CHAP. I. How God calleth men to remember Death.

O That they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deu. 32.29. O what love and tender mercies doth the blessed God declare in this affectionate speech concerning miserable man! Though to speake pro­perly, God be without affections & passions; for whatsorver he willes in heaven or in earth, that he doth, & that he hath, Psal. 115.3. 1. Chro. 29. [Page 2] 11. he needs not wish for any thing he wants: yet to shew us what we most wāt, what we should chiefly wish for, & what most pleaseth him in us; he speakes as men, according to their sense & capacity. He useth a passionate phrase of longing & wishing, which in propriety of speech a­grees not with the Deity; to shew there is an unspeakable matter in it, which pro­per words cannot expresse to our under­standing: and therefore stooping downe unto us, and as it were putting on our humanity, speakes after the manner of men & propoundes his wish, to shew thereby what is principally to be wished for, and what men would desire if they had the minde of God.

Looke what respect God shewes for the keeping of all his Commandements, by wishing men had a heart to observe them alwayes, Deut. 5.29. such respect he sheweth, & by the like wish expresseth for the remembrance of their latter end, as being the way & meanes to bring them to a more diligent observation of them all.

He sayth not simply, Oh that they would thinke on their end: but withall he sheweth their wisedome & happines [Page 3] if they hearken, by wishing that they vvere wise to doe it. And by such an ar­gument of comming to be accounted wise in the sight of God & men, he la­bours to draw his people even unto all obedience, Deut. 4.6.7.8.

Neither is the Lord content to speake once, but doubling & trebling his words, with a loud voyce he calles them, to be wise, to understand, to consider; as if he had sayd, be wise, be wise, be wise; re­member, remember, remember your latter end. As the sheet was thrise let downe from heaven to shew the vision more plainly, & to imprint it more deep­ly in the minde of Peter, Act. 10 16. so is the call of God inculcate upon Israel in this place. Neither is the act onely, but the object of this consideration is likewise repeated and poynted at by the finger of God with a double demonstrative, even this, their latter end.

(a) Three speciall Songs were written by Moses the man of God; The maine argument of each of them is a remem­brance of the latter end. The first at the red sea & entring into the wildernes shewes the latter end of their enemies, both from whence they came, Pharaoh [Page 4] & the Egyptians perishing in the waters; & to whome they went, the Canaanites & others melting away for feare; with the latter end of Jsrael to be planted in the mountaine of Gods inheritance. Exod. 15. 1-20. And this triumphant Song was heard againe from heaven, & sung by them that had got the victory of the beast, whereunto the remembrance of our end may bring us also, to rejoyce among thē that have the harpes of God. Rev. 15.1.2.3. The second Song shewes the vaine estate of all, the shortnes of this present life, how they hasten to their end, that all might number their dayes, & ap­ply their hearts to wisedome. Psal. 90. This is probably supposed to have bene written when Israel being come to the borders of Canaan for their murmuring were turned back againe into the wilder­nes, till their carcasses were fallen, & their dayes consumed by the wrath of God. Numb. 13. & 14. This third & last was Moses Swan-song, spoken & written that selfe same day that he was comman­ded to goe up & dye in the mount Nebo, for his farewell when he had one foot in the wildernes & an other in heaven. Deu. 32.48.49. [...]0. and is by many arguments [Page 5] commended unto us, both before it was set downe, Deut. 31.14-30. and in the preface, Chap. 32.1.2. and after at the conclusion of it, vers. 46.47. And yet above all the sentences of this Song, this streyne especially that calles us to the re­membrance of our latter end, is commē ­ded unto us by the most earnest wish of God himself. And therefore if either the wish of God, and such a wish as is made for keeping all the commandemēts together; or if the finding of true wise­dome; or if so many repetitions like so many knockes of the Lord upon our breast, be of any regard in our eyes, let us hereby conceive our owne blindenes & negligence in this poynt: let us awaken at this loud call, and double & treble our care in the remembrance of our latter end, to finde that comfort, which the Lord sees is to be gotten thereby.

(b) If we had no other call, such a divine wish might suffice to make us re­member our end. And what godly heart would not answer to this call & say, Lord it is enough: I will never ceasse to thinke of my end? Yet the Lord sees it is not enough, and therefore besides this his wish, he calles againe an hundred wayes [Page 6] by his word, his workes, his ordinances, & proclaimes this lesson, Remember your latter end. And first of all, Man was called of God even in paradise to re­member his end before the fall. Death was set before his eyes in the Tree of Death, as well as life in the Tree of life. Gen. 2.17. The first day he was called to thinke on the last day. So soone as sinne was forbidden, death was shewed be­fore it was, to keepe from sinne; & the tree of death was a visible frontlet hung before the eyes of man to preserve him in the feare of God. Jf in the state of inno­cency, a law of mortality was made and a memoriall of death was needfull before it came; how much more in the state of corruption when death is come into the world, & walkes on every side, have we need now to remember it & to watch?

In the fall, while Evah yet stood she resisted the temptation by remembring of the death that was threatned. Gen. 3.3. but when the serpent insisted & removed the remēbrāce of death out of her minde then she fell. The voyce of the ser­pent was, Ye shall not surely dye, vers. 4. they remembred not their latter end, & came downe wonderfully. So the very [Page 7] fall it selfe being on this manner, serves for an other Call to warne every one that would stand in the evill day, never to forget their latter end.

After the fall, then God calles againe by a Sentence of mortality which he pro­nounced on man, Dust thou art, & to dust thou shalt returne, Gen. 3.19. to make men with new care to thinke upon death. And this was a generall day of judgment in the beginning of the world, as there shall be an other Generall judgment in the end of the world. Then were we all in Adam & Evah presented before the Tribunall & judgment-seat of God & receyved the sentence of the first death universally pronounced upon all men, righteous or unrighteous, elect or repro­bate; as there shal be a sentence of second death pronounced on the reprobate at last.

After this Sentence, the Lord calles againe by the execution thereof from time to time, while death being entred into the world reignes among men, de­vouring all & bringing all to dust: yet so, that the execution of this Sentence is revealed in manifold & diverse degrees, according to the great patience & long [...] [Page 10] their language, but cut of their dayes from foure or five hundred to two hun­dred & od yeares. Gen. 11.18-32. And so with the ruine of Babel, the life of man was ruinated. The lofty tower of mans age that before ascended to so great an height by the steps of so many yeares, was now throwne downe & made lower by the halfe. The noyse & crash of this downefall sounded through many gene­rations from Peleg to Terah, warning all to be more watchfull because the executi­on of this sentence of death with double speed was brought upon them.

After this in the time of Abraham & the generations following, from two hundred & od we finde the yeares of the Patriarkes brought to an hundred & od. Gen. 25.7. & 35.28. & 47.28. &c. So was the reprive of man shortned againe. And whē the Lord called Abraham & his seed into his covenant, he withall called both him & the world by a new summōs, as by sound of trumpet, to repentance & amendment of life by remembrance of their latter end, which now pressed upon them with double hast to that it had done.

And lastly in the time of Moses the [Page 11] Lord being provoked by a new rebellion did againe halfe the age of man & redu­ced the number of his yeares to seventy or eighty, Psal. 90.10. Then was the execution of the Sentence of death hast­ned more then ever before, & thereby the Lord called them & still calleth us to remember our end. Lord let thy call be effectuall unto us: bring our hearts to true wisedome; establish thou the worke of our hands & fill us with thy mercy in the morning that we may seeke thee early & be glad in thee all our dayes.

(d) If God should once more have halfed the age of man as he did before, then can we not conceive how the world should have subsisted. If our dayes upon a new provocation had bene shortned from seventy to five & thirty: if weaknes of old age had prevayled as much upon us at thirty, as now it doth at sixty: if at fifteene yeares men should have bene at their full strength, & then have begun to decline as now many doe at thirty, being then in the height & vigour of their age, how manifold defects in learning & prac­tising would thē have ensued? what wise­dome & experience could men have learned in so short a time? how could li­berall [Page 12] or mechanicall arts & sciences have bene learned, or what continuance of strēgth could have bene to have wrought & exercised such trades & sciences? what a world of children & old folkes; yea what a world of fooles & impotent per­sons should we have had? though it be so already, yet how much more then? But the Lord will not contēd for ever, though he be now provoked as much as ever be­fore, for the spirit would faile before him, & the soules that he hath made. Esa. 57.16. Therefore hath the terme of mans age continued at this stay from Moses to our time for about three thousand yeares to­gether, so as it was never settled in the former generations. And therefore in speciall is this worke of God to be consi­dered of us, as being the last call & war­ning of God in this kinde, to make us remember our latter end.

Now though God doe not againe shorten & halfe the dayes of man by such certaine & determinate limits as formerly he hath done; yet after another manner he doth not ceasse to cut them off & pre­vent the course of nature for our warning as effectually as in the former judgemēts. For still the Lord being provoked by the [Page 13] wicked cutts them off before their time, they are brought downe to the pit, & they live not out halfe their dayes, Psal. 55.23. the number of their moneths is cut off in the middest. Iob, 21.21. as the vine shakes off his unripe grape & the olive his flower, Iob, 15.33. And not the wicked alone, but the elect, the belo­ved of God (as Henoch, Gen. 5.23.24.) are also taken away in the midst of their dayes: though sometime they live to se­venty or eighty yeares, & come to their grave in a full age, as a shock of corne commeth in, in his season, Iob, 5.26: yet oft they are taken away before, Esa. 57.1. in infancy, childhood, youth, middle age, &c. Vpon every step of life death waites, and thousāds are dayly translated on every yeare of mans life, some the first yeare that they are borne, some in the second, some in the third, & so forward, every yeare thousands & ten thousands even to the last; and so a thousand calles hereby we receyve from God to remember our latter end with greater hast.

(e) The multitude & number of these uncertaine & untimely deaths are innu­merable. We may observe it in three worlds. The old world perished all to­gether [...] [Page 16] strong men with their women & children were smitten with the sword of Ioshuah, Ios. 11.4. How many did the sword of Gi­deon, of David, & other Kings of Israel devoure? Who can recount how much flesh those foure beasts or Monarchies de­voured? Dan. 7.3. &c. Not to speake more of the heathens, what untimely deaths did overtake Israel? their infants were drow­ned in Egypt. Exo. 1.22. Six hundred thou­sād of their carcasses fell in the wildernes. And as the childrē especially were before destroyed in Egypt; so now in the wilder­nes the mē especially. A decree was made, & a bound set unto the murmurers, that they which were twēty yeares old should not live longer then sixty yeares, & accor­dingly for the rest; whereas their chil­drē might live to sevēty or eighty yeares. Num. 14.29-33. How many were slaine in the time of their Iudges & Kings? In Ahaz his time an hundred & twēty thou­sand valiant men were slaine in one day, & two hundred thousand captived. 2. Chron. 28.6.8. In Ieroboams time five hundred thousand chosen men fell downe slaine at once. 2. Chro. 13.17. And by innumerable such examples hath death raigned & raged in those times. In this last age of the world [Page 17] violēt & bloody deathes seeme to have a­bounded more then ever before, both on Iew & Gētile, Pagā & Christiā. What de­struction & massacre from the beginning of the world unto that time might be cō ­pared with that of the Iewes by the Ro­manes for the contempt of Christ & his Gospell? Mat. 24.21. How many rivers of Christiā blood have bene shed by Romane authority of Heathenish Emperours, & Antichristian Popes? The Harlot drunkē with the blood of the Saints is still blood-thirsty. Rev. 17.6. The Kings of the earth drunkē with the wine of her fornication, do give their strength & power unto her even to this day, and are become her but­chers to kill & slay for her. Rev. 17.2.13. Whereas there are foure beasts mentioned in Dan. 7.4.7. a lyon, beare, leopard, mon­ster with ten hornes; the beast, Rev. 13.1.2. is compounded of all foure, & so devou­reth as many as all the former▪ what should we speake of Turkes & Tartares, & other Barbarous nations among whome & by whome death reignes so strōgly? Rev. 9.17 18. This all is well knowne, but not well regarded. In all this we have a cal frō God to remember our latter end. But we have eyes & see not, eares & yet heare not his call.

[Page 20]resist sinners, by threatning death & by executing death on malefactours, Gen. 3.24. with Rom. 13.4. The Princes & Iud­ges of the earth are as Angels of God, set to keepe the garden & watch the city of God & to cut off the workers of wicked­nes, Psal. 101.8. and so become the mes­sengers of death unto wicked men. Prov. 16.14. Every Iudgmēt Hall is the Taber­nacle of death: there Death dwelles; there he oft shewes his terrible countenance, & from thence utters his voyce & roares as a Lyon. There be the monuments of death in many already dead & in others threatned. Every such place is a pillar of remembrance whereon Deaths name is engraven.

And if in time of peace the house of Iustice be such a monument of Death, much more is the Campe in time of War, as Hazarmaveth, the Court of Death. There Death displayes his banner: the sound of Drumme & Trumpet are the proclamations of death: the Mounts, Bul­warkes & Batteries are the scaffolds where Death actes his part: the Trenches, Ap­proches, Galleries & Mines are the val­lies of the shadow of death: and all the weapons & warlike Engines are so many [Page 21] darts of death, whereby the dead are multiplyed. And seing by divine provi­dence, besides the many armies marching abroad in other countries; the Camp is now presētly so neere unto us, in our bor­ders, by s' Hertogen-Bosch, our duety is to observe this Alarum of death from thēce, & to hearken unto the speciall calling of God for remembrance of our latter end. The Lords voyce cryes unto the City, Heare the Rod, & who hath appointed it, Mic. 6.9. and not onely to the City beseeged, that it may shake off the yoke of Anti­christ, but unto us & our cities that are within the soūd, that we may walke more worthy of Christ & his Gospell which we professe. He that regards not this call of God shall beare his iniquity.

(b) In the calling of Ministers we have an other Memoriall of death, & that ma­ny wayes. Ministers are called of God to call others to remember their latter end. And this is noted as a maine worke of their calling, Esa. 40.6.7.8. A voyce sayd, Cry. And he sayd, what shall I cry? All flesh is grasse, & all the goodlines thereof is as the flovver of the field. The grasse withe­reth, the flovver fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord blovveth upon it: surely [...] [Page 24] drawing out & shaking that sword against the breast of sinners: by making life or death to be evermore the foot or burden of their song. and the effect of all is, they are the savour of life or the savour of death to all that heare them. 2. Cor. 2.16.

(c) And this which hitherto we have heard of Angels, Magistrates, & Mini­sters, is spoken of the good: come we now to speake of the evill. The Lord calles us as lowd by them, to remember our end, that we may gather good out of evill. Evill angels, what are they els but professed murderers, & murderers from the beginning, going about as roaring ly­ons, seeking whome they may devoure? Ioh. 8.44. 1. Pet. 5.8. They have power of death, Heb. 2.14. & dayly bring thou­sands to death of body & soule for ever. Wicked Magistrates & persecuting rulers that compell men to Idolatry & false reli­gion, & force men to take the marke of the beast; as also the false teachers & blinde guides that bring in damnable er­rours, even both these are like the servāts that dance on the threshold, & fill their masters house with spoyle & prey. Zeph. 1 9. Both these are the blood-hounds of the Divell, by which he hunteth soules. [Page 25] Hos. 5.1. Both these are as ranging beares & ravenous woolves that wory yong & old, & drive them into the slaughterhouse of Satan. Prov. 28.15. Mat. 7.15. These help him dayly to thrust sinfull men into the ditch, into the bottomles pit of Hell. All these therefore are the Grand-cham­pions & standard-bearers of death, & have Death written in their foreheads. The sight of these or the mention of them & their enterprises should cause men with horrour to thinke of death. And seing the world is full of these, how many are the calles & warnings that God by them gives us to thinke of death, & to stand upon our watch?

(d) As for the times, severall also are the warnings, which are thereby given us to remember our end: sometimes by the red horse marching in our borders, trot­ting, galloping, & rushing into battell; sometimes the pale horse ambling up & downe in our streets, Rev. 6.4.8. both warre & pestilence bringing massacre up­on massacre, calamity upon calamity, Ier. 9.21. Ezek. 7.25.26. are as so many pro­clamations of death in our eares, soun­ding at some times more louder then other, according as these judgments are [Page 26] more grievous & universall. Who doth not see the axe layd unto the root of the tree in these dayes? both the bloody axe of warre, & black axe of pestilence, in some times & places continued, in others threatned. Besides, time it selfe is a sythe, an axe: Night & day are two axes at the root of our life, when one is up the other is downe, without rest: every day a chip flyes away, and every night a chip; and so our bones ly scattered at the graves mouth, as when one cutteth or heweth wood on the earth. Psalm 141.7.

Though every day giving us so mani­fold examples of death do thereby serve to put us in minde thereof: yet in a spe­ciall manner is the Sabbath-day set apart by the ordinance of God, that on it we should consider the latter end of man. That is the time especially, when the voyce cryeth in the Congregation, All flesh is grasse, &c. And therefore in the Psalme, that is entitled, of the Sabbath. Psa. 92. title. wherein the exercises of the Sabbath are described, there God calleth & teacheth his people to remēber the lat­ter ends, both the end of all the workers of iniquity, who though they spring as [Page 27] grasse, & flourish for a season, shall yet in the end be destroyed & perish for ever: ibid. vers. 7.9. and againe the latter end of the godly, whose horne, though it be abased to the dust for a while, yet in the end shall be exalted like the horne of an unicorne; their heads anoynted with fresh oyle, &c. vers. 10. &c. On the Sab­bath therefore are we called of God to sit downe & consider & talke, & sing of our latter end, and mutually to exhort and comfort ourselves with the remembrance of it.

(e) Now for the place where we live, this whole world and every part thereof doth fitly represent unto us our transitory estate: for the fashion of this world passeth away, 1. Cor. 7.31. and we passe away with it. The mooveable heavens that are above us are tossed and swong round about the world every day, both the firmament of the fixed starres, & the spheres of the sevē planets one under another are rolled a­bout with their manifold variety of mo­tions. The Sunne in the middest of them goeth forth as a giant to runne his race from one end of heaven to an other. Psa. 19.5.6. Eccl. 1.5. the circle of the earth which he dayly compasseth

[Page 30](f) And as the heavens, so all under the heavens runnes on wheeles also. The co­mets & fiery meteores in the highest re­giōs of the ayre are caryed about the earth according to the motion of the Sunne. The wind whirleth about continually, & returneth according to his circuits. Eccl. 1.6. The waters of sea & rivers run their courses as in a circle, from land to sea, & from sea to their springs againe: vers. 7. & the sea in it self is tossed up & downe, ebbing & flowing according to the course of the Moone, or violence of the windes. The earth though it remaine in her station & change not her place, yet is it changed in estate more then the rest: in­somuch that God hath made the sundry rankes of the creatures therein to be so many mappes of mortality, pictures of our vanity, & similitudes of our transitory estate; that by the sight of ech of them he might call us to remēber our latter end. And which way so ever we turne us, the monuments of our vanity are presented unto us of God.

(g) Stay we in the house & sit by the fire side, the sparkes that fly up & are present­ly extinct, Iob, 18, 5. 2. Sam. 14 7. the smoke that goes out of the chimney & sud­denly [Page 31] vanisheth, Hos. 13.3. the ashes that remaine & are streightway cast out on the dunghill, Iob. 13.12. Gen. 18.27. are ech of them appoynted of God, to shew us what we are, & how soone we come to our end; while he hath compared our lives to ech of these. The candle that is set upon the table to give light unto them that are in the house, is also ordained of God to re­present our life, that shines for a time un­till it have cōsumed our native moysture, and then goeth out of it selfe. Iob, 18.6. And as we see the oyle of this lamp de­caying, the more are we to seek that oyle of grace, that will not decay before the comming of the Bridegroome. Matt. 25.4. The earthen pots wherein our meat is sod & prepared at the fire; the earthē pots & dishes out of which we eat & drink at the table for preservation of our life, are noted by the holy Ghost to be types and similitudes of our brittle & fraile life, Ier, 19.1.11. Lam. 4.2. that so oft as we use them & eat & drink out of thē we might remember our end. The shelfs or benches wheron women for ornament of their kit­chin do set up these pots & dishes are like faire pourtraiturs of humane fragility, the whole houshold it self & all the persons [...] [Page 34] Esa. 37.27. hath thereby bound them as in a bundle for a wholesome posie or no­segay, that from thence we might learne to smell our mortality.

Go we forth againe from the garden into the corne-fields, looke upon the corne & every part of it; by the roote that comes of seede, which is not quickened except it dye, God teacheth us to thinke of death, & to looke for death before true life be found. 1. Cor. 15.36. Ioh, 12.14. By the top of the eares of corne cut downe with sickles, the Lord calles us to con­sider of Death, by whose sickle we are all cut downe in like manner. Iob, 24.24. Rev. 14.15 By the stubble, which is the middle of the stalke betwixt the roote & the eare of corne, as being a most vaine thing, ea­sily scattered by the winde, Ier. 13.24. Esa. 40.24. and devoured by fire, whereunto it is reserved, Ioel. 2.5. Esa. 5.24. the vanity of man perishing as stubble is often de­scribed unto us. And above the rest, when the Lord calles sinners to thinke of their end, he takes the light chaffe upon the graines of corne in the eare, & shewes that unto thē, affirming that they also are but as chaffe before the whirlewind or the fire; Psa. 1.4. Iob, 21.18. Esa. 17.13. yea [Page 35] & the multitude of them & their princes as the chaffe of the summer threshing-floores, where it most aboūdeth. Da. 2.35.

(i) From the lesser plants let us go to the greater; from herbes to trees. The trees of the orchyard, & those in speciall, that were in election above others to reigne as kings over the rest, Iudg. 9.8. &c. are called of God to call us to think of our latter end. In them & by them the Lord teacheth us how we passe away: as the vine shakes of his unripe grape; as the olive casts of his flower, Iob, 15.33. as the figtree casteth her untimely figs, being shaken of a mighty winde, Rev. 6, 13. as the bramble or thornes in the hedge of the orchyard, greene or dry are taken away by force, Psa. 58.9. as the crack­ling of thornes under the pot, a flash and presently out, Eccl. 7.6. Psa. 118.12. so is the life and glory of sinners suddenly at an end: and these plants are memo­rialles thereof unto us. From the trees of the orchyard proceed we on to the trees of the forrest: and by the way consider the mists and morning cloudes above our heads, and the morning dew under our feet, both suddenly vani­shing away; Hose. 13.3. by them the [...] [Page 38] swift when she hasteth to the prey, serves by the counsell of God herein to represēt the swiftnes of our dayes, & how we hast to our end, to be a prey for the grave. Iob, 9.26. The Moth as little & weake as the Eagle is great & strong, serves yet to teach us the same lesson as well as the king of birds. Though the moth be so fraile that by touching it is cōsumed, & the substāce left behinde upon the fingers, yet mortall mē are crushed before the moth, Iob 4.19. even their beauty consumes away like the moth. Psa. 39.11. the moth of consumptiō eates them up. Esa. 50.9. & 51.8. Hos. 5.12 As the Lord rides upō the Cherubims & flyes abroad upō the wings of the winde: so upon the wings of the moth used for his service & made his Embassadour to deliver unto man a message of his morta­lity, that he might remember his end.

(l) Thus doe all kinde of creatures made for man, serve to warne him of his vanity: And it is not simply the mere volubility of the heavens & instability of the earth, that give us this warning; but this whole globe of heaven & earth is created & givē unto us of God for a Watch or Clock, whereby we might learne to number our times, & our passing away in them. The [Page 39] severall lights of the firmament are ordai­ned of God, for signes & for seasons, for dayes & for yeares, Gen. 1.14. The Sunne by his height & motion doth plainely de­clare the time of the day, being looked on to that end; & by the variation of his sha­dow in the degrees of the diall, as in that of Ahaz, Esa. 38.8. doth more exactly di­stinguish & determine the houres unto us. Yea the window in every mans house stā ­ding against the Sunne, serves for a diall to shew the houre of the day more or lesse: and to them that are abroad in the streets or field in the sunne-shine; evē the shadow of their owne persons, the stature of their owne body serving for the gnomon of a diall, doth shew the difference of houres according to the variety of the shadow stretched out & declining in divers de­grees, Ier. 6.4. Men that have bene a while intent unto their work & eftsoones looke up & see the declining of the shadow, the sight of this declination is as the sound of a voyce unto them, saying, The Time passeth; The end draweth on; Man wal­keth in a shadow; & sleeth away as a sha­dow: Iob, 14.2. Psa. 109.23. and so giveth him occasion to try himselfe & his wayes, what good he hath bene doing that while. [Page 40] And as plainely doe the starres also by sun­dry wayes declare the houre of the night unto us, and teach us the same lessons.

Neither doe the lights of heaven de­clare unto us the houres of the day & night onely, in regard of their diurnall motions; but the planets by an other o­blique motion entring into the signes of the Zodiak successively, & finishing that course some in a moneth, some in a yeare, & of the superiour planets the highest in thirty yeares, the next in twelve, & the next in two yeares, do hereby very plain­ly distinguish both the moneths of the yeare & the yeares of longer periods of time, for which we have no proper names. As the Greeks of old had their O­lympiads with other reckonings; and as the Prophets described their stories not onely from the raigne of their Kings after one reckoning, but from many different poynts & termes of time in respect of Gods judgments or mercies, or mens de­fection or repentance. Exod. 12.41.1. Kin. 6.1. Ier. 25.1. Ezek. 1.1. & 4.5. Amos. 1.1. Hag. 2.18.19. so the Lord in his unsearch­able wisedome hath given unto us many heavenly dialles & instruments of num­bring our dayes; all of them witnesses [Page 41] how our time passeth: and God calleth us by so many, that if one or two signes would not prevaile with us, yet more might, Exo. 4.9. one comming into our sight after another, & teaching us to exa­mine our selves & our estate both for shorter & longer times, & to be prepared for the worke of God, as the Angels, for an houre, & a day, & a yeare. Rev. 9.15.

But that which is yet more wonderfull, these coelestial bodies doe not onely de­clare & signe out the times unto us; but they alter & change the times & make the seasons to differ one from another. As the cartwheeles on the earth where they goe, leave a track or furrow behinde thē; so the wheeles of these planets & stars in their conversions make a deep impression upon the earth, according to the diversi­ty of their motions: and some of them bring the spring, some the summer, some autumne, & some duely draw on winter as with bands & cords. Iob. 38.31.32. & 9.9. This their operation is manifested in great variety, & in such manner that thereby they produce many new reall di­alles upon the earth. And from hence in divers flowers we have a plaine distincti­on of the houres in the day; while some [Page 42] still turne their face unto the Sunne, from the rising to the setting, as Heliotropium or Turnsol; some declare the approch of the evening by shutting their flowers be­fore, as the Daysies, Marigold, Dandeli­on & others; some are so strangely affec­ted that they shew it to be high noone by closing up themselves just at that time, as we see dayly in the flower that is called Goates-beard or the starre of Ierusalem. Others againe distinguish the moneths of the yeare, some springing & flourishing in one moneth & some in others successively in order, as we see in the Primerose, Vio­let, Rose, Gilloflower & others which follow even unto the winter moneths. Thus the plāts of the earth together with the planets of heaven become monitors of the time passing away.

Neither is this to be observed in the plants onely, but in the sensitive creatures also, the fowles, fishes, & fourefooted beasts: the birds shew us the time of the day; some sing at a certaine houre of the night before day; Mar, 13.35. some little birds at the day-break; Eccl. 12.4. some at noone, & some nightbirds in the eve­ning. They distinguish also the times of the yeare; sometimes revived, sometimes [Page 43] drooping and decaying againe in great variety. They know the times of their comming and going, some in one moneth and some in another, as the Stork, the Turtle, the Crane, and the Swallow. Iere. 8.7. and the fishes likewise have their ap­pointed seasons, as is dayly observed by the fishmongers. All these shall rise up in judgement against them that know not the acceptable time, nor learn to redeeme it, though the Lord call them so many wayes, and shew them the time passing by so many devises.

CHAP. III. Monitors of Death in & about a mans ovvne selfe.

HItherto we have heard the call of God sounded out unto us in and by other creatures, by heaven and earth and the things therein that were made for man; now we are to consider how God comes neerer unto man, and from the state of mans owne person, calling, and condition, calles him by the sight of him­selfe to remember his latter end. And first, the Lord having made man of the dust of the earth, Gen. 2.7. and thereupon after his fall shewed him his readines to return to dust, Gen. 3.19. Eccl. 12.7. doth yet further call us to consider our frailety by [Page 45] ordaining that this house of clay is to be held upright by a puffe of the ayre conti­nually breathed in and out, and that this being stopt the house must presently fall downe. Hereby our life hangs as it were loose before us, going in and out every moment: therefore is it called the breath of life, Gen. 2.7. & 7.15.22. our life being carried in & out upon the breath, & de­pending upon it. And as God tyed life to our body by such a slender & weake thread, so he calles us oft to mark it & think on it & to remember our mortall estate by the breath of our nostrils so easi­ly departing. Esa. 2.22. Psa. 146.4. & 104.29.

(a) An other fraile band of life, like unto our breathing, is the pulse, which ariseth from the heart & the arteries or beating veines, & this by a double motion of contraction & dilatation, whereby they are drawne in & out, both for the expel­ling of noxious fumes through the insen­sible pores of the flesh, & for the drawing in of coole ayre to refresh the heart & to feed the vitall spirits. From the variety of the pulse are taken many signes of health & sicknes, life & death: it is the character of our strength or weaknes, & [...] [Page 48] are we provoked to watchfulnes.

And as in the necessity of food, so in the quality thereof is our corruptible estate made evident unto us. Our food before it come into the body is diversly prepared; and the principall fruits for nourishment of man & comfort of his life, as corne, & wine, & figges, & the like, are ripened & made to grow more abundantly by the dung and excrements of beasts cast upon them: Luke. 13.8. from the juyce of the dung is the fatnes and sweetnes of the fruits increased. And from hence is the strength of our corruptible life: hence we may say to corruption, Thou art my fa­ther. As once the meat of the miserable Iewes in their distresse was prepared with dung; Ezek. 4.12, 13.15. so is our food dayly in the growth of it, as it were seasoned, baked, and concocted with dung. The earth accursed for our sinne is brought to this base condition that the fattest increase thereof is from excre­ments, and it yeeldeth fruit unto the mouth of mā from the tayle of the beasts. After it is in the body a great part of it by the alteration there, is turned into corrup­tion, and receyved into divers lothsome sinkes and channels within the body till it [Page 49] be againe expelled. By this perishing food, Ioh. 6.27. God doth admonish us of our perishing estate; & shewes unto us, that meats are for the belly and the belly for meats, that he wlll destroy both it & them. 1. Cor. 6.13. Thus the staffe of our strength & the very pillars of our life do carry in them the remembrance of de­struction & corruption for our warning.

