The Saints Everlasting Rest, Treatise 4 · Chapter 2

The Saints Everlasting Rest · Treatise 4 · Chapter 2

p. 574CHAP. II. USE. VII. Reproving our unwillingness to Dye.

§. 1.SECT. I.

IS there a Rest remaining for the people of God? Why are we then so loth to dye, and to depart from hence that we may possesse this Rest? If I may judg of others hearts by my own, we are exceeding guilty in this point. We linger, as Lot in Sodome, till God being merciful to us, doth pluck us away against our wills. How rare is it to meet with a Christian, though of strongest parts and longest profession, that can dye with an unfeigned willingness! Especially if worldly calamity constrain them not to be willing! Indeed, we sometime set a good face on it, and pretend a willingness when we see there is no remedy; and that our unwillingness is only a disgrace to us, but will not help to prolong our lives: But if God had enacted such a law for the continuance of our lives on earth, as is enacted for the continuance of the Parliament, that we should not be dissolved till our own pleasure; and that no man should dye till he were truly p. 575willing; I fear Heaven might be empty for the most of us, and if our worldly prosperity did not fade, our lives on earth would be very long, if not eternal. We pretend desires of being better pre…a…e… and of doing God some greater service, and to that end we beg on yeer more, and another, and another, but still our promised preparation and service is as far to seek as ever before, and we remain as unwilling to dye, as we were when we begged our first R…p…vall.For meer moral considerations against the fear of death read Charon of Wisdom. l. 2. c. 11. If God were not more willing of our company, then we are of his, how long should we remain thus distant from him? And as we had never been sanctified if God had stayed till we were willing; so if he should refer it wholly to our selves, it would at least be long before we should be glorified. I confesse that Death of it self is not desirable; but the souls Rest with God is, to which death is the common passage. And because we are apt to make light of this sin, and to plead our common nature for to patronize it; let me here set before you its aggravations, and also propound some further considerations which may be useful to you and my self against it.

SECT. II.§. 2.

ANd first consider, What a deal of gross infidelity doth lurk in the bowels of this sin? Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness, and of the truth of the Scripture which doth promise it to us; or at least a doubting of our own interest, or most usually somewhat of both these. And though Christians are usually most sensible of the latter, and therefore complain most against it; yet I am apt to suspect the former to be the main radicall master sin, and of greatest force in this business. O, if we did but verily believe, that the promise of this glory is the word of God, and that God doth truly mean as he speaks, and is fully resolved to make it good; if we did verily believe, that there is indeed such blessedness prepared for believers▪ as the Scripture mentioneth; sure we should be as impatient of living, as we are now fearful of dying and should think every day a yeer till our last day should come: We should as hardly refrain from laying violent hands on our selvs, or from the neglecting of the means of our health and life, as we do now from overmuch carefulness and seeking of life by unlawful means. If the eloquent oration of a Philosopher p. 576concerning the souls immortality and the life to come could make his affected hearer, presently to cast himself head long from the rock, as impatient of any longer delay; what would a serious Christians belief do, if Gods Law against self murder did not restrain? Is it possible that we can truly believe, that death will remove us from misery to such glory, and yet be loth to dye? If it were the doubts of our own interest, which did fear us; yet a true belief of the certainty and excellency of this Rest, would make us restless till our interest be cleared. If a man that is desperately sick to day, did believe he should arise sound the next morning; or a man to day in despicable poverty, had assurance that he should to morrow arise a prince; would they be afraid to go to bed? Or rather think it the longest day of their lives, till that desired night and morning come? The truth is, though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths, yet there is much infidelity and paganisme in our hearts, which is the maine cause, that we are so loth to dye.

§. 3.SECT. III

3. ANd as the weakness of our Faith, so also the coldness of our Love is exceedingly discovered by our unwillingness to dye. Love doth desire the neerest conjunction, the fullest fruition, and closest communion; Where these desires are absent, there is only a naked pretence of Love: He that ever felt such a thing as Love working in his brest, hath also felt these desires attending it. If we love our friend, we love his company: his presence is comfortable; his absence is troublesome: when he goes from us, we desire his return: when he comes to us, we entertain him with welcome, and gladness: when he dyes, we mourn, and usually over-mourn:Amicus animae dimidium. Aug. to be separated from a faithful friend, is to us as the renting of a member from our bodyes; And would not our desires after God be such, if we really loved him? Nay should it not be much more then such, as he is above all friends most lovely? The Lord teach us to look closely to our hearts, and take heed of self-deceit in this point: For certainly what ever we pretend or conceit, if we love either Father, Mother, Husband, Wife, Childe, Friend, Wealth,Mat. 10.37.Matt 10:37 or life more then Christ, we are yet none of his sincere Disciples. When it comes to the tryall, the question will not be, p. 577Who hath preached most, or heard most, or talked most? but who hath loved most? when our account is given in, Christ will not take Sermons, Prayers, Fastings, no, nor the giving of our goods, nor the burning of our bodies in stead of love, 1 Cor. 13.1, 2,Solus est qui sine Amico est. Aust. 3, 4, 8, 13. & 16.22. Ephes. 6.24. And do we love him, and yet care not how long we are from him? If I be deprived of my bosom friend, me thinks I am as a man in a wilderness, solitary, and disconsolate: And is my absence from God, no part of my trouble? and yet can I take him for my chiefest friend? If I delight but in some Garden, or Walk, or Gallery, I would be much in it: If I love my Books, I am much with them, and almost unweariedly poaring on them. The food which I love▪ I would often feed on; the clothes that I love, I would often wear; the recreations which I love, I would often use them; the business which I love, I would be much employed in: And can I love God, and that above all these; and yet have no desires to be with him? Is it not a far likelier sign of hatred then of love; when the thoughts of our appearing before God, are our most grievous thoughts; and when we take our selves as undone, because we must die and come unto him? Surely, I should scarce take him for an unfeigned friend, who were as well contented to be absent from me, as we ordinarily are to be absent from God. Was it such a joy to Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt? and shall we so dread the sight of Christ in glory? and yet say we love him? I dare not conclude, that we have no love at all, when we are so loth to die. But I dare say, were our love more, we should die more willingly. Yea, I dare say, Did we love God, but as strongly, as a worldling loves his wealth, or an ambitious man his honor, or a voluptuous man his pleasure; yea, as a drunkard loves his swinish delight, or an unclean person his bruitish lust: We should not then be so exceeding loth to leave the world, and go to God. O, if this holy flame of love were throughly kindled in our brests, in stead of our pressing fears, our dolorous complaints, and earnest prayers against death, we should joyn in Davids Wilderness-lamentations, Psal. 42.1, 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God: My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? The truth is, As our knowledg of God, is exceeding dark, and our faith in him, exceeding feeble; so is our love to him but little, and therefore are our desires after him so dull.

