slide into the dark Pit from which there will be no Redemption We may be surprized with the loud Thunder and the roaring Cannon when we think there is no Danger and when we flatter our selves with the vain Hopes of Peace and Safety sudden Destruction may come upon us 1. Thes v. 3. as Travel upon a Woman with Child To what shall I compare the Miseries of that young Man that is taken away in the midst of all his Pleasures and before he hath well thought of Death 'T is as dreadful as if you should see a Person in the midst of all his Mirth and Laughter immediately fall down Dead so that he cannot by all the Tears of his Friends nor by all the Chafing and Applications that are made be fetch'd to Life again A Surprizal that carries with it as great Horror and Amazement as does the sudden falling of a cruel Enemy into the Tents of a luxurious wanton Army that spares neither Young nor Old that mingles their Blood with the Sacrifices they made to their lustful Appetites and gives them no time either to Arm or to cry for Quarter 'T is as Dreadful as if a Massacre should happen among a company of little Children playing in the Street that while they suspected nothing are cut in a thousand pieces and carried away to the other World in a Sea of their own Blood The sudden untimely Death of careless young Men is as dreadful as a general Inundation that while Men are asleep breaks over all Bounds and carries them their Houses and their Goods away together Have we then no Pity for our selves or do we resolve not to prepare for our Tryal till the Assize come and the Judge is seated on the Bench Is it a small or a tolerable thing to be snatchâ—d away in one Moment from Life and Hope to have our Souls violently torn from our Bodies and to be sent from under the Dews of Heaven and a chearful pleasant Habitation to be scorched with flaâ—â—ing Wrath and to Live in a Land of Darkness where is all that can afflict or grieve the separated Spirit If we were assured by certain Intelligence from the unseen World that this were the last Sermon we were to hear this the last time that we should have a Call to Remember God and to Repent and that before we Enjoy another of the Days of the Son of Man we should hear our final Doom and be either in Heaven above or Hell beneath Oh with what Cries should we rend the Heavens with what Earnestness should we pour out our Souls in Prayer and as a Criminal that is condemned to dye and is not ready for so great a Change make use of all our Friends to begg of God that he would Reprieve us and spare us a little longer that we may acquaint our selves with him and make our Peace before we go hence and be no more Psal 39.13 With how many Tears should we then bewail our early Follies and not listen to the Charms of sensual worldly Pleasures or the Temptations of the Devil And why should we not do the same now seeing we know not but that may be our Case Mat. 24.42 We know neither the Hour or the Day when our Lord will come nor when Death that is by his Commission going its Circuit and has already past its Sentence upon many others will Arrive at our Place and call us also to the Barr. I might here have shew'd you how many and how great would be the Advantages of an early Remembrance of your Creator how by this you would be a great comfort to your Ministers and Parâ—â—ts and a Blessing both to this Age and to the next As also that hereby you would meet with prosperous Success in your affairs and after many years Labour sweet Repose and the Possession of an inward unspeakable Peace in your way to Glory And besides that you might in a great measure prevent those Calamities that have at a distance long threatned a secure careless People but now are at our very Doors and likely to seize on your Native Country which cries to you that are young to have pity upon her I might here entreat you as you would not see a Famine of the Word nor your Teachers driven to more solitary Corners nor after it has long stood upon the Threshold see the final departure of the Glory that you would now remember your Creator but I shall leave these to your more serious Consideration And now I shall endeavour to move you to this great Duty by setting before you the Example of that young man whose death presented me with the sad occasion of this Sermon though he be dead yet his Death speaks this to us all that we should in health remember our Creator and not defer so great a Work till we are just upon the Borders of the Grave We may think we are yet many paces off but when we have breathed a little longer we shall be there we shall go and dwell with him and with many others that were gathered from such Assemblies as this to the greater Congregation of the dead we shall go from the noise of populous Towns and Cities into that silent forlorn Desert and from Spirits that move in Bodies to those that are unclothed in that vast World which we the Pilgrims on Earth never saw and when we have well performed the Duties of our present state we shall go from moving in this Lower Firmament to move in that which is above all that we see and which is the proper Region and Sphere of the Soul the Seat and Habitation of the bless'd of all those that while they were on Earth remembred their Creator and believed in Christ I shall not draw the Picture of the Young Gentleman of whom I am now to speak in any other Colours then those which were reckoned to make up his true Complexion when he was alive and which were taken from him by