(c) But this is not all: Our food is not onely of corruption, but we feed even of death it selfe, & that by the allowance of God, Gen. 9.3. in taking away the life of other creatures to maintaine our owne; especially in these last times when he hath said unto us of them all, Rise, kill & eat, Act. 10.13. Whatsoever is sold in the shā ­bles, that eat, asking no questiō for consci­ence sake. 1 Cor. 10.25. herein we see death dayly presēted to us & set before us on our tables. This is seriously to be thought upō as a wonderfull work of God: by the death of other creatures our life is preserved: our living bodies are sustaind by their dead carcasses: in their blood swimmes our life; and from their pangs of death spring the pleasures of our life, our feasts & ordinary food. As the savage Cāniballes eat the flesh of men; so we eat the flesh of beasts that [...] [Page 52] that which any creature may serve to be a witnesse of for convincing of sinners, that doth the Lord declare to be their cry & a denunciation of woe from them. Habac. 2.11. Iob. 31.38. Iam. 5.2.3. and in like manner that misery which the creature enthralled by sinne doth endure for man, that doth the Apostle expressely call their groaning and travel­ling together in paine vvith us, &c. Rom. 8.22. These groanes & cryes are then especially to sound in our eares, while we are eating of them: as the Hare newly taken cries in the mouth of the grey­hound; so should we be affected as if the same cry were made when we eat thereof, & have their flesh betwixt our teeth. The Gentleman that sits at his table above in his dining chamber, and was not present in the kitchin or butche­ry, to see the execution, the convulsi­ons of death, the sprinting & gasping of the slaughtered creatures, is yet by re­membrance to represent the same and to make it present againe in his eating: for eating & burying of them in our bellies is more then killing of them, & a further meanes to strike the heart with thought of death, procured for the eater. Our [Page 53] stupidity & blockishnes must needs be very great, if we consider not this fearfull & wonderfull providence of God: and we shall be worse then the beasts them­selves, if we hearken not unto the call which God by them gives us, to awaken us out of our security, & to make us re­member our fraile condition.

(d) An other helpe to preserve our fraile bodies is our rayment and apparell which God hath given to cover and de­fend the body without, as food within. And from hence we have a double or tre­ble memoriall of Death; considering that our apparell was then first given unto us, when by our sinne we first came into the state of death, & not before, Gen. 2.25. with c. 3.7. And then when God first gave our garments unto us, he tooke them out of Deaths wardrobe, they being made with the death of the creatures from whence they were taken. God made coates of skinnes for Adam & his wife & his posterity: Gen. 3.21. Heb. 11.37. The skins of the poore creatures were pluckt over their eares & torne from their backes to cover the shame of our skinnes, & to hide the nakednes of our hydes. And what was sayd of Ioab in another case, [...] [Page 56] are swifter then a post, Iob. 9.25. that we ride post as on dromedaries that runne by the way in all hast to their jour­neyes end. And the travell that men have by sea in the most swift ships is men­tioned of God to represent the swiftnes of our time that carries us night and day, sleeping or waking to the haven of death. Iob 9.26. And according to this wise­dome of God and his example should men make right use of other trades and their labours therein, to set their lat­ter end continually before their eyes thereby.

(f) As labour & toyle in the day, so sleep & rest from labour in the night sea­son, is also a necessary help to preserve this mortall life. This sleep is a lively image of death. For in sleep men ly downe as dead men, without sense and motion, ceassing from their workes and taking no knowledge of the things that are done by others: and therefore the holy Ghost often describeth death by the name of sleep, or lying downe to sleepe. Genes. 47.30. Deuter. 31.16. 1. King. 2.10. Iob. 3.13. and ch. 14.12. Psalm. 76.5. Matt. 27.52. Iohn. 11.11. Actes. 7.60. 1. Corinth. 11.30. 1. Thessal. [Page 57] 4.13. By this marvellous work of God in breaking off the course of life, and making Sleepe like an Half-death to invade us continually, to come up­on us like an unresistable Giant eve­ry day and to throw us downe; and then by his manner of speech in cal­ling death a Sleepe, he calleth us by consideration of our sleepe to consider our death; & by the sight of our bed to remember our grave, to looke u­pon it as a Tombe or Sepulchre, & eve­ry night before we goe into it to labour for reconciliation with God, & at the end of the day to seeke new sense of his love in Christ as we would doe at the end of our life, that so we may lie downe & sleep safely. Had any man some speciall disease, as of the falling sicknes, Apo­plexie, Palsie, Lethargie, or the like terrible passion, whereby at a cer­taine time of the day he should duely fall downe like a dead man, and ly snorting at the gates of death for an houre or two, untill the malignant humour were discussed and the force of the fit were over; would we not thinke that man warned of God, thereby to remember his end [...] [Page 60] 7.8.9. but with the faythfull there is another remembrance of death by occa­sion of sinnes, as comfortable to them, as the former is terrible to the wicked. For in sight of sinnes that greeve them they call to minde what shall quite free them from those sins; and what is that but death? Thereupon they set death before their eyes, and are taught of God so to doe, longing for their redemption, and desiring to remoove out of the body, which is by death. Rom. 8.23. 2. Cor. 5.8. And how many wayes then is death propounded unto us? which way can we looke on the right hand or on the left, before us or behinde us, but e­very way the memorialles of death are before us? Transgressions past, sins present, feares of the wicked, desires of the godly, all lead to the thought of death, and to the remem­brance of our latter end.

(h) Againe the afflictions, sicknes­ses & dangers, wherein death is threat­ned unto men, are likewise meanes of death, and by them also we are called of God to remember our lat­ter end. It pleaseth God for the war­ning of secure men, to bring men to [Page 61] the gates of death before they enter: Psal. 19.13. and though he bring them back againe, yet is this done of God for a memoriall of death. God brings men into such extremity that they make full account to die, they receive the sen­tence of death in themselves, & despaire of life, 2. Cor. 1.8.9. and are free a­mong the dead in their owne and others judgement; Psal. 88.4.5. and this many times, they are in deaths often: 2. Corint. 11.23. and such things God worketh oftentimes, that men might re­nounce the world, Iob. 33.22-29. and set their house in order, & their heart in or­der to die, that being delivered they might then remember what thoughts & desires, what prayers & purposes they had in their soules, and recall them of­ten, for their preparation against the time of their finall departure out of this world. Esa. 38.1.15. &c. As Iehosaphat having cryed out in the danger of death, 2. Chron. 18.31. was bound to remember that very cry and disposition of his heart afterward: so forasmuch as there is almost no man which hath not seene the face of Death and his dart shaken against him in [...] [Page 64] being pale, withered and wrinckled, & the shadow of death sitting upon their eye-lids; and some in divers degrees be­twixt both: and especially in the sight of friends long absent and changed in that time, we are called to thinke how the fashion of this world passeth away.

As the face so the stature of man gro­wing up as a plant, according to the divers measures and degrees of his growth appointed of God, Psalm. 144. 12. Luk. 1.80. and 2.52. is another testi­mony of his changeable estate, even from the childe of a span long unto those that have their full growth. Lam. 2.20. Though some be of low stature, as Zac­cheus Luke. 19.3. and some againe higher then the common sort by the head, as was Saul; 1. Sam. 10.23.24. yet even in these compared with them­selves the proportion of their growth is an evidence of their age to such as know them. Though men being come to their full stature stand at a stay, and loose not their stature by such degrees as they attained unto it in their youth; yet many times we see in experience that crooked old age bowing downe their heads more & more to the earthward, [Page 65] they doe hereby after a sort loose their stature by degrees, & grow into the ground againe. And thus the wheele of mans age visibly & sensibly turning about according to the variation of his stature is another admonition to remember the latter end approching.

(k) Beside the face & stature, the Lord hath set sundry other markes upon the bodies of young and old, for memori­als of their time passing away at the changes of their age. The younger peo­ple have the time of love described of God by divers markes and tokens there­of: Ezech. 16.7.8. but especially old age hath the tokens of neere-approching death imprinted upon them, whereby they are warned of God to prepare for it. The decay of strength, the decay of sense, the decay of health, are all fore­runners of death, and summon them to their end. Through decay of strength the armes and hands, the keepers of the house, beginne to tremble. Ecclesi. 12.3. and the legges that are as pillars thereof do bow themselves; and the help of a staffe as a third legge to rest on, is sought of the aged person, Zach. 8.4. and with that woodden legge at [Page 66] every step he goes, he strikes upon the earth & raps at the gate of the grave, un­till it be opened unto him. By this weak­nes death comes & puts his manicles upon their hands, & his shackels upon their legges, for remembrance of their end. This weaknes is further signifyed by the ceassing of the grinders in the mill, Eccles. 12.3. both the upper & the nether milstone, which are called the life of man; Deut. 24.6. These teeth fayling, life begins to fayle. From this weaknes the doores of the lips are shut without, the sound of the grinding is low, & the voyce hoarse: and so whether the old per­sons worke with their hands, or walke with their feet, or eate with their teeth, or speake with their lips, the memoriall of death is in each of these set before them. And as in the outward parts of the body, so the like weaknes & decay of strength is to be observed in the in­ward parts, and as a cause of that which is in the outward. The silver coards of the sinewes, which carry the faculty of sense & motion from the head, in old age are loosed: Eccles. 12.6. that cable of the marrow in the backbone, which was wont so firmely to hold & stay the fraile [Page 67] barke of our body tossed with so many motions, and by those many conjugati­ons of nerves like so many paire of oares on each side did row the gally up and downe, begins now to dissolve. The head which is the golden bowle, wherein is emboxed the brayne that ministers that faculty of sense & motion, through age is broken & becomes crazie. The many pitchers of the veines, which carry the nourishing blood from the well of the liver unto each part of the body, become like unto broken vessels. And the wheele of the arteries, which by the reciprocall motions & pulses doe convey the vitall spirits from the cisterne of the heart into the furthest coasts of the little world, for the quickening of the whole flesh, even to the toes & fingers ends, through lan­guishing age begins to turne & returne slowly & weakely. And all these faint operations are so many memorials of death, and doe plainely portend the ap­proch of our latter end, & every one of them admonisheth us to watch. Againe from this weaknes & decay of strength both in the outward and inward parts, ariseth an other memoriall of death, to be seene in that which is esteemed no [...] [Page 70] taste what he eates, or what he drinkes: 2. Sam. 19.35. old Isaac by his touch cannot feele the difference betwixt the hands of his son & the skinne of a beast: Gen. 27.16.21.22.23. old David is co­vered with clothes, & feeles no heat: 1. Kings. 1.1. concupiscence departs; Eccle. 11.5. Abishag the faire virgin lies in his bosome & he knowes her not. 1. Kin. 1.4. Yea the inward senses beginne to faile al­so; memory decayes; the understanding is diminished, & old men some times in their decrepite age come to be little children againe, not able to discerne be­twixt good & evill. 2. Sam. 19.35. How inexcusable are they that live securely, & thinke not of death, whereof they have so many warnings before hand?

(m) With decay of strength & sense comes the decay of health. Old age is many times a continuall sicknes, & when the dayes of man are multiplyed, they are but labour & sorrow, even the strength of them. Psa. 90.10. Then is the time when the evill dayes approch, and the yeares of which man sayth, I have no pleasure in them. Eccle. 12.1. Then is the light of Sunne, Moone, & starres obscured: and then the clouds returne after the raine; [Page 71] one infirmity after another. v. 2. Through decay of naturall heat ariseth indigestion & crudity of stomack, & thereupon fol­low rheumes, & catarrhes; and from thence comes ach in the bones, & mani­fold paines & diseases, whereby the Lord as with an yron pen writeth our lesson, & engraveth this sentence deep in our flesh & bones, Remember your latter end approaching. In all the paines of old age the finger of God nippeth & pincheth men, to make them think of his call & prepare for death.

[Page 74]upon. God shewes that then he exspects a speciall act of humiliation, when at our end he visites us with such paines; that we are to mourne for sinnes committed in the world before we depart out of it, when he sends such sorrow unto us at that time especially. Then are we called to stirre up the grace of God within us, and to rayse up our spirits with all love & reverence to meet the Lord, that we may receyve his blessing, and enter into his gates with joy & into his courts with thanksgiving.

(a) Againe this paine prevayling at the approch of death, causeth men to ly downe & to fall flat along upon their beds, Iob. 33.19. Act. 5.15. and to let all the affaires of the world alone, with the works of their calling. Through infir­mity of the body God forceth them to stoope, & calleth them to remember their frailety & their end; as if he should command them to couch downe before him, and require them to prostrate their soules at his footstoole in seeking his fa­vour & mercy in Chirst, even as their bo­dies are prostrate by his hand. This very position of the body represents unto us how the grasse withers & the flower falls, [Page 75] and admonisheth us in our soules to worship & fall downe before the Lord our maker; and by faith to enforce our bodies also leaning on our staffe, to wor­ship upon the beds head, Heb. 11.21. Gen. 47.31. and 48.2. that he may straightway lift us up for ever. As Iacob bowed him­selfe to the ground seven times, at the ap­proch of his brother Esaw: Gen. 33.3. so the Lord himselfe by sicknes thrusts us downe seven times; we are often up & downe; we lift up our selves, but cannot hold up our heads: God teacheth us there by to come submissively creeping into his presence, & humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us. 1. Pet. 5.6.

(b) An other warning to thinke of the end at hand, is that distast of meat and want of appetite in sick persons; when their life abhorreth bread, & their soule dainty meat. Iob. 33.20. When the staffe of bread failes & the stay of naturall life is withdrawne, then God calles the sick persons to remember their end, to dou­ble their care for eternal life, to seeke the hidden manna, unknowne & unregarded of the world, Rev. 2.17. to feed upon the bread of God which commeth downe [...] [Page 78] for their end. This yron sleep is a black cloud of death, a night-shade & a parti­cular darkenes, of which in its measure is verifyed that more generall saying of our Saviour, The night comes, when no man can work: Ioh. 9.4. and therefore while there is light & liberty of minde in the time of health, the end is to be re­membred & provided for, before the houres of oppression doe come upon the minde.

(e) Sometimes in sicknes, though sleep oppresse not, there is a kinde of ra­ving distraction, caused by phrensie, or melancholy, or other distemperatures, which doth overwhelme the minde, as Nebuchadnezzars once was by the stroke of God, Dan. 4. so that it is unfit to thinke of death, or to seeke any comfort against the danger thereof. And frō hence there­fore it doth likewise appeare how un­wise they are that deferre the time of their repentance unto the time of death, when it is uncertaine whether they shall be masters of their owne wits, & naturall understanding, not to speake of superna­turall grace which is further above the reach of man, & yet necessary to salvation.

(f) Sometimes the very vehemency [Page 79] & extremity of paine doth trouble & dis­turbe the minde, and disables it that it cannot orderly & quietly dispose it selfe unto godly & comfortable meditations; but being overcome with impatiēce frets & murmures & is tossed up & downe without fruit. Therefore are these ex­tremities of anguish compared to a cup of intoxicating wine, making men as it were drunken with greefe, Esa. 51.17. 21.22. Lam 4.21. and even mad with woe & sorrow, that they know not what to doe. Deut. 28.34. Ier. 25.16. Eccles. 7.7. And what folly is it then for men to be unprepared through forgetfulnes of their latter end, & to remaine drunken with security all their life till they be drowned in a gulfe of misery? Perplexity & extreme anguish may justly come as a snare upon them that abuse their present peace & ease, promising themselves li­berty & power to dispatch all that is needfull for their salvation in one mo­ment of their last distresse.

(g) And commonly when death ap­procheth, our adversary the devill, that prince of darknes, that hath gone about as a roaring lyon watching to devoure us at all opportunities before, doth thē espe­cially [Page 80] rage, knowing that his time is short, Rev. 12. 12. and withall seekes to take advantage by the present infirmitie of the sick persons, insinuating himselfe into each of the former troubles, adding fear­full dreames to their slumbers, strong fan­cies to their distraction, aggravating their paines with divers terrours. Experience shewes what great temptatiōs many have undergone upon their death-bed. And therfore the consideratiō of this last great combat should warne every one betimes to arme thēselves, to gather strēgth every day against the last day, to furnish thēselves with grace, to seek truth & righteous­nes, faith & patience, store of comfortable promises out of the word of God layd up in their hearts & kept in readines, to nou­rish themselves in hope, to watch & pray uncessantly; that having concluded this last combat & obtained the victory, they may then be translated from a state mili­tant to a state triumphant for ever.

(h)

THese forewarnings are such as serve chiefly for the instruction of those that feele them, & on whose persons they are inflicted: but beside these forewarnings the dead leave unto the living many after­warnings [Page 81] of their mortality, which admo­nish the succeeding generation that they must follow their praedecessours. And here first of all observe, how it is ordered by divine providence, that in death the soule & body be separated one from the other. In this separation the Soule is car­ried away invisibly; no man knoweth how nor whither. No humane sense cā discerne the spirit of man ascending. Ecc. 3.21. The Lord in his unsearchable counsell would have the opening of the gates of the se­cond world to be kept secret & close from us. If godly parents should see the soules of their children carried away to destruc­tion in the clawes of an hellish dragon, & crying unto them with a lamentable and desperate voyce, what horrour & woe would this be unto them, to make their dayes more uncomfortable so lōg as they should live on earth? God in great mercy conceales it from them. If wicked & un­godly men should see their children or companions soules haled away by evill spirits after they were separated frō their bodies, & withall should heare thē shrike & cry & curse their cōpany, what a stroke of terrour might this be unto them? but God in justice hides these things from thē [Page 82] & will not satisfy the curiosity of profane men, that despise his Gospell and the means of life revealed therein. This secret manner of translating the separated soules in carrying some close prisoners to Hell, and transporting others in covered wa­gons & invisible chariots unto Glory, serves to warne and admonish us by the very forme thereof, so much the more to remember the other evident monuments of our frailety. When secret things are restrayned to the Lord, the things revealed are immediately there­upon the more enforced upon us to ob­serve the same. Deut. 29.29. When the Spirit recordes how some persons, men or angels, have vanished out of the sight of those they had spoken withall, we are to observe how they were occasioned thereby to thinke the more of that which they had seene & heard from such, and not to prye into that which was with­drawne from them. Luke, 24.31.32. Act. 8.39. Iudg. 6.21.22. &c. Yea the Lord appointed that they should not be suffered to live, which went about to talke with the dead soule or to rayse the spirits. Levit. 20.27. 1. Sam. 28.8 9. &c. But by all this we are so much the more [Page 83] led to observe the common visible me­morials of mortality shewed unto us in them that die before us.

(i) It is further to be observed, that when the spirit is carried away presently to God that gave it, yet the body remains behinde & returnes to dust from whence it came. Eccles. 12.7. If God by death had taken away both the soule & the bo­dy together at the same time; if it had pleased God to take away all men as He­noch & Elias were; Heb. 11.5. Gen. 5.24. 2. Kin. 2.11.17. or to bury all men so as Moses was, Deut. 34.6. namely so that their bodies should be seene no more among men; yet even then, there were cause enough to remember that wonder­full great & finall translation: but now seing every man departing this life leaves a peece of himselfe among his friends on earth, yea the one halfe of his person, and that halfe which is the visible part, even the body that was best knowne among men; the Lord by this fragment of man that is left, gives us occasion to thinke what is done with the rest, and to keepe in memory the death past, to prepare us for death to come. As Elias ascending to heaven let his mantle fall, for a remem­brance [...] [Page 86] so much care for our bodies as we doe for the soules; according to this example of God, who shewes more love & respect to the soules, taking them first into his heavenly Kingdome & glory, when as he suffers the body so long a time after, to lodge in dishonour, & to remaine in the pit of corruption. 1. Cor. 15.43.

(l) The sequestration of the body from the place where the soule is, and the cor­ruption of it being separate, are memori­alles wrought immediately by Gods owne hand: beside these there are other after-warnings of death effected by the providence of God mediately by the ser­vices of men, that seeke the honour of the dead & comfort of the living. For honour of the dead, holy men of old have shewed great care to provide sepulchers, tombes, & monuments for them. Such were the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham; Gen. 40.30.31. and 23. the pillar on Rachels grave that Iaakob set up, Gen. 35.20. that continued so many generations to Samuels time; 1. Sam. 10.2. the title on the sepulcher of the man of God, that prophesied of Iosias; 2. Kin. 23.17.18. the sepulcher of David, that continued twise fourteene generations, [Page 87] from David to the Apostles time, Act. 2.29. having bene preserved in the time of the Babylonian captivity, even then when both city & temple were destroyed, with many the like. These monuments are in Scripture called Memorialles, Mnemeia, Matth. 23.29. Iohn. 11.38. and 19.41. and 20 1. by which (whatsoever others intended) the godly are taught to remem­ber their latter end. The garnished tombes and the sumptuous sepulchers are but so many scaffolds, stages & theaters of humane frailety, and so many pulpits out of which our mortality is preached: and all the common graves of the people are the coffers of death, the sight whereof should teach us to lay up our treasure in heaven. And thus, though the touch of a grave defiled the body with a ceremo­niall pollution in the time of the Law; Numb. 19.16. yet the sight of a grave may serve to cleanse the soule by a spiri­tuall consideration of our end, even as the sight of the Leviathan raised up, did bring men to purify themselves, fearing lest the whale might be their grave. Iob. 41.25. with Iob, 3.8.

(m) The grave being prepared for the dead corps, then men proceed with their [...] [Page 90] may obtaine.

(n) Having bene at the grave & per­formed the last duety to the person of the dead, we then returne & come from the dead to the living, to the friends of the dead, to mourne with them, to comfort them, and (as the kinred & speciall friends of old used) to eat & drink with them & give them the cup of consolation: Rom. 12.15. Ier. 16.7.8. Gen. 37.35. 1. Chro. 7.22. Ioh. 11.19. and in this action we have an other call to remember our end. While we minister consolation to others, we are to take an exhortation to our selves. The house of mourning is the schoole of mortification; and therefore better to enter into it then into the house of feasting: for there is the end of all men, which the living will lay unto his heart, & so be made better in his heart by the consideration of the dead & by the sadnes of the countenances waiting on that consideration. Eccles. 7.2.3.4.

(o) When the comforters of them that mourne are departed from the mourning house & gone every one to his owne; yet still the friends of the dead, even while they live on earth, so often as they misse their friends departed, & want the help [Page 91] & benefit which they were wont to en­joy from them, so often are they called to remember death, that makes such separati­ōs. La. 4.18-20. The widowes, orphanes, desolate parents, oppressed subjects, & scattered sheep, that are deprived of their loving husbands, parents, children, rulers, pastours, or any friend & neighbour that misseth the company of an other, are by this want called to remember both that death past which took away their friends, & that death to come which shall againe restore them & bring them together. 1. Thess. 4.13.14. 2. Sam. 12.23. And in this remembrance they are withal warned to make themselves ready for death, & not to be glewed unto this world from whence their comforts are taken away. When the shepheard takes up the young lamb, the ewe followes him of her selfe, and needs no more calling or driving: when the great shepheard of the sheep takes away the soules of young & old, & of dearest friends from one another, it is to make them runne after the Lord & to long after his presence, in whom they shall finde all & more then all that ever they lost in this world. So often as we thinke of a mother, a father, or other in­tire [...] [Page 94] serve to make a deeper impressiō into the soule, and to keep the memory of it self in the minde more then a thousand other memorials beside. A strange thing it were, if a man that were to be judged the next day of life & death, and to receive sentence eitheir of a most cruell & shame­full death or of a rich & honourable e­state during his life; if this man could not keep in minde the judgment approching untill the next morrow, without tying stringes about his fingers for remem­brance, or writing some caveats upon the posts of the prison, or procuring some watchmen to come every houre whispe­ring in his eare to tell him of the danger imminent, of life or death: And as strange or more is it, that these great & maine matters of Eternall Salvation or Eternall Condemnation should not by their owne greatnes presse the heart of man with the weight thereof unto a continuall remem­brance of them, without other warnings; when as we know not whether we shall have one dayes respite before they come.

(a) The last end of the godly is eter­nall life. This life consists especially in fellowship with God & the Saints. By fellowship with God men come to see [Page 95] God; Matt. 5.8. even to see him as he is; 1. Ioh. 3.2. to see his face which li­ving man was never able to see on earth; Exo. 33.20. to see him, before whom the glorious Seraphims doe cover their faces with their wings; Esa. 6.2. to see the holy Trinity, the blessed Father, Sonne, & H. Ghost, clothed with the sacred robes of their severall beauty and majesty, shining distinctly as the pure Ia­sper, the carnation Sardine, & the greene Emerald. Rev. 4.3. Then the Sonne will shew himselfe unto his elect, Ioh. 14.21. and they shall see his glory; Ioh. 17.24. and the Father shall be seene in him; Ioh. 14.9.10. and with them both the seven Spirits which are before the throne even that one and the same Spirit enlight­ning with his sevenfold graces and gifts that bright sevenfold lamp of his Church. Rev. 1.4. with. 4.5. 1. Cor. 12.11. With this vision shall the soule be satisfyed whē they awake Psal. 17.15. The pleasure of this surmounts the joy of all pleasant things seene by any eye. If all the plea­sure that all the most ardent lovers recey­ved at any or at all times from all the most beauteous & amiable countenances of their dearest spouses & fairest loves in [...] [Page 98] & the like promises. Therefore is that end ever to be remēbred & longed after. Thē especially shal it appeare how the elect re­maine as lambs in the bosome of the Lord their shepheard. Esa. 40.11. Thē will it be further revealed how God dwelleth in thē & they in him; 1. Ioh. 4.15.16. & therefore need not feare being kept far off, as mē on earth that were kept from the bodily pre­sence of Christ being in the house, because of the thrōg at the doore. Mar. 2.2.4. The incomprehensible Lord filling heaven & earth, Ier. 23.24. is himself a house where they shall dwel, and they a mansiō where­in he will make his abode: Ioh. 14.23. By this heavenly conjunction & cohabi­tation with God shall the elect be one, even as the Father & the Sonne are one; Christ in them and the Father in him, that they may be perfect in one. Ioh. 17.22.23. This thrise blessed & most glorious union is that greene bed of Christ & his Spouse, Sol. song. 1.16. an eternall pa­radise of comfort and garden of pure delights. Oh what madnes is it to for­sake that greene bed for any bed of plea­sure in the world! By this communion the Lord embraceth his elect with both armes of his love, & putteth them in his [Page 99] bosome; Sol. song. 2.6. & 8.3. and in this di­vine embracement there is felt more hap­pines & heavenly joy, then all the love & fruits of love, or whatsoever went under the name of the tēdrest and strōgest affec­tion in this world, could ever yeeld unto the heart of man. For if the first fruits of spirituall joy now at this present, in the middes of tribulation, be an hundred fold more then all the pleasure of houses & lands, fathers & mothers, wife & children, the most desirable things of this world; Mark. 10.29.30. then how can it be but more then an hundred thousand fold pleasure to enjoy the beauty & face of God in heavē, to inherit the fulnes of joy in his presence, & pleasures for evermore at his right hand? If the infinite blessed­nes of the glorious persons in the holy Trinity doth appeare in their mutuall union, so that they were an allsufficient & eternall delight unto themselves, in en­joying one an other continually before the world was, before men or angels were made; Prov. 8.30. then may we well think, how our vessels shall be filled and overflow with heavenly comfort, 1. Ioh. 1.4. when we come to drinke of that divine fountaine, and enter into our Ma­sters [...] [Page 102] able to bring to passe. And therefore as in the transfiguration of Christ, his face did shine as the Sunne; Matt. 17.2. even so shall the righteous shine forth as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father. Matt. 13.43. As the raiment of Christ through the brightnes of his body, did shine as the transparent light; Matt. 17.2. & was exceeding white as snow; Mark. 9.3. and withall white & glistering: Luk. 9.29. so the whole person of the elect made whiter then snow in their transfi­guration, shall shine & glister & sparkle with a radiant beauty & heavenly bright­nes: yea then shall the Moone be abashed & the Sunne ashamed before the Lord & his ancients, when the Lord shall reigne in Zion; Esa. 24.23. when he shall be glorifyed in the Saints, and made mar­vellous in all them that beleeve. 2. Thes. 1.10. If the face of Moses, while he was yet clothed with corruption, when he had seene but the back parts of the Lord, and that but for a moment in one vision, did yet shine so gloriously, that men fled away amazed from him & durst not behold the brightnes of his counte­nance; Exo. 34.30. with c. 33.23. what then shall be the glory of the faithfull, [Page 103] when being clothed with immortality, they shall see God face to face, and that in a perpetuall vision for evermore?

(d) From this transfiguration of the Saints made so glorious by the sight of God & fellowship with him, ariseth the glory of their fellowship one with ano­ther, which is also an unspeakable felicity of the second life; to enjoy all the beauty & all the love of all the glorified soules & bodies in heaven. As Ionathan seing the grace of God in David, & his wor­thines, was knit unto him & loved him as his owne soule; 1. Sam. 18.1. so here the Saints beholding the glory of God revea­led in each other, shall be linked together in the neerest bonds of intire affection. They that first give themselves to God, doe then give themselves unto one an other by the will of God. 2. Cor. 8.5. They are all one in Christ Iesus. Gal. 3.28. There is one body & one spirit: Eph. 4.4. all are gathered together in one, under one head, whether things in heaven or in earth, men & Angels, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or powers. Eph. 1.10.22. All things are the Saints; whe­ther it be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things pre­sent, [...] [Page 106] of her and embraced in her armes for ever! The loving society of godly men even in their present weaknes, is magni­fyed as a good & pleasant thing, as a pre­cious oyntment, as the dew of Hermon & Zion: Psal. 133.1.2.3. how good & pleasant then is the heavenly conversation and cohabitation of the Saints? even as the dew of Paradise, where God hath appointed the blessing for ever to make those beauteous blossomes therein to flourish eternally. As oyntment & per­fume rejoyce the heart, so doth the sweetnes of a mans friend by hearty coun­sell; Prov. 27.9. and what then is the sweetnes and joy of that communion, where every heart is a severall closet re­plenished with al store & variety of divine oyntments & perfumes for the mutuall delight of the Saints? The consolation of Christ is there most perfect, the com­fort of love & fellowship of the spirit are compleate & full; and so the joy of every one is fulfilled in being like minded, ha­ving the same love, being of one accord & of one judgment: Phil. 2. 1.2. there is no crying nor complayning; Rev. 21.4. no curse, no angry word; no countenance of dislike or disdaine; no evill, no occasi­on [Page 107] of evill, no appearance of evill, no sus­picion of evill; no want of good in them­selves, no envy of good in others; but every mans joy doubled for anothers sal­vation, and glorifyed in anothers glory. The principall delight is that God is found in them all; each being the temple of God, and his love the fire burning u­pon the altar of every heart: in each of them there is a vision of God & an image of his glory: he is seene in each & shines in them, and so at every turne they meet with God who is all in all & in every one of them. 1. Cor. 15.28. And they never powre out their hearts to one another, but withall they powre out prayse unto God with streames of pleasure to them­selves. And how infinitely manifold are their pleasures, where there are so many spirits of just & perfect men, Heb. 12.22.23. so many millions of Angels, thou­sand thousands & ten thousand times ten thousand standing before the Lord? Dan. 7.10. Rev. 5.11. If Peter thought it so good to be there where but two of the Saints, Moses & Elias appeared in glory with Christ; Luk. 9.30-33. how good is it to be there where all appeare toge­ther in glory with Christ, where the glo­ry [Page 108] of every one shall appeare more cleare­ly and be better discerned, where every one shall be the precious jewell and trea­sure of another? O who are they which remembring this end, will not be content to make an end of their sinfull courses to enjoy this communion? How unworthy a thing is it that the thoughts of vanity should thrust out of our mindes these pleasant remembrances of our latter end and the comforts therein? If I forget thee O Ierusalem, let my right hand forget it selfe: if I doe not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth; if I prefer not Ie­rusalem above my chiefe joy. Psalm. 137.5.6.

