The Cure of the Fear of Death, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Shewing the miseries of life in wicked men.
NOW it followes, that I should breake open the miseries of life; the consideration whereof should abate in vsus this wretched louelove of life.
The miseries of life The miseries of life two waies considered.may bee two waies considered; for they are of two sorts: First, either such miseries, as loade the life of Nature: secondly, or such miseries, as do molest the very life of Grace.
The miseries, that accompany The miseries of a naturall life shewed three waies.the naturall life of man, while hee remaines in the state of Nature onelyonly, who can recount? I will giuegive but a briefe touch of some heads of them.
First, thinke of thy sins: and so three dreadfull Three dreadfull considerations about sin.things may amaze thy thoughts: For first, thou art guilty of Adams sinne; For by that man sinne came in vponupon all men, euen the guilt of his sinne: Rom. 5. 12. Secondly, thy nature is altogether vile, and abominable from thy birth, thou wast conceiued in sinne, Psal. 51. 4. And this staine and leprosie hangs on fast vponupon thy nature, and cannot bee cured, but by the bloud of Christ onelyonly, Heb. 12. 1. And this is seated in all the faculties of thy soule: For in thy mind there is ignorance, and impotency to receiue knowledge; and a naturall approuing of euill and errour, rather then the truth and sound doctrine. Those waies seeme good in thine eyes, which tend vntounto death: 1. Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. 2. Cor. 3. 5. Prou. 14. 12. And this thou maist perceiue by this, that thou art not able to thinke a good thought, but canst go free for daies and weekes, without any holy cogitation; and besides, thy minde is infinitely prone to swarmes of euill thoughts: Gen. 6. 5.
Againe, if thou behold thy conscience, it is impure, polluted, without light, or life, or glory in thee, shut vp in a dungeon, excusing thee in many faultes, and accusing thee for things are not faultes, but in thy conceit: and when it doth accuse thee for sinne, it rageth & falleth mad with vnbrideled fury and terrors, keeping no boundes of hope or mercy.
Further, if thou obserue thy affections, they are altogether impotent in that which is good, there is no lust in thee after that which is good, & yet they are all out of order, and prone to continuall rebellion against God, ready to be fiered by all the inticements of the world, or the Deuill: Phil. 2. 13. Gala. 5. 24. Thirdly, vntounto these, adde thy innumerable actuall sins, which are more then the haires of thy head, multiplied daily in thought, affection, word, & deed, the least of them deseruing hel fire for euer, thy sins of Infancy, youth, old-age, sinnes of omission and commission: sinnes in prosperitie and aduersity; sinnes at home & abroad; sinnes of infirmity & presumption. If Dauid looking vponupon his sins, could say, They hauehave so compassed mee, and taken such hold of me, that I am not able to looke vp? Oh then, if thou haddest sight, and sence! how might'st thou much more cry out of the intolerable burthen of them; and the rather, if thou obserue, that many of thy corruptions raigne tyrannically, & hauehave subdued thy life to their vassalage, so as thou art in continuall slauery to them.
Thus is thy life infested with these vnspeakable inordinations: and thus of the first part of thy infelicity in life.
Secondly, if thou obserue, but how God hath auenged himselfe vponupon them, & what yet remaineth vntounto thee, how can thy heart sustaine it selfe? For,
1. Thou art a banished man, exiled frō Paradise, and made to liue without hope to returne thither: The best part of the earth thou shalt neuer enioy.
2. The earth is cursed to thee, and it may bee a wofull spectacle to see all the creatures subiect to vanity, and smitten vvith the strokes of God for thy sinne, and groning daily round about thee.
3. Look vponupon thy most miserable soule; for there thy mind and conscience liue shut vp with darknes and horror. The Diuels hauehave within thee strong holds, and liue entrenched in thy thoughts, Eph. 4. 17. 2. Cor. 10. 5. Thy heart is spiritually dead, and like a stone within thee, Eph. 2. 1. Ezech. 36. 27.
4. Thy body is wretched through deformities, and infirmities, diuersly noisome to thee with paines that greeue thee, either in respect of labour, or diseases, vntounto which thou art so prone; & there is no part or ioynt of thee, but is liable to many kindes of diseases, Deut. 28. 21, 22. Gen. 3. 19. And of the labours of thy life, which is but the least part of thy bodily miseries, Salomon saith, All things are full of labour, who can vtter it? And for that reason, life is but a vanity and vexation, Eccl. 1. 18.
5. If thou looke vponupon thy outward estate in the world, with what fearefull frights may thy heart be griped? If thou consider
1. The cōmon, or generall, or publike plagues with which God fights against the world, as wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilence, and yeerely diseases, inundations of waters, and infinite such like.
2. The particular crosses, with which hee vexeth thee in particular, either with losses of thy estate, or the troubles of thy family, Deut. 28. 15, 16, &c.
3. The praeterition of God, restraining many good things frō thee, so as thou wantest many of those blessings of all sorts, which yet God doth bestow vponupon others, Esa. 59. 1, 2. Iere. 5. 25.
4. The cursing of thy blessings, whē God blasts the gifts of thy mind, that thou canst not vse them for any contentment of thy life, or makes thy prosperity to be the occasion of thy ruine, Mala. 2. 3. Eccles. 5. 13. This is a sore euill.
Lastly, consider yet further what may fall vponupon thee, in respect of which thou art in daily danger. There are seas of vvrath, which hang ouer thy head, Iohn 3. 36. and God may plague thee with the terrors of conscience, like Cain, Gene. 4. 14. Or with a reprobate sense, or the spirit of slumber, Ioh. 12. 4. Rom. 11. 8. strong illusions, 2 Thes. 2. 11. or such other like dreadfull spirituall iudgements: Besides many other fearefull iudgements, which thy heart is not able to conceiue of, as painefull diseases in the body, or an vtter ruine in thy estate, or good name: but aboue al other things, the remembrance of the fearefull iudgement of Christ, & the euerlasting paines of Hell, with a miserable death, should cō pel thee to cry out, O men, and brethren! what shall I doe to be saued, and get out of this estate?
But because it is my purpose heere chiefely to perswade with godly mē, & not with naturall men, and because death it selfe is no ease vntounto such men, that liue in their sins without repentance, who hauehave reason to loath life, and yet no cause to louelove death, I passe frō them, & come to the life of godly men, and say, they hauehave great reason to loath life, & desire the day of death.