such as had opportunity by Converse and Acquaintance to observe the several parts of his Behaviour I. In his more early days he was sent to the University of Dublin in Ireland that there he might obtain the useful knowledge of the Liberal Arts which when duely studyed are a great Ornament and Glory to the mind and render a man more capable of Noble Thoughts and Actions and greatly conduce to the making his Life not only more comfortable to himself but more useful to others but as is the deplorable condition of too many young men in such publick places of Education where the Boar out of the Forest the Devil waits to spoil the tender Vines that are newly planted there he was by the perswasion of ill Associates led away to some things not worthy of Commendation And when God that designed Mercy for his Soul not only checked him in his course by some cross Providences of which he still retained the sense but put it into the heart of his
unhappy an Education I cannot but have charitable thoughts of him believing that if ever Death-bed Repentance be sincere it is in those that being Young are not so hardned in Sin nor have resisted so many motions of Gods Spirit nor rejected so many offers of Grace as Older Sinners have done However let not Young ones presame upon the account of this or any like Instance but Remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth and health considering their Lives are in Gods Hand who is a soveraign and may as well not give them Hearts to repent when Old as not give them Time to grow Old How many are Nipt in the Bud or Cut off in the Flower of their age when their Hearts are filled with Wordly lusts and their Minds lifted up with worldly Hopes And they Dream of nothing less than the End of their Days and an Eternal State Were there the Reason and Judgment of Elder Men in the Heads of the Younger it might be an easiertask to deal with them but Youth is a slippery Age full of Passion Rashness wilfulness and so apt to despise the Counsel of those that are more Grave and experienced and to think it proceeds not so much from the Love they have to Young Souls as the Envy they bear to their Youthful pleasures But what folly is this and how much to be lamented in them if we cannot reclaim them from it Can you Sirs Clip the Wings of Time that it may not fly from you or put off the approach of Eternity that it may not hasten upon you Can your Lusts and pleasures prevent your Death or prepare you for it think seriously of it and you will be of my Mind Why then are ye not up and doing as soon as you can Why do you not Work out your Salvation as Hard as you can all your Time and strength are little enough for such a Work Let every Example of Mortality in others and this in particular mind you of your own Live like those that know you must die and so as you will certainly wish you had lived when you come to die You are growing up to be the Successors of us that are Elder and to fill up our places in the World when we are gone out of it May you out-do us in all that is good and praise-worthy may your Zeal for God and Holiness shame the degeneracy and Coldness of present professors Religion loses ground in this age if you keep it not up in your selves it will be quite lost in the next And therefore I must again inculcate what is the scope of this discourse begin betimes and give God your strength and the Morning of your Day never think it too soon to turn to him nor too long to serve him you will not count an whole Eternity too much for your own Happiness do not count your whole Life too much for his service The Lord himself give you Counsell who is able by the Power of his Grace to make you willing to take it which is the unfeigned desire of him who is Your Souls Friend and Servant for Jesus Sake E. Veal A Funeral Sermon ECCLES 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth while the evil days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them VVHEN we seriously consider the miserable and uncertain State of Men since the Fall of Adam how many wide Breaches the Transgression of our first Parents has made both for spiritual and eternal Dangers to enter in upon us and yet how secure and careless Men are of their Danger it ought to affect our Hearts with a great Tenderness and Pity but it ought much more to affect us if we consider that of all others Young Men are generally the most careless though they are besieged with more Enemies and liable to more Dangers yet for the most part they are employed in mean Affairs that have no Relation to their Happiness and are forgetful of their God and the deplorable Condition of their own Souls Secure they are though they have in their Bodies the Seeds of innumerable Distempers one whereof when it shall be conceived and brought forth will destroy its own Parent They remember not that the Clock that is now wound up and performs its regular and daily Motions and goes well must have all its Wheels broken or when the Maker pleases run down again Happy were the Persons that might put a stop to them in their mad Career or awaken them to serious Apprehensions of their real Interest before the hour of Darkness and the day of Death It hath pleased God in whose disposal are the Lives of Men by the taking away of one young Man lately from the World in his fresh and tender Age to give me this occasion at the desire of his Acquaintance to speak to others of the things that immediately concern their eternal State and how they should