends have choicely kept them and lovingly embrac'd them but now by the divine appointment the body is Sown in Corruption 1 Cor. 15.42 the Royal Body of David sees Corruption Acts. 13.36 the Body of Lazarus the Friend of Christ begins to Stink the Fourth Day John 11.39 the Fair Body of Sarah whose Beauteous Countenance charmed Kings and Princes she being dead must needs be removed out of the sight of her most Faithfull and Loving Husband Gen. 23.4 VI. And in such a degree hath Corruption prevailed that some Bodies hath been forced to be buried very deep in the Earth So noysome have they been and soon putrefied but though they are not to be looked upon with the Eye yet they are the more to be thought upon and our fading Estate to be Reflected on by this Serious Reflection Job humbled himself confessing that Corruption was his Father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister Job 17.14 and by this Consideration might be humbled the Proudest and most Ambitious Heart when they Seriously Reflect how the Wormes breed out of their own Corruption and surround their whole Carcasse Isa. 14.11 these are the Laws and Ordinances of Death established by the Almighty whereby he call us the more effectually to think of our End not to pamper the Flesh nor to take so much Care for our Bodies as we do for our Souls according to this Example of God who shews more respect and love to the Soul by receiving of it into his Glorious Kingdom whereas he suffers the Body to lodge in the Pit of Corruption 1 Cor. 15.43 VII The Sequestration of the Body from the Place where the Soul is and the Corruption of it being Separate are mememorials wrought immediately by the Hand God Now besides these there is other after warnings of Death effected by the providence of God by the affections and respects of Men that is paid to the Honour of the dead and Comfort of the living Now for the Honour of the dead Holy Men of Old have shewed great Care to provide Sepulchers Tombes and Monuments for them such was the Cave of Machpelah purchas'd by Abraham Gen. 49.30.31 the Pillar on Rachels Grave that Jacob set up Gen. 35.20 that continued so many Generations to Samuel's time 1 Sam. 10.2 the Title on the Sepulcher of the Man of God that Prophesied of Josias 2 Kings 23.17 18. the Sepulcher of David that continued twice Fourteen Generations from David to the Apostles time Acte 2.29 having been preserved in the time of the Babylonian Captivity even then when both City and Temple were destroyed these in Scripture are called Memorials Math. 23.29 John 11.38 chap. 19.41 by which the Righteous are taught to Remember their latter end VIII The Magnificent Tombes and the Sumptuous Sepulchers are but so many Scaffolds Stages and Theaters of human Frailty and so many Pulpits out of which our Mortality is Preached and all the Graves of the Popularity are the Coffers of Death the view whereof should instruct us to lay up our Treasure in Heaven and thus though the touch of a Grave defiled the Body with a Ceremonial Pollution in the time of the Law Numb 19.16 yet the sight of a Grave may serve to cleanse the Soul by a Spiritual Consideration of our latter End even as the sight of the Leviathan being raised up made Men Purify themselves Joh. 41.25 IX The Grave being prepared for the Dead Corpse then Men proceed with their Funeral Pomp and Exequies the mourners go about the streets and a great train of Relations Friends and acquaintance accompany the dead unto his Grave and follow him that is going to his long home Eccles. 2.5 this going a Procession to the Grave is a Memorial to them of their own Condition that they in their Course must die and be carried forth in like manner thus they are called of God to remember at such times then have they special cause to remember that Iron Chain of Death and Mortal necessity by which the dead Person is said to draw all men after him as there were innumerable before him Job 21.23 X. Then are Men called to climb up the Mountain of Contemplation from the
Complaint but Condolation that we have here no continuing City thus having brought you acquainted with the Plantiffs as well as with your selves Consider now their wants We have not a Continuing City Now Cities have their period and dissolution both Occasional and Natural some of them like goodly Troy and better Jerusalem those Phoenix Cities of the World in Successive Ages buried in Fiery Tombes rak'd in their own Ashes others too many of 'em like old Rome and Carthage sack'd and demolished by the Bloody Hand of War so that you see the Imperial Cities of the Four great Monarchies nay those Monarchies themselves all as well as Babylon now sit in the Dust Isa. 47. and 't was but Flattery in Livius the Historian who called Rome the Eternal City after so many downfalls and scarce a Feather now of that proud Eagle left IX It was not also her a Fiction in the Poets describing of old Saturn their God of Time how he devoured his Children though of Stone I am sure the Moral is real and Termes him a devourer for whatsoever Time brings forth Time destroyes this I need say no more of every Languishing Body every Nodding Structure is a demonstration Witness our own Metropolitan City which was in 1666 