CHAP. I. Upon the words of the Psalmist.

KIng David from his Royal Palace in Mount Zion, might feast his eyes with many dilicious Prospects.

1. The first and chiefest was the Ta­bernacle of the Lord of Hosts, who Psa. 87.2. 1 loved the gates of that mountain, more then all the dwellings of Jacob. This holy Prince delighted in communion [Page 2] with God and therefore is fryled a man after Gods own heart: he Psal. 13.1.2, 4, 5. swore against the slumber of his eye-lids, till he found a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. And where did he fix the Tents of the holy One of Isra­el? did he not bring up the Ark from the house of Obed-Edam into the Sam 6 12. City of David with gladness? For Psa. 132.13. the Lord had chosen Zion, he desired it for his habitation. Thrice happy those Princes, who entertain the pure Worship of God within their Courts. They shall Ps. 89.15. know the joyful sound of Temple-mu­sick they shall walk, O Lord, in the shi­ning light of thy countenance.

2 A Second lovely Prospect with which David enamelled his eyes, was the plea­sant City of Jerusalem, Ps. 122.3 a City Compact together, Psal 48 2, 3. beautiful for sci [...]uation, the joy of the whole earth, God is known in her Palaces for a refuge

A third, Was the valley of Kidron, a 3 dark valley through shades and precipi­tious rocks Its name from Kedar, ob­scurities and thick shadows, environed with mountains and a swift torrent tril­ling along its caverns This gave a comely off set to the neighbouring hills: here were the shady strokes of natures pencil the more to illustrate the bright pie­ces of this holy Land-skip, Hence were re­doubled the pleasant and warbling eccho [...]s of the silver-Trumpets at new Moons and Sacrifices.

[Page 3]The fourth and last, was the three-ridged 4 mount of Olivet fruitful, healthful, and pleasant.

In the first of these Prospects, he saw the holy One of Israel walking in his San­ctuary, and enjoyed sweet fellowship with the divine Oracles. From the se­cond, he took a view of the State of this vain life. In the third, he might raise Contemplations upon the house of all living. In the fourth, he beheld as in a glass, a glorious cast of the Resurrection, Zach. 14 4. the day of Judgment, and Ascention to Heaven.

The sweet Singer of Israel had tuned in consort with his Harp, many choice Meditations, near the murmuring waters of Kidron, and here in this Psalm he playes upon the valley it self. Let's descant on his Lesson in four parts.

1. Here's a comparison of the state of death, to a walk in the shady valley of Ki­dron. I know it is usual to interpret the 1 shadow of death, by great and deep afflicti­ons, but I shall accept the phrase in this method: In its first notion, that darkness which seizes upon persons ready to die, is represented. In a second the grave and death it self. Its plain by the confe­rences of Job 3.5 & 10.21 & 34 22 & 38.17. Job with his Arabian com­forters, 'twas Eastern language. In a third by a Me [...]alepsis, those horrors and terrors that attend the agonies of dying mortals: yea, any grievous calamities that [Page 4] paint the face of death to the life in the glass of imagination.

Here under an elegant Allegory holy David prosecutes the divine shephear­dy: Gods gracious care and conduct. The green pastures and the chrystal streams with which his soul was refresht; Not doubting but goodness and mercy should follow him all the dayes of his life, and although he should be lead through the valley of the grave; the Li­ons and the B [...]ars, the Tygers and the Wolves of those fell bottomes should not scare him. I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Assuring himself that the great Shepheard of Israel had wisdom and power sufficient to guide him safely and at length to enclose this sheep of his Pasture in the Folds of his house Ps. 23.6. of glo­ry for ever. Other shepheards tremble at the yelling of the Lions, and the print of their foot stamps horror, much more to convey their Flocks under such dis­mal shadows be the shades never so ver­dant, and the gliding brooks never so sweet and pleasant; lest they and their sheep prove sorry comforters to one a­nother, when they slide together into the Maws of such ravening Butchers. But here's a blessed and glorious shep­heard Muscul [...] Loc. ( qui sciens prudensq, ducet in mortem ipsam:) who purposes and re­solves to lead his Flock through the [Page 5] jaws of death; So that David sings this Psalm in the warm feelings of the divine Presence, I'le fear no evil: thy crook and thy staffe they shall comfort me.

Secondly, Here's the person, that walks 2 through this tremendous valley, ruddy, royal and holy David. Thy sanguin com­plexion must now turn blanck and me­lancholy, when Abishag's arms shall be cold and feeble comforters, and thy reall body must shrink into this grim 1 Sam. 19.16. Mi­chots bed. That conquering Sword at whose brandishing, Edam and Ammon trembled, must be shaped into deaths Sithe to mow thee from the Land of the Living. Thy holy heart must take San­ctuary in the divine Covenant, Ps 49, 1 [...] 89, 48. that God will one day redeem thy life from corruption, and thy darling from the hand of the grave.

Thirdly, We should muster up the 3 formidable evils that put on their armour, gird on their Swords, and whet their glittering Spears for a fatall encounter in this valley.

Fourthly, We must prepare the Cor­dia [...]ls, the Balms and all the sustaining 4 comforts and quickning promises to re­fresh the Soul and uphold the spirit from si [...]king; that we may fear no evil, since God is with us, his Crook and his Staff shall comfort us. Micah 7 14▪ Lev. 27.32. Bochari de animal. l 2. c. 44. col 459. part 1. His Shebet [pe [...]um pastorale,] his Shepheards Crook to guide and conduct to the Pastures of [Page] Glory, his Mishgnan, his staff [...], to beat off wild beasts and enemies that might assault and annoy us.

CHAP. II. Of the Valley of Death.

DEath 'tis compar'd to a Valley, to a Valley of shadow, to a walk in a Valley, to a night walk in this shady Valley of Kidron.

1. Death is compared to a Valley, While men are alive their feet are set upon a Rock, on a high Mountain on the towring Pinnacle of a Temple, and Oh how hard it is for any to perswade themselves, that they shall once step down the precipice into this Valley. Every one thinks he may live to morrow, be he never so old: and the morrow of his thoughts can see no evening. But down he must and visit the dark land of his forefathe [...]s mansions.

In the Valley of Kidron were the Jer. 31.40. Je­wish Sepulchres on the East-side of the City, between the aspiring Mountains of Moriah and O [...]ivet. Here the Ravens of the Valley pi [...]k [...] out the Prov 30.17. Eyes of disobedient Children. Did Jews or Romans (who had also their Tombes in the Liv. Dec. 3. l. 6. Esquilian Mountains on the [Page 7] East of Rome) turn their faces to the ri­sing Sun, in hope of a resurrection to a future life? whatever glances might in spirit their Customes: Into this Valley they must all desc [...]nd and run their ap­pointed race. Into this Valley of Kidron, through the water-gate was conveyed the Soil and Off [...]l and Filth of the Ci­ty: probably most of their Sewers and Drains had here their vent. Here all the Jer. 31.40 [...] Ashes and refuse of the Sacrifices, all the recrements and purgations of the Temple found a Lay-stall. Death and the grave cover all.

Its a high pitch of Grace to be hum­bled unto the death, to mingle the dust of our noble bodies with such off scour­ings and sullage, to converse with the records of rottenness. But so 'tis with a Saint, he submits his will and yields up his spirit to God: To putrifie a while in the Valley of Himnon, that by Heavens Chymistry, he may spring up into a Tree of Life, in the Garden of Gethsemany. Wicked men fret and fume at death, and curse the Apple that poy­soned nature, and some would seem to cheat death by a violent seicide, O fool, ne moriare mori: by a choosing a vio­lent, to avoid a natural death▪ by cu [...] ­ting off present terrors, to hasten eter­nal.

But a Saint like a man in a dark Ca­vern under a mineral Mountain, sees [Page 8] light at the other end by the Eye of Faith. He goes down into this V [...]lley leaning upon the Staffe of hope, of Christ in him the hope Col. 1.27 of glory: he spies Mount O [...]ivet, and the foot-steps of Christs Ascention. Cor. 5.2 He groans to be uncloathed of his filthy garments, expecting change of [...]aiment, and pla­ces to walk among Angels Zach 3.7 that stand by and wai [...] upon the Prince of the Co­venant. He knows that his vile body, this Phil 3.21. body of humiliation, must once be a body of exaltation, and fashioned like his glorious body, who is able to subdue all things to himself, and to came our bo­dies into his own image.

Secondly, Death is a valley of shadow, 2 a Valley of darkness. Here are Lions Dens and Mountains of Leopards: Here be Akrabbims, ascents of Scorpi­ons and Fons Draco­nis prope Je­rusalem Fountains of Dragons, and yet 1 Cor 15 57 the holy Spouse will go hand in hand with Christ, from the fleeting pleasures of this mortal Lebanon, to view and walk in the midst of these tremendous Dungeons. Cant 4 8

The Valley of Kidron of old likely was a dark Valley, not only for Rocks and Mountains, but pitchy shades and thence [...]ight yield a lively symbol of death: here might be Trees and Shrubs which not only shut out the healing beams of the Sun: but also by their opi­ate vapours, and the exhaling of deadly [Page 9] atomes, might lull the brains asleep in the Cradle of Death: here might grow the funestous Y [...]w, the strong-scented Box, that makes the head to fume, the melancholly Cypress, the soporus Juni­per with the Firre: here the dark greens of deadly night-shade, the gross Savin and Dulcamara might entwine together, and cover many an Asp, many a Coc­katrice and a Basilisk; and plump them with their direful poysons.

Does a Saint fear to trace these Regi­ons and to measure the Land of his Captivity? No! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, who gives him vi­ctory 1 Cor. 15.57 His f [...]et are shod with Gospel-promises: the Iron and Braz [...]n Deut. 3 [...] shoes of happy Asher fence him from the stings of these Haserap [...]im Num. 21 6. Seraphims, these fiery Ser­pents: he shall tread upon the Lion and Adder, the young Lion and the Dragon shall he trample under foot; Ps. 91.13. nay, he shrinks not, though let down into this Den of Lions: seeing the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is with his Daniels.

And yet Darkness, this Egyptian dark­ness carries a lo [...]d of fear and sadness upon i [...]s back, it exhales and breaths out terror from every dim hole within the Valley: behind every bush lurks a gla­ring Leopard; from the cleft of every Rock the young Dragons hiss out fire, and belch venome upon a carnal man. He that's alive to sin, may tremble to [Page 10] dye to nature, and screik out and scream to think of the old Serpent sli­ding through the marrow of his back­bone and upbraid him with bitter scoffs about the forbidden fruit. O [...]ye Sons of Men how long will ye love Psal. 2.2. vanity and forget your latter end? The length of their love to vanity keeps pace with the line of Life; they turn not from it, til they turn into it, and become vanity it self; and their place know them no more.

In time of some rowzing Sickness the Bell of Eternity tolls dolefully in their Ears: then they say, By and by Lord, weel come to worship, to repent and amend: but if a good Crisis lengthen the hopes of life; their gyant-promises sink into Dwarfs, and their By and by lengthens out its Tenor through many a morrow, till the last hour approaches, and then the day of invitation from di­vine grace, turns into a day of provoca­tion to the divine anger: he that swears in his Heb 6.17. love to the Heirs of promise for their strong consolation, will Heb. 3.11. sware in his wrath to the Children of disobedience that delay repentance, and harden their hearts at the voice of God, they shall ne­ver enter in to his rest.

Alas! what's the life of man? but a Jam. 4.14 vapour appearing for a little while and then vanisheth away: Man walks [...] a vain Job 8.9▪ vain shadow while he lives, even the shadow of a vapor; every wind puffs it [Page 11] away and man is not: a short lived va­pour, that lives to be, but lives no longer, no sooner in being, but it flies away, and who can gather it: what's all time from the Suns first motion, till he turns to sackcloth; but a perishing cut out of the bosome of Eternity: scarce worth the name of a point or a moment to it. And, what then are the few and evil dayes of mans life upon earth, like a spark gives a s [...]ap and [...]rishes; but when he dyes, the shadows of a dark, of a long Jer. 6.4. evening are stretcht upon him.

How wholsome is it to meditate un­der these shadows: By these things Isa. 33.16▪ men live, and in all these is the life of our spirit: let's catch these vapours by the hand of contemplation, and distil some spiritual Cordials.

Is life so Job 7.7. vain a meteor? O vainer soul to build castles upon it: here's Heb. 11 10 no City that hath foundations: thats in hea­ven, men trade, and buy, and build, and plant, as if the Noah's second flood of fire and brimstone would never come. All former ages are wrapt up in the short breath of a history, and yet most men live, as if they thought their forefathers were by the Art of Magick stept aside in a mist, and the story of death but a Poets fable. But as Dion. Cass. l. 53. p. V. 34. Tiberius said of Scaurus, that reviv'd an old Tragedy against the Emperor, he himself should be Ajax. Thou lookest upon Death only as the [Page 12] Tragical Theam of some sickly over-stu­died Minister, till thou become the Tragedy it self, and be invelop't in eternal dark­ness: to which the shadow of death is but the shadow of misery.

What makes night but the shadow of the earth? and what's death but the sha­dow of the grave? every night is the shadow of death, and every sleep in the bed is next of kin to that in the dust: and should raise up the holy seed of medi­tation to his brother. While man lives, he walks in a shadow, and when he dies he lies down in it: A carnal man dies once, and rises to Judgment: but after that to a second death, and never rises more. A Saint indeed steps down into this first Valley, but walks through it to glory. The Vale of Kidron was also called the Valley of Tophet, and the Valley of Gehenna. Ge-hennon, the Valley of Hell. From the Valley of the grave wicked men sink into the bottom of Hell: But a Saint ascends from Kidron to Olivet.

Thirdly, Death is a Saints walk in this shady Valley. King David, might, but Saint David would fear no evil; though he trod this dismal path. Christ is gone before Act. 2.29. the patriarch, and hath left be­hind him the lustre of his footsteps to inlighten Davids feet in the Psal. 16 11. path to life, 'Twas not his royal Diadem could [...]azle the eyes of Death, and fright him [...]om attaching his Ermine Robes, or guard [Page 13] him from apalement at the wan looks of Death: Scepters as well as Shee [...]ooks lye snapt in that Valley: Purple and Sackcloth are alike begrim'd with the soil of the grave: The Worms Table­cloth is spread with the fine Linnen of Egypt, no less then the coursest Woollen, not greatness, but goodness, not highness, but holiness, gains Letters of safe con­duct through this Valley. All passe through it, but a Saint walks through it to the Mountains of Spices.

Fourthly, Death is a night-walk 4 through this shady Valley: a Saint is to pass, not to stay there: 'tis a night-walk, and there he must walk till the bright morning sorings▪ So many Suns must rowl over his body till the Resurrecti­on. Then he that Dan. 12.2▪ slept in the dust of the earth, shall awake to everlasting life. When his mouldring Clay being well digested in the Sepulchral Ʋrn, shall at­tain maturity: it shall then shine forth a diaphanous, splendid and glorious bo­dy. The sleep of the ancient Heroe-Saints for some thousands of years, shall seem but as the sleep of one night: Wicked mens souls may be terrified with dreams and visions of horror in that dis­mal night; but a Saint sleeps quiet and sound, and with Christs dead body shall he arise: he tosses, Isa. 26.19. he tumbles not in this bed of Roses: 'tis but one fast sleep to a labouring and resting Saint; the worm [Page 14] shall suck the nerves of the wicked, and feed Job 25.20 sweetly on him; but a Saint feeds sweetly on death. 'Tis but his refreshment from all the sorrows and [...]oil of his heart and hands, that he found under the Sun, and his works follow him to glory.

Saints indeed are noctambulones, night walkers in this Valley; but 'tis not the fruit of undigested Suppers on the worlds D [...]inties, but as a happy plea­sure in the bosome of Christ. The sepa­rate Soul watches his lovely bed-fellow, and sings (a requiem, an Epithalamium) a Song of Love towards its Marriage-morning. Nay Angels in shining gar­ments [...]it at the head and feet of a Saints grave. When holy David Ps. 8.3. considered Gods Heavens the work of his fingers, the Moon and the Stars which he had ordained: he considers Man too, that God should remember him▪ and the Son of Man that he should visit him, what's Man to a Star, to the Sun, to the Hea­vens? yet a Saint's of more value to God then numerous Stars or the mani­fold Orbes of Heaven. Was not David now on the Roof of his House by night gazing on that [...]pangled Canopy, and pondering on the greatness of the Stars, their motion, lustre and influence? May not a Saint thus meditate upon the night-watches of the grave and look up to the Gen. 15.5 Stars as so many promises. Ps. 89 37. & faithful witnesses in Heaven? When [Page 15] he views the Zodiack, he traces the course of the Sun of righteousness: he looks upon the Milky Way, as the fu­ture path of his glorified feet. He counts what if each Saint shall have a Star for his Kingdom; and yet, that all the Stars are but the paintings of the out-houses of that eternal Palace, wherein he shall dwell with God: When his Fa­thers face shall visit him with the day­spring from on high, and the bright morning Star shall glitter upon the Ea­stern Mountains of the Resurrection, and proclaim the Suns arising to an eter­nal Jubile.

CHAP. III. Of the persons walking in the Valley of Death.