by his Example be taught in their early days to repent of Sin and to prepare for a better World I hope the same God will make this a merciful Season to us that are yet among the Living that we may by the memorial of the Deceased be in a continual preparation for that time when we shall hear his Call and leave the World And that we may be so let us attend to the grave Counsel of this Preacher the wisest of Men that after a long Experience of all that had but a shew of Pleasure or was accounted worthy to be loved by the Sons of Men reap'd nothing but Vexation and Bitterness and a sharp Remembrance and therefore concluded that it was most useful and expedient to guard the Mind against those Follies and betimes to remember God In the former Chapter having explained what were the Comforts and Happiness of Life Vers 7 that the Light was sweet and that it was a pleasant thing for the Eyes to behold the Sun i.e. to enjoy a prosperous unafflicted State and all that our Hearts can well desire Yet he tells us that though we live many Years Vers 8 and rejoyce in them all yet we ought to remember the Days of Darkness for they will be many After we have satisfied our Appetites with all that is delicious and grateful we must retire into the next World and dwell for a long time in the gloomy Chambers of the Grave Then he upbraids the Follies and Neglects of Young Men that are immers'd in sensual Delights not thinking of the Day of Judgment and that great Account that must be made hereafter at the Bar of God And the Preacher concludes his Sermon of the Unsatisfactoriness and Vanity of all sensual transitory Things with this serious Application Remember thy Creator now in the days of thy Youth c. In which Words we may observe 1. The Duty it self To remember God 2. The time when it is to be practised Now in the days of Youth 3. The reason of this
necessary Work The evil days will come and the Years wherein we shall have no Pleasure And these together afford us this plain Proposition We ought in our early days before the Approaches of old Age to remember God In the explaining of which I shall endeavour to shew you I. What is meant by the Remembrance of our Creator II. Why we are engaged to this III. What should move us to do it in our early Days IV. What Rules we must observe that we may attain this early Remembrance V. What will be the good Consequences that will accompany the Practice of so great a Duty First What it is to remember our Creator It is in all our religious and civil Actions before others and in secret to have an awful reverential Sense of God upon our Souls to acknowledg his rightful Dominion over us and all our Actions to contemplate with delight and wonder the various efforts of his Goodness and his innumerable Favours to be mindful of his August Presence and to attempt nothing that is mean or sordid as knowing we are under the sight of his jealous Eye His that sees us in all our Retirements and Solitude that ponders our Steps and has all our private Thoughts our Words and Actions on Record to love Him with a supream cordial Affection to hope in his Promise to chuse him alone as our most lasting valuable chief Good To imitate as far as we can the Loyal Angels that surround his Throne in Postures full of Reverence and Submission that wait to know his Command and when 't is once revealed delay not but with a swift Motion execute his Pleasure To observe his Laws to celebrate his Praise to acquiesce in all his Dealings and Procedures with us to think of Him with the most elevated Apprehensions to mount as high as we can in our Contemplation of his glorious adorable Excellencies and then to descend and lie low in the humble Sense of our short scanty Thoughts to make Him the constant delightful Object of our Meditation This is to remember God and is the same with being truly Religious the mark of all sincere holy Persons whereas to forget him is to be wicked and to bear the stamp of Hell Psal 9.17 II. The second thing in order is to shew what Engagements we are under to remember our Creator First All the Faculties and Powers of our Souls are given us to this end and purpose The great Creator of the World has made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 and us much more who as far exceed all inferiour Creatures as Angels do Men and the Sun the lesser Lights He has beautified our Natures with so many Resemblances of his own glorious Perfections that we cannot look upon our Frame but we must view the fair Draughts of a kind and skillful Hand and when we see that they exceed all the best Essays of Art conclude they were drawn there by the Finger of the Lord who is upon this account worthy to be remembred Our Creator has endowed us with a sprightly Vigor and a Power of moving beyond all sensible exteriour Things that we may pass these by as too inglorious and mean for our Consideration and that when we see the World even in its best Cloaths and Furniture in all its Pomp and Splendor unable fully to content our Thoughts we may with a generous Disdain act like the Spectators of a better Place and soar as on Eagles Wings from these low Regions of Unquietness and Fear to the Seat of that one solid and eternal Good who can alone satisfy the boundless Desires of the Soul and ought to be the first Object of our Choice Have we a Spirit that is in its sublime Nature not only allied to Angels but to God himself and shall we forget our honourable Kindred or fix our Minds on these Vanities below