laid in Ashes and had not Pious Care and Dilligent Industry have raised this our Phoenix and Mother-City we had wanted Earthly Habitations for our Bodies and Ecclesiastical Tabernacles for the Good of our Souls and Happy are they who Build such Tabernacles here that they are not chid by that fame Prophet Haggai 1.4 Is this a time for you to dwell in ceiled houses and let my houses lie wast c. X. Yet alas how Wanton now adays is the Worlds invention for Superfluous Building Temples are too Old Fashion'd the Zealous Father St. Bernard may still Sigh Men Build as though they should Continue for Ever and Glut as though to dye to Morrow which indeed they may rather fear such a Woe being denounced against them as the Prophet mentions Isa. 5.8 9 10. Wo unto them that joyn house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth c. but to avert it imitate that Ecclesiastical Centurion Luke 7.5 whom the Jews respected for loving their Nation and building them a Synagogue And if thou needs wilt Build let St. Chrysostom be a little thy Surveyour wouldst thou erect Beauteous and Splendid Edifices I forbid thee not saith he yet found them not on Earth 't is but an Heap of Sand but Situate in those Calm Regions that are above the Breath of Danger Build in Heaven for here is no Continuing City XI But Cities are here put for the Inhabitants and our want of peaceful residence shadowed under their discontinuance for if we Reflect on the Pilgrimage of Abraham Gen. 12.1 where he is called from his own Countrey and his Fathers House to divide a Life between Variety of strange Lands and Dangers So that indeed we Read of no other settled Possession that he had but Machpelah Gen. 23.17 his only Purchase a place of Burial thus it was with the Father of the Faithful he had no Continuing City XII Nor was it any thing better with the Children few and evil have been the daies of my Pilgrimage says old Israel Gen. 47.9 long and evil the daies of our Pilgrimage murmured the Children of Israel in the Wilderness Exod. 14. that Journey was a true Type of the Saints way to Heaven who Wandred up and down says the Apostle Heb. 11.37 destitute and afflicted Militant is the Churches Name she is an Host upon Continual Marches and Removes our Habitations here so often Varied by occasions either of some Loss Disfavour Sickness or of Death I need give no Examples that like the Travelling Common-wealth of Israel we have rather so many several Stations than appropriate Mansions CHAP. X. That Man himself is Frail and is no Continuing City or has any Duration here Practically Considered and Emblematically discussed TO shew that Man is no Continuing City is easily demonstrated by these following Qualifications which a City ought to be Furnish'd with and First 't is an Emblem of Strength so says the Wise Man Prov. 10.15 The rich mans wealth is his strong City and the Psalmist says who will lead me into the strong City Psal. 60.9 this is the frequent Epithite through the holy Book strong and well fenced Cities indeed there 's the Combination of most Men and Arms the Store-house of Munition 't is the Heart of the Body-publick the Seat of most Spirit and Vigour deservedly may these be called Strong Holds and Good Fortifications II. Now what a City Man hath in this Sense soon be your own Judges Walk but about it View well the Towers thereof if you can find any how Weakly is he Fenced about with these thin Walls of Clay Walls that every Ague Shakes every Dropsie Drowns every Fever Fires every Danger Batters one Fort indeed there is in it the Heart but that so feeble as 't is in a continual Trembling a Palpitation not more for Breath than Trouble Psal. 30.10 Watch-men too it hath Eyes placed in a Tower the Head but neither fore-seeing or preventing Mischief at best Exercises either dimm or drowsie III. The Soldiers of it the Hands oft Treacherous advantaging the Enemy and by Sins Wounding his own Bosome while in all this Extremity his Carriages the Feet are unable to convey him from Surprisal or keep him from being Captive to the Grave so Weak a City Man is that even Worms can Conquer it Pliny tells us for a wonder of a City undermin'd by Conies but Worms Triumph o're this and scarce e'er glory of the Victory what is it I wonder Philosophers call Man a little World for is it because he hath such Earthquakes in him so many Chollicks and Palsies is it because he hath such Thunderings sudden Noises in his Head because such Lightnings Inflammations in his Veins He is a little World indeed Himself the Earth and his Misery the Sea nay a great World of Weaknesses born the most helpless of all Creatures and lives the Sport of every least Distemper how seasonable here for Man is St. Paul's acknowledgment 2 Cor. 1.29 who is weak and I am not weak Yet put the Case with David he be so Strong and come to Eighty Years yet it is no Continuing City but a doubled Misery Labour and Sorrow Psal. 90.10 and a City of no Strength IV. Secondly a City is a Figure of Vnity Psal. 122.3 Jerusalem is as a City that is at unity with it selfe in unity a city like each Building of it is an Aggregation of many into one the proper place of Laws and Government which are the Causes and Maintainers of Peace Vnity and Concord but alas we have no such City no Continuing Vnity but rather here continual Discord Witness too many Vnquiet Families our clamorous Streets