p. 578§. 4.SECT. IV.

3. IT appears we are little weary of sinning, when we are so unwilling to be freed by dying. Did we take sin for the greatest evil, we should not be willing of its company so long; did we look on sin as our cruellest enemy, and on a sinful life, as the most miserable life; sure we should then be more willing of a change. But O, how far are our hearts from our doctrinal profession, in this point also! We preach and write, and talk against sin and call it all that naught is; and when we are called to leave it, we are loth to depart: We brand it with the most odious names that we can imagine, (and all far short of expressing its vileness;) but when the approach of death puts us to the tryal, we chuse a continuance with these abominations, before the presence and fruition of God.Plutarch. in Apotheg. Cum Schegius Medicus caecus ficret, patienter fert, Quia, inquit, multa in vitâ vidi, quae maluissem non videre. Optavi ad nonnulla etiam fuisse surdum. But as Nemon smote his Souldier for railing against Alexander his enemy, saying, I hired thee to fight against him, and not to rail against him: So may God smite us also, when he shall hear our tongues reviling that sin, which we resist so slothfully, and part with so unwillingly. Christians, seeing we are conscious that our hearts deserve a smiting for this, let us joyn together, to chide and smite our own hearts, before God do judg and smite them. O foolish sinful heart! Hast thou been so long a sink of sin, a cage of all unclean lusts, a fountain uncessantly streaming forth the bitter and deadly waters of transgression? and art thou not yet aweary? Wretched Soul! hast thou been so long wounded in all thy faculties? so grievously languishing in all thy performances? so fruitful a soyl for all iniquities? and art thou not yet more weary? Hast thou not yet transgressed long enough? nor long enough provoked thy Lord? nor long enough abused love? wouldst thou yet grieve the Spirit more? and sin against thy Saviours blood? and more increase thine own wounds? and still lie under thy grievous imperfections? Hath thy sin proved so profit able a commodity? so necessary a companion? such a delightful employment? that thou dost so much dread the parting day? Hath thy Lord deserved this at thy hands? that thou shouldst chuse to continue in the Suburbs of …ell, rather then live with him in light? and rather stay and drudg in sin, and abide with his and thy own professed enemy, then come away and dwell with God? p. 579May not God justly grant thee thy wishes, and seal thee a lease of thy desired distance, and nail thy ear to these doors of misery, and exclude thee eternally from his glory? Foolish sinner! who hath wronged thee? God, or sin? who hath wounded thee, and caused thy groans? who hath made thy life so woful? and caused thee to spend thy days in dolor? is it Christ, or is it thy corruption? and art thou yet so loth to think of parting? shall God be willing to dwell with man? and the Spirit to abide in thy peevish heart? and that where sin doth straiten his room, and a cursed inmate inhabit with him, which is ever quarrelling and contriving against him? and shall man be loth to come to God, where is nothing but perfect Blessedness and Glory? Is not this to judg our selves unworthy of everlasting Life? If they in Acts 13.46. who put the Gospel from them, did judg themselves unworthy; do not we who flie from life and glory?

SECT. V.§. 5.