when we have a Being that is all beautiful and lovely to think upon Our thinking Powers and our Affections stream'd from his ever-flowing Goodness and therefore should like the Rivers that owe their Being to the Sea make haste to pass through the Earth and return again thither Wherefore have we this Living immaterial Substance this glorious Inhabitant in our earthly Tabernacles sent from yonder World but that it may be mindful of its illustrious Descent of the Author of its Being and strive to shake off its Chains and to return to that happy Land again Wherefore are we assigned our abode here but to be the humble Spectators of our Maker's Wisdom and to yield him Praise and that while we see the World enriched with so many wonders of the divine Power and Goodness we may contemplate and adore the Creator of it Our heaven-born Spirits are design'd for a nobler Work than to gaze upon the small glimmering Appearances of Good and Pleasure here below and when we see all Sublunary things changing with a continual Vicissitude ebbing and flowing and scarcely for one day the same we ought to fix our whole Aim on him that is unchangeable Heb. 12.9 on him that is the Father of our Spirits that when the diseased crazy World shall give up the Ghost will inspire them with Life and Health 1 Cor. 7.31 that will cloath them in new Robes when the Fashion of these present things shall pass away and when this cheating fallacious Earth Psal 102 26. and the visible Heavens themselves shall wax old and like a Vesture be changed Shall we not remember our Creator when we have innumerable Instances of his Munificence and Bounty we are warm'd with his Beams see with his Light and shall we either shut our Eyes against him or turn them to meaner Objects when we have him always to look upon Besides this the very Frame of our earthly Dwelling which is so well fitted for all the noble Uses and Operations of the Soul should engage us to remember that wise Builder that has in fair and legible Characters set his own great Name upon it so that he that runs may read there the wonderful Wisdom and the Power of God This was the Employment of the Royal Prophet of all others most devout when he considered that he was fearfully made Psal 139 14. he breaths out the Desires of an Heart enflamed with sincere Love O God when I awake Vers 18. I am still with thee As soon as ever Sleep left his Eyes they were lifted up to Heaven and his Breast was filled with new Meditations of the great Wisdom and the Power of God The Soul of Man as * Dr. More in his Antidote against Atheism ch xi p. 61. one observes is as it were a compendious Statue of the Deity her Substance is a sollid Effigies of God And therefore as with Ease we may consider the Substance and Motions of the vast Heavens on a little Sphere So we may with like Facility contemplate the Almighty in this little Medal of God the Soul of Man Secondly
The Care that our Creator takes of us in this World should engage us to remember him When he thought fit to tye the Marriage-knot between Martal and Immortal the Body and the Soul like an indulgent kind Father he before-hand provided all Accommodations that might be for the mutual Comfort of the loving Couple and is it not fit we should remember so great a Benefactor so kind a Friend He is our Landlord we his Tenants that hold all that we have on his Grant and shall we not acknowledg his Dominion and Soveraignty and pay him with delight this small and easy Tribute His Love to us surpasses the Love of Men or Women He lets us still abide in these Houses of Clay though we run behind and fail in the payment of that Homage he requires He bears our Affronts with Patience he tries us yet longer whilst we ingrateful Cratures can find in our Hearts to put off our best Friend only with good Words with fair Promises and vain Delays He prolongs our Days and gives us more time when his Justice might ere this have seiz'd upon us for our Arrears when we deserved to be cast into an eternal Prison and to be turn'd out of this World and Heaven both at once We are fed with his Bread clothed with his Wool all our Enjoyments our Friends our Health our Peace are his Gift and ought we not to remember the Donor of so many Mercies If the Rain and the Dew moisten and refresh the Ground 't is for our good if the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field are maintain'd by the constant Supplies of his Providence 't is for us So that all the Creatures the Fowls of Heaven the Fishes of the Sea the Sun Moon and Stars that are the Lamps hung upon the Roof of our Dwelling to make our Lives the more sweet and comfortable nay the Day and the Night and the several Seasons of the Year utter their Voice Psal 19.2 and early and late call upon us to remember God The Language of all our Mercies is this that our Creator and their Parent is worthy to be lov'd and thought upon And if some of the Eastern Nations paid their early Devotions to the Sun * Vâ—ssius de origine progressu Idololatriae lib. 2. cap. 2. because of its Greatness and Splendor and Usefulness in cherishing and ripening the Fruits of the Earth with its kindly Beams because of its refreshing Heat and Comfortable Light How should we consecrate the Morning of our Age to God who made that so bright so useful and so glorious a Creature as it is and is much more by his favourable Influences to every one of us than the Sun is to the World He that has been long sick will remember the Physician by whose