(e) It is further to be considered that in all the maine parts & acts of Christian life we are taught every day continually to remēber this our latter end. All dueties both of doing good through faith, hope and love, or of suffering evill for doing good through patience, are so many me­morials thereof. The end of faith is the salvation of our soules, which it beleeveth 1. Pet. 1.9. the object of hope is life eter­nall, which it embraceth: Tit. 1.2 & 3.7. & 2.13. the comfort of love is transla­tion [Page 109] from death unto life, whereof it as­sureth us: 1. Ioh. 3.14.18.19. the reward of patience is rest in the kingdome of heaven and an eternall weight of glory, which it looketh for. Matth. 5.10-12. 2. Cor. 4.17. And thus the comfort of this blessed end is ever carried in the eye of faith, in the armes of hope, in the bosome of love, & borne as it were upon the shoulders of patience. And as all that is done by mē being well considered, should bring this latter end to their remembrāce; so all the works of speciall grace that are wrought by God for his children, before this world, in this world, or after this world, if we looke upō them with a right eye, they doe every one carry in them a remembrance of this glorious end & pro­voke us to thinke thereof. We cannot be assured of our election, but we see it as a booke of life wherein we reade our hap­py end, Phil. 4.3. and behold the king­dome prepared for us before the founda­tion of the world. Mat. 25.34. We cannot rightly thinke of our calling, unles we be­hold that marvellous light & glory where unto we are called. 1. Pet. 2.9. & 5.10. 2. Pet. 1.3. We doe not conceive sufficiently the cōfort of our justificatiō by faith, ūles [...] [Page 112] eye on this end, and for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse, and fi­nished his course & the work committed unto him. Heb. 12.2. Oh let us not breake the band that drew on Christ him­selfe. Oh forgive us Lord that we have bene so profane & carnall to forget this end so often: from henceforth keep it in our mindes & fix it in our memories that it never slip away.

CHAP. VI. The latter end of the faithfull compared vvith the primitive estate of the old vvorld.

THat we may the better comprehend that happy communion, wherewith the latter end of the faythfull shall be glorifyed, let us somewhile leave our speech of the world to come, as also of [Page 114] this present world, and let us looke back into the world that is gone & past; let us behold the glory that is lost, that by the greatnes thereof first considered in it selfe & then compared with this to come, the glory hereof may more evidently ap­peare. That we may the better observe the difference, we are to set ourselves as it were in a middle gate betwixt two worlds, the old and the new, where we may have an open and free pro­spect into them both; and from thence we are to cast a look first into the old world, then into the new; with one eye to behold the first paradise in Eden, and with another the second paradise in the third heavens; with one look to view the first Adam, his gifts & his children, and with an other look to behold the second Adam, Christ Iesus, his gifts & his chil­dren, and so to compare the glory of their estates together. In such a middle gate or tower of prospect into these two worlds, the Prophets & Apostles did of­ten set themselves when they compared them together, as appeareth in those texts, Old things are past away, behold all things are become new. 2. Cor. 5.17. Behold I create new heavens & a new earth: and the [Page 115] former shall not be remembred, nor come into my minde. Esa. 65.17. The first man A­dam vvas made a living soule, the last A­dam vvas made a quickening spirit. 1. Cor. 15.45. so v. 49. &c.

(a) The glory of the old world in the primitive estate thereof, consisted al­so in a blessed fellowship with God and fellowship with men. This blessed fel­lowship of God with man appeared first in that he communicated his image and similitude with man, the beauty of which image shined especially in that wisedome holines & righteousnes, which God im­printed in the soule. Gen. 1.26.27. with Eph. 4.24. Coll. 3.10. Eccl. 7.29. By that wisedome he knew God & saw his glory, by that holines he did cleave unto him & embrace him with love, reve­rence & confidence, and so in both com­municated with God. At the bestowing of this image, each Person in the holy Trinity did work together, & each gave precious & excellent gifts unto man, for the beautifying of his soule with variety of graces, such as might make him a love­ly creature, in whom the Lord him­selfe might take delight: Rev. 4.10.11. with Ioh. 1.3. Coll. 1.16. Iob, 33.4. and [Page 116] therefore is the Trinity described consul­ting about this work, Let us make man in our image, after our likenes; all are noted with the title of creatours or makers, Eccl. 12.1. boreêcha. Iob. 35.10. ghnosai. As upon the losse of this image, when Adam begate a sonne in his owne likenes, Gen. 5.3. all hatefull & ugly deformity of sin succeeded & every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely evill continually: Gen. 6.5. so had he reteyned the image of God, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart should have bene onely good and gracious continu­ally, without any inclination to evill or the least looking awry to any thing that might have bene displeasant in the sight of God. And this image of God had bene such a beauty as the eye of man never saw in this corrupt world; such a perfect beauty, such a symmetry & har­mony of grace as that Gods owne judi­cious eye should have found no fault or dislike in it.

(b) And yet even this perfect beauty given at the first creation, was farre infe­riour and not to be compared with the glory of the world to come: even that which was made glorious had no glory [Page 117] in this respect, by reason of that which excelleth. 2. Cor. 3.10. The first man is of the earth earthly, though made per­fect, yet in a lower degree of perfection: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they that be earthly; and as is the heavenly, such are they that be heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also beare the image of the heavenly, 1. Cor. 15.47.48.49. and shall be made conforme to the image of the Sonne of God: Rom. 8.29. and that pleasant image of Christ is the highest degree of perfection, the sweetest mirrour of beau­ty in heaven or earth, stayning the glory of the former image. The innocency of Adam was a white robe & a glorious or­nament unto him; but the righteousnes of God in Christ is a white robe more pure & precious, of a finer threed, of a brighter white, of a more divine fashion to adorne the soule; and by that righteousnes put on, the Lord himselfe becomes a dia­deme of beauty unto his people, Esa. 28.5. & 62.3. Kings use to give gifts accor­ding to the state of kings, great, & royall; Esth. 2.18. and so did the heavenly King at the first creation: but the [...] [Page 120] have bene no distemperature of the ayre as is felt now adayes, no afflicting stormes or tempests, no excesse of cold or heat, but that the naked body unclothed with­out any paine or trouble might well have endured the same. Now both the shame & paine of nakednes is very great; Esa. 20.4. 2. Sam. 10.4.5. Reu. 3.18. & 16.15. 1. Cor. 4.11. 2. Cor. 11.27. and such that men strive to cover the whole body so farre as necessity will permit, the hands & face being therefore excepted; the face left uncovered, lest the eyes should be blindfold & the breath stopt; & the hands lest the manifold works of man in his divers callings should be hin­dered; and yet even they also so muffled sometimes with maskes & muffes & mit­tens, that with great cumber & trouble they are often in the day covered & un­covered & covered againe to avoyd the injury of the weather. A great freedome it was to have bene without care what to put on; when as they needed no such ex­hortations as are since given to us therea­bout. Matth. 6.25.31. Againe the spe­ciall forme of mans body erect & upright with his face upward, whereas other crea­tures are made with their heads hanging [Page 121] downward & with their faces prone to the earth, doth shew that man is called to fellowship with the Lord dwelling on high. As the Lord when he still exhorts us to lift up our eyes & looke up toward God, doth in that phrase call us to com­munion with him, to trust in him, to love him & to aspire unto him: Psal. 123.2. Esa. 17.7. & 45.22. so when he made Adam in such a forme with his head and eyes lift up, even in that manner of work the Lord called him to looke to his Crea­tour, and to embrace him the author of all his good. Besides this what are all the senses of the body but so many instru­ments of our communion with God, or so many doores of the soule by which both the Lord enters in to shew himselfe, and the soule goes out to behold him? By them his praise is heard, his glory is seene, his goodnes & gifts are tasted, his sweet­nes smelled, yea & groaped or handled of us. Actes. 17.27. By them both faith & love & feare of God is learned. As by the senses of the body God communicated his goodnes with Adam, so by the members of his body he was to communicate his heart with God, to serve the Lord, to render thanks unto him, & to glorify him; [...] [Page 124] at first, could not without a change have inherited the kingdome of God, 1. Cor. 15.50.51. His eyes had never seene nor could have seene that face of God which is in the light unapproachable. 1. Tim. 6.16. with Exo. 33.20. If the eyes of holy men have fayled in waiting for the comforts and deliverances promised in this life; Psa. 119.82.123. how much more should our eyes wait & our flesh long for that end, where even in our flesh we shall see God, so as Adam in paradise could not doe? Iob. 19.26.27. Oh that the remembrance of this end were prin­ted deeply in our hearts! that it might ever be retained, as the words that are written or plowed and the furrowes engraven with an yron pen filled with lead in stead of inke, & in the stony rocke in stead of paper, all firme to en­dure; so as Iob wished that his hope of this same glorious end might be recor­ded. Iob. 19.23.24. &c.

(e) Looke we back againe into the old world, & behold how God further com­municated his image with the whole per­son of man, in that dominion & lordship which he gave unto man over the earth & all the creatures in it. Gen. 1.28. There­by [Page 125] Adam was crowned with honour and dignity; set over the works of Gods hand, all things being put under his feet, sheepe & oxen, beasts of the field, fowles of the aire, & fish of the sea. Psal. 8.5.6.7.8. God brought them all before Adam, as it were to doe homage unto him as unto their king, & in signe of subjection to receive their names from him. Gen. 2.19.20. Even after the fall & since the rebellion of the creatures thereupon, the service which they yet performe unto man is very great. The oxe knowes his owner and the asse his masters crib. Esa. 1.3. The hus­bandman hath taught the strong horse to be obedient unto him; to draw his plow & his cart, if he say goe, he goeth; if he say come, he cometh; at one word the horse goeth right forward, at another he stands still and stirrs not; at one word he turnes to the right hand, at another he turnes to the left hand. The silly sheepe are taught to know the voyce of their owne shepheard, to follow him & to distinguish betwixt his voyce & the voyce of a stranger which they will not follow. Iohn. 10.3.4.5. Experi­ence shewes how the doves are taught to carry letters for men. The birds great [Page 126] & small are tamed & taught to come at the call of man; evē the ravenous hawkes at the voyce and call of the faulconer. The dogs are taught many arts of hunting in divers kindes. It is strange to heare & see how the waterfoules in Freeseland, Waterland and elswhere are taught to en­tise other wild foules & bring them into the snare, and then to give a watchword unto their master to sease upon them. If thus farre they be subdued unto man, evē after the fall, what is that service which they should have performed before the fall, when both man should have had more understanding to teach & governe them & they a more inclinable & tracta­ble disposition to have obeyed? As Ie­hosaphat witnessed his fellowship with the kings of Israel, when he professed, My people are as thy people, and my horses as thy horses; 1. Kings 22.4. & 2. Kings 3.7. so hath the Lord hereby declared his communion with man by making his creatures our servants, his horses our hor­ses, &c.

It cannot be conceived or knowne of us how great pleasure & delight man should have had in this dignity communicated unto him of God. The earth it selfe & [Page 127] all the increase thereof was also subjected unto man: Gen. 1.28. paradise & all the pleasant fruits thereof; Gen. 2.8.16. whereas otherwise every one might have bene as dangerous & pernicious to be ea­ten & tasted of as was the forbidden fruit: the greene grasse diversifyed with sweet flowers of sundry colours & shapes was spread as a pleasant carpet for man to tread upon; and by a speciall providence the ground was greene, a colour wholesomest for the eye-sight of man: the firmament above beautifyed with so many spangles of shining starres was spread out as a ca­nopie over the head of man where ever he goes, Esa. 40.22. more glorious then those carried over the heads of Popes or Emperours. Even those heavenly bodies are communicated and distributed unto man for his benefit & comfort, Deu. 4.19.

(f) And yet notwithstanding all this, if we cast our eye into the world to come the glory thereof will be found far to sur­mount all this. That which is now above our heads shall then be found to be under our feet. The visible heavens that now are, are not thought good enough nor pleasant enough for the elect: but they shall passe away with a noise; 2. Pet. 3.10. [...] [Page 130] into singing; Esa. 44.23. the sea shall roare & the floods clap their hands, the field shall be joyfull & all that is therein. Psal. 96.11.12. & 98.7.8. And yet all this is not enough; if every twigge of all the trees in the world were a flute or sapwhi­stle; if every stalk of corne in the field or reed by the waters side were all pipes, blowne by the winde; yet all would be too little to resound this incomprehensi­ble glory. And in the meane time untill this glory be revealed, untill the sons of God be manifested, they wait & hold up their heads in exspectation, they groane & travell in paine, longing for this bles­sed end: Rom. 8.19.22. and so doe they that have the first fruits of the Spirit, groane & sigh within themselves, wai­ting for the adoption, the redemption of their bodies. vers. 23. This is the desired end which God calles us so oft to remem­ber; how can men thinke of it without desiring it? how can they desire it aright without praying for it? how can men thinke they pray aright for it, unlesse they prepare themselves thereunto by denying the world? What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation & godlines, whiles we looke for this end? [Page 131] with what care & diligence should we labour to be found of him in peace, with­out spot & blamelesse? 2. Pet. 3.11.14.

(g)

BEsides the fellowship with God in the old world, if we againe looke back into it, we may behold an other happines of men in their mutuall fellow­ship one with another. The first conju­gation of humane society was that of mā & wife by marriage; this was the origi­nall & ground of all other societies: from hence sprung the names & estates of fa­ther & mother, with their sonnes and daughters: out of this society in family sprung all the societies in Church & com­mon-wealth. When God could have made men of new clods of the earth so as Adam was made at first, Gen. 2.7. and so have multiplyed them abundantly, ac­cording to the abundance of spirit that was in him; Mal. 2.15. yet he thought it good to create not onely one woman for one man, which he might have done in many couples of them, but also to make onely one couple of them, and from them to draw all the lines of consangui­nity & affinity, which should be so many bandes of love to unite & binde all man­kinde [...] [Page 134] new. Cast we our eye that way againe, & behold how in the resurrection they neither marry nor give in marriage but are as the angels of God in heaven. Matt. 22.30. All the comforts of marriage shall be as it were swallowed up & over­whelmed of that heavenly glory, & vanish away in the sight of it. There shall be more glorious bands of communion with Saints & Angels, then is the matrimoniall covenant; sweeter knots of loving fel­lowship, & faster then the knot of mar­riage; the bond of the Spirit uniting hearts & mindes in one more then all the cords of consanguinity or affinity. All the faith­full soules shall be presented unto Christ as pure virgines: 2. Cor, 11.2. they are & shall be ever his loves, his doves, his un­defiled: Cant. 5.2. and he shall be their bridegroome, Matt. 25.1. fayrer then the children of men; Psal. 45.2. white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand, whol­ly delectable & lovely: Cant. 5.10. &c. far above the first Adam. The heavenly paradise shall be an eternall wedding-chamber, and all the Angels of God shall rejoyce for them to whom such honour is vouchsafed. Luke 15.10. What remai­neth to be done of us untill we come to [Page 135] that immortall & undefiled inheritance, but that we aspire unto it dayly, that we have this end before us as the loadstarre of our comfort & direction, that we be carried forward amaine toward this price of our heavenly calling? one would thinke this should be a spurre sharp enough, to make us runne the race of godlines set before us, while we have such glory propounded & the call of our Bridegroome inciting us.

(i) From Adam & Evah come we to their children, & looke into the old world againe. Had not sinne come into the world by the transgression of Adam; had he & his posterity continued untill this time in their uprightnes, in the image of God wherein they were created; what a glorious & blessed communion should man have then enjoyed even upon the earth? If sinne had bene kept out of the world, then had not death entred: Rom. 5.12. with Gen. 2.17. & 3.17.19. then might Adam & Evah have bene alive to this day, & seene their childrens children, not unto the third & fourth, but to the thir­tieth & fourtieth or hundredth genera­tion, & all of them faire & without ble­mish either of soule or body, without any [...] [Page 138] had thirty renowned sonnes that rode on thirty asse colts & ruled over thirty cities; Iudg. 10 3.4. of Ibzan having twise as many children, thirty sonnes and thirty daughters, living to see them all married; Iudg. 12.8.9. of Abdon that had fourty sonnes & thirty nephewes, all honoura­ble, riding on seventy asse colts; vers. 14. ibid. then what must the honour of Adam & Evah have bene in all their innumera­ble sonnes & daughters, being all Lords and rulers of the earth and all the crea­tures therein subdued unto them; to have seene all these come about them by course, & that with bowed knees to ho­nour them; with stretched out armes to embrace them; with loving & cheerefull countenances to rejoyce them; with obe­dient hearts to serve them; such children as had never offended them nor any be­sides such as never had givē any occasion of greefe to them or of complaint to others? According to the proportion of the cause both in respect of their number & of their excellent graces, their joy must have bene a thousand times greater then the joy of other parents, that yet have counted themselves happy in their chil­dren. Their dayes without decay should [Page 139] have bene lengthened, and their yeares drawne out with comfort; their eyes ne­ver dimmed with age like Isaac that could not know one sonne from another: Gen. 27.1. &c. but their youth should have bene renewed more then the Eagles, by eating the tree of life in the midst of the garden, & so with a quick sence and fresh memory ever have enjoyed a deligt­full conversation with their posterity.

(l) To come from the joy of parents to marke the childrens happines; consider we againe the love ascendent, by which the posterity of Adam should have had comfortable communion with their el­ders from the next parents upward for an hundred generations unto Adam: for ac­cording to the phrase of Scripture a man that lives an hundred yeare is said to see his children unto the third & fourth ge­neration: and so according to this speech we may well reckon an hundred genera­tions & more from Adam to our time.

Now as childrens children are the crowne of old men; so the glory of chil­dren are their fathers: Prov. 17.6. and every one of the last generation having had an hundred fathers, one older then another to Adam, & all living together [Page 140] and all of them holy patriarkes, the ora­cles of God unto their children, full of wise counsell, holy instructions and di­vine consolations, & as full of love & tender affection, which could not but have yeelded pleasant words, like the hony combe, sweetnes to the soule & health to the bones: Prov. 16.24. what joy then in this state of innocency should have bene to the children in such a com­munion; where every one should have had an hundred crowns of glory & more; every one of their fathers being better unto them then any crowne of the finest gold of Ophir or Vphaz? That we may the better conceive of this, let us suppose that which might have bene according to the first foundation of the world, & let us set before our eyes Adam dwelling in paradise in Eden as in the center of the habitable world, and all his children placed round about him; in this order that the next succeeding generations should inhabit in the next circle or cli­mate, a little more remote from him, and the next ensuing generations should be planted yet a little further off, & so the next following still further and further unto the hundreth generation, [Page 141] reaching to the ends of the earth. And to speake now even of those that were furthest off, of the last generations, when they at any time should have desi­red to visit their first parent Adam & to have communicated with him; oh what comfort, what pleasant recreation and refreshing of their soule might that have bene unto them! Suppose it had bene an hundred dayes journey & more, yet no labour before the fall was painefull; no travell should have bene wearisome; no danger should have molested them in the way: in passing through an hun­dred countries a man should have met with no barbarian, while there was no confusion of languages in the world; every one they met should have blessed them in the name of the Lord, and have bene ready to goe with them a mile or more, & brought them on their way if they would. Matt. 5.41. Vnder every tongue there should have bene hony & milk of gracious speech & of pleasant dis­course, and their lippes should have drop­ped as an hony combe. Cant. 4.11. At the end of every dayes journey a man might have come to lodge at the man­sion place of his owne naturall father or [Page 142] grandfather, though every day still with him that should be by one generation ol­der then the former. Every harbour in each country should have bene a delight­full paradise, and their deare parents, their noble progenitours should there have en­tertained them with all the pleasantest fruits of their garden, rejoycing over thē, putting them into their bosome, & pow­ring out their hearts unto them; & above all materiall food, their sweet conferen­ces, according to the work of Gods Spi­rit in his children; Psal. 44.1. & 78.3.4. their stories of old matters which they had seene, workes of divine providence, the yeares of Gods right hand, & all of mercy & benefits, while no sinne had bene in the world; their narrations of divine visions, & their talke with God, according to that course which God had begun with Adam before the fall; these conferences should have bene a spirituall banquet & their best cheare, more plea­sant then the juyce of the pomegranate & above any spiced wine to rejoyce the heart. And thus as they proceeded in their journey they might still at every harbour have drunk older, sweeter and mellower wine of consolation, & still [Page 143] have bene entertained by their more an­cient fathers, which could tell them of things done before that patriark was borne with whom they had lodged the night before. And when they had thus in order passed on along by an hundred patriarks, their owne fathers, & in every station from day to day had bene filled with more & more comfort; then at last comming to their first parent, old Adam, the patriark of patriarks, to his garden in Eden, & finding him there in his integrity without any decay of Gods image in him strong in body & minde, flourishing as a greene olive tree, & encreased abundant­ly in wisedome & in all the gifts of holi­nes & righteousnes; oh what joy should it have bene to have come before him, & seene him eye to eye, to have bene heartily welcommed by him, & with all joy to be owned by him as his children, to have had him layd his hāds upon them & blessed them; & in like manner to have saluted their most deare mother Evah, & to have bene embraced & kissed by her! But especially it would then have bene a principall comfort to have receyved the Sacrament with him; to have gone into the midst of the garden with him, whiles [...] [Page 146] aire: as God brought these to Adam to see how he would name them; Ge. 2.19.20. so might Adam shew them to his childrē, & according to the wisedome given him at the first, cōferre againe of their natures & the reason of their names with those his childrē created in the same image of God with him & taught of God, that he might rejoyce in them also as they with him. Though Solomon spake of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssope on the wal; also of beasts & fouls, creeping things & fishes, & was wiser thē all the philoso­phers in the degenerate & corrupt world: 1. Kin. 4.29-34. yet was his wisedome but ignorance in comparison of that pri­mitive estate & the wisedome given to Adam at the first. After this & a multi­tude of other pleasures they might have returned loaden with blessings, & filled with comfort as much as their heart could hold. And if at any time Adam & Evah would in like manner have gone a­broad on progresse to have visited their children, what comfort should this have bene unto their children to have enter­tained that most royall & honourable per­son above all others, that right Catholick King or universal Monarch & father of the [Page 147] whole world, with Evah their Queene­mother, & therefore to have bene re­verenced, loved & obeyed by all? How would they have receyved him as an an­gel of God to the unspeakable joy both of him & them mutually?

(m) And as the glory of this commu­nion might thus be observed in the per­sons allyed in a right line, both descendēt & ascendent; so also in the collaterall line extended on each side both farre & neere to brethren & sisters, & an hundred other degrees of kinred further off: among all which (if man had continued in his estate wherein the Lord placed him) there should then have bene a most loving & pleasant conversation, more then can be imagined. It had bene as easy for these to have travelled a thousand miles to em­brace their friends, as it is now for us to goe one small dayes-journey. While there was no evill of sinne, there should have bene no evill of paine or trouble in any of their labours. And besides in the state of innocency, great help & comfort should have bene afforded unto man by the ser­vice of other creatures, as hath bene she­wed before. Even in this corrupt & de­generate estate of man & beast, all kinde [...] [Page 150] 2. Cor. 6.18. behold my spouse, my wife, my bride. Ioh. 3.29. Rev. 19.7. & 21.2. All the speciall bands of love & union, whether in the root of marriage, or in the branches of kinred, whether in the degrees ascending, descending, or any way extending themselves, either in the right line or in the side line, they are all found in Christ, all meet together & are combined in him. He alone, the new A­dam is instead of all the fathers & mo­thers, brethren or sisters, sonnes or daugh­ters; the comfort of all & more fruits of love then all the kinred of the old world could have afforded unto us, is to be en­joyed in the kingdome of Christ. And looke how Christ esteemes of his elect, so shall they be esteemed & loved of all others there where his word requiring it must needs be performed. Ioh. 13.34. & 15.12.13. And therefore looke how many Saints & Angels there be in hea­ven, so many sweet fountaines of loving communion there be for every soule to drinke at, farre passing all the love of friends ever tasted in the lower world. From every one shall flow rivers of wa­ter of life, Ioh. 7.38. Christ Iesus being the headspring of all; for then shall that [Page 151] & all the rest of his promises be fullfilled in the highest degree. It is matter of more joy even now to sit at the table of the Lord, to receive the Sacrament of the New Testament, then it was to pluck apples from the tree of life in paradise; greater benefits are sealed, even Christ is herein exhibited unto us, a gift more ex­cellent then all those that were confirmed unto Adam by the tree of life: but then especially shall the difference appeare, when the faythfull shall partake in the marriage supper of the Lambe in heaven; when they shall be brought before the Lord, the ancient of dayes, the everlas­ting God, before whom Adam, though alive at this day, should be as a child of yesterday, a thousand yeares being but as one day in his sight; when they shall heare him speake & tell of his eternall love of us before the world, in his decrees of election and predestination so often poynted at in Scripture, and the like pre­cious thoughts of his grace to us ward, this shall be the fullnes of joy infinitely exceeding all the supposed delights of the old world. As for the pleasant jour­neys & motions, we may not thinke that the godly shall be there as in a prison. [...] [Page 154] together in heavenly places in Christ Ie­sus. Eph. 2.6.

CHAP. VII. Hovv God calleth men to remember the latter end of Reprobates.

THe end of all flesh hath bene repre­sented unto us of God by a basket of summer fruit, ripe for the harvest, ready to be gathered. The blessed end of the godly hath bene shewed in the basket of good figs, very good: there remaines yet the basket of rotten figs, very naught, to be marked of us; for that sight is also propounded unto us of God & he calles us to remember the end of the wicked thereby, whiles that basket was in vision also set before the Temple of the Lord. Ier. 24.1. It is an hideous & fearefull sight to opē the graves where the greene carcases of dead men doe lye, to behold the grieslines & lothsomnes of death in them, and who doth not flie from it? But much more horrour it is to looke upon the dead soules in Hell, their tor­ment & lothsome estate being an hundred times more & worse to be endured then the sight of any rotten carcasses in the grave: Yet are we called of God to re­member [...] [Page 158] same offences of striking or cursing com­mitted against others were not so, though some childrē might happily have as much wisedome as their father & mother, yet their authority alone being despised, brought such woe. Now the authority of God the heavenly father over his creature being infinitely greater then the authority of any earthly father over his children; the contempt thereof doth accordingly pro­cure an infinite woe unto those that diso­bey God, that reject his Law & make their owne lust their law, & prefer the doing of their owne vile wills before the obedience of his holy & heavenly will.

So in like manner the infinite evill of sinne appeareth distinctly in this, that it is committed against the infinite goodnes & mercy of God. There are in creatures ma­nifold degrees of love & kindnes: & the love of one doth an hundred times exceed the love of some other, both in tendernes of affection & in multitude of benefits. And in such case the treachery of such as deale falsely & wickedly against their cheefest friends, becomes an hundredfold greater evill then the sin of some others. Now the Lord is love it selfe; 1. Ioh. 4.8.16. & herein is love, not that we love God, [Page 159] but that he loved us: vers. 10. his grace & the gifts of his eternall & free grace doe infinitely exceed all other love; he gave himselfe to be our God & portion, his Sonne to be our ransome. And therefore to sin against this high & immeasurable grace; to contēne this love & to love that which is vanitie of vanities more then God, doth make the sin of such to be out of measure sinfull, & deserveth an infinite hatred & misery to ensue thereupon.

And thus the greevousnes of sinne is to be considered & conceived in respect of the other divine attributes; whereby we may see as it were, ten infinites in one & behold many windowes of contempla­tion opened before us, through which we may have a huge & vast prospect of the endles & unsearchable woe of sinne, that is to be felt in the second death. Though there be many other aggravati­ons of sinne, yet this so farre exceeds the rest as if they all were nothing in compa­rison of this: therefore doth the Spirit of­ten urge this consideration upon men, saying to the sinners, Ye have lyed, not unto men but unto God: Act. 5.4. & he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, vvho hath also given us his holy Spirit, 1. Thes. [...] [Page 162] and it containes more then a world of bookes can expresse.

(c) This fierce wrath of God is often in Scripture compared unto burning & devouring fire; Deut. 32.22. Ier. 15.14. & 17.4. Ezek. 21.31. & 22.21. & 36.5. Zeph. 1.18. & accordingly is the tor­mēt in hell described unto us by the name of hellfire. Matt. 5.22. & 18.9. The smarting paine caused by fire is well knowne by the common use thereof a­mong us: And yet above the nature of common fire, which is made for the comfort of man, to cheere him & to make him laugh, Esa. 44.16. this dole­full fire of hell is propounded unto us of God by many strange descriptions. It is a fire not like unto ours that may be quen­ched, but an unquenchable fire; Esa. 66.24. Mark. 9.44 Rev. 14.11. an ever­lasting fire, Matt. 18.8. & 25.41. which so burnes the wicked as that it doth not consume them, but keeps them alive in death, that they may burne for ever and ever. It is a fire that will not onely burne stones, melt yron & brasse, but a subtile, piercing fire, that burnes even the spirits & soules of men; being a fire prepared for the devill & his angels, which are [Page 163] spirits, Matt. 25.41. Rev. 20.10. and therefore farre more terrible then our fire by which tyrants burne the bodies of martyrs, but cannot burne their soules. Mat. 10.28. For the greatnes of it, it is a bottomlesse pit; Rev. 9.1.2. deep & large; Esa. 30.33. a lake or sea of fire, Rev. 20.14.15. for the names of lake or sea are sometimes in Scripture indifferent­ly put one for another: Matt. 8.24. with Luk. 8.23. and this burning sea is withall called a lake of brimstone, Rev. 19.20. & 20.10. which makes the fire to burne more cruelly, to choake & strangle such as are plunged into this lake. And for the forme of it, it is sometimes compared to an oven, or furnace of fire, Mal. 4.1. Mat. 13.42.50. in which the fire being kept close & strait, may be made seven times more hote & fierce then it was be­fore. Dan. 3.19. To make this fire yet more abhominable, it is compared unto Tophet, Esa. 30.33. where children were burnt in horrible & lothsome man­ner, being sacrificed unto devils: Ier. 7.31. with Psa. 106.37. & so & more hor­rible would it be to see the soules sacri­ficed in Hell-fire. Were there now but a witch to be burned at a stake, how many [Page 164] thousands would flock together to be­hold the sight? how many would loose a dayes work & be content to misse their dinners, rather then to misse the sight of it? But if it were to see a King or an Em­perour burnt; to see a Pope or a Cardi­nall, which having burnt many martyrs should at length have their owne flesh burnt with fire; how many farre and neere would run and ride and spare no cost or labour to become spectatours of such a judgment? how long, how often, how earnestly would men talke of it afterwards? And yet this fire of the second death is for such: by faith we see it; faith makes us spectatours there­of, if we beleeve the Scriptures, which shew us how Tophet is prepared for kings; Esa. 30.33. how the beast and the false prophet, the Popes, are to be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone; Rev. 19.20. & 20.10. and with them the multitude of their idola­ters and other abhominable persons Rev. 21.8. And how are men bewitched that they forget this latter end of sin­ners; that they more regard the light and momentany judgments of men, then the eternall and severe judgments of the [Page 165] everlasting God? This lake of fire is so forgotten and contemned of many which stand dayly at the brink of the pit, ready to sinke downe into it for their sinnes, as if that fire were already quenched: yea the very common knowledge and con­fession thereof by all sorts, hath quenched the thought of it and extinguished the memory and mencion of it with many, as if it were so well knowne, that it needed no more to be spoken of. And for this cause are many tumbled into it & over­whelmed in the depth of it before they be aware of it.

