NICHOL S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.
PURITAN PERIOD.
BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,
LINCOLN COLLEGE; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF GREENWICH.
THE
WORKS OF GEORGE SWIMOCK, M.A.
VOL. III.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas s Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby
terian Church, Edinburgh.
C Ditor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBUBGH.
THE WORKS
OF
GEORGE SWINNOCK, M.A.
VOL. III.
CONTAINING :
THE LATTER PORTION OF THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING,
HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED,
AND A PORTION OP THE FADING OF THE FLESH.
EDINBUEGH : JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : G. HERBERT.
M.DCCC.LXVIII.
.5
A short Memoir ofSwinnock is reserved for a subsequent
Volume. ED.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING Part III. continued, 1
CHAP.
VII. How a Christian may exercise himself to godliness in
visiting the sick, ..... 3-24
A good wish about the visitation of the sick,
wherein the former heads are applied, . 24-37
VIII. How a Christian may exercise himself to godliness on
a dying bed, ..... 38-69
A good wish about the Christian s exercising
himself to godliness on a dying bed ; wherein
the former heads are applied, . . 69-89
IX. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to
godliness : A good foundation ; living by faith ;
setting God always before our eyes, . . 89-112
X. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves
to godliness : A constant watchfulness ; frequent
meditation of death; daily performance of sacred
duties, ...... 113-131
XI. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves
to godliness : Frequent meditation of the day of
judgment; a daily examination of our hearts;
avoiding the occasions and suppressing the begin
nings of sin, ..... 131-148
VI CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
XII. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves
to godliness : A humble frame ; suppressing sin in
its first rise; the knowledge of God, . . 148-158
XIII. Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves
to godliness : A contented spirit ; avoiding those
things that hinder godliness, . . . 158-166
XIV. Motives inciting Christians to exercise themselves to
godliness : The vanity of other exercises ; the
brevity of man s life ; the patterns of others, . 167-179
XV. The excellency of this calling, and the conclusion of
the treatise, . . . 179-199
HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, ..... 203-207
To THE HEADER, ...... 208-209
PREFACE, . . . . . . 210-226
CHAP.
I. The division of the chapter, and interpretation of the
text, . . . . . . 227-229
II. The doctrine, That such as have Christ for their life,
gain by death, with the explication of the phrase,
1 To me to live is Christ, .... 230-235
III. What privative gain the Christian hath by death, . 235-244
IV. What positive gain a Christian hath by death, . 244-252
V. The difference betwixt a sinner and a saint at death, 253-258
VI. The sinner s privative misery at death, . . 258-274
VII. The positive part of a sinner s misery at death, . 274-284
VIII. A second use of trial, with motives to enforce it, . 284-293
IX. The marks of a true Christian from the text, . 294-299
X. Other marks of saints, .... 299-309
XI. The third use viz., Exhortation to mind spiritual
life, 309-316
XII. The life in Christ must be minded speedily, with the
grounds of it, . . . . 316-322
CONTENTS. vii
CHAP. PAGE
XIII. This life in Christ must be minded diligently, -with
some motions to it, . . . . 322-331
XIV. The first direction for the attaining a spiritual life,
Illumination, ..... 331-336
XV. The second help to a spiritual life, Humiliation, . 336-348
XVI. The third help to a spiritual life, Application of, or
affiance on, Jesus Christ, .... 348-355
XVII. The fourth help, Dedication to God, . . 355-361
XVIII. Two other helps, The word and prayer, . . 362-370
XIX. Motives to mind this spiritual life : It is the most
honourable, most comfortable, most profitable life, . 370-382
XX. Comfort to true Christians, .... 382-383
XXI. Comfort against the world s fury, and Satan s rage, . 383-386
XXII. Comfort against our own corruptions, our own or
other believers dissolution, . . . 386-390
XXIII. The exceUency of heaven, .... 390-394
XXIV. The certainty that saints shall obtain heaven, . 394-396
XXV. The eternity of the saints happiness in heaven, . 396-399
THE FADING OF THE FLESH.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, ..... 403-4 1G
CHAP.
I. The preface, division of the psalm, and coherence of
the text, ...... 417-421
II. The interpretation of the text, and the doctrine, that
man s flesh will fail him, .... 421-426
III. The reasons of the doctrine, Man s corruptibility,
God s fidelity, and man s apostasy from God, . 426-430
IV. First use, Discovering the folly of them that mind the
flesh chiefly, 430-434
V. Second use, An exhortation to sinners to prepare for
death, with three quickening motives : Death will
come certainly ; it may come suddenly ; when it
comes, it will be too late to prepare, . 434-442
Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
VI. Three motives more : A dying hour will be a trying
hour; the misery of the unprepared; the felicity
of the prepared, ..... 442-453
VII. What is requisite to preparation for death. A change
of state and a change of nature, with a most
gracious offer from the most high God to sinners, . 453-466
- VIII. The second exhortation to the serious Christian, shew
ing how a saint may come to die with courage, . 466-471
THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING.
P A K T II 1. (continued.)
VOL. III.
THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING.
PART III.
CHAPTER VII.
How a Christian may exercise himself to godliness in visiting
the sick.
FIFTHLY, Thy duty is to exercise thyself in visiting the sick. The
visitation of the sick is a work of as great weight as any enjoined
us relating to others, and as much neglected and slighted in its
management as almost any duty commanded. Sickness is so
common, and death so ordinary, that with most their frequency
takes away the sense of them, and charity in many sickens and
dieth as fast as others bodies. The generality of pretended Chris
tians, like the priest and the Levite, if they see a man wounded,
both in his body and soul, though it be to death, pass on the other
side of the way, not caring to meddle with any that are in misery.
They tell us they are true members of Christ, but, like a bag of
suppurated blood, they feel nothing, neither have any communion
with the body. Many on their dying beds, whose souls are worse
and more dangerously sick than their bodies, may speak to their
minister or neighbour (for the duty belongs to the people as well
as the pastor) almost in the words of Martha to Christ, Sir, if
thou hadst been here, my soul had not died. Some visit the sick,
but rather out of a compliment than out of conscience, or to profit
themselves more than their neighbours. The ingenious heathen
Seneca, will tell such, If a man visit his sick friend, and watch at
his pillow for charity s sake, and out of his old affection, we approve
it ; but if for a legacy, he is a vulture, and watcheth only for the
carcase. The discourse of these is chiefly about worldly affairs,
4 THE CHRISTIAN HAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
and nothing about the great concernments of eternity. Others
sometimes go about the work, but perform it so ill, administering
cordials when there is need of corrosives, sewing pillows under
their sick friends heads, that they may die easily ; or if they tell
them of their danger, they do it so coldly and carelessly, and by
halves, that, as he said, there is plus periculi a medicamento quam
morbo, more danger from the physic than the disease ; their soul-
sickness is curable, but the unsuitable medicines they take make
it incurable. It may be said of many a soul, as Adrian s counsel
lors said of him, Multitudo medicorum, &c., Many physicians have
killed the emperor. Ah ! how dreadful is it, when unskilful and
unfaithful mountebanks undertake to tamper and trifle with im
mortal souls, that are just entering into their eternal estates;
Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Galen saith,
in respect of bodily medicines, In medicina nihil exiguum, There
is nothing small in physic ; everything in it is of great conse
quence ; a little mistake may cause death. I may upon greater
reason say, There is nothing little in spiritual physic ; a small
error in our prescriptions to sick souls, may cause dreadful mis
chief; instead of curing, we may kill the patient. Hazael s wet
cloth was not more deadly to his master s body than the discourse
of most is to their sick neighbours souls. Fear of displeasing, and
a natural propensity to flatter, prevail with too many to soothe
their dying friends into unquenchable flames. But surely there
is more love (as well as more faithfulness) in frighting a sick
person out of his spiritual lethargy, than in fawning him into the
eternal lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Some venomous
creatures tickle a man till he laughs, even when they sting him
to death ; so doth the flattering minister or neighbour he raiseth
a sick man, void of grace, to the pinnacle of joy, and highest
hopes of heaven, and thereby throweth him down into the gulf of
irrecoverable sorrows, and leaves him to undeceive himself in hell.
I shall first lay down two or three motives to stir up the reader
to this work, and then direct him about it.
SECTION I.
First, It is a duty commanded thee by God. Men are apt to
think the visitation of the sick to be only an act of courtesy
and civility, which they may omit or perform at their pleasure,
when it is an act of charity and Christianity, which every Chris
tian is bound to by a divine precept. The ministers of Christ are
CHAP. VII.] THE CHETSTIAN MAN S CALLING. 5
especially enjoined this task ; but every member of Christ also,
when God gives him opportunity, oweth this debt to his neigh
bour : James v. 14, 15, If any be sick, let him send for the
elders of the church, and let them pray over him. The same
word which commandeth the sick man to send, commandeth the
elder to go. Indeed, it is a gross fault in many sick persons (and
therein they are exceedingly their own enemies) that they either
send not at all for the minister, or if they do, not till they have
done with the physician ; when their bodies are past all hope, then
they look after some hope for their souls. But without question,
it is a duty for the elder sometimes to go uncalled. It is good
manners to be an unbidden guest at a house of mourning. Our
Master was found of them that asked not for him, and so should
his servants. There are those that can invite themselves to their
neighbours tables, who withdraw themselves from their chambers.
Some are drunk so often with their parishioners whilst they are
in health, that they are afraid or ashamed to discourse seriously
with them when they are sick. God may speak to many, as to
the shepherds of Israel, Woe be to the shepherds of England, that
do feed themselves ! should not the shepherds feed the flock ?
Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that
are fed ; but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither
have ye bound up that which was broken ; but with force and with
cruelty have ye ruled them/ Ezek. xxxiv. 3, 4. None are more
cruel to the flock than those that are most covetous of the fleece.
Oleaster, on Lev. xiv. 44, Then the priest shall come and look,
and, behold, if the plague be spread, &c., (that being the third
time the priest was to visit the infected house,) hath this useful
observation, Si sacerdos toties invisit leprosam domum, cur tu non
cegrum ? If the priest were commanded so often to visit the
leprous house, why dost not thou visit the sick person ? The
plague in the heart calls for more pity and help than the plague
in the house.
This duty also belongs to private members, as well as to public
officers. Every Christian should love his neighbour as himself,
which he cannot do unless he have a sense of his sickness, and
endeavour to improve such an opportunity for his neighbour s
salvation. True love, like fire, burns hottest when the weather
is coldest. Histories make mention of one Ursinus, a physician,
that being to die for the gospel, and beginning to waver, Vitalis,
a godly man, stepped to him, and, though he knew it would cost
6 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
him his life, encouraged him, saying, What ! have you been so
industrious heretofore, to preserve men s bodies, and will you
now shrink at the saving your own soul ? Be courageous ! For
which faithful counsel he was condemned, and suffered accord
ingly. It is our duty to assist them that die natural, as well as
those that die violent deaths. To visit persons in their affliction,
is one testimony of the truth of our religion at this day. Holiness
and charity are like father and child. Pure religion and un-
defiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless
and the widows in their afflictions, &c., James i. 27. The
fatherless and widows are expressed, (but the sick, and strangers,
and captives are included,) because these are usually most afflicted
and most neglected. Those that have received mercy, cannot but
shew mercy. As visiting the distressed is a sign of it now, so it
will be the test of Christianity at the great day. Mat. xxv.
34-36, Come ye blessed, &c. I was hungry, and ye fed me ;
naked, and ye clothed me ; sick, and ye visited me, &c. Works
of mercy fill up the whole bill, as the evidence of the saints right
to heaven. Whereof Luther gives this reason : because the con
sciences of the wicked shall justify Christ as well in the absolution
of the godly, as in their own condemnation. Though Christians
do not give their alms, -or visit the sick, to be seen of men, yet in
doing many offices of love, and acts of charity, they are seen of
men. So they who can witness the truth of Christians mercy,
will be forced to acknowledge the equity of Christ s sentence.
SECTION II.
Secondly, It is a special opportunity of doing and receiving
good.
1. Of doing good. I think it the more necessary to speak to
this motive, because many are apt to judge all pains with sick
persons to be to no purpose. They are discouraged from en
deavouring the conversion of profane men upon sick-beds, sup
posing that such men s repentance will be as unsound as their
bodies, even when they are sick unto death. Though I would not
give the least encouragement to any men to defer their turning to
God, believing him worse than mad who puts off the weighty
business of his soul, because peradventure God may grant him
repentance hereafter ; yet I must obviate this suggestion of the
devil, which hinders men from doing their duty God may shew
mercy to a soul at last. There is one example in Scripture, that
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 7
none might despair. Sickness is with some men the tide-time of
devotion. They who scorned godly men, and made a mock of godli
ness in their health, will prize the saint, and desire his sanctity
above all the world, when they lie upon sick-beds, and consider what
a holy God they are going to appear before. Sickness, as one saith,
is, Officina virtutis, morum disciplina, The shop of virtue, and
the school of manners. Therefore king Alfred was wont to say,
I ever find myself best when worst ; best in soul when worst in
body : the sickness of my body is physic to my soul. Experience
daily informeth us that the swaggerers and gallants of the world
(whose consciences are not seared with a hot iron) though they
gave themselves up to drunkenness, and gluttony, and gaming,
and whoredom, and all manner of wickedness in their youth and
strength, yet when they are weakened much with a disease, and
have no hopes of continuing longer on earth, begin to wish that
they had spent their time to more purpose, and are sensible of
their neglect of God and Christ, and their souls, and eternity;
then many of them will desire the company of those that fear
God, and beg their prayers, and hearken to their counsels, and
would give all they are worth for a little of their grace and
holiness. Even Benhadad, the king of Syria, an enemy to the
prophets and people of God in his health, will send a prince to
Elisha with a large present, and most submissive expressions
c Thy son Benhadad in his sickness, 2 Kings viii. 9. Sickness
gives men a double advantage for holiness.
(1.) It takes off their hearts from creatures, by teaching them
experimentally what a poor, weak cordial the whole creation is
to sick or dying men. When men are strong and lusty, they can
taste and savour earthly things ; carnal comforts hinder their en
deavours after spiritual. They take up with creatures, as Esau,
and say, they have enough ; but sickness makes them know the
emptiness of all sublunary things. When men are sick, they
cannot relish the world s dainties and delicates. The preferments,
and riches, and pleasures of the earth, are all unsavoury and un
comfortable to them. They now see the vanity of those things
which heretofore they so much idolised ; how unable they are to
revive their fainting spirits, or to allay their pain, or purchase
them the least ease, or procure them the least acceptance in the
other world; and hence the price of the world s market falls
abundantly in their judgments. Bernard tells us of a brother of
his, that when he gave him many good instructions, and he being
a soldier, regarded them not, he put his finger to his side, and told
8 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
his brother, One day a spear shall make way to this heart of thine,
for admonition and instruction to enter.
(2.) In sickness conscience is usually allowed more liberty to
speak its mind, and men are then more at leisure to hear it. In
health, their callings, or friends, or lusts, or sports, or some carnal
comfort or other, take up their hearts and time ; that conscience
must be silenced, as too bold a preacher, for offering to disturb
them in their pleasures, or if it will use its authority, and continue
to speak in God s name, and forbid their foolishness, and atheism,
and sensuality, and profaneness, they are deaf to its calls and
commands, and drown its voice with the noise of their brutish
delights. But in sickness they are taken off from their trades,
and pastimes, and merry meetings, and jovial companions ; when
their bodies are weak, their fleshly lusts are not so strong as
formerly, whereby conscience hath a greater opportunity to tell
them of their miscarriages and wickedness, and they themselves
are more attentive to its words and warning.
Header, it is a special piece of wisdom to improve such a season
for the good of thy neighbour s soul. When the wax is softened,
then we clap the seal upon it, lest it harden again, and be in
capable of any impression. When the hand of God hath by
sickness made the heart of thy wicked friend or brother soft and
tender, then do thy utmost to stamp the image of God upon it.
Paul would preach whilst a door was opened, and there was likeli
hood of doing good. It is a great encouragement to work, when
the subject upon which we bestow our pains seems capable of
what we prosecute, and probable to answer our labour. We have
some heart to strike a nail into a board, because there is hope it
will enter; but no list to drive a nail into a flint, because we
despair of effecting it. The smith strikes when the iron is hot ;
he knoweth, if he should stay till it is cold, his labour would be in
vain. Friend, take the advantage of others bodily sickness to
further their spiritual health, lest they either die in their sins, or
harden upon their recovery. Opportunity is like a joint in some
part of a fowl, which, if we hit upon, we may easily carve and
divide the fowl ; but if the knife fall on this side or that side of
the joint, we do but mangle the meat, and take pains to no
purpose. It is the speech of Master Eichard Rogers in his Seven
Treatises, I have visited some persons that have been condemned
to die, in whom, (through the blessing of God upon his endea
vours,) I have found as good signs of saved persons as of any that
died in their beds, not having tasted of repentance before.
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 9
2. It is a special opportunity of receiving good. "We are taught
more effectually by the eye than by the ear. The sight of a sick
or dying person hath often a strange and a strong operation upon
the beholder. When the father heard of one that sinned notori
ously, he cried out, I may be as bad as this man is. When thou
seest one dangerously sick, thou mayest think with thyself, I must
be as this man is, sick unto death, when none of my relations or
possessions can afford me the least comfort ; and oh how much doth
it concern me to prepare beforehand for such an hour ! If this
man s work be now to do, when his life is ending, how sad is the
condition of his precious soul ! Oh that I were wise to consider
timely, and to provide seasonably for my latter end ! The sight of
a dead man was instrumental to the spiritual life of Waldus. The
sight of others sickness may well quicken me to the greater in
dustry and diligence after spiritual health. Do I behold my
neighbour, whose sail formerly swelled with a full gale of worldly
enjoyments, now wind-bound, chained to his chamber, or fettered
to his bed, unable to relish his food, or take any comfort in his
friends ? do I see him full of aches and pains, tossings and
tumblings, crying out in the evening, Would God it were morn
ing, and in the morning, Avould God it were evening, because of
the anguish of his spirit ? do I behold his cheeks pale, his eyes
sunk, his lips quivering, his loins trembling, his heart panting, and
nature striving and struggling with the disease to keep its ground,
and yet at last forced to quit the field, and leave the victory to its
adversary ? how many excellent observations may I draw from such
a text ! What a fool am I to trust the world, which leaves this
man in his greatest want ! How mad am I in loving sin, which is
the cause of all these crosses and miseries, and which makes death
so mortal to poor souls ! Of how much worth and value is the
blessed Eedeemer, who will comfort a Christian in such a time of
need, and carry him through his last conflict with joy and conquest !
How careful should I be to get and keep a good conscience, which
in such a day of extremity will yield me true courage and con
fidence ! The wise man doth not without cause tell us : It is
better to go into the house of mourning, (to the terming or charnel-
house,) than to the house of feasting : for that is the end of all
men ; and the living will lay it to heart/ Eccles. vii. 2. Men in a
house of feasting are apt to be forgetful of their duty to God, them
selves, and their neighbours, Isa. xxii. 13, 14 ; Amos vi. 3, 6 ; Isa.
v. 11, 12. When the body is filled, the soul is often neglected.
Job was afraid of this in his sons : Job i. 6, It may be my sons
10 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts, i.e., when they had
been feasting at their elder brother s house. God gives Israel a
special caution against this, Deut. viii. 12, 14. Men, in a house
of mourning, are put in mind both of God s sovereignty, who
draweth away their breath and they perish, Ps. civ. 29, and their
own frailty, how soon they are gathered and withered, even in their
prime and pride, Ps. xxxix. 5. I am blind if I do not see mine
own end in the end of another ; and distracted if 1 do not provide
for my last enemy, which I must necessarily encounter. Thus it is
a mercy to ourselves, to be merciful unto others ; and whilst we
visit the sick, we visit our own souls. Who would not do his
neighbour good, when he may be confident it will tend to his own
gain ? I have but hopes by my visit of advantaging a sinner ; but
I may be sure, if I be faithful therein, of profiting myself.
SECTION III.
Thirdly, It may be the last opportunity thou mayest ever have
of advantaging thy sick neighbour s soul. His sick-bed may be his
death-bed, and then it will be too late to counsel or advise him.
There is no purgatory in the other world. Diseases, both bodily
and spiritual, must be purged away before death, or never. He
that is filthy at death, must be filthy still, even to all eternity. All
the tears in hell will not wash out the least spot in the soul ; all
the fire of hell will not purge out the least dross. Therefore Christ
took the opportunity of dropping good counsel into the heart of the
thief on the cross, knowing that if he had omitted it a very few
hours longer, the soul of the poor thief had been lost for ever.
Hadst thou a friend going to sea, and never to return again, wait
ing at a port for a wind, and then to be gone, and hadst business
with him of as great concernment to him as his life thou couldst
tell him of a quicksand which he must beware of, or he will be cast
away wouldst thou not be quick and speedy to acquaint him with
it, lest he should be under sail before thou didst see him ? Would
it not cut thee to the heart, if he should miscarry through thy
negligence ? The application is easy. The soul of every neigh
bour is, or ought to be, dearer to thee than the body of thy nearest
friend or relation. When thy wicked neighbour is sick, his soul is
launching, for aught thou knowest, into the ocean of eternity,
whence he shall never, never, return more. He waits only for a
wind, a word from God, and he is gone. The sick-bed is the pass
age or pathway to the grave. Thou hast work to do with him,
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 11
that is more worth to him than his life, that is of as great value
as his immortal soul, and eternal salvation. Now thou mayest
acquaint him, while he is on the shore, with his danger, and the
way of his delivery ; but if once he launch into the main, thou
mayest call loud and long enough after him in vain. Oh, will it
not pierce thee to the quick, if his soul should be swallowed up in
the boundless and bottomless sea of divine wrath, through thy
laziness or unfaithfulness? When the day drew near for the
destruction of the Jews, the heart of Haman swelled with hopes,
and Esther had then an opportunity to step in and preserve the
lives of her countrymen. Mordecai tells her, Who knoweth whe
ther thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ? She
made use of the season, and saved their lives with the hazard of her
own. Had she delayed a little longer, it had been too late ; they
had all been sacrificed upon the altar of Hainan s ambition. When
the hour of a wicked man s death approacheth, the heart of the
roaring lion is big with expectation of his prey, and a Christian
friend hath then possibly an opportunity to save the poor creature s
soul. Now or never ; there is no knowledge nor wisdom in the
grave, whither the sick person is going. If he make use of the
price God puts now into his hands, by serious, prudent, faithful,
and affectionate counsel, he may help the sinner to heaven. Who
knoweth whether he be come, by the providence of God, into the
sick man s chamber for such a thing as this ?
I have but one thing more to commend to thee, and then I shall
speak to the work itself.
Before thou goest to thy sick neighbour, go to God by prayer ;
entreat him to direct thee what to speak, and to succeed what shall
be spoken ; it is his own ordinance, and therefore thou mayest the
more comfortably beg and expect his assistance. Nehemiah would
speak to God before he spake to the king for the afflicted Jews ;
Esther prefers her petition, first to her Maker, that her prayer
might prosper, and then her petition to her husband for the lives
of her countrymen. God is the principal agent ; and if he be left
out, all thy labour will be lost.
Wherein the exercising thyself to godliness in visiting the sick
consisteth
1. In endeavouring to benefit the soul of thy neighbour.
2. In getting some spiritual profit to thyself.
First, In endeavouring the spiritual good of thy neighbour. We
are enjoined, in the eighth command, to mind and further our neigh
bour s temporal wealth, but much more his spiritual welfare. It
12 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
was true which Bucer s physician told him, when he expressed his
eagerness to die, Non sibi, sed multorum utilitati, se esse natum,
That he was not born for himself, but for the good of many others ;
every saint is to be, as it were, a common stock for the profit of
many. He is born, and new born, not only for himself, but for
others benefit. The lynx is a spotted, unclean beast, that, knowing
how his urine will congeal into a precious stone, and be profitable
to men, maketh a hole in the ground when he pisseth, to hide it
from them. Job, who knew the advantage that might accrue to
others thereby, would not conceal either the word or works of God
from them, Job vi. 10, and xxvii. 11. To this end
1. Labour to be acquainted with the state of the sick person s
soul. It is dangerous to give either purges or cordials ignorantly,
or at peradventure. The souls of men are of unconceivable value,
and therefore not to be tampered or trifled with. It is a good step
to the cure to understand fully the disease, and the constitution of
the patient ; therefore physicians feel the pulse, view the urine, in
quire of the sick person, or his friends, concerning his former course
of life, diet, present digestion of his food, place of his trouble or
pain, &c., that they may proceed upon good grounds, and give suit
able and effectual advice. So shouldst thou, reader, in visiting the
sick, inform thyself, either by conference with some serious Chris
tians of their acquaintance beforehand, or by some searching, prudent
questions to the sick, concerning the condition of their souls. The
ignorance of a physician may occasion the death of the patient.
Some practitioners in physic, who intend much good, do much
hurt for want of judgment to find out the tempers and distempers
of the sick. A mistake in soul-cases is of more hazard than in
body-sickness. If I undertake to humble a person who is already
cast down sufficiently, and wants a cordial, or to comfort one who
is full of presumption already, and needs a corrosive, how good so
ever my meaning maybe, my acting is evil ; and instead of relieving,
I may destroy my brother. The eastern churches did not without
cause enjoin the minister, or such as were appointed to visit the
sick, to continue with them seven days together, that in that space
they might discover the man before they applied themselves to
him, either in a way of admonition, or counsel, or consolation.
Job s friends, when they came to visit him, spake not a word, either
reproving or advising him, till they heard him open his mouth and
curse the tongue that told the news of his birth. The knowledge
of the sick man s spiritual condition is, as it were, the foundation
upon which we must build all our discourse with him, and prayers
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAX s CALLING. 13
to God for him ; or at least it is the rule by which we must build,
and therefore it is very dangerous to mistake in it. If the founda
tion be laid ill, the superstructure will never stand well ; if the
rule be crooked, the building cannot be straight. A blind archer
may as soon hit the mark, as one ignorant of his neighbour s state
advantage his soul.
SECTION IV.
2. Apply thyself to him suitably to his condition. As the condi
tions of men are several, so must the application be ; that which
cures one may kill another. One medicine will as soon cure all
diseased bodies, as one way all sick souls ; indeed the physic to be
prescribed every patient is the same for substance the blood of
Christ ; by his stripes we are healed. But there are several ways
of tendering this to sinners, that they may be prepared for it, and
give it all acceptation ; that physic which is given to one in a
potion, is given to another in a powder, to a third in an electuary,
to a fourth in a pill, according as it will be most profitable and
most acceptable to them. It is not easy so to write the bill, that
the sick may receive what is prescribed to his greatest content and
advantage ; for as many perish errore medici as vi morbi, by the
error of the physician, as by the power of the disease. Though I
judge it next to impossible for me to set down, exactly and fully,
directions answerable to the difference of sick persons condition,
disposition, education, calling, guilt, &c., yet I shall speak to the
most ordinary cases, and be careful not to omit the main work,
namely, that which concerneth the conversion of graceless and
Christless persons, if, on a sick-bed, God peradventure will give
them repentance.
If the sick person be judged carnal and unregenerate, (for the
tree is known by its fruits ; besides, it is no breach of charity to
fear the worst of them whose lives do not speak a positive holiness,
especially whilst we are endeavouring their good,) then in general I
would advise thee to speak,
(1.) To the depravation of man s nature, and the trangressions of
life, with the sad aggravations thereof ; how holy man was by
creation, how universally and desperately vicious he is by his fall
from God, and what horrid unthankfulness he is guilty of in con
tinuing in sin, notwithstanding the grace that is offered to him in
the gospel. It is fit to speak to the purity and equity of the law
of God, and to the difference and contrariety of his heart and life
14 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
to it ; to the sinfulness of sin, in its offensiveness and opposition to
the nature and word of an infinitely holy, glorious, and gracious
Majesty ; in its destructiveness to the present peace and future per
fection of his own precious and immortal soul ; and in that the stain
of it is so deep, and the venom of it so great, that nothing beneath
the blood of God could wash out its spots, or be a sufficient antidote
for its poison. Tell him of the folly of sinners in refusing heaven
for earth, angelical delights for brutish pleasures, the blessed God
for a base lust ; and of his own madness likewise in running on so
eagerly upon his own ruin, against the counsels of men, the com
mands, threatenings, and entreaties of God, the convictions of his
conscience, the calls and invitations of a loving Kedeemer, and the
motions of the Holy Spirit.
(2.) Speak to the merit of sin, how it being committed against an
infinite Majesty r deserveth infinite wrath and severity. Tell him
that the wages of sin is death, temporal, spiritual, eternal. Ac
quaint him with the justice, holiness, and jealousy of God ; how he
will by no means clear the guilty, but hath threatened all manner
of plagues and judgments on the workers of iniquity, and cannot
fail in the least of accomplishing his word ; how he is resolved to
make all the children of men feel sin to be an evil and bitter thing,
either in broken bones on earth, or broken, backs, and endless tor
ments in hell. Let him know his own bnoxiousness, by reason of
his many and grievous sins, to the curse of the law, the wrath of
the Lord, and the vengeance of the eternal fire. Tell him that he
is by nature a child of wrath, an enemy to God, and an heir of
hell ; that it had been just to have cast him out of the womb into
hell ; that God s patience in bearing with him thus long, will but
increase his condemnation, and endless misery, unless he prevent it
by sincere conversion.
This is the first thing requisite in order to the recovery of his
soul. Till sin be discovered in its heinous nature, and bloody
colours, it will never be lamented, nor the Saviour esteemed accord
ing to the duty of the sinner. The first thing usually which the
Spirit doth in the change of a sinner, is to convince him of sin,
John xvi. 8 ; and this is also first in the minister s commission,
Acts xxvi. 18. The great neglect of this, in ministers and others,
is one reason that so few sinners are awakened ; the needful work of
humiliation is so dangerously slighted, that poor souls go sleeping
and dreaming all is well, till they come to be undeceived in hell.
(3.) Speak to his own inability to help himself, that no less than
infinite power can recover him out of his miserable condition. Men
CHAP. VII] THE CHRISTIAN MAX S CALLING. 15
are prone to act like brutes, when they are wounded, to under
take the licking themselves whole, as if it were an easy thing to
renew a carnal creature, and heal vitiated nature ; but, alas ! the
work is not so soon done. It is another manner of work to open
the blind eyes, and enliven the dead soul, than the secure careless
worldling doth imagine. It is called a resurrection from the dead,
a new creation, the work of God, because nothing less than a divine
almighty power can effect it, Rev. xx. 6 ; Eph. ii. 10 ; John vi. 29 ;
Eph. ii. 6.
(4.) Speak to the necessity of a change in him, both of his disposi
tion by repentance, and of his condition by faith in Jesus Christ.
That these are not works which may be done, or left undone, but
such as must be done, or he is undone for ever. Tell him the
necessity of a change,
[1.] Of his nature, by repentance ; how God himself hath said,
Except he repent he shall perish, and that it is not possible for
the whole creation to make void God s word. That, as he is a cor
rupted, depraved creature, he is no way capable of heaven, for God
hath shut him out, and barred the gate of bliss against him : Into
it (i.e., heaven) can in no wise enter anything that defileth, or is
unclean, Eev. xxi. 27 ; and he hath shut himself out by his vicious
nature, for spiritual pleasures are not suitable, neither can be en
joyed by depraved and ungodly creatures. Let him know that
swinish dispositions cannot relish heavenly delights, and therefore,
if it were possible for him to get to heaven in a carnal estate,
heaven would be no heaven, that is, no place of joy or pleasure to
him. Acquaint him especially wherein the nature of repentance
consisteth, not in a few sighs or sobs for sin, or in crying God
mercy, or saying, I am sorry I ever sinned, but in a real change of
the heart and nature ; that his mind must be changed to see the
ugliness and deformity of sin, his will to refuse it as the greatest
evil, his affections to loathe it and hate it above all things whatso
ever ; that he must abhor himself, and loathe himself, and bemoan
himself, for all his abominations, if ever he would find mercy, Job
xlii. 3 ; Jer. xxxi. 18 ; Ezek. xlvii. ; that he must in his whole
man be altered, turned upside down, be contrary to what he is by
nature, be converted and born again, or he can never see the king
dom of God, Mat. xviii. 3 ; John iii. 3. Forget not also to discover
the necessity of a change,
[2.] Of his state, by faith in Jesus Christ ; how the Son of God can
alone deliver him from the wrath of God ; that there is no name
under heaven by which he can be saved, but the name of Christ ;
1G THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
that all his prayers, and tears, and duties, cannot satisfy the divine
justice for the least of his sins, or deserve the least favour on the
behalf of his soul ; that he must of necessity be united by faith to
Christ, and submit to his guidance, and give up himself to his go
vernment, or perish eternally; that though Christ died for him
without his will, yet he will not save him against or without his
will, but he must be heartily willing to accept Christ as his Saviour
and sovereign, as ever he looks for salvation by him. Here it may
not be amiss to acquaint him with the fulness of Christ s merits, and
the freeness of God s mercy to them that do sincerely repent and
believe. How God commands, entreats, threatens, promiseth, and
all to draw men to mind the things of their peace.
(5.) Speak to the shortness of his time to do this weighty and
necessary work in ; that now there is no dallying, no delaying, for
within a few hours it may be too late ; that grace must be got now
or never ; that Christ, and pardon, and life must be obtained now or
never ; that no sin shall be forgiven, no person shall be justified, no
soul renewed or cleansed in the other world, that is not pardoned
and sanctified in this ; that heaven and hell are before him, and
within a short time the matter will be determined which of the two
he shall be in for ever; that he must now get a title to bliss, or miss
it for ever ; now prevent the unquenchable fire, or burn in it for
ever ; that he is now upon the shore, just stepping into the ocean
either of honey or wormwood, joy or horror, and therefore it con
cerns him nearly to consider what he doth, and to be diligent to
the utmost, if he would escape the endless company and torments
of devils and damned spirits. Take heed of giving him hopes of
recovery, which many do to please the sick or their friends ; for
hereby thou mayest exceedingly injure his soul, frustrating all the
means used for his spiritual health. Think not much to be often
with the sick person in case thou hast opportunity. Let his misery
move thee, and the love of Christ draw thee. When we fell an
oak, thirty or forty of the first strokes seem to be lost, because the
tree stirs not ; yet if we continue, it comes at last down, and sheweth
the effects of the first as well as the last strokes. If he be converted
thou wilt be satisfied ; however, thy reward is with God. If this
unconverted person be scandalous, then it may be sometimes con
venient to hint at the horrid nature of such sins, being committed
against common light, and abhorred by many of the very heathen,
and marked particularly for vengeance by the jealous God, 1 Cor.
vi. 9, 10 ; Gal. v. 19-21 ; Eph. v. 5, 6. Thou mayest have the
more hopes of success in visiting such a one, because conscience in
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 17
this sinner will probably prove thy friend, and join with thee in
terrifying him for those sins from which it could not (though it
frequently attempted) dissuade him.
If the unconverted person be one that lived civilly and orderly
in his outward conversation paying every man his own, keeping
his church, forbearing enormous crimes, &c. it will be then needful
to commend his civility ; Jesus looked on such a man and loved
him. But also to discover its defects and insufficiency, that there is
one thing lacking ; how his nature is universally polluted, and it
must be thoroughly purified, or he is a lost man ; that it is one thing
to have a wound hid, and another thing to have it healed ; that
many infidels have been unblameable in their outward carriages,
who yet perished, being without Christ ; that the scribes and
pharisees went farther than most civil men, for they had not only
a negative holiness in denying gross sins, but a positive holiness,
(in show at least,) they prayed, fasted, &c. ; yet he, to whom it is
impossible to lie, tells us, Mat. v. 20, Except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in
no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." It will be good also, in
dealing with such a person, to insist much upon the latitude and
purity of the law of God ; how it forbiddeth (and condemneth for)
the least sinful thought, and how nothing less than perfect obedience
can answer its demands, or satisfy the law-giver ; because such men
are apt to judge themselves righteous, comparing themselves with
those that are notoriously vicious. They think all is well, their
minds being darkened, and unable to discern and discover the secret
lusts which are hugged in their hearts ; besides, their consciences
being defiled as well as other faculties, are not so true to them as
to convince them powerfully of that pride, hypocrisy, unbelief,
impenitency, atheism, and ungodliness which they are guilty of.
And Satan hath a strict watch over them to keep them asleep in
sin, not caring, so men go to hell, whether they go thither in the
dirty road of scandalous and crying crimes, or in the cleanly path,
and through the fair meadows of civility. Whether the person be
scandalous or civil, it will be needful to let in light at some crevice,
and not to leave the sinner wholly in the darkness of despair. The
good Samaritan poured oil as well as wine into the wounds of him
that fell among thieves. A little hope may melt that heart which
despair would harden. Sturdy thieves have wept at the news of a
reprieve, that have stormed and raged at the sentence of condemna
tion ; but this is wisely to be done, lest the sinner be encouraged to
presume. Lenity is to be joined with severity. Let there be love,
VOL. in. B "
18 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
but not emboldening them to sloth ; let there be terror, but not
driving them into a fury, saith Gregory. 1
If the sick person be one that is judged a true member of Christ,
then speak to the excellency of grace, and Christ, and heaven ; to
the certainty and worth of those promises that are entailed on
believers, to make his passage into the other world as comfortable
as thou canst. It will be fit also to speak to those graces of faith,
patience, love, heavenly-mindedness, and joy in God, which should
be minded and exercised in a time of sickness ; how the time of
affliction is the spring, the special time wherein those graces should
shoot up and shew themselves ; that God expecteth some service
from him under his sickness ; and that his last works should be
better than his first. If he be under doubts and fears for Satan
will take the advantage of his sickness to assault him with his fiery
darts, and saints are too apt to question God s love when they feel
his hand, the weakness of the body discomposing the mind, and
denying it the free exercise of spiritual judgment then advise him
to review his former experiences of divine goodness, and trials of
divine grace within him ; to hold fast on Jesus Christ, and to con
sider that sickness is common to men, good as well as bad ; that
though they differ vastly in the other world, yet not at all in their
passage thither. Singular saints have been afflicted with the sorest
sickness ; Job was a non-such for sanctity, yet full of sores. It is
a question whether he were more eminent for corporal distempers
or spiritual health ; Hezekiah, David, Asa, Paul, Epaphroditus,
were all thus chastened of the Lord, but not condemned with the
world.
Whatsoever the sick person be, whether gracious or graceless,
it will not be amiss to mention the three great lessons which God
would teach every one by affliction.
First, The emptiness of the world, appearing in its inability to
afford the least ease to the body, or comfort to the soul, of the sick.
How little worth is that which fails a man in his greatest need !
Second, The preciousness of Christ, and grace, and the promises of
the gospel, which can enliven and encourage a dying person ; that
can cause light in darkness, joy in sorrow, and life in death ; that
can enable a Christian to rejoice in tribulation, and to welcome
pain and sickness, nay, and the very king of terrors, and to look
into the other world with comfort and confidence.
Third, The sinfulness of sin, which is the original of all diseases,
1 Miscenda eat lenitas cum severitate ; sit amor, Bed non emolliens ; sit rigor, sed
non exasperans. Greg. Mor., 10.
CHAP. VII. ] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 19
and aches, and grief ,and separation of friends, and losses, and miseries
whatsoever. The rabbis say, that when Adam tasted the forbid
den fruit his head ached. It is clear sin is the original of sickness.
The body is the instrument of unrighteousness, therefore the sub
ject of diseases ; for this cause many are weak and sick, 1 Cor. xi.
30. All the evil in this and the other world are the issue and off
spring of sin. Ah ! what a root of bitterness is that, which brings
forth such bitter fruit ! Be sure to take the thoughts of the sick
off from resting in physicians, or any means used for their cure ;
this was the fault of good Asa, 2 Chron. xvi. 12. Let them know that
it is God that wounds, and he only that can heal, and therefore he
must not be tempted, either by despising those helps which his
providence giveth, or by relying on them. Hippocrates gave this
counsel to all physicians, that when they went upon any occasion
to visit their patients, they should consider, first of all, whether
there was not divinum aliquod in morbo, something of God in the
disease. If so, he held the patient to be desperate, and his recovery
impossible : Cujus contrarium verum est. If it were the hand of
God that smote them, the same hand can help them, for with him
nothing is impossible. Let them understand that sickness hath a
supernatural as well as a natural cause. That all diseases are, like
the centurion s servants, at the command of God : He saith to one,
Go, and it goeth ; to another, Come, and it cometh ; to a third, Do
this, and it doeth it. God would have the Israelites know that
not only sword, and famine, and captivity, but also pestilence, con
sumptions, fevers, and burning agues, are sent from heaven, Deut.
xxviii. 21 , 22. He causeth those storms, and tempests, and quar
rels, and contentions that are between the humours in our bodies,
to their disturbance and destruction. Therefore Moses, beholding
the whole body of the Jews (except two renowned members) cor
rupted for he lived to see all that came out of Egypt besides to
die cried out, Thou turnest man to destruction, and say est, Re
turn, ye children of men/
SECTION V.
3. Deal closely and faithfully with him ; let not fear of giving
distaste, or hope of some advantage to thyself, make thee false to
the soul of the sick. Do not play the part of a mountebank, in
using palliating medicines to allay the distemper, or anodynes to
stupefy the patient, and neglect the root of the malady. Alas !
carnal wretches are prone enough of themselves to deceive and
20 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
flatter their own souls, till it be too late for second thoughts, and
the wicked one will be at their bed-sides, to hinder, if it be pos
sible, all means from awakening and undeceiving them. Be care
ful, therefore, lest thou shouldst be any way accessory to Satan s
design. Sin is like the little serpent aspis, which stings men,
whereby they fall into a pleasant sleep, and in that sleep die.
Sinners need all the rousing and affrighting considerations that
may be. He that gives a potion, which, instead of furthering
health, procureth death, is a murderer. The flatterer is like the
worm teredo, mentioned by Pliny, (in Nat. Hist.,) as soft as silk
in the feeling of the hand, but it biteth so hard with the teeth,
that it eateth out the heart of the strongest timber. Flattery is
to sin, what oil to fire ; it makes it flame the more. Oh it is dan
gerous to speak peace where God speaks war ! shouldst thou do
so, the blood of such a soul would be required at thy hands, Ezek.
xxxiii. 8 ; Jer. xxiii. Faithful dealing will bring thee in most
comfort at present, and most credit hereafter, as also be most ad
vantageous to the sick person. When the great day comes, the
man that hated flattery, and scorned, for a little profit or favour,
to disown his duty, or prove false to the soul of his neighbour, will
hold up his head with courage, but the cowardly and fearful will
hang down their heads with shame, Kev. xxi. 8.
4. Pray with him, and for him. Sick persons are often full of
pain and grief, and are more than usually assaulted by Satan,
whereby they are the less able to pray for themselves, and have the
more need of the prayers of others. It is observable that though
the Holy Ghost commandeth men in other afflictions to pray them
selves Is any afflicted ? let him pray yet when he mentioneth
sickness, he saith not, Is any sick ? let him pray ; but, Is any sick ?
let him send for the elders of the church, and let them pray over
him, James v. 14 i.e., A sick man is not so fit to pray himself;
he wanteth others to pray for him, and with him. The soul sym-
pathiseth in the sufferings of the body, and the inner man is seldom
at rest, if the outward man be distempered and disquieted. The
mind is unfitted for duties by the diseases of the flesh. Paul calls
his bodily weaknesses a temptation, Gal. iv. 13, 14. Afflictions on
the flesh are temptations to the spirit, and sickness is a piercing
arrow in Satan s quiver of temptations.
If the person be carnal, what motives hast thou, from his misery,
to quicken thee to the duty! The poor creature is going to hell,
and knoweth it not. His destruction is near, and he is not aware.
How should the thoughts of that extremity and eternity of torments
CHAP. VII.] THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 21
which he is every moment liable to, stir thee up to be earnest and
instant with God on his behalf ! It may be thou wouldst sit up a
whole night to watch with him for the comfort of his body ; dost
thou not know that the soul is infinitely more worth ? Oh watch
and pray, that he enter not into eternal condemnation ! Thou art
not ignorant that God hath made promises of grace, as well as
promises to grace, and canst not tell but that grace waiteth in
heaven for the sick person, only thy prayer must be the messenger
to fetch it thence. God hath shewn mercy at the last ; he can do
it to this man, therefore thou mayest have the more hopes. Be
sides, it may be his sickness shall not be unto death, but only to
heal his diseased soul, and so to give him a new life, both natural
and spiritual. The question before thee is, whether that poor sick
creature s soul shall be Christ s or the devil s for ever ; and wilt
thou not plead hard with God that it may be thrown in to Christ,
whose title is unquestionable, and that the grand and arch-enemy
of Christ and men may be frustrated and disappointed in his ex
pectation ? Zeal to the advancement of thy Kedeemer s interest,
and love to the soul of thy neighbour, should actuate and animate
thy requests, and put life and fervency into thy petitions.
If the sick man be godly, thou hast the more encouragement to
pray. God hath promised as much to him as thou canst rationally
desire for him. He hath hopes to speed, that goeth to an honest,
able man, and sheweth him his bond for what he demands. God
is infinite, both in righteousness and power, so that there is no fear
of a repulse, if you can shew his hand for your request. He delights
to hear his promises pleaded in prayer, and to see his children so
full of affection, as to be fervent in their petitions for each other.
Thou mayest send the same message by prayer to Jesus, that the
sister of Lazarus did, Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick, and
mayest be confident of the like gracious answer : This sickness is
not unto death (eternal) but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby.
Next to thy endeavours for the good of thy sick neighbour s
spiritual estate, it will be fit to advise him about his temporal estate,
that he may dispose of his worldly affairs, and his wealth, if God
have given him any, with wisdom, and settle things so firmly,
that his relations may not be wrangling for his goods, when his
body is at rest in his grave.
Secondly, The exercising ourselves to godliness in visiting the
sick, consisteth in getting good to our own souls by it. Though it
be forbidden us to inquire of the dead, and ask their counsel, yet it
22 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
is commanded us to inquire of the dying, and to learn of them,
Deut. xviii. 11 ; Eccles. v. 1, 2. Sick men may teach them that
are in health many excellent lessons. Some say that ground covered
with ashes, is made thereby the more fruitful. The dust of the
dead, falling upon a right soil, an honest heart, will make it the
more abundant in holiness. A Christian findeth walking in
hospitals or churchyards, among the sick or dying, much conducing
to the health and life of his soul. He that was cast dead into his
grave, by touching the bones of dead Elisha, was ravished to life.
That which Elias said to Elisha, when he begged a double portion
of his spirit, If thou seest me when I am taken from thee, it shall
be so unto thee/ may fitly be alluded to in this place. The sight
of others sickness and death, and their departures from us, is a
great means to increase the spirit in us, and to double our care and
diligence in preparing for such an hour.
1. In laying to heart thine own frailty. He is but a cold clod of
clay, and dead already, who doth not see his own death in the death
of others. Sickness is but one remove from death ; the sick-bed is
the way to the coffin ; therefore, when thou visitest the sick or dying,
reflect upon thyself, and consider : This will be my case, or a worse,
a violent stroke. The same enemy that encountered my neighbour,
is upon his march towards me, and will certainly overtake me.
The feet of them that carry my friend to his grave, are ready to
carry me also ; what need have I to be always in a dying frame,
and ready for death ! The very next arrow that death shoots, may
be levelled at me ; and shall not I stand always upon my guard in
expectation of it, and armed for it ! Oh how deep will the head of
that arrow pierce me, if it find me naked.
2. In considering God s mercy to thee, and blessing him for the
health thou enjoyest. The pain of others will tell thee that ease is
a mercy ; the racking sickness, and restless nights of others, do
speak aloud in thine ears, that health and rest are mercies. 1 Oh
how shouldst thou adore that God who distinguisheth thee thus
graciously from others. Mayest thou not think with thyself, here
is a person full of pain, the day is full of darkness to him, and
wearisome nights are appointed to him. Lo, his wife, and children,
and friends are weeping about him, but cannot relieve or redress
him ; all the comforts of this life are unsavoury to him. His aches,
and grief, and diseases, hinder him much in spiritual performances,
and in the prosecution of a better life ; how much am I bound to
the Lord, that it is not so with me ! I can relish outward mercies,
1 Carendo potius quam fruendo sapimus.
CHAP. VII.] THE CHKISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 23
and am refreshed with bodily comforts. I have no such distemper
or pain to take me off from prayer or Scripture, but I may be as
frequent and as urgent as I will about my soul and eternal concern
ments. Bless the Lord, my soul, and all within me praise his
holy name. Surely health is the prince, the first-born, of outward
blessings. Though foolish men deprive themselves frequently of it,
for the satisfaction of a sensual, wanton appetite, yet it is more
worth than a thousand of those brutish transitory delights. A
stomach is of more value than meat, and a good digestion than
raiment. Men think not much to part with much of their wealth
in their sickness for a little health. Oh, it deserves thy prayers to
God for it, with submission to his will, when thou wantest it, and
thy praising of God for it, with enlarged affections, when thou
hast it !
3. In observing the necessity of a timely repentance, and its diffi
culty on a dying bed. How unfit is a man to begin to live, when
he is racked with pain, and going to die. The dolour and trouble
of his body are great impediments to the good of his soul. When
the outward man is in great distress, and the inner man sympathis
ing with it, the best words are often wasted and thrown away, and
the mind is unfit either to receive counsel or comfort. Further,
how irrational is it to give Satan our prime, our health, our strength,
and God our weak, and consumptionate, and dying parts ; to pre
sent our enemy with our quick, and nimble, and active faculties
and members, and to put off our best friend with a body full of
sores, and a soul full of sin. Besides, the longer men continue in
sin, the more difficult their conversion will be. He that hath wan
dered or travelled out of the right way all day, will hardly be per
suaded to go back all the way, and set out again at night. Where
Satan hath dwelt long, he will hardly be removed. A ship, the
longer it leaketh, the harder it is to be emptied. The farther a
nail is driven in, the more trouble to get it out. The longer my
soul continueth in disobedience, the harder it will be to bring it to
repentance. The more sin is riveted and habituated in me, the
more pains, and toil, and grief, it will cost to get it subdued
and slain.
4. In learning more the excellency of grace, and an interest in
Christ and God, which will do a man good in a day of sickness, and
an hour of death. He is a friend indeed that is a friend in a day of
adversity. The sinner s folly in neglecting durable riches, teacheth
the Christian wherein true wisdom consisteth, and the worth of it ;
that it consisteth not in heaping up such treasures, or getting such
24 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
friends as will be useless and unprofitable in a time of need, but in
laying up a treasure in heaven, and insuring eternal comforts.
Cold sharp weather sheweth the value of a healthy constitution.
A storm will speak the worth of a sure anchor and a skilful pilot.
The excellency of grace, and holiness, and Christ, and God, are not
fully known till we come into the other world, where all sublunary
comforts are wanting ; but the more any condition in this world
resembleth that, and the nearer we approach that, the more visible
is the value of divine and lasting blessings. A cordial is not
esteemed till we come to fainting fits. A soul that in time of
health, and wealth, and outward prosperity, made the fear and
ways of God, and the estate of the godly, the object of his scorn
and contempt, when he comes to be awakened by the alarum of
death, and to look into the other world, will make them the object
of his choice, and give a world, if he had it, for them.
A good wish about the visitation of the sick, wherein the former
heads are applied.
The righteous Lord, and God of all grace, who for sin afflicteth
man with sickness, yet in the midst of judgment remembereth
mercy, intending his instruction, not his destruction, by it having
designed such afflictions, as rods to whip men to himself, to make
them out of love with sin, the spring of all their sufferings and sor
rows, and to wean them from the earth, who otherwise would make
it their heaven ; and hath also appointed men to be the means
through which these mercies shall be conveyed, and sicknesses sanc
tified to them ; I wish, in general, that I may never omit to visit
those neighbours with pity, whom God hath visited in fury ; much
less insult, as the Edomites over the afflicted Israelites, and perse
cute them whom God hath smitten, drawing blood from those
wounds which are already blue with the blows of the Almighty ;
but may be faithful to the precept and purpose of my God in this
particular, and adopt my second table duties into the family of the
first table, by visiting the sick, not out of common civility, but out
of charity, and in obedience to the God of my health. It is my
privilege that my alms may become sacrifice, my courtesies worship,
and in paying that debt of love which I owe to my neighbour, I
may pay that duty which I owe to my Maker. Oh that in all my
common transactions I might move upon principles of reason, and,
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 25
especially in works that have a tendency God-ward, act upon grounds
of religion. Lord, thou hast an eye to my good in all thy provi
dences and dealings ; why should not I have an eye to thy glory
in all my practices and actings ? Cause thy fear so to possess my
heart, that I may visit the sick out of conscience, and let thy grace
so assist and accompany my endeavours, that thou mayest visit
them to their eternal comfort.
I wish that the command of my God may be a sufficient motive
and warrant to make me set about the practice of this work. It is
my duty to visit them that are sick, as I am the Lord s servant. I
disown his authority, I deny his image, if I do not sympathise with
others in misery. Nature itself commandeth me to be affected with
the conditions of such as are afflicted. All creatures will commise
rate those of their rank and order that are in misery. Bees will
rather stay and starve with those of their kind that are unable to
fly to their hives, by reason of the weakness of their wings, than stir
from them or forsake them. The swine are so sensible of their fel
lows sufferings, that if one of the company be lugged, all the rest
will after their manner condole it. If a beast be slain, and its blood
spilt, others of that sort will shew their love and pity by scraping
earth on the blood, burying their fellow, and solemnising his funeral
with a kind of lamentation. Grace doth much more enjoin me to
be sick in others sickness, poor in others poverty, and to remember
them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them that suffer
adversity, as being myself also in the body. David, speaking of his
enemies that sought his destruction, saith, But as for me, when
they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth : I humbled my soul
with fasting ; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I
behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother : I
bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother/ Ps. xxxv.
13, 14. My God hath said, To him that is afflicted, pity should
be shewn. Sickness is one of the greatest outward afflictions ; it
renders all the comforts of this life uncomfortable. The largest
houses, revenues, honours, the most loving acquaintance, friends,
relations, are all unsavoury to them that are under great sickness.
To visit the prosperous and healthy is courtesy, but to visit the
distressed and sick is charity. The sweetest showers should fall on
the lower grounds. Lord, thou art the Father of mercies, and art
afflicted in all the afflictions of thy children ; thy soul is grieved
for the miseries of Israel. How suitable is it for them who expect
mercy another day, to shew mercy at this day ! Make me a fol
lower of thee, as a dear child, to put on bowels of compassion, and
26 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
to be merciful in heart, tongue, and hand, as thou my Father in
heaven art merciful.
I wish that, as a wise merchant, I may make the use of this
price, which is put into my hand, for the furtherance of my own
and my neighbours peace. Sickness is a special opportunity,
wherein I may advantage others souls ; the most poisonous viper
is at such a season benumbed with cold, and so may be handled
without much danger. The strength of the body of sin is much
abated, at least in regard of act and exercise, by the weakness of
the natural body. They who counted holiness a fancy, and holy
ones fanatics, in their health and power, will beg hard for purity,
and desire the saints prayers in their sickness. The waters of those
passions, which in a summer of prosperity did overflow their bounds,
and threatened to overwhelm and overthrow all that was near, are
frozen up in a winter of adversity, and kept within their banks ;
there are many nicks in time, as we see in a clock, which, if they
hit, the work goeth on well. The hardened hearts of sinners are
often melted, when their persons are confined to their warm cham
bers ; as tinder when dry easily takes fire, by the least spark that
falls on it, so when the souls of ungodly men are made soft by sick
ness, and their thoughts of the evil of sin in the pain it brings on
their bodies, makes their affections combustible, it will be much
the easier to kindle the fire of repentance in them. Affliction boreth
or openeth the ear, and then it is seasonable to drop some whole
some counsel into it. Though a load on the ground be hard to be
stirred, yet a load on the wheels is easy to be drawn. The illness,
and aches, and distempers of sinners bodies do, as it were, set the
work of conversion, and minding the good of their souls, upon the
wheel, and therefore such opportunities ought to be diligently im
proved. Sickness is a good time when charity is in season. It is
a grace to have an opportunity for the service of my God, but a
greater to improve it. The eastern people do plough and sow their
grounds, when the former rain hath softened it ; and why should
not I endeavour to plough up the fallow-ground of my neighbour s
heart, and to sow in it the seeds of savoury instructions, when it is
made tender by sickness ? Lord, thou layest hold of every oppor
tunity to bless me with mercy answerable to my necessities ; make
me both wise to discern time and judgment, and faithful to make
use of all such seasons to do thee service.
I wish that the opportunity I have thereby of doing good to my
own soul, may move me to be the more careful and conscientious
in visiting the sick. It is the wise man s speech, It is better to go
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 27
into the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting ;
for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart.
It is better, as it is most suitable to my present state. It is not
proper for pilgrims to spend their time in pleasure. Sorrow is
becoming in a valley of tears. A house of mourning agrees well
with the mourners in Zion. This world is a sea, I am a mariner,
and mariners rejoice in the haven, not in the tempestuous ocean.
This life is a warfare, I am a soldier ; it is too soon to be joyful
whilst I am fighting ; it will be time enough when all my enemies
are foiled. Oh how harsh is it for a child to be jocund, when he is
far from home ! Weeping is good language for them that sit down
by the river of Babylon ; how can I sing the Lord s songs in a
strange land ? Again, it is better to go into the house of mourn
ing, as it is most profitable to my precious soul. Grace thrives
best in a wet soul ; * by the sadness of the countenance the heart is
made better. The inner man is best when clad in mourning.
Trees planted by the water-side hang with clusters, and bring forth
fruit in due season. The sick-bed is a pulpit, and though there be
a wicked man in it, he may teach me rare instructions ; if he be
wholly silent, his condition preacheth to me that sin is the greatest
evil, that the world is a cheat and imposture, and that grace is the
most desirable created good. His dark chamber, weeping friends,
watered couch, aching head, trembling heart, pale lips, quivering
loins, all call aloud to me to consider of and prepare for such an
hour. Abel, being dead, yet speaketh ; my sick, my dead neigh
bour speaketh, Prepared be to follow me. Some have been raised
to life by beholding the dead. Oh that I were wise to observe and
improve the opportunities which free grace affordeth me, for my
own and others welfare ! If I lose a good market for the further
ance of my outward estate, I befool and bewail myself. Ah, why
should I not be as much affected with the loss of opportunities for
my inner man ! Sinners observe their seasons for the gratifying
their loves, and the satisfying their lusts. The thief waiteth for
the full purse till the market is over, and commodities be sold.
The adulterer makes use of the dark night for his deeds of dark
ness. Satan watcheth every opportunity to ensnare and destroy
me ; if I give him the least advantage, by idleness or carnal security,
or running into occasions of sin, he doth presently lay hold on it to
pollute me. All men indeed may shame me. The mariner doth
spread his sails when the winds blow. The merchant observes his
exchange hours, when he may meet with many friends, and des
patch much business in a little time. The lawyer minds his terms.
28 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
There is a time when kings go out to battle, 2 Sam. xi. 1, which
soldiers will not neglect. The husbandman makes hay whilst the
sun shines ; yet, ah, how foolish am I to let slip those golden sea
sons which my God giveth me, for working out my own salvation !
Lord, thou hast made everything beautiful in its season ; but poor
silly man knoweth not his time, Eccles. iii. 11, and ix. 12. Grant
me so much prudence, that, as the men of Issachar, I may have
understanding of the times, 1 Chron. xii. 32, and so much piety as
to serve the times, not as worldlings, in altering my course accord
ing to the fashions and customs of men, but in embracing what is
tendered in due time, for my own and others good, always adhering
to the commands of thee my God.
I wish that the uncertainty of my sick neighbour s outward
recovery, may make me the more careful and solicitous about his
spiritual health. If he die, he is stated and fixed for ever and
ever, and I am for ever deprived of all opportunities of profiting or
advantaging his soul. Now he is sick, he is nigh death, but one
step from it. The sick stand upon the borders of the grave, upon
the brink of the pit, nay, of eternity. Those that are in most per
fect health, are inclining towards death ; but they that are sick,
are approaching the chambers of darkness. Such a man may
speak, in the language of Haman, My life draweth nigh unto the
grave, Ps. Ixxxviii. 3. Should he depart this life in a natural
estate, he falleth into the jaws of eternal death. All prayers for
him will then be fruitless, and there is no giving counsel to him
after death. I must now advise, exhort, persuade, beseech him to
rnind faith and repentance, or never do it; I must now put up
hearty cries and groans to God on his behalf, or never do it. The
loving-kindness of God cannot be declared in the grave, nor his
faithfulness in destruction, Ps. Ixxxviii. 11. When he is wailing
in hell for the ungodliness of his heart and life, I may be weeping
on earth for my neglect of him, or unfaithfulness to him, but both
our tears will be ineffectual, and our cries comfortless. Oh that
the love of my Saviour, the command of my God, the worth of a
soul, the weight of an eternal estate, the fear of losing such a sea
son, and the impossibility of recalling or recovering it, may all
provoke me to be instant with the sick, to turn to God, and abhor
and bewail their sins, and to be fervent with God, that he would
crown my endeavours with success ! Lord, I may speak thy mind
and will to men, but thou alone, who didst make the ear, canst
enable them to hear; let it please thy Majesty so to affect my heart
with a due sense of others misery, so to direct my tongue what to
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 29
speak in order to their recovery, and so to prosper the undertakings
of thy servant, that as often as I visit any unconverted person in
his sickness, I may turn a sinner from the error of his ways, save a
soul alive, and hide a multitude of sins.
I wish that I may be solicitous to understand the spiritual con
ditions of the sick, that my prescriptions may be profitable, being
suitable to their several sores. The knowledge of the disease must
necessarily precede directions for its cure. It is folly to undertake
their recovery, whose estates I am ignorant of. He works at the
labour-in-vain who goeth about to heal a wounded patient, when he
knoweth not the place or nature of his pain. The mistake of the
physician may be as mortal and dangerous as the disease itself. It
will be no wonder if a blind man shoot awry, and miss the mark.
This was the cause that Job s friends, though holy men, and de
signing a good end, wandered exceedingly ; and instead of adminis
tering comfort by their visitation, wounded him to the quick, and
proved his greatest cross. The Sabeans and Chaldeans robbed him
of his cattle, Satan wronged him in his body, but his three friends
vexed his soul, and did break him in pieces with words. Their
ignorance was the ground of the hurt they offered, instead of the
help they intended, Job xix. 2. A friend may do that mischief
upon a false supposition, which an enemy doth out of malice.
Though the doctrine be true and right, if the application of it be
wrong, I may kill sooner than cure the person to whom I apply it.
The husbandman must know the nature of his ground before he
casteth in his seed, or otherwise he will miss of his expected crop.
Lord, thou knowest the conditions and dispositions of all men by
immediate intuition, and needest not that any should testify of
man ; thou knowest how needful it is for me to understand by
rational discourse who and what those sick persons are, how things
stand betwixt thy Majesty and their souls, whose recovery I go about.
Oh help me to find out their sickness, and to give such advice out
of thy word, that thou mayest work their care !
I wish that, when the condition of the sick person is found out,
neither fear nor flattery may make me unfaithful to his soul.
Those prescriptions cannot be profitable that are not answerable to
his estate. I am unfaithful to God, my neighbour, and myself, if
my application be not suitable to his condition. My God com-
mandeth me to proclaim war against the presumptuous, to preach
peace to the penitent ; and if I act otherwise out of fear or affec
tion, I act contrary to my commission ; I am false to my trust if I
keep not close to the will of my Lord. He that takes not his
30 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
master s precepts for his rule, will at last be counted and punished
as an unfaithful servant. I hinder also my neighbour s good,
whilst I give him counsel unsuitable to his case. I may pretend
love and respect, but it is real hatred to flatter him who is hasten
ing to the unquenchable fire. How dreadful will his fall be, from
the high turret of presumption into the infernal pit .of perdition !
and how little thanks will he give me in the other world for cozen
ing his soul, by telling him all was well, till he came to see his own
and my mistake in hell 1 Again, the guilt of such a crime would
make a deep gash in my own conscience. It is ill slighting or
tampering with inestimable souls. His blood will be required at
my hands ; and if the blood of a slain body cry so loud for ven
geance, what will the blood of a murdered soul do ? Why should
I, to humour any man s lust, injure his soul, hinder my own peace,
and incur the anger of the Lord ? Oh that no foolish pretences
whatsoever may keep me off from acquainting sinners with the evil
and end, the nature and danger of their sins. It is God s order,
first to cast the soul down r and then to lift it up. The ground
must feel the plough before it receive the seed. Sorrow must pre
cede comfort ; and they must sow in tears who would reap in joy.
God must shake all nations before the desired of all nations will
come to him. We come to Sinai, the mount that burneth with
fire, and to blackness and darkness, and a tempest which makes
even a Moses to fear and quake exceedingly, before we come to
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
The law is a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. Austere John,
with his axe laid to the root of the tree, threatening the fire to those
that bring not forth fruit, prepareth the way for the sweet alluring
Jesus. Mourning and grief is the midwife of true mirth ; peniten
tial tears are the streams that lead to the rivers of pleasures. Even
the doleful sound of the trumpet attendeth the judge when he is
going to acquit a prisoner by public proclamation. Violence must
be offered to corruption, or there will be no acceptance of the Lord
Christ. The building of holiness is the more strong for having its
foundation of humiliation laid deep. The safety of the soul doth
depend, like Jonah s, upon his being cast overboard, and utterly
lost in his own apprehension.
The blessed Jesus himself is brought into a desolate wilderness,
before angels are sent from heaven to comfort him. Oh that I
might follow my God in his usual way, and never prophesy smooth
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 31
things to rugged and wicked men, but endeavour to break their
hearts on earth, who have persisted in the breach of his holy laws,
that their backs may not be broken in hell. Yet I would not, in
stead of beating down the rotten paper walls of presumption, drive
any into the dungeon of desperation ; but, as the good nurse, have
the breast of consolation, as well as the rod of correction, in readi
ness for such children. Moses and Christ met together upon Mount
Tabor. The gospel must be preached to heal those wounds which
are opened and discovered by the law. The Lord sendeth me to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound. Lord, thou killest and makest alive, bringest
down to the grave, and bringest up. It is easy and ordinary with
thee to break those bones which thou iritendest to rejoice, and to
perplex those rams in briers and thorns which thou intendest to
accept of as a sacrifice. Teach thy servant to know how to speak
a word in season, both to the wicked and to the godly ; how to
divide thy word aright, both in its minatory and consolatory parts,
that, as occasion shall be, I may awaken the wicked out of their
deadly slumbers, and quicken the godly to their spiritual watchful
ness, and help to sweeten that bitter cup which thou hast put into
their hands. Oh that thy blessing might water my labours for
both their welfares ! Alas ! poor sick unregenerate ones are drop
ping into boundless and endless sorrows, and yet are without sense.
Though they are dying, they know not what they are doing, nor
whither they are going. Their eyes are shut by the god of this
world, that they see not that unspeakable misery to which they are
liable every moment ; their hearts are hardened through custom in
sin, that neither threatenings nor promises prevail with them to
feel their wounds and sores. thou great physician, thou Lord
of life, thou God of health, open their eyes ; send some Ananias to
them, that they might receive their sight, and be filled with the
Holy Ghost ; enable them so to mourn now, that they may be com
forted when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of
the Lord ; and help thy servant to deal so faithfully with those
whom thou callest me to visit, that I may never give thy Majesty
cause to say of me, as once of the prophets of Israel, They have
healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
I wish that I may be close and home in my applications to sick
persons, and speak what is proper to their estates, with ardency and
affection, to their very hearts. It is ill dallying with edged tools.
Oh, how sad is it to toy and trifle, to be formal or customary, in
32 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
counsel, or reproof, or comfort to immortal souls that are launching
into the ocean of eternity ! Death is a serious thing, and that
which they never did before, nor shall ever do again. Sin is a
serious thing, as the damned find in hell by woeful experience.
Though there they are in blackness of darkness, yet they have light
enough to see sin to be the evil of evils, and altogether sinful.
Christ was serious when he took upon him my nature, and therein
did offer up himself a sacrifice for sin. God is serious in com
manding faith and repentance, and in promising heaven to the
faithful and holy, and hell to unbelievers and atheists ; and shall
not I be serious and in earnest when I am dealing about matters
of eternal life and death, and about the concernments of God and
Christ, and souls and eternity ? Oh, with what earnestness should
I persuade the wicked to turn from their wickedness and live ! If
ever their souls would draw near to the Lord of life, it concerns
them to do it when their bodies are drawing nigh to the chambers
of death. It is but a very few hours, and their condition will be
past all amendment, all alteration. In this poor pittance of time,
all must be done upon which the scales must turn for their salva
tion or damnation. They are going to make that change which
will admit them into endless joy or torment, and render their estates
unchangeable. Their time is hastening that they must struggle
with dreadful pains, and strong distempers, and death, the king of
terrors, and must review that life which is ending, and look back
upon all that they have done, and judge their persons and actions
impartially, whether they will or no ; that they must take their
leave of all their friends, and food, and sleep, and lands, and houses,
and honours, and pleasures, and riches, and step into eternity, and
appear before God, without their relations, or possessions, or any
worldly comforts to help or encourage them ; that they must be
tried by a holy law, and a holy judge, for their everlasting lives or
deaths ; and can my expressions be too full of weight and reason,
or my affections too full of bowels and pity, in my dealing and dis
course with such men ? Lord, thou knowest the poor silly chil
dren of men are unable to judge of eternal affairs according to their
weight ; they are quickly lost, when in their thoughts they begin to
launch into that boundless sea. The ponderousness of the subject
is ready to affright and press them down, being so much beyond
and above their shallow understandings. But wouldst thou please
to enable them, though it were but to peep into the other world,
and to behold, through some crevice, what is doing and enjoyed
there, both by thy friends and thine enemies, they would soon have
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 33
other thoughts of thee and thy service, and other carriages when
they are about thy work. The greatest seriousness would then be
too little, the greatest ardour would not be thought enough for thy
worship. They would then, indeed, be fervent in spirit when they
are serving the Lord. Oh teach thy servant, though he cannot see
into the other world with the eye of sense, yet so to look into it
with an eye of faith, that he may transact the concerns thereof
with that diligence, faithfulness, and fervency which thou acceptest,
and whilst he liveth be zealous of good works !
I wish that my heart may be so affected with pity towards sick
and afflicted persons, that I may often and earnestly remember them
in my prayers. A little captive, considering the leprosy of her
master, was instrumental for his cure, by crying out, Would God
my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would
recover him of his leprosy. I have more reason, when I behold a
leprous soul, near its last gasp, to look up to heaven with, Would
to God that poor creature were with Jesus Christ, that great pro
phet of his church, who is able and willing to enliven, and pardon,
and sanctify, and save ! would to God he would be persuaded to
come to Christ, to cling to Christ, to close with Christ ! for he would
recover him. And what do I know but my prayers may be pre
valent on his behalf ? Christ; when dying, prayed for his enemies,
for them that imbrued their hands in his blood ; and shall not I
pray for my friends when they are dying, and possibly ignorant
whither they are going ? My prayers are a cheap courtesy, and
diminish nothing of my estate, either spiritual or temporal. Their
misery is an awakening motive to the duty. Never did they stand
in such need of help from others, and wrestling with God on their
behalves, as now that they are taking their journey into a far coun
try, and entering upon an unchangeable condition. They may say
to me, as Nehemiah to Geshem, I am doing a great work, &c. I
am going to die, to bid adieu to all the folly, and vanity, and com
forts of this world, to take possession of my long home, of the place
wherein I must abide for ever. Oh pray for us, that we may be
pardoned and saved, that we may repent and believe, that we may
die in the faith, and obtain the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto life eternal. They have many distractions upon their own
spirits, by reason of pains and bodily distempers, and the loss and
lamentation of their kindred and relations, that they cannot pour
out their hearts to God with that freeness, and seriousness, and ear
nestness which probably they desire. Their enemies, and assaults,
and temptations at such a time are more quick, and strong, and
VOL. III. C
34 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
violent, and full of rage, having but a short time. I must now
pray for them, or never pray for them ; now beg mercy for them,
or never beg mercy for them. When their life is gone, all tears,
and cries, and groans for them are in vain. David s greatest pas
sions for dead Absalom were to no purpose. They are then gone
the way they shall not return, and fixed in that place whence they
shall never remove. Lord, I confess that my narrow heart hath
not pity enough for afflicted, and sick, and dying souls, and my weak
hands have not power enough to supply or support them in their
sad estates ; but thou hast both. Oh be pleased to look down from
heaven, the habitation where thine holiness dwelleth ; behold their
miseries, hide thy face from all their iniquities, out of thine infinite
fulness relieve their necessities ! Let the eyes of their souls be
opened to see their sins and their Saviour, before the eyes of their
bodies be closed. Give them patience and strength answerable to
the burden thou layest on their backs ; enable them to do their last
works well, and let them be better than their first. Open thou their
lips, and let their mouths shew forth thy praise, before they go to
the place of silence. Stand by them in their last conflict with their
enemies, death and devils, that they may overcome both be more
than conquerors through him that loves them, and pass through
the jaws of death to the joys of a blessed eternal life !
I wish that my soul may be the more sound for every visit I
bestow on sick bodies. There is not so much danger of catching
their outward diseases, as there is hope of increasing my spiritual
health, if I am not wanting to myself. The sick and dying bed is a
pulpit, out of which I may be instructed more fully in many serious
truths, though the sick or dying man be speechless. King Joash-ob-
tained three famous victories over the Syrians, by visiting sick Elisha,
and might have gotten a complete conquest over them, if it had
not been his own fault, 2 Kings xiii. 14-20. The fight of sick .and
dying men may assist me in my conflicts with the three great enemies
of my present purity, and future comfort and bliss. It teacheth me
how vain it is to make provision for that flesh which will itself ere
long be provision for worms. Ah, how foolish am I to pamper and
please that which, instead of relieving or refreshing, will in my
extremity pierce and pain me ! It teacheth me that the world
itself is the greatest cheat and impostor in the world. That though
it laughs and smiles on men, dandling them on her knees, and
hugging them in her arms, whilst they are in health, and promis
ing all sorts of comforts and pleasures ; yet in their sickness and
misery she turns them off and leaves them, as Absalom s mule did
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 35
him, to be shot through with the heart-cutting arrows of eternal
death. By discovering the emptiness and falseness of these two
seeming ends, the flesh and the world, it helpeth me to overcome
my third enemy, and to repel the fiery darts of the devil. The cup
of temptation, which hath so often bewitched me to drink down
his deadly poison, had its prevalency from the worldly profit with
which the outside was gilded, or the fleshly pleasure with which
the inside was sweetened. Ah, could I but bid a hearty defiance
to the world and the flesh, and conquer them, I need not fear the
wicked one. They are the powerful advocates by which Satan
pleads, and too often prevails with the soul ; by these handmaids
he wooeth the mistress. But the sick-bed is a book in which I
may read their deceitfulness and treachery, their perfidiousness and
fallacies, and thereby learn to avoid them.
Further, I may read the sinfulness of sin in others sickness.
That parent must needs be a deformed monster, that begets such
uncomely and ill-favoured children. In the dreadful effects I may
behold the poisonous cause. Man had never known sickness in his
body, if he had not known sin experimentally in his soul. It is the
plague and stone of the heart that causeth those in the flesh.
When I behold the sick man labouring under his distemper, how
he is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his
bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread, and his
soul dainty meat ; how his flesh is consumed away that it cannot
be seen, and his bones stick out ; he is filled with tossings to and
fro unto the dawning of the day ; when I behold his eyes sinking,
his heart panting, his wife and children wailing and wringing their
hands, his friends weeping, his tongue faltering, his throat rattling,
his breath failing, his strength languishing, his whole body in a
cold clammy sweat, wrestling with his pain and disease, may I not
well cry out, Oh what an evil is sin, which bringeth all this upon
the poor children of men ! My Eedeemer is therefore said to bear
our sicknesses, because he bare our sins in his body on the tree,
1 Peter ii. 24 ; Mat. viii. 17 ; and in all his applications for the
cure of the diseased, he had an eye to the root of the malady. To
one that was diseased he said, Be of good cheer, thy sins are for
given thee ; to another, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come
unto thee. When the angel was smiting Israel with a pestilence,
holy David s thoughts ran upon the procuring cause, I have sinned,
I have done very wickedly. My God teacheth Israel the grievous
nature of their defilement in the greatness of those judgments
which they brought upon them. Speaking of his severity towards
36 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
them, he tells them, Thy way and thy doings have procured those
things unto thee ; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, be
cause it reacheth unto thine heart, Jer. iv. 18. Our bodies are full
of natural corruption, because our souls are full of moral corrup
tion. Oh how fitly may I therefore, when I behold the evil of
affliction on others, abhor and bewail the evil of sin in myself !
Once more, I may be instructed in the necessity of a timely pre
paration for such an hour of affliction. Can I think a sick-bed a
fit place, an hour of pain and grief a meet season, to begin that great
business of turning from sin, of loathing myself for all my abomi
nations, and working out my own salvation ? Is it rationally to
be imagined that trembling joints, dazzled eyes, a fainting heart,
failing limbs, a body full of aches and diseases, a soul sympathising
with it, and full of vexation and grief, should be fit instruments
about such a work, which an angelical strength, and agility, and
freedom, is little enough for ? Ah, what wise man would build his
eternal making and welfare upon such a tottering and sandy foun
dation ! The greatest strength, and longest time, and most vigor
ous health, is not in the least degree too much for this needful and
weighty business ; and shall I put it off till my strength fails, my
health is gone, and my time near its last sand ? Lord, beside all
these, I may learn the excellency of thine image and thy favour.
Sickness cannot waste them, nor death itself destroy them. Where
the curtains are drawn, and the windows close, in the darkest
chamber of the dying man, the comeliness of thy likeness, and the
sweetness of thy love, are most sparkling and glorious. The want
of outward comforts doth convince the unbelieving world of the
worth of eternal blessings. When the flesh and world, that made
show of such love to their deluded favourites, turn them off in
their extremity, as the Jews did Judas, complaining to them of his
folly and wickedness, What is that to us ? see thou to that. Thou
standest by and ownest thy servants, thou knowest their souls in
their days of adversity ; and, however thou dealest with them in
their health, wilt be sure to tend and look to, to be both nurse and
physician to thy sick children. Thy grace is a reviving cordial, and
thy love will make even death itself a sweet and desirable dish.
Oh help thy poor servant to gain much spiritual good by those
natural evils which others suffer ! As others sickness speaketh
these things to mine ears, and their conditions make them visible
to mine eyes, do thou write them in my heart, that all such pro
vidences of thine towards others may make sin more ugly, the
world more empty, thy graces and favour more comely and desir-
CHAP. VII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 37
able, and that, furthering my purity at present, they may further
my eternal peace hereafter.
Finally, I wish that the sickness of others may cause me to be
the more industrious in a faithful improvement of my health, and
take me wholly off from priding, and pampering, and making pro
vision for that flesh, which is so apt to breed diseases, and in its
greatest beauty and strength is so near to death. The goodliest
structure of body is but earth a little better wrought, or more
curiously than usually moulded up, and with an ordinary disease is
marred and defaced, and so calleth on me to be humble rather
than lifted up. The flesh that I provide for my flesh, is not more
subject to corruption, or more perishing, than the flesh for which it
is provided. Within a few days I shall have an end both of food
and feeding. Oh that I might waste that body in God s service,
which will ere long waste with sickness ! spend and be spent in
his work, who gives me my health, and strength, and hath pro
mised a bountiful reward ! Sure I am, I can never bring them to
a better market, nor put them off at a higher price. Is it not
better to consume my flesh in doing good, in glorifying my God,
than with idleness and ease, or with distempers and diseases?
Satan s servants do not grudge to give their prime and chief, their
health and strength, to their lusts ; and shall not I give mine to my
Lord? Ah, Lord, an unthankful, selfish, unbelieving heart, hath
too much hindered me from, and disturbed me in, those excellent
duties which thou callest me to. Oh deliver me from it, for thy
mercies sake ! Strengthen me by thy good Spirit, both to do good
to, and receive good by, such as thou chastenest with sickness ; so
to consider the poor and afflicted, and to visit others in my health,
that thou mayest visit me with thy saving health. Strengthen me
upon my bed of languishing, and make all my bed in my sickness,
that my most mortal sickness may not be unto death (eternal), but
for thy glory, and my passage into endless bliss ; yea, that in the
other world, I may stand among thy sheep on thy right hand, and
hear that blessed heart-cheering voice, Come, thou blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for thee before the founda
tion of the world. For I was hungry, and thou gavest me meat ;
I was thirsty, and thou gavest me drink ; I was a stranger, and
thou didst take me in ; I was sick, and thou visitedst me ; when
my soul shall be above all sin, and my body above all sickness,
and both blessed in thy favour and fruition, for ever and ever.
Amen.
38 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
CHAPTER VIII.
How a Christian may exercise himself to godliness on a
dying bed.
Sixthly, and lastly, Thy duty is to exercise thyself to godliness,
if God give thee opportunity, on a dying bed. The work of a saint
is to glorify God, not only in his life, but also in his death. The
silk-worm stretcheth out herself before she spin, and ends her life
in her long-wrought clew. The Christian must stretch out himself
on his dying bed, and end his life in the work of his Lord. Every
man by his death payeth his debt to nature. He is earth in regard
of his original creation, and must be earth in regard of his ultimate
resolution : Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return, Gen. iii.
19. The sinner, when he dieth, payeth his debt to sin, Satan, and
the law. To sin, as he is the servant of unrighteousness, and so
must receive its wages, which is death ; to Satan, as he hath sold
himself to work wickedness at his will, and so must have his
tempter to be his eternal tormentor ; to the law, as he hath vio
lated its precepts and commands, and therefore must undergo its
punishment and curse. The saint, when he dieth, payeth his debt
to God, for he oweth him honour as well by his death as by his
life. Hence we read, not only of their living in the Lord, and to
the Lord, but also of their dying in the Lord, and to the Lord,
Rom. xiv. 8 ; Rev. xiv. 13. Which, though some expound, in that
place of the Revelation, to the cause for which they died, they did
not die out of humour, or obstinacy, or any carnal, selfish interest,
but purely as martyrs at God s call, and for God s cause; they
loved not their lives to the death for the testimony of Jesus ; yet
the words may as clearly speak
1. The state in which they died. They died in the favour of
God, reconciled to him through the death of the Mediator. The
castle of their souls was not taken by storm, or in a state of enmity
and opposition, but by a quiet voluntary surrender, or in a state of
peace and amity.
2. The manner of their deaths. They died in the fear of God ;
they exercised grace as well in sickness as in health, and when
dying as when living; their spiritual motions were quick, when
their natural motions were slow.
Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus, high priest of Rome, that
though he lived to a great old age, his voice did not fail him, nor
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 39
his hand shake in his sacrificing to the gods. It is said of Moses,
when he was a hundred and twenty years old and died, that his
natural sight did not fail him, neither was his heat abated. So it
may be said of the Christian, that though he die old, his spiritual
sight doth not fail him, nor his divine heat abate. As Caleb, he is
as strong in regard of grace, his inward strength, when he is enter
ing into the promised Canaan, as he was when he first went forth
as a spy by faith, to search the land flowing with milk and honey.
The heathen counted him happy that died either in the midst of
the goods of fortune hence they say, if Priamus had died a little
before the loss of his town, he had died the greatest prince in all
Asia or in the exercise of their moral virtues. Hence they so
highly extol Seneca and Socrates, who seemed to dare even death
itself, out of resolution and fortitude. Though those seeming vir
tues were but, as Augustine terms them, splendidajlagitia, famous
vices, and their confidence arose not from any grounded knowledge
of their good estates, but from their blindness and ignorance of
their depraved, wicked, and woeful estates. He is the happy man
indeed that dieth in the faith, that sleepeth in Jesus, that goeth to
his grave in the exercise of grace. The master of moral philosophy
commendeth that pilot whom a shipwreck swalloweth up at the
stern, with the rudder in his hand. The most high God com
mendeth that person whom death seizeth, doing the work for which
he was sent into the world. Even the blind mole, if naturalists
may be credited, opens his eyes when he comes to die ; and the
crooked serpent stretcheth out herself straight, when she is going
to fetch her last breath : and shall not the saint be best at last ?
Header, observe how careful the saints have been to do their last
work well, and to go out of the world like some sweet spices, per
fuming the room in which they fetch their last breath with holiness,
and leaving a sweet savour behind them. Jacob, when dying, wor
shipped, leaning on his staff, Heb. xi. 21. What a character doth
he give of the angel of the covenant ! and what blessings doth he
pray for, and prophesy to come on his children, when he was going
from them ! How was his heart enlarged in pantings after the
Lord Christ ! Gen. xlviii. 16, and xlix. per tot. The living waters
of his graces ran with the greater strength, when they were empty
ing themselves into the ocean of glory. Moses, like the dying swan,
sings most sweetly, being to go up to Mount Nebo to die there.
What excellent doctrines, reproofs, instructions, doth he deliver to
the Israelites ! How pathetically, rhetorically, divinely, doth he
dictate his last legacies to his political children ! Who can read,
40 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
and not be ravished with wonder and delight, Deut. xxxii. and
xxxiii. Joshua, like the morning star, shines brightest at last ; he
gives his people so strict a charge to serve the Lord, such gracious
counsel, when he was going the way of all the earth, that it could
not but be remembered many days after. Dying Joseph will lay
his bones at stake for God s faithfulness, and that he will visit
Israel and deliver them out of Egypt. Samson did the church of
God more service, in slaying more of her enemies at his death, than
in his life. Julius Cassar among the Eomans, and Olympia, the
mother of Alexander, among the Grecians, were famous for their
care to die handsomely, and not to commit at last any ill-beseem
ing action, whereby their memories should have been rendered in
glorious ; but the Christians care hath always been, to die holily,
and to do their God most service when they are going to that place,
where they shall do him no more in a proper sense. Philosophers l
tell us that the soul, upon death s approach, is more divine and
supernaturally inclined ; certain it is, the soul of a saint only doth
then more aspire heavenward, when it is returning ?rpo9 TO irpoyovov
Qelov, to its original divinity, according to Plotinus s phrase of
death. As his Saviour, he brings out his best wine at last, and his
last works are more than .his first, Rev. ii. 19.
The blessed Prince, and Lord of life, should be our pattern at
death. He got his Father most glory, he did his church most
good, by his death, though he ^was eminently serviceable to both
all his lifetime. It is said of him, he was obedient, Phil. ii. 7, to
the death ; which may import,
1. His continuance in -well-doing. His obedience lasted to the
last moment of his life ; so should ours. Elisha would not leave his
master, till taken from him into heaven ; and we should not leave
our Lord, till taken to him into heaven. Polycarp, in his old age
being urged by the proconsul to deny Christ, answered, I have
served him eighty-six years, and he never once hurt me, and shall
I now deny him ?
2. His obedience in his death. His death was a free-will offering,
in obedience to his Father s command. Not only his birth and
life was an answer to his Father s call, A body hast thou prepared/
&c. Then said I, Lo, I come (to put on that body, to take upon
me that nature, and thereby and therein) to do thy will, God ;
but also his death was in pursuance of his duty : This command
ment received I of my Father. Thus the Christian s death must
be offered up as a sacrifice to God, in obedience to his command.
.j lib. viii., Plut., Apol.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 41
The sinner s soul is pressed to this war, in which there is no dis
charge : This night thy soul shall be required of thee. The saint,
understanding the orders from the Lord of hosts, is a volunteer ;
he gives up the ghost : Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my
spirit.
3. The gracious manner of his dying. The Sun of righteousness,
when setting, did shine most gloriously. Though at his death he
had such infinite disadvantage, being to wrestle with the frowns of
an incensed God, the fury of earth and hell, and met with clouds,
black and thick enough to have obscured the graces, and hindered
the holiness of any but himself from shining at all, yet how
brightly did they break forth in the midst of all those fogs, and
mists, and darkness ! What holy counsel and comfort did he give
his disciples to prepare them for his departure, in his last (and one
of his longest) sermon ! John xiv., xv., xvi. What a heavenly
prayer doth he put up to his Father for them, and all his elect !
to give them both a taste and a pledge of that intercession which
he was going to heaven to make for them. When he was hanging
on the cross, under such a heavy weight as the sins of the whole
world, grace was not depressed. His love to his mother is observ
able : Woman, behold thy son ! And from that hour that disciple
took her to his own house, John xix. 26. But his love to his
members, though enemies, was wonderful: Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do. His faith in his Father : Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. His pity to one of the
thieves. His patience in bearing the scoffing words and taunts,
more bitter than wormwood, of them that passed by, reviling him,
as well as in suffering the racking of his bones, and whole body,
and the anger of an infinite God in his soul, without any murmur
ing, may well call for our admiration. Header, he hath set thee a
pattern, that thou shouldst follow his steps. Some tell us the
phoenix of Saba, in Arabia Faelix, (so called from Phcenicea, or the
purple colour of her wings,) liveth six hundred and sixty years, at
the end of which time she buildeth her a nest of cassia, calamus,
cinnamon, and other precious spices and gums, which the sun, by
the extremity of his heat, and the wavering of her wings, fires, and
she, taking delight in the sweetness of the savour, hovers so long
over it, that she burns herself in her own nest. 1 Thus did the
blessed Jesus, and thus ought his followers, to expire in a nest of
sweet spices, the exercise of the graces of the Holy Spirit. It was
a poor farewell to the world, which even Octavius Augustus gave
1 Pliii., lib. ix. cap. 35.
42 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
when at the point of death he called for his looking-glass, com
manded to have his head and beard combed, and his shrivelled
cheeks smoothed up ; then asking his friends if he had acted his
part well ; Cum ita responderint, Vos omnes igitur, inquit,plaudite. 1
It is a dreadful conclusion which Pliny relates the Hyperboreans
to make, who, when they have lived to one hundred years or more,
make a great feast, to which they invite all their friends, and after
their jollity and mirth, throw themselves down a steep rock, and
so perish.
Ungodly men are always worst at last ; when they come to the
bottom, they are flat and dead, and nothing but grounds and dregs.
How often, in the eyes of tjie world, do wicked persons go out like
a lamp, leaving a stench behind them ! The scandalous sinner
usually, like the goat s beard, or star of Jerusalem, closeth up the
flower of his presumptuous hope at high noon ; he is cast in his own
conscience long before his death. The hypocrite ordinarily, as the
daisy and dandelion, declares the approach of the evening by shut
ting up before its approach. If he be gold in the morning, and
silver at noon, yet (as we say of butter) he is lead at night. What
is the hope of the hypocrite, when God shall take away his soul !
As it is storied of the Pandora, a people in India, that in their
youth they have silver hairs, but in their age their hairs are quite
black ; or as the she-wolf hath a yearly defect in generation the
first time she hath five, the second time four, then three, then two,
then one, then barren ever after ; so the hypocrite declines and
decreaseth in goodness, faster than the moon in its last quarter, and
is commonly worst at last. But the sincere Christian hath his best
at the bottom, and hath his daintiest dish reserved to be served in
at the last course. Naturalists tell us of honey, that that is the
thickest and best honey which is squeezed last out of the comb.
Oh, what excellent periods and endings, both in regard of the exer
cise of grace and comfort, have many of the children of God made !
The death-bed to some saints hath been like Tharah to the Israel
ites in the wilderness, where, after many journeys, growing near to
the land of Canaan, they rested themselves, and it was called Tharah,
from Koah and Tarah, which signifieth a breathing time. The
sun, when it declines into the west, hath even then much more
light than any of the stars. The meanest upright Christian, when
he is near setting, hath more joy and comfort than a specious
hypocrite any day of his life. When some asked (Ecolampadius,
lying on his death-bed, whether the light did not offend him, he
1 Suetonius.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 43
answered, pointing to his breast, Hie sat lucis, Here is abundance
of light, of joy. He asked one of his friends, What news ? His
friend told him, None. Then, saith he, I will tell you some news
I shall presently be with my Lord Christ !
I shall give thee two or three quickening motives, and then direct
thee about the work of exercising thyself to godliness on a dying
bed ; and because it is the last time of a Christian s working for his
God, I shall in the third place annex some brief helps to this duty.
In reference to the motives, consider
First, What a serious thing death will be to every man and woman
in the world. It is ill and dangerous for any to cozen themselves,
and undertake to mock God in their health and life ; but it is worst
of all and desperate for any to do this on a sick and dying bed.
The heathen, hardened in sin, and wholly under the power of Satan,
ignorant of the evil of their hearts and lives, and of the sad conse
quence of a wicked end, made light of death. Flavius Vespasian,
none of the worst of the Roman emperors, died, as Sir Thomas
Moore, with a jest in his mouth : Ut puto, Deus fio ; Methinks I
am going and growing to be a god. Augustus Cassar, esteemed
the best of them, whose death the people so much lamented, that
they said, Utinam aut non nasceretur, aut non moreretur, Would
he had never been born, or never died, went off the stage of the
world with a compliment, Livia, nostri conjugii memor vive, et vale,
Farewell, and live, wife, mindful of our marriage. Galba died
desperately, crying out, Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani, Strike, if
it be for the common good. Tiberius died dissemblingly, of whose
death Tacitus wittily, Jam Tiberium vires et corpus, non dissimu-
latio, deserebant, Now strength and life hath left Tiberius, but not
dissimulation. 1 But Christians, who understand the holiness and
justice of God, the infinite demerit of sin, the certainty of an un
changeable condition in the other world, either in joy or torment,
know that death is no jesting matter ; that to die is one of the most
serious, searching things that they can possibly do.
Two or three particulars will shew what a serious thing death is.
1. Death will try men. When the bridegroom comes, it will
appear who have oil in their vessels, and who have none. As soon
as ever thou takest thy leave of temporal good things, thy spiritual
riches will be known. A scorching summer discovers what streams
are fed with ponds, and what with springs. The wind sheweth
which clouds have rain in them, and which have none. Death will
anatomise every soul, and reveal all that is in it. Conscience will
1 Seuton., Aurel., Victor.
44 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
then bring in a true verdict, in despite of all those bribes and
frights which formerly kept the bill in suspense, or caused it to
write on it an ignoramus. There are marks by which saints and
sinners may be distinguished whilst they live, as great men s ser
vants are by the liveries that they wear ; but these characters, being
most inward, and known to none but themselves, and the Lord they
serve, it is their dying only that will reveal infallibly what they are,
and to whom they belong. This world is as a common inn, wherein
all are lodged, and no difference is made between the good and bad,
only that the worst men have the best usage ; but the very moment
of men s dissolution makes a plain and vast distinction. Death is
the way of all the earth, according to Joshua s periphrasis of it ;
but this way hath two turnings, one on the right hand, to joy and
bliss, another on the left hand, to misery and horror. Now, as when
the attendants of two lords travel together on the road, their ser
vants cannot easily be distinguished, especially if the servants of
the one counterfeit the livery of the other ; but when they come to
the bivium, the parting way, then it is clearly known who belong
to the one, and who to the other, for each then folio weth his own
master, waits on him to his house, stayeth and abideth there with
him. So, though whilst men live, all professing themselves Chris
tians, and most, for a show at least, putting on the livery of Christ,
it is not known who belong to the Prince of life, and who to the
prince of the powers of the air ; but death will discover it to them
selves and the elect angels.