IN this Valley of Kidron, David and Jonathans little Lad must gather up the mortal arrows together. Princes and Skullions must do their homage a­like in Deaths Kitchin: There's the homely House, the Straw-Hovell ap­pointed Job 30 for all living: There be the AIDIOI OIKOI, Diodor. Sic. l. 1. e 5 1 the Camden in Glamor­ganshire. eternales do­mus, those smoaky & fulsome Huts, about which (the leves animae) the separate Ghosts do keep their residence: here the spright­ly [Page 16] Satyrs tread their measures, and paint green circles in the Elysian Fields, till the blushing dawn of eternity. Ps. 22 29 None can keep alive his soul from death, nor ransome his Job 13.6. lamp from darkness. The martial Commander creeps under his Bed Sueton in Coleg. c. 51 with Caligula, at the rattling of this Thunderbolt: no Marble Palaces can dazle the eyes or daunt the ap­proaches of Death: no iron bars can repell his force: his aqua fortis burns all asunder: he stands not agast at the pale and wan looks of quivering Princes; but like a gyant fluster'd with the wine of blood looks terrible on the proud Nimrods of the World. Kings Edicts, that Death be not whispered in their Courts are sullied on waste Paper, they but daub their Royall Parchments with fond flourishes. Their strongest Towers are but the spinstry of Spider-webs. Death's too great a Flesh-fly to be catcht in such Tiffany Walls, hee'l hum in their ears with hateful buzzing, will they, nill they: There's no Canon or Decree against him can stand inviolable. Should Medes and Persians twist Laws as strong as Cables, this Sampson snaps them asunder like raw Flax or twined threads If all Justinians pandects were cramb'd with severe penalties, that death presume not to touch an Emperor or be rude with his Lady or Children, he'l send a Phocas to find them out, and bale [Page 17] them to his Slaughter-house. The Cap­tains of their Guard with their Halber­diers, fling down their Arms and cry craven. This old Leviathan Job 41 29. counts their Darts as Stubble, and laughs to scorn the shaking of their Spears. When this storm rises, this furious blast, he takes down the top-gallant, and the Flags of Admirals, he cuts their Masts by the Board, the wisest Pilot he flings o­ver-board, no Anchor holds, they run a­drift and are shattered upon the Rocks.

The cunning Lawyer with all his shirks and querks, and Writs of Error can't hook out a Habeas Corpus from this unbribed B [...]r. Death has too subtle a Pate to be overmarcht; he has Presi­dents and rul'd Cas [...]s and Records as high as Adam: There's no Chancery re­fuge or Appeal from the Club-Law of this Kings-Bench; he's Lord Chief Justice, and Jay [...]or, he's Sheriff and Executioner.

But what sayes Hipocrates with his Coan Aphorisms, and Galen with his long winded Method? Can't he open a Vein in the Arm of this raging Adver­sary, that his Sword may fall, and the Calenture of his fury abate against Man kind? Is there no inchanted Porti­on, nor amorous Cup can lull him a­sleep? O Physicians! Are there no Re­cipe's in all your Dispensatories against the crack of Heart-strings? Must his [Page 18] deadly Ague shake both you and your Patients into the Grave? Must his drop­sie drown you, his Feaver burn you to Ashes, his Consumption emaciate and waste you to Skelitons, and set up your Bones in his Anatomy School? What is there no Antidote, no Treacle against the needle-teeth of this black Adder? No! he turns a deaf ear to all your Si­ren-Lectures. This Serpent▪ Eccles. 10 11. will bite for all your inchantments: Such bablers are no better.

But alas! for this day of darkness Ioel 2.2 this gloomy morning, that's spread up­on the Mountains, Can we track no comfort in this thick Fog of Igno­rance? Are there no Trees of Life to be found in Lebanon? Alas! is Eden lost? Is that Tree free among the dead? did the venemous breath of the old Ser­pent wither it? did he hack it down? did he pluck it up by the roots? Are there no sprouts from its chips, nor no healing atomes that flew from its wounds into other shrubs or plants? Is there no drug in Arabia, no balm in Gilead, no Spice in India can revive a languishing mortal? What no Etheriall Spirits, nor irradiating Sulfurs, nor Mi­nerall tinctures, nor Elixers of Life to cure this stroke? Won't potable Gold snatch back the flying Spirit, and intreat that noble guest to stay a while within its old Cloister n [...]w plaistred and gilt [Page 19] with this restorative? Won't the lim­pid Alcahest make the blood volatile, and circulate it nimbly against the cold congealing blast of death? Won't the great red-powder cure it? Then fare­well all their empty notions, and unpra­cticable maximes, their clogging [...] and ill digesting Powders: their life-ex­hausting blood-le [...]s, and their cold mor­tal Juleps? O vain man!

Use the Physitian, that's a duty: trust not in him, for thats a sin. Good Asa had this mournful title upon his 2 Chron. 16.12, 13. Tomb that he sought not to the Lord, but to the Physitians, and slept with his Fathers. Though the skilfulst Physitian, and the holiest Saint do meet together; yet both should count upon a last day, a last hour, and a last moment, that they can­not pass. Isa 3.2▪ The mighty man, and man of war, the Captain of Fifty, the ho­nourable, the Counsellor, the cunning Artificer, and the eloquent Orator, Death takes them all by the hand and leads them into this gloomy Valley. He reverences not the gray hairs, he rises not up to the milk-white brow of the grave and ancient, nor layes down his crook­ed Sith at the foot of aged and hoary heads: he strains no courtesies with the weaker sex, nor gives it the upper hand; [Page 20] the pitiful cries of tender Infants pierce not his Adamantine breast: This [...]ear­less Moloch hugs them mor [...]ally in his brazen arms, he hath Urns propor­tion'd to all their Ashes, and Graves of every s [...]z [...].

But what though riches and honour though sweet natures and vertu [...]us minds prevail for no reprival: Must holy bones a [...]so see corrup [...]ion? Can't Faith and Prayer wrestle a fall with this mighty King of terrors No, no, though the wicked twice fall under the din [...] of this Goliahs Sword: yet 'tis appointed for all Heb 9.17. once to dye, and after that to Ju [...]g­ment: For as by one man sin entred Rom. 5 12 into the world, and Death by sir; So death passeth upon all men, for that all have sinned: Faithful Abraham must lye down in the Cave of Machphe [...]oh Pa [...]i­ent Job after all his Arabian Tragedies must act one Scene more, and say to Corruption Job 17 14 thou art my Father, to the Worm, thou art my Mother and Sister: Strong Sampson must fall by this Jaw­bone in the Vineyards of Zorah, and meek Moses though he dye in a Deut. 32 50 Moun­tain, must walk down this deep 34.6 Valley of Abarim: Wise Solomon by all his pru­dent and politick maximes of Govern­ment, can't tame and rule this ferocious Behemoth, nor [...] this wild Bull at his Figtree: But his [...] breath must out at the door of his lips, he returns to his [Page 21] earth, Ps. 146.4 and that very day his thoughts and his reasons of State must perish: All his skill in Botanicks could not ex­tract such (an ens primum, or) a quin­tessence from his Cedars in Lebanon, to prolong his life a moment beyond the appointed Job 14.5. moneths, and the bounds which he could not pass. No, nor holy Paul could not strengthen the stakes of his Tabernacle or keep its curtains from trembling, but an East wind from the Roman wilderness smites it down to the ground, and all his Acts 18.3. skill in Tent-work could not raise it: He therefore counts upon his house with God, not made with hands, 2 Cor. 5. eternal in the Hea­vens, and groans earnestly to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of Life. Q

But why must Saints dye? hath not Christ paid a ransome to purchase them from death? Must Daniel the man of de­sires be led into this second Captivity? Must John the beloved Disciple, though he scape the boiling Oyl, and rocky Patmos, come down to his Tomb at Ephesus, and walk in this six-foot Val­ley? yes, even he that lay in the bosome of Christ, must also sleep in the bosome of the grave.

To this may be replyed, A 1 That Justifi­cation is a continued act of divine grace ( terminative & quoad D [...]wnam of Justifie. p. 6. Edit. fol. Lond. 1639. nos) in respect to us, & it lasts from our first conversion to [Page 22] the declarative sentence of absolution at the day of Judgment, Indeed in re­spect to God (who is actus purissimus) a most pure and absolute act and sits down without any succession of times, in the glorious noon of Eternity, our justification admits no degrees. It is not instill'd into us drop by drop in respect to him: but so soon as a man doth truly believe, he stands truly and perfectly righteous in the sight of God▪ The Covenant of Grace is ratified ( si­mul & semel) together and at once, at the Throne of God in the name and vertue of Christs righteousness, so soon as ever we truly believe; but 'tis appli­ed, manifested and compleated to us, in the successive methods of effectual voca­tion, sanctification and final redemption at the great day. For while we con­tinue sinners, we have continual need of justifying grace. David as to fresh Commissions stood in need of Psa. 51.7. purg­ing with Hysop from his leprous sins to receive an atonement, Lev. 14 6, 19. and to have the Seal of the Psa. 32.5. forgiveness of the iniquity of his sin, upon his ac­knowledgment and confession: For as to us, God is not said to remit those sins, that are not yet committed, but such Rom. 3.25. as are past. We are taught therefore by our Lord to pray Mat. 6 11, 12. Act. 5.31. every day, forgive us our trespasses We sin dayly, and must con­fess dayly, and pray dayly for repentance [Page] and pardon. Yea God himself, in that Evangelical promise by Esay, assures us. Isa. 43.25. I even I ( DELENS) am blot­ting out your trasgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember your sins, to comfort us against tentations about dayly infirmities: Do we sin every day? and is the truth not in him? nay, does he make him a lyar, that saith 1 Joh. 1.10.8.21. he hath no sin? then we have need of a dayly Advocate to plead for us at the right hand of the Father, a high Priest that Heb 7.24▪ continueth ever, and V 25. liveth ever to Heb. 9.24. appear in the presence of God, and to make intercession for us. By vir­tue whereof he Joh. 14.2, 3. prepares the heavenly Mansions in the Temple of Glory for us, and for them. Then, he will come again and receive us unto himself, that where he is, we may be with him, and behold his glory. And when this Prince of life, the Judge of quick and dead, shall appear, he will pronounce that final justifying and glorifying sentence Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father, Psa. 32.1, 2. (for blessed are they indeed to whom the Lord then imputeth not iniquity) come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. Then shall our justification be com­pleat in all its points at that joyful de­claration of Christ upon his Tribunal in Judgment: No marvel then, Rom. 8.10, 11. If the bodies even of Saints shall dye: 'Tis be­cause of sin; though the spirit be life, be­caus [...] [Page 24] [...] [...]ghteousness. But then shall all our sins be [...] [...]otted out, and cast behind his back in the Mic. 7.19. depths of the Sea, when those times of Act 3.19, 20, 21. refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord: when he shall send Jesus Christ at the great Restitution, whereof he hath spoken by all his holy Prophets since the world began: Then shall Onesiphorus according to the prayer of Paul 2 Tim. 1.18 find mercy in that day at the hand of Christ, That day of full Eph. 1.14▪ and 4 30 Redemption hath not yet appeared, when the Mat. 13.43 righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father with everlasting joy upon their heads.

Again, Death was decreed and deter­min'd of God to seize upon faln sinners in all its kinds, A. 2. and yet we never find that doleful sentence repeal'd as to tem­poral dissolution, in any promise Joh. 11 25 I am the Resurrection and the Life saies Christ: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Yea, our blessed Lord in his Sermon at Caperna­um, no less Joh. 6 then four times, comforts his Disciples with the Doctrine of the Resurrection: not, that they should not dye, but that he would raise them up at the last day. Nay, even to John himself Jesus Joh. 21.23 said not, that he should not dye, But if I will, that he tarry till I come, what's that to thee Peter. No! both ho­ly Peter and holy John, Death is or­dain'd as a means to purge and cleanse [Page 25] their bodi [...] from the soil and filth of sin, and to fit those sanctified Vessels for the life of glory.

Saints therefore must look upon death wi [...]h no other aspect, A. 3. then as the greatest bodily affliction, which shall or can befall them, and that it hath the same i [...]grediency, though in a deeper me [...]sure with all the bitter Cups of tri­all, which the Father is pleased to put into their hands▪ They have one com­mon reason, and one common end to make them partaker [...] of his holiness. Sickness of the holiness of Grace; and Death of the holiness of Glory.

But are not Saints the Members of Christs body? Is the head glorified and must the Members pass this State of examination? Must believers dye? Yes! and good reason too! Should not the Members be conformable to their Head? Ought Christ to have Luk▪ 24.20 suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? Hath the Father made Heb. 2.10. the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings, and will he not the same way bring many Sons to glory? Shall this High-priest after the order of Melchize­dek drink Ps. 110.7. of the brook of Kidron in the way to O [...]ivet before he lift up the head in a glorious Ascention? And shall Saints, the inferior Levites think much to taste it? Zebedees Children do but taste a few drops at the bottom of Mat. 20▪ 22, 23. the [Page 26] Cup of Kidrons water, Christ hath drunk it oft Saints do but sip of Numb. 5.27. &c. these bitter waters, not for satisfaction but submis­sion to the Law: they shall not cause their thighs to rot, but conceive to glo­ry. What's fabled of the Unicorn that he takes away the poyson by dipping his horn in the waters before the Beasts of the Forrests do drink after him: Is true of our Lord, he hath sweetned these waters of Marah with this Tree of Life, for true Israelites to pledg him. His holy body washed the waters of Jordan by his Baptism, and healed the waters of K [...]dron by his Passion. Christ that pure prolifick Joh. 12.24. Corn of Wheat fell in­to the ground, and died and bringeth forth much fruit: The grave is made fer [...]ile by his death: that Saints lying by his dead body may be impregnated and spring up in a green Resurrection, and grow ripe to the harvest of glory, They are implanted into the Rom. 6.5. similitude of his death, and shall be raised in the likeness of his Resurrection. As that heavenly grain did rise; so shall Saints sprout upon his stalk without Chaff for the Garner of Paradise.

A. 4. Again, Saints dye, not only in conformity to their head, A. 4. but to magni­fie the glory of divine Grace in Salva­tion by the New-Covenant. Christ takes away the radicall and fundament­tall guilt of sin, but not the totall in being [Page 27] thereof during this Life. None shall go to heaven by the law of perfection, according to the tenor of the first Cove­nant. None shall boast of Eph. 2.8, 9. Tit. 3.5. work or merit: for by grace are we saved. None shall climb to heaven but by Gen. 28.11, 12 Joh 1.51 Jacobs Ladder, whose foot is fixt upon the son of man. We are saved by grace to Rom 3.27 ex­clude boasting we are saved Act 15 11. by faith, that Christ may be Phil. 1 20 magnified whe­ther in life or death: we are saved Tit. 3.4.7. by mercy, that the kindness and love of God our Saviour may appear: we are not born, but made heirs according to the hope of eternal life: Nay, we are saved by Rom. 8.24. hope, and with patience we wait for it: Were we perfect here; our faith would be clambering into vision, and our hope into fruition, our resting, wai­ting, panting frame would be swallow­ed up in preliminary injoyments of heaven: our love would cast out all fea [...] and torment, and ride triumphant be­fore resurrection, to the capitol of glo­ry: But God hath an eye to that new and living way of salvation paved with the precious blood of the second Cove­nant: wherefore though Christ be Rom. 10.4. the end of the Law for righteousness to eve­ry one that believeth: yet he restores us not in this life to the beauty and perfe­ction of holiness; So that, if sin remain in a Saint, death must needs be its issue: For sin when 'tis finisht Jam. 1.16 bringeth forth [Page 28] death: Though death in all its circum­stances be not the proper Rom. 6.23. wages of sin unto a Saint, because Christ hath satisfied and made us free from the Law Rom. 8▪ 2. of sin and of death: Though death be not the Ib. c. 6.22 OPSONION, the stipendiary supper of a believer, yet 'tis the OPSONARION, the sour sauce, wherewith the remnants & leavings of original, and the too great improvement thereof in actual sins and infirmities are disht up: Warm Bernard starts this question, If Christ have deli­vered us, Bern. ad milit. Templ. f. 98. a. Ed. Pari. 517. [ Ʋtquid adhuc morimur & non statim immortalitate vestimur? Sane, ut Dei veritas impleatur, &c.] Why do we yet dye and are not presently clothed with immortality? Verily, that the truth of God might be fulfilled: For, because God loveth mercy and truth, its necessary that man should dye, because God had foredoom'd it: but yet that he should also rise from the dead, lest God should seem to forget his mercy: So then though D [...]ath Lords it not over a Saint perpetually, yet it remains a while upon us, because of the truth of God. Even as Sin, though it reign not in our mortal bodies, yet is it not totally taken from us. Thus Bernard layes the burden of a Saints death, upon the pri­mitive fall, the curse of God, the vera­city of his threatnings and fulfilling of that word to Adam, in the day thou eat­est thereof, thou shalt dye: and a little [Page] before, [ Adae delictum merito contrahimus: quouiam cum peccavit, in ipso eramus & ex ejus carne per carnis concupisentiam ge­nite sumus. We are deservedly involved in Adams guilt, because we all sinned in him: for when he sinned, we were in him, and were begotten of his flesh by car­nal concupiscence.] And is not this the very Doctrine of Paul? Rom. 5.11. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin; So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: This is the guilt that carries those that have not sin'd after V. 14. the similitude of Adams transgression into the grave. Yea In­fants, and Embryo's, such as never saw the light, from one dark grave to another.