(d) The power of Gods wrath in kin­dling this fire may further be perceived, if we behold the great variety of strange fires which God in his works of creation & providence hath already kindled and set before us, to shew what he is able to doe. In the bowels of the earth below, the Lord hath as it were, sowne the seeds of fire in the divers minerals thereof, as in the mines of coales, in the veines of vitrioll, of salt-peter, of lime, and di­vers other things whereby from under the earth is turned up as it were fire: Iob. 28.5. and to shew a most wofull bur­ning it is sayd, The people shall be as the [Page 166] burnings of lime. Esa. 33.12. Above u­pon the face of the earth the Lord hath planted divers growing fires in sundry hote herbes; some burning & blistering the skinne outwardly by the very touch thereof, as the nettle with some other kinde of thistles & venomous thornes, whose innumerable prickes shew the in­finite power of God to curse the wicked; some other herbs being taken inwardly, as Hellebore, Coloquintida (or the wild gourd that brought death into the pot, 2. Kin. 4.39.40.) Euphorbium & the like doe cast the body into miserable paine & distresse, burning, exulcerating, gnawing, grating & tearing the intrals, tossing and tormenting the body with vomits, pur­ges, with swooning & fainting, with vio­lent convulsions & fearfull symptomes. In the sensitive creatures God hath kind­led many kindes of living & going fire, walking to & fro in the earth, in the di­vers poysons of sundry serpēts, some cree­ping under our feet, some flying over our heads, as in the hornet, the snake, ad­der, aspe, cockatrice, & those fiery flying serpents that sting & burne men to the death. Num. 21.6. Esa. 14.29. To come neerer ourselves, in the body of man God [Page 167] kindleth many strange fires in the sundry diseases thereof, both by painefull in­flammations of particular parts, both out­ward & inward, & especially by that uni­versall fire of the burning fevers flaming out of the heart into the whole body: Deut. 28.22. & this in great variety, some inflaming the spirits onely; some the blood also; & some consuming the very substance of the solid parts also: some bur­ning with a simple excesse of heat; others consisting in rotten & corrupt humours doe burne the body more cruelly: & of these againe some burning continually, night & day without intermission, as the fire in glasse houses & the furnaces where yron is melted; others by fitts comming at appoynted seasons & after certain peri­ods of time, either every day, or each se­cond or third day, like fire raked under ashes & kindled againe upon occasion: some others againe consisting of a malig­nant & poysonous fire, as in the pestilen­tiall fevers that burne more cruelly & deadly then the rest, these are like going or running fires through their contagion spreading abroad, walking in darknesse, destroying at noone, & flying as poysoned arrowes by their infection, & breaking [Page 168] out in boyles & carbuncles like so many fiery furnaces or ovens comming up in the flesh. Psa. 91.3.6. Esa. 38 21. And by these with their compounds the Lord kindleth a burning lake within the body, maketh the veines which containe the in­flamed blood & humours to be like so many rivers of pitch & brimstone, and so causeth an unquenchable thirst & an in­tollerable paine that followes it. In the aire & clouds above our heads God kin­dleth terrible fires by thūder & lightnings, divideth the flames & shooteth abroad his fiery darts to consume his enimies. Psa. 18.12.13.14. Above the clouds in the firmament, God kindleth another fire by the Sunne & some other starres, and smites the earth & her inhabitants with the beames thereof, so that they are scor­ched with heate & faint in themselves. Psal. 121.6. with Rev. 7.16. & 16.8.9. Ion. 4.8. To goe higher into the third heavens God hath there also kindled ma­ny fires; he maketh his Angels to be flames of fire; Heb 1.7. to be horses & charets of fire; 2. Kin. 6.17. & 2.11. to be burning Seraphims, Esa. 6.2. expres­sed by the same name that is before given to the fiery serpents. Numb. 21.6. he ma­keth [Page 169] his Cherubims like coales of fire, as the appearance of lampes & as the fla­shes of lightning; & from them are scat­tered coales of fire over countries & cities for their punishment. Ezek. 1.13.14. with cha. 10.2.7.

(e) But above all these, the Lord him­selfe is a consuming fire; Deut. 4.24. & 9.3. Heb. 12.29. & an everlasting bur­ning: Esa. 33.14. when he riseth up to judge the world & to plead with secure sinners, how can they stand before his angry face? His throne is a fiery flame, his wheeles as burning fire; & a fiery streame issueth & commeth forth from before him, & consumeth round about: Dan. 7.9.10. Psa. 97.3. his face is bur­ning; Esa. 30.27. his eyes flaming; Rev. 1.14. his nostrils smoaking; Psa. 18.8. his tongue a devouring fire; his breath an overflowing streame, & as a river of brim­stone to kindle Tophet: Esa. 30.27.28.33. from his loynes upward & from his loynes downeward all as the appearance of fire: Ezek. 1.27. & when he shall be revealed from heaven, he is to come in flaming fire with his mighty angels round about him, all of them like so many shi­ning beames of his glory, pointed with [Page 170] indignation & sparkling with wrath a­gainst the sinners that are frozen in their dreggs. 2. Thes. 1.7.8. Iude. 14. And yet further to shew the greatnes of this wrath, we are to remember that each per­son in the H. Trinity burneth with a di­stinct flame of wrath against the wicked: The Lord from the Lord raines fire and brimstone; Gen. 19.24. The Son comes in the glory of his Father; Matt. 16.27. The holy Spirit is a spirit of judgment & a spirit of burning: Esa. 4 4. as the Spi­rit mooved upon the waters in the begin­ning of the world, Gen. 1.2. so shall it moove upon the fire of Gods judgments in the end of the world for the consu­ming of sinners. All other fires in the creature are but sparkles & lesse then nothing in respect of this infinite wrath of God.

This is the latter end of wicked men, never to be forgotten. When the Lord warned the Iewes of their destruction & of their end that was comming, it is won­derfull to consider how earnestly he cryes unto them, & how many repetitions he useth, worthy to be numbred & counted exactly of every one, whiles he calles upō them, An end, an end is come; the end is [Page 171] come: An evill, an onely evill, behold it is come: An end is come, the end is come, it vvatcheth for thee, behold it is come. The morning is come unto thee; the time is come, the day of trouble is neere, & not the eccho of the mountaines &c. Behold the day, behold it is come, the morning is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded &c. The time is come, the day dravveth neere &c. Ezek. 7.2.3.5.6.7.10.12. Thus doth the Lord spread out his hands unto sinners, to warne them of their end: & they are worthy to feele the smart of that eternall fire, that neither by the terrour of his wrath propounded, nor by the carefull love of God in admo­nishing thereof, will be drawne to looke in this burning glasse & to thinke upon this last end. Were we wise, we should run oftner to warme our soules with this fire by the meditation of it, then we bring our bodies to any other fire; to heate our­selves with zeale of the Lord, & to drive away that lukewarmnes of our soules that is so abhominable in the sight of God. Rev. 3.16. The Apostle teacheth us to make this use of the aforesaid conside­rations, for the change of our conversatiō unto all holines & godly life. 2. Pet. 3.11. And from hence may we learne pa­tience [Page 172] in suffering as well as obedience in doing the will of God, as the Spirit tea­cheth us: if the Lord be at hand; if the end of all things be at hand, & such an end, why should not our patient minde, our moderation and sobriety be made knowne unto all upon all occasions? Phil. 4.5. 1. Pet. 4.7. Though injuries be done vnto us, great & dayly & in extraor­dinary manner, both unchristian & in­humane dealing, yet seing the comming of the Lord draweth nigh, the Iudge is at the doore, at the threshold and entrance of our house, and there is but a step betwixt us & him, but an inch of time betwixt our sufferings and his judgement, therefore he requireth of us that we be patient & establish our hearts in him. Iam. 5.8.9. Have we o­ther losses & troubles in the world, whe­ther we winne or loose it skilles not much; whether we purchase & buy with increase of gaine or whether we sell for necessity, whether we be rich or poore it is no great matter, seing the earth & all the works thereof are in a moment to be burnt up; 2. Pet. 3.10. & seing the end hasteneth & the world passeth away, let not the buyer rejoyce nor the seller [Page 173] mourne. Ezek. 7.12. All the happines of man stands in being delivered from this everlasting fire, kindled by the fierce wrath of God against sinne. We have enough & may well be content while we have our soule saved as a prey from this great destruction.

(f) If yet we be dull of hearing & cannot see the dreadfulnes of this death in the causes thereof, the sinne of man deserving it & the wrath of God inflic­ting it; if yet we desire a plainer evidence thereof let us then looke upon the effects thereof & consider how the smart of this second death shall make the chil­dren of hell to crye & waile & take up eternall lamentations without any mea­sure or end. By the effects of sorrow Ie­remy thus describeth the affliction of Ie­rusalē in her captivity, that of a princesse being become a desolate widow, she did weep sore in the night, that her teares were on her cheekes; that they rā downe as a ri­ver night & day, the apple of her eye never ceassing; that her elders & her infāts, young men & virgines, did mourne together; that the priests & prophets did sigh, their eyes being dimmed & fayling with teares, their bowels troubled, their liver powred [...] [Page 176] thus roare & faint in themselves under this burden of sorrow, how can any men or Giants that are but flesh undergoe the same? When the Lord shall pleade against the proud & covetous, & cause his wrath to smoake against hypocrites & dissem­blers, against profane men, drunkards, adulterers & malicious men; how can their heart endure, or their hands be strong? Ezek. 22.14. Though they were as stout as the devils, they shall be cru­shed & broken together with them. Now many skorners make a mock of religion: now the epicures make a sport of sinne: now the obstinate persons despise admo­nition & hate to be reformed; they set their faces as Adamants in their obstinacy: But though their bones were brasse, & their strength of stones, & their heart as hard as the nether milstone; yet shall they be ground to peeces with this wrath of God that grindes the very Devils to powder & makes them to howle & yell before him.

Above all other, the most terrible ef­fect of Gods wrath, was that which was shewed upon Christ Iesus, the Lord of men & angels, when as he being become our surety & bearing our sins; did groane [Page 177] under the burden; when he cryed out with strong cryes & teares; Heb. 5.7. when in the trouble of his soule, with great astonishment & feare he sayd, What shall I say? Ioh. 12.27. as if he had felt a sorrow not to be uttered; when in the sense of Gods anger due unto us he not onely cryed day & night, but even with words of roaring; Psa. 22.1.2. & fi­nally uttered the most sorrowfull voyce that ever sounded in the world, My God, My God, vvhy hast thou forsaken me? Mat. 27.46. If all the dolefull complaints & lamentations of all miserable men were layd together upon the ballance, they would be found lighter then this com­plaint of Christ; because the iniquities of us all were layd together upon him; Esa. 53.6. & he bore the curse of them. Gal. 3.13. If we could see into the bowels of Hell, or could lay our eare to any low vault to heare the howling of the spirits in that prison; yet no wofull voyce ought to moove us so much, as these cryes of our Saviour in his agony. No weeping & gnashing of teeth by those reprobates can so expresse the power & fiercenes of Gods wrath, as this weeping and sorrowfull teares of the [...] [Page 180] in the second commandement, the Lord threatens such a change that they shall be most ashamed of that which they adored; & shall cast their Idoles to the Moles & to the Bats, Esa. 2.20. creatures that love darknes, the one for place li­ving under the earth, the other for time comming abroad in the night. The Ido­laters shall wish their idoles were hidden in utter darknes for ever. But as Moses once despited the Idolaters by burning their Idoll, grinding it to powder, stro­wing it on the waters & making them drinke thereof to their further shame: Exod. 32.20. so shall the Lord force the Idolaters by remorsefull remembrance e­vermore to drinke the powder of their images & of their owne inventions. The Lord through a secret antipathy of nature doth sometimes worke such a strange terrour in some men (as experience she­wes) that at the sight of some creatures or dishes of meat set before them on the table, though the creatures be good in themselves & lawfull for use & to other men comfortable; yet these men quake & tremble, & sit astonished with gast­ly countenances, full of perplexity & anguish, gaping & sweating at the [Page 181] sight; their haire standing upright on their head, their spirits appalled, not able to speake a word nor to stirre out of their place, but like men confounded remaine bound in the chaines of ama­zement, as terribly affrighted as was Belshazzar when he saw the palme of a hand writing his destruction upon the wall. Dan. 5.5.6. And hereby we may conceive the power of Gods wrath for the torment of idolaters by represen­ting unto their mindes those unlaw­full images which they worshipped, to their eternall affright and horrour. The Lord knoweth how to engrave all the sinnes of men with the point of a di­amond upon the table of their heart, for their vexation & woe; and so in speci­all to pourtray their images & idoles upon the broad plate of their conscien­ces, and to hang them as in a map before their eyes upon the wall of their memory, for an everlasting confusion and torment unto them. The name of God that is fearfull, Deut. 28.58. shall in the end be fearfull to them that have taken it in vaine by swearing, blaspheming, or light usage of it.

Though in their desperate tor­ment [...] [Page 184] before all by their evill words & actions, the fruits of their envy. And if the sight of so small good either outward or inward as is to be seene in this life, doe yet stirre up such a painefull envy; what then shall be the paine of that envy in the wicked, when they shall behold the eter­nall glory & good things enjoyed by o­thers in heaven? Looke how much the heavenly prosperity exceeds the earthly; so much shall the paine of the hellish en­vy exceed al that ever hath bene on earth. When the godly are exalted, their eni­mies shall see it; Rev. 11.12. the world shall know how God loves them; Ioh. 17.23. the wicked shall see & greeve & gnash with their teeth & pine away; Psal. 112.10. they shall be mad for the sight of their eyes; Deut. 28.34. yea their eyes shall consume in their holes & their tongue in their mouth; Zac. 14.12. & thē shall be weeping & gnashing of teeth, when they see others in the kingdome of God & themselves thrust out. Luk. 13.28. There is a bitter end threatned un­to them that follow harlots; Prov. 5.3.4.5. their dolefull song at last shall be, Hovv have I hated instruction, & my heart despised reproofe? &c. vers. 12. &c. and [Page 185] the like wofull ditty is for them that fol­low wine or strong drink, whereby they are inflamed unto more sin: Esa. 5.11.22. their unlawfull pleasure in the midst of their ungodly company shall at last bite like a serpent & sting like a cockatrice. Prov. 23.32. Then shall be woe to the mighty oppressours that oppresse a man and his heritage, whereby they spoile themselves of their inheritance with God: they joyne house to house on earth, till they leave no place for the poore on earth, nor any place for them­selves in heaven. Mic. 2.1.2. Esa. 5.8. and the like woe is due to the unmer­cifull rich men, who as they would not give a crumme; so they shall not ob­taine one drop of water from the tip of any finger to refresh them being tor­mented in the flame. Luk. 16.24.25. The false witnesse shall not then goe unpu­nished; Prov. 19.5.9. the railers and slanderers shall then be excluded out of the kingdome of God: 1. Cor. 6.10. the lips of the flatterers & backbi­ters shalbe cut off, Psa. 12.3. & their owne words shalbe a snare for their soule: Prov. 18.7. they shall then reape that which they have sowne, they have

CHAP. VIII. Of the visible signes & memorials of Hell, whereby God calleth men to remember the end of the ungodly.

IT may be some will say or thinke in themselves, we heare many fearfull things touching Hell-torments; if we might see the same & take a view thereof it would doe us more good. To such I [Page 189] answer, they know not what they desire. When the bottomlesse pit was once at a certaine time in especiall manner o­pened very wide, there arose such a smoak out of the pit as had almost choaked the whole world: the Sunne & the aire were darkened therewith; poysonous locusts came out of that smoak and tormented men that they were weary of their lives and sought death that fled from them. Rev. 9.1.2.3. &c. It were not safe for curious men to looke with their carnall eyes in­to that bottomlesse pit, nor to wish that hell & destruction were naked & open unto them for their warning; neither should it be for their edification so much as the due remembrance and spirituall meditation thereof by help of the Scrip­tures. They that will not beleeve Mo­ses & the Prophets would not be per­swaded though one rose from the dead. Luk. 16.30.31. If Abraham or Noah, the ancient preachers of righteousnes should come againe into this world, clothed with angelicall glory, & with a heavenly voyce should call men to repentance; or if Angels should come and preach the kingdome of God: yet could we not [...] [Page 192] world, doe every one of them containe a vast gulfe of destruction within them, insomuch that each of them hath seemed unto some to lay clayme unto Hell, as having that prison within their bounds. The Fire by which Hell is so often de­scribed, is of a consuming & devouring nature: this operation of it is often com­pared to eating, & the fewell put unto it is the meat thereof; Esa. 9.19. the more it hath, the more hungrily it eateth, by burning more fiercely: it hath an insatia­ble belly & never saith, It is enough. Prov. 30.15.16. And so it is like unto Hell, which enlargeth herselfe & ope­neth her mouth wide & without measure to devoure the wicked. Esa. 5.14. Whe­ther we conceive it as the highest & grea­test element, encompassing the aire on every side, as in the proper place that is commonly assigned unto it, or whether we looke upon it in the dayly effects thereof on the earth, in those few sparkles & coales thereof scattered among us here below for our use, it carries in it both wayes a resemblance of Hell, to make us remember the end of the wicked in the sight of it.

The Aire is noted as the seat or station [Page 193] of wicked spirits, where they soare over our heads as the ravenous foules over the chickens, still ready to seaze upon us. Therefore is the Devill called the prince of the power of the aire, Eph. 2.2. & his angels are spirituall wickednesses in high places; Eph. 6.12. & Satan is sayd to fall downe like lightning from heaven when his works are loosed. Luk. 10.18. So often as we looke out into the aire, so oft doe we passe by the gates of Hell, by the Castles & Towers of the enimy from whence he shootes his fiery darts, from whence he watcheth his advantage to oppugne us & to make a prey of our soules. 1. Pet. 5.8. Wheresoever the De­vill & his angels be there is an Hell; they being still at our right hand, Hell is in a manner alwayes about us. Zacch. 3.1. So long as mē converse & walke in this aire, so long doe they remaine in that park or chase where the Devill with his hell­hounds is continually hunting of soules to bring them to a miserable end for ever; which end therfore is dayly to be thought on that they may prevent the enimy & escape the snares of the hunter, by putting on the whole armour of God & praying incessantly. Eph. 6.13. 1. Pet. 5.8.

[Page 194]The Watry Element & Sea is another gulfe of destruction, wherein multitudes have bene & are dayly drowned & swal­lowed up. The dragons of the deep and the manifold uncouth monsters of the sea doe well declare what hell is there: & the great Leviathan according to that strange description of him, Iob 41. may well ap­peare as Beelzebub, the prince of the devils in that hell. And if Ionas being swallowed up of one of them did account himselfe in the belly of hell, Ion. 2.2. then must there be many hells in one sea. Yea the very torments of Hell which our Sa­viour endured for us are represented by the deep whereinto he was plunged, & by the waters that entred into his soule: Psa. 69.1.2.15. & further the Abysse or bottomlesse pit, whereby Hell is na­med, Rev. 9.1. & 20.1. is the same word whereby the deep sea is commonly ex­pressed. And thus is Hell resembled & set before the eyes of men both in the name & nature of this destroying element of the water.

The Earth also being the common grave of all mankinde, while they are day­ly resolved & turned unto dust, becomes another insatiable gulfe to represent Hell. [Page 195] As in Corahs time the earth opened her mouth & swallowed many at once; Num. 16.31.32.33. so doth it still every day; the difference is onely in the manner, that there it opened of it selfe, here it is opened by the grave-maker. Yea & further the deep pits of mire & clay in the earth are likewise chosen by the holy Ghost to ex­presse the descending of our Redeemer into Hell, & the sorrowes of the second death that he endured therein: Psa. 40.2. & 69.2. insomuch that many doe con­tēd that the proper place of Hell is with­in the earth; which though we neither affirme nor deny, but reprove their pre­sumption which without warrant will pe­remptorily maintaine the same; yet in the pits of this earth we have an hell resem­bled unto us even by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures. And thus in every one of the elements there is a mouth of Hell ga­ping upon sinners to make them remem­ber & consider what shal be the latter end of the wicked.

(b) After the materiall parts of the world we are now to consider of the di­vers places thereof in respect of their dif­ferent situation & estate. And here againe the memorials of Hell & of the latter end [Page 196] of the ungodly are either such as be more peculiar for some particular nations, a­mong whom he hath set his signes and wonders, as in Egypt, in Israel, in divers others; Ier. 32.20. or such as be more common to the world & to many nations therein. Among other particular nations & countries & above them all as the head & crowne of the earth, let us in the first place looke upon Eden & the paradise therein, from whence man was banished for his sinne. The Lord as he had at first even in the state of innocency, planted a tree of forbidden fruit within the garden, as a memoriall of death, evē of the second death, & consequently of an Hell provi­ded for transgressours; Gen. 2.9.17. so af­ter the fall, without the gardē in the bor­der thereof he placed there on the East side a flaming sword which turned every way to keepe the way of the tree of life. Gen. 3.24. This flame of destruction was like another visible Hell in the eyes of A­dam & his posterity, by the dayly sight whereof they were warned not to pre­sume against the commandement of God as they had done. This present fire was unto them a monument of that eternall fire which should consume the trans­gressours. [Page 197] As David was afraid when he saw the Angel of the Lord stand be­tweene the earth and the heaven, ha­ving a drawne sword in his hand stretched out over Ierusalem. 1. Chron. 21.16.30. so the children of Adam here seing the fiery chariot of the Cherubims, Ezek. 1.13.14. and the flaming sword bran­dished and shaken about the garden, were taught to feare & remember the latter end threatned to the presumptuous of­fendours, over all whose heads there han­geth continually a sword of vengeance ready to fall upon them, Iob, 19.29. Ezek. 21.9.10.

(c) From the country of Eden, let us come to the land of Canaan, another E­den, the pleasant land, Dan. 8.9. where God planted another paradise, & set the second Adam to dresse the same, for his Church is the garden of God. Cant. 4.12.16. And here in like manner God gave speciall warnings to Israel, & set his markes in the holy land more then in others, both round about in the borders thereof & within the land al­so. In the borders on the East side along the coast of the tribe of Iu­dah God placed as it were, a visible [...] [Page 200] on sinners, whose latter end was set before their eyes for a warning to a­voyd the sinnes that kindle such wrath. From the East border come we to the South, which was the border of Edom. Iosh. 15.1. Num. 34.3. & this land of E­dom or Idumea is propounded by the H. Ghost, as another Hell visible to the eye of faith, being considered in the curse which God denounced against the same, that the rivers therof should be turned in­to pitch, not to be quenched night nor day, the smoak ascending for ever; that it should be an habitation of dragons & Sa­tyres, & scritch-owles, Zijm & Jijm, &c. Esa. 34.5.9.10.13.14. &c. In that South coast was also the wildernes of Zin, & Ma­aleh-hacrabbim, or the ascent of the Scor­pions, & Kadesh-barnéa, Ios. 15.1.3. Num. 34.3.4. by the sight of which places they were called to the remembrance of Gods judgments both by the fiery ser­pents & scorpions in the great & ter­rible wildernes, Deut. 8.15. & by their turning back from Kadesh when they were ready to have entred into the land. Numb. 14.25. Deut. 2.1. Their Wes­terne border was the great Sea, the store-house of Gods judgements, com­pared [Page 201] unto the great deep. Psal. 36.6. Their North coast was Lebanon & Her­mon: Iosh. 1.4. with 11.17. & 12.7. & 13.5.6. & there were the dens of the lyons, & the mountaines of the Leopards. Sol. song. 4.8. which creatures the Lord useth as instruments of his wrath, Ier. 5.6. with Dan. 7.3.4.6. & by them the Lord describeth his owne anger against sinners: Hos. 13.7. & so from every coast roared u­pon them, & by a flaming sword on every side called them to remēber his judgmēts.

(d) From the outward borders of the holy land teturne we to the inward parts; & these on both sides of the river Ior­dan. On this side, above many other pla­ces Ierusalem the city of the great king offers it selfe to our consideration, which though it were a type of heavē, Gal. 4.26. Heb. 12.22. yet round about it there were signes set of the fearfull judgmēts of God, & of the last end of the wicked. And first of all by the entry of the East-gate, they had the vallie of Hinnom, & the high places of Tophet therein, as it were a vi­sible Hell, Ier. 19.2. with Iosh. 15.8. They there burned their children in the fire unto Baal & Moloch with great impiety against God and cruelty to [...] [Page 204] hornes, their hoofes & their haire: & well might that lake be this same pit. As by the descent of an Angel into the poole of Bethesda, those that first entred after the stirring of the waters, were made whole of what disease soever they had: Ioh. 5.4. so no wonder if after the stirring of these waters in Gadara by a legion of uncleane spirits together, they were made unwholesome & caused dis­ease to those that drank thereof. So often as men beheld or thought upon this devilish lake they had a spectacle of Hell before them, & they tooke the name of God in vaine if they did not learne here­by to watch & fight against the wicked spirits, to seeke the helpe of Christ that conquers them & not to love their swine more then Christ, nor to become as swine by wallowing in the mire of sinne; 2. Pet. 2.22. left they also by the Devils should be carryed headlong into the lake of brimstone prepared for those that hearkē not unto the call of God.

(e) These were the markes & tokens given to the Iewes; but the Iewes them­selves are given for signes & warnings unto us: for whē these & many other me­morials of the latter end were givē unto [Page 205] the Iewes & despised of them, then at last they themselves by the righteous judg­ment of God were made as signes and wonders unto the beleeving Gentiles called into their place, & to this day they remaine as memorials of Hell, under the power of darknes, their hearts being hardened, their eyes darkened, and co­vered with the spirit of slumber. Rom. 11.7.8.10. Their state of rejection where­in they presently are, is described in such phrase as the estate of those in Hell: they are now in utter darknes, while they are without Christ; & if they knew the misery of their estate, then should they weep & gnash their teeth. Matt. 8.12. In this hell of utter darknes have they continued now these sixteen hundred yeares, & are scattered abroad a­mong all nations for a warning unto them. So often as we meet these obdurate Iewes in our streets, & consider how they are broken off from their olive, the kingdome of God being taken from them & given to others; Matt. 21.43. so often are we to be mooved with com­passion to thē as if they did weep & howle before us: & as we are to pray for the day of their visitation; so are we to worke [...] [Page 208] the whole earth & turning round about it continually, even as the first flaming sword was about the garden of God in E­den. This middle Zone though in com­parison of Tophet it be an heaven, yet in respect of other temperate Zones inhabi­ted by us, it is in many things like unto Hell. As Hell is described by the bur­ning heat that is therein: Esa. 30.33. Matt. 25.41. so in this Torrid Zone men are grievously afflicted & tormented with heat; men dwelling there under the Aequinoctiall line & the climates on each side neere the same, the Sunne burnes them by day and the beames there­of beating directly upon their heads doe strike them with a vehement heat round about the world, even from the East unto the Westerne India, & in Aethiopia betwixt them both, insomuch that some of them curse the Sunne every morning that it riseth. As Hell is descri­bed by the blaknes of darknes that is there reserved for reprobates; 2. Pet. 2.17. black being the colour of sorrow & feare, Psa. 38.6. in the orig. which make all faces to gather blacknes: Ioel. 2.6. so under the hote Zone there dwell the black Moores, the Aethiopians or burnt-faces, [Page 209] as the word which the holy Ghost useth for them doth signify. Act. 8.27. Their bodies & visages are blacker then a coale, & some have bene frighted at the fight of them as if they had come out of Hell. As in Hell men are under the vexation of the Devill that is called the prince of darknes, Eph. 6.12. & hath the power of death: Heb. 2.14. so it is ge­nerally testifyed that the Indians both East & West, & the Guineans betweene both in this hote Zone doe both wor­ship the Devill that often appeares per­sonally unto them, & are often beaten & tormented by the immediate hand of the Devill in those visible apparitions, with many other vexations to their unspeaka­ble misery: & therefore in this regard there is not so much a shadow of Hell, as a very Hell it selfe & a kingdome of dark­nes. As the state of those in Hell is de­scribed by a worme that torments them & never dyeth: Esa. 66.24. Mark. 9.44.46.48. so those that live in this Torrid Zone in Guinea have often & ordinarily a worme of strange & incredible length that breedeth in their flesh, as those that travell thither have both seene and felt, and in their flesh have brought home [...] [Page 212] apparitions are imagined to ascend up out of the earth: 1. Sam. 28.13. even so a man that should see these all-black naked impes come swarming up out of their holes from under ground, each of them both at mouth & nostrils breathing out the smoake of that Indian herb which is a part of their ordinary dyet, it were no wonder if he thought the picture of Hell to be before him. In fine as many for Mā ­mon or riches doe sell themselves and loose their soules & goe downe to Hell for ever: 1. Kin. 21.20. even so many for the love of that treasure that is to be found in this hote Zone, are content to adventure their lives in travelling thither, & in this journey there be multitudes that from time to time doe loose their mortall & temporary lives; and so in this regard also there is some consimilitude betwixt these two places. And now if we doe well observe this strange work of God, we shall therein perceive how unsearcha­ble his judgements are & his wayes past finding out, in permitting this forlorne people that are so black in their bodies & more black in their soules through their worship of the Devill, to lye so long en­thralled under the dominion of Satan & [Page 213] that for so great a compasse round about the whole earth under the Aequinocti­all circle. Seing the Lord hath made this visible Hell like a broad black belt or girdle to environ the very heart & middle of the world; how ought this to warne all the inhabitants of the earth on every side to tremble at this judgment, to awake out of the snares of the devill & to seeke a redeemer by whom the workes of the devill may be loosed, & they delivered from the ty­ranny of these wicked spirits in the ever­lasting Hell? If in this life there be such torments for sinners then what is that woefull distresse & anguish which in the world to come waites for them? In this Torrid Zone though their miseries be great, yet have they many comforts: for the body they have sweet springs of wa­ter to refresh them, goodly rivers to bath in, great & pleasant trees for shade, fruit­full trees that yeeld both meat & drinke, they have spices & sugar-canes, the cordi­all joyce of limons to quench their thirst, & the coolest fruits in the hot­test countries; and for their soules their case is not desperate, while there is a time of repentance afforded, yea [...] [Page 216] seas they have huge mountaines of yce which dashing together make a fearfull noyse like the roaring of an hell to the astonishment of strangers that heare the same. As the black Zone aboundeth with serpents; so these snow-white regions doe abound with horrible & fierce white beares that roare about the country for their prey; and for a shield against the cold the inhabitants covering their skins with the beare-skinnes & muffled with other furres, doe appeare as if they were all Beares. The Sunne every yeare hideth it selfe from them for divers mo­neths together, & then have they no day but continuall night; their land is like that which Iob speakes of, a land of dark­nes & of the shadow of death, a land of darknes as darknes it selfe. Iob, 10.21.2 [...]. But that which darkens it most of all & makes it to be a more lively image of Hell, is the great rudenes & ignorance of God that is among them, & in speciall their familiarity with the Devils & abun­dance of witches & wizards that by gene­rall testimony are sayd to be among them. Oh that those which are frozen in the dregges of their sin, Zeph. 1.12. could duely consider the unsearchable judg­ments [Page 217] of God in this frozen Zone. Ex­tremity of cold doth sometimes rotte off the flesh & outer parts of the body & ex­tinguish the sparkle of naturall life as well as fire. As in Island the mount Hecla & Helga are at the same time oft covered with frost & snow on the outside, & yet burne within casting out cynders & flames of fire many miles from the place: or as in the same Ague God sometimes afflic­teth men both with a cold fit that cru­sheth the bones & maketh the teeth to gnash, that first makes the body to quake & shiver, & then kindles a burning heat therein; that first makes the lips & the fin­gers ends to be blew with cold & after­wards red with an hote inflammation: so God can as well torment sinners with an intollerable cold, with a freezing Hell, as with a hote frying Hell. It is no more wonder to see men live a painefull life being frozen in the midst of an yce, then to see men live ever in the midst of a fla­ming fire. If Hell be described by the gnashing of teeth, Matt. 13.42.50. then this frozen climate where there is such continuall cause of the teeth hacking in the head for cold may well serve for re­membrāce of the latter end of reprobates [...] [Page 220] Devils & the cup of Devils; 1. Cor. 10.21. & seeing every habitation of the De­vill is a kinde of Hell, it follows that their Churches & Temples are mere Helles & houses of Devils. As it is with the places of their worship; so is it with the places of their jurisdiction & governement; the spirituall courts of their Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Deanes, Chancellours, Com­missaries & Officials, with their Doctours & Proctours, being so many swarmes of locusts that oppresse, persecute, vexe & sting men to make them weary of their lives. Rev. 9.3.5.6. And when the power of the seduced civill Magistrate is assumed unto them, like Pilate joyned with Cajaphas, then their authority be­comes as the Throne of Satan, Rev. 2.13. who by these instruments casteth mē into prison & killeth them. vers. 10. Hereby the Harlot becomes druncken with the blood of the Saints, & with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus: Rev. 17.6. & thus their glorious Cathedrall Churches and holy places, Courts & Consistories are made Hellish Slaughter-houses of Satan, & Babylon becomes the habitation of De­vils, the hold of every foule spirit & a cage of every uncleane & hatefull bird; Rev. [Page 221] 18.2. & so are to be esteemed of all that passe by & looke upon them. Thus also are all the assemblies & meeting-houses of Mahometists, Arrians, Anabaptists, & other Heretickes to be accounted of in respect of their pernicious errours, & that by the verdict of Christ himselfe, who pronounceth such to be the Synagogue of Satan. Rev. 2.9. Hence may we con­ceive how many thousand intemperate Helles are to be found in this our Tem­perate Zone.