2. It will appear that death is a serious thing, in that it stateth
the creature for eternity. When thou diest, thy condition will be
like the law of tfre Medes and Persians, such as cannot be altered.
At death thou goest the way that thou shalt never return. David,
speaking of his dead child, saith, I shall go to him, but he shall
not return to me ; and Job, by asking the question, denieth it : If
a man die, shall he live again ? God will never trust thee with a
second life, or give thee leave for second thoughts, or better pur
poses, or more serious and sober actions, when thou art once landed
in the other world. He will not offer thee a Christ, and grace, and
heaven, when thou art gone from this earth. Think of it seriously,
is not that work to be done well, which can be done but once ?
Shouldst thou not use thine utmost care, and strength, and diligence
to die well, when thy everlasting making or marring dependeth on
it ? Ah, friend, if thou failest now, thou failest for ever ; if thou
dalliest now, thou art undone eternally : There is no wisdom nor
knowledge in the grave, whither thou art going, Eccles. ix. 10.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 45
3. Death will appear to be a serious thing, in that all the
powers of hell will then assault thee. Thou mayest say of it, in
some respects, as Christ did to wicked men, and the wicked one,
This is your hour, and the power of darkness. The devil, it is
observable, is most busy at the conclusion of a duty, as of prayer,
that the Christian might be hindered and distracted, when he
closeth up all in the name of Christ, and so all his desires be frus
trated ; so he is most busy in the conclusion of our days, adding
fearful dreams to our slumbers, strong distractions to our fancies,
increasing our pains with terrors, driving the good, if possible, to
despair, and intoxicating the bad with presumptuous conceits, and
all because his time is little : The devil is come down, having
great rage, knowing that his time is short, Rev. xii. 12. At the
approach of death, through pain of body, and perplexity of mind,
men are least able to resist, and therefore this cowardly enemy will
then be most ready and fierce to assault. When the Christian is
down, then, if possible, he will trample upon him. The last per
secutions of the church, under Dioclesian and Maximinian, were
the sorest. The last messenger the devil sent to Job, concerning
the sudden violent death of all his children, pierced his heart
deepest. The subtle serpent reserved that great ordnance for the
last, hoping the former small guns, of the loss of his cattle, and
estate, and servants, would have done some execution, in making
some breach upon his faith and patience ; and this great gun play
ing, when he was before tired in defending, must needs shatter him
in pieces. He may fitly be called the wolf of the evening, Jer.
v. 6, that devoureth. This roaring lion walketh in the night to
seek his prey. There have been few eminent saints but have found
their death-bed a bed of thorns, in regard of temptations. Mr
Knox said, when he came to die, In my lifetime the devil tempted
me to despair, casting my sins in my teeth ; but now, in my sickness,
he tells me, I have been faithful in the ministry, and so have
merited heaven ; but blessed be God, who brought those texts into
my mind, Not I, but the grace of Grod in me : What hast thou
that thou hast not received ? The Israelites never met with so
much opposition as when they were to take possession of the land
of Canaan ; then all the kings of Canaan combined together, and
came out and fought them. When Satan was to be cast out of the
possessed person, and never to enter into him more, he rent him
and tore him, that the people thought he was dead.
Now, reader, what need hast thou to be serious and holy on a
dying bed, to the utmost of thine ability, and to fetch in all the
46 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
strength thou canst from heaven, when thou hast such cruel power
ful enemies to encounter with ! It was one of the most quickening,
prevalent arguments, that Alexander used to the Macedonians,
before their third and last fatal battle with Darius, that they were
to fight with all the strength of Persia at once. What an awaken
ing argument should it be to thee, that thou art to fight with all
the powers of hell at once !
Secondly, Consider, it is a special season wherein thou mayest
glorify God. A saint by his death may bring God more honour
than by all his life. The actions and speeches of dying men make
a deep impression on the hearts of those that are about them. The
wicked themselves, who have mocked at the purity and strictness
of the saints lives, have admired their patience and cheerfulness in
their deaths. Though they look on the believer s words in health
as savouring of self and sinister ends and humour, and so neglect
them ; yet when they hear a dying saint commend the love and
faithfulness of God, the pleasantness and excellency of his ways and
worship, and to bless the time, and pains, and strength, that ever
they spent in his service, they esteem his language, and begin to
have other thoughts of holiness and heaven ; for they consider, that
surely now the man is entering upon the borders of eternity, he is
serious and in earnest. Hence the patriarchs, knowing the pre-
valency of such words, urge Joseph with Jacob s dying charge:
Thy father, when dying, said, Forgive, I pray thee, the iniquity of
thy servants, Gen. 1. 16. That Eussian that would live with his
fellow-rioters, beholding the holy behaviour of Ambrose on his
death-bed, would choose to die with Ambrose. The enemies of
Christ, beholding at the death of Christ how the rocks were rent,
darkness covered the face of the earth ; how the veil of the temple
was torn in sunder, the graves were opened, the dead raised, were
forced to cry out, Doubtless this man was the Son of God. So
when the adversaries of God s people see them on their death-beds,
and behold their patience in bearing their sickness, their faith in
relying on their Saviour, their charity in forgiving their enemies,
their zeal for the honour and interest of their Master, their constancy
in defending the gospel they did before profess, they are compelled
in their consciences to acknowledge, Doubtless these are the servants,
the sons and daughters of God. Much more will a holy behaviour
on a dying bed benefit such as fear God. It convinceth sinners, that
they, whether they will or no, must have other thoughts of holiness
and holy men than formerly, and it confirmeth saints in their gra
cious practices, and makes them more diligent in their preparation.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 47
Mr Bilney, the day before he suffered death, being told that, though
the fire was hot, God s Spirit would cool it, to his everlasting re
freshing, answered, putting his hand in the flame of the candle, I
feel by experience, and have known by philosophy, that fire by
God s ordinance is very hot ; but yet I am persuaded, by God s holy
word, and by the experience of some spoken of therein, that in the
flame they felt no heat, and in the fire no consumption ; and I con
stantly believe, howsoever the stubble of this my body shall be
wasted by it, yet iny soul and spirit shall be purged thereby ; a pain
for the time, whereon followeth joy unspeakable. And then he most
comfortably treated on Isa. xliii. 1, 2, But now thus saith the Lord
that created thee, Jacob, and that formed thee, Israel, Fear
not : for I have redeemed thee. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not
overflow thee.: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not
be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Which words
he applied both to himself and his friends then present ; of which
some reaped such fruit that they caused the words to be fair written
on tables. The comfort whereof, in several that were with him, was
never taken from them to their dying day. Oh, it is very profitable
to others, when a saint so behaveth himself on his death-bed, that he
may say to .his friends and relations, as Sir Eobert Harleigh did to
his children, I have formerly taught you how to live, and now I
teach you how to die. 1
Thirdly, Consider, it is the last opportunity that thou shalt ever
have to do any work for thy God and Saviour, and thy own soul.
When thou diest, thou goest to the place where thou shalt receive
thy reward, and shalt never, never more have any season to sow to
the Spirit in, to serve thy Redeemer in, and to manifest thy thank
fulness to him for his love to thee.: I must work the work of him
that sent me, whilst it is day/ saith Christ, for the night cometh,
wherein no man can work/ John ix. 4. Thou mayest, when dying,
say to thy friends, as the crier of the Ludi seculares, which hap
pened but once in a hundred years, did at Rome, Come see that
which ye never saw before, nor shall ever see again. He that hath
but one arrow to shoot, but one throw to cast, but one opportunity
left him to work out his salvation in, may well improve it to the
utmost. A certain martyr going to surfer, expressed his sorrow that
he was going thither, where he should do his God no more service.
Our God is so good, that his work is desirable ; and were it possible
for any grief in heaven, saith Dr Sibbes, it would arise from a Chris-
1 Woodrifl^ Simeon s Song., Epist. Dedicat.
48 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
tian s consideration, that he did no more for his God, and that it
cost him so little pains and labour to be saved. When Samson was
nigh his death, and should have no more opportunities to exalt his
God, and advantage his church, he lifted up his heart to heaven,
Assist me this once, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for
my two eyes. So, reader, when thou enterest thy chamber, and art
betaking thyself to thy dying bed, what weighty reasons hast thou
to pour out thy soul, and wrestle with God for divine strength !
Lord, I am now come, in my own apprehension, to the close of my
days, after which, I shall never more enjoy a season to glorify thy
Majesty, or further my own account. I am going to do a great
work, which I never did before, nor shall ever do again. I acknow
ledge that I have been guilty of too much slothfulness, and unfaith
fulness, in my life, and have given these Philistines, that are enemies
to my soul, too much advantage against me, and occasion to mock
and deride me. Oh assist me now this once, that I may do thee
and thy church some eminent service, that I may be strong in
faith, an example of patience, humility, heavenly-mindedness, and
charity, and be the death of those uncircumcised ones, my cursed
corruptions, and be avenged on them, for all the dishonour they
have done to thee, though I die with them.
I come now to shew wherein thou oughtest to exercise thyself to
godliness, on a dying bed..
First, In commending God and his ways to others. The words
of dying men are living oracles, and do not die with them. It is
the unhappiness of worldlings and wicked men, that when they come
to die, they cannot commend the work that they have followed, the
wages which they have merited, or the master whom they have
served - r but it is the privilege of Christians, that they have cause
to praise the sweetness of that love which they have tasted, the
equity of those laws which they have obeyed, the grace, and mercy,
and bounty, and faithfulness of that Lord whom they have prayed
to, and delighted in, and worshipped, and the vastness, and rich
ness, and certainty, and eternity of that reward which they are going
to possess. The men of this earth, when they are dying, do often
cry out and complain of the falseness and unfaithfulness of the
world, and the flesh, how they have cozened, and cheated, and
deceived them; and of their own folly and madness, in toiling and
moiling, and drudging night and day, to please and gratify that
which now in their extremity turns them off. Oh how should the
children of God extol their Father, and his care of them, and kind
ness to them, magnify their Eedeemer, and his passion for them,
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. 49
and affection to them, exalt the word and ways of the Lord, as
those which they have found by experience to be the most comfort
able and gainful ways. The last breath of a saint should be spent
in his God s service. Oportet imperatorem stantem mori, was
Vespasian s motto. Oportet episcopum, concionantem mori, was
holy Jewel s motto. Oportet C hristianum glorijicantem Deum
mori, should be every saint s motto-
Dying Jacob will speak highly of God s providence, though he
bring it in, as it were, in a parenthesis : The God which fed me
all my life long to this day, Gen. xlviii. 15. Dying Joseph will
praise the Lord s faithfulness to his promise, and pawn his body for
its performance : I die ; and God will surely visit you, and
bring you out of this land. And Joseph took an oath of the
children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall
carry up my bones from hence, Gen. 1. 24, 25. Dying Moses
ascribes greatness to his God, tells the Israelites, He is the Rock,
his work is perfect ; all his ways are judgments ; a God of truth,
and without iniquity ; just and right is he/ Deut. xxxii. 3, 4.
Dying Joshua will appeal to the consciences of his hearers, whether
God had not kept touch with them to the least tittle : I am going
the way of all the earth : and ye know in all your hearts, and in all
your souls, that not one good thing hath failed of all that the Lord
our God hath spoken/ Joshua xxiii. 14. As Moses and Joshua did
sound forth the praises of their God, so also, when dying, they did
persuade and exhort the Jews to godliness, Deut. xxxii. 23 ; Joshua
xxiii. per tot. So Paul, meeting with those Ephesian elders, that
should see his face no more, doth solemnly charge them to take
heed to the flocks, over which the Holy Ghost had made them
overseers.
I remember, saith Senarclseus, concerning Alphonsus Diazius,
his friend and bed-fellow, when he and I were at Neuberg, the night
before he was murdered, he prayed before he went to bed more
ardently, and somewhat longer than ordinary ; after which he spent
a good part of the night in discourse concerning the works of God,
and exhorting me to the practice of true piety ; and truly, I found
myself so inflamed, when I heard him, that I thought I heard tho
Spirit of God speaking to me.
Mr Knox gave good advice to all his visitors ; among the rest, the
Earl of Morton came to see him, to whom he thus spake : My lord,
God hath given you many blessings wisdom, riches, and many
great friends, and now is about to prefer you to the government of
the realm. (The Earl of Mar, the late regent, being newly dead.)
VOL. III. D
50 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
In his name I charge you, use these blessings better than formerly
you have done ; seeking first the glory of God, the furtherance of
the gospel, the good of his church and ministers. Be careful of
the king, to procure his good, and the welfare of his realm. If you
do thus, God will be with you, and honour you ; if otherwise, he
will deprive you of all these honours, and your end shall be shame
and ignominy. These words the earl called to mind nine years
after, at the time of his execution, saying, that he had found John
Knox a true prophet.
Mr Ignatius Jordan, of Exeter, 1 one famous in his generation for
godliness, was observed, in his sickness, to take all occasions to
exhort others to constancy in the truth, zeal for God, and to make
sure of heaven ; and when the mayor of the city sent to visit him,
he said to the messenger, Remember me to Mr Mayor, and tell him
from me, that he make sure of heaven, be careful to do justice, and
provide for the poor.
We should, when dying, in a special manner mind this work of
commending God and godliness to our relations, 1 Chron. xxviii. 1 ,
8, 9, vide; they are more affected than others with our sickness,
and so also with our sayings. Our counsel may probably do them
good, when we are turned into corruption. Jacob calleth his chil
dren together to bless them ; David layeth a strict command on his
son Solomon : And thou, Solomon my son, know the God of
thy fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind/
Cyrus, upon his death-bed, conjures his sons to peace, lest they
should lose the kingdom he left his heir. The saint must conjure
his children to purity in the first place, lest they lose their souls
and the kingdom of heaven. Mr Robert Bolton, on his death-bed,
called his children together, wished them to remember the counsel
he had formerly given them, and he verily believed none of them
durst meet him at the great tribunal in an unregenerate estate.
Mr Sanders, a little before his death, in a letter to his wife,
writeth thus : Dear wife, riches I have none to leave behind me,
wherewith to endow thee, after this world s manner, but the trea
sure of tasting how sweet Christ is unto hungry consciences
(whereof I thank my Christ I feel part, and would feel more) I be
queath to thee, and to the rest of my beloved in Christ, to retain the
same in sense of heart always. 2 Oh, how pathetically, how earnestly,
should dying Christians, who know somewhat of the worth of grace
and holiness, and of the evil and end of sin and sinners, persuade
1 Mr Nicols in his relation of the life and death of Ignatius Jordan.
2 Foxe, Martyr., vol. iii. p. 138.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 51
their children and relations to love, and fear, and serve the Lord,
when it is the last time that ever they shall advise or counsel them.
How hard should they woo, that the souls of their kindred may be
married to Christ.
Secondly, In commending thyself and others to God by prayer.
When the body breathes shortest, it breathes quickest. Though
the Christian on his death-bed may want strength for long solemn
devotion, his short ejaculations should be both fervent and frequent.
The first thing a child of God doth, when new born, is to breathe,
to pray, Acts ix. 11. And it is one of the last things he doth, Acts
vii. 60. He entereth praying into the place of praise. Paul
the hermit was found dead, saith Jerome, 1 with his hands and
eyes lifted up to heaven, that the dead corpse seemed to pray.
Demus operam ui moriamur in precatione ; Let us endeavour to
die at prayer, saith Augustine. 2
1 . The sick man should pray especially for himself. Lord Jesus
receive my spirit, saith Stephen ; Father, into thy hands I com
mend my spirit, saith Christ ; Lord, saith dying Beza, perfect that
which thou hast begun, that I suffer not shipwreck in the haven.
Children desire to die in their father s bosom, or on their mother s
lap. Mr Perkins died begging remission of sin, and entreating
mercy at God s hands. Bishop Usher was often heard to desire
the like end that Mr Perkins had ; which he obtained ; for the last
words which he was heard to utter were, But, Lord, in special for
give my sins of omission ; not long after which he expired. Luther s
prayer, a little before his death, or rather thanksgiving, was, Pater
mi ccelestis, Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ago tibi
gratias quod Jilium tuum Jesum Christum mihirevelasti, cuicredidi,
quern sum professus, quern amavip &c. ; My heavenly Father, the
God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, I thank thee for revealing
thy Son Jesus Christ to me, whom I have believed, whom I have
professed, whom I have loved.
Others must not be forgotten by us, but our own souls must in
a special manner be remembered. Bellarmine tells us 4 of a desperate
advocate in the court of Home, who, being exhorted on his death
bed to pray to God for mercy, made this speech, Lord, I have a
word to say to thee, not for myself Ego enim propero ad inferos:
neque enim est ut aliquid pro me agas for I am hastening to hell,
neither is there anything that I would beg on my own behalf, but
for my wife and children. This he spake, saith Bellarmine, who
1 Jer. in Vit. 3 Au?. de ve. invo., cap. 33.
8 Melc. Adam. * Bellar. de Arte Mor., lib. ii. cap. 19.
52 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
was then present, as boldly as if he had been taking his journey
only to some neighbouring village.
2. For his relations. The more hot our affection is to any, the
more fervent our petitions should be for them. 1 Praying parents
are the most loving parents. When dying, chiefly they should
bless their children in the name of the Lord. So Isaac did, Gen.
xxviii. 1 ; thus Jacob, Gen. xlviii. 15, 16. Godly parents may
plead the covenant made to them and theirs, unto God, on their
dying beds with comfort. They are best acquainted with their chil
dren s conditions, conversations, wants, weaknesses, and so fittest
to open their cases to God, and to beseech grace on their behalves,
that they may be a holy seed, a generation arising to shew forth
his praise. Christ, when nigh death, committed his spiritual chil
dren to his Father, and earnestly begged his care of them, and
favour for them : Holy Father, I come to thee ; I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world; keep them through thy name,
keep them from evil, sanctify them through thy truth. So should
a godly father, or mother, when dying : Lord, I am leaving my
poor children in the midst of snares, and temptations, and miseries,
Euth i. 8, and ii. 19 ; 2 Tim. i. 18. I am coming out of the world
to thy Majesty, where I shall be above all frights and fears, and
beyond all malice and mischief ; but my children are in the world,
and will daily be environed with allurements and affrightments,
with assaults and batteries, from their spiritual enemies ; thou
knowest the power and policy of the world and the wicked one, the
treachery and deceitfulness of the flesh within them, and their
weakness and inability to wrestle with, and overcome the flatteries
of the world, and the suggestions of the devil. Oh, keep them
through thy name, that they may look beyond the world, live above
the world, and expect and eye their portion and happiness in a
better world. Though they live in the world, let them not live as
the world, but walk all their days as heirs of another world.
Keep them from the evil of sin, however it please thy Majesty to
deal with them about the evil of suffering. Give them the shield
of faith, whereby they may quench the fiery darts of the devil. Let
thy covenant of grace be their portion, thy love their cordial, and
thy mansion-house their eternal possession. Be thou their Father,
to direct, protect, govern, and provide for them, and give them a
name in thy house, better than of sons and daughters. Oh sanctify
1 I have read of one that used to pray, God bless my father and mother, brethren
and sisters, and none else ; to whom one that heard him answered, It were better
the devil had thy father and mother, and brethren and sisters, and none else.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 53
them through thy truth, that they may be saved, and may meet me
with joy at the great day ! Luther, when dying, made this will for
his wife, great with child, and his little sons : Lord God, I thank
thee, that thou wouldst have me to be poor in this world ; I have
no house, land, or money that I should leave them. Thou hast
given me wife and children, I restore them to thee. Do thou,
Father of orphans, and judge of widows, nourish, teach, keep them,
as thou hast hitherto me.
3. For the whole church of God. It is good to pray by our
selves, but it is ill to pray only for ourselves. 1 When we are dying,
and going to the church triumphant, we should be sure to put up
some requests for the poor members of Christ, and the church
militant. Calvin was heard before his death often to sigh out,
How long, Lord, how long will it be ere thou avenge the blood of
thy servants? The people of God are the purchase of Christ,
and of the same family and body with the dying Christian, and
therefore must needs be dear to him.
4. For his benefactors, and those that have done good to him
and his, Ruth i. 8, and ii. 19. Paul had received some kindness
from Onesimus ; 2 he refreshed him in his bonds, and in 2 Tim.
i. 18, which was the last of his epistles, and thought to be written
but a little before his death, for he tells us in it, I am ready to
be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, how pathetically
doth he pray for him ! The Lord grant that he may find mercy at
that day.
5. For our enemies. This is to follow God s pattern, who doth
good for evil, and to obey his precept, who commandeth us to pray
for them that despitefully use us. Stephen, when departing out of
the world, entreats mercy for them who were cruel to him : Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge, Acts vii. 60. Our blessed Saviour
dying, begs hard for their eternal lives who were the instruments
and authors of his bloody death : Father, forgive them ; they know
not what they do/ Luke xxiii. 34.
Thirdly, In a holy exercise of faith, courage, repentance, cha
rity, and patience.
1. Faith. It is the character of God s children that they live by
faith, and they die in the faith, Hab. ii. 6 ; Heb. xi. 31. The
water, say some, of the pool of Bethesda (wherein the priest washed
the sacrifices before he offered them) was of a reddish colour, to
note that men must be washed by faith in the blood of Christ, be-
1 Si pro te solo oras, pro te solus orabis ; si pro omnibus rogas, omnes pro te roga-
bunt. Amb. 2 Onesiphorus. ED.
54 THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. [PART III.
fore they are ready to be offered a peace-offering to God by death.
The dying Christian must expect strong assaults against the bul
wark of his faith ; but whatever he let go, he must keep his hold
on Christ. I know no grace that the devil is such a sworn enemy
to as faith, and I know no season that he is more diligent in to
overthrow their faith, than when they are under some dangerous
sickness ; therefore it is the observation of a good man, that he
seldom seeth a sick saint, followed close with temptations, to recover
of that sickness ; for Satan, knowing he hath but a little time, useth
all his craft and strength to separate the soul from the Rock of his
salvation. Upon a dying bed, reflect upon former experiences of
God s love to thy soul, and recollect the former evidences of thy
title to Christ, and thereby to heaven. I must tell thee, though
the certainty of thy salvation depend upon the truth of thy faith,
the comfort of thy dissolution will depend on the strength of thy
faith. Faith is the shield of the soul, and therefore, above all,
in thy encounter with thy great enemy Satan, and thy last enemy
death, take the shield of faith, Eph. vi. 14. Epaminondas, after
his victory at Leuctrum, wherein he was mortally wounded, un
derstanding that his buckler was safe, bade his chirurgeon boldly
to pluck out the dart that stuck in his side, and died cheerfully.
The saint, the soldier of Christ, who is wounded even to death,
and keepeth his shield of faith safe, may leave the world with
courage. The apostle Paul, who knew whom he had believed,
2 Tim. i. 12, rings a challenge in the ears of death : death, where
is thy sting ? and sings a triumphant ditty at the approach of
death : The time of my departure is at hand, I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness/ 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. When
Jacob had believed the report of Joseph s life, his heart was revived.
Is Joseph yet alive ? saith he ; I will go down and see him before
I die. When the true Israelite can firmly credit the testimony
which God hath given of Jesus, the son of Joseph, how he, being
an enemy, was reconciled to God by the death of his Son, and shall
much more, being reconciled, be saved by his life, and by faith can
cling on him, his heart, though dying, is then enlivened. Oh with
what comfort can he take his journey into the other world ! When
Philip viewed his young son Alexander, Now, saith he, I am con
tent to die. Old Simeon springs young again at a sight of Christ ;
and having embraced his Saviour in the arms of faith, as well as
in the arms of his body, he begs a dismission out of this valley of
tears, being assured thereby of an admission into fulness of joy :
CHAP. VIII. ] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation/
Having with an eye of faith beheld Christ, he counts his life but a
bondage, and desires to depart or be loosed from fetters, as the word
signifieth, and is taken, Mat. xxvii. 17. We read of the Lord s
worthies, that by faith they stopped the mouths of lions. Death is
a fierce and cruel lion, but faith will pull out its teeth, that it can
not hurt us ; or stop its mouth, that it shall not devour us. This
grace, like the angel sent from heaven when Daniel was cast into
the lions den, will save the Christian from being torn in pieces.
friend, the robes of Christ s righteousness is the only coat of
mail which can defend thy soul against the shot of death. If thou
canst with Moses go up to Pisgah, and take a view by faith of the
land of promise, thou wilt comfortably, with him, lay down thine
earthly tabernacle. Job desired death as eagerly as the labourer
in a hot summer s day desires the shadow ; Paul longed for it as
vehemently as the apprentice for the expiration of his indentures ;
and all because they had first beheld Christ by faith. It is no
wonder that many of God s children have called earnestly to be
laid to bed, knowing that it would prove their everlasting happy
rest; and when their bodies are carried by mortal men to their
mother earth, their souls should be conveyed by glorious angels to
their Father in heaven.
2. Courage. A Christian should be a volunteer in death. Many
of the martyrs were as willing to die as to dine ; went to the fire
as cheerfully as to a feast, and courted its pale and ghastly coun
tenance as if it had been a beautiful bride. When King Lysima-
chus threatened Cyrenaeus Theodorus with hanging : l Istis quceso
(inquit) ista horribilia minitare purpuratis tuis ; Theodori quidem
niliil interest, kumine an sublime putrescat: Threaten these terrible
things to thy brave courtiers ; Theodorus cares not whether he rot
in the air or on the earth. Cyprian said amen to his own sentence
of martyrdom. Jerome reports of Nepotianus, that he gave up his
life so cheerfully, that one would have thought he rather walked
forth than died. When Ignatius was led from Syria to Eome, to
be torn in pieces of wild beasts, he often wished by the way that he
were in the midst of those beasts that were to devour him, and that
their appetites might be whetted to despatch him ; fearing lest it
should happen to him, as to some others, that the lions, out of a
kind of reverence, would not dare to approach them, being ready,
he said, rather to provoke them to fight, than that they should
1 Cic. Quaest. Tusc., lib. i.
56 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
suffer him to escape. Bradford being told by his keeper s wife that
his chain was a-buying, and he was to die the next day, pulled off
his hat, and thanked God for it. When some wondered that Adam
Damplip could eat his food so well, when his end was so near, he
told them, Ah, masters, do you think that I have been God s
prisoner so long in the Marshalsea, and have not yet learned to die ?
Yes, yes, and I doubt not but God will strengthen me therein.
Anne Askew subscribed her confession in Newgate thus : Written
by me, Anne Askew, that neither wisheth for death, nor feareth
his might, and as merry as one that is bound towards heaven.
Indeed it is said of a wicked man that his soul is required of him,
and that God takes away his soul, Luke xii. ; Job xxvii. 10 ; but
of a godly man, that he giveth up the ghost, and he cometh to his
grave, Gen. xxv. 8 ; Job iv. 21. Nature will teach the heathen
that death is the end of all outward miseries to all men, hence some
of them drank of its cup with as much constancy and courage as if
it had been the most pleasant julep; but grace will teach the Chris
tian that death is not only a remedy against all his bodily and
spiritual maladies as Sir Walter Kaleigh said of the sharp axe
that should behead him, This will cure all my infirmities but also
an inlet into fulness of joy and felicity. Keverend Deering said on
his death-bed, I feel such joy in my spirit, that if I should have the
sentence of life on the one side, and the sentence of death on the
other side, I had rather a thousand times choose the sentence of
death, since God hath appointed a separation, than the sentence of
life. Titus Vespasian, the mirror of mankind, being a stranger to
Christ, was very unwilling to leave the world ; being carried in a
horse litter, and knowing that he must die, looked up to heaven,
and complained pitifully that his life should be taken from him,
who had not desired l to die, having never committed any sin, as he
said, but only one. Socrates, and some of the wiser heathen, com
forted themselves against the fear of death with this weak cordial,
that it is common to men, the way of all the earth. Hence it was,
when the Athenians condemned Socrates to die, he received the
sentence with an undaunted spirit, and told them they did nothing
but what nature had before ordained for him. But the Christian
hath a greater ground for a holy resolution, and a stronger cordial
against the fear of death, even his hopes of eternal life ; and surely,
if he that exceeds others in his cordials be excelled by them in
courage, he disgraceth his physician. Aristippus told the sailors,
who wondered that he was not, as well as they, afraid in the storm,
1 Qu., deserved ? ED. _
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 57
Ye fear the torments due to a wicked life, and I expect the reward
of a good one. It is no marvel that they who lived wickedly should
die unwillingly, being frighted with the guilt of their past sins, and
with the fears of their future torments. Therefore the Holy Ghost
saith of such a one, The wicked is driven away in his wickedness/
Prov. xiv. 32, as a beast that is driven out of his den to the
slaughter, or as a debtor driven by the officers out of his house,
wherein he lay warm, and was surrounded with all sorts of comfort,
to a nasty, loathsome prison ; but that the righteous, who hath hope
in his death, should even die almost with fear of it beforehand, is
matter of wonder. Lot s soul is exceedingly vexed with Sodom, yet
he is not loath to leave it. This world is a wilderness, a purgatory,
a step-mother, a persecutor to all the saints, and yet some of them,
when called to leave it, sing loath to depart, and would linger
behind ; partly from nature, which dreads a dissolution, and partly
from the weakness of grace. To fear death much argueth some
times wickedness, always weakness.
3. Kepentance. It is said of St Augustine, that he died with
tears in his eyes, in the practice of repentance ; and Posidonius
saith of him, that he heard him often say in his health, that it was
the fittest disposition for dying Christians and ministers. 1 Lauda-
tos, saith he, Christianos et sacerdotes absque digna et compe-
tenti pcenitentia exire de corpore non debere. We die groaning in
regard of our bodies, why should not our souls sigh that ever they
sinned against so good a God ? Beasts bite their enemies with more
venom and indignation, when they are ready to die ; Maxime mor-
tiferi solent esse morsus morientium animalium. The Christian
should give sin his most deadly bite, his greatest abhorrency, and
grief, and shame, when he is dying, and shall never see sin, or sor
row, or shame more. As it is noble and excellent to die forgiving
sinners, so also taking revenge upon sin. Moses, a little before
his death, is commanded to avenge the children of Israel of the
Midianites, and then he is gathered to his people, Num. xxxi. 1,
2. Samuel takes vengeance on Agag, when he was old, and knew
not the day of his death ; David could not die with comfort, till he
had charged Solomon to execute that justice on Joab which he had
omitted. The last time the judge seeth the felon, he passeth sen
tence of death upon him. Oh, how should the soul of a dying saint
be inflamed with anger against sin, when he considers the rich love
that it abuseth, the glorious name that it dishonoured, the blessed
Saviour that it pierceth, and that vast happiness which he is going
1 Posidon. in Vit. Augustini.
58 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
to possess, of which, without infinite grace and mercy, it had de
prived him. Some persons, when they have been to take their last
revenge on their enemies, have done it to purpose. The believer,
on his dying bed, takes his last revenge on sin ; he shall never have
another opportunity to shew his love to his God and Saviour in
his spite at, and hatred of, sin ; therefore then he should do it to
purpose, as dying Samson put forth all his strength, and beg
divine help, that he may utterly destroy it, and be avenged on it, for
all the defilement and bondage it hath brought on his soul, and
dishonour to his Saviour. Dying Jacob cursed the sins of his own
sons : Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce ; and their anger, for
it was cruel ; my soul, enter not thou into their secrets/ The
dying child of God should curse his passions, his pride, his unbelief,
his selfishness, even all his lusts, for disobeying such righteous laws,
and displeasing such a gracious Lord. When David Chrytasus lay
a-dying, he lift up his head from his pillow to hear the discourses
of his friends that sat by him, saying, I shall die with the more
comfort, if I can die learning something. The Christian, both by
his painful sickness, and approaching death, may learn something
of the evil of sin, and certainly he may die with the more comfort,
(for godly sorrow and joy may be contemporaries, as the heaven
shine and shower at the same time,) if he die in a flood of tears for
his unkindness to Christ.
4. Charity in a double respect.
(1.) In forgiving them that have wronged thee. If the natural
sun should not go down upon our wrath, much less should the sun
of our lives. It is bad to bear anger or malice one hour in our
hearts against any, but it is worst of all to carry it with us into
the other world. How can he expect to die in peace with God,
who dieth in war with men, when God himself hath said, Except
ye forgive others their trespasses against you, neither will your
heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses ? Amilcar, the father
of Hannibal, when he was dying, made his son take a solemn oath
to maintain a perpetual war with the Eomans. Edward the First
adjured his son and nobles, that if he died in his expedition against
Bruce, king of Scotland, they should not inter his corpse, but
carry it about with them till they had avenged him on that usurper.
But certainly it is a desperate thing to leave children heirs to the
parent s wrath and rage, as well as to his riches. Oh how dreadful
is his estate, who takes his enemy by the throat, when God by death
is taking him by the throat, and ready to throttle him for ever.
If thou hast wronged others, either in name, or goods, or body,
CHAP. VIII] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 59
seek reconciliation, and make satisfaction ; for this is righteous and
just. If thy brother hath aught against thee, thou hast never more
need of reconciling thyself to him, than when thou art approaching
the altar of death, there to offer up the last sacrifice to God in this
world. If thy brother have wronged thee in any sort, remit it this
is charity ; to do otherwise, is to give place to the devil, Eph. iv.
16, 17, and thou hast least cause to give him ground when his rage
is greatest, and his batteries strongest, in thy last conflict with him.
Oh imitate that blessed martyr Stephen, and the incomparable
Saviour, in begging God s love for them who hate thee ! Acts vii.
60 ; Luke xxiii. 34.
(2.) In remembering the poor and afflicted, if God hath made thee
able. It is best to be merciful in our lifetime, to make our own
hand our executors, and our own eyes our overseers, for the pay
ment of our gifts and legacies to our spiritual kindred ; for such
have a particular promise that God will make all their bed in their
sickness. But it is good to be charitable when we are dying ; true
friends shew most love at parting. Though justice must be blind,
not to see persons, yet charity must be quick-sighted, to pick out
the fittest objects, viz., the poor, and the pious poor in the first
place. Our goods will not extend to God, therefore they must to
the saints. When Jonathan was beyond the reach of David s
charity, he doth for his sake manifest it to his son. God is beyond
all our gifts, therefore for his sake we must bestow them on the
godly, that are his children : Make you friends of the mammon
of unrighteousness, that when that faileth, ye may be received into
the everlasting habitations. Hereby men lay up a good foundation
against the time of need. Godly parents are ignorant how their
children may employ the estate they leave, whether as fuel for cor
ruption, or as oil to keep the lamps in God s sanctuary burning.
It is good therefore for themselves with prudence to dispose of what
they may to God s servants and service.
Some men have estates dropping on them out of the clouds, as it
were ; large inheritances, fair patrimonies, like Canaan, both in
regard of their fruitfulness, and abounding with all sorts of com
forts, and in regard of their easiness of obtaining them without
sweat or labour. They inherit, as the Israelites, houses which they
built not, wells which they digged not, and vineyards which they
planted not ; upon both these accounts, such persons are engaged
to do good, and distribute, and to be rich in good works. God
expects a return of his talents with advantage. How liberal, nay,
lavish, have many papists been upon their death-beds, to friars and
60 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
monks, even to the wronging their wives and children, that some
states, as Venice, have been forced to make laws to restrain men,
^est the church should in time swallow up all the revenues of the
commonwealth, and all this upon a foolish, vain conceit, that they
should the sooner pass through purgatory. It is certainly a great
disgrace to the disciples of Christ, and no mean dishonour to Christ
himself, that so many, and such large gifts, have proceeded from
the false faith of merit-mongers, when the faith of his most glorious
gospel doth not work the like in true believers. How will Chris
tians answer it, that an idle dream, and fancied fear of an imaginary
purgatory, should do more than the sure persuasion of the love of
God, and the certain hope of eternal life ?
(4.) Patience and submission to the will of God, both as to our
death or life, and also as to our pain or ease in sickness. As to
our life and death, we must know God is wise, and will never
gather his fruit but in the best season. None, unless a fool, but
will be willing God should choose for him. It is excellent for a
sick person to be wholly at God s disposal, as knowing that whilst
he is here God will refresh him with the first-fruits, and when he
goeth hence, receive him into that place where he shall enjoy the
whole harvest. It was the speech of dying Julian, He that would
not die when he must, and he that would die when he must not,
are both of them cowards alike. To desire to live, when one is called
to die, is a sign of cowardice ; for such a one is afraid to enter the
list with the king of terrors. To desire to die, when one is called to
live, speaks a faint-hearted creature ; for such a man dares not look
an affliction or disaster in the face, therefore would take shelter in
death. Cato, Cleombrotus, Lucretia, shewed more cowardice than
courage in being their own executioners. The Romans commended
Terentius for his resolution to live after his army was routed by
Hannibal. He is the most valiant person that can die willingly
when God would have him die, and live as willingly when God
would have him live. He that is weary of his work before the
evening is an unprofitable servant, and is either infected with
idleness or with diseases. jWhen Dr Whitaker was told death
was approaching, he answered, Life or death is welcome to me,
which God pleaseth. Mr Robert Bolton being told that it would
be better for the church of God if God pleased to spare his
life, said, If I shall find favour in the eyes of God, he will bring
me again, and shew me both it and his habitation ; if not, lo here
I am, let him do with me what he pleaseth. Another pious soul in
his sickness cried out, Domine, si tibi sim necessarius, non recuso
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 61
vivere, Lord, if I may be further serviceable to tliee, I am willin-
to live. Lucius Cornelius, lieutenant in Portugal under Fabius the
consul, was infamous to following ages for his impatience in com
plaining of his physician, and railing at jEsculapius for not accept
ing his vow and passionate desire of having his life spun out to a
longer thread. 1 We cannot blame them who have their portion in
this life for their unwillingness to leave it, and to become beggars
in hell for ever. Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac
morte transibit, saith Cyprian, de Moral., Let him fear death who
must pass from this death to the second death. To such a one,
indeed, death is a murderer ; like Jehoram s messenger, comes to
take away the life of his soul and all his happiness, and therefore he
may well call, as Elisha did, Shut the door, and keep him out.
Many saints who died violent and cruel deaths yet gave their
very enemies cause to admire their patience. They wearied out
their bloody persecutors by their meekness and patience. Bonner
said of the martyrs in Queen Mary s days, A vengeance on them ;
I think they love to burn. When that old disciple, Polycarp, came
to the stake at which he was burnt to death, he desired to stand
untied, saying, Let me alone; for he that gave me strength to come
to the fire will give me patience to endure the flame without your
tying. Cassianus, with admirable meekness, suffered a cruel martyr
dom from his own scholars, who, at the command of the barbarous
tyrant, became his executioners, some with their pen-knives prick
ing and lancing his flesh, others casting stones at him, till they had
killed him. Eulalia, a chaste virgin of a noble family in Portugal,
being for a time kept close by her parents, for fear her bold profes
sion should cause her death, one night getting from them, and
appearing before the tribunal of Maximinus, she was, for refusing
to sacrifice to his idols, executed in this manner : first, two hang
men, with all their might, rent her joints in sunder, then her flesh
was scratched from her sides with the talons of wild beasts, and hot
burning torches were set to her sides, which ended her life.
A Christian should also exercise patience and submission to God s
will under his pain. It is the rule of Hippocrates, that that sickness
is most dangerous in which the sick man alters his countenance.
Undoubtedly it is ill and unbecoming Christianity, when men who
in health are mild and meek, in sickness are altered to be peevish
1 L. Cornelius, legatus sub Fabio Consule. Vividam naturam et virilem animam
servavi, quoad animam effiavi ; et tandem desertus ope medicorum et ^Esculapii
Dei ingrati, cui me voveram, sodalem perpetuo futurum, si fila aliquantulum optata
protulisset. Epitaph.
62 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
and passionate ; that their relations and attendants, who pity their
pain, and pray for their ease, and watch and work night and day
to serve them, are requited with harsh words and fretful returns.
Caius Marius suffered the veins of his legs to be cut out for the
cure of his gout, and never shrunk for it. The Grecians were
cowardly in their encounters with men, but valiant and patient in
their conflicts with diseases. Master Jeremiah Whitaker, who on
his death-bed had dreadful fits of the stone, bore them with marvel
lous patience, often turning up his eyes to heaven, and saying,
Blessed be God this is not hell. The saint who is in covenant
with God, and hath engaged himself to God to submit to all his
providences, and hath God engaged to him to lay no more upon
him than he will enable him to bear, may well with patience endure
the divine pleasure.
Vincentius, a Spaniard, who was martyred at Valence under
Dacianus, the president of the cruel tyrant Dioclesian, was used in
this manner: first he was laid upon the rack, and all the joints of
his body distended till they cracked again ; then all the members
of his body were pierced and indented with deadly wounds ; then
they vexed and tore his flesh with iron combs sharply filed ; then
they laid his body on an iron grate, and when they had opened his
flesh with iron hooks, they seared it with fiery plates, sprinkling
the same with hot burning salt ; last of all, they cast him into a
vile dungeon, the floor whereof was first thick spread with the
sharpest shells that might be gotten, his feet then being fast locked
in the stocks, there he was left alone till he died all which he
endured without murmuring or complaining and, according to his
name, (Vincentius,) was over all a conqueror. And shall not
Christians, who die in their beds in peace, with much less pain,
be patient ! Many who knew not God did look on death as a favour,
and one of the greatest which their gods could bestow on them.
Agamedes and Trophonius, having built the temple of Apollo, asked
of that god a reward for their services. 1 They were answered, that
within seven days they should be bountifully paid for their pains ;
at the end of which time they died in a sleep. One of Caesar s
crazed soldiers desired the favour of the emperor to have leave to
kill himself.
Especially, the thoughts of the happy issue of the most painful
sickness and death to a child of God may, as the wood thrown into
the bitter waters of Marah, make them sweet unto him. Some
choose to be cut rather than to be daily tortured with the stone,
1 Plut. ad Apol.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 63
though they know that cutting will put them to much pain, because
they hope that cutting will cure them of their distemper. When a
jailer knocks off a prisoner s fetters and bolts, though it puts him
to much more pain than the constant wearing them, though every
blow goeth to his heart, yet he flincheth not, he complaineth not,
because he knoweth his future ease will make amends for his pres
ent pain. Christians are here fettered with sin and misery, which
constantly grate upon their spirits. Death is the jailer to knock off
their shackles, and let them into the glorious liberty of the sons of
God. What though it put them to much pain ; they may bear it
with much patience, knowing that it will end in eternal pleasures.
Though a hypocrite, like a piece of brass, when stricken with the
hammer of sickness or death, maketh a sharp and irksome noise
with impatience, and breaketh in pieces, is undone for ever, yet the
sincere soul, as a piece of gold, when so smitten, may sound sweetly
and be pliable. True gold may be stretched out in length and
breadth, in thin and fine leaves, as you please.
Now, reader, that thou mayest thus glorify thy God, credit thy
profession, further thine account, and advantage others by thy
death ; it is requisite that thou be always ready for it. The
quarter-day never comes amiss to him that hath always his rent
ready by him. The loving husband, let him come when he will, is
ever welcome to a faithful spouse. The actual unpreparedness of
some holy persons hath caused their petitions for a longer stay when
God seemed to call them hence, Ps. xxxix. 13. As a nobleman who
is a loyal subject, and affectionately desires his prince s presence and
company at his house, may wish that it may be deferred when his
house is out of repairs, till it is in a better order. The habitual
unpreparedness of sinners I mean, their predominant impenitency
and unbelief hath made death cutting to them indeed. The pismire
fears not the winter, having laid in her provision against that season;
but the grasshopper, being unprepared, is starved therein.
Let thy whole life be but a preparation for death. He that would
die but once I mean, escape the second death must die daily, live
in a constant expectation of it, and preparation for it. Pliny calleth
a sudden death the greatest fortune of a man s life. Julius Caesar,
the day before his death, in discourse with Marius Lepidus upon
that point, what was the best end of a man s life, preferred that
which was sudden and unlocked for, which was his fate the next
day. Augustus, his successor, was of the same judgment, and
desired mortem celerem, et insperatam ; but the Christian findeth
by experience that death to be the best which was most expected
64 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PAKT III.
and prepared for. Heditatio mortis, vita perfect issima, The medi
tation of death is the holiest life, saith the father. Tota vita, me-
ditatio mortis, et discendum est mori, The whole life is but a learn
ing to die, saith the philosopher. Wise princes lay up ten years
for one day s battle. A wise Christian will lay up every day some
what for his last day, knowing that if he win that combat, he is
made for ever. Invasions or insurrections, like a sudden breach
of the sea, carry all before them, when pitched battles give equal
advantage, and cause less terror on each side. Evils premeditated
are often prevented, always mitigated, the mind gathering reason
and strength together wherewith to encounter them. But un-
thought-of troubles, like fire in the night, are most frightful, start
ling the secure sinner from his quiet repose.
In order to this preparation, I shall mention two or three par
ticulars, but briefly, having spoken to them elsewhere.
1. Keep a clear conscience in thy health. Kemember that sin is
the sting of death ; therefore be afraid of sin, if thou wouldst not
be afraid of death. It was Nero s answer to Seneca, when he ad
vised him to desist his wicked courses, that he might please the
gods, Vereor ego deos, cum talia facio, Do you think I fear the
gods, who dare run upon, such actions ! But he who did not dread
the gods found death dreadful to him ; for the historian observeth
that he cried pitifully, like a child, when he was called forth to be
killed. It is the righteous only that is bold as a lion, because the
righteous only hath a conscience sprinkled with the blood of the
Lamb, and a conscience void of offence towards God and man.
When Hilarion was nigh death, Depart, my soul, saith he, depart ;
what dost thou fear ? Thou hast served Christ almost seventy
years, and art thou afraid of death ? l Bernard obseryeth of Ger-
rard, I beheld him r exultantem in morte hominem, et insultantem
morti, exulting in death, and insulting over death. St Ambrose
undauntedly encountered his last enemy, saying, I have not so
lived that I am afraid to live any longer, neither do I fear to die,
because we have a good Lord. The testimony of a good conscience
was the great apostle s comfort in the midst of his trials and
troubles, 2 Cor. i. 12. It is guilt which makes us shy of a severe
and holy God s presence.
It is no marvel that Alexander the Conqueror was struck almost
dead at the sight o Cyrus s tomb ;. that Sigismund, when dying,
1 Hilarion morti proximus dixisse fertur, Egredere anima mea, Egredere ; quid
dubitas ? Septuaginta prope annos serviisti Christo, et mortem times ? Jer. Epist.
Fam., lib. iii., et in Vit.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. G5
should forbid his servants to mention the word death ; that Louis the
Eleventh should, while in health, enjoin his courtiers not to speak
of death, and when sick, prohibit the naming it upon pain of death.
I do not wonder that Saul, upon the news of his approaching dan
ger and death, falls grovelling on the ground, and hath no strength
left in him ; nor that Belshazzar, upon the tidings of this sergeant s
coming to arrest him, fell into an ague, quaking and shivering so
violently, that all the wine which he drank so plentifully in his golden
bowls could not cheer his heart, nor fetch blood into his cheeks.
The malefactor may well dread the thoughts, much more the ap
proach, of an assize, knowing that he is bound over to it, and must
appear to be arraigned, condemned, and executed. The entry of
death may well be forcible upon them whom it ejects out of all their
happiness, and whose lives have been made up of unholiness. It
is vice that paints death with such a formidable countenance, with
a whip and flames in its hand. Friend, let thy conversation be
pious, if thou wouldst die in peace.
Such as a man s life is, usually such is his death. An unholy
life is ordinarily followed with an unhappy end. A filthy adulterer,
mentioned by Luther, expired in the arms of a harlot. So also
Tigellinus, Cornelius, Gallus, Ladislaus, king of Naples. One of the
popes died in the embraces of strange flesh. A great swearer, when
lie came to die, saith Mr Bolton, swore apace, and as if he had been
already in hell, called upon the standers-by to help him, with oaths.
King Henry the Second on his death-bed cursed his sons, the day
wherein he was born, and in that distemper departed the world, saith
the historian, which himself had so often distempered. We read of
one who lived well, that died ill ; and of but one in the whole book
of God who lived ill, that died well. A sinner may presume upon
peace at death, and bespeak, in the language of Jehoram to Jehu,
Is it peace, Jehu? Is it peace, death ? Or as the elders to Samuel,
Comest thou peaceably? But the answer will be the same with
that of Jehu to him, What peace can there be so long as the whore
doms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many ?
What peace can there be so long as thy lusts, and atheism, and
ignorance, and profaneness abound, and thy abominations are so
many ? It is no wonder that such persons, like owls, are never
heard but at night, the close of their days, and then they screech
horribly. What shall we call a mocking of God, saith a learned
person, 1 if they do not mock him who think it enough to ask him
forgiveness at leisure, with the last drawing of a malicious breath ?
1 Sir w. Rawley s Ep. Hist. World.
VOL. III. E
66 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
These find out a new god, make one, a leaden one, like Louis the
Eleventh of France. And again, let us not flatter our immortal souls
to neglect God all our lives, and know that we neglect him, trusting
upon the peace we think to make at parting ; for this is no other than
a rebellious presumption, and a contemptuous laughing to scorn, and
a deriding of God, his laws, and precepts. 1 Unquestionably such
will be grossly mistaken at last, in falling from their heights into
hell. As the daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her father was
lifted up, that Jupiter washed him, and the sun anointed him ; but
it proved to him but a sad prosperity ; for, after a long life and
large prosperity, he was surprised by his enemies, and hanged up
till the dew of heaven wet his cheeks, and the sun melted his
grease.
Header, let me bespeak thee, as Jotham did the men of Shechem,
Hearken unto me, that God may hearken unto you ; hearken unto
me in this day of thy health and life, that God may hearken unto
thee in the day of thy sickness and death. Make thy peace with
God now, give a bill of divorce to sin, strike a hearty covenant
with Christ, keep thy conscience clean every day ; allow not thyself
in any known sin, if thou wouldst leave this world in favour with
God, in the love of good men, and to thy eternal gain. Nihil est
in morte quod metuamus, si nihil timendum vita commisit, saith
the ancient ; Death hath nothing frightful, but what a profane life
makes so. They who fly from the holiness of God in life, may well
fear the justice of God at death. A sinner, indeed, is every day
carrying more fagots to that pile in which he must burn for ever,
and always twisting those cords with which devils will eternally
scourge him ; and therefore the guilt of his wicked life, and fear of
his dreadful wages, may well represent death to him in a frightful
vizard. But he who makes it his constant business to please his
Maker, to mortify his earthly members, to crucify the flesh, to serve
the will of God in his generation, and to dress his soul against the
coming of the bridegroom, shall find his latter end comfortable,
and the day of his death better than the day of his birth.
friend, if thou wouldst die comfortably, live conscientiously ! A
happy death is the conclusion of a holy life ; God hath joined them
together, and none can part them asunder. It is reported of the
Dardani, that they never wash but three times, when they are born,
when they marry, and when they die. The true Christian must be
daily washing his soul by faith in the blood of his Saviour, and
bathing himself in the tears of repentance, and hereby his soul
1 Sir W. Kawley s Ep. Hist. World, lib. i. cap. 2.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. G7
will be fit to be commended into the hands of God by well
dying.
2. Clear up thine evidences for heaven. Be not contented to
leave thy salvation at uncertainty. They who walk in the dark,
are full of frights and fears. The comfort of thy death will depend
much upon the clearness of thy deeds and evidences for eternal life.
The want of diligence about this, hath caused many of the chil
dren of God to go crying to bed, and wrangling to their eternal
rest. They die, and know not how they shall speed in the other
world ; they fall into the hands of their enemy death, as the lepers
into the hands of the Syrians, expecting nothing but cruelty and
misery, trembling every step of the way, though they find good
cheer, and all sorts of comforts. 1
3. Dwell much in the thoughts of death. Cicero said of fenc
ing, Fortissimo, cudversus mortem, et dolorem disciplina, it was
the strongest fence against the fear of death ; so I may say of en
tertaining death frequently in our meditations, it is a good guard
against the terror of death ; custom dimmisheth the dread of things
which to nature are so frightful. Marius, before he would bring
out his soldiers to fight with the Cimbres, caused them to stand
upon the trenches, to acquaint themselves with the terrible aspect
of those savages, and so brought them to contemn them, which at
first sight they so amazedly feared. When we are on a sudden
surprised by an unexpected adversary, we want time to unite our
strength to resist the assault ; but what we expect we provide for,
and so are the better able to encounter with it. The old people that
lived near the Kiphasan mountains, were taught to discourse much
of death, and to converse with it, and to speak of it, as of a thing
that will certainly come, and ought so to do ; hence their reso
lutions were strengthened to undergo it with patience and courage.
As cordials lose their virtue, so even poisons their venom, by
frequent use. Mithridates, by constant use of it, made it so far
from being mortal, that it was nourishing to him. Though death
in its own nature be venomous, the Christian, by frequent medita
tion of it, and application of the blood of Christ to his soul, may
make it profitable to him.
4. Wean thy heart from the earth. They who love the earth as
their heaven, will be unwilling to leave it, though for heaven.
Canst thou bear the loss of some worldly comforts, when God takes
them from thee ? If not, how wilt thou be able to bear the loss of
all worldly comforts in a dying hour ? If running with footmen
1 Vide more of this in Fading of the Flesh, pp. 85-87.
68 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
weary thee, how wilt thou be able to run with horsemen ? If a
little loss, a little load, be ready to break thy back, what wilt thou
do under the weight of a great one ? Paul was martyred in his
affections, before he was martyred in his body ; and dead to the
world, before he was slain by the world ; hence he came to dare
even death itself, and to bid it do its worst : I protest by your
rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily/ Should a
messenger have come to Paul and told him, You must die to-mor
row, and leave all the good things of this life ; he might have
said, That is not now to do, for I died yesterday, and this day, and
every day, and I have already taken my leave of this world and all
its vanities. 1 Those that, like eels, lie in the mud of worldly
pleasures, are unfit to be sacrificed to God, as being unclean crea
tures, and unwilling to part with their present delights, though for
those that are more excellent. The immoderate love of sublunary
vanities makes men say, as Peter at Christ s transfiguration, It is
good to be here ; albeit, like him, they know not what they say.
5. Set thy house in order. After the heart is set in order, the
next work is to set the house in order, according to God s counsel,
Isa. xxxviii. 1. Abraham was careful, before his death, to settle
the affairs of his household, as appeareth by his providing a fit
spouse for Isaac, and his giving gifts to the children of his second
wife, and sending them away, Gen. xxiv. 1 , 2, and xxv. 6. This
ought to be done in the time of our health and strength, partly
because we are uncertain whether we shall have time and ability
in sickness to do it or no. How many have died suddenly; and
why not thou and I as well as others ? Some who had a mind to
make their wills, have not had a tongue to do it with. Others who
have had a tongue, have lost the use of their understandings. Partly
because in sickness we should have as little as may be to do with
the world. All occasions of disturbance or distraction to our souls
should be prevented.
The disposition of what God hath given thee must be with
prudence, for the maintenance of love among relations ; with plain
ness, that thy meaning may not be mistaken ; and with judgment
and ability, for the preventing of all quarrels and lawsuits amongst
such as are interested in it.
Header, if thou art careful and faithful in the discharge of these
particulars, thy funeral will prove a festival, and the sun of thy life
will set, as the natural sun, in a clear evening, not in a cloud, but
in such a red sky as to prognosticate the ensuing day to be fair
1 See more of this in Fading of the Flesh, pp. 88, 89.
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. (J9
thy certain and comfortable resurrection to bliss and honour. Thy
name will live when thou art dead, and thy memory be blessed
amongst all that fear the Lord. Tacitus makes one of the Sem-
pronii, not wholly to degenerate from the honour of his house, only
for dying well : Constantia mortis hand indigna Sempronio nomine.
Nero did tacitly wipe Claudius the emperor, though himself were
the worst of the two, when, in an ambiguous phrase, he mentions
his death : Desinit morarii inter homines. Every sinner goeth out
like a snuff, but the just shall be had in everlasting remembrance.
By practising these duties thou shalt come to die in the Lord, to
rest from thy labours, and to have thy works following thee to thine
endless blessed reward.
A good wish about the Christians exercising himself to godliness on
a dying bed; wherein the former heads are applied.
The righteous God having appointed death to be the end of all
the children of men, as the common road through which they pass
into the other world, to receive according to what they have done
in this life, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, I wish that
I may be wise to consider of my latter end, and so live that I may
rather desire than be afraid to die ; that my last days may be my
best days, and I may imitate my Kedeemer in bringing my God
much honour, and doing his church much service, when I am en
tering into my Master s joy. The evening praiseth the day ; the
last scene commends the act. The rivers, the nearer they draw to
the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide. Though to guide a
vessel safely along in the ocean argueth much skill, and such a
pilot is worthy of praise ; yet at the very entrance into the haven,
then to avoid the rocks, and to cast anchor in a safe road, argueth
most skill, and deserveth most praise. Musicians reserve the
sweetest strain for the close of their lesson. Orators, though in
every part of their speech they use great care, yet in the close of
their speech they use the utmost of their rhetoric, and put forth all
their art and skill to stir up all the affections of their hearers, that
they may leave at last the deepest impressions upon their hearts of
1 Morari, having the first syllable short, signifieth to stay, and so the meaning is,
Claudius ceased to stay amongst mortal men ; but take it as it is derived of the
Greek jtw/>ds, stultus, and hath the first syllable long, in which sense Nero spake it, it
iinporteth, Claudius hath now made an end of playing the fool amongst men.
70 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
those things which they would persuade to. My whole life ought
to be nothing else but a pleading with my God for mercy, and a
walking according to his word ; but when I come to the period of
my days, how powerful should my prayers, how pious my practices
be ! how lively my graces ! how holy my whole conversation ! that
my God may say of me, as once of Thyatira, I know thy works,
and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works ;
and the last to be more than the first. Though violent motions
are slowest at last, as being farthest from that strength which forced
them contrary to their own inclinations ; yet natural motions, pro
ceeding from an inward principle, the nearer the centre, the swifter
the motion. Though hypocrites, and such as have only a form of
godliness, grow worse and worse, and fill up the measure of their
lusts with the measure of their lives, yet gracious persons, and such
as have the power of godliness, grow better and better, and com
plete their task with their time. Oh that the longings, the desires,
the faith, the hope, the delight of my soul, like the approaches of
a needle, may be so much the more quick, by how much they draw
nearer to their loadstone, Jesus Christ. Lord, thou hast an abso
lute dominion over me, both living and dying. It is thy word,
None of thine liveth to himself, or dieth to himself; but whether
they live, they live unto the Lord, and whether they die, they die
unto the Lord ; and whether they live or die, they are the Lord s/
Oh help me to glorify thee, both by my life and by my death !
Let thy Spirit be strong within me, when my flesh is weak. When
the keepers of the house shall tremble, shew thyself the keeper and
strength of my heart. When the grinders shall cease, because
they are few or weak, give me to feed on the manna of thy pro
mises, and that bread which came down from heaven. When the
daughters of music shall be brought low, let me hear by faith the
song of Moses and the Lamb, sung by the celestial choir. When
they that look out at the window are darkened, let the eyes of my
soul be opened, to behold, with thy dying martyr Stephen, Jesus
sitting at the right hand of God. Let my hope and desire look out
at the windows, and say, Why is his chariot (sent to fetch me to
himself) so long of coming ? Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?
Make haste, my beloved, be thou like the hart and roe upon the
mountains of spices. Whether I perish in the field with Abel, or
in the prison with the Baptist, or in my bed with Jacob, grant me
thy gracious comforting presence, and then, though I walk in the
valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear none ill. Oh do thou
undertake my conduct in my passage over the rough waters of this
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAX S CALLING. 71
Jordan, into Canaan, and then there will be no danger of drown
ing ! Assist me so to live by faith, that I may die in the faith ; and
when my friends take my earthly body to their disposal, oh do thou
receive my heaven-born soul into the arms of thine infinite mercy,
for thou hast redeemed it, Lord God of truth.
I wish that I may frequently ponder what a serious, solemn
thing it is to die. However light, or vain, or jesting my life hath
been, my death will be in earnest. I cannot dally or trifle with it;
it will not dally or trifle with me. It can be done but once, and
upon it my everlasting making or marring depends. It is so cer
tain, that all must, willing or unwilling, ready or unready, undergo
it. Neither the policy of Ahithophel, nor the strength of Samson,
nor the wisdom of Solomon, nor the beauty of Absalom, nor the
piety of Abraham, nor the wealth of the rich glutton, can prevail
to avoid it. No time, no place, no company, no houses, no lands,
no relations, no youth, no strength, no power, no preferments, can
privilege me against the arrest of death. God hath decreed it, sin
hath deserved it, and I must expect it. It is so searching that it
will discover all the children of men, both to themselves and angels.
Though ships are usually distinguished by their flags, yet that is
no sure sign ; for mariners, when in sight and fear of their enemies,
will ordinarily hang out the colours of other nations, and say they
belong to them ; but when they come to their haven to unload their
vessels, it appears to what country they belong. Though men are
usually distinguished by their outward behaviours, yet many for
their own ends put on Christ s livery, who are of Satan s family ;
but when they come to be searched and unladen at the end of their
lives, it will be known to whom they belong. When I come to
die, then the great controversy between Christ and Satan concern
ing my soul will be determined, whose it shall be for ever. my
soul, that thou couldst but conceive what it will be to be sent by
death into an unchangeable estate, either of bliss or misery ! If
thou diest in thy sins, thou art killed with death. Shouldst thou
now live without conscience, thou wilt die without comfort, and
remain comfortless for ever. Ponder a little with thyself the fear
ful death of a sinner, that thou mayest fly his wicked acts, as thou
wouldst his woeful end. In the midst of his jollity and mirth, when
he is in an eager pursuit of carnal pleasures, and posting in the
way of worldly delights, and running to all excess of riot, he is on
a sudden, by death s harbinger, sickness, commanded to stand, and
proceed no further. This cuts him to the very heart. His former
prosperity, like oil, hath suppled his body, and makes him more
72 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
sensible of his present pain. And his immoderate love to those
fleshly delights doth abundantly greaten his grief, and increase his
loss. Now the man is thrown, whether he will or no, upon his
sick-bed, that must be his death-bed. In this his extremity, his
companions, and friends, and wife, and children, and honour, and
places, and preferments, and silver, and gold, and houses, and lands,
and costly attire, and dainty fare, are all dry things, and unsavoury
to him ; no creature can afford him the least comfort. If he look
into his chamber, his wife is weeping and wringing her hands, his
children are sighing, his friends are lamenting and wailing, but all
this doth increase, net mitigate, his vexation and misery. If he
looks into his conscience, he finds that taking courage, and telling
him to his face, that though formerly he would not suffer it to
speak, yet now it must tell him the truth, that death, and hell, and
wrath, are the wages of his ungodly works. It will bring to his
mind the time he hath misspent, the talents that he hath mis-
improved, the day of grace that he hath despised, the great salva
tion that he hath neglected; his secret, and private, and public
sins, the sins of his childhood, of his youth, of his riper age, those
sins which he had forgotten, and thought should never have been
remembered, are all set in order before his eyes. His heart, which
was before harder than the nether millstone, is now pierced, though
not with an evangelical contrition, yet with legal terrors and tor
ments. His sickness will allow no rest to his body, and his sins
will afford no ease to his soul. In the evening he crieth, Would
God it were morning ; in the morning, Would God it were evening,
because of the anguish of his spirit. His bones are filled with a
painful disease, and his body with unquietness. The arrows of the
Almighty are within him, the poison thereof drinks up his spirit ;
and the terrors of God do set themselves in array against him.
His review of his past actions, his remembering of his slighting
Christ for a brutish pleasure, or a little fading treasure, or a base
lust, and provoking God, and continuance in sin, against mercies,
judgments, warnings, the light of conscience, the motions of the
Spirit, are as so many envenomed arrows sticking in his side, and
piercing him through with many sorrows ; but the thoughts of his
necessity of dying, and his forethoughts of the consequence of death,
how hell rides upon its back, and eternal torments attend it ; how
he must fry in unquenchable flames, and take up his everlasting
lodging amongst roaring lions, frightful dragons, and the hellish
crew, sink him quite down. To add some more gall and wormwood
to his cup of bitterness, the devil now steps in, and sheweth him
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. 73
his sins in their black hue, in their bloody colour and countenance,
to make him hopeless and desperate. The poor creature, in this
miserable plight and plunge, knoweth not what to do, whither to
go for relief. Die he would not, but must ; live he would, but can
not. Now he wisheth that he had prayed and served God, and
minded his soul and salvation more, and gratified his flesh, and
embraced the pleasures and honours of the world less. Now he
desireth that he might live a little longer, and thinks, Oh how
would I redeem time, and follow after holiness, and walk with God,
what would I not do and suffer to lay up some comfort, some cor
dial against such an hour ! But whilst he is thus in the midst of
his vain wishes, death tells him, by the violence of his distemper,
that the time of his departure is at hand. His eyes now begin to
sink, his speech to falter, his breath to shorten, and his heart to
fail him, and a cold sweat to seize on his whole body. He strives
and struggleth with all his might to continue here, but death, like
a cruel sergeant, drags him to the bar of God, whence he is imme
diately, with frowns and fury, dismissed, and hauled to the dreadful
and eternal dungeon of hell. Oh the howlings, the screeching, the
groans, the grief, which possesseth this poor soul, when he is attacked
by devils, those merciless officers, and carried by them to the lake
that burns with fire and brimstone for ever ! The spirit being now
gone, the body remains a cold lump of clay, forsaken of its dearest
friends, loathsome to its nearest relations, fit for no company but
the worm-eaten congregation, amongst which it must abide till the
last day, when it shall be joined to the soul, and partake with it in
unconceivable arid endless torments.
Ah, who can read such a soul s estate with dry eyes ; or think of
such a condition without sorrow ! my soul, what are thy thoughts
of such a death ? Wouldst thou, for the most prosperous world
ling s life, die such a death ? Doth not thine heart ache whilst
thou art musing on it ? If thou wouldst not meet with the end of
such men, avoid their ways. Lord, I confess myself a great sinner,
and thou mightst justly leave me to walk in the counsel of the un
godly, and to go in the paths of the destroyer, that my feet should
tend to death, and my steps take hold of hell ; yet, for thy Son s
sake, teach me thy way, and lead me in thy righteousness, that
my soul may never be gathered with sinners, nor my life with
bloody men, that I may die the death of the righteous, and my
latter end may be like his.
I wish that I may look upon a dying bed as a fit pulpit in which
I may preach my Maker s and Redeemer s praise. The speeches of
74 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
dying persons are often highly prized, as savouring of most sincerity,
and least suspected of selfish ends. They who scorned my counsel,
and rejected my advice, in my health and strength, as fearing it
proceeded rather from interest than simplicity of heart, will, if they
have the least grain of charity, believe me in earnest, and my
words to be the language of my soul, when I am dying, and enter
ing into my eternal estate. The worst of men have some reverence
and respect for dying Christians. What thrusting and crowding,
even to the prejudice of their bodies, hath there often been to hear
the speeches and last words of dying men. The vilest malefactor,
who is cut off by the sword of justice, is permitted with patience to
speak, and attended to with diligence at the gallows. If enemies
have some respect for dying felons, and will hearken to them with
meekness, what hopes may a dying saint have of advantaging the
souls of his friends ! Oh that I might greedily embrace such an
opportunity of advantaging the interest and honour of my God,
the service and good of my neighbours, and by my pious language
and gracious carriage at my latter end, make others in love with
holiness, holy men, and the Holy One of Israel ! Sinners catch
hold of every season to propagate their ungodly seed, and commend
Satan s rotten wares to the men of the world ; why should not
saints be as vigilant, as diligent, for their God and Saviour ? Lord,
I know not in what manner, by what distemper, it will please thee
to call me to thyself. I beg, if it may seem good in thy sight, that
nothing may befall me on my dying bed, which may render me in
capable of commending thee, and thy ways and worship, to others.
My cheerfulness in bearing thy will, and activeness to extol thy
work and reward, may through thy blessing persuade Satan s
drudges to forsake his slavery, and admit themselves thy servants.
Oh that I might allure others to prepare for such a day, by lifting
up my head with joy, when that day of redemption draweth nigh !
The apprentice makes merry when his time is expired, and he en-
joyeth his freedom. The bride hath a feast and music when her
marriage-day is come. This life is my time of service, death sets
me at liberty. In this world I am contracted to my dearest
Saviour ; my solemn marriage is in the other world, into which I
pass through death. Why should I fear that messenger which
brings such good news, and be troubled at that friend who will do
me so great a courtesy ? Oh enable me to live every day according
to thy gospel, that keeping my conscience clean, and my evidences
clear, I may, in the day of my death, rejoice and be exceeding glad.
Give me to savour the sweetness of thy love, the pleasantness of thy
CHAP. VIII. ] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 75
paths, to feel the powerful influences of thy Spirit, the virtue and
efficacy of thy word ; so to relish communion with thyself and thy
dear Son all the days of my life, that when I am going out of the
world and coming to thee, Father, I may from my own experi
ence quicken and encourage others to forsake earthly vanities, be
fore earthly vanities forsake them, and to take thee for their
chiefest good, and choicest happiness, who will never leave them
nor forsake them.
I wish that the nearer I draw to my reward, the more zealous
and industrious I may be about my work ; and that when my body
droopeth and faileth most, my soul may be most vigorous and active
in the exercise of grace. 1 am infinitely indebted to the blessed
God, for his unspeakable grace to my precious soul ; my engage
ments to the dearest Kedeemer, for loving me and washing me in
his own blood, are far beyond my apprehension. This is the last
opportunity that I shall ever enjoy to testify my thankfulness,
and to do my God, my Saviour, my soul, any service ; oh how
diligent should I be to promote their interest, and improve this
season ! Nature, in its last conflict with a disease, puts forth
itself to the utmost. It draweth in those spirits, which before
were scattered in the outward parts, to guard and arm the heart ;
it rallieth all those forces which are left, if possible, to win the
day. Oh why should not grace, in its last encounter, muster up
all its strength, and put forth itself to the utmost ! Lust is
strong to the last. When nature is weak and spent, and the sinner
disabled from his unclean or intemperate acts, even then he can
hug them in his heart, and roll them under his tongue as a sweet
morsel, and commit them over and over again in his thoughts, and
fancy, and affections. The dying thief on the cross, when his
hands and feet were nailed, and by force kept in order, could yet
find his tongue at liberty, before his death, to rail at and revile the
Lord of life. Ah, is it not a thousand pities that grace should be
outvied by lust, and that those that are paid with such lamentable
wages as everlasting burnings, should die serving their cruel master,
and enter into hell, belching out their blasphemies, and spitting
their poison in the face of Heaven ! and that the children of God
should do their Father so little service, when they are going to their
blissful mansions, and can do him no more ! Love to myself, as
well as to my God, may quicken me to labour with all my
might, when I draw near my last hour. As I fall now, I lie for
ever. My eternal estate dependeth more upon my death than my
life. It is possible, though rare, that a profane life may be cor-
76 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
rected by a penitent death ; but a wicked death can never be
amended. He that shoots off a piece, if he be not steady just at its
going off, loseth his charge, and misseth his mark. He that dieth
ill, dieth ever ; he is killed with death. He that goeth awry, when
he goeth out of the world, shall never come back to recall or amend
his steps. If I am a conqueror now, I am a conqueror for ever ; if
I am foiled now, I am foiled for ever. Cowards will fight despe
rately when they are in extremity, and must either kill or be
killed. The historian saith of On. Piso, a confederate of Cataline s,
that though he had a heart like a hare, yet he could fight like a
lion when he apprehended a necessity of fighting for his life. Oh
that my pains, my diligence, may be answerable to my peril and
my danger. Lord, when that day and hour draweth near, that I
must go hence and be no more seen, do thou draw near in boundless
mercy to my poor soul. When I must enter into the chambers of
death, and make my bed in the grave, save me from the paws of
Satan, and the power of hell, that the bottomless pit may not shut
her mouth upon me ; and give me to triumph in that hour of tribula
tion, as knowing that neither tribulation, nor persecution, nor prin
cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
life, nor death, can separate me from thy love, which is in Christ
Jesus my Lord.
I wish that, when I am going to the place of silence, I may speak
the excellencies of my God, and make his praise glorious. It is
the unhappiness of worldlings and wicked men that they cannot,
when they die, commend the principles whence they have acted,
nor the vain pleasures which they have minded and pursued. How
many of them, whose lives have been nothing but a bundle of false
hood and lies, when God hath called them to leave the world, have
spoken the truth, and told their friends and relations that sin is an
evil and bitter thing, that carnal pleasures are gilded poisons,
that the greatest and choicest of worldly comforts, though they
may have honey in their mouths, have a sting in their tails ; and
what a vain, empty nothing the whole creation is ! How often
have they complained how the world hath deceived them, the flesh
deluded them, and the devil beguiled and destroyed them ! It is
my privilege, as well as my duty, to extol my Master whom I have
served, to commend the sweetness of his ways, the pleasantness of
his worship, the reasonableness of his precepts, the richness of his
promises, and the vastness of that portion which he hath laid up
for his children when they come to age. I have sometimes tasted
his work and ways to be sweeter than the honey and the honey-
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 77
comb. I have viewed by faith his reward to be vastly glorious, and
beyond all apprehensions excellent. Oh, why should I not dissuade
others from their eager pursuit of foolish, fading shadows, and per
suade and encourage them to earnest endeavours after real sub
stance and durable riches ! The sinner, who hath wallowed all his
lifetime in the mire of filth and wickedness, will, when he comes to
die, and begins to return to his wits, from his own experience of the
emptiness and unprofitableness of his ungodly courses, and from
the convictions of his natural conscience, acknowledge a sober,
sanctified conversation to be safest, and the ways of God to be
most gainful ; and upon these accounts, advise his friends and rela
tions to forsake and abandon the lusts of the world and flesh, and
to follow after holiness, as they would be happy eternally. And
have not I much more cause to shew my abhorrency of sin, and love
to my Saviour and his image, when I am entering into my Father s
house ? The sinner hath only found at last a fleshly life to be vain
and fruitless, and is like to pay dear for his learning ; but I have known
the paths of piety to be paths of pleasantness, and rejoiced more in
them than in all riches. The sinner hath only the dim light of
nature to shew him the loathsomeness of vice, and the loveliness of
grace; but I have the Holy Spirit of my God to enlighten my
mind in the knowledge of both. The sinner hath only a carnal
love to his neighbours and kindred ; he knoweth not what it is to
love them in Christ, and for Christ. I have some knowledge of
the love and law of Christ, of the worth of their souls, of the price
paid for them by the Lord Jesus, and their unchangeable condi
tions in the other world. Oh that my language to them might
be somewhat answerable to the love of Christ to me ! Lord, it is
unrighteousness to die in debt to man, and not to endeavour to
make them satisfaction according to my power. I am sure to die
in thy debt ; for I am less than the least of all thy mercies, and
unable to requite thee for the smallest of thy favours. It is my
comfort that all the recompense thou expectest is a thankful
acknowledgment and hearty acceptance of thy grace and goodwill.
Oh what injustice and ingratitude were I guilty of, should I deny
thee so small a request ! Be pleased to help thy servant in his
last hours, both to accept unfeignedly of thy grace for his own
good, and to acknowledge thy goodwill, and bounty, and faithful
ness, to thy glory, for the good of others.
I wish that my last breath may be drawn heavenward ; I mean,
that I may enter praying into the house of blessing and praise. I
am no Christian, if I do not give myself to prayer whilst I live. It
78 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
is one choice piece of my spiritual armour, whereby I have often as
saulted and conquered my soul-enemies. It is the ambassador which
I have many a time sent to the heavenly court, that always received
a favourable audience, and obtained his errand. It is the vessel
which hath brought me food from far, and ever returned richly
laden, if it were not my own fault. It is the element in which I
live ; the aliment by which I subsist ; the pulse, the breath of my
soul, without which it must needs die. On my death-bed I have as
much need of its succour as at any season. My adversaries will
then employ their greatest power and policy to rout and ruin me ;
I am but weak flesh and blood, altogether unable to combat with
principalities and powers ; and how can I expect supplies from the
Lord of hosts, unless I send this messenger to entreat it ? My
wants and weaknesses at such a time will be more than ordinary.
Faith must then be acted, in spite of all the frights and fears which
a malicious devil, and an unbelieving heart, from the number and
nature of my sins, the strictness of the law, and the justice of God,
may put me to. Kepentance must then be exercised, and my sins
lie nearer my heart than my sharpest diseases. In patience I must
possess my soul, under all the pains and pressures which the wise
God shall lay upon me. I must then cheerfully submit to the
divine pleasure, and by my willingness to leave all the world to go
to Christ, shew that I hate father, mother, wife, child, house, lands,
life, and all for Christ. Those graces, and many other, must be put
forth at such a time, none of which I can do by my own power,
and therefore have abundant cause to fetch help from heaven by
prayer. Besides, the distempers of my body will discompose my
soul, and unfit it in a great measure for all holy service. Again,
my benefactors, my near friends and relations, the poor afflicted
church of God, do all call aloud to me to pray for them, as the last
kindness I shall ever do for them. I profess I love them, how can
I manifest it better than by commending them to God in prayer ?
Should I leave them thousands of silver and gold, if I were able,
it would not all amount to the price of one fervent prayer. My
riches might wrong them through the deceitfulness of their hearts,
and cause them to be contented short of heaven ; but my prayers
cannot prejudice them, but may much further their eternal welfares.
Men whose natures are crabbed and cruel, have granted the requests
of their dying children, when they have been contrary to their own
humours ; how much more will God, the Father of mercies, whose
nature is love, whose bowels are infinite, satisfy the desire of his
dying children, when they fall in with his own design and desire ?
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 79
If Joab had hopes to speed in his supplication for Absalom, be
cause he knew the king s heart was more for it than his own, may
not I be confident to speed, when I beg that he would pay my debts
in spirituals with interest to those who have bestowed carnals on
me for his sake ; when I ask that my children and relations may
love, and fear, and worship his Majesty, and be his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works ; and when I entreat that
he would accomplish all the great and good things which he hath
promised to his church, the purchase of his Christ, knowing that
his heart is infinitely more for these things than mine can be!
Lord, when I die, I shall no more put up prayers for myself or
other particular persons. My natural obligations to my kindred
and relations, my civil engagements to my friends and benefactors,
besides my spiritual bonds to them and thy whole Israel, may well
provoke me to be fervent and instant with thy Majesty at such an
hour on their behalf. My Kedeemer, before his death, wrought
hard at this duty : he offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears. Ah, how should I pray for myself and
others, when I am taking my leave of prayer ! Oh let thy Spirit
of supplication be so poured down on me, that I may pour out my
spirit in supplication unto thee for my own and other souls, through
thy Son, with the greatest success.
I wish that the night of my death may shine gloriously with the
sparkling stars of divine and heavenly graces. In particular, I
desire that when the time of my combat with my last enemy, and
my last combat with any enemy, shall come, I may above all take
the shield of faith, whereby I shall be sheltered against the sting
of death, and quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. The wise
mariner, perceiving a storm approaching, makes haste to fasten his
vessel with anchors, that it may be steady, and not altogether at
the mercy of the winds. I must expect the greatest tempest when
I am entering into my eternal haven ; then all the powers of dark
ness will conjure up their strongest winds, if possible to shipwreck
the vessel of my soul. Ah, how much doth it concern me to put
forth this grace, the anchor of my soul, both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil, and thereby to fasten
on the rock of ages ! If I fail in this, I fall, I miscarry for ever.
God is a severe judge to condemn all guilty malefactors. Without
his Son, I am clothed with guilt, and so under his boundless
wrath. When Adam had disrobed himself of original righteous
ness by disobeying the law, he fled from God, and dreaded the sum
mons of offended justice. There is no appearing in the Father s
80 THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. [PART III.
sight with acceptance, but in the garments of his Son. None can
have boldness to enter into the holy of holies, but by the blood of
Jesus. It is faith only that interesteth in this blood. I know that
through the Red Sea of this blood I may pass safely, though
enemies pursue me hard, into the land of promise. Lord, I confess,
through an evil heart of unbelief, I have many a time departed
away from the living God ; yet, Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief.
Lord of life, be not far from me, when devils and death are near
me ; help me, with thy servant Stephen, to see heaven open, by
faith, and the Son of man at thy right hand. Enable me to dis
claim whatsoever duties I have performed, or graces I have exer
cised, and to rely alone on a crucified Christ for pardon and life.
Though thou killest me, let me die trusting and clinging on, and
cleaving to, Jesus Christ. Let this pilgrim s staff of faith be never
out of my hand, till I come to my journey s end. Thou art the
Lord of hosts, and the captain of my salvation. Oh help me to
put on the whole armour of God ; grant me such skill to use it, that
1 may be able to stand in the evil day. Teach thou my hands to
war, and my fingers to fight, that through thee I may do valiantly,
and through thee may tread down mine enemies. Grant me so
to finish my course, to fight the good fight of faith, that at death I
may receive the crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge
shall give to all that love his appearing.
I wish that my faith may ripen into full assurance, that thereby
I may depart with joy, and an abundant entrance maybe ministered
unto me, into the kingdom of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Moses and Simeon could sing at their own funerals. The great
apostle could call to be put to bed, expecting thereby his sweetest
eternal rest. How many martyrs have gone more joyfully to die
than ever epicure did to dine, and leaped when they drew near the
stake, believing that they drew near their home, their happiness,
their heaven ! What is it, my soul, that makes thee start and
flinch back at the sight of this bugbear ? What is there in death
that is so dreadful to thee ? Is it the sweetness of life, or the pain
of death, or thy future estate after death ? Consider them all
seriously, and then judge rationally whether any of these should
make thee sigh, so loath to depart.
First, The love of life need not make thee so backward to obey
the call of death. If all thy time were made up of holidays, death
would bring thee greater advantage. The garlic and onions of
Egypt are nothing comparable to the clusters of Canaan. But,
alas ! it is far otherwise ; thy whole life is a civil death. Thou art
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 81
born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward. Thy days are few, but
full of trouble. The earth to thee is a valley of tears ; the cross is
thy daily companion, which accompanieth thee wherever thou
goest. The sufferings of the flesh are neither few nor small. How
many diseases in thy body, losses in thy estate ! how much dis
grace, ignominy, slander, oppression, art thou liable to ! The suf
ferings of thy spirit are more and greater. Thine own sins, the
provocations of others, the dishonour of thy God, the wants, and
weaknesses, and oppression, and persecution of the church of Christ,
do all give thee daily occasion to mingle thy bread with ashes, and
thy drink with weeping. What is this world, that thou art so fond
of it ? Thy God calls it a sea of glass, mingled with fire, Rev. xv.
2. A sea for its turbulency ; it is never at rest, but ebbs and flows
continually, though sometimes more, sometimes less. Its work is
to bubble up mire and dirt, especially on them who are chosen out
of the world. A sea of glass for its fragility ; all its pomp and
pride on a sudden vanisheth. Glass is both easily and irrecoverably
broken in pieces. A sea of glass, mingled with fire, for the fiery
and dreadful miseries that befall men in it. All its apparent com
forts are mingled with real crosses. In heaven there is solace,
without the least grain of sorrow ; in hell there is mourning,
without the smallest drachm of mirth ; but on earth there is no estate
without mixture. The saints have joy in God, but if need be they
are in heaviness through manifold tribulations, 1 Pet. i. 6. The
merry sinners, in the midst of their pleasures, have their hearts
heavy. Some of the wiser heathen were so sensible of human
miseries, that one of them, when ancient, told his scholar, that if it
were offered him to be young again, he would not accept it. Saints,
of all men, must expect a large draught of sufferings ; the world is
their enemy, and raiseth all its forces against them. If I be a
disciple, I must look to follow my Master in bearing his cross. O
my soul, why shouldst thou hug that which hates thee, and doat on
this world, which is neither a fit match for thee, as being unsuit
able to thy nature, nor, if she were, can be faithful to thee, being
made up of wavering and inconstancy. Or, secondly, Is it the pain
of death that thou art so frighted at ? Surely the fear of it is the
greatest torment. How many have felt greater pain in divers
diseases, as in the stone, or strangury, or colic, than in a dying
hour ! Some of God s children have felt very little pain, in the
judgment of those that have seen them dying. The waters of
Jordan, though rough to others, have stood still when the ark was
to pass over. But though I were sure my pain should be sharp,
VOL. III. F
82 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
yet I am sure it shall be short. In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, I shall be transported over the gulf of misery into endless
glory. My pangs will be almost as soon gone as come ; sorrow will
endure but for a short night, joy will come in the morning. If I
were assured of a great purchase made for me in Spain or Turkey,
which upon my first coming over I should enjoy, would I not ad
venture a passage through the boisterous ocean to take possession ?
My Saviour hath made a larger, a better purchase for me in heaven.
He is gone before to prepare a place for me. My passage thither,
though it may be more painful, is less perilous. It is impossible
for me to miscarry in it. Oh, why am I so slothful to go in and
possess the good land ! Surely the pleasures of the end may well
sweeten the ways to it, were they never so bitter. With what
cheerfulness do some women undergo their sharp throes and hard
labours, supported with this cordial, that a child shall thereby be
born to them ! Oh, how infinitely inferior is the joy of a man-
child brought forth into this world, to the joy of a sanctified soul,
brought out of this world into heaven !
Again, I have a tender Father, who knoweth my frame, and will
lay no more upon me, living or dying, than he will enable me to
bear. He hath said it, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
my soul, thou hast little reason to dread a contest with this
enemy for this cause ! Thou inayest contentedly undergo a little
pain to go to thy dearest Lord, when many a sinner hath suffered
greater to satisfy his hellish lust.
Thirdly, Is it thy future condition that makes thee unwilling to
die ? Dost thou not know that death is thy portal, through which
thou shalt pass into the true paradise? It is the strait gate
through which thou shalt enter into life. Though it is the wicked
man s shipwreck, which swalloweth him up in an ocean of wrath and
torment, yet it is the saint s putting into harbour, where he is
received with the greatest acclamation and richest welcome im
aginable.
Travellers who have met with many dangers and troubles in their
journeys, rejoice when they come near their own country. I am a
pilgrim here, and used, or rather abused, as a stranger ; shall I not
be glad when I come near my blessed home, my eternal, happy
habitation ? Children in some parts, when they first behold the
stork, the messenger of the spring, testify their joy with pleasant and
loud shoutings. Oh, why shouldst not thou lift up thy head with
joy, when sickness, the forerunner of death, is come to bring thee
tidings that the winter of thy misery, and cold, and hardships, is
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 83
past, and the summer of thine eternal light, and joy, and pleasure
is at hand ? Thy death may well be a free-will offering, consider
ing that though the ashes of the sacrifice (thy body) fall to the
earth, yet that divine flame (thy immortal spirit) shall ascend to
heaven. In death nothing diethof thee but what thou mayestwell
spare, thy sin and sorrows. When the house is pulled to pieces, all
those ivy roots in the wall shall be destroyed. The egg-shell must
be broken, that the little chick may slip out. Thy body must be
dissolved, that thy soul may be delivered ; yet thy body doth not
die, but sleep in the bed of the grave till the morning of the resur
rection. That outward apparel shall not be utterly consumed by
the moth of time, but locked up safe, as in a chest, to be new
trimmed, and gloriously adorned above the sun in his greatest
lustre, and put on again when thou shalt awake in the morning,
never, never, to put off more. Oh that I could so live, that I might
not only be always ready, but also, when God calls me, desirous to
die. If I borrow anything of my neighbour, I pay it back with
thanks. My life is God s ; he lends it me for a time. Why should
I not, when he calls for it, restore it with thanks, that he hath
been pleased to lend it me so long ? Lord, thy children love thee
dearly, and believe that when they come home to thee thou wilt
entertain them kindly ; yet their flesh, like Lot s wife, is still
hankering after the Sodom of this world, and loath they are to
leave it, though it be for their exceeding gain. Give thy servant
such true faith in thy Son, that I may neither love life nor fear
death immoderately ; but as the heart of Jacob revived when he saw
the waggons which Joseph sent to fetch him to Egypt, so my heart
may leap for joy to behold the heavenly chariot which the Son of
Joseph shall send to convey me to the true Goshen.
I wish that I may with patience submit on my dying bed to the
divine pleasure. It hath been far from some moralists to murmur,
either at the extremity of their sickness, or the necessity of dying.
By impatience I do not help, but rather kill myself beforehand.
It is the general lot of mankind to sicken and die. Am I angry
that I am a man, that I am mortal ? Because I know that I must
be sick and die, I know that I must submit. The knowledge of
an approaching evil is no small good, if improved. Though it
cannot teach me to prevent it by all my power or providence, yet it
may teach me to prepare for it, and to bear it with courage and
patience. Discontent and quarrelling are great arguments of
guilt and a defiled conscience. The harmless sheep, conscious of
their innocency, do quietly receive the knife, either on the altar or
84 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
in the shambles, and give death entrance with small reluctancy,
when the filthy, loathsome swine roar horribly at their first hand
ling, and with hideous cries are haled and held to the fatal block.
The children of God and members of Christ, who are perfect
through their head, do often give up the ghost, and desire to be dis
solved, and to be with Christ ; when the souls of wicked men are
required of them, they are strangely passionate at the approach
of death, and with dreadful screeches salute its harbinger, sickness.
Oh that patience might have its perfect work in me, when I amj
taking my leave of it, and its work is near an end ! Lord, my]
heart is too prone to be impatient under thy hand, though thou art
infinitely wise as well as gracious, and knowest what is best for me.
In my sickness turn mine eyes upon my sins, that my discontent
may be at myself, for that which is the original of all my sorrows ;
and then I shall never repine or murmur against thee.
I wish that I may daily think of death, and wait, believing and
repenting, and working out my salvation, till my change shall
come. My whole time is given me, that therein I might prepare
and dress my soul for my blessed eternal estate. Why should it
not be employed for that end ? The child who hath all day been
diligent about his duty, may expect his father s good word at night.
But what master will give a reward to him in the evening, who
hath all the day long served his enemy ? My life is the seed which
will yield a crop of horror, or comfort, in an hour of death. If that
be good, my harvest will be glorious and joyful ; if that be sinful,
my harvest will be bitter and sorrowful. Do men gather grapes of
thorns, or figs of thistles ? The grapes of comfort are not to be
expected from the thistles of corruption ; nor thejfigs of peace, from
the thorns of impiety. I should blush to commit to the keeping
of a cleanly and considerable person, a foul and filthy vessel. With
what face can I commend to the holy and glorious God an impure
and polluted soul ? Oh how dreadful will it be to meet with my
dying bed, before I have met with the Lord of life ; and to be going
out of the world, before I have seriously considered why I came
into it ! My great work in this world is to get my depraved nature
healed by the blood and Spirit of Christ ; if I forget my business
when I have tune to do it, and trifle away my days in doing evil, or
doing nothing, I lose my soul, am unfaithful to my Master, and
deepen my judgment by the number of my days. That traveller
may well be aghast and perplexed, who hath a long journey to go|
upon pain of death in one day, for which the whole day is little
enough, and seeth the sun near setting before he hath begun his
CHAP. VIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 85
journey. How ill doth the evening of my time, and the morning
of my task, accord together ! How justly may God reserve the
dregs of his wrath for me, if I reserve the dregs of my days for
him ! What folly am I guilty, of, in deferring my preparation for
death ! If he be a ridiculous person, that having choice of lusty
horses, should let them all go empty, and lay an extraordinary
heavy load upon a poor tired jade, that is hardly able to go, much
more foolish is he that prodigally wasteth his youth, and health, and
strength, in the service of the flesh and the world, and leaves the
great and weighty affairs of his soul and eternity to be transacted on
a sick or dying bed. my soul, what little cause hast thou to
future or delay thy solemn provision for the other world ! First, thy
life is uncertain ; thou hast not another day at thy disposal. There
are some creatures, they say, in Pontus, 1 whose life lasteth but one
day : they are born in the morning, come to their full growth at
noon, grow old in the evening, and die at night. What is thy life
but a vapour, that soon passeth away ? The first minute thou didst
begin to live, thou didst begin to die. Death was born when thou
wast born ; the last act of life is but the completing of death. As
on thy birthday thou didst begin to die, so on the day of thy death
thou dost cease to live. How many outward accidents, and inward
diseases, art thou every moment liable to ! May I not say to thee,
as Michal to David, Save thyself to-night, for to-morrow thou shalt
be slain ? Others have died suddenly, by imposthumes, or the
falling-sickness, or violent means ; and if thou promisest thyself a
fair warning, before the fatal stroke, thou dost but cozen and cheat
thyself. But, secondly, If thou wert sure to see the evening star of
sickness, before the night of death overtake thee, thou art not sure
thy sickness shall not be such as may not incapacitate thee for the
working out thy salvation. Extremity of pain, anguish of body,
lack of sleep, the violence of a fever, may indispose thee, and distract
thee, that thou canst not so much as think of God. Or thy dis
temper may be such, that the physician may charge thee not to
trouble thyself with melancholy or sad thoughts, lest thou wrongest
thy body, and yet the minister commandeth thee to pull up those
sluices of sorrow, if thou wouldst not lose thy soul for ever. Or
cold diseases, as the lethargy or palsy, may surprise thee, and in
cline thee to continual slumbers, till at last thou sleepest the sleep
of death. Oh how sottish art thou, and how grossly doth the
destroyer of souls delude thee to defer that work of absolute neces
sity, of conversion to God, upon which thine endless weal or woe
1 Plut.
86 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
dependeth, to a dying bed, when thou art not sure to die in thy bed,
but mayest as well die in thy shop or fields, or in the streets ; when
thou art uncertain what disease, if thou shouldst meet with a dying
bed, should send thee to thy eternal home ; when thou art neither
master of thy time nor reason, nor of thy natural abilities, much
less of supernatural grace, which is indispensably requisite to this
great work ! Oh that, since I must die once for sin, I might die
daily to sin ; and as the Philistines, that they might the better deal
with Samson, cut off his hair, wherein his great strength lay ; so
that I may the better deal with death, I may by faith and repent
ance, daily cut off and destroy sin, wherein the strength of death
lieth ! May I not say to thee, my soul, as Joshua to Israel ?