Insomuch, That though the second and glorious Covenant of free grace, be Ps. 89.37. establisht as the Moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven: yet it re­ceives not its full accomplishment in all its promises, till the Saints set down in the bosome of Christ after the great Tribunal: and 'tis not any the least impairment or reflection upon the divine Justice on this side the resurrection, to visit the Saints transgressions with this Rod, and their iniquity with these stripes: 1 Cors 11 30. For this cause, sayes Paul (treating of some violations respecting our Lords Sup­per) many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep.

Wherefore, though the guilt of sin be [Page] removed by Justification, through the merit of Christ, and the dominion of sin by sanctification through the Spirit: yet the total remainders of original or actual sin are not stub'd out of the heart: but some fibres and strings will stick b [...]ind in the best, during this pre­sent li [...]e: In like manner, though 1 Cor. 15 55, &c. the sting of death, its venome and poyson be pull'd out by the death of Christ: yet our mortality is not abolished. Although our Lord hath brought 2 Tim. 1 10 life and im­mortality to light through the Gospel, in its revelation and consignation to e­very believer; yet not as to its com­pleat fruition till the day of Christ. Then shall this mortal put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up in vi­ctory, and then shall we render eternal thanks to the Father, for giving us this victory 1 Cor. 15. [...]7 through our Lord Jesus Christ. For reign he must, till this last enemy also be put under his feet: To conquer over death b [...] rising, brings more honour to God, then to keep our foot from the grave: or else Divine Wisdom [...] not r [...]n that course. One's th' eff [...]ct of powerful manute­nency. But the [...] of creating om­nipotency. Hence, as Christ the Natu­ral, so shall Saints be declared the A­dopted sons of God, Rom. 1.4. with power by the resurrection from the dead, by reason of which union God will also raise them [Page 31] up like their glorious and mystical head Act. 2.24 by loosing the pains of death, it being impossible for them likewise to be held by it, For Christ being risen from the dead is become 1 Cor. 15.20 the first fruits of them that sleep: Our blessed Lord rose at the Pass-over, and they shall rise at the day of Pentecost: He rose as the Head, they as Members, all in their own order shall rise to glory.

But some may say, Obj. Did not Enoch and Elias leap over this Valley of death into heaven?

True! Answ. but their translation moved upon the wheels of transmutation e­quivalent to death: as they also, who are found alive at the coming of Christ. Though they pass not through the strainer of the grave, yet they undergo the percolation of a change. As the hea­vens shall Psal. 102 26 perish when they be changed and pass 2 Pet. 3.10 away with a great noise, and the Elements melt with fervent heat: ne­vertheless we look for new heavens, and a new earth, not in substance, but in qua­lity. Even so Elijah, though riding to heaven in a chariot of fire, and the living 1 Cor. 15 51 1 Thes. 4 17. Saints at our Lords coming in a cha­riot of air, yet are all by a marvellous change [ METATITHEMENO [...]] Heb. 11.5. trans­lated to the vision of God.

CHAP. IV. Of the Formidable Evils in the Valley of Death.

AS in a Land-skip let us take a quick prospect of those fatal and tremen­dous evils, which cock their Helmets, and make bare their Gorgon faces at the en­trance, in the passage, and the utmost end of this direful Valley.

1. At the Entrance, when these brazen gates flie open: The soul bewitching comforts, to which we must bid [ a lon­gum vale] an eternal farewel, and those wracking pains, which must be felt, not on a Pala [...]e of Ivory, but a Bed of Iron, in which this Gyant Procrustes tortures all he catches: must needs shoot barbed arrows into the Livers of all impenitent sinners.

The Philosopher teaches Aristot. Rhet l. 7 [...] [ META­BOLE PANTOON GLƲKƲTATON,] that change is the sweetest of all things: It must be in things to the better, or equal at least in goodness to precedent injoyments; else 'tis PANTON PIKROTATON: the bitterest of all. To have been fair, strong, health­ful, rich, and happy, sharpens the edge of present misery, and cuts the deeper. Is not this a dead fly in the box of oyntment, [Page 33] a gourd in the pot, a snake in the grass, that poysons the joy of all thy com­forts? Must the amorous smiles of all thy sinful pleasures corrupt into doleful howlings? Here's the parting style, when the sweet embraces of the dearest conju­gal relations must surrender up to mor­tal gripings: Here livid, and fainty kisses must take leave of pretty children his own bowels, [ & pignora chara nepo­tes,] those choice pledges of a mans survival unto himself: The friend that's nearer than a brother, must now shake hands and look back to little purpose at this dolesome and dark good-night. His fine houses and fair possessions, his fruitful orchards of his own planting, and his pleasant gardens, with all its rills and fish ponds, his flowry meadows, and beautiful prospects, his gameful parks and woody forrests, his dutiful and toiling tenants must all come to his bed-side and shake their heads, and wi [...]h dry eyes, bid good-even to their old foolish rent-wracking covetous Land­lord: Then all these flashy, thorny joyes that made so great a crack [...]ing under his pot, having shot some splinters in his eyes, and more in's heart will leave him in thick darkness: Then all his false pa­rasites and trencher-guests, for a sorry ring (else hardly) will march with him to the pits side, and forsake his [...] when closed in a cold stone.

[Page 34]Besides 'twill gaul him to the heart in that hour, to think what a feather cap Fool Eccles. 2.19 he leaves for his Heir: that will turn upon his left heel, and twit the mi­ser, when he sees his chests all lined with gold, and sorrow for nothing but that he shall never more have so true a drudge: Then out goes the young Rus­sian with the fork upon his shoulder, to France and Venice to learn carriage a­mong Whores, Banditos and Riotous Persons, till penury forces his belly to fellow common with Luk 15 30, 36 Swine and quarrel with hogs for their husks, and at length can hardly crawl home to the Surgeons Shop: Are not these sweet Flowers for his memory to smell to? And a soveraign Cordial against the as­saults of Death?

But were this all, 'Twere no match for a Roman Spirit? No, no! proud worldlings before departure often con­flict with fearful torments, Agags [...] Sam. 15.32 bit­terness of death arrests their souls and make their Spirits stagger: The Psal. 18.4. & 116.3. pains of Death and of Hell get hold upon them: These deadly sorrows switch them with such smart lashes [ Ʋt se sentiant mori] as to leave lingring pains with strong and biding Convulsions. Like Ti­berius that cruel Tyrant: when torment­ing of Asinius Gallus, told him, he was not yet reconciled, and therefore would no [...] permit him to dye, [...] BION TIMO­RIAN [Page 35] THANATON ENERGESIAN E­POISI] That he might count life a pu­nishment, and death a great benefaction Like the stroak of these Rev. 9 6. Scorpions when men shall seek death but not find it, and shall desire to dye, but Death shall flee from them: So sharp and pun­gent are these invenomed shalls Job 7.1 [...]. that the soul chooses Strangling and death rather than life: They are called Act. 2.24.12 the ODINES THANATOƲ, the pains of death, the acute pains of a woman in travell: when God shall Job 33 19 chasten men with pains upon their B [...]ds, and the multitude of their bones with strong pain: when e­very bone shall have its pang; and every pang from the strong arm of God: oh! how dreadful to fall into the hands Heb. 10 31 of the living God: They are pains indeed which God calls pains, when the soul sha [...]l be torn and rent from its beloved twin; Oh! the tendons crack and the nerves with startling dolour snap in sun­der. We read of one but sick of the Palsie, and yet Mat 8 6. grievously tormented. When the Lord smites pe [...]sons Deut. 28.22 with Consumptions, Feavers, Inflamations and extream burnings: Oh, what tos­ [...]ngs and tumblings and pinings with wearisome hours: when torn and grin­ded by the Stone or wrack [...] by the gou [...] ▪ what tongue can express their miseries? For a Herod to be eaten up of Act. 12 2 [...] Worms and such little wretches to pull a Prince [Page 36] piece-meal, and to run away unquesti­oned: For Jehorams 2 Chron. 21.19. bowels to fall out by reason of his sickness, and poy­son his Courtiers: For Asa to lye how­ling of the Gout, and make all Jerusa­lem ring with his [...]o [...]ing: Should not these tidings of [...] miserable Mo­narchs, cool the fury and tame the mad­ness of the Bedlam Hectors of our Age. To ruminate upon these terrors of death, these painful throws, when men pour out their souls in dreadful agonies methinks should take them a peg lower and put their carier in sin to a pause: They who taste of the Cup of Death, find it more bitter than Wormwood, more venemous than the poyson of Asps all squeez'd into it: Such as are under the ghastly view of Death, behold a griefly and fearful monster, that scares the bloody Heroes and vain-glorious Gal­lants into exquisite horrors.

— Obriguere comae & vox faucibus haesit. Their hair stands an end, and their tongue faulters with amazing fears. It has a direful sting, more horrid than a Scorpion or a Dragon. This Cup unless sweetned with a lively sense of a gracious promise there's no laying of your lips to it: This fiery flying Ser­pent, unless eased of his sting: there's no dallying with it in their bosomes for fool hardy sinners: Well might Sueton in Cas. c 87. Caesar wish a sudden, and Augustus [...] in Aug. c. 99. an easie [Page 37] Death, who had beheld many astonish­ing spectacles in their long and bloody wars: which might pierce hearts of A­damant, and melt the most brawny and flinty breast, and run down the most stoical Apathies into Rivers of mourn­ful S [...]mpathies and compassions: Me­thinks, it shou [...]d awaken snorting for­malists to admit into the Hall of Con­science the Ecchoes of the roaring Ele­gies of such who dye (as the historian phrases) Id. in Cas. c. 88. non morte sua, not a natural but a violent death; when this Lion rampant rends the Soul from the body, as he would the Hos 13.8. Caul of a Kids heart: When death shall meet them as a Bear bereaved of her Whelps, or an evening Wolf that hath lurkt close in Psal. 104.20 her D [...]n all the day long of a sinners life, and comes forth barking at night and sharp set for her prey: Then they are forc'd to drink deep of the wine of violence, and to sup up the Cup of the avenger. Then they Job▪ 15.33 shake off their unripe Grapes as the Vine and cast off their Flower as the O [...]ive.

But alas! the pains of natural or the pangs of violent death, are but the stinging of Gnats or Flea bites to a scorched conscience and inflamed by the wrath of God: When men come to dye, and have trifled a­way precious hours with Rattles and childish Ba [...]b [...]s, and the silly jing­ling [Page 38] Hobby-horses of Court or Coun­try: and at that turning point of Eter­nity have forgotten to make their peace with God: then Conscience rowzes up like a Gyant refresht with the wine of Sodom, and the Grapes of Gomorrah. When the grinning Furies lasht the goatish Soul of Tiberius for all his Vil­lanies within the dark and dismal Dun­geon of his unclean breast: Oh! who would not tremble to think of those goring wounds, those secret and invisi­ble tortures, which wrackt his Soul and stretcht his tormenting imaginati­ons upon the Devils Tenter-Hooks. See, how Tacit. An­nal l 5. p. 107. Edit. Basil. 1544. Tacitus breaks forth upon the Theme, Si recludantur Tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus & ictus,] had we Casements into the hearts of Ty­rants: the dreadful marks of the Steel whips of Conscience would appear with bloody gashes: And as Dio. in Nerone l. 63. Dion the Historian speaking of the horrors of Nero, near the time of his death, for the ass [...]ssination of his Mother and other brutish crimes: sayes, that if a Whelp did but howl, or [...] Hen cackle, or the [...] of a Tree creak by a strong wind, [ [...]EINOS ETARATSETO] he was in a wo [...]ul anguish: Oh, how the wires of Megaera fetcht blood and gobbets at every stroak, from the Soul: When God shall pour the scalding Lead of his wrath into these fre [...]h wounds, when the Law [Page 39] thunders from Mount Sinai, and the lightnings of Paran glitter about him, Then Hab. 3.16. their bellies tremble, their lips quiver at the voice, and rottenness en­ters into their bones: When sin comes home to the Soul on a death-bed, and accosts him as the Souldier did Pollio in Mario p. 538. Ed. Lug B. Ma­rius the Black-smith, and Triduan Em­peror, ( Hic est gladius, quem ipse fecisti.) Here's the Sword of thine own ham­mering and shaking it in the face of a sinner, cryes, look how it shines, 'tis thine own furbishing.

Then wo to him, who hath enlarg'd his desire as Hell, and encreased that, which is not his: and laden himself with thick clay: Then fain would he vomit up his sweet morsells: but no Emetick of the shop can help him, no Squills, no Roots in Nicander can fetch them up: Then they abhor to remem­ber, what they cannot forget, and the eyes of their fancy are as quick and ve­nemous as a Basilisk. Then with their robberies of Peter they would pay off Paul: and for their defrauding of Mi­nisters would give ten-fold Tithes, and with the ruins of old Abbeys, and Mannors by oppression and depopulati­ons of Villages, that they may Isa. 5.8. be alone in the midst of the earth, in all haste they patch up Chappels, Schools and Work-houses.

But God hates the Sacrifices of dying [Page 40] and putrilaginous bodies: the Incense that oppressors offer, proves the savour of death unto death; he counts the sighs of their fleeting Spirits, like the steams of rancid dunghils, which the fire of Hell sends up: not the beams of his countenance, who is now departed. No warning pieces before could alarm them. No blazing Comets could awaken or startle them: though Mantil. Astrinom. l. 1. p. 27 that of Man­tilius be true in all ages.

But now they scud about like Eels in Thunder, and anon Death hales them with the weeds about their heads in his sweeping drag-net. Now they cry out with Spartian in Hadrian p. 34. Ed. Lug. B. Hadrian the Emperor:

And is this all the cold comfort for these roaring Blades with a sneaking Epigram, with so deadly a neck-verse, to swing into the arms of eternal ven­geance: [Page 41] How horrible is it, and to be trembled at, to think that Randol the Poet (as I have heard) should cry out at death, Now Horace have at thee where ever thou art. Could we think, that vile worms when dying should spew such poyson? like the Toads in Helmon [...] ▪ t. mu [...]. pest. p. 884 410. Helmont hung up by the Heels before the fire of Hell cast out green flies and other ve­nom, Oh! that it might make a Zenex­ton an antidote against the plague of the heart in astonied mortals And have you not drencht your Souls in a sweet pic­kle by flinging off repentance to so late an hour. Alas! God's now gone up to his place and retired, ye have Prov. 1.25, &c. set at naught all his Counsel and would none of his reproof: Now he laughs at your calamity and mocks when your fear cometh as a desolation and your destru­ction as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish seizes upon you; Therefore shall ye eat the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices: 'Tis not the cold absolution of every formal Priest can daube up these Thunder struck Walls with his untempered Mor­tar. The foolish and cockheaded Athiest, that Psal. 14 1. said in his heart there was no God and was bold and sawcy to fancy what he would have, that he might revel and rant and tear it, in his blasphemous pride, and do corrupt and abominable works; begins now to be awakened out [Page 42] of his Frenzy-Lethargy, and runs into the clefts of the rocks and skulks in the tops of the ragged rocks, and cryes to the deaf hills to fall on him, and the hard-hearted mountains to cover him for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his terrible Majesty.

The old Owl-eyed. Heathens by the glimmering glances of Synideses A [...]in be. doct. Plat. cap. 10. Max. Tyr. c 1. &c. and Syntereses, the faint reflections of primi­tive light did grope after a Deity by the Glow-Worm candle of soft con­templation. They catcht at a little va­nishing notion of the first Being by the working of their Souls in night-Visions and argued the immortality of their own Spirits and began to discern that ( Divinae particula aurae) this particle of Divine light, was inspired by the Fa­ther of Lights and Spirits: Rom. 1.20. By the things that were made they stammer'd and spelt out lamely his Eternal Power and God-head: But alas! the Meri­dian Fools of our age, that sit in the De­vils Chair of Pestilence, though taught by the glorious light of holy Scripture, will hardly come off to cry at death, with that musing Phylosopher of Greece, O ens entium miserere mei. O Being of Beings have mercy on me. But when the grave Judge of Conscience commis­sion'd and charg'd by God, sits down with his white considering Coife in his Judgment-seat upon a pale Pillow: [Page 43] Then their stupid Atheism (a sin great­er then Jam. 2. [...]9. Devils are guilty of) brings the Scoffer to the Prov 7.22. correction of the Stocks; and Phineas his righteous dart strikes through his belly, and there he lyes sentenced t [...] self-tormen [...]ing hor­rors: Thoughts as fiery flashes of lightning, and as [...] as double edg'd Swords No Turky Cymiter pierces so deadly to the inner-most p [...]ts of the belly.