Skill and good Advice he obtain'd a Cure He that has by the help of his Friend been freed from a long and tedious Captivity will all his days with a thankful Heart remember that Friend The Pilgrim will remember him that gives him Entertainment in his Travel the Poor his Benefactor And shall not we then remember our Creator who when we were fallen among Thieves and Robbers among the savage Inhabitants of the miserable Place who had left us as they thought for dead having stript us of our Innocence sent his own Son to heal our Wounds and to cloath us with the Garments of Salvation When we were by our own Folly like to languish all our Days in Bondage and a dark mournful State he sent the Angel of the Govenant to strike off our Chains and to yield us so much of heavenly Light that we might both see who it was that set open the Prison Door and where the way lay that would conduct us to a better place When we had sold our selves he bought us again at a great and dear Price 1 Pet. 1.19 The Blood of his own Son When we were poor he open'd the Treasures of Heaven to make us rich and to supply our Wants How frequently then ought we to remember such a God that when we had turn'd our selves out of Happiness was willing to sheath his flaming Sword and to let us enter into the Joys of a better Paradise than that which was the Seat of our first Parents That sent us the News of Pardon when we were condemn'd by the Sentence of the Law even when Satan was leading us away to Execution and when we deserved to dy III. The third General to be spoken of is to shew what necessity there is that we should remember our Creator now in the days of our Youth And this will be evident when he have considered those two things First We know not but before the days of old Age Death may cut us off There be many Young Men that are now past all help and have set in Darkness that might have been shining among the Stars above had they not been over-perswaded by the Devil to neglect their God through the hopes of a long and easie Life that would never believe they were in danger till it came like an Armed Man never believe they should leave the World till they were seiz'd with the last Agonies and Pains of Death We are now in Health but do we know how soon a mortal incurable Distemper may seize upon us We are now travelling on the Road but do we know when we shall arrive at our long home and conclude our Journey Now we are in the number of the Living but ere long we may increase the number of the Dead and add some Unites more to the Weekly Bills We should remember our Creator now for the next Moment is not our own our Life is a Dream or Vision of the Night Job 20.8 that is possest with strange Delusions that when we awake to a serious Thoughtfulness of what is our real Interest pass away 1 Chron. 29.15 and are not remembred with Delight any more Our Days on Earth are as a Shadow that will vanish when the Sun is either gone down or when 't is wrapt in the Mantle of a thick Cloud Though we are now at ease in these Cottages of Clay yet we are here only by Permission and during the Pleasure of our Lord but when our Lease will expire or the day of our Departure come we know not Heb. 9.27 It is by the unalterable Decrees of God appointed for us all once to dy but we that are forbidden to pry into the Arcana's of his secret Counsels know not when that Statute that was made because of our Sin shall be put in Execution and take both our Lives and Goods away Now we have pitch'd our Tents but are not certain when the Orders will be issued out for us to remove into another place Now the Body and the Soul like two loving Friends dwell in Peace together but they must part one into the Grave and the other into a Country that is at a far
distance which we never saw We are Citizens here only by the Grant of our Creator and while we flatter our selves as if the Priviledges and Immunities of this bodily State were long-liv'd he may take away our Charter We are Pilgrims wandring to and fro but with his Pass and he alone knows how long it shall bear its Date It is time for us all now to remember God for in the midst of all the Pleasures and Delights of Life we are near to the Sorrows of the Grave Our Souls must go when he calls and how shall we be able to look him in the Face if we should be cited to his Bar while we remain in a careless delatory Posture Let none then say That on the Morrow or in the next Week or the next Year I will remember God for your Thoughts may perish and you may be dead before While you linger the Cloud that is but small at present may swell into a hugh bulk and dissolve in a mighty Storm while you are idle the Glass runs and ere long the Clock that warns you to arise betimes and mind your God and your Souls will strike its last and then the door will be shut We should spend our Youthful Days in a serious delightful Contemplation of the Deity in a vigorous quick March to the Land of Glory not knowing but in one minute in one hour more Death with his large train of Terrors may beat up our Quarters and vvhile vve suspect no ill carry us captive to the dark Prison of the Grave None of us have received a Protection to secure us from the Arrest and Violence of a sudden Death As the ten Virgins were called in their slumber Mat. 25.5 6. and at Midnight so God has neither promised nor is obliged to send us a Summons by a long tedious Sickness or by sharp Pains before we make our Appearance at his Tribunal where we shall by an