4. IT shews that we are insensible of the vanity of the Creature,Inquit, Plate rus ille Felix, aegrotus, Fin…m fac dolorum Domine: Sordent enim mihi omaia terrena: Vtinam. utinam vel hoc momento h…ra meae mortis instarct: Ex animo cupio dissolvi, & esse cum Christo. and of the vexation accompanying our residence here, when we are so loth to hear, or think of a removal. VVhat ever we say against the world, or how grievous soever our complaints may seem; we either beleeve not, or feel not what we say, or else we should be answerably affected to it. VVe call the world our enemy, and cry out of the oppression of our Task-masters, and groan under our sore bondage; but either we speak not as we think, or else we imagine some singular happiness, to consist in the possession of worldly things; for which, all this should be endured. Is any man loth to leave his prison? or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies? or to scape the hands of murderous robbers? Do we take the world indeed for our prison? our cruel, spoyling▪ murderous foe? and yet are we loth to leave it? Do we take this flesh for the clog of our spirits? and a vail thats drawn betwixt us and God? and a continual in dwelling traitor to our souls? and yet are we loth to lay it down?Acts 12.7, 8, 9.Acts 12:7Acts 12:8Acts 12:9 Indeed Peter was smitten by the Angel, before he arose and left his prison; but it was more from his ignorance of his intended deliverance, then any unwillingness to leave the place. I have read of Josephs long imprisonment; and Daniels casting into the Den of Lyons; and Jeremies sticking fast in the p. 580Dungeon; and Jonahs lying in the belly of the VVhale; and David from the deep crying to God; but I remember not that any were loth to be delivered. I have read indeed, That they suffered cheerfully,Heb. 11.Heb 11 and rejoyced in being afflicted, destitute and tormented; yea, and that some of them would not accept of deliverance: But not from any love to the suffering, or any unwillingness to change their condition; but because of the hard terms of their deliverance,Acts 16.25. Compara nunc si placeat hanc vitam cum illa. Elige si potes perpetuam corp…ris vitam in labore, aerumnaque miserabili tantarum commutation…i votorumque laedio, fastidio voluptatum. Dum si Deus ista perpetuare velit, illa diligeres? Nam si per se vita fugienda est, ut sit molesliarum fuga requies aerumnarum, quanto magis ea requies est expetenda, cui futurae resurrectionis voluptas perpetua succedet? Vbi nulla criminum series, nulla illecebra delictorum. Ambros. lib. de Ressurect. John 16.20, 33.Acts 16:25John 16:20John 16:33 and from the hope they had of a better resurrection. Though Paul and Sylas could sing in the stocks, and comfortably bear their cruel scourgings; yet I do not beleeve they were unwilling to go forth; nor took it ill when God relieved them. At foolish wretched soul! Doth every prisoner groan for freedom? and every Slave desire his Jubilee? and every sick man long for health? and every hungry man for food? and dost thou alone abhor deliverance? Doth the Seamen long to see the Land? doth the Husbandman desire the Harvest? and the laboring man to receive his pay? doth the traveller long to be at home? and the runner long to win the prize? and the Souldier long to win the field? And art thou loth to see thy labors finished? and to receive the end of thy Faith, and sufferings? and to obtain the thing, for which thou livest? Are all thy sufferings onelyonly seeming? have thy gripes, thy griefs and groans, been onelyonly dreams? if they were, yet methinks we should not be afraid of waking: Fearful dreams are not delightful. Or is it not rather the worlds delights, that are all meer dreams and shadows? Is not all its glory, as the light of a Glow-worm, a wandering fire, yielding but small directing light, and as little comforting heat in all our doubtful, and sorrowful darkness? or hath the world In these its latter days, laid aside its ancient enmity? Is it become of late more kinde? hath it left its thorny renting nature? who hath wrought this great change? and who hath made this reconciliation? Surely, not the great Reconciler: He hath told us, in the world we shall have trouble, and in him onelyonly, we shall have peace. VVe may reconcile our selves to the world (at our peril) but it will never reconcile it self to us. O foolish unworthy soul! who hadst rather dwell in this land of darkness, and rather wander in this barren wilderness, then be at rest with Jesus Christ! who hadst rather stay among the VVolves, and daily suffer the Scorpions stings, then to praise the Lord with the Hosts of Heaven! If thou didst well know what Heaven is, and what Earth is, it would not be so.

p. 581SECT. VI.§. 6.

5. THis unwillingness to dye, doth actually impeach us of high Treason against the Lord: Is it not a chusing of Earth before him? and taking these present things for our happiness? and consequently making them our very God? If we did indeed make God our God, that is, our End, our Rest, our Portion, our Treasure; how is it possible but we should desire to enjoy him? It behoves us the rather to be fearful of this, it being utterly inconsistent with saving Grace to value any thing before God, or to make the Creature our highest End: Many other sins foul and great may possibly yet consist with sincerity, but so, I am certain, cannot that. But concerning this I have spoke before.

SECT. VII.§. 7.

6. ANd all these defects being thus discovered, what a deal of dissembling doth it more over shew? We take on us to believe undoubtedly, the exceeding eternal weight of Glory: We call God our chiefest Good, and say, we love Him above all, and for all this we fly from Him, as if it were from Hell it self; would you have any man believe you, when you call the Lord your onelyonly Hope, and speak of Christ as All in All, and talk of the Joy that is in Presence, and yet would endure the hardest life, rather then dye and come unto him? What self-contradiction is this, to talk so hardly of the world and flesh, to groan and complain of sin and suffering, and yet fear no day more then that which we expect should bring our finall freedom? what shameless gross dissembling is this, to spend so many hours, and dayes, in hearing Sermons, reading Books, conferring with others, and all to learn the way to a place which we are loth to come to? To take on us all our life-time, to walk towards Heaven, to run, to strive, to fight for Heaven, which we are loth to come to? What apparent palpable hypocrysie is this, to lye upon our knees in publike and private, and spend one hour after another in prayer, for that which we would not have? If one should over-hear thee in thy daily devotions, crying out, Lord deliver me from this body of death, from this sin, this sickness, this poverty, these cares and feares, how long Lord shall I suffer these? and withall should hear thee praying p. 582against death; can he believe thy tongue agrees with thy heart? except thou have so far lost thy reason, as to expect all this here; or except the Papists Doctrine were true, that we are able to fulfil the Law of God; or our late Perfectionists are truly enlightned, who think they can live and not sin: but if thou know these to be undoubtedly false, how canst thou deny thy gross dissembling?

§. 8.SECT. VIII.

7. COnsider, how do we wrong the Lord and his Promises, and disgrace his ways in the eyes of the world? As if we would actually perswade, them to question, whether God be true of his Word or no? whether there be any such glory as Scripture mentions? when they see those who have professed to live by Faith, and have boasted of their hopes in another world, and perswaded others to let go all for these hopes, and spoken disgracefully of all things below, in comparison of these unexpressable things above; I say, when they see these very men so loth to leave their hold of present things, and to go to that glory which they talked and boasted of; how doth it make the weak to stagger? and confirm the world in their unbelief and sensuality? and make them conclude, sure if these Professors did expect so much glory, and make so light of the world as they seem, they would not themselves be so loth of a change. O how are we ever able to repai… the wrong which we do to God and poor souls by this scandal? And what an honor to God? what a strengthning to Believers? what a conviction to Unbelievers would it be, if Christians in this did answer their professions, and chearfully welcome the news of Rest?