But Oh Sirs! this is not all: The Devil by his Heb. 2.14. ministeria power of death, slips forth from behind [...]he hang­ings, all arm'd with fire-bran [...]s. He who before like a roaring Lion yeld af­ter his prey: Now whe [...] his Claws upon the rock of their impenitent hearts grins like a tearing Lion, and [...]rangles for his Lionesses: Now he [...] se­cretly stir'd them up to war and rapine, to slaughter and blood-shed, even the precious blood of the Saints, he who egg'd, and spur'd them up to their mad ambition and rage; to alarum neigh­bour Provinces into confusions, to sa­tiate their lust, revenge and avarice; now he springs forth with his Rev. 9.17. breast­plate of fire, jacinct, and brimstone: and out of his mouth flow torrents of fire and smoak and sulphur: His head is twisted about with a Crown of Snakes, and girt with a Vest and Tu­nick of Scarlet deep dyed in the blood [Page 44] of Souls. This Prince of the Power of the Air, the raiser of tempests, now hur­ries up a storm within, which no crea­ted power can calm: At his puddling he finds turbulent matter in the foul sinck of their hearts, and rowzes all the winds of the Compasse into a dreadfull Hurricane: Then the wicked Gallio's that of old waved and tush't at any thing, but Spring-Gardens and painted Faces, and pampered Paunces, Rom. 13.14 and provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof: That snuff [...] at your Counsels like the doltish block-head, the Jer. 2.24. wild Asse in the Wilderness; Till their bel­lies swell big with the Tempter, in this moneth you shall find them crying out with the German Captain in those civil Wars: Six hundred Dollars for a Mi­nister to comfort a ga [...]led Conscience. Then how the Waves break white one in the neck of another? Oh! how the wicked wretch tumbles like Isa. 57.20. troubled Seas that cannot rest, and casts up mire and dirt? 'Tis dreadful to stand on the shore and see, how Leviathan makes the deep Job 41.31 [...] to boil like a pot, the Sea [...] like a Pot of Ointment; he m [...]kes a path of flaming Brimstone to [...] him, and at the breaking of these waves of fire, strong sulphurous exhal [...]tions even stiffle and suffocate the Sp [...]rits. One of the Ro­man Emperours sent to buy the Pillow [Page 45] of a man, that was greatly in debt, and yet could sleep sweetly: But who would not fly from the Pillow of an awakened Athiest, though stufft and [...]cramb'd with double angels: When such dismall Sprites chatter at the four corners: when he who had seduced them to all their flagitious [...]ins, and hardned them to perseverance now ap­pears in his colours, triumphing in the harvest of his envy, and tumbling his impenitent Proselytes, with himself into the bottomless gulf of despair.

And now 'tis evident, Who ever form'd Weapons against Heaven and prosper'd? Do not their Darts recoil upon their Psal. 68.21 own hairy Scalps? When against every raking Oppressor, Hab 2.1 [...] the Stone cries out of the Wall, and the Beam out of the Timber shall answer it. When Isa▪ 34.13, 14. the O [...]ls of the Desart shall hoop among their shatter'd Palaces in hideous Consort, and Satyres shall cry to their Fellows.

Now, Woe to the ruiners of Cities by Fire, and Hab. 2.12 builders of Towns with blood, that stablish their foundations by iniquity, and cement the stones with the gore of the Innocent: That put the Verse. 15. Bottle to the nose of their Neigh­bours and make them drunk, to behold their nakedness. That boast in their might Isa. 5.11.22. to drink Wine, that they are men of strength to mingle strong drink, [Page 46] and how many they knock under Ta­ble: V. 23, 24. Therefore as the fire devoureth stubble, and the flame consumeth the ch [...]ff; So their root shall be rotten­ness, and their blossome shall go up as dust. Now, Woe Hab. 2.19. to him that saith to the wood of a Table, awake; and to the dumb stone of a Cross, arise; for it shall teach: These all compass them­selves Isa. 50.11. with sparks of their own kindling: This they shall have at the hand of the Lord; they shall lye down in sorrows.

CHAP. V. Of the State of the Dead.

NOt only in reference to the State of Sinners before and at the point of Death: but as to their passage through the Valley of the grave, many grand horrors do occupy the thoughts of mortals: Oh! that it were to pre­vent, as well as fore-see: what a damp 'tis to carnal Spirits, to think of their heads being no sooner laid in the cold Cavern; but Death as a Tyger or Psa. 49.14. Lion greedily feeds upon them: With what a cold clamy sweat they faint a­way, to think of going down to the Gates of Death, and there to be lockt [Page 47] up in a loathsome Dungeon? But here's the sweet comfort of a Saint that Christ hath the Rev. 1.18. Keys at his Girdle and will give them the Ib. c. 2.28. the morning Star: They rest meekly pacified, that their blessed Lord went the same way to glo­ry: that Abraham, Samuel and David; that Daniel, Paul and John have beaten the path before them: There is but one Eph. 4.5. Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one new and living way to enter within the Vail, that former Saints Heb. 11 40 without us should not be made perfect.

But how mortally do the Pulses of unsanctified persons beat, at the remem­brance of the pit: How they swound away with many a sinking qualm. The fiery thoughts of their cold entertain­ment among the clods, well may they scorch and shrivel up the plumes of their pride and jollity: Oh how crest faln and blew in the lip; when this fa­tal guest knocks at door: The tenors of the old drunkards songs, do they not quiver and rattle in their throats with woful howlings? What Vultures of grief would knaw their heart-strings, did they dare to retire and meditate in this Charnel-house? Were they so valiant and hardy Knights as to converse with Conscience in secret? as heretofore they have met their impudent Mistres­ses Prov. 7.9, 10. with the attire of a Harlot in the twy-light, in the evening, in the black [Page] and dark night: Would they not hang the head, droop the wing and feel the [...]r Loins dissolv'd in trembling Palsies? Do not their countenances Dan. 5.6 change and their knees clatter together to read the writing upon the wall that their dayes are numbred and finisht? How do the inhabitants of the earth melt at the mu­sings on their forlorn estate in that hol­low and deep Vault? What! to be trodden upon by every footless worm, to be insulted upon by an ugly grub: to be bearded by a yellow Maggot, and to be kept prisoner in stinking chains of darkness by noisome rottenness? Oh! how it vexes the high spirit of a Lord, and nauseates the fine stomack of a Lady? Then's the time, when all Isa 14.9.10, 11. the Kings of the Nations will rise up from their Thrones in the grave, and pass this dolorous complement with the proud Emperor of Babe [...]: Art thou al­so become weak as we? Art thou be­come like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy Viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee, where the Nouns in the Hebrew B [...]ehart▪ de animal. part. 2. c. 254. are feminine, and the Verbs masculine: the creatures contemptible: but their feast magnificen [...], upon the bowels of Princes: Oh! how the Woodlice, flat-worms, maw-worms, the yellow-tails, mites, and wivils carve out their morsels, and [Page] rejoyce together: Annon, after the feast is ended, the yellow hundred foot takes up his Palace-royal in the skull of a King, and the proud mincing Jezabels shall have their faces once more painted and spotted with the odious excrements of a black Beetle.

'Tis but lean comfort for haughty and big looks which Prov 6.1▪ & 21 4 the Lord abhors, to be humbled into these dark holes: where their costly Sepulchral Lamps shine with but a dim and blew light, to search what impudent insects dare so boldly to crawl up and down their entrails, and scorn to give account to their sum­mons. For a living worm counts him­self more honourable than a putrifying Monarch.

Here, on this side the grave, after e­very meal they must have a fit of mu­sick to digest their varieties, and a sad poor fool must come in with his pat­ches to make them merry: But he that mocketh the poor (whether in purse or parts) Prov. 17.5. reproacheth his Maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.

Their gluttonous Feasts shall have sour sauce of deaths cooking; and no Doctor can sweat away the surfeits of Conscience: When Death hath once shook them by the should [...]r into the grave, he'l [...] call also for a lesson at his Table, and the Satyrs shall play low [Page 50] Funeral-Songs upon the Lute-strings of their perishing Nerves, and Dance in their courses while they are here, they rise from their gormandizing Platters to play at Cards for whole Parks, and fling the Dice for ancient M [...]nnors: But there flaming Devils will hurl their bones abou [...], from under the Altar, and the Chancel rails without Sacriledge and thrust their own Rapiers red hot into th [...] bushy Pa [...]es, and make those hairy Comets to burn for warning Beacons: O then, they would fain prevail with Father Abraham to send Messengers to their Luk. 16.28 five brethren upon earth to testi­fie to them, lest they also come to this place of torment: Here alter the game at Tables is ended, they hurry away with Coach and six horses in haste to hear a Sermon at the Play-house, and are very well edified, fully inst [...]ucted and takes notes of the ready way how to reach. Hell speedily: But there death and his Hos. 2 14. master will handle them with­out Mittens, he'l force no court com­plements upon them: There's a King of a fierce Dan. 8 23. countenance, understand­ing dark sayings, will speak as big and as rough as they taunted to the poor, he will make them bend the knee, and do suit and service at his Court-Baron: There they shall hear the Jaylors long­winded Lecture upon a sharp and cut­ting Text, and can't get out of his [Page 51] Chappel though they sit at the lower end, he'l keep them from sleeping, and gash their memories with the keen knife of his tongue, about the many Sabbaths they profaned, and the means of Grace they contemned; how they mockt at repentance, and loll'd out the tongue at preciseness; he'l gripe them with the holy examples, meek admonitions of Saints and their patient sufferings for the truth at their barbarous hands: They'l have cold stomachs to jeer and fleer in the face of this conscience scal­ding Preacher; he'l chain the blessed Bible to the D [...]sk of their Pews; which they had laid aside like an old Alma­nack: Now it comes in date at this year of reckoning. He'l prove to their faces, how they have slighted the heavy Judgments of the late dreadful Pesti­lence, the astonishing Fire, and the co­lour of the British Seas, crimson'd and [...]iapa [...]'d with the blood of their bre­thren: he'l gaul them with their base ingratitude in slighting the mercies of the Great God, who gave them reprie­val and survival after all these dismal mo­mento's. But now has delivered them from Jerom 21.7 the Pestilence, & from the Sword and from the Famine, into the hands of this dismal King of Assyria: he'l once more rub up their dull senses with sharp rebukes, about the numerous ch [...]cks of conscience, and the loud calls of the [Page] spirit, which then they injoyed, but now they may howl after, without any pitty: and that which shall vex them to the heart, he'l ever be harping and grating odiously upon the same string, and jarring in their ears, and rubbing the old sore about their lost opportuni­ties and seasons of grace: This shall be a plain and home Sermon, such as before they scoft at: here will be no flowers of Rhetorick to set off Truth to the squeazy palate of a Sermon sick Lady; here will be no fear to displease greatness, here's no Trencher Chap­ [...]ains to soften expressions, lest the great Churl Stomack at sound reproofs, that might save his soul: No, these dayes are past! here's no impatient lookings at the hour-glass when the last sand drops, to be gone to dinner; here's no being glad at sleeveless er­rands to steal away through the croud, and choak conscience with this [...]am: that a little's enough if well practised: No [...] here's a Preacher will hold them to it, and taunt and twit them with the day of repentance being over, and chain them to their seats, and lock them in the Stocks as once they did the Saints in Lollards-Tower; till the Trump of the Resurrection sounds an Alarum to Judgment.

Is this the state of wicked mens souls; while their bodies [...]ot in the grave: [Page] when will they learn to be wise for E­ternity? They must Bernard. de Conver. ad Clericos. suffocate and slay the worm of conscience; here saies Bernard, that would not be bitten here­after: Is it not better to hearken dili­gently to a few Sermons here, though [...]en hours long, though Act. 20.7. Paul preach till midnight: then to be [...]inckt to that terrible Sermon that shall last many hundred years long, from the day of death, till the day of judgment, and af­ter that a second Sermon in the after­noon, which shall know no evening, but last to Eternity: when rivers of tears can't wash away guilt, nor ten thousand rivers of oyl can't make thy Sacrifice flame acceptably Mic. 6.7. up to hea­ven: O be wise while the day lasts, and do the work which the Father gi­veth to work: Joh. 6.29. This is the work of God, that ye believe in him, whom he hath sent.

But if ye reject this counsel, and like foolish builders refuse this stone of the corner, till that fearful night shall over­shadow you; then your mouldring bodies must lye by it, and be kept in that smothering prison; while your la­menting souls are agitated and hurried with these condemning and tormenting Furies: There your bodies though of ne're so fine a Job. 21.26. Clay, must mix with the course allay of your once oppr [...]ssed Slaves: The dust of Princes must min­gle [Page 54] with base and mean Peasants: they and their Porters must lodge together: Lords and Beggers know no distance, and what Artist can form his Epitaph, by any distinct colour, or grain in their mould? Neither can heaps of Gold bribe▪ a fancied Charon, to waft their bodies out of these gloomy regions, these Egyptian shades to any Elysian meadows of pleasure: The searching brains of the ablest Counsellors can find no flaw in the Writ of Death, nor get any bayl or mainprize from that tedi­ous Gatehouse: Here the Skull of the acu [...]est Thomist through length of time will all dwindle into starvling Moss while he forgets to distinguish its fit season for the Weapon Salve: Alas! it won't cure the fractures made by Deaths Pole-Ax: No distinctions can satisfie this cunning sophister to turn the Key and release the Prisoner: But here they must all continue and abide in the state of the dead: The ingeni­ous Artificer, can invent no clew to hand him out of this snaring maze, this winding Labyrinth: There's Eccl. 9.10 no invention or judgment, no device, knowledge or wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest: 'Tis by the De­cree of the Dan. 4 17. watchers, the time once doom'd and fixt, there's no reversion. He that goes Job 7.9, 10 down into this far Country shall return no more to his [Page 55] house, nor shall his place know him a­gain: There all sit down in deep silence till the moment appointed by the high and holy One, who inhabits Eternity: Then shall the enemies of his Sons Kingdom, creep out of the dust to shame and everlasting contempt.

But the ashes of his people, their gra­cious Father lays them up in the trea­suries of his wakefull providence, and they shall be his in that day, that Mal. 3.17▪ he makes up his Jewels, when the joyful voice of Christ shall gently raise them to that blissfull dawn: when (RODODAK­TƲLOS NOOS,) the rosie fingered morn shall blush out of the East, and the Sun of Eternity shall gild their rising Tem­ples for glory.

CHAP. VI. Of the fell Dragons at the further end of the grave.

MEthinks the way through the dark Morisans Travels, p. 113. Grott near Naples, opening to­wards the sulfurous mountains of Vesu­vius, and the stagnant air of Campania bears some resemblance with this close and terrible passage, through the Val­ley of Death: were the terrors many [Page 56] at the entrance, they increase and mul­tiply at the coming [...]orth: There's no hiding, stopping or retreating; when the Reapers are sent forth to gather the Tares Mat. 13.30. together, to bind them in bun­dles and to burn them to ashes: no stately Mansolemns, no Marble Tombs can detain the new-enlivened bodies, when they begin to hear the shrill Ec­choes of the Arch-Angels Trumpet: That acute voice which sounded so oft in the ears of Jerom, Arise ye dead and come to Judgment.

The great doctrine of the Resurrecti­on which vain Athenians derided, now shines forth in its glory: when the bones that were scatter'd at the graves mouth begin to crawl together. See how the sinews, Ezek. 37.8. nerves, and muscles climb up to their proper places, and milk-white skin covers them round about Here's an admirable spectacle of the imperial power of God: when so many millions of miracles, shall pro­claim that glorious and fearful name of the Lord of Hosts: when some dust shall creep up the Banks of Rivers, and o­thers from the depths of the Sea: when that which was mingled with common Earth, o [...] the Sands of the Shore, the Bowels of Fishes, wild Beasts and Can­nibals, shall each Atome return to the structure of their proper Bodies, and all the round Globe over, new quickned [Page 57] and living persons start up in every quarter: Methinks the Angels stand gazing at it, and trumpeting forth blessing, Rev. 5.13. Clem. Alex. strom. l. 5 p. 405. honour, glory and power to him that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.

That the ancient Heathens had some glimpses of this great point Euseb. de prepar. E­vang. l. 11. c. 33. & l. 13. c. 13. Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius out of Plato and Plutarch, and our Bradward. de Caus. Dei. l. 1 c. 1. sect. 39. p. 96. Bradwardin out of Pliny, Varro, Plato and Democritus give some evidence: But whence the old Sophies lighted their Torches, and how far they improved their faint and glim­mering twi-light I must not enlarge: nor shew, who rose no higher then Py­thagoras his doctrine of transanimation, out of Porphyry and the Stoick Schools: since we have a more sure word of Prophecy, to which we do well 2 Pet. 1.19 to take heed as to a light, shining in a dark place till the Day-star arise in our hearts.

We have here to consider, with what [...]onsternation of Spirit, all wicked and ungodly men, shall lift up their heads out of the dust of Death: How bitterly shall their Souls and Bodies greet and rue the day of their sad reunion: These Simeons and Levies, former brethren in evil, now turn mutual instruments of cruelty in their habitations: Methinks the fore-dooming of that Tragical Dialogue should fore amuse any rea­sonable [Page 58] creature, To think, how the la­menting body shall wring its hands at the moment of the Souls re-entry: when the Soul it self shall tremble and all the bells of the senses ring backward at this fatall marriage: How do the eyes gush forth with tears in that clou­dy morning, and the whole day over­flown Pro. 27.15 with continual droppings of a soaking rain, and that with tears of blood, and flaming drops of brimstone. They who were in this life mutuall Tempters, shall in that life be mutuall Tormenters. O that mortals would put on Prometheus betimes and be wise be­fore hand, and cry out with Jacob, O my Gen. 49.6. Soul come not into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united: For both were guilty of self-murder, and that of the deepest grain, the strangling of Souls.