(k) After these more publick Helles, if we search into private houses, we may there finde many habitations of Devils. Some houses, as experience shewes and rhe Lord hath threatned, are haunted with evill spirits that affright those that dwell therein: Ohim & Zijm doe lodge there & the Satyres or devils doe dance there. Esa. 13.21.22. with Lev. 17.7. orig. Hereby God calles men to thinke of the future Hell & of the terrours that shall come upon the wicked in their end. Ano­ther worse Hell then this is to be observed in the houses of witches & wisards which have familiar spirits, & doe willingly en­tertayne them, call for them & make a co­venant with them. Levit. 20.27. 1. Sam. [Page 222] 28.7. &c. for whereas the other were haunted with them against their will & to their great greef; these voluntarily & ea­gerly seeke them & keepe them, & so their houses become like the Oracles of the Devill that men sought unto in old time. 2. Kin. 1.2.4. Such houses were and are wheresoever they be like so many porches & portalles of Hell, or mouthes of the infernall pit, which how abominable soever they be, yet doe they serve for a conviction of atheists & despe­rate wretches, which either thinke or live as if they did thinke there were no Devill, no Hell.

With these devilish houses are to be joyned the disordered Innes & Tavernes, that are the nurseries of all impietie & wickednes, the very staires & trappes by which men descend into Hell. For though there be a lawfull use of Innes for the commodity of strangers & passengers, & for the necessity of some others: yet the disordered Harbours & inordinate ordi­naries, which are the ordinary Rendevouz of drunkards, of blasphemers & swea­rers, receptacles of skorners & mockers, of gamesters, of riotours, of wantons, of idle persons & unthrifts, of theevish rob­bers [Page 223] of their owne families, & the like; of these is verifyed the common saying, that Ale-houses are Hell-houses. There haunt the clamorous Ohim & Zijm, & there doe the lascivious Satyres daunce together; thither doe the Gobbelines re­sort, the schrich-owles, the night-ravēs & night-walkers together; & make a cage of uncleane birds. When men passe by such houses they are to looke upon them as the very Types of Hell & the dennes of destruction where many are dayly over­throwne. They are as deep pits that swal­low up soule & body, goods & good name of their bewitched guests; both health of body & wealth of estate, credit of name & salvation of soule doe there consume & perish together. And there­fore with many pluckes doth the Lord seeke to divert men from such places, Enter not into the path of the vvicked, & goe not in the way of evill men: Avoyd it, passe not by it, turne from it, & passe away. Prov. 4.14.15.

(l) From private houses come we to private & particular persons, to see how many Helles may be found among them. If we looke upon Gods judgments for sinne, we see some possessed with Devils [...] [Page 226] persons that procure these judgements of God, in them also there are many Hells to be seene. Their thoughts, their words, their deeds & practises doe repre­sent the same unto us. The large heart of man & his capacious thoughts are like un­to a huge vessel, wide & deep, greater thē the whole Globe of the earth, which cā ­not fill the same. The eye is not satisfyed with seeing, nor the eare filled with hea­ring. Eccles. 1.8. Though a moate in the eye doe trouble it; yet the world cannot fill it. The reason is, because the minde of man is an immeasurable gulfe; & the outward senses are but tunnels or conduits leading into it. Immoderate de­sire, whether it be the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life, is an insatiable whirlpoole that is still gaping & devouring, but never satisfyed. Eccles. 5.9.10. Hab. 2.5. Esa. 56.11. The igno­rance that is in the minde makes it to be as darke a dungeon as it is deep, Eph 4.18. Matt. 6.23. wherein the thoughts doe blindely range & roame up & downe with pernicious wandrings. The violence & fervency of inordinate lust inflames the heart & makes it to burne, Rom. 1.27. like the bakers oven that is overheated, [Page 227] till it burne as a flaming fire. Hos. 7.6.7. And to shew that the wicked heart is a more compleat Hell, it is sayd that Satan enters into it, Ioh. 13.27. & filles the heart, Act. 5.3. & dwelles in it, Matt. 12.45. & reignes in it as a prince over his subjects, Ioh. 14.30. or as a God over his people. 2. Cor. 4.4. The mouth of a wicked man is like the mouth of Hell, whiles the envy, hatred & lust that is kin­dled in the heart doth breake out in the words, & as it were, flame out at the mouth. The slanderous & evill tongue is a fire, & is set on fire of Hell, & setteth on fire the whole course of nature. Iam. 3.6. The body & the whole person of wic­ked men is as it were the shop & work-house of Satan, wherein the uncleane spi­rits doe worke in the children of disobe­dience; Eph. 2.2. & all their members are the instruments & tooles of the devils to worke all manner of sin & unrighteous­nes therewith. Rom. 6.13.19.

And now seeing the Lord hath set so many visions of Hell before us in this life, whereby he calles men to remember the latter end; let him that hath an eare to heare, hearken to the call of God: let him that hath an eye to see, come & open his

AS God calles us many wayes to remember our latter end; so the due remembrance of our end calles us to remember God: & the thought of death serves to urge & admonish us of seeking the way of life. True life is to be found with God alone. He is the living God. Iosh. 3.10. Ier. 10.10. Hos. 1.10. He giveth unto all life & breath & all things. Act. 17.25. With him is the well of life. Psa. 36.9. From this well doe flow a thousand rivers of life; of life naturall; of life spirituall, of life eter­nall in the heavens.

(a) With him is the fountaine of naturall vegetation, & the rivers of vegetative life are all propagated from him. In every plāt & in every least seed of tree or herb, God hath planted a vitall juyce & digged a welspring of life, from which spring life floweth out & flourisheth & is spread abroad; Gen. 1.11.12. Psa. 104.14. & the living things are multiplied according to their kinde in such unspeakable abun­dance, that the increase thereof through­out [Page 231] the world might in few yeares serve to replenish an hundred worlds. The seeds that one garden in one yeare affor­deth are so many as might in short time serve to fill an hundred garden-plots, while some one herb oft yeeldeth more then a thousand seedes at once. So a thou­sand akehornes that fall from one Oake, might serve to plant a whole grove of oakes. The apples of some one tree yeeld more then a thousand kirnels: & therfore the kirnels, together with the rootes & graffes or shootes that one orchard af­fordeth in one yeare, might well serve to be the seminary of an hūdred more. Thus have we yearely the matter of many worlds layd before us: though more new worlds be not dayly formed, yet the li­ving God shewes us hereby how easily he could doe it.

The glory of this well of life is to be considered not onely in the abundance of life which gusheth out & floweth from it, but likewise in the excellency thereof, while the living things, the herbs & fruits that are thence produced, doe not onely live themselves, but serve to sustaine & uphold the life of other creatures, both man & beast, both in the maine & dayly [...] [Page 234] Gen. 1.22.28. as by a seed of seeds hath multiplyed life, & as from a well of life hath made the streames of naturall life to flow forth & with a continuall current of succession to runne freshly from the be­ginning of the world unto this day. Here­by we see how the Lord powres life out of his treasure: at his word life swimmes in the waters; flyes in the aire; walkes on the earth, & scralles in the dust turned in­to living creatures at his command. Exo. [...].16.17.

A cleare vision of this power of life that is in God, is shewed unto us even in the least sort of creatures, in the Bees, the Flyes, and in speciall in the manifold swarmes of innumerable Gnattes in sum­mer-time suddainly produced in some countries, as if they were so many drops of life flying abroad round about us, as if the whole aire were dissolved into living creatures: & not onely living, but all en­dued with a most lively life, all nimble & active, mounting above our heads, and every one of them carrying with them a Trumpet wherewith they humme aloud & sound an Alarum to us, to awaken us unto the praise of their Creatour, the li­ving God. And because we are so blinde [Page 235] & dull to discerne & acknowledge the living God, the author of this life, there­fore they approach neere unto us & bite us; though it cost them their life for it, they will have us by the face or hands, sleeping or waking, night & day; & they will tast of our blood: & this by divine providence, that by these little monitors we might be rowsed up out of our sense­les behaviour, to looke unto that wel­spring of life from whence they come. Though these creatures be small & con­temptible in the eyes of many, yet doe these small things carry in them the glo­rious evidences of the living God and as effectuall for our instruction as are to be found in the great Oxe, Elephant or Le­viathan. Psa. 104.25. Exo. 8.18.19. He that rayseth these living soules out of the ditches & rotten ground, & sometimes maketh many of these lives to spring from one dead carcasse; how easily can he rayse our dead bodies out of the grave, & re­store one life to one body, yea quickē the soule from the mire of sinne? He that lon­geth after life let him looke to this foun­taine.

(c) Besides this ordinary flood of life flowing from that generall word & com- [...] [Page 238] mall spirits, & with them the faculty both of sense & motion over all. To preserve our being, he hath made the liver a foun­taine of blood & from thence drawne the veines, & dispersed them over the whole body to carry abroad the blood & the na­turall spirits therein to the nourishment of every part. With these living threeds more precious then any golden wires, thē fine twined linnen, blue, purple & scarlet, the ornaments of the Tabernacle, hath God beautifyed the body of man, which is also compared to a Tabernacle. 2. Cor. 5.1.4. 2. Pet. 1.13.14. With these fee­ling, mooving & nourishing strings hath the Lord covered & embroydered & cu­riously wrought the vaile of our flesh. Psal. 139.15. Iob, 10.11. And each of these life-strings doth the living God still hold in his hand, maintaining their facul­ties & inspiring life & quickening vertue into them. And besides this, in the very tunicles or coates of each of these hollow strings hath the Lord wrought a curious network & woven together another sort of subtile threeds & thousands of them, more fine & small then haires; some of them drawne right along, of an attractive power; some round & circular crossing [Page 239] the other with right angles, of an expul­sive vertue, others drawne athwart both the other with oblique angles, of a reten­tive faculty, & all for the service of life in great variety: some draw, some hold, some drive out superfluities of nature; & all these held and upheld in their severall functions by the finger of God, extending his quickening power unto every one of thē. Neither are these particular streames and waves of the river of life flowing from God to be neglected of us, the workes of God are to be sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psal. 111.2. Distinct knowledge and consideration hereof brings clearer comfort: and it is great sinne, unthankfulnes and contempt of Gods glorious wisedome to looke cō ­fusedly over those things that God pro­pounds distinctly in many severall formes and particular acts.

To proceed therefore from these fa­culties and functions of life sensitive com­mon to the brute creatures with man, we are to behold another well of life in that reasonable soule which God hath placed in men, when as he formed the spirit of man within him. Zacch. 12.1. The stir­rings, motions and acts of life flowing [...] [Page 242] with vers. 30. the Lord even then offered unto him to have opened his well of life as wide for him, & to have made of him a greater & mightier nation then Israel was. Num. 14.12. Oh how great are the treasures of life which God hath in store for them that love him! even worlds of life to give to every one of them. Well might the Psalmist say of this God, With him is the vvell of life: and in his light we shall see light: Psa. 36.9. In which words David pointeth at two glorious workes & gifts of God specially noted in the six dayes of the creation. In three dayes God beautifyed the world with light: the first day he created light; the second day he created a pure & transparent firmament, or an expansion through which the beames of the heavenly light being diffu­sed & spread forth might so come to us; & without such a meane or middle passage our sight & the light could not have met together: the fourth day God created hea­venly lights, the Sunne, Moone & starres gathering abundance of light into them & by their motion distributed that light unto the divers parts of the world suc­cessively for the greater benefit thereof. Gen. 1.3.6. &c. In three other dayes God [Page 243] created life in the divers degrees thereof: the third day God opened a box of life & powred out that vegetative life which appeareth in the growing plants, herbes & trees; the fift day God opened another box & powred out a streame of sensitive life, such as appeared in the foules & fishes; the sixt day God opened againe a­nother box, & beside the sensitive life in the beasts & cattell, powred out the trea­sure of an intellectuall life which appea­red in the reasonable soule of man which he then created. Gen. 1.11.12.20. &c. And from that first week unto this day both the beames of light & the streames of life have flowed out incessantly to his praise & the comfort of man.

(f) And yet all this is but the little finger of God in respect of his mighty arme: all this is but the power of life na­turall vouchsafed even to his enimies, to the reprobats. There is a new life, a more high & precious life to be found in God; even a well of spirituall life, opened by him immediately after the fall. Then was made the promise of this life & of victory over death by breaking the serpents head: Gen. 3.15. that word was the Gospell of Salvation preached instantly to Adam u­pon [...] [Page 246] the kindes of life natural are made to serve as shadowes of the life spirituall which God giveth to his elect. See it in the plants that doe live a vegetative life. As the earth bringeth forth her bud, & as the garden causeth the things that are sowne therein to spring forth: so the Lord God will cause righteousnes & praise to spring forth before all the nations. Esa. 61.11. The Lord doth as easily make men to be trees of righteousnes, as he maketh thorns or briers to grow. Esa. 61.3. with ch. 55.13. Yea the plants that exceed others in growth, the tall cedars, the flourishing palme, Psa. 92.12. the greene olive, the fruitfull lillies, Hos. 14.5, 6. the willowes by the water-courses, Esa. 44.4. the flo­vving spices, Sol. song. 4.16. & the trees that bring forth new fruit according to their moneths, Ezek. 47.12. are all but shadowes of this grace of life flowing from the Lord. See it in the creatures that live a sensitive life: The sheep that are sayd to bring forth thousands in our streets, Psa. 144.13. & doe cloth the pa­stures with their multitude, Psa. 65.13. are made types of the flock of God that multiply by his blessing, Ezek. 34.11.31. & doe every one bring forth twinnes, [Page 247] none being barren among them. Sol. song. 4.2. They are also likened to the doves that bring forth almost every moneth, & come by flights unto their windowes. Esa. 60.8. See this also in the shadow of mankinde endued with a reasonable life: As the fathers & mothers are called the fountaines of life from whence the chil­dren doe flow: Psa. 68.26. Esa. 48.1. so the Lord communicating spirituall life to his children is sayd to beget them againe, Iam. 1.18. & they are the dew of his youth; Psa. 110.3. & he is the living father of many children. Ioh. 6.57. Heb. 2.10. Yea God is able even of stones to raise up children to Abraham; Matt. 3.9. as once of old & at first he hewed them out of the dry & hard rock of Abrahams decayed body & Sarahs dead wombe, Esa. 51.1.2. Rom. 4.18.19. & after that againe tooke the stony heart out of their bodies; Ezek. 11.19. & as in time to come he is yet once more of the stony-hearted & obstinate Iewes to raise up a new & holy generation. Rom. 11.7.8 24.25.26. And hereby it is evident what a power of life is in God & that the well of life is not elswhere to be sought or found then in him alone.

[Page 250] be with men, & he will dwell with them, & God himselfe shall be with them & be their God. Rev. 21.3. He will rejoyce over them with joy & quiet or rest him­selfe in his love; he will joy over them with singing or shouting, as the word al­so signifies. Zeph. 3.17. And what cause have they to sing & shout & clap their hands for joy eternally, for whom the Lord doth sing & shout joyfully? Esa. 12.6. Psa. 47.1. how honourable are they whom the Father doth honour, Ioh. 12.26. whom the Sonne doth confesse be­fore the Angels for ever? Luk. 12.8. And if these promises have their begin­ning here & be made unto men in their pilgrimage & be in part enjoyed in this life, what shall their complement & full performance be when they come to the wel-head of all this life & glory here­after, which for the present is hidden with God? Coll. 3.3.

(i)

What then remaines for us to be done & what doth the Lord require of us, but that we come to this well of life? It is therefore shewed unto us that we might desire it & in desiring seeke it & in see­king finde it to our everlasting happines. [Page 251] And before we come unto it, even in the meane time by dayly & comfortable me­ditation, we may behold & looke upon it, yea tast it, walking upon the bankes of this river of life & sometimes as it were sayling upon these waters, being carried with the Spirit of God blowing upon us by faith. If any despise this call of God & contemne the infinite felicity that is herein revealed unto them: if any will forsake the Lord, the fountaine of living waters, & dig unto themselves cisternes, even broken cisternes that can hold no water; if they will rather runne to the stinking puddles of sinful pleasures: marke what the Lord sayth concerning their madnes, O ye heavens be astonished at this & be horribly afraid & utterly con­founded or very desolate, sayth the Lord. Ier. 2.12.13. And what then is that un­speakable astonishment, horrour & con­fusion that shall come upon the despisers of this grace, when heaven & earth to­gether shall be so affected at the sight of their miserable folly?

And if any fearefull hearts doe either despaire or doubt they can never obtaine such a divine & glorious estate in respect of their basenes & unworthines; if they

[Page 254](k) If any fainting spirits be still afraid, & though they will not speake it out, yet think thus within themselves: Not our poore & meane estate, but our wickednes & our sinnes that are both great & many, doe deprive us of hope & take away our heart that we cannot looke for a portion in that grace of life that is so great for ma­ny others: Let these consider how great & pernicious an errour hath ensnared them; & let them labour with all care & speedy diligence to have this black cloud of death & infidelity hanging over their heads, remooved from them. It is indeed the uncomfortable estate of the greatest part of the world, & even of those licen­tious persons that seeme to boast often of the mercy of God, yet not to beleeve his mercy; Esa. 53.1. Luk. 18.8. Psa. 78.22.32.35.36. they feele it not in their hearts when they glory outwardly of it: for had they faith, it would soone have purifyed their hearts & changed ther lives & filled them with peace & joy unspeakable & glorious. Act. 15.9. Rom. 5.1. 1. Pet. 1.8. Let such consider that through unbeleefe men are broken off from God; Rom. 11.20. & they doe him the greatest disho­nour that may be in not beleeving: 1. Ioh. [Page 255] 5.10. & for the healing of this sore, let them set before them the rich & precious promises of God, by the meditation whereof they may be quickened & have faith wrought in their hearts. Psa. 119.25.28.49.50.93. Though their sins be many, that they cannot answer for one of a thousand, Iob, 9.3. there is mercy with God to blot out their sinnes as a thick cloud, & to take away their transgressions as a mist. Esa. 44.22. When the Lord proclaimed his glorious name, he mani­fested himselfe by this mercy, & used twise so many titles to expresse it rather then his justice, saying, The Lord, the Lord God mercifull, and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodnes and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sinne; that surely will not cleare the wicked, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the chil­drens children unto the third and fourth gene­ration. Exod. 34.5.6.7. For though the Lord in regard of himselfe be equally in­finite in respect of all his attributes, yet is it harder for men to beleeve his mercy then his justice; & as the event shewes, it is a work more above the power of nature by true faith to apply the mercy of God [...] [Page 258] with spirituall fornicatiō, being car­ried away to dumbe Idoles; 1. Cor. 12.2. when they turned from Idoles to serve the living God, 1. Thes. 1. 9, presently of most foule harlots they became the fairest among women, even the Churches of God & his most beauteous spouses: Sol. song. 5.9. They found mercy for all their sins which they confessed, & being baptised into the name of the Lord they arose up out of the water, & looked forth as the morning, faire as the Moone & pure as the Sunne; Sol. song, 6.9.10. they shone in glory as the great wonder in hea­ven, like the woman cloathed with the Sunne & treading upon the Moone with her feet & crowned upon her head with the twelve starres. Rev. 12.1. Manasses that was not onely an idolater but in the grossest manner, worshipping all the hoast of heaven, & setting their altars & his graven image in the house of the Lord; that was not onely a witch but defiled with many kindes of witchcraft, leaving the Lord & flying to the devill, leaving the Prophets & running to wizards; that was not onely a murderer but abounding in murders & filling Ierusalem with inno­cent blood which he shed from one end [Page 259] thereof unto another; & all this after the education under his godly father Heze­kias with contempt of many admonitions & godly examples; yet whē he was hum­bled in his affliction & sought the Lord, he was not barred frō the well of life, but he found mercy with God, who was intrea­ted of him & forgave his sins. 2. Chro. 33.12-16. And so also those that committed yet a more horrible murder in killing & crucifying the Lord of life & embruing their wicked hands in his precious blood, Act. 2. 23. and 3.15. when they were pric­ked in their hearts & sought grace, they found that which they sought, & obtained remission of sinnes & the gift of the holy Ghost, being united unto the Church of God, & were filled with unspeakable joy & glory. Act. 2.37-47. And as the Lord dealt with these when they turned unto him: so hath he promised to deale with the wickedest alive whosoever doe seeke him. Thus saith the Lord of hostes, Turne ye unto me saith the Lord of hostes, and I will turne unto you, saith the Lord of hostes. Zacch. 1. 3. In this divine & comforta­ble promise the Lord doth three times interpose & pawne the authority of his name to confirme his word, that it might [...] [Page 262] 1.1. 2. and 2.20. &c, and 2. Sam. 7.15. Our Saviour telles Peter that he is to for­give his brother not seven times, but se­venty times seven. Matt. 18. 21.22. And immediately after in the parable next fol­lowing he shewes how farre the mercy of God exceeds the mercy of men, & how many times the Lord forgiveth us more then we forgive men. And this he doth, by comparing our sinnes or debts unto God to ten thousand Talents, vers. 24. & the offences of others against us to an hundred pence. v. 28. Now that we may the better conceive the love of God in the pardon of many sins for the comfort of sinners taught in this parable, these two summes & the difference that is betwixt them is duely to be considered of us. And to this end it is to be observed that our Sa­viour speakes of the Romane coyne, such as was then in use among the Iewes at that time subject to the Romanes, as ap­peareth in that peny which Christ requi­red the Herodians to shew unto him, ha­ving upon it the image & superscription of Caesar the Romane Emperour. Matt. 22.19.20.21. And though our Saviour spoke in the Iewes language, & the E­vangelists wrote in the Greeke tongue, [Page 263] then most common in the world, yet the word that is here used for a peny, (denari­on, Matt. 18.28. & 22.19.) is the Romane or Latine word, to shew that he spoke of Romane coyne. The Romane Talent (as our writers witnesse) contained seven hundred & fifty ounces of silver, & the Romane peny was but the eight part of one ounce. Hereupon it followes by just computatiō, 750. being multiplyed by 8. that one Talent contained precisely six thousand pence, & consequently tē thou­sand Talents contained six thousand times ten thousand pence, which is the great summe representing the many sinnes that God forgiveth unto men. And though our Saviour by a definite number intends an indefinite, yet is the proportion to be observed & while he hath chosen so ex­ceeding great a number, he would there­by have us to conceive the infinite grace of God in pardoning innumerable sinnes & millions of transgressions, which the elect & faythfull do dayly commit, even after their conversion. The Lord is still ready to forgive the repentant, & will a­bundantly pardon, or as the words in the text are, will multiply to pardon. Esa. 55.7. His mercies faile not but are renewed [...] [Page 266] sired they might be consumed with fire from heaven. Luk. 10.54.55.56. The spirit that is in man lusteth after envy, & even Ioshua repined at the mercy & grace of God, & the gifts of his Spirit upon Eldad & Medad. Num. 11.27.28.2 [...]. Io­nas in speciall was strangely vexed and fretted with an exceeding displeasure, being angry even to the death, and was therefore so hasty & swift to anger be­cause God was so slow to anger & so mercifull in sparing the Ninevites. Ion. 4.1.2.3. And though this seeme strange to those that read it, yet is the same passi­on common among men. What godly man is there at this day which doth not in some measure overrunne the Lord to judgment in wishing the destruction of Antichrist, as though the Lord were too slow to anger? If they might have had their will, the Lord should not have wai­ted with so great patience in calling them to repentance.

But further, God is more mercifull to men then men would have him to be even towards themselves. For all those that are saved, God is more willing to save them, then they themselves are to be saved. His willingnes to give doth [Page 267] exceed ours in receyving by many de­grees. First he had a will to save us, when we had no will, nor being at all; he lo­ved us first & ordained us unto eternall life before the foundation of the world. 1. Ioh. 4.19. Act. 13.48. Eph. 1.4.5. Againe when we came into this world being borne in sinne, & had a will indeed but no will unto that which is good, a will onely unto evill, Gen. 6.5. the Lord prevented us & called us & of unwilling made us willing, & gave us a minde & will to know him & seeke him, as he did unto Paul in the middes of his wicked­nes. Actes. 9.1. 3. &c. And we should never have had a will to come unto the well of life except we had bene drawne by him. Ioh. 6.44. And againe, being called & made willing, it is he that of willing doth make us more willing and constantly willing, & dayly gives unto his elect both the will & the deed of his good pleasure. Phil. 2.13. Our will & wish is bent unto evill, & we desire we know not what: Matt. 20.22. Our will is often ea­gerly set upon that which would wound our soules & be an hinderance to our sal­vation & comfort; Iam. 4.3. but the Lord by his gracious will keepes away the evill [Page 268] we faine would have, & gives the good that we had no will unto. He beareth up & supporteth our will in good, which els presently declines unto evill: He holdeth our soules in life & suffereth not our feet to be mooved. Psa. 66.9. And therefore his will is better to us then our owne. Unto this living God that is so good & so farre exceeds our desires with his good will, let us ever runne & flye unto him & we shall surely finde the well of life with him & drink of the river of his pleasures. To him be praise for evermore.

CHAP. II. Of the sure & onely way to the Well of life.

I Am the way, the trueth & the life; no man commeth unto the Father but by me, saith Christ, Ioh. 14.6. He is the Lambe that leades unto the living fountaines, Rev. 7.17. & the good shepheard that gathers the lambes with his arme, & car­ries [...] [Page 272] was called thereunto of his Father. Christ is the signet of his Fathers right hand, & him hath God the Father sealed by de­signing & appointing him to be the Me­diatour▪ Ioh. 6.27. He is the elect of God, Esa. 42.1. fore ordained before the foun­dation of the world, 1. Pet. 1.20. and againe manifestly called in time, chiefely at his Baptisme & Transfiguration, when that glorious voyce came from heaven, This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased, heare him. Matt. 3.17. & 17.5. This calling of Christ is especially noted in the Gospell of Iohn & more thē fourty times in exact number, under the phrase of sending him; Ioh. 5.23.24.30. [...]6.37.38. &c. & yet fourty times againe in other equivalent phrases of being sealed, & gi­ven, & comming downe from heaven, & come in the Fathers name & the like. Our Saviour himselfe doth ever & anon re­peat this calling & rejoyce in it & teach others to comfort themselves in it; & therefore the afflicted conscience that seekes to be strengthened in faith should often remember this calling of Christ: yea fourty & fourty times to runne unto it & after the example of Christ never to have done with it, that so the medita­tion [Page 273] thereof may lead them to the well of life.

Christ being thus called of his Father is thereupon also furnished with all gifts meet for his calling, anoynted with the oyle of joy & gladnes above his fellowes, H [...]b. 1.9. with the spirit above measure, Ioh. 3.34. that of his fullnes we all might receive, even grace for grace, or grace over against grace, grace renewed in us according to his image; grace according to our need of grace & according to his abundance able to supply all our wants. Ioh. 1.16. All his garmēts smel of myrrhe, aloes & cassia out of his yvory pala­ces whereby they have made him glad & whereby he hath made us glad, giving the oyle of joy for mourning & the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi­nesse. Psa. 45.8. Esa. 61.3. His name is an oyntment powred out; therefore the virgines love him: Sol. song. 1.3. and they sing lovesongs of him and their heart boyleth out his praise. Psal. 45. title, & vers. 1. Being thus anointed & called of his Father, he comes promp­tly at his call, Lo I come to doe thy will O God; Heb. 10.7. with Psa. 40.7.8. & he is as willing as he is able, to be a [...] [Page 276] ver have found the well of life, for there is none that understandeth, Psa. 53.1.2. but he is the light of them that sit in darkenes & in the shadow of death, he maketh the eyes of the blinde to see out of obscurity & darknes. Esa. 29.18. In his breast is that Vrim & Thummim by which the counsell of God was made knowne unto men: Exod. 28.30. Num. 27.21. for he is the substance of the sha­dowes that went before. Coll. 2.17. As from the Oracle; (debir, 1. Kin. 6.19.20.) the inmost place of the Sanctuary, God was wont to speak of old & to send forth a voyce; Exo. 25.22. Num. 7.8.9. so now hath he spoken unto us in his Sonne, that is in his bosome. Heb. 1.1. Ioh. 1.18. There is no labyrinth of errour but he gives a threed of direction to come out of it. There is no perplexity or diffi­cult case of conscience but he resolveth it. God hath given him the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Esa. 50.4. He leades the simple in a way that the fooles shall not erre therein. Esa. 35.8. Many complaine of the many religions and opinions in the world, & that they know not which to take; but such are [Page 277] not acquainted with this Prophet, who teacheth the humble & revealeth his se­cret to them that feare him. Psal. 25.9.14. Christ is not like a sterne austere master, of whom the poore schollers dare not aske a question: but he is gentle & loving & calles them to learne of him & perswades them to come to him be­cause he is meek & lowly, & shewes them how to finde rest unto their soules in all their doubts & difficulties. Matt. 11.29.

