Advice to Mourners Under the Loss of Dear Relations, Paper 11
PAPER XI.
WORK while it is Day, the Night is coming in which none can work. Now is the Day of God's Patience and Forbearance; this is the only time that God hath allotted for Work and Service: He that doth the Work for which he came into the World faithfully and carefully, shall in the Evening of the Day receive a bountiful Reward; but if he neglects his Opportunity, and squanders away his Time in Idleness and Sloth, the Night will surprise him, and then it will be too late to begin that Work which before he would not be perswaded to set about. This Counsel is serious and grave, every one hath Work to do; (O that all would be convinced of this great Truth!) we have Souls to save, Heaven to secure, an Interest in Christ to get, and yet we are stupid and negligent, as if this were a Matter of no great moment. O my God, give me Wisdom that I may see the Necessity of looking after my Soul, that it may go well with that, however it fare with the Body and worldly Concerns. Now is the Day, now is the Time to provide for a happy Eternity: to Day if you will hear his Voice; to Morrow may be too late, therefore now set about this Work in good earnest; see how it stands with thy poor Soul, Is God and thy Soul Friends? or are they still at a distance? Is God dearer to thee than all the World? Dost thou think thy self happier in being a Child of God, an Heir of Heaven, than if thou wert possessed of all the things of this lower World? Dost thou not prize and value God as thy Chief Friend, and rather have his Favour and Friendship, than to have the greatest Monarchs on thy side? Dost thou humbly resolve to be the Lord's, and his only; and that thy Time, thy Heart and Strength, thy Memory, Understanding, shall be all exercised in thy Maker's Service? Study his Mind and Will, and then readily comply with his Commands: fear his Threatnings, believe his Promises, obey his Precepts, and resolve with Iob, that though he slay thee, yet thou wilt trust in him. Resolve to follow God through all Difficulties; beg of him to own thee for his, to avouch thee to be one of his peculiar People. Secure a Title to Heaven: this World is passing away apace; the Day is spending, and the Night approaching, in which I cannot work. I am sensible of the Greatness of my Work, and know not how short my Time may be; it may be shorter than I or the World imagine. My Work is so great and difficult, that in my own Strength I can do nothing. Lord Jesus, I implore thy Aid and Assistance; for thy Merit sake let my Sins all be done away; let me be sanctified, justified, pardoned, and be made meet to be received into those blessed Mansions that are prepared for thy Redeemed Ones. Let me have those Qualifications that are requisite in all those whom thou admittest to live and reign with thee for ever, that Holiness of Life, that Purity of Heart, that Sincerity, that Heavenly-mindedness, that Weanedness from this World and worldly Injoyments, which is required in all those that love and fear thee. Let me have those Divine Qualities that may render me amiable in the Eyes of my Judg. O blessed Jesus, let thy Righteousness be imputed unto me, and my Sins washed away with thy precious Blood. Deny me not an Interest in thy meritorious Death and Sufferings. I cannot be happy here nor hereafter, without some comfortable Hopes that I do belong to the Election of Grace. Lord, if it be thy Will, let me know assuredly that I am one of them for whom Christ died; seeing he died for Sinners, let me never die in my Sins.
And as I trust Christ died for me, so let thy Holy Spirit live and reign in me. Let me be guided, directed, counselled, comforted, strengthned, and supported, the remaining part of my Days, that whether they be few or many, they may be so spent, that when I come to lie upon a sick and Death-bed, I may lift up my Head with Joy unspeakable, hoping my Redemption draws nigh. In my last Agonies be not thou far from me; thou art now (and I am sure wilt be then) my only Hope, therefore be not a Terror unto me. Let me then find that the Eternal God is my Refuge, and that underneath are his everlasting Arms. I do expect to have my Flesh and my Heart (within a little while) to fail me; but Lord, be thou the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever. Lord, I hope I have chosen thee (long ago) for my Portion, and am resolved by thy Grace enabling me, to stick to my Choice; therefore be thou pleased to be with me in my sorest Conflict, at the Hour of Death, and in the Day of Judgment. Let me not then be left by thee, or forsaken and rejected by thee the Great Judg of all the World, whose irreversable dreadful Sentence will e'r long be pass'd upon all those that forget and neglect thee; in which Number I beg I may not be found.