Prepare ye victuals, for within three days ye shall pass over this
Jordan, to go to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth
you. Prepare the spiritual food, the flesh of Christ, which is meat
indeed, and the blood of Christ, which is drink indeed ; a heart
weaned from the world, longing to be with God ; for within a few
days thou shalt go in, to possess the land of promise. Lord, I
know nothing more certain than death. Sin hath deserved it, my
brittle body enforceth it ; thou hast decreed it, and none can prevent
it. I know nothing more uncertain than the time when, or the
manner how. Thou hast many ways and means to bring me to my
grave ; not only ordinary distempers of my body, but thousands of
casual dangers. I cannot promise myself freedom from it, in any
place or condition. Death may seize me abroad, at home, in com
pany, in solitude, at bed, at board. Why should I not always pro
vide for that extremity, that enemy, which I cannot avoid ? Why
should I not ever be ready for that which may come at any time,
and will come at some time or other ? Surely I do not hasten my
death by preparing for it, but sweeten it exceedingly. I shall not
die a moment the sooner, but infinitely the better. Should death
overtake me in my sins, alas ! where am I ? What will become of
me for ever ? I may well salute it, as Ahab Elijah, with, Hast thou
found me, mine enemy ? For it will come to me, as the prophet
to that king, with doleful, dreadful tidings. It will bring me news
of a dismal dungeon of darkness, to be my habitation ; of lions, and
scorpions, and dragons, to be my companions ; of a never dying
worm, an unquenchable fire, pure wrath without mixture, full tor
ments without measure, to be my portion for ever and ever. Oh
teach me so to live above this vain empty life, so to be crucified to
this world, so to make my peace with thy Majesty, through the
great peacemaker, and Prince of peace, my Lord Jesus, so to set
CHAP. VIIL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 87
my heart and house, my spiritual and temporal concernments in
order, that I may be delivered from the paw of the lion, from the
teeth of this monster, from the sting of this serpent ; and though
my body be destroyed, yet my soul may escape, as a bird out of the
snare of the fowler, and mount up to thyself, to enjoy that happy
life which shall know no death.
I wish that all the days of my appointed time I may exercise
myself herein, to keep a conscience void of offence towards God,
and towards all men. There are but two which can afford me real
comfort in a dying hour, which always take the same side, and join
together, God and my conscience. Human friends often stand afar
off, when they should be most near, and I have most need. Some
of them are loath to come to a sick man s chamber. Mournful
objects must not disturb their jollity and mirth. They are sworn
enemies to sorrowful occasions, and banish such foes their quarters,
or themselves from such coasts. Others, if they come to visit me,
love not to see my ghastly countenance, like not to hear my deep
and deadly groans. But be they never so full of pity, they can only
sympathise with me, they cannot relieve, refresh me. The most
they can do, is to accompany me to my grave, and there they leave
me. But, oh the comfort which a loving God, and a conscience
sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and purged from dead works,
will afford me in a dying hour ! The smiles of a God, and cheer-
ings of a good conscience, will be music indeed, to welcome me to
the shore, after all my tumblings and tossings in this tempestuous
ocean. They will make my bed in my sickness, help me to lie
easy, hearten me in my sighs and groans, be my feast at my
funeral, bid me be of good cheer, for my sins are forgiven me ; tell
me that my Kedeemer liveth, and because he liveth, I shall live
also ; lodge my body in a grave, as in a bed of spices, and convey
my soul into my Savipur s bosom and embraces ; when my houses,
lands, honours, friends, wife, children, leave me, they will cleave to
me; nay, when my breath, life, heart, flesh forsake me, they will
not fail me ; yea, when faith, hope, patience, repentance, shall bid
me farewell, weeping, as Orpah did Ruth, these, like Naomi, will
stick to me, go with me, and seek rest for me. Oh that my heart
may be so upright in the service of my God, that when I shall
receive the sentence of death, I may be able to say, with good
Hezekiah, Remember now, I beseech thee, Lord, how ]
walked before thee, in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done
that which is good in thy sight/ my soul, what a friend shouldst
thou be to thy God, thy conscience, how faithful to their warnings,
88 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
now in life, if thou wouldst have them thy friends at death ! Hereby
thou mayest be able to triumph in that hour of temptation, to defy
death itself, and bid it do its worst. Though it be the common
gate through which the sinner goeth into prison, where he meets
with chains and fetters, and cold, and all sorts of miseries, yet thou
shalt go through it, into the king s palace, where thou shalt have
rivers of pleasures, and choice entertainment. If Jacob went down
so joyfully into Egypt, when God had Baid to him, Fear not to go
down, for I will go down with thee, and I will bring thee up again ;
what needst thou fear to go down into the grave, when thy God
hath undertaken to go down with thee thither, and to bring thee
up again ? Thy body may be turned into dust, but thy God is in
covenant with thy dust ; and thy head, the blessed Eedeemer, will
not suffer one muscle, or nerve, or artery, or vein of any of his
members to be lost. With what cheerfulness mayest thou take thy
leave of thy body. Farewell, sweet body, thou hast been in some
measure faithful to thy soul, in the service of thy Lord. Farewell,
I must bid thee good-night, till the morning of the resurrection.
Be thou content to go to bed and sleep in the dust, and rest in
hope ; For though after the skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes
shall behold him, and not another, though my reins be consumed
within me/ Though thou art sown in dishonour, thou shalt be
raised in glory ; though thou art sown in weakness, thou shalt be
raised in power ; though thou art sown a natural body, thou shalt
be raised a spiritual body, and fashioned like unto the glorious
body of Christ himself. Thy dust shall live, and thou shalt arise
and be joined to this soul, and both join with the great assembly of
the first-born, in singing the praises of thy Master and husband.
The soldier is glad when he is called to receive his pay, though the
ways be deep and dirty through which he travelleth to the place of
muster. The husbandman rejoiceth when his fields are white to the
harvest, and with piping and shouting accompanieth his last load
into the barn. Oh that my life might be so sanctified and devoted
to my God, that at my death he may be my solace ! Ah, Lord, it
matters not who be failing to visit me on my sick-bed, so thou be
present with me. Nay, though mine enemies come and say. When
shall he die, and his name perish ? An evil disease cleaveth to
him ; now that he lieth down, he shall rise up no more. If thou
pleasest to visit me with thy saving health, I shall not be afraid
when I walk in the valley of the shadow of death. Oh, when the
sun of my life shall be setting, let the Sun of righteousness so arise
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 89
upon me, that I may be delivered from the power, curse, and
of death, and may find it, through his merits, to be my haven of
rest, after all my foul weather ; a bed of ease, after my sore labour ;
a release out of prison, and my jubilee to give me possession of an
inheritance undefiled, incorruptible, that fadeth not away, which is
reserved in heaven for me. Amen.
CHAPTER IX.
Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness.
A good foundation. Living by faith. Setting God always
before our eyes.
I come now to the second thing promised namely, to lay down
the means whereby Christians may come to make religion their
business.
First, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, be sure that
thou layest a good foundation in a renewed heart and nature. I
begin with this, because it is the chiefest requisite, and the basis of
all. Godliness must first spring up in the heart, before it can over
flow in the life. Other means are like those parts of the body, the
want of which may be supplied by others ; but this is like the
heart, which if wanting, nothing can make up its want. A dead
man will as soon arise and walk, as an unsanctified person make
religion his business. Everything will act according to that prin
ciple which is predominant in it ; though for a time it may, by
violence, work contrary to its natural inclination, yet it will endea
vour the removal of that force, and return to its old course. Fire
moveth upwards, and earth downwards, both striving to overturn
what standeth in their way because the place of fire is above, of
earth, beneath. A river may be stopped and hindered in its cur
rent ; but it will never cease till it hath overborne the dam, and
attained its former passage. Water that is naturally sweet, may
be made brackish by the overflowing of salt water ; but it will not
leave till it hath worked out that saltness, and returneth to his
natural sweetness. So every man, whether good or bad, will act
according to his nature, whether gracious or vicious. A good man
may be hindered in his holy course by temptations, and the vio
lence of the flesh ; but, because his nature is gracious, he will never
be at rest till he hath forcibly broke through those impediments,
and got into his former way of godliness. An evil man may step
90 THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. [PART III.
into the path of piety through the example of others, or good edu
cation, or some slender convictions of a natural conscience ; but he
will quickly be weary ; he will not hold out in it ; he will break
through those obstacles, because his nature the stream of his
heart runs another way.
The heart of man is like the spring of the clock, which causeth
the wheels to move, right or wrong, well or ill. Hence it is that
God s precept is to this, Make you a new heart, and a new spirit;
and his promise of this, I will put my fear into their hearts, and
they shall never depart away from me/ The fear of God in the
heart will bind thee fast to God in thy life. If the heart be
thoroughly drawn to him, the tongue and hand will not depart from
him. If the heart once set forward for God, all the members will
follow after : the mouth will praise, the ears will attend to him,
the eye will watch him, the feet will go after him ; all the parts,
like dutiful handmaids, in their places, will wait on their mistress.
There was a great master among the Jews, which bid his scholars
to consider and tell him, What was the best thing, or the best
way, in which a man should always keep ? One said, A good
companion was the best thing in the world. Another said, A
good neighbour was the best thing he could wish. A third said,
A wise man, or one that could foresee future things. A fourth
said, A good eye, that is, a liberal disposition. At last came one
Eleazer, and he said, A good heart is better than them all.
True, said the master, thou hast comprehended in two words
all that the rest have said ; for a good heart will make a man both
contented, and a good companion, and a good neighbour, and help
him to foresee things that are to come, that he may know what is
on his part to be done. Indeed, without this there can be no god
liness ; all professions and performances are but a show, a shadow ;
and where there is this, there is all godliness in all manner of con
versation. As the king of France said of Dover, that it was the
key of England, and if his son, who then invaded the Britons, had
not that, he had nothing ; so it may be said of the heart, it is the
key of the whole man, it opens and shuts the door to godliness
and wickedness, and if grace hath not this, it hath nothing. The
philosopher, when he w r ould persuade the king to settle his residence
in the midst of his dominions, and thereby keep all his people the
better in subjection, took a bull s hide ready tanned, upon which,
when he stood on any side of it, still it rose up on the other ; but
when he stood on the middle, he kept down all alike. The only
way to subdue sin is to do it in the heart ; that commands all ;
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 91
otherwise, though one unruly passion may be kept down, another
will rise up.
The heart is the great workhouse where all sin is wrought, be
fore it is exposed to open view. It is the mint where evil thoughts
are coined, before they are current in our words or actions : Out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, Mat. xv. 19. That is the nest
in which those hornets breed. The heart is the original of sinful
words, as well as sinful thoughts : Out of the heart proceed false
witness, blasphemies, Mat. xv. 19. They were in the heart before
ever they were in the tongue. It is said of the weasel, that it con
ceives at the ear, and brings forth at the mouth. Every sinner
conceiveth at the heart, what he brings forth at the mouth. Such
stinking breath comes from rotten inwards. The heart is the vessel
of poisonous liquor, the tongue is but the tap to broach it : Out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The heart is
the forge also where all our evil works, as well as words, are ham
mered out : Out of the heart proceed murders, and thefts, and
adulteries, and fornications, Mat. xv. 19. You will say that mur
ders and thefts are hand sins, and that adulteries and fornication
belong to the eye and outward parts of the body ; but, alas ! the
heart is the womb wherein they are conceived and bred. The out
ward parts are but the midwives to deliver the mother of those
monsters, and to bring them into the world : An evil man, out of
the evil treasure in his heart, bringeth forth evil things/ There is
no sin but is dressed in the withdrawing-room of the heart, before
it appear on the stage of the life.
Apollodorus dreamed one night that the Scythians had taken him
and flayed off his skin, with an intent to boil him ; and as he was
lifting into the cauldron, his heart said unto him, It is I that have
brought thee to all this. 1 There is a real truth in this, that the
heart brings men both to all their sins, and all their sufferings. As
the chaos had the seed of all creatures, and wanted nothing but the
motion of the good Spirit to produce them ; so the heart hath the
seed of all evil, and wanteth nothing but the motion of the evil
spirit, and a fit opportunity to bring it forth.
It is in vain to go about a holy life till the heart be made holy.
The pulse of the hand beats well or ill, according to the state of
the heart, and the inward vital parts. Our earthly members can
never be mortified, unless the body of sin and death be destroyed.
The foul bird of sin must be killed in the nest, the heart, or it can
never be thrown on the dunghill, die in the life. Therefore the
Plut. Moral.
92 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
Holy Ghost calls on men to take away the cause, if they would
have the effect to cease : Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wick
edness. Cleanse your hearts ye sinners, and purify your hands
ye double-minded ; first the heart cleansed, then the hands, Jer.
iv. 14 ; James iv. 8. If the chinks of the ship are unstopped, it
will be to no purpose to labour at the pump. It is not rubbing or
scratching will cure the itch, but the blood, whose corruption is
the cause of it, must be purified. When the water is foul at the
bottom, no wonder that scum and filth appear at the top. There
is no way to stop the issue of sin, but by drying up the matter that
feeds it.
As Moses cast the tree into the bitter waters, and sweetened the
springs; and as Elijah cast salt into the fountain, and thereby
healed the waters ; so the salt of grace must be cast into the spring,
the fountain of the heart, or the streams of the life will never be
sweet. Till trees are grafted, and their nature altered, all the fruit
they bring forth is wild and harsh, and little worth ; till the Chris
tian is grafted into Christ, and a new and another nature be infused
into him, all his fruit is unsavoury and unacceptable to God, vain
and unprofitable to himself. Such a one is like a cypress tree, fair
to look on, but barren. Like a painter, he may make a great stir
about the colours and shadows of things, the form of godliness,
and shew all his wit, and art, and skill in expressing the outside,
but wholly neglecteth the substance, and contemneth the inward
parts, the power thereof.
There be several things which may help to make the life fair in
the eyes of men, but nothing will make it amiable in the eyes of
God, unless the heart be changed and renewed. Indeed all the
medicines which can be applied, without the sanctifying work of
the Spirit, though they may cover, they can never cure, the corrup
tion and diseases of the soul. The best man, without this, is like a
serpent painted as it were without, but poisonous within ; as the
herb biscort, he may have smooth and plain leaves, but a crooked
root ; or as a pill, be gilded on the outside, when the whole mass
and body of it is bitterness. It is one thing to be angry with sin
upon a sudden discontent, as a man may be with his wife, whom he
loves dearly, and another thing to hate sin, as that which we abhor
to behold, and endeavour to destroy. A filthy heart, like a foul
body, may seem for a while to be in good plight; but when the
heats and colds of temptations appear, it will bewray itself. Some
insects lie in a deep sleep all the winter, stir not, make no noise,
that one would think them dead ; but when the weather alters, and
CHAP. IX.] THE CHBISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 93
the sun shines, they revive and shew themselves ; so though lusts
may seem dead in an unregenerate man, they are only laid asleep,
and when opportunity is, will revive. Shame may hide sin, but it
will not heal sin ; corruption often lieth secret in the heart, when
shame hindereth it from breaking out in scabs and blotches in the
life. Some court holiness as hard in show, as Saul did Samuel, to
be honoured before the people, when, like him, they hate it in their
hearts.
Fear may do somewhat to curb a vitiated nature, but it can
not cure it. The bear dares hardly touch his desired honey, for fear
of the stinging of the bees ; the dog forbears the meat on the table,
not because he doth not love it, but because he is afraid of the cudgel.
Many leave some sin in their outward actions, as Jacob parted with
Benjamin, for fear they should starve if they kept it, who are as
fond of it as the patriarch of his child. This inward love of sin is
indeed its life, and that which is most dangerous and deadly to the
soul. As an imposthume is most perilous for being inward, and
private rocks under water, split more vessels than those that appear
above water ; so sin, reigning only in the heart, is oftentimes more
hurtful than when it rageth in the life. Such civil persons go to
hell without much disturbance, being asleep in sin, yet not snoring
to the disquieting of others ; they are so far from being jogged or
awaked, that they are many times praised and commended.
Example, custom, and education, may also help a man to make
a fair show in the flesh, but not to walk after the Spirit. They may
prune and lop sin, but never stub it up by the roots. All that
these can do, is to make a man like a grave, green and flourishing
on the surface and superficies, when within there is nothing but
noisomeness and corruption. It hath often appeared that those means
which the great moralists have used to bridle their lusts and pas
sions, have rather, like strong scents to epileptic bodies, raised them
than recovered them. Indeed, if the chief fault were not in the
vital parts, then outward applications might be effectual ; but when
the heart, and lungs, and inwards, are all corrupted, plasters ap
plied to the face, or hands, or thighs, or sides, will do little good.
When the fault is in the foundation of a house, it cannot be mended
by plastering or rough-cast. A leopard may be flayed, but he is
spotted still, because the spots are not only in the skin, but in the
flesh, and bones, and sinews, and most inward parts. When the
disease is accidental, as to lose the sight by the small-pox, or the
like, there the physic of morality may be advantageous ; but where
the disease is natural, as in the man that was born blind, there
94 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
physic will do no good a miracle alone must restore such a one to
sight.
Unsanctified persons at best act from themselves, and therefore
for themselves. As the kite, they may spread their wings and soar
aloft, as if they touched heaven, when at the highest their eyes are
upon their prey upon earth. Lucullus told his guests, when he had
feasted them liberally, and they had admired his bounty in their
costly entertainment, Something, my friends, is for your sakes, but
the greatest part is for Lucullus s own sake. An unconverted person
may do something, some small matter for the sake of religion, from
common gifts of illumination, &c., but the most that he doth is for
his own sake, for that credit or profit which he expecteth thereby.
If anything be enjoined which thwarteth his interest, he will reply
with Ajax, when commanded to spare Ulysses, In other things I
will obey the gods, but not in this.
Eeader, make sure of this inward change ; otherwise, though thy
conversation may be specious, it can never be gracious, nor thy pro
fession durable. If the house be built on loose earth, it will never
stand long. When the principles are variable and uncertain, so
will the practices be. If the arguments upon which thou takest
upon thee the livery of Christ, and the grounds of thy engagement
in his service, be not firm and constant, the love of God, and hope
of eternal life, &c., such as the world and flesh cannot overtop, thou
wilt throw up thy profession, and leave thy master, when thou art
offered in thy blind judgment a better service, though it be v but the
pleasures of sin for a season, with eternal pains at the end of them,
for thy soul, and Saviour, and eternal salvation. How well may he
prove a bankrupt, who is worse than naught when he first sets
up ? I wonder not that many professors disown the Lord Jesus,
when they were ignorant why they at any time owned him. He
that takes up religion on trust, will lay it down when it brings him
into trouble. As the celandine springeth and floweth at the com
ing of the summer birds, but withereth at their departure ; and the
corn, that promiseth a good harvest in the blade, is blasted in the
ear, because its root is withered and naught ; so the person that
hath no sound foundation, though he seem to look high, will never
hold out.
The turnsole makes a show for a time, with white velvet leaves,
and yellow flowers, but fadeth away without bringing forth any
fruit. Christ tells us, some which heard the word, though for a
season they rejoiced in it, when tribulation came because of the
word, were offended at it, because they had no root.
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 95
To prevent that sad apostasy which many are guilty of to their
eternal undoing, friend, consider seriously beforehand, what it will
cost thee to be a Christian indeed. A foolish builder, that under
takes to raise a structure as high as heaven, and pondereth not the
charge thereof, gives over before he hath finished it, and so loseth
all his expense and labour. As in marriage, one that is wise, and
considereth the person, his portion, and his precepts, with the cares
and burdens that are incident to that condition, for such must have
trouble in the flesh, and after this, upon mature deliberation,
accepteth him for a husband, will stick and cleave to him loyally
and faithfully, whatever befalls him ; whereas a foolish maid, that
huddleth up a match in haste, hand over head, promising herself
nothing but delight and pleasure, when she comes to suffer poverty
or imprisonment, or disgrace with her husband, repenteth of her
bargain, and forsakes the guide of her youth. So the Christian, that
hath duly pondered the excellencies in Christ, his misery without
Christ, absolute necessity of Christ ; what love, and joy, and peace,
and endless bliss, God offereth with his Son ; what Christ expecteth
from all that will be married to him, even the denial of themselves,
the taking up of their cross, the contempt of father, mother, wife,
children, estate, life, and all for him, and after he hath duly con
sidered all this, gives himself up to Christ, will be faithful unto
death, and own the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever it may cost him ;
when the man that followeth Christ for the loaves, or for fashion, or
on a sudden stikes a leagues with him, expecting nothing but com
forts and joy in his contracts, will quickly leave him, if called to
suffer with him. He that followeth Christ, he knoweth not why,
will forsake him, he knoweth not how.
If thou art, reader, to begin this work of entering thyself into
Christ s army, I would advise thee to bethink thyself upon what
grounds thou engagest in his quarrel ; for Christians are not called
to their spiritual war for love of fighting, as cocks, that fall to it
upon sight of each other. Consider the enemies thou art to fight
against, how potent, and crafty, and cruel they are, continually
seeking thy destruction. The captain thou art to fight under, how
wise he is to direct and command thee, how able to protect and
defend thee, how faithful and bountiful to crown and reward thee.
The excellency of the cause ; it is for thy soul, thy God, thy Saviour,
thy salvation. The dangers thou must encounter, and hardships
thou wilt be called to endure. The certainty of thy conquest ; how
impossible it is to miscarry in so just a quarrel, under such an
almighty captain, and then lift thyself to fight the good fight of
96 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
faith, and fear not but thou shalt be more than a conqueror through
him that loves thee.
Secondly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, live by
faith. The life of faith, it is the only life of holiness ; and un
belief is the mother of all apostasy. When God would persuade
Abraham to sincere and singular godliness, he doth it by offering
him sure footing for his faith : I am God All-sufficient, or the
Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect/ Gen. xvii.
1 ; knowing that, unless his faith were firm, his steps could never be
even ; if he had not believed God s power, he could not be evangeli
cally perfect. And hence that father of the faithful became so
eminent in obedience, from the strength of his faith. It is said of
him, Isa. xli. 2, that he came to the foot of God. That child was
dutiful indeed, that, when his father did but stamp with his foot,
left whatever he was about, though it were never so delightful or
gainful to him, and ran to his father to know and obey his com
mands. Thus truly did Abraham, when God called him to turn
his back upon his relations, and the place of his nativity ; nay, to
sacrifice his Isaac, the child of the promise, as well as of his love ;
he did not question God s pleasure, nor quarrel with his precepts,
but obeyed them presently, and all from his faith. His strong
faith caused strong obedience, Heb. xi. It is observable that all
the noble and heroic acts of obedience of the Lord s worthies, men
tioned in that little Book of Martyrs, were performed under the
conduct and command of faith.
Faith is one of the best antidotes against the poison of profane-
ness, and one of the greatest helps to holiness. None are more
faithful to God than they who have most faith in God. They who
believe, will be careful to maintain good works, Titus iii. 8. As
the natural heat is the life of the body, and as that increaseth
with the radical moisture, strength and health abound ; so faith is
the life of the soul as that is strong or weak, his godliness is more
or less. He that is highest in affiance is highest in obedience.
This is the strength of the soul : according to man s strength, such
is his walk, either straight or stumbling ; according to a man s
faith, such is his life, either even or crooked.
1. Faith destroy eth sin.
2. It enableth to live to God.
1. It killeth sin. If the pulse of a Christian s hand or life beat
uneven, it is because his faith, which is his heart, doth falter. This
is the shield of the soul, which secures it against all assaults and
dangers. Other pieces of the Christian s armour are serviceable to
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 97
defend particular parts of the new man, as the girdle of truth, the
loins; righteousness, the breast; the gospel of peace, the feet;
but faith is a shield, moveable at pleasure, and surroundeth and
guardeth the whole man : With favour wilt thou compass him as
with a shield, Ps. v. 12. Faith secureth the head from evil prin
ciples. What sense denieth, and reason understandeth not, faith
believeth. Aristotle, reading Moses, concerning the creation, is
reported to say, Egregie diets, domine Moses, sed quomodo probas ?
Thou speakest nobly, but how dost thou prove it ? The answer to
him is easy, By faith we believe that the worlds were made of God
Heb. xi. 3.
Faith clears up the understanding, and scattereth the mists of
error. The presence of this sun disperseth those clouds. Faith
secureth the heart from evil purposes. It is the besom that
sweepeth out such dust, and keeps the heart clean : Having their
hearts purified by faith/ Acts xv. 9. Faith entertaineth the King
of saints into the heart ; it sets him on the throne, and these traitors
fly before him. His presence makes these rebels to hide their heads.
Who ever could find in his heart to hug sin, whilst he was viewing,
by faith, his bleeding Saviour ! Faith secureth the hand from evil
practices. The martyrs chose the flames rather than the denial of
their Master, and all because of their faith. Those worthies of the
Lord, of whom the world was not worthy, through faith stopped
the mouths of lion-like lusts, quenched the violence of hellish fires,
were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain
a better resurrection, Heb. xi. 33-35. By faith we stand/ 2
Cor. i. 24. As a soldier, under the protection of his shield, stands
his ground, and doth his duty, notwithstanding the shot that are
made against him ; so a Christian, under the protection of faith,
keeps his place, and mindeth his work, whatsoever opposition he
meets with. Faith, like Joab, stabbeth this Abner under the
fifth rib ; it wounds sin mortally. Hope, like Saul, hath slain its
thousands, but faith, like David, its ten thousands. Whole armies
of lusts have turned their backs at the sight of this warrior. By
faith the walls of Jericho fall down. Whilst unbelief liveth, no sin
will die. All iniquity sheltereth itself under the banner of infidelity.
If once the banks of faith be broken down, a flood of wickedness
will rush and flow in. What made Abraham deny his wife, and
expose her to such temptations and wickedness, but unbelief?
What made Isaac tread in his father s steps, and leave Kebekah to
the heathen s lust, but unbelief? What made David dishonour his
God, by his uncomely carriage before Achish, and injure his soul by
VOL. III. G
98 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
his unholy language, that he should one day perish by the hand of
Saul, but unbelief? What made Peter deny and forswear his
Master, but unbelief ? These tares were sown by the enemy, when
the husbandman, faith, was asleep : had they believed the power
and faithfulness of God to defend them in their dangers and dis
tresses, without their lies, and his grace and bounty to reward them
largely, for all their sufferings for his sake ; had they believed that
God, when he called them to straits, would, without any sinful
means, have brought them off safe on earth, or safe to heaven, they
would never have used such sinful shifts for their own safety.
Faith would secure the soul against all those temptations, and
prevent such sinister and sinful doings. He that belie veth, maketh
not haste. He will patiently wait God s leisure, and submit to his
pleasure, and not venture upon forbidden courses, and unlawful
ways, to deliver himself out of distress.
Unbelief is the dung which makes the soil of corrupt nature so
fruitful in the unfruitful works of darkness. Whence cometh
such immoderate love of a perishing world, but from want of
faith and belief of that transcendent glory that is to be revealed ? .
Whence cometh such dulness and deadness in holy duties, but from
unbelief, either of the holiness and jealousy of that God with whom
we have to do, or of his goodness and mercy, that his reward will pay
the charge of diligence in his work ? Whence comes such cozening,*
and cheating, and overreaching in dealings^with men, but from dis
trust of God s power and providence, as if he could not, or would
not, spread a table for his children in the most barren wilderness?
Whence comes that impatience and murmuring in adversity, but
from want of faith, which would encourage the heart in the Lord
his God, in the saddest estate, and when the fig-tree doth not
blossom, nor the vine yield its fruit, enable the soul to rejoice in
the Lord, and be glad in the rock of his salvation ? Whence cometh
such pride and carnal confidence in prosperity, but because men
believe not the meanness, and vanity, and emptiness of riches, and
that divine mercy, not the merits of men, are the original of them ?
There is no sin so monstrous, but unbelief will venture upon it. He
that believeth not, will never be allured by divine promises, nor
affrighted at divine threatenings, nor obey divine precepts, nor
submit to divine providences. As Cicero said of parricide, I may
say of unbelief, It is a teeming vice, a well of wickedness ; many
sins are bound up in it. No wonder the apostle gives such a
serious warning, and so strict a charge, against infidelity, as the
mother and nurse of all apostasy : Take heed lest there be in any
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 99
of you an evil heart of unbelief, whereby ye depart away from the
living God/ Heb. iii. 12. The superstitious pagans thought that
their idol Vibilia kept them from erring out of their way; the
religious Christian knoweth, by experience, that his faith keeps
him within the limits of his duty. Faith ingrafts the soul into
Christ, and into the fellowship of his death, by which the old man
is crucified, and the body of sin destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin, Kom. vi. 5-8. For therefore did Christ
bear our sins in his body on the tree, that we might become dead
to sin, 1 Pet. ii. 24.
Faith enableth the soul to conquer sin, by enabling it to over
come the three grand provocations to sin: the world, the flesh,
and the wicked one. There is neither of these enemies but faith
hath wounded mortally.
(1.) Faith enableth to overcome the world. The world, indeed,
hath conquered millions ; the greatest soldiers have been slain by
it. Alexander could subdue the nations in it, but could not sub
due his affections to it. As great a conqueror as he was over it, he
-was its slave and vassal ; for his ambition was still larger than his
dominions. But faith, clothing the Christian with the sun, helps
him to trample this moon under his feet : This is your victory
over the world, even your faith, 1 John v. 4.
The world hath two faces the one ugly and deformed, to affright
the saint ; the other comely and painted, to allure him to sin ; but
faith seeth how pitiful, only touching the body, her threatenings
are, and how poor, only skin deep, her promises are, and makes
the soul to disdain both.
It was by faith that Luther could say, Contemptus a me Romanus
et favor, et furor, I scorn both Home s favour, and Home s fury.
The world s furnace and music are much alike to a believer ; he is
blind and deaf, nay, dead to both. The special object of faith is
the cross of Christ, whereby, saith the apostle, I am crucified to
the world, and the world to me. Tickle a dead man, or lance him,
it is all one, he is sensible of neither. As Fabricius, the noble
Koman, told Pyrrhus, who one day tempted him with gold, and
the next day sought to terrify him with elephants, I was not yester
day moved with your money, nor to-day with your beasts. So
Basil, when first offered preferment, and afterward threatened with
imprisonment, if he would not deny Christ, and turn Arian, to
this purpose answered the messenger, Such babies of preferment
are fit to catch children with, and such bugbears of bonds and im
prisonment may fright your tender gallants and courtiers. Faith
100 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
enableth the Christian to mount up to heaven, and thereby secures
him from the baits and shots, the snares and lime-twigs, which
attend him on earth. Homer saith Ulysses caused himself to be
bound to the mast of the ship, and every one of his fellows ears to
be stopped with wax, that they might not hearken to the songs of
the syrens, and so be drowned in the sea. Faith fastens the soul
to Christ, and so ravisheth its ears with the glad tidings of pardon,
and peace, and eternal life, that it is deaf to the world s music.
[1.] Faith enableth the soul to overcome the affrightments of the
world. Faith, like blown bladders, keepeth the soul from sinking
in deep waters. It is a target under which a soul is free from the
hurt, though not from the smart, of evil. It is the ark wherein he rides
triumphing, when the windows from above are opened, and pour
down, and the floods from beneath are broken up. In this strong
tower the soul finds shelter. Faith, like Joseph, layeth up in a
time of plenty against a time of scarcity, in a day of prosperity
against a day of adversity, and so feareth it the less.
Faith sheweth the Christian a place of refuge in the time of
trouble. He shall hide thee, saith faith, in the secret of his pres--
ence, i.e., cover thee with the warm wings of his providence. He
shall keep thee secret in his pavilion an allusion to princes re
tiring rooms, which are sacred and secure places for their favour
ites. Nature teacheth all creatures to run in distress to that which
they count their defence. The conies run to the rocks, the goats
to the hills, the ravenous beasts to their dens, the child to his
mother s arms. This grace discovereth to the soul a rock, a refuge,
a fort, a fortress, a high tower, which makes him fearless of the
world s threatenings and bugbears. The lame and the blind, those
most shiftless creatures, when they had got the stronghold of Zion
over their heads, scorned the host of David, 2 Sam. v. 6, 7. The
Egyptians that dwell in the fens are much troubled with gnats,
therefore they sleep in high towers, whither those insects cannot fly.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower ; the righteous run unto it,
and are safe, Prov. xviii. 10, Such a soul is like a strong tree, which
no wind can shake, or like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.
Therefore he can sing when unbelievers quake and tremble:
Though the earth be troubled, though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar, and the moun
tains shake, yet we will not fear. The Lord of hosts is with us,
the God of Jacob is our refuge, Ps. xlvi. 2, 3, 7, and xci. 2. Faith
is like the cork in the net ; when the lead would sink the net, the
cork keeps it above water. This faith is the anchor of the soul,
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 101
both sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil, and so
stayeth the saint against all the winds and waves of affliction.
Faith or belief of the resurrection, and that happiness which then
should be enjoyed, was that which enabled Paul to die daily, and
to fight with beasts at Ephesus, 1 Cor. xv. 31, 32.
In the greatest distress, faith can see deliverance ; and when it
is at the greatest distance, salute it, as Abraham did Christ s day,
afar off. When the weather is cloudy, it can see the heaven begin
to clear, and notwithstanding his present pain and poverty, cause the
Christian to rejoice in his hope of bliss and glory. The eye of faith,
looking to the recompense of reward, seeth afflictions with the
Israel of God, much more eligible than the pleasures of sin. Sym-
phorianus, 1 a Christian young man, after he was almost scourged
to death, being dragged to execution at Augustodunum, met his
mother, not crying, or tearing her hair, but like a holy lady thus
comforting him, Son, my son, I say, remember life eternal, look up
to heaven. Life is not taken from thee, but exchanged for a better.
At which words of his mother, he went on willingly to the block,
and exposed his throat to the fatal axe. One of the Dutch martyrs,
feeling the flame coming to him, said, Oh what a small pain is this,
to heaven ! Our blessed Saviour had an eye to the joy set before
him, and thereby was encouraged to endure the cross, and despise
the shame. Indeed, if faith spring a leak, then the waters break
in, and the Christian sinks apace, as we see in Peter s denial of his
Master.
As faith in the promises, so also faith in the threatenings, makes
the Christian a conqueror over the world s affrightments : where the
world threatens bonds, and whips, and dungeons, and death, if
the Christian will not sin against God, and begins to stagger the
soul : Take heed what thou dost, saith faith, for God threateneth
fire, and brimstone, and chains, and blackness of darkness for ever,
as the wages of all sin. Is the wrath of an infinite God not more
to be feared than of weak dying men ? Is the pains of a violent
death, which will quickly be over, and the most the world can do
against thee, comparable to the pains of eternal death ? And thus
faith, by the terror of this great ordnance-, drowns the noise of
those small pieces, that the soul is deaf to their report.
[2.] Faith enableth the soul to overcome the allurements of the
world. If the world cannot terrify the saint with its fiery furnace
to disown and deny his Saviour, it will seek to enchant him with
its music, and thereby to make him deaf to the call and commands
1 Drexel., Consid. ^Eternit.
102 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
of Christ : thus it served Joseph. When it could not prevail
on the left hand, by selling him for a slave, it trieth him on the
right hand, by setting a Delilah to tickle him with pleasure ; but
by faith he saw the hook under the bait, and durst not nibble at
it, much less swallow it. Though the world, like Jezebel, painteth
her face, and tireth her hair, to render her amiable and lovely, and
as a strumpet, sheweth her naked breasts of pleasure and profit, to
entice the believer to go a-whoring after her ; yet he vieweth by
faith the deformity of her person, under all her daubery, and the
dregginess and deceitfulness of her pleasures, notwithstanding their
show of clearness, and so rejects them with scorn and disdain.
Pliny saith of Cato that he took as much pleasure in the honours
he denied as in those that he enjoyed. The believer can glory
more in his refusal of glory for Christ, than unbelievers in all their
preferments. Indeed, if the Christian did consult with sense, or
carnal reason, he would take the world s present money ; but the
believer doth not consult with flesh and blood, like wise Abigail.
Knowing how much it will conduce to his advantage, he can part
with his estate for God, and never make those Nabals privy to the
design, lest they should hinder it.
Besides, faith discovers pure rivers of pleasures, more noble and
excellent delights, to be the portion of those that refuse to grate
their teeth with such kennel water. As man is a rational creature, he
would sell his wares to them that will give most. Now faith shew
eth how infinitely God outbids the world. Sense saith, The world
offereth fair it offereth comforts, suitable to thy flesh, such as they
desire, and it offereth ready money, present possession : but saith
faith, God ofiereth thee better ; the comforts he ofiereth are more
excellent, being suitable, not, as the world s, to a carnal, brutish
nature, but to a heavenly, divine soul, and more durable, being
eternal, when the pleasures of sin are but for a season. He that hopes
for no better market, will take the present money offered him ; but
he that is assured of greater gains, will refuse the lesser. An un
believer, who expects no better bargain than what this life affords
him, may well take up with present pay, whatever it be ; but the
believer, who seeth the glory to be revealed, and fulness of joy in
heaven, and is assured that if he be faithful unto death, he shall
receive that eternal crown of life, turns his eyes off the honours
and comforts of this beggarly world. Those stars of creature joys
do all disappear in the presence of this sun. Gold bears little
sway with the soul that knoweth his title to the new Jerusalem,
that is paved with gold, in which gold is trampled under foot.
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 103
Those birds that fly aloft in the firmament, are not so easily snared
by the fowler s gins. Though the things of this world were glori
ous in his eyes, during his estate of unbelief, yet now he hath dis
cerned a world beyond the moon, and sent faith as a spy to search
and coast that country, which hath brought word back, that it is a
good land, flowing with milk and honey, and in it there is want of
nothing, they have no glory, by reason of that glory that doth so
infinitely exceed. When a man is below, things above seem small ;
the great stars, that are bigger than the earth, seem not so big as a
bushel, and things below seem great : but when a man is above,
as upon the top of a steeple, then things below seem little he be-
holdeth men like grasshoppers. Were he conveyed to the highest
hill in the world, men would not be discerned ; great kingdoms
would be but small cottages. Unbelief sets a man below, here on
earth, and so the things of heaven are little in his eye ; but faith
soars aloft, it carrieth the Christian up to heaven, and then the
whole earth is but a small spot in his eye. Joseph bids the patri
archs, Regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt
is yours : so saith faith to the Christian, Regard not the lumber and
rubbish of this world, for all the great and good things of the
other world are thine. Faith gives the soul a taste, the first-fruits
of heaven : And as no man having drunk old wine, desireth new,
for he saith the old is better ; so no man, having tasted "the wine
of heaven s pleasures, desires carnal delights. A pilgrim travelling
to Jerusalem, saith one, came to a city where he saw a goodly
training and mustering ; there he had a mind to stay, but that he
remembered that was not Jerusalem. He came to another city,
where he saw gallant sports and pastimes ; there he had some good
will to abide, but that he remembered it was not Jerusalem. He
came to a third, where were goodly buildings, fair ladies, curious
music, &c., where also he had some thoughts of settling, but still
he remembered it was not Jerusalem. So the believer, when the
world offereth him great treasures, high honours, &c., may, through
the subtlety of his flesh, have a mind to embrace them, only seeing
by faith Jerusalem, where are greater treasures, higher honours,
he slights and rejects them. By faith Moses refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh s daughter, esteeming the reproaches of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had an eye to the
recompense of reward.
Faith makes things future, present ; it looketh into heaven and
saith, as David, before he had conquered those places, Grilead is
mine, Manasseh is mine ; heaven is mine, eternal life is mine, ful-
104 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
ness of joy is mine, that kingdom in comparison of which this
whole world is a dunghill is mine, because God hath sworn by his
holiness, that he will not lie unto his David ; and whilst the soul by
faith seeth and is assured of these felicities, for their sake it can
trample under foot the world s largest offers.
(2.) Faith enableth the Christian to conquer Satan. Though the
wicked one be full of power and policy, yet faith makes him flee
like a coward. It is said of the crocodile, that he flieth if resisted,
but followeth those that fear and flee from him; truly so doth
Satan : James iv. 7, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
But how must he be resisted? the apostle Peter answers that
question, Whom resist steadfastly in the faith/ 1 Pet. v. 9. The
crocodile cannot endure the sight or smell of saffron, therefore in
Egypt they sow saffron to keep him away. Faith is this saffron,
Cant. iv. 14, which drives away the devil. Faith, like little David,
wounds the great Goliath of hell. They overcame him (meaning
the devil) by the blood of the Lamb. The wild bull, say natural
ists, cannot endure a red colour, therefore the hunter putteth on
red garments, and standeth before a tree, which the bull runneth
against with all his might, and the hunter stepping aside, his
horns stick fast in the tree, whereby he is taken. The Christian,
by faith in the blood of Christ, overcometh those infernal spirits
who thought to overcome him. This is the only holy water that
will fright away the devil. Our blessed Saviour, in his speech to
Peter, acquaints us how to subdue Satan : Peter, Peter, Satan
hath desired to winnow thee as wheat is winnowed, but I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not/ Which words imply, that
whilst Peter s faith stood firm, he should not forsake Christ; whilst
that was up, he could not be down ; his faith flagged before his
courage failed, or he himself fell so foully. A tree is soon felled
when the root is once loosened ; faith roots the soul in Christ, and
therein his safety consists ; but as his faith fails, so he is loosened
from Christ, and thereby in danger of falling. The Christian s
strength lieth in his faith, as Samson s in his hair ; if the uncir-
cumcised one can deprive us of this, he may make sport enough
with us. Hence it is that Satan s chiefest guns are shot against
the royal fort of faith, knowing that that commandeth all ; and if
he can make a breach there, he fears not but to enter with success.
The first mine which he ever sprang, to blow up the first Adam
and his wife, and in them the whole race of mankind, was by
weakening their faith : Hath God said, In the day ye eat thereof,
ye shall die ? When he came to the second Adam, he endea-
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 105
voured to slay him with the same sword : If thou be the Son of
God, command that these stones/ &c. And without question, his
aim was more at Job s faith, than his cattle, or servants, or chil
dren ; he had a greater intent to have blown down that house of
Job s conscience, than that wherein his sons and daughters were
feasting.
Therefore, reader, Above all, take the shield of faith, whereby
thou mayest quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, Eph. vi.
16. Goats in the island of Crete, when they are stricken with a
dart, do seek for the herb dittany, which will cause the dart to fall
out. Truly, such juice hath faith, that it makes all the darts which
Satan shoots at the Christian ineffectual.
(3.) Faith enablethto conquer the flesh. The great apostle, who
lived by faith, brought under his body, and crucified the flesh.
Faith seeth the safety of the body to consist in its subordination to
the soul, and that the only way to save the life, is at God s call to
lose it. By faith Abraham left his kindred and country, and
obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went, Heb. xi. 8.
Indeed, the flesh is. the worst enemy of the three partly in that it
is so near us, always about us, so that we can as well fly from
ourselves as from it. A traitor in the bedchamber, is much more
dangerous than one in open arms against us in the field. A snake
in the bosom, is like to do more hurt than one under the grass ;
partly in that it knoweth our minds exactly, and so can temper its
poison suitable to our palates ; but faith can discover its secret con
spiracies, and prevent their execution. Though it dig its mines
never so closely, and covertly, and craftily, faith will find them out,
and countermine them.
2. Faith enableth, as to die to sin, so to live to God. The life
of holiness doth so much depend on faith, that it is said to consist
wholly in it. The just shall live by his faith. Though he cannot
live by sense, that upon which he lives being invisible ; nor by
reason, because his food is supernatural ; yet he can live by faith,
and make a good living of it too. As the body lives by the soul,
so religion lives by faith. A mortal wound in faith, lets out the
heart blood of all holiness. It is faith that actuates and animates
the new creature. Faith puts him upon high designs, and holy
enterprises, for God and his own soul. David saith, I believe,
therefore have I spoken/ It may be said of a Christian, he be
lie veth, therefore he speaks so much of God, for God, and to God.
He believeth the unquestionable certainty, incomparable excellency,
and eternity of that reward which is set before him, and therefore
106 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
he prayeth, and watcheth, and readeth, and heareth, and denieth
himself, and worketh night and day that he may attain it. Ferdi-
nando of Arragon, believing the report of Columbus, concerning
the richness of the Indian mines, and the likelihood of his possess
ing them, was at great cost and charge in sending out men in
ships, and made them venture their lives, and labour hard to get
those golden and silver veins. Faith believeth the report which
the gospel makes of the glory to be revealed, and the unsearchable
riches in Christ, and the likelihood, nay, certainty of his enjoying
them, if he will but strive and labour, and use those means which
God hath appointed ; and this puts the soul upon its greatest in
dustry and integrity, in the performance of what the word requireth,
in order thereunto, and a resolution to obtain them, whatever it
cost, or to die in the undertaking.
It is by the sap, which from the root is derived through the bark
to the branches, that makes them fruitful ; it is from the strength
which faith derives from Christ, that the Christian becomes so
abundant in holiness. Cut off the bark, and the tree withereth ;
take away faith, and no more good works. The extension of the
branches, ariseth from the intension of the sap ; and how shall that
be conveyed but by the bark ? Christ, like Joseph, keeps the
granaries, wherein is abundance of soul-food, and faith unlocks
those storehouses, and takes out supplies. As Pharaoh, when the
Egyptians cried to him for bread, said, Go ye to Joseph, and
what he saith to you, do ; so God saith to Christians that call on
him for grace, Go ye to Christ by faith, and he will relieve you. It
pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. Here is
(1.) Fulness, abundance ; not a drop, or a small degree of living
water.
(2.) A II fulness, a redundance ; the fulness of a spring, a fountain,
not of a vessel.
(3.) All fulness dwelling, abiding there to eternity ; running over,
and running ever. But you will say, What is a Christian the bet
ter for it ? I answer, Of his fulness, by faith, we all receive grace
for grace. As a pipe from the river supplieth the house upon all
occasions, and the several offices therein with water ; so doth faith
supply the Christian with grace from Christ, answerable to his
several exigencies and necessities. Indeed, all the graces act
valiantly in their several places, under the command of this general.
Hence, though fear, and love, and heavenly-mindedness, were
specially operative in many of the patriarchs actions and passions
for God, yet still the crown is set upon the head of faith, under
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN ? S CALLING. 107
whose banner and conduct they fought, Heb. xi. per tot. When
this champion, like Goliath, is vanquished, the other graces, as the
Philistines, are put to the rout. As dark clouds obscure the
glorious stars, so doth unbelief blemish the lustre of a Christian s
graces. If this shepherd, faith, be smitten, other graces, like
sheep, are scattered. If this grace keep the field, the rest always
keep their ground. The length of the days depends upon the
shining of the sun ; as this shines more or less, so the days are
longer or shorter. The degrees and measures of other graces
depend exceedingly upon this grace. The branches blossom an
swerable to the sap which they receive from the root. * Other
graces bud and blow according to the sap which they receive from
faith.
For example sake ;
[1.] Repentance is more or less according to the degrees of faith.
It is the fiducial apprehension of divine love that mollifieth the
stony heart. None mourn so much as they who apprehend God a
father. The hot beams of divine grace and favour, by faith united
in the soul, thaw the most icy heart. They shall see him whom
they have pierced, i.e., with an eye of faith, and mourn for him as
one that mourneth for his only child. Peter saw Christ s love in
his look, and then went out and wept bitterly.
[2.] Humility. We are never lower in our own eyes than when
faith assures us that we are high in God s favour. The centu
rion s humility seems to keep equal pace with his faith. Though
Christ saith of his faith, I have not found so great, no, not in Israel ;
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof ;
neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee. When Nathan
brought David word that God had a great respect for him, and
would build him a sure house for ever, he presently crieth out,
What am I ? and what is my father s house, that thou hast brought
me hitherto ? &c., 2 Sam. vii. 18.
[3.] Love. The fire of love flames more or less according to the
fuel which faith provides : To whom much is forgiven, the same
loveth much. The knowledge of a pardon granted by such a Lord,
who hath all the reason in the world to loathe the soul, turns it
into a lump of love.
[4.] Joy. Faith broacheth the pipe of the promises, and presenteth
that wine which rejoiceth the heart of the new man: In whom
believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory/ 1
Pet. i. 8.
[5.] Patience. He that belie veth his bonds are good, that his
108 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
estate is in safe hands, and that his forbearance doth abundantly
increase it, will wait quietly for the day of payment. He that
believeth, maketh not haste. None quarrel or fret, but from want
of faith: Run with patience the race set before you, looking at
Jesus. If the Christian be weak, faith will give him the staff of
the word to lean on ; if he be weary, faith will shew him his
journey s end. Lo, yonder is heaven, saith faith ; hold out a little
longer, your work is almost done. As the eagle by stretching
herself towards the sun, through its heat hath her old feathers
fallen off, new ones growing in their places, and her strength re
newed ; so the Christian cleaving to Jesus Christ, the Sun of right
eousness, by faith reneweth his strength, as the eagle, runneth and
is not weary, walketh and is not faint. It is reported of the crystal,
that there is a virtue in it to quicken all other precious stones ;
when it toucheth them, it puts a lustre and brightness on them.
It is true of faith, it hath a virtue in it to enliven and quicken all
other graces. These stars have the greatest influence, when in con
junction with this sun.
As the philosopher saith of water, aptarov /J,ev vSwp, It is of all
things the best, most sovereign, and precious, because it is of
universal influence in the life of man ; so I may say of faith, it is
of all graces most excellent, in regard of the universality of its in
fluence upon all duties, graces, providences, ordinances.
It is by faith that prayer becomes so prevalent : Whatsoever ye
ask of the Father, believing, ye shall receive, John xvi. 23. An
unbelieving prayer, is a messenger without a tongue ; no wonder if
he despatch not his errand, Heb. xi. 6.
It is by faith that Scripture is so powerful. This sword of the
Spirit doth no execution, save in the hand of faith : The word did
not profit them, not being mingled with faith in them that heard
it, Heb. iv. 2.
It is by faith that the Lord s supper becomes so nourishing and
strengthening. This is the hand that receiveth that flesh which is
meat indeed, this is the mouth that eats it, this is the stomach that
digests it ; without this thou inayest receive the elements, but not
the sacrament, 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25. Unbelievers, like wasps, may sit
upon the tops of these flowers, and seem to gather honey, but, alas !
they are far from any such thing.
It is by faith that crosses are turned into comforts, and afflictions
into mercies. This, like Mithridates, can digest poison, and get
strength from the wrath and rage of men and devils, Phil. i. 19 ;
Heb. xi. 38.
CHAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 109
It is by faith that water is turned into wine, temporal mercies
into spiritual advantages ; faith worketh by love, and draweth men
with the cords of love.
It is by faith that men are so fruitful in their lives, Heb xi. 32,
33 ; and so cheerful in their deaths, Horn. viii. 37-39. reader,
above all thy gettings, get faith, and above all thy keepings, keep
faith ; for it must be faith that must keep thee from falling in an
hour of temptation, and from fainting in an hour of persecution.
The unbeliever is fitly called an unreasonable man, because it is
unreasonable that the God of truth should not be credited, and that
he, to whom it is impossible to lie, should be distrusted ; and also
an absurd man, because it is absurd for a workman to go without
his tools, which he shall every moment have need of. It is said
of the serpent, that of all her parts, she is most careful of her head,
well knowing that, though she be mangled and cut never so much
in her body, yet if her head be whole, that will cure the wounds of
all her other parts. Let thy great work be to secure thy faith ; if
that be whole, all will be well ; whatever decays there may be in
other graces, this will help them to shoot forth again.
Thirdly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, set God
always before thine eyes. Subjects will carry themselves hand
somely and loyally when they are before their sovereign : they who
walk before God, will be upright. His eye is the best marshal to
keep the soul in a comely order. Let thine eye be ever on him,
whose eye is ever on thee : The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
beholding the evil and the good/ Prov. xv. 3. Seneca persuaded
his friend Lucilius, for the keeping him within compass, to imagine
that some grave man, as Laslius, did still look upon him. Header,
couldst thou walk ever as in God s presence, thou wouldst keep
close to his precepts. Consider, therefore, that in all places, in all
companies, at all times, the eye of God is on thee, and he takes
exact notice of all thy thoughts, words, and actions ; that he
knoweth thy natural parts : In his book were all thy members
written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was not one of them ; that he knoweth all thy moral passages :
Thou understandest my thoughts afar off, and art acquainted with
all my ways : There is not a word in my tongue, but thou,
Lord, knowest it altogether/ There is no drawing a curtain
between God and thee ; he seeth thee through and through, far
more perfectly than thou canst the clearest crystal : Darkness
hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day ; to thee the
darkness and the light are both alike. The darkness of the air
110 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
may hide thee from men, and the darkness of thine understanding
may hide thee from thyself ; but there is no darkness nor shadow
of death, where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves from.
him. Neither the ring of Gyges, nor the helmet of Pluto, can hide
thee from God s eye. Observe how strict God is in observing thy
ways : Thou numberest my steps ; dost thou not watch over my
sin? Job xiv. 16. By steps, is understood his inward motions,
and outward actions ; whatsoever is done either in the retiring
room of the heart, or common hall of the life. To number the
steps, notes an exact account ; we say of a man that goeth very
leisurely and softly, such a man telleth his steps. God is said to
tell or number our steps, because he is so exact in his observation
of, and so severe in his inquisition into, all our thoughts, words, and
deeds. He is supposed to be void of shame, that doth not fear to
sin before many witnesses. Though thou art in secret, consider,
conscience is present, which is a thousand witnesses, and God, who
is a thousand consciences. The Italian was somewhat conceited,
who wrote a supplication to candle-light, to disclose to him the
secrets of his kingdom. It is thought the light of the candle seeth
more wickedness than the light of the sun ; but to God the day and
night, darkness and light, are both alike ; he seeth all things, in all
places, and at all times.
It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his chamber painted
full of eyes, that which way soever he looked, he might still have
some eyes upon him ; and he fancying himself, according to the
moralist s advice, always, Sub custode et pcedagogo, under the eye
of a keeper, might be the more careful of his carriage. 1 And it
was a wise answer of Livius Drusus, when an artist offered him so
to contrive his house, that he might do what he would, none should
see him ; No, saith Drusus, contrive it so rather that all may see
me, for I am not ashamed to be seen. 2 If the eyes of men make
even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while, that the
adulterer watcheth for the twilight, and they that are drunk are
drunk in the night, how powerful will the eye and presence of God
be with those that fear his anger, and know the sweetness of his
favour ! Moses forsook the sinful pleasures of Pharaoh s court,
not fearing the wrath of the king, for he saw him that was invisible.
A good commander causeth good government in a town or city.
1 A reverend divine had this written in his study, Noli peccare, nam Deus videt ;
Angeli astant, Diabolus accusabit, Conscientia testabitur, Infernus cruciabit.
2 Tu vero, si quid in te artis est, ita compone domum meam ut ab omnibus conspici
possit. Velleius Paterculus.
CnAP. IX.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. Ill
This truth wrought home, and set close to the heart, would cause
good orders, good government, in it.
The thought of this omnipresence of God will affrighten tnee
from sin. Gehazi durst not ask or receive any part of Naaman s
presents in his master s presence ; but when he had got out of
Elisha s sight, then he tells his lie, and gives way to his lust. Men
never sin more freely than when they presume upon secrecy. 1 They
break in pieces thy people, Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They
slay the widow and stranger, and murder the fatherless ; yet they
say, The Lord doth not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard
it/ Ps. xciv. 5-7. Eliphaz, though falsely, accuseth Job as guilty
of the same crime, upon the same account, Job xxii. 5-7, 13, 14.
They who shut God out of their hearts, shut him also out of the
world, through their atheism, and then are at liberty for all manner
of wickedness. They who abounded in abominations said, The
Lord seeth us not ; the Lord hath forsaken the earth, Ezek. viii.
9-12.
The wise man dissuadeth from wickedness, upon the considera
tion of God s eye and omniscience : And why wilt thou, my son,
be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a
stranger ? For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he pondereth all his goings, Prov. v. 20, 21. Joseph saw God
in the room, and therefore durst not yield ; but his mistress saw
none but Joseph, and so was impudently alluring and tempting
him to folly. I have read of two religious men that took contrary
courses with two lewd women, whom they were desirous to reclaim
from their vicious course of life. One of the men told one of the
women that he was desirous to enjoy her company, so it might be
with secrecy, and when she had brought him into a close room that
none could pry into, he told her, All the bars and bolts here cannot
keep God out. The other desired the other woman to company
with him openly in the streets, which, when she rejected as a mad
request, he told her, It was better to do it in the eyes of a multi
tude than of God. How doth the adulterer, or drunkard, or thief,
when they come abroad at midnight for the satisfaction of their
lusts, sneak and steal away when they spy the watch, or any persons
who would be witness of their vices ! and shall not the presence of
that God who hates sin, who is resolved to punish it with hell-
flames, make us ashamed or afraid to sin, and dare him to his face ?
1 Turpe quid ausurus, te sine teste time. Magnum nescio quid majusque quam
cogitari potest numen est, cui vivendo operam demus. Huic nos approbemus, nam
nihil prodest inclusam esse conscientiam, patemus Deo. Senec.
112 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
2. The thoughts of this omnipresence of God will quicken thee
to holiness. The soldiers of Israel and Judah were prodigal of
their blood in the presence of their two generals, 2 Sam. ii. 14.
Servants will generally work hard whilst their master stands by
and looks on. It is said of Alexander, that his presence caused
such courage in his soldiers ut illo prcesente nullius Jiostium arma
vel inermes timuerunt that when he was with them, though they
were unarmed, they feared not the weapons of any of their enemies.
Our blessed Redeemer exhorteth to prayer in secret, upon this
consideration, that God seeth and heareth it, Mat. vi., and to
charity in secret, because, though the left hand knoweth not what
the right hand doeth, God knoweth what the right hand doeth:
Your Father which seeth in secret will reward you openly.
There is a story of Bishop Latimer, that he having in a sermon
at court much displeased the king, (Henry VIII. ,) was commanded
to preach again the next Lord s-day, and to recant his former
sermon. According to appointment, he cometh up, and prefaceth
to his sermon in this manner : Hugh Latimer, dost thou know this
day to whom thou art to speak? even to the high and mighty
monarch, the king s most excellent majesty, who can take away
thy life if thou offendest ; therefore take heed how thou speakest
a word which may displease ; but, (as if recalling himself, he pro
ceeded,) Hugh, Hugh, dost thou know from whom thou comest,
upon whose message thou art sent, and who it is that is present
with thee, and beholdeth all thy ways ? even that almighty God j
who can cast body and soul into hell for ever ; therefore look about
thee, and be sure thou deliverest thy message faithfully. And so
he went to his text, and confirmed what he had spoken the day
before, and urged it with more vehemency than ordinary. The eye
of God, as of the sun, will call the Christian to his work. Those
countries that are governed by viceroys seldom flourish or thrive so
well as those kingdoms where the prince is present in person.
Conscience, God s viceroy, may much quicken a Christian to holi
ness ; but God the prince himself much more. I have kept thy
precepts, saith David, for all my ways are before thee.
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 113
CHAPTER X.
Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness :
A constant watchfulness, frequent meditation of death, daily
performance of sacred duties.
Fourthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, watch
over thyself continually. This spiritual watchfulness is the main-
guard of the soul, which, if once called off, we lie open to the shot
of every enemy. This, like one of the Nethinims, must stand con
tinually porter at the door of our hearts, God s temple, to keep out
whatsoever is unclean. Watchfulness is a diligent observation of
ourselves in all things, and at all times, that we may please God
always. He that watcheth hath his eyes in his head, according to
the wise man s phrase, and seeth, as the Chinese say of themselves,
with both eyes. David expresseth it fitly : I said, I will take heed
to my ways, Ps. xxxix. 1 i.e., I will ponder my paths, and consider
where I set my feet, lest I should tread awry. Without this wari
ness there is no safe walking. Secure Laish is made a prey to their
enemies, Judges xviii. 9, 10 ; and the secure soul is made a prey
to his spiritual adversaries. Soul lethargies are most dangerous,
most deadly. Those that slept in the sweating sickness generally
died. He who watcheth not is led about, like one in his natural
sleep, by any temptation, he knoweth not how nor whither. When
the wolves in the fable once prevailed with the sheep to part with
the dogs, they soon devoured them. If Satan can but get men to
forego this means of their safety, he will soon make them his prey.
The old world was drowned in sleep before they were drowned in
water. Sodom and Gomorrah were secure when they were destroyed
by fire.
It is reported of the dragon, that whilst he sleepeth, a jewel is
taken out of his head. Noah lost the jewel of temperance, David
the jewel of chastity, whilst they were fallen asleep. If this eye of
watchfulness be once shut, the soul is open to all wickedness.
When Argus, notwithstanding his hundred eyes, was by Mercury
piped into a sleep, he was transformed into a cow. 1
Reader, hearken to God s watchword : Ye are all children of
light, and children of the day ; we are not of the night nor of dark
ness ; therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and
be sober, 1 Thes. v. 6, 7. Sleep is not seasonable in the day of
1 A pheasant or peacock. ED.
VOL. III. H
114 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
grace, nor suitable to a child of light : They that sleep, sleep in
the night, 1 Thes. v. 7. The night is for sleep, therefore in it
God draweth a curtain of darkness about us ; as the nurse, when she
would lay her babe to sleep, throweth a cloth over the head of the
cradle. But the day is for watching, for working.
He hath little reason to give himself to sleep, who is every moment
surrounded with mortal enemies, which are neither few nor weak.
Naturalists tell us that the bird onocratulus and the pelican take
their rest with their beaks upright, expecting the hawk; and
that the whale and dolphin sleep with their heads erected above
water, for fear of hurt. Though there were but that one text of
Scripture, 1 Pet. v. 8, relating to this duty, it were enough to alarm
any wise man, and to call him to his arms : Be sober, be vigilant ;
for your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seek
ing whom he may devour. If that voice among the ancient Romans,
Hannibal ad portas, Hannibal is at the gates, were sufficient to
make them leave whatsoever they were about, and run to their
weapons, and stand upon their guard, what watchfulness should
this voice of the Holy Ghost, The devil is at the door, call thee
to ! Reader, take that verse a little in pieces, and see what a foe
thou hast to fight with, and then tell me whether it doth not con
cern thee to watch. Consider,
1. His power : Your adversary the devil/ It is not a weak man,
but a mighty devil. Thou art not called to wrestle with flesh and
blood, but principalities and powers. Is man a match for a devil ?
or a stripling nodding fit to enter the lists with Goliath ? What is
a pigmy to a giant, or a dying creature to the prince of the powers
of the air ? Had David been asleep when the lion out of the wood
came against him, the lion had sooner tore him by the throat than
he had taken the lion by the beard. The cobweb may as soon
withstand the broom in the maid s hand, and the dust oppose the
force of a violent wind, as a nodding, secure Christian the tempta
tions of Satan.
2. His policy: Seeking whom he may devour. Had our enemy
strength without craft, there were not so much danger, nor cause of
vigilancy ; but when he hath seven heads, as well as ten horns, and
exceeds us in subtlety as much as in power, it concerneth us to be
watchful. He that playeth with a cunning fencer will heed his
wards the more. Reader, the devil hath a shrewd guess what
Delilah is most likely to entice thee, and deprive thee of thy spiritual
strength ; and if amongst all the uncircumcised there be any that
will fit thee, thou shalt not want her. He hath not walked to and
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 115
fro in the earth so long for nothing ; hut he knoweth what weeds
will take best and thrive most in the soil of thy heart ; and be con
fident he will help thee both to the seeds and plants of them.
The subtle serpent, that could wind himself into paradise, knoweth
surely how to wind himself into thee. If he were too crafty for
man when he was perfect, much more is he for man polluted.
And can such a strong politic foe be resisted when thou art lazing
upon thy bed of security ?
3. His industry : Your adversary the devil goeth about. He is
a diligent servant, never from your elbow. As Joseph s mistress,
when denied, still solicited, and Samson s harlot pressed him with
continual importunity night and day, that his very soul was vexed
unto death ; so the devil serveth men ; he will never forsake
them, but follow them with his darts and assaults, till they are safe
in heaven from him, or safe in hell with him. He is called the
prince of the powers of the air, and his angels spiritual wicked
nesses in high places ; the air is the seat of his empire, and truly,
as ravenous fowl hover up and down in the air, to catch and kill
little chickens ; and though they be frighted away by any one, yet
they lie near at the catch, and the person is no sooner gone, but
they are descending to destroy them ; so those infernal spirits are
hovering up and down, walking to and fro, to defile and destroy
souls ; and though they are resisted and foiled, yet they impudently
continue their former endeavours to undo us. Now, hath he any
time for sleep that is every moment in such danger ?
4. His cruelty: As a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
The lions of the forest have no pity : Lest he tear my soul like a
lion, rending it in pieces/ Ps. vii. 2. The lions brake the bones of
Daniel s accusers before they came to the bottom of the den. But
the lions of hell have much less pity ; his tender mercies are cruel
ties indeed. It is not the loss of thy life, but of thy soul, and thy
God, and thy Christ, and that for ever, which he looks after. The
racking of thy body, and rending thy bones, is nothing to the
flames, and whips, and torments which he makes men suffer, and
that not for a day, or week, or year, or age, but to all eternity.
Reader, is there not infinite reason for watchfulness ? Had
not the apostle ground enough for his precept, Be sober, be vigilant/
when our adversary is so strong a devil, so sedulous, going about,
so cruel, as a roaring lion, and so crafty, seeking by all means whom
he may devour ? Yet, alas ! this is not all. Go where we will, we
see abundant cause to look well to our feet. Every place we come
into is a net to ensnare us ; we cannot look out of our eyes, but we
116 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
see a baited hook, nor open our ears, but we hear the syren s songs ;
we cannot put forth our hands, but we touch pitch, nor set our feet,
but in the midst of nets ; every part of the body is a Judas, a
traitor to the soul. Our crosses and afflictions, if we be secure, will
be to us as the jail to a prisoner, filling us with vermin. Our
greatest earthly comforts, if we be not watchful, prove but like traps
set for vermin, pleasant and killing. When the world sings most
sweetly in our ears, she doth but, like Orpheus with his pipe, en
deavour to lead us by the ears into unquenchable flames. Thieves
with provender in their hands catch horses to steal them ; the
world allures our hearts by its pleasures and profits, and steals
them from God. Our own hearts are Jacobs, supplanters of us,
deceitful and desperately wicked. As the water-fowl in Friesland
will decoy other wild-fowl in a net, and then give a watchword to
their master to seize on them, so officious will our own hearts be to
the devil. And shall we not watch and pray that we enter not into
temptation ?
Sleep is the great leveller which makes all equal. The strongest
Samson is as liable in his sleep to be slain as the smallest infant.
When a deep sleep from the Lord had seized on Saul and his sol
diers, how easily might David, if he had pleased, have killed them!
He took away Saul s spear and cruse of water, to assure him that
he could have taken away his life. Ah, how soon may the devil,
or world, or flesh, defile, deceive, and destroy a sleeping soul !
Bees, that have many enemies, mice, spiders, drones, hornets, birds,
and beasts, never dare, say naturalists, to give themselves to security,
but night and day have their scouts, and sentinels, and corps-de-
garde, to keep watch and ward, lest some of their many enemies \
should on a sudden surprise them. The Christian may learn this
duty from such creatures. Spiders weave their cobwebs near the
flowers where the bee.s use to gather, and also just over the pas
sage out of their hives, that so at their going out, but especially at
their coming in, laden and weary, they may catch them, and make
a prey of them. David saith, In the way wherein I walked have
they privily laid a snare for me/ So mayest thou, reader, say, In
the way wherein I daily walk doth Satan privily lay baits to catch
me ; at my table, in my closet, in my shop, in my bed, in the
streets, in all places where I go, he hath laid snares for my soul. If
there be a snare, and such danger in all things, then let me advise
thee, if thou wouldst avoid them, in the words of Paul to Timothy,
Watch thou in all things, 2 Tim. iv. 5.
Watch against sin, against all sin. The gardener doth not only
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 117
watch over his flowers, to water and cherish them, but also watcheth
all weeds, to pluck and root them up. Take heed lest there be any
root of bitterness. Epiphanius tells us, when a dead corpse was
carried by any of the Israelites houses, they used to shut their
doors and windows, intimating that men must be watchful against
the scent and infection f sin. It is in vain for a captain to guard
one gate of a castle, to prevent the enemy s entering there, if he
leave another open, when the whole fort is beleaguered and sur
rounded with mortal enemies.
Watch especially against thine own sin. If a man have many
wounds, whereof one is more dangerous than the rest, being near a
vital part, though he will be mindful and careful of all, yet he will
have a special care of that which is most dangerous. A Christian
must watch against all sin, all soul diseases, but principally against
his own sin that disease which is most dangerous ; as a wise governor
will have a special eye upon that particular person in his garrison
whom he knoweth to be a traitor.
Watch for the doing of good ; for seasons of prayer, and hearing,
and Christian communion. The countryman watcheth for the bell
ringing on the market-day, when the sacks will be opened, that he
may buy food for himself and his family. The mariner watcheth
for the tide ; the diseased folk watched for the moving of the waters
by the angels. David watched as a sparrow on the house-top,
where he might peck up some corn, get some spiritual nourishment.
An opportunity of worshipping God is a jewel ; the Christian may
well watch to take it up.
Watch in duties. The child must be watched at school, or he
will play and toy, instead of getting his lesson. The heart must be
watched in an ordinance, or it will wander wholly from the business
in hand : Continue in prayer, and watch in the same, Col. iv. 2.
Take heed how ye hear. The Bible will drop out of the sleeper s
hand, and prayer is a wrestling with God, which is not a work to
be done nodding. They who talk in their sleep talk idly.
Watch after duties. Kunning carelessly into the open air, im
mediately after the taking of physic, is dangerous. When the
garden is dressed, and the seed sown in it, we must watch it lest hogs
get into it, and root up all. Satan thinks to take the Christian at
an advantage, after the duty is over ; and though he could not beat
him in the fight, yet to do it when the saint hath laid by his wea
pons. It was a wise speech of Marcus Aurelius, after he had van
quished Popilion, general of the potent Parthians, and won the day :
I tell thee of a truth, that I stand in greater fear of fortune at this
118 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
present than I did before the battle, for she careth not so much to
overtake the conquered, as to overcome the conqueror. Truly Satan
will be industrious to destroy both the conquered utterly, and to
overcome the conqueror.
Watch thy senses. These are the Cinque Ports, as one calls
them, of the Isle of man, which, if not well garrisoned, will let in
strangers and disturbers of our peace. At these havens much of
Satan s lading is taken in. Job made a covenant with his eyes ; he
would not suffer them to gad and gaze at random, lest they should
return defiled. Democritus walking abroad, would shut his eyes,
lest by their wandering his mind should be taken off from the con
templation of honest things. Actseon became, as the poet fancieth,
meat for his dogs, by suffering his eyes to wander. Lusting hath
often been the issue of looking ; witness Joseph s mistress, David,
Achan, the Israelites, Num. xv. 39. Stratonice took Mithridates
with a song. The heart hath often been angled into sin by the ear,
and led into temptation by the eye ; therefore Cassian relates that,
to preserve the cleanness of the heart, the Egyptian masters taught
that men must be surdi, cceci, muti, deaf, blind, and dumb. If
those outworks be well guarded, the royal fort is in the less hazard.
Shut up the five windows i.e., guard the five senses, that the
whole house may be full of light, according to the Arabian
proverb.
Watch your affections. If those waves be tempestuous, they
will cast up much foam and froth, mire and dirt. He had need to
make a strong wall, that would keep these raging waters within
their bounds.
Watch your tongues. The sea hath not more need of banks to
keep it in, than the tongue of a bridle. The tongue is compared
to a sword, to a razor, both which are keen weapons, and must
be handled warily: Ps. xxxix. 1, I said, I will take heed to my
ways, that I offend not with my tongue ; I will keep my mouth
with a bridle, whilst the wicked are before me.
Watch your hearts. The heart is the forge, the spring of life,
and a wound there is mortal. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
(super omnem custodiam, above all keeping, Jun. ;) out of it are
the issues of life. Watch over all things, watch in all things.
This voice, saith Bucer, 1 should always sound in our ears, Watch,
watch.
How frequent is Christ in his precepts to this duty, as knowing
fully the weight and concernment of it : Watch ye therefore, for
1 ilcrito debet semper sonare in auribus, Vigilate. Bucer in Mark xiii.
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 119
ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh.
Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. What I say unto
you, I say unto all, Watch. And he is as frequent in his promises
to it : Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh
shall find watching ; blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his
garments ; and if he shall come in the second or third watch, and
find him so, blessed is he/ Luke xii. 37, 38, 43. Surely blessedness
is worthy our waking ; bliss is worth keeping our eyes open a few
days for. Apollonius, held in his time for an oracle, coming early
in the morning to Vespasian s gate, and finding him, then a pri
vate person, up, and at study, he said to his companion, This man
is worthy to reign and command an empire ; which afterwards came
to pass. 1 He that watcheth, with Christ, the short hour of this life,
shall be counted worthy to reign with him in his kingdom forever.
Sion, which is frequently put for the church of God, signifieth a
watch tower, because from that hill a man might see the Holy
Land, and all the countries thereabout ; but the spiritual significa
tion of it may be this, that all the members of God s church must
be like soldiers in a watch-tower, observing who cometh in and
who goeth out, lest traitors should steal into the fort of the heart
undiscovered.
Fifthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, think often
of thy dying day, and of what price and value godliness will be to
thee at such a time. There are few thoughts more terrible or more
profitable than of death. Hence it is that God commands man so
often to remember his latter end, because the meditation of it is so
gainful to him. The first day man was made, he was called to
think of his last day. God minded him of death in the tree of
knowledge, and the threatening annexed to the prohibition, that
he might thereby keep hitn from sin. Satan could not prevail with
Eve to taste of that killing fruit, till he had prevailed with her to
distrust that threatening of death, Ye shall not surely die, Gen. iii.
4. After the fall, God reneweth this meditation, by turning the
conditional into an absolute commination, Dust thou art, and to
dust thou shalt return. And though the Holy Ghost omitteth
many particulars about God s carriage with the long-lived patriarchs,
and their holy conversation before him, yet he is exact in register
ing their deaths and he died, and he died, of every one, Gen. v.
to quicken us to fear God, because we are but dying, frail men.
There is hardly anything about which we deal, but God gives us
by it a memento of death. Our clothes are all fetched out of death s
1 PhUostr. in Vit
120 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
wardrobe, our food out of death s shambles. The sun is an emblem
of life s posting, the night of the chambers of darkness. The year
hath its autumn, the day its night. Our candles should mind us
of the wasting of our days, the evening of the shadow of death ;
our undressing, of our putting off our earthly tabernacles ; and our
lying down in our beds, of our lying down in our graves.
If thou wouldst make religion thy business and main work, think
often and seriously of thy death and departure of this world. He
that guides and steers the ship aright, sits in the stern or hinder-
most part of it. He that would order his works, his way, according
to God, must be frequent in the meditation of his end. The end
of his days must be at the end of all his thoughts. Zeno Cittiaeus
consulted with the oracle how he might live well, and received this
answer, El avj^pwrt^oiTo TO?? ve/cpois, If he would be of the same
colour with the dead.
Header, if thou wouldst live much, and well, get thy heart as
much affected with godliness in health as it will be in sickness.
Have the same thoughts of it, the same seriousness about it, the
very same carriage towards it, whilst the world salutes thee with
its smiling face, and bewitching features, which thou wilt wish
thou hadst had when thou shalt come to take thy leave of it, and
lie upon thy dying bed. Be of the same colour with the dead.
Oh what thoughts have the dead of godliness, and of making it
one s business ! The dead in Christ, and the dead out of Christ,
have both other manner of thoughts of religion, and making it
one s occupation, than thou canst possibly imagine.
Those who, while they live, delay repentance, and dally about
religion, minding it as if they minded it not, who neither, in their
dealings with men, nor duties towards God, nor in their relations
nor vocations, make it their business, but misspend their precious
time, misemploy their weighty talents, neglect God and their
eternal welfares, as if they had not been made to mind either, when
they come to die, and perceive in good earnest that that surly
sergeant death will not be denied, but away they must go into the
other world, and fare well or ill for ever, according as their hearts
and lives have been godly or ungodly, good or bad here, good
Lord, what thoughts have they then of godliness ! How hearty
are their wishes that they had made it their business ! What
worlds would they give that religion had been their principal work !
What prayers and tears do they pour out for a few days to mind it
in ! What sighs, and sobs, and groans, that they have neglected
it so long ! What purposes do they take up, what promises do
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAX S CALLING. 121
they make, if God spare them, to follow hard after holiness, and
make it their only business ! A philosopher asking Euchrites
which of the two he had rather be, Croesus, one of the richest
and most vicious in the world, or Socrates, one of the poorest
and most virtuous, Euchrites answered, Croesus vivens, et Socrates
moriens, Croesus while he lived, and Socrates when he died. The
cuckoo, when wearing away, changeth her note. The worst men,
when they come to die, alter and change exceedingly.
It is worthy our observation, that those who are greatest
strangers to death are most familiar with the works of darkness.
No place abounds more in wolves, no person in wickedness, than
where this mastiff is wanting : Jerusalem hath grievously sinned.
Her filthiness is in her skirts ; she remembereth not her last end ;
therefore she came down wonderfully, Lam. i. 8, 9. Jerusalem
hath grievously sinned ; hath sinned sin Heb., Hath committed
a great or grievous sin, so the Chaldee. Behold here the colour
of her sin ; it was not of an ordinary dye, but of a black, a bloody,
a heinous nature. Her filthiness is in her skirts/ Lo, here her
carriage after her sinning : she made of it an open show, so far
was she from shame. It is a term taken from prostituted strum
pets or menstruous women, saith Diodat. The outward looks of
the former bewray her inward lusts, and the marks of the latter s
defilement are visible on her garment. Thus the show of Jeru
salem s countenance did publicly evidence her crime. She did as
clearly by her skirts proclaim her filth, as if it had been written
on her face and engraven on her forehead. Here was impiety in
her practice, Jerusalem hath grievously sinned ; and impudency to
purpose, her filthiness is in her skirts. But what dust was that
which bred such vermin ? what polluted seed was that which begat
such a poisonous serpent? Reader, if thou wouldst know the mother
which brought forth and bred up this ugly monster, she remem
bereth not her last end, therefore she came down mightily. * It was
her forgetfulness of death which nourished and cherished her wicked
deeds. They who mind not their reckoning, care not how much
they riot and revel.
They who put far away the evil day, cause the seat of vio
lence to come near, Amos vi. 3. The further we drive death from
our thoughts, the nearer we draw to sin. They who fancy their foe
to be very far off, will not prepare and make ready to fight. Men
that are young do not consider that the old ass often carrieth the
skin of the young to the market ; that death comes like a thunder-
1 Immunditise suae in firabriis suis mercedem nondum recordata. Trem.
122 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
bolt and lightning, and blasteth the green corn, and consumeth the
strongest buildings ; if they did, they would flee youthful lusts.
He who seeth death at his door, will be most diligent about
his duty : a serious consideration of the death of the body will be
a sovereign though a sharp medicine to kill the body of death.
The naturalists tell us, that the ashes of a viper, applied to the
part which is stung, draweth the venom out of it. They who
look on themselves as pilgrims and strangers, will abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, 1 Pet. ii. 11. Who
would make his belly, his gut, his god, who considereth that every
meal may be his last ? or that thinketh his dainty diet, his fine
fare, doth but provide a greater feast for worms? Who would
give way to sinful wantons, who believeth that whilst he is un
loading his lust, God may put a period to his life ? He that is
high in conceit of himself, little dreameth how low he must shortly
be laid. Who would be proud of that body which shall ere long
see corruption, become such a noisome, loathsome carcase, that
the nearest and dearest relations will not endure the sight or scent
of it ? He who loveth the world inordinately, forgetteth that he
may leave it suddenly, and must leave it certainly. Would
Haman have bragged so much of Esther s banquet, if he had known
that his own corpse should be served in for the last course?
Would the Israelites have tempted God for meat, if they had
thought that death should have been their sauce ? Would Achan
have coveted the golden wedge, if he had mused of his so sudden
departure into the other world? Without question, he would
have forborne the Babylonish garment, if he had seen death at his
back, so ready to strip him naked. Had the rich fool thought
that his bed should that night have proved his grave, he would
never in the day have prided himself in his goods. Who would
not at God s call vilify that flesh which will be ere long a lump
of filth, and be choice of that soul which lives for a more high
and heavenly flight !
It is reported of the Brahmans, that they use no clothes but
bear-skins, no houses but caves, no food but such as nature dresseth.
When Alexander came to them in his travels, he asked them the
reason of this severe kind of living. They answered him, We
know we shall die, whether to-day or to-morrow we know not;
and therefore why should we .take care, either for power to govern
others, or for riches to live in pleasures, or for honour to be
esteemed of ? None are so loose to the world, that great hinder-
ance of holiness, as they who ponder they must leave it. Travel-
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 123
lers who look on themselves near their journey s end, care not to
burden themselves with much baggage. Their moderation will be
known to all men, who believe the Lord is at hand.
Those who are most mindful of their deaths, are most faithful
in their lives. Job was eminent in grace, because Job was daily
conversing with his grave. All the days of his appointed time he
waited till his change came, Job xiv. 14. That servant will follow
his work most and best, who expecteth his master s coming every
moment.
It is said of the kite, that by the turning of his tail he directs
and winds about his whole body ; the same is reported of the glede
or puttock. Fish also, say naturalists, turn and wind about by the
fins in their tails. Header, could I but prevail with thee to mind
the end of thy life, it would help thee very much to order thy con
versation aright. 1 Oh, said God, that my people were wise ! then
would they consider their latter end, Deut. xxxii. 29.
The Thebans made a law, that no man should build a house
for himself to dwell in before he had made his grave. Several
of the philosophers had their graves made before their doors, that
whenever they went abroad they might remember their deaths.
If thou wouldst but in thy outgoings and incomings behold the
place of thy burial, I doubt not but thou wilt be watchful over all
thy ways. When thou art in the midst of thy delights, as Joseph
of Arimathea, have thy tomb in thy garden, and it may prevent
thy surfeiting by those dainties. When thou sittest at table, let
the first dish set before thee be, according to Prester John s
custom, a death s head, and then with what fear wilt thou feed ;
how thankfully wilt thou receive the creatures, even as through
the beloved Son ! how soberly wilt thou use them, even as in
God s sight ! If God raise thee to the height of prosperity, and
some friend do but (as Moses and Elias to Christ, when his face
did shine as the sun, and his raiment was as white as snow, Luke
ix. 30, 31) talk to thee of thy decease, which thou must shortly
accomplish, it will abate thy love to the world s withering vanities,
and quicken thine endeavours after the eternal weight of glory.
If God cast thee into great adversity, and thou dost but consider
thy time here is but short, and therefore thy troubles cannot be
long, this will make thee contented in the saddest condition.
When thou beholdest thy relations, and forethinkest that thine
eternal separation from them is at hand, and that within a few
days thou shalt never have another opportunity to help them
1 Consideratio mortis tanquam cauda ad vitam optime regendam confert.
124 THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
heavenward, how will it stir thee up to do them all the good thou
canst now, both by thy precepts, pattern, and prayers ! If, when
thou attendest on public ordinances, thou wilt but cast thine eye
on the graves in the churchyard, as thou passest along, and
meditate thus : Within a little time I must be laid in the dust,
when I shall hear no more, pray no more, enjoy a Sabbath no
more ; when I shall never, never more have a tender of a Saviour,
never more have a season to beg mercy in for my poor soul.
After such awakening thoughts, with what attention wouldst thou
hear ! with what affections wouldst thou pray ! with what inten
sion and devotion, with what seriousness and uprightness, wouldst
thou perform every duty !
Some say that nothing in this world is so strong as death,
because it subdueth the mighty, it conquereth the greatest con
querors, it overcometh all. Sure I am, that death hath great
force and power over men s souls, as well as over their bodies.
The thought of it hath raised some to a spiritual life. The
consideration of death hath also caused others to live much in a
little space ; when they have seen the sun of their lives near setting,
and the night of their deaths approaching, they have in the day
followed their work with the greater diligence. None will work
so hard as they who think themselves near their everlasting
homes.
There were two emperors, Adrian and Charles the Fifth, that in
their lifetime caused their coffins to be carried before them, and
their exequies to be solemnly celebrated, to this end possibly, that,
considering they were but men, dying men, they might thence be
righteous in their government, and virtuous in their actions.
It is reported of Turannius, 1 that after he was ninety years old,
he got leave of Caesar to retire himself from court ; and the old
man would needs be laid in his bed, as one that had breathed out
his last, and all his family must bewail his death. Friend, do
thou in earnest what he did in jest. Suppose thou wert this day
to bid adieu to thy friends, relations, honours, and possessions, and
to travel into the unknown other world; to take thy leave of
hours, and days, and months, and years, and time, and to sail
into the boundless ocean of eternity ; suppose thou sawest death
creep in at thy chamber window, come up to thy bedside, draw the
curtain, take thee by the hand, and tell thee that he is come from
the infinite, almighty, jealous, most holy God, to fetch thee im
mediately into his presence, there to answer for all thy thoughts,
1 Sen. de. Brev. Vit., cap. ult.
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 125
words, and deeds, and to receive either matchless and endless pain,
or unchangeable and unconceiveable pleasures, according as thy
practices have been, what wouldst thou think at such a time of
godliness ? Good Lord, what a price wouldst thou set upon it !
what wouldst thou not do or give for it ! Then godliness will be
godliness indeed, as little and as lightly as thou settest by it now.
And why is it not worth as much now ? Dost thou not see death
like a mole digging thy grave under thee ? Dost thou not feel
that worm within thee, which will ere long consume thee ?
Believe it, thy death may be nearer than thou dreamest; the
glass of thy life may be almost out, though thou thinkest it is but
new turned. The murdering piece which kills thee, parting thy
soul and body, may be discharged with white powder, give thee
no warning at all. The next arrow which is shot may hit thee ;
the next time the bell goes may be to tell others that thou art
dead; the next time the earth is opened may be to receive thy
body in. Thou seest some fall on thy right hand, some on thy
left hand, some of thy very age, and of greater strength and health,
and canst thou esteem thyself shot-free ? Is not every carcase a
crier, and every tomb a teacher, calling upon thee to number thy
days, and apply thine heart unto wisdom ?
Silly man is like the foolish chicken, though the kite comes and
takes away many of their fellows, yet the rest continue pecking the
ground, never heeding their owner, nor minding their shelter.
Death comes and snatcheth away one man here, a second there ;
one before them, another behind them, and they are killed with
death, undone for ever, Rev. ii. 23 ; yet they who survive take no
warning, but persist in their wicked and ungodly ways. They are
destroyed from morning to evening ; they perish for ever without
any regarding it. Doth not their excellency which is in them go
away ? they die, even without wisdom, Job iv. 20, 21.
It is the saying of a heathen, 1 That it is impossible for a man
to live the present day well, who doth not purpose to live it as his
last. I may say to thee, friend, it is impossible for thee to live
the present day ill, if thou wilt but live it as thy last day. If
thou dost but consider, Well, this place may be the last place I
shall come into, shall I pollute it with sin ? or shall I not rather
perfume it with sanctity ? This expression may be the last that
ever I shall speak, shall it be tainted with vice ? or shall it not
rather be seasoned with grace ? This action may be the last that
ever I shall do, and shall it be a deed of darkness ? or shall it not
1 Muson apud Stob., Ser. 1.
126 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
rather be a work of the day, of the light ? This sermon may be
the last that ever I shall hear, and shall I now be heedless ? After
this I shall never more have a call from Christ, and shall I now
be careless ? This prayer may be the last prayer that ever I shall
pour out to God ; if God deny me now, I am damned and undone
for ever, and shall not my head, and heart, and will, and mind,
and all be working, that it may be a prosperous, a prevalent
prayer ? This Sabbath may be the last Sabbath that ever I shall
sanctify ; I may from henceforth and for ever be deprived of all
such opportunities of getting and increasing grace, of serving and
honouring my Saviour, and of working out my own salvation. If
I sow not now good seed, I must never expect a happy harvest.
If I buy not now, the market will be quickly over. Shall I lose
any precious minute of this holy day ? Is it time now to trifle
about the affairs of my soul and eternity ? Well, I will, through
Christ, take heed how I hear ; I will hear in hearing, I will pray
in praying ; I will hear and hearken, cry and call, with all my heart,
and strength, and soul, and mind, that if it be possible, the Lord
may not leave me without a blessing. When the orator thinketh
he is at the close of his oration, then he useth his chiefest art and
rhetoric to move his auditors affections ; he would have his last
part his best part.
reader, if thou wilt but often wind up this weight of thine
approaching death, it would keep thy soul in a quick, spiritual,
and regular motion at all times. As ashes preserve fire, and
keep coals from going out, so the thought that we shall ere long
be turned into ashes will preserve the fire of grace alive and in
action.
Sixthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, mind a
daily performance of sacred duties. He that hath nothing of his
own whereupon to live, must be frequently fetching in provision
from the shops or market where it is to be had. The Christian s
life is maintained, not by himself, but by what he receiveth from
God ; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, our sufficiency is of
God ; therefore there is a necessity of daily converse with God by
holy ordinances, and of waiting at his gate ; as the beggar, who hath
neither a bit of bread, nor a penny to buy any, at the rich man s
door for supply. Our spiritual strength is like Israel s manna,
rained down daily ; we are kept by a divine power, and allowed
but from hand to mouth, that we might continually depend on, and
resort to, the Lord Jesus for our allowance. Paul speaks in some
places of his great disbursements how much he laid out for God
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 127
and his people, that he laboured more than all the apostles ; but
you must think, Whence had Paul such a spiritual stock that he
was able to outvie all others in his expenses ? He tells you that
the Son of God kept house for him, and that he was the steward to
spend of his treasure, and thence his disbursements were so large.
I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life that I live in
the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God/ Gal. ii. 20. As the
plant mistel, having no root of its own, both grows and lives in the
stock or body of the oak; so the apostle, having no root of his
own, did live and grow in Christ. As if he had said, I live, I keep
a noble house, am given to hospitality above many, in labours more
abundant, in watchings, in fastings more frequent, in perils, and
dangers, and deaths often ; but the truth is, I do all this at another s
cost and charge, not at mine own ; I am beholden to Christ for
strength to do and suffer whatsoever I am called to. He carrieth
the purse for me, and gives out to me according to my necessities.
I have not a farthing of my own wherewith to buy the least morsel.
I can do nothing of myself, but I can do all things through Christ
strengthening me.
Man is a weak creature, and so far from running, that he is not
able to creep in the way of God s commandments, unless Christ
strengthen him : Without me ye can do nothing, John xv. 5.
If Christ withdraw himself as the sun, he carrieth the light of holi
ness along with him. The easiest duty is too hard, and the weakest
enemy too strong for us, unless Christ assist us. It is upon his
wings alone that we can mount to heaven, in an ordinance, and
through his power, that we do improve any providence. It is not
the standing army of habitual grace that will make the Christian
a conqueror, he must daily t?e recruited with auxiliaries from
heaven. The watchman doth not only make the watch, and set
every wheel in its right place, but he or some other must wind it
up daily, or it will stand still. Exercising grace is as requisite to
our spiritual motion, as habitual grace to our spiritual being. The
razor, though it be never so sharp or keen at first, if it be used,
must be often at the whetstone, or it will grow dull.
The wife that hath frequent occasions for money for provision for
herself, and children, and servants, and for clothes and all family
necessaries, and not a penny but what comes out of her husband s
purse, and he, fearing she should be prodigal, lets her have money
by driblets, but from hand to mouth, must be always going or
sending to him, or otherwise starve. The shopkeeper that drives a
great trade in the country must go often to London, or abroad in
128 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
other parts, to fetch in commodities. The Israelites in the wilder
ness were maintained for water by the rock. They drank of the
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. The rock fol
lowed them ; they did not only drink of it at first, but had a con
stant morning s draught, and drank of it often in the day ; it ran in
a stream after them, and every day supplied them. It is no marvel
the apostle commandeth us, Pray continually, pray without ceasing,
pray evermore, when he knew all our living was got by begging,
that all our supplies must be from above, and we must expect no
thing without asking. Ordinances are the food of the soul. As
cows afford us both milk and beef, so ordinances are milk to babes,
and meat for strong men. Our God is the fountain of spiritual as
well as of natural life. It is said most truly, in respect of a natural
life, In him (meaning God) we live, and move, and have our
being, Acts xvii. 28. We live. Now as God hath made the
heart the spring of natural life, and hath drawn from thence a
multitude of arteries to carry the vital spirits through the whole
body, and disperse life through every part of it ; so he hath made
the Mediator the spring of spiritual life, and his ordinances the
arteries to convey life to every part of the soul. In whom we
move/ As God hath from the head derived manifold sinews to
carry out thence the animal spirits, and with them the faculty both
of sense and motion over all ; so the Lord, from Jesus Christ the
Church s head, through the sinews of sacred duties, conveyeth
spiritual sense and motion to all his members. And have our
being. To preserve our being, he hath made the liver a fountain of
blood, and from thence drawn the veins to convey it over the body,
to the nourishment of the whole. Ordinances are those veins which
convey and disperse gracious spirits over the whole new man.
With him is the well of life, Ps. xxxvi. 9.
Sacred duties are as needful every day for our souls as food and
raiment for our bodies. The body must continually be repaired
with nourishment, because it is continually consumed by our
natural heat. Yesterday s bread will not keep the labourer to-day
in strength and vigour to go through with his work ; he must have
new diet, or he cannot hold out. Friend, I must bespeak thee, as
the angel to Elijah, Up and eat, for the journey is too great for
thee. Up and be doing in prayer, and Scripture, and holy ordin
ances, that thou mayest feed and receive spiritual nourishment ;
for otherwise the business of exercising thyself to godliness, the
duties required of thee to be performed, the graces to be exer
cised, the temptations to be resisted, the deadly enemies to be
CHAP. X.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 129
conquered, will be too hard for thee, the journey will be too great
for thee. The Amalekite, by long fasting, grew faint and unable
to go his journey. If the bringing stream be not as large as the
running stream, the bottom will quickly be without water. The
greatest stock will lessen apace, if a man spend daily on it, though
but in a small quantity, if he hath no way of getting. Those that
are under-kept, and called to hard labour, can never perform what
is required of them. The spirits daily are decaying, and if not
daily renewed by proper nourishment we perish. The vessels that
are always leaking, must stand constantly under the conduit to get
what they lose. When Jonathan, through fasting, became faint,
he tasted a little honey, and his eyes were enlightened. How
much more/ said he, if haply the people had eaten liberally of the
spoil of their enemies which they found ? for had there not been
now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines, 1 Sam. xiv.