riseth up if Lust be quelled Pride starteth forth if Pride be subdu'd Anger exasperateth thus are we forced to a continual strugling with our Sins but when we die the Combat ceaseth and as for the present we are not under Sin so then we shall be without Sin or so much as the Motions of Sin CHAP. II. Of the Fears of Death and how to Fortifie our Selves against them Practically Considered DEath in all Mens Opinion is the King of Terrors and the most formidablest Enemy in the World to humane Nature now all Grief ariseth from Love and Self-interest and naturally Men fear Death because it puts a period to that Life which Indulgent Love and Weak Nature would preserve Christians were wont to assume that Courage that no Fear possess'd 'em but that of Sin they could Expostulate with the Law and say thou hast no power over me for God the Father hath sent his beloved Son to Redeem me from the Captivity of thy Bondage and therefore thy Terrors and Accusations are all in vain for this Expedient I have I will creep into the hole in my Saviours Side there will I hide my self from all my Foes and plunge my Conscience in his bleeding Wounds and by Vertue of his bitter Death Victorious Resurrection and Glorious Ascension shall I gain the Conquest II. Why should we then thus be surrrounded with Fears and permit Death's Terrors thus to affright us seems it so hard a task to Walk the Path which all our Ancestors have Trod before us Adam the first of all Mankind and Righteous Noah that feared the Almighty Abraham the Father of the Faithful and Friend of God and Moses the Servant of the Lord David the Man after God's own Heart and Solomon the Wisest King that e'er Sway'd the Scepter all these have Justly paid their Debt to nature and subcribed to the Law of universal Mortality Nay Jesus himself the blessed Saviour of the World has expired on the Accursed Cross of Eternal Shame and went to his Transcendant Glory through the Gates of Death III. And Now shall our Childish and fond Self-love so blindly flatter us as to wish an Exception from this regular and general Rule shall we be still murmuring and repining when our Life is but a Bubble a Vapour nay but a Span and still expos'd to innumerable Sorrows and Afflictions does not the very shortness mitigate and abate its Miseries and does not those many Miseries highly applaud its shortness should we not rather be glad and rejoye at the approach of Death that when e'er it comes it proves so advantagious to us if in our Aged Years t is a Haven of Repose and ought to be kindly Entertain'd after so long and tedious a Voyage if Death appears in our Infancy and Youth it prevents a Thousand Calamities and numberless Dangers of ruining our Souls if by an ordinary fit of Sickness 't is according to the Course of Nature if by any disaster or outward Violence 't is always the will of Heaven what occasion have we then to dread or fear how many Darts Death has in his Quiver when we are sure he can throw but one at us IV. Therefore to depart this World is an act to be done but once and that once well done we are happy for ever we must needs confess the Decrees of the Almighty are always Just and that 't is only our selves are the cause of all our Miseries for no sooner are we Born but we begin to Sin we Sacrifice our minority and Youth to Vain Sports and Follies and our Riper Years to Gluttony Drunkenness Lust and Pride we spend our Old Age in Politick Craft and Greedy Avarice and begin not to live till we are ready for the Grave then indeed we lament the shortness of our time when we have our selves like Spend thrifts thrown it all so Prodigally away for when we have lived and led a loose and negligent Life we then Complain Death seizes on us unawares we find fault that perhaps our days are too few to grow Rich or to satisfie the Ambition of a haughty Spirit but did we strive to be Taught the Love of God and to immitate the meek and humble Life of the Blessed Jesus it would require not so much the number of Years as the faithful endeavours and utmost diligence of a Pious Mind could we but bestow on the improvement of our Immortal Souls the time we so vainly trifle away on our Frail Bodies our day would be short enough and not seem tedious and long enough to finish our appointed Task V. Then what shall we but say to our Souls that our only business here is but like unto the Wise Virgins to Trim our Lamps and to wait the coming of the Bridegroom but to sow the Immortal Seed of a never failing Hope and expect hereafter to reap a due Increase it is insignificant how late in the Year the Fruit be gathered if still it improve in growing better no matter how soon it falls from the laden Tree if a Stormy Wind blow it not down before it proves Ripe let us then Contemplate on God's most Just and Secret providence who governs all things by the Counsel of his Divine Will whose powerful Hand can Wound and Heal lead down to the Grave of Silence and bring back again let us be ever ready to him to bow our Heads and freely submit to him our dearest Concerns let us say