§. 9.SECT. IX.

8. IT evidently discovers that we have been careless loyterers, that we have spent much time to little purpose,Vltima verba Nobilis And. Dudithii ad Ruterum discedentem verissima: Vale, inquit, & foeliciter vive, & inter. vivendum bene mori disce: quae ars ast artium omnium difficillims, simulque praestantissima. and that we have neglected and lost a great many of warnings. Have we not had all our life time to prepare to die? So many years to make ready for one hour? and are we so unready and unwilling yet? VVhat have we done? why have we lived? that the business of our p. 583lives is so much undone? Had we any greater matters to minde? Have we not foolishly wronged our souls in this? would we have wished more frequent warnings? How oft hath death entered the habitations of our neighbors? how oft hath it knockt at our own doors? we have first heard that such a one is dead, and then such a one, and such a one, till our Towns have changed most of their Inhabitants; And was not all this a sufficient warning, to tell us that we were also Mortals, and our own turn would shortly come? Nay, we have seen death raging in Towns and Fields, so many hundred a day dead of the Pestilence, so many thousands slam of the Sword and did we not know it would reach to us at last? How many distempers have vexed our bodies? frequent Languishings, consuming Weaknesses, wasting Feavers, here pain, and there trouble, that we have been forced to receive the sentence of death; and what were all these but so many Messengers, sent from God to tell us we must shortly dye, as if we had heard a lively voyce, bidding us, Delay no more, but make you ready: And are we unready and unwilling after all this? O careless dead hearted Sinners! unworthy neglecters of Gods Warnings! faithless betrayers of our own souls.

All these hainous aggravations do lye upon this sin of unwillingness to dye, which I have laid down to make it hateful to my own soul (which is too much guilty of it) as well as yours: And for a further help to our prevailing against it, I shall adjoyn these following Considerations.

SECT. X.§. 10.

1. COnsider, [not to dye] were [never to be happy.] To escape death, were to miss of blessedness: Except God should translate us as Henoch and Elias, which he never did before or since▪ 1 Cor. 15.19.1 Cor 15:19If our hopeth in Christ were in this life onelyonly, we were then of all men most miserable. The Epicure hath more pleasure to his Flesh then the Christian; the Drunkard the Whoremaster, and the jovial Lads, do swagger it out with gallantry and mirth, when a poor Saint is mourning in a corner: yea, the very beasts of the field do eat and drink, and skip, & play, and care for nothing, when many a Christian dwels with sorrows: So that if you would not dye, and go to heaven, what would you have more then an Epicure, or a p. 584beast?1 Cor. 15.13, &c.1 Cor 15:13 What doth it availe us to fight with beasts, as men, if it were not for our hopes of a life to come? Why do we pray, and fast, and mourn? why do we suffer the contempt of the world? why are we the scorn and hatred of all? if it were not for our hopes after we are dead? why are we Christians and not Pagans and Infidels, if we do not desire a life to come? why, Christian, wouldst thou lose thy faith? and lose thy labor, in all thy duties, and all thy sufferings? wouldst thou lose thy hope? and lose all the end of thy life? and lose all the blood of Christ? and be contented with the portion of a worldling or a brute? If thou say No, to this, how canst thou then be loth to dye? As good old Milius said when he lay a dying,Melch. Adam. in vita Milij. and was asked whether he were willing to dye or no; Illius est nolle mori, qui nolit ire ad Christum. A saying of Austins which he oft repeated, Let him be loth to dye, who is loth to be with Christ.

§. 11.SECT. XI.

2. COnsider, Is God willing by death to Glorifie us? and are we unwilling to dye that we may be glorified? would God freely give us heaven? and are we unwilling to receive it? As the Prince who would have taken the lame begger into his Coach, and he refused, said to him, Opitimè mereris qui in luto haereas. Thou well deservest to stick in the dirt, So may God to the refusers of Rest; You well deserve to live in trouble. Me thinks if a Prince were willing to make you his heir, you should scarce be unwilling to accept it. Sure the refusing of such a kindness, must needs discover ingratitude and unworthiness. As God hath resolved against them, who make excuses when they should come to Christ, Verily none of these that were bidden shall tast of my supper: So is it just with him to resolve against us, who frame excuses when we should come to Glory.

p. 585SECT. XII.§. 12.