irrevocable Sentence be adjudged to Bliss or Woe If we then hope for a place in Glory we must now remember God The Work if we expect Eternal Happiness must once be done why should it not then commence in our best time such is the time of Youth If we delay to another season are we sure that will come or that we shall not be called out of the Vineyard when we thought to have wrought out our Salvation with fear and trembling 'T is fit our Eyes should now be fixt on our Creator for we know not how soon these Windows will be shut in and a thick Night of Darkness come upon us When we think our Mountain setled on durable Foundations that will not be removed an Earthquake may come and throw it and us both out of our place We may be on the brink of Ruine when we think it is far off So has many a Ship sail'd with a prosperous and favourable Gale the Mariners rejoycing till it immediately split upon a Rock and was dash'd in pieces While we go fearless along our earthen Vessel may by some unexpected Accident fall and crack then all our hopes of long Life will be as Water spilt upon the Ground and not be fit for service any more Secondly We ought to remember our Creator now in the days of our Youth for when the evil days the days of old Age come it will be difficult if not impossible to perform well so great a Work By delaying we twist much harder the Cords of our Iniquity which now might be suapt asunder with an easy labour If we now surrender to the Devil and once give him Possession he will scarce be forc'd out again with all our after Pains Is it now so laborious an Enterprize to conquer Sin and will it not be much more so when it shall by our Neglect and Forgetfulness of God obtain fresh Auxiliaries and Supplies even from our own Garrisons and fight against us with greater Violence If one single Sin put a serious Christian when he is young and most fit to manage the spiritual Armour to so much Pain and Trouble to so many sad Hour's Tears and Prayers to how much greater Labor will they be expos'd that shall have as many Sins to combate with as the Hours the Days and the Weeks they have lived on Earth If we find it difficult to wrestle with these Enemies in their Infancy how do we think to gain the Victory when they are grown to a full Stature and a more formidable Power Have we not long enough already slighted the just and equitable Laws of God or shall we in despite of all his Warnings the Motions of his Holy Spirit and the Checks of our own Consciences still be rebellious and do the same They that begin soonest are but hardly saved and do we think to accomplish our Journey well though we set out for Heaven but in the Evening of the Day Do we think to be Candidates for Glory at last if till the Night come we spend our Strength in the way that leads to Ruine Is it not better to quench the Fire at the first than to stay till it grow to a mighty Flame and scorn all the Methods we can use to quench it Is it not better to seek an Antidote against that Poyson which we have imbibed because it was pleasant and gilded over than to stay till it seize our vital Parts and our Case will admit of no Remedy Is it prudent or safe not to endeavour to act our part well till we are just going off the Stage not to think of walking in the ways of God till we are taking our last Step and which will set us within the next World Do we expect to take our Voiage well in Winter when we have by our Carelessness let the Summer Season pass away Do we think when our Eyes are blind with Age that we cannot find our way from home without a Guide that we shall be able in the midst of Darkness to find our way to Glory Or that when our Hands will be seized with a trembling Palsy that we can lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6.12 What Benefit shall we have by the Manna that comes down from Heaven if we cannot go out and gather it though it be scattered at the door of our Tent Do we think to call upon God well when we shall hardly have Strength enough left to tell our Friends that we are ill Eccles 12.2 or to fetch a Groan when the Clouds return after the Rain and when one Trouble is hardly gone till a worse come Can we draw Water out of the Wells of Salvation when the Silver Cord will be loosed Vers 6. and the Pitcher broken at the Fountain Do we think we shall be pleasing to God when we shall be tedious to others and weary of our selves and have no pleasure in the Years of our Life Or can we believe that when we have been all our days crippled with Sin he will for our Cure work
that attended on his Weakness to read the Scripture to him when he could not reach it with his own Hand he desired others to administer to him that Bread of Life He was much in Prayer in the midst of his restless Nights and strong Pains resolving as long as he could to lift up those Eyes to Heaven which he believed would shortly be closed by Death and to spend that Breath in Desires after Grace which was every Moment ready to be stop'd Thus while his Body was detained on his Bed by various Pains his Soul was swiftly moving towards its proper Center And though by the Violence of his Disease he was somewhat stupified for a little while before he died yet while his Sences continued free in their Exercise he did with the bitter Cryes of a Penitent bewail his Sins expressing a great Hatred of them and a holy Indignation against himself Sometimes when he was told of Comfort he would mournfully say You know not what I feel My Sins ly very