Seeing Time is posting away, and Eternity appoaching, and none knows how soon Death may arrest them, it is highly necessary to be often considering what will do us most good, and stand us most in stead at a dying Hour, when this World and all its Injoyments will (as Iob saith of the White of an Egg) have no Relish nor … in them. When we come to the Brink of Eternity, all our earthly Comforts will vanish and disappear, our Friends and nearest and dearest Relations will bid as adieu, they cannot help us, nor hinder Death one Moment: Our Riches, though we had gained never so much, cannot ease one Pain, nor find one Remedy for our mortal Disease; the Serjeant Death will not be bribed to stay till another Year, or Day, or Hour; no, they must be gone, nill they will they, they must into the other World. Let me, O Lord, be in a Posture of Readiness, that when thou shalt summons me to appear before thy dreadful Throne, I may not be found naked, but may be found in Christ, and not in my Sins. Let me by every Sabbath, Sermon, Prayer, and Sacrament, be brought nearer to thy self, whose I am, and whom I hope to serve here, and injoy hereafter in thy Heavenly Kingdom, where are an innumerable Company of Angels, and the general Assembly and Church of the First-born, which are written in Heaven; where is God the Judg of all, and the Spirits of just Men made perfect, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and the Blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Who can think of these glorious Inhabitants, and not long to be with them? O happy and blessed Souls are they that are safe got home, and are now with God and his Angels; and this Assembly and Church of the First-born, whose Names were written in Heaven. Who would not desire to be with the Spirits of the just Men, who are made perfect? O the Goodness of God to make Men perfect, and then receive them to himself, because they are so! O what Thanks should be ascribed to our dear Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, for purchasing at so dear a rate such inestimable Privileges and Blessings for such vile Worms as Men! This Blood of Sprinkling cries louder for Mercy than the Blood of Abel did for Vengeance. These holy Ones have washed their Robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. The Lamb's Blood can wash the foulest Sinner white, therefore are they brought before the Throne of God, and serve him Day and Night in his Temple; and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them: they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the Sun light on them, nor the Heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living Fountains of Water: and God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes.
O what blessed Imployment are the Saints ingaged in, in serving God Day and Night in his Temple, where the everlasting JEHOVAH, that sitteth on the Throne, shall eternally dwell among them: The Bliss of these Heavenly Inhabitants is inconceivable. Well may the Apostle say, Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, what God hath laid up for them that love him. It is exceedingly above what we can think, or imagine, or conceive: Who can tell what it is continually to injoy the comfortable Presence of the great God and the Lamb? When God's People have had but some Glimpse of his Favour and Friendship, and some Hopes of dwelling with him, they have impatiently longed for a Dissolution: They count this World as a Prison in which they are separated from their God, their Christ, and the Holy Angels, which will be their everlasting Companions.
Those that God will admit into his everlasting Glory, he hath told us, they shall be exempted for all hurtful Evils; never shall they hunger more, nor thirst any more. Lord, too too many Thoughts do I spend about these outward Supplies of Meat, and Drink, and Raiment. O when, when wilt thou bring me to Heaven, where these things will be of no Use nor Value to me? Happy, and only happy are they whom the Lamb, which is in the midst of the Throne, will feed, and lead to the Fountain of Living Water, from whose Eyes all Tears shall be wip'd; they shall know no more what Death meaneth. In Heaven there is no Sorrow, nor Crying; nor shall there be any more Pain, for all old things shall be done away: the former things are passed away, past and gone; nothing remains but Joy and Gladness, and praising of our Great Creator, sounding out continual Halleluja's to the King of Kings. Lord, is it my Duty to be fitting and preparing my self for this blessed State, and for my Approach before thy awful Tribunal? and dare I still neglect it? Help me to remember that I must work while it is Day; the Night of Sickness, Sorrow, and Death are approaching, and then I cannot work. Lord Jesus, make me meet, make me fit for thy blessed self, that when I come to leave this base World, I may be admitted to the Heavenly Society of Saints and Angels, Cherubims and Seraphims, where are ten thousand times ten thousand, saying, with a loud Voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive Power, and Riches, and Wisdom, and Strength, and Honour, and Glory, and Blessing. Every Creature in Heaven and Earth shall then say, Blessing, Honour, and Glory, and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.
Amen and Amen.