And further as in the dayes of his flesh he was a minister of the circumcision, Rom. 15.8. going about all Galilee tea­ching in their Synagogues & preaching the Gospell of the kingdome; Matt. 4.23. so now by his ministers & servants, Eph. 4.11.12. the maidens of his wise­dome, Prov. 9.3.4. he calles all nations to the knowledge & fellowship of his grace. Mat. 28.19. As of old he preached to the spirits now in prison by Noah a preacher of righteousnes; 1. Pet. 3.19. so still at this day he preacheth peace to thē that are afarre of. Eph. 2.17. Hereby his voyce is as the sound of many wa­ters, Rev. 1.15. a souud that is gone out into all the earth unto the ends of the world▪ Rom. 10.18. And thus the spirit [...] [Page 280] even in the waters of the great deep: Exod. 14. Esa. 51.10. so there being a burning lake & a red sea of wrath pre­pared for sinners, our holy high Priest hath made a way for us, he wading first through the same & the waters ther­of entring into his soule and over­whelming him that we might be delive­red. Psal. 69.1. 2. His suffering & satis­faction is become a strong bridge of tran­slation to carry us out of the state of wrath and condemnation into the state of grace and salvation, and to transport us safely over this gulfe of destruction and curse in which for our sinnes we had de­served to have bene plunged & drowned for ever. Gal. 3.13. Col. 1.13.14. To bring us on in this journey to the well of life whē we like wandring sheep had gone astray perniciously, he sought us & found us & laid us on his shoulders: 1. Pet. 2.25. Luk. 15.4. He hath borne our griefes & carried our sorrowes, Esa. 53.4. he bore our sinnes in his body on the tree, 1. Pet. 2.24. & under the burden of our iniqui­ties he was bruised, Esa. 53.5.10. he was sore amazed, he groaned, Mark. 14.38. & cryed out with strong cryes & suppli­cations, Matt. 27.46. Heb. 5.7. he did [Page 281] sweat great drops of blood that trickled downe to the ground: Luk. 22.44. and there was no remedy but that to save o­thers he must goe downe to the gates of death, he was abased unto the death of the crosse; & as Moses lift up the serpent in the wildernes, so was our Mediatour lift up; Ioh. 3.14.15. & as men deale with a toad or serpent so they hanged him u­pon a stake (stauros) & set him upon a pole & he became as it were a monster unto many, Psa. 71.7. & 22.13. that he might make us glorious by deliverance & bring us unto life.

He was further abased when he was left for a time under the condition of death, free among the dead, Psa. 88.5. while he made his grave with the wic­ked, Esa. 53.9. & hereby was as it were swallowed up of the whale in the heart of the earth. Matt. 12.40. And yet a­bove all this & before his buriall he de­scended into Hell, to the gates of the second death, into the deepest degree of humiliation, in his agony both in the garden and upon the crosse: Matt. 27.46. Psal. 88.6. there the sorrowes of hell compassed him about, there he drunk the cup of the red wine of the [Page 282] wrath of God, Matt. 20.22. & 26.39.42.44. a cup whereinto all our vile and deadly sinnes were grated, God laying upon him the iniquities of us all. Esa. 53.6. At the tasting of this cup his strength was powred out like water, his heart did melt like wax in the middes of his bo­wels; Psa. 22.14. a greater matter then if the whole world beside had melted a­way to nothing for ever. The very thought of this filled the heart of our Mediatour with perplexity & feare long before it came, I have a baptisme (saith he) to be baptised withall; & how am I pained untill it be ended? Luk. 12.50. And how was he then pained in the finishing of it? But hereby are many sons brought unto God & delivered from the bondage & feare of death for ever. Heb. 2.9.10.14.15.

Having passed himselfe and led us through the first gate of justice by suffe­ring, there remained a second by fulfil­ling the law for us, & this also necessary for our entrance into life; & therefore besides the sacrifice of his death, he also offered up himselfe in a holy life unto God, & sanctifyed himself for us. Ioh. 17.19. For being made under the Law, Gal. [Page 283] 4.4. he fulfilled all righteousnes, Matt. 3.15. & was an immaculate lambe, 1. Pet. 1.19. holy, harmelesse, undefiled, Heb. 7.26. whom no man could convince of sinne: Ioh. 8.46. & even in the midst of his sufferings his active obediēce & willing subjection to the will of his Father, Phi. 2.8.9. Ioh. 10.17.18. & 18.6.11. was for us a sacrifice of sweet odour, as well as the suffering it selfe, & so led us through the second gate of Gods justice. Thus by the obediēce & righteousnes of one many are made righteous, evē parta­kers of the righteousnes of God in Christ. Rom. 5.17.18.19. 1. Pet. 1.2. 2. Cor. 5.21.

And further, as all that he did then on earth was for our comfort; so all that he now doth in heavē is also for the increase of our comfort: for he is still a priest and sacrificer in heaven. As Aaron bore the names of the children of Israel both upon his two shoulders ingraven in two Onix stones set in ouches of gold, Exod. 28.9-12. & likewise in the breastplate of judg­ment upon his heart, in twelve other precious stones, when he went into the holy place for a memoriall continually before the Lord: vers▪ 17-29. so our Me­diatour hath not onely carried us on his [...] [Page 286] of the promised inheritance in Canaan, we see what enimies in the way rose up against them to hinder them & to destroy them. Pharaoh & his host with charets & horsmen pursues after them to bring them back againe into bondage or to destroy them utterly, Exod. 14.5.9 & 15.9. Then Amalek when Israel was faint & weary in the way, came out and smote the feeblest & hinmost of them. Deut. 25.17.18. Exod. 17.8. Edom their brother denyed them passage. Num. 20.21. King Arad tooke some of them prisoners. Numb. 21.1. Balak the King of Moab calles Balaam the south­sayer to curse Israel. Numb. 22.4. and 23.13. The Midianites vexed them with their wiles and brought thousands of them to destruction. Num. 25.4.9.17.18. Sihon and Og the giant with all their forces came out to stop them in their way. Deut. 2.32. & 3.1. And the Kings of Canaan with an host like the sand upon the sea shore in multitude, were gathered together to fight against Israel and to keepe them from their in­heritance promised. Iosh. 11.4.5. And in like manner to stop and hinder the faithfull in the way of life armies of eni­mies [Page 287] rise up on every side. The world generally hates them. Ioh. 15.19. Matt. 24.9. The nations rage & the princes conspire against the Lord and his anoyn­ted. Psal. 2.1.2. The mighty men, the Giants of our time cease not to warre against them. The Romish Balaam much worse then the old southsayer cur­seth them incessantly. The Babilonian harlot is drunken with the blood of the Saints. Rev. 17.6. The manyheaded Beast blasphemes God and his Taberna­cle; Rev. 13.6. and the second Beast forceth men for feare to receyve his mark. vers. 16. The Dragon and his angels fight. Rev. 12.3.7. The Devill goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devoure and cast out from the inheritance of the Lord. 1. Pet. 5.8. And our owne flesh like a serpent in the bosome lusteth and fighteth against the soule. Gal. 5.17. 1. Pet. 2.11. Now for the resisting and conquering of all these Christ is given unto us as a victori­ous King and Prince of peace: He is exalted above every name that is named in this world or in the world to come▪ Eph. 1.21. He hath overcome the world; Ioh. 16.33. cast out the wicked spirit [...] [Page 290] confirme his afflicted people in their ex­spectation of future glory and dignity by Christ the Branch, God appointed his Prophet to take silver & gold from them of the captivity & to make Crownes, to set them first upon the head of Jehoshua, and then to keepe them for a memoriall in the Temple of the Lord: Zach. 6.9-15. so in the use of these ordinances of Baptisme & the Lords-Supper given to his Church & left for memorials of our glory in Christ, we ought to be affected as if there were two goldē crownes hung up in the congregation before our eyes, & sometimes set upon our heads as wit­nesses and pledges of the glorious king­dome to be enjoyed hereafter. In Bap­tisme is represented both the washing a­way of our sinnes, Act. 2.38. & our fel­lowship with the holy Trinity, whose names are put upon us: Matt. 28.19. The names of the Father, Sonne, & H. Ghost are set like three pearles shining in our crowne of glory set upon our heads. Esa. 28.5. In the Supper of the Lord being called unto his Table & to the participa­tion of the body & blood of Christ, we are thereby set together in heavenly pla­ces with him, Eph. 2, 6. like olive plants [Page 291] round about his Table, as a crowne of glory in the hand of the Lord, Esa. 62.3. even a crowne about our head Christ in the middes of his Church. As the chil­dren of Israel in the wildernes to guide & support them in the way were led by a pillar of cloud, & fed with manna & wa­ter out of the rock; so by a like favour for the same spirituall use hath Christ our King given us the Sacraments of the new Testament: 1. Cor. 10.1.2.3.4. & there­fore looke what joy & comfort the most faithfull in Jsrael had, when they saw the cloud of the Tabernacle going before them; such joy & comfort ought we to be filled withall at the administration of Baptisme: and looke with what joy and thankfulnes they went forth to gather Manna, with as great ought we to be af­fected in going to the Table of the Lord, giving thankes unto Christ for such a staffe of comfort to quicken & strengthen us in our journey & way unto the Kingdome of Heaven.

(f) But for a further view of this un­speakable grace & comfort exhibited in these three offices of Christ, we are to looke upon the dignity of his person whereupon depends the vertue, power & [...] [Page 294] 33.15.16. When for sinne the Lord threatned a departure of this presence, & yet offered to send an Angel with them to destroy their enimies; Exod. 33.2.3. that would not content him▪ no presence of prophets or angels would serve the turne without this divine presence uni­ted to the Tabernacle for their guidance. And even so according to this type, when the word was made flesh, he dwelt among us as in a Tabernacle, as the word signi­fyes: Ioh. 1.14. escenose. His body, was the true Tabernacle which the Lord pight and not man. Heb. 8.2. In him dwelt all the fulnes of the Godhead bo­dily. Coll. 2.9. Out of this Tabernacle he spake; Heb. 1.1. and wrought mira­cles; Matt. 4.23. Act. 10.38. and re­mooved up and downe, and conversing among men led his sheep in the way of life. Ioh. 10.27.28. No man nor angel had bene sufficient for this worke: but he being very God as well as man, & bea­ring up all things by his mighty word, Heb. 1.3. caries along his sheep unresista­bly and safely unto the glory exspected. He is Lord of all, and at his right hand we may see all his blessed angels atten­ding, to whom he hath given charge to [Page 295] watch over his sheep in this way and to carry them in their hands that they dash not their feet against a stone. Psal. 91.11.12. At his left hand he hath the Devill & his angels in a chaine and bindes them at his pleasure, Rev. 20.1.2. 2. Pet. 2.4. so that they cannot hurt a swine or any uncleane beast without his permissi­on, Matth. 8.31. and much lesse can they hurt them that are washed in his blood: and he having given comman­dement to prepare the way of his peo­ple, to cast up an high way, to ga­ther out the stones, and to remoove the stumbling blockes; Esa. 62.10. & 57.14. they shall goe in the way of life, as Israel marched out of Egypt, with an high hand; Exod. 14.8. a dog shall not moove his tongue against them, Exod. 11.7. further then is for their good: Rom. 8.28. and in due sea­son they shall come to the Lord the wel-spring of all glory, life & comfort in heaven.

(g) The comfort which ariseth from this consideration of Christ is marvel­lous great for all the faithfull and in speciall for afflicted consciēces that desire to be established and confirmed in faith. [...] [Page 298] fort out of his fullnesse. Thus the soules that come dayly to Christ as their Prophet may dayly be refreshed by him.

(h) If any through weaknes of faith cannot lay hold on the promises of God touching the pardon of sinne and the free gift of salvation set before us, let them bring these promises to the ground of them even to Christ, applying them first to Christ & then to themselves: for in him all the promises of God are Yea and in him they are Amen; 2. Cor. 1.20. not onely in their owne nature & truth, but also in respect of our apprehension. He that cannot assent unto the promise, loo­king on the promise onely, may better as­sent & sooner beleeve, when he lookes on Christ the ground of the promise: for ex­ample, God promiseth unto the repentant that their crimson & skarlet sinnes shall be taken away, and they made white as snow & wooll: Esa. 1.18. now the trou­bled soule that cannot say Yea to this pro­mise by particular application, let the same looke upon the sacrifice of Christ bearing their sins, satisfying the justice of God, & behold his blood powred out to wash them, & so they shall sooner con­ceive & apprehend their sins to be done [Page 299] away and their soules to be cleansed and made white as snow.

There is a promise, that where sinne abounds, there grace aboundeth much more: Rom. 5.20. The perplexed con­sciences that faine would but cannot say Amen unto this promise by applying it unto themselves; let the same looke upon Christ, and behold the dignity of his person, his deity & divine majesty, being the brightnes of glory, the charac­ter or engraven forme of his Fathers person, his equall and his fellow; Heb. 1.3. Phil. 2.6. Zach. 13.7. when they see his eternall Godhead and almighty power, to whom nothing is hard or im­possible, & withal consider how he stoops downe to help and puts his hand to this work, to give worth & price unto the sa­crifice for sinne, to make the blood of redemptiō more precious & meritorious to redeeme the vilest sinners; then shall they more easily receive the promise of abundant grace, & with more faith say Amen unto it.

There is a promise that God will be mercifull to the sinnes of his people, Heb. 8.12. & receive them with everlasting kindenes, Esa. 54.8. & pity thē as a father [...] [Page 302] merit of life to justify us; v. 54. the spirit of life for our sanctification, Rom. 8.10. & the crowne of life for our glorificati­on. Rev. 2.10. He is all in all; Coll. 3.11. and therefore we are to be nothing in ourselves but all in him, and wholly renouncing ourselves & our owne righte­ousnes we are to cast ourselves altogether upon him for the hope of eternall life. To him be praise for ever. Amen.

CHAP. III. Of Mortification or the death of sinne.

HAving heard of the love of God, which is the spring of life, & of the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, who is the way unto that life; it remaines that we seeke the communion of the H. Spi­rit, as the conclusion of our comfort for the assurance of that life. 2. Cor. 13.14. Hereby we know that we have fellowship with God, that he abideth in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 1. Ioh. 3.24. [...] [Page 306] shall be comforted. Matt. 5.4.

II. After this followes an other degree of Mortification, whereby the faith­full according to the measure of grace given, doe turne from the practise of sinne which they have bewayled. They doe not live any longer therein, Rom. 6.2. they cease to doe evill, Esa. 1.16. and eschew evill: Iob 1.1.8. they forsake their owne wayes and courses, and breake of their sinnes, Esa. 55.7. and refraine their feet from every evill way. Psalm. 119.101. By this resisting of wicked actions men are sayd to mor­tify or kill the deeds of the body and thereupon is life promised unto them. Rom. 8.13. They therefore that love life everlasting must every day die this death also in casting off the workes of darkenes. Though it be a death to the flesh to leave them, yet must this death also be undergone; els is there no hope of life, no assurance that God dwelleth in us by his Spirit.

III. An other death of the old man is when not onely the outward act of sinne, but the will and purpose of sinning is mortifyed. The will of the flesh and the will of man is noted as a [Page 307] thing opposite to God and his Spirit, pro­curing his wrath & making men the chil­dren of wrath; Ioh. 1.13. Eph. 2.3. 1. Pet. 4. 2.3. and many that want the power to performe many evils, doe not yet want the will thereunto; and therefore this will is to be mortifyed. If he that had no staine in his will, could yet say unto his Father, Not as I vvill but as thou vvilt; Not my will but thy will be done: Matt. 26.39. Luk. 22.42. and againe, I seek not mine owne will, but the will of him that sent me; Iohn. 5.30. & 6.38. how much more should we make it our dayly exer­cise to break our owne corrupt willes, to cast away our owne purposes and to wait on God all the day long, saying and praying continually, Not my will but thy will be done? At the first act of Pauls conversion, so soone as Christ was made knowne unto him, we see this mortification of his will which he renounced, & resigning himselfe to the will of God sayd, Lord vvhat vvilt thou that I doe? Act. 9.6. When the will is thus mortifyed, though men doe sometimes the things that they would not; yet then is this comfort afforded; it is no more they that doe it but sinne that [Page 308] dwelleth in them. Rom. 7.15.16.17.19-20. It shall not be imputed unto them.

IV. Besides this it comes to passe ma­ny times that when the will is subdued & restrained from some evill, yet the affec­tions are not mortifyed: though a sinner in the purpose of his will, will not con­sent to the practise of some evill, yet the heart is tickled with delight therein, and could wish it were lawfull, and it is a paine unto them that they may not con­sent to seek it. This evill concupiscence & lust of the heart, these affections of the flesh are distinctly condemned, & we are commanded to mortify & to avoyd such inordinate passions; even as they are lusts, though consent of the will be not with them. Gal. 5.24. Coll. 3.5. Rom. 7.5. Exo. 20.17. In the killing & abando­ning of these lusts the faithfull endure many deathes from day to day, & the acts of Mortification are multiplyed accor­ding to the strength of the spirit ministred unto them.

V. Againe the minde of man is dayly annoyed & pestred with evill thoughts & wandring imaginations arising partly from the flesh & partly from the sugges­tion of Satan; and these though they nei­ther [Page 309] be delighted in nor approoved of, yet the very entertainment of them and their residence in the minde though for a short while, doth pollute the soule with sinne. For God requireth the whole soule and the whole minde with all the strength thereof; Deut. 6.5. Luk. 10.27 he requi­reth a pure heart, free from all stragling conceits. Matt. 5.8. Our eyes should ever be towards the Lord & his glory: Psal. 25.15. Lots wife for looking back­ward was smitten of God and turned into a pillar of salt; Gen. 19.17.26. & though more evill might be in her minde, yet that very look alone being forbidden of God made her culpable: and so for a side look unto vanity, when the eye of the minde rolles up and downe we become guilty of condemnation. These idle thoughts take up the place in the soule, even the seat wherein God should sit; and while they keepe out the thought of God, though but for a moment, they are in that respect condemnable. And there­fore these motions of the minde are to be resisted, repelled & mortifyed. As Abra­ham hushed away the foules that came downe upon his sacrifice; Gen. 15.11. so are these flying thoughts to be dispel­led [Page 310] and driven away from our mindes. God requireth that the wicked should forsake his imaginations; Esa. 55.7. God would have his children to cast downe imaginations and to bring every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ, 2. Cor. 10.5. which cannot fully and per­fectly be done without this mortification of them. By mortification of them the heart is purged, & then the promise of mercy multiplyed. Iam. 4.8.

VI. Lastly the faithfull doe yet in a further degree die unto sinne, when as that habituall concupiscence which is the seedplot and root of all other sinnes is mortifyed and subdued within them. For besides all the motions, af­fections and other fruits of sinne before noted, there is in man a corrupt dis­position, whereby he is enclined to all evill. This disposition & pronenes to sinne, considered apart from the fruits thereof, is condemned in the Scripture, & is called the old man, the body of sin, the law of sin & the law of the members; Rom. 6.6. Eph. 4.22. Col. 3.2. Rom. 7.23. it is called the flesh which lusteth a­gainst the spirit, and therefore is to be crucifyed as well as the lusts and [Page 311] affections thereof. Gal. 5.17.24. This is that hatefull and poysonous Cocka­trice egge, to be crushed before serpents creep out of it. The godly therefore knowing this their owne corrupt dis­position must labour to have it chan­ged and weakened dayly within them: and to this end they are to watch their heart with all diligence, Prover. 4.23. and even before they feele any stirring or motion of the flesh, to be exerci­sing of themselves in all godlines and in all holy meditations and prayer, to keepe under their rebellious nature, and by the help of the Spirit to bring it into subjection, 1. Corint. 9.27. to binde the very stumpe of this tree with an yron band of mortification, that the forbidden fruits doe not bud forth.

(b) The life of a Christian in this world is a continuall warfare, in which they fight the battailes of the Lord every day and houre. 2. Cor. 10.4. 1. Tim. 6.12. These spirituall combates according to the actes and degrees before named, are six in speciall. First they conquer the Adamantine Rock, Zach. 7.12. when their hard hearts are softened to [...] [Page 314] againe by the banishment of wandring thoughts & motions; & most of all bro­ken whē the sinfull disposition of the flesh is broken & mortifyed. All these contri­tions & breakings are so many pleasant sa­crifices of sweet odour unto God: & to them that undergoe so many deathes he hath made many precious promises; that he will revive the spirit of the humble, & give life unto the contrite ones; that he who is high & excellent, inhabiting eter­nity on high will dwell here below with him that is lowly; that he whose name is the Holy One, will dwell with the con­trite sinner: Esa. 57.15. & 66.1.2. and therefore if the presence & conversation of God with us be of any regard with us, if the glory & life that God gives be of any account in our eyes, let us give our­selves dayly to these workes of mortifica­tion, that by these foregoing deathes we may be made ready to leave this world, & may in the end finde him & with com­fort come before him that is the well of life.

(c) For the illustration of this poynt, to omit others, consider we the example of David alone, how he was exercised in all these acts of contrition & thereby dyed [Page 315] unto sinne. The divers degrees of mor­tification were so many steppes of the staires by which he descended into the death of sinne, dying as it were a severall death upon each one of them. 1. After knowledge & conviction of sinne com­mitted, as for the numbring of the peo­ple, his heart smote him for it, 2. Sam. 24.10. and that was a blow or stroak of mor­tification which the spirit gave unto the flesh; he mourned exceedingly, and in a revengefull indignation against his owne sinne was content & desired that the hand of God might be against him & against his fathers house, that he might beare the smart of his owne transgression. vers. 17. this was a death of sinne in him. And so it was also with the sinne he conmitted in the matter of Vrias, for which his bones were broken, Psal. 51.8. and for which he made himselfe a publick example, by the confession of his sinne & making a dolefull song thereof to the shaming of himselfe & warning of others. The title of Psal. 51.11. David went a step lower, when he mortifyed & resisted the act of sinne, though occasion & opportunity of revenge was given unto him, though counsell was given him by others to that [...] [Page 318] If I say, I vvill judge thus: Behold I should offend against the generation of thy chil­dren. vers. 15. VI. Lastly David came downe to the lowest step of the staires, when in the mortification of his sinne he stroke upon the root thereof, by bewai­ling his originall corruption & seeking to subdue that sinfull disposition received from his parents, while he complaineth, Behold I vvas borne in iniquity & in sinne hath my mother conceived me. Psalm. 51.5. This old nature he labours to mortify, when he desires to be renewed in the spi­rit of his minde; vers. 10. for as the A­postle reasoned in respect of the covenant, Heb. 8.13. in that he mentioneth a new estate he desires the abolishing & decay of the old. Thus true mortification never ceaseth till it bring men from & by the hatred of actual sinnes to finde out the ori­ginal, the cause & mother of all, by which all men together are become unprofitable & filthy; Psal. 53.3. vvith Rom. 3.12. that they may kill & crucifye the same. This mortification of the old man is also comprehended in that speech of David when he saith, I kept me from mine iniquity: Psal. 18.23. for though it be true that he kept himselfe from his wickednes & from [Page 319] his sinne that dwelt in him by bewailing sins already committed, by resisting the present actions, by breaking his will, by renouncing his affections, by casting downe his imaginations; yet in speciall manner he kept himselfe from his wic­kednes, by mortifying his very dispositi­on to evill, while he laboured to change his nature & to have a new disposition created within him. These are the deathes that David dyed; & these are the deathes to be undergone of all that would not dye eternally. This dayly dying unto sinne by so many lesser deathes, is a maine prepa­rative unto the great day of our translation out of this world which ought evermore to be remembred of us.

(d) After the actes of mortification & the divers degrees thereof, it is expedient that we consider the speciall enimies or evills of sinne that are to be mortifyed. These the holy Ghost informes us to be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life; 1. Ioh. 2.16. that is to say, voluptuousnes, covetousnes, & ambition or vaine-glory. To these three may be reduced the principall workes of the flesh or old man, considering that for these and from these doe arise the contentions, ha­tred, [Page 320] envy, lying, slandering & manifold other iniquities, Iam. 4.1.2. which are therefore noted & described as compani­ons waiting upon the forenamed lusts, which are the three seditious captaines & leaders unto all mischiefe. Gal. 5.19.20.21. Col. 3.5.8.9. Eph. 5.22.31. These lusts are the root of all evill, not onely of all wrong, injustice & cruell dealing towards men, but of all irreligion & im­piety against God. The cares of this world the deceitfulnes of riches, & the lusts of other things as the pleasures of this life, choke the word of God & make it un­fruitfull: Mark. 4.19. Luk. 8.14. the fruits of holines & righteousnes are blasted and destroyed thereby. And some through these lusts have erred from the faith, being insnared with foolish and absurd con­ceits, noysome also and hurtfull in re­spect of all graces weakned by them, pier­cing the heart with present sorrowes, and finally casting men into eternall destructi­on and perdition. 1. Tim. 6.9.10. These are of the world & not of God, and if any man be a lover of the world and of these things of the world, then is not the love of the Father in him; 1. Ioh. 2.15.16. then is he made the enimy of God, for his en­tertainment [Page 321] of these lusts and his amity with them; Iam. 4.4. and consequently cannot looke for the fruits of that blessed friendship with God: but for such remai­neth a fearefull exspectation of judgment & death in the day of Gods wrath. There­fore men die for ever because they live af­ter the flesh & doe not die betimes to these sinfull lusts. Rom. 8.13.

(e) As the world, so the Devill also, by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life both worketh his chief temptations & by the mortifying of those he is cōquered, & by mens yeelding unto thē he overcommeth & devoureth them. This appeareth in three most me­morable examples, of Adam, Christ, and Antichrist. At the temptation of our first parents the Devill used these three baites & thereby ensnared them. The for­bidden tree by his suggestion appeared good for meat, Gen. 3.6. to bring them to covetousnes not content with all the other trees of paradise, as though there had not bene meat enough for thē with­out this also; it appeared pleasant to the eyes, to kindle the lust of false and vaine pleasure in them; and by his sug­gestion it appeared as a tree desirable [...] [Page 324] by which the Devill workes so effectual­ly in him and in others by him, are those three forenamed lusts: for by these three is Antichrist often described. In respect of the lust of the flesh, the habitation and denne of Antichrist is a spiriruall Sodom, Rev. 11.8. abounding with lusts of mon­strous uncleannes; the Romish city is compared to a great Harlot & the mother of harlots, having in her hand a great cup full of abominations & filthinesse of her fornication, Rev. 17.1.4.5. and living deli­ciously in pleasures. Rev. 18.7. In re­spect of the lust of the eyes & love of ri­ches, she is decked with gold & precious stone & pearles: Rev. 17.4. & 18.16. and for increase & maintenance of that wealth her servants & ministers through cove­tousnes and with fained words doe make merchandise of men. 2. Pet. 2.3. And as for the pride of life this man of sinne doth exalt himselfe above all that is called God & shewes himselfe that he is God; 2. Thes. 2.4. and hath a mouth speaking great things & blasphemies, & is wondred at & worshipped throughout the world. Rev. 13.3.4.5. And when he is crossed in any of his lusts then he makes warre with the Saints & overcomes them & is drun­ken [Page 325] with their blood. Rev. 13.7. & 17.6. & suffers them not to buy or sell that will not receive his marke. Rev. 13.17. Hereby it appeares that the spirit of Antichrist and the breath of his life is lust: these worldly lusts are as it were the bridle and saddle wherewith Satan rides upon him: with the spurres of these lusts he drives him on to commit so great abhominations. By lust is the greatest sinne wrought in the world; and therefore is every one to be warned hereby to fight continually against these lusts that fight against the soule and make it a slave to Satan. 1. Pet. 2.11. They must either mortify these lusts of the old man, or els for ever be a spoyle & prey un­to the old serpent that worketh by them.

Holy Ghost, they are againe taught upon the new consideratiō of this honour done unto them, & in reverence of this divine guest, to proceed unto a further degree & care of their mortification, to cleanse themselves from all filthines of flesh and spirit, to subdue the old man with his lusts & affections, lest they grieve this Spirit that is come to dwell with them. 1. Cor. 6.19.20. 2. Cor. 6.16. & 7.1. Eph. 4.30.

(a) The manner how the Spirit doth mortify sinne is by bringing the sinner un­to Christ & by him unto the Father. As the Father for communicating of life un­to men hath sent his Sonne to merit life, Ioh. 7.16. & 3.16. & both the Father & the Sonne have sent the Holy Spirit for our assurance of that life: Ioh. 15.26. so the Spirit againe bringes us both to Christ & to the Father and first teacheth us to embrace Christ; he testifies of Christ and glorifies him & takes of his & shewes it unto us. Ioh. 16.13.14.15. The manner how the Spirit bringes us unto Christ is by working in us the graces of Faith, Hope & Love of Christ. These are the most sweet breathings of the Holy Ghost: & by each of these he workes mortification in them that are so brought unto him.

[Page 329]I. Faith in Christ serves to kill sinne in us many wayes. First of all by the death of Christ there is merited for us not onely the pardon of our sinne, but also a power of subduing sinne; by his death he hath merited the gift of the spirit, even of the spirit of sanctification. Of this gift we are made partakers by faith, which en­graffes us into Christ & into the fellow­ship of his death & of all the merit there­of. Therefore is it sayd that we are plan­ted together with him into the likenes of his death; and hereupon we know that the old man is crucifyed with him, that the body of sinne might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Rom. 6.5.6.7 8. Thus being by faith uni­ted to Christ, the spirit of mortification as well as the gift of reconciliation is be­stowed upon us: & in this regard should we the more earnestly seek that precious faith which procures so great grace unto us. Therefore did Christ beare our sins in his body on the tree, that we might become dead unto sinnes; 1. Pet. 2.24. that by the merit of his death sinne might be mortifyed in us. And hereupon we come to say with the Apostle that we are crucifyed with Christ, Gal. 2.20.

[Page 332]we may stand fast in the liberty where­with Christ hath made us free. Gal. 5.1.

IV. Moreover as our Mortification depends upon that which Christ merited for us; so that which Christ by his death obtained for himselfe doth further lead us thereunto. For to this end Christ both dyed & rose againe, that he might be Lord both of the dead & living. Rom. 14.9. And as we beleeve that he is becom our Lord, so we are to beleeve that we are become his servants, being bought with a price, to wit by his blood; & therefore are not our owne but his, 1. Cor. 6..19.20 & 7.23. & therefore may not doe our owne willes nor follow our owne affections & lusts but are to mortify them that we may doe his will. Thus the faith of Christs domi­nion over us purchased by his death, doth serve for an help of our mortification, while it apprehends that the redeemed of Christ are redeemed from the earth, from among men to follow the Lambe, being the first fruits unto God & to the Lambe. Rev. 14.3.4.

V. Againe, being in part mortifyed & contrite for sinne, by another act of faith we doe further apprehend that in Christ we shall be accepted notwithstanding the [Page 333] weake measure of mortification that is in us. And this faith of acceptance is a great encouragement for us to proceed further in the subduing & mortifying of the flesh with the lusts thereof, & to abound day­ly therein, when as we know that our weake labour in the Lord is not in vaine; 1. Cor. 15.58. when this perswasion abides within us, that the day of small beginnings is not to be despised; Zech. 4.10. that the Lord doth both accept the willing minde notwithstanding many wants, 2. Cor. 8.12. & will also in due season perfect & accom­plish that which he hath begun in us. Phi­lip. 1.6.

(b) That we may the better appre­hend the comfort of this acceptance through faith, there are divers poynts to be observed touching the nature of true Mortification which is yet acceptable to God.

1. First, that it is still imperfect in this life even in the most excellent servants of Christ, who cōfesse themselves wretched transgressours of the law of God, feeling in themselves another law & power of sinne rebelling against the law of their minde, & leading them into captivity to the law of sinne that is in their members. [Page 334] Rom. 7.23.24.

II. Secondly, true mortification of sinne as it is imperfect, so it is nnequall; every man having a portion of grace ac­cording to the measure of the gift of Christ. Eph. 4.7. The same measure of the spirit is not to be exspected in all. All have not the same measure of sorrow for their sinnes that some others have; yet it may be true and unfained, and so accepted of God. The fruits of repentance are in some thirty, in some sixty, in some an hundred­fold. Matt. 13.23. Though every true beleever have the spirit of God, Rom. 8.9. & be a spirituall person; 1. Cor. 2.14.15. yet some truely spirituall are so weake that in comparison of others they are not spirituall. 1. Cor. 3.1. And therefore ought not any for this to be discouraged if they finde themselves inferiour unto others.