3. THe Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us;Cum dicis, Beate vivere volo, bonam rem quaeris, sed non hìc, si habuit hìc istud Christus, habe & tu, in regione mortis tuae: Quid ille invenit, attende. Venit de alia regione, et quid invenit nisi quod hic abund…roit? labores, dolores, mortem: Ecce quod hìc habes et quod abundat, manducavit tecum. Quod hic in cella miseriae tuae abundavit, acetum hìc bibit, fel hìc bibit: ecce quod in cella tua invenit. At ad magnam mensam te invitavit, mensam solis, mensam Angelorum, ubi ipse panis est. August. sup. Joann. 13. and shall be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for our selves and him? Sure if we had been once possessed of Heaven, and God should have sent …s to earth again, as he did his Son for our sakes, we should then have been loth to remove indeed: It was another kinde of change then ours is, which Christ did freely submit unto; to cloath himself with the garments of flesh, and to take upon him the form of a servant, to come from the bosome of the Fathers Love, to bear his wrath which we should have borne. Shall he come down to our hell? from the height of glory to the depth of misery? to bring us up to his Eternal Rest? and shall we be after this unwilling? Sure Christ had more cause to be unwilling, he might have said, What is it to me if these sinners suffer? If they value their flesh above their spirits, and their lusts above my Fathers Love, if they needs will sell their souls for nought; who is it fit should be the loser? and who should bear the blame and curse? Should I whom they have wronged? must they wilfully transgress my Law? and I undergo their deserved pain? Is it not enough that I bear the trespasse from them, but I must also bear my Fathers wrath? and satisfie the Justice which they have wronged? Must I come down from Heaven to Earth, and cloth my self with humane flesh? be spit upon and scorned by man? and fast, and weep, and sweat, and suffer? and bleed and dye a cursed death? and all this for wretched wormes, who would rather hazard all they had, and venture their souls and Gods favor, then they would forbear but one forbiden morsel? Do they cast away themselves so slightly? and must I redeem them again so dearly? Thus we see that Christ had much to have pleaded against his coming down for man; and yet he pleaded none of this: He had reason enough to have made him unwilling; and yet did he voluntarily condescend. But we have no reason against our coming to him: except we will reason against our hopes, and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities. Christ came down to fetch us up: and would we have him loose his blood and labor, and go away again without us? Hath he bought our Rest at so dear a rate? Is our inheritance purchased with the blood p. 584duplicate page p. 585duplicate page p. 586of God? And are we after all this loth to enter? Ah Sirs, it was Christ and not we, that had cause to be loth. The Lord forgive and heal this foolish ingratitude.

§. 13.SECT. XIII.

4. COnsider; do we not combine with our most cruel, mortal foes? and jump with them in their most malitious designe, while we are loth to dye and go to heaven? where is the height of all their malice? and whats the scope of all temptations? and whats the divels daily business? Is it not to keep our souls from God? And shall we be well content with this, and joyn with Satan in our desires? what though it be not those eternal torments? yet its the one half of Hell, which we wish to our selves, while we desire to be absent from Heaven and God. If thou shouldest take counsel of all thine enemies? If thou shouldest beat thy brains both night and day, in studying to do thy self a mischief? What greater then …, could it possibly be, To continue here on earth from God? Excepting only hell it self O what sport is this to Sathan? that his desires and thine should so concur? That when he sees he cannot get thee to Hell, he can so long keep thee out of Heaven, and make thee the earnest petitioner for it thy self? O gratifie not the Divel so much to thy own displeasure.

§. 14.SECT. XIV.

5. DO not our daily fears of death, make our lives a continual torment?Timor mortis pejor quam ipsa mors. Eras. Colloq The fears of death (as Erasmus saith) being a sorer evil then death it self. And thus, as Paul did dye daily in regard of preparation, and in regard of the necessary sufferings of his life: so do we in regard of the torments, and the useless sufferings which we make our selves. Those lives which might be full of Joyes, in the daily contemplation of the life to come, and the sweet delightful thoughts of bliss; how do we fill them up with terrors, through all these causeless thoughts and fears? Thus do we consume our own comforts, and prey upon our tru…st pleasures. When we might lye down, and rise up, and walk abroad p. 587with our hearts full of the Joyes of God; we continually fill them with perplexing fears. For he that fears dying, must be alwayes fearing, because he hath alwayes cause to expect it. And how can that mans life be comfortable, who lives in continuul fear, of loosing his comforts?

SECT. XV.§. 15.

5. MOreover, all these are self-created sufferings: As if it were not enough to be the deservers,Eheu quam miserum est, fieri metuendo senem! Publius. but we must also be the executioners of our own calamities! As if God had not inflicted enough upon us, but we must inflict more upon our selves▪ Is not death bitter enough to the flesh of it self, but we must double and treble and multiply its bitterness? Do we complain so much of the burden of our troubles, and yet daily add unto the weight? Sure the state of poor mortals is sufficiently calamitous; they need not make it so much worse. The sufferings laid upon us by God, do all lead to happy issues: the progress is, from suffering to patience, from thence to experience,Rom. 5.3, 4. Rom. 8.17.Rom 5:3Rom 5:4Rom 8:17 and so to Hope, and at last to Glory. But the sufferings which we do make our selves, have usually issues answerable to their causes: The motion is Circular and endless, from sin to suffering, from suffering to sin, and so to suffering again, and so in infinitum. And not onelyonly so, but they multiply in their course: every sin is greater then the former, and so every suffering also greater. This is the natural progress of them, which if mercy do intercept, no thanks to us. So that except we think that God hath made us to be our own tormentors, we have small reason to nourish our fears of death.

SECT. XVI.§. 16.

7. COnsider further; they are all but useless unprofitable fears. As all our care cannot make one hair white or black,Mat. 5.36. Mat. 6.27.Matt 5:36Matt 6:27 nor adde one cubit to our stature, so neither can our fear prevent our sufferings, nor delay our dying time an hour: Willing or unwilling we must away. Many a mans fears have hastened his end, but no mans ever did avert it. Its true, a cau…e…one fear or care concerning the danger after death, hath profited many; and is very usefull to the preventing of that danger▪ But for a member of p. 588Christ, and an heir of Heaven, to be afraid of entering his own inheritance; this is a sinful useless fear.

SECT. XVII.