But alas! were the body to rise only, that were its happiness and perfection. Resurrection in its simple notion speaks out the redintegration of nature: The form of the Soul hath a strong and ve­hement appetite after the material Bo­dy: It delights in union to perform the native and genuine functions of in­formation: Alas! sinners shall not meerly rise, but must all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Jesus Christ, and can the [...] be any thing more horrible to the imagination of a dying sinner, [Page 59] not reconciled to God, then the great and fearfull Tribunal? When God Eccl. 12.14▪ shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil: When Death rides towards him on a meager and pale Horse; that dismayes him most to spie Judgment gal­lopping after him. Heb. 9.27. Its appointed for all to dye, and then to Judgment.

There will a Judge sit down upon a fiery Throne of Carbuncle: who shall not Isa. 11. judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears, external appearance and glittering great­ness bribes the understanding: and safe witness perverts the sentence of an earthly worm: he must go ( Secundum allegata & probata) according to proofs and witnesses: But here's a Judge Ib. V. 3. of quick scent in the fear of the Lord: righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness of his reins. (The O LOGOS) Heb. 4.12, 13. the Word essentiall pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow; he is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart: There's not a creature but is manifest in his sight: All things without are na­ked and stript of their vestments, and all things within are cut open by his Razor, and anatomiz'd to the back­bone and spinall marrow before the eyes of him with whom we have to doe.

[Page 60]The eyes of this Judge are Rev. [...]1.14. &c. as a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass burning in a Furnace, he treads down and burns up his enemies at once: His voice is as the sound of many waters, who can abide▪ the day of his coming? Out of his mouth flowes a sharp two-edged Sword, and his countenance is like the Sun shining in his strength. Rev. 2.23 He sear­cheth the reins and hearts, and giveth to every one according to their works.

He that sits down on this Judgment-Seat, Rev. 4.3. &c. is to look on, like the various and many-vein'd Jasper in the rare di­versity of his excellent and glorious attributes and perfections: like the in­carnate Sardine in taking our flesh upon him, and round about the Throne the enamouring Rain-bow of the Cove­nant, shining like a pleasant green E­merald with all the glittering promises of the Spirit. Upon twenty four Seats encompassing this illustrious Chair of heavenly state, sit the reverend Asses­sors, twenty four Elders, clothed in white Raiment and Crowns of Gold upon their Heads, according to the twenty four Orders of Priests, attending this great Prince of might, and High-Priest upon Zach 6.13. his Throne, and between his Princely and his Priestly Dignities, the Counsel of Peace shall stand. Before him burn seven Lamps of Fire, and up­on twelve Brazen Oxen stands a Sea [Page 61] of Glass like Chrystal: He is endued with the multiformous gifts and graces of the holy Spirit: his hands are alwayes purely washt in Innocency, and round about the Throne in this Majestical Temple-Session, angelical Cherubims full of eyes, cry night and day Rev. 4.8. [ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, V. 5. and is to come] and from out of the Throne proceed lightnings, and thunderings, and voices.

At so radiant and tremendous a Spe­ctacle, in such a glorious and orient Theatre: how can the direful perse­cutors of the Church look up? O how they creep to the Rocks for some hole, some cleft to pitty them, O Nimrod, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezar! O Nero, T [...]ajan and Dioclesian, whither will ye run from the face of the Lamb, that sits on the Throne, who with his fulgent Eyes, searches and pierces to the Cen­ter of the Universe. O Pope of Rome and thy cursed Shavelings, Its in vain now to stand poring on Bern de Conside▪ ad Eugen f. 2▪ 37 h. Bernards good monitions to thy stubborn Predecessor, Eugenius. O Bonner and Gardiner, what will become of you and your Successors, for pushing, and goring, and letting out the blood of Saints, all in the Book of Martyrs, Remember James Abbes, and the Fox Mar­ty [...]s Vol. 3. p 956, &c. Ed. 1641. Sheriffs Servant at Bury, who railing at that faithful Martyr, was strook with madness and cryed out, James Abbes [Page 62] is the servant of God and is saved, but I am damn'd, and inveighed at the Priest that brought him the Host, that he and such were the cause of his dam­nation.

Is it so terrible before hand in the presentments and preaccusations of Conscience, before that great and fear­ful Day of the Lord come? What will be the horror of execution, when the blood which is dryed up in prisons as well as drawn forth by whips and flames, shall be weighed to a drop and a grain in the ballance of this righte­ous Judge. So much Rev. 18.7. torment and sor­row give them: Then the Beast shall be taken, and with him that false Pro­phet the Pope, that wrought Miracles before him: Both these shall be cast a­live into the Lake of fire burning with Brimstone: Then, they that Rev 14▪ 10, &c. worship the Beast and his Image, and receiv'd his Mark in Hand or Forehead, shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: the smoak of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever. They shall have no rest day nor night, who ador'd the Beast or his I­mage, or received the Mark of his Name: And this brings me to the last Considera­tion, and that's Eternity.

The misery of Hell (could I speak it properly) were it to end but a [Page 63] moment on this side Eternity, either in bliss or abatement of pain or compleat annihilation: 'twere a soveraign Cor­dial. The memory of it would be a cooling drop day by day, upon the tongue of every Dives, to keep it from blistering into blasphemy.

But to ponder upon this dreadful, Ever: and to champ upon it to Eter­nity, its a thousand times more bitter than Wormwood, Aloes or Coloquin­tida. 'Tis to swallow down the wine of astonishment, and to pledg one another Deut. 30 33 with the poyson of Dragons, and the cruel venome of Aspes.

I dare any wicked man in the world to run on in their follies, with any se­rious apprehensions of Eternity, or calm convictions of it upon their Spi­rits. Clem Alex­andr. Strom. l. 1. p. 222 Edit. Lug. B. Poor Heathens have highly as­serted the Souls Immortality, and com­mon reason evinces, that there can be no communion between God and Be­lial, sight and darkness can't associate. If the Soul be immortal, and its union to God be the life of the Soul? must it not (when God's absent, & absent for ever from all unholy persons) lye down in Eternal Death? 1 John 1.6, 7, &c. He that walketh in light, dwelleth and hath fellowship with the Father, and with the Son: But he that lives and dies in darkness can never come to, or abide in Eternal Light: But must be cast out into utter [Page 64] darkness, where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I know there be such in our dayes, or else I should not mention it, who would fain tamper with the false do­ctrine of Orig [...]n, and (like his weak Dis­ciples) would perswade themselves, that AIOON and AIOONIOS in the Greek, often note but a stated de­termination of time, and therefore may be so understood in this case. Poor wretches! will they hazard their all up­on a pittiful conjecture: a jejune cri­ticism in Grammar, and run fool-hardy upon the pikes of divine vengeance, and the thick bosses of his Bucklers, under the thin covert of a words acceptation sometimes in that sense in Scripture: when the nature of the matter, and the force of the context obliges: should you not rather deeply weigh and pon­der upon those places: where the dam­nation of the wicked is opposed to the eternal salvation Dan 12.2 Mat. 25 46. Jude 7.21.22 of the Godly. Do you believe eternal life for the Saints? and shall the wicked, who come not in­to a life of grace, shall they after a set race of years be raised to glory? Such as never repent, never close with Christ, never fly to the promise while here; and is there any repentance in the grave or remission of sins? O fool, twice dy­ed in grain, that darest to venture thy Soul upon the punctilio of a word. [Page 65] Nay, is not that very word, AIOONIOS, used and applyed to the divine Rom. 16.26 Heb. 9.24. Ma­jesty, who inhabits eternity, and dwel­leth in the inaccessible light: Nay, are there not other cogent expressions set­ting out the perpetuity of that estate in misery (where their word is absent: with which they play their lives at stake). Is there not a doleful Mat. 5.26 Rev. 1.18 prison which no man can unlock or break through▪ or be let forth till he pay the utmost farthing? Is there not a place where the Mark 9.44.46, 48. worm of Conscience dies not, and the fire shall never be quencht? Are these but dry metaphors? Take heed thy soul be not the dreadful fiery comment, that thou sink not into Luk. 16.26 that great gulf, Rev. 20.3. that bottomless pit: If thou wilt be wise Prov 9.12. be wise for thy self and believe on the Son Joh. 3.36, to everlasting life, he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abi­deth on him.

O Souls, will you warm your thoughts, and unfreeze your security at that fearful fire; will you open your eyes at the sight of that horrible dark­ness. Fire that yields no light, and flames, that are thick with darkness. O monstrous misery! A cohabitation with Devils: The Drum of the ears even tingles, and is broken in pieces, with distracted roarings of men and devils, and yet to see no body. O Souls! will [Page 66] you be warn'd by the noises of these Canons at distance? shall that insati­able thirst and gnawing worm well view'd in the glass of divine threatnings provoke you to mend? Or will you stay rather, till you feel the loins of wrath in its unsupportable burden, and then cry out too late? Alas thy Consci­ence then at every turn will dun thy Soul, with that of Abraham to Luk 16 25 Dives, O Son remember, &c. Remember the many holy Sabbaths, the precious Ser­mons, the earnest zeal of painful Mi­nisters to pull thee as a fire-brand out of the fire: Remember the good examples, the pious presidents, the melting ad­monitions, the fore afflictions and fa­therly visitations of God. Remember me, thy now sweltring Conscience, that shook thee often by the Collar, that scared thee to some duties, and gave thee many a warm Item of this wrath to come: Remember how thou scoffedst at puritans and mourners for sin. Remem­ber that good spirit that cried to thee, Return, return, harden not thy heart, hearken while 'tis called to day. But now vain is the hope of mercy: vain to lift up the bitterest cries, thou shalt find no place for repentance in the breast of God Heb. 12 17 no change in his mind, though thou seek it carefully with tears. The day of thy blessing is past. Now the hope of the hypocrite is cut of [...], and [Page 67] swept down like a Spiders Web. Now thou hast no rest from this angry teazed Vulture, that knaws thy Liver night and day: And that which puts the bloody and circumflex accent, the abiding tone upon all thy maladies: They are Eter­nal, who can dwell with Isa. 33.14 everlast­ing burnings, who will set Isa. 27.4. briars and thorns against him in Battel? who can enter the Lists and contend with con­suming fire, when it shall devour before him and be very Psa. 50.3. tempestuous round about him▪ when he shall shew Isa. 30 3, 31 the lighting down of his arm with the in­dignation of his anger, with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones; When the pile of Tophet shall be fire, and much wood, and the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone shall kindle it?

These are the fiery Serpents (the Ha­seraphim) the Devils, the fell Dragons that gape with open mouth, that hiss with inflamed tongues, and pour out floods of venome, at the further end of the grave upon every impenitent sinner.

O that the terror of the Lord would perswade men to take hold of his arm, to make peace with hi [...]h, and to be Job 22 2 [...] at rest. O that I could rowz [...] vain man from the lap of pleasure. Will ye sl [...]ep on the Prov. 23.34 top of a Mast, in such a row­ling and tumbling tempest, when every [Page 68] whiffe may toss you into the deeps of Hell? Be wise at last, if possible, and shake off your senseless slumbers; O hard heart that tremblest not at the rattling of his Chariots, when he clotheth the necks of his Horses, with thunder a­gainst thee as in the day of Battel. That's a hard heart which is not fright­ed at it self, and what will be the event? Ask not me, says Bernard Eugen. f. 237. a. Bernard, but ask Pharaoh: Be instructed by the Egyptian Carcasses on the shore of the Red-sea. Will you learn to Psal. 2.12. kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way? when his wrath is kindled but a little: O when it flames all abroad, how terri­ble is it? The flames of London were but painted fire to this. That suckt up houses, but this Mat. 10 3. immortal Souls.

But where's the Remedy? O kiss the Son lest he be angry: O blessed Son! O gracious Saviour, that's Psal. 2.12 angry if he be not kist; and griev'd if he be not loved: He loves Prov. 8.17 36. them that love him; and complains, that they wrong their own Souls, and love death, that hate him.

Vile Sinners! we are angry with him because he calls for love, who needs not care for't: let's be angry with our selves, because we give it not: He's angry with sinners, that Sinners kiss him not. Such as cast away the cords of his Laws, V. 3. he casts about them the cords of his love. [Page 69] And must such sinners kiss him? yes! they kiss the creature, why not him? he made our hearts, he loves our hearts and chides to have them. 'Tis a jealous love, no waters quench, but such as freely run into it.

Here's loving anger and wrath in grace, he fights with kind anger, that he may embrace with love. 'Tis the heat of love that kindles his ange [...], [...] if neglected, 'twill blaze into a flame. His love hastens us with the voice of anger: that the fire of his anger consume us not: His anger calls us from his an­ger, but not to his anger, but to his love. His mouth checks us that we may kiss it, and his heart is moved for us, that we may move into it: when anger warns, 'tis loving anger: but love too long abused kindles the flame of wrath. If so much love in this holy anger to bring us to him: what manner of love in those blessed kisses, when we come. Let's then love his anger, and kiss his love: Psa. 2 12. For happy are all they that put their trust in him.

You that are living, hearken to his anger that ye may never feel it, lay this love to heart, and consider its latter end. This love will gather the Saints toge­ther, and set apart the godly, the kind Psa. 4.5 Benignus. in heart Psa. 50.4. that love him, for himself: For such have made an everlasting cove­nant of Salt with him by sacrifice.

CHAP. VII. Of a Saints Comforts, against all the Evils in Death.

I Will fear no evil, saies David: For thou art with me, thy crook and thy staff, they comfort me.

Here, are evils great and manifold in this Valley of Death: evils to be feared and trembled at, but not by a David. Anacepha­l [...]osis. A Saint will fear no evil: what David, no evil? not the evil of loss, nor the evil of sense, not the parting from many sweet enjoyments, not the curse of the Law, thundering from Si­nai, and lightning from Ebal, not the conflicts of conscience, nor the darts of Satan, not the pangs of sickness, nor the pains of death, not the mouldring dust, nor unsavoury stench; not the hi­deous darkness, nor the tedious night of the grave, as you may perceive by the foregoing Chapters. O valiant Da­vid! when God stands by thee: what, do'st thou not stagger at the doctrine nor [...]ear the event of thy resurrection to Judgment, not the strictness of that awful Judge nor his doomful sentence: nor the long face or silver hairs of Eter­nity? [Page 71] No, no! David will fear no e­vil, and here's his Cordiall. For thou art with me: thy crook and thy staff, they comfort me.

He fears no evil, because God is with him: He fears God, and therefore nought but God. I'le forewarn you whom ye shall fear, Luk 12.5 sayes our Lord, fear him, who after he hath kill'd, hath power to cast into Hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him. The filiall fear of God expells the tormenting fear of death and hell it self. Holy David with one God in his hand encounters and vanquishes every evil, and scatters the fear of evil. Let the King of Terrors muster his Forces and order his Troops in Battalia: The shadow of death to David is but the shadow of evil. Though Psa. 3.6 ten thousand Curiassiers run upon him atilt with envenom'd and poysoned spears, Psa. 4.8. he layes him down in the bosome of God, he sleeps in peace; For thou Lord makest him to rest in safety. The Job 26.11. Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonisht at his reproof, who keeps a Saint in his arms. He'll scourge the black Tents of Hab. 3.7. Matt. 27.54. Cushan with affliction, and the pale Curtains of this Land of Midian, like the Souldiers a [...] our Lords Sepulchre, shall tremble to detain a Saint in the grave; For he that keepeth Israel Psa. 121.3. shall neither slumber nor sleep: he'l awaken him in due time [Page 72] in the resurrection morning to enter the Courts of Glory.

David saies not: I shall not dye, and therefore I will not fear: But though I dye, I will not fear, for thou art with me. Be the waters of Kidron never so deep: the fire of Tophet's Valley never so quick and furious: Psal. 40 2. the pit of Mo­loch never so dark and obscure: God hath secured my heart from fear, because he is with me: Isa. 43.2. The waters shall not drown▪ nor the fire burn, nor the pit swallow. The power and wisdom, the mercy and truth of God encircle the faith of a Saint, he dyes Heb. 11.13 kissing and embracing the promises, and like good old Simeon taking Christ in his arms: he tunes his Swan-like Luk. 2.28, 29 Sonnet, and sings himself asleep at the mouth of the grave.