III. Thirdly, true Mortification as it is unequall, so it is in some respects un­like in the faithfull: as there are divers measures thereof, so are there divers man­ners of it. The gifts & graces of God are not onely many but manifold or divers & of different kinde in divers persons: 1. Pet. 4.10. and therefore some that have not [Page 335] mortifyed the outward actions of sinne may have striven more in the mortifying of their inward lusts & affections. Some that have not mortifyed the more hainous sinnes, but have sometimes fallen into no­torious scandals, may yet in their ordina­ry course of life farre exceed those in true mortification which yet never fell into such grosse outward offences. 1. Kin. 15.5. 2. Sam. 24.3.4. &c. And some that proceed further unto dayly mortification of the actions of sinne, may yet want that great contrition & sorrow for sinne which is in others that fall oftner & doe lesse ab­staine from the ordinary practise of sinne. It is hard for any to determine whether it was greater grace in Ioseph a servant resi­sting the temptation & not committing a­dultery with his mistresse; or in David after his fall to humble himselfe so farre as being a glorious king to shame him­selfe by publick confession of his adultery. Psa. 51. title. For as God magnifies his mercy by sinne in forgiving it, more then if no sinne had bene: Rom. 3.4. & 5.20. so the godly may sometime manifest their grace and godlines by open and effectuall repentance, more then if that speciall sin had not bene committed by them. Luk. [Page 336] 7.38-34.

IIII. Fourthly, that Mortification which ariseth from the liveliest faith and feeling of Gods favour in Christ is most acceptable unto God; rather then that which hath the extreamest griefe, feare and terrour joyned with it, or then that which hath a greater restraint of sinfull actions. For as by faith men please God; Heb. 11. 5.6. so according to the measure of faith in any action men doe more or lesse please God therein. Though the degrees of mortification be many; though the working of faith be sometimes revea­led more at one degree then at another; yet whatsoever is wrought at any degree, is still by faith; whether it be at the chāge of the disposition, the motion, affection, will, or action, or in contrition after the sinfull action; whether it be in divers men according to their different measure of grace, or in the same men according to their divers assistance at severall times, it is all by faith. Faith is the root of other graces. Col. 2.7. & every act of mortifica­tion is a branch springing from this root; & no branch may boast against the root that beareth it. Rom. 11.18. This is the victory that overcommeth the world, evē [Page 337] our faith: 1. Ioh. 5.4. by it mortification is wrought; & by it each act of mortifi­cation becomes most acceptable to God. And therefore above all things we are to labour that this blessed grace of faith may be stirred up within us; that though it have as it were slept at one assault of sin, it may yet be awakened at another degree of mortification in the progresse of our spiri­tuall combates. And seing the spirit of God is the spirit of faith, 2. Cor. 4.13. therefore should we seek to be filled with the spirit, Eph. 5.18. that by it we may both become strong in the Lord & in the power of his might, & may withall in the middes of our weakenesses be comforted & encouraged through this faith of being made acceptable unto God in Christ.

(c) Furthermore besides this working of faith for the mortification of all kinde of sin in generall, there is yet also a more particular consideration of the power of faith for the mortification of some speci­all sinnes against God & man. By faith the spirituall pride of nature is subdued, and confidence in a mans owne selfe is over­throwne: whiles such a way of salvation by free grace, without our owne works & merits is taught us by faith. Thus is humi­lity [Page 338] & utter denyall of a mans self wrought in the soule, as the Spirit declareth by that threefold emphaticall interrogatiō & the answer thereof, when as he saith, Where is boasting then? it is excluded. By what law? of vvorkes? Nay; but by the law of faith. Rom. 3.27. And so also in respect of men it may in like manner be demāded. Where is hatred & revenge? it is excluded. By what law? of workes? Nay; but by the law of faith. Faith teacheth men to be kinde, mercifull, tender hearted, forbea­ring one another and forgiving one ano­ther, if they beleeve the pardon of their owne sinnes, and that God in Christ hath forgivē them. Eph. 4.32. Col. 3.13. Though the law of workes require both humility in respect of God & meekenes in respect of men, though it condemne both boa­sting & revengefulnes; yet it is the law of faith that workes these graces required & mortifyes the contrary sinnes.

(d) Having heard how the Spirit by faith bringes us unto Christ for the morti­fication of sinne, it followes that we con­sider how the same is done by Hope also, through the assured exspectation of the glory that is to come. Christ is our Hope & the Hope of glory. 1. Tim. 1.1. Col. 1.27. [Page 339] And frō this Hope there ariseth a double act of mortification by two especiall gra­ces of Sobriety & Patience that are exer­cised therein.

Sobriety is an act of mortification which consists in the subduing of inordinate joy & delight of all earthly pleasures, honours and profits wherewith so many are as it were drunken & overcome. By looking for that blessed Hope & the glorious ap­pearing of the great God & our Saviour Iesus Christ, we are taught to deny un­godlines & worldly lusts, & to live sober­ly and temperately in the moderate use of all outward comforts. Tit. 2.12.13. The godly doe know that when the Lord shall appeare in glory they shall be made like unto him, when they shall see him as he is. And every one that hath this Hope in him purifyeth himselfe as he is pure. 1. Ioh. 3.2.3. This purification of the soule from uncleane pleasures and lusts is the mortification of them. As a greater light doth obscure & dimme the lesse, & both the starres in the firmament & the candles lighted on earth below doe cease to shine when the light of the radiant Sunne doth arise upō them: so all the brightest lampes of worldly pleasure are as it were extin­guished [...] [Page 342] suffer with joy the spoyling of their goods knowing in themselves that they have in heaven a better & an enduring substance, Heb. 10.34.

(e) After the consideration of Faith & Hope it remaines that we proceed to the third grace of Love, whereby the holy Spirit doth worke a further mortification in the elect. And first of all, by the love of Christ men are brought to the love of death, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Phil. 1.23. This desire of death cannot be in a man untill he be dead unto the world, & untill the love of the things that are in the world be dissol­ved within him. Vntill a man be content to depart from all other vanities he cannot desire to goe unto Christ. And therefore ought the godly to labour to finde in thē ­selves this desire of being translated out of the world to be with Christ, that thereby they may finde more assurance of their mortification. We see how the tender & fervent love of some friends makes them willing & desirous to die with their friēds & doth after a sort mortifye the world unto them. Iacob having lost Ioseph re­fused to be comforted & resolved to goe downe mourning into the grave unto his [Page 343] sonne: Gen. 37.35. & fearing the losse of Benjamin, both he & others thought he should die with him, his life being bound up in his sonnes life. Gen. 42.38. & 44.22.30.31. It is recorded by divers histo­rians touching the barbarous Indians in some parts both of the East & the West, & some Black-Moores in Guinea in the midst betwixt them both; that many of the subjects doe willingly die with their kings and many women with their hus­bands: that the Prince being drowned many of the people have willingly drow­ned themselves with him: that some men give their wives, some their childrē, some their servāts to be buried alive in the grave with their king, to serve him in another world: that some women doe cheerfully & by the encouragement of their friends cast themselves into the fire, wherein ac­cording to their manner of burial in some places, the dead bodies of their husbands are consumed together. If these so wic­kedly and resolutely leave this world be­fore they be called, and blindly cast away their lives for the love of a wretched crea­ture; what shame is it unto Christians if the love of their glorious prince & hea­venly bridegroome doe not mortify them [...] [Page 346] declared, it remaineth yet to be shewed how the Spirit having brought us to Christ doth bring us thereby to the eter­nall Father: for in Christ through the Spi­rit we have accesse or entrance to the Fa­ther; Eph. 2.18. and are reconciled to God & saved; and not onely so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Rom. 5.11. And then all the attributes that are in God absolutely considered, be­sides the other comforts to be had by them, doe in speciall serve for our morti­fication by the Spirit of Christ teaching us the right life of them. God is light: 1. Ioh. 1.5. and all his glorious attributes are so many divine beames of light, whereof every one of thē by shining upon us doth further our mortificatiō. The eye of Gods infinite wisedome looking downe upon us may well strike us with shame of our vaine behaviour and forgetfulnes of God, and make us mourne as Peter, when at his third denyall Christ turned and looked upon him. Luk. 22.61.62. And there­fore are wicked mē the further from mor­tification, because they say in their hearts, Tush, God seeth not; Psal. 10.11. Iob 22.14. & the eye of man restraines them more then the eye of God. Iob 24.15.17. [Page 347] The sight of Gods infinite power may well cast us downe and make us seeme lesse then grashoppers in our owne eyes, when Israelites were so stricken with the sight of the mighty and tall Anakims. Num. 13.33. His infinite goodnes & mer­cy communicated with us should affect us more then Davids did Mephibosheth, & cause us rather to say, What are we that the Lord should looke upon such dead dogs as we are? 2. Sam. 9.8. His infinite wrath against sin, before which the moun­taines quake and melt, Nah. 1.5.6. may well strike us with godly sorrow for the same sins which in the reprobate are pu­nished with unrecoverable destruction though they be pardoned in us. The in­comprehensible majesty & glorious beau­ty of his face cannot be looked upon by li­ving men; Exod. 33.20. & some sparkles thereof appearing have brought men to the feare of death. Iud. 13.22. His unmea­surable eternity being duely thought upō may well mortify the love of this transito­ry world that passeth away; 1. Cor. 7.31. he alone being unchangeable & abiding for ever the same. Iam. 1.17. Psa. 102.26.27. His unconceivable ubiquity or pre­sence in every place may well serve for an [Page 348] hedge or wall of mortification, to keepe us in awe of him & in the denyall of our­selves for him, seeing we can goe no whi­ther from his spirit & presence. Psa. 139.7. &c. And thus all the rest of his attri­butes being reverently thought upon, may serve to subdue the vanity of our mindes & worke a death of sin within us by the help of his Holy Spirit. By this meanes we may be prepared for our latter end, to leave this world with comfort. The Heremites & Anachoretes that shut up themselves in walles or wildernesses, & doe every day with their owne hāds digge & with their fingers scratch & rake up the mouldes, making their owne grave afore­hand & lying downe therein, doe not in so right a manner thinke of their end, as those that thus doe mortify their sins; making their owne spirituall meditations the graves wherein to bury their lusts.

CHAP. V. Of the outward meanes of Mortification,

THe Spirit of God working inwardly is the principall meanes of our mor­tification; yet ordinarily he chooseth those times for this his work, when as we ob­serve the outward meanes which he hath appoynted to this purpose. These meanes are either the use of his ordinances, or the consideration of his workes. The primary ordinances of God whereby the Spirit killes sinne are his Word, Prayer, Sacra­ments [Page 350] & Discipline that he hath appoyn­ted. These are the weapons of our war­fare, not carnall, but mighty through God to cast downe strong holds. 2. Cor. 10.4.

(a) His Word is the Hammer of Mor­tification, that breakes the stony heart & makes it contrite. Ier. 23.29. As he him­selfe is, so is his word, lively & mighty in operation, & sharper then any two-edged sword, that pierceth deep & cuts the soule & spirit, Heb. 4.12.13. and hewes the old man in pieces, as Samuel once hewed king Agag in pieces before the Lord. 1. Sam. 15.33. This sword of the Spirit is to be taken into the hands of every Chri­stian, that would obtaine the victory over the world. Eph. 6.17. This word is to be heard publickely, to be read privately, to be meditated upon continually: & out of it a store of divine sentences, commande­ments, promises and threatnings is to be gathered & kept in readines, Col. 3.16. & according to every mans necessity and speciall temptations so to be applyed a­gainst the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes & the pride of life, for the mortifica­tion thereof. These divine testimonies & words of God are like so many sharp nayles, Eccl. 12.11. to be fastened into the [Page 351] hands and feet of the old man, that so he may be crucifyed. As it was the honour of Iael, & she was blessed above women, because she put her hand to the nayle and her right hand ro the hammer, and smote Sisera and stroke through his temples till the enimy of Gods people was slayne: Iudg. 5.24.26.27. so shall they be blessed above other men and women that having furnished themselves with store of divine oracles, doe then put their hands to the nayles & hammer of the Spirit, & so strike downe every lust & sinful motion as soone as it beginnes to lift up the head and to stirre within them, by applying the coun­sell of God against the same.

By Prayer the spirit of mortification is obtained both when it is desired by petiti­on, according to the precept & promise, Luk. 11.13. Matt. 26.41. as also by the very act & exercise of prayer, though this grace in particular be not desired but o­ther things; in as much as the very com­ming into Gods presence and the very presenting of the soule before him doth strike downe proud thoughts & set the soule in a way of mortification. Gen. 18.27. Psa. 59.2-7.

The Sacraments being due ly admini­stred [Page 352] and received serve also in speciall manner to mortifye the old man. In Bap­tisme there is as it were a grave of morti­fication, when being baptised into the death of Christ we are buryed with him by baptisme. Rom. 6.3.4. Col. 2.12. 1. Cor. 15.29. The reverent and due meditation of this ordinance & the beholding of the administration thereof is more effectuall for the mortifying of sinne, then travel­ling to Ierusalem to behold the sepulcher of Christ, as many have done. In the Sup­per of the Lord the body and blood of Christ is so lively represented unto us, that with Thomas we doe put our fingers into the hands and side of Christ, into the print of the nayles & speare; Ioh. 20.27. & in the due consideration thereof we can­not but crucifye our owne flesh with the affections and lustes.

In the exercise of Discipline, by admo­nitions & rebukes for sin the heart is hum­bled and broken; Psal. 69.20. with Zech. 13.6. and the censures are administred for the destruction of the flesh & shaming of the offendour, 1. Cor. 5.5. 2. Thess. 3.14. that by such meanes he might be truely mortifyed. They serve also for the mor­tifying and humbling of the persons by [Page 353] whom they are administred, giving them just cause of mourning & bewayling both their owne & others miseries by reason of sinne: 1. Cor. 3.2. 2. Cor. 7.8. and 12.21. even as under the Law he that did that which tended to the cleansing of others became uncleane himselfe. Num. 19.7.8.10.21.

(b) The secondary ordinances of God are such meanes of mortification as serve to help & further us in the use of the for­mer; as namely Fasting & Watching, that we may be better prepared to pray, to me­ditate, to heare the word, to receive the Sacraments, to performe other religious dueties. By fasting we understand either abstinence from meat altogether, for a shorter time; as in David & others, 2. Sam. 1.12. & 3.35. or abstinence from plea­sant meat for a longer time; as in Daniel, Dan. 10.2.3. vvith vers. 11.12.13. The use of both is to humble the soule, that it may be better fitted for the exercise of mortification: to this end are we called thereunto of God, Ioel 2.12. and for the same purpose are the examples of the Saints that have bene frequent therein, commended unto us in Scripture. Dan. 9.3. Psa. 35.13. & 69.10. 2. Cor. 11.27. & [...] [Page 356] either to cast off their sins or themselves to be cast out of the Church: they say in that covenant conditionally as Ionas sayd when he offered himselfe to be cast into the sea, Ion. 1.12. binding themselves at their entrance into the Church either to beware of offences disturbing the peace thereof, or to yeeld unto those courses whereby themselves deserve to be trou­bled.

(d) Having considered the ordinances of the New Testament & the subordinate helpes whereby we are furthered in the exercise of mortification, let us now see what may be observed to this purpose from the ordinances of the old Testamēt. Though the practise of them cease in the ceremony, yet not the meditation of thē, nor the practise of those dueties which are signifyed by the ceremonies. And all of them in speciall manner preach mortifica­tion unto us and call us thereunto. The ordinary Sacraments of the old Testamēt were Circumcision & the Passeover. In circumcision there was a painefull cutting off of the foreskinne, & a marke for the mortification of the flesh printed in the body of man, for a perpetuall memoriall of this duety: so that the Holy Ghost un­der [Page 357] the phrase of circumcision doth oft describe our mortification unto us, as Deu. 30.6. Ier. 4.3.4. Rom. 2.28.29. Col. 2.11. Godly sorrow is a knife of mortification to circumcise the heart, to cut off the foreskin & superfluities of sinfull lusts. In the passeover, the separation of the lambe from the tenth day unto the fourteenth day, the killing of it & sprinkling of the blood, the rosting of it, & eating it with sowre herbes & unleavened bread, Exod. 12.4.6.7.8. &c. did represent the deadlines of sin purged in such manner, even by the blood of Christ the undefiled lambe slaine for us, & to be applyed unto us & sprink­led upon us, to be eatē with sowre herbs of godly sorrow for sin, & a purging out of the old leaven of maliciousnes & put­ting off the old man & his workes that we might be a new lump. 1. Cor. 5.7.8.

That which the Sacraments represented unto them was in like manner signifyed by the Sacrifices of the old Testament; by laying handes upon the head of the beast that was slaine & burnt for sacrifice, Lev. 1.4.5. &c. and these of many kindes & in great number every day, upon divers oc­casions, and especially upon their feast dayes, when many thousands were some­times [...] [Page 360] sprinkled him with water to make him cleane; Num. 19.14.21.22. but a dead beast did not defile all that came into the tent or stable where it was. IV. Not the carcasses of all beasts, but onely of those that were uncleane beasts did defile men: not the carcasses of sheep, oxen, goates, doves, harts, hindes, roes, &c. but the carcasses of swine, camels, vultures, &c. Lev. 11. but for men the carcasses of all men whosoever, cleane or uncleane, good or bad, did defile all that touched them. Num. 19.11. V. The bodies of uncleane beasts did not defile but onely when they were dead; otherwise it was lawfull to ride upon horses, mules, camels and asses, as Christ did according to the prophesy: Zech. 9.9. with Matt. 21.2-7. but the bo­dies of uncleane men, while they were li­ving did defile other men many wayes; as we see in the lepers and such as were de­filed with other naturall uncleannesses: Levit. 13.46. & 15.5. &c. 2. Cor. 6.17. To have touched a venomous toad had lesse defiled then the touch of a most glorious king, or the touch of the fairest woman, though but the hemme of their garments, & without the least motiō or lust of evill, when they were but ceremonially pol­luted. [Page 361] VI. He that was defiled with the carcasse of an uncleane beast was not re­quired to wash more then his clothes: but he that was defiled with the carcasse of a dead man or some other uncleane persons was required to bathe himselfe in water al­so. Num. 19.19. Lev. 15.13. VII. Those that touched the carcasses of uncleane beasts were purged with common water: Lev. 11.25.28. those that were defiled by touching of the dead were not to be pur­ged but by water and blood; to wit, by a speciall water of purification made with the ashes of a red heifer. Num. 19.2-9.17. By all this it appeares how marvellous great the pollution of mans sinne is, which God would have him so many wayes to be put in minde of, to avoyd the tent and company of wicked men, that by so many exercises of mortification he might learne to touch no uncleane thing. As David in detestation of himselfe sayd unto the Lord I vvas as a beast before thee: Psal. 73.22. so we are here taught to consider and confesse that we are worse then beasts, as it is also elswhere noted for our mor­tification. Esa. 1.3. Ier. 8.7. Prov. 6.6. &c.

(f) Moreover whereas it is a speciall [...] [Page 364] very sight of the creation which way soe­ver we turne us might serve to abase and humble men before the Creatour. To this end are they propounded by the Spirit of God unto us; the height of the heavens, the depth of hell, the length of the earth & bredth of the sea. Iob 11.8.9. The terrour evē of some creatures is such, that man is ready to die and perish at the sight of them. The sight of an Angel made the watchmen and keepers of the grave to quake and become as dead men. Mat. 28.4. When the Disciples thought they saw a spirit, they were troubled and cryed out for feare. Matt. 14.26. At the sight of the Leviathan men are cast downe; & when he rayseth up himselfe the mighty are a­fraid, & because of breakings and terrours beginne to purify themselves, to confesse their sinnes, to pray for the pardon of them and to seek reconciliation with God. Iob 41.9.10.25. This hath God ordained for the mortificatiō of sinners, that hereby they might conceive how unable they are to stand before him. Whē the Lord would make Iob to be vile in his owne sight and to abhorre himself in dust & ashes, he sets before him the glory of the creation and his majesty shining therein, and leads him [Page 365] along in the spirit to behold the cheef of them ranked in order before him. Iob 38. & 39. & 40. & 41. ch. with ch. 41.4. & 42.6. And even unto this day God doth some­times speak unto us as it were out of the whirlewind and by the sight of the hea­vens, the earth & the seas doth call us un­to mortification. The Lord sometime gi­veth dayes of darknes and gloominesse, of cloudes and thick darknesse; Zeph. 1.15. he clothes the heavens with blacknes and makes sackcloth their covering, Esa. 50.3. & in their mournefull countenance they call us to thinke what cause of mourning we have. Yea in them the wrathfull coun­tenance of God is as it were pourtrayed before us; a smoak is sayd to come out of his nostrils and devouring fire out of his mouth, when he thunders from heaven & sendeth forth his lightnings, for the terrour of sinners and for the mortification of their corrupt and wicked lusts. Psal. 18.8-14. & 29.1. &c. &. 97.2.3.4. 1. Sam. 12.16.17.18. By the sight of the raging & roaring sea bounded within the sands the Lord cals mē to feare before him & to trē ­ble at his presence. Ier. 5.22. And whereto serve the storms upon the sea, if not for the mortification & contrition of heard-hear­ted [...] [Page 368] serve to humble them, and call to their minde their owne unworthines, which then especialy by comparison of Gods free love with their contrary deserts doth more appeare unto them. So it was with David, humbling himselfe before God in the con­sideration of his mercies, 2. Sam. 7.18.19. even as Mephibosheth had done to him in another case; 2. Sam. 9.7.8. & so did Eli­zabeth, Luk. 1.43. If Abigail might say of her marriage with David, Let thine hand­maid be a servant to vvash the feet of the servants of my Lord: 1. Sam. 25.41. & Da­vid himselfe of his marriage with Sauls daughter, Seemeth it to you to be a light thing to be a kings sonne in law, seeing that I am a poore man and lightly esteemed; 1. Sam. 18.23. then what may we say of our ex­altation and of the divine benefits besto­wed upon us? All the mercies and bles­sings which we receive from God, if we compare them with our sinfull nature, are like so many coales of mortification, coales of indignatiō heaped on our heads: Rom. 12.20. and therefore doth God let us know how good he hath bene unto us even when we were his enimies, that by that meanes we might be mortifyed, and burne in just hatred and indignation [Page 369] against ourselves, Rom. 5.10. with 2. Sam. 12.7.8. Esa. 5.1.2. Deut. 32.6-15. And in summe, even the least good done to us should make us thinke how little we are, and ever lesse then the least of Gods mercies, & farre unworthy of them, Gen. 32.10. & so take occasion thereby of being humbled before the Lord.

As all the good that by divine provi­dence is done to us; so all the good done by us should ever give us occasion of fur­ther mortification & of abasing ourselves in the sight of God. Thus it was with David in his free offerings for the Temple, 1. Chron. 29.14. & Solomon when the Temple was built. 1. Kin. 8.27. Such is the greatnes of the Lord above our works, that in respect of the infinite reward we may say as Barzillai to David, Thy ser­vant will goe a little way with the King, & why should the King recompense it me with such a reward? 2. Sam. 19.36. All that we have and doe for God, is of his owne that he hath first given us, 1. Chron. 29.14.16. & these gifts of his in our best use of them, in the best workes we doe are still so polluted, that we have ever cause to ac­knowledge with shame the filthines of our righteousnesses; Esa. 64.6. Phi. 3.8.9. & ever [...] [Page 372] have a gracious respect unto them that sigh & cry for the abominations commit­ted by other men. Ezek. 9.4. This was ob­served by Lot; 2. Pet. 2.7.8. by Moses; Exod. 32.19-32. Num. 16.4. and others with him; Num. 14.5.6. by David, Psal. 119.136.139.158. by Ezra, chap. 9.2.3. by Nehemiah; ch. 13.7.8. by Paul; Rom. 9.1.2.3. 2. Cor. 11.29 & 12.21. by Christ Iesus, Mark. 3.5. Luk. 19.41.42. And the contrary is made a signe of a wicked man: no man is truely greeved for his owne sinne, that is not touched with greefe for the sins of others; for seeing God is disho­noured & our neighbour wounded there­by, it must needes be a signe that such have neither love of God nor pity of their neighbour. Ier. 36.23.24.25. Prov. 14.9.

(k) Thus doe the evils of sinne call for greefe and sorrow: besides these the evils of punishment, the afflictions, calamities & tribulations in the world doe also lead un­to mortification. Thereby God breakes the pride of man & withdraweth him from his evill course: Iob 33.16.17. by his cha­stisements God humbles the heart of men & makes them submit unto his yoke: Ier. 31.18.19. & thē is the case most miserable when they are least regarded. Prov. 27.22. [Page 373] Men are warned of God to mortify sin not onely by greater afflictions but even by the lesser sort also; for there are two kindes of them, a light touch & a heavy hand. Esa. 9.1. There is a wonderfull variety in Gods dealings this way: sometimes the touch is so easy & gentle that it is scarse felt; men are scarse able to say whether there be a paine in it or no; they have such light aches of the head, the belly, the bones, such small reproches and losses that they are hardly sensible of them. As a loving mothersmites her child sometimes so soft­ly & gently, that it doth not appeare whe­ther she be angry or not; even so doth our most loving God deale oftentimes with his children; Iob 33.14.15. with ch. 7.14. Mat. 10.30. but though the stroke be most milde & gentle, yet they that are wise will make use of it. Prov. 17.10. Though there be an hundred degrees of difference in Gods visitations; some of them like a fil­lop onely, or a lifting up of the hand & yet no stroke; a striking but yet no smart or easy to be borne, as it were with a rod of rushes: yet all of them are a push or thrusting with the finger for our ad­monition, and at every such thrusting or pinching we are called unto the acts of [...] [Page 376] pride of life? Looke upon death, see how it layes the heads of the proudest men in the world; they that were before as starres the sonnes of the morning, have then the wormes spread under thē & over them & become like broken vessels in the land of oblivion. Esa. 14.11.12. What availeth it to be praysed a while by the stinking breath of flatterers, when afterwards their names shall rotte among men? Pro. 10.7. like those bones of the great mē in Israel that should be for dung upon the face of the earth: Ier. 8.1.2. or if they be praysed by men after their death in their writings & chronicles, what will this profit them when their sins are written with a pen of iron & with the point of a diamond? Ier. 17.1. when those bookes shall be opened in the secōd death? Rev. 20.12. what though their sepulchers be paynted & covered with golden letters, when at the second death their soules shall be cast into the bottomlesse pit & into the oven of hell, where the proud & they that doe wickedly shall be burned up & con­sumed? Mal. 4.1.

CHAP. VI. Touching Vivification or quickening of the new man.

FRom the Mortification of the old man come we now to the Vivification of the new man. It is not possible that these two can be severed: if any man be in Christ he must be a new creature, 2. Cor. 5.17. Gal. 6.15. borne againe of the Spirit, & by this new birth made partaker of a new spi­rituall life. Ioh. 3.3.5. The Lord that is rich in mercy through his great love where­with he loveth his elect, quickeneth them [Page 378] together in Christ. Eph. 2.4.5. The feeling of this new life is a preparative unto death and a preservative against all the terrours thereof, and leads men with comfort through the gates of death, overcomes the pangs thereof, ferries & conveyes men over all the floods of sorrowes.

(a) This grace of Vivification is to be considered in six especiall degrees, answer­able to those six degrees of Mortification before noted, & each of them may better be understood when they are mutually compared together.

I. The first degree of Vivification is a new disposition or habit of quickening grace infused by the Spirit of God, where­by they are inclined to imbrace Christ, to glory in his merit & to live unto him. This new disposition is like a new borne babe, or at least as a babe newly conceived in the wombe of the soule, & is called the new creature, Gal. 6.15. the new man, Eph. 4.24. the inward man, Rom 7.22. the law of their minde, vers. 23. the newnes of spirit: vers. 6. & the consideration of this gift is cause of great joy & thankesgiving unto the faithfull, that doe therefore break out into the praise of God and blesse him that hath begotten them againe. 1. Pet. 1.3. [Page 379] As it is matter of joy unto a mother to have a living childe borne, though for that present it lie bound in swadling clothes without stirring hand or foot; so it is great joy unto the regenerate to have this new habit of life, though they doe not alwayes feele it actually stirring within them. Yea this is a comfort that supporteth the god­ly in the midst of manifold temptations, when notwithstanding their great imper­fections & present impotency unto good, they yet can remember this habit of spiri­tuall life formerly discerned in themselves by sundry joyfull apprehensions & fruits of faith in time past. This is that seed of God which remaineth & abideth ever in those hearts where it is once sowne. 1. Ioh. 3.9. This is that heavenly drop of divine grace which being once distilled into the soule is never dryed up, but becomes a foun­taine of living water springing up into everlasting life, Iohn. 4.14. This is that precious spark of spirituall life, which though it be sometimes raked under the ashes of worldly cares and feares, yet is it never extinguished, but upon occasion breakes forth & burnes more bright then before.

II. A second degree of vivification of [Page 380] the new man consisteth in the motions of new life and in the stirrings of the spirit, which are a further comfort & demonstra­tion of spirituall life. As the mother that hath conceived in her wombe & yet for a long time together feeles not her childe to stirre within her, doth then begin to feare and to doubt of the life thereof: so the godly having bene long without the lively motions of the spirit beginne to feare sometimes and to doubt of their estate. But upon the new motions of the spirit they are filled with comfort, & thereby feele their sweet babe, the new creature as it were to spring in their wombe againe. These motions are di­vine inspirations whereby the minde is illuminate to discerne and know the will of God, to give assent and approbation unto it when it is knowne and to remem­ber it also when it is approoved Eph. 1.17.18, Phil. 1.9.10. Col. 1.9. Without these gracious operations of the spirit many having the truth propounded un­to them doe not apprehend it; others apprehending the meaning thereof ap­proove not of it; others approoving of it doe yet forget the same, and so it vanisheth and is lost. As the Spirit of [Page 381] God is sayd to moove Samson at certaine times and to ring in his eare like a bell, as the originall word im­ports: Iud. 13.25. with Exod. 28.33.34.35. so these motions and impulsions of the spirit in the godly are as the sound of an heavenly bell ringing them ma­ny peales of consolation and exhortati­on for their warning night & day. These are the counsels of God and whisperings of the H. Spirit, like divine cymbals and high sounding cymbals tinckling and rin­ging in the eares of the regenerate; Psal. 16.7 and 51.6. Esa. 30.21. for which they give thankes to God that illuminateth & wakeneth their dead & dark hearts there­by, when as of themselves they are not sufficient to conceive or think any thing that is good & holy. 2. Cor. 3.5. Pro. 30. [...].3. As wicked motions are the messengers of Satan to buffet us; so these are the mes­sengers of God to quicken us, & therefore as welcome guests are to be welcomed & entertained with all thankfulnes.

III. Besides the motions of spirituall life in the understanding, judgement and memory, there is a third degree of vivi­fication to be observed, when as this life is further spread abroad into the affections. [...] [Page 384] worship and care for the poore Saints, harmlesse life and innocency in respect of all men and bowels of compassion towards them in necessity. Esa. 5.2.4.7. Hereby men shew that they are not strangers from the life of God; but being rich in good workes, the workes of spirituall life, they doe hereby lay up in store for themselves a good foundatiō against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life. 1. Tim. 6.18.19.