29, 30. The more a Christian mindeth divine ordinances, in
obedience to God s precept, and affiance on God s promise, the
more strength he shall receive to conquer his spiritual adversaries,
and to discharge the several duties incumbent on him. The truth
is, our religious life, our heavenly flame, is like a straw fire to
malt, which must constantly be tended and fed with fuel, or it
will go out. There is not more need of the shepherd s constant and
daily tending his weak sheep in the summer season, than of the
saint s daily regarding his precious soul. As trees being well
ordered with skill and diligence, they become abundantly fruitful ;
but being left to themselves, without culture and care, they bring
forth little or no fruit. So Christians, by a diligent use of means,
abound in the fruits of righteousness, but neglecting ordinances,
they decline and decay.
The heart of man is, like Keuben, unstable as water, and is
stablished with grace, Heb. x., which cannot be expected, but
through the means of grace. The viol, that with every change of
weather is apt to be out of tune, must be constantly hung within
scent of the fire. Whilst we are in the care of this world we are
full of damps, and therefore need all means of quickening. Our
hearts are like clocks, twice a day at least the plummets must be
pulled up, or their motion and course will be hindered.
Indeed, as God could preserve our bodies without food or any
sustenance by his omnipotent power, as he did Moses and Elijah forty
days together, but he will not where he affordeth ordinary means ;
so he could preserve our souls in life without ordinances, but he
will not where his providence giveth us opportunity to enjoy them.
VOL. III. I
130 THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
Header, I must say to thee, as Jacob to the patriarchs, Behold, I
have heard that there is corn in Egypt ; get you down thither and
buy for us, that we may live and not die. Behold, thou hast
heard there is spiritual food in heaven ; the son of Joseph hath his
granaries full of corn, go thou thither daily by sacred duties, that
thy soul may live and not die. There is a sensible decay of the.
strength in husbandmen, whose work is great, upon one day s
abstinence. If tradesmen grow careless of their business, and
neglect their shops, they quickly decay in their estates. When
Christians grow careless of duties, and neglect their closets, it is no
wonder that they decline in their spiritual stocks. When the
moon hath her open side downward she decreaseth, but when her
open side is upwards towards heaven she increaseth in light.
There is no growing in grace and holiness, but by conversing with
heaven. Grace, like armour, may easily be kept bright if it be
daily used, but if it hang by the wall, it will quickly rust, and cost
much time and pains to scour.
Much fasting takes away the stomach ; and omission of closet
duties at one time makes a man more backward to them, and dead
about them, another time. When a scholar hath played the truant
one day, it is difficult to bring him to school the next day. Fear
and shame both keep him back ; when he comes thither he is the
more untoward about his book. Our deceitful hearts, after they
have discontinued holy exercises and are broken loose, are like
horses gotten out of their bounds, not found or brought back with
out much trouble. When an instrument is daily played on, it is
kept in order ; but if it be but a while neglected and cast into a
corner, the strings are apt to break, the frets to crack, the bridge
to fly off, and no small trouble and stir is requisite to bring it into
order again.
We read of the Jews daily sacrifice, Luke i. 10, which was morn
ing and evening, Exod. xxix. 38, and xxx. 7, 8. David was for
morning, and evening, and noontide, Ps. Iv. 17. Daniel was three
times a day upon his knees, Dan. vi. 10.
In the morning the saints were at their devotion, which is thought
to be the third hour, when the Holy Ghost descended on the
apostles, Acts ii. 15. This is deemed to be our ninth hour.
The middle or mid-day prayer was termed the sixth hour, which
is our twelfth, John iv. 6. At this time Peter went up to the
house-top to pray, Acts x. 9.
The evening prayer was at the ninth hour, which is our three
o clock in the afternoon. Now Peter and John went up together
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 131
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, Acts
iii. 1. So Cornelius, Acts. x. 30, At the ninth hour I prayed in
my house/ Some think the primitive Christians had these three
hours in such regard and use that thence they were termed canoni
cal hours. David tells us, Seven times a day do I praise thee,
because of thy righteous judgments, Ps. cxix. 164 ; 1 Thes. v. 17.
The more frequent a Christian is at holy duties, (supposing he doth
not make the commands of God to interfere, and neglect his calling
and family, when his presence is required in them,) the more
thriving he shall be in his spiritual trade. The oftener we go to
the fountain or river, the more water we bring thence. As runners
in a race do daily diet their bodies, and use exercise to keep them
selves in breath, that they may be more able and active when they
run for the wager ; whereas, if they should neglect it, they would
grow pursy and short-winded, and unlikely to hold out when they
run for the garland ; so Christians, who would hold out to the end,
and so run as to obtain, must be daily feeding and dieting their
souls, and renewing their strength by these means which God hath
appointed.
As the sun is the cause of life and growth in vegetables, so is
the Son of God the efficient cause of motion and growth in Chris
tians; where the Son is present in any soul, there is spiritual
motion and growth, budding, and blosoming, and bearing fruit ; but
when the sun withholds and withdraws, when this sun departs, the
soul is at a stand. Now, ordinances are the means whereby the
Mediator conveys heat, and life, and growth to men.
CHAPTEE XL
Means ivhereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness.
Frequent meditation of the day of judgment. A daily examina
tion of our hearts, avoiding the occasions and suppressing the
beginnings of sin.
Seventhly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, meditate
much upon the day of judgment. They will prepare themselves
best to the battle who always hear the sound of the last trump in
their ears. Zisca, that valiant captain of the Bohemians, com
manded his countrymen to flay off his skin, when he was dead,
and to make a drum of it. Which use, saith he, when ye go to
battle, and the sound of it will drive away the Hungarians or any
132 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
of your enemies. Could the Christian but, with Jerome, hear the
sound of the last trumpet in his ears at all times, it would encourage
him in his spiritual warfare, and enable him to fight manfully, and
to cause the enemies of his salvation to flee before him. He who
can frequently, by faith, view the Judge sitting on his throne of
glory, hear the last trumpet sounding ; behold the dead raised, the
books opened, the godly examined by the covenant of grace, all
their duties, graces, services, sufferings publicly declared, approved,
and rewarded ; the wicked tried by the law of works ; all their
natural defilements, actual transgressions in thought, word, and
deed which ever they were guilty of, with their crimson bloody
circumstances, openly revealed, their persons righteously sentenced
to the vengeance of the eternal fire, and that sentence speedily,
without the least favour or delay, executed on them, will surely
loathe sin as that which brings him certain shame and torment, and
follow after holiness, which will be his undoubted credit and com
fort at that day. The apostle, writing to the Jews concerning the
terror of that day, how the heavens must pass away with a great
noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also and
the works therein burnt up, makes this use of it, Seeing, then, that
all those things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? 2 Pet. iii. 11, 14.
And again, Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look for these things, be
diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and
blameless. He had need to be exact in his conversation, who must
undergo so strict an examination. Well may the time of judgment
be called a day, for it will declare and manifest the worth of grace
and holiness, which in the night of this life is not observed.
Ah, who can conceive the value which the vilest wretch on earth
will put upon holiness at that day ! Then grace will be grace indeed,
and godliness will be godliness indeed. Then they who mock at
saints for their purity and strictness, and look upon sanctity but as
hypocrisy, and the acting of a part to] cozen the world with, and
think it is enough to put God off with a few prayers now and then,
when their pastimes and lusts will give them leave, will call to
believers, as the foolish to the wise virgins, Give us of your oil, for
our lamps are gone out ; then the graceless princes and potentates
of the world will throw their crowns and diadems at the feet of the
meanest Christian for a drachm of his grace and holiness.
The apostle, speaking of that day, puts the question, Where
shall the sinner and ungodly appear ? 1 Pet. iv. 18. Now, indeed,
those that scoff, and deride, and scorn at holiness and holy ones, may
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 133
appear before great men in many parts of the world with praise
and applause. Now they may appear in the country, and be re
spected of their drunken, atheistical, brutish neighbours, and pro
bably be the more honoured for their opposition to the spirit of
grace and holiness ; but then, where will the sinner and ungodly
appear ? Not in heaven, for that is no sty for swine, no kennel for
dogs, no jail for malefactors, no place for such unholy, God-pro
voking persons. Into it can in no wise enter that which is defiled
or unclean. Such a palace is not fit for beasts ; snakes, and ser
pents, and adders are more fit for the bosom and embraces of men,
than such men for the bosom and embraces of God. Heaven cast
out wicked angels, and will not take in wicked men ; where shall
they then appear ? Not on earth, for that will be burnt up with
fire. Their houses and places must know them no more for ever.
The earth groaned under their weight whilst it bare them, but now
is eased of such loads, and shall not be pestered with such plagues
again. But where shall they appear ? Not before Christ the judge
with any comfort, for him they have derided, buffeted, crucified ;
they have rejected his laws, trampled on his blood, told him to his
face that they will not have him to reign over them. But where
will they appear ? Not before the saints, for they have maligned,
oppressed, imprisoned, persecuted them as a company of cheats and
hypocrites. Oh, where shall the sinner and ungodly appear ?
1. Consider the holiness of the Judge. He is the holy Jesus.
He loveth righteousness, and hateth iniquity, Ps. xlv. What will
the ungodly sinner do when he shall be judged by the holy Saviour?
Who can stand before this holy God ? 1 Sam. vi. 20. His eyes are
like a flame of fire, and so he knoweth the most secret works of
darkness. His law is very pure, and observeth and condemneth the
least spots, the least defilement ; and how will unclean ones endure
to be judged for their everlasting lives and deaths by such a law ?
His throne is a white throne ; and how will the black sinner do to
stand before this white throne ?
Header, thou hast need to be a faithful and loyal subject, if thou
wouldst then be owned and acknowledged by thy sovereign. How
exact should he be in his life, who must be tried by so holy a law !
If thou callest him Father, who without respect of persons will
judge every man according to his works, pass the time of thy
sojourning here in fear, 1 Pet. i. 17.
2. Consider the strictness of his proceedings. Every thought,
word, and action shall be revealed, examined, and weighed in the
balance of the sanctuary : There is nothing hid that shall not be
134 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
revealed, nor secret that shall not be made known. The thoughts
of thy heart shall then be as visible as the features of thy face :
When God shall judge the secrets of men s hearts by my gospel,
Born. ii. 16. All thy words will then be as audible as if thou
hadst had a voice to reach every child of Adam, both alive and
dead : Verily I say unto you, that of every idle word ye shall give
an account at the day of Christ, Mat. xii. 36. Every action of
thine will then be legible, not only to God, as it is at this day, but
also to angels and men : We must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, to give an account of all things done in the body,
whether they be good, or whether they be evil/ 2 Cor. v. 10. All
the works of darkness will then be brought to light. We must
all appear, ffravepwdrjvai, not only be present in person, and not
by a proxy, but be laid open and manifest, be transparent, so the
word signifieth, to give an account of everything done, &c., to
render a reason of every individual thought, word, and deed
what was the principle from which we acted, what was the rule
by which we acted, what was the end for which we acted. When
Benjamin s sack was opened, the silver cup appeared. On that
fair day all men s packs will be opened, and then it will be known
what ware they carry about with them.
Hence some have conjectured that it will not be a short time,
nor the judgment soon passed over. It is called a day, but not in
relation to our natural or artificial days, for Christ, judging as man
in his human nature, by his divine power, will probably employ a
far greater time in searching into, and publicly revealing, every
man s condition and conversation. Though I am not of their
opinions who say it will be precisely a thousand years, because it
is said, A thousand years are in thy sight but as one day, yet I
judge it to be taken indefinitely ; and, as Augustine saith, 1 that the
day of judgment shall begin is certain, but when it shall end is
uncertain. I find two divines, eminent both for grace and learning
in their generations, speaking : one saith, I humbly conceive that
the day of judgment shall not be passed over in an instant, but
shall be of long continuance ; for if Christ should judge only as
God, he could despatch it in a moment ; but he, judging as man,
it must be after the manner of men, that the creature may under
stand, admire, and approve what is done. The other saith, It must
take up some large quantity of time to manifest all the secret sins
of men, and therefore it may be made evident, both from Scripture
1 Per quot dies hoc judicium extendatur incertum est. Scripturarum more diem
poni solcre pro tempore nemo nescit. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xx. cap. 1.
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 135
and reason, that the day of Christ s kingly office, in judging the
world, shall last haply longer than the day of Christ s private
administration now in governing the world.
3. Consider the weight of the sentence. It is called the eternal
judgment, because the sentence then pronounced shall never be
reversed, but stand for ever. In this world God judgeth men
sometimes mediately, sometimes immediately, which is the first
judgment, from which men may appeal by repentance to his mercy-
seat ; but this the last judgment, once for all, once for ever, in
which men receive their final, their eternal doom, John xi. 24.
Here Jacob appeals from Laban to a higher tribunal, Gen. xxxi.
53 ; and David from Saul to the King of kings, The Lord judge
between me and thee, 1 Sam. xxiv. 12; Ps. xvii. 2; and Paul
appeals from Festus to Caesar, I stand at Cesar s judgment seat,
Acts xxv. 10. But then there can be no appeal to a higher court,
no writ of error can be brought, no arrest of judgment, no second
hearing obtained. The sinner condemned to eternal death then is
gone for ever : no pardon, no, not so much as a reprieve can be
procured for one hour. The saint, absolved and declared an heir of
eternal life, is blessed for ever ; he shall be beyond all fear, all
doubts in himself; above all shot, all opposition from others. In
this life Nineveh was threatened, Nineveh repented, and Nineveh
was spared. The sentence pronounced was not executed, at least
it was respited ; but then every sinner will repent, weep, and wail,
but repentance will be hid from the eyes of the Judge ; all their
tears will be in vain. When they are cast, then they are gone for
ever.
To provoke thee to holiness,
4. Consider the felicity of the godly at that day. Oh, with what
joy will they lift up their heads when that day of their redemption
is come ! This life is the day of their oppression and persecution,
but that day will be the day of their redemption. At this day
they are troubled and vexed with a tempting devil, and deceitful
hearts, and false, proud, unbelieving flesh, but that will be the day
of their redemption from them all. No wonder they love the ap
pearing of Christ, and look and long for his appearing, when it will
r be the day of their redemption, and time of their refreshing from
the presence of the Lord. When thousands and millions shall howl
and lament ; when the orator will be silenced, and have his mouth
stopped ; when the soldier, that durst venture into the mouth of
the cannon, and dare death itself, shall play the coward, and seek
for any hole to hide himself in ; when the captains, and kings, and
136 THE CHKISTIAN jfAN s CALLING. [PART III.
nobles, shall call to the rocks to fall on them, and the mountains
to cover them from the presence of the Lord, and the wrath of the
Lamb, even then the godly shall sing and rejoice.
(1.) Their godliness will then be mentioned to their eternal honour.
As God hath a bag for men s sins, ( Thou sealest up mine iniquities
in a bag, ) so he hath a book for their services : A book of remem
brance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and
thought upon his name. Then all their prayers, and tears, their
watchings, fastings, faith, love, zeal, patience, alms, imprisonment,
loss of goods, name, liberty, life for Christ and the gospel, will be
manifested to their honour, and praise, and glory at the coming of
Christ, 1 Pet. i. 7 ; Mat. xxv. 34.
(2.) Their names will be then vindicated. With the resurrection
of bodies there shall also be a resurrection of names. Now, indeed,
the throats of wicked men are open sepulchres, wherein the credit
of the godly is buried. Joseph is an adulterer, Nehemiah a traitor,
Jeremiah a rebel against the king, Paul a mover of sedition, a pes
tilent fellow, and one that turned Christian for spite, because the
high priest would not give him his daughter in marriage ; but when
the sea, and death, and hell shall give up their dead, then shall the
throats, the open sepulchres of wicked men, give up. the names of
the godly : Then their righteousness shall be cleared as the sun,
and their uprightness as the noon-day.
(3.) Their persons shall be then publicly acquitted. They shall
be cleared by public proclamation before God, angels, and men.
Hence it is said, Their sins shall be blotted out, when the time
of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord. The
sentence of absolution passed in their conscience by the Spirit at
this day is sweet, and puts more joy into their hearts than if all
the crowns and sceptres of this world had befallen them ; but oh
how comfortable will it be to be declared just by the Judge him
self before the whole world at that solemn and imperial day ! They
may then ring that challenge, Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God s elect ? Horn. viii. 33 ; and none will accept it, or
take up the gauntlet. Who? Shall God, whose children and
chosen they are ? No ; it is God that justifieth. Shall the Judge ?
No ; it is his undertaken work to present them to the Father with
out spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. He hath washed them in
his own blood, and made them as white as innocent Adam or
angels. He was judged for them, and will not pass judgment
against them. He cannot condemn them, but he must condemn
himself, for they are his members, his body, his brethren, bone of
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 137
his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Shall the law ? No ; they have
fully answered all its demands, superabundantly satisfied it through
their surety, both in perfect obedience to all its precepts, and under
going its punishment. What the law saith, either in regard of
commanding complete subjection, or cursing for the omission of it,
it saith to them that are under the law ; but they are not under
the law, but under grace. Shall conscience ? No ; next to God
and Christ, it is their best friend. As Christ pleads for them to his
Father, so conscience pleads for them to themselves : This is their
rejoicing, the testimony of good consciences, that in simplicity and
godly sincerity they had their conversations in this world/ 2 Cor.
i. 12. Shall Satan ? No ; the accuser of the brethren will be then
cast down, and his place will be found no more in heaven ; then,
then those blessed promises will be performed, The seed of the
woman shall break the serpent s head, and the God of peace shall
tread Satan under your feet.
(4.) The saint s happiness will be then perfected, and he shall
never know more what sin or sorrow meaneth, or what want of
God s favour, or doubt of Christ s love, or defect of joy and comfort
meaneth. The Christian hath so much laid out upon him in this
world, vocation, adoption, pardon, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost,
hopes of glory, that, in the worst condition that men and devils can
plunge him into, he finds cause to say, Yet God is good to Israel,
to them that are of a clean heart; but then, when he shall enjoy
all that is laid up for him, and know the full extent of God s pro
mises to him, the all of Christ s purchase for him, and the utmost
reward of his piety, then surely he will cry out with the psalmist,
how great is that goodness which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee
before the sons of men ! Clemens Alexandrinus makes mention
of a place in Persia where there were three hills ; when people came
to the first, they heard a clashing of armour ; when they came to
the second, they heard a confused noise ; when to the third, nothing
but songs of triumph. At the day of the saint s conversion, he
comes to the first hill, then he heareth a clashing of armour, listing
himself under the captain of his salvation, and proclaiming open
war against the world, flesh, and wicked one. At the day of death
he comes to the second hill, a confused noise ; his friends are weep
ing and grieving, his wife and children are mourning and bemoan
ing their loss ; though his soul be rejoicing to think of the rest to
which it is going, yet the flesh sweateth, panteth, is pierced and
pained. At the day of judgment he comes to the third hill, where
138 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
he heareth nothing but songs of triumph Victoria, Victoria, hal
lelujahs, salvation, honour, glory, praise to the Lord, and to the
Larnb for ever ! At that day of judgment the whole world shall
see and say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous ; then shall
the wicked return and discern a difference between them that fear
God, and them that fear him not. Then grace will appear in all
its embroidery and glory on that day of its coronation, when the
worst in hell shall admire and adore it. Now holiness hath a won
derful disadvantage, partly by the persecutions, afflictions, bonds,
and imprisonments that attend it, and chiefly from the darkness of
men s understanding, and the weakness of their eyes, they are not
able to view the thousandth part of its comeliness ; but then holiness
shall be freed from that black guard of hell that dogs her to destroy
her, and then the eyes of all the world shall be strengthened so
much as to behold her amiableness ; then she shall be owned, ho
noured, acknowledged by God, angels, and all the children of
Adam ; then she shall be attended, not with mulcts, and penalties,
and bonds, and fetters, but crowns, and sceptres, and palms, and
kingdoms; and then, oh then, how lovely, how beautiful, will she
be indeed !
5. To affrighten thee from sin, consider the misery of sinners at
that day. It is called the day of perdition of ungodly men. Sin
will be sin indeed at that day. When sin shall be stripped naked
of the favour and countenance of great men, of the preferments,
and advantages, and riches, and honours, and offices with which it
is clothed here below, and instead thereof be invested with fire,
and flames, and brimstone, and blackness of darkness, and whips,
and serpents, and inconceivable and eternal torments, what an
ugly, loathsome strumpet will she be, even in the eyes of them that
now dote on her, commit whoredom with her, and sacrifice their
strength, and time, and estates, and souls, and God, and Christ,
and heaven, and all to her ! Then the drunkard will find his
liquor more bitter than wormwood, when he shall have a cup of
pure wrath, without the least mixture of mercy, brought to him,
and he forced to take it down, though there be eternity to the
bottom. Then the persecutor of God s people shall find that it
had been better to have been rotting in a ditch, or boiling in a
furnace of lead, than to have spent his time in wronging the poor
est, meanest member of Christ, when God shall recompense tribu
lation to them that persecute his people, and to them that are
persecuted, rest and peace ; then every sinner will believe and feel
what now, though God himself tell him, he will be an infidel in,
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 139
that it is an evil and bitter thing to depart away from the living
God. The wicked is reserved, as the beast for the slaughter-day,
to the day of destruction ; he shall be brought forth, as the con
demned malefactor on execution-day, at the day of slaughter. Ah
how dreadful will the sinner s doom be then ! The tribunal of the
Judge will be a tribunal of fire ; he shall come in flaming fire, to
render vengeance, &c. ; the law by which he will try them shall be
a law of fire, or a fire of law, Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; the Judge himself
to them will be a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 29 ; and the judgment
which he will denounce against them will be, Go, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels for ever. Ah
who can dwell in everlasting burnings ? who can abide devouring
flames ? Who can imagine the shame that will cover their faces,
the horror that will fill their hearts, the terrors, and tortures, and
torments that must seize them for ever ? If Judah was so ashamed
when he saw Tamar s signet and staff, the remembrances of his
sin, how will they be confounded when all their revellings and
roarings, their chambering and wantonness, their cursing and
swearing, and all their sins shall be opened before all the world !
If Herod was so affrighted when he supposed that John was risen
from the dead that the Baptist s ghost, by walking in his conscience,
robbed him of all comfort what affrightment will possess them to
see the saints whom they have nicknamed, disgraced, imprisoned,
and it may be murdered, risen from the dead, owned and honoured
by the Judge, and the chief favourites in the heavenly court ? If
Saul was so troubled when he did hear Christ call to him out of
heaven, that he fell to the ground, what trouble, what tribulation,
will possess them whom he shall curse with a bitter curse, and call
to devils to seize on, and associate with, and prey upon, for ever
and ever ? The saint shall find mercy, the sweetest mercy, in that
day of judgment; but the sinner shall have judgment, the sorest,
the most cutting, killing judgment, without the least drop of
mercy. If the day when God gave the law was so dreadful, full of
thunderings, and lightnings, and fearful noises, that the people
cried out, Let not God speak to us, lest we die, and Moses him
self did exceedingly quake and fear ; and if the day were so dread
ful when the Son of God s infinite love bare the curse of the law,
that the rocks were rent, the earth trembled, the sun was darkened ;
how dreadful will that day be when God shall make inquisition
into, and deal with the vessels of wrath for the breach of the law I
Who can abide that day of his coming ? who shall stand when he
appeareth ? Well may it be called the great and terrible day of
140 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
the Lord Jesus. Well might the wise man, when he had seem
ingly laid the reins on the young man s back, and given him leave
to run on in the way of his own heart and eyes, pull him in with
this curb, Remember that for all these things, God will bring
thee to judgment.
When Sapores, king of Persia, had raised a violent persecution
against the Christians, Usthazanes, an ancient nobleman, and a
Christian, who in the king s minority had the government of the
people, was so terrified that he denied the faith ; but sitting at the
court-gate, when Simeon, an old bishop and holy person, was lead
ing to prison, he rose up to salute him ; but the good bishop, frown
ing on him, turned away his head with indignation ; upon which
Usthazanes fell a-weeping, went into his chamber, put off his
courtly attire, and burst out into this speech, Ah, how shall I
appear before the great God of heaven, whom I have denied, when
Simeon, but a man, will not endure to look upon me ! If he frown,
how will God frown when I come to appear at his tribunal !
Upon these considerations he repented of his apostasy, assumed
courage, and became a glorious martyr for Christ. If Felix, a
heathen, trembled when Paul reasoned of judgment to come nay,
if the very devils so far believe that day as to tremble at the
thoughts of it well may the consideration of that day make
Christians tremble at the thoughts of sin, and not dare thereby to
treasure up wrath upon their heads against that day of wrath, and
the declaration of the righteous judgment of God.
Reader, at this day think much of that day of judgment ; hereby
thou wilt be stirred up to judge thyself, to repent of sin, to ensure
an interest in Christ the Judge, to keep a good conscience, and so
to think, speak, and act as one that must be judged by the law of
liberty, 1 Cor. xi. 31 ; Acts iii. 19, and xvii. 31 ; 2 Peter iii. 11 ;
Eccles. xii. 14; James ii. 12 ; Acts xxiv. 16.
Eighthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, call thy
self often to account. This is a special help to holiness : I con
sidered my ways, and turned my feet to thy testimonies/ saith
David, Ps. cxix. 59. A man that goeth out of his way will continue
wandering, if his mind be occupied about other things, and he
consider not what he is doing, and whither he is going. The
Christian that is careless of his carriage, and seldom compareth his
heart and life with the divine commands, to observe how they
agree or disagree, will never order his conversation aright. When
a clock is out of order we take it to pieces, and search where the
fault lieth, knowing that one wheel amiss may hinder the going of
CHAP. XI.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 141
the whole clock. Our hearts are every day out of order ; our work
must be to take them to pieces by examination, and to see where
the great fault is. Seneca s sober young man, ita laborat, ita ludit,
ita ccenat, ita potat, ita loquitur, ita vivit, ut qui ephemerides
patri est approbaturus ; So labours, so playeth, so eateth, so
drinketh, so speaks, and so lives, as one that is daily to be account
able for all to his father. He that would keep his spiritual estate
must keep his account-books well ; the neglect of this hath been
the breaking of many tradesmen. When shopkeepers live high,
far above their incomes, and for want of searching into their books
are ignorant whether their gains will allow such large expenses, it
is no wonder if they prove worse than naught. They who expect
the coming of great and severe strangers, who will observe narrowly
how their house lieth, and how their vessels are kept, and publish
it either to their credit or discredit, according as they find, will
keep their houses in order, sweep them clean, have their pewter
bright and clear, and all things exactly in their places. When the
Christian looks every night for the coming of God s deputy, his
conscience, to spy and search into his heart and life, how clean and
holy both have been kept all the day, it will be a special means to
make him watchful over his ways, and exact in his carriage and
conversation. Bee-masters tell us, that they are the best hives
which make the greatest noise ; so that conscience is the best which
makes the greatest noise in daily reasonings and debates before its
own bar.
Examination is the quickest way to bring the erring sheep home
to the fold. Honest men will examine their weights and measures
by the standard, that if they be defective they may be mended.
The honest heart will examine its thoughts, its words, its actions,
by the royal law, that their unsuitableness to its strictness and lati
tude may be repented of, and to the utmost of its power reformed.
Let us search and try our ways. For what cause ? What will
be the issue of such a scrutiny ? And turn again to the Lord,
Lam. iii. 40. What man will seek to a physician, or accept his
advice, or take his prescriptions, who doth not know himself dis
tempered, and feel his disease ? It is examination of our hearts
and lives, by the holy and pure law of God, that gives the know
ledge of our spiritual sickness, and helpeth us to feel it, to prize
our physician, and thankfully and heartily to accept his directions
for our cure.
It is observed of the Dutchmen, that they keep their banks, not
withstanding the threats of the insulting ocean, with little cost and
142 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
labour, because they look narrowly to them, and stop them up in
time. If there be but a small breach, they stop it presently, and
hereby save much charge and trouble. Frequent examination will
do this courtesy for the Christian ; it will maintain his peace with
little charge and trouble comparatively. As soon as any breach is
made by sin, that arch-makebait, between God and the soul, it will
help the Christian to run presently to Christ, to heal and make it
up in heaven by his merits ; and in the soul, by his purifying and
pacifying Spirit.
The counsel which the philosopher gave the young men at
Athens may suitably and profitably be applied to Christians, That
they should often view themselves in a glass, that if they were fair
and well-featured, they should do such things as were beseeming
their amiable shape ; but if foul and ill-favoured, that then they
should labour to salve the body s blemishes by the beauties of a
mind accoutred with the ornaments of virtue and good literature.
Examination is a special preservative against sin. No children
are more bold to defile themselves, and to play with dirt, or rake
in kennels, than those who know their parents are so foolishly fond,
like David of Adonijah, that they never displease them at any time
in saying, Why hast thou done so ? The child that expecteth to
be reckoned with at night will be careful how he dirtieth his clothes
in the day.
Examination will help the Christian, if not to hinder a coming
disease, yet to prevent its growing and increase.
The ship that leaketh is more easily emptied at the beginning
than afterwards ; the bird is easily killed in the egg, but when once
hatched and fledged, we may kill it when we can catch it. A fre
quent reckoning with ourselves, will pluck sin up before it is rooted
in the soul.
Examination will help the Christian that hath fallen and bruised
himself to heal the wound whilst it is fresh, before it is festered.
This one advantage, if there were no more, is extraordinary. As
the sting of a bee, though the bee be fled, works itself into the flesh
deeper, and diffuseth its venom more strongly, causing the greater
pain, that every man, unless foolish, will speedily pull it out, lest
he increase his own anguish ; truly so doth sin ; though the honey,
the pleasure of it, be gone, yet the sting remains ; and the longer it
is before it is pulled out by faith and repentance, the deeper it works
itself into the soul, and the more sorrow it will put us to, in this or
the other world.
It is examination at night that brings the soul to mourn for and
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 143
repent of its failings in the day. It is like the tree which Ctesias
speaks of in describing India, that besides fruit, distilleth certain
tears, of which are made precious amber ; or as the drops of the
vine, it is excellent against the leprosy of sin. Ephesus would
never repent till they had examined and considered whence they
had fallen.
When sin is admitted into the soul, and as a thief in the night
stole in at unawares when the eye of the soul s watchfulness was
fallen asleep, examination will light the candle of the word, and
search the house narrowly, and find out this ill guest ; and before
it hath done so much mischief as it intended, apprehend it, indict,
condemn, and execute it.
Examination every day is like purging the body at the beginning
of a distemper, which takes it before it hath habituated itself, and
so is much the more easily repelled. An enemy may much sooner
be forced out of his holds, when he hath newly taken possession,
than when he hath continued so long as to cast up his banks, make
his ditches, placed his guns, and fortified them. After we have
been foiled by our spiritual enemies, and by examination find out
the cause, it will make us more watchful at that gate at which they
entered, and careful of that particular wherein they got the advan
tage of us. As when David had received intelligence that the
Ammonites had given his army some small defeat, he sends Joab
word of the reason they went too near the city and wisheth
him to make the battle more strong against the place, 2 Sam. xi. ;
So examination finds out the reason of a Christian s defeat by
Satan : either it was through self-confidence, or want of spiritual
watchfulness, or love to some known sin, and helpeth the saint to
bewail the cause of his defeat, and directeth him how to provide
better against the next onset
Frequent examination keepeth the conscience raw and tender,
that the least touch of sin will be offensive and troublesome to it.
When the heart is used to yield at a small willow, it will never be
quiet under a great oak. Searching into our souls makes sin more
loathsome to us. Whilst these filthy sinks are unstirred, they do
but little disturb us or annoy us with their filthy savour, but when
by examination we rake into them, their noisome stench ofiendeth
us extremely, and shews us what need we have of cleansing.
Examination every night will help the Christian to a good
night s rest. How comfortably may he lie down who hath made
all even with his Maker, and heard his everlasting Father bidding
him good-night ! How quietly may he sleep who has his pardon
144 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
under his pillow ! He needs not fear any officer to call him up at
midnight, and attach him for any treasons or misdemeanours.
It is said of Cato, that constantly at evening he would call to
mind whatever he had seen, read, or done that day. 1 It was
Pythagoras rule to his scholars, that they should no night suffer
sleep to seize their senses till they had three times recalled the
accidents and passages of the day. Oh what a shame is it that
moralists, who had no true sense of the benefit of such a duty,
should out-go the Christian in the performance of it ! that many
persons should know the chronicles of other countries or kingdoms,
some ages past, and yet not know the passages of their own souls
one day past !
Header, if thou wouldst walk closely with God, and keep even
with him, reckon daily with him, call thyself to a strict scrutiny :
What do I ? How live I ? Where am I ? Is the work I do
warrantable by the word or no ? Is my life the life of faith, of
holiness, or no ? Am I in God s way, under his protection, or no ?
Have I truth of grace, the power of godliness, or do I please myself
with the form of it ? Do I thrive and increase in grace, or do I
decay and decline ? Suppose I were to die this night, what ground
have I to hope for heaven ? What assurance that I shall escape
the power and rage of frightful devils ? What evidences have I
that I am a new creature, engrafted into Christ, and thereby
entitled to life and bliss ? Thus feel the pulse of thy soul, inquire
into its state, visit it often, and see how it doth.
Call thyself to an account for thy sins ; let heart and life sins,
open and private sins, omissions, commissions, personal, relative,
be all reckoned for. Ask thy soul, as Kebekah, Why am I thus ?
Why am I so false to my God, so unfaithful to my covenants ?
The heart is like a ditch, into which filth is continually running ;
and therefore it behoveth thee, by examination, to be always empty
ing it. The stable that is daily fouled must be daily cleansed ;
the hands that are daily contracting dirt must be daily washed.
Our souls are more polluted and diseased than our bodies; we
have always a filthy issue of sin running, which we must be daily
searching into and dressing, or our stench will make us loathsome
to, and unfit for, any communion with God or his people.
Call thyself to an account daily, for thy mercies; ask thyself,
How much am I indebted to my God ? what privative, what positive
mercies do I partake of? what old, what new, what night, what
day, mercies ? what mercies at home, what abroad ? what personal,
Cicer. de Senec.
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 145
what domestics!, what national, mercies do I enjoy, or am a sharer
in ? what bodily, what spiritual, mercies do I receive ? what time,
what talents, have I to trade with and reckon for ? This will help
the soul to be speedy and hearty in thankfulness, and force it to
David s interrogation, What shall I render to the Lord for all his
benefits ? What hot love should I return, what a holy life should
I lead ? Do this daily ; it is much better to pay sums when they
are little, than when they are large. Wise men that are able, find
it the best way to pay ready money for their wares. Neglect
herein causeth many mistakes and inconveniences, and many times
differences, among friends.
Having spoken to this particular in the sixth chapter, I shall
say no more to it here, though, indeed, I judge it next to a new
nature, not inferior to any means of godliness.
Ninthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, avoid the
occasions of sin. He that would avoid the commission of sin, must
avoid the occasions of sin. If we would not fall down the hill, we
must beware of coming near the brow of it. Keep thee far from
an evil matter. Children, which in frost venture upon the ice,
may possibly be safe, but yet many times they break their limbs,
and sometimes lose their lives. It is possible for a saint to come
off safe from occasions of sin, but is very seldom seen. A fair
booty makes many a man a thief, who otherwise might have lived
honest. It was counted, therefore, a great part of wisdom in
Alexander, when he had taken the beautiful daughters of Darius
prisoners, not to see the fair ladies, lest their beauty should have
enticed him to folly. The same word in Hebrew signifieth both
an eye and a fountain, to shew that from the eye, as from a foun
tain, sin doth too often flow. Job s practice was such, that he
would not look on a maid lest he should lust after her; and David s
prayer was, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. We
take the wind of those that are infected with contagious diseases.
The wise man gives notable counsel to men, if they would avoid
drunkenness : Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it
casteth its colour in the glass, Prov. xxiii. 31. When it laughs in
thy face, then shut thine eyes, lest it steal into thy heart. We are
ready to think, What hurt, what danger is there in beholding the
wine in the glass, sparkling and brisky? But Solomon knew,
that from looking on it, men come to like it, from liking to tasting,
from tasting to a draught, from one draught to another, till the
man is metamorphosed into a beast, Gen. xxxix. 10 ; Ps. cxix.
37. The wise Socrates could advise men to beware of those meat$
VOL. III. K
146 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
which would entice men without hunger to eat, and those drinks
which would entice a man without thirst to drink, knowing that, if
men come within those traps and baits, they are easily taken. A
guest may easily be kept out of the house at first, but if once
entertained, it is hard to turn him out of doors. When a governor
of a fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him,
there is great fear that the place will be surrendered. I have read
of one, that, having a great mind to go to Rome, yet knowing it to
be a corrupt place, and a corrupter of others, entered the city with
his eyes close shut, neither would he be persuaded to see anything
there but Peter s church, which he went to visit. Solomon per
suades his son, if he should not be enticed by the harlot, that he
would not come near her house : Remove thy way far from her,
and come not near the door of her house, Prov. v. 8.
He that carrieth always along with him a heart ready to
break out into a flame, prone to all wickedness, had need to take
heed of those bellows that will help to blow up the fire. I more
fear, saith Luther, that which is within me, than that which is from
without. When a distempered stomach comes to meet with toss
ing waves, sickness ensueth, though the prime cause is not from
the billows without, but choler within. Occasion and the heart
are like Dinah and Shechem, if they meet, they usually part not till
folly is committed. Those that desire to hinder the generation of I
vice, that brat of hell, must keep the male, occasion, and the female,
a wicked heart, asunder, one from the other. They who have
bodies always ready to take infection, must be more careful of their i
diet and company than others ; insensible vapours bring forth hor
rible tempests : Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth !
The best heart is like a flint ; there is fire in it, though it doth not!
appear ; occasion is the steel that fetcheth it forth, which, being let
alone, would be quiet. Bees in winter, being sensible of their weak
ness, keep their hives, and will not expose themselves to the sharp
air and bitter frosts, lest thereby they sicken and die. Alas ! how
weak is man, how unable to resist the occasions of sin ! no more
than the hound can forbear pursuing the hare before his eyes, and
therefore it concerns him to avoid them. A candle newly extin
guished, will quickly be lighted again. Powder meeting with a
light match presently takes fire.
For this cause, it was ordained of God in the law of the Nazarite, ,
who did for a time specially consecrate himself to God, that besides
his not coming to the dead, and suffering his hair to grow, he
should abstain from these things: 1. From wine and strong drink.
CHAP. XL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 147
2. From the vinegar of wine or strong drink. 3. From any liquor
of grapes, though it were but the water wherein they were steeped.
4. From the green or moist grape. 5. From the dried grape or
raisin. 6. From the husk or kernel of them, Num. vi. 3, 4. Had
the Nazarite eaten but the skin of the grape or raisin, he had
broken the law. Hereby the Holy Ghost would teach us that those
who separate themselves from the world, to be in a special manner
serviceable to the Lord, must avoid not only plain sin, but the
appearance of sin, and all occasions of it, though we may look upon
them but as the husks of grapes, to be of small moment, and little
danger. Beza giveth this reason why the Levite, when he saw the
man that fell among thieves, passed on fhe other side of the
way. Ne cadaveris contactu pottueretur, Lest he should be defiled
with the touch of the corpse. He would be so far from touching
a dead carcase, that he would pass on the* other side of the
way when he saw one dying : Enter not into the path of the
wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not
by it, (i.e., come not near it,) turn from it, and pass away Prov
iv. 14, 15.
He that will do all he may, will quickly do what he may not.
tt is lawful to enjoy bodily pleasures and delights, but not to buy
them with hazard to our souls. Soldiers in a garrison that venture
a the outmost line, are often snapped up by those that besiege them.
We sometimes, when in danger of a siege, burn down those houses
in the skirts of the city which might be serviceable to us, when we
sannot well defend them, lest they should prove helpful to our
metnies against us. Theseus is said to cut off his golden locks,
est his adversaries should in fight take hold of them. Even in
;hings lawful, it is commendable for Christians to deny themselves,
when there is danger, by taking liberty therein, of gratifying the
enemies of their souls. Cotis, king of Thracia, manifested possibly
nore prudence than prodigality in breaking the cupboard of curious
glasses presented to him, lest, his nature being extremely choleric
le should deal too severely with his servants in case they had broken
my of them.i Aristotle hath a story of Satyrus, that being a pleader,
ind knowing himself passionate, and in that drunkenness of the
nind apt to commit many indecencies, and to rush into foul ex-
ravagancies, he used to stop his ear with wax, lest the sense of ill
anguage should move him to choler.
Reader, as thou wouldst shun sin in the action, shun it in the
rccasion ; remember thou earnest thatch about thee, and therefore
1 Plutarch.
148 THE CH1UST1AN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
oughtest to avoid the least sparks. 1 A little wind will drive a ship
with the stream and tide, and a small temptation may carry thee
that way which thy wicked heart inclines thee. A little pulling
will draw a strong man whither he is willing to go ; it is safest,
therefore, to be out of harm s way, and the greatest magnanimity
to fly from the sight of such an enemy as sin is. He hath most
true courage who makes a timely retreat before he be wounded.
CHAPTER XII.
Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness.
A humble frame; suppressing sin in itsjirst rise; the knowledge,
of God.
Tenthly, if thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, walk
humbly with thy God. A tree, the more deeply it is rooted, the
more it groweth under ground, the more upward in fruitfulness.
The Christian will find that, by growing in humility, he shall thrive
in godliness. He that turneth his eyes upward, is ready to stumble
at every rub that lieth in his way ; but he that looketh down
ward, seeth and avoideth those stones. A proud man is like a
little man with a high-heeled shoe, raised thereby, in his own
conceit, above others of the same rank, but it fits him with many
a fall. The proud person giveth not glory to God, and therefore
must not expect that God should give grace .to him ; but the
humble man honoureth God, and sanctifieth his name, and sets
the crown on his head, and so may expect, because God hath
promised, that God should honour him, and sanctify his soul. Goa
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. He leaves
those high hills barren, but makes the valleys to abound in corn.
It is in vain to undertake to pour liquor into a full vessel, it will
all run over; but the empty vessel will receive it. The proud
person is full still of self, and so will not be thankful for an alms;
but the humble man is empty, hungering and thirsting, and he
shall be satisfied. Proud Vashti divorceth herself, and provoketh
her lord to disown and disclaim her ; but humble Esther is thought
worthy of a crown, and admitted into the king s embraces. The
fig-tree that blooms not at all, brings forth most pleasant fruit,
when the sallow, which hath most glorious palms, is barren.
Hypocrisy kills the flower of grace at the root ; pride nips it in
1 Quantum possumus a lubrico recedamus, &c. Sen. Epist. ad Lncil.
CHAP. XII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 149
the bud. Sincerity, like Paul, planteth grace ; humility, like
Apollos, watereth it, and helpeth it to flourish. We may take
notice all along in Scripture, that the humblest men were the
holiest men; and those that were eminent for any -grace, were
eminent for humility. The deepest streams were most silent, and
made the least noise. Abraham was famous for faith, strong in
faith, he believed in hope against hope, but lo, how lowly was he :
Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but
dust and ashes. So Jacob, named Israel by God himself, for his
fervency and prevalency in prayer : I am less than the least of all
thy mercies. David, that man after God s own heart : I am a worm
and no man ; as a child weaned from his mother s breasts for
humility. So Asaph, Ps. Ixxiii. 21 ; Agur, Prov. xxx. ; Isaiah, chap,
vi. 3 ; the Virgin Mary, the centurion, the Syro-Phcenician, Paul,
all, like full vessels, sounded not their own praise, and like stars,
the higher they were in holiness, the less they appeared. When
Elisabeth had conceived, she hid herself three months. They who
are most fruitful in holiness, make the least boasting of it. Lord,
said holy Hooper, I am hell, but thou art heaven ; I am full of sin,
but thou a gracious God. Bradford would subscribe his letters,
The most miserable, unthankful, hard-hearted sinner, John Brad
ford. The greater the fire of grace, the less the smoke, or show of
it, to the world. The weightiest wheat seeks for the lowest place,
when the light chaff flieth in the air.
When the sun is at the highest, the shadow is the least, and
the more directly the sun shineth on us, the less our shadow is ;
so the higher Christians are in God s favour, the lower they are in
their own eyes. The more God exalted David, the more he debased
himself : What am I, and what is my father s house, that thou
hast brought me up hitherto ? and yet thou speakest of thy servant s
house for a great while to come, 2 Sam. vii. 18, 19. This was
David s language, when Nathan brought him word that God
would build him a sure house. Those trees which spread much
and grow low, near the ground, most commonly bring forth more
and larger fruits than high trees, that aspire up into the air. The
highest trees are barren so the proud and high-minded man ; but
with the lowly is wisdom.
The humble Christian is nearer God than others, and so must
iceds thrive above others ; though God beholdeth the proud afar
iff, he dwelleth in the humble heart. The lowly Christian is most
:0vely in his eye, and shall have most of his company. God
.ppeared to Moses, not in a lofty cedar, but in a low, mean, abject
150 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
bush. If he that walketh with wise men becomes wise, and is the
better for such good company, what good doth the humble Chris
tian get by walking with his God !
Pride is li ke the remora to a ship, which will arrest it under full
sail, hinder the saint in his heavenly passage when he is making
the greatest speed ; it is like those weeds, which are of so poisonous
a nature that they will suffer no good herbs to grow near them.
The servant that hath been trusted and honoured by his lord, if
he prove a thief and steal from his lord, provokes him to take his
stock out of his hands, and to trust him no longer. The proud
man steals from God, and robs him of that glory which is due to
him; and therefore it is no marvel if he deny to trust such an
unfaithful servant with any more spiritual riches.
It is the empty barrel that makes the greatest sound. The poor
women that have nothing but a few matches, or pins, or band-
strings, or thread-laces, the men that have only a few brooms, or
some small coal or roots, make a great stir and loud noise about
the city, and would have everybody acquainted with their ware ;
when the great usurer, that is worth thousands in bills and bonds,
and the rich shopkeeper, whose estate swelleth to a vast bulk, never
proclaim what they are worth, but rather endeavour to hide it.
Those that have least spiritual riches are most guilty of boasting.
Laodicea bragged much, that was poor, and miserable, and blind,
and naked, and worse than naught. They who are fullest of faith,
and richest in good works, make the least sound. When their
hearts and lives, like the face of Moses, shine brightly with grace
and holiness, they do not, they will not, know it ; they consider
their greatest light and lustre is but a reflection from the Father oi
lights, and therefore they have no reason at all to boast of borrowed!
goods.
The worm of pride breeds soonest in rotten wood. The proud
pharisee, who justified himself, had nothing in him but matter of
condemnation ; when the poor humble publican, affected with his
own vileness and baseness, had something of worth in him, even
his sense of his own un worthiness. Brass makes a greater sound,
and is heard farther, than gold, but every one knoweth there is no
comparison between them. Chaff is seen above the wheat, not
because it is better, but because it is lighter.
Alas ! what is man ? what hath man that he should be proud ?
He is but enlivened dust, moving earth, refined clay, that which
beasts trample under their feet. He hath nothing that good is but
what he hath received. He lives wholly upon the alms and charity
CHAP. XII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 151
of another. A proud heart and a beggar s purse do not agree.
As he is a sinner, he is more vile and base, more noisome and
loathsome, than any toad, or snake, or serpent ; and hath he any
reason to be proud ? Reader, be clothed with humility ; learn of
thy Eedeemer, for he was meek and lowly in heart. Though he
thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet he made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, Phil,
ii. 7, 8.
When pride cometh, then cometh a fall. As a wrestler, if he
can lift his fellow from the ground, quickly gives him a fall ; so the
devil, if he can lift up with pride, doubts not but to throw them.
Physicians observe that the dropsy and consumption are usually
together ; when once thou swellest with this dropsy of pride, expect
a consumption of thy godliness. He walks but dangerously who
walks on high places, as on the ridges of houses and on ropes ; he
that walks below is more safe. Angels, Adam, David, Hezekiah,
Peter, and many others in Scripture, confirm the wise man s pro
verb, Pride goeth before a fall. Trees that are set on mountains
are easily shaken and torn up by the roots when stormy winds
arise. Indeed, it is no wonder that a proud man should fall into
sin, for he relieth on his own strength, which is but a broken reed.
Peter had not fallen so foully if he had not undertaken to stand
upon his own legs, which were too weak to bear his weight. But
before honour is humility. The lower the foundation, the higher
the building.
A proud man hath a great infelicity, in that he is his own
enemy, and makes all others his enemies. God is his enemy;
there is no sinner whom he proclaims such open war against,
in such express terms, as the proud : God setteth himself in
battle array against the proud. It were better earth and hell
should unite their force against him than one God. Ah, who
knoweth the power of thine anger ! Men are his enemies ; he
disdaineth others for their meanness, or poverty, or want of parts,
and they disdain him for his pride. He that overvalueth himself
shall soon be undervalued by every one. Pride makes him scorn
friends, for familiarity would deprive him, he thinks, of that reve
rence which he deserves, and therefore all must be his enemies ;
but he is his own enemy most, in cutting such a gash in his soul
by his pride, and making way for all other sins to fall on. He that
is lifted up with pride, quickly falls into the condemnation of the
devil. Satan had found this vice, pride, by experience so prevalent
to draw the creature from God, that he knew no better bait to catch
152 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
Adam with, Ye shall be as gods; and when afterwards he encoun
tered David, it was with this weapon he tempted David to number
the people.
Yet, alas ! though it be so prejudicial, how natural is it to us !
Pride is a weed, a worm that gets into the best garden. It was a
witty taunt which a proud cardinal had from a friend of his, that
upon his election went to Home on purpose to see him, where, rind
ing his behaviour stretched to nothing but pride and state, he
departed, and put on a mourning suit, and the next day comes in
black to visit him. The cardinal, asking the cause why he was
in mourning, he answered, It was for the death of humility, which
fetched its last breath in him when he was elected cardinal. Most
of us have cause to put on mourning upon the same account.
Eleventhly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, sup
press sin in the beginning. This foul bird is easiest killed in the egg.
When a fire is first broke out in a chimney, it may with much less
labour be quenched than when it hath seized the timber of the house.
What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered
stately palaces, and turned famous cities into ruinous heaps ! A
hair is but a little thing, yet some have been choked with it. If
the tetter be not killed, it will come to be a ringworm. Passion at
the first kindling may be quenched ; but if let alone, sends such a
smoke into the understanding, which thickens into a cloud, and
hinders us from the sight of ourselves and our duties. The tree
may soon be pulled up before it hath taken root, but then it may
be too hard for the strongest man. A prick with a pin or a thorn,
being let alone, hath sometimes caused the cutting off of a limb,
nay, the loss of life. Minutes to sin are like cyphers to a figure,
which quickly increase it to vast sums. Sin increaseth by degrees,
James i. 14, 15 : first it surpriseth the heart in a thought, then
it stealeth into the affections for approbation, then the affections
plead with the will for its consent, and then that commandeth the
act of it, and frequent acts cause a habit, and custom in sin causeth
despair, despair causeth men to defend sin, their defence of sin a
boasting and glorying in it, and the next step is hell. Sin is there
fore fitly by the prophet compared to a chain, for one link draweth
another.
As the ivy by little and little creepeth upon the oak, till at last
it doth destroy it, so doth sin cling about the soul, and by degrees
overrun and undo it. When the water begins to freeze, it will
hardly bear a pennyweight ; let it alone a little longer and it will
bear a shilling, then a pound weight, then a man, then a horse,
CHAP. XII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 153
then cart and load and all. As the cloud which Elijah s servant
saw was at first no bigger than a man s hand, but afterwards it
spread till it covered the heavens. Peter first denieth his Master,
then sweareth, then curseth, and forsweareth himself. Cain first
harbours envious thoughts of his brother, then murdereth him in
his heart, then kills him with his hand, then quarrelleth with God,
and despaireth. There is no staying, when we are once down the
hill, till we come to the bottom. If this giant of sin get in but a
limb, he will quickly get in his whole body. Wanton thoughts, if
not stifled, bring forth actual uncleanness. Sin is like water if we
give it the least way, run it will in spite of us. If we get not the
conquest over it in its infancy, we shall not overcome it when it is
brought to maturity. He that cannot put out a spark will be much
more unable to put out a flame. The smallest of these twigs will
prove thorny bushes, if not timely stubbed up.
The horse must be broken when a colt, and the lion tamed when
a whelp. It is best to deal with sin as Jocasta with (Edipus, to
cast it forth in its infancy. The Israelite must dash these Baby
lonian infants against the wall, if he would be a blessed man, Isa.
xiii. 18. The Christian that checketh and curbeth sin when it
first appeareth, doth, as David to the Philistine, wound it in the
forehead, and so slayeth it certainly. As the snail by little and
little creepeth up from the root of the tree to the top, consuming
the leaves as it goeth, and leaving nothing behind it but filth and
slime ; so sin gradually infecteth the whole man. This poison, if
not presently vomited up as soon as taken down, flieth to and
destroyeth the vitals. The apostle calleth it a canker, and truly
80 it is in regard of its spreading nature, both as to persons, from
one man to another, and to parts, from one faculty of the soul and
member of the body to another. How dreadful was the effect of a
few boys joining with Masaniello in Naples, A.D. 1647, whom the
officers and people laughed and jeered at instead of subduing!
What murders and burning palaces and churches did ensue and
arise from so contemptible means ! Therefore, as wise princes will
be heedful to suppress riots and petty insurrections, knowing that
if they be let alone they will break out into open rebellion, and
cause much bloodshed and mischief; so, reader, do thou stifle and
kill sin in the womb before it be quick, lest that, like the young
serpents, if brought forth, it tear out thy bowels, and its birth cause
thy death.
Twelfthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, study
the knowledge of God. It is ignorance of God that is the origin of
154 THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
all sin. Did men know the sad fruits of his fury, they durst not
by sin provoke him. Did men know the sweetness of his favour,
they would do, they would suffer anything to please him. It is
in the mist of ignorance that they lose their way, and wander from
him who is the chiefest good. The devil is bound in chains of
darkness, and so are all his children.
They who know God most, love him most, and fear him most,
and trust him most. It is life spiritual, and the seed of life eter
nal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent, John xvii. 3. All godliness, all grace, is seminally in
the knowledge of God, and floweth from it. They who with open
face behold the Lord, though but as in a glass, are changed into
his image, from glory to glory ; from one degree of grace to an
other, 2 Cor. iii. 18.
They who know the infiniteness and immensity of his being,
cannot but despise all things for him, esteem all things as nothing
to him, as nothing without him ; look on the whole creation as less
than nothing in comparison of him. Ah, what admiring, reverent
thoughts of that being of beings, of him whose name is I AM, have
they who launch a little, for it is but a little that they can here,
into this ocean ! All nations before him are as nothing, and they
are counted to him less than nothing and vanity ; they cannot but
desire and labour to enjoy so boundless a portion.
They who know the power of God cannot but fear him, and
stand in awe of his presence and threatenings. They fear him
who is able to cast soul and body into hell, Mat. x. 28 ; Heb. xii.
27, 28. They will depend on him, because there is no want which
the Almighty cannot supply, no weakness which he cannot remove,
no danger which he cannot prevent or support in. Acquaintance
with him who is mighty in strength makes the Christian resolute
in God s cause, and as bold as a lion at his call and command.
They who know the eternity of God, will choose him before tem
poral vanities. What are the pleasures of sin for a season in his
eye, who seeth the pleasures at God s right hand for evermore ?
What are the honours on earth to him who knoweth the eternal
weight of glory ? What are temporal relations in comparison of
the everlasting Father ? Nay, what is his natural life to eternal
life ? No good is little that is eternal. How great, then, is the
infinite and eternal God !
They who know the wisdom of God will submit to his providences,
and acquiesce in all his dispensations. He is wise in heart, his
understanding is infinite, and he knoweth what is best for thee, and
CHAP. XII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 155
me, and all others, and therefore there is all the reason of the world
why I should rest in his will, and be satisfied in his pleasure. It
is the Lord, saith the soul in his greatest afflictions, who is infinite
in wisdom, and knoweth what will do me most good. Let him do
what seemeth good in his eyes.
They who know the faithfulness of God will credit his word, and
make him the object of their hope and faith : They that know thy
name will trust in thee, Ps. ix. 10. His truth commandeth our trust.
We will rely on faithful men, who will not lie ; but the Christian seeth
infinitely more reason to rely on the faithful God, who cannot lie.
They who know the mercy, and love, and goodness of God, will
love, and admire, and trust, and praise him. The knowledge of his
love to us will call out our love to him, as one that deserves it,
being infinitely amiable in himself, and the more deserving of our
love for his love to such loathsome ones as we are. It will cause
us to rely on him ; for infinite love, joined with infinite strength
and faithfulness, will not, cannot, deceive us. It will help us to see
the odious nature of sin, in that it is an abuse of infinite love. The
goodness of God will lead the soul to repentance.
They who know the holiness of God will sanctify him in their
approaches to him, and walk humbly and watchfully with him.
They know that sin is loathsome to him, because contrary to his
holy nature, and therefore they hate it. They know that holiness
is lovely, as it is his image and excellency, and therefore they follow
after it. They are upright, and serious, and zealous, and humble,
and reverent in their holy performances, because therein they have
to do with such a holy God.
They who know the anger of God will stand in awe, and not sin.
They know that God is not to be mocked ; for it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming
fire. They know his fury is terrible, intolerable ; none can abide
it, no sinner can avoid it. Therefore they hate sin, the object of
it, and fly to Christ, who delivereth from it.
Oh what a work, a gracious sanctifying work, doth the knowledge
of God make in the soul ! It makes the understanding to esteem
him above all, the will to choose him before all, the affections to
desire him, to delight in him, more than all ; the whole man to seek
him, to serve him, to honour and praise him beyond all in heaven
and earth. What is the reason that God is so much loved, ad
mired, and worshipped, and glorified in his church, when all the
world besides despise him, but this, In Judah is God known : his
name is great in Israel ? Ps. Ixxvi. 1.
156 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
reader, be confident of this, the more thou knowest of the ex
cellencies of God, the more thou wilt prize his Son, submit to his
Spirit, crucify the flesh, contemn the world, fear to offend him,
study to please him, the more holy thou wilt be in all manner of
conversation.
Hence the main work of Christ s prophetical office was to reveal
God to the world.
And the devil s great work is to keep men from this knowledge
of God, knowing that it will tend so exceedingly to their sancti-
fication and holiness, and to the overthrow of his interest. The
miller muffleth and blindeth his horse that draweth his mill, and
thereby keeps him at his round, deceiving him in making him to
think he goeth forward. The first work of the Philistines was to
put out Samson s eyes, and then they made him grind at their mill,
and make them sport. The eagle, saith Pliny, (Nat. Hist., lib. x.
cap. 20,) before he setteth upon the hart, rolleth himself in the
sand, and then flieth at the stag s head, and by fluttering his wings,
so dustieth his eyes that he can see nothing, and then striketh him
with his talons where he listeth. Satan darkeneth men s under
standings, and thereby commandeth their wills and affections, and
destroyeth the whole man. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that perish, in whom the god of this world hath blinded their
minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them, 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
When men are spoken in Scripture to be vicious and profane,
they are only said not to know the Lord, and there is no knowledge
of God in the land, Jer. iv. 22 ; Hosea iv. 1 ; and when God under
takes, in his covenant of grace, to sanctify and make men holy, he
is said to put his knowledge in their hearts, and his promise is,
They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest, Heb. x. ;
Jer. xxxi. 34. And they that would grow in grace are commanded,
in order thereunto, to grow in knowledge, 2 Pet. iii. 18.
Ignorance is the mother of all irreligion, of all atheism : Eph.
iv. 18, They are alienated from the life of God through the ignor
ance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts/ As
owls, sinners may see in the night of this world, have some know
ledge in worldly affairs ; but they cannot see in the day, are ignor
ant of spiritual, of heavenly things. Sin, like the pestilence David
speaks of, walketh in the dark, Ps. xci. 5 ; and Satan is the enemy
that soweth his tares by night. This is one cause why sin is called
a work of darkness. It is from that darkness which is in men s
understandings that they turn their backs upon God, and run upon
CHAP. XII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 157
their own eternal ruins. It were impossible for the rational crea
ture to be so desperately mad as to play with the wrath of God,
and slight the love of God, to neglect his mercy, and despise his
justice, if they did but know God. When princes go incognito, in
a disguise, and are unknown, then they are disesteemed. Hence
they who are obstinately profane and resolved on wickedness say
unto God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy
ways, Job xxi. 14. The hooded hawk, that seeth not the partridge,
will never fly after it. The Israelites pitched in Mithkah, which
signifieth sweetness, before they removed to Cashmonah, which sig-
nifieth swiftness. They only who know the sweetness of God will
fly to him with swiftness. Ignoti nulla cupido. He who knoweth
the all-sufficiency of God will never turn to the creature ; even as
the bee, if it did not find honey enough in one flower, would never
hasten to another.
Those that are ignorant of God abound in all manner of atheism
and wickedness. The families which know not God will not call
on his name. There is no truth, no mercy, but lying and stealing,
and swearing and killing, where there is no knowledge of God,
Hosea iv. 1,2. It is no wonder to see blind men stumble and fall,
and break their limbs. I do not marvel to see ignorant men, who
know not God, to live without him, to turn him out of their hearts
and houses, as if they had no dependence on him, or engagements
to him.
Whence is it that men are regardless of their souls and eternal
estates, that they dance over the unquenchable lake, and are merry
and jovial at the very brink of destruction ; that they despise the
God that made them, preserveth them, bought them, and hath
them in his hands and at his mercy every moment ; that they
slight his Son, his Spirit, his law, his love, his wrath, his promises
of eternal life, as if they were things of no value, and rather fit to
be trampled on than esteemed ; that they can lie down and sleep,
and rise up and eat, and drink, and follow their sports and pleasures,
and laugh and sing under the guilt of sin and curse of the law, and
infinite wrath of the Lord, but their ignorance of God ? Ah, did
they but know his holiness, his jealousy, his power, his justice, they
would sooner undergo any misery that men could inflict on them,
than incur his anger, or provoke him to jealousy ; they would never
neglect his worship, or put him off with a few heartless prayers.
Ludentes cum Deo ut pueri cum suis pupis, as Calvin hath it ;
playing with him, as children with their babies, when they come
immediately to his presence, and pretend to seek his face.
158 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
The holy times under the gospel, wherein the people of God
should be of one heart, are spoken of as proceeding from this cause :
The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as waters
cover the sea, Isa. xi. 9. The perfection of grace and holiness in
heaven will be the effect in part of this knowledge of God. When
we shall see him (perfectly) we shall be (perfectly) like him, 1
John iii. 2.
Reader, be persuaded, therefore, to study this knowledge of God ;
think no labour too much for it ; pray, and read, and hear, and
confer, and mourn that thou mayest know God. Believe it, it is
a jewel that will pay thee well for all thy pains. Incline thine
ear unto wisdom, and apply thy heart unto understanding. Yea,
if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for under
standing ; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for
hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and
find the knowledge of God: For the Lord giveth wisdom, and out
of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding, Prov. ii. 2-6.
Did men but spend that time and strength about the knowledge of
God which they spend in endeavouring to raise their families, and
advance their parties and interest, and to suppress them that in
their apprehensions stand in their way, we should quickly have a
nation as famous for peace, and love, and holiness, as now it is
notorious for divisions and profaneness.
CHAPTER XIII.
Means whereby Christians may exercise themselves to godliness. A
contented spirit avoiding those things that hinder godliness.
Thirteenthly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, labour
to get a contented frame of heart. A settled, fixed frame of heart
as to all outward occurrences, is like ballast to a ship, which will
help it to sail trim in all waters ; whereas a discontented spirit is
as a light, small boat in the ocean, tossed about with every blast,
and always in danger of drowning. I doubt not but the great
apostle s diligence to learn this lesson perfectly I have learned in
what state soever I am to be contented ; I know how to be abased,
and how to abound, Philip, iv. 12 was a special means of his extra
ordinary growth and proficiency in grace. It is generally observed
that peevish persons, whom nothing pleaseth, are usually lean and
thin in their bodies ; but those who. are of cheerful tempers, and
CHAP. XIIL] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 159
not overmuch troubled with any disasters, are thriving and health
ful. The discontented soul, whom every heat or cold above ordin
ary puts into a fright or fever, will rather decline than increase in
his spiritual health ; but the Christian who is ever cheerful in his
God and Saviour, and lives about these lower things as one indif
ferent about them, will never be hindered by them in his work of
holiness. As a sickly man is hindered in his journey by every
storm, and ready to run to a house, or stand under a hedge, at every
shower ; so is a discontented person ready to turn aside, or stand
still, at every unexpected providence, when a contented man, like a
lusty, resolved traveller, keeps on his course whatsoever weather
comes. Godliness requires a contented mind to grow in, 1 Tim.
vi. 6. It is said of the pelican that she is caught by the shepherds
in this manner : they lay fire not far from her nest, which she find
ing, and fearing the danger of her young, seeks to blow out with
her wings so long till she burns herself, and makes herself a prey,
out of foolish pity to her young. So many men, out of unwise pity
to their relations and possessions, when they are at any time in
danger for want of this contented spirit, and quiet submission to
infinite wisdom, trouble themselves so much and so long about
them, till they make themselves a prey to Satan, and no whit pre
serve or secure those persons or things about which they are so
immoderately anxious and solicitous.
Whilst we are in this world we must expect various winds some
sharp, some warm, some nipping, some refreshing, some with us,
some against us ; and unless we are prepared for all by a holy
pliableness, we shall be injured by every one. Every strong
wind, whether with us or against us, will be ready to overturn
us if we want this ballast. There is no condition in this life
so blessed as to afford the perfection of content; and yet there
is no estate in this life so wretched but a Christian may be con
tented with it. If thou hast as much as thou wantest, thou hast
as much as in reason thou desirest, and therefore hast cause to be
contented.
The way to true riches, saith Plato, is not to increase our heaps,
but to diminish the covetousness of our hearts. It were well for
the world, saith another, if there were no gold in it ; but since it is
the fountain whence all things flow, it is to be desired, but only as
a pass to travel to our journey s end without begging. Every man
is rich, or may be so, if he will equal his mind to his estate, and be
but poor in his desires. He that hath most wants something, as
Haman, when he had the commander of one hundred and twenty
160 THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. [PART III.
provinces at command. He that hath least wants nothing, if he
wants not a contented spirit.
He that can bring his heart to an even poise in all providences
will avoid many temptations, and escape many snares in which
others are entangled. The want of this renders many a man s life
as unserviceable to God as uncomfortable to himself. The discon
tented person, like the sea, is seldom seen without storms and tem
pests. A small matter puts him out of order and joint, and so un
fits him for spiritual actions. As hot iron, the smallest drop sets
him a hissing ; like a ruffled skein of silk, every way taken to com
pose him entangleth him. Discontent, like ink poured into a bottle
of water, turns all into blackness. friend, beware of it !
It hinders from praying. A discontented man will rather pour
out his passions than any sober prayers before the Lord.
It hinders examining ourselves. Though quiet and calm waters
will, like a glass, if we look into it, shew us the image and likeness
of ourselves, yet troubled and muddy waters will make no such
representation. Though the heart, when calm and contented, may
shew us the face and features of our souls, yet if muddied by dis
content they cannot do it, John xiv. 27 ; Ps. Iv. 4, 5.
It hinders from hearing. The noise of passion drowns the voice
of the preacher. Men must with meekness receive the ingrafted
word, if they desire it should save their souls, James i.
When a fountain is troubled, there can no water be drawn out of
it but what is filthy and unsavoury. When a person is discon
tented, all his duties are distasteful and unacceptable to God.
Therefore, Christ more than once dissuades his disciples from it :
Let not your hearts be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid, John xiv. 1, 27.
Diogenes resolved, since many evils would befall him, to keep
himself steady in all. He would oppose resolution to fortune,
nature to the law, his reason to his affections. But the Christian
hath a better guide, and better grounds for contentedness.
There be several thoughts which may quiet and compose the
heart in all occurrents.
1. That infinite wisdom ordaineth whatsoever befalleth me, and
the present condition that I am in is ever best for me. If a greater
portion of outward good things had been good for me, I had had
it. My Father is not so careless of his children as to deny them
anything that is good for them ; and if it be not good for me, why
should I desire it ? He acteth without reason, as well as without
religion, who craveth^ what is hurtful to him. If my condition
CHAP. XIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 161
were cut out by the will of malicious men, I might have some
ground of grumbling; but when it is cut out by the infinite
wisdom of a gracious God, I have not the least cause of discontent-
I take it ill if my children be not satisfied with what food and
raiment I think fitten for them ; and may not God much more
take it ill at my hands if I sit not down quietly with his allowance,
be it more or less ?
2. That the smallest mercy is above my merits. If my condition
be not so good as I desire, yet it is better than I deserve ; if my
estate be not so flourishing as I would it should be, it is not so bad
as I know it might have been. Beggars must not be choosers ;
they who have nothing but of charity and alms, must be satisfied
with a bare allowance, and contentedly be at another s disposal :
Why doth living man complain? Lam. iii. 39. Man, a reason
able creature, and complain against his Maker ! Living man
complain, when the most miserable estate out of hell is a mercy to
him !
3. That, be our estate as low as it will, it is better than we
brought with us into the world. Some give us this reason why
man, when none besides of the visible creatures, is born naked,
weeping, helpless, but to teach him contentedness. Have I any food ?
I brought none with me. Is my garment coarse and thin ? I was
born naked. Am I blessed with any comforts ? I came into the
world without any : Naked came I into the world, and naked shall
I go out of the world ; the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away,
blessed be the name of the Lord/
4. That a better condition might and would make me worse.
If I were mounted high in the world, I should be like the flag at
the top of the mast, more liable to storms and winds. The full
purse invites the thief, and perhaps may occasion a stab, when the
empty pocket is secure, and the poor man may travel the road
without any such danger. Low shrubs escape many a cold blast
with which tall trees are assaulted : They have no changes ;
therefore they fear not God/ Ps. Iv. 19. Atalanta lost the wager she
ran for, by gathering up the golden apples which Hippomenes for
that purpose had thrown in her way.
5. That others, who are better than I, and more holy, are worse
for this world, and suffer more hardships. In spiritual things look
on those above thee, that by an honest emulation thou mayest
reform and amend; but in temporal things look on those below
thee, that thou mayest not complain or murmur. How many are
in fetters, wandering up and down from house and home, set upon
VOL. in. L
162 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART II
the rack of diseases, and have an ounce of misery for every drachm
which thou hast ? Stay, sirs, said the wise Harry in the fable, let our
estate content us ; for as we run from some, so others run from us.
6. That all shall work for my good. The saint is sure to thrive
by his sufferings. When children meet with nuts, or apples, or
primroses, in their way, those are ofttimes occasions to make them
loiter in their errands, incur their parents anger, and sometimes
their late return finds the door shut against them ; when such as
meet with danger make the more haste, and their speed procureth
them the greater welcome. They who meet with pleasures are apt
to loiter ; they who meet with miseries make the more haste, and
shall find the better cheer. The Christian hath a promise, and the
very Godhead of the Almighty engaged for its performance : We
know that all things shall work together for good to them that love
God, to them that are called according to his purpose/ Rom. viii.
28. Why should not the Christian, with a holy resolution, hold a
steady course in all weathers ; and though he be forced with cross
winds to shift his sails and catch at side winds, yet wisely steer and
keep on his course by the cape of good hope, when he may be
certain that every wind that bloweth shall help him forward to hisi
eternal joyful haven. Though we cannot see how some passages
of God s providence, as persecution, oppression, loss of relations on
estates, sickness or disgrace, should do otherwise than hurt and
injure us; and are ready to darken counsel by words without
knowledge, and to say, as Jacob, Joseph is not, and Simeon isi
not; all these are against rne/ Children are not, honours are not,
riches are not, liberty is not ; all these are against me. But Christ
may say to us of such severe dispensations, as once to Peter, What
I do thou knowest not now, but shalt know hereafter. The issue
will prove a truth in God s promises, and the conclusion will speak
what was in the womb of the promises. I am confident, when God
sendeth afflictions, they are at that season more fit for me than out
ward mercies ; and though at present I am ready to blaspheme, yet
when I find the fruit of them in being thereby partaker of his
holiness, I bless him for them. A Lacedsemonian woman, when
Sparta had got the day in a battle, could not only submit, but
rejoice, though her five sons were slain in the fight. If I get the.
victory over one sin, I have cause to rejoice, though it cost me some,
outward comforts.
7. That the more I repine, the worse I make my condition. A
discontented man, like one in a barrel of pikes, which way soever i
he turns, he finds something that pricks ; he is best at ease when
CHAP. XIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 1(J3
he lieth still. Murmuring turns whips into scorpions, and makes
that which would be but as a little finger, heavier than weighty
loins. They who by an even poise may sit safe in a boat when the
waters are rough, by rising up or stirring are drowned. Passions,
like rain or mist to the best firs, 1 breed vermin in the soul. Because
this man hath not what his lust craveth, he enjoyeth not what God
hath given him ; but like an ass, feedeth on herbs, whilst he carrieth
better food on his back for others. A single mischief by discontent
is made double. The prisoner galls his legs by striving with his
fetters.
8. The examples of others may have some prevalency with us ;
Abraham, Moses, Paul were eminent for this grace.
Many heathen who were ignorant of the wisdom, goodness, and
faithfulness of God, yet upon principles of morality were constant
and even in their behaviours, not changing their countenances with
the change of their fortunes and conditions, but bringing their
mind to their estates, when they could not bring their estates to
their minds. Xantippe said of Socrates that she always found him
returning home though he often met with affronts and abusive
language abroad with the same face and carriage with which he
went out. Furius Camillus was ever like himself, neither by
obtaining the dictatorship inflamed with arrogancy, nor, being
banished his country, sick with melancholy. The whole body of
Eome, after their disaster at CannaB, where their consul was slain,
and the flower of their gentry and soldiery cut off by Hannibal,
when the whole world did ring their passing bell, and judged their
fortune dying and desperate, "were even then heroic in their car
riage, and acted nothing unworthy their former greatness. In
their Asian enterprise they proposed, before the battle, conditions to
Antiochus, as if they had conquered him ; and after the fight and
victory offered him the same terms as if they had not conquered.
Abdolomius, a poor gardener, though of the king s stock, when
advanced by Alexander to be king of Zidon, and asked by him how
it was possible for him to endure his poverty with contentedness,
answered, I pray the gods I may continue the government of this
kingdom with the like mind ; for those hands were sufficient for
me to live by, and as I had nothing, so I wanted nothing.
9. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works. He doeth thee no wrong, he cannot do thee any wrong ;
now why shouldst thou complain when not injured ? It is un
reasonable to murmur when a man hath right done him.
1 Qu. furs ? ED.
164 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
10. God is gracious and good in all his dealings with thee.
If thine estate be but little, yet that little, with the fear of the
Lord, is better than the possessions of many wicked men, Ps.
xxxvii. A penny which is the earnest of some great bargain, is
another manner of thing than an ordinary penny, and more worth
than many pounds, being given and received under another notion.
Thy little is an earnest of infinitely more than thou canst imagine,
and therefore more precious than others thousands. A dinner of
herbs, with the love of thy God, is infinitely more eligible than the
stalled oxen of the wicked, and his wrath therewith. Who would
desire Eglon s present with the dagger, Sisera s milk with the
nail and hammer, and Hainan s banquet with the gallows that
trod upon the heels of it ? Truly such is the riches of every
wicked man.
The smallness of thy temporal may increase thy spiritual estate.
If God recompense thy want of earthly with a supply of heavenly
riches, thou art no loser. Nicephorus tells us of one Cyrus, a
courtier in the time of Theodosius the younger, who, through the
envious occupation of some favourites, being spoiled of his goods, of
a pagan became a Christian, and of a Christian a minister of Christ.
Eudoxia, the daughter of a philosopher in Athens, being cast out of
her father s house by unkind brethren, and coming to Constanti
nople to beseech Theodosius to right a poor orphan, found such
favour in his eyes that he made her his queen. Affliction is the
way to honour with men, to more holiness from God, when pros
perity causeth our fall both into sin and misery. He holds the
garments of his godliness fast in a boisterous wind, who would lay
it off in a sunny day.
Lastly, If thou wouldst exercise thyself to godliness, take heed
of those things that will hinder thee therein. As if a man would
have his trees to thrive, he must not only open the earth sometimes!
and mind its watering, but also lop off superfluous branches ; and;
as a gardener, if he would have his herbs and flowers to flourish,
must be sure to keep his banks and beds well weeded, as well as
dunged or watered ; so if thou wouldst thrive and flourish in godli-.
ness, there is a necessity of avoiding what is hurtful to it, as well]
as of using what is helpful.
There be several things which will keep a Christian from the
exercise of his holy calling, some of which I shall but briefly name,,
having had occasion to speak of others, and also to these, in other
chapters.
1. Avoid evil company. Wicked persons delight to have or to
CHAP. XIII.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 165
make fellows. Hence we find in Scripture that they go as the
unclean beasts into the ark in pairs : Adam and Eve, Simeon and
Levi, Ammon and Jonadab, Hymeneus and Alexander, Phygellus
and Hermogenes, Ananias and Sapphira. Can a man take fire in
his bosom and not be burned ? Expect not that the flowers of thy
graces should flourish unless these weeds be removed from them.
He that walketh in the rain must expect to be wet ; he that walketh
in the sun must expect to be tanned ; and he that walks among
polluting persons must expect to be polluted.
2. Take heed of idleness. An idle man is like a heap of dry
straw, quickly fired by the sparks of Satan s temptations, Prov.
xxviii. 19; I Tim. v. 13; 2 Thes. iii. 10, 11.
Whilst the oyster lieth gaping against the sun, he is devoured
by the crabfish. Whilst the Christian lieth lazying on the bed of
idleness, he is a prey to Satan.
The purest river water, if it stand still in a vessel, will become
unsavoury. The best corn, if not stirred, will be musty. As the
caterpillar consumeth the leaf, and the canker the rose, so will idle
ness thy godliness, Ezek. xvi. 49.
As men in war lying in the field, if they be slothful and lie lazy-
ing on the ground, must expect to be a prey to their enemies ; the
Amalekites found this by experience. The sluggard will rather be
killed than take the pains to defend himself. A slothful man, who
will not employ his stock, cannot expect to improve his stock. The
diligent hand maketh rich, in goods and in grace.
3. Love not the world. The thorns of the world hinder the
growth of the good seed of grace. This world s best, are the other
world s worst husbands. It is hard for the periwinkle in the sea to
swim, because of the house on her back ; it is impossible for them
to swim heavenward who have the world, not on their backs, but
in their hearts. The more thou delightest in this world, the more
thou wilt neglect the other world. He who is taken with, and fond
of a harlot, will quickly abate in his love to, nay cast off, his
honest wife. The palm-tree is least at the bottom, and the higher
it groweth, the thicker and greater it is, contrary to all other trees.
The higher a Christian mounts in his affections, and the more
heavenly he is, the more he will thrive in Christianity. The child
cannot thrive that feedeth on dirt ; the more a man loveth the
earth, the less he will do or suffer for heaven. Such Esaus will
sell the birthright for a mess of pottage ; such Gehazis will dis
honour and belie their master for a talent of silver ; such Achans
will destroy themselves and families, and trouble a whole Israel,
166 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
for a wedge of gold ; such Judases will sell their Lord and Saviour
for a goodly price, thirty pieces ; for a piece of bread such a one
will transgress. The fire which breaks out of this bramble devours
the cedars of Lebanon. The Athenians did set up a pillar, wherein
they published him to be an enemy to their city who should bring
gold out of Media as an instrument to corrupt them. Inordinate
love of creatures is a canker which in time will eat up the very life
of godliness. Reader, if thou art risen with Christ, seek those
things that are above, where Christ is. It is recorded by divers
historians, both of the East and West Indians, and some blacka
moors in Guinea, between both, that many subjects willingly die
with their princes, and women with their husbands ; that some men
give their wives, others their children, others their servants, to be
buried alive in the grave with their kings, to serve him, as they
conceit, in the other world ; that some women cast themselves into
the fire in .which the dead bodies of their husbands are consumed.
If these can cast away and contemn the world and all things in it
for the love of a poor wretched creature, what a shame is it to
Christians if the love of Jesus Christ, their head, their prince, their
husband, do not mortify them to the world, and make them despise
all in it, to enjoy him whilst they live, and to be with him where
he is when they die !
4. Allow thyself in no known sin. This is like a thief used to the
shop, which will steal away all thy gains, and keep thee assuredly
from thriving in thy heavenly calling. There is no possibility of
making religion thy business without the gracious concurrence on
the Holy Spirit ; he it is that must lay the foundation, rear up the
building, and perfect what he beginneth ; but thou canst not expect
his company or assistance if thou harbourest any corruption in thy
heart. Though this dove may fly to thee, desirous to make its
abode with thee, as the dove went out of the ark, yet if it behold
the earth under water, thy heart in any way of wickedness, it will
return again whence it came ; doves will lie clean, or be gone.
Bees will not continue in a stinking or impure hive; therefore
those that would not lose them, prepare the stools where they set!
them with perfumes and sweet-smelling boughs, lest ill savours
force them to forsake their stations. Thus, saith ChrysostomJ
deals the Holy Spirit ; our souls are the hives, which, if perfumed*
with grace, invite his presence, but, if polluted with any known!
sin, provoke him to depart. Oh let there not be any way of wicked-|
ness in thee, if thou wouldst run the way of God s commandments !;
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 1G7
CHAPTER XIV.
Motives inciting Christians to exercise themselves to godliness. The
vanity of other exercises. The brevity of man s life. The patterns
of others.
Thirdly, I shall annex some motives to quicken thee to exercise
thyself to godliness, and then conclude the treatise.
First, Consider the vanity of all other exercises and labours.
The wise man begins his Ecclesiastes with vanity of vanities, all is
vanity ; and after a large and exact demonstration thereof, makes
this use, and ends his book with, Hear the conclusion of the whole
matter: Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the
whole duty of man. It may be, reader, thou takest much pains
and spendest much time ; thou risest early, and sittest up late ;
and wastest thy body, and wearest out thy strength ; and toilest and
moilest about the things of this life ; but, alas ! to what purpose ?
to what profit ? The foot of all thy accounts, when at the end of
thy life the total comes to be summed up, will be only ciphers, and
signify nothing. Thou workest all this while at the labour in vain.
Like the disciples, thou fishest all night, and catchest nothing.
Thou spendest thy strength for what is not bread, and thy labour
for what will not satisfy. If the word of truth, and the God rfo
whom it is impossible to lie, may be believed, all the things of this
life separated from godliness are lying vanities, broken cisterns,
ashes, lies, wind, vanity of vanities, and things of naught, Jonah ii. 8 ;
Jer. ii. 13 ; 1 Sam. xii. 21 ; Hosea x. 13, and xii. 1 ; Eccles. i. 2 ;
Hab. ii. 13. It is Chrysostom s saying, that if he had been to preach
to all the world, and could so have spoken that all should have
heard him, he would have chosen that text, mortal men, how
long will ye love vanity, and follow after leasing ! Democritus
gave that for the reason of his continual laughter, which occa
sioned his countrymen to look on him as distracted, that when he
beheld the labour and diligence, the running and riding, the
sweating and panting, nay, the fighting and killing of men to get
one above another, and to heap up a fading treasure, he could not
but deride their folly.
Indeed, though the heathen laughed at the ridiculousness of
such persons, the sensible Christian seeth great cause to weep at
the emptiness and unprofitableness of such actions, and the mad
ness of the agents. Cyprian advised his friend Donatus to sup-
168 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
pose himself at the top of the highest mountain, and thence to
behold the tumults and chances of this wavering world, and told
him that then he could not but either laugh at it, or pity it. It is
no such wonder that brutish horses should leave good provender to
feed on litter, as some jades do ; but that men who are indued
with reasonable souls, that seeming Christians, who have a table
spread before them with hidden manna, with angels food, with
meat indeed, and drink indeed, with all the dainties of heaven,
should neglect these and feed on ashes, may well be matter both of
admiration and lamentation.
The Holy Ghost tells such, that they follow after vain things,
which cannot profit them, 1 Sam. xii. 21. All outward things are
like an olive or date stone hard to crack or cleave ; but when with
much labour they are opened, they are nothing worth.
The wise moralist, speaking of such laborious loiterers as work
hard for nothing, compares them to such as spend many months to
learn to write with their feet, and when they have learned it, are
never the better for it. Cassar compares them to such as fish for
gudgeons with a golden hook hazard more than the fish when
taken are worth. Life is precious ; health, and strength, and time
are precious, because all these have a relation to an eternal estate ;
now how foolish is he that wasteth them upon toys and trifles, and
neglecteth provision for the other world ! Surely every man
walketh in a vain show ; surely they are disquieted in vain, Ps.
xxxix. 6.
Observe, reader, how dearly men pay for their gilded nothings,
for their earthen potsherds covered with silver dross ; they walk up
and down, run hither and thither, disquiet themselves with cares
and fears, and heart-piercing frights and vexations, for a vain show :
The people labour in the fire, and weary themselves for very
vanity, Hab. ii. 13. Their work is hot and hard ; they labour in
the fire, even to lassitude and weariness. But is it about the noble
concernments of their immortal souls ? Is it that their sins may
be pardoned, the vitiosity of their natures healed, and that their
souls may be fitted for the heavenly mansions ? No, it is for very
vanity ; for that which will not afford them the least good, or make
them in any respect better or blessed. Alas ! how much below,
nay, contrary to, reason doth man act, to cast away pearls upon
swine, gold upon dross, diamonds upon dirt to throw away his
time and seasons of grace, which are more worth than rubies, than
all riches, upon that which is vanity and vexation of spirit !
It was a worthy check which Cyneas the orator gave to the
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 1G9
monstrous ambition of Pyrrhus. When that king of Epirus was
solicited by the Tarentines, and other people in Italy, to become
the head of their league against the Komans, whilst he was musing
upon that affair, his favourite Cyneas came into his presence, and
perceiving the king in a study, desires the knowledge of his
thoughts. Pyrrhus courteously opens his heart to him, and asketh
his advice whether he were best to accept of that honourable offer
or no, but resolving before to join with them, and promised himself
success. The orator answered him, That in case he should join
with them and prevail, what would he then do ? Pyrrhus told him,
Then Sardinia and Sicily will be at my command. Cyneas con
sented, and replied, What then will you do ? Pyrrhus told him,
Then Africa will soon be conquered. Cyneas asked, What then
will you do ? Then said Pyrrhus, Greece will yield to my vic
torious arms. Cyneas continued, When Greece is brought under,
what will you do next ? The king, perceiving the intention of his
favourite, replied, smiling, Then, Cyneas, we will sit still, rest our
selves, and be merry. That, said Cyneas, you may do presently
without any bloody fight or barbarous outrageous acts, without
tiresome marches, pinching quarters, tormenting fears of losing the
day, without any hazard or danger to yourself or others.
Truly, reader, I may tell thee, if thou art one that busiest thy
self about a throng of worldly businesses, and crowdest thy mind
and heart with projects and designs to increase thy heaps, and
advance thy name, and provide for thy children, and procure thy
self a comfortable subsistence for a few days, that after all thy care,
and trouble, and restlessness, and vexation, and hazards, and dan
gers, thou wilt be never the better ; thou wilt but, like them that
spend their time, and money, and thoughts for the philosopher s
stone, reap thy labour for thy pains, and find all unprofitable.
Felix Platerus is of opinion that all alchymists are mad, in being
so laborious for nothing.
May I not say to thee truly concerning thy pains and time, what
Judas did falsely concerning the ointment, To what purpose is this
waste ? To what purpose is thy waste of time, and strength, and
health ? Alas ! what profit will all thy pains bring thee in ?
The vanity of other labours will appear in that all other things
are unsuitable, deceitful, unsatisfying, vexatious, and uncertain.
1. Unsuitable to thy soul. Gold is unsuitable to hunger, food
to the sick, honour to the weary ; so are all the comforts of this
life to thy soul. What is an earthly treasure to the poor in spirit ?
what is the best physic-garden to a wounded conscience ? what are
170 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
all the dainties on the table of the creation to one that is hungry
and thirsty after the righteousness of Christ, and the grace of the
Spirit ? Bodily things are not suitable to our spirits, nor temporal
substance to an immortal soul. The fattest increase of the earth
is from the excrements of beasts, which must needs be far from
answering the nature of a heaven-born spirit.
2. Deceitful. As Jael to Sisera, the world brings forth meat to
us in a lovely dish, and saith, Come in, my lord, turn in ; but she
puts her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workman s
hammer. With the hammer she smites foolish Siseras that trust
her; she smites off their heads after she hath pierced their temples.
It serveth its greatest darlings in their extremity, as Plutarch
reporteth Pompey to have served Cicero, who, when Cicero fled to
him in his misery for succour, fled out at a back-door, and left him
to the mercy of his enemies. The world, next man s heart, is the
greatest cheat and impostor in the world. Like a host, it welcomes
us in our inns with . smiles and embraces, but kills us in our beds,
when we suspect no such matter. As the wise man wisheth thee
to be moderate and abstinent at a full table, and to put a knife to
thy throat, for they are deceitful meat ; so I may say of all the
dainties and delicates of the creation, they are deceitful meat,
pleasant, but poison. Like the bramble, the world promiseth us
protection and refreshment under its shadow, if we will suffer it to
be our king, and reign over us ; but a fire comes out of it to destroy
the cedars of Lebanon, the souls of men.
As the plover, to put a man out of his way, flieth before him,
clapping her wings, that he, minding the noise she makes, and
following her, might not find her nest ; so the world, with its noise
and clamours, its songs and music, keeps men still in admiration
of her, and hinders them from finding out her cozenage and thievery:
He that trusteth in vanity, vanity shall be his recompense, Job
xv. 31. It is reported of one Oromazes that he had an enchanted
egg, in which, as he boasted himself, he had inclosed all the hap
piness of the world ; but, being broken, nothing was found in it
save wind. Truly such is the world s inside, wind, whatever
appearance it hath in the eye of a worldling. As the forbidden
tree seemed to promise knowledge to our first parents, but it took
their knowledge from them, and brought in ignorance ; so the
world promiseth great matters, much joy and delight, but payeth
us with the contrary sorrow and horror. The worldling s voice is
like that of the thief, Come, let us lay wait, &c. ; We shall find
all precious substance, and fill our houses with spoil ; when, alas !
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 171
instead of precious substance, they find pernicious shadows ; and
instead of filling their houses with spoil, they fill their hearts with
gall and wormwood. The world, as a cunning courtezan, flattereth
and fawneth upon the young gallant, to commit spiritual unclean-
ness with her, and then casteth him from the height of fancied
delights into the depth of real horror, Prov. i. 10, 11.
3. Unsatisfying. All these sublunary comforts are but skin-
deep. As a mist, they may wet the blade, but leave the root of
the corn dry ; they may cause a smile in the face, but cannot
refresh the heart, or satisfy the soul. The countryman thinks, if
he were at the top of some high hill he should touch the heavens ;
but when, with much pains, and sweat, and toil, he is gotten
thither, he finds himself deceived. Men think if they could attain
to such a degree of honour, or such a quantity of riches, or enjoy
such brutish pleasures, then they should be satisfied, but they find
their thirst after creatures as immoderate as before ; like men in a
fever or dropsy, the more they drink, the more they desire : He
that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that
loveth gold with increase. Many men have too much of the
world, but no worldly man hath enough ; his voice still is like the
horse-leech, Give, give. Though he hath enough to destroy him,
yet he hath not enough to content him. When the Parthians had
taken Crassus, the covetous Koman who had robbed the temple,
they poured molten gold into his mouth, saying, Drink now thy
fill, thou greedy wretch, of that which thou hast so long thirsted
after. The covetous caliph of Babylon, when taken prisoner, was
set by the great Khan of Tartary in the midst of those treasures
which he had wretchedly scraped together, and bidden eat his fill
and satisfy himself, but amongst all his heaps of silver and gold
he was miserably famished. 1 The soul will starve, for all the food
which the whole world affordeth it. A worldling is like Tantalus,
who had apples at his lips and water at his chin, yet pined for
want; in the midst of his sufficiency, he is in straits. If thou
triest the whole creation, and empanellest every creature upon the
jury, to inquire where satisfaction is to be had, they will write
Ignoramus upon the bill. If thou askest the sea, it will answer, as
concerning wisdom, The sea saith, It is not in me ; and the depth
saith, It is not in me ; the earth saith, It is not in me. Ask every
worldly blessing particularly, and it will say, It is not in me.
Thou mayest call and cry to them in thy need for comfort, as
eagerly and earnestly as Kachel for children, and each will answer,
1 Turkish History, 113.
172 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
as Jacob did here, Am I in God s stead, that hath withholden thy
desire from thee ? or as the angel to the woman, Why seek ye
the living among the dead ? he is risen, he is not here/ Am T,
a poor finite being, in God s stead, to satisfy the vast desires of thy
capacious soul ? Why seekest thou living comforts amongst dead
creatures ? it is gone, it is not here. The world entertains its best
guests no better than Caligula did his favourites, whom he invited
to a feast, and when they were come, set golden dishes and golden
cups empty before them, and told them they were welcome, and
he would have them feed heartily. All the trees in the garden of
the creation are like those trees which Solinus mentioneth in
Assyria, the fruit whereof seemeth as yellow as gold, but, being
touched, is as rotten as dirt.
4. The things of this world are vexatious. Their sting paineth
far more than their honey pleaseth. They are like the Egyptian
reed, which will not only fail them that trust it, but also pierce
them with splinters, and wound them deeply sooner or later : They
who will be rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows,
1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. Instead of satisfaction, thou wilt find vexation.
The things of this world are not only wind for their vanity, but
also thorns for the vexation they cause. As when the blood is
corrupted by a poisoned arrow, it flieth to the heart, thinking to
find some remedy there ; but as soon as it toucheth the heart, it
findeth death where it looked for life. Thus men that are pressed
with miseries, run to the world as their refuge, hoping to find com
fort and refreshment there ; but, alas ! that doth increase their
afflictions, and gives them rather matter of more mourning than
any abatement of their sorrows. They who dive into the bottom
of this sea of the world, to the hazard of their lives, instead of the
pearl of contentment and happiness, which they take such pains for,
bring up nothing but their hands full of the sand and gravel of
vexation and anguish. All the ways of worldly delights are strewed
with nettles and briers, so that its greatest darlings are but like
bears robbing a bee-hive, that with much labour get a little honey,
but are soundly stung for their pains. Therefore reason, much
more religion, may sound a retreat, and call us off from our eager
pursuit of these lying vanities. Car ou il n y a rien d gagner que
des coups, volontiers il riy va pas: No man makes haste to the
market, where there is nothing to be bought but blows.