heavy on me my Sickness is not all nor is the Anguish of my Body so great as the Anguish of my Soul God gave him a very sensible tender Conscience which though it be grievous for a while yet is a great Mercy if compared with the great Judgment of an hard unmelting Heart which many Sinners both young and old are punish'd with so that even when they are on the Rack they do not confess their Sins nor seek after God He was greatly troubled And thus a loving Physician searches to the bottom of the Sore and puts his Patient especially when the Wounds are of a long Continuance to more then ordinary Pain that he may perform a great Cure When a Cloud of Despair seem'd to obscure his Comfort being told of the Pity and the Love of Christ to the greatest Sinners the Thoughts of his Saviour revived his dying Hopes and made him willing to pass through Darkness to Light through Pain to Rest saying I desire the Blood of Christ to cure all my internal Maladies And at another time said he desired him above all things The Night before his last he lay very Unquiet expressing a great sense of Trouble with many Sighs and Groans his Nurse rightly guessing that these were the Signs of something greatly afflictive to him advised him to ease his Mind which he immediately after did to him under whose Care he was with a serious Profession of Sorrow for the Sins he then Confessed and which he then found to be a great Burthen on his Conscience though they had been Committed long before The day before desiring the Prayers of the same Person and being ask'd what he would have begg'd of God for him He answer'd That God would shew his great Mercy on him in pardoning his Sins and healing his Soul and removing his spiritual Maladies owning with a due Sorrow his Sins of Omission and Commission and those which he had committed against the holy Spirit that would have reclaimed him from them He called to mind several suitable places of Scripture even beyond Expectation and very pertinently applyed them to the Necessities of his own Case which argued that he was no Stranger to that Rule which can more then all others teach a young Man best how to cleanse his Waies and to Remember God and at last said that he would be very willing to dye if he might have a Sense of the Mercies of Christ and of Pardon Which we have good ground to hope he did not come short of These were the Speeches and this the Behaviour of this dying young Man And lest any may be troubled to think that after so many Prayers and serious Endeavours as he used he should have so many Doubts and Fears about his Title to Forgiveness and a happy State I will add this viz. That it is greatly to be Considered that Satan whom the Scripture calls a Lyon when the Evening of Time is come to any Soul marches out of his Den and is then more full of Rage and Violence then he was before and as dying Bees or Serpents thrust out their Stings with greater vehemence so does he use the greater Force when he knows his time is but short He troubles the Souls of good People with dark and mournful Apprehensions of God and their own Condition when he sees them just at the Door of Heaven at which when they once enter his Spite is over and he can do no more Many Christians he thus Assaults that are of a long standing in the Vineyard and therefore it is not to be wondered if he thus tost to and fro this young Man who was but as a tender Plant. He had indeed a laborious Conflict and an hard Passage but we may well hope that it was but to him as a dark Night before a clear Day and that his Troubles here were but as the sharp Sauce the better to prepare his Appetite for the sweeter Tast of Happiness Many a time the Sun that sets in a Cloud does arise in Glory and many a Ship at last arrives to a quiet Harbour that met with Waves and Storms and high Winds all the way thither Let us also by this Example be perswaded to Remember our Creator now in the Days of our Youth while the evil Days come not For we see 't is he alone that can speak Peace and that to him alone we must go at last for Comfort who can heal our wounded Spirits and bear us up when if we should look to all our Friends they can only bewail our sad Case but not remove our Sorrows If we do this Mal. 3.16 17. he will write our Names in his Book of Remembrance and in that day when he makes up his Jewels he will spare us as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him Ps 33.26 And when our Heart and our Flesh fails he will be the Strength of our Heart and our Portion for ever We may now see that all the Delights and Pleasures of the World are of no value and but miserable Comforters in the time of spiritual Distress from the sense of Sin and Guilt they will yield us then no Solace no peaceable Thoughts no Refreshment but our God is worthy to be thought upon who can by his Grace and Favour uphold and Bless the departing Soul To you that were the Acquaintance of the Deceas'd I shall only say this now you have stronger Engagements upon you to Remember your Creator then you had before for he has by the death of your Companion sent you a near and a loud Warning to prepare for your own He had but a little if any Sickness at all before that which proved his last Flatter not then your selves with the too great Hopes of long Life because of your present Health and Strength For though your earthly Tabernacles have not been undermin'd with many Infirmities and Diseases yet you know not but the first Storm that comes may shatter them