VI. Lastly, it is a further manifestati­on of spirituall life when after the former degrees of vivification the new creature beholding this grace of God in it selfe doth with all joyfull thanksgiving ac­knowledge the same cōtinually. As David & his people considering how God had opened their hearts & quickened them to his service rejoyced with great joy because they had offered willingly, & praysed God because he had mooved them to praise him: 1. Chron. 29.9.10.13.14.17.20. so the regenerate that are borne of God can rejoyce in the Lord & doe know the joy­full shout; they doe therefore againe re­joyce because they rejoyce. Psal. 89.15.16. And as one Rainebow by the reflexi­on doth often beget another, & that other [Page 385] sometimes begets a third, so that three Rainebowes have sometimes appeared at once: so in the new creature one joy begets another, & one light begets another, and one grace is the seed of another, Rom. 5.4.5. When Paul saw the constancy of the Thessalonians it quickened him; when he saw their faith & joy in the holy Ghost, it made him give thankes for them and to conceive great joy; 1. Thes. 1.2.3.6. and when he considered the comfort of his owne joy for them, it made him give new thankes againe unto God for that joy. 1. Thes. 3.8.9. And thus is spirituall life pro­pagated & multiplyed in the faithfull whē as both by the sense of quickening grace in themselves, Coll. 1.12. & by the sight of it in others, they take new occasion of glorifying God for his unspeakable gift. 2. Cor. 9.12-15.

(b) The meanes whereby this grace of vivification is wrought in the elect, is principally the Spirit of God which quic­keneth and giveth life. Ioh. 3.5. Rom. 8.10.11. 2. Cor. 3.6. By it we are brought unto Christ, Ioh. 16.14.15. & 15.26. & com­ming unto him as unto a living stone we also are made living stones, full of life. 1. Pet. 2.4.5. We come unto him when we [...] [Page 388] quicken us further by applying unto us the merit of his sufferings. Then as the childe neesed seven times, so the new crea­ture, the converted soule doth manifest the truth of life received by severall de­grees; at the first neesing a new disposition appeares; at the second new motions; at the third new affections; at the fourth new will & purpose; at the fift new fruits and workes; at the sixt new thankesgiving and praise in joy of the holy Ghost & so much in this life: at the seventh neesing the old man is utterly abolished, the flesh shaken quite off, and the spirit caryed into a hea­venly kingdome, clothed with a white robe of perfect righteousnes in Christ the fulnesse of spirituall life. Therefore all is to be sought principally in Christ.

(c) The outward meanes whereby the Spirit quickeneth, are the ordinances and workes of God. The primary ordinances of God are his Word, Prayer, Sacraments and Discipline. The word of God is the word of life, Deut. 32.47. Ioh. 5.25. & 6.63.68. Act. 5.20. a tree of life, Prov. 3.18. the immortall seed, 1. Pet. 1.23. that quicke­neth the soule which cleaves unto the dust & melteth for heavines. Psa. 119.25.28. By prayer men finde life for themselves, [Page 389] Ioel. 2.32. Rom. 10.13. Esa. 38.2-5. & give life to others. 1. Ioh. 5.16. Baptisme shewes us the laver of regeneration or new birth; Act. 2.38. with Tit. 3.5. Ioh. 3.5. and the dead-harted are quickened by meditation of the grace represented & sealed thereby. By the Table of the Lord the fainting spi­rits are relieved & revived, through that spirituall food which is there exhibited. 1. Cor. 11.24. The admonitious of Discipline are the corrections of life, Prov. 15.31. & therein is consolation for those that are ready to be swallowed up of sorrw. 2. Cor. 2.7. By these things men live, & in all these is the spirit of life & vivification: Esa. 38.16. & therefore as we would have the life of the new creature to be dayly increased within us, so are we to attend upon that word of life night and day; to pray inces­santly & to watch thereunto with all per­severance and thankesgiving; to sanctify ourselves for an holy use of the Sacramēts from time to time, to submit unto Disci­pline for mutuall edification, & so to wait for spirituall life thereby to be ministred unto us.

(d) The secondary ordinances of God for vivificatiō of the new man, are an holy Feast & a holy Watch unto the Lord. As [...] [Page 392] mirth is compared to the song in the night when a holy solemnity was kept. Esa. 30.29. Paul & Silas sang together at midnight: Act. 16.25. & till midnight did Paul con­tinue his speech unto the disciples at Troas Act. 20.7. And such meanes are the god­ly still upon occasion to use for their quic­kening in their spirituall life, sitting under the shadow of him that is the true vine, Ioh. 15.1. drinking the wine of his promi­ses & plucking the grapes of his consolati­on, cōforting the poore & heavy hearted, communicating their joy one to another, & using his gifts in all sobriety and thank­fulnes for their mutual support in this time of their pilgrimage.

(e) After these, follow the tertian or­dinances, so to speake, meanes of an inferi­our order & rank, to wit, Vowes and Co­venants for the helpes of spirituall life. As a religious feast and watch serve for the quickening of the soule in the use of the first and primary meanes; so these in the third degree serve to binde us to the use of the secondary, each supporting an other. Vowes & promises to God serve to binde us to the observance of other godly exer­cises at a certaine time: & we see how the godly upon occasion vowed to offer unto [Page 393] God a bullock, a ramme, a lamb or goat, male or female, more or lesse; insomuch that the sacrifices are sometimes called by the name of vowes; & the Lord accepted that vow of so small a matter. Lev. 7.16. & 22.18. & 23.38. Num. 15.3. & 18.14. & 29.39. Psa. 116.12-19. Mal. 1.14. with Act. 5.2.3. & ch. 21.23.24.26. And so now when men vow unto the Lord and binde themselves unto any particular work of mercy towards the poore, or to keep a love-feast, or any watch, or to performe any labour of love unto the Lord for the quickening of themselves & others, the same is a sacrifice of sweet odour unto the Lord. Phil. 4.18. 2. Cor. 8.4.5. Heb. 13.15.16. In like manner the covenants & pro­mises made unto mē, whereby they binde themselves to one another for the perfor­mance of some dueties of religion or mer­cy together, are also approoved meanes of mutuall comfort and vivification. David bound himself by covenant to Ionathan; 1. Sam. 18.3. to the Elders of Israel; 1. Chro. 11.3. & to other worthies. cap. 12.17.18. And what his covenant was with the man of his covenant that profaned it, we see in the Psalme of his complaint, namely to be as guides to one another, to take sweet [...] [Page 396] of this way & application of the for­mer truth, the Lord hath in his word gi­ven further light and direction by certaine peculiar workes which himselfe hath cō ­mended unto us as having pregnant & spe­cial reference to our latter end, to procure some more distinct & certaine comfort by the particular observatiō & practise of thē. And therefore whereas some godly and christian friends doe mutually desire of one another some directiō & counsell for their preparation to their end: to such, besides a general & resolute purpose to have respect unto all the commandements of God & in al things to keep fayth & a good cōsciēce, I would cōmend these dueties following.

I. In the first place a dayly invocation of the name of God for his help and assi­stance in this particular poynt, that they may be prepared to die, to leave this world & come with comfort into the presence of God & to stand undismayed before the throne of his grace. The com­fort of a happy end is worthy a speciall prayer every day for that particular benefit. The maine blessing that Paul could wish unto Onesiphorus that had so oft refreshed him, was this, that the Lord would grant unto him that he might finde mercy of the [Page 397] Lord in that day, 2. Tim. 1.18. And this he prayes for the Thessalonians, that their hearts might be stablished unblameable in holines before God, evē our Father, at the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ with his Saints. 1. Thes. 3.13. & againe, that their whole spirit, soule & body might be pre­served blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. 1. Thes. 5.23. Now that which Paul so earnestly desired for his dearest friends, that is also worthy to be desired of us for ourselves every day. If Paul prayed night and day exceedingly to see the faces of his godly friends, 1. The. 3.10.11. and that by any meanes he might have a prosperous journey cōming unto them, for their mutual comfort; how much more cause have we to pray night & day with exceeding longing to see the Lord face to face, to behold the glory of all his angels & to tast of the pleasures of his right hand? If David prayed so often and so earnestly that he might enjoy the presence of God in his earthly sanctuary, to behold the beauty of his ordinances there; Psa. 27.4. and 42.1.2. & 84.1. &c. how much more ought we to pray con­stantly for our entrance into his hea­venly sanctuary, to enjoy the glory that [...] [Page 400] 5.7. Lev. 5.16. Every man therefore that would have comfort in death & peace in his conscience at his latter end, must la­bour according to his utmost power to make cleare with the world by restitution & satisfaction for wrong done, for debts undischarged, for fraudulent bargaines & overreaching of his neigbour, for any other injuries by word or deed against the per­son or credit of his neighbour. He that would finde his soule reconciled to God must labour betimes & without delay to see himself reconciled with men.

III. As there is a needfull Reconcilia­tion, so there is a holy & zealous Revenge necessary to be sought before death, that men may die with more comfort. Neither let it seeme strange that seeking of revēge should be reckoned among the speciall preparatives unto death. Though to take the sword for carnall revenge, to satisfy the private lust of the flesh, be oft for­bidden of God; Rev. 13.10. Mat. 26.52. Rom. 12.19.20. Pro. 25.21.22. & 24.17.18 & 20.22. yet is there a just & glorious re­venge of sin commanded of God, both u­pon others & upon ourselves. Moses a lit­tle before his death is commanded to avenge the children of Israel of the Midi­anites, [Page 401] that then he might be gathered un­to his people. Num. 31.1.2. One of his last workes was to be a work of revenge: that being done he was to die with more com­fort. The remembrance of that revenge wrought by Phinehas could not but com­fort him at his last houre. Num. 25.11.12.13. Saul therefore had extreme anguish & discomfort in death, for not executing a revenge upon Amalek; as it was told him of the Devill, because he would not learne it of God. 1. Sam. 28.15-20. with ch. 15.1-35. David on his death-bed could not die quietly, till he had cōmēded that work of revenge unto his son upon Ioab & Shi­mei, which himself had deferred & omit­ted in his life time. 1. Kin. 2.1-9. And all Magistrates having the sword committed unto them of God shall die with more comfort when according to their power they have so used it, & besides common justice have on some special occasions ma­nifested some speciall zeale for the sup­pressing & rooting out of the maine evils raigning in their times. They that have the sword of the Spirit committed unto them of God are to have revenge in rea­dines against all disobedience, by admoni­tions, rebukes & spirituall censures of sin, [...] [Page 404] thē, Now I know that thou lovest me, because thou hast not spared thy wealth from me &c. And therefore besides dayly & common workes of mercy, the H. Ghost commēds unto us some extraordinary workes of mer­cy upon speciall occasion either of mercy received by us or afflictiō layd upō others. Whē the kingdome of heavē was opened after the ascension of Christ & the Spirit powred out & many converted & spiritual joy abounded, the comfort thereof produ­ced extraordinary fruits of love, as when Ioses or Barnabas & others that had lāds & houses sold thē & distributed to the poore Act. 4.34-37. such gifts could not be givē every day; yet though it were done but ōce in their life, the cōfort thereof might well last so long as they lived. Zacheus that in the day of his joyfull conversion & calling stood forth & gave at once the half of his goods to the poore, though he could not every week make such distributions; yet the comfort of that one act approoved & accepted of Christ as a fruit of his faith & token of his salvation could not but be a perpetuall consolation to be thought on even to death. For earthly blessings recei­ved speciall offerings were to be made at solēne times appointed of God: such were [Page 405] the feast in Abib, of the first fruits of barly harvest, the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, & the feast of tabernacles or of gathering in the fruits of the land in the end of the yeare: Exo. 23.16. & 34.22. Lev. 23. to teach us that new blessings call for new expressions of thankfulnes, that we may honour God with our substance and with the first fruits of all our increase. Prov. 3.9. And as upon occasion of speciall comforts we are to be mooved unto the workes of mercy, so also at the consideration of the speciall afflictions and wants of others. In the time after the captivity, when the necessity was great and the bondage heavy upon the Iewes, then did godly Nehemias forbeare to take the bread of the Governour, the stipend of former rulers, and shewed extraordinary love & compassiō, in which he comforts himselfe, praying the Lord to think upon him for good according to all the kindnes that he had done for his people. Nehem. 5.14-18.19. When with extreme need there appeare in per­sons lively tokens of faith and godlines, thē especially should take place the coun­sel of Iohn Baptist, that we should abridge ourselves of our food & raymēt rather thē [Page 406] see others want. Luk. 3.10.11. Such good workes cannot but follow the godly to the grave and minister comfort at the last. Rev. 14.13. Act. 9.36.39. It is a shame un­to the disciples of Christ that so many and great purgatory-gifts have proceeded frō the false faith of merit-mongers; when the faith of his most glorious Gospel doth not work the like in true beleevers: a shame that an idle dreame & servile feare of imagined purgatory should doe more then the assured and certaine persuasion of the love of God in Christ.

V. With the work of mercy is to be joyned the work of humility & meeknes, as a speciall preparative for a comfortable death & translation out of this world. For as with those that are translated out of this world into heaven there is no respect of persons; poore Lazarus is carried first in the bosome of an Angell, and then in the bosome of Abraham the Father of the faithfull: Luk. 16.22. so those that would beginne a heavenly life here & in the end with comfort be translated, are in like mā ­ner to make themselves equall with them of lower estate, Rom. 12.16. to converse with the poore, to cary them in their bo­some; not onely to give a few pence of [Page 407] silver, but to powre out their heart and their love unto them. Esa. 58.10. This was prophesyed of as a fruit of Christs kingdome; Esa. 11.6.7.8. & such corre­spondence with the poore Christ com­mends unto us with promise of a large re­compence, Luk. 14.12.13.14. We are to walk by faith & not by sight: 2. Cor. 5.7. now by faith we see the Angels ministring unto them who shall be heires of salvati­on; Heb. 1. l. Rev. 22.9. & therefore if we performe the like offices of love & respect unto the poore servants of Christ we shal­be fitter to goe with comfort into the so­ciety of Angels. They that thus goe out of the world beforehand by leaving the fashions thereof & become childrē againe, shall have a more comfortable entrance into the kingdome of heaven. Matt. 18.3. As new borne babes here on earth are first taken up by one & then by another, & are delivered from one friends armes to ano­ther, every one striving to have them in their armes to kisse them: so the souls that are borne into heaven, are translated by death first into the bosome of Angels ca­rying thē, then into the bosome of Abra­ham & the Saints receiving them, every one imbracing them with kisses of hea­venly [Page 408] love, & above all into the bosome of the Lord of glory, there to be satisfyed with his love in fulnesse of joy for ever­more. Esa. 40.11. Psal. 16. l.

VI. Another work whereby men are prepared to die with comfort is the visita­tiō of the sick & others that are in misery. For the promise is that he that considers the poore or visits the afflicted shall him­self be preserved and delivered in time of trouble: the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; he wil make all his bed in his sicknes. Psal. 41.1.2.3. By visiting the sick men both minister comfort unto others & receive comfort themselves. First they give comfort and minister a blessing unto those that are in distresse. Thus to visit the fatherlesse & the widowes in their affliction is pure reli­gion & undefiled before God and the Fa­ther. Iam. 1.27. Onesiphorus is commē ­ded for this, & Paul prayes heartily for him, because he sought him out when he was in prison, refreshed him & ministred many things unto him. 2. Tim. 1.16.17.18. Iob noteth the excellency of this whē he joineth him that cōforteth the mour­ners with a king, even in the army, when he useth greatest authority. Iob 29.25. [Page 409] Whatsoever is done unto the least mem­ber of Christ in this kinde, he takes it as done unto himself; & therefore such shall be remembred & honoured by him at the last day. Matt. 25.34-40. Secondly by vi­siting those that stand in need of comfort men doe also receive instruction & com­fort unto themselves. Eccl. 7.2.3.4. 2. Kin. 13.14.15. &c. Though we may not inquire at the dead, Deut. 18.11. yet at the dying we may learne many wholesome lessons, as of repentance from their complaints of their sins bewailed, of faith from their joy­full professions of their hope & the exam­ples of their constancy, and of our owne mortality & frailety from their strength languishing, their pale countenances, their dimme eyes, their faltering tongue, their ratling throat, their panting heart, their short breaths, their painfull convulsions, the last pangs & sneckes of death; all the symptomes of death are so many warnings unto the living to watch and prepare for their end. Whosoever would be well pre­pared for death, let them often repaire to such mourning houses, let them so visit others in these cases that withall they see & learne themselves that which God doth there so plainely teach them. That which [Page 410] Elias sayd unto Elisha, whē he had prayed for a double portion of his spirit, If thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee: 2. Kin. 2.9.10. may in some mea­sure in another respect be sayd unto us, whē seeing others taken away, that very act with the circumstances of their departure is a meanes to increase the spirit in us, yea to double our care & comfort in looking for our end.

VII. Lastly, it is also a work prepara­tory unto death to have our testament & Wil in readines, that we need not be trou­bled therewith at last. When the message of death was sent unto Hezekias, he was called upon to set his house in order. Esa. 38.1. Abraham was carefull to settle the affaires of his house and family before his death, as appeares by his disposing of Isaak in marriage, Gen. 24.1.2. &c. & his giving gifts to the sonnes of Keturah his second wife & sending them away. Gen. 25.6. But the cheef part of testaments & legacies are godly exhortations, charges and blessings which parents give unto their children. This was Isaaks care long before his death though he forgot the oracle that had assig­ned the blessing unto the younger. Gen. 27.1-4. Isaak was then an hundred yeares old, [Page 411] Gen. 25.26. with ch. 26.34. & he lived in all an hundred & fourscore yeares, Gen. 35.28. so that his testament, his blessing was givē fourescore yeares before he dyed. Iacob gave speciall charges & blessings unto his sonnes before he died. Gen. 47.29. & 48. & 49. ch. Thus did Moses with the children of Israel: Deut. 33.1. &c. and Ioshua: Iosh. 23. & 24. ch. Thus David also in a solemne assembly exhorteth the people & especial­ly his sonne Solomon to feare the Lord, & encourageth him unto the work that was to be done after him. 1. Chron. 28.1.8.9.10. Solomon had also received instructi­ons from his mother to the same purpose, which he himself hath recorded, Prov. 31. ch. In speciall the more to affect children & friends by exhortations, promises and comforts, I would commend unto fathers & friends the example of Elijah the Pro­phet, who in his life time made a writing which he procured to be delivered unto Iehoram after his death: 2. Chron. 21.12-15. with 2. King. 3.11. thus there may still be a prophesying after death, though not by way of foretelling things to come, yet by charges, admonitions & consolations, which being left with executours or spe­ciall friends together with other devises [...] [Page 414] noted in the Scriptures, together with the grounds thereof, their faith, hope & love. Simeon rejoyceth at the approch of his end▪ Luk. 2.29.30. where we may ob­serve the reasons before named mooving him thereunto; his faith, in having seen the salvation of the Lord, which was grounded upō the word of promise & produced peace of conscience; his hope, when he calleth death a departing or loosing frō bonds, for it is the same word that elswhere signifyes to loose or release a prisoner; Mat. 27.15.17. his love of God when he calles himself his servant. Paul also had a desire to depart u­pon these three grounds; his hope, Phil. 1.23. his faith & love. 2. Tim. 4 6.7.8. And as these, so other faithfull servants of Christ have also for the same causes earnestly de­sired to be absent from the body & to be present with the Lord. 2. Cor. 5.1.2.8. 2.. Tim. 4.8. with Rev. 22.20.17.

(a) Yet for the better understanding of this poynt somewhat must be further cō ­sidered to prevent a double danger, both of some that seeme not to feare death & of others that confesse they feare it. The first sort are those that despise their life & cast it away without being calld of God. These deny the Lordship of Christ, because that [Page 415] as no man should live to himself, so none should die to himself but to the Lord, that whether we live or die we may be the Lords. Rom. 14.7.8.9. This murder of a mās self is a grievous sin, of which are guil­ty not onely such as lay violent hands on themselves, but even those also that rashly expose themselves to unnecessary dangers; combatants, rash adventurers, such as with­out a calling or any necessity goe to infec­tious places, which are as the shadow of death. As souldiers set to keep watch may not leave their station till the time appoin­ted of their Captaine: no more may we of­fer to depart hence untill we be dismissed or called away of our Commander. Every man is bound to preserve life so long as by good meanes he can doe it, or els he brea­kes the sixth cōmandemēt. In like manner doe many offend by impatience & vaine wishes of death: Ion. 4.3.8.9. whether they doe it without sense having obdurate and feared cōsciences, or with extremity of sēse without faith, as in thoughts of despaire.

(b) Secondly this poynt of doctrine touching the feare of death is wisely to be considered in respect of many weake and infirme persons, which have true faith, hope & love, and yet are not so ready to [...] [Page 418] selves, feeling some present unprepared­nes, & for the recovery of their strength, that they may in better manner be fitted to appeare before God. Psa. 39.13. As a faith­full & loving wife having had her husband long absent in a farre countrey, or a spouse her bridegroome, though she cannot but long for his returne; yet if it should so fall out that about the time of his returne she should have the yellow jaundies or some greevous sore and deformity in the face, would wish that her bridegroome might stay a week or two lōger, till her sores were healed & her strength recovered; or as a Nobleman that unfainedly desires that his Prince should come to his house, may yet in respect of some want of reparations in his house desire and wish in his heart that the Kings comming might be deferred a while till his house were repaired: even so the spouse of Christ and his faythfull servants though they love him dearely & desire nothing so much as to enjoy his presence to the full; may yet sometimes wish that his comming might be prolon­ged for some space of time, till they be in better plight to entertaine him. Se­condly they may be loth to depart this life in respect of others & for their benefit; in­somuch [Page 419] that though for their owne part they have an unfained desire to be dissol­ved, yet for the good of others they are content & desirous to live, as a parent for his childrens education, a Prince for the reformation & a Minister for the instruc­tion of the people in dangerous times. Thus it was with Hezekiah, Esa. 38.18.19. & Paul. Phill. 1.21-24.

(d) And yet even in all these distresses, when death approcheth & God calles mē away, there is comfort against every want: Christ makes supply of all; if there be any blemish, sore or deformity, he is such a bridegroome as suddenly heales all and presents us to himself without spot or wrinckle or any such thing: Eph. 5.27. He is the father of the fatherlesse, the great Shepheard of the sheep: Heb. 13.20. he will gather, feed & defend his flock, he hath a­bundance of spirit whereby to fulfill all his good pleasure, he is all in all. Hezekias had great desire to live to see his children & to teach them: and yet behold when God had prolonged his life & added unto his dayes fifteen yeares, presently he offēds & heares a woeful threatning of judgmēt, Esa. 39.6.7. Yea Manasses his sonne whom he got three yeares after his recovery, and [Page 420] who entred into the kingdome when he was twelve yeares old, Hezekias his fifteē yeares being expired, became a most abo­minable Idolater, murderer, witch, &c. 2. Kin. 21.1.2 &c. Had Hezekias knowne so much whē he desird to live lōger to teach his children, it is not likely that he would have bene so desirous of life. Therefore if God call us away we must be content to depart, whatsoever inconveniences be in the way: & consider how great a fault & sin it is to be unwilling to goe at his call.

(e) To this end it will be profitable to think often of the greatest hindrances and encumbrances in death, yea to consider of them as if we were now upon our death-bed & lay presently a dying & gasping for breath; that we may learne to arme our­selves against all lets & difficulties that make men unwilling to leave this world. For example:

Obj. I. Some are happily loth to leave the world because of their friends, kinred, children, acquaintance &c. whose com­pany they still desire to enjoy.

Ans. For one friend whom we leave here we finde a thousand in heaven. For I. Of men in this world we see but one, as it were, our owne generation; and of this [Page 421] generation not the thousandth person: we never saw all the countries of the world, scarce heard of them, much lesse their ci­ties, townes, particular persons. II. Of those we have seen we know not one city, much lesse are we acquainted with all the inhabitants; there are many from whom we receive no love nor any fruits of love, yea some that proove our enimies & from whom much evill is received. III. For that small number of those that are our true friends indeed, how weake are they in comparison? not so amiable in soule or body by an hundred degrees as those to whom we goe. IV. If men on earth were as gracious, vertuous & unblameable as in heaven; yet in this earthly condition our communion with them is most imperfect defective & lame, in respect of present ne­cessities layd upon us, as 1. Our drossy na­ture, whereby we are like snailes & cannot travell about the world in such swift and glorious motions as in heaven. 2. Our ma­ny trades and vocations binding men like prisoners to sit the whole week at their work, & confining them to their severall imployments. The world is like a Rasp-house or Bridewell, where by the rod of ne­cessity men are made to work; the twigs [Page 422] or cords of this whip are hunger, thirst, cold & nakednes; the smart and shame of these doth scourge & force men to labour: thus it is with men here in respect of hea­vē, where there is no hindrance from con­tinuall making of acquaintance. 3. Our wearines & sleepy nature making us spend our nights in the shadow of death, as dead men; whereas in heaven there is no night, no shadow of the earth, which reacheth little further thē the sphere of the Moone; and therefore is farre from causing any darknes in the third heavēs, in the paradise of God. What darknes or night can ap­proch thither, where al the righteous shine as the Sun for ever? Matt. 13.43. 4. The weaknes of our senses & bodily communi­on, whereas here two soules sitting toge­ther cānot impart their mindes to one ano­ther without the outward organs & instru­ments of sense; there the spirits without the body are like angels, goe without feet, embrace without hands, see without eyes, heare without eares, & speak without ton­gues, for al these we leave in the grave. But above all friends, we then see God face to face, whom here we could not behold: Exod. 33.20. here we are as in a dungeon, then we begin to looke about us. Is there [Page 423] any losse in this change?

Ob. II. Others are troubled to thinke that they must leave house & lands.

Ans. He that teacheth bees to make such cabines & closets for themselves, will not suffer his owne children to be destitute of comfortable mansiōs: nay the Lord hath promised & they know it to be so, that glorious pavilions & chambers are provi­ded for them. Ioh. 14.1.2. 2. Cor. 5.1 Every heart shall then be a pavilion & chamber of rest & delight unto each other: yea the Lord himselfe shalbe their house & man­sion for ever, 1. Ioh. 4.15.

Ob. III. Another sayth happily, I care not so much for any outward things, as to see the good of Gods Church in the accō ­plishment of his promises. Among these there are three special things which a Chri­stiā might wel desire above all other things to be seen & enjoyed in this world: viz. 1. The fall of Babylon & destruction of Anti­christ; Rev. 18.20. 2. The destructiō of Gog & Magog, the Turkish monarchy; 3. The full conversion of the Iewes, as a new Ie­rusalem comming downe from heavē, as a bride trimmed for her husband. It may wel be counted a happines to waite and come unto the sight of such dayes. Dan. 12.12. [...] [Page 426] 1. Cor. 15.56.57. II. The freenes of Gods grace unto infants is applyed by the H. Ghost unto men of yeares, that they also may depend on the same grace through faith. Rom. 9.11.16.30. III. Many are called at the eleventh houre, and God doth by such meanes greatly set forth the freenes of his mer­cy in pardoning sinners. Matth. 20.6-9. Rom. 5.20. The sight of Christ by faith gives title unto all comfort & happines. Luk. 2.30-32. And therefore the theef on the crosse seeing Christ at last, was sud­denly trāslated into glory. Luk. 23.43. Nei­ther let any say, That is but one example; for in effect there are many very like unto that even in the conversion of many thee­ves in prison, in the hands of justice, yea af­ter they have received the sentence of death; when they die better & give more signes of true repentance then multitudes that die in their beds. And besides, every mans conversion is in a certaine houre or moment, suddainly as well as the theefes on the crosse, though it be not marked: and it is as great a work & the same in sub­stance, to be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace by true conversion, as to be translated out of this [Page 427] world into heaven, the one following in­fallibly upon the other. So Pauls suddaine conversion from a blasphemous persecu­tour of Christ to be a member and mini­ster of Christ, was as great as the theefes translation from the crosse or gibbet to paradise, or rather greater. The same may be sayd of those thousands of mur­derers of Christ, suddainly converted at Peters sermon: Act. 2. the conversion of each of these was as great as that of the theef, and may as well serve for the com­fort of sinners. Christ is the doore: who­soever knockes by faith & whensoever, is sure to enter.

Ob. VI. Besides this the paine and pangs of death are objected by many as a cause of their feare & why they are loth to die.

Ans. I. We have commandements, comforts, and promises from Christ, to arme us against such feares. Iohn. 14.1. Revelat. 2.10. The feare of death is one of the greatest paines in death and yet a feare not to be feared. II. If the paine of death be sharp, yet it is quickly over: it is but one stride, and at one leap it transports a man over the gulfe of all sorrow into everlasting glory. III. To [...] [Page 430] God. Our Samson teares this Lyon as a kid, destroyes death, & out of the carcasse of death brings life, honye & hony combes of eternall comfort. Let us therefore be cheerfull in the exspectation of this happy conquest, & with comfort entertayne the signes of death drawing neere unto us, as dimnes of sight, deafnes of eares, weak­nes of limmes, whitenes of head & hoare haires: Oh how welcome should these & the like be unto the faithfull? As the chil­dren in our streets, when they first see the stork, the messenger of the Spring, doe wel­come thesame & testify their pleasure with manifold & joyful acclamations: so should the godly congratulate themselves when they see the forenamed messengers of their Winter past & Summer approching; or els both children and the very storkes in the aire, knowing the times of their comming, shalbe witnesses against us. When the fig-tree putteth forth his leaves the Summer is nigh: Matt. 24.32. when the almond-tree flourishes, thē it hastens the comming of other fruits: Eccl. 12.5. Ier. 1.11.12. when the heralds of death approch; then is it time for us to lift up our heads, kno­wing that our redemption is neere. When the eyes of the body, the windowes of our [Page 431] prospect into the world beginne to be dark, then must we so much the more open the eyes of our minde, the windowes of the soule for our prospect into heaven, to see things otherwise invisible. When the daughters of singing are abased, then especially we should labour to open the eares of faith that we may heare afarre off the songs of the virgines that have the harpes of God, ready to entertayne us into the fellowship of their sweet melodies. When the grinders are flow & beginne to cease, let us then be more frequent in grin­ding the wheat of heaven, chewing the cudde & ruminating the manna of the E­vangelicall promises: that should be the old mans milk & the old mans wine, swee­ter then that of the muscadell grape, to warme his cold breast & to revive his de­cayed spirits. Having thus entertained the messengers of death, we shalbe the rea­dier to welcome death it selfe. The nee­rer we grow to our journeys end, the greater will be our desire and longing to arrive at that Rendevous of friends after a long march, that generall meeting-place after a wearisome vvan­dring over hilles and dales in this our pilgrimage. As the diligent husband­man [Page 432] plowes & harrowes, sowes his seed & waites for the first & latter raine, is glad when it begins to grow, when the blade, the stalk, the eare appeares, & gladder whē it is ful growne, when the regiōs are white unto the harvest, when sithe & sickle are taken into the hand; but is then especially filled with joy when the last load of corne is brought home with shouring & singing, like to the custome that seemes to have bene in Israel in their harvest & vintage: Esa. 16.9.10. so in like manner they that have broken up their fallow ground, have sowed in righteousnes, have not been wea­ry in well doing, but stedfast & unmoovea­ble, alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord, shall then know & see that their la­bour hath not been in vaine in the Lord, shall then have cause to shout & sing for joy, when the Angels, that are called rea­pers, Matt. 13.39. shall gather these wheat sheaves into the heavēly barne, where the righteous shall shine foorth as the Sun in the kingdome of their Father. O that we were wise, that we understood this; so should we ever with comfort remember our latter END.