5. Uncertain. There is no constancy in outward comforts. As
brooks in winter are carried with violence, and run with a mighty
stream, flowing over with abundance of water on every side, when
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 173
there is no want nor need of waters ; but in the heat of summer is
dried up, when water is scanty and hard to be had ; such is the
friendship of the world ; it will promise us many things when we
have need of nothing ; but when the wind turns, and afflictions
overtake us, it is like a tree withered for want of sap, and as a
ditch without any water to refresh us. When the sun of our pros
perity is hid and covered with a cloud, these shadows vanish and
disappear. As leaves fall off in autumn, so doth the friendship of
creatures fail men when the sap of that maintenance which com
manded their company is withdrawn from them. Man in honour
doth not abide, Ps. xlix. As the rising sun, coming into our horizon
like a giant ready to run his race, appearing to us with a full and
glorious countenance, within an hour s space is obscured with mists,
or darkened with clouds ; and however, if it meet with neither of
these, when it arriveth at its noon-day height, it declines, descendeth,
setteth, and is buried under us ; so the ambitious person sheweth
himself to the world as chief favourite at court, with much pomp
and pride ; by and by his honour is eclipsed by the hate of the
people, or frowns of his prince, or envy of his fellow-courtiers ; or
if not, yet he dieth, and carrieth nothing away, and his glory doth
not descend after him. The like is evident of earthly treasures ;
they are soon gone, though not soon gotten. As a gallant ship,
well rigged, trimmed, tackled, manned, with her top and top-gal
lant, and her well spread sails, putteth out of harbour to the
admiration of many spectators ; but within a few days is split upon
some dangerous rock, or swallowed up of some disastrous tempest,
or taken by some ravenous pirate ; so are this world s goods on a
sudden taken from their owners, or their owners from them.
There is a hole in our strongest bags, and rust in our choicest
metal. The apostle calls riches uncertain riches, and honour a
fancy, and all the things of this world a fashion, 1 Tim. vi. 17 ;
Acts xxiv. ; 1 Cor. vii. 31. We are not certain to keep these birds
in our yards whilst we live ; for riches make themselves wings and
fly away ; but we are certain, if they do not leave us, that we shall
leave them. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we shall carry nothing out of the world.
Header, how unwise is he who neglecteth eternal substance for
fading nothings ! The Komans are recorded as guilty of much
folly, that in their fight with Mithridates, they were so eager after
their prey, that thereby they missed taking the king, who could
not otherwise have escaped their hands. Ah, how foolish art thou,
if, through thy violent pursuit of a perishing world, thou shouldst
174 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
lose an eternal kingdom ! As Constantinople was lost through the
covetousness of the citizens ; so is the crown of life and glory, the
city that hath a foundation, through men s eager endeavours after
earthly things. The beloved disciple doth not unfitly represent all
the beauties, and glories, and excellencies of this lower world, under
the name and notion of the moon, which is ever in changes, and
never looks upon us twice with the same face ; and when it is at
the fullest, is blemished with a dark spot, and next door to declin
ing, Kev. xii. 1.
An old man of Brazil, discoursing with the merchants of France
and Portugal, and perceiving the long and dangerous voyages
which they took to get riches, asked them if men did not die with
them as well as in other countries ? They told him, Yea. He
asked them who should possess their riches after their deaths?
They said their children, if they had any ; if not, their next kin
dred. Now, saith the old man, I perceive ye are fools ; for what
necessity is there for you to pass the troublesome seas wherein so
many perish, and to run so many hazards ? Is not the earth that
brought you up, sufficient to bring up your children and kindred
also? We have children and kindred that are likewise dear to
us ; but when we consider that the earth which nourisheth us is
sufficient to nourish them, we rest satisfied.
That busy bee and great trouble-world, Alexander, had a tart
yet wise reproof from Diogenes, when, being taken with the philo
sopher s witty answers, he bade him ask what he would, and he
would give it him. The philosopher desired him to grant him the
smallest portion of immortality. Alexander said, That is not in my
power to give. Then, saith the philosopher, why doth Alexander
take such pains, and make such stir to conquer the world, when he
cannot assure himself of one moment to enjoy it ! Ah ! why should
thou neglect thy God and Christ, and soul and eternal good, and
tire and weary thyself night and day, for these unsatisfying com
forts, which may leave thee to-morrow, and of which thou canst
not secure the enjoyment of one moment! If God complain of
wicked men, and threatens them with fierce wrath and fiery in
dignation for selling the righteous for silver, and the poor for a
pair of shoes, and would make them know that he valued his
people at a higher price, and would not suffer them to be sold at
such a rate ; what will become of thee if thou shouldst sell thy
soul, thy salvation, thy God, thy Christ, for silver, for vain, unsatis
fying corruptible silver, when their value is above millions of
worlds ! Oh take heed that thou dost not cast away thyself for
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 175
such transitory trifles. Let not the world s venison cause thee to lose
thy Father s blessing. It was a poor change of Glaucus to exchange
gold for copper ; but oh what a sad exchange wilt thou make to
exchange heaven for earth, the endless fruition of the blessed God
for a moment s enjoyment of creatures !
Thou wouldst condemn that mariner of folly, who, seeing a fish
in the water, should leap into the sea to catch it, which, together
with his life, he loseth. What a fool art thou, for mortal comforts
to lose an immortal crown ! The women bf Corinth, saith an
ancient father, did set up tapers at the birth of every child, with
proper names upon each of them, and that taper which lasted
longest in burning, had its proper name transferred to the child.
God himself gives the highest and richest, though conceited world
ling, his name : Thou fool, this night/ &c. Nabal is his name,
and folly is with him.
The plain truth is, the world is the ruin and destruction of men.
Its pleasures and honours make the sinner merry and jolly, as the
herb sardonia the eater, who eating dieth : They that will be
rich, fall into temptations and snares, and many hurtful lusts, which
drown men in perdition, 1 Tim. vi. 9. The world serveth its
darlings as that tyrannous emperor did his servants let them
through a sliding floor into a chamber full of roses, .that, being
smothered in them, they might meet the bitterness of death in
sweetness. Oh do not spend thy strength for that which is not
bread, but hearken to Christ, and thou shalt eat that which is good,
and thy soul shall delight thyself in fatness, Isa. Iv. 8, 4.
Secondly, Consider the brevity of thy life. He who hath but a
little time, and a great task, must work hard, or his work will not be
done. The birds know their time, and improve it. In some
countries, the shorter the days are, the faster they fly. Heathen
have been sensible of this. Theophrastus cried out on his dying
bed, Ars loTiga, vita brevis ; Time was short, and not sufficient for
human arts and sciences. Seneca saith of himself, Nullus mihiper
otium exiit dies, partem noctis studiis devovi; I lose no day
through idleness, but even devote part of the night to my studies.
The very devils follow their cursed trade with the greater diligence,
knowing that their time is short, Kev. xii. 12.
Now, reader, consider how few thy days are. What is your life ?
even a vapour, a coming and a going, a flood and an ebb, and then
thou art in the ocean of eternity. I have read of one, that being
asked what life was, was answered answerless; for the party of
whom the question was demanded only turned his back and went
176 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
away. We come into the world, and take a turn or two about in
it, and God saith, Return, ye children of men. A little child may
number the days of the oldest man. We project high things, and lay
foundations for an earthly eternity, but the longest life is less than
a drop to that ocean. Yet, alas ! the most are blown off in the
spring, and few continue to fall off in autumn. Plutarch compareth
Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, in regard of their short reign, to kings
in tragedies, which last no longer than the time in which they are
represented on the stage.
The river Hypanis in Scythia, bringeth forth every day little
bladders, out of which come certain flies, which are bred in the
morning, fledged at noon, and die at night : Man cometh up like
a flower, and is cut down : he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth
not, Job xiv. 2.
This short time posteth away with speed ; how soon do our days
vanish ! Job tells us that his little time made great haste to be
gone : My days are swifter than a weaver s shuttle, Job vii. 6.
The weaver s shuttle is an instrument of very swift motion, and so
swift that it is used for a proverb, for all things that are swift and
speedy. Radius textoris dictum proverbiale ; Radio velocius.
The Latins express it by a beam of the sun, or a word which
signifieth a ray, which is darted in a moment from one end of the
heavens to another ; such speed doth our life make to pass away.
Cardinal Bellarmine, when he had a full prospect of the sun
going down, to perceive the quickness of its motion, took a psalter
in his hand, and before he had twice read over the fifty-first Psalm,
the whole body of the sun was set, whereby he concluded, the earth
being twenty-one thousand miles in compass, the sun must go seven
thousand miles in half a quarter of an hour. However the Cardinal
might be mistaken in his reckoning, yet man s days are swifter
than a post : they flee away, they see no good. They are passed
away as the swift ships ; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey, Job
ix. 25, 26. It is our shame and misery that our days shpuld be so
swift, and we so slack ; that our time should be as speedy as a post,
or ship, or eagle, and our hearts as slow about our eternal concern
ments as a snail. Our negligence herein speaks us brutish, and
void of common sense. Reason will teach him that followeth its
directions, to be most industrious about matters of such import
ance.
The heathen historian 1 can agree with Scripture in this : Vita
nostra sicut fabula, non refert quam diu sed quam bene ; Our life
1 Liv. lib. xv. cap. 7.
CHAP. XIV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 177
passeth away, as a tale that is told ; it matters not much whether it
be long or short, but whether it be well or ill.
Surely it concerneth thee, reader, to make religion thy business,
and work the work of God, when thine everlasting happiness de-
pendeth on it, and thy time is so short that thou hast to do it in.
In the days of Ptolomeus Philopater, when the huge and great
anchor of the ship Thalmegos was laid out upon the shore, the
children of Alexandria did ride upon the stalk, and crept through
the ring of the anchor, as if it had been made purposely for their
pastime, whereas wise men knew it was appointed for better uses,
namely, to stable and make sure the great vessel in storms and
tempests.
Truly, so do too many serve time ; they play, and toy, and trifle
it away, as if God had given it to them for that end ; when he who
bath but half an eye, as we say, may see that it was given for better
purposes, viz., to furnish his soul for his eternal voyage, and
thereby to help to stablish and fasten him when he shall launch
into the stormy ocean. Protogenes made himself ridiculous in the
judgment of all that are sober, for spending seven years in drawing
Falisus and his dog ; for though the most excellent pictures are
longest in drawing, yet to spend years about that which may be
finished in days, argueth want of wisdom. But having spoken
somewhat largely to this in the sixth chapter, I am the more brief in
this.
Thirdly, Consider the examples of others, who have wrought
hard at this heavenly calling. Cicero tells us, Nothing prevails
more with men than similitudes and examples. Indeed, worthy
patterns are of great power. Thucydides brake forth into tears,
out of love to learning, upon hearing Herodotus read a history that
he had written. Themistocles tells us, the statue of Miltiades
would not sufFer him to sleep. Alexander was much provoked to
valiant acts by reading the prowess of Achilles and Hector in
Homer. Csesar was so stirred to courage by reading the conquests
of Alexander in his youth, that he wept for anger that he had done
nothing worthy of himself at that age. Iron put into the fire is
turned into fire. Consider, therefore, the prophets and apostles
of the Lord, how diligent they were at their duty, how hard they
^wrought for God.
The great apostle was indefatigably industrious for his soul and
his Saviour. Consider him in reference to his outward man, how
unwearied was he at his Master s work ! and in reference to his in
ward man, how zealous, how fervent in spirit, serving the Lord !
VOL. III. M
178 THE CHBISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
From Jerusalem to Illyricum I have preached the gospel/ His
travels are computed to be twelve thousand nine hundred and
seventy miles. He gives us, when necessitated thereunto, a brief
catalogue of his actions and passions for Christ. Are they minis
ters of Christ ? I am more ; in labours more abundant, in stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the
Jews, five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I
beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day have I been in the deep ; in journeyings often,
in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own coun
trymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils by false brethren ; in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things
which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of
all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak ? Who is
offended, and I burn not? 2 Cor. xi. 23-29.
Header, think thou hearest the apostle speaking to thee, as
once to the Corinthians, Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ.
How did our blessed Saviour work the work of him that sent him
while it was day ? He went about doing good. Godliness was
his meat and drink : I have meat to eat which ye know not of. My
meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
He wrought so hard that he forgot to eat his bread, and was taken
by his kindred to be mad. It was his sleep and rest. He went
into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
He prayed with strong cries and groans ; and being in an agony,
he prayed the more fervently. He was taken to be about fifty
years old when he was little above thirty, so much was he worn
out with labour for his God, Acts x. 38 ; John iv. 34 ; Luke vi. 12 ;
Mark i. 34 ; Heb. v. 7.
reader, let Christ be the copy after which thou wilt write, and
the pattern which thou wilt follow, and be a follower of others as
they are of Christ Jesus. Did Christ work so hard for thee; did
he lose his food, and sleep, and wear out himself, that his strength
was dried up like a potsherd, and his heart was melted like wax in
the midst of his bowels, and wilt not thou spend and be spent for thy
Saviour ? I would say for thy own soul ; for in serving him thou
servest thyself. Think of it when thou art trifling away thy time,
and neglecting thy spiritual watch, and dull and dead in holy
duties. How eager and earnest, how zealous and sedulous, thy
Lord Jesus was in working out thy salvation ! He did not play,
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 179
nor dally about the work of thy redemption, but made it his busi
ness, and did what he was called to with all his heart, and soul,
and strength.
CHAPTER XV.
The excellency of this calling, and the conclusion of the treatise.
Fourthly, Consider the excellency of this calling. As it is said
of God in respect of beings, Who is like thee, God ? Among all
the gods none is to be compared to thee ; so I may say of god
liness in respect of callings, What is like thee, godliness?
Amongst all callings none is comparable to thee.
1. It is the most honourable calling. The master that thou art
bound to is King of kings, and Lord of lords, the fountain of
honour, and Lord of glory ; one of whom the greatest princes and
potentates of the world hold their crowns and sceptres, to whom
they must kneel and do their homage ; one to whom the whole crea
tion is less than nothing. The work that thou art employed in is
not servile and mean, but high and noble ; the worship of the great
God, walking and conversing with his blessed Majesty, subduing
brutish lusts, living above this beggarly earth, a conversation in
heaven, a conflict with, and conquest over, this dreggy flesh and
drossy world, and powers of hell, to which the greatest battles and
victories of the most valiant warriors that ever drew the sword are
worse than children s play. To conquer our passions is more than
to conquer kingdoms. Themistocles is renowned by Cicero for
telling some who disparaged him for his ignorance in playing on
the lute, that he knew not how to play on the lute, yet he knew
W to take a city. To subdue one lust, is more than to subdue a
thousand cities. Thy fellow-servants are the elect of God, glori
ous angels and saints, who are higher than the kings of the earth,
princes in all lands, a crown of glory, a royal dia4em, a chosen
generation, the excellent of the earth, vessels of gold, the children
of the Most High, of whom the world is not worthy. The privi
leges of this calling and company are eminent. Adoption, remis
sion, growth in grace, divine love, perseverance in holiness, an eter
nal kingdom, are all contained in the charter granted to this cor
poration. The covenant of grace, that hive of sweetness, that mine
of gold, that cabinet of jewels, to which all the world is but a heap
of dust, is their part and portion, and contains more in it for their
comfort than heaven and earth is able to contain.
180 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
To serve God is one of the fairest flowers in the saint s garland
of honour. Hence the Lord s kinsman glorieth in being the Lord s
servant ; and the Lord s mother calleth herself his handmaid, Jude
1 ; Luke i. 38. If the meanest offices about earthly princes are
esteemed honourable, what an honour is it to wait on the King of
heaven ! The saints duty is their preferment, and that service
which is commanded them a privilege. The great apostle boasteth
of his chain for God as his glory and credit, and holdeth it up as a
mark and badge of honour : For the hope of Israel I am bound
with this chain, Acts xxviii. 20, and begins one of his epistles with
this honorary title, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, Philem. 1.
It is not earthly riches that make a man honourable ; we mis
take in calling and counting rich men the best men in the parish.
Riches without godliness are but a gold ring in a swine s snout,
for which the brute is nothing the better. It is not airy applause
or worldly preferments that will make a man honourable. Titles
are but like feathers in the hat, or glistering scarfs under the arms,
which add not the least worth to the man that wears them. A
great letter makes no more to the sense of the world than a small
one. Worship, honour, grace, highness, majesty, make nothing to
the real intrinsic value of any person. The great monarchs of the
world are but beasts in God s account. Antiochus Epiphanes,
whose name signifieth illustrious, whom the Samaritans styled the
mighty God, is called by the Holy Ghost, because of his ungodli
ness, a vile person, Dan. xi. 21 ; In his days shall stand up a vile
person. All honour without holiness is fading, as well as fancied
rather than real. External nobility, though it glitter in the face
of the world, is but, as Seneca saith, vitrea, brittle as glass, and
compounded of earth. The potentates of the world are often like
tennis-balls, tossed up on high to fall down low. Hence some of
the wiser heathen have called them ludibria fortunes, the scorn of
fortune. Haman honoured one day, the next day hanged. Geli-
mer, the puissant prince of the Vandals, Belisarius, Charles the
Fifth, and Henry the Fourth, emperors, and many others, experi
enced the brittleness of worldly glory. But that honour which is
from above is true and eternal. Plutarch tells us the Roman
nobles, as a badge of their nobility, wore the picture of the moon
upon their shoes, signifying, as their nobility did increase, so it
would decrease. All privileges, all prerogatives, all titles, all
dignities, without godliness, are vanishing shadows. It is the new
creation that rendereth the children of Abraham like the glorious
stars in heaven.
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN*S CALLING. 181
The world looks on the saint (possibly he is poor and mean in
the world) as the Jews looked on Christ, as a root out of a dry
ground, and so saw no form nor comeliness in him ; but they who
could pierce into the inside of Christ, could see that in him dwelt
the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and they who can see into the
inside of Christians, behold the King s daughter all glorious within.
As the precious stone sandastra hath nothing in outward appear
ance but that which seemeth black, but, being broken, poureth
forth beams like the sun, so the church of Christ is outwardly black
with affliction, but inwardly more bright and glorious than the sun,
with thriving virtues and celestial graces. The power of godliness
in a mean Christian is a rich treasure in a mean cabinet, but vice
in robes, in scarlet, is poison in wine, the more deadly and dan
gerous.
Tamerlane s tomb was rifled by the Turks, and his bones worn
by them for jewels, though their enemy, and one that had conquered
them in divers combats, and captivated their emperor, and carried
him up and down in an iron cage for his footstool. God makes
his people honourable in the eyes of the wicked : Since thou wast
precious in my sight, thou art honourable, and I have loved thee ;
therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. The
sons of them that afflicted thee shall bow before thee, and thine
enemies shall lick the dust, Isa. xliii. 4. A wicked king, Jehoram,
honoureth and waiteth on a servant of God, Elisha ; Herod rever-
enceth the Baptist. Grace is a powerful, though silent orator, to
persuade all that see it to love and honour it. What Diogenes
spake of learning is truly applicable to grace, or the knowledge of
God in Christ. It makes young men sober, old men happy, poor
men rich, and rich men honourable.
When Agesilaus was ready to die, he charged his friends that
they should not make any picture or statue of him : For, saith he,
if I have done anything that is good, that will be my monument ;
but if otherwise, all the statues you can make will not keep my
name alive. The Egyptians, in their funeral orations, never com
mended any for his riches, because they thought them the goods
of fortune, but for his righteousness and justice.
Piety is a lasting pillar, that causeth the righteous to be had
in everlasting remembrance. Time shall not outlive the saint s
honour : grace renders him more illustrious than ever the Mauso-
lean mountain did that Carian. As the hairs of Tarandrus are
not to be pierced with any weapon, so the name of a saint cannot
be hurt by all the slanders and calumnies of the wicked. They
182 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
who are sainted in heaven s calendar, and whose names are enrolled
in the Lamb s book of life, are truly honourable and eternally glo
rious, maugre the malice of men and devils. The disgrace which
the wicked cast on the righteous is, at worst, but like the noise of
some loud-tongued gun, ceased as soon as heard ; but the honour
which God and Scripture put upon the godly is a pillar which en-
dureth to all eternity ; such a monument as neither age, nor time,
nor envy, can waste or wear out. Demetrius, under all the obloquy
and contempt which his countrymen cast upon him, could comfort
himself in this, that though the Athenians demolished his statues,
yet they could not extinguish his virtues, the cause of raising them.
Sin is so base and beggarly, so loathsome and shameful a thing,
that not only the children of God, but even wicked men, have been
unwilling to own it, and ashamed to be taxed with it, or found out
at the commission of it ; when godliness is so high and honour
able, so noble and excellent a mistress, that those who deny the
power of it, will take upon them the form of it ; they who hate its
work, will wear its livery. There are hardly any jewels of grace,
but for each of them vice hath counterfeit stones. Oh how noble a
mistress, how honourable a lady is that, whom all pretend relation
to, and even those that hate her would not be thought her enemies,
but blush to be taxed as strangers to her !
2. It is the most comfortable and delightful calling. Satan
would represent Christians under ugly vizards, and Christianity
frightful, to make men loathe both the one and the other. As he
transforms himself, the prince of darkness, and his ways, which are
darkness, into an angel of light, and seeming light, so he endeavours
to transform Christians, who are children of light, and their holy
ways, which are paths of light, into children of darkness and paths
of darkness. He endeavours to make men think the power of god
liness antipodes to all cheerfulness ; but holiness is far from such a
crabbed face and austere countenance as he would have us fancy.
No trade hath so much mirth with it and in it ; joy is one essential
part of this calling : The kingdom of God consisteth not in meats
and drinks, but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost, Bom. xiv. 17. The servants of God do not only rejoice in
the forethoughts of their reward, to think of the time when their
indentures shall expire, and they shall enjoy the glorious liberty of the
sons of God We rejoice in hope of glory ; but also in their work.
They are joyful in the house of prayer ; they sing at their work, Thy
statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage ; nay, at the
hardest and most tiresome of their work : We rejoice in tribula-
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 183
tion. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temp
tations. Joy is the beam which is darted from the sun, the stream
which floweth from the fountain of godliness. It is observable that
the beginning, the least degree of grace, causeth joy, great joy ;
what, then, will its growth and perfection do? When Christ did
but call to Zaccheus, he came down hastily, and received him joy
fully, Luke xix. 6. When the eunuch was converted, he went
home rejoicing, Acts viii. 39. When the Samaritans had received
Christ into their hearts at Philip s preaching, there was great joy
in that city, Acts viii. 6-8. The jailer, after his heartquake, re
joiced, believing in God with all his house, Acts xvi. 34. The joy
of the saints, as it is invisible, so it is unutterable : In whom be
lieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory/ 1 Pet.
i. 8. For the measure of it, it is compared to the joy of harvest,
to the joy of the bridegroom and bride on their wedding-day, Isa.
ix. 3 ; Hosea ii. 19.
Hence it is that grace and godliness are compared to, and set
forth by, those things which are pleasant and delightful, and bring
joy with them : as music, the joy and delight of the ears ; a feast,
the joy and delight of the taste ; to light, the joy and delight of the
eyes ; life, wine, which rejoiceththe heart; perfumes, which delight
the scent ; good, the joy of the will ; truth, the joy of the under
standing. Godliness hath joy proper and suitable for every sense,
whether outward or inward. As the higher the sun is, the greater
its light is, so the holier the Christian, the greater his joy is. The
more clear the fire burns, the more comfortable it is ; smoke fetcheth
tears from our eyes. When grace burns clear, it is refreshing in
deed ; it is the smoke of sin that turns our houses into bochims,
places of weeping. When good men step awry, not pondering their
goings, then they wrench their feet, or put their bones out of joint,
and so put themselves to much pain.
Indeed, wicked men who are ignorant of the mystery of godliness,
because they see no sunshine in the faces of godly men, judge it to
be foul weather in their hearts. As the Roman soldiers, when they
entered into the Sanctum sanctorum and saw no images, presently
reported the Jews to worship the clouds ; but a Christian s joy is as
far out of wicked men s sight to discern it, as out of their power to
remove it. A stranger intermeddleth not with his joy : Your hearts
shall rejoice, and your joy shall no man take from you. A wicked
man s joy is most in his face. As a blackamore, he is white nowhere
but in his teeth. Seneca compares him to a commander in a
desperate battle, who, lest his soldiers should run away, sets a good
184 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
face on it, when he is inwardly terrified and full of fear. He is
like one in a high desperate fever, having a good colour, when his
heart is heavy, and he is at the gate of death. The godly man s
joy is most in his heart : he is like that fish which hath a rough
outside but a pearl within. When there are storms without, there
is music within peace of conscience, which passeth all understand
ing. A wicked man is as a book of tragedies, bound extraordinary,
gay and gilt on the outside, but full of doleful, dreadful stories
within ; or, as Alexander said of Antipater, he was white without,
but purple within ; his face may be white and smiling, but his con
science is red and fiery. But the godly man s inside is his best
side; though his full sacks of joy and delight are not opened till he
comes to his Father s house, yet the blessed Jesus gives him, as
Joseph the patriarchs, sufficient provision for the way. The law
gave the first fruits of the earth to God ; the gospel gives the first
fruits of heaven to men, which are both an earnest and a taste of
their glorious and everlasting harvest.
All sorrows proceed from sin. As the shadow followeth the body,
so doth grief follow guilt. Lust, like rotten flesh or wood, will
breed worms to gnaw in the sinner s bowels. Therefore it is no
wonder that Nabal, Saul, and Belshazzar, when their lusts flew in
their faces, died, or were ready to die, with horror. If a godly man
sin wilfully, and wound his soul, it is no wonder if he feel the smart
and pain of it. When David steps awry, and slips with his feet,
and falls dangerously, he may well keep his bed, and water his
couch, and cry out of his aches and broken bones ; yet the very
sorrow of a saint for sin against his God, hath more real joy and
delight in it than all the skin-deep pleasures of giggling gallants.
Crates could dance and laugh in his threadbare coat, and his wallet
at his back, which was all his wealth. The saint can rejoice in his
saddest afflictions ; though he seldom live in palaces, yet he always
lives in a paradise, having, if he be careful to keep a good con
science, a constant youth of joy and perpetual spring, as that place
they write of under the equator. The tears of those that pray,
saith Augustine, are sweeter than the joys of the theatre.
It is true, godliness doth abridge men of sinful pleasures, but it
is the more pleasant for separating itself from that which is worse
than poison. Agesilaus could taste by a natural appetite that such
pleasures are more fit for slaves than freemen. Averroes and the
rest of the Arabian philosophers are ashamed of that sensual and
beastly paradise which their Mohammed provided for them, as
most unworthy the soul of man, and infinitely short of true delight.
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MATSf s CALLING. 185
Godliness doth not deny us our natural delights, only rectify and
regulate them, lest we should surfeit on them. It doth not deny
us drink, but drunkenness : nor meat, but gluttony. Nature, even
in things in themselves lawful, would run out unlawfully if she
were not restrained. Grace only keepeth the reins in its own hands,
lest that skittish colt should, through its wantonness, break its own
neck. It is as the pale to the garden, to preserve the flowers in it
from beasts, or as a hedge to a field, to keep what is in it within
bounds. As Leonidas the captain, perceiving that his soldiers left
their watch on the city walls for the ale-houses, commanded that
the ale-houses should be removed to the city walls, that they might
both enjoy their pleasure and discharge their duties together.
Godliness alloweth men the comfort of their relations and posses
sions, only it so limiteth our delight in them, that we may not by
them be hindered from working the work of God, and minding our
eternal salvations.
Godliness brings more noble and excellent pleasures. Others are
puddle-water ; those pleasures which godliness giveth are pure and
clear streams, such as flow from God himself. There is more
sweetness in one drop of the fountain, than in all the waters of the
sea. There is more joy, more comfort, in a little communion with
God, than in the greatest confluence of creature enjoyments. Au
gustine saith, 1 How sweet was it to me on a sudden to be without
these sweet vanities ! thou, Lord, who art the true sweetness, didst
take them from me and enter in thyself, who art more pleasant than
all pleasure, and more clear than all light. The world, as they
say of fairies, deprives of true children, and puts changelings in
their room ; deprives men of true substantial joy, and gives them
shadows in the room ; but godliness, on the contrary, deprives of
painted poisons, and gives them wholesome and real pleasures.
All the comforts of this world, to a person void of grace, are but as
a sack of perfumes and medicines, and cordial drugs to the back of
a galled horse, which may vex and enrage his sores with their weight,
but do not ease or abate his pain with their virtue. A saint s life,
notwithstanding his greatest sufferings, whilst it is blessed with the
smiles of his Father, is a heaven upon earth ; but the sinner s life,
notwithstanding his honours, and pleasures, and riches, and rela
tions, whilst under the wrath of an infinite God, and anguished
with the gripings of a guilty conscience, is little less than an
earnest and taste of hell. Grace is sugar to sweeten all our crosses,
and sin is vinegar to sour all our comforts. The iron seems to
1 Conf., lib. ix. cap. 1.
186 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
embrace the loadstone with great delight, and to be rapt with an
amorous ecstasy ; so as Thales thought it animal. And yet that
motion is void of the least sense of pleasure. The wicked man
seems, by his smiling face and giggling countenance, to be the only
merry man, when he is as far from true pleasure as from true piety.
The least bee finds more delight in making and tasting a little
honey, than the great sun and all his glorious attendants in their
high and perpetual courses. The meanest Christian hath more
comfort in making sure his salvation, and tasting the sweetness of
his Saviour, than the kings of the earth and their courtiers in their
abundance of all earthly comforts.
The wise man tells us concerning the ways of wisdom, wherein
a Christian s daily walk is, Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths are peace, Prov. iii. 17 ; and the saints find them so
by experience. The word of God, which is the rule of their
work, is sweeter to them than the honey and the honeycomb, and
they delight to do the will of God. The sinner s life is an uncom
fortable life; besides those inward gripes and horror which sin
causeth in the conscience at present, and its end, the sting in the
tail, which is the eternal fire, there is trouble, and fear, and shame,
and vexation in the very act or commission of many sins. To for
give an injury, which is one piece of Christianity, is pleasant and
delightful ; but to revenge an affront, what heats and colds, what
passions and perturbations, doth it cause ! To love our neighbours,
and wish their welfare, is a. sweet thing, a reward in itself it hath
"meat in its mouth ; but to envy my neighbour, because he is richer
or more honourable, or hath larger gifts and more friends than
myself, is as rottenness to the bones; it wasteth and consumeth
the inward parts, as rust eateth out iron, according to Solomon s
phrases. A contented man hath a heaven upon earth ; all the year
with him is spring-time or summer; like a child, he takes no
carking care for food, or raiment, or house-rent, but minds his
duty, and leaves all to his Father, who knoweth what he hath need
of. But the covetous, who, like the barren womb, hath never
enough, pines with fear of want, and can neither eat, nor drink, nor
sleep quietly, lest he should lose what he hath, or not have suffi
cient to hold out ; nay, he will not allow himself convenient food
or raiment, though he have never so much ; but, like a beast, feeds
on thistles, when he hath all sorts of provision upon his back.
Temperance hath health and strength with it, and thereby renders
the other comforts of this life savoury and comfortable ; so also
chastity. But gluttony, and drunkenness, and whoredom bring
. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 187
weakness and sickness on men s bodies, and embitter all other
blessings, besides the fear of being discovered, to the shame and
iisgrace of the authors, which torrnenteth not a little. There is
3omfort in dealing honestly and righteously ; but if a man will
iheat, and cozen, and filch, and steal, no wonder if he tire his head
with plots and projects to carry it on cunningly and secretly, and
;errify his heart with apprehension that it will be known, and then
shall be branded for a knave, or suffer the penalty of law in a
more severe degree.
The sinner is hurried hither and thither by his opposite lords
and contrary lusts, and torn piecemeal by them, as a man by beasts,
which draw the parts of his body contrary ways. The commands
of sin are harsh and heavy ; no tyrant ever put his subjects upon
more crabbed, painful work ; but the commandments of God are
not grievous, 1 John v. 3. Sin is slavery, and its servant worse
;han those that row in Turkish galleys ; but God s law is a law of
iberty, and they walk at liberty who seek his precepts. The ways
of sinners are called crooked ways, rugged ways, which are un
pleasant to travel in ; but the ways of God are called straight ways,
plain paths, which are delightful to passengers. I am confident
:he true Christian hath more true pleasure in suffering for Christ,
or one act of mortification, or victory over one lust, than the highest
earthly potentate hath in his largest dominions, in the multitude of
ais subjects, in the richness of his kingdoms, and in all the honour
;hat is done him, or good things enjoyed by him all his days.
3. It is the most profitable calling. Reader, this argument is
Achilleum, or instar omnium, the strongest argument, and instead
of all ; with most men gain is the great god of this world, that com-
mandeth all their heads, and hearts, and hands, to whom they bow
down the knees both of their bodies and souls. The thief and
murderer are quickened by this to their hellish trade : Come, let us
[ay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause.
We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with
spoil, Prov. i. 11, 13. The Shechemites, upon this ground, will en
dure the pain of circumcision, and throw up their former religion :
Shall not their beasts, and their cattle, and their substance be ours ?
The soul for this will scale the walls, and leap upon the pikes, and
run upon the mouth of the cannon. The husbandman for this will
rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of carefulness, toil and moil
all day, and make a drudge, a slave, a pack-horse of himself all the
year. The merchant for this will plough the ocean, dance upon
the surging billows, suffer many dangers and deaths through his
188 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
whole voyage. The shopkeeper for this will crowd into any hole
of the city, break his sleep, waste his health, run about hither and
thither, early and late. Gehazi, Achan, Judas, Balaam, for this
will venture their bodies, their souls, any things, all things. Profit
is such a bait that all will bite at. The devil, that arch-politician,
who hath had so many thousand years experience, besides his
extraordinary natural knowledge, could not judge any topics more
likely than this to take with our blessed Saviour : All these things
will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. The gods
themselves were said by the Athenians to be corrupted with Philip s
gold, that their oracles still were in favour of him. Money is the
absolute monarch, which can put men upon the most dangerous de
signs. Therefore Cassius, surnamed the Severe, one of the wisest
of the Homan judges, in all doubtful causes that came before him.
would demand, GUI bono, Who gained, or had the profit? weU
knowing that that is the bias which turneth men aside to wrong
others ; and the heady, wanton horse, which breaks through the
fence to trespass upon neighbours.
Now, reader, if profit will prevail with thee, godliness with con
tentment is great gain. All the gold of the world is dross, all the
diamonds of the world are dirt, all the gains of the world are loss.
to this gain of godliness. Egypt watered by Nilus hath four rich
harvests, say some, in less than four months. Solinus saith the
Egyptian fig-tree beareth fruit seven times in a year. Godliness
brings forth thirty, sixty, a hundredfold increase ; it giveth a
hundredfold in this world, and in the world to come life everlast
ing, Mat. xix. 29. After ye had your fruits unto holiness, in the
end everlasting life, Rom. vi. 22. Did the sinner but believe Scrip
ture, that speaks the infinite reward of holiness, he would quickly
set up this trade. Pindar the poet saith, in regard of the fertility
of Ehodia, and the wealth of the inhabitants, that it rained gold in
that country. The fruit of wisdom is better than silver, and th(
gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies .
and all thou canst desire is not to be compared to her, Prov. iii.
14, 15.
Lucian fancieth all the heathen gods and goddesses sitting in
parliament, and each making choice of that tree which best pleased
them. Jupiter chose the oak for its strength; Apollo, the bay-
tree for its greenness ; Neptune chose the poplar for its length :
Juno chose the eglantine for its sweetness ; Venus chose the myrtle-
tree for its beauty ; Minerva, sitting by, demanded of her father
Jupiter, why, since there were so many fruitful trees, they all had
IllAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 189
shosen barren ones. He answered, Ne videantur fructu honorem
vendere, Lest they should seem to sell honour for fruit. Minerva
replied, Well, do what you please ; I for my part make choice of
jhe olive, for its fatness and fruitfulness. They all commended her
ihoice, and were ashamed of their own folly. This fiction doth
fitly represent the foolishness of men at this day, in choosing the
honours, and preferments, and glory of the world, which are barren
and unfruitful things, of no worth in the other world, before that
honour which is from God, and the eternal weight of glory, and
also the convictions of their consciences another day, which will
force them to be ashamed of their own folly ; and to commend the
;hoice of a Christian for preferring grace and godliness, which will
stand him in stead in an hour of death and day of judgment, and
Dring him in unspeakable gain, before the airy honours and wither
ing vanities of this life.
Header, if thou wilt give conscience free liberty to speak its
mind, I know it will tell thee that no calling is comparable to this
for profit.
The gain of godliness is real gain, rich gain, certain gain, eternal
2jain.
1. It is real, if the word of truth may be trusted ; its fruit is there
fore called substance, in distinction from earthly riches, which
are shadows: I will cause them that love me to inherit sub
stance.
2. It is called also true riches ; other riches are feigned. Hence
also godly men are said to be rich towards God, and other men to
be rich in this world. It is rich gain, as it hath relation to the
best part ; it makes the soul of man truly precious, as it is most
serviceable to our last end, and prepareth man for the fruition of
God, and also as its reward is unconceivable. The vessels of mercy
shall swim in an ocean of glory : Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor can the heart of man conceive what God hath laid up
for them that love him, 1 Cor. ii. 9. Its reward is beyond all expres
sion, above all apprehensions ; no comparison can fully resemble it,
no understanding conceive it.
3. It is eternal gain. Other gains are fading, deceitful brooks,
dying flowers, withering gourds, and vanishing shadows : Kiches
are not for ever/ Prov. xxix. ; Man in honour abideth not, Ps.
xlix. 12 ; The pleasures of sin are but for a season, Heb. xi. 25 ;
but this gain is for ever. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring
for ever, both in the nature of it, it is incorruptible seed, and in the
fruit of it, which is the gift of God, eternal life. Though other
190 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
trades shall all fail, as useful only in this needy world ; though other
callings shall vanish, and time itself shall be no more, yet this
trade, this calling, shall run parallel with the life of an irroaortal
soul. Though gold be a corruptible metal, the gain of this calling
is better than much fine gold ; it is an inheritance, undefiled, in
corruptible. Our work, whether in doing or suffering the will of
God, is but for a moment ; but it works for us a far more exceed
ing and eternal weight of glory. Oh what a happy good, what an
excellent gain, is that which is eternal ! Mary hath chosen the
good part, which shall never be taken from her. When thy lands
and houses shall be taken from thee, thy place and dwelling shall
know thee no more ; when thy friends and relations shall be taken
from thee Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire
of thine eyes with a stroke ; when all the comforts of this life shall
serve thee as vermin and lice do a dead man, though they stick
close to him in his life, run from him at death ; this calling will
stand by thee, encourage thee, never leave thee nor forsake thee.
In other things thou choosest for that which is most lasting. If
thou buyest a house, or beast, or suit of apparel, thou art desirous
to have that which is most durable and strong. Oh, why shouldst
thou not choose that good which is everlasting ! When Demetrius
had taken Megara, and his soldiers plundered the city, he, fearing
the philosopher Stilpo might receive some loss, sent for him, and
asked him whether any of his men had taken anything of his.
Stilpo answered, No ; for I saw no man that took my learning
from me. Godliness is such wealth, such learning, as will abide
with thee in general plunder ; indeed, neither men nor devils can
rob thee of it.
4. It is certain gain. He that sets up of this trade may be trusted,
for none ever brake of this calling. God himself, whose is the
earth and the fulness thereof, is bound for them, and hath under
taken for their preservance, and growth, and gains. The merchant
that trades into the other world, is not properly a merchant ven
turer ; for the gospel, which is the insurance office, hath engaged
infinite power, and love, and faithfulness for the security and safe
return of all the vessels which he sends forth. The promises are
all yea and amen, the sure mercies of David ; the covenant of grace,
which containeth all their gains and riches, is stable in all things,
and sure, 2 Cor. i. 20 ; Isa. Iv. 6 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
If there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies, and every
man that went promised as much gold as he would desire, and a
certainty of making a good voyage, who almost would stay at
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLIXG. 191
home ? What crowding would there be to port towns, and what
haste to take shipping.
Header, though God will not suffer this to be in reference to
earthly treasures, knowing out of his infinite wisdom how hurtful
they would be to immortal souls, yet he offereth thee all this, and
infinitely more, in calling upon thee to mind godliness. He saith
to thee, as Joseph to his brethren, Gen. xlv. 18, Come unto me,
and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat
the fat of the land. Come unto me, and I will give you the good
of Canaan, and ye shall eat the pleasant fruits of that land flowing
with milk and honey.
reader, didst thou know the worth of this jewel, thou wouldst
trample upon all the wealth of this world as dung in comparison
of it. Little dost thou think or imagine the advantage, the virtues,
of this diamond. It is the true loadstone that draweth all good to
it. Luther saith of one psalm : This psalm hath done more for me
than all the potentates of the world. I may say to thee, This call
ing will feed thee with bread that came down from heaven, and
clothe thee with fine linen, the robes of God s own righteousness ;
it will protect thee and maintain thee, it will advance and honour
thee, it will enrich and ennoble thee in life, refresh and rejoice
thee in death, crown and reward thee after death, do more for thee
than all the princes or potentates, relations or possessions, persons
or comforts upon earth can do.
In thy prosperity and enjoyment of outward good things, godli
ness would, like sugar and spice, correct their windiness, and make
them wholesome and profitable to thee. It would, like Elisha s
meal and salt, make thy meat sweet and savoury, and thy drink
pleasant and refreshing to thee. It would make thy bed soft and
easy, thy garments warm and sweet-scented. It will so far abate
thy appetite to this luscious food, that thou shouldst not feed im
moderately, to the surfeiting thy soul.
As the fiery bush which Moses saw in the mount Horeb, though
it was in a flaming fire, did not consume ; or as the shining worm,
that, being cast into the fire, doth not waste, but is thereby purged
from its filth, and made more beautiful than all the water in the
world could make it ; so affliction should not ruin, but reform and
purify thee. In the greatest danger this will be thy defence.
Though others, like the old world, are drowned, are destroyed in
these waters, yet thou shouldst ride safely in a well-pitched ark ;
and to free thee from any fear of miscarrying, the Lord himself
would shut thee in. When others are in the open air, on whom
192 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
storms and tempests have their full force, thou shoulclst be housed
in God s presence-chamber, and kept secret by his side. As
Gideon s fleece, thou shouldst be dry, when all about thee are wet.
The whale of destruction might digest thousands of mariners, but
one godly Jonah is too hard for him. The torrent of fire that ran
from jEtna, and consumed the country, yet parted itself to safe
guard them that relieved their aged parents. When the Grecians
had taken Troy, and given every man liberty to carry out his
burden, they were so taken with the devotion of .ZEneas in carrying
out first his household gods, and, upon a second license, his old
father Anchises and his son Ascanius, instead of treasures, which
others carried out, that they permitted him to carry what he would
without any disturbance. 1 Jeremiah, in the Babylonish captivity,
was tendered and regarded highly by the king of Babylon. When
Sodom was destroyed, Lot was preserved. It was storied of Troy,
that so long as the image of Pallas stood safe in it, that city should
never be won. It is true of godliness, so long as the fear and love
of thy God are within thee, so long as thou makest religion thy
business, nothing shall hurt thee, everything shall help thee. God
liness will bring in all gain, and at all times : No good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly. A child of God,
by adoption, is in some sense like the Son of God by eternal gene
ration, heir of all things : 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23, Whether Paul, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or life, or death, or things present, or things to
come, all are yours: and ye are Christ s; and Christ is God s. Nay,
the Christian s riches are not only unsearchable, Eph. iii. 8, but also
durable, Prov. viii. 15. When a wicked man dieth, all his riches
die with him. His treasure is laid up on earth, therefore, when he
leaves the earth, he leaves his treasure, Ps. xlix. 17. When a godly
man dieth, his riches follow him, Rev. xiv. 13. His treasure is in
heaven, and so when he dieth he goeth to his gains.
reader, what an argument is here to provoke thee to piety.
Godliness is profitable in all conditions, in all relations, in both
worlds. In prosperity, it will be a sun to direct thee ; in adver
sity, a shield to protect thee ; in life, it will be thy comfort, and,
which is infinitely more, in death, that hour of need, it will be thy
enlivening cordial. The smell of trefoil is stronger in a cloudy,
dark season, than in fair weather. The refreshing savour of the
sweet spices of grace is strongest in the saints greatest necessities.
When death, the king of terrors, comes to enter the list, and
fight with thee for thy soul and eternal salvation, for thy God, and
1 Dares Phryg. de bello Trojano.
ClIAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 193
Christ, and heaven, and happiness ; when all thy riches, and hon
ours, and friends, and relations would leave thee in the lurch, to
shift for thyself, as dogs leave their master when he comes to the
water, godliness would be thy shield, to secure thee against its shot,
and make thee more than a conqueror over it. Thou mightst call
thy dying bed, as Jacob the place through which he travelled, Ma-
hanaiin, a camp, for there angels would meet thee, to convey thee
safe through the air, the enemy s country, of which Satan is lord
and prince, to thy Father s house, where thou shouldst be infinitely
blessed in the vision and fruition of thy God and Saviour for ever.
Godliness would be the pilot to steer the vessel of thy soul aright
through those boisterous waters to a happy port. The Arabic
fable mentions one that carried a hog, a goat, and a sheep to the
city ; the hog roared hideously, when the other two were still and
quiet ; and being asked the reason, gave this account of her crying :
The sheep and goat have no such cause to complain, for they are
carried to the city for their milk, but I am carried thither to be
killed, being good for nothing else. The ungodly person may
well cry out sadly when sickness comes, for then guilt flieth in
his face, and conscience tells him death will kill him ; he is good
for nothing but to be killed with death, Kev. xi. 5 ; he never
honoured God in this world, and God will force honour out of
him in the other world. He may well screech out dreadfully at
the approach of death, whose body death sends to the grave, and
his soul to intolerable and unquenchable flames ; but the godly
man may bid death welcome, knowing it will be his exceeding gain
and advantage.
Header, when others, like the Israelites, are afraid, and start
back at the sight of this Goliath, thou mightst, like little David,
encounter him in the name of the Lord, and overcome him. Thou
mightst triumphantly sing in the ears of death, death, where is
thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? The Lord of life would
sweeten death to thee, and subdue it for thee ; nay, make it at
peace with thee, that thou mightst say to death, as Jacob to Esau,
I have seen thy face, as if it had been the face of God/ who hath
made thee to meet me with smiles instead of frowns. Death
would help thee to that sight, to that knowledge, to that state and
degree of holiness for which thou hast prayed, and wept, and fasted,
and watched, and laboured, and waited many a day ; as it is said
of Job, there was none like him in the earth, so I may say of this
calling, there is none like it upon the face of the earth, the very
enemies of it, in their hours of extremity, being judges. Ah, who
VOL. in. N
194 THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
would not work for God with the greatest diligence, and walk with
Grod in the exactest obedience, and wait upon God with the greatest
patience, when he is assured that, in the doing of his commands,
there is such great reward ; and those that sow to the Spirit, shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
THE CONCLUSION.
Keader, I have now ended this treatise ; but whether thou, if a
stranger to this calling, wilt put an end to thy carnal, fleshly ways, ,
and begin this high and heavenly work or no, I know not. If thou ;
art ambitious, thou hast here encouragement sufficient ; godliness ;
will ennoble thee, and render thy blood not only honourable, but j
royal. If thou art voluptuous, here is a bait which may take thee ; I
godliness will bring thee to a river of pleasures, to such dainties !
and delights as take the hearts of perfect and glorious angels. If j
thou art covetous, here is a golden weight to turn the scales of thy ]
desires and endeavours : Godliness is profitable unto all things ; it j
hath the promise of this life, and of that which is to come. When
thy house, and lands, and honours, and neighbours, and wife, and]
children, and flesh, and heart fail thee, and forsake thee, godliness ]
would say to thee, and stand to it also, as Peter to Christ, Though j
all forsake thee, yet will not I. When the world s trinity credit,!
profit, and pleasure serve their lovers and worshippers as rats and]
mice do a house, leave it when it is on fire, fly from them in their!
need and extremity, godliness would stick to thee as close, as fasti
as Euth to Naomi ; where thou goest it would go, where thoul
lodgest it would lodge ; nay, it would follow thee into the otherl
world, and abide with thee, a cordial, a comfort for ever ; it would!
give thee cause to say to it, as she to her daughter-in-law, Thoul
hast shewed more kindness to me at the latter end than at the]
beginning/
What canst thou have to object against godliness, that sets thee i
at such a distance from it ? Wilt thou believe a lying world, a!
deceitful flesh, a destroying devil, or the God of truth ? Who isj
thy greatest enemy, God or they ? Who will do thee most good, I
God or they? If thou wilt be tried by the confessions of the!
greatest enemies that godliness hath, even they, in their hours of j
extremity, will tell thee grace is of infinite worth ; godliness is the]
best of all. Ah, how happy had we been at this hour, had we been]
as faithful servants to religion as we have been slaves to foolish ;
lusts and pleasures !
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 195
If reason may be heard, tliou will not defer one moment the
entering thy name in this society, and binding thyself apprentice
to thy Saviour ; thou mayst see plainly that it is thine interest as
well as thy duty; and all thy happiness for this and the other
world dependeth on it. If Scripture may be heard, thou wilt
quickly set about thy general calling, and make religion thy busi
ness ; it calleth loudly to thee to turn thy back upon earth, and
face about for heaven ; to forsake the flesh, before the flesh forsake
thee. It telleth thee plainly, under the hand of thy Maker, that
if thou livest after the flesh, and sowest to the flesh, thou shalt die
eternally. If the conscience within thee may be heard, thou wilt
presently give a bill of divorce to thy carnal, brutish delights,
and strike a hearty covenant with Jesus Christ ; it often warneth
thee of thy duty and danger, and terrifieth thee with the fore
thoughts of that fire and fury which thou art hastening to feel.
If thy friends and relations, who have any sense of a jealous God,
and eternal estate, may be heard, then thou wilt immediately
hearken to the counsel I commend to thee from God, and exercise
thyself unto godliness. They advise, and persuade, and entreat
thee to turn over a new leaf, and lead a new life, and to mind
in thy day the things of thy peace. If the God upon whom thou
livest, by whom thou movest, from whom thou hast thy being,
may be heard, thou wilt now wink on the world, crucify the flesh,
loathe thyself for thy filth and folly, and devote thy heart and soul
to his fear. He commandeth thee by his dominion over thee, and
thy obligations to him; he threateneth, promiseth, affrighteth,
allureth, and all to make thee mind thy allegiance to him, and
the work he hath given thee to do in this world. If thy Saviour,
who humbled himself for thy sake, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and in thy nature was buffeted, scourged, and crucified,
may be heard, then thou wilt immediately take the counsel that is
given thee, and turn to the Lord with all thy heart, and loathe
thyself for all thine abominations. He pleads with thee most
pathetically, presenteth to thee the stripes and wounds which sin
caused in his blessed body; the blood which he shed, the ignominy
he endured, the agony, the death he suffered, and all to satisfy for
sin, to make himself Lord both of the dead and living. He tells
thee he gave himself for thee, to redeem thee from all iniquity, and
to purify thee to himself a peculiar child zealous of good works.
If the daily, and nightly, and hourly mercies that thou enjoyest ; if
the sickness, or pain, or loss, or disgrace, or afflictions which some
times thou sufferest, may be heard, there would not be so much
196 THE CHKISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
ado to persuade a wretched creature to be blessed, and an ungodly
person to be holy and happy. If the inanimate and irrational
creatures, the earth beneath thee, the heavens above thee, the
beasts and birds about thee, might be heard, thou wouldst, whilst
it is called to-day, now, after so long a time, attend to the call and
command of him, in whose hand is thy life and breath, and follow
after holiness, without which thou shalt never see the Lord. Shall
a centurion s servant go, when he bids him go, and come, when he
bids him come ; and wilt thou not go and come at the voice of
God? Did Balaam s ass speak at God s command, and reprove
the madness of the prophet ? Did ravens at God s command feed
Elijah ? Did caterpillars, and locusts, and frogs, and lice, execute
God s judgments upon Pharaoh? Do fire, and hail, and snow,
and vapours, and stormy winds fulfil his word ? Doth the earth
open, the rocks rend, the stars fight in their courses, waters stand
up in heaps as a wall, the moon stand still, the sun go backward,
wildernesses tremble, things cross the course of nature to obey his
pleasure, and wilt not thou obey him? man, bethink thyself!
wilt thou be worse than these irrational and inanimate creatures ?
are not thy engagements to God infinitely above theirs? What
wilt thou have to say for thyself, when every stone in the street, as;
well as star in the heavens, when every bird, and beast, and fowl,
will condemn thee ? Oh where wilt thou appear ?
I must tell thee that a perilous time, a day of extremity, ani
hour of trouble and anguish, is hastening upon thee, which thoid
canst no more escape or avoid, than thou canst fly from thyself a
when the pleasures, and delights, and honey, and beautiful counte-j
nances of those scorpions, thy fleshly lusts, will all be past and gonej
but the sting remain to pierce and torment thee ; when those dreggy!
waters in which thou bathest thyself now will all be dried up a
when all thy possessions, and preferments, and friends, and rela-j
tions will serve thee, as women their flowers when they are dead
and withered, who throw them away, or as sinking floors, that will
fail men when their weight is on them. And then, oh then, whai
wilt thou do ? Thou wilt wish that religion had been thy busi
ness, and call and crypto it, as the elders of Gilead to Jephthaj
when the children of Ammon made war with them : Come thod
and be our captain, and save us from our enemies. Come thorn
and be my captain, to save me from the curse of the law, the terrors
of my guilty conscience, the wrath of the infinite God, and tha
torments of the eternal fire. But godliness will answer thee, as
Jephtha did them : Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my,
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. 197
father s house ? and why are ye come unto me now ye are in dis
tress ? Didst not thou hate me, and expel me out of thy heart and
house ? Didst thou not deride, and jeer, and persecute me, against
all the commands, and threatenings, and promises, and entreaties
of God and his word ? And why art thou come to me now thou art
in distress ? I must tell thee, thou wilt then weep, and howl, and
lament to God, as the Israelites did in their extremity : Deliver us
only, we pray thee, this day. Lord, help me, Lord, save me, deliver
me this day from the jaws of the roaring lion ; Lord, let not hell
shut her mouth upon me. Who can dwell in everlasting burnings ?
who can abide devouring flames ? But thou mayest expect the same
answer which God gave them : Go and cry to the gods which ye
have chosen ; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
Go to the flesh, and the world ; go to thy riches, and honours, and
sinful delights, which thou hast chosen and preferred before me ;
and let them deliver thee in this time of thy tribulation. Where
are those gods, the rocks in which thou trustedst ? Let them rise
up, and help thee, and be thy protection/ Judges xi. 6, 7, and
x. 14, 15 ; Deut. xxxii. 37, 38.
A saint can sing in such a day of trial, knowing that death is
come to him as the angel to Peter, striking on his side, not to
hurt, but to awaken him, to beat off his fetters, and set him in
the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The saint and the sinner never differ so much, at least in open
view, as in their ends. Sin in the bud is sweet, but in the fruit
bitter ; and holiness, though at first draught seems not so pleasant,
yet afterwards is all sweetness.
Though the path of sin be smooth, and pleasing to thy flesh,
yet thou wilt find it slippery, and killing to thy spirit : it is like
an evening star, to usher in a night of blackness, of darkness, for
ever. The way of holiness is more harsh to the body, but the
only nectar of the soul. Ah, reader, if thou wilt but choose it,
thou wilt find by experience that it will be like Hannibal s pas
sage over the Alps, a way which will require some pains, but it
will lead thee into the heavenly paradise, as that did him into the
world s garden, Italy.
Eeader, let me therefore bespeak thee, or rather God himself:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn unto me, saith the Lord of
hosts, and I will turn unto thee, saith the Lord of hosts/ Zech.
i. 3. After all thy neglect and contempt of God and his word,
after all thy wanderings and wickedness, thou hast one call more
to turn and live, in which thy Maker doth three times pawn and
198 THE CHRISTIAN MAN S CALLING. [PART III.
interpose the authority of his name to confirm his word. The
Lord of hosts : three times he doth as it were bring his angels, his
hosts with him, in this precept and promise, as once to Sinai at
the delivery of the law. 1. As witnesses of his truth; 2. As
avengers of him on them that despise his call ; 3. As rejoicers
for those that turn unto him. friend, consider it, that God,
who might have turned thee into hell, commandeth thee now, after
all thy folly and lewdness, to turn to him ; yea, he promiseth that
if thou dost come at his call, he will meet thee half way, and turn
unto thee. It is not for his own sake that he is so earnest with
thee, for he can be happy without thee ; he hath no addition by
thy salvation, he suffereth no diminution by thy damnation ; but
he calleth on thee for thy good, that thou mightst be happy in
his favour. It was the saying of Antigona, that she ought to
please them with whom she hoped to remain for ever. Ah, doth
it not concern thee to please that God upon whom thou dependest
for thy eternal weal or woe ?
When Antiochus was in Egypt, in arms against the Eomans,
they sent P. Popilius with other anibassadors to him, where, wher
he had welcomed them, P. Popilius delivered some writings to
him containing the mind of his masters, which he commanded
Antiochus to read, which he did. Then he consulted with his
friends what was best to be done in the business. Whilst he was
in a great study. P. Popilius, with a wand that he had in his
hand, made a circle about him in the dust, saying, Ere thou stir
a foot out of this circle, return thy answer, that I may tell the
senate whether thou hadst rather have war or peace. This he
uttered with such a firm countenance, that it amazed the king ;
wherefore after he had paused awhile, he answered, I will do what
the senate hath written, or shall think fit. 1
Header, I shall only allude to it, and conclude. Thou art, if in
thy natural estate, a rebel against God ; thy heart is full of enmity,
and thy life of treason against his blessed Majesty ; thou art daily
discharging whole volleys of shot against him ; he hath sent me
as his ambassador to offer thee terms of peace, and to require thee
in his name to throw down thine arms, and to submit to his
mercy. I know thou art ready to consult with thy seeming friends,
but real enemies, the world and the flesh, what thou wert best to
do in this case ; but whilst thou art thus musing, I charge and
command thee in the name of God, and by his authority who sent
me to thee, that before thou closest the book, thou return to thy
1 Justin, lib. xxxiv. ; Jos., lib. xii. cap. 5.
CHAP. XV.] THE CHRISTIAN HAN S CALLING. 199
Maker in thy conscience thine answer, whether thou hadst rather
have peace with him, whose wrath is infinitely worse than death,
and whose favour is better than life, or war ! If, considering the
excellency, necessity, and profit of godliness, thou sayest, I will,
through the help of Christ, do all that the Lord hath written, or
thinketh fit to be done, in order to my recovery out of this estate
of woe and misery, I shall inform thee that God is ready to
receive thee, the Spirit to assist thee, thy Saviour to embrace thee,
the rich and precious promises of the gospel, containing pardon,
love, peace, eternal life, are all ready to welcome thee. But if
thou deniest thy God, thy real, able, and faithful friend, and wilt
gratify thy professed, though politic enemy, the devil, so much as
to continue in thine ungodly courses, I must assure thee that,
Phrygian-like, thou wilt repent when it is too late, and be taught
by woeful experience that it had been far better to have heark
ened to the counsels and commands of God; that with prudent
Prometheus thou mightst have foreseen a danger, and shunned
it, than to walk on in the broad way to hell with foolish Epime-
theus, without any consideration, till thou art unconceivably and
irrecoverably miserable, and plunged in that lake, and amidst
those dreadful torments, of which there is no end.
HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
To the Worshipful, and my esteemed friend, RICHARD BERESFORD,
Esq., Clerk of the Pleas to His Majesty s Court of Exchequer.
IT was the unhappiness of judicious Calvin, either through his
own mistake, or the misreport of others, to retract his first Dedica
tion of his Comment on the First Epistle to the Corinthians in
another edition, and to prefix a new name before it, viz., the noble
Galeacius Caricciolus, Marquis of Vico, wishing that either he
had not known at all, or had known more fully, the person whose
name he was forced to blot out. 1 I bless God I have not the
least cause for the like course. But this small treatise (part
whereof was formerly preached in your ears at the funeral of
your dear mother) presenteth itself this second time to your eyes,
not for your protection, (divine truths desire none from men, and
human errors deserve none from any,) but for your direction. It
containeth that in it which is able to make you wise unto salva
tion, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
You have a double right to the dedication of this book : partly
in, regard of the occasion of it ; partly in regard of the author s
obligation unto you, which is great, for your liberality; but far
greater for your encouraging of, and exemplariness in, the truth
and life of Christianity.
I did not think myself a little bound to that providence which
gave you relation to that parish whereof I was once minister, and
I suppose not without cause, when the power of godliness hath
few such considerable patrons. Men of your rank, though some-
1 Utimam quo primum tempore in lucem prodiit hie Commentarius, vel mihi
ignotus, vel saltern probe notus fuisset ille, cujus nomen huic paginse hactenus
inscriptum hinc delere cogor. Calv. Ep. Dedic. coram Comment. 1 Epist.
Corinth.
204 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
times, to stop the mouth of conscience, or for their credit, they
take up a form and profession, yet do usually neglect, if not
cursedly deride, the strictness and power of religion. They are
too often, like the moon, furthest from, and in direct opposition
unto, the Sun of righteousness, when they are at the full of out
ward plenty, and receive most light of divine bounty from him ;
their carnal hearts, as the sea, turn the showers of mercy from
heaven, and fresh streams from the earth, into the salt waters of
corruption. 1 In our natural bodies, the more fat there is, the
less blood in the veins, and, by consequence, the fewer spirits.
Greatness and goodness are beautiful and happy, but rare con
junctions. 2 You know who hath said, Not many such are called,
1 Cor. i. 26 ; and experience teacheth us, that they are like stars
of the first magnitude, thinly scattered in the firmament of a
country. How much therefore are you engaged to that distin
guishing love, which enableth you to look after the things of a
better life !
I shall take the liberty, which I know you will give, to speak
a few words to you by way of advice.
First, My counsel will be, that you would more and more
ensure your effectual calling. We say, where men intend to live
long, they build strong. I am confident all that you are worth,
for your endless condition in the other world, dependeth, under
Christ, upon your inward change. And if ever any wires had
need to be firm and strong, then questionless they upon which
such heavy weights hang as your eternal, unchangeable estate.
You have a large room in the hearts of many that are holy.
But, alas, sir, the best man s confidence of me would prove but a
bad evidence for heaven ! He is not approved whom man com-
mendeth, but whom the Lord commendeth.
The great affection which you bear to the souls of the people-
amongst whom ye were born, is worthy of imitation ; and so is
your care and cost in scattering some practical and home treatises
in several families, whereby souls may be converted, and wherein
you may have comfort at the day of Christ ; for soul-charity is
the soul of charity. But the best charity begins at home, though
it never ends there ; your main business lieth within your own
1 There is scarce one of a thousand, Cui prcesens felicitas si arrisit non irrisit.
Bern., lib. ii. De Consolat.
2 Quies hath no plural number ; God seldom giveth two hearens. Tamen
aliquando Christus voluit Reglnam in codum vehere, saith Luther of Elizabeth,
Queen of Denmark. Luth. in Epist. ad Jo. Agric.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 205
doors, to make sure that good work within you which shall be
perfected hereafter.
The ordinary security which most men trust to, will not serve
when they come in the other life to lay their claims, and shew
their deeds for the inheritance of the saints in light. Many flaws
will then be found in their evidences, which now, through their
wilful blindness, they neither see nor fear. He had need to have
armour of proof, that would enter the list with his enemy death,
and not be foiled. 1 The heart not ballasted with renewing grace,
may hold out in the calm of life, and shallows of time ; but when
it meets with the storm of death, and launcheth into the ocean
of eternity, it suffereth a desperate and everlasting shipwreck.
The want of this is the leak which sinketh many a precious vessel
(soul I mean) in the gulf of perdition.
There is as much difference between a nominal and a real
Christian, as between a lifeless picture and a living person. True
Christianity, which consisteth in the soul s humble, unfeigned
acceptation of, and hearty resolved dedication unto Christ, as
Saviour and sovereign, is a paradox to most. There are many
Christians, as Salvian complained in his time, without Christ; 2
but they which know experimentally what the sanctification of
the Holy Ghost meaneth, are few indeed. The moralist in his
best dress of civility, the formalist in his gaudy attire of cere
monies, and the hypocrite in all his royalty, is not arrayed like
one of these. I do not write these things as in the least suspect
ing your sincerity, but to quicken you to a godly jealousy over
your own soul. If the apostles and disciples needed such rousing
cautions : Take heed lest that day come upon you unawares/
Luke xxi. 34 ; Take heed lest any man fail of the grace of God,
Heb. xii. 15 ; then much more you and I, who are more drowsy
and prone to slumber, do require awakening considerations.
Secondly, That you would walk exemplarily. Man is a crea
ture which is led more by the eye than the ear, by patterns than
by precepts. Great men therefore, which are copies after which
many write, had need to be exact. You are the looking-glasses
by which others dress themselves ; the heads of the people, Deut.
i. 15 ; now the whole body will go along with the head.
You are like beacons upon a hill, visible to all. 3 The sun
1 Fallens aurum melius est quam fulgens auricalchum. Bern.
2 Christian! sine Christo. Salv.
3 Qui in excelso agunt, eorum facta cuncti mortales novere. Sallust. ad
C cesarcm.
206 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
may as soon go unseen as you unobserved. A small star may be
darkened, and none take notice of it ; but if the great luminaries
are eclipsed or obscured, a thousand eyes will be gazing on them.
A little spot in silk or scarlet is more looked on than a great one
in russet or sackcloth. A crack in a pebble is nothing so eyed or
prejudicial as a small flaw in a jewel. Corruptio optimi pessima.
Satan doth therefore plant his strongest batteries against the royal
forts of magistracy and ministry, (whoever are spared, David and
Peter shall be sifted,) knowing that he gaineth a double advantage
by their miscarriage, example, and scandal ; by which two wings
it will soar higher, and fly much further. An ordinary tradesman
may prove bankrupt without much noise ; but if an alderman or
merchant, that had a name for a great estate, breaks, the city and
country ring of it. The honour of God and credit of the gospel
are much engaged in the carriage of a gentleman that is a pro
fessor. The many eyes that look upon you, the many feet that
follow after you, and the glory of the blessed God which is con 7
cerned in you, do all call aloud to you, to have your eyes in your
head, (ses the wise man s phrase is, Eccles. ii. 14,) to make straight
paths for your feet, and to walk nobly, exactly, worthy of the Lord,
even unto all well -pleasing.
Besides, honour is apt to be a snare and temptation, and there
fore requireth the greater care and circumspection. Places of
honour are like strong meats, which, being well concocted, yield
much good nourishment, bring much glory to God, and good to
souls; but they are of very hard digestion. He must have a
strong brain that will bear much wine, and he much grace that
will walk humbly and closely with God in a high condition.
In a word, your time is little, your work is great ; your talents
are many, your account will be weighty ; your Saviour observeth
every moment how tender you are of his honour, that was so tender
of your eternal welfare ; how you testify your thankfulness to him
for all the bitter agony and ignominy which he suffered for you.
You shall shortly never more have the least opportunity (though
you would give a thousand worlds for it) to do anything in, for
God s glory, your own and others good. Work therefore the work
of him that sent you into the world, while it is the day of your life,
for the night of death is hastening on you, wherein you cannot
work. Up and be doing, and the Lord be with you.
Sir, I have no more to speak to you, but that the hearer of
prayers may hear often from you, that I may take heed to the
ministry which I have received of the Lord, and fulfil it, and to
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 207
assure you that my prayers at the throne of grace shall be, that
you and your religious consort may continue to dwell together
as fellow-heirs of the grace of life ; and your hopeful children
may be planted with, and grow up in, grace, till they shall be
transplanted into the true paradise, the kingdom of glory. This,
through the help of heaven, shall be the petition of
Your real servant in the ever blessed Saviour,
GEORGE SWINNOCK.
TO THE READER,
CHRISTIAN HEADER, There are two things which should be of
highest regard with us, a serviceable life, and a comfortable death ;
and they are both so inseparably conjoined, that in vain do we hope
for the one without the other. Which of these is to be preferred,
was a doubt which put the apostle to an anxious disquisition. On
the one side there was service, on the other side there was gain. If
he lived, he should preach Christ, if he died, he should enjoy Christ,
and remain with him for ever ; therefore Paul was at a stand, and
knew not what to determine. Surely he had a holy heart that
could thus set duty against enjoyment, and think his service worthy
to come into competition with his spiritual and eternal interests !
That which made Paul so indifferent and incurious as to the means,
was the resolved fixing of his scope his end and scope was Christ s
glory. Now, it was all one to him how God would use him to such
a purpose; as a man that is resolved upon a journey, taketh the way
as he findeth it, fair or foul ; it is enough that it leadeth him to his
journey s end ; so Christ might be glorified, either by his ministry,
or by martyrdom, Paul was indifferent ; it was enough that
Christ should be glorified. None have such an unfeigned respect
to Christ s glory but those that live in the communion of his life.
Men s tendency is according to the principle by which they are
acted; carnal men, that act by their own life, and live upon their own
root, bring forth fruit to themselves. Water riseth no higher than
its fountain ; but those that have life from Christ, use it for him; to
them to live is Christ ; as they live in him, and by him, so they live
for him, and to him. We need then to take all occasions to press
men to get into Christ, that they may live in the communion of his
life, and in the strength and influence of it be carried out to his
glory. This is that which will make life serviceable, and death
sweet ; and to this we need to be pressed by all kind of arguments
TO THE HEADER. 209
both those which are taken from God s relation to us, as also those
which are taken from our expectations from him, Kom. xiv. 8. We
are all the Lord s by every kind of right and title, and therefore
owe all manner of service to him, even though nothing should come
of it; but they that do the Lord s work will not want his wages;
though he might require our service out of mere sovereignty, yet he
conclescendeth to propound a reward, and that so full and ample,
that it should ravish our hearts every time we think of it. These
considerations, which I have here loosely discoursed of, are notably
improved in the ensuing treatise, which being communicated to me
by a friend of the author, I could not but return it with this char
acter, that it is a discourse grave and judicious, and yet quickened
with such warmth and vigour of illustration, as that it may be of
great use to awaken men unto more seriousness in the great con
cernments of their souls, among which nothing can be more momen
tous than our living in Christ, that we may live to him, and then
with him for evermore. This being signified, I leave thee to the
work itself, which I cannot but judge to proceed from one both of
a good head and heart, and profess myself
Thine in the service of the gospel,
THO. MANTON.
VOL in. o
THE
PREFACE AND EPISTLE TO THE READER
ESPECIALLY OF THE PARISH OF RICKMERSWORTH IN
HERTFORDSHIRE, AND BORDEN IN KENT : AS ALSO
THE OCCASION OF THIS TREATISE.
I HAVE sometimes considered with myself, (not without some re
morse and grief of spirit,) the multitudes of men and women, that
even in those places where the word of God is plainly and power
fully taught, run headlong in the broad way which leadeth to
destruction. And, indeed, if my head were waters, and mine eyes a
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night, (though every
tear were a tear of blood,) I could never sufficiently bewail the slain
of the daughter of my people, of that parish to which the provi
dence of God hath called me.
That the lying vanities of this world should by most be so,
greedily pursued, and the real mercies relating to a better world
so wretchedly despised ; that a brutish flesh, which must shortly
be food for worms, should be so highly prized and constantly gra
tified, and an angelical spirit, the soul, which must live for ever,
be so basely slighted and unworthily neglected ; that every soul-
damning lust should be so heartily embraced, and the soul-saving
Lord but coldly and complimentally entertained ; that the road to
hell should be so exceedingly filled, and the way to heaven almost
wholly unoccupied ; surely this ought to be for a bitter lamenta- .
tion ; and oh, what sea of blood is enough to bemoan this horrid :
wickedness !
It hath seemed to me, therefore, a matter worthy of diligent;
inquiry, what special malefactors should be indicted for these many!
soul-mischiefs, and soul-murders, which are committed amongst us.
PREFACE. 211
And truly, by that acquaintance which I have with the word of
God, and experience of the soul-affairs of men, I find, though many
accessories might be named, that ignorance ought to be arraigned
and condemned as one of the principals : The people perish for
want of knowledge, Hosea iv. 6. Inner darkness is the beaten
path to utter darkness, to the blackness of darkness for ever. Men
in this mist of ignorance, like ships, run upon those rocks which
split them eternally. As the Indians prefer every toy and trifle
before their mines of gold ; so they every sensual, sinful pleasure,
every foolish, perishing creature, before the beautiful image of God,
the unsearchable riches in Christ, the endless happiness in heaven ;
because they know not the vanity and emptiness of the former, the
excellency and preciousness of the latter. Ignoti nulla cupido. Did
men know the gift of God, and who it is that speaketh to them,
and what he offereth, they would ask of him, and he would give
them living waters, John iv. 10.
What is the reason that so many make a mock of sin, and dance
merrily over the infernal pit, and play with the unquenchable fire,
but ignorance ? The child doth not know that the fire will burn
him. As the horse, they rush into the battle fighting against God
and their souls not knowing it will be to their destruction, to their
damnation. These Balaams run greedily after the wages of un
righteousness, not seeing the angel that standeth in the way with a
drawn sword in his hand ready to kill them. Did they know what
they do, when they wilfully break God s law, they would sooner
leap into a furnace of scalding lead, than provoke so jealous a God.
But sin goeth in a disguise, and thence is welcome ; like Judas, it
kisseth and kills ; like Joab, it salutes and slays. The foolish sin
ner seeth the pleasant streams of Jordan, but not the Dead Sea,
into which they will certainly empty themselves to his ruin.
What is the reason that the devil carrieth so many captive at
his will, leadeth them whither he pleaseth, but ignorance ? They
are ignorant of his wiles, of his devices ; they know not, as drunken
Lot of his daughters, when he cometh, nor when he goeth. The
prince of darkness takes up his throne in dark understandings :
The god of this world blindeth their minds, 2 Cor. iv. 4, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine upon them.
How easy is it for him to lead blind men out of the way, and then
to destroy them ! As Pliny saith the eagle deals with the hart, she
lights upon his horns, and there flutters up and down, filling his
eyes with dust, borne in her feathers, that at last he may cast him
self from the rock, and so be made a prey unto her ; so the wicked
212 PREFACE.
one bindeth a muffler before men s eyes, and then turneth them off
the ladder, and executes them.
What is the cause of men s scandalous practices, but ignorance ?
The dark corners of the earth are full of the habitation of cruelty,
Ps. Ixxiv. 20 ; the flood-gates of wickedness are open, when the
door of knowledge is shut. The cause why there was no mercy nor
truth in the land, but swearing, and lying, and stealing, commit
ting adultery, and blood touching blood, was ignorance, Hosea iv.
1, 2. This is the root of bitterness on which those cursed fruits
grow ; this is the blind captain which, like Zilpah, hath a Gad
a troop of enormities following him. Paul thanks ignorance for
his blasphemy and persecuting the church, 1 Tim. i. 13. The
reason why the heathen did not call on God, was because they did
not know him, Ps. Ixxix. 6. The most ugly and monstrous wick
edness which ever was hatched or brought forth, calleth ignorance
mother. Had they known, they would never have crucified the
Lord of glory/ 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; Acts iii. 15, 17. What Augustine
saith of original sin, is, in some respects, true of ignorance ; it is
peccatum, pc&na peccati, et causa peccati; it is a sin as contrary to
the law of God, which requireth men to know him, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9 ;
Lev. v. 15, 18. It is the punishment of sin, as the fruit of our
apostasy from God ; it is the cause of sin, as toads and serpents
grow in dark cellars ; as blind ale-houses are sinks and sources of
all villanies, so are dark and blind hearts. They are strangers
to the life of God through the ignorance that is in them/ Eph.
iv. 18.
What is the cause of men s erroneous principles, but ignorance ? 1
They err, not knowing the Scriptures, Mat. xxii. 29. Impostors,
like cozening tradesmen, when they have men in a dark shop, put
what rotten, deceitful ware they please into their hands ; they lead
captive silly women, that are ever learning, and never coming to
the knowledge of the truth, 2 Tim. iii. 6, 7. Heretics, like nurses,
may put meat or poison into their mouths who are babes in under
standing; they that are children in knowledge will be tossed to
and fro with every wind of doctrine. The blind man eats many a
fly, and the ignorant man swallows many an error. Men will
easily be brought to deny the truths which they understand not,
and to speak evil of the things which they know not/ Jude 10.
Simul ac desinunt ignorare, desinunt odisse, saith Tertullian (in
Apolog.) of them that condemned the Christian religion.
1 Ignorantise duse pessimae filise, Falsitas et Dubietas. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xxii.
cap. 22.
PKEFACE. 213
What is the reason that men put God off, either with no service
or worship at all, or else with a few cold, superficial, lazy duties,
without either heat or life, but their ignorance ? They know not
the majesty, purity, jealousy, and severity of God ; they worship
they know not whom, and therefore they worship him they care not
how. Their altars are of any slight form or fashion, because, like
the Athenians, they are dedicated to the unknown God ; they that
know not their master s will cannot obey it. Some cry up their
good meanings to excuse their ignorance ; but ignorant devotion is
like feet without eyes, which the farther they carry men, the
greater is their wandering and woe.
What is the reason that men take up short of Christ, and renew
ing grace ; that they please themselves with the shadow instead of
the substance of religion ; that they cry peace, peace to their souls,
only upon some outward privileges, or a few inward good meanings,
as they call them, when they are in a most damnable condition,
and sudden destruction is ready to seize on them, as travail on a
woman with child, which they cannot escape. Surely it is ignor
ance of the nature of Christianity and sanctification ; they know
not what regeneration is, and what faith and repentance are, which
are the conditions upon which salvation may be had. Therefore
they rest in forms, which will fade, when their hearts and lives
deny the power of godliness. This, this is, not as papists would
persuade their deluded votaries, the mother of devotion, but the
monster which causeth such hideous births of corruption ; this is
the epidemical disease that reigneth all the year long, and killeth,
I fear, more souls than any of our new distempers doth bodies:
For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
which shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pres
ence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Thes. i. 7-9.
This, this is the source of men s sins on earth, and eternal suffer
ings in hell.
But one would think such truths as these might be seasonable in
Turkey or India, or in Spain and Italy, where the tree of know
ledge is forbidden fruit, where they may not read their Father s
mind in their mother tongue ; but is it possible that in England,
where the will and word of God is more powerfully preached, more
practically applied, more clearly discovered, than in any nation of
the world, there should be any ignorant persons ? Alas, alas ! we
find by woeful experience that there are many, very many, Indians
214 PREFACE.
and heathen, for ignorance, in England ; men and women that
know as little of God and holiness, of Christ, his natures, offices, of
true faith and repentance, as if they had been born and bred up
all their time in Turkey or India. I am ashamed to write what I
know of the sottish, stupid, hellish ignorance of many, and some
that are aged too, that are going to die, and yet never knew what
it was to live, either to God or their souls. The good Lord affect
my heart more with the danger and dreadfulness of their eternal
conditions !
Oh how sad is it that so many precious souls should lie lazing on
their beds of security and idleness, and though the sun shine
brightly in upon them, they will not draw their curtains and open
their eyes to behold it ! That in a valley of vision, a Goshen, a
land of light, thousands should live and die in worse than Egyp
tian darkness ; that the Bible should be a sealed book to them, and
almost every one have the dark side of that glorious pillar towards
him!
Header, to cure this soul-murdering distemper, I have endea
voured, according to the trust committed to me, and the grace be
stowed on me, to discover in this treatise the life in Christ, or true
Christianity, with the matchless, endless felicity that accompanieth
it ; as also the nature and danger of unregeneracy, with the means
to come out of it, by which thou mayest see that many cozen their
souls with counterfeit coin (false evidences for heaven) instead of t
true, which will not abide the touchstone of Scripture ; and so, like :
Uriah, they carry those letters about them, though they know it .
not, which will at last cost them their lives, and cause their eternal i
deaths. That there is no fool like the sinner who selleth his soul
for a song; his Saviour, his eternal happiness, the unspeakable,
pleasures at God s right hand for evermore, for the perishing, empty-
profits, and base, brutish pleasures of sin, which are but for a
season. That, though sin be delightful in the act, to carnal
wretches, yet it will be bitterness in the end. It will be a bitter
sweet to all its lovers, when for their momentary pleasure they
shall be recompensed with eternity of intolerable, unconceivable
pain ; that it is not for nothing that ministers call so loudly and
earnestly to thee to kill those lusts which would kill thee, and to
follow after holiness, without which no man shall ever see the
Lord/ Heb. xii. 14. It will teach thee that God and Christ,
heaven and hell, thy soul and eternity, death and judgment, are not
things to be dallied with ; believe it, thou wilt one day find that it
is bad jesting with such edged tools. Surely the greatest serious-
PREFACE. 215
ness that is imaginable is too too little for them. Oh hadst thou
but the thousandth part of that seriousness about them which they
deserve and call for at thy hands, thou wouldst have other manner
of thoughts of them, and carriage towards them, than now thou
hast. Well, I have four special things at present from the living
God to commend to thee, and leave with thee, in order to thine
eternal good, (I know not how soon I may be taken from thee.) If
thou lovest thy soul, practise them faithfully ; if not, answer the
contrary when thou and I shall meet in the other world, at the great
and terrible day of the Lord Jesus.
First, Do thou labour for the knowledge of God and his Son,
thyself, and the duty which thou owest to thy Maker and Kedeemer.
Hast thou not read the doleful consequence of ignorance? and
doth it not nearly concern thee to get out of that damnable condi
tion?
Without this thou canst never be religious, notwithstanding all
thy pretences that thou meanest well, and hast as good a heart as
the best : If thou knowest not the God of thy fathers, thou canst
never serve him with a perfect heart/ 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. All thy
worship will be but wild, and wandering from God ; all thy services
but the sacrifice of a fool The foundation of obedience must be
laid in knowledge, Mai. i. 8 ; till then thou offerest up to the Lord,
the lame and blind, which he will not accept. God expecteth
reasonable services, Eom. xii. 1 ; such for which thou canst give
a good reason out of his word, which must be the warrant of thy
worship. Be not therefore in shape a man, a reasonable creature,
and, as Nebuchadnezzar, in heart a beast; be not as the horse
and mule, which hath no understanding, Ps. xxxii. 9.
Without knowledge thou canst not be saved : If the gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that perish, 2 Cor. iv. 3. Wilful ignorance
is a sad sign that thou art in God s black bill. If God will ever
have thee to be saved, he will bring thee to the knowledge of this
truth, 1 Tim. ii. 4. When Haman s face was covered, his execu
tion was near. Do not delude and destroy thy soul by presuming
that thy ignorance will not damn thee; for if thou art without
knowledge, he that made thee will not save thee, and he that
formed thee will shew thee no mercy, Isa. xxvii. 11. Mark,
reader, but this one place, Ps. xcv. 10, 11, where the God of truth con-
firmeth it by an oath, that they which do not know his ways shall
not enter into his rest. One would think that a prisoner should be
both earnest and diligent to learn his neck verse, who knoweth he
must be hanged if he cannot read ; and dost not thou read in broad
216 PREFACE.
characters, in the word of God, that thou must be an eternal monu
ment of divine fury in hell, if thou dost not learn to know the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ? Doth it not then
behove thee to be diligent for knowledge ?
1. How shouldst thou wait on the word of God, which enliveneth
the mind, and maketh wise the simple ! Ps. xix. 7, 8. David had
more understanding than the ancients, because God s word was his
meditation, 1 Ps. cxix. 98, 99. Watch at wisdom s gate, with a
humble, hungry soul, and God may fill thee with good things. God
maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by his ministers in every
place, 2 Cor. ii. 14. If thou wouldst see, go where the sun shineth.
2. Ply the throne of grace with incessant prayers, that God
would enlighten thy mind in the knowledge of his will. 2 If any
man lack wisdom or knowledge, let him ask it of God, who giveth
liberally, and upbraideth not, James i. 5. Entreat him to open
thine eyes, that thou mayest see the wonderful things "contained in
his law, Ps. cxix. 18. I If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest
up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seekest her as silver, and
searchest for her as for hid treasure ; then shalt thou understand the
fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord
giveth wisdom ; out of his mouth cometh knowledge and under
standing, Prov. ii. 3-6.
3. Take heed of sinning against those commands which thou
knowest. Hold not the truth in unrighteousness. Do not wanton
away the light, lest God give thee up to judiciary darkness. Thou
knowest thou shouldst pray with thy family, and in secret ; make
conscience of the Lord s day, instruct thy children, forbear drunken
ness, swearing, lying, uncleanness, and the like. Be sure thou do
not shut up this knowledge in thy conscience, and deny it in thy
conversation, lest, as a candle pent up in a dark lantern, it swail
out quickly : If any man will do my will, he shall know my doc
trine whether it be of God or no, John vii. 17. To practise what
you know is the way to know what to practise. Knowledge is the
mother of obedience, it breeds it ; and obedience is the nurse of
knowledge, it feedeth and nurtureth it. If thou improvest thy little
stock well, doubt not but God will add to it and increase it ; leave
no means untried for the obtaining this purchase. I have offered
to instruct thee to my power in the mysteries of Christ, appointed
also days for that end ; it may be thou art one of those many that
art too old to learn, that scorn to be taught. I would ask thee one
question, and think of it, Art thou not too old to be saved ? Dost
1 Auditus est sensus discipline. 2 Bene orasse est bene studuisse.
PREFACE. 217
thou not scorn to go to heaven ? Surely thou dost ; by contemning
the way, thou scornest the end. Well, take heed thou dost not die
without knowledge ; for if thou dost, all the world cannot keep thee
one quarter of an hour out of hell, and then thou wilt have time
enough to befool thyself for refusing a good offer, and wilfully
rejecting, through thy pride, those things which concerned thine
eternal peace. I shall conclude this head with the words of that
eminent and pious writer : :
How long, saith he, may a poor minister sit in his study before
any of the ignorant sort will come upon that errand i.e., to learn
the knowledge of God and themselves ? Lawyers have their clients,
and physicians their patients ; these are sought after, and called
up at midnight for counsel ; but, alas ! the soul, which is more
worth than raiment and body too, that is neglected, and the min
ister seldom thought on till both these be sent away. Perhaps,
when the physician gives them over for dead, then we must come
and close up their eyes with comfort, which were never opened to
see Christ in his truth, or else be counted cruel because we will not
sprinkle them with this holy water, and anoint them for the king
dom of heaven, though they know not a step of the way that leads
to it. Ah, poor wretches, what comfort would you have us speak
to those to whom God himself speaks terror ! Is heaven ours to
give to whom we please ? or is it in our power to alter the laws of
the Most High, and save those whom he condemns ? Do you re
member the curse that is to fall upon his head that maketh the
blind to wander out of the way ? Deut. xxvii. 18 ; what curse
then would be to our portion if we should confirm such blind souls
as are quite out of the way to heaven encouraging them to go on,
and expect to reach heaven at last, when, God knows, their feet
stand in those paths that lead to eternal death ? No, it is written,
we cannot. God will not reverse it ; you may read your very
names among those damned souls which Christ comes in flaming
fire to take vengeance on, 2 Thes. i. 8. And therefore, in the fear
of God, let this provoke you, of what age or sex, rank or condition
soever you be, to labour for the saving knowledge of God in Christ,
whom to know is life eternal, John xvii. 3.
Secondly, Do not rest in bare knowledge, but endeavour to get
thy will, affections and heart renewed. A clear head must be
accompanied with a clean heart ; saving knowledge is ever a sanc
tifying knowledge. Content not thyself with anything short of
regeneration and the power of godliness. Mr Kobert Bolton, when
1 Mr Gurnal, Arm., part i. pp. 239, 240.
218 PREFACE.
dying, told his children that he verily believed none of them durst
think to meet him at the great tribunal in an unregenerate estate ; *
so I am confident that none of you can with any comfort, nay,
without unspeakable horror and sorrow, meet me at the bar of
Christ in your natural estates. Oh how sad will it be for thee that
art now asleep in sin, to awake, like the jailer, at the midnight of
death, and to find this inward change, this new creation, this life
in Christ missing! what a heartquake will possess thee! how
pale and trembling wilt thou spring into the presence of Christ in
the other world for thy particular judgment ! Consider, thy profes
sion will not serve turn ; the storm of death will wash out all
colours of profession that are not laid in the oil of renewing grace,
Mat. xxv. 8.
Thy privileges will not do it ; circumcision is nothing, nor un-
circumcision, but a new creature, Gal. vi. 15. Thou mayest enjoy
Scripture, and Sabbaths, and sacraments, and many seasons of
grace, and hell at last ; nay the higher thy exaltation, in regard
of these privileges, if thou diest unconverted, the greater thy con
demnation will be. None go to such chambers of utter darkness
as they that are lightened thither with the torches of ordinances.
Heathen will keep holiday in hell in comparison of those that are
now lifted up to heaven and perish. If the sweetest wine make
such sharp vinegar, and the cold lead when melted be so hot and
scalding, how pure and weighty will that wrath be which shall be
extracted out of abused love and mercy ! Grace is the sweetest
friend, but the bitterest enemy. If thou waste the riches of grace,
God will recover out of thee riches of glory. Thy performances
also can be no infallible evidence of thy good estate. The pharisees
prayed, fasted, did, many of them, abound in outward acts of
charity, righteousness, and holiness (which are commanded by
God, and must be minded by all that will be saved) ; and yet
Christ telleth us expressly, that except our righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, we shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of heaven, Mat. v. 20. There was in them,
as in the young man, one thing wanting, and that was the re
generation of their natures, the actual predominancy of the interest
of God and Christ in their hearts, above all interest of the flesh and
world. I beseech thee, therefore, make sure of the new birth, with
out which it is impossible for thee to escape the second death. I
have in the third use of this treatise endeavoured to awaken thee to,
and to direct thee about, this great work, as in the first use I have
1 Mr Bolton s Life by Mr Bagshaw.
PEEFACE. 219
discovered the unspeakable endless misery of them that die before
it be done. Those which had the sudor Anglicus, or sweating sick
ness, died assuredly if suffered to sleep ; those were their best
friends that kept them waking, though they possibly had little
thank for it. It may be thou mayest think I am too sharp ; but,
truly, the wound is deep, dangerous, yea, deadly, and therefore,
though I put thee to pain by lancing it, I am forced to it, other
wise thou wilt not be cured. Sin, and hell, and holiness, and
sanctification are other manner of things than the sleepy world
dreameth of.
The Lord give thee a heart to obey his counsel in order to thy
conversion, and then I am sure thou wilt have cause to give him
thanks that I would not let thee sleep quietly on a bed that was in
a flame, nor in a condition that was next door to infinite misery and
eternal desperation.
Thirdly, Exalt godliness in thy family. If once Christ be chief
in thy heart, I am confident he will, to thy utmost power, be so in
thy house that thou art really, which thou art relatively. Labour
that thy children and servants may know and serve God : Dwell
with thy wife as a man of knowledge, as heirs together of the grace
of life, that your prayers be not hindered/ 1 Peter iii. 7. Bring
up thy children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Eph.
vi. 4. Teach thy servants their duty to God and their own souls.
Consider, these are the laws of the righteous God ; and ere long,
when thou shalt leave all the dying and lying vanities of this world,
thou must give an account in the other world how thou hast obeyed
them. God hath committed a great trust to thee, even the charge
of the souls of all in thy family ; and doth not thine heart tremble
to think of soul-blood, of soul-murder ! I assure thee thou mayest
be as truly and really guilty of their deaths and damnations by
starving them, as by poisoning them. I mean by not instructing,
catechising, and principling them in the things of God ; by not
praying with them, and overseeing that they mind the worship of
God, as in making them drunk, and teaching them to steal and swear.
For thy children, dost thou not know that they are born children
of wrath, and heirs of hell ? and canst thou be quiet till thou seest
in them some signs and hopes of regeneration, an interest in Christ,
and thereby a right to heaven ? When thou readest of Herod, how
he murdered poor children, thou condemnest him ; thou thinkest,
Ah, hard-hearted Herod ! but dost not thou do ten thousand times
worse, in murdering the souls and bodies of thy dear children for
ever ? Ah, hard-hearted, ah bloody father ! Herod was a man of
220 PREFACE.
bowels, a merciful man to thee. Is it any wonder to hear, saith
one, of that ship sunk, or dashed upon a rock, that was put to sea
without card or compass ? nor is it a wonder to hear children sink
ing in perdition, who are thrust into the world, which is a sea of
temptations, without any knowledge of God and their duty. One
would think, every time thou readest and hearest of the extremity
and eternity of hell s torments, of the multitudes that must undergo
them, of the few even of those within the visible church that shall
be saved, and of the difficulty of obtaining salvation, that thy loins
should tremble, and thy joints smite together ; that thy head, yea,
heart, should ache, for fear any of thy dear children should be
among those many that must drink that cup of the Lord s pure
wrath ; and that thou shouldst be restless night and day in wrest
ling with God, and instructing them in using all means to prevent
their endless ruin ; surely, if thou hadst a spark of true love to
thy children, thus it would be with thee.
And for thy servants, unless thou art careful that they serve the
Lord, they are but little beholden to thee for thy service. Thou
givest them, possibly, food and outward things convenient, but dost
thou not do as much for thy cattle ? And is it, thinkest thou,
enough to do no more for those souls which must live in unspeakable
pain or pleasure for ever, than for thy beasts ? If he that provideth
not for the bodies of his family, be worse than an infidel, 1 Tim. v.
8, surely he that provideth not for their souls is kin to a devil.
Say not, They are stubborn and will not be taught. Hast not thou
power in thy hands either to teach them, or turn them out of doors ?
Let none serve thee that will not serve God. Thou wilt not keep
a servant that knoweth not how to do thy work, at least, if he will
not learn, and then follow it with diligence. Now, let thy con
science be judge : Is not God s work, the pleasing and glorifying
his infinite Majesty, of far greater concernment than thy greatest
and weightiest work ? and darest thou keep one that neither
knoweth how to do it, nor will learn ? Follow the man after God s
own heart : Ps. ci. 2, 7, I will walk within my house with a
perfect heart. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way,
he shall serve me/ It is said of Constantine, that in this he was
truly great, that he would have his whole court gathered together,
and cause the Scriptures to be read to them, and instruction to be
given them from the word of God.
Besides, if thou didst but regard thy own temporal good, thou
wouldst instruct thy servants and children in spiritual things ; for
PREFACE. 221
they that are unfaithful to their Master and Father in heaven, will
be unfaithful to their master and father on earth. They that make
no conscience of their duty to God, but rob him of his service and
worship, will never make conscience of their duty to thee, but if
they have opportunity, will rob thee of thy time, service, and
goods.
Be sure that thou perform family duties, as praying, reading, and
the like, morning and evening. Do not serve the flesh and the
world all day, and then put off God with a few sleepy petitions at
night : the command is Pray continually, 1 Thes. v. 17. Daniel
was at it three times a day, Dan. vi. 10 ; David seven times a day,
Ps. cxix. 164. God s mercies are renewed on thee every morning,
and should not thy prayers and praises be renewed every morning ?