§. 17.8. BUt though it be useless in respect of good, yet to Sathan is it very serviceable. Our …ears of dying ensnare our souls and add strength to many temptations. Nay when we are called to dye for Christ, and put to it in a day of tryal, it may draw us to deny the known truth, and forsake the Lord God himself. You look upon it now as a small sin, a common frailty of humane nature: But if you look to the dangerous consequents of it, me thinks it should move you to other thoughts. What made Peter deny his Lord? what makes Apostates in suffering times forsake the truth? and the green blade of unrooted faith, to wither before the heat of persecution? Fear of imprisoment and poverty may do much, but fear of death will do much more. When you see the Gibbet, or hear the sentence, if this fear of dying prevail in you, you'l strait begin to say as Peter, I know not the man. When you see the fagots set, and fire ready, you'l say as that Apostate to the Martyr, O the fire is hot, and nature's frail, forgeting that the fire of hell is hotter. Sirs, as light as you make of it, you know not of what force these fears are to separate your souls from Jesus Christ. Have we not lately had frequent experience of it? How many thousand have fled in fight, and turned their back on a good cause, where they knew the honour of God was concerned, and their countreys welfare was the prize for which they fought, and the hopes of their posterity did lye at the sta…e, and all through unworthy fear of dying? Have we not known those, who lying under a wounded conscience, and living in the practice of some known sin, durst scarce look the enemy in the face, because they durst not look death in the face? but have trembled and drawn back, and cryed, alas I dare not dye, If I were in the case of such or such, I durst dye. He that dare not dye, dare scarce fight valiantly. Therefore we have seen in our late wars, that there is none more valiant then these two sorts.

1. Those who have conquered the fear of death by the power of Faith.

2. And those who have extinguisht it by desperate prophanness, p. 589and cast it away through stupid security. So much fear as we have of death, usually so much cowardize in the cause of God: However its an evident temptation and snare. Beside the multitude of unbelieving contrivances, and discontents at the wise disposals of God, and hard thoughts of most of his providences, which this sin doth make us guilty of: Besides also it looseth us much precious time, and that for the most part neer our end. When time should be most precious of all to us; and when it should be imployed to better purpose, then do we vainly and sinfully wast it, in the fruitless issues of these distracting fears: So that you see how dangerous a snare these fears are, and how fruitful a parent of many evils.

SECT. XVIII.§. 18.

9. COnsider, what a competent time the most of us have had: Some thirty, some fourty, some fifty or sixty yeers. How many come to the grave younger, for one that lives to the shortest of these? Christ himself, as is generally thought, lived but **Helvicus and some other Modern Chronologers think he dyed in the thirty fifth yeer of his age.thirty three yeers on earth. If it were to come, as it is past, you would think thirty yeers a long time. Did you not long ago in your threatning sickness, think with your selves, O, if I might enjoy but one seven yeers more, or ten yeers more! And now you have enjoyed perhaps more then you then begged; and are you nevertheless unwilling yet? Except you would not die at all, but desire an immortality here on Earth; which is a sin inconsistent with the truth of Grace. If your sorrow be meerly this, That you are mortal; you might as well have lamented it all your lives: For sure you could never be ignorant of this. Why should not a man that would dye at all, be as well willing at thirty or fourty, if God see it meet, as at seventy or eighty? nay, usually when the longest day is come, men are as loth to depart as ever. He that looseth so many yeers, hath more cause to bewail his own neglect, then to complain of the shortness of his time; and were better lament the wickedness of his life, then the brevity. Length of time doth not conquer corruption; it never withers, nor decayes through age. Except we receive an addition of Grace, as well as Time, we naturally grow the older the worse. Let us then be contented with our allotted proportion: And as we are convinced, that we should p. 590not murmure, against our assigned degree of wealth▪ of health, of honor, and other things here; so let us not be discontented with our allowed proportion of time. O, my Soul, depart in peace! Hast thou not here enjoyed a competent share? As thou wouldst not desire an unlimited state, in wealth and honor, so desire it not in point of time. Is it fit, that God or thou should be the sharer? If thou wert sensible how little thou deservest an hour of that patience which thou hast enjoyed, thou wouldst think thou hast had a large part. Wouldst thou have thy age called back again? …a…st thou eat thy bread, and have it too? Is it not Divine Wisdom that sets the bounds? God will not let one have all the work, nor all the suffering, nor all the honor of the work: He will honor himself by variety of instruments; by various persons, and several ages, and not by one person or age: Seeing thou hast acted thine own part, and finished thine appointed course, come down contentedly, that others may succeed; who must have their turns as well as thou. As of all other outward things, so also of thy time and life; thou mayest as well have too much, as too little: OnelyOnly of God, and eternal life, thou canst never enjoy too much, nor too long. Great receivings, will have great accounts: where the lease is longer, the fine and rent must be the greater. Much time hath much duty. Is it not as easie to answer for the receivings and the duties, of thirty yeers, as of an hundred? Beg therefore for Grace to improve it better; but be content with thy share of time.

§. 19.SECT. XIX.