unto him Lord strike as Thou pleasest our Health or Lives we cannot be safer than at thy disposal only these few but earnest Requests we humbly make which O may thy Clemency Vouchsafe to hear Cut us not off in the midst of our Sins and Folly nor suffer us to Expire with our Sins unpardoned but make us Lord first fit and ready for Heaven and then take us to thy self in thy own due time for 't is not for us O Lord to choose our own Conditions but to manage well what thou hast appointed VI. It is true Death bereaveth us of a Mortal and Transitory Life but it is an inlet to an Immortal and Everlasting Life it despoileth us of our Worldly possessions I but it putteth us in possession of our Heavenly Inheritance it taketh us from the Society of our bosome Friends and Neighbours I but it sends us to Abraham's Bosome and makes way for our Society with Christ finally it severs the Soul from the Body I but it unites the Soul to God what is it for the Candle to be put out whilst we enjoy the light of the Sun for the standing Pools to be dry so long as we may drink at the Fountain for our Earthly Comforts to be taken from us when Heavenly Joys are Conferred on us the truth is Death is not a privation but a permutation so Holy Job calleth it a Change Job 14.14 and that a Blessed Exchange of a Cottage for a Palace a Wilderness for a Paradise a House of Bondage for a Place of Liberty of
Brass for Gold Pebles for Pearls Earth for Heaven VII But let the advantages of Death mitigate the Fears which is apt to arise in us from the apprehensions of it when Abigall told Nabal the threatning Words of David the Text says 1 Sam. 25.27 his heart died within him and became as a Stone thus is it with the most of us when any Summons of Death is given nay not only with the most but even sometimes with the best Christ cometh to the Disciples on the Sea to preserve them from the Storm and they are Troubled Death cometh to deliver us from all evil and we exceedingly Tremble indeed the reason is because we Consider not that Death is a deliverance and an advantage to us what Chrysologus saith of Martyrs is true of all Good Men Their death is a birth and end a beginning they live by being killed and whilst they are thought to be extinguished on Earth they shine in Heaven and surely were this well pondered by us we would not seek Consolation against Death but Death it self would be our Consolation those Words of Job chap. 16.14 I have said to Corruption thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister are not unfitly allegorized by Origen to this purpose as if he therefore called Corruption and Worms his Father and Mother because as Parents are comforters to their Children so were they to him VIII It is true the Separation of Soul and Body is Terrible and a natural Fear of it cannot but be in all I but it is as true in respect of the Godly that when this Separation is made the Soul is set at Liberty and rejoyceth yea the Body is at rest and knoweth no Trouble and is such a Separation to be feared this Life what is it but a going to Death and Death what is it but a going to Life little cause there is then sure why we should either too much Love the one or Fear the other shall that be the Object of our Fear says Tertullian Which freeth us from what ever is to be feared and this we have from the Mouth of a Roman I would not be Young again though God would grant it me and he giveth this Reason because when I die I shall go from my Inn to my home I. It is not Death it self but our mis-apprehension of Death is terrible to us says St. Ambrose Did we look through beyond Death at the happiness which followeth it would not be dreadful but Amiable in our Eyes and with the Apostle we would not Fear but desire to depart that of the Wise Man Prov. 14.32 the Righteous hath hope in his death the Caldee reads the Righteous hopeth he shall dye so far is a Good Man from fearing of that he hopeth for his dissolution and though he dare not rashly hasten yet he willingly entertaineth it whensoever sent by the Almighty to him X. Now if a good Life preceed an happy Death cannot but follow nor is it probable a happy Death should be the Consequent if a religious Life hath not been the Antecedent some there are who would invert these Words of the Apostle Phil. 1.21 To me to live is Christ but to die is Gain and make Gain the predicate of the former and Christ of the latter thus doth every Covetous man say To me to live is Gain and to dye is Christ Vain Men who will have Gold to be their God and yet Christ to be their Redeemer they will serve Mammon whilst they live and yet be saved by a Saviour when they dye but it will be Just with Christ to say to all such Mammonists in these Words of God to the Israelites in the day of their distress Go to the Gods which you have Served the Gain which you have lived to and let that deliver you in this hour of your Death XI Others there are who would severe these Clauses whilst they would gladly say To dye is Gain but not to live is Christ one was asked whether he had rather be Croesus or Socrates his answer was he would be rich Croesus in his Life and good Socrates at his Death you know whose Prayer it was Numb 23.10 Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his and it is that no doubt which many wish and desire nay hope who yet regardeth not to live the Life of the Righteous and that their Course to that end may be like his but what a Folly nay Madness is it for Men to expect to Reap that they do not Sow to Sow to the Flesh and to the World and yet Reap by Christ the Gain of everlasting Life after Death as therefore we expect the one let us endeavour the other and if Gain by Death be our Hope let living to Christ be our practice XII So that this Scripture thus Considered doth plainly put a difference between the Precious and the Vile the Godly and the Wicked whilst to these who live to themselves Death is a loss but to those that live to Christ it is a Gain Adrian was wont to say that Death is the Rich Man's fear and the Poor Man's desire and this I may well apply here Death either is or may be the bad Man's fear but the good Man's wish or to use St. Ambrose his Expression it is an Haven to the Just but a Shipwrack to the Guilty to the Good a Bed of Repose but to the Wicked a Rack of Torture The Man who liveth to the World saith to Death as Ahab to Elijah 1 Kings 21.20 Hast thou found me oh mine Enemy but he who liveth to Christ may say to it as David of Ahimaz 2 Sam. 18.27 it cometh with good tydings XIII And now would you on the one hand see the reason why you are so fearful of Death it is because your Consciences accuse you that you have not lived as becometh Christ's Disciples and so you may thank your own Guilty Consciences for those fears of Death it was not without reason that St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is Sin since Death is only venemous and deadly to them who live in Sin on the other hand would you see the way to a joyful End would you have Comfort in and Gain after Death Oh let it be your Study to live to Christ it is our Saviour's Counsel to his Disciples Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life let me alter it a little take no thought for your death but for your Life let your Care be to advance Christ in your lives and it will be his Care to Confer the Gain of Glory and Immortality upon you at your Death XIV Lastly I shall earnestly beseech you in those Words of our Saviour to his Disciples I say unto you all Watch indeed when we see many falling in their full Strength and snatch'd away in the prime of their days have we not reason to Watch and Watching to prepare for the Hour
is not a Shadow but a Substance not a Lease but an Inheritance not Vanity but Felicity and shall be far more in the Fruition than it is in the Expectation VII Are our Friends for the present in a flourishing Estate Take we heed how we Launch out either our Hopes or Love too much towards them considering that they are but Vanity and therefore our Hope which is placed on them will end in Shame and our Love in Vexation VIII Why so big with Expectation of Advantage or Advancement from thy Rich Ally Honourable Lord Potent Friend Alas thou dost but set thy Foot upon the Water which cannot bear thee why so inflam'd with Affection to thy beautiful Wife Child or near Relation Alas thou dost but embrace a Shadow in thine Arms which cannot nor must not stay long with thee but set thy Affections on Heaven to the possession whereof he will bring us who hath purchased it for us IX Now because Death daily attends us let us wait for it and consider well these Four things First Whence thou camest now this thou art told That Sinners begat thee in Sin and miserable Wretches brought thee into this Vale of Misery So that thy Conception was Sin thy Birth Misery thy Life a Punishment and thy Death a Torment and the longer thy Life is the more Sin thou wilt have to answer for But perhaps thou wilt say To what end is this humane Life lent thee Why only to gain a Heavenly Life and this is all Divine Love aims at that thy Life may seem shorter and thy Labour less X. Secondly Consider whether thou goest thy Life which like a Flower is subject to fade and decay tells thee That thou art in a passing State but let it rejoice thee to think that thou goest to thy Fathers and be comforted in this hope thou shalt be buried in a good old Age therefore let it not trouble thee to live nor affright thee to Dye but live in Patience and dye in Desire though thou dost here for a while bewail thy Sorrow thou wilt at length forget thy Banishment and return to thy own Country XI Thirdly to express what thou art what Language can that unfold Dust and Air this thou knowest and to Dust thou shalt return that is certain Man is a sickly diseased empty thing and every Man shall be turned into nothing This none can plead ignorance in for our Metal is a moist Humour and the Mould no better in an unclean Womb condemned sooner than born that 's our condition our best Stock is the Seed of Abraham and with Job we say to Corruption thou art our Mother and to the Worms thou art our Brethren and Sisters these are our great Kindred our dwelling is amongst Insects our quantity vile our weight lighther then Vanity our worth nothing What then is our being a Dream and Sorrow XII Fourthly Consider what thou shalt be thou knowest what thou art and therefore dost know thy self not