Doth not the preservation of thy family every night deserve family
acknowledgment in the morn ? Wearisome nights are appointed
to others ; the beds of others prove their graves ; thou and thine
might have awaken in hell ; doth this distinguishing mercy deserve
no thanks ? Is not thy family every day liable to many dangers,
both bodily and spiritual ? Doth it not need pitying, sanctifying,
pardoning, directing, preventing mercy every day, nay, every mo
ment ? and is not all this worth a prayer ? Upon no account
neglect the offering up of these morning and evening sacrifices.
Let thy prayers, and of the rest in the family, come up before the
Lord in the morning like incense, and the lifting up of thine hands
at night as an evening sacrifice.
Do not say, as sometimes I have heard of thee, that thou canst
not spare time for these duties ; thy family is great, and thou canst
not get them altogether ; thy business is great, and a little time
spent this way may wrong thee ; I answer thee,
1. Canst thou get all thy family together twice a day to set meals
for their bodies, and canst not thou get them together twice a day
for set meals, family duties, for their souls ?
2. What greater or weightier business canst thou have, than the
working out the salvation of thy own, and the souls committed to
thy charge ? Are not the most important affairs thou canst pos
sibly deal about but toys and trifles to this ?
3. Was not David s family greater than thine, and his occasions
weightier ? and yet he could find time, though a king, for family
duties, Ps. cxix. 164. He and his queen did both instruct their
child in the things of God, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9 ; Prov. iv. 3-10, and
xxxi. If thou art poor, and sayest thou art to provide for thy
family, see an answer to that in this book, though God will give
222 PREFACE.
you both another manner of answer to your foolish pretences, when
ye appear at the judgment-seat of Christ.
Have a special care also of the sanctification of the Lord s-day
in thy family. Kemember the living God commandeth thee that
thou, thy son, thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant,
and all within thy gate keep that day holy. Do not make the sins
of others thine by thy pattern or permission ; let not that queen of
days be deflowered or profaned by idleness, earthly thoughts, words,
or actions. Spend the whole time which thou sparest from the public
ordinances in secret and private duties, as praying, reading, singing,
catechising, taking an account of thy children and servants, what
they know of the mysteries of Christ, and particularly what they
have learned that day. Esteem it a special privilege, a great mercy,
that thou and thine may upon that day sequester yourselves wholly
from worldly employments, and enjoy communion with the blessed
God in the means of grace. This I shall be bold to tell thee, that
religion, and the service of the most high God in thy family, depend-
eth much, yea, very much, upon thy observation of the Lord s-day.
Thou inayest expect its increase or decrease according to the sanc
tification or profanation of it. In the primitive times, when the
question was, Servasti Dominicum ? The answer was, Christianus
sum, omittere non possum. Thou pretendest to be a Christian,
make conscience of every minute of that day of Christ. Be sure
that thou, and as many of thy family as can possibly be spared,
attend with all diligence and reverence at the public place of wor
ship. There God receiveth greatest praises, and there he bestoweth
the choicest mercies : Oh blessed are they that dwell in his house ;
blessed are they that wait at wisdom s gates; that watch at the
posts of her doors, Prov. viii. In all things shew thyself a pattern
to them that are under thy oare and charge ; the people committed
to thy government will sooner imitate thy doings than obey thy
sayings. Sin cometh in at first by propagation, but is increased
exceedingly by imitation. Thou that hast thy children and ser
vants following thee, either to heaven or to hell, hast need choose a
right path, even the narrow way that leadeth to life. Weigh thy
words, considering that they will learn thy language. Avoid those
sinful expressions of faith and truth let your yea be yea, and your
nay nay, for whatsoever is more is evil of repeating others oaths,
of speaking irreverently of the great God and his word, of wishing
evil to any man ; for the command is, Bless them that curse, Mat.
v. 44. Let no evil communication proceed out of thy lips, but let
thy speech be seasoned with grace, that it may administer good,
PREFACE. 223
and be exemplary to the hearers. Look well to thy works, that
they may be agreeable to the word of God.
In thy religious performances especially manifest all reverence,
fervency, and seriousness, that thy children and servants may see
that thou art in earnest about soul affairs, about eternity concern
ments. Thou little knowest how profitable such a pattern may be
unto them. Do thy utmost, use all means commanded thee to save
thyself and those that dwell with thee.
Be confident that shortly Christ will say to thee, as Eliab to
David, With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilder
ness? What is become of the children and servants which I en
trusted thee with? Will it be enough, thinkest thou, for thee
then to answer, Lord, for my children, I brought them up without
any charge to the parish ; or, Lord, I bred them gentlemen ; or, I
put them out to trades ; or, I left them competent estates ; and for
my servants, I paid them their wages, gave them their meat and
drink, according to my agreement with them ? When Christ shall
reply, Man, what is become of their souls, which I created capable
of the immediate fruition of myself, which I redeemed with my
precious blood ? What shame will then cover thy face, and what
horror fill thy heart, when the blood of their souls shall be required
of thee ! Oh therefore let Joshua s practice and resolution be
thine, that thou and thy house will serve the Lord, Joshua
xxiv. 15.
Fourthly, Make religion, and the worshipping and glorifying the
great God, the great business of thy whole life. Improve all thy
time, power, estate, interest, and talents whatsoever to the utmost,
for the honour of God and thine own everlasting good. Look on
thyself as created, preserved, supplied with nightly, daily, hourly
mercies not for the service of the flesh, no, that end were mean
and low, but that thou mightst be enabled unto and encouraged in
the service of the glorious God. Surely, saith that noble Lord du
Plessis, if all the world were made for man, then man was made
for more than the world, l All the favours thou enjoyest are but
baits laid by God to catch thy soul ; as they come all from him, so let
them be improved all for him. It is godliness alone that will hold
out when thou comest to the greatest hardships at the day of afflic
tion and the hour of thy dissolution. The good man and his godliness
are like Saul and Jonathan, lovely in their lives, and in their deaths
they are not divided; therefore exercise thyself unto godliness.
It may be thou art one to whom God has given much in the world ;
1 In the epistle before Veritas Christia. Eelig.
224 PREFACE.
I must tell thee that much will be required of thee. The greater
thy receipts are, the greater thy returns must be, and the larger
thy disbursements for God : Make to thyself friends of the mammon
of unrighteousness, that when that faileth thou mayest be received
into the celestial habitation. The way to get that which thou
canst not part with, is by charity to part with that which thou
canst not keep. Thou canst not carry thy bags to heaven ; it is
good to take bills of exchange from the poor, whereby thou mayest
receive there what thou couldst not carry thither. Laudent le
esurientium viscera, non ructantium opulenta convivia, saith
Jerome. It is storied of Alexander, that having given away almost
all he had, one of his friends asked him where his treasure was, he
answered, pointing to the poor, In scriniis, in his chest. He asked
what he had left for himself, Alexander answers, Spem majorem.
Let thy charity especially relate to the souls of people. What were
it for thee to maintain four or six poor children at school, whereby
they may come to read, and learn to know the way to life ? Doth
it not grieve thee to understand the gross ignorance of many ? And
what do they tell us, when we reprove them for it? that they are
not book learned, they could never read ! What were it for thee,
that hast possibly several hundreds per annum, to give twenty
pounds a year this way ? I tell thee that God expecteth more
than this for his service ; and I am confident thou mayest have
more comfort in such acts of soul- charity than in ten times the
value bestowed on the world and the flesh. I am sure God keeps
an exact account how thou employest thy revenues ; and think of
it again and again, what thou wilt do in such an hour, when thou
shalt stand naked at the judgment-seat of Christ, and all thy
receipts and disbursements shall be declared and mentioned before
the Lord, angels, and men.
When, imprimis, pride cometh with her tailor s long bill of so
many thousands for new fashions, foolish fancies, or gaudy attire
for thee or thine, when the poor members of Christ were ready to
perish with nakedness ; item, gluttony, or drunkenness, or luxury, so
many thousands ; item, so many hundreds for hawks, or hounds, or
gaming ; item, so many hundreds for idle, needless expenses ; item,
for propagating the gospel, relieving the poor, exalting the interest
of Christ, so many pounds, or only some few scraps, which the
knight, or esquire, or gentleman could spare, after he had made
full provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Believe it,
thou wilt wish then thou hadst done more for God and his interest,
and less for the flesh. It was a wise speech of Lycon the philosopher,
PREFACE. 225
when a wealthy merchant bragged to him of the multitudes of his
ships and furniture for sea, how he was able to trade into all parts,
I esteem not that to be felicity which hangs upon ropes and
cables. 1 Sure I am thy wealth hath wings, and will within a few
days take an eternal flight from thee. The way to make the best
of it is not to lay it up, but to lay it out as may be most for the
glory of God.
Whoever thou art, whether poor or rich, make an absolute dedi
cation of thyself and thy all unto Christ, if thou wouldst attain
salvation by Christ. He that cannot live of himself, must not live
to himself; for if he doth, he dieth eternally, he loseth himself
for ever. If heaven might be had upon men s cursed terms of
liberty for their lusts, Christ would have customers enough ; but
he that bought the purchase is fittest to set the price.
Header, I set before thee in this treatise life and death, heaven
and hell ; if thou art a true Isaac, and hast a spiritual appetite, I
dare promise thee such savoury meat as thy soul loveth ; but if,
Gallio-like, thou carest for none of these things, or, as the two tribes
and a half, desirest thy portion on this side the land of Canaan ; if,
as Spira, thou wilt put thy relations and possessions, honour an,d
pleasure, and outward good things, in one scale, and God, and
Christ, and heaven in the other, and then choose the former, and
refuse the latter, I hope I shall never envy thy happiness, nor desire
to eat of thy dainties, or drink of thy cup, but pray that the Lord
would have mercy on thee, and change thy heart ; only let me tell
thee, if thou wouldst avoid the inconceivable endless misery of the
damned ; if thou wouldst attain the eternal matchless felicity of the
saved ; if thou wouldst have all thy former rebellions blotted out
through the blood of the Son ; if thou wouldst have thy person
reconciled to the Father ; if thou wouldst have God in Christ to
stand by thee when none of thy friends or comforts shall own thee ;
if thou wouldst appear at the dreadful bar of Christ with comfort,
when thousands and millions shall weep and wail ; if thou wouldst
not have me nor this book to be a witness against thee before the
Lord, angels, and men, then turn from sin speedily, cleave to thy
Saviour unfeignedly, give up thyself to all the commands of Christ
unreservedly. To-day if thou wilt hear his voice, harden not thy
heart, lest he swear in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into
his rest, Heb. iii.
Eeader, I shall detain thee but a little longer in the porch, only
to give thee a brief account of this ensuing tractate ; though I con-
1 Laert.
VOL. III. P
226 PREFACE.
fess I never liked large apologies for any publications ; for if men s
books are like to be serviceable to the honour of the infinite God,
and the welfare of the souls of men, a small apology will serve]; if
they are not, why do they trouble the world with them ? It is not
all the image and superscription, which their excuses can stamp on
them, shall ever make them current coin with me. I was called to
preach a sermon at Borden, in Kent, October 17, 1658, at the
funeral of a grave, religious gentlewoman, (one that, as I am in
formed, was a tender mother of her children, and a dutiful daughter
to the Father of spirits,) Mrs Beresford, widow of Mr Michael
Beresford, a learned, painful, godly minister of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who had a good report of all men that feared God and
knew him, and of the truth itself. He was minister of the above-
named parish above twenty years.
I was, after the preaching of it, requested to publish it, and pro
mised that a considerable number should be freely scattered in
several families, whereby, through the blessing of God, some poor
souls might be turned from darkness unto light, and from the
power of Satan unto God. Before I had prepared the sermon for
the press, I was entreated to enlarge it into a treatise. All which
desires I was willing to satisfy, partly out of the great respect I
did bear to one * especially that earnestly begged it, but chiefly out
of the weak desire I had to be instrumental for the conversion of
the souls of them to whom the sermon was preached, and of the
parish which the Lord had committed to my charge. I considered
with myself, that by reason of my sickly and infirm body I was not
likely to continue long with that people to which the providence of
God did at first join me, and from which far greater things could
never divorce me ; and therefore it might not be needless to leave
to them some testimony of my unfeigned desires of their eternal
welfares. Who knoweth what this mean piece may do, if the
divine power please to accompany it ? Possibly out of the seed
that is here sown, when the husbandman is dead, a harvest may be
reaped of glory to God and good to souls.
Header, if thou gain any spiritual profit by it, let God have the
praise ; and let him be remembered in thy prayers who is
Thy servant for Christ s sake,
GEORGE SWINNOCK.
1 Mr^John Beresford, citizen and apothecary, one that feareth the Lord abort
many.
HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. PHIL. i. 12.
CHAPTER I.
The division of the chapter, and interpretation of the text.
IT is a memorable observation of that Christian heathen, as he hath
been sometimes called, that the two great lessons which every man
hath to learn in the whole time of his life, are, how to live, and how
to die; 1 how to live virtuously, and how to die valiantly. These
two weighty questions are clearly and fully answered in this
text. It declareth and delivereth such directions about life as could
never be learned in the school of nature, improved to the utmost.
It prepareth and provideth such a cordial against death as could
never be extracted out of all the creatures distilled together. And
indeed herein the excellency of the Christian religion appeareth
ibove all religions in the world. None enjoin eth such pious pre
cepts, none subjoineth such precious promises, none sets the soul
ibout so noble a work, none satisfieth it with such an ample
eward.
The scope of the apostle in this epistle is, first, To confirm the
Philippians in the faith of Christ, against the scandal of the cross ;
ind, secondly, To exhort them to such godliness as might be
inswerable to the gospel.
In this first chapter, Paul encourageth them greatly to be con-
itant in Christianity.
1 Vivere tota vita discendum est, et quod magis fortasse miraberis, tota vita
iscendum est mori. Sen. ad Paulin, cap, 7.
228 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. I.
1. From the nature of God, who never doth his work by halves,
but performeth what he promiseth, and perfecteth what he begin-
neth, ver. 6.
2.. From his own prayer, which was for their increase and
perseverance in grace, and that inoffensively to God s glory, ver.
9,10.
3. From the happy fruits of his sufferings for the faith. The
rod wherewith he was scourged, like Aaron s rod, blossomed. First,
The gospel was the more propagated, ver. 12. The more the hus
bandmen were dispersed, the more the seed of the word was scat
tered ; and the deeper the ground was ploughed, it took the better
root, and brought forth the greater fruit. Secondly, The ministers
of the gospel were the more emboldened, ver. 14. True zeal, like
the fire, burns hottest in the coldest season ; and sincerity, like the
stars, though it may be hid in a warm day, yet it will be sure to
shew itself in a frosty night. Thirdly, Paul himself should be
much advantaged, 1 ver. 19, which latter he amplifieth by acquaint
ing them with the reason of that hope namely, the assistance ol
the Spirit of Christ, ver. 19, and the assurance God had wrought
in him, from his experience of what God had done for him, that hie
Saviour should be honoured, and his salvation furthered, both by
his life and death, ver. 20, 21.
The text, considered relatively, contains the ground why the
Philippians should not be troubled so much at Paul s trials : For
to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, i.e., If I be a gainer ID
all conditions, why should you be discouraged by my afflictions r r
If sufferings advantage the pastor, why should they dishearten the
people ? The children may well enjoy a calm in their spirits,
when their spiritual father is safe, nay, a gainer in the greatesi
storm.
Take the words absolutely, and they include, first, the charactei
of a Christian while he liveth, To me to live is Christ ; and :
secondly, The comfort of a Christian when he dieth, and to die it
gain. Or you may take notice of the piety of a saint in life : Tc
me to live is Christ ; and his profit by death, To die is gain.
For the meaning of the words.
To me, e/iot. To me who am the mark at which hell and th(
world shoot their arrows of persecution ; to me whose life hath beet
a rino- of miseries ever since my conversion ; to me who am set t(
undergo both men s and devils opposition; yet to me there an
spiritual and inward consolations. For to me to live is Christ.
1 Eveniunt mihi ut mihi sint salutaria. Trem. in Phil. i. 19.
CHAP. I.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 229
To me to live is Christ, TO ^v Xpio-rosl To me who am in
Christ, to me to live is Christ. I live not only the life of nature,
but I live also the life of grace. I have not only a being from
Christ as a man, but likewise a well-being in Christ as a Christian ;
as I did receive my life from Christ, so I do improve my life for
Christ; his honour is my utmost desire, and my greatest en
deavour.
And to die is gain/ TO airoQavdv /eepSo?, i.e., I have had no
other object, no employment but Christ and his service in my life,
shall certainly have an eternal advancement at my death. 2 Or
Christ is my life here by grace, and hereafter by glory. He is both
the author and the end of my life. I live for him, I live to him, I
live in him, I live by him ; and if I be put to death, that shall no
way endamage me, but rather bring me great advantage, in regard
that thereby I shall gain heaven for earth, and happy, eternal life
for this miserable mortal life ; so our larger annotations sense it.
Some, indeed, read the words, Christ is my gain both in life and
death, and therefore the apostle was little troubled at, but rather
indifferent to, all conditions.3 There is a certain truth in this
exposition, though Piscator * will by no means grant it to be the
mind of the Spirit in this place.
In the words you may see the sign of a saint, to him to live is
Christ; and his solace, to him to die is gain; his holy descrip
tion in the former, his happy condition in the latter.
The text being thus explained affordeth this truth, taking both
parts of it together.
1 Nam mihi vivere Christus est, i.e., Tota mea vita ad hoc ordinata est, utper meum
ministerium perque meam vocationem verbis et factis promoveam pro mea virili reg-
num Christi. Annon hsec res bona et cuique fideli optanda lZanch. in loc.
3 Diodati to this purpose.
3 Atqui Christus, in utroque membro subjectum esse debet ; Christus vita in vita ;
Christus lucrum in morte Cal. in loc. Mihi enim est Christus et in vita, et in
morte lumen. Beza.
4 Sic hscc sententia non cohserebit ut ratio cum precedente, quod tamen pos-
tulat conjunctio yap- nam aliud est gloria Christi, aliud salus Pauli. Pitcator
in loc.
230 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. II.
CHAPTEE II.
The doctrine, That such as have Christ for their life, gain by death,
with the explication of the phrase, To me to live is Christ.
That such as have Christ for their life, shall have gain by their
death.
He that liveth in Christ on earth, shall live with Christ in
heaven.
Where the soul hath the seed of holiness, it shall reap a harvest
of happiness.
The apostle, when he summeth up the estate of a believer,
counteth death as a part of his riches : Whether Paul, or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death ; all are yours/ 1 Cor. iii.
22, and ye are Christ s. He that can say, I am Christ s, may as
truly say, Death is mine. If thou canst say, I am Christ s servant,
I am Christ s subject, thou mayest say, Death will be my prefer
ment, death will be my advancement
For the explication of this doctrine, I shall shew, first, What is
meant by that phrase, to me to live is Christ ; and, secondly,
Wherein it will appear that death to such a man is gain.
For the former, To me to live is Christ, may imply these four
things :
First, Christ is the principle of my life. All living creatures
have an inward principle by which they live, and according to
which they act. Plants have a principle of vegetation, and beasts
have a principle of sense ; men have a principle of reason, and their
lives are different, answerable to their different principles. But a
Christian hath a higher principle that is, Christ dwelling in his
heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17 and thence it is that he lives a higher
life. 1 As the body liveth by its union with the soul, so the Chris
tian liveth by his union with Jesus Christ. Christ is the fountain
and spring of life, the soul of his soul, and the life of his life. I
live, saith the apostle, Gal. ii. 20 ; ( yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me : and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith,
of the Son of God.
As the branches they live, but it is by the root ; they derive sap
from it, and so live by it. So the believer, he liveth spiritually ;
1 Ad vitam spiritualem quod attinet, certum est ad nos derivari exiguos quosdam
rivulos, ipgum autem fontem in Christo latere. Daven. in Col. iii. 3.
CHAP. II.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 231
but it is by Christ ; he deriveth the sap of grace from this true vine,
and so liveth by him.
The water in the rivers doth not more depend upon the ocean,
nor the light in the air upon the sun, than the life of a Christian
dependeth on Jesus Christ. And therefore the Holy Ghost telleth
us, He that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the Son
hath not life, 1 John v. 12.
I have sometime read that the lioness bringeth forth her whelps
dead, till after some time the lion roareth aloud, and then they live.
This is certain, every man and woman is born dead ; dead to God,
dead in sins and trespasses, till this Lion of the tribe of Judah
uttereth his voice, then they arise from the dead, and Christ giveth
them life. When the soul, like the body of Lazarus, hath been
dead so long that it stinketh and is unsavoury, when it hath been
many days, nay, many years, rotting in the grave of corruption, then
if Jesus Christ calieth effectually, Lazarus, come forth, sinner,
come forth of thy carnal, unregenerate estate ; then, and not till
then, the soul heareth the voice of the Son of God and liveth.
Grace is of a divine birth,* John iii. 3 ; it is the seed of God,
1 John iii. 9 ; an unction from the holy one, 1 John ii. 27 ; called
dew, which is of a celestial extraction, Ps. ex. 3 ; and light, 1 John
i. 7. The fountain of water is in the earth, but the fountain of
light is in the heavens.
The web of godliness was never spun out of man s own bowels.
As none can see the sun but by its own light, so none can with an
eye of faith see the Sun of righteousness, but by the light of grace
derived from him.
We are his workmanship/ saith the apostle, Eph. ii. 10, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works/ His workmanship, not only in
our natural capacity as men; as creatures ; and in our civil capacity
as rich or poor, high or low ; but also in our spiritual capacity as
Christians, as new creatures.
Secondly, To me to live is Christ, i.e., Christ is the pattern of
my life ; my life is not only from him, but according to him.
Christ is the rule according to which I walk, the copy after which
I write. As sin and disobedience is a resemblance of the first, so
grace and holiness is a resemblance of the second Adam.
True Christianity consisteth in nothing but our conformity to,
and imitation of, Jesus Christ.2 And, indeed, as the child in genera-
1 John iii. 3, tLvwOfv Except a man be born from above. Non nascimur, sed rena-
scimur Christiani.
3 Sanctitas dicitur per quam mens seipsam et suos actus applicat Deo ; BO the
schoolmen.
232 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. II.
tion receiveth from the parent member for member, part for part ;
and the paper from the press, word for word, letter for letter ; and
the wax from the seal, figure for figure ; so in regeneration Christ
is formed in the soul, and it receiveth, according to its proportion,
grace for grace.
One end of Christ s incarnation and life in the flesh was to set an
exact pattern for our lives in the Spirit : He left us an example,
that we should follow his steps, 1 Peter ii. 21. All the actions of
Christ are instructions to a Christian. His actions were either
moral or mediatory ; in both the Christian imitates him. In the
former, doing as he did, exercising the same graces, performing the
same duties, resisting the same temptations, forbearing the same
corruptions ; in the latter, by similitude, dying to sin, as he died for
sin, rising to a spiritual life, as he rose again to a natural life.
None indeed can parallel the life of Christ, but every new creature
imitateth Christ in his life ; he walketh as Christ walked, 1 John
ii. 6. The same mind is in all the saints, so far as they are re
generated, that was in Christ ; the same will, the same affections ;
they love what he loveth ; they loathe what he loatheth ; what
pleaseth him, pleaseth them ; what grieveth his spirit, grieveth their
spirits. As the wicked are like their father the devil, unholy as he
is unholy ; so the children of Christ are like their everlasting
Father, holy as he is holy; only with this difference, in Christ there
is a fulness, in them a measure in Christ pureness, in them a mix
ture.
Thirdly, To me to live is Christ, i.e. , Christ is the comfort of my
life. Though I have many crosses, yet I have Christ for my com
fort. He is the comfort of my life, and the life of all my comforts.
All my joys come in at this door, all my contentments come swim
ming in this stream.
Piscator observeth that the consolation of Israel is the peri
phrasis of Jesus Christ, Luke ii. 25 ; because all the consolation
of a true Israelite, as Jacob s in Benjamin, is bound up in Christ.
If he be gone, the soul goeth down to the grave with sorrow. As
all the candles in a country cannot make a day no, it must be the
rising of the sun that must do it ; so all the health, wealth, honours,
pleasures, relations, possessions, nay, the greatest confluence of com
forts that the whole creation affbrdeth, cannot make a day of light
and gladness in the heart of a believer ; no, it must be the rising
of this Sun of righteousness. The light of his countenance causeth
more joy than all the corn, and wine, and oil of this world can.
He saith, as Luther, Christ liveth, or otherwise I would not desire
CHAP. II.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 233
to live one moment. Or, as that noble Marquis of Vico, Their
money perish with them that think all the wealth in the world
worth one hour s communion with Jesus Christ.
His comfort ebbeth and floweth as Christ manifesteth himself to
him, or withdraweth himself from him. Like the marigold, he
openeth and shutteth with the rising and setting of this sun. When
the bridegroom is taken away, the children of the bride-chamber
mourn. The voice of the true dove is ever doleful in the absence
of her mate. Many a long look hath this gracious soul after its
absented Saviour. Many a time doth it sigh out, for lovers hours
are full of eternity, Why is his chariot so long a-coming ? why tarry
the wheels of his chariot ? Make haste, my beloved, and be thou
like the hart and roe upon the mountain of spices. It, like Zaccheus,
climbs up into the sycamore tree of the ordinances, that it may
have a sight of its beloved ; for it heareth that he useth to pass
that way ; and when it spieth him afar off, for love is quick-sighted,
coming towards it, hearken how the soul calleth aloud to faith to
lift up the gates, to lift open the everlasting doors, that the king
of glory may enter in. Desire, like Joseph, makes ready its chariot
to go forth to meet this God of Jacob ; and when he draweth nigh,
it cometh down hastily, and receiveth him joyfully. It crieth out,
with the martyr," 1 in a flame of love, He is come, he is come. Now,
like Mary, it closeth with him, cleaveth to him, clingeth and clasp-
eth about him, and thinketh it can never have enough of him, or be
near enough to him. Who can express the welcome which this
pious soul giveth him ; what warm affection it hath to him ; what
complacency and delight it hath in him ; what enlarged egress of
spirit it hath after him ? If the wise men were so glad when they
saw the star that led to him, how glad is this soul in seeing this
Sun ! If the babe in the womb of Elisabeth sprang for joy when
the mother of the Lord came to her, how doth the heart of this
Christian spring with joy when the Lord of that mother comes to
it ! And out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,
Dearest Jesus, why earnest thou no sooner ? why tarriest thou no
longer? Sweetest Saviour, why should this meeting ever, ever
part ? Be thou like a bundle of myrrh, lodging all night betwixt
my breasts ; yet be not like a wayfaring man, to tarry with me
but for a night, but do thou abide in me, and dwell with me for
ever. Good Lord, how good is it to be here ! Oh, how blessed
are they that dwell in thy house ! They ever, and not without
infinite cause, praise thee. Lord, grant me this happiness, what-
1 Mr Eobert Glover, Acts and Mon., vol. iii. p. 427. Lond., an. 1641.
234 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. II.
ever thou deniest me, that my heart may be thine everlasting home.
Ah, what a holy emulation hath this saint at the spirits above,
that they should have so much and he so little ; that they should
drink full draughts out of the rivers of pleasures, and he can only
taste God to be gracious. Ah, what a heavenly vexation hath he
at the necessities of his body and family here below, that they must
call him away, and hinder his communion with his beloved ! Oh,
how willingly would this soul be separated from its dearest wife,
that it might more nearly be conjoined to its dearer husband !
Surely such a soul would with cheerfulness die in these embraces
of Christ, breathing out, with Augustine, Lord, since no man can see
thee and live, oh let me die that I may see thee. 1
This, indeed, is the foretaste of the saints future happiness, their
morning of glory, the suburbs of the new Jerusalem, the first-fruits
of their great and eternal harvest, the joy that strangers inter
meddle not with, Prov. xiv. 10. It may better be conceived and
felt, than described or expressed ; 2 and therefore is most fitly by
the apostle called joy unspeakable and glorious, 1 Pet. i. 8. Thus
Christ is the comfort of a Christian.
Fourthly, To me to live is Christ, that is, Christ is the end of
my life. Christ is both the author and the end of my life ; as my
life is from Christ, so my life is for Christ. The great care of the
apostle was to magnify Christ, both by his life and death, Phil,
i. 20. All the gain I aim at, both in life and death, is Christ,
namely, to glorify him by my service. 3
According to the principles of a man, such are his end. He that
acteth from self, acteth for self. That obedience which ariseth
from the creature, will be terminated in the creature. 4 Solomon
saith, Eccles. i. 7, All the rivers run into the sea ; unto the place
from whence the rivers came, thither they return again ; so the life
of a Christian coming from Christ, must necessarily tend to Christ.
A sincere saint doth not, like the hypocrite, look asquint at self-
applause, self-profit, and such beggarly ends, but his eyes look
straight on at the glory of Jesus Christ. If Christ be glorified,
though he be disgraced, he is satisfied. When Christ hath hon
oured the soul by giving it grace, the soul honoureth Christ by
giving him glory. Grace is the most curious work, and therefore
no wonder if it be for the credit of the workman. Trees bear
fruit for the owner, Cant. iv. 16. Of him and through him
1 Aug. on those words, Moriar Domine ut te videam.
3 Verba non Talent exprimere, experimento opus est,
3 Larg. Annot. 4 Operari sequitur esse.
CHAP. III.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 235
are all things, therefore to him. be glory for ever and ever, Rom.
xi. 36.
It is confessed the flesh will propound other ends, but the spirit
carrieth the vote. As some write of the heavenly orbs, that they
have a proper motion of their own, different from the motion of the
primum mobile, yet in obedience to this first mover, they follow its
motion ; thus it is with the unregenerate part of a man ; it hath
proper ends of its own, pride, and flesh-pleasing, and the like, con
trary to the ends of the spirit ; but in obedience to the regenerate
part, the Christian leaveth the former ends, and follows the ends of
the latter.
The honour of Christ is exceeding dear to a true Christian. It
is dearer than his name. Lord, saith a father, use me for thy
shield, to keep off those wounds of dishonour which would fall on
thy Majesty. 1 Let the reproaches wherewith they would reproach
thee fall upon me. And Luther is called a devil, saith Luther, in
an epistle to Spalatinus ; but be it so. So long as Christ is magni
fied I am well apaid. 2 Nay, the honour of Christ is dearer than
life to a believer. Paul, as one saith of him, stood a-tiptoe to see
which way he might glorify Christ most, whether by life or death.
Neither count I my life dear unto me, so I may finish the ministry
I have received of the Lord Jesus, Acts xx. 24.
CHAPTER III.
What privative gain the Christian hath by death.
I come now to the second thing promised, and that is, to mani
fest wherein the Christian that hath Christ for the principle, pat
tern, comfort, and end of his life, shall be a gainer by death. And
truly, reader, in speaking of this gain, I shall acknowledge myself
at an unspeakable loss. When I have spoken my utmost, I must
entreat the reader, as once Cicero 3 did his, when he spake of So
crates and Lucius Crassus, Ut magis quiddam de Us quam quce
scripta sunt suspicarentur : That they should imagine some far
greater matter than they find written. Though my tongue were
as the pen of a ready writer, it could never express it, and if my
pen were as the tongue of a ready speaker, it could never describe
1 Bonum est mihi, si Deus me uti pro clypeo dignetur. Bern.
2 Prorsus Satan et Lutherus, sed vivit et regnat Chrietus. Amen.
8 Cic. iii., De Orat.
236 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. III.
it. The land of Canaan, notwithstanding all the helps we have,
is still for the most part terra incognita, an unknown land. The
sights there are light, inaccessible as to mortal eyes, 1 Tim. vi. 16 ;
and the sounds there are words not audible as to mortal ears, 2 Cor.
xii. 4 ; words which may not, or cannot be uttered, or both. 1
One being asked what God was, answered that he must be God
himself before he could know God fully. I am sure it is requisite
that that Christian should be in heaven first who would know
heaven fully. Fame, which in other things is too free and prodigal,
in this is too sparing and penurious, and that in so great a degree
that, reader, after thou hast heard it set forth by the holiest, hea-
venliest man alive, though of the greatest capacity and oratory, yet
if ever thou gettest thither, thou wilt find cause to speak, as the
queen of Sheba did in another case, 1 Kings x. 6, 7, It was a
true report that I heard in mine own land of thy glory and thine
excellency. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and
mine eyes had seen it ; and, behold, the half was not told me : the
delight and happiness exceedeth the fame which I heard. There
it is indeed that God doth more for the believer than he is able to
ask or think. As the loss of the damned will be beyond the most
melancholy man s fear, so the gain of the saved will be above the
strongest Christian s faith. The eye of a man may see much good,
the ear of a man may hear more, the heart of a man may conceive
most of all ; but yet neither hath eye seen, nor ear heard, nor can
it enter into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath prepared
for them that love him/ 1 Cor. ii. 9. They which have written
most of this subject, might have added at the end of their books,
as in other treatises some have done, Desiderantur nonnulla, or plu-
rima desunt ; More is desired, or more is wanting. It is as easy,
saith one, to compass the heavens with a span, to contain the ocean
in a nutshell, as to relate heaven s happiness.
Reader, I shall speak to this subject but briefly. Set the Holy
Land before thee, as it is in a map, in a little room, yet by what I
shall speak in this place, and in the last use, as the spies by the
clusters of grapes, thou mayest gather, the land is good, it floweth
with milk and honey, and this is some of the fruit of it, Num.
xiii. 27.
The Christian s gain by death will appear in these two particu
lars : He shall gain a freedom from all evil, the fruition of all
good ; and is not this man a gainer ?
., i.e., quod fando explicari a quopiam homine non potest; Beza.
et Eras, ita exponunt.
CHAP. Ill] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 237
First, He shall by death be freed from all evil.l The immediate
and full presence of the chiefest good which the believer shall en
joy after death will cause the absence of all evil. The influences
of that sun will scatter every mist, and disperse all clouds which
now darken the conditions of pious souls. The day of a Christian s
dissolution will be the day of his redemption, Luke xxi. 28. This
may be the reason why the apostle placeth redemption last, saith
an expositor : 1 Cor. i. 30, Now we have Christ made unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, but then redemption. When
the saint is passed through the red sea of death, and landed at the
true Canaan, he shall then see all his bodily and spiritual enemies
dead on the shore. In the middle region there are storms and
tempests, and so here below; but above, all is calm and quiet.
While the Christian is upon earth, evils, like Job s messengers,
follow him, one upon the heels of another ; but when he leaveth
the earth, every evil will take its eternal leave of him.
There are two evils, which are indeed the only evils, though the
first is by much the worst : the evil of sin, or defilement, and the
evil of suffering, or chastisement. Now a believer by death should
be freed from both these.
First, From the evil of sin ; and in this take notice, that death
will deliver the Christian both from the commission of it, and from
all suggestions tending to it.
First, Death will free the saint from the commission of sin. In
hell there is nothing but wickedness, in heaven there is nothing but
holiness. The unregenerate man is never so wicked as after death:
now sin is in its minority, then it will be in its maturity ; now it is
but the sinner s evening, but then it will be a perfect night of black
ness, of darkness. The godly man is never so holy as after death :
grace is now in its infancy, then it will attain to its full age ; now
it is as the morning light, then it will attain to its noonday bright
ness. Sin is now by a spiritual life mortified, that it doth not
reign ; but then by death it shall be nullified, that it shall not so
much as remain in a believer.
The ungodly after death shall be perfectly like the devil, (the
Indians, some write, have a conceit that death will transform them
into the ugly shape of the devil ; and therefore in their language
they have the same word for a dead man and a devil,) and the godly
after death shall be perfectly like God.
They are now partakers of the divine nature, and so like him, yet
how much unlike him 1 .but when they shall see him in heaven,
1 Ademptio omnium malorum.
238 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. III.
then they shall be like him indeed, 1 John iii. 2. 1 Vision causeth
an assimilation in nature, Gen. xxx. 37, 38 ; in grace, 2 Cor. iii.
18 ; so here in glory.
The schoolmen put the question, how the angels and souls of
men in heaven come to be impeccable, or without sin ? and answer
that it is by the beatifical vision. 2 The apostle seemeth to intimate
as much in the fore-quoted place : When he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. As the pearl, by the
often beating of the sunbeams upon it, becomes radiant ; so the
Christian, being ever beheld by the Lord, and always beholding the
face of his Father in heaven, shall be more like him than ever child
was to father on earth. Then that profession of Christ will be
abundantly verified, Behold, thou art fair my love ; behold, thou art
fair. Thou art all fair, my love ; there is no spot in thee/ Cant. iv. 1 , 7.
Then the end of Christ s passion shall be fully attained, when he shall
present to himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing, Eph. v. 27 ; not only in regard of imputed righteousness,
or justification, but also in regard of imparted righteousness, or sanc-
tification.
Here the heart of a Christian is like Eebekah s womb it hath
twins struggling in it; the appearance of the church is, as it were, the
company of two armies, Cant. vi. 13; the old man and the new man,
flesh and spirit, the law in the members warring against the law of
the mind. As there was war betwixt Asa and Baasha all their
days, so there is betwixt the regenerate and unregenerate part all
the time of this life ; but this gracious conflict shall then end in a
glorious conquest, when the death of the body shall quite destroy
this body of death. Sin in the heart is like the leprosy in the
house, which would not out till the house was pulled down, Lev.
xiv. 44, 45. But when soul and body shall be parted for a time,
sin and the soul shall be separated to eternity.
And as the heart, so the life of a Christian is like a book which
hath many errata in it ; and therefore Legendus cum venia. The
whitest swan hath her black feet ; the best gold must have its
grains of allowance : There is no man that liveth upon earth, and
sinneth not/ Eccles. vii. 20. All of us offend in many things, and
many of us in all things, 3 James iii. 2. Our righteousness is as a
1 Pet. Martyr tells us of a deformed woman, married to an uncomely man, that
by looking much on beautiful pictures, brought forth lovely children. Loc. Com.
pars. i. cap. 6.
* Visio beatifica impotentes reddit ad peccandum.
3 Omne opus justi damnabitur si judicio Dei judicetur. Luth. in Alfert.
CHAP. Ill] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 239
filthy rag, Isa. Ixiv. 6. Our graces not without their defects : c Lord,
I believe ; help mine unbelief, Mark ix. 24. Our duties not with
out their defaults : When I would do good, evil is present with
me, Bom. vii. 21. The purest fire hath some smoke, the richest
wine some dregs, but death will turn sin out of all its holds, and
leave it not so much as a being in the Christian. The bodies of
men have usually a mighty shoot at death ; but oh what a shoot
will the soul of a saint have, when it shall be carried by angels to the
place where the spirits of just men are made perfect ! Heb. xii. 23.
Secondly, The soul alive in Christ, shall be freed at death from
all temptations to sin. Then a Christian shall be above the reach
of all Satan s batteries ; then that promise will be performed, that
the God of peace will tread Satan under the saints feet, Kom.
xvi. 20. Now Peter is winnowed, Paul is buffeted, David is stirred
by the wicked one to number the people ; if Joshua be ministering
unto the Lord, Satan will be at his right hand to resist him, Zech.
iii. 1. It is no small unhappiness to a saint, that he is here followed
with unwearied assaults, that the prince of darkness is restless in
casting in his fire-balls, to put the soul into a hellish flame ; though
he should never be conquered, yet for the Christian to have his
quarters beaten up night and day, must needs disquiet him. To
have blasphemous thoughts of a God infinitely great and gracious,
to have mean and vile apprehensions of a Saviour incomparably
precious, cast into him, though he close not with them, cannot but
wound him to the heart ; as for a chaste matron that loatheth the
thoughts of dishonesty, to be continually solicited to folly, is a sore
vexation. The temptations of our Lord Jesus were a sad part of
his humiliation.
But death will ease the soul of this trouble : as in heaven there
shall be no tinder of a corrupt heart to take, so no devil like steel
and flint to strike fire. The crooked serpent could wind himself
into the terrestrial, but shall never creep into the celestial paradise.
His circuit is to go to and fro in the earth, he cannot enter the
confines of heaven ; when he fell from his state of integrity, he left
that place of felicity, and cannot possibly recover it again. The
saints on earth indeed are militant, fighting with him, but the saints
in heaven are all triumphant, wholly above him : More than con
querors, through him that loveth them/ Eom. viii. 37. There the
children of God are gathered together, and no Satan among them ;
there the Son of David delivereth his true Israelites from all their
fears of this uncircumcised Philistine. When the heavenly Mor-
decai comes to be a chief favourite in that high and holy court, he
240 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. III.
shall be freed from all his frights about this enemy and adversary,
this wicked Haman.
The ark and Dagon could not stand together in one house, much
less can light and darkness, Michael and the dragon, God and the
devil, dwell together in one heaven.
If Ireland, as some write, be so pure a soil, that it will not
nourish any venomous creature, I am sure heaven is so pure,
that into it can in no wise enter anything that defileth, Kev.
xxi. 27 ; it will not harbour those poisonous serpents.
Heaven once, saith an author, spued them out, and it will not
return to its vomit, or lick them up again ; no such dirty dog shall
ever trample on that golden pavement. There is such a cursed
irreconcileable contrariety in their natures, to the blessed company
and exercises in heaven, that certainly they cannot desire, much less
delight in that place ; if the presence of Christ were such a torment
to them in his estate of humiliation, what a torment would it be in
his estate of exaltation ! It is observable they left their own habita
tion, Jude 6 ; the word seemeth to imply, that when they lost their
primitive purity, they willingly lost that habitation of spiritual
pleasures. But whether he will or no, he shall be banished
those coasts ; though he now dog the saint at, and disturb him in,
every duty, he shall do it no more : The accuser of the brethren
shall be cast down, neither shall his place be found any more in
heaven, Kev. xii. 8, 9.
Secondly, A Christian by death shall not only be freed from the
evil of sin and defilement, but also from the evil of suffering and
chastisement : the cause being taken away, the effects will cease. 1
Sin is that great-bellied mother, or rather monster, which conceiveth
and bringeth forth all those losses, crosses, diseases, disgraces,
sorrows, and sufferings whatsoever, that befall the children of men.
Though man may be the butt, yet sin is the mark at which the arrows
of divine displeasure are shot ; man weaves a spider s web of sin out
of his own bowels, and then is entangled in it. Wickedness alone
is the original cause of all woe, Lam. iii. 39 ; Eom. vi. 23. But
now, at the death of a saint, the fountain of sin will be dried up,
and therefore the streams of sufferings must be dried up also. The
fuel being taken away, the fire will go out of itself; sin and
sorrow were born, do live, and shall die together.
As sin is the original cause^of all, so it is the final cause of most,
afflictions. Sometimes they are for probation as we shoot at good
armour that we may prove it, and that we praise it but most
1 Sublata causa, tollitur eflectus.
CHAP. III.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 241
commonly they are for purgation, to amend something that is
amiss : the fathers of the flesh chastise for their pleasure, but the
Father of spirits for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness, Heb. xii. 6. The quiet fruits of righteousness blossom
from the correcting rod ; bitter aloes purge the worms ; winds and
thunder clear the air; frosts and showers whiten cloth; the husband
man useth the flail to separate the chaff, and the refiner the fire to
consume the dross. But when the wheat shall be clean, there will
be no need of the flail ; when the gold pure, no use of the fire.
1 Now, saith the apostle, if need be, ye are in heaviness, 1 Pet. i. 6.
Mark, now, if need be ; now men have hard knots, and therefore
need sharp wedges ; now men have strong corruptions, and there
fore need strong corrections ; now the rod is as necessary as our
daily bread. Chastisements are to teach men in God s law, Ps.
xciv. 12; to search and heal their spiritual sores. But now at
death the scholar in Christ s school will have perfectly learned his
lesson, and therefore there will be no need of a rod: then the
wounds of the soul will be perfectly cured, and these plasters will
fall off of themselves. Death will make him whole that he can sin
no more ; and so no worse or so bad thing shall come to him.
There are three evils of affliction which I shall mention :
The first on the name.
The second on the body.
The third on the soul.
From all which a believer shall be freed by death.
First, Death will free the saint from ignominy on his name.
Here, if the world cannot make the Christian wound his conscience
they will be sure to wound his credit. Elijah is counted the
troubler of Israel ; Nehemiah a rebel against the king ; David the
song of the drunkards and the scorn of the gluttons, Ps. Ixix. 1 2, and
;xxv. 16 ; Isaiah and his children for signs and wonders, Isa. viii.
8 ; Jeremiah is a man of contention, Jer. xv. 10 ; the Son of man
a wine-bibber and a glutton; Paul a pestilent fellow and a mover
of sedition, Acts xxiv. 5. The uprightest saint is marked for a
hypocrite in the world s calendar. If they cannot smite him with
their hands their arms are not long enough always-they will not
fail to smite him with their tongues. What a precise fool, say
they, is such a fellow; he dares not take up his cups as we do;
but could we see his heart, it is as bad as the worst of ours. He
will do as bad or worse when nobody seeth him ; he will not swear,
but he will lie, 1 11 warrant you. He spendeth his time in nothing
but going to sermons and meetings, and is as arrant a dissembler
VOL. III. _
242 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. III. |
as liveth. Such a one of the same society was guilty of such a
sin, and they are all alike : these are your professors 1 Thus the
corruption of their hearts break out at their lips, and they most
wretchedly wound even Christ through the sides of the Christian.
But heaven will not only wipe away all tears from the Christian s
eyes, but also all blots off from his name. Upright Hezekiah in
heaven is above the sound of cursed Eabshakeh s tongue, which
was set on fire of hell. Now holy David is got up that heavenly
hill, that mount Zion, he heareth not the railings and revilings
of sinful Shimei. The most spiteful scorner of them all cannot
throw that dirt so high with which he bespatters the saints repu
tation here below.
Secondly, As death will free the Christian from ignominy in his
name, so likewise from infirmities in his body. Diseases cause
death, but death will cure all diseases ! In this life Job had his
botches, Hezekiah his boil, David his wounds and sores, the poor
widow her issue of blood; one man wasteth away with a con
sumption, like a candle, till all the matter is spent; another
laboureth under a continual ache, that, like the importunate widow,
will give him no rest day nor night ; this man spends his days in
pain, that man hath wearisome nights appointed to him. In some
the bridle is taken off the fire, and they burn with a fever ; in
others the flood-gate is taken up from the water, and they are like
to be drowned with a dropsy. The patient man complaineth, My
breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me,
Job xvii. 1. The upright man crieth out, My wounds stink and
are corrupt ; my loins are filled with a loathsome disease. In one,
the keepers of the house tremble with a palsy or lameness ; in a
second, the sound of grinders is low through weakness ; in a third,
those that look out of the windows are darkened through blind
ness ; in a fourth, the daughters of music are brought down with
deafness. Oh what an army, not only of moral, but natural adver
saries, hath every man in his own bowels, constantly set in array
against him, marching up, sometimes one, sometimes another, as
the Lord of hosts giveth the word of command. Physicians tell
us that two thousand diseases annoy man s body, whereof two
hundred affect the eyes ; so that indeed man s body is a spital,
or an hospital, for diseases. But death will help all this. As the
blind man told the lame, when they met at the stake, Brother,
you may cast away your staff, death will cure us both. The
physician of souls will by death heal all the diseases of the saints
bodies. There are some diseases which are called opprobria medici,
CHAP. III.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 243
because they cannot cure them ; but none are opprobria Christi he
healeth all whom he undertaketh. If the higher a house standeth
on earth, it be esteemed the healthier, surely then the highest
heavens must be a pure air and all health, Kev. xxi. 4: there "shall
be no more death, nor any more pain, for the former things are
passed away. So that every Christian that dieth in the faith, how
diseased soever he were before, shall then immediately, as in the
Gospel, be made every whit whole, John vii. 23.
Thirdly, As death will free the believer from diseases in his
body, so also from sorrows in his soul. The Christian liveth upon
earth as in a valley of tears, and often mingleth his drink with
weeping. As he is a man, he is born to sorrows as the sparks fly
upward : he cometh into the world crying, and goeth out groaning ;
and his whole life from the womb to the tomb is in some regard a
living death, or a dying life. But as he is a Christian, he drinketh
deepest of this cup of sorrows. The world is a tender mother to
her children, but a stepmother to strangers. Sometimes the afflic
tions of the good cause high water in the saint s heart: by the
rivers of Babylon he sits down and weepeth when he remembereth
Zion, Ps. cxxxvii. 1. He cannot but sympathise with the miseries
of his fellow-members, as being himself in the body. He is not as
a wooden leg, senseless of the other members sufferings. Some
times the transgressions of the bad clothe him with mourning:
like Croesus son, though dumb before, yet he crieth out when his
father is wounded. As with a sword they pierce his bones, when
they blasphemously say unto him, Where is thy God ? Ps. x lii. 10.
Kivers of tears run down his eyes, because the wicked forsake
God s law, Ps. cxix. 136. Sometimes his own corruptions, like so
many daggers, stab him to the heart, that he should abuse such
an ocean of unspeakable love by so unsuitable a heart and so
unanswerable a life. He confesseth his iniquities, and is sorry for
his sins, Ps. xxxviii. 18. Sometimes divine desertions darken and
cloud all his comforts : When God hides his face, he is troubled,
Ps. xxx. 7. As there are no joys like to those joys wherewith God
reviveth him in the day of his favour, so there is no sorrow like
to those sorrows wherewith God depressed him in the day of his
anger. Thus his life is a circle of sorrows ; but death will be the
funeral of his sorrows and resurrection of his joys: now he soweth
in tears, but then he shall reap in joy. The day of death is a
saint s marriage-day. Samson s wife indeed wept on her wedding-
day, Judges xiv. 16 ; but when the soul, which in this life is
contracted, shall at death be solemnly espoused, and more nearly
244 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IV.
conjoined unto Jesus Christ, all tears shall be wiped from its
eyes ; there shall be no more sorrow, Kev. xxi. 4. At that
marriage-day Christ will turn all water into wine, all mourning
into mirth, all sighing into singing, and cause the bones which he
hath broken to rejoice. Now the saints sorrows are not perfect
sorrows, non dantur puree tenebrce to the believer it shineth and
showereth at the same time. He sorroweth not as they which have
no hope ; but his joy at death shall be perfect joy, fulness of joy,
Ps. xvi. 11, and permanent joy; when they shall see Christ at
death, their hearts shall rejoice, and their joy shall no man take
from them, John xvi. 22. Then the ransomed of the Lord shall
return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their
heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing
shall flee away, Isa. xxxv. 10.
So much for the privative gain of a Christian by death, or his
freedom from evil.
CHAPTER IV.
What positive gain a Christian hath by death.
There is a second thing, which is positive ; and that is the frui
tion of all good, which a believer shall gain by death, and in this
head I shall observe these three gradations : l
First, A believer, by death, shall gain the company of perfect
Christians. Death will exempt him from all commerce with sin
ners, and teach him fully the meaning of that article, the commu
nion of saints. In the field of this world the tares and the wheat
grow together, but in that heavenly garner they are parted asunder.
There is no treacherous Judas among the apostles ; no covetous
Demas among the disciples ; no Amorites to be pricks in the eyes
and thorns in the sides of the Israelite ; no bestial Sodomite to vex
righteous Lot with their unclean conversation ; no flattering Doeg
sets his foot in that heavenly sanctuary. David doth not there
complain, Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar ! my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth
peace, Ps. cxx. 4, 5 ; nor Isaiah, that he dwelleth among a people
of unclean lips, Isa. vi. 5 ; nor Elijah, that he is left alone. Hell
holdeth none but sinners, and heaven hath only saints. He that
dieth in the Lord goeth to the congregation of the first-born, to the
1 Adeptio omnium bonorum.
CHAP. IV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 245
spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. xii. 23. And questionless
the sweet company will be part of our felicity. If Platinus the
philosopher could say, Let us make haste to our country, there are
our parents, there are all our friends ; and if Cicero * the orator
could say, Oh what a brave day will that be when I shall go to the
counsel and company of happy souls, to my Cato, and other Koman
worthies ! How much better will it be with the Christian, when
he shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven ; when he shall leave the rout and rabble of wicked ones,
and be admitted into the society of all that died in the faith, and
be joyfully welcomed by the melodious choir of angels, and be
heartily embraced by the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, yea, all the
saints ! Surely if ever that proverb were true, it is here, The more
the merrier. The fair streams there will never be drawn dry,
though it be divided into many channels ; the music there is not
the less harmonious, because many hear it ; nor the light of the Sun
of righteousness the less pleasant, because many see it; and oh
what a gain will this be, to enjoy the company of them that are
holy ! If Aaron, when he met Moses on earth, was glad at his
heart, certainly there was greater joy at their meeting in heaven.
If David placed all his delight, Ps. xvi. 3, in the saints here below,
when they shined a little, with the light of purity, like the moon,
and had their spots in them, what delight doth he take in them
above, now they have perfect purity, and shine like the sun in the
firmament of their Father ! Mat. xiii. 43. If it were so lovely a
sight to see Solomon in his rags of mortality, that the queen of
Sheba came so far to behold it, what will it be to see him in his
robes of glory !
I remember I have sometimes heard an able holy minister, 2 now
with Christ, say, that that sight of five hundred saints, and Jesus
Christ among them, 1 Cor. xv. 6, was one of the bravest, goodliest
sights that ever eyes beheld on earth. Sure I am they that are in
heaven see a far better, beholding Jesus Christ in the midst of many
thousands.
Secondly, A Christian shall gain by death the nearest commu
nion with the Lord Jesus Christ ; and oh what happiness is in
cluded in this head 1 The presence of Christ on earth can make
a mean cottage a most delightful court : to the three children it
1 prseelarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium ccetumque proficiscar.
Cic. de Senec.
2 Mr Thomas Wilson, minister of Maidstone, in Kent, an eminent servant of the
Lord Jesus.
246 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IV.
turned the fiery furnace into a delectable palace ; what will it do
then in heaven ? Bernard saith l he had rather be in his chimney-
corner with Christ, than in heaven without Christ. Luther saith
he had rather be in hell with Christ, than in heaven without
Christ. Communion with Christ can sweeten the bitterest con
dition. Christ alone is the salt which seasons all the saint s com
forts, without which nothing is savoury to the spiritual taste. A
duty without Christ is like a body without a soul, which hath
neither loveliness nor life in it. Communion with Christ is one
great motive which enticeth the saint to, and encourage th him in,
the ordinances of God. He attendeth on Scriptures because they
are they that testify of Christ ; the pearl of price is hid in that
field ; in them the lips of Christ, like lilies, drop sweet-smelling
myrrh, Cant. v. 13 ; and oh how his heart burneth within him with
love to Christ, whilst Christ is opening to him the Scriptures ! He
frequenteth prayer, because therein Christ and his soul converse
together ; in that ordinance he enjoyeth much of Christ s quicken
ing presence ; he speaketh to Christ by holy supplications, and
Christ to him by heavenly consolations : he mindeth fasting, because
therein his soul may with Jesus Christ have a spiritual feast ; or
the greatest cause of his weeping is, with Mary, They have taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. The
means of grace are therefore so desirable and delightful, because
they are the galleries wherein he walketh, talketh, feedeth, and
feasteth with the Lord of glory.
The highest duty without Christ, is as a dish without meat, from
which he goeth as empty and unsatisfied as he came to it. It is to
him as Tully s Hortensius to Augustine, of little worth if the name
of Jesus be not there.
If he love the saints with a love of complacency, it is because
they are Christ s seed ; if he love the sinner with a love of pity^it
is for Christ s sake. His affections are contracted or enlarged to
wards anything, as it hath less or more relation to Christ ; and
nothing is of true value or worth in his esteem which hath not
aliquid Christi, something of Christ in it.
Now consider, reader, if the presence of Christ be so precious, so
pleasant to the Christian here, when he can see so little of his ex
cellent beauty, and receive so little of his infinite bounty, what will
it be when he shall appear to the soul in all his royalty, and fill
the water-pots of the soul up to the brim with the riches of grace
and glory.
1 Mallem in cumino meo dim Christo quam in coelo sine Christo. Bern.
CHAP. IV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 247
Demarathus of Corinth saith, they lost the chief part of their
life s happiness that did not see Alexander sit on the throne of
Darius. If that were such a happy sight, what a sight shall the
saints have to see Christ on his Father s throne ! Oh how much
is included in these few words, to be with Christ, which is the
description of the saint s gain by death ! Phil. i. 23. This was the
great legacy and portion which Christ bequeathed his in his last
will and testament : John xvii. 24, Father, I will that those which
thou hast given me be with me where I am. This was the great
promise and sweetmeats which the tender Father provided to com
fort his fainting children with at his own funeral: John xvi. 22, I
will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice. This was the
great prayer which Paul maketh for his beloved Timothy: 2 Tim.
iv. 22, The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. This was the
enlivening cordial which the good physician administered to the
dying patient : Luke xxiii. 43, This day thou shalt be with me in
paradise. This is the great reason for which the godly long for
death : Phil. i. 23, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.
I desire death, saith Melanchthon, 1 that I may enjoy the desir
able sight of Christ. And oh when will that blessed hour come !
when shall I be dissolved ? when shall I be with Christ ? said holy
Mr Eobert Bolton on his deathbed. Surely, then, this gain is great
which the saint shall have by death. He that hath Christ with
him by grace, may say with Peter, Master, it is good to be here ;
but he that is with Christ in glory, may say with Paul, To be with
Christ is far better ; without doubt best of all. They were blessed
which saw him in his estate of debasement, Luke x. 23, but much
more blessed will they be that shall see him in his estate of ad
vancement.
Thirdly, The saint by death, shall gain the full and immediate
fruition of God. The former were excellent ; but this, as the sun
among the planets, surpasseth them all. The other were as rivers,
this is the ocean. They were as branches bearing goodly fruit, but
this is the root upon which they grow. They all as lines meet in
this centre ; this is the top-stone of the celestial building, this is
the highest stair, the apex of the saints happiness. This is the
greatest gift which the creature can possibly ask, or the infinite
God bestow. The boundless God cannot give a greater mercy than
this. Is anything, yea, are all things in heaven and earth equal to
God ? God alone is the highest object of faith, 1 Pet. i. 21, and
therefore the greatest ground of joy and satisfaction to the soul,
1 lit desiderate fruar conspectu Christi.
248 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IV.
Ps. xvii. 15. The vision of God is the beatifical vision, 1 John
iii. 3, and therefore the fruition of God will cause perfection in the
soul. The enjoyment of God is the great desire and delight of the
saints on earth, Ps. xlii. 1, 2; nay, it is the happiness of the
human nature of the Lord Jesus, Ps. xvi. 5, 6. Without question
then it will be the heaven of heavens. That excellent description
of heaven mentioned by the apostle, 1 Thes. iv. 17, is a being ever
with the Lord. This is all. The most fluent tongue must be here
silent, and the most capacious understanding will be soon at a
stand, in the consideration of the felicity which floweth from the
fruition of God. Loquimur de Deo non quantum debemus, sed quan
tum possumus. In speaking of God we speak not what we ought,
but what we are able, said Gratianus the emperor in his epistle to
Ambrose.
The presence of this King will make the court indeed. For the
Lord to be with us is our chiefest security : Though I walk in the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with
me/ Ps. xxiii. 4. But for us to be with the Lord, will be our chiefest
felicity : In his presence is fulness of joy ; at his right hand are
pleasures for evermore/ Ps. xvi. 11. God is not wealth, or honour,
or comfort, or friends, or earth, or heaven, but something infinitely
beyond all these. God is an immense ocean of all excellencies and
perfections, without either banks or bottom. God is virtually,
eminently everything, all things. 1 As in the wars between Charles
the Fifth and Francis the First, king of France, when the emperor s
heraldhad bid defiance to the king, fromCharles, emperor of Germany,
king of Castile, Leon, Arragon, and Naples, archduke of Austria,
with the rest of his titles, the king commanded the heralds to
return the challenge from Francis, king of France, commanding
them to repeat France as many times as the other had petty earl
doms in his style, intimating that one France was worth them all ; 2
so truly one God answereth all things. He is health and strength,
riches and relations, joy and pleasures, light and life, and much
more, all the excellencies scattered and shadowed in the creature,
are united and realised in the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
One God is worth more than all his creatures can sum up in mil
lions of ages.
This is the gain of a saint by death, he shall gain the fruition of
God. He who hath lost God, hath nothing more to lose he hath
lost all ; the loss of God is hell, 2 Thes. i. 9. But he that hath
1 Solus tu es jucunditas; totus mundus est amaritudine plenus. Aug. in Ps. Ixxxv.
2 Heil. Geogr.
CHAP. IV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 249
gained God, hath nothing more to gain he hath got all; the
gain of God is heaven.
It is worthy our observation, that Job, speaking of God, Job xiii.
16, saith, He shall be my salvation. An expositor 1 observeth on
that text, Job doth not say, He shall give me salvation, but He
shall be my salvation. It more pleaseth a saint that he enjoy eth
God than that he enjoyeth salvation. As nothing that a godly man
giveth God will content him, unless he give God himself, so nothing
which God giveth a godly man will satisfy him, unless God giveth
himself to him. 2 His voice is Non tua, sed te, Domine; Lord, not
thine, but thee. He is better pleased that God is his salvation, than
that he saved him. Whom have I in heaven but thee, saith he.
There are saints, angels, archangels, saith Musculus, but in the pre
sence of this glorious sun those stars must vanish and disappear.
What are saints, what are angels without God ? And it is true of
things as well as persons : What is the glory, what the pleasures,
what the joys of heaven without God? What is all the robes and
riches, what is all the crowns and comforts, what is all the delights,
the delicates, the diadems of heaven, without the God of heaven, but
as the funeral banquet for some eminent prince, where is large pro
vision and great cost, but no cheer ? ISTo, it is God alone that is
the centre to which the saint moveth, and in which he resteth.
Oh what happiness shall the holy man have at death, to be ever
with God! If that queen could say of Solomon s attendants,
Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand
continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom, 1 Kings x. 8. How
happy are they that dwell in God s mansion-house, ever beholding
his face, and hearing his voice ! It is reported of Eudoxius, that
he was so extremely desirous to be near the natural sun, that he
might see it, and know its nature, that he professed, so he might
obtain his desire, though but for one hour, he would willingly be
burnt up by it the next hour. How much worth then is the sight
and knowledge of this Sun of righteousness ; and what gainers are
they by death, that come thereby to see him as he is, and to know
him, as they are known of him, 1 John iii. 2 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
But the Christian shall not barely enjoy God after death, for
that he doth in this life, but he shall enjoy God fully. Now the
saints enjoy a little of God, and oh how refreshing is it to his
weary soul ! But then he shall have as much of God as his heart
1 Car. in loc.
2 Fecisti nos propter te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in te.
Aug. Confes, lib. i. cap. 1. Ps. Ixxiii. 24.
250 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IV.
can wish or hold. In this life there is a communication of God,
answerable to the capacities of men ; and the fault is in us, not in
God, that we receive no more of him on earth. The ground is not
in the sun, but in the narrowness of our windows, that we partake
no more of its light ; the cause is in the smallness of our vessels,
not in the well, that we carry away no more of its water. If our
mouths were never so wide opened, God would fill them now.
But then the windows of the soul shall be widened, and the vessels
of the heart enlarged, and so fitted for, and filled with, a greater
participation of God. There is not the least complaint of want;
all the patriarchs sacks are there filled with corn. There David s
cup runneth over indeed ; there the holy Ephesians are filled with
all the fulness of God. In that Father s house there is bread
enough, and to spare, for all his children. There is given to all
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over,
Luke vi. 38.
We say there is no fishing like to the sea, because the sea hath
the greatest plenty, and the vastest capacity ; there are fish enough
to fill all our nets, and lade all our ships. I may more truly say,
there is no fruition like to the fruition of God. He hath enough
not only to supply all our indigencies, and to satisfy all our neces
sities and desires, but he can do abundantly for us, above what we
are able to ask or think, Eph. iii. 20. God hath enough to fill
himself, as boundless a being as he is ; surely then he hath enough
to fill the limited soul of man. That which can fill the ocean, may
well fill a spoon.
Now a Christian is described by his hungering and thirsting, his
panting and breathing after a perfect conformity to God, that
thereby he may be prepared for perfect communion with God ; but
blessed are they which now thus hunger and thirst, for then they
shall be filled, Mat. v. 6. Well filled, as beasts are after a good
bait, as the word used by our Saviour signifies. 1 He that drinketh
of that water which God shall there give him shall thirst no more.
That God, who filleth the bellies of his enemies on earth with the
hidden treasures of common bounty, will surely fill the souls of his
children in heaven with the precious treasures of special mercy.
The soul, that now sippeth of the water of life, shall then drink a
full draught out of the rivers of God s pleasures. The Christian,
who can now only taste God to be gracious, shall then have a full
meal, when he shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. They are
1 xofn-a.6^crovrai, hoc proprie dicitur de armentis ; nam x6prov prati vocant gramen
aut pabulum.
CHAP. IV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 251
before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
temple : and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in
the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters/ Kev. vii. 15-17.
Observe, reader, I say a Christian shall gain by death a full
immediate fruition of God. Now the saint drinketh the waters of
life, and they are pleasant, though through the conduits and cisterns
of ordinances ; but with what joy will he draw water immediately
out of the well of salvation. 1 We read in Joshua v. 12, when Israel
came to Canaan manna ceased, and they did eat of the fruits of the
land. While the saint is in the wilderness of this world, he needeth,
and feedeth on the manna of the word, sacraments, prayer, and the
like; but when death shall land him at that place, of which
Canaan was but a type, the manna of ordinances shall cease, he
shall eat the fruits of that land. Ordinances are necessary for, and
suitable to, our state of imperfection. Jacob drove his flocks as
they were able to go, so doth Christ his sheep.
Here we are in a state of uncleanness, and therefore want water
in baptism to wash us, saith an eminent divine ; in a state of dark
ness, and therefore want the light of the word to direct us ; in a
state of weariness, and therefore want a Lord s-day of rest to
refresh us ; in a state of weakness, and therefore want bread in the
supper to strengthen us ; in a state of sorrow, and therefore want
wine to comfort us; in a state of beggary, and therefore want
prayer to fetch some spiritual alms from the beautiful gate of God s
temple.
Whilst the saint is as a child, he thinks as a child, speaks as a
child, understands as a child ; but when he shall come to be a per
fect man, he shall put away these childish things. When every
earthly member shall be mortified, and the body of death wholly
destroyed, when the faculties of the soul shall be enlarged, and the
sanctification of the inner man perfected, when the rags of mor
tality shall be put off, and grace swallowed up in glory, the sun
shall be no more thy light by day, nor the moon thy light by night,
but the Lord thy God, thine everlasting light, and thy God thy
glory, Isa. Ix. 19.
Apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, are for the perfecting of the
saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, no longer than till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the
1 Dulcius ex ipso fonte, &c.
252 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IV.
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ, Eph. iv. 11-13. When God shall be all in
all, then, and not till then, ordinances will be nothing at all. When
the saint comes to his journey s end, he may throw away his staff.
Now, how much will this add to the former, that the Christian
shall without ordinances enjoy God ! How lovely is the face of
God, though it be but in the glass of the gospel ! 2 Cor. iii. 18.
This was the one thing which David begged, that he might dwell
in the house of the Lord, to see the beauty of his face, Ps. xxvii. 4.
Ah how lovely will he be, when the Christian shall see him face
to face ! 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
If it be so good to draw near to God on earth, Ps. Ixxiii. 28,
and if they are blessed that watch at wisdom s gates, and wait at
the posts of her doors, Prov. viii. 34, how good will it be to draw
near to God in heaven ; and how blessed are they that wait not at
the door, but dwell in that house !
How pleasant will it be for the soul, when its eyes shall be
strengthened to see God as he is, without the spectacles of ordi
nances. We esteem that honey sweetest that is sucked immedi
ately out of the comb, though honey out of a dish is sweet ; and we
do with more delight eat that fruit which we gather ourselves from
the tree, than we do that which is brought to us through other
hands. The enjoyment of God is so sweet in the dish of a duty,
that a Christian would sooner lose the best friend he hath than it.
But oh how sweet will it be in the comb of immediate communion !
This fruit is very delightful and pleasant as it is conveyed through
the hands of ministers, (though the liquor will scent of the cask,)
but oh with what delight, (Christian, canst thou read it and thy
heart not warm with joy ?) with what pleasure wilt thou with
thine own hands gather this fruit from the tree of life, that stand-
eth in the midst of paradise ! Rev. xxii. 2.
Thus I have given thee a little of that great gain which a saint
hath by death ; death will free him from all evil, both of sin and
suffering ; it will give him the fruition of all good, in the enjoyment
of perfect saints, and the blessed Saviour, and in full immediate
communion with the infinite God, who is blessed, and blessing his
for ever. This is the heritage of a righteous man from God, and
this is the portion of his cup : thus shall it be done to the man
whom the King of Heaven delights to honour. There is but one
thing more required to make the Christian perfectly happy, and
that is the eternity of all this ; but I shall speak to that in the last
use. I now proceed to the application of the point.
CHAP. V.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 253
CHAPTER V.
The difference betwixt a sinner and a saint at death.
The first use which I shall make of this doctrine shall be by way
of information. If such as have Christ for their life shall have gain
by their death, it informeth us of the difference betwixt the death
of the sinner and the saint : the one is an unspeakable gainer, the
other an inconceivable loser by death. Death to the good is the
gate through which they go into the kingdom of heaven ; death to
the bad is the trap-door through which they fall into hell. The
godly dieth as well as the wicked ; but the wicked man dieth not
so well as the godly. The metal and the dross go both into the
fire ; but the metal is refined, and the dross consumed. As the
cloud in the wilderness had a light side to the Israelite, but a dark
side to the Egyptian : so death hath nothing but light and comfort
for the Israel of God ; nothing but darkness and sorrow for the
sinful Egyptians. Death to every one is a messenger sent from the
Lord of life ; it cometh to the regenerate, as the young prophet to
Jehu, I have an errand to thee, captain. And what was his
errand ? He poured the oil on his head, saying, Thus saith the
Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel, 2 Kings ix. 5, 6. It is
a messenger from God, to call the Christian to a kingdom which
cannot be shaken. But it cometh to the unregenerate, as Ehud to
Eglon : And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee.
And what was his message ? Judges iii. 20, 21, And Ehud put
forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and
thrust it into Eglon s belly/ It is a messenger from God, with a
mortal, wounding, killing, stabbing message to a sinner. The pale
white horse of death rides before, and the red fiery horse of hell fol
lows after.
The people of God pass safely through the red sea of death, which
his enemies assaying to do are drowned are damned.
There is a great disagreement in the lives of the holy and un
holy ; but oh what a vast difference is there in their deaths ! they
are like two parallel lines ; how far soever they go together, they
never touch in a point. Their ways differ, and therefore their ends
must necessarily differ. Every man s end is virtually in his way ;
their ways differ as much as light and darkness, and therefore their
ends must differ as far as heaven and hell. The one walketh in
254 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. V.
his own ways, Prov. xiv. 14 ; in the ways of his own heart,
Eccles. xi. 9 ; in the broad way of the flesh and the world, Mat.
vii. 13 ; and so his end is damnation, Phil. iii. 19 ; his latter end
is, that he shall be destroyed for ever, Num. xxiv. 20. The
other walketh in the way of the Lord, Ps. cxix. 1 ; in the way.
t of his testimonies, ver. 14 ; in the narrow way of self-denial,
mortification, and crucifying the flesh, Mat. vii. 14 ; and so his
end is peace, l Ps. xxxvii. 37. Such as the seed is sown, such is
the crop which is reaped. The unregenerate man soweth to the
flesh, and of the flesh reapeth corruption ; the sanctified soul
soweth to the spirit, and of the spirit reapeth life everlasting,
Gal. vi. 6, 7.
The blind world, indeed, as it seeth not their difference in life,
(the life of a saint is a hidden life ; Col. iii. 3, Our life is hid
with Christ in God. The king s daughter is all glorious, but it
is within, Ps. xlv. 13 ; the jewels of her graces are laid up in
that privy drawer, the hidden man of the heart,) so it beholdeth
not the difference in their death. As dieth the wise man, so
dieth the fool, to the eye of sense, and they want the eye of faith,
Eccles. ii. 16. We see no difference, say they, betwixt the death
of them you call profane, and your precise ones ; they die both
alike to our judgments.
But this conceit, reader, if thou art such an atheist, proceedeth
from thy blindness and unbelief. . Thou art probably in the cham
ber when a drunkard, a swearer, or a civil, moral, yet unsanctified
neighbour departeth this life ; thou seest his body trembling, pant
ing, groaning, dying ; but thou dost not see the ten thousand times
worse condition his poor soul is in. Thou seest his kindred or rela
tions weeping ; but thou dost not see the infernal spirits rejoicing ;
thou dost not see the greedy devils that waited by the bedside, like
so many roaring lions, for their desired and deserved prey ; thou
dost not see when the soul left the body how it was immediately
seized on by those frightful hell-hounds in a most hideous, horrible
manner, and hauled to the place of intolerable and eternal tor
ments ; thou dost not see the shoutings of those legions in hell, at
the coming in of a new prisoner, to bear a part in the undergoing
of divine fury, in their blasphemies against heaven s majesty, and
in their estate of hopelessness and desperation.
Men, saith a modern writer, like silly fishes, see one another
caught, and jerked out of the pond of life ; but they see not, alas !
the fire and pain into which they are cast who die in their sins.
1 Fine discernuntur improli ab electis. Moller. in Ps. xxxvii.
CHAP. V.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 255
Oh, it had been better surely for such if they had never been born,
as Christ said of Judas, than to be brought forth to the murderer
(that old man-slayer) to be hurled into hell, there to suffer such
things as they shall never be able to avoid, or abide.
On the other side, thou standest by a scorned, persecuted saint,
when he is bidding adieu to a sinful world ; thou seest the strag
glings and droopings of his outward man, but thou seest not the
reviving cordial the physician of souls is preparing for his inward
man ; thou dost not see those glorious angels which watch and wait
upon this heaven-born soul.
That waggon or chariot, which the son of Joseph sendeth to
fetch his relation to a true Goshen, the inheritance of the saints
in light, is as invisible to thee, as those chariots of fire on the
mountain were to the servant of the prophet. Never Koman em
peror rode in such a chariot of triumph, as the saint doth to heaven.
When the soul biddeth the body good-night, till the morning of
the resurrection, thou dost not see those ministering spirits, sent
down for the good of this heir of salvation, presently solacing and
saluting it. Thou dost not see how stately it is attended, how
safely conducted, how gladly received into the bosom of Abraham,
into the father s house, into that city, whose builder and maker is
God. Thou dost not see the soul putting off, with the clothing of
the body, all sin and misery, and putting on the white linen of the
saints, even perfect purity, matchless joy, and eternal felicity.
When thou canst see these things with the eye of faith, thou wilt
easily grant a vast difference between the death of the gracious and
graceless.
Reader, if thou art dead in thy sins, and unacquainted with this
spiritual life, which I have before described, nothing of that endless
gain which the godly shall enjoy at death belongs to thee ; none
of that fulness of joy, of those rivers of pleasures, of that eternal
weight of glory, shalt thou partake of. I may say to thee, as Simon
Peter to Simon Magus, Thou hast no part nor lot in this matter,
for thine heart is not right in the sight of God. Thou mayest,
like the madman at Athens, lay claim to all the vessels that come
into the haven ; but the vessels of the promises, richly laden with
the treasures of grace and love, do not at all appertain to thee. If,
, like a dog, thou snatchest at the children s bread, thou art more
bold than welcome, and wilt one day be well beaten for thy pre
sumption. If thou art unregenerate, and so diest, look to thyself,
for thy lot must fall on this side the promised land.
Thou mayest, like a surveyor of land, take a view of another s
256 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. V.
manor, and bring a return, how stately the house is, how pleasant
the gardens, how delightful the walks, how fruitful the pastures,
how finely it is seated, how fully it is wooded, how sweetly it is
watered, how fitly it is every way accommodated ; but as long as
the pronoun is wanting, it can be but little comfort, it is none of
thine.
So thou mayest read and hear much of that comfort, joy, and
richness of that incomparable kingdom, which the holy shall imme
diately upon their deaths enter into ; but what is all this to thee,
when thou must be without it for ever ? Thou mayest see Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, but between him and thee there
will be a great gulf.
As a stranger, thou mayest hear the last will and testament of
Christ read, and therein the fair, rich, and large portions which
he hath bequeathed to his children, John xvii. 24 ; Luke xii. 32,
but not the. least mention made of any good for thee. Look from
the beginning of Genesis, to the end of the Kevelation, and see if
there be one good word spoken to thee, whilst thou art in thy
natural estate. Moses-like, thou mayest, by the prospective of
scripture, have a Pisgah sight of Palestine, of that good land flow
ing with milk and honey ; but, as God is true, if thou diest in
unregeneracy, thou shalt never enjoy one foot of it.
The worst of a saint is past when he dieth, but thy worst,
sinner, is to come. There are some dregs in the bottom which
thou art yet to drink down. Thou hast thy good things here, and
he his evil things ; but at death he is comforted, and thou art
tormented. He hath all his hell upon earth, his heaven is to
come ; thou hast all thy heaven on earth, and thy hell is to come
when thou passest into another world. The hell of a saint is an
easy hell ; but ah, how hot is that hell in hell, how fiery is that
furnace, how terrible those torments 1 I may conceive somewhat,
the damned feel most, but no tongue can express them.
But it may be, friend, thou art one that thrivest in this world,
and therefore dost not trouble thy head, much less thy heart, with
the things of another world. Thou art unwilling to put a spoonful
of those thoughts into thy sauce, lest it should make thy meat
unsavoury: it would mar thy mirth and spoil thy sports. As
Sigismund the emperor did not love the pronunciation of the
Greek Zeta, because it represented the gnashing teeth of a dying
man ; so thou art resolved to banish such enemies, as thou thinkest,
out of thy coasts, and, like a bear, to go down that steep hill of
death backward.
/HAP. V.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 257
But know thou, man, that whether thou wilt consider of thy
leath beforehand or no, it is hastening upon thee. Though thou
mttest it far from thee, whether thou wilt or no, it draweth nigh
thee. The ship moveth not so fast in the waters, nor the sun
n the heavens, as thou art hastening towards thy long, thine ever-
asting home, and then death will bring thee up a reckoning for all
;hy sweet morsels, merry-meetings, time and talents whatsoever.
Mieve it, then, thou wilt have sour sauce for all thy sweetmeats ;
hy presumption will prove but like Hainan s banquet before exe
cution .
What advantage, then, will thy sunshiny morning of common
mercies bring thee, when, as on Sodom, it will be followed with
lakes of fire and brimstone before night ? Dost thou not know,
hat when the wicked nourish, it is that they may be destroyed for
ever ? Ps. xcii. 7. The higher thou ascendest on this ladder, the
;reater thy fall when death turneth thee off. Thou art but ripen-
ng for ruin, and fatting on earth to fry in hell, all the while thou
art flourishing in a course of sinning ; nay, thou mayest be much
nearer hell than thou art aware of.
The metal, when it shineth brightest in the fire, is nearest melt-
ng. Thou, like a candle, mayest give a blaze when thou art going
out of the world, into blackness of darkness for ever. The hawk
lieth high, and is as highly prized, being set upon a perch, and set
out with the jingling bells of encouragement,, and carried on his
master s fist ; but being once dead, and pitched over the perch, is
:ast upon the dunghill as good for nothing. The hen scrapes in
,he dust, nothing rewarded while she liveth, but being dead, is
)rought as a choice dish to her master s table. Thus wicked men
in this life are set in high places, godly men lie grovelling with
;heir mouths in the dust ; but being dead, the former is cast into
hell, the latter brought to heaven s table.
But that I may awaken thy conscience, secure sinner, and
make thee look about thee, whilst there is time and hope, if the
gracious and powerful God please to assist, I shall give thee an
!stirnate of the sinner s losses by death, by which thou mayest see
what a difference there is between the death of the titular and the
real Christian.
And here, reader, thou mayest help me with thy conceptions, for
I shall come infinitely short in my expressions. As none can endure
it, so none can declare it ; for who knoweth the power of God s
wrath ? Ps. xc. 11.
The orator, when he would describe the violent death of the
VOL. III. R
258 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
cross, doth it by an aposiopesis : What, saith he, shall I say of the
death of the cross ? l Much more cause have I to speak so of this
death, What shall I say of this eternal death ?
CHAPTER VI
The sinner s privative misery at death,
By death thou shalt lose all thy earthly delights and carnal con
tentments. The table of thy life possibly is richly spread with
variety of outward enjoyments, riches, relations, honours, pleasures,
beauty, and bravery ; but death will come in with a voider, and
take all away. It is called an unclothing, 2 Cor. v. 4, and indeed
it will strip thee naked of all such garments and ornaments.
Thine eye shall no more see good, Job vii. 7 ; i.e., the good things
of this life, they will all die with thee, as to thy use and comfort.
It is a doleful expression of Abraham to Dives, Thou hadst, or
thou receivedst, thy good things in thy lifetime, Luke xvi. 25. Oh
what a cutting word was that to his heart, when he was passed into
another world, Remember there was a time when thou and they
were joined together, but now ye are parted for ever. To have
been happy was no small aggravation of his misery. 2 It is with
thee, while in this world, as it was with the Jews, in the vineyards
and fields of their neighbours, pluck and eat they might, while
there, but pocket up, and carry away, they might not, Deut. xxiii.
24, 25.
Death is the great thief which will rob thee of thy riches. The
wealthiest emperor, the next moment after death, hath no more 1
than the poorest beggar. As thou earnest forth of thy mother s
womb, naked thou shalt return, to go as thou earnest, and shall
take nothing in thy hand of all thy labour, Eccles. v. 15. Thai
gold which thou lovest, and trustest more than God, these pebbles
which thou valuest above the pearl of price, that treasure on earth,
which thy heart is set upon more than on the true treasure in
heaven, will all leave thee when death findeth thee. Mr Rogers.
in his Treatise of Love, tells us of one, that being nigh death,
clapped a twenty shilling piece in his mouth, saying, Some wisei
than some, I will take this with me, however ; but alas ! poor fool
he could not be so good as his word. The Holy Ghost excellently
1 Quid dicam in crucem tollere. Tull.
a Miserum est fuisse felicem.
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 259
;ermeth rich men, rich in this world, because riches will not make
men rich in another world, 1 Tim. vi. 17.
Death will seal a lease of ejectment, and turn thee out of all thy
possessions ; and death will give thee a bill of divorce, and separate
;hee from all thy relations. The relations of husband and wife,
parents and children, are calculated only for the meridian of this
world, and shall not outlive this life. Thy dear husband, or thy
loving wife, and thy most dutiful children, will all serve thee as
Orpah did Kuth, chap. i. 14, follow thee while thou art full, but
forsake thee when thou art empty ; cleave to thee in thy health and
life, but leave thee in thy. greatest danger at death. And thy birth
and breeding, honour and respect, will serve thee in the like kind ;
they are but a shadow, which will not be seen when the sun of thy
life is set. The great distinctions in the other world will be holy or
unholy, not noble or ignoble.
Be not afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house
is increased ; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away ; his
glory shall not descend after him, Ps. xlix. 16, 17. Death is the
great leveller, making princes and peasants equal. 1
All thy sinful pleasures will also be lost. The sweet taste thou
foundest in thy mouth will be gone, though they will rise in thy
stomach, and after in thy belly be more bitter than gall. Thy
merry meetings, jovial companions, witty jests, sporting, recreations,
pictures for thine eyes, music for thine ears, dainties for thy taste,
thine eating and drinking, and all these delights on earth, which
thou solacest thy sensual soul with, desiring no other heaven, will
all, like leaves in the autumn of thy death, fall off from thee.
Though in the short summer of thy life thou art richly laden with
ihem, yet in thy long, thine everlasting winter, thou shalt be stripped
naked of them.
Thou mayest say to all the forementioned delights of riches, rela-
ions, honours, and pleasures, and whatever it is which thou fool
ishly rejoicest in, as Charles the Fifth, emperor of Germany, whom
the world counted most happy, did to his trophies, treasures, and
things of the like nature, Abite hinc, abite longe, Be gone, get you
far out of my sight. Be assured, that as a false harlot leaves her
[overs when they are arrested for debt, and followeth other cus
tomers, so this painted strumpet, the deceitful world, that now
layeth open her fair breasts, to allure thee to go a-whoring after her,
and commit spiritual fornication with her, when death shall arrest
thee by a writ from heaven, will wholly forsake thee, and follow
them that survive. Now, what a loss will this be !
1 More sceptra legionibns sequat.
260 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
But it may be thou comfortest thyself against this, that all, even
good as well as bad, will join with thee in this loss. But, reader,
dost thou not consider, that they who enjoy the stars all night, and
come in the morning instead thereof to enjoy the glorious sun, are
no losers ; the sun hath all the light of the stars, and far more.
Neither can the godly be properly called losers of these comforts,
because they enjoy them all, and infinitely more, in the blessed
(rod: As money answereth all things, Eccles. x. 19. Money is
equivalently sheep, oxen, corn, meat, drink, cloth ; whatsoever you
want in this life is virtually in money. So God to a gracious soul
after death will answer all things ; he will be eminently and
virtually father, mother, wife, child, wealth, honour, pleasure, and
all things ; though he loseth them here, he will find them there,
and much more ; but when thou, sinner, losest them in this
world, they shall never be made up to thee in another world. Thou
losest not only the streams, but the fountain ; not only the beams,
but the sun ; and therefore thy portion will be scorching drought
and dismal darkness. Besides, these things are not the portion, the
all, of a good man ; they are not his estate or inheritance, they are
but an additional overplus, cast in over and above. So much the
words of Christ imply, Mat. vi. 33, And all other things shall be
added to you. As when a father giveth his son a thousand pounds
worth of ware, he casteth in paper and pack-thread ; or one thousand
yards of cloth, he doth not stand upon the breadth of the thumb
which is to be allowed in measuring. So God, having given himself
and his Son to his saints out of his vast bounty, casteth in the crea
tures as an overplus; they are not their estate, or portion, or all. No;
when a godly man, at the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus,
shall see his house, and land, and outward good things in that com
mon flame which shall burn up the earth, he may then behold it with
comfort, and say with the philosopher, I have my all still. 1
But, sinner, thy loss of them will be a loss indeed ; for these
things are thy all they are all thy God, and all thy Christ, and
all thy happiness, and all thy heaven ; they are all the fulness
of joy, and all the rivers of pleasures, and all the weight of glory
which thou shalt enjoy ; they are all thy riches, all thine inherit
ance, all thy consolation, all thy reward, all thy portion, and all
thou shalt be worth for ever. Look Luke xvi. 24. They have received
their consolation, (cold comfort, indeed,) ye have your reward, 2
Mat. vi. 2. It is one of the saddest speeches in the book of God,
1 Omnia mea mecum perto. Pias.
2 djr^xw, they receive it as their full pay, whence CLTTOXTJ an acquittance.
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 261
whose portion is in this life/ Ps. xvii. 14. Ah ! poor portion. Thou
hast no other paradise but thy garden, no other mansion but thy
beautiful building, no other inheritance but thy land, no other
kindred but thy wife and children, no other honour but the stink
ing breath of thy flattering neighbours, no other God but thy gold,
no other heaven but the earth; all thy estate is in dust, rubbish, and
lumber; surely, then, it will be a loss with a witness to lose all that
in a moment, and that for ever, wherein all thy happiness consisteth.
Will it not be a sad sight for thee to stand, as it were, upon the
shore, and to see the vessel in which is embarked all thy treasures,
all thy near and dear relations, all thy respect and esteem, all thy
joy and delights, sinking before thine eyes, and lost for ever ? or to
see that house, in which is thy plate and jewels, thy wife and chil
dren, and all that ever thou art to be worth, in a flame, and nothing
possible to be recovered ; would not thine eyes affect thine heart with
unspeakable horror ? Now this, reader, will be thy case if thou
art unsanctified at death. When thou liest upon thy death-bed, and
art going out of the world, thou mayest take thy leave of thy friends,
istate, honour, and delights in such language as this : Farewell, my
dear wife, children, and all my friends ; farewell for ever. I am
*oing where lovers and friends will be put far from me ; I must
never, never have any friend more, but shall remain friendless to
all eternity. Farewell my house and land, my silver and gold ;
iarewell for ever. I shall from henceforth and for ever be a beggar,
and though I beg but for one drop of water to cool my tongue,
when this whole body shall be in unquenchable flames, I must
iverlastingly be denied. Farewell my honours and delights ; fare
well for ever. I shall never more be respected or comforted ; con-
iusion of face and easeless pains are to be my endless and unchange
able portion. Thus, man, thou wilt most miserably even outlive
thy felicity, and when thou comest to live indeed, i.e., in the other
world, want all thy comforts and joys.
Thou shalt lose by death all thy spiritual preferment. It is now
no mean mercy to thee, hadst thou a heart to prize and improve it,
that thou enjoyest the ordinances of God, the means of grace, many
golden seasons for the good of thy soul ; that thou mayest sit at
God s feet, and hear his voice out of Scripture, fall down on thy
knees and seek his face by prayer ; but know to thy sorrow, death
will rob thee of all these jewels. Now thou hast the tenders of
mercy, the entreaties of the minister, the motions of the Spirit, the
invitations of Christ, liberty to cast thyself down at the footstool of
heaven s Majesty, and to be as fervent and instant as thou wilt for
262 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
mercy, but then the gate will be shut, and there will be no pray
ing, or hearing, or preaching, in the place "whither thou art going :
Ps. Ixxxviii. 11, Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave?
or thy faithfulness in destruction ? The interrogation is a strong
negation. There is no preaching of God s clemency or fidelity
either in the grave or hell. All the lectures read in the former
are by worms, of man s mortality ; and all the sermons heard in the
latter are of man s misery and God s severity. Header, I assure
thee from the living God, that though in this life thou art now
and then bungling about a duty, and giving God thy stinking
breath, a few cold, lazy petitions, which proceed from thy corrupt
lungs, thy cursed heart, thou shalt do so no more after death. As
the saints shall be above this mediate enjoyment of God, so thou
shalt be below it. And truly, hadst thou ever had communion
with God in a duty, this loss would go near thee. How amiable is
the worshipping of God to a gracious soul ! he prizeth ordinances,
because they are the means of it in this world, above his estate,
and food, or whatever is dear to him, Ps. cxix. 14, 72, 111 ; Job
xxiii. 12 ; Ps. Ixxxiv. 1-3. And this privilege he shall have by
death, to be employed still about the same work of pleasing, glorify
ing, worshipping, and enjoying God; only he shall do it in a more
excellent and more delightful way.
He continueth, as it were, in the same school ; death only removes
him to a higher form, or, if you will, death sends him from the
school, in which he was fitted and prepared, to the university of
heaven. But, sinner, thou must be deprived of this happiness ;
indeed, now thou esteemest the ordinances of God a burden; ai
precious as they are to others, they are tedious to thee. The church
is thy jail, the Sabbath is thy ague-day, the commands of Christ
are bonds and fetters to thee, Ps. Ixxii. 3. The voice of thy carnal
heart is, When will the glass be out ? when will the duty be done ?
when will the Sabbath be over, that thou mayest follow the world ?
Amos viii. 5. Thou thinkest the prayer is too long, the sermon is
too long, the Sabbath is too long, the duties^are all too long ; well,
be patient but a little, a short time, and thou shalt never be troubled
with these long duties more. The night is coming when there it
no working, John ix. 4. There is no enjoying Sabbath, or sacra
ments, or seasons of grace; no wisdom, knowledge, or device, in the
grave to which thou art hastening, Eccles. ix. 10.
Now the minister exhorteth thee to cast away thy sins, and com*
to thy Saviour, to reject thy soul-damning lusts, and accept of .
soul-saving Lord. The Father commandeth thee by his sovereignty
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 263
over thee, and propriety in thee as thy Creator. The Son entreateth
thee by presenting his bloody sweat and sufferings unto thee, as he
is thy Redeemer. The Spirit stirreth thee to pity thy precious
soul, and to mind thine unchangeable estate ; to consider seriously
in this day of God s patience the things which concern thy eternal
peace. The gospel is a treasure of inestimable value, freely offered
thee, upon condition thou wilt but heartily embrace it and the easy
yoke of Christ together. The word of God chargeth, inviteth
allureth, beseecheth, promiseth, threateneth; all these, like so
many trumpets, do loudly sound a retreat, to call thee off from thy
slavery to the world and flesh unto the glorious liberty of the sons
of God ; but thou art as deaf as the adder, and will not hear the
voice of these heavenly charms ; as hard as the rock the waves of
threatenings which dash unweariedly against thee stir thee not;
the showers and dews of promises which fall on thee continually
make no impression ; neither mercies nor judgments, neither men
nor God, can prevail with thee. Well, sinner, think of it again
and again and thy heart is hardened with a witness if it do not
tremble to think of it the hour is approaching when thou shalt
never have these tenders, these invitations, these means, these
motions more ; though thou shalt earnestly and incessantly desire
them, and willingly accept of them if they could be granted thee,
after thou hast fried as many millions of years in hell as there are
stars in the heavens, piles of grass on the earth, and sands on the
sea-shore, yet thy entreaty upon such a hard condition shall be
denied. Then thou wilt befool thyself to purpose for staying till the
day after the fair, for not accepting when thou wast well offered ;
then mercy will be mercy indeed, then grace will be grace indeed,
then the gospel will be glad tidings indeed, when by the want of
them thou shalt fully know the worth of them.
Now God holdeth the candle of his word to thee, and instead of
working, thou playest. Instead of working out thy own salvation,
instead of working the works of him that sent thee into the world,
thou playest the fool, the drunkard, the beast, the hypocrite, the
atheist ; well, thou shalt go into utter darkness, where those lights
which thou now enjoyest will never shine.
Plutarch observeth of Hannibal, He might once have taken
Eome, and would not ; afterwards he would, and could not. Now
God offereth thee heaven, thou choosest earth ; and notwithstand
ing he assureth thee that now is the only acceptable time, now is the
only day of salvation, yet thou wilt not hear when he calleth. I tell
thee the day is near when thou wouldst, but God will not ; when
264 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
thou shalt call, but he will not hear ; and then thou shalt find no
place for repentance, though, Esau-like, thou seek it carefully with
tears. When once thy particular judgment is passed, it will be in
vain to beg a psalm of mercy, Heb. ix. 27.
Thou shalt at death lose the society of all the godly, even of those
excellent ones, in whom is the delight of Christ, Prov. viii. 31, and
all the delight of Christians, Ps. xvi. 3. It is a blessing to thee
upon earth, did the Lord but sanctify it to thee, that thy lot is cast
in a land, in a parish, in a family, where those holy ones are, that
thou mayest hear their gracious prayers, see their pious patterns,
and enjoy their precious precepts. A saint is, as the proverb is in
Africa, A man whose coming is prosperous. This churlish Laban
could confess, Gen. xxx. 27, and the heathenish Egyptian found by
experience, Gen. xxxix. 2. All the country fareth the better for a
good and rich Christian; he eateth not his morsels alone, but keepeth
open house for all comers.