10. COnsider, thou hast had a competency of the comforts of life, and not of naked time alone. God might have made thy life a misery; till thou hadst been as weary of possessing it, as thou art now afraid of loosing it. If he had denyed thee the benefits and ends of living, thy life would have been but a slender comfort. They in Hell have life as well as we, and longer far then they desire: God might have suffered thee to have consumed thy days in ignorance, or to have spent thy life to the last hour, before he brought thee home to himself, and given thee the saving Knowledg of Christ; and then thy life had been short, though thy time long. But he hath opened thine eyes in the morning of thy days, p. 591and acquainted thee betimes with the trade of thy life. I know the best are but negligent loyterers, and spend not their time according to its worth; but yet he that hath an hundred yeers time, and looseth it all, lives not so long as he that hath but twenty, and bestows it well. Its too soon to go to Hell at an hundred yeers old, and not too soon to go to Heaven at twenty. The means are to be valued in reference to their end: Thats the best means, which speediliest and surest obtaineth the end. He that hath enjoyed most of the ends of life, hath had the best life, and not he that hath lived longest. You that are acquainted with the life of Grace▪ what if you live but twenty or thirty yeers? would you change it for a thousand yeers of wickedness? God might have let you have lived like the ungodly world, and then you would have had cause to be afraid of dying. We have lived in a place and time of light; in Europe, not in Asia, Africa or America; in England, not in Spain or Italy; in the Age when Knowledg doth most abound, and not in our forefathers days of darkness; we have lived among Bibles, Sermons, Books, and Christians. As one Ac…e of fruitful soyl, is better then many of barren Commons; as the possession of a Kingdom for one yeer, is better then a lease of a Cottage for twenty; so twenty or thirty yeers living in such a place, or age, as we, is better then Methuselahs age, in the case of most of the world besides. And shall we not then be contented with our proportion? If we who are Ministers of the Gospel, have seen abundant fruit of our labors; if God hath blessed our labors in seven yeers▪ more then some others in twenty or thirty; if God have made us the happy, (though unworthy) means, of converting and saving more souls at a Sermon, then some better men in all their lives; what cause have we to complain of the shortness of our time in the work of God? would unprofitable, unsuccessful preaching have been comfortable? will it do us good to labor to little purpose, so we may but labor long? If our desires of living, are for the service of the Church, as our deceitful hearts are still pretending, then … if God honor us to do the more service, though in the lesser time, we have our desire. God will have each to have his share; when we have had ours, let us rest contented. Perswade then thy backward soul to its duty, and argue down these dreadful thoughts: Unworthy wretch! Hath thy Father allowed thee so large a part, and caused thy lot to fall p. 592so well? and given thee thine abode in pleasant places? and filled up all thy life with mercies? and dost thou now think thy share too small? is not that which thy life doth want in length, made up in bredth, and weight, and sweetness? Lay all together, and look about thee, and tell me; how many of thy neighbors have more? how many in all the Town or Countrey, have had a better share then thou? why mightest not thou have been one of the thousands, whose carkasses thou hast seen scattered as Dung on the Earth? or why mightest not thou have been one thats useless in the Church? and an unprofitable burden to the place thou livest in? What a multitude of hours of consolation? of delightful Sabbaths? of pleasant studies? of precious companions? of wonderous deliverances? of excellent opportunities? of fruitful labors? of joyful tidings? of sweet experiences? of astonishing providences hath thy life partaked of? so that many a hundred who have each of them lived an hundred yeers, have not altogether enjoyed so much. And yet art thou not satisfied with thy lot? Hath thy life been so sweet, that thou art loth to leave it? is that the thanks thou returnest to him, who sweetned it to draw thee to his own sweetness? Indeed, if this had been all thy portion, I could not blame thee to be discontented: And yet let me tell thee too, That of all these poor souls, who have no other portion, but receive all their good things in this life, there is few or none even of them, who ever had so full a share as thy self. And hast thou not then had a fair proportion, for one that must shortly have Heaven besides? O foolish Soul! would thou wert as covetous after eternity, as thou art for a fading perishing life! and after the blessed presence of God, as thou art for continuance with Earth and Sin!Judges 5.28.Judg 5:28 Then thou vvouldst rather look through the windows, and cry through the lattises, Why is his chariot so long a coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots? Hovv long Lord! Hovv long!

§. 20.SECT. XX.

11. COnsider, vvhat if God should grant thy desire, and let thee live yet many yeers? but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life, and deny thee the mercies vvhichwhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed? Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging p. 593for? Might not God in judgment give thee life, as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails? or as he oft times gives men riches and honor, when he sees them over-earnest for it? Might he not justly say to thee, Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth, then come away and enjoy my presence; seeing thou art so greedy of life, take it, and a curse with it; never let fruit grow on it more, nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it, nor the dew of my blessing ever water it:James 5.2, 3.Jas 5:2Jas 5:3 Let thy table be a snare, let thy friends be thy sorrow; let thy riches be corrupted, and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh. Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt, but let never Sermon do thee good more; let all thou hearest make against thee, and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit: If thou love Preaching better then Heaven, go and preach till thou be aweary, but never profit soul more. Sirs, what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living, were it not just? and what good would our lives then do us? Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning? and some in begging by the high-way sides? and others in seeking bread from door to door? and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment, and living onelyonly that they may live, and loosing the ends and benefits of life? Why, what good would such a life do thee, were it never so long? when thy soul shall serve thee onelyonly in stead of Salt, to keep thy body from stinking? God might give thee life, till thou art weary of living; and as glad to be rid of it, as Judas or Ahitophel; and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world, who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves. Be not therefore so importunate for life; which may prove a judgment, in stead of a blessing.

SECT. XXI.§. 21.

12. COnsider, how many of the precious Saints of God, of all ages and places, have gone before thee? Thou art not to enter an untrodden path, nor appointed first to break the Ice. Except onelyonly Henoch and Elias, which of the Saints have scaped death? And art thou better then they? There are many millions of Saints dead, more then do now remain on Earth. What a number of thine own bosome friends, and intimate acquaintance, and companions in duty, are now there? and why shouldst thou be p. 594so loth to follow? Nay, hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way? hath he not sanctified the grave to us? and perfumed the dust with his own body? And art thou loth to follow him too? O rather let us say as Thomas, John 11.16. Rom. 8.17.John 11:16Rom 8:17Let us also go, and die with him; or rather, let us suffer with him, that we may be glorified together with him.

Many such like Considerations might be added, as that Christ hath taken out the sting: How light the Saints have made of it; how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it, &c. But because all thats hitherto spoken, is also conducible to the same purpose, I pass them by. If what hath been said, will not perswade, Scripture and Reason have little force.

I have said the more on this subject, finding it so needful to my self and others; finding that among so many Christians, who could do and suffer much for Christ, there's yet so few that can willingly die; and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions; so few have got the conquest of this. This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture, and spend them against it.

§. 22.SECT. XXII.

I Will onelyonly yet Answer some Objections, and so conclude this Use.