to be but yet thou dost desire both to be and to know what thou art for to see God and to live with him is to enjoy him and this is eternal Safety and secure Eternity this may be admired though hardly understood yet better understood then can be expressed therefore to thy Soul say O Soul that art ennobled with the Image of God adorned with his likeness espouto him by Faith redeemed by his Blood endowed with his Spirit ranked with his Angels What hast thou to do with Flesh but to contemplate on that brightness that sweetness and pleasure which remaineth for thee in that Vision where thou shalt behold Christ Face to Face for evermore THE TABLE THe Introduction Page 1 Chap. I. Several Notions of Death what it is its Author Name and Nature 6 Chap. II. That Death hath no respect of Persons but we are continual dying whilst we live 10 Chap. III. The Certainty of Death Practically Considered 14 Chap. IV. Several Motives to remember Death Practically Considered 17 Chap. V. Of Sin the means of Death of Sickness Youth and Old Age. 26 Chap. VI. Several forerunners of Death which may Warn Men to prepare for it Practically Considered 37 Chap. VII Of the Separation of Soul and Body with other Memorials of Mortality Practically Considered 46 Chap. VIII Eternal Life Described and Practically Considered 57. Chap. IX The Christian's Map of the World wherein the Vanity of it is shown in the shortness of Man's Life and that this World is not a Place of long Continuance Considered Practically 68 Chap. X. That Man himself is Frail and is no Continuing City or has any Duration here Practically Considered and Emblematically Discussed 78 Chap. XI That there is nothing in this World Worthy of taking off our Affections from Heavenly things Practically Considered 89 Chap. XII Several Instrumental means to be used in the seeking and attaining of a Heavenly Kingdom Practically Considered 101 Chap. XIII A Prospect of the Heavenly Jerusalem which we are to seek Practically Considered 113 The Second Branch How to Fortifie our Selves against the Fears of Death CHap. I. That if we dedicate our Lives to Christ the Advantage of Death will be to our Selves 125 Chap. II. Of the Fears of Death and how to Fortifie our Selves against them Practically Considered 136 The Third Branch CHap. I. Containing Spiritual Remedies against Immoderate Grief for the Loss of Relations and Friends Practically Considered 150 The Close 160 FINIS
Deut. 24.6 these Teeth failing Life begins to fail wherein the Memorial of Death is set before us X. And as in the outward Parts so the like Weakness and Decay of strength is to be observ'd in the inward the Silver Cords of the Sinews which conveys the Faculty of Sense and Motion from the Head in Old Age are loosed Eccles. 12.6 that Cable of the Marrow in the Back Bone which was wont so firmly to hold and stay the frail Bark of our Body tossed with so many Motions and by those many Conjugations of Nerves which kept our Body steddy begins now to dissolve the Head which is the golden Bowl wherein is emboxed the Brain that ministers that Faculty of Sense and Motion through Age is broken and become crazy the many Veins which carry the nourishing Blood from the Liver unto each part of the Body become like unto broken Vessels and the Arteries which by the reciprocal Motions and Pulses do convey the Vital Spirits from the Heart even to all Parts of the Body these through languishing Age becomes slow and weak and all these faint Operations are so many Memorials of Death and do plainly portend the Approach of our Latter End XI The Old Man's gray head is in Scripture compared to the white Blossoms of the Almond Tree Eccles. 12.5 this Tree making hast to flourish before many others in the Spring is therefore in Vision used to signifie that God will hasten his Word to perform it Jer. 1.11 12. and consequently the sight of the gray head either in our selves or others serves as a Divine Vision to warn us of God's Decree of hastning our Latter End yea those are upbraided of God as Contemners of this Vision who though their head be not all white do not observe the first sprinkling of the head when as the gray hairs are here and there upon them and they know it not Hos. 7.9 and regard not this Memorial of their Mortality XII As to the decay of Sense in Old Age they that look out of the Windows be darkned Eccles. 12.3 the Eyes fail Gen. 27.1 and 48.10 1 Sam. 3.2 and 4.15 and that dimness of Sight is one of Death's Apparitors to summons Men to their End by that restraint of Sight God calls Men to make a new Covenant with their Eyes to turn them out of the Corners of the World not to gaze longer after Vanity nor to walk after the Lust of their Eyes to live by Faith and not by Sight 2 Cor 5.7 not to look after things temporal which are seen but after things Eternal which are not seen 1 Cor. 4.18 and as the Sense of Seeing waxes dim in Old Age that of Hearing likewise fails the daughters of Musick are abased and brought low Eccles. 