Thou art with me: For thou art mine. A God in Covenant guides to death, and receives to glory. Other friends take leave at death: Here's a friend like Ruth Ruth 1.16. goes through with thee to Cana­an: Others shake hands at the grave, they weep with Orpah and depart: This friend takes thy spirit into his Luk 23.46 hands immediately, and keeps thy body in his privy Isa. 26.20. chamber of presence. God is the God of Abraham even in the grave, God Mat. 22.32 is not the God of the dead, but of the living: God is the God of whole Abraham, therefore Abraham is alive to [Page 73] God, his immortal soul is alive with God: his precious dust is alive to God: and therefore Abraham's body shall arise to glory: 'Tis in his keeping, who keepeth all the Psa 34 20 bones of his Saints, not one of them is broken: and to mor­row (I mean at the resurrection of the just) all their Psa. 35.10. bones shall say, Lord who is like unto thee? Josephs bones are embalm'd for heaven, and lye in a more magnificent Tomb then Egypt­tian Pyramids, and Gen 50 25 Exod 3.19. Josh. 24.32. Heb. 11.22 follow the Ark to Canaan. Does the Father take care of his childrens bone? what chest do they sleep in? with Isa 26.19. my dead body, says Christ, in the Cedar Chest of the Co­venant. What? doe they sleep in the arms of his own beloved Son? yes, they 1 Thes. 4 14. sleep in Jesus, and shall rise with Jesus: They are baptized into his death, V. 14. and buried in his grave, and brought in the clouds together with him. The same new Tomb, the same Fine Linnen, the same Spices, the same Angels for a Saviour, and for his Saints. Little did Joseph of Arimathea, think that he embalmed the whole body my­stical of Christ, and wrapt the Saints together with him in the same Joh. 20.7 Napkin, but so he did, by reason of their com­munion with him.

But does the Father and the Son like­wise take such heavenly care of dying Simeons? and is the Spirit of Grace at a [Page 74] distance from the bodies of Saints, which are his 1 Cor. 6 19. Temples? No such matter! though there were not a stone of these Temples lying upon another, yet the Spirit will rear them up. The Spirit of God is at work in the grave [...] If the Rom. 8.11. spirit of him that raised up Jesus [...] the dead, dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. So then, well may a Saint with holy Jacob Gen 49.33 gather up his feet into his bed and sweetly fall a sleep. For the Father keeps him, the Son lies by him, and the Spirit quickens him: All heaven will come down to the grave of a Saint, and not wake their beloved, till Song. 6.4. the day break and the shadows flee away, then up he gets to the mountains of Myrrhe and to the Hills of Frankincense.

But to follow David: its worth tra­cing the footsteps of David: nay the footsteps of God with David in this Valley: Therefore he fears not, for God is with him: lets listen to his Harp and learn the Ditty. Methinks I hear five principal Songs of spiritual consolation for a dying Saint.

1 An Experimental feeling of the di­vine presence. For thou art with me: Da­vid ha's it and David feels it, and there­fore speaks it: 'Tis his safety to have it, his joy to feel it, and his love to speak [Page 75] it: the having of God at death carries us to heaven safely; the feeling it, wings us thither, and makes us sing of it to others, when we are flying.

A holy Appeal to God in Prayer, 2 David must now be supposed upon his knees, praying, harping, singing, for thou art with me: All the joyfull Pray­ers of a Saint end with Songs, and the Songs with this Epiphonema; this bur­den, shall I call it? No! this Diapsalma, this Selah, this Diapason, this Close upon all the Strings, For thou art with me.

A Saint in Covenant, and a Saint knowing it, may dye sweetly: 'Tis a 3 strong Cordial; 'twill sweat away death: For thou art with me, and what's the reason; For thou a [...] mine; He that can prove, that God is [...], may sweetly inferr that God is with him. God's with none but who are his: But they that are so, and know it so, shall fear no evil: For God makes them Act. 2 28. full of joy with his countenance.

Divine Relation is a Saints Sanctu­ary. 4 Fly to this holy Tower and thou art safe. The Lord's Psa. 23.1. my shepherd, I shall not want a full Table, trickling Oyl, a running Cup are Davids portion. Such a child that hath a God to his Fa­ther, fears no want. Such a Lamb, that hath a God to his Shepherd, V. 5. fears no evil. His crook and his st [...]ff shall com­fort him: Here's green Pastures and [Page 76] pleasant Rivers in the very Valley of Death.

Faiths prospect of Heaven transports 5 a Saint. He sees Deaths Valley: but 'tis a Gi [...]den Vale. 'Tis a narrow Valley, he leaps it over with his Shepherds staffe: Faiths eyes are strong and its legs nimble: He takes his rise from the pro­mise, and no sooner di [...]s, but is over Kidron; At death carnal mens eyes are dim, no spectacle, no optick Glass can help them to spie Jerusalem. A Saint like Moses hath Deut▪ 34 7 strong eyes, nor is his natural moisture fled. He stands up­on the Pisgah of his own Tomb, and sees cross the whole Land of Canaan, to the utmost, V 2. even the Mediterranean Sea. Others at death, how feeble are Eccl. 12 3 the knees of their Souls? their hands the keepers of their house tremble, and their thigh-bones the strong men bow them­selves. But the feeblest of the inhabi­tants of Zion, (I speak of such as stand [ in specula visionis Zach. 12 8.] in the watch-tower of Faith, and look through the glass of assurance) they shall be as David in that day, and the house of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them: As David! but why as David? Sure, strong was the faith and piercing the eye of David, that saw glory so clearly through all the thick Fogs and Mists of the Valley: 'Twas God was with him that cleared his eyes, and [Page 77] pointed with his hands as he did to Moses, and Deut. 34.1, 4. caused him to see it. But neither Moses nor Aaron must enter, to shew that the ceremonial no nor the moral Law can't wait us over the Brook to Canaan. But David, the Prince of the new Covenant, he shall tread down the Cananites, and on his head shall his Crown flourish: David the Subject had David the Psa. 84 3. King with him: David the Servant had David the Son: the Son of Jesse had the Son of God for Psa. 110.1. his Lord and Captain. And whose Faith shall not flowre by Christs watering? and whose fear shall not wither at his pre­sence: who fears death when this Shep­heard sustains? who fears his arriving to Heaven, if a God, if a God in Cove­nant, if my God and my Father lead me. Thou art now with me, sayes Da­vid, I'le not fear, for shortly I shall be with thee: God's with us here: but we are with him in heaven: here drops of Heaven slide into us, there we shall swim in heavens Ocean: Here a little of the oyl of joy trickles into our hearts from Psa. 133.2. the head of Christ: there we shall Mat. 25.21 enter into the fulness of our Lord and Masters joy: here it enters into us, and there we enter into it. But still by virtue of his presence, thou art with me, and the vigor of his conduct, thou shalt lead me: Thou art with me to bring me to thee: Thy Crook and [Page 78] thy Staff they comfort me, and why? For they protect and guide me to thy holy Hill, and to thy Tabernacles. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: At Psa 16.11 thy right hand are pleasures for evermore: of all these five, I hope to treat in their order; If God permit.

CHAP. VIII. Experimental feelings of the Divine presence, choice Comforts to a Saint at Death.

THou hast made known unto me the waves of life: and what fol­lowes? Thou Acts 2.28. shalt make me full of joy from thy countenance. God's face darts one beam of light on the path of a Saint, to shine upon his way to glory: another beam (and that's of joy) upon the heart of a Saint, to oyl his motion. And all but beams: yet warming beams and experienc'd beams to hasten him to the Sun it self. A Saint ha's now but beams of joy, and blessed be God for beams, and such beams as direct and attract to the Sun it self, to that Sun of joy, to the fulness of joy in his coun­tenance: Saints look unto him and their Psa. 34.5. faces are enlightned, our looking to God makes us look like him and the [Page 79] nearer to him, the more we are like him; Gods countenance is of a changing and transforming nature: When God lookt upon Moses but through a chinck: how did his face shine, how lovely was it, as well as glorious? God smiles on a Saint in love, and a Saint reflects upon God with joy.

But Saints have not only good looks from God, but free entertainment. He maketh me to lye down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his Names sake: Oh! how the cool Etesian gales from the rivers of the spirit in ordinances revive and refresh a Saint: The expe­rience of present mercies dispells the fears of future evils: I will fear no evil for thou art with me: God never for­sakes a soul in covenant, never with­draws his real (though sometimes his visible) communion. I foresaw the Lord always Act. 2.25, 27 before my face: therefore my heart rejoices, &c. because thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave. By nature God's not with us: but when once the day spring from on high doth visit us, grace never sets in an evening, whether we sleep or wake we are still with God.

Here's the point, to know aright; that God is with us: and we with him. Whether we have walkt with God and he with us. If Enoch walk with God, [Page 80] then God will take him: He that walks with God, pleases God: Gen. 5.24 The Septuagint render the Hebrew word for walking, by pleasing God, and the Spirit of God delights in the word [ EƲ ­ERESTEIN] and uses the same Heb. 11.5. when treating of Enoch in the New-Testament, to shew what pleasure God takes in them, that walk with him.

If we walk with God, we have fel­lowship and communion with him. God 1 Joh. 1.6, 7. is light, and if we walk in light we walk with him: Light is holiness: and a holy person walks in light and dwells in God: let's not spot our gar­ments, and we shall walk with him in white Rev. 3.4. The fine linnen of holiness a­las, what Saint doth keep it clean: we must wash it daily in the Laver of the Spirit, or else no company for a holy God: The best of our linnen is but cour [...]e and yellow: its well if it be sin­cere and true: but then it shall shine with rayes of glorious light, and be la­ced and beautified with admirable gifts: The Queen Psal 45.14 shall be brought unto him in raiment of needle-work at the wed­ding day. Now 'tis soiled with many a drop and many a foul spot: but then as pure as God would have it. Now, the more's the pitty, 'tis patcht and ragged: many a Saint is out at heels in his holi­ness, he walks disorderly and uncomely. But then we shall have new Coats, fine [Page 81] linnen clean and white, Rev. 19.8. and change of Raiment from our older bro­ther. Benjamin Gen. 45.22 shall be fine indeed, when he sits at the Table of the Ruler of Canaan: 'Tis holiness fits us for Table communion in heaven: 'tis porch communion in grace that brings us near it: hast thou never walkt with God in the porch? thou shalt never sit down at the Luk 22.30 Table of Christ and drink the new wine of the King­dom.

Again; As God walks in the light of holiness: he walks also in the holy 2 Place of his Temple, God delights in his Ordinances, in his pure worship: We walk with God when our hearts are in communion with him in Ordi­nances. His paths are in the Sanctuary, there's his Lam. 2 1.footstool and there his go­ings: He Rev. 2.1. walks among the golden Candlesticks: In the Temple all talk of his glory, while he sits at the Table of grace, and the Song 1.11. Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof; T [...]re he hath Ps. 133.3. commanded the blessing and life for evermore.

Walking in Scripture when applyed to God in communion with Saints, is exprest three several ways: Before God, with God, and after God.

To walk before God (among others) one special sense is, (that we are now upon) to walk in pure and holy wor­ship. [Page 82] Coming up to the Temple is cal­led a coming up 1 King 14 9 before God, our ap­pearing, Psa. 56.13. sitting, 1 Sam. 2.30, 35. walking and abi­ding before him. Ps. 100 2. &c. And Jeroboam is branded on the account of false worship, that he cast God behind his back. As God commands his people, they shall have no other Gods before him; So be forbids any other worship then he hath instituted, to serve himself with: For he is Exod. 20.5. a jealous God: his eyes do see quickly Exod. 32.8 and his jealousie will Deut. 29.18, 20 smoak fiercely against such a man, and all the curses in the Book shall lye upon him, and the Lord will blot his name from under heaven. Bold and sawcy is that silly worm that presumes to chalk out a worship for the living God.

To walk with God, is to walk in his wayes, in his statutes and command­ments to do them: to eye his directi­ons, to feel and turn about with every guide of his hand. We must Psal. 119. choose his precepts for our way, and we shall have him for company: and is the way so holy, and our God so holy? then blessed is the man that's holy and unde­filed Ps 119.1. in such a way, and in such hea­venly company: The Hos. 14.9. wayes of the Lord are right: the just shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein. Every holy duty is a rock of offence, and a stone of stumbling to a carnal heart, [Page 83] he trips and stumbles and falls and rises no more: But an upright heart, and an upright way, meet pleasantly with an Psa. 25 8 upright Lord, that teaches sinners in the way, and guideth the meek in judgment: Prov. 11 20 Such as are upright in the way, are his delight, he takes pleasure in the path and person.

To walk Deut 13 4. after God, is to choose God for our Captain and Leader: to make him our example, president and conduct. The Israelites followed the cloud of Gods presence by day, and the pil­lar of Fire by night, in the howling Wilderness of Arabia, till they came to Canaan. When the Numb. 9.17 cloud was taken up, then Israel journied, and where the cloud abode, there they pitched their Tents: Saints must be imitators Deut. 1.36. Josh. 14 8.9 of Caleb and Joshua, to follow the cloud of the divine presence fully: and this is the Churches prayer Psa. 80.2. before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up the Ark of thy Strength, march before us to lead and save us: A holy and per­fect God goes before, and a holy and per­fect People follow after: Be Mat. 5.48. ye perfect as your heavenly Father is per­fect: be ye holy in all manner of con­versation; For 'tis written Pet. 1.15, 16 be ye holy as I am holy: Not to come up to it, but to come after it; not to equal but to eye and imitate. O perfect copy! the more a Saint looks at it, the more [Page 84] he mends his hand: O the rare strokes in this pattern of holiness! that ena­mours the eye to behold, and quickens the hand to imitate: As he is, so are we 1 Joh. 4.17 in this world: as he walkt 1 Joh. 2.6. so ought we: So should we Lord! and by thy heavenly conduct so would we: Let Saints consider, how Christ walkt: how obediently to the Father, how ten­derly to the brethren, how mortified to the worlds vanities. When thy thoughts are tempering, or thy tongue upon the string: thy hand or thy foot hastning to action: stop one moment, consider, would Christ do this, and be followers of God, as Eph. 5.1. dear children.

3 Thirdly, As God walks in holiness, and in the Sanctuary of Ordinances: So he delights to walk among a holy People: he Zeph. 3.17. rejoyces over them with joy, he rests in his love, and joyes over them with singing: When Zion shines in holiness, she shall be a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal Diadem in the hand of her God: She shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor her land desolate: But her own name shall be Isa. 62.4. Heph-zibah and her Lands name Beulah: For the Lord de­lighteth in her, and her land shall be mar­ried. The joy and delight of God is in a people like himself, with such he will dwell, rejoyce over them 2 Cor. 6.16, 17. above the joy of harvest, and walk in them for [Page 85] ever. Prov 8.17. I love them that love me, says Wisdom and who seeks me early shall find me: Love sets the heart a seeking and the more we love him, we seek the earlier. I sought yea Song 3.1. by night, him whom my soul lov'd. Night-searchers are Christ finders, a holy heart seeks a holy Saviour, and a holy Lord delights to be found by it: Christ absents, not for want of love to us, but to inflame our love to him: he loves Song 2.9.14 to stand behind the wall, and to hear our moa­ning after him; to look out at the 2.9. win­dow of heaven, and takes pleasure to see our wandrings about to find him, and sends Isa 30.21. his holy spirit to whisper to us, where he is

Art thou like Christ? Dost thou de­light in Song 2.14. hearing the voice, and seeing the face and changing breaths in con­versing with Saints? Does the blood of David run in thy Veins? Does thy goodness, thy kindness, extend to Saints on earth, to those Ps 16 2, 3. excellent ones, more excellent Prov. 12.26 than their neighbour? Is thy delight in these Princes of the daughters of Zion, these Psa 45.16. Princes in all the Earth. God calls Zion his Heph-zibah my delight is in her: Dost thou call the Sons of Zion, thy Heph-zibam? My delights in them. So David did, Psal. 16, 3. Col-Hephzibam, All my delights in them. All his delight: All his time, and all his parts, all his estate, and all his affe­ctions [Page 86] are spent with God and Saints: With his good will, he could spend all his dayes in the Courts of Gods house and society of Israelites, that come up to worship. Art thou one of these? then all these are thine: because thou art Christs, thy heart's in them, and one day in their company is a little heaven: For what makes heaven? Psal. 84.7 but a purer and a longer communion with God and Saints. Why did David so long and pant to dwell in Gods house? that he calls it, his Psa 27.4. one thing, his one, his only his darling, his choice petition? chiefly! to Psa. 27.4 behold the amenities, the pleasant­nesses, the beauties of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple, to tast the 36.8. fat­ness of his house, the fat sacrifices of the peace-offerings with God. God had his part and the Priest his, and the Saint his. In Lev. 7.14.15, &c. the old Sacrifices all the fat C. 3.16. was the Lords: but in the spiritual sacrifices, all the Isa. 25.6 Psal. 63.5. fat is a Saints at the Gospel mountain: when the cloth is spread for the feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, when the wine's mingled, and Prov. 9.2. the table's furnisht, and Wisdom cries, Song 5.1. Eat O friends and drink abundantly O beloved.

But this is not all, (yet more than all besides) though David love God above all seeks him before all, and loves Zion for finding God there: yet the Saints he loves too, and therefore delights to [Page 87] go to Zion to meet the multitude that kept holy feasts in Psa 42.4. the courts of God. [ Hamon Turba tripudians. chogeg,] To rejoyce with the multitude of dancers, and hear the joy­ful Psa. 89.15. sound: where they are still Psal. 84.4. praising him and Psal. 145 11, 12. talking of his pow­er: They sing of his righteousness, his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his Kingdom.