He both desireth and endeavoureth that others might be not
almost, but altogether as he is. None are more spiritually covet
ous to make proselytes than the true Israelites. As the wall which
receiveth heat from the sun reflecteth it on the passengers, so he
wisheth so well to the worst, that they were made partakers of
the same grace, that they may have fellowship with the Father,
and Jesus Christ his Son, 1 John i. 3. Like the bee, he goeth to
this and that flower, to this and that ordinance, and sucketh some
sweetness, some spiritual good, and carrieth all home to his house,
to his hive. As sin is diffusive, a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump, 1 Cor. v. 6. Some say, they that have the plague are very
desirous to infect others; so is grace, like oil spreading, the
gracious desire to go to an innumerable company of angels with a
numerous company of saints.
Their examples are amiable, and sometimes instrumental for the
conversion of others, 1 Peter iii. 1 ; 1 Cor. vii. 16. Justin Martyr
confesseth of himself, that beholding the saints piety in life, and
patience at death, he gathered their doctrine to be the truth, and
was converted. Their prayers are desirable, and that in the
esteem of profane and ungodly men, Exod. viii. 28, and ix. 28 ;
Acts viii. 24.
In a word, the saints are clouds which water the earth, Heb. xii. ;
the salt which keepeth the world from putrefaction, Mat. vi. That
place, Prov. x. 25, But the righteous is an everlasting foundation,
the Hebrews expound, the righteous are the foundation of the world,
which but for their sakes would soon shatter and fall to ruin. I
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 265
bear up the pillars thereof/ saith David, Ps. Ixxv. 3. It is for the
sake of the good that the bad are spared, Acts xxvii. 24. All that
sailed with Paul were saved for his sake. 1 How many a time have
they stood in the gap, and diverted a flood of wrath from breaking
in ! Ps. cvi. 30 ; Num. xiv. 20. How many a mercy hath come
flying to the world upon the wings of their prayers !
But, sinners, herein will be a part of thy misery, that thou
shalt for ever be banished their company. Now possibly thou
thinkest the parish the worse for such strict inhabitants, thy dwell
ing the worse for such precise neighbours, thy family the worse for
such a humble, zealous wife, child, or servant. Now thou dost not
know what thou gainest when thou hast their society, but thou
shalt know what thou losest when thou hast lost them to
eternity.
If Cicero did so bewail his banishment from the Roman moralists,
that though the countries through whLch he travelled did him much
honour, yet he would often look towards Italy with sighs and tears; 2
and if the disciples wept so much for the loss of Paul they fell
about his neck, and kissed him, and wept, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more in
this world, Acts xx. 37, 38 how wilt thou sigh and sob, weep
and wail, when thou shalt be parted from them in the other
world !
Did the devout men make such great lamentation for the loss of
one good man for a little time, Acts viii. 2, what lamentation shalt
thou make for the loss of all good men to eternity ! Surely, as in
Eamah, there will be a voice heard, lamentation, weeping, and
mourning, for the loss of these children of God.
When thou diest, thou shalt lose all thy hope, or presumption
rather. Thy dead hope, for saints only have a lively hope, 1 Peter
i. 3, will fail thee at death. As thou hast no true holiness, so thou
canst have no true hope ; but something it is likely thou hast, upon
which thou reliest as to thy future estate. It may be thou hast the
good things of this life, and thence concludest thy right to a better
life ; as if because the great housekeeper of the world throweth
some bones to the dogs, therefore he must love them with a paternal
love. Thou dost not consider, their houses may be full of gold
whose hearts are empty of grace, and whose souls shall assuredly
come short of glory, Job xxii. 17, 18 ; Ps. xvii. 13, 14.
. It may be it is thy profession of religion that holds thee up by
1 Sanctum semen statumen terrse, Isa. vi. 13. Absque stationibus non staret
mundus. 2 Plut. in Vit.
266 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
the chin, and keepeth thee from sinking ; as if, because a stage-
player is dressed in the robes, and for a quarter of an hour acteth
the part, of a king, he must therefore have a real right to the
dignity, iominions, and revenues of the regal office, not believing
that these colours of the form which are not laid in oil, in the
power of godliness, will be washed off at death, Mat. xxv. 8. Or
it is likt.ly thou enjoyest the privileges of the gospel; Sabbaths,
sacraments, and the seasons of grace are the bladders, with the
help of which, without an inward change, thou thinkest to swim
to heaven. Dost thou not know that many go to hell-fire with
font-water on their faces, and from the table to the tormentor?
Mat. xxii. 13 ; that Esau, a castaway, and Ishmael, an outcast, had
both Abraham to their father ? And so had they whom truth itself
assureth, that they were of their father the devil, John viii. 44.
Circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature/ Gal. vi. 15. All such things are but lying words, where
an internal work of grace is wanting, Jer. vii. 4-6.
Or possibly thou art a man of many performances ; thou mindest
secret, family, relation duties, which too too many neglect, praying,
reading, hearing, Christian communion. Like the spider, thou
weavest a curious web out of thine own bowels, and therewith
makest thee a house in which thou restest quietly ; but, friend,
God hath a besom of death which will sweep this down, Job viii.
14, 15. This, and all the rest, as nigh as they seem to be to heaven,
will prove but a castle in the air. Whether any, or all these, or
something else, be the pillars by which thy hope is upheld in life,
they will fail thee at death ; and then the rotten props being taken
away, the house of thy hope will fall. These are all but a sandy
foundation, and therefore when that great storm comes, they will
down to the ground, Mat. vii. 26, 27.
It is possible thou mayest hope all the time thou livest, but thy
life and hope will depart together. Like thy neighbours, thou
ma rest be full of hope even when thou art going into the pit of
despair, and die in peace, though thou art going unto the place of
eternal war ; but the next moment after death, thy hopes will take
wings and fly away : Prov. xi. 7, When a wicked man dieth, his
expectation shall perish ; and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
He died perhaps with his head full of hopes and expectations, as
those seemed to have done that came bouncing at heaven s gate
with, Lord, Lord, open to us ; but soon were their hearts filled
with desperation when they heard, Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity, I know you not. Etiam spes valentissima periit, as some
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 267
read that forecited place : his great hope shall be little worth. A
false heart and false hope can never hold out in such a real hard
ship : Job xxvii. 8, What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he
hath gained, when God shall take away his soul? An expositor
glosseth on it thus : The anchor of a wicked man s hope entereth
not within the veil, as a godly man s doth, closing with God him
self in Christ, Heb. vi. 19, which anchor in all storms is sure and
steadfast, but is cast upon false and loose ground, and therefore,
when the storm comes, his anchor drives, and is unsteadfast ; and
so his hope and heart fail together. The stoutest unregenerate
man alive will droop at last when God cometh to take away his
soul ; then his crest falls, and his plumes flag : The wicked is
driven away in his wickedness, Prov. xiv. 32.
He being arrested by death as a cruel serjeant, in the devil s
name, is hurried away, and hurried into hell. As syrens are said
to sing curiously while they live, but to roar horribly when they
die ; so thou that art high in hope on earth, wilt be the lower in
grief in hell, when thou shalt see all thy hopes, like Absalom s
mule, to fail thee in thy greatest extremity.
We say, If it were not for hope the heart would break ; what
wilt thou do then, when thy hope shall depart, and thy heart
continue ?
How sad will thy condition be. when thou shalt fall from the
high pinnacle of thy presumption into the bottomless gulf of des
peration ! Surely thy raised expectation disappointed will prove
a sore vexation. How extremely wilt thou be perplexed, when
thou shalt fall as low as hell, whose hopes were raised as high as
heaven! If hope deferred make the heart sick, Prov. xiii. 12,
then hope of such happiness wholly frustrated will kill it with a
thousand deaths.
When a gracious man dieth, his hope is perfected in the fruition
of all, and ten thousand times more, than he hoped for. When a
graceless man dieth, his hope perisheth in an utter disappointment
of all that he, though with little reason, so much expected. 1
Thou shalt lose by death thy precious soul. This will be a loss
indeed. The price of this pearl is not known to thee on earth, but
it will be fully known in hell This one head, reader, didst thou
but understand what is included in it, would stab thee to the heart,
and the thought of this one loss would be enough to embitter the com
forts of thy whole life. The soul of man is called the man, Job iv. 19
though not in a natural, yet in a moral, consideration, saith one
1 Improbi, dum spirant, sperant : Justus, etiam cum expirat, sperat.
268 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
upon that place, it being the most noble, the most excellent part
of man -, 1 and it is usual to denominate the whole from the better
part. The body is but a house of clay, its foundation is in the
earth ; but the soul, the inhabitant of this house, is of an angelical,
spiritual nature. The generation of this was from heaven, Zech.
xii. 1.
The operations of this are most noble ; the redemption of this
cost the blood of God, Ps. xxxi. 5 ; Acts xx. 28. This is that part
of man which is capable of the image of his Maker, Col. iii. 10 ;
Eph. iv. 24. The working out the salvation of this is the whole of
a saint s care and labour, Phil. ii. 14. It is upon the welfare of
this that the body dependeth for its unchangeable estate. What a
loss then will the loss of this be !
A heathen can tell us that it is an easy matter to bear the loss
of an earthly house for our bodies when we die ; but certainly it
will be hard to bear the want of a heavenly habitation for thy soul.
Let him that bought this ware speak to its worth and thy loss :
What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul ? Mat. xvi. 26. Behold what an incomparable, what an irre
parable, loss is here ! It is such a loss there is none like it. The
gain of the whole world cannot balance the loss of one soul. If a
temporal life be more worth than meat, and the body than raiment,
what is an immortal, eternal soul worth ? Couldst thou set thy
soul to sale for all the world, yet for that thou wouldst be a loser,
nay, as the rich man, a beggar. This is an irrecoverable loss. If
thou losest one eye, thou hast another ; if thou losest one limb,
thou hast more ; if thou losest thy estate, thou mayest recover it
again ; if thou losest thy life, thou mayest be a gainer by it, thou
mayest find it again, Mat. xvi. 25 ; but if thou losest thy soul at
death, thou hast no more ; there is no second throw to be cast, no
after-game to be played ; thou art gone, thou art undone for ever.
Here is a loss, man, that may make thy hair stand an-end ; thy
head, yea, thy heart, to ache when thou readest or thinkest of it. Do
not thine ears tingle and thy loins tremble to hear of it ?
When God would smite the rich fool under the fifth rib, as it
were, and strike him so home as that there need not a second
thrust, he doth it in those words, Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee/ Luke xii. 20. Ah sad sentence ! wherein
every word speaketh woe, every syllable sorrow and sighs. Had it
1 Quia anima est principalior pars hominis, unumquodque autem consuevit ap-
pellari id quod in eo est principalius. A quin. in Job iv. 19.
CHAP. YL] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 269
been, Thou wise man, the message might have been welcome, and
death desirable as a passage to eternal life ; but it is Thou fool.
Had it been this year, or this month, nay, had it been this week,
the man might have been forewarned and forearmed ; but it is,
This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Had it been, This
night thy riches shall be required of thee, how harsh would it have
sounded in his ears, who had no other god but his gold ; who, like
a mole, lived in the earth as his. element ! Oh how hard would it
be to part this covetous muck- worm and his mammon of unright
eousness ; but it is not thy silver, but thy soul shall be required of
thee. Had it been, This night thy relations shall be required of
thee, thy wife and children, and all thy kindred, shall be required
of thee, what heavy tidings would it have been to his heart, that
had no kindred in heaven! with what wringing of hands, and
watering of cheeks, and sighs and sobs, would such news have been
entertained ! Many an eye would a tender husband and father have
cast upon his loving wife and lovely babes, and oh how would his
eye have affected his heart with grief and sorrow, to consider that
these thriving, hopeful plants must be removed into another soil,
that this near conjugal knot must be untied, and he and his dear
relations, who had so often and so much rejoiced together, so sud
denly be separated, and that for ever ! But it is not thy wife that
is one flesh with thee, but thy spouse that is a spirit within thee :
Thy soul shall be required of thee. Had it been, This night all
the means of grace shall be required of thee, it had been worse than
the loss of a limb to him that had any spiritual life. The ordi
nances of God to a soul, are as the sun to the world, without which,
notwithstanding all his earthly delights, it would be but a place of
darkness and of the shadow of death, Mat. iv. 16 ; but it is thy
soul. The former might have spoken the man s condition very
dangerous, but this speaks it altogether desperate, Thou fool, this
night thy soul shall be required of thee. The former, although
sad, are yet nothing to this, not so much as the noise of a pop-gun
to the noise of a cannon. This is the great ordnance which in
cludes, and yet drowns, those smaller pieces.
Couldst thou, saith one, 1 upon the forecited text, purchase a
monopoly of all the world, hadst thou the gold of the west, the
treasures of the east, the spices of the south, the pearls of the north,
all is nothing to this incarnate angel, this invaluable soul.
wretched worldling, what hast thou done thus to undo thy soul !
Was it a wedge of gold, a heap of earth, a hoard of silver, to which
1 Ambult., p. 69.
270 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
thou trustest ? see, they are gone, and thy soul is required. Alas,
poor soul ! whither must it go ? To heaven ? No ; there is an
other place for wandering sinners : Go ye into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels. Thither must it go, with
heaviness of heart, into a kingdom of darkness, a lake of fire, a
prison of horrible confusion and terrible tortures.
Header, if thou art not new-born, put this case to thyself, and
ask thy soul what it will do in such an hour, when the grave shall
come with an habeas corpus for thy body, and the devil with an
habeas animam for the soul ; when thy soul shall leave this dwell
ing of thy body, and pass, naked of all its comforts, into a far
country, where devils and damned spirits are the inhabitants, where
screeching, yelling, and howling is the language, where fire and
brimstone is the meat, and a cup of pure wrath, without the least
mixture, is the drink; where weeping and wailing is their
calling, where a killing death is all their life. Assure thyself, if
thou diest unsanctified, thou wilt find far more and worse than all
this.
O my soul, saith Bernard, 1 what a terrible day shall that be,
when thou shalt leave this mansion, and enter into an unknown
region ! Who can deliver thee from those ramping lions ? who
shall defend thee from those hellish monsters ?
Now thou most unworthily undervaluest thy precious soul, little
caring what flaws by sin thou causest in this diamond. Like the
cock on the dunghill, thou knowest not the worth of this jewel, but
preferrest thy barleycorns before it. I have read that there was a
time when the Komans wore jewels on their shoes. Thou dost
worse ; thou tramplest this matchless jewel under thy feet. Whilst
thy dying body is clothed and pampered, thy everlasting soul is
naked and starved. Some write of Herod, (I suppose because of
that infant massacre,) it was better be his swine than his son ; for
when his superstition hindered him from slaying his hogs, his
ambition helped him to kill his child. I say, it were better to be
thy beast than thy soul. Thou canst, every morning and evening,
whatever happen, take care that thy beasts be watered and fod
dered, and many times in the day look abroad after them, to see
what they ail, and accordingly take order for their supply ; and
yet, man, or rather brute, thou canst let thy soul go a whole
day, and never feed it with the set meals of prayer, Scripture, and
meditation; yea, and in a whole day (nay, it may be a whole
week) not ask thy soul in good earnest how it doth, what it
1 Bern. Meditat.
CHAP. VI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 271
wanteth, what sins it hath to be mortified, what grace it hath to be
bestowed or increased, what spiritual necessities to be supplied.
Reader, is it not so? Let conscience speak; and canst thou
read these lines without blushing and heart-breaking, that thou
shouldst spend more time and strength upon thy beasts than upon
that soul, which truth itself saith is more worth than a world ?
Mat. xvi. 26 ; which is created capable of such a high work as
pleasing, glorifying, and enjoying God, and of such a happy reward
as the immediate and eternal fruition of, and communion with, his
infinite Majesty in heaven. Well, this soul thus despised, when
lost, though then too late, will be esteemed. Hell will read thee
such a lecture of thy soul s worth, that it will make thee under
stand it, and believe it, whether thou wilt or no, and then thou
shalt have time enough (in that eternity in which thy soul shall
be lost) to befool thyself for thy desperate madness in gratifying
thy brutish flesh, and thus basely neglecting thy soul, that heaven-
born spirit.
Thou shalt by death lose the infinitely blessed God. This is
the loss of losses, the misery of miseries, the very hell of hell, such
a loss as there was never the like before, nor ever shall be again
after it ; such a loss as no tongue can express, as no heart can con
ceive, yet such a loss as thou shalt know fully, when experimentally.
The four first losses might have been borne with comfort and de
light by the person that had but gained this good, and the fifth
could not have been without this. The eternal death of the soul
consisteth in its farthest separation from that God whose favour is
far better than life. This is the lowest round in that ladder by
which thou shalt descend into the bottomless pit. This is the foot
of this black, bloody account, the head of that arrow which pierceth
the heart of the damned.
This is the worst effect and fruit of sin, that it is privative of
our union with, and fruition of, God. 1 Depart from me is as
terrible a word as everlasting fire. Ah, whither do they go that
go from him, when he alone hath the power of eternal life ? How
dismal, how dark must that dungeon be where this sun will not
shine in the least degree with the light of his countenance ! Well
may it be called blackness of darkness for ever/ Jude 13. The
hell of the hypocrites, which will be hottest of all, is set out by this :
Job xiii. 16, The hypocrite shall not come before God/ Couldst
thou have all the mercies that the world can give, yet in this want
of God thou wouldst be completely miserable. Ten thousand words
1 Vines on James iv. 8, p. 23.
272 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VI.
cannot speak a soul more unhappy than those two words, without
God, Eph. ii. 12. Thou mayest be without riches, without friends,
without health, without liberty, nay, without all outward blessings,
and yet blessed ; but if without God, thou art cursed with a curse.
When God would couch all arguments in one to persuade to duty,
this is instead of all, Obey my voice, and I will be your God,
Jer. vii. 23 ; when he would dissuade and drive them from iniquity,
this is the stinging whip, Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my
soul depart from thee/ Jer. vi. 8 ; when he would strike Israel dead
with a blow, this is it, Woe unto them when I depart from them, 1
Hosea ix. 12. How sad a saying is that of Saul, I am sore dis
tressed/ (and well he might ;) the Philistines are upon me, and
God is departed from me, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15.
If a partial eclipse of the sun cause such a drooping in the whole
creation, what will a total eclipse of this Sun cause ? How mourn
fully doth Micah bemoan the loss of his dunghill deity 1 Ye have
taken away my gods, and what have I more ? and what is this ye
say unto me, What aileth thee ? Judges xviii. 24. Surely the
damned, as they will have infinitely more cause, so they will with
more horror and anguish bewail the loss of the true God, though
all the tears in hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of this
heaven. If the body from which the soul is parted be such a de
formed, sad spectacle, what shall the condition of that soul be from
which God is parted for ever ?
How unable are the children of God to bear the absence of God
in this life, though it be but in part, and for a short time ! Take
Heman, Ps. Ixxxviii. 14, 15, Lord, why castest thou off my soul ?
why hidest thou thy face from me ? I am afflicted, and ready to
die ; while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Observe, the good
man is at death s door, and no wonder, whenas to his apprehen
sion the life of his soul had left him ; for though no man can see
the essential face of God and live, yet no saint can live unless he
see the providential face of God. Consider Job, a man of courage,
one that had entered the list against Satan, and foiled him. The
Sabeans and Chaldeans were too hard for his servants, and cap
tivated his cattle ; but Job was too hard for them ; he conquered
them. The wind that blew down the house on his children could
not blow down the tower of his confidence, his hold on Christ ; yet
when this valiant warrior comes to encounter with the withdraw-
ings of God, how exceedingly is his courage withdrawn : Job xiii.
1 Sicut sole recedente succedunt densae tenebrse, sic Deo recedente succedit horri-
bilis maledictio. Parceua in Hos, i.
CHAP. VI. ] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 273
24, Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and boldest me for thine
enemy ? Why, Lord, are all the appearances from heaven so black
and lowering ? Why is it that I see not the former smiles of thy
face ? Oh, what is the cloud that hindereth the light of thy coun
tenance from shining on me? What sin is the mist which is
gathered about the true Sun, impeding my sight of thee ? Where
fore hidest thou thy face, and countest me for thine enemy ?
Behold our Lord Jesus himself, that could bear the spiteful buf-
fetings of some, the bloody scourgings of others, the scorn and
derisions of many ; that could suffer the treason of one apostle, the
denial of another, and the unkindness of them all, without com
plaining ; yet when the deity did but withdraw itself for a time,
that the humanity might suffer for our sins, how mournfully doth
he sigh out that expression, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me ? Mat. xxvii. 46. It was not his torturing from men,
nor the terrors of devils, not the presence of all the powers of dark
ness, that Christ complained so much of, as the absence of God :
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?
Now meditate, O sinner, if the departure of God, though partial
and temporal, were so terrible to his saints, to his Son, how in
tolerable will the loss of God be to thee, when it shall be total and
eternal ! Do they mourn so bitterly when for a small moment he
forsaketh them, though with great mercies he gathereth them ;
when in a little wrath he hides his face from them, though with
everlasting kindness he hath mercy on them? Isa. liv. 7, 8.
How bitterly wilt thou complain when he shall forsake thee to
eternity, when he shall hide his face from thee for ever, and not
bestow on thee the least mercy, or smallest kindness ! This will be
a woe with a witness. Suffering may be the portion of saints, but
separation from God the punishment of devils. As the face and
comfortable presence of God is the greatest felicity of the saved, so
the full withdrawings or absence of God will be the greatest misery
of the damned. 1
Now thou dost not value the enjoyment of God ; thou thinkest
often that he is too near thee ; the coming of God to thee is as to
the devils, a torment, Mat. viii. 29. If he draw nigh to thee some
time in a sermon, in a private instruction, in a motion of his Spirit,
or in a conviction of thy conscience, thou wishest him farther off
with his precise laws, that thou mightest have more liberty for thy
fleshly lusts. The voice of thine hellish heart unto God is, De-
1 Summa more animae est alienatio a vita Dei in seternitate supplicii. Aug. de
Civit. Dei, lib. vi.
VOL. III. 8
274 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VII.
part from me, I desire not the knowledge of thy ways, Job xxi.
14. Well, thy petition shall be granted to thy destruction, and
God will take thee at thy word, and give thee thy wish to thy woe,
when thy doom shall be to depart from him, Luke xiii. 27 ; Mat.
xxv. 41 , and then thou shalt know the incomparable worth of him.
Thy understanding shall be cleared, though not changed, that
thy knowledge may increase thy sorrow. Thou art now wilfully
ignorant of him and his will, (some never look up to the sun but
in an eclipse,) but then thou shalt know so much of him to grind
thee with tormenting grief for thy loss of him.
As a prisoner through the grates may see the costly apparel,
the precious liberty, the pleasant and plentiful provision which
others enjoy, whilst he is vexed with hunger, nakedness, cold, and
bondage, so thou shalt see bread enough in the Father s house, and
the children sitting round about his table eating and feasting in
the kingdom of heaven, whilst thou art perishing with hunger.
Thou shalt see those rivers of pleasures wherein the godly bathe
their souls, those soul-ravishing delights which they enjoy in God,
the fountain of all good, whilst thou art sentenced to an eternal
separation from him.
CHAPTER VII.
The positive part of a sinners misery at death.
Now, tell me whether the sinful wretch be not a loser by death
when he shall lose all his wealth, friends, and opportunities o:
grace, the company of all the saints, all his false hopes of heaven
his precious soul, and the ever blessed God ; and tell me whether
sin, how sweet soever it be in the commission, will not be bitter in
the conclusion ; whether, in such an hour, the devil will not pay
thee thy full wages for all thy wicked works ; whether it be worth
the while to continue in thine unregenerate estate, though thou
couldst gain never so much, when it will certainly end in such in
estimable loss. In a word, answer me whether the greatest pleasure
thou canst gain for thy flesh, the greatest addition thou canst gain
to thy estate, by a sinful, irreligious life, can countervail the ever
lasting loss of God and thy soul ?
But this is not all, sinner ; I have not done with thee yet. I have
told thee a little of thy loss ; for the whole of it no tongue can tell,
no pen can write. I will now tell thee thy gain by death, and then
CHAP. VII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 275
do thou cast up thy account, and tell me whether thy wickedness
will not end in woe.
First, By death thou shalt gain a cursed ripeness, perfection of
sin, if it may be called perfection. Upon earth the most notorious
sinner is a lion chained up, and kept in ; but in hell he will be let
loose, and then his ravenous nature, and cruel disposition, will appear
to purpose.
Thou yet standest in a soil, saith that accurate writer, 1 not so
proper for the ripening of sin, which will not come to its fulness
till transplanted unto hell. Thou who art here so maidenly and
modest, as to blush at some sins out of shame, and forbear the
actings of others out of fear, when there thou shalt see thy case as
desperate as the devil doth his ; then thou wilt spit out thy
blasphemies, with which thy nature is stuffed, with the same malice
that he doth.
The vilest man in this world is like a swine in a fair meadow ;
but in the other world, there will be the wallowing in the mire.
Thy heart now is like the sea, which cannot rest, but is ever cast
ing up mire and dirt of sin, foaming out thy own shame, yet still it
is shut up with bars and doors of restraining grace : Hitherto shalt
thou come, and no further ; and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed. But then the doors will be opened, the banks broken down,
and the flood-gates taken up ; and oh what a deluge, what an over
flow of sin will be there !
Here if Grod should not put a bridle into the mouth of these un
ruly beasts, and hold them in, there would be no living for a saint
among them ; but then, when the good shall be parted from them,
the reins shall be laid, in some respect, on their own necks, and
then they will run to the same excess of riot and sin with the very
devils.
All the weeping in hell will not wash thee a whit the cleaner,
and all the fire there will not consume the least of thy dross. 2 He
that is filthy at death, will be filthy still ; and he that is unjust then,
shall be unjust for ever, Kev. xxii. 11.
Hell may fitly be called Pompey s theatre, the glory of old Home,
a sty of filthiness. 3 Every bottle of wickedness will be there filled
with those bitter waters ; thou that now makest a match with mis
chief, shalt then have thy bellyful. Here sin is thy sin and defile
ment, but there it will be thy hell, thy punishment. Here thou
1 Gurnal s Armour, part i.. p. 257.
2 Voluntas morientis confirmatur in eo statu in quo moritur.
2 Arcem omnium turpitudinum.
276 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VII.
sportest with it, but there thou shalt smart for it. Now it is thy
pleasure, but then it will be thine everlasting pain.
Sin is ugly to a saint on earth, notwithstanding all her gaudy
attire, and painted face ; but oh what a deformed monster she will
be in hell, when she shall be stripped of all her ornaments of
pleasure and profit, and when all her paint shall be washed off with
rivers of brimstone ! I thus preach, and thus think, saith Chryso-
stom, that it is more bitter to sin against Christ than to suffer the
torments of hell. And holy Anselm saith, that if the evil of sin
were proffered to him, and the torments of hell, he had rather
choose hell than sin. Thus odious sin is to a godly man in this
world, and surely it will not be amiable to a wicked man in the
other world ; but they who now glory in their shame, will then be
ashamed of their glory, and find their lusts more burdensome to them,
how lightly soever now they go with them, than ever prisoners did
their chains and fetters.
If thy soul be so unhealthy in so pure an air as this, compara
tively, is among the saints of God, how diseased will it be in that
misty region of darkness, in that pest-house, among devils and in
fectious spirits !
Secondly, Thou shalt gain by death a fulness of sorrow. When thy
sins come to their highest degree, then will thy sorrows likewise, both
in regard of intension and duration.
1. In regard of intension ; and how great this will be I am not
able to tell thee. When one was desired to paint the Spanish in
quisition, he took a table and besmeared it with blood, implying
the torments were so cruel and bloody that his pencil could not
delineate them. Sure I am Phalaris s bull, Low-Country racks, and
all outlandish tortures whatsoever, are but plays and bugbears to \
the sufferings of the damned. There are no sorrows like to their
sorrows, wherewith the Lord afflicteth them in the day of his fierce
wrath. If the wrath of God be kindled but a little, and a spark
thereof light into the conscience of a saint, what a work doth it
make. 1 There is no rest in his flesh, nor quiet in his bones.
When the arrows of the Almighty stick within him, the poison
thereof soon drinks up his spirits, Ps. xxxviii. 3 ; Job vi. 4. What
will their condition then be, against whom God shall stir up all
his wrath ! Ps. Ixxviii. 39. Hell is said to be prepared for the devil
and his angels, Mat. xxv. 41 ; as if the almighty and infinite
God had sat down and studied the most exquisite torments that
could be to inflict on them.
1 Una guttula malae conscientise totum mare mundani gaudii absorbet. Luth.
CHAP. VII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 277
As when he would glorify the riches of his mercy, on them that
love him and keep his commands, he provideth fulness of joy, and
greater pleasures than the heart of man can possibly conceive ; so
when he would glorify his justice, in the highest degree, on them
that hate him, and wilfully break his laws, he prepareth fulness of
sorrow, and greater pain than any, yea, than all the men in the
world can possibly comprehend. A melancholy man may fancy,
saith one, 1 vast and terrible fears, fire, sword, tempests, racks, fur
naces, scalding lead, boiling pitch, running bell-metal, and, being
kept alive in all these, to feel their torments ; but these come far
short of the wrath of God.
For (1.) There are bounds set to the hurting power of the creature.
The fire can burn, but it cannot drown ; the serpent can sting, but
not tear in pieces.
(2.) The fears of the heart are bounded within those narrow appre
hensions which itself can frame of the hurts which may be done.
But the wrath of God proceeds from an infinite justice, and is
executed by an omnipotent and unbounded power, comprising all
the terror of all the creatures, as the sun doth all other light,
eminently and excessively in it. It burns, and drowns, and tears,
and stings, and can make nature feel much more than reason is
able to comprehend.
A wounded spirit who can bearP Prov. xviii. 14. The wise
man gives a challenge to the whole creation, to find out a person
that is strong enough to undergo such a burden, and certainly none
ever dared to accept the challenge. How intolerable hath such a
weight been to them that are lions for strength and courage ! This
caused David s broken bones and watered couch. This made
Heman at his wits end, Ps. Ixxxviii. 15. This made Spira, that
seven years monument of God s justice, as Mr Shepherd, in his
Sincere Convert, calls him, to roar so horribly out of anguish of spirit.
This made Daniel choose rather to be cast to the cruel lions, than
to carry about with him such a ravenous lion in his conscience.
This made some of the martyrs to feel a very hell in their con
sciences after their recantation. No wolf in the breast, no worm
in the bowels, no frenzy so outrageous as a gnawing, corroding con
science.
If the wrath of a king be as the roaring of a lion, oh what is the
wrath of God ! And if his wrath be so terrible in this world, where
there is ever some mixture of mercy with it, what will it be in the
other world, when the soul shall have a cup of pure wrath to drink,
1 Dr Reynolds on Hosea xiv., p. 23, sermon 1.
278 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VII.
when God shall shew the unconceivableness of his strength, in tor
menting the creature, and preserving it to feel those torments ? *
1 Who knoweth the power of his anger ? Ps. xc. 11. There will
be tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, on the soul of
every man that doeth evil, Kom. ii. 8, 9. There is fire to burn, and
brimstone to choke, Mat. xii. 40, and chains to bind, and serpents
to sting, and worms to gnaw, Mark ix. 44 ; Jude 12, and darkness
to affright ; there is variety, universality, and extremity of tor
ments.
Augustine admires it, and saith, that for vehemency of heat it
exceeds our fire, as much as ours doth fire painted on the wall. 2
But the sufferings of thy soul, will be the soul of thy sufferings ;
the worm that never dieth, will be the killing death. When thou
shalt remember all thy former sinful pleasures, of which nothing
remaineth but thy present shame and pain ; when thou shalt reflect
upon the former offers thou hast had, of all the dainties which
others feed on in heaven, and despair now of ever obtaining the
least crumb that falleth from the master s table ; when thou shalt
foresee the great and terrible day of the Lord Jesus, the reuniting
of thy body to thy soul, the easeless and endless torments which
soul and body must endure together ; thy sins past will horribly
perplex thee, thy present shame will lamentably confound thee, thy
future tortures will unspeakably affright thee. 3
Oh it will be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God ! Heb. xii. 29. One touch of it made a man at arms to cry out
sadly, Have pity upon me, my friends, have pity upon me, for the
hand of God hath touched me, Job xix. 21. One blow of it broke
the backs of the angels, Jude 6. Alas ! sinner, what wilt thou do
under the whole weight of it ? how will thy heart endure, or thy
hands be strong, in this day that the Lord shall thus deal with
thee ? The Lord hath spoken it, and he will do it, Ezek.
xxii. 14.
Now thou canst hear, and read, and talk of hell, and be no more
troubled than physicians are at the many diseases which affect their
patients ; nay, it may be thou dost jeer, when thou shouldst fear ; 4
like leviathan, laugh at the shaking of the spear. If a minister
come to thee, as Lot to his sons-in-law, and warn thee to leave
1 Prima mors animam nolentem pellit a corpore; secunda nolentem retinet in cor-
pore. Aug. de Civil. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 4.
2 Aug., ibid., lib. xii. cap. 13.
3 Memoria prceteritorum, sensus prcesenlium, et metus futurorum, are the whole of
soul s torments.
* Crtdo quce de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas, said Cato to Csesar.
CHAP. VII.] HEAVEX AND HELL EPITOMISED. 279
the Sodom of thy sinful, sensual life, and tell thee that otherwise
the Lord will destroy thee, that fire and brimstone will be thy por
tion ; he seemeth to thee (as Lot to them, Gen. xix. 14) as one
that mocketh ; thou thinkest that he is in jest, but they feel what
they would not fear. Now they are suffering the vengeance of eter
nal fire, Jude 7 ; and so wilt thou, if God prevent not by renewing
thy heart, and reforming thy life. And though now thou art so
senseless, that the seat thou sittest in, and the pillar thou leanest
on, are as much affected with the threatenings and denunciation of
the judgments of God as thou art, yet then thou wilt be sensible
enough ; and thine eyes, so dry now, will weep enough when they
come to that place, where is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and
gnashing of teeth, Mat. xxiv. 51. As the love of God is a known
unknown love, Eph. iii. 18, 19 ; none know it fully, but they that
enjoy it in glory ; so the anger of God is a known unknown
anger, Ps. xc. 11; none can know it perfectly, but they that shall
feel it eternally.
2. It will be full in regard of duration : all thy sad losses, and
all thy sorrowful gains, will be for ever. There was nothing else
wanting to make thee completely miserable, but the everlasting
duration of them ; and, lo, here it is. The positive part of thy
punishment will be permanent ; there the worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched, Mark ix. 44 ; and the privative part also shall
be perpetual thou shalt suffer everlasting perdition from the pre
sence of the Lord, 2 Thes. i. 9.
Whatsoever relateth to the torments of the carnal is eternal. God,
who damneth them, is eternal : 1 Tim. i. 17, Now, to the King
eternal, immortal, the only wise God, &c. The fire which tor-
men teth them is eternal Jude 7, suffering the vengeance of
the eternal fire ; the chains which bind them, the worm which
gnaws them, the judgment given against them, are all eternal,
Jude 7 ; Heb. vi. 2. Thou sinnest in thy eternity, and God will
make thee suffer in his eternity.
Thou sinnest against an infinite God, and therefore thy punish
ment must be infinite ; which, because it cannot be in regard of
intension, thy back being not strong enough to bear an infinite
stroke, therefore it must be in duration. Infinite power cannot
inflict greater or longer pains than infinite justice doth call for.
The debt thou owest to the righteousness of God will be ever paying
and never paid, and therefore thou shalt not escape out of that
prison, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing, Mat. v. 23.
The command of Caius Caligula to the executioner, after he had
280 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VII.
condemned a malefactor, was so to strike that they might feel ;
themselves dying, and endure the pains of an enduring death. 1
Such will be the everlasting death of the damned : they will be
ever, ever dying, and never dead ; they shall seek death, but not
find it ; follow after it, but it will flee from them, Eev. ix. 6.
The same author reporteth of one that requested of Tiberius
Caesar death rather than long imprisonment, how he was answered
by the emperor, You and I are not yet friends. 2 The truth is,
the punishment there must needs be long, yea, eternal, because
God and the sinner shall never be friends. In this life God
treateth with the soul by his ambassadors upon terms of peace;
nay, he beseecheth the sinner to be reconciled, 2 Cor. v. 20 ; the
carnal man still continueth in his enmity against God, walking
contrary to him, and fighting against him. God continueth many
a day, to some many a year, offering peace, desiring there may be
a league made ; only it must be offensive and defensive. It must
be a holy peace and league against the devil, the world, and the
flesh. Upon this the sinner breaks off; he will not be an enemy
to his old cursed friends. Now at death this treaty dieth ; and the
breach then continuing, it is irrecoverable for ever. Then the King
of kings causeth his terrors to set themselves in array against the
sinner, and proclaimeth open and eternal war.
Header, for thy soul s sake let me beseech thee to ponder this
but one half quarter of an hour every morning, that the pain which
sin bringeth will be eternal. Oh how may it take off the edge of
thy love to thy most pleasing lusts ! Endless misery must needs
be easeless; no condition so intolerable as a miserable condition
that is unalterable. It is a comfort to a woman in travail, in the
midst of her sharp throes and bitter pangs, to think these will
have an end ; the hope of that doth much help her to hold out ;
but, woe and alas ! they whose end is damnation, shall have damna
tion which hath no end.
It doth much support the saints under the anger of God, that,
though it be sharp, it will be but short ; his anger endureth but for
a moment, Ps. xxx. 5. But then, will not the heart of the sinner
be rent in pieces with rage and despair, to know that the wrath of
God must abide on him ? John iii. 36.
The Egyptians three days darkness was esteemed a sore plague ;
but what will thy punishment, sinner, be, when thou shalt suffer
utter darkness, blackness of darkness ? Jude 13. Ah, wounding
word, Ever, Ever ! the most cutting word in comparison of this is
1 Ita feri, ut se mori sentiat. Suet. * Nondum tecum redii in gratiam.
CHAP. VII. ] HEAVEN" AND HELL EPITOMISED. 23 1
healing ; the bitterest word in respect of this is sweet. Despair
will be the cutting off of all hope ; to have hope, the anchor of the
soul, cut off, will be the deepest cut in the world; then the vessel
of thy soul will be liable to all storms and tempests imaginable.
Suppose that one of thy hands were to continue burning in one
of our fires as many millions of years as there hath been minutes
since the creation, couldst thou undergo it with any patience?
What thinkest thou of it ? Alas ! this were a mercy, a heaven to
the misery of men in hell. What wilt thou do when thy whole
man shall suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ? Jude 7. Who can
dwell with the devouring fire? Who can dwell with everlasting
burning? Isa. xxxiii. 14.
It is storied of one Koger, Bishop of Salisbury, that being in
prison extremely tortured, live he would not, and die he could not.
Truly such will the case be of rebellious ones : they shall long for
death, but it will not come ; and dig for it more than for hid trea
sures. Oh how would they rejoice and be glad if they could find a
grave ! But a being must be given to them that are in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul. It is called death indeed, because
life is neither desired there, nor can it properly be said to be
enjoyed : it is a living death, or a dying life; such a death as shall
never taste of life, and such a life as shall never taste of death.
After the murderer of his soul hath continued in that lake of fire
as many thousand years as there are fish in the mighty ocean, and
as there are creatures great and small upon the whole earth, and
as there are stars in the heavens, and after this as many millions
of ages as there are hours in all the forementioned time, yet, after
all this, his torment will not be one moment nearer to an end. Oh
eternity, eternity, eternity, what art thou ? to what shall I liken
thee, or with what comparison shall I compare thee ? Thou art
like a vast ocean which hath no banks, like an outrageous fire which
knoweth no bounds, like the grave that is never satisfied, like the
barren womb that never saith, It is enough; in respect of God,
thou art like Melchisedec. without father, without mother, having
neither beginning of days nor end of life. In respect of the good,
like a day which had a morning, but shall never have an evening ;
in respect of the bad, like a night which had an evening, but shall
never have a morning. In thee it is that the justice and severity
of God, the sinfulness and malignity of sin, the deceitfulness and
vanity of the world, the madness and desperate folly of sinners, will
sufficiently be demonstrated. In time men are whipped, but in
thee it is that they are executed. In thee it is that men must
282 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VII.
suffer long for all their abuse of the long-suffering of God. In thee
it is that the swearer shall have enough of wounds, and oaths, and
blasphemies, when he shall have devils wounding his soul with their
fiery darts, and when he shall blaspheme the name of God through
extremity of torments. In thee it is that the adulterer will have
enough of lust and lasciviousness, when he shall embrace deformed
devils, and lie down in a bed of fire instead of feathers, surrounded
with curtains of frightful fiends. In thee it is that the drunkard
will have enough of his cups, when a cup of the pure wrath of an
infinitely incensed God shall be presented to him, and be forced to
drink it all up, though there be eternity to the bottom. In thee it
is that the Sabbath-breaker shall have enough of disturbing God s
rest, when he shall be tormented, and have no rest day nor night
for ever and ever, Kev. xx. 10. In thee it is that the atheist in his
family shall have enough of his prayerlessness and regardlessness of
God, when he shall be ever, ever praying with his whole heart for
a drop of water to cool his tongue, and God shall never, never shew
the least regard towards him. In thee it is that the hypocrite will
have enough of putting off God with a painted holiness, when he
shall find a real hell. In thee, lastly, it is that the covetous world
ling, that, like Korah, is swallowed up of earth alive, and yet hath
never enough, shall have fire enough, pain enough, and wrath
enough in hell.
Consider this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces,
when there is none to deliver you, * Ps. 1. 22. Good God ! whither
is man fallen ? what desperate hardness hath seized on his heart,
that he should be every moment liable to such a boundless, bottom
less sea of scalding wrath, and yet as insensible of it as if it did no
whit concern him. Ah, did but the seduced world believe thy
word, they would mind other works than now they do.
But, reader, what is that judgment ? is not the mirth of every
sinner that maketh a mock of sin worse than madness ? Should not
the sting in sin s tail deter thee more than the false beauty of its
face allure thee ? Shalt thou look henceforward upon the most de
lightful sin, as any better than Claudius did mushroom, pleasant, and
poison ! Well, whoever thou art that readest this use, be confident
all this, and ten thousand times more, is thy birthright ; thou art
by nature an heir to this estate, that lieth in the valley of Hinnom.
All this is the wages due to thee for thy service to sin ; sin payeth
all that die its servants in such black money ; and shouldst thou go
out of this world before thou art new-born, thou shalt as certainly
1 Gehenna nihil graviue, Bed ejus metu nihil utilius. Chrysost.
CHAP. VII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 283
find and feel more than all this in the other world, as there is a God
in heaven, and as thou art a living creature OD earth. The God of
truth hath spoken it, and who shall disannul it ? Mat. xviii. 3, and
v. 10 ; John iii. 3. Though thou art not actually under it, yet thou
art every moment liable to it ; this cloud of blood hangs night and
day over thy head, and thou knowest not how soon it may break,
and shower down upon thee. The decree and sentence is already
passed in heaven, that thou who turnest not in time, shalt burn to
eternity ; and thou canst not tell how soon God may seal the
warrant for thy execution.
Bellarmine is of opinion, that one glimpse of hell-fire were enough
to make a man turn, not only Christian, but monk, and to live after
the strictest order. Drexelius tells us of a young man given to his
lust, that he could not endure to lie awake in the dark ; and on a
time, being sick, he could not sleep all night ; and then he had these
thoughts, What ! is it so tedious to lie awake one night to lie a
few hours in the dark ? what is it then to lie in everlasting chains
of darkness ? I am here in my house, on a soft bed, kept from
sleep one night ; oh to lie in flames, and in darkness everlasting,
how dreadful will that be ! This was the means of his conversion.
Oh that, reader, what I have written might work such an effect
upon thy soul ! how abundantly should I be satisfied for all my
pains ! how heartily should I bless that God, who by his providence
called me to this task ! Shall I entreat thee, as thou hast the least
spark of true love to thy dying body, to thy immortal soul, to thine
eternal peace, to break off thy sins by repentance, and fly all un
godliness as hell ; for dost thou not perceive out of the word of the
living and true God, that though thy lust may be sweet in the act,
yet her end is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged
sword. Her feet go down to death ; her steps take hold on hell,
Prov. v. 4, 5.
And in order hereunto, I desire thee to observe faithfully those
directions I shall give thee in the third use ; for I would not only open
the sore, and shew its danger, but also, by the help of the physician
of souls, prepare a plaster. The Lord enable thee to apply it for thy
cure !
Take a man that is most addicted to his pleasures, 1 and bring
him to the mouth of a furnace red hot and flaming, and ask hkn,
How much pleasure wouldst thou take to continue burning in this
furnace for one day ? he would answer undoubtedly, I would not
be tormented in it one day, to gain the whole world, and all the
1 Drexel. Eter. iii. Consid.
284 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [ClIAF. VIII.
pleasures of it. Ask him a second time, What reward would you take
to endure this fire half a day ? Propound what reward you will,!
there is nothing so precious which he would buy at so dear a rate]
as those torments ; and yet how comes it to pass, God, that for a
little gain, and that vile ; for a little honour, and that fugitive ; for?
a little pleasure, and that fading, men so little regard hell-fire, ;
which is eternal.
By this time I hope it is day in thine understanding, and thou
seest clearly that there is a difference between the death of the]
righteous and the wicked ; that as the same perfume, which is]
mortal to the ravenous vulture, is refreshing to the true dove ; than
as the same herb which cureth men stung with serpents, killeth
beasts ; so the same mortal disease which cureth the godly of all!
their spiritual and bodily distempers, killeth the wicked ; they are
killed with death, Eev. vi.
Heaviness to a saint may endure for the night of this life, but
joy will come in the morning of death ; whereas the freshest streams
of sinful delights will end in a salt sea of sorrows and tears. The
most prosperous sinner is but like a thief that goeth through a
pleasant meadow to the gallows.
CHAPTER VIII.
A second use of trial, with motives to enforce it.
I come now to a second use, and that will be by way of examina
tion.
If it be so, that they who have Christ for their life shall have
gain by their death, then examine whether you are one of them,
to whom to die will be gain. Like a merchant, cast up the ac
counts between God and thy soul, and see how much thou art
worth for another world. It is good husbandry to know the state
of thy flock, Prov. xxvii. 23 ; but there is a greater necessity of
knowing the state of thy soul, of communing with thy own heart,
Ps. iv. 4. Many a man may say of himself, as the epigrammatist
of his unneighbourly neighbour, In urbe tota nemo tarn prope tarn
proculque nobis. Is it not a thousand pities to live known to others,
and to die unknown to thyself ? to speak so much, and so often,
to others, and yet, in the many years that thou hast lived, never to
have spent one hour in serious discourse with thyself about thine
eternal condition, what shall become of thee for ever ?
(CHAP. VIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 285
Friend, it may be thou hast been very solicitous to know what
I shall befall thee whilst thou livest ; is there not more cause for thee
to be inquisitive what shall befall thee when thou diest ? I think
it concerneth thee to be faithful and diligent about this work of
examining thy soul, whether Jesus Christ be thy life, when all thy
happiness hangs on this hinge, even thine estate for eternity.
Trivial matters may be passed over slightly, but things of weight
must be minded seriously.
Header, hadst thou ever a matter of greater or equal concernment
to thine unchangeable and eternal estate ? Are not thy following
thy trade, thy providing for thy family, thy eating, drinking, sleep
ing, and the most necessary things thou canst imagine about thy
outward man, but rattles and babies, but toys and trifles, in com
parison of this ?
Suppose the title I am speaking of did but concern an estate in
land of one hundred pound per annum, which thou wert buying,
wouldst thou not consult with this and that man, whether the title
were good or no ? Wouldst thou think two or three days ill spent
in searching and advising, to prevent the cozenage of thee and thy
children ? And doth not thy soul, thine eternal estate, deserve
more care, more time, more pains, more consulting, searching, and
questioning, for fear of an everlasting miscarriage ? Let thy reason
be judge. Had not those wires need to be strong, that have such a
weight as thy eternal welfare hanging on them ? should not that
anchor be cast sure, which is intrusted with a vessel so richly laden
as with thy soul, that jewel of inestimable value, more worth than a
world ? Can that foundation be too firmly laid, that hath such a
building as eternity of happiness depending on it ? Without ques
tion, those deeds and evidences, if ever any, had need to be un
questionable, that convey the inheritance which is incorruptible,
undefiled, reserved in heaven.
And the rather shouldst thou try thy soul thoroughly, because,
shouldst thou content thyself with a counterfeit title to heaven, as
most men and women amongst us do, by virtue only of some deeds
which the devil and thy carnal heart have forged, and wouldst so
die, thou wouldst assuredly be dealt with as a cheat, and cast into
the prison of hell, and then thy condition will be most lamentable,
because it will be irrecoverable.
If thou missest at all when thou diest, thou missest for ever and
for ever. An error then can never be mended ; there can be no
second throw cast, no second edition can come forth to correct the
errors of the former ; but the great work for which thou wert born
286 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VIII.
not being done, thou art undone to eternity ; and then, as godly
men befool themselves in this world, while they live, Ps. Ixxiii. 2,
for their corruption, so thou wilt befool thyself in the other world,
when thou diest, for thy presumption, Jer. xvii. 11, that thou
shouldst think the rotten props of a little profession, of a few out
ward privileges, and inward good meanings, as thou callest them,
could bear the weight of thy soul, and thine endless state, that thou
should build so slightly for a dwelling of perpetuity. Set thy
heart therefore to all the words that I speak unto thee ; for it is
not a vain thing, but it is for thy life, Deut. xxxii. 46, 47.
Well, friend, the great question which I shall put to thee will be
this : Canst thou say, to thee to live is Christ ? Thy gain by
death dependeth on this. Examine thyself thoroughly, 1 prove
thyself whether thou art in the faith or no, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. The
eagle trieth her young ones by the sun whether they be of the right
brood or no, as some affirm. Do thou try thyself by this Sun of
righteousness, by this life in Christ, by thine ingrafting into
Christ. Ask thy soul whether it be acquainted with the new birth,
the new creation, the divine nature, the renewing in the spirit of
thy mind, the sanctification of the Spirit, the walking after the
Spirit, the image of God, the writing of his laws in thy heart, the
law of the spirit of life in Christ, effectual calling ; unless thou
hast that one thing signified by all these things, thou hast nothing ;
then, and not till then, thou hast crossed the line, shot the gulf, art
safely landed in Christ, and hast attained that which ever accom-
panieth salvation.
But because this self-trial, though it be a necessary duty, yet is
a work of much difficulty it is easier for a man to speak to the
stateliest king in the world, than to himself as he ought to speak
and because, naturally, men s sores and corruptions make them so
unwilling to be searched for fear of pain, I shall annex two or three
quickening motives to persuade thee to this much-neglected duty.
The first motive.
Consider how easy and ordinary it is to be deceived, though it be
in a work of such infinite weight ; now where the business is
weighty, and the mistake ordinary and easy, it requireth thee to
search thoroughly. It is one of the most ordinary and easy things
in the world for a child of disobedience to live and die asleep in
1 trttpkffTf, d irflpw, to pierce through and through, because by piercing a thing
is tried what it is within, whether sound or no.
ClIAP. VIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 287
sin, and never dream of hell, till he come to awake in the other
world in a bed of fire. Thy deceitful heart will be night and day
inclining thee to sleep, and the devil will be sure to keep the cradle
rocking.
Alas ! how very few are there that will be persuaded to cast up
their spiritual accounts ; but, like men that we say are worse than
naught, loathe the thoughts of looking into or summing up their
estates ; or like some women, when they come to be old, turn the
back side of their looking-glasses toward them, as unwilling to see
their own wrinkles and deformity.
And of those that do sometimes examine themselves, how many
are there that do it slightly and superficially, contenting themselves
with false marks, quickly believing what they would have, even all
to be well, till they are sent to be undeceived in hell.
Maude, mother to King Henry the Second, being besieged at
Oxford, she got away with white apparel in the snow, undiscov
ered. 1 So do many hypocrites, with their profession of snow-like
purity, pass among men ; but God knows the heart.
All is not gold that glitters, nor is all grace that makes a fair
show in the flesh. There is much counterfeit coin in the world, that
goeth current among men, as if it were as good as the best ; so
there is a great deal of counterfeit holiness in the world, a great
deal of civility, of morality, of common grace, which is taken (or
rather mistaken) by men for true saving grace ; much fancy is
taken for faith, presumption for hope, self-love for saint-love, and
worldly sighs for godly sorrow.
What can the saint do, but as, to the outward appearance, the
sinner may do the same ? As the devil is God s ape, so is the self-
deluding soul not seldom the saint s ape.
Doth the saint abstain from gross sins ? so doth he whose reli
gion consisted so much in negatives, Luke xviii. 11. Doth the
saint pray ? so do the pharisees, and make long prayers too, Mat.
xxiii. 14. Do the saints fast ? Neh. i. 4 ; Dan. ix. ; so do they,
Mat. vi. 16, and ix. 14 ; and it may be twice in one week, Luke
xviii. 12. Do the saints give alms ? Acts x. ; so do they, Mat. vi.
1,2. Do the saints confess sin ? the sinner can do it in the very
same words, 1 Sam. xv. 24. Doth Ephraim repent ? Jer xxxi. 18 ;
so doth Judas, Mat. xxvii. 3. Doth Abraham believe ? Eom. iv. ;
so doth Simon Magus, Acts viii. 13. Doth Hezekiah humble him
self ? 2 Chron. xxxii. 26 ; so doth Ahab, and walk softly into the
bargain, 1 Kings xxii. 15. Doth the man after God s own heart
1 Camb. Brit.
288 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VIII.
fulfil all God s will ? Acts xiii. 22 ; you shall hear that a Jehu
shall do very much, and that by a testimony from God s own mouth :
2 Kings x. 30, Thou hast done well in executing that which
was right in mine eyes ; thou hast done unto the house of Ahab
according to all that was in mine heart. What a great resem
blance is there in all these outwardly, but a vast difference in
wardly ! The ungodly sometimes do attain to the outward actions,
but never to the inward sanctified affections of the godly ; as the
painter may paint fire, but he cannot paint heat that is beyond his
skill. Many titular Christians are like the onyx-stone, of which
naturalists write, that it is clear and bright in the superficies, but
dark and muddy at the centre : men of civil conversation, but not
of sanctified actions. Now all this calleth aloud to thee, to try
thyself whether thou goest beyond them, that do all before-men
tioned, and yet come short of heaven.
Besides, it is not seldom that a true Christian, for want of a
prudent trial, judgeth himself unsound. As the face of Moses, so
his heart shines with grace, and he knoweth it not ; Christ is in
him, as he was with the two disciples, and he, as they, is ignorant
of it. Many Christians, like Hagar, weep and mourn that they
must die for thirst, when the water of life is by them, yea, within
them.
There is that maketh himself rich, full of peace and joy from
assurance of God s favour and his salvation, yet hath nothing not
one jot of grace or true ground of joy ; there is that maketh him
self poor persuadeth himself to be in a most wretched estate and
yet hath great riches, Prov. xiii. 7, is highly in God s favour, and ,
hath great store of saving grace.
But most commonly the error is on the other side. How doth
every swaggering, or, at best, civilised sinner, presume that he is a
saint ! How often hath he blear-eyed Leah lying by him all night,
and he thinketh it is beautiful Rachel, till the light of the morning
discover the contrary ! How many have the devil and the world
lodging in their arms and embraces, and think it is Christ, the fair
est of ten thousand, till upon examination it be found otherwise !
Reader, take heed this be not thy case ; that thou, like Uriah,
carriest letters about thee, importing thy own execution, and yet
thou not know of it. It is ordinary for men to think they are spi
ritually rich, and increased with goods, and to have need of no
thing, and not to know that they are wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked, Rev. iii. 17. They cry, like Agag,
Surely the bitterness of death is past ; there is no fear of death,
CHAP. VIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 289
of wrath, of hell, or damnation, when they are liable every mo
ment to be hewn in pieces before the Lord, to be torn in pieces by
the roaring lion. Oh, how many a precious vessel (soul I mean)
hath been split upon this rock of presumption ! Doth it not there
fore concern thee to be serious and faithful in searching thy heart,
lest thou shouldst, as the most, deceive thyself about a business of
such unspeakable consequence ?
The second motive.
Consider the fewness of them that have Christ for their life, or
that live this spiritual life. Every one almost that liveth within
the visible church is ready to say that heaven is his inheritance,
and he shall escape the wrath to come, when the word of God and
the works of men do clearly and fully speak the contrary.
The devil hath his droves : all the earth wander after the beast,
Rev. xvii. 8. The whole world lieth in wickedness/ 1 Johnv. 19.
The enemies of God cover the earth like grasshoppers for multi
tude, Judges vii. 12. They fill the country, when the Israelites
are like two little flocks of kids, 1 Kings xx. 27. The good and
the true shepherd calleth his flock a little flock, Luke xii. 32, nay,
a little, little flock, there being in the original two diminutives, to
shew their fewness. When four, if not five cities were destroyed,
one righteous Lot with his small family is delivered, Gen. xix. 15.
When a whole world is drowned, a few, that is, eight souls, are
saved, 1 Pet. iii. 20. Therefore the children of God are called a
remnant, Micah vii. 18 two or three yards remaining of forty or
fifty ; and compared to the gleanings after the vintage, Isa. xvii. 6
one or two bunches may be left under some thick or utmost bough ;
but what are they to the many basketfuls that were gathered
before ? The saints are jewels : now, how few are there of such
pearls, in comparison of pebble ? Mai. iii. 17 ; and strangers, Ps.
cxix. 19, how small is their number to natives, which are the
world s own, John xv. 19. The church of Sardis hath a few names
only that have not defiled their garments, Rev. iii. 4.
^ Some have divided the world into thirty parts, and have affirmed
nineteen of those to be without Christ, in whose name alone is
salvation ; and six of the remaining eleven to be papists, which
certainly are in no safe way to heaven ; and five parts of thirty only
to be protestants, amongst whom they that read of their way of
worship beyond the seas will find many of these to be but mongrel
protestants. But, to waive this, and to come to England, where it
VOL. in. T
290 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VIII.
is generally by godly men believed that God hath as numerous an
issue of new-born children as in any such quantity of ground in the
world, and, reader, take the public congregation thou dost join with
in the solemn worship of the ever-blessed God upon his own day ;
and suppose one should come and sweep out of it, in the first place,
all notorious sinners drunkards, swearers, adulterers, extortioners,
liars, railers, scoffers at godliness, Sabbath-breakers, and the like,
upon whom, whosoever looketh with Scripture spectacles may see
the devil s mark on their foreheads, hell written on them in great
letters, they continuing impenitent would not such a besom sweep
away much dust, even a great part of the people of the parish where
thou livest ? But suppose one should come, in the second place, and
purge out your civil and moral, yet unsanctified men and women
such, I mean, as are fair and just in their carriage and dealings ;
you cannot say, black is their eye ; they pay to every man his due ;
these are good second-table men and women ; their religion con-
sisteth altogether in their righteousness towards men ; they will not
for a world wrong their neighbour of a farthing, but they make no
conscience of robbing God of the great fear, chief love, choice
delight, strong trust, which are due to his Majesty ; they know not
what it is to know him and his will, to acknowledge him by reli
gious performances of prayer, reading, and the like, in their families
and closets ; they can scarce tell you what God is, or what Christ
is, or what the Lord Jesus hath suffered or purchased for sinners.
As old as many of them are, they are more ignorant of the natures,
offices, states of Christ, of regeneration, justification, and sanctifica-
tion, than little children ; and yet they are too old to learn. The
minister cannot persuade them to come to him, and be instructed
by him in the principles of the oracles of God ; nay, and they will
not believe that ignorance is a damning sin, though God hath
spoken so peremptorily, that Christ shall come in flaming fire to
render vengeance on them that know not God, 2 Thes. i. 8, and
he hath told them expressly, that men perish for want of know
ledge, Hosea iv. 6 ; Prov. i. 22, 29.
Suppose, I say, one should purge out all these civil, righteous,
yet ignorant and irreligious persons questionless he would purge
out two parts of three of the remaining ill-humours how very
many would that blind captain, ignorance, lead out of a congrega
tion!
But suppose one came, in the third place, again, and take away
them that are righteous in their dealings with men, and seem reli
gious in their duties towards God; that pray, and hear, and read,
CHAP. VIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 291
and fast, and instruct their families, and call upon God in secret,
and yet are only so good to the eye of man, being, like some fruit,
fair in the outside, but rotten at core, having self-ends and carnal
principles in all they do, Mat. xxiii. and vi.
After three such sweepings, how few, thinkest thou, would be
left in a congregation, or in a parish. If Christ should come with
his whip of cords, and scourge all these out of his temple whom
the word of God clearly condemneth would not Jesus be left almost
quite alone, as he was in John viii. 9 ?
Besides all those forementioned, how many are there whose reli
gion consisteth merely in opinions, or heresies, or schism, and
separation from the people of God and public worship, and from
the good old way of faith and repentance, that mind neither
Sabbath, nor sacraments, nor family duties, and trust for salvation
to the light within them, even till they come to utter darkness, 1
2 Pet. ii. 1,2; Jude 11, 12 ; 1 John ii. 19. Oh, how few are there
that shall be saved ! If Ulpian complained there were few true
philosophers, have not we more cause to complain there are few
true believers ? for who hath believed our report ? and to whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed ? Isa. liii. 1.
The terms of denying a man s self, or crucifying the flesh with
the affections and lusts thereof, or cutting off right hands, and
plucking out right eyes ; of hating father, mother, wife, child, name,
house, and lands without which Christ will not save the soul
are so irksome, and contrary to the sensual, brutish man, that
rather than admit them, they will take their leave of both Saviour
and salvation. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that
leadeth to life, and few there be that find it, Mat. xvi. 24 ; Gal.
v. 24 ; Mark ix. 43 ; Luke xiv. 26 ; Mat. vii. 14.
Header, I take not delight to number the people of God, much
less to lessen their number. The Lord knoweth I have not written
this head without some sorrow of heart ; my prayer is like that of
Joab s, The Lord add unto his people an hundredfold, and grant
that his sons may come from far, and his daughters from the ends
of the earth, that the dominions of his Son may be from sea to sea,
and from one end of the land unto the other, 2 Sam. xxiv. But,
without all controversy, they are comparatively very few; and
why doth the word of God mention it so much but to make thee
more diligent and violent for the kingdom of heaven, Mat. vii. 13, 14.
If there were but few damned, and many saved, out of the places
where we live, I think it would behove thee to try upon what
1 Totus mundus est Arrianus. Jerome.
292 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. VIII.
ground thou standest, lest thou shouldst be one of those few that
must suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ; but when so many, when
such multitudes, go in the broad way that leadeth to destruction,
when the love of many waxeth cold, and it is but an lie almost that
shall endure to the end, and be saved, Mat. xxiv. 12, how much,
how much doth it concern thee to look about thee that all things
are right within betwixt God and thy soul.
The third motive.
Thirdly, Consider the profitableness of a serious faithful examina
tion of thy estate ; if thou hast this spiritual life, thy comfor
dependeth upon the knowledge of it. He that hath true grace
shall go to heaven certainly ; but he only that knoweth it, shall g
to heaven comfortably. What the lawyers say of civil things,
may say of spiritual : Things that appear not, are all one as if the]
were not at all in being. 1 What comfort hath he that is heir to
vast estate, till he know of it, more than he that hath nothing to do
with it ? What comfort is it to thee that thou art a child of God,
a member of Christ, an heir of heaven, unless thou knowest it upon
Scripture grounds ? If twenty or thirty are condemned, and one
be pardoned, this man torments himself with fears and terrors as
much as the rest, till he knoweth of his pardon. Doth not many
a Christian, like Jacob, go down to the grave with sorrow, and re
fuse to be comforted, only upon a false supposition, that the Joseph
of their soul is dead, when indeed he is alive, and in favour in the
heavenly court, as they upon a true search and inquiry will find ?
The saints have known their good estate. I do not put thee upon,
the labour in vain, Gal. ii. 20 ; 2 Cor. v. 1 ; and the profit will]
answer thy pains. And how contented wilt thou be in all conditions^
when thou hast once attained the knowledge of the good estate God-
ward. Thou wilt bid every messenger welcome for his sake thati
sendeth him ; thou needest not fear any servant can night or dayi
knock at thy door with ill news. How willing wilt thou go to duty,
and with what alacrity perform them, knowing the God whom
thou drawest nigh to is thy loving Father ; the Christ, in whose
name thou approachest, is thy lovely Saviour ; nay, how joyfully
mayest thou think of death, as the portal through which thou shalt
go into thy Master s joy and endless life. Believe it, thy life will
be a heaven upon earth. And shouldst thou find -thy estate lost,
will it not be an infinite mercy to thee, that thou didst know it be-
1 De non apparcntibus et non existentibus, eadeni est ratio.
CHAP. VIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 293
fore it was too late ? How will it awaken thee out of thy security,
and affrighten thee upon the apprehension of thy misery ! how will
it quicken thee to mind thy duty, in loathing thyself, in leaving
thy sins, and in flying to thy Saviour ! Sound conversion begins
at self-examination : first we search and try our ways, and then
turn to the Lord, Lam. iii. 40. The way to have our sores
cured, is first to have them thoroughly searched : ; I considered my
ways, and turned my feet to thy testimonies/ Ps. cxix. 59. If
thou wouldst have thy face clean, look into the glass of the law,
and view thy spots. He that knoweth not that he is in a wrong
path, will not turn back, though the farther he goeth, the greater is
his deviation and danger. Jer. xxxi. 19, After I was instructed,
or after I was made known to myself, I repented. As Abigail said
to David, If thou hearken to thy servant, it will be no grief of mind
hereafter to my lord, that thou art kept from shedding of blood.
So say I to thee, If thou wilt faithfully examine thyself, it will be
no cause of sorrow hereafter to thee, that thou wert thereby kept
from a further shedding the blood of thy soul. I will conclude this
motive with the meditation of the learned and holy bishop, now
with Christ. 1
" That which is said of the elephant, that being guilty of his
deformity, he cannot abide to look on his face in the water, but
seeks for troubled and muddy channels, we see in well moralised
men of evil conscience, who know their souls are so filthy, that they
dare not so much as view them, but shift off all checks of their
former iniquity, with the excuses of good fellowship. Whence it
is that every small reprehension galls them, because it calls the eye
of the soul home to itself, and makes them see a glimpse of what they
would not. So have I seen a foolish and timorous patient, which
knowing his wound very deep, would not endure the chirurgeon to
search it ; whereon what can ensue, but a festering of the part, and
a danger of the whole body. So have I seen many prodigal wasters
run so far in books, that they cannot abide to hear of a reckoning.
It hath been an old and true proverb, Oft and even reckonings
make long friends. I will oft sum my estate with God, that I may
know what I have to expect and answer for ; neither shall my score
run on so long with God, that I shall not know my debts, or fear
an audit, or despair of pardon."
1 Bisb. Hall s Meditat. and Vow., Cent. ii. Meditat. 4.
HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IX.
CHAPTER IX.
The marks of a true Christian from the text.
I come to the touchstone, by which thou must be tried, whether
thou art true gold or counterfeit. It is likely thou presumest thy
estate is good ; well, art thou willing the word of God that must,
whether thou wilt or no, judge thee for thy eternal life or death at
the last day should try thee at this day ? l If thy wares be right
and good, thou wilt not be afraid to bring them out of thy dark
shop into the light. If thy title be sound and good, I know thou
wilt be ready for a fair trial at law, even at the law of God.
I shall try thee two ways, though both will lead to the same
place. I must first entreat thee to put those four particulars to thy
soul, which in the beginning I told thee were included in that ex
pression, To me to live is Christ.
The first mark.
Ask thy soul what is the principle of thy religious performances,
what is the spring of thy obedience. Men indeed judge of others
principles by their practices, because they cannot discern the heart,
whether it be right in a duty or no ; but God judgeth of men s
practices by their principles, as we may see by his speech of Paul,
Behold he prayeth, Acts ix. 11. Paul was a pharisee, one of the
strictest of them, and they were much in prayer. But God, who knew
his heart was wrong in former duties, takes not any notice of them.
Now behold he prayeth ; he might say a prayer before, but he never
prayed a prayer till now. When he had a right principle, being re
generated by the Holy Ghost, then, and not till then, he made
a right prayer. Till the tree be good, the fruit can never be good,
Mat. vii. 16. Now friend, what is the principle of thy duties ? is
it fear of men, hope of honour, desire of gain, or merely the stopping
the mouth of conscience, or custom ? are these the weights that
make thy clock to go ? and if these were taken off, would thy de
votion stand still ? then thy heart is not right in the sight of God ;
entreat him, for the Lord s sake, that the thought of thy heart may
be forgiven thee. Or do thy pious actions flow from a renewed
will, and renewed affections ? Doth the outward correspondency
of thy life to the law of God, proceed from an inward conformity in
1 Ad hunc librum, ut judicem; ad alios, ut judex divenio ; saith Melanchthon.
CHAP. IX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 295
thy heart to the nature and law of God, from the law written
within ? If it be thus, thy condition is safe ; for the deeper the
spring is from whence the water comes, the sweeter the water is,
and thy services the more acceptable to God.
Speak thyself, whether thou prayest, readest, nearest, singest from
the divine nature within, from love to the infinitely amiable God,
from the delight thou takest in communion with him in duties. Oh
how sweet is that honey, that drops of its own accord from the
comb ! and how pure is that wine which floweth freely from the
grape ! So grateful and acceptable is that sacrifice to God, which
is seasoned with sincere love : Blessed is the man that feareth the
Lord, and delighteth greatly in his commandments, Ps. cxxviii. 1.
Or dost thou worship God from the same principle the Sadducees
do, who deny the resurrection only from a desire it may go well
with thee in this life ? or from the same principle from which the
Persians do the devil only from fear lest he should do thee hurt ?
Surely that service will be sour, which like verjuice is squeezed out
of the crabs. To serve God with a filial fear is commendable, but
to serve him from a servile fear is unacceptable.
The upright Christian worketh from an inward principle, the
new creation within ; and thence it is that spiritual things are so
natural and delightful to his regenerate part ; as we see in David,
I delight to do thy will, my God. How cometh this to pass,
but from an inward principle ? Thy law is within my heart, Ps.
xl. 8 ; or as it is in Hebrew, Thy law is in the midst of my bowels.
But now, a hypocrite usually acteth from some outward principle,
as the pharisees did, Mat. xxiii. 14, 27, and vi. 1 , 5. The wind from
without makes their mill to go ; some goads, or whips, force them
forward ; hence it is that, like tired jades, they are presently weary,
and desire nothing more than to rest, and cease from such un
pleasant labour.
TJie second mark.
Ask thy soul what is the pattern of the life ; whom dost thou
labour to imitate ? is it Christ or thy neighbour ? Dost thou set thy
watch by the town clock, or by the dial of Scripture, because that
never faileth of going according to the Sun of righteousness ? A
man dead spiritually, like dead fish, ever swimmeth down with the
stream of the times ; will follow a multitude to do evil, cannot
endure to be singular. Like the planet Mercury, at best, if in con
junction with good, he is good ; if with bad, he is bad ; or, like
296 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IX.
water, taketh the figure of the vessel, whatever it be, into which it
is put. But now a living Christian doth not dress himself by the
glass of the times ; whilst he is in the wilderness of this world, he
may follow the cloud of faithful witnesses, but it must be no farther
than they follow Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. Christ is the great standard
by which he measureth and trieth, and which he endeavoureth to
imitate in his thoughts, words, and actions. He doth uti verbis et
nummis prcesentibus, et vivere moribus prceteritis, use such words j
and money as is current at present, but lives after that example
which was in times past. The patterns of godly men bear much
sway with him ; but he knoweth there are some things in their
lives, which are sea-marks to be avoided, and not land-marks to
direct us. Therefore, like the eagle, he looketh most at the sun,
Christ himself. 1 Now, Christian, examine thyself, whom dost thou
look upon for thy pattern ; is it thy desire and care to regulate thy
family and life, as such a knight, or esquire, or gentleman in the
parish where thou livest ordereth his, or as the profane, irreligious
neighbours do theirs ? or dost thou look upon, and labour to re- j
semble Jesus Christ, to govern thy house and heart as he did his,
praying with his apostles, instructing them in the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, and the like ? Mat. vi. Walking humbly, in
offensively, and worthy of the Lord, even unto all well-pleasing/
Heb. vii. 26 ; 1 Peter i. 19.
It is reported of Jerome, that having read the religious life and
death of Hilarion, he cried out, holding up the book, Well, Hilarion
shall be the champion whom I will follow. So when thou readest
in the Scripture of the heavenly pious life, and holy patient death
of the Eedeemer, how he did all things well, and none could con- 1
vince him of sin; is thy soul so ravished with the beauty and]
lustre of those many graces, which shined so eminently in him, that
it breatheth out, Oh that I were like him ! oh that I could be as
meek and lowly as Christ, that I could deny myself, and despise
the world, and glorify God as much as Christ did, that the same
mind were in me that was in Christ Jesus ! 2 And though to thy
hearty sorrow, thou seest how far short thou comest of a perfect
conformity to him, yet thou resolvest to use all means appointed,,
that thou mayest be more like him, and concludest, Well, Christ
shall be the only champion whom I will follow. Answer thy con
science within thee, whether it be thus or no ; for if thou art a
1 Admonet non omnes promiscue esse imitandos. Calv. in Phil. iii.
z Christian! a Christo nomen acceperunt, et operae pretium est, ut sunt hseredes
nominis, ita sint imitatorea sanctitatis. Bern. Senten., p. 496.
CHAP. IX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 297
living member, thou wilt resemble thy head : Those whom God
did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformable to the image
of his Son, Rom. viii. 29. As the image in the glass resembleth
the face, in figure, feature, and favour, so doth the true Christian
after his proportion resemble Jesus Christ.
The third mark.
Is Christ the comfort of thy life ? When trouble, like frosty
weather, overtaketh thee, which is the fire at which thou warmest
thy heart ? Is it this friend, or that place of preferment, or any
outward comfort whatsoever ? or is it thy relation to Christ, and
his affection to thee ? When damps arise out of the earth, is it
the joy of thy soul that light springs down from heaven ; or dost
thou trust to the candle of the creature, which will burn blue and
go out? Is Christ, man, or the world the door through which
thy joys come in, the dish on which thou feedest with most delight?
If Christ should give thee the long life of Methuselah, the strength
of Samson, the beauty of Absalom, the wisdom, wealth, and renown
of Solomon, and deny himself to thee, canst thou contentedly bear
his absence, or wouldst thou say, as Haman in another case, and
Absalom ; 2 Sam. xiv. 24, All this availeth me nothing, so long as
I may not see the king s face. As Artabazus, when Cyrus gave
him a cup of gold, and kissed Chrysantas, told the king, The cup
thou gavest to me, was not half so good gold as the kiss thou gavest
Chrysantas; so saith the living saint, when Christ blesseth him
outwardly, and withdraweth himself from the soul : Lord, the cups,
the wife and children, the food and raiment, the pleasures and
treasures, all the earthly mercies thou givest to me, are not a quar
ter so gcod gold as the kiss of thy love which thou givest unto thy
favourites. kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth, for thy love
is better than wine, Cant. i. Remember me, Lord, with the
favour that thou bearest unto thy children : visit me with thy
salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice
in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inherit
ance, Ps. cvi. 4, 5. Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto
me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name/ Ps. cxix.
132. These are the holy petitions of a gracious soul for a child s
portion. Common mercies will never content them that have special
grace, nor satisfy them that are sanctified indeed.
As the needle touched with the loadstone is restless, till it points
toward the north, so the saint that is touched effectually by the
298 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. IX.
Spirit of God, is unquiet till he turn unto, and have fellowship with,
Jesus Christ. He may flutter up and down, like the dove, over the
waters of this world, but can find no rest for the soles of his feet, till
he return to Christ, the true ark till Christ put forth his hand and
take him in, Gen. viii. 9. Then, and not till then, he crieth out,
with the psalmist, Keturn to thy rest, my soul, for the Lord
hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Now, reader, what sayest thou ? how is it with thee ? Do thy
affections, as the water of Jordan, overflow their banks at the time
of thine earthly harvests ? Joshua iii. 13 ; or, like the bird, dost
thou then sing most merrily when thou art mounting up to heaven ?
Art thou willing to be served as the children of Abraham s concu
bines, put off with ordinary gifts ? or must thou, like Isaac, have
all, even Jesus Christ, or else thou esteemest thyself to have nothing ?
Gen xxv. 5, 6.
The fourth mark.
Is Christ the end of thy life ? Is it thy main scope to live to
him that died for thee ? Doth the compass of thy soul without
trepidation stand right to this pole, the glory of Jesus Christ?
For none of us liveth to himself, saith the apostle, and no man
dieth to himself. But whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and
whether we die, we die unto the Lord ; whether we live therefore
or die, we are the Lord s. For to this end Christ both died, and
rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of dead and living,
Bom. xiv. 7-9. A sincere Christian dedicates his body, soul, name,
estate, relations, interests, and his all to the glory of Christ, and
wisheth he had something better to consecrate to him. As the
Grecian told the emperor, If I had more, more would I give thee.
So the saint desireth that he may believe more, and repent more,
and hate sin more, and for this end, that he may exalt Christ more.
The philosopher telleth us that means move by the goodness of
their ends ; l not by any absolute goodness of their own, but by their
relative goodness, the goodness of their ends. As we take physic,
not for physic s sake, but for health s sake ; so duties and ordinances
move a Christian to mind them, not so much for their own sake, as
for their end s sake. He prayeth, fasteth, readeth, meditateth, that
he may thereby and therein please, glorify, and enjoy the Lord
Jesus Christ.
But now, a professor without the power of godliness hath another
1 Media movent bonitate finis.
CHAP. X.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 299
end. He goeth to church, but it is as the cut-purse, not to seek
God, but his prey. He performeth duties, but either for self-credit,
Mat. vi. 2 as Pliny observeth of the nightingale, that she will sing
much longer and louder when men are by, than when they are not ;
or else for self-profit, Mat. xxiii. 14. As that emperor who com
manded all golden idols to be pulled down out of churches, not out
of hatred to the idols, but out of love to the gold ; and like him in
the comedy, that cried out, heavens, but pointed to the earth.
Keligion is either this man s stirrup, by which he hopes to get into
the saddle above his neighbours, or else it is his stalking horse,
which he contentedly followeth all day, because it may bring him
in some gain at night. Like Satan, he may assume the shape of
Samuel, but it is only upon some particular errand, and for his own
ends. This man is not holy, but crafty, and doth not serve God,
but himself of God. Header, search whether thou art one of these :
Thou art but an empty vine, if thou bringest forth fruit to thyself,
Hosea x. 1. Oh how many a work, materially good, being fly
blown with self, proves formally bad, and so becomes stinking and
unsavoury in the nostrils of God ! Self is the pirate which too too
often intercepteth the golden fleet of religious performances, that
they cannot return freighted with blessings. It concerneth thee
therefore to observe thy ends ; what are thy ends in thy eating and
drinking, and all thy natural and civil actions ? Is thy end to
please and gratify the flesh, or is it that thou mayest get health and
strength, and thereby be the more serviceable to thy Maker and
Kedeemer? What is thy end in thy spiritual undertakings? is
duty the end of duty, or is obedience to the honour of, and com
munion with, Christ the end of thy performances ? Make a pause
before thou readest farther, and answer the Lord, who commandeth
thee to examine and know the state of thy soul.
CHAPTEE X.
Other marks of saints.
But because I would willingly find thee out, whoever thou art,
and have thee fully acquainted with thy spiritual condition, I shall
desire thee to try thy spiritual condition by the efficient cause of it,
and that is the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost is called the Spirit
of life, Horn. viii. 2, and indeed he only hath this spiritual life that
hath this Spirit of life. As all the members of the natural body
300 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. X
are actuated and enlivened by the same human spirit from the
head ; so all the members of the mystical body are quickened anc
actuated by the same divine Spirit from their head, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Mark, therefore, that one place in Horn. viii. 9, how full it
is to this purpose ; for upon that place the weight of all I have to
speak further about this use of trial will depend. The words are
these : But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Mark, Now if any man have not ;
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Observe, I beseech thee,
If any man, let him pretend never so much, let his privileges be
never so many, let his profession be never so great, and his per
formances never so numerous, yet if he have not the Spirit of]
Christ, he is none of his ; so that if the Spirit of Christ have not its
habitation in thee, thou hast no spiritual relation to Jesus Christ.
Now I shall teach thee to know whether the Spirit be in thee or
no, by two of its effects or properties ; the first will be more gene- ;
ral, the second more special.
The first mark.
The Spirit of God, if it be in thee, will purify thee, for it is a
purifying Spirit. Sanctification is the proper work of the Spirit of]
Christ. It is called the Holy Ghost ; and it is holy, not only sub
jectively, but effectively ; it worketh holiness, and makes men holy, ;
1 Cor. vi. 11. It infuseth holy habits and principles into the soul,<
whereby it is enabled to fight with, and by degrees to foil, its cor-1
ruptions ; it changeth the understanding by illumination, the will
by renovation, and the affections by sanctification ; it doth not in
fuse new faculties into the soul, but it doth renew the old ; it turn-
eth the same waters into another channel they ran before after the" 1
world and the flesh, but now after God and his ways ; it is, as it were,
the same viol, only it is new tuned ; before it could make no music-
in praying or singing, but now it is so melodious that it delighteth
the heart, and ravisheth the ear of God himself. The old moon
and the new moon are the same, only the new hath a new endow
ment of light from the sun which it had not before ; so it is here,
the purified person is the same man he was before, only he hath a
new endowment of the light of holiness which he had not before.
Now thus the Spirit ever worketh where it dwelletb ; it is there
fore called a river of living waters, John vii. 38, not a pond of
dead, but a river of living, waters. A pond will suffer dirt and mud
to continue in it without opposition ; but a river of living waters
CHAP. X.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 301
purgeth out, and casteth up, its mire and dirt, its foam and scum,
Isa. Ivii. 20. So the spirit of the world and flesh will let atheism,
pride, and unbelief to lodge and lurk in the soul without resistance,
unless it be a little from a natural conscience ; but the Spirit of
God worketh out these gradually, as generous wine worketh out
lees and dregs. The Spirit is also called fire, Acts ii. ; Mat. iii. 11 ;
for as fire fighteth with the cold water that is over it, and by de
grees conquereth it, and reduceth the water to its own likeness of
heat, in some measure ; so the Spirit lusteth and fighteth against
the flesh, and by degrees overcometh the interest of it, captivateth
the soul to the obedience of Christ, and conformeth the whole man,
in some measure, to the image of God.
Examine thy soul by this ; doth the Spirit within thee combat
with and conquer thy corruptions ? Doth it enable thee to cast
them away with shame and detestation ? Hath it turned the bent
of thy heart and stream of thy affections after spiritual and hea
venly things ? The waters of the sea, as some write, though by
their natural course they follow the centre, yet in obedience to the
moon are subject to her motion, and so turn and return, ebb and
flow. So though thou by nature didst follow the lusts of the flesh,
the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, yet in obedience to the
Spirit dost thou now follow its motions ? Hath the interest of the
Spirit an actual predominancy in thy soul above the interest of the
flesh ? Canst thou say that the interest of the Spirit and the in
terest of the flesh do often meet together on a narrow bridge, where
both cannot go forward together, and usually thou sufferest the
Spirit to go forward, and the flesh to go back ? When two masters
walk together, and a servant followeth after, it is not easy to know
to which of the two the servant belongs ; but when the masters
part, the servant is discovered whose he is. When religion and the
world have their interests together, thou mayest be hid ; but when
thy credit and Christ, thy pleasure and the Spirit, come in competi
tion, as they will very often, thou mayest discover thyself clearly
whose servant thou art. Speak, friend, and let thy conscience wit
ness whether it be thus or no. Thou mayest deceive, and thereby
undo thyself, but thou canst not deceive God ; for if the Spirit do
not sanctify thee, the Son will never save thee. Pharaoh s court
admitted of frogs and lice, and Noah s ark received unclean beasts
into it ; but no such vermin can crawl into the heavenly court :
Into it can in no wise enter (observe, reader, in no wise) any
thing that is defiled or unclean, Eev. xxi. 27. These are the words
of the true and living God. Canst thou think that thou hast the
302 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP.
>
Spirit of God, and shalt be a gainer by death, who art a servant of
unrighteousness, who hast vainglory, covetousness, hypocrisy, car-
nal-mindedness within thee, and never mournest under them, as
one heavy laden with them, nor longest after, nor usest diligently
the means for deliverance from them ? l Dost thou live a spi
ritual life, that, instead of being dead to sin, art dead in sin ? and
sbalt thou arrive at heaven, who walkest in the road to hell ? I
assure thee, a king will sooner admit dunghill-rakers and privy-
cleaners, in their nastiest, filthiest pickle, into his bed, than God
will take thee, if thou be such a one, into heaven. No ; heaven is
for the holy, and for them only.
The second mark.
The Spirit of God is a praying spirit : it is called the spirit of
grace and supplication, Zech. xii. 10; the spirit of adoption, Horn,
viii. 15 ; and of his Son, whereby they that have it cry, Abba,
Father, Gal. iv. 6.
As Christ in heaven makes intercession for them without them,
Heb. vii. 25, so the Spirit of Christ on earth maketh intercession
for them within them. God never had any still-born children.
The fathers after the flesh sometimes have dumb children, but the
Father of spirits never had any such. Man s invocation of God
presently followeth upon God s effectual vocation of him. One of
the first signs of spiritual life in Paul was spiritual breathing : Be
hold he prayeth, Acts ix. 11 ; and it is observable that prayer is the
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending almost of all his
epistles. And David was three times a day, Ps. Iv. 17, nay, seven
times a day, at this blessed duty, Ps. cxix. 164; yea, he was so
wholly employed in it, that he speaketh as if he were altogether
made up of it, Ps. cix. 4. But I [give myself unto] prayer, as it is
read in our translations, 2 is added for explanation, as the different
character sheweth,as if prayer had been his essential constitutive part.
Some write of Latimer, that he would pray so many hours, that
he was not able to rise. Nazianzen saith of his sister Gorgonia,
that she prayed so much, that her knees seemed to be grown to the
very ground. Paul the hermit was found dead kneeling upon
his knees, holding up his hands, and lifting up his eyes. 3 Con-
stantine the emperor would not have his effigies set up as other
1 Kegeneratio gratuitam coram Deo justificationem individuo nexu comitatur, nee
ab ea separari potest, etiamsi distingui debeat. Polan. Synag., lib. vi. cap. 37.
2 Et Ego Oratio. Moller. Legit. 3 Jerome in Vit.
CHAP. X.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED 303
princes had, in his armour, leaning, but in a posture of prayer,
kneeling. 1 Thus all the children of God are frequent at asking
their heavenly Father s blessing. It is the character of the worst
of sinners they call not on God, Ps. xiv. 4 ; a man once speechless
is nigh unto death. 2
Now ask thy soul, Doth the Spirit of God bring thee often upon
thy knees ? Art thou one of the generation of seekers ? Ps. xxiv. 6.
Art thou one of God s suppliants ? Zeph. iii. 10. Dost thou know
what it is to be poor in spirit, to be a beggar, and to live altogether
upon the alms-basket of heaven s bounty? Is there a constant
trade driven betwixt God and thy soul God sending down mercies,
and thou sending up prayers ? This is the daily exchange. Canst
thou better live without thy daily bread than this daily duty?
When thy heart is big with grief, whither dost thou go ? Is this
thy great ease, that thou mayest empty thy soul into God s ears ?
Are thy prayers fervent prayers ? Is this holy fire put to thy
daily sacrifices ? Is thy prayer made without ceasing, or instantly ?
Acts xxvi. 7, ev eicreveta, stretched out upon the tenters, as the
word signifieth ; not so much in the length of the petitions, as in
the acting of holy affections. 3
Dost thou labour in prayer? Col. iv. 12, i.e., wrestle with God,
as the word imports, bending and straining every joint of the new
man in the soul, that they may all help to prevail with God. Are
all the heavenly forces within thee united when thou prayest, that,
if possible, thou mayest take the kingdom of heaven by storm, by
violence ? Mat. xi. 12.
What sayest thou, reader? Dost thou, like the importunate
widow, take no denial, but use a humble impudency, 4 as the word
of Christ includeth, when thou art entreating the divine Majesty
for spirituals ? Or dost thou pray, but it is as if thou prayedst
not so dully and coldly, that thou canst hardly hear thyself?
only, as it were, between sleeping and waking, thou mumblest over
a few petitions, either out of custom, or to stop the mouth of con
science, never regarding whether God answer thy requests or no.
Didst thou but consider the dreadful majesty of that God to
whom thou prayest, the invaluable worth of the soul, and endless
1 Euseb.
2 Quorum spiritus domiti sunt, et qui sese Deo subjiciunt(mendici spiritu.) Junius
in Mat. v. 3.
3 dyovi6/j.evoi ; Rom. xii. 12, irpoffKaprepovvres, instant in prayer, a metaphor from
hunting dogs, which will not cease following the game till they have got it.
* dvatSeia, Luke xi. 8. Nazian. Baith of his sister Gorgonia, that in prayer she was
modestly impudent.
304 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. X.
state for which thou prayest, and the poor pittance of time, upon
which thy eternity dependeth, that thou hast to pray in, it might
rouse thee out of thy security.
Common beggary, as it is the poorest, so it is the easiest trade.
A whispering devotion is seldom answered with a loud echo from
heaven, (Dr Arrow., Sermon on 1 Sam. vii. 12, p. 15 ;) but this
special, as it is the richest, so it is the hardest. The fervent prayer |
is the prevalent prayer, James v. 16. The bullet will fly no farther j
than the force of the powder will carry it. That arrow of prayer
that would hit the mark must be drawn with full strength. He j
that in prayer for grace, through a humble dependence on Christ,
will not be denied, shall not be denied.
Lip labour doth no more than a windy instrument, makes a loud
noise, and that is all. Prayer without the travail of the soul isi
but the cold carcase of a duty, and no wonder if it be unsavoury in-
God s nostrils. How many among us are there that pray every
day for pardon and holiness, and yet shall die without them, and
perish eternally for want of them, and all because they never begged
them in good earnest, but were always indifferent whether God
heard them or no. I would have such know that the blessed God
valueth his special ware at a higher rate than to bestow it on such]
as will not esteem it something answerable to its worth.
It were easy to instance how fierce and fervent the children of
God, in whom was this Spirit of God, (which is compared to fire,)
have been in their supplications. Look Gen. xxxii. 24, 25 ; Ps..
v. , Ixxvii. , and Ixxxviii. Jacob wrestled with God, knd would not let
him go unless he blessed him. Christ seemed willing to shake him
off: Let me go, saith Christ ; I will not let thee go unless thou!
bless me, saith Jacob.
My limbs may go, my life may go, but no going for thee without
a pawn, without a blessing. Thus, indeed, doth the seed of Jacob
seek the face of their God, and thence are called Israelites ; for, as
princes, they have power with God, and prevail, Gen. xxxii. 26, 27.
No day passed wherein Luther spent not three hours in prayer.
Once it fell out that I heard him, saith Vitus Theodorus of him.
Good God, what a spirit, what a confidence was in his very ex
pressions ! with such reverence he prayed as to a God, with such
assurance as to a father or friend. The child hath escaped many a
stripe by his loud cry. Heartless motions do but bespeak a denial,
whereas fervent suits offer a sacred violence both to earth and
heaven.
And this is the difference betwixt the prayer of a living and a
CHAP. X ] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 305
dead Christian : the prayer of the former is instant and fervent,
not discouraged, but rather increasing, by opposition, as lime, by
water cast upon it, burneth the hotter ; see Mat. xv. 22, and xxv.
27 : the latter is flat and indifferent, easily put off, though it be
with a crumb instead of a crown, with a bubble, a butterfly, instead
of the everlasting fruition of God.
Any temporal good is satisfying to them that have no true
spiritual good in them, Ps. iv. 5 ; and the reason is clear. The
breath of a pair of bellows is cold, because it doth not proceed from
a living principle within ; but the breath of a man is warm, be
cause it cometh from a principle of life within. So the prayer, the
breath, of a hypocrite is cold, because it doth not flow from the
Spirit of God, the only inward principle of spiritual life ; but the
I prayer, the breath, of a sincere saint is warm, is fervent, because it
proceeds from this living principle, the Spirit of Christ within.
Indeed the Christian knoweth not how to pray as he ought, but
the Spirit helpeth his infirmities with sighs and groanings which
cannot be uttered, Rom. viii. 26.
Dost thou pray constantly? That duty which is done out of
conscience will be done with perseverance. A godly man will seek
God s face evermore, Ps. cv. 4, and cxvi. 2 ; he calleth upon God
as long as he liveth. Breathing heavenward in prayer is the be
ginning and ending of his spiritual life upon earth, as we see in
Paul, Acts ix. 6 ; and Stephen, Acts vii. 60. Paul begins his life
with prayer, and Stephen ends his with it.
He never taketh his leave of prayer till he is entering into the
place of praise. Prayer is his element ; he cannot live without it,
and communion with God in it. Prayer is the vessel by which he
is continually trading into the holy land ; he sendeth it out fraught
with precious graces, faith, hope, desire, love, godly sorrow, and
the like ; and it cometh home many times richly laden with peace,
joy, and increase of faith.
But now a hypocrite, Job saith, will not pray always ; he will not
always call upon God, Job xxvii. 10. Possibly he may sometimes
cry out, as a scholar under the rod, or a malefactor upon the rack,
For deliverance out of some affliction ; but when God openeth his
band, and bestoweth the mercy, his mouth is shut, and his heart
too, that you shall hear but little more of this duty.
If he pray on his sick-bed, and God raise him up, he leaves his
prayers sick a-bed behind him. His prayer was but a messenger
sent about some particular errand; when that is done, the mes
senger returneth.
VOL. III. U
306 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. X.
As that story of the friar speaketh, how, when he was a poor
friar, he went ever sadly casting his eyes upon the ground ; but
being abbot, he went merrily, looking upward. One of his com
panions asked him the reason of that alteration : he answered, that
when he was a common friar, he went dejected by looking down
ward for the keys of the abbey, which now he had found, and
therefore left that posture.
So when a hypocrite hath the temporal good thing he desireth
for that usually is most desired by him he hath his ends, and his
prayer an end too.
Or if God do not hear him presently, he will not submit patiently,
but often flingeth away in a rage, with that wicked king, Why
should he wait upon the Lord any longer ?