12.4 Men cannot then any more hear the voice of singing-men and singing-women 2 Sam. 19.35 God that planted the Ear Psal. 94.9 when he makes this Plant to wither again calls them to remember their Transplantation into another World to wait for their changing and to prepare for it The Tasting likewise decays for Old Barzillai cannot taste what he eats or what he drinks 2 Sam. 19.35 Old Isaac by his touch cannot distinguish betwixt the hands of his Son and the Skin of a Beast Gen. 27.16.21 22 23. The Psalmist when Old is covered with Cloaths and feels no heat 1 Kings 1.1 yea the inward Senses begin to fail also Memory decays the Understanding is diminished and the Aged sometimes in their decrepid Age return to their Infancy and not able to discern between Good and Evil 2 Sam. 19.35 how inexcusable are they that live securely and think not of Death when they have so many Warnings given them XIII With Decay of Strength and Sense comes the decay of Health Old Age is many times a continual Sickness and when the days of Man are multiplied they are but Labour and Sorrow even the strength of them Psal. 90.10 then is the time when the evil days approach and the years of which Man says I have no pleasure in them Eccl. 12.1 then is the Light of Sun Moon and Stars obscured and then the Clouds return after the Rain one Infirmity after another v. 2. Through decay of Natural Heat ariseth Indigestion and Crudity of Stomach and thereupon follow Rheums and Catarrhs and from thence proceeds Aches and manifold Pains and Diseases whereby the Almighty as with an Iron Pen writeth our Lesson and engraveth this Sentence deep in our Flesh and Bones Remember your latter end approaching and prepare for Death CHAP. VI. Several Forerunners of Death which may warn Men to prepare for it Practically Considered THus in every Age before Death Approaches we have manifold Fore-Warnings of his Coming and when Death appears God usually brings with it some Joynt-Warnings to prepare us further for our speedy Dissolution And first before Death makes a Seizure there is commonly Pain like a Harbinger sent before to warn the Soul to entertain the Almighty with a present and diligent renewing of their Faith and Repentance for God could have taken Men out of the World without Pain or Sickness by a sudden Change in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. but the Divine Wisdom saw it not necessary II. When the Lord appeared unto the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and vouchsaf'd unto them Visions of his Glory he used commonly to send before as a Marshal or Usher some great fear Gen. 15.12 Exod. 3.6 so that they fell down as dead Men Ezek. 1 28. and 2.1 2. Rev. 1.17 or stood trembling Dan. 10.8.11 their hair stood an end and all their bones did shake Job 4.14 15. But since God in his Divine Wisdom has altered that Method and appears unto a Sinner at his Death in sweeter Visions of Heavenly Comfort and prepares them with all Reverence for that hour III. God doth now as it were usher his way by sending Sicknesses and bitter Diseases that thereby we might be humbled for Sin and renounce this Transitory Life by giving a more willing Farewell unto it and to long for our Translation and the Joy which succeeds it God shews that then he expects a special Act of Humiliation when near our End he visits us with such Pains which creates a Mourning in us for Sins committed in the World before we depart out of it then are we summoned to stir up the Grace of God within us and to raise up our Spirits with all Love and Reverence to meet the Lord that we may receive his Blessing and enter into his Gates with Joy and into his Courts with Thanksgiving IV. These Pains prevailing at the approach of Death causeth Men to lye down and fall upon their Beds Job 33.19 Acts 5.15 and to let all the Affairs of the World alone with the Works of their several Callings through Infirmity of Body God forceth them to stoop and calleth them to remember their Frailty and their End as if he should command them to couch down
the Soul's Tutour and an Elevated Eye Teach an Vpright Heart the Heart to seek that Contiuing City the Eye to look for one to come VI. And here the Christian and the Heathen part who have all this while gone along together in the we have no continuing City they likewise undauntedly apprehending their Mortality and such as dare to hasten it Desperate Unthrifts of their Blood only to period their Miseries yet some of them in general Notions Dreamt of the Souls Immortality thus far shined the dimm Light of Nature here were their Herculean Pillars but without any endeavour of good Works tô seek or with the Eye of Faith to look for one to come this is a regenerate Man and a Christians Hope the Child of Propagative Faith VII That was a strange close of dying Adrian Thou little wandring merry Spirit who wert wont to cheer the Body what place shalt thou now Inherit c. Alas Heathens find but diminutive Comfort at their Death treading those unknown Paths with unprepared Feet going from one Darkness to another oh how may we ever Bless God for our Vocation our double Light of Grace and Knowledge when the most Learned of 'em go hence with I know not whither I go whereas the meanest Christian with a Job's Faith Exulteth I know that my Redeemer Liveth and therefore go forth my Cheerful Soul and fear not now to go to Christ whom thou so long hast Serv'd yet it is not my Task here rigorously to determine