1. Object. O, If I were but certain of Heaven, I should then never stick at dying.

Answ. 1. Search, for all that, whether some of the forementioned c…uses may not be in fault, as well as this.

2. Didst thou not say so long ago? Have you not been in this song this many yeers? if you are yet uncertain, whose fault is it? you have had nothing else to do with your lives, nor no greater matter then this to minde. Were you not better presently fall to the tryal; till you have put the Question out of doubt? Must God stay while you trifle? and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence? If thou have played the loyterer, do so no longer. Go search thy soul, and follow the search close, till the… come to a clear discovery. Begin to night, stay not till the next morning. Certainty comes not by length of time, but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal. You may linger out p. 595thus twenty yeers more, and be still as uncertain as now you are.

3. A perfect certainty may not be expected: we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things: They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely, and not comparatively, of a perfect assurance in the very degree, when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance. I know no reason, but they may expect perfection in all things else, as well as this. VVhen you have done all, you will know this but in part. If your belief of that Scripture, which saith, Beleeve, and be saved, be imperfect; and if your knowledg, whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not, be imperfect; or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect: the result or conclusion must needs be so too. If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain, you may stay for ever: if you have obtained assurance but in some degree, or got but the grounds for assurance said; it is then the speediest, and surest vvay, to desire rather to be quickly in Rest: For then, and never till then, vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect.

4. Both your assurance, and the comfort thereof, is the gift of the Spirit, vvho is a free bestovver: And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy, is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity. A mercy in season, is the svveetest mercy. I could give you here abundance of late examples, of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort; some all their sickness, and some most of their lives; and vvhen they have been neer to death, they have received in abundance. Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance; for thats the most usual time of all, vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it.

SECT. XXIII.§. 23.

OBject. 2. O, but the Churches necessities are great, and God hath made me useful in my place; so that the loss vvill be to many, or else, me thinks, I could vvillingly die.

Answ. This may be the case of some; but yet remember, the heart is deceitful: God is oft pretended, vvhen our selves are in…ended. But if this be it that sticks vvith thee indeed, consider, VVilt thou pretend to be vviser then God? doth not he knovv hovv …o provide for his Church? Cannot he do his vvork vvithout thee? p. 596or finde out instruments enough besides thee? Think not too highly of thy self, because God hath made thee useful. Must the Church needs fall when thou art gone? Art thou the foundation on which its built? Could God take away a Moses, an Aaron, David, Elias, &c. and finde supply for all their places? and cannot he also finde supply for thine? This is to derogate from God too much, and to arrogate too much unto thy self. Neither art thou so merciful as God; nor canst love the Church so well as he: As his interest is infinitely beyond thine, so is his tender care and bounty. But of this before.

Yet mistake me not in all that I have said: I deny not but that it is lawful and necessary for a Christian upon both the forementioned grounds, to desire God to delay his death; both for a further opportunity of gaining assurance, and also to be further serviceable to the Church.See Phil. 2.26, 27.Phil 2:26Phil 2:27 But first, This is nothing to their case who are still delaying, and never willing; whose true discontents are at death it self, more then at the unseasonableness of dying. Secondly, Though such desires are sometimes lawful, yet must they be carefully bounded and moderated; to which end are the former considerations. We must not be too absolute and peremptory in our desires; but cheerfully yield to Gods disposal. The rightest temper is that of Pauls, to be in a streight between two; desiring to depart,Phil. 1.23.Phil 1:23 and be with Christ, and yet to stay while God will have us, to do the Church the utmost service. But alas, we are seldom in this streight: Our desires run out all one way, and that for the flesh, and not the Church: Our streights are onelyonly for fear of dying; and not betwixt the earnest desires of dying, and of living.

§. 24.SECT. XXIV.

OBject. But is not death a punishment of God for sin? Doth not Scripture call it the King of fears? And Nature above all other evils abhor it?

Malum poenae, vel privatio boni in genere Entis, non in genere Moris.Answ. Ile not meddle with that which is controversal in this: Whether Death be properly a punishment, or not: But grant that in it self considered, it may be called Evil, as being naturally the dissolution of the Creature. Yet being sanctified to us by Christ, and being the season, and occasion of so great a Good, as is the p. 597present possession of God in Christ; it may be welcomed with a glad submission, if not with desire. Christ affords us grounds enough to comfort us against this natural Evil: And therefore endues us with the principle of Grace, to raise us above the reach of nature.

For all those low and poor Objections, as leaving House, Goods, and Friends, leaving our children unprovided, &c. I pass them over as of lesser moment, then to take much with men of Grace.

SECT. XXV.§. 25.

LAstly,For comfort in the Death of Friends, the Nine Considerations of Gerson are excellent. Operum part. 4. f. 146. And his following Tractate, De Consolatione mortis parentum. Understand me in this also, That I have spoke all this to the faithful soul. I perswade not the ungodly from fearing death: Its a wonder rather, that they fear it no more; and spend not their days in continual horror, as is said before. Truly, but that we know a stone is insensible, and a hard heart is dead and stupid, or else a man would admire how poor souls can live in ease and quietness, that must be turned out of these bodies into everlasting flames! Or that be not sure, at least, if they should die this night, whether they shall lodg in Heaven or Hell the next; especially when so many are called, and so few chosen; and the Righteous themselves are scarcely saved? One would think such men should eat their bread with trembling; and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking in the night; and they should fall presently a searching themselves; and enquiring of others, and crying to God, That if it were possible they might quickly be out of this danger, and so their hearts be freed from horror! For a man to quake at the thoughts of death, that looks by it to be dispossessed of his happiness, and knoweth not whether he is next to go; this is no wonder. But for the Saints to fear their passage by Death to Rest, this is an unreasonable hurtful Fear.