Where's the man that pleads his name in Zions Court-roll: he that's Ps. 87.5, 7. born there, delights to be there among the Sin­gers and Players on Instruments: he loves the Songs of Zion; For all his Springs are in Zion, and stream from the God of Zion: Would you find a Saint or would you find your self to be so? look in the Courts of Zion: in pure Ordinances with a pure God do all true Saints converse. Dost thou enquire for the Song 1.7, 8. footsteps of the flocks of his companions. Perhaps the Fathers flock, the little chosen flock of Christ, is with his son Moses, some faithful Shepheard in the Exod. 3.1, 2. back-side of a Desart coming to the mountain of God, and there see Vi­sions of the flaming Bush and the An­gel of the Covenant in it? Do'st thou delight where Christ does feed, though in secret and retired corners, and hol­dest communion with Saints there? 'Tis not glittering pomp of outward services that takes the heart of a Saint: that's the mark of a Roman strumpet. [Page 88] To worship in spirit and truth: not in gaudy Gerizims or stately Samaritan Temples, Joh. 4.20. 2 King. 16.11. not to burn incense on Al­tars like those of Damascus: but in na­ked and plain simplicity of the Gospel lies the beauty and glory and ornament of the true Church. Altare Da­mascenum. Divine institutions: not a little beyond them of mens inven­tion, please a holy heart. A true Con­vert alwayes inquires after purity of wor­ship; like the woman Joh. 4.20. of Samaria, when Christ was working upon her heart, is very inquisitive and busie about the truth of worship, and Christ as ready and clear in answers. Art thou a walker with God? thou walk'st then and con­versest with him, and with holy Saints in holy worship.

But is thy delight in vain Compani­ons: that's an ill token. Dost thou fan­cy and rellish Mat. 15 9 vain worship, and set­test in the assemblies of superstitious Zealots. It's a bad Omen of a car­nal heart, and an ignorant head. A mans company shews his moralls: and a Saints, his graces. Where our treasure is, there our heart and love, and communion lies. A vain habit and a vain gesture, and vain discourse with vain and trifling spirits are the Sign-Posts, that hang out from an empty and a vain heart. Do'st thou bowl a­way thy time, shoot away thy seasons, and bett away thy precious hours a­mong [Page 89] the wasters of the day of grace? I fear thy profession is rotten at core. David argues his integrity before God, in not having sat Psa. 26.4. with vain persons. nor having gone in with dissemblers or 35.16. with hypocritical mockers in Feasts. But that he was a Companion Psa. 119.6. of all such as feared the Lord and kept his Pre­cepts. Sheep do not use to company with hogs, and lye down in the mire together, you never saw Doves feeding upon Carrion' with Crows and Ravens. Such, whom thou perceivest by a spi­ritual instinct and expectest to sing with thee in heaven; do thou company with, pray, hear, conferr and converse with, here upon earth? I need not bid thee: If gracious, the magnetisms, the Loadstone of holiness will draw and allure thee. The perfume of that pre­cious ointment, it's fragrant aromatical smell, will attract thy society by a spi­ritual naturality. Those that are 1 Joh. 4.7 born of God love the Brethren.

To issue this: If thou findest inward solace and pleasure: 1. In a holy con­versation. 1 2. In pure Ordinances. And 2 3. In gracious Saints: Its evident, thou 3 walkest hand in hand with God: And by experience thou shalt feel both warmth, conduct and sustentation from that holy hand. He infuses living spirits for motion, directs thee in a straight way to the Land of uprightness, and [Page 90] upholds thee from dashing thy foot a­gainst any stone of stumbling; For thou lovest his Law Psal. 119.165. and nothing which God does to thee, shall offend thee.

These tokens plainly manifest, that God is with thee; but dost thou feel it? Canst thou say it from an inward warmth influenced into thy Soul, by sitting under the Psal. 91.4. Feathers of the Al­mighty, under the wings of the Cherubims in his holy Oracle? Art thou warm'd by Ordinances, and inflamed in thy affections to God, and through a holy cherishing vital heat? Canst say with David, thou art with me? then humbly infer I will fear no evil. He that walks in Psal. 89 15. the light of Gods face, and under the warmth of his wings: no evil frights him, no Lion in the way turns him aside from the paths of holiness. A righteous man under the sense of the flowings in upon him, of the righteous­ness of Christ, is as bold as a Lion, and makes all the beasts of the forrest trem­ble. He plays with that huge Job 41.2, 5 Levia­than of Death, as with a Bird, and bores his jaw with a thorn: The head of this Ps. 74.14. Crocodile, is meat for his Soul in the wilderness: he spreads a banquet for his companions, and parts him a­mong his spiritual merchants: he makes a gain of death, and feeds upon the Destroyer. For 1 Cor. 3.21 death is his, because he is Christs, and Christ is Gods. He [Page 91] carries the Kev. 2 17 white stone of absolution in his bosome, and fears not the day of Judgment. Christ is Gal 1.10 revealed in him, and so shall his glory. The Cor. 1.27 Eph. 3.17. dwelling of Christ in his heart by faith, is not only the hope of glory, but roots and grounds him in love, and inlarges his Soul to comprehend with all Saints the interminable bounds, the unmeasurable dimensions, the unintelligible knowledge of the love of Christ, till he be filled with all the fulness of God. Though as yet he sees not Christ by the eye of sense: yet he is enamour'd with him by the eye of love from the optick nerve of Faith, and 1 Pet. 1.8 rejoyces with joy un­speakable and full of glory. A Saint cannot conceive the greatness of Christ's love, nor utter the exuberancy of his own joy. As the love of Christ flows in, so his joy swells, overflows and tides it into the bosome of Christ. He is as full of heaven as he can hold, and is ready to take his Phaenix-flight upon the wing of an extasie into Paradise.

But where's the Saint, that injoyes such heavenly feelings of the presence of God? Did we search our experiments to feel our feelings, and tast our tastings of God? More would find the Well, and drink the waters of assurance.

[Page 92] Hast thou a Well of living waters within thee and ne're a Bucket? A Fountain, and ne're a Bason of Medi­tation: Be a worthy Souldier of Gi­deon, Judg. 7.5, 6 lap with the hand of Faith, B [...]chart. de animal. parti col. 67 4. hasten and conquer the Midian of tenta­tion: O how it strengthens the nerves, inspirits, and puts a new life in the si­news of these Champions of valour to fight the Lords Battels: A sense, a tast of the waters of divine love makes a conquering Saint: Like Sampson at death, flayes all his Philistins, destroyes their God and their Temple together: What the touch of God upon the heart is, may be better felt then exprest, and what ye can express, none understands but he that feels: None hear these U­nison strokes, but Virgin-Souls that have learnt Rev. 14.3 the Song of the Lamb: No stranger intermedles with a Prov. 14.10 Saints bitterness at first conversion, nor the sweet fruit of joy in assurance: These spices grow in the Song. 4.12. enclosed garden, bitter are they in the root and tast at first: but send forth a fragrant scent when pounded in the Mortar of Medi­tation: These waters flow from a Fountain sealed, like the head of Ni­lus, but at length by their nitrous streams impregnate all the champion plains of the Soul with fertile and teeming joyes: A Saint distills them into Spirits of consolation and then like an expert [Page 93] Chymist circulates all his duties and graces in the closed glass of experi­ence at the Sun of Gods countenance into an oyl of joy. 'Tis etheriall and volatile, and comforts all that mourn: 'Tis fragrant wine and highly balsami­cal fit for a sick beloved: it Song. 7.9. goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep, to speak.

The love of God is a glorious ob­ject, seen by the eyes of the Soul turn'd inward: Experience is like the chry­stalline humour, through which, and Medi­tation is like the tunica Spigel. Anat. fol. p. 301. & Bartholin 80. p. 351 Ed. Lug. B. 1651 retina, the Net­work-Coat of the Eye, upon which the various kinds and species of divine love are clearly discern'd: Like as the cu­rious varieties of all manner of objects are brought into darkned rooms by convex glasses: So 'tis with a Saint in the private room of contemplation when his glass is placed in the roof of his Soul, and all worldly objects are shut out, a heavenly heart lets in only the ad­mirable things that come from above. All that's in Heaven flowes in, and paints the Chambers of the Soul like Solomons Temple within: and adorns a holy heart in lively colours with Palm-Trees and Cherubims: The Queen is all glori­ous Psal. 45.13 within: Her clothing of wrought Gold from fhe Isle of Ophir, her gar­ments of Phrygian Needlework: But all these ornaments beautifie the heart [Page 94] within: The Kings Song 7.5. Galleries within the Soul are hung with the Arras of Grace, and Tapistry Stories of Gods love from Election to Salvation, from Heaven to Heaven: Lift up your heads ye everlasting Psa. 24 9 doors, that the King of glory may enter, and there Song 7.12 receive his loves.

Naked innocency and godly simpli­city, holy integrity and unblameable purity of life, are a Saints outward or­naments, the choicest lustre, and radian­cy shines in the presence Chamber: The Soul that has it, beholds it with un­satiable delight, enjoyes it, and is even inebriated and scarce it self, with the pleasant draughts of this cordial Ne­ctar: It drinks abundantly of this holy anodyne to asswage its sorrows: The joyes of Heaven pour'd in from the golden cup of assurance is a choice opiative against death: It perverts not, but exalts the in­tellectuals and translates a Saint in a trance to glory.

Hast thou then any spiritual senses, and are they Heb. 5.14. exercised to discern both good and evil: Canst thou tast the bitter evil of death in the forbidden fruit, and cure that mortal gust with the Rev. 2.7. Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God: Hath the Eph. 1.21, 22. Head of Principa­lities and Powers, commanded away the Cherubims with their flaming Swords from the gates of Eden: Has [Page 95] the Prince of Life called thee to feed upon that Rev. 22.2. medicinal fruit to live for ever? Has thy Soul relisht the sweet­ness of the water of the chrystalline Ri­ver of Life? Does it flow so fast upon thy Palate with its unspeakable varie­ties and admirable changes of all man­ner of delicious tastes, that thy spiritual fancy is uncapable to keep pace with, much less to unfold and express its pleasure: Here are sweet waters stoln from heaven, that the world knows not, and hidden Manna that even many dis­ciples Joh 4.32. taste not: The waters come down from the Rev. 22.1. throne of God and of the Lamb; They spring from the Fountain of the Fathers divine electi­on, and his eternal Covenant with the Lamb, and run between the Banks of the Incarnation and Passion in chry­stal streams: Hast thou tasted 1 Pet. 2.3. that the Lord is gracious? Tell me, O Soul, is he not sweet? And so sweet, that thy tongue can't hold but passionately invite others to come Psal 34.8. taste, and see: Is not the Manna, the Joh. 6.35. Bread of Life, which Christ gives, suited to every de­sire and longing appetition of a Saints Palate? Is not his Song 2 3. fruit sweet to thy taste? Do not the Apples comfort thee, when thou eat'st them under his shadow with great delight? To them that be­lieve he is 1 Pet. 2.7 precious, says Peter, If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gra­cious: [Page 96] A gracious Lord is a precious Lord, and a tasted Lord is a sweet Lord. Speak true, O Soul, didst ever tast so choice a sweetness, or lay thy lips to such Song 6.11. Pomegranats as grew in this gar­den: The Song 7.12. & 2.13. flower of the Vine by its smell allures, by its tast captivates the senses and even overcomes the spirits of a Saint: Its said of the spicy moun­tains of Arabia the happy, that the ga­therers are often bereav'd of their spirits by the strong emanation of those fra­grant shrubs: Truly Saints, (when walking in the mountains of Canaan the heavenly, I mean of assurance) need the spice of support against the power­ful efflux of the spice of joy. The Soul before it finds Christ, is sick of love, and when he's found, is sick of joy: I mean while here below, till we are purified by vision, it can scarce well bear the flowings in of assurance: We must have our visions of the Angel of the Covenant like Jacob, Gen. 32.26 only by dawn­light, glittering noon enjoyments are for heaven: These old Bottles are ready to burst with the new wine of the Kingdom; We could not bear the strength of this wine: If the King should often bring us into these Cellars, and therefore he keeps the Key, & opens & shuts it at his plea­sure: and possibly therefore God is plea­sed to nourish Saints but with drops of these high Tinctures of glory, full [Page 97] draughts might swell us with pride, and inflame us with feavers of censure against meek walkers: Jacobs Peniels must halt upon shrunk sinews. Gen 32.32 And Pauls Reve­lations must be humbled by Satans buf­fets: 'Tis not only the surges of grief, but rivers of joy that may overwhelm the spi­rit. Vol. 3. p. 64. b. As Gerson speaks of a devout woman that breathed out her Soul in the strength of these enjoyments: There­fore 'tis, that here we must live by tastes and tastes only: the full banquet's kept to last, the first fruits first, then the har­vest; first the bunch of Eschol, and then the Vintage of Canaan: first the wa­terish wine of Cana, and then the mira­culous wine of Christ's glorious King­dom: Admirable grace it is, that God drops down tastes and lets fall crumbs from the Table of the Spirits of the Just made perfect: And is a taste so pleasant, so delectable, then what's the fulness: Hast thou a mouth that tastes and a savours the things of God? Though it stay the stomack, yet it whets the appetite for glory: The ear trieth words and the mouth tasteth meat, says Job 34.3. Elihu: but 'tis the heart that ponders judgment: Heavens dainties call for a pondering spirit to dwell upon the relish, and a circumspect frame, that we be not wanton: I have heard of thee, says Job, Job 42.5. by the hearing of the [...]ar: but now mine eye seeth thee (and [Page 98] may we say) my soul tasteth thee: Therefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes: Abhorrency of s [...]lf and complacency in God, are tokens of divine tastings, feelings, seeings, en­joyings: The nearer we draw to those holy embraces, the more lovely doth God appear and more vile our selves: Nothing else pleases that Soul which hath had a ravishing relish of God, Now nothing less then God, now no­thing longer, nothing like him: Not our selves, our sins humble us, our gra­ces are imperfect: Not Angels: Mary weeps for all she Joh. 20.12, 13. talks with shining Angels, 'tis not them she cries for: not can their white garments dry up her tears, or their radiant shining faces raise the least umbrage of a smil [...], while her Lord is absent: The burden is, they have taken away my Lord, & where is he? But a word from Christ clear her eyes, and chears her spirit: She knows his voice (when Christ will have it so) before she sees him: She saw a seeming Gardiner and asks for Christ: but now she sees the true Vine, and tasts his love, she hears his voice and sees his face, and nothing now will serve but V. 17. touching: The more we hear and see of Christ, the nearer, fuller, sweeter are our approa­ches to him: The Soul's never satiated on this side heaven: This feast presents heavenly Viands genuine and opposite to [Page 99] a gracious palate: They are not of a cloying, clogging temper, and there o­ver comes in flowing upon the heart fresh, new, and sweet issuings from Christ: Such rare pi [...]ces of prospect entertain the Soul in this transfiguring mountain: that it peeps and pryes, and piers in at the Key-hole of the Chamber of Heaven, and can do nothing but lye at the posts of wisdom, and cry with the ancient, plus de te Domine, More of thee, Lord ▪

But on the other side, where are the hearts of besotted worldings: The eyes of a Prov. 17.24 fool, saies Solomon a [...]e in the [...]nds of the Earth, rowling and rambling a­bout upon vain objects: But wisdom is at the very face of him that hath understanding, he sees such beauty in the face of wisdom: that he shuts his eyes to the world, and opens them only to heaven.

A wandring eye is the sign of an un­satisfied fool, that won't learn wisdom from a Solomon: Though God gave him more riches, (If Villalpandus count aright,) than ever any of the Roman Emperors had; and all manner of en­joyments and an exquisite heart to dive to the bottom of the visible Creation: Every one that girds himself to run So­lomons race a new, counts that Prince a fool, but proves himself to be so: God commanded Solomon to write a [Page 100] Book on purpose to save our labour, to quench our drought, to excuse our toyl, and to set up his Herculean Pillars: On the one side he graves, all is vanity: on the other, ne plus ultra, sail no fur­ther: For now there's no terra incogni­ta, no more land, nor continent, nor Isle to be discovered: hear the conclusi­on of the Eccl. 12.13 whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole of man.

Solomons Ships of speculation went round the world and brings tidings of more gold for covetous wretches, and more Apes and Peacocks for curious and weak fancies, but no new thing un­der the Sun: The old pleasures indeed shall wast home new toils, and new vexa­tions, but no satisfaction to a judicious Soul: A wise man therefore fixes his eyes upon divine wisdom, and daily con­templates the ribs of Solomons Ship laid up in the dock at Eziongaber, shatter'd with its sore travels, and learns the great prudence to stay at home, to study his own heart, and to ponder the paths of understanding. Alas! then may we not pitty, deluded, bewitched entan­gled mortals, that still hunt their game, and follow the hot scent through the wilderness and forrest of this world: Oh! how they puff and pant, and sweat and leap hedge and ditch after the deep throated hounds of their boundless [Page 101] desires to catch a shadow: It's a plain sign they know little and have tasted no­thing of God to hunt so fiercely after smoak and vapour.

I will not say 'tis unlawful to hunt wild Beasts for the food of man, or to make room and preserve his safety: But this I'l say, to take pleasure in set­ting the creatures at variance, to make a sport of the fruit of sin, to make that a recreation which God has made a curse, is the sign of one that walks con­trary to God: I read of no godly man but of four other hunters in Scripture, Nimrod, and Esau, and Ishmael, and the cruel hunter of souls, and I am sure they are wild and bad companions: But there are a world of hunts men that pur­sue the pleasures of sin, and the gains of unrighteous Mammon, and Oh! how these ignes fatui, these inflam'd meteors lead thousands into the bogs of eter­nal darkness. And as the ancient Hea­thens sang of hunts-men,— Nec praeda quam caede magis &c. Nunc hominum nunc bella gerunt violenta ferarum. That cager hunters of Beasts in times of peace were usually bloody hunters of men, in time of war.