all those Lost whose exact Virtues so out Moral'd Christians VIII We cannot limit Mercy God loves it above Sacrifice Mat. 9. and our Just Lord requires but according unto what he gives Luke 12.48 though indeed the Heathen People that know not God in respect at least of outward Calling are not within the pale of the Messias Dear and the Law so Written in their Hearts I fear that Suppressing those inherent Evidences of Nature which St. Paul calls with-holding of the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 does render them inexcusable as the Apostle St. Paul argues strongly in that forecited Chapter Acts 4.12 for there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby they may be saved but not to make our selves inexcusable by Judging another this we leave to the Great Judge of all Revealed things to us albeit we say not what becomes of them yet to our grateful Comfort we know saith he that when this earthly tabernacle of ours shall be dissolv'd we have a building not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 and yet our Confidence is to Weak to go alone it must be accompanied with Diligence we must not think to enjoy Heaven with only looking for it they would not then be so few that are chosen Math. 20.16 IX All are Baalamites and desire to dye the Death of the Righteous but Vainly unless they live the Life of them 't is Foolish to expect an end without the means to look for this Heavenly City and not seek it or that any Lazie Confidence should think to gain it as God knows that's all the evidence many have to shew for it I hope for it but for all this Hope if no Endeavour be used the Heart may break no nor is it Faith can look for 't unless Operative for our Faith cries out like Rachel give me Children or I die James 2.20 but such a Faith as Works by Love maketh our Hope infallible of finding what we seek we seek one to come X. Seek then is a Word of Labour bidding us with the Apostle Work out our own Salvation Phil. 2.12 Work 't is not a Feast or a Feather-Bed will bring a Man to Heaven our Jehovah will not as the Poet Jove did in Diana's Lap Rain down this Golden Purchase into our Bosomes no no Drones shall ever tast the Hony of that Hive but those industrious Bees alone that seek it a sharp Reproof for Idleness that Gate of all Impieties is a Whip of Scorpions for the Sluggards Back Prov. 6.10 some like the Spouse seeks no farther then the Pillow but she found not her Beloved there Cant. 3.1 and as little do they who stretching on their Beds of Ivory e'er find his Benefits whose Bed was but a Manger but Ruin suddenly for their not seeking finds out them Prov. 6.1 Idleness we know it was denominated those Virgins Foolish and Excluded them both the Chamber and the Knowledge of the Bridegroom Matth. 25.10 thus Slothful Persons like Arrows from a feeble Bow fall short of what they Aim at and with Esau come too late to gain the Blessing Gen. 27.30 XI Dilligence invites a Blessing you see Moses keeping watch over his Flock by Night is grac'd with Visions Exod. 3.4 a sight of him whose Vision is Beatifical and Saul seeking his Fathers Asses finds a Kingdom 1 Sam. 9.20 and David is taken from following the Ewes great with Young and made the great Shepherd of Israel Psal. 78.71 Diligence invites a Blessing whereas on the Contrary Idleness allures Temptation and Tempts the Tempter while David exercised himself in God's Law Day and Night all went well with him he fear'd not what either Man or Satan could do to him but when once he ascends his Wanton Prospect and loosens the Reins unto his Idler Senses the Devil soon changes his Title and makes him a Man after his own heart Wraps him in a double Snare of Murder and Adultery and after these how Justly he Complains mine Eyes are Dimm Psal. 6.7 when there 's such a Pearl in one and the other Blood-shod XII Indeed it is the sitting Bird that is the Fowler 's Aim the Envious Man Sowes his Tares while the Husbandman Sleeps and Hell it self is beholding to Idleness not only for Company but for a description being called a Lake of standing Water Rev. 21.8 there 's an old Fable how once the Elements Contended for Priority the Fire most active got Supremacy the Agil-Air Wonn the next Regions the Ambitious Waters Flow to overtake 'em while Drowsie Earth sat still the while and therefore is ever since Disgrac'd with the lowest Room No Sin so unnatural as Idleness in a Word the Idle Man 's the Devil's Cushion whereon he sits and takes his Ease while the well-busied Heart is in the Shop or Work-house of the Almighty then let ever some good Act or other be as an Anchor to the Floating Mind Sedulity becometh even our Civil Callings but for Spiritual saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.10 Give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure CHAP. XII Several Instrumental Means to be used in the Seeking and Attaining of a Heavenly Kingdom Practtically Considered IN the pursuit of a Heavenly Kingdom we must Run so that we may obtain But because 't is necessary a Seeker should have Eyes as well as Feet Knowledge as well as Industry least as the Perverse Jews you ask and receive not because you ask amiss James 4.3 Now Consider the manner how to