That man has no communion with God, whose Soul is immerst and drown'd in sensual pleasures: Such as walk in the vanity of their minds, are alienated from the life of God; Eph. 4.18. such have little [Page 102] honour or love for God, that forsake the fountain of living waters, and suck the mud of the broken Cisterns of the Creature: Their Souls are as earthy as their objects, and their spirits as base as their pleasures: But remember that to lay up thy Soul in thy Barns, to tye it in thy Bags, to lodge it in thy Parks, to pack it in thy Warehouse, or stove it in thy Ship: These are dangerous places to look for it: when the world is in a light flame.

Shall I commend unto thee, O man, a gainful Trade and a pleasant Chase: The first is to lay out all thy Stock for the pearl of price: The second is to fall in company with David, and Psa. 63.8. fol­low hard after God, and never leave him till thou get a blessing, As Psa. 42.1. the Hart panteth after the water-brooks; so panteth my soul after thee, O God, Here's a hunted hart turns hunter him­self: Sin hunts a Saint, and he pants for God, and at length meets with lovely Venison, but 'tis in the Sanctu­ary, savoury meat that his soul loves, he tastes it, and blesses his darling before he dyes: He feeds upon a Kid of the flock, takes the Cup of Salvation and Praises, saying, thou hast dealt bounti­fully with me, Psa. 116.7. Return, O my Soul, unto thy rest: He has no rest upon earth, no rest but in God, and therefore return O my soul, unto thy God: He looks [Page 103] upon the whole earth, as Tohu vabohu, without form and void, Gen. 1.2 and all the fulness thereof to be but emptiness, the roaring of the seas to sound forth their shallowness, and all the starry heavens to be like Stellae nebu­losae. vanishing clouds: Unless he feels the warmth of the spirit of God moving upon the waters of his soul.

If thou hast indeed had spiritual feel­ings of God, thy Soul's warm'd, thy thirst to the world slaked, to God in­flamed, thy hot inquisition and pursuit of the creature cool'd and checkt: Fools gather Cockleshells and Pee­bles, when there lyes before them a Min of Gold or a Rock of Diamonds: And here's the vast difference between the possessors of worldly, and the inheri­tors of heavenly treasures. Those make the man covetous of an evil, Hab. 2.9 cove­tousness to his house, the other ▪ enno­bles the mind with a communicative generosity: And there's reason for't, though no reason for sin, yet there's a reason to be rendred why the sinner acts so: For the first loses by his hoar­ding, and the other gains by his spread­ing: The graces of the spirit in the soul as well as in the whole Church, are a fountain of gardens, Song 4.15. a well of living waters and streams from Leba­non: They are not wells bent up, but over-flowing: Come, sayes David, and [Page 104] I'le tell you what Psa. 66.16. God hath done for my soul: Experience in these Visions is like sailing upon an Ocean, that hath an infinite round: no diving to the bottom, no kenning of a shore: There's always a terra incognita, an un­known land in heavenly mysteries, and the more we discover, it yields more various and excellent pleasures. New fruits, new tastes, new paradises, new gar­dens of delight, new songs and new joyes for ever▪ The Songs of the Lamb wi [...]l be new Rev. 14.3. to all eternity: Here, in this life the soul hoists up sails from the port of con­version, on the waters of Merom, the bitter waves of repentance, mourning under tentation for sin; then spreads them upon the Sea of Galilee in sweet communion with Christ and his holy disciples in the ship, then passes the dead sea without danger, and at length with a prosperous gale falls into the vast Ocean of eternal glory.

But to re-entrench: he that feels what God is to his soul, is inwardly fill'd with a sense, what he will be: Death is no more able to amuse a holy soul inbosom'd with God, and season'd with ex­periences of his love then the Carkass of the Lion was to fright Sampsons Parents: nay, it fed them with life-honey drop­ping from the honey-comb.

Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest, and choicest re­flections [Page 105] upon his love, and the fear of death will vanish: Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties: this will make way for secret communion, and sweetly encrease it: The more frequent and humbly familiar, you are with God in holy reverence: the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul, and en­large it for glory: our Psa. 90.8. secret sins, says Moses are in the light, in the broad day light of thy countenance. Let's consi­der Psa. 90.8· he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love, let's be as tender to avoid his dis­pleasure, as we would be joyful in the beams of his face: let's Psa. 63.6. remember him upon our beds, and meditate on him in the night watches: Let's Psal. 4.4. commune with our own hearts and be st [...]ll, that we may commune with his and be joyful. Silete, vacate, be still from all passions and hurries: give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears. The more our Souls are wrapt up in this communion, the more they dye to the world and live to God. Our life is a vapor to dying mortals: but death is a vapor to a living, to a lively Saint.

But now let me end with a caution that's mixt with a Cordial: A very holy Saint may set in a cloud, and ar­rive at the haven in a storm. God's tyed [Page 106] to believers by promise to save them▪ but not to carry them in Song. 3 9 Solomons Cha­riot of the wood of Lebanon, into Hea­ven▪ Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm; Thou art with me, and therefore, He fear no evil. When the Soul from feeling can chear up its spirits, that God is with it: It fears nor, who's against it. God for secret reasons Luk. 24.16 may hold the eyes of some disciples, that they may not know him: to shew that [...], from grace to glory, is from free love, and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant, nor assurance to discern our adherence. The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works, the peace of God that passeth all un­derstanding, Col. 3.15 to rule in our hearts; and the joyes of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain. All our springs are in Zion, and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat. Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Chri­stians, If meek and humble, may in­joy greater Visions, then many gra­cious, holy, and sweetly gifted Mi­nisters. 'Tis not alwayes the strength of Grace: but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance. A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni [...]: When two experienc'd Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile, [Page 107] and not see him nor tast him till the evening, till the Luk. 24.29 Supper of Glory. But yet 'tis rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions. The pure in heart shall see him in the Glass of assurance, as well as behold him hereafter face to face.

CHAP. IX. Holy Appeals to God in Prayer, great Comforts against Death.

DAvid was now at Prayer, applying and appealing to God, at owning and appropriating work; telling God, that he w [...]s with him. Did not God know that he was with David? Yes! but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it A Saint must tell God that he feels it, not to satisfy him as unac­quainted with it. (For the Lord fills the Soul with himself, and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning) But because God delights to hear, that we thankfully own and ac­knowledge it. Thou art with me, David speaks it upon his knees, and with his Harp in his hands he sings it. This Lesson, Lord I learnt of thee, wilt thou please to hear it. Thou art with me, in [Page 108] me: and thou within me comest unto thy self. I am full of thee, and therefore my Soul over-flows to thee. Thy love is a fire, which hath inflamed my heart, and Excellens sensibile laedit sensum. being pent it preyes upon my spirits: let it have it's holy vent into thy bosome. It multiplies upon it self, and out it must; wilt thou accept it? For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection, and touch every tone with a flame of love: as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar. Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne, winged with that love from whence it came.

Prayer, what is it, but a flight of the Soul from it self to God? A Soul af­fected with divine love hath Doves eyes, its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples, un­to the holy Oracle within the Vail.

'Tis in Prayer, that David pours out his Soul and sings, Thou art with me: he sayes not, thou wilt be with me: but infers, that God w [...]ld be with him, because he was so: and therefore I shall fear no evil. This God is our God Psa. 48.14. for ever and ever: he will be our guide unto death, and through death: and after Psa. 73.24. death, receive us to glory. Faith carries the foot of prayer, [ EIS MESOƲRA­NEMA] Rev. 14.6 into the midst of Heaven, as [Page 109] with Angels wings. And as the Lord said to Joshua, so may we say to praying Saints, Josh. 1.3. every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that hath he given you, the good land is before you, go in and possess it.

When we pray, we enter the Court of Heaven, where the Lord Exod. 24.10. Ezek. 1.26. sits on a Saphire Throne, embellisht with the morning Stars and the Rain-Bow of the Covenant round about him, and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him.

We are taught by our blessed Savi­our to pray: Our Father which art in Heaven: as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assum'd into Heaven. The Father sees us at all times: but in prayer we doe [ Sistere nos coram] present our Souls to be seen by him. Should our hearts be in hea­ven, when our Souls are in prayer: what heavenly hearts become so hea­venly a presence as God's, and so hea­venly a quire as the Angels round a­bout him. Let's pray, that his will be done, as it is in heaven: that we be like a kind of earthly Angels: that in all our prayers, our wills may be hal­lowed into his, 1 Joh. 5.14. as when we shall come to heaven. Then, if we ask any thing (e) according to his will, he heareth us. To have our wills, the best way is to have his holy will to be ours, and [Page 110] then we may pray with reverence, as Luther said, Let our will be done, for our will is become thine. Gerson de Mendi [...]i [...]ate f. 760. Ne tradas me voluntati meae, O give me not up to mine own will, but to thine. The will of God is 1 Thes. 4.3. our sanctification, and a Saints, renewed will delights in the ho­liness of God Here's a union of wills in the communion of holiness. For both Heb. 2.11. he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one. Joh. 17.23. I in them as our Lord in his heavenly prayer, and thou in me, that they may be made per­fect in one.

Receive we such a Kingdom, Heb. 12.28 let us serve him with reverence. Nothing renders us more reverent in our services then an inward sense of the divine ho­liness that fills his essence, and is the lustre of his Kingdom. This argu­ment of the divine holiness to put us in a reverent frame, is often pleaded in Scripture. Thou art Psal. 22.3 holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, Thou dwellest in the Temple, where they are still praising thee, and therefore they serve and praise thee because thou art holy, What services are the Cherubims continually ingaged in, but crying Holy, Rev 4 8. Holy, Holy, before the Throne. Ye shall Lev. 19 30 reverence my sanctuary (my holy place) I am the Lord. Holiness is the attractive of Reverence from a holy heart: The nearer we approach [Page 111] to a holy God, the more awful im­pressions are stampt upon a holy Soul. I will be Lev. 10 3 sanctified in them that [...]aw nigh me (saith the Lord) and before all the people I will be glorified. Draw­ing nigh to him commands sanctity in us, and the more we sanctifie his name by our holy addresses, the more we glo­rifie him. He is Exod. 15.11. glorious in his holi­ness, and therefore fearful in his praises The raies of glory round about his ho­liness, (that none can behold and live) should imprint submissive though f [...]ial fear upon our spirits in his praises and services. It's true, that God is to be feared, as to the matter of his praises: his dreadful acts upon his Egyptian Enemies: yet when his wrathful judg­ments have sunk the Chariots as lead in the deep waters: still a holy fear should tune the V 20, 21 Timbrels and mea­sure the Dances of his People in praise, Serve the Lord with Psa. 2 11 fear and rejoyce with trembling, we serve him acceptably, when we attend his presence not with slavish but Heb 12 28 godly fear: and when we rejoyce in his goodness, and tremble at his greatness; our heavenly joy defends us from the base terrors of bondage and our holy fear from luxuriant wanton­ness. Nay, when Phil. 2.3. we work out our Salvation in the Vineyard of the pro­mises: we must sweat at it with a S [...]n-like fear, knowing that our work is not [Page 112] worth our penny: & with due trembling being assured, that when the Lord Psa. 36.6▪ pre­serveth one, and lets another perish, yet his righteousness is like the great mountains, and his Judgments are a great deep.

O but say some, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 2 Cor 3.17 liberty Again, we have access with Eph. 3.12. boldness by the faith of him. Again, we are invited to come boldly Heb. 4.16. to the Throne of Grace: and Again, we have Heb. 10.19 bo [...]dness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus. Tru­ly some Translators seem a little too bold with the Greek word, and make o­ther Christians thereby too bold with the thing unless the word [boldness] be taken in a very reverent sense: it might better be translated by liberty or freedom, that is, from a spirit of bon­dage. For PARRESIA in the notation and acceptation of the word in Greek Authors, and in it [...] opposition to straitness and pen [...]ness of spirit in our addresses to God, most properly signifies the speaking out the mind of a man fully with enlargedness of heart, and fluency of expression. 'Tis an encouraging word, to allure drooping, and to incite and raise desponding weak believers; Gerson d [...]my­stic Theolog. Tom 3 p 66. [...]. not to spur on audacious, irreverent and presumptuous spirits. Improbe au­ [...]es irrumpere in osculum oris, si nec pedi­ [...]s cum lachrymis, &c. Saies Gerson, [Page 113] thou art wickedly audacious, to rush into the kisses of his mouth, that hast not first washt his feet with thy tears. I know, God calls us to a more sweet and heavenly familiarity with himself under the Gospel, then when under the anci­ent pedagogy of the Law. But let's not be sawcy and put on our Hats in the Court, Moses was commanded not to draw too nigh the flaming bush, and to put off his shoes, and so was Joshua, Jos. 5. all to signifie the danger of too much prying curiosity and the necessity of a holy re­verence in the presence of God. Rev. 4.10.Behold how the twenty four Elders fall down before him in worship, and cast their golden Crowns before the Throne. Let's remember that we are but Psa. 73.22. Behe­moth's great beasts before him; but dust and ashes still, worms and no men, less then the least of his mercies: nay, when in heaven we are but glorified dust and sparkling ashes, but spiritual flesh, but atomes and less then nothing, to stand before God. The very heavens are im­pure in his sight, and he charges his An­gels with folly. When they cry, Holy, Holy before him, they cover their faces and may justly cry out with Lepers, unclean, Lev 13.49 unclean. Their created holi­ness, considering its infinite deficiency from Gods, is like folly and pollution, and their lips uncircumcised before his unfadomable beauty, inaccessible light, [Page 114] and Angel-confounding holiness. And did they not suck in streaming raies of holiness from beholding his face conti­nually, and drink in rivers of divine dignation, to make and accept them as worthy? they could never be able or fit to fly before his Throne, or to be imployed in the messages of his services. Psa. 73 22 Eternity is insufficient for the highest of finite beings to praise an in­finite essence, and that unsearchable a­byss of holiness, glory and Majesty. O then what's man? That God should visit him, when we consider the impu­rity of the heavens, and its caelestial inhabitants: Nay, what's man? That God should suffer him to peep and mut­ter out of the dust before him

Well however; come near, but hum­bly, and we may come freely: come we reverently, and what grace we feel within us, we may appeal with, before him Examine me, O Lord, and prove me (sayes David) Psa. 26 2 Ʋ [...]e [...]en [...]s. try my reins and my heart, search me, O God, & Ps. 139.23 know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts Sit as a refiner upon me, melt away the dross of my impure affecti­ons, that my Soul may appear like glit­tering gold seven times purg'd by the fi [...]e of thy love. Nay, Lord (thus Da­vid appeals) thou V. 1. hast searched and known me, and oh how precious are thy V. 17 thoughts unto me, O God, how [Page 115] great is the sum of them. Thy thoughts of me, and my thoughts of thee, how precious to me, O God? how great is the sum of them? Thy thoughts of electing love, of justifying and sancti­fying grace. Nay, thou hast thoughts for 2 Sam. 7 19. a great while to come. A great while indeed, for they are thoughts of eternal Jer. 31.3 love. Thy thoughts in num­ber transcend the sands on the Sea-shore, the hairs of my head, and the stars of heaven. Archimedes may num­ber the sands, Spigelius the hairs, and Hipparchus the visible stars: But who can expend thoughts commensurate to the love of God. The circle of his love cannot be squared, nor its cu­bick root extracted. We may study and pray Eph. 3.18 to comprehend with all Saints the glorious love of God in Christ: But still it passeth knowledge, and surmounts our numbers. Well might David when waking, Ps. 139.18. be still with God. In the morning watches, when his Soul was freshest, his thoughts warmest, his parts quickest: while the yet remaining darkness presented no diverting ob­jects to his eyes, and the deep silence of the night distracted not his audience with various clamours: Then David hath his Songs in the night, Isa. 30.29. as in the holy Solemnities: Then does he me­ditate on the divine love, and remem­ber God Ps. 63. [...] upon his Bed. His wonder­ful [Page 116] works and the thoughts of God concerning him, Psa. 40.5. he professes they could not be reckoned up in order before him. Though he was still with God, search­ing and following after him, yet Job 11.7. could not find out the Almighty to perfecti­on. But yet the holy man holds fast his confidence, For thou art with me, and I with thee. God with us, keeps us with him. Do our desires and affections haste after him, they'l bring in the food of assurance, that he is ours. (Talem illum invenies, saies Gerson, qualis & tu fueris in tuis desideriis. Gerson de Mendicitate spiritual, f 75.) Our spiritual desires longing and panting after God, inter­pret and manifest the gracious motions of the divine love to us. The more we seek him, the sweeter we find him: and the more we trust him, the more he loves us. Let us with David in all our straits make to him as our rock, our refuge, our strong Castle, our Fortress, our City of Defence, and Munition of Rocks, Op. 3. part. our Waters shall never fail, & our bread shall be sure.