If there come not in present profit, he will give over his trade
as Tully said to his brother, that he would pray to the gods, bul
that they have given over to hear. Whereas a godly man will cry]
in the day, and not be silent in the night; he will direct his prayer
to God, and look up, Ps. v. 3. He will pray and wait, wait andl
pray, as you see beggars in some places ; they will beg and knit,
knit and beg, and continue still begging and knitting. So a righ
beggar at God s door, he will pray and work, work and pray ; ha
will believe and pray, hope and pray, read and pray, wait and pray a
he knoweth that it is not good to limit the Holy One of Israel ; bud
it is good that a soul should hope, and quietly wait for the salva-!
tion of God, Lam. iii. 26.
A divine 1 giveth me this simile, which doth excellently illustrate
our present subject : Take some draught-horse, and he will draw
when the load is coming; but if he feel it not coming, he wilf
trample, and not draw ; but take a horse of a right breed, and put
his traces to a tree or a post, he will strain and strain, and die upon
the place, before he will give over, though nothing comes. 2 So A
rotten Christian, if he find no present gain coming, he gives over
duty, fearing all is lost; but a right Christian will pray continually,
1 Thes. v. 17, whether God hear him presently or no ; he knoweth
that both the command of God and his own wants call upon him
never to give over.
Besides, this spirit of prayer abides in him for ever, John xiv.
14, 16.
Examine thy heart by these marks faithfully, and do not, by
flattery or self-love, or rather self-hatred, deceive thy soul nc
1 Mr Car. on Job xxvii.
a Of Carolus Magnus it is said, Carolus plus cum Deo quam hominibus loquitur.
CHAP. X.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 307
deceit like soul-deceit but pass sentence upon thyself impartially,
and if thou findest thy condition good, bless God, keep close to
Jesus Christ, and labour that thou mayest walk worthy of the Lord,
even unto all well -pleasing, Col. i. 10. The great and extra
ordinary privileges bestowed on thee do call aloud for gracious and
extraordinary practices from thee.
How exemplary shouldst thou live among them, who art to live
eternally with God ! What singular things wilt thou do for that
God, for that Saviour, that hath done such singular things for thy
soul ! Can any love be too much ; can any labour be too great ;
can any honour be too high ; can any service be too holy, for that
God to whom thou art by millions of eternal obligations thus in
finitely infinitely bound ?
Oh, let the fruitfulness of thy heart and life in holiness proclaim
thine abundant thankfulness for such mercies, as for weight and
worth exceed the very thoughts of men and angels. How abun
dant shouldst thou be in the work of the Lord, when thou knowest
that thy labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.
When thou art confessing thy sins, meditate on the choosing,
calling love of that God against whom thy sins are committed, and
try whether the heat of that burning love will not thaw thy heart,
and dissolve it into tears when it is most hard and icy. When thou
art backward to a duty that hath some difficulty in it, consider Jesus
Christ was not backward to his bitter, bloody sufferings for thy sins.
As the soldier told Augustus when he denied his petition, I did
not serve you so at the battle of Actium ; so say to thy soul, Jesus
Christ did not serve thee so when he was to drink the cup of his
Father s fierce wrath for thee ; and see whether such melting per
suasions will not prevail with thee to subject thyself to the hardest
precept.
When thou art departing away from God by any sinister course,
or insincere carriage, remember who thou art one that art called
not to sin, but sanctity ; not to uncleanness, but holiness.
As Antigonus, being invited to a place that might probably
prove a temptation to sin, asked counsel of Menedemus what
he should do ; he bade him only remember he was a king s son.
So do thou remember thine high and heavenly calling, and do
nothing unworthy of the God that hath enrolled thy name in the
book of life, that hath ransomed thy soul with the precious blood
of his Son, and hath sanctified thee by the effectual operations of
jhis Spirit, but walk worthy of the vocation wherewith, and where-
unto, thou art called, Eph. iv. 1.
308 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. X.
It is an excellent meditation of Eusebius Emissenus : Though
the devil, saith he, should be damned for many sins, and I but
for one, yet mine would exceed the devils impiety. They never
sinned against a God that became an angel for them; they!
never sinned against a Mediator that was crucified for them ; j
but miserable and wretched I and it is wonderful that my 1
heart melteth not when it thinketh on it I have sinned against
a God that became a man for me, against a God that died
an ignominious death for me ; against a God that hath left me
an example of love and holiness. I am more unworthy than the!
devils.
Consider it, friend : no sins admit of higher aggravation, nor
are matter of deeper provocation, than the sins of those that are;,
interested in God s special distinguishing affection. In a word-
for I had not thought to have told thee so much ; it was for the
sake of others principally that I append this piece since it shall
be thy reward to be like an angel in happiness, ever to behold the
face of the Father, let it be thy work and endeavour to be like an
angel in holiness, to do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven,
readily, heartily, and universally.
But if thou find, upon a thorough search, that thou art a stranger
to this spiritual life, if conscience, sent to inquire, bring in this
verdict, that this purifying, praying Spirit dwelleth not in thy
soul, let me beseech thee, in the fear of the Lord, to bethink thy
self what is like to become of thee for ever.
One of the martyrs put his finger into the candle, to try how he
could endure the fire in which he was afterwards to be burnt. Do
thou but read over again the former use of information, and con
sider whether thou art able to undergo that loss, and that terrible,
intolerable, eternal wrath of an omnipotent God, which is therein
declared, and by Scripture proved, to be the portion of all that live
and die in thy condition.
Suppose thou shouldst hear a voice this hour, as that wicked
pope did, Come, thou wretch, unto thy particular and eternal
judgment,! what wouldst thou do? where wouldst thou appear?
and where wouldst thou leave thy glory ? Isa. x. 3. I would not
for a world take thy turn. How is it possible that thou canst eat,
or drink, or sleep with any quietness of mind ; that in the day thy
meat is 2 sauced with sorrow, and thy drink mingled with weeping ;
that in the night thou art not scared with dreams, and terrified
with visions, when thy whole eternity dependeth upon that little
i Veni, miser, in judicium. 3 Q- is not ? ED.
CHAP. XI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 309
thread of life, which is in danger every moment to be cut asunder,
and thou to drop into hell ?
Art thou a man that hast reason, and canst thou be contented
one hour in such a condition ? Art thou a Christian, that believest
the word of God to be truth, and canst thou continue one moment
longer in that Sodom of thy natural estate, which will be punished
with fire and brimstone ?
I tell thee, didst thou and the rest of thy carnal neighbours but
give credit to Scripture, thou and they too would sooner sleep in a
chamber where all the walls round, the ceiling above, and floor be
low, were in a burning-light flame, than rest quietly one moment
in thine estate of sin and wrath. But for thy sake, thy condition
yet not being desperate, though very dangerous, that thou mightst
avoid the easeless misery of the sinner, and attain the endless
felicity of the saint, I have purposely written the next use, which
I request thee, as thou lovest thy life, thy soul, thine unchangeable
good, nay, I charge thee, as thou wilt answer the contrary at the
great and dreadful day of the Lord Jesus, that thou read carefully,
and that thou practise faithfully, the means and directions therein
propounded out of the word of God.
CHAPTER XI.
The third use viz., Exhortation to mind spiritual life.
Thirdly, My third use shaU be of exhortation to those that are
dead in sins to labour for this spiritual life. Whoever thou art
that wouldst have gain by thy death, then get Christ to be thy life.
Hast thou read of that fulness of joy, of those rivers of pleasures,
of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory, of that kingdom
that cannot be shaken, of that enjoyment of Christ, of that full im
mediate fruition of God, and in him of all good, of that perfect
freedom from all evil which they, and only they, shall be partakers
of who have this spiritual life ? And is not thy heart inflamed
with love to it P 1 thy soul enlarged in desire after it? thy will re
solved to venture all, and undertake anything, for it ? Surely, if
thou art a man, and hast reason, thy will and affections will be car
ried out after things that are good ; but if thou hast but a spark
of Christianity, thou canst not but be exceedingly ravished with
things so eminently, so superlatively, so infinitely good. The his-
1 Extrema Christianorum desiderantur, etsi non exordia. Jer.
310 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XI.
torian observeth that the riches of Cyprus invited the Komans to
hazard dangerous fights for the conquering it. How many storms
doth the merchant sail through for corruptible treasures ! How
often doth the soldier venture his limbs, nay, his life, for a little
perishing plunder ! Header, I am persuading thee to mind the
true treasure, durable riches, even those which will swim out with
thee in the shipwreck of death.
Stephen Gardiner said of justification by faith only, that it was
a good supper doctrine, though not so good a breakfast one. So
the power of godliness, this spiritual life, though it be not so plea
sant to live in as to the flesh, yet it is most comfortable to die with.
When Moses had heard a little of the earthly Canaan, how ear
nestly doth he beg that he might see it: Deut. iii. 25, I pray thee,
let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that
goodly mountain, and Lebanon. Thou hast read a little of the
heavenly Canaan, and hast thou not ten thousand times more cause
to desire it ?
Plato saith, If moral philosophy could be seen with mortal eyes,
it would draw all men s hearts after it. May not I more truly say,
If the gain of a saint at death could be seen with spiritual eyes,
with the eye of faith, it would make all men in love with it, and
eager after it. Balaam, as bad as he was, did desire to die the
death of the righteous ; and surely they that dislike their way, can
not but desire their end. But God hath joined them both together,
and it is not in the power of any man to put them asunder ; there
fore, if thou wouldst die their deaths, thou must live their spiritual
lives. Holiness is the seed out of which that harvest groweth. If
thou wouldst be safe when thou shalt launch into the vast ocean of
eternity, if thou wouldst be received into the celestial habitation,
when thou shalt be turned out of thy house of clay, make sure of
this life in Christ, Isa. ii. 12. If a heathen prince would not ad
mit virgins to his bed before they were purified, canst thou think
the King of kings will take thee into his nearest and dearest em
braces before thou art sanctified ? Believe it, heaven must be in
thee before thou shalt be in heaven. Unless the Spirit of God
adorn thy soul, as Abraham s servant did Kebecca, with the jewels
of grace, thou art no fit spouse for the true Isaac, the Lord of glory.
The brutish worldling, indeed, would willingly live profanely,
and yet die comfortably; dance with the devil all day, and sup
with Christ at night ; have his portion in this world with the rich
man, in the other world with Lazarus. As the young swaggerer
told his graceless companion, when they had been with Ambrose,
CHAP. XL] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 311
and seen him on his death-bed, nothing affrighted at the approach
of the king of terrors, but triumphing over it, Oh that I might live
with thee, and die with Ambrose ! l But this cannot be. A happy
death is the conclusion of a holy life. The God who giveth heaven
hath in great letters written in his word upon what terms, and no
other, it may be had : He chooseth to salvation, through sanctifi-
cation of the Spirit and belief of the truth, 2 Thes. ii. 13.
It is as possible for thee to enjoy the benefit of the Son s passion,
without the Father s creation, as without the Spirit s sanctification.
Believe the word of truth : John iii. 3, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God ; and Heb. xii. 14, Follow holiness, without which no
man shall see the Lord. Consider, friends, this is the word of the
true and living God ; and this law, this standing law of heaven, is
like the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be altered ;
not one jot or tittle of it can possibly go unfulfilled, Mat. v. 18.
Darest thou think that the God of truth will be found a liar for
thy sake, as he must be if he save thee in thy sinful, unconverted
state ? I tell thee, the God of holiness and justice will send mil
lions of such carnal wretches as thou art to hell, there to suffer the
vengeance of the unquenchable fire, before he will stain his hon
our in the least. No, he is more tender of his glory than so. Though
thou carest not how much thou trample his honour in the dust by
the wilful breach of his commands, yet he is exceeding jealous of
his great name ; and when his very being is engaged for the accom
plishment of his word, he will not ungod himself to glorify thee
in an unsanctified condition ; and therefore do not delude thy soul
in presuming that he that made thee will not damn thee ; for he
saith himself, that unless thou art new made, and hast that true
understanding to fear his majesty, and depart from iniquity, he
that made thee will not save thee, and he that formed thee will
shew thee no mercy, Isa. xxvii. 11. I hope, therefore, thou art
fully convinced that it highly concerneth thee to be night and day,
with the greatest diligence imaginable, labouring for this spiritual
life, when thine everlasting comfort in the other world, thine eter
nal life, dependeth so much upon it.
1 There is a story of one that, being reproved for his vicious life, and persuaded
to mind godliness, would answer often, That it was but saying three words at his
death, and he was sure to have eternal life. Probably his three words were, Miserere
mei Dew, but he riding one day over a bridge, his horse stumbled, and as both were
falling into the river, he crieth out, Capiat omnia diabolus, Horse and man and all
to the devil. As he lived, so he died, with three words, but not such as he hoped to
have had.
312 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XL
Art thou rich ? hearken to this word of counsel from God, look .
after these durable riches, Prov. viii. 18. Thy earthly riches are
not for ever, Prov. xxvii. 24. Though thy heart possibly is more
set upon thy houses and hoards than upon heaven, yet thou must
take thine everlasting leave of them ere long ; when these un
searchable riches in Christ, which I am persuading thee to mind,
outlive the days of heaven, run parallel with the life of God
and line of eternity, Prov. viii. 18 ; nay, till thou livest this
spiritual life, all thy wealth is want, all thy glory is ignominy,
all thy comforts are crosses, yea, curses to thee, Prov. i. 32 ; Ps.
Ixix. 22.
All thy outward comforts, like the rainbow, shew themselves in
all their dainty colours, and then vanish away ; or, if they stay with
thee till death, then they die with thee. Oh how hath the moon
of great men s plenty often been eclipsed at the full, and the sun
of their pomp gone down at noon !
Through the corruption of thy heart they prove but fuel for thy
lusts on earth ; and if thou shouldst die, having only this world s
goods, they will feed the eternal fire in hell. It is storied of
Heliogabalus that he had silken halters to hang himself with, ponds
of sweet water to drown himself in, and gilded poison to poison
himself. Truly more hurtful are the world s trinity, riches, hon
ours, and pleasures, to them that have great estates in the world,
but no estate in the covenant. Poison worketh more furiously in
wine than in water, and so doth corruption many times bewray
itself more in plenty than in poverty. It is sad that thou shouldst
not be led to God by that which came from God. But oh how
lamentable is it that thou shouldst, Jehu-like, fight against thy
Master with his own soldiers ; like the dunghill, the more the sun
shineth on it, it sends forth the more stinking savour ; that thou
shouldst, by the riches which his Majesty hath given thee, only
have this cursed advantage, to be the greater rebel. 1 Many good
works hath Christ done for thee ; for which dost thou stone him ?
John x. 32 ; for which of them dost thou stone him out of thy house ?
By oaths, or drunkenness, or gaming, or by atheism and irreligion,
or at least by putting him off with a few short, cold, formal prayers,
and that but now and then neither. Many good works hath he
done for thee ; for which of them dost thou stone him out of thy
heart ? By letting the world, and the things of the world, have
the highest seat there, the throne thy chiefest esteem, warmest love,
1 The poet feigned Pluto to be the god of riches and hell, as if they had been in
separable. Homer.
CHAP. XL] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 313
and strongest trust ? What sayest thou:? is it not thus ? And is
this to be led by his goodness to repentance ? Oh consider thy
body s mercies are holy baits laid by God to catch thy soul. He
trieth the vessel with water, to see whether it will hold wine.
Do not, like the foolish fly, burn thyself in this flame of love ; turn
not his grace into wantonness, but let the kindness of God be
salvation unto thee. Thou shouldst, by those cords of love, be
drawn nearer unto him, and by those bands of mercies be tied
closer to his commands. How shouldst thou gather ; if the streams
of creatures be so sweet, what sweetness is there in God, who is
the fountain. If he be so good in temporals, surely he is better in
spirituals, and best of all in eternals. How unsatisfied shouldst
thou be with all these outward gifts, which may consist with his
everlasting hatred, and resolve, with Luther, not to be put off with
the blessings of his left hand, of his footstool. 1 Thou hast the
more cause to look about thee, because few of thy rank are truly
religious. A little godliness will go a great way with great men,
though of all men they have most obligations from God. See James
ii. 5, God chooseth the poor of the world rich in faith, and heirs
of his kingdom ; and Christ telleth us, it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into
the kingdom of heaven/ Mat. xix. 24. Our Saviour, indeed, doth
not speak of an impossibility, but of the difficulty of it, and the
rareness of it. Job unfolded the riddle, and got through the
needle s eye with three thousand camels. But it is hard to be
wealthy, and not wanton ; too too often are riches, like bird-lime,
hindering the soul in its flight towards heaven. A load of earth
hath sunk many a soul to hell ; and the enriching of the outward
occasioned the impoverishment of the inward man. A rich man is
a rare dish at heaven s table. Blessed be God there are some, but
surely few rich of those very few that shall be saved, 1 Cor. i. 26.
The weighty burden in a vessel, though it consisted of the most
precious commodities, hath not seldom caused its miscarriage, when
otherwise it had arrived safely at its, desired haven. As the moon,
when she is at the full, is farthest from, and in most direct opposi-
tion to, the sun, so it is the temper of most in thy condition to be
farthest from, and most opposite to, Christ, when they receive the
most light of prosperity from him, and are fullest of the blessings
of his goodness. Take heed thou be not like the horse and mule,
Ps. xxxii. 9, to drink plentifully of the streams, and never look to
the fountain ; but let thine eyes, as the church s, be doves eyes.
1 Valde protestatus summe nolle sic ab eo satiari. Melch. Adam, vit. Luth.
314 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XI.
When the dove hath pecked her corn, she turneth her eyes heaven
ward ; she looketh up, Cant. i. 15.
It is reported of the Spartans, that they use to choose their king
every year, during which year he liveth in all abundance, but is,
after the year be expired, banished into some remote place for ever.
One king, knowing this, being called to be king, did not, as others,
prodigally spend his revenues, but heaped up all the treasure he
could get together, and sent it before to that place whither he
should be banished ; and so, in the year of his government, made
a comfortable provision for his whole life. So wise are they that
lay up a treasure in heaven against the time of their departure out
of this world.
Art thou poor? Labour for this spiritual life; it will make
thee rich indeed. Thou hast little on earth, but thou mayest have
a treasure in heaven. God oifereth thee grace, Christ, and life, as
freely as others ; take heed thou neglect them not, and think, as
they in Sweden, that it is only for gentlemen to keep the Sabbath ;
that it is only for gentlemen to mind religion. Thou hast a soul
to save, an endless estate to provide for, a hell to escape, a heaven
to attain, a dreadful day of judgment to prepare for, as well as
they. It is a great mercy, that though God difference thee from
others in temporals, yet not in spirituals. Among the Israelites,
the price for their ransom was equal, half a shekel ; and the rich
shall not give more, nor the poor less, Exod. xxx. 12, 15, 16,
thereby signifying, 1 that the same price was paid by Christ for the
redemption of all, poor as well as rich, and that the virtue and
merits of Christ s passion belong equally to all. Thy outward con
dition doth not exclude thee from an interest in Christ s death and
intercession. Poor Lazarus may lie in the bosom of rich Abraham.
The poor may be gospelised, as that Mat. xi. 5 is sometimes read ;
not only have the gospel preached to them, but be changed by it.
God accepted the lamb and dove in sacrifice, when he rejected the
lion and eagle. But thou must be one of God s poor, not of the
devil s ragged regiment. Will it not be sad for thee to have two
hells ; one on earth, in cold, hunger, thirst, and wants, and another
in hell, in heat and unspeakable woe ? How many of thy condition
serve the devil and the world all their days in drudgery and slavery,
and are turned into hell as a sumpter horse at the night of death,
after all his hard travel, with his back full of galls and bruises.
A low man, if his eye be clear, may look as high as the tallest ;
the least pigmy may from the lowest valley see the sun as fully as
i Willet in loc.
ClIAP. XI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 315
a giant upon the highest mountain. 1 Christ is now in heaven ; it
is not the smallness of our person, nor the meanness of our condi
tion, that can let us from beholding him. The soul hath no stature,
neither is heaven to be had with reaching. If God clear the eyes
of our faith, we shall be high enough to behold him.
Do not say, thou art to provide for thy wife and children, and
hast no time to regard thy soul in a solemn, serious performance of
duties. Remember the same God that commandeth thee to follow
thy particular calling as a man, enjoineth thee likewise to follow
thy general calling as a Christian; and that, in the first place,
Seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and
all other things shall be added to you, Mat. vi. 33 ; and also with
the greatest labour : John vi. 27, Phil. ii. 12, Labour not for the
food that perisheth, but for the food that endureth to everlasting
life.
Where our Saviour doth not indeed absolutely forbid labour for
the body, but comparatively ; labour for the food that perisheth is
not prohibited, but labour for the meat which endureth to everlast
ing life is preferred. Thy labour for thy soul should be so much,
so great, that thy labour for thy body should be no labour at all,
not deserve the name of labour in comparison of it. Now consider
what answer thou wilt make to the great God when he shall plead
with thee for the breach of these commands ; besides, hast not
thou many spare hours in many evenings, and on wet days, wherein
thou mightst go to God in secret, and with thy family, and humble
thy soul in a mournful confession of thy sins, and sensible appre
hension of the wrath which is due to thee, and wherein thou mightst
be importunate for pardon and grace, without which thou art lost
for ever ? Nay, the Lord knoweth how many Lord s days thou
hast enjoyed, which days he hath set apart, as well out of mercy
as out of sovereignty, not only for the glory of his name, but also
for the good of thy soul, wherein thou mightst both publicly,
privately, and secretly, have furthered thy spiritual and eternal
good. But how dost thou squander away those precious hours,
sometime in corporal labour, always in spiritual idleness, in sleep
ing, or sitting at thy door, or talking with thy neighbours, and yet
thou hast no time for thy soul.
But, lastly, Tell me, hast thou time to eat, and drink, and work,
and sleep, and no time to work out thy salvation, to fit thy soul for
death, for judgment, for eternity? If thy house were in a flame,
thou wouldst not let it burn, and say, I have no time to quench it.
1 B. Hall, Contempl.
316 HEAVEX AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XII.
If thy neighbour call thee to sit, or talk, or dine, or, it may be, to
go to the alehouse with him, thou dost not answer him, I must
provide for my family, I have no time ; but when thy Maker and
preserver, the blessed God, calleth upon thee, by his Spirit and
word, to be diligent for the making thy calling and election sure,
2 Pet. i. 10, thou must provide for thy family, thou hast no time
for this. Foolish worm, leave off thy vain and cursed pretences,
and set upon the business for which thou wast sent into the world,
even the glorifying and obeying the Lord, or thou shalt have
another manner of answer to thy simple excuses from the judge of
quick and dead, when, for thy want of time to serve him in, he
shall give thee an eternity to suffer in.
Header, I have two things to desire of thee, before I deliver thee
the directions which I have received of the Lord for thee ; and in
deed unless thou grant me, or rather God and thy soul, these two
requests, all that I have to say will be to no purpose at all My
requests are, that thou wouldst follow the counsel of God, in order
to the recovery of thy soul out of its bottomless misery with all
speed and with all diligence. Now, because they are of such ex
ceeding importance, that, if thou art once persuaded to them, my
work will be half effected ; and because delays and laziness are the
two great gulfs in which such multitudes of souls are drowned and
perish, I shall speak the more to them.
CHAPTER XII.
The life in Christ must be minded speedily, with the grounds of it.
My first request to thee is, that thou wouldst presently set about
the affairs of thy soul. We say of things that must be done, there
needeth not any deliberation about them. 1 Is not this the one thing
necessary, to prepare for the last hour, to make sure of thine ever
lasting welfare ? If thou believest the word of God, thou wilt not
give the flesh so much breath as to debate it, much less wilt thou,
as Felix did, put off the thoughts of righteousness and judgment to
come, till thou art at better leisure, till thou hast a more convenient
season. 2 What more weighty work hast thou to do, than to work
out thy own salvation ? Is the following thy calling, hoarding up
a heap of earth, feeding, clothing that flesh which shall shortly be
1 De rebus necessariis non est deliberandum.
a In re tarn justa nulla est consultatio.
CHAP. XII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 317
food for worms ; is any of these half so necessary as thy provision
for eternity ?
If thou art old, it is high time to begin to prepare for thy latter
end. Thou hast the feet of thy body almost already in the earth,
in the grave ; and hadst thou not need have the feet of thy soul,
thy affections, in heaven ? Thou hast but a little time to converse
with men ; doth it not behove thee to be much in communion with
God ? Death often, possibly, knocketh at thy door by the hand
of sickness, and warneth thee to look after another habitation, for
thou art to be turned out of thy house of clay. Dost thou take
warning ? what wilt thou do if thou shouldst die before thou didst
ever begin to live if the sun of thy life should set before the sun
of righteousness hath arisen on thee ? All the while thou livest thou
art dead, and thou livest long to add to thy torments, as others have
died soon to hasten them. Thou art but like stubble, laid out
a-drying to burn the better in hell, all the while thou continuest a
stranger to the new birth.
Thou hast every day been treasuring up wrath against the day
of wrath, Rom. ii. 5 ; been gathering, as it were, more wood to in
crease those flames in which thou, if thou thus diest, shalt live for
ever. Because judgment against an evil work is not speedily
executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to
do evil. Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be
prolonged, it shall not go well with the wicked, Eccles. viii. 11, 12,
13. The sinner an hundred years old shall be accursed/ Isa. Ixv.
20.
I have read of the Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians, that
they divide their time betwixt the devil and God, dedicating their
youth to robbery, and their old age to repentance. How much time
hast thou spent in the service of sin ! how little time hast thou
lost for the service of God and thy soul ! Is it not high time for
thee to number thy days, and to apply thy heart unto wisdom
speedily ?
Old sinner, dost thou not tremble to think that there is but a step
betwixt thee and death ! nay, betwixt thee and hell. Oh the time,
and talents, and opportunities which thou hast to reckon for more
than others! Happy, happy had it been for thee to have been
turned out of the womb into hell, rather than to die an old man,
and not a babe in Christ. If thou hast a spark of love to thyself,
mind thine inward change presently, lest thy change come, even
death, and send thee to unchangeable misery.
If thou art young, mind the gathering the manna of godliness in
318 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XII.
the morning of thine age ; present the first-fruits of thy life to that
God who desireth the first ripe fruits, 1 Exod. xxii. 29. The firstlings
are his darlings, Gen. iv. 4 ; and that cloth will keep colour best
that is dyed in the wool; the vessel will scent longest of that liquor
with which it is first seasoned. Let thy soul, like Gideon s fleece,
drink up betimes the dews of grace. As young as thou art, thy
life is every moment at the mercy of the Lord. There is a saying,
that in Golgotha there are skulls of all sizes. In the churchyard
thou mayest see graves of all sorts, and some of thy very length ;
thou art concerned, therefore, to remember thy Creator in the days
of thy youth. Aquinas telleth us, the young man hath death at his
back, the old man before his eyes, and that is the more dangerous
enemy that pursueth thee, than that which marcheth up towards
thy face. This calleth for the greater care and watchfulness. In
the Isle of Man the maids spin their winding-sheets the first thing
they spin ; do thou in youth and health ponder and prepare for thy
death, lest, as young and strong as thou art, death trip up thy heels
and throw thee, and it prove thine everlasting overthrow.
Besides, canst thou imagine that such a sinner deserveth favour,
who cometh in to serve God at last, when he can serve his lust no
longer ? Is it equal (be thy own judge) to give the flower of thine
age, the spring of thy life, the best of thy time, thine health and
strength, to the devil and thy brutish flesh, and to give the dregs,
the snuff, the bottom of all this, to the infinitely glorious God, whose
creature thou art, at whose cost and charge thou livest every day
and night, and who calleth upon thee for thy service, not for the
need he hath of thee, but because of the need thou standest in of
him, all whose happiness doth consist in the pleasing and enjoying
his majesty ?
Whoever thou art, of what age soever, either set speedily about
thy soul work, or answer these few questions the Lord shall put to
thee, or be speechless and without excuse at the day of Christ.
First, Hath not God waited upon thee long enough already ?
Wouldst have him, whom the heavens and heaven of heavens cannot
contain, who hath millions of glorious angels waiting on his majesty,
to wait on thee, miserable worm, always ?
I tell thee, all the while thou art sinning his eyes behold thee,
his heart is incensed against thee, and his hand can reach thee and
avenge him on thee every moment, How many hath he sent into
hell that never tasted of his patience, as thou hast done. The
angels sinned, and were not waited upon one hour for their repent-
1 Honor adolescentum est, timorem Dei babcre. Ambros. de Offic.
CHAP. XII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 319
ance ; yet how many years hath he endured thee with much long-
suffering, and still waiteth upon thee, that he may be gracious unto
thee ! Isa. xxx. 18. The last oath thou didst swear, he could have
cursed and rotted thy tongue. The last time that thou wentest
prayerless to thy rest, he could have sent thee to little ease, to the
place where there is no rest day or night. The last time thou
didst quench the motions of his Spirit, and stifle the convictions of
thy conscience, he could have taught thee by experience what is the
meaning of the worm that never dieth, and the fire that goeth not
out ; and yet he spareth thee, stretching out his hands all the day
long to a rebellious child, Isa. Ixv. 2. Should not his long patience
quicken thee to speedy repentance ? Answer God whether he hath
not waited enough, been long-suffering enough already ; and if
he have not, continue in thy ungodly course, and see who shall
suffer longest at last, he or thou. It is one thing to forbear a debt,
another thing to forgive the debtor. The longer God is in fetch
ing his hand about, the heavier his blow will be when he striketh.
The threatening is like a child, the longer it is kept in the womb
the bigger it groweth, and it will put thee to the more pain when
it cometh to the birth of its execution ; therefore, bethink thyself
before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, be
fore the fierce anger of the Lord come upon thee, Zeph. ii. 2.
Dost thou not see in the Scriptures many examples of God s
severity upon the abuse of his patience ? What became of Sodom
and Gomorrah, when God waited in the days of Lot ? Are they
not suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ? Jude 7. What
became of the Jews, upon whom Christ waited, calling upon them,
and crying to them to return and reform ? is not wrath come
upon them to the utmost ? 1 Thes. ii. 16. Are not these like the
mast of a ship sunk in the sands, standing up to warn thee to avoid
their course, lest thou sink eternally ? Have not these the same
inscription on them with Sennacherib s tomb, Look on me, and learn
to be godly ? Do not the Sodomites seem to say, Look on us, and
learn to be godly ? Do not thy atheistical neighbours in hell,
that thought they had had time enough before them, and futured
their repentance, cry, Oh look on us and learn to be godly, and that
with speed ! Friend, take example by others, lest thou be made
an example to others. To-day, after so long a time, if thou wilt
hear his voice, harden not thy heart, Heb. iv. 7.
My second question which I desire thee to answer is, Hast thou
not served the world and the flesh long enough already ? Is it not
yet time to serve God ? hath not lust had too much of thy heart,
320 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XII.
and the flesh of thy life, already ? may not the time past of thy life
suffice thee to have wrought the will of the flesh ? 1 Peter iv. 3.
Canst thou have the face to say, with the sluggard, a little more
slumber, a little more sleep, a little more drunkenness, a little more
swearing, a little more wickedness ? Is not the debt which thou
owest to divine justice great enough ? Is not the heap of wrath
and fury which thou hast provided for thyself against death and
judgment big enough ? Dost thou think that thou mayest serve
the flesh too little, and the Lord too much ? It may be thou hast
served the devil twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years,
and knowest not whether thou shalt have so many hours to serve
God in, and is it not yet time to begin ? Answer me, Hast thou
not wallowed long enough in the mire of atheism, worldliness, and
sensuality ? Wilt thou not yet be made clean ? ah, when shall it once
be ? Jer. xiii. 27.
3. If one should offer thee a house and land, or a bag of money, ]
wouldst thou not presently accept it ? wouldst thou say, I am :
not yet at leisure, hereafter will be time enough ? And is there not
infinitely more reason why thou shouldst presently close with Christ,
and leave thy sins, and seek the kingdom of heaven ? Is not heaven
more worth than earth ? are not the fruits of Christ better than
silver, and his revenues than choice gold ? Prov. iii. 15.
When gold is offered thee, saith Ambrose, thou dost not say, I 1
will come again to-morrow and take it, but art glad of present pos
session ; but salvation being proffered to our souls, few men haste
to embrace it.
Is it not a sordid slighting of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory, for
thee to be more ready and hasty to take a little perishing wealth,
than his most precious blood ?
Canst thou read the story of Pope Gregory the Seventh, how he
made the emperor Henry the Fourth, with his wife and child, to
stand bare-feet and bare-legged three days and three nights in a
cold frosty season, before he would admit them into the house, and
thy heart not rise against the pope s pride and wickedness ? And
why doth it not rise against thy own obstinacy and vileness, that
hast suffered the King of kings to stand knocking at the door of thy
heart till his head hath been wet with the dew, and his locks with
the drops of the night ? and though he hath waited thus many
years, yet thou hast denied him entrance, and art not to this hour
resolved to give him speedy acceptance.
4. Dost thou not find by experience that the longer thou delayest,
the farther thou wanderest from God and holiness, and the more
CHAP. XII] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 321
unfit thou art for, and the more unwilling unto, the work of conver
sion ? Is it not time therefore to turn with speed, when continu
ance in sin insensibly hardeneth thy heart, and gradually indisposeth
it more to the work of repentance ? As the ground, so is thy
heart ; the longer it lieth fallow, not ploughed up, the harder it
will be. Wilt thou go one step farther from God, when thou must
certainly come back every step, and that by Weeping-cross all the
way, or be damned for ever ? The purchase of heaven is like buy
ing the sibyl s prophecies, the longer thou boldest oif, the dearer.
A stain which hath been long in clothes is not easily washed out ;
a house that hath long run to ruin will require the more cost and
labour for its reparation ; diseases that have been long in the
body are cured, if at all, yet with much difficulty. The devil which
had possessed the man from his infancy was hardly cast out, and
not without much renting and raging, Mark ix. 21, 26. Satan
thinks his evidence as good as eleven points at law, now he hath
once got possession ; and the longer he continueth commander-in-
chief in the royal fort of thy heart, the more he fortifieth it against
God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. All the
while thou delayest, God is more provoked, the wicked one more
encouraged, thy heart more hardened, thy debts more increased,
thy soul more endangered, and all the difficulties of conversion daily
more and more multiplied upon thee, having a day more to repent
of, and a day less to repent in.
5. Canst thou promise thyself the next hour to repent in, and
darest thou defer it to another hour ? Thou sayest thou wilt mind
these things when thou art old ; but what if thou diest while thou
art young ? thou deferrest it till to-morrow, 1 but suppose thou die
to-day, and God say to thee, as to the rich fool, This night thy soul
shall be required of thee ? Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth, Prov. xxvii. 1.
It is a good saying of Aquinas, That though God promise for
giveness to repenting sinners, yet God promiseth not to-morrow to
repent in. Think how many hundred casualties thou art liable to,
how many others die suddenly, 2 and take the counsel of Michal to
David, Save thyself to-night, to-morrow thou mayest be slain.
Save thy soul to-day, to-morrow thou mayest be damned.
6. Art thou sure that God will accept thee hereafter, if thou
1 It was a wise answer of one that was invited to dinner on the morrow, saith he,
A multis annis crastinum non habui.
1 Waldus, he the father of the Waldenses, seeing one suddenly fall down dead,
was converted, went home, and became a new man.
VOL. III. X
322 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIII.
shouldst now delay and dally with his Majesty ? It is good seek
ing the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while
he is near, Isa. Iv. 6. There is a time when men shall call, hut God
will not hear ; cry, but he will not answer ; and that because when
God called they would not hear, but did set at nought his counsel,
Prov. i. 24, 29. Whilst thine eyes are open, the things which con
cern thy peace maybe hid from them, Luke xix. 42. Thou mayest
live to have thy soul buried long before thy body, Ezek. xxiv. 13,
14. God would purge thee now, and thou wilt not ; take heed he
clap not the same curse upon thee, which he did on some others,
that thou shalt never be purged till thou diest. The Spirit of God
probably now stirreth thee to turn presently, and offereth thee its
help ; if thou lovest thy soul, do not now deny it, lest the Spirit serve
thee as Samuel did Saul ; Saul disobeyed him, and Samuel came no
more to Saul to the day of his death, 1 Sam. xv. 35, i.e., never.
So take heed of quenching this motion of the Holy Ghost, lest it
depart in a distaste, taking its everlasting leave of thee, and thou
never feel it more to the day of thy death : Now is the accepted
time, now is the day of salvation, 2 Cor. vi. 2. This day if thou
wilt hear his voice, harden not thy heart, lest he swear in his wrath
that thou shalt never enter into his rest, Ps. xcv. 7-11.
CHAPTER XIII.
This life in Christ must be minded diligently, with some
motions to it,
My second request is, that thou wouldst make the attaining this
spiritual life the whole business of thy natural life, that thou
wouldst esteem it as the great end of thy creation, preservation,
and of all the mercies and means of grace which God bestoweth on
thee, as the great end why God is so patient towards thee, so pro
vident over thee, so bountiful unto thee, that thou mightst repent
and return unto him from whom thou hast gone astray.
Shall I entreat thee, for the sake of thy poor soul, to let thy
greatest labour be for thine eternal welfare ! Is not this a business
of the greatest necessity, of the greatest excellency, and of the
greatest commodity and profit that thou didst ever undertake P
To be everlastingly in heaven or in hell, to enjoy endless and match-
1 It is the unum necessarium, Luke xxiv. The primum qnarendum, Mat. vi. 33.
The totum hominis, Eccles. xii. 13.
CHAP. XIII] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 323
less pain or pleasure, are other manner of things than men dream
of. Good Lord ! that men did but believe what it is to be happy
or miserable for ever, how then would they fly from the wrath to
come, and strive to enter in at the strait gate ! Mat. vii. 14.
Surely things of the greatest weight call for the strongest work ;
matters that concern thine unchangeable felicity, require the
greatest industry.
The philosopher would not buy repentance at too dear a rate ;*
sure I am thou canst never buy this inheritance too dear, though
thou spendest all thy time, and strength, and sellest all thou hast to
purchase it. Friend, if ever thou art saved, thou must work out thy
own salvation, Phil. ii. 12. God giveth the earth to the meek and
patient, but heaven to the strong and violent, Mat. v. 5, and xi. 12.
It is a saying of Lombard, God condemns none before he sins, nor
crowns any before he overcomes. The blind, carnal world thinks
that a man may go to heaven without so much ado. As Judas said
of the ointment, so they of diligence in duties, To what purpose is
this waste ? Mat. xxvi. 8. They tell us it is waste time to pray so
frequently, and it is waste strength to pray so fervently : To what
purpose is this waste ? They presume that godly men might spare
a great deal of their pains heavenward. As Seneca told the Jews
that they lost a seventh part of their time by their sanctification of
the Sabbath ; so the earthly-minded man will tell us that such
and such men spend all their time almost in reading, or hearing,
or praying, or instructing their families, or neighbours, and they
count it but lost time. These men, if you will believe them, have
found out an easier and a nearer way to heaven than ever Jesus
Christ did ; they are the right brood of wicked Jeroboam, that told
the people, 1 Kings xii. 28, it was too much to go up to Jerusalem
to worship ; he had found out a cheaper and an easier way of
worship. The calves at Dan and Bethel would save them much
labour, and, in his conceit, serve to as much purpose. Thus they
delude themselves that their lazy, cold trading God-ward, their
slight indifferent prayers, will bring them in as much gain as the
most zealous performances of the saints. But, reader, I hope thou
wilt obey the voice of God, and not of men, in this : consider his
promise is to the laborious, They that seek him early, shall find
iim, Prov. viii. 17.
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, Heb. xi. 6 ;
so Prov. ii. 3, 4. His precept is for labour. Strive to enter in at
the strait gate, Mat. vii. 13. Be diligent to make your calling
1 Demost., Non tanti emam pcenitere.
324 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIII.
and election sure/ 2 Pet. i. 10 ; so John vi. 27. Nay, lie curseth
them that put him off with their lame sacrifices : For I am a great
king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful/ Mai. i. 14.
Further, he is peremptory that the slothful shall be for utter dark
ness, l Mat. xxv. 26. The Egyptian king would have men of acti
vity and industry to be his servants ; and will God, thinkest thou,
who is a pure act, accept of those that are not active ? Canst thou
imagine that he should ever bestow pardon of sin, eternal life, the
sanctification of the Spirit, the precious contents of his own promise,
the invaluable fruits of Christ s purchase, upon those that do not
judge them worthy of all their strength and time, and hearts and
pains, and ten thousand times more ? Besides, for what reason
dost thou suppose God to have given thee these things ? Surely
thou canst not be so brutish as to think that the great God made
thee, and serveth thee daily with such variety of mercies, health,
strength, food, raiment, influences of heaven, and fruits of the earth,
only, or chiefly, that thou shouldest eat and drink, and follow thy
calling, and provide for thy family. Were such low ends the ground
of his kindness ? Or is it not that thou mightst ravish that pure
and virgin inheritance, by a holy and heavenly violence, that thou
mightst employ them and improve them to the utmost about his
service and thy own salvation ?
Header, I must desire thee to consider and grant me these two
or three suppositions, in prosecution of this my second request to
thee.
1. Suppose thou hadst seen the Son of man, who now sitteth at
his Father s right hand, rising from his place, and attended with
the thousand thousands that are before him, and with the ten thou
sand times ten thousand that minister to him, coming and spark
ling so gloriously through the firmament, that he dazzleth the very
eyes of the sun, and makes him to hide his head for shame, and
sitting down in the clouds, with the glory of his Father, a fire
devouring before him, and behind him a flame burning.
Conceive now with me, that thou hearest him call to the arch
angel, Sound the last trump, that the dead may arise and come to
judgment. Hark to the sound of the trump ! how it rendeth
rocks, melteth mountains, breaks in pieces the bands of death, and
bursts asunder the gates of hell ; how it pierceth the ocean, and
fetcheth from the bottom of the sea the dust of Adam s seed ; how
it descendeth into the belly of the earth, and forceth it to vomit up
1 Agathocles got to be king of Sicily by his industry. So may the Christian by
violence attain the kingdom of heaven.
CHAP. XIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 325
all the bodies which it had ever taken down ; how it openeth the
marble tombs of princes and potentates, and makes their highness
and majesty stoop as low as the meanest to the King of glory.
Dost thou not see the bodies of the saints ? Look how they fly
upon the wings of the wind to their souls, and both to the bosom
of their beloved Saviour. See how the spirits of unregenerate ones
leave for a little while the dark vault of hell, and enter, though
most unwillingly, into the stinking carrion of their bodies, and both
hauled by angels to the judgment-seat of Christ.
When the court is thus set, conceive the commission read,
wherein Jesus Christ is authorised, in his human nature, by his
divine power, to be judge of the quick and dead. The law is pro
duced, both of nature and Scripture. The books are opened, both
of God s omniscience and man s conscience, by which all men are
to be tried for their everlasting lives and deaths.
The holy ones are now called ; their persons, through the right
eousness of Christ, acquitted by public proclamation, before God,
angels, and men ; their performances, duties, graces, services, suffer
ings, punctually related to their glory, and infinitely rewarded in
their perfect freedom from all evil, and eternal fruition of the
chiefest good.
Behold, how the unholy are with violence dragged to the bar,
examined strictly by the covenant of works, have all their sins,
secret, open, personal, relative, of nature, and practice, in thoughts,
words, and deeds, revealed publicly, and aggravated fully with all
their crimson-dyed, bloody circumstances. Hark how pitifully
they plead what poor evidences they had for salvation, what sorry
excuses for atheism and abominations ; their conscience, instead of
a thousand witnesses, accuseth them, the law casteth them, the
judge pronounceth against them a most severe sentence of con
demnation, the devils seize on them for its speedy execution. Now
what confusion and shame of face, what lamentation and sorrow of
heart, possesseth them ! What doleful screechings ! What bitter
yellings are heard among them ! Here is the body cursing the
soul for being so ungodly a guide, and the soul cursing the body
for being so unready an instrument ; and both cursing the time
that ever they met together, and wishing, though in vain, that they
might for ever be parted asunder.
Now the worldling curseth his flocks and his farm, his gold and
his silver, that had more of his heart, and of care and time, than
his precious soul. Now the lazy Christian curseth his madness and
folly, that he should think a little formal preparation were sufficient
326 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIII.
for such a strict examination. A bloody husband hast thou been
to me, saith the wife ; thou mindest provision for me for a little
time, and never regardedst my instruction about the things of
eternity. A cruel father hast thou been to me, saith the child, for
generating me a child of wrath and heir of hell, and never endea
vouring my regeneration, whereby I might have been a child of
God and an heir of heaven : and thus cursing, crying, roaring,
raging, they are sent to the place where is mourning without mirth,
sorrow without solace, darkness without light, death without life,
pure wrath without mixture, perfect pain without measure, nothing
but weeping and wailing, sighing, sobbing, and gnashing of teeth,
for ever, ever, ever.
Suppose, I say, that thou hadst heard and seen all this, and God
should after it try thee in this world forty years, wouldst thou not
night and day be struggling and striving with God by prayer,
watching over thy own heart, waiting upon thy Saviour ? With
what earnestness wouldst thou pray ! With what seriousness
wouldst thou read and hear ! With what exactness and exemplari-
ness wouldst thou live ! How diligent and laborious wouldst thou
be in a faithful improvement of all thy time, talents, and oppor
tunities, that thou mightst find mercy at such a day, even the
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life ! Wouldst thou
after such a sight think any time too much, or any pains too great,
for thy eternal good ? Couldst thou give the world and the flesh
the choicest place in thy heart, and the chiefest part of thy life, as
now thou dost ? Shouldst thou dare to be nibbling again at the
devil s baits, or to be playing with the eternal fire, or to put oflf God
with a few cold, formal prayers, and that by fits, instead of hearty,
fiery, continual supplication ? Or to put off Jesus Christ with a
compliment, that thou wearest his livery, and professest thyself a
Christian, instead of a sincere, resolved dedication of heart and life
to his word and law ? What sayest thou, man, and why wilt thou
not be diligent and as holy now ? Thou mayest in the glass of
Scripture see all that I have spoken, (for the substance of it at;
least,) if thou hast but an eye of faith ; and, without question, the
sight of faith is as sure and true as a sight of sense. What reason
canst thou have why thou shouldst not work as industriously to
escape hell and obtain heaven as if thou hadst known these things
experimentally, when the word of the living and true God speaketh
them so expressly ? Look 2 Cor. v. 10 ; Acts xvii. 13 ; Eccles.
xii. 14.
2. Suppose thou wert sure to die this day come month, and take
CHAP. XIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 327
possession of thine eternal estate, to do that which thou never didst
before, nor shalt ever do again, even to throw thy last cast for
eternity, wouldst thou not then lay aside all other matters, and
make it thy only business to ensure an interest in Christ, and to
make sure of a regenerated, sanctified nature ? wouldst thou not
then think, Well now, there is no daubing, no dallying any longer.
I am now going to my long, long, everlasting home : if I now de
ceive myself with anything instead of the power of godliness, and
mistake at death, I shall miscarry for ever ; if I be not then right,
I shall be wrong for ever. Now or never, now and ever.
Wouldst thou not highly prize every week of that month, every
day of those weeks, every hour of those days, yea, and every minute
of those hours, and say, Ah, desperate folly to leave a work of such
infinite weight, for which my whole life was little little enough, to
so short a space; and yet, oh infinite mercy, that I have any
seasons of grace left, wherein I may yet work out my salvation with
fear and trembling ? How wouldst thou labour as for life in this
duty, and that ordinance, hanging on those breasts, and tugging
hard for some spiritual good ! Wouldst thou not, with Jacob,
wrestle with God, weep, and make supplication ? wouldst thou not,
with the Ninevites, cry mightily unto God for mercy ? How would
thy prayers proceed from the very bottom of thy heart ! and with
what force would they pierce the very heavens ! How wouldst
thou, with the Bereans, search the Scriptures, and see upon what
terms Christ and heaven may be had ! Wouldst thou not strive
to break thy heart with the hammer of the law, and to melt it with
the sunshine of the gospel, that thou mightst repent ? Would
thou not encourage thy soul, from the freeness of God s mercy, and
fulness of Christ s merit, to believe ? Oh, what sad thoughts wouldst
thou now have of thy soul and thy sins! what serious thoughts
wouldst thou have of God and Christ, of hell and heaven, of death
and judgment ! Surely other manner of thoughts than now thou
hast. .
Thus, friend, it will be with thee if thou wert to leave this world
within a month, or thou wert worse than a madman. And why
shall it not be thus with thee now, when thou art so far from
insuring thy life for a month, that thou canst not promise thyself
the next hour ? Dost thou not believe that thy foundation is in
the dust ? Job iv. 19 ; that man at his best estate is altogether
vanity ? Ps. xxxix. 5 ; that one dieth in his full strength, being
wholly at ease and quiet, his breasts being full of milk, and his
bones moistened with marrow ? Job xxi. 23, 24. Thou art not a
328 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIII.
tenant at thy own will whilst thou dwellest in thy house of clay.
Thou cuttest large thongs of God s time if thou assurest thyself
another week. 1 But look, reader, dost thou not see that eternity
is at the very threshold of thy house, that there is but a step, a thin
paper wall of life, between thee and eternity ! Is there not much
more reason that thou shouldst be more industrious for thy soul
and salvation, when thou art not sure to live a day, than if thou
wert sure to live a month ?
There is a bird peculiar to Ireland, called the cock of the wood,
remarkable for its fine flesh and folly; all the difficulty to kill
them is to find them. They fly in woods in flocks ; and if one be
shot, the rest remove not but to the next tree, and there stand
staring at the shooter till the whole covey be destroyed ; yet, as
foolish as this bird is, it may be the emblem of most wise men in
point of mortality ; death sweeps away one and one, and one and
another, and all the rest remain no whit moved, till at last they are
destroyed, and then their folly is, though too late, bewailed.
3. Suppose thou couldst speak with thy carnal, unregenerate
neighbours or friends that are now under endless remorse, frying
in those unquenchable flames, and shouldst ask them what caused
them to miscarry for ever, and how they came to that place of
torment ; and they should tell thee, friend, I thought heaven
might have been had without so much ado, that there had been no
need of that seriousness and laboriousness which a few precise ones
practised, and which ministers so much pressed. I thought I
might do well enough with a formal, lazy, outside serving of God,
because my neighbours did no better. I presumed, that because
God was merciful, and Christ meritorious, and I enjoyed the out
ward privileges of the gospel, and gave God some of the time I
could spare from the world and the flesh in a little heartless devo
tion, that I should be saved ; never looking at that inward renova
tion and outward reformation which, I see now to my sorrow, are
required in all to whom the special mercy of God and merit of
Christ shall be extended, and now we, and, alas 1 I, am tormented
in these flames.
After such a hearing from hell, wouldst thou not be diligent to
prevent thy damnation? Wouldst thou not take heed of those
knives of negligence, idleness, and formality, resting in a few good
means, which did cut the throat of others souls? Wouldst thou,
after this, jest at heaven and hell, or trifle about regeneration or
the new birth ? Wouldst thou again mock God, or cozen thyself
1 Mortalium nemo est qui crastinum sibi audeat polliceri. Eurlpid.
CHAP. XIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 329
with a form, a shell, a carcase of religion ? Would not the worjl
thou hadst lately heard be always sounding in thine ears, and
piercing thy heart, and quickening thee to be sedulous and indus
trious about thy soul affairs ? And why wilt not thou do as much
now, when I can assure thee from the mighty possessor of heaven
and earth, that this is as true namely, that many souls are eter
nally sunk by reason of those quicksands as if thou hadst heard
it from the mouth of hell ; nay, it is possible a damned wretch may
deceive thee, but it is impossible that the blessed God who speaketh
as much with his own mouth should deceive thee. Look 1 Thes.
v. 3 ; Mat. vii. 21-23 and v. 20.
4. Suppose thou hadst, with Moses, had a sight of the back parts
of the infinite God about whose service I am persuading thee to
be diligent or, with Isaiah, hadst seen some extraordinary mani
festation of his glory ; or hadst been with the disciples at the trans
figuration of Christ. Or suppose thou hadst been in heaven, and
seen the royalty and majesty of God in those glorious angels and
saints which continually wait upon him, and in the glorified Saviour
who sitteth at his right hand, and representeth him as lively and
fully as is possible to the eyes of men. Suppose thou hadst taken
strict notice of the number how many millions ! and order of
God s servants there, how high and noble their work is ; how holy
and pure their worship, and hadst known the infinite power, holi
ness, wisdom, and justice of God as they do, and God should turn
thee again into this world, wouldst thou slubber over thy duties,
and play with his ordinances, as now thou dost ? Wouldst thou
pray to this God as if thou prayedst not ? or hear from his Majesty
as if thou heardest not ? or attend on him carelessly, as if thou didst
not attend on him at all ? or wouldst thou not rather think, I can
never be too serious in the service of such a God ; I can never
wait on him with humility enough, and with watchfulness enough,
with uprightness enough, and with care and diligence enough ?
Shouldst thou not be laborious in the service of such a good
God ? Give me leave to urge this thought a little farther, and to
give thee a scripture or two which, through the free grace of God,
have sometimes helped me against deadness and dulness in duties.
The one is 2 Chron. ii. 5, where Solomon telleth us, The house I
am to build must be great mark the reason for great is our
God above all gods. If God be so great a God, how greatly is he
to be reverenced ! Canst thou do too much service for him, or give
too much glory to him ? Can thy love to him be too great, or can
thy fear of him be too great, or can thy labour for him be too great,
330 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIII.
when this God is so great, that he measureth the ocean in the
hollow of his hand, and meteth out the heavens with a span, and
comprehendeth the dust of the earth in a measure, and weigheth
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ? Behold, the
nations are as a drop of the bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance : behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little
thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof
sufficient for a burnt-offering. All nations before him are as no
thing, and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity,
Isa. xl. 12, 15-17. God is a great God, and therefore greatly to be
feared, Ps. Ixxxix. 7. God is a great God, and therefore greatly
to be praised ; for his greatness is unsearchable, Ps. cxlv. 3.
If he be a great God, he may well require a great house to be
his material temple ; and if he be a great God, may he not justly
.call for a great part of, yea, all thy heart, to be his spiritual temple ?
It is likely the son Solomon learned this of his father David, who
giveth us this as the reason why he danced before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord of the whole earth with all his might, 2 Sam.
vi. 14, 21. It was, he saith, before the Lord ; as if he had said,
Had it been before men only, or in their service, I might have been
cold and careless, slothful and sluggish; but it was before the Lord,
the infinite, incomprehensible, and holy God, to whom I am un
speakably obliged for his distinguishing mercy in choosing me before
thy father s house ; and therefore all my might and all my strength
was little enough for such a God. I might mind thee further, that
thou hast wrought hard in thy slavery to the world and thy -flesh,
in thy drudgery to the devil and thy lusts, whose reward and
wages is nothing but disappointment and vexation, hell and damna
tion ; and shouldst thou not be fervent, fiery eoyre9, seething hot,
as the word signifieth in spirit when thou art serving the Lord,
Horn. xii. 11. I might also ask thee to whom thou owest thy whole
strength and thy whole heart, if not to God ? Art thou so much
indebted to the world and thy flesh, those enemies of thy salvation,
as thou art to the blessed God ? and who will at last pay thee best
for thy strength and time, God or the world, Christ or the flesh ?
But I may speak more to this in another place.
Well, reader, have I yet, or rather the Lord by me, persuaded
thee to set about this great business, upon which thy eternal felicity
dependeth, timely, that is, presently, and throughly, that is, with all
thy strength, as the main, chief, and only work thou hast to do ?
Art thou resolved to do thine utmost endeavour, and through the
strength of Christ faithfully to follow the directions which I shall
CHAP. XIV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 331
commend to thee from the Lord, in order to thy recovery out of
that bottomless misery into which thou hast plunged thyself ? Is
there not abundant reason in what thou hast read ? Are they the
words of a sinful dying man, or of the jealous, ever-living God ?
Is it I only that call upon thee to mind this spiritual life, or do not
the daily and nightly mercies which thou, unworthy wretch, en-
joyest? Do not the dreadful judgments which others feel, and
thou hast too much cause to fear ? Do not thy sweet babes, thy
dear children, cry often and aloud in thine ears, that there were
a heart in our father, in our mother, to fear the Lord, and keep all
his commandments always, that it might go well with them and
with their children for ever ? Deut. v. 29. Nay, doth not the
almighty God, who observeth all thy wickedness, in whose hands
thou art every hour, who can with a word speak thee into that
place of woe, where the worth of grace and holiness is better known,
and where the weight of sin and ungodliness is more felt ? Well,
in hope that thou wilt not be such an enemy to the God that made
thee, that thou wilt not do that despite to the Spirit that moveth
thee, that thou wilt not be such a wilful murderer of thy precious
soul as to neglect them, I shall set them down ; the Lord set them
home to thy heart !
Come along with me, and I will shew thee the bride, the lamb s
wife, how she must be trimmed and adorned for the marriage.
CHAPTER XIV.
The first direction for the attaining a spiritual life, illumination.
First, Get thine understanding enlightened in the knowledge of
thy sins and misery. The knowledge of thy disease and danger
must precede thy recovery and cure. Oh how many thousand
souls have miscarried in the dark of ignorance ! Did men know,
surely they would not daily by their sins crucify the Lord of glory.
Did they know their misery, they would not be so merry as they
are in ways of iniquity ; they rush into sin as the horse rusheth
into the battle, not knowing it will be to their death, to their
destruction. I have sometimes read a story of a king that was
ever pensive, and never seen to smile, and being asked by his
brother the cause of it, he put him off till the next day for an
answer ; and in the meantime caused a deep pit to be made, com
manding his servants to fill it half full with fiery coals, and then
332 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIV.
causeth an old rotten board to be laid over it, and over the board
to hang a two-edged sword by a small slender thread, with the
point downwards, and close by the pit to set a table full of all
manner of delicacies. His brother coming next day for an answer,
was placed at the board, and four men with drawn swords about
him, and with all the best music that could be had to play before
him. Then the king called to him, saying, Eejoice and be merry,
brother ; eat, drink, and laugh, for here is pleasant being. But he
replied, my lord and king, how can I be merry, being in such
danger on every side ? Then said the king, Look how it is now
with thee, so it is always with me ; for if I look above me, I see
the great and dreadful judge, to whom I must give an account of
all my thoughts, words, and deeds ; if I look under me, I see the
endless torments of hell, whereinto I shall be cast if I die in my
sins ; if I look behind me, I see all the sins which I have com
mitted, and the time which I have spent unprofitably ; if I look
before me, I see death every day drawing nearer and nearer unto
me ; if I look on my right hand, I see my conscience accusing me
of all the evil I have done, and good I have left undone in this
world; and if I look on my left hand, I see the creatures on their
Maker s behalf, crying out for vengeance against me a rebel. Now,
then, cease hereafter to wonder why I cannot rejoice in the things
of this world.
This is the condition of every unsanctified man and woman, and
did they but know it, they would see but little cause to spend their
days in pastimes and pleasure ; but what the eye seeth not, the
heart grieves not. Had Haman known he had been so nigh his
funeral, he would hardly have boasted so much to his friends ; but
it is the policy of the God of this world to blind men s eyes, lest
they should see and avoid damnation. As when a malefactor is
for some capital crime cast at the assize, he is then carried into a
dark dungeon, and thence to execution. So the devil, knowing
that all the sons and daughters of Adam are cast by the law of
God, the law shutting them all up under sin and wrath, endea-
voureth to keep them in the dungeon of ignorance till the day of
their execution. 1 When Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Zedekiah,
2 Kings xxv. 7, he put out his eyes, bound him in fetters, and
then carried him away to Babylon. Thus Satan, as soon as he
entereth into the soul, laboureth to put out the eyes of the under
standing, and so to lead them hoodwinked to hell. Did men know
1 Diogenes being demanded what burden the earth did bear most heavy ; answered,
an ignorant man.
CHAP. XIV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 333
what they had done against God, and how they had undone them
selves, they would be restless till they attained a remedy ; did the
sinner but know the purity, jealousy, power, and justice of that
God, whom he daily provoketh ; did he but know the love and kind
ness, the blood and bowels of that Saviour, whom he undervalueth ;
did he but know the pleasures, and joy, and happiness in heaven,
which he neglecteth ; did he but know the beauty and amiable-
ness, the delights and comforts of grace and holiness, which he
despiseth ; did he but know the emptiness and vanity of this deceit
ful world, which he so heartily embraceth ; did he but know where
sin is in the premises, sorrow and hell, without faith and sanctifica-
tion, must be in the conclusion ; did men, I say, but know these
things, how quickly would they turn from sin unto God, giving a
bill of divorce to their most beloved lusts, and entering into a most
solemn covenant with the Lord ! But having their understandings
darkened, they are alienated from the life of God, that is, a life of
holiness, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their hearts, Eph. iv. 18. Observe how expressly the
Spirit of God speaketh ignorance to be the reason why men are
such strangers to the power of religion.
Header, thou mayest by all this see the necessity of knowledge,
if ever thou wouldst be converted and saved. The devil, as I said
before, carrieth men hoodwinked to hell ; but God will never carry
thee blindfold to heaven : The end of a saint is the inheritance
in light, Col. i. 12 ; and the way thither is a way of light : The
path of the just is as a shining light, Prov. iv. 18 ; and surely in
respect of knowledge as well as in other respects. Do not please
thyself, that though thou art not book-learned, yet thou hast as
good a heart as others, as thy foolish, ignorant neighbours will
prate, for when thou thus speakest, thou speakest beside thy book ;
for the book of God telleth us otherwise.
The soul without knowledge is not good, Prov. xix. 2. There
may be a clear head without a clean heart, the light of knowledge
without the heat of grace ; but a gracious heart in a grown person
not distracted, was ever accompanied with a competency of know
ledge in the head. And indeed knowledge is so near akin to
grace, that it is often in the word of God put for it : John xvii. 3,
It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent, So 1 Cor. ii. 2 ; Phil. iii. 8 ; Isa.
liii. 11.
If thou would be sanctified and saved, get knowledge : Seek
knowledge as silver, and search for it as for hid treasure, Prov. ii. 3,4.
334 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIV.
This is the first thing to be done ; it is first in the minister s com
mission. I send thee, saith God to Paul, to open the eyes of the
blind, and to turn men from darkness unto light/ Acts xxvi. 18.
And this is first in the Spirit s operation on the soul. It con-
vinceth the man of his sins, John xvi. 10, 11. It presenteth to
the understanding a catalogue of its many and bloody provocations.
Imprimis, Thus guilty in Adam of high treason against heaven s
Majesty, and thereby of want of original righteousness, and of a
deep deadly pollution in the whole nature : Item, So many hundred
ungodly actions, so many thousand unholy and idle expressions, so
many millions of evil thoughts and suggestions : Item, So many
omissions and so many commissions : Item, So much precious time
mis-spent, a moment of which cannot be recalled or purchased with
the revenues of the world : Item, So many talents of health,
strength, food, raiment, esteem, riches, and the like misemployed :
Item, So many sacraments, sabbaths, seasons of grace misimproved:
Item, So much uncorrigibleness under afflictions, so much unprofit
ableness under mercies. Thus the Spirit enlighteneth the sinner s
mind to see his sins with their circumstances, and black aggrava
tions ; as also what is like to be the fruit and effect of sin, even
nothing less than suffering everlasting perdition from the presence
of the Lord. It may be the Spirit may cause him, as it were, to see
the smoke that ascendeth from the bottomless pit, to smell the scent
of that infernal brimstone and fire, to hear the roarings and howl
ing of the damned ; nay, possibly, to feel a very hell in his own
conscience. The Spirit indeed is a free agent, and worketh in
what manner and measure he pleaseth. But this is certain, he
convinceth all of their sins and miseries ; conviction doth go before
conversion. The physician of souls will heal none but such as
know both their distemper and their danger, and thereby how
infinitely they are obliged to him for their cure. As in the first
creation one of the first things God made was light ; so, in the
forming the new creature, illumination is before sanctification.
Every one is able to say in Christ as he in the Gospel, This I
know, whereas I was blind, now I see, John ix. 25.
This is absolutely necessary in order to the second direction I
have to commend to thee, which is the sincere humiliation of thy
soul. There must be a daybreak of light in the understanding,
before there can be a heartbreak of sorrow in the affections ; till
sin and wrath be discerned by knowledge in the mind, they will be
no burden to the conscience, nor grief to the spirit. As no good
wrapt up in darkness excites desire, so no evil swathed up in
CHAP. XIV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 335
ignorance striketh terror. We may observe this by the holy
apostle s expression, I was alive without the law, but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died/ Bom. vii. 9, i.e., the
time was that I was ignorant both of the law s strictness and my
own sinfulness, and then I thought myself to be very safe ; my
conscience was very quiet, and my heart full of hope, or more
properly, presumption, about my future eternal happiness ; thus I
was alive without the law. But when my eyes were enlightened, to
see how exceeding broad the commandments of God were, and that
once I compared my crooked race with that straight rule, and took
notice how far short I came of that obedience which the law
required, I was then dead, a lost man : I quickly pulled in my
plumes, and took down my sails, with which I was hastening in my
conceit to heaven ; for I found that I was in very deed in the road
to hell. When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
There was then life enough in my lusts to wound me unto death,
for I died.
Header, if thou art convinced so far of the absolute necessity of
conversion, as to desire it unfeignedly, let me request thee, for
the sake of thy poor soul, to set some considerable time apart ; thy
body hath had many years, surely thy soul deserveth one day, and
that speedily, to be serious in about its endless estate, and to com
pare thy wicked life with the pure law of God, and observe how
exceedingly thou hast swerved from the precepts therein com
manded. Consider not only its outward and literal, but likewise its
inward and spiritual meaning, and thou mayest presently discern
that thy whole conversation for so many years as thou hast lived,
hath been a continued aberration and wandering from the Lord and
his laws. If thou lookest aright in that glass, it will discover all
the spots, all the dirt, that hath been in the face of thy heart and
life, James i. 23. By the law is the knowledge of sin, Horn. iii.
20.
Consider also, that thy breach of the law makes thee liable to the
curse of the law, which is the infinite eternal wrath of the law
giver : Cursed is every one that continue th not in all things that
are "written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. iii. 10.
The law must be satisfied ; since not in its accomplishment, it
will in thy punishment.
If God cast the glorious angels out of heaven, and reserved them
in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day for one sin,
and that, as some think, in thought, into what a hell may he cast
thee, whose iniquities for weight are like the sand of the sea, and
336 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
for number like the sparks of a furnace, and the stars in the firma
ment ! Think of it with all possible seriousness ; thou hangest over
the mouth of hell every moment by a small thread of life, and if
that should be cut asunder, the whole world cannot save thee from
dropping into it.
CHAPTER XV.
The second help to a spiritual life, humiliation.
II. In the next place, labour to get thy heart deeply and
thoroughly affected with thy sins and misery. Humiliation must
follow illumination. It is not enough for this knowledge of the
transgressions thou hast committed, and the wrath thou hast deserved,
to swim in thy head it may be there as fire in the flint, to no
profit but it must sink down into thy heart, and be beaten out into
an application of, and lamentation for, thy guilt and wickedness.
Man is so sinfully subtle, that he can bear the historical know
ledge of these things in his understanding ; he can hear the name of
sin and hell, and be no more troubled than at a painted devil, or a
tale of purgatory ; but when God brings down sin from being a
notion to be an obligation, and entereth an action against the soul
within itself, then it will begin to melt and mourn under the sense of
its sins and sufferings. Thus, after the Spirit of God hath been a
spirit of conviction, it becometh a spirit of bondage : that eye which
was before enlightened to see the lewdness of his heart and life,
cometh now to affect his heart with grief and sorrow. This we
find in those converts, Acts ii. 37, when they had heard of their sin
and guilt they began to recant and repent : When they heard those
things, they were pricked to the heart. The nails which had
pierced Christ s hands now pierce their hearts. It was with them,
saith one, as if the sharp points of daggers had been stuck or
fastened in their hearts. They wounded themselves with sorrow,
that ever they had wounded the Lord Jesus with their sins.
The whole life indeed of a true Christian is, in some respects, a
life of repentance. He is often grieving God s Spirit, and therefore
he is often grieved in his own spirit. As long as the ship leaketh,
the pump must go. Though the Christian doth not paddle or
wallow in the mire of sin every day, as graceless ones do, yet he
findeth that daily his hands contract dirt and his soul guilt, there
fore he must daily wash with faith and repentance.
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 337
Some report of Mary Magdalene that she spent thirty years in
Galba in weeping for her sins ; and Tertullian saith of himself that
he was born for repentance. Anselm telleth us, that with grief he
considered the whole course of his life. I found, writeth he, 1 the
infancy of sin in the sins of my infancy, the youth and growth of
sin in the sins of my youth and growth, and the ripeness of all sin
in the sins of my ripe and perfect age ; and then he breaks out into
this pathetical expression, What remaineth for thee, wretched man,
but that thou spend thy whole life in bewailing thy whole life ?
But especially at the time of a Christian s conversion he is to
mind contrition : when the vessel is newly tapped, then it runneth
most^ freely and plentifully. None might approach the king of
Persia s court in sackcloth and mourning, Esther iv. 2; but no
wandering sinner may draw near to the King of heaven without it.
Except ye repent, ye shall perish/ 2 God is resolved to break the
sinner s heart on earth, or his back in hell. He will have the
wound searched and the pains of it felt before it be bound up and
cured. The wicked prodigal must come to his Father with com
punction in his soul, as well as confession in his mouth.
Look, therefore, sinner, into the book of thy conscience, and
read over the black lines that still are in thy cursed heart, and the
bloody leaves of thy wicked life, how long thou hast lived to little
purpose, yea, to the killing of thy soul for ever ; how far thou hast
aeen from accomplishing the end for which thou wast born, and
the errand for which thou wast sent into the world. Keep a petty
assize in thy heart ; prefer a large bill of indictment against thyself ;
accuse and condemn thyself, not only verbally, but cordially, if ever
thou wouldst have Christ to acquit thee. Thou hast spent many
rears in sinning, and shouldst thou not spend some hours in sorrow
ing ? Thou didst make the soul of Jesus Christ sorrowful unto
ieath ; shall not therefore thy soul be sorrowful when thy sorrow
may be unto life ? Did the rocks rend when he died for sin, and
shall not thy rocky heart that thou hast lived in sin ? He bled for
;hee, and wilt not thou weep for thyself? Thou hast filled God s
>ag with thy sins, 3 and hast thou no tears for his bottle? 4
Hast thou so long broken the holy commandments of God, and
shall not thy heart now at last be broken ? The damned feel sin ;
t lieth heavy on their souls : could thou lay thy ear to the mouth
)f that bottomless pit, thou mightst perceive by their yellings and
bowlings that sin is sin in hell, how lightly soever it is regarded
1 In Lib. Meditat. * Aut pcenitendum, aut pereundum.
3 Job xiv. 17. P s . x lvi. 8.
VOL. III. y
338 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
by men upon earth. The Lord Jesus felt sin : hadst thou been in
the garden, and seen his blessed body all over in a gore blood,
beheld those drops, yea, clods of blood that trickled down his
face, surely thou wouldst have believed that it was some heavy
weight indeed which caused such a bloody sweat in a cold winter
night.
And art not thou yet weary and heavy-laden ? Do I speak to a
man or a beast ? to a living creature, or to a rock that will never
be moved ? If thou hast a disease in thy body thou canst grieve
and complain, and why not for the diseases of thy soul ? Are not
they far more deadly, more dangerous ? If thou losest a child, oh
what crying and roaring, what wringing of hands and watering of
cheeks ! Nay, if thou losest a place of profit, a house, or a beast,
thou canst mourn, and think of it often with sorrow; and doth it
not grieve thee that thou hast lost, not thy child or cattle, but thy
Christ, thy Saviour, thy soul, thy God, to eternity ? If thou missest
a good bargain that was offered thee, whereby thou mightst increase
thy estate, or if thou buyest or hirest at too dear a rate, how dost
thou beshrew and befool thyself for it ! Hast thou not ten thou
sand times more cause to be really and highly displeased with
thyself, and to abhor thyself in dust and ashes, that thou shouldst
have all the riches, and glory, and pleasures of the eternal kingdom
tendered to thee with many entreaties, and yet thou hast refused
them for the lying vanities of this world, and for the pleasures of
sin, which are but for a season ? Thou hast denied heaven s happi
ness for a bubble, a butterfly ; all things for nothing. Did ever any
fool buy so dear, and sell so cheap ? Like Saul, busy himself in
seeking asses when a kingdom sought him ; like Shimei, seek his
servant, and thereby lose himself ? No fool like the sinner, that
embraceth a shadow which will certainly flee from him, and ne-
glecteth the substance which endureth to eternity.
Honorius the emperor, hearing that Eome was lost, cried, Alas,
alas ! very mournfully, fearing it had been his hen so called, which
he exceedingly loved ; but hearing it was the famous city of Home
that was become a prey to his cruel enemies, he made a tush at it.
Thus too too many can grieve sufficiently for the loss of vanities,
for toys and trifles, but not at all for the loss of God, and Christ,
and enduring felicities.
Well, friend, repent timely and truly of this thy folly ; for I must
tell thee, shortly it will be too late. If repentance be hid from thy
heart now, repentance will be hid from God s eye then, by whose law
thou art now a condemned man already. If thy heart be hardened
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 339
DOW in sinning, the heart of God will ere long be hardened in
sentencing thee to an eternity of suffering.
It is an infinite mercy that God yet alloweth thee liberty for
second thoughts ; that notwithstanding thou hast shipwrecked thy
soul, yet thou mayest swim out safe upon the plank of repentance.
Oh therefore think no pains too great to break thy stony heart ; it
is worth the while, when free grace hath promised a vast reward to
that heaven-born work. Hadst thou once offered up to God the
sacrifice of a spirit truly sorrowful, out of love to God, and self-
loathing because of sin, I could tell thee as good, as joyful news, as
ever thine ears heard. The Father of mercies and God of comforts
would be reconciled to thee in the Lord Jesus. Thy prayers for
pardon and life would pierce God s ears, and find acceptance, if
they proceed from a broken heart, from sincere repentance. A
penitent tear is a messenger that never went away without a satis
factory^ answer. Prayers with such tears are prevalent ; yea, in
Luther s phrase, omnipotent. Music upon the waters sounds most
pleasantly. Thou hast heard the voice of my weeping, saith David
Ps. vi. 8.
Augustus Caasar having promised a great reward to any that
could bring him the head of a famous pirate, did yet, when the
pirate heard of it, and brought it himself and laid it at his feet,
not only pardon, but reward him for his confidence in his mercy. 1
The God of bowels and compassion would do more for thee upon
thy sincere submission.
As Antipater was answered by Alexander, Thou hast written a
long letter against my mother ; but dost thou not know that one
tear of hers will wash out all her faults ? 2 When the returning
sinner weeps, the tender-hearted Father smiles. As he rejoiceth
and laugheth at obstinate sinners destruction and ruin, Prov. i. 26
so he rejoiceth and smileth at the penitent sinner s conversion. 3 He
will do something for a hypocritical humiliation, to assure us that
he will do anything upon a sincere humiliation. Seest thou, saith
God, how Ahab humbleth himself? This judgment shall not be
in his days, but in his son s days, 1 Kings xxi. 29. A pitiful
humiliation it was, God knew ; he looked sadly, like a fox in a
trap, merely to get out ; yet God takes notice of it, and deferreth
the judgment upon it. If God set such a price upon counterfeit,
what will he upon true gold ? Fierce Esau relenteth towards sub
mitting Jacob, though he came against him ready and resolved to
1 Suet, in Vit. * Plutarch in Vit. Alexand.
3 Quod Deus loquitur cum risu, tu legas cum fletu. Aug.
340 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
destroy him. Surely, then, the God of compassions to whose pity
and mercy the bowels of all the creatures are but as a drop to the
ocean who calleth those that go from him, will not cast away
those that come to him.
Header, little dost thou think how much he longeth for thy con
version and humiliation. Little dost thou know what kisses and
embraces, what robes and rings, what mercies and merits, what a
heaven and happiness, what a God, and Christ, and grace, and
glory, are all ready for thee, and wait only for thy readiness and
preparedness for them, by thy humiliation for, and an aversion
from, thy deceitful corruptions.
Alexander s Macedonians having offended him, laid by their
arms, put on mourning apparel, came running in troops to his tent,
where for almost three days together they remained with loud cries
and tears to testify their remorse for offending him; 1 and wilt not
thou do as much for offending God ?
As thou therefore lovest the life of thy soul, endeavour to get
thy heart thoroughly humbled for thy sins ; take a view of thy sins
in the word of God, in the glass of his law, how in its nature it is
contrary to his blessed nature and perfect law, and for its effects it
maketh thee obnoxious to all the threatenings of the word, to all
the vials of God s wrath, to all the miseries of this life, and to all
,the torments of hell for ever.
Consider, while thou livest in thy estate of impenitency, thou art
a, cursed sinner, and if thou diest in it, thou art a damned creature :
tine hand of God, which is lifted up in the commination and threat
ening, will fall down in execution. If the wrath of a king be as a
messenger of death, oh what then will the wrath of a God be ! ^ As
that, Christian king of Hungary told his brother, that sprang into
his presence pale and trembling, because of the executioner and
deaWs-man, that had sounded his trumpet at his chamber door in
the dead time of the night to call him away to execution,
brother, thou hast loved me, and never offended me, and is the
Sight of my executioner so dreadful to thee ? How then should I,
a grievous sinner, fear to be brought to judgment before Jesus
Christ ! Consider the day of the Lord s wrath is coming, and who
shall abide it ? This terrible fire is kindled, this horrible tempest
is gathered, and ready to fall on thy head every moment. Do not
put these things far off, as many do, who thereby deprive them
selves of the happy effects which these thoughts might produce. A
cannon afar off, though never so great, doth no execution ; men
1 Plutarch in Vit. Alexand.
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 341
will not tremble and fall down for fear of it, when once they appre
hend it many miles off. Things afar off, though very big, will seem
very small ; a star that is bigger than the whole earth, seems no
bigger than a torch, being many miles from us. Look therefore
on all that misery that is treated of in the first use as thy portion,
and as nigh to thee, even at the very door ; like a serjeant, it wait-
eth continually to arrest thee, and hale thee to the prison of hell.
There is not a night in which thou liest down to sleep, but this
roaring lion of the wrath of God lieth down before thee, and is
ready, when thou art asleep, little dreaming of it, to rend thee
asunder, and tear thy soul in pieces. In the morning when thou
risest it waiteth upon thee, dogging thee all the day long, whatso
ever thou dost, and following thee like a bloodhound wheresoever
thou goest ; thou mayest as soon fly from thyself as from it, till
thou art effectually humbled for thy sins, the cause of it. And be
not insensible of it, because it is invisible to thee. The influences
of the sun are hottest among the minerals in the bowels of the
earth, where it is not at all visible, nor they sensible : so the fire
of divine fury is hottest where it is not visible, nor the person sen
sible. Though thou mayest see it as plainly in the Scripture as
the sun at noon-day : God is angry with the wicked every day,
Ps. vii. ] 1. There is wrath prepared for the workers of iniquity,
and it will assuredly and speedily be inflicted, if thou art not timely
and truly humbled and converted.
I would also desire thee to ponder much the free grace of God,
which is discovered in the gospel. What bowels of compassion in
the Father to give his Son ! what infinite affection in the Son to
give himself for the reconciliation and salvation of his enemies !
It is probable the heat of this unknown love may melt thy frozen
spirit ; the flint itself is broken with the hard hammer and the soft
pillow : this is the most ingenuous sorrow that is never to be sor
rowed for, which springeth from the consideration that thou hast
sinned against so good, so pure, so perfect a God, in conformity to
whom, and communion with whom, all thy happiness consisteth.
The law indeed is of excellent use to open the sore, to search the
wound, to make the patient feel his need of, and set a price upon,
his physician ;^thus it is a schoolmaster to drive the soul to Christ ;
but winter fruits are more harsh and sour, when summer fruits are
sweet and pleasant. God taketh most delight in those tears and
sorrow which are the fruits of hot love to his blessed Majesty.
And could I see them once in thee, I durst joy thee of the babe of
grace, the new creation. They are at least the kindly bearing
342 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
throes of one in travail, very near her hour of delivery, as also often
the after-pains. A stroke from guilt, from wrath, broke Judas
heart into despair ; a look from love, from Christ, broke Peter s
into tears. 1 That sap and moisture which in frost and snow lieth
hid and buried in the earth, sheweth itself pleasantly in the fruits
of the trees, when it is called forth by the warmth of the sun.
Even Saul himself will lift up his voice and weep, when he seeth
a clear testimony of the love and undeserved kindness of David.
Hast thou never beheld a condemned prisoner dissolved into
tears, upon the unexpected and unmerited receipt of a pardon, who
all the time before was as hard as a flint ? The hammer of the
law may break the icy heart of man with terrors and horror, and
yet it may remain ice still, unchanged ; but when the fire of love
kindly thaweth its ice, it is changed and dissolved into water it is
no longer ice, but of another nature. Where the sun is most pre
dominant, there are the sweetest spices, the richest mines, and the
costliest jewels. Do thou therefore meditate much on the love of
God and Christ to thy unworthy soul : think what love is it that
still spareth thee, notwithstanding all thy God-daring and soul-
damning provocations, and that when others, probably better than
thyself, are every day and night sent to that place, where God
hath large interest for his long patience. What love is it, not only
to forbear thee, but also to do thee good 1 Thou his enemy art
hungry, he feedeth thee ; thou art thirsty, he giveth thee drink.
If a man find his enemy, will he let him go ? 1 Sam. xxiv. 19.
But lo, God findeth thee every moment. As all thy sins are within
the reach of his eye, so thou thyself art continually within the reach
of his arm ; he can as easily turn thee into hell, as tell thee of hell :
and yet he letteth thee go, and more than that, doeth thee good.
Thou spendest every hour upon the stock of mercy. God is at
great charge and much cost in continuing meat and drink, and
health and strength, and time which thou dost ravel out, and wan
ton away unprofitably.
What love was that in the Father which sent his own Son to
die, that thou mightst live ! Well might the beloved disciple say,
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting
life, John iii. 16. In this the bowels of divine love are naked, as
in an anatomy : in other things the love of God is as the beams of
the sun scattered, which are warm and comfortable ; but in this it
is as the beams of the sun united in a burning glass, hot, fiery,
1 Aspexit Christus, et flevit Petrus. Ambr.
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 343
burning love. God so loved the world, so dearly, so entirely, so
incomparably, so infinitely : it is a sic without a sicut, as one ob-
serveth a pattern which can never be paralleled. In this God
commended his love towards us, in that when we were sinners
Christ died for us, Kom. v. 8. When God sent his Son into the
world, he did, as it were, say to him, My dear Son, thou Son of my
chiefest love and choicest delight, go to the wicked, unworthy
world, commend me to them, and tell them, that in thee I have
sent them such a love-token, such an unquestionable testimony of
my favour and good-will towards them, that hereafter they shall
never have the least colour of reason to suspect my love, or to say,
Wherein hast thou loved us ? Mai. i. 2.
What love was that in the Son of God, which moved him to be
come the Son of man, that thou mightst become the son of God !
What love was that which made him so willingly undergo the
scorns, and flouts, and derisions of wretched men, the rage, and
malice, and assaults of ravenous devils, the wrath and fury of a
righteous God ; such pangs and tortures in his body as no mouth
can express, such sorrows and horror in his soul as no mind can
conceive ; and all that thou mightst escape such misery, and ob
tain everlasting mercy !
* Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his
life for his friend, John xv. 13. The passion of Christ was the
greatest evidence of his affection. The laying down of life did
abundantly proclaim his love. His love before was like wine in a
cask, hardly seen ; but oh how did it sparkle and cast its colour in
the glass of his sufferings ! This diamond, before hid in the shell,
doth shine radiantly in the ring of his death. If his tears did so
much speak his love to Lazarus, that the Jews who saw him weep
ing, cried out, Lo, how he loved him ! surely his heart-blood doth
far more demonstrate his love to his members. They that beheld
him bleeding in the garden, had far more reason to say, Look, lo
how he loved his !
What love is that which did all this for such a worm as thou
art such a sinner, such a rebel ? what would God lose if thou
wert eternally lost ? the least tittle of his happiness would not be
diminished. This sun is no loser when men shut their eyes, and
will not behold its light ; what gaineth God, if he gain thee to
himself, to his service ? thou canst not add the least cubit to the
stature of his perfections. The refreshment is to men, not to the
spring, when the weary passengers drink of it. He doth not com
mand thee to repent from any need he hath of thee, but from the
344 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
pity lie hath to thee. He entreateth thee to return, not that he
may be blessed and happy, but that he may be bountiful and
liberal in bestowing on thee those blessings which accompany
salvation. Methinks the apprehension of God s great love and
goodness should have such an impression on thee as to make thee
little and low in thine own thoughts. Is it not a wonder that
God should vouchsafe a gracious look upon such a clod of earth,
a piece of clay, as thou art ? but what admiration can answer this
love and condescension, that God should wait and entreat to lift
thee up, who would cast him down ? that an emperor should
sue to a traitor ; that majesty should thus stoop to misery ; that
the Lord of life and glory should prepare for thee exceeding rich
and precious promises, a crown of life, a purchased possession, and
beseech thee to accept of them ! Were thy heart never such hard
metal, one would think that such a hot fire of burning love
should melt it. I have in two or three authors read of five men
that met together, and asked each other what means they used to
abstain from sin ? The first said, the thoughts of the certainty
of death, and uncertainty of the time, moved him to live every
day as if it were his last day. The second said, he meditated
of the day of judgment, and the torments of hell, and they frighted
him from meddling with his dangerous enemy, sin. The third con
sidered of the deformity of sin, and beauty of holiness. The
fourth, of the abundant happiness provided in heaven for holy
ones. The last continually thought of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his love, and this made him ashamed to sin against God.
Reader, if thou hast but any ingenuity, the abuse of such love
and kindness should work upon thee. Some say, the blood of a
goat will soften an adamant ; shall not then the blood of this
true goat dissolve thy adamantine heart? Beasts themselves
have been won by kindness, and wilt thou be worse than a beast,
that such philanthropy and kindness of God shall no whit stir
thee or humble thee ?
There is a twofold necessity of a deep, serious humiliation, for
which cause I have been the more large upon it, though indeed
I have added very much more than I first intended, in order to
the two next directions which I shall prescribe thee.
First, In order to thy hearty acceptation of Jesus Christ.
Humiliation is like John Baptist, to prepare the way of Christ
before him. Christ will not be a Saviour to them that do not
set a high valuation upon him ; now an unhumbled sinner is a
man conceitedly whole, seeing no need of, and therefore setting
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 345
little price upon, the physician of souls. Till men see that they are
cast by the law of God, and condemned men, they will never
heartily desire and value a psalm of mercy. According to a man s
sense of misery, such is his estimation of mercy. When Paul saw
himself the chiefest of sinners, then that saying, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, was worthy of all
acceptation, 1 Tim. i. 15. This sharp sauce of repentance doth
commend Christ exceedingly unto the spiritual palate. The more
bitter and irksome sin is, the more sweet and welcome Jesus Christ
will be to the soul. When the sinner seeth that he is lost in him
self, then, and not till then, will he truly request to be found in
Christ ; the prodigal did not prize the bread in his father s house
till he was ready to perish for hunger. Ministers preach much of
the infinite excellencies that are in Christ, of the unspeakable
misery of sinners without Christ, of the absolute necessity that
men and women stand in of Christ, and yet preach to little pur
pose. Most prize their shops and their lands, their relations, yea,
and their sensual lusts, above the Lord Jesus, notwithstanding all
their pretences to the contrary ; they see no such need of him, nor
such worth in him, as the preachers and Scriptures speak of.
What is the reason of it ? truly this, they were never sensible of
the stings of the fiery serpents ; if they had, they would look up
to the brazen serpent with an eye of greater respect. They were
never pricked to the heart, and therefore cry not out, Men and
brethren, what shall we do to be saved? But when God dis-
covereth his wrath to the soul, and shutteth the soul up under it ;
when he commandeth conscience in his name to arrest the soul for
all its debts which it oweth to divine justice ; and when, in pursu
ance thereof, conscience doth, in the name of the dreadful God,
charge on the sinner the guilt of all his sins, and hales him to the
judgment-seat of God, where he seeth nothing but frowns and fury,
fire and brimstone, and feeleth nothing but tribulation and
anguish, indignation and wrath; now the sinner crieth out in
bitterness of spirit, wretched, miserable man, alas, alas ! I am
undone ! What desperate madness possessed my soul, thus to
provoke the almighty God by my sins? Into what a sea of
misery have I brought myself by mine iniquities ! The
God whom I see is angry ; the wrath which I feel is heavy ; the
torments which I fear are infinite ; the law which sheweth no
mercy is violated ; the God who will have full satisfaction for the
breach of his law is incensed ; conscience, which is his jailer, is
commissionated to wound and terrify me, and whither shall I go ?
346 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XV.
There is wrath above me, wrath below me, wrath without me,
wrath within me, wrath round about me. A world, mark now,
for a surety to discharge me of these debts ; a thousand worlds for
that balm which can heal this wounded conscience ; ten thou
sand thousand worlds for a Jesus that can deliver from the wrath
to come. When sin comes to be sin indeed, then, and not till
then, a Saviour will be a Saviour indeed.
Secondly, Humiliation is necessary in order to the soul s hearty
resignation of itself to every law and command of Christ. Accord
ing to a man s humiliation, such will his subjection to Christ be.
Humiliation is, in some sense, the foundation of a Christian s
obedience, and the strength of the building dependeth upon the
strength of the foundation. The reason why the religious build
ings of hundreds of professors in our days, though they have
been very fair and beautiful to the eye, have miscarried, is this,
the want of this foundation, their hearts were never thoroughly
humbled. The reason why the stony ground did not bring forth
good fruit, was this, the plough had not gone deep enough, it
did not take deep root, Mat. xiii. 20, 21.
Men would never dally with God as they do, or halt, as the
Israelites, between two opinions be sometimes for God, and
sometimes for the world ; holy by fits and girts if they had
ever felt the weight of sin. Christ, when he cometh into the soul
as a Saviour, will come also as a sovereign to command and govern
the whole man. He is the true Sun, and he will have the whole
heaven, the whole heart, to himself ; he will allow no writ of parti
tion ; his law forbiddeth inmates as well as man s. Now, against
this, the natural carnal man riseth and rebelleth exceedingly ; he
hath ever at this time some lust or other which he valueth as his
limbs, some right hand that he desireth may not be cut off,
some right eye which he would not have plucked out, some
Herodias that must not be meddled with, some Absalom that the
sinner entreateth Christ to spare, and deal gently with for
his sake. 1 Therefore, before the Lord of hosts can make an ab
solute conquest, before he can persuade the besieged soul to sur
render itself wholly and altogether to his government, he is forced,
by the grenadoes and thundering cannons of the law s curse, and
God s wrath, to fire and fright it out of all its sinful holds. Then
it will come up to those excellent terms of the Lord, which are
1 Probably, therefore, fleshly lusts may be called earthly members, Col. iii. ; not
only because they flow from the body of death, but also because they are as dear to
men as their bodily members.
CHAP. XV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 347
most honourable for the Saviour, and most profitable for the soul.
Now he seeth most certainly such a sting in sin s tail, that he
dares plead no longer for the beauty of its face ; now he feeleth
it as a dart in his liver, as an arrow sticking in his heart, as a
coal of fire in his hand ; he is heartily willing, yea, thinks himself
much beholden to that Redeemer that will pluck out this dart, this
arrow. Oh how readily doth he throw away this coal of fire, fear
ing to be burnt by it any more ! We have two famous instances
of this in Scripture. The one is in Paul, Acts ix. 6 ; when Paul,
that was posting in the road to hell, comes to be knocked down,
and to feel those tremblings and terrors in his spirit, he crieth
out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? He had probably heard
much before of God, but he regarded it not, till now he receiveth
a word and a blow a word from without, and a wound within to
set it home ; now it is, ! Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? Before
it was, What will the high priest, the scribes and pharisees, have
me to do ? and what will the vain imaginations and high thoughts
which exalted themselves against God and Christ have me
to do ? But now it is, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?
Before, his heart was like hard wax, it would take no impression
from God ; but now it is softened by this fire of inward humiliation,
it is ready for any stamp. God may imprint what he pleaseth ;
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? The other instance is in
the cruel, rough, hard-hearted jailer. After the earthquake and
the heartquake which God had caused, he springs trembling in,
and fell down before Paul and Silas, crying out, Sirs, what shall I
do to be saved ? Acts xvi. 29, 30. Observe, now, the man is heart
sick indeed, he is willing to take the most bitter pills ; as if he had
said, Sirs, do but tell me what I must do for salvation ; though the
terms be never so hard, the conditions never so unpleasant, the price
never so much, the pains never so great, yet I will submit to any
thing, to all things, for salvation. What must I do to be saved ?
When the Israelite first sets out towards Canaan there is a
mixed multitude, as when they marched out of Egypt, of carnal
affections, which desire and endeavour to bear him company ; now,
because God knoweth that the land is too good for such evil in
habitants, and, besides, that they will cause many mutinies in the
way, he brings therefore the Israelite into the wilderness, to humble
him and to cut them off.
Before the soul be thoroughly humbled it dodgeth with Christ,
it plays fast and loose, off and on ; this it liketh, and that it dis-
liketh ; this part of the yoke is uneasy, this burden is too heavy,
348 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVI.
and such and such commandments are grievous ; fain it would
have Christ and his precious promises, but loath it is to forego its
old friends, its beloved lusts ; but when God is pleased to take the
sinner by the throat, and to shake him out of his security, by shew
ing him sin and wrath in their colours, making him sensible of the
one, and terrifying him with a fearful expectation of the other,
laying him at the pit s brink, within the smoke of hell, within the
the smell of that brimstone, within the scorchings of that eternal
fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels, now the sinner
seeth that God is in earnest, and therefore dareth not halt or halve
it any longer ; now he is in a boisterous storm, and casteth all those
goods, his darling sins, into the sea, perceiving that he must perish
if he do not.
God is necessitated to lance men s wounds, and put them to
pain, because otherwise they cannot be cured. When the metal is
thus melted, God may cast it into what mould he pleaseth. Oh
thrice happy is that heart which hath been deeply and truly
humbled ! it shall hold out in those tempests wherein many others
shall make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.
CHAPTER XVI.
The third help to a spiritual life, Application of, or affiance on,
Jesus Christ
Thirdly, If thou hast been faithful in following my former advice,
to get thy mind enlightened to see, and thy heart thoroughly
humbled for thy sin and misery, thy next work is to rest and rely
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon, grace, and salvation ; to
look upon him as one appointed by the Father, given by himself,
sanctified by the Spirit, and revealed in the word of truth, the gos
pel, to be the only and all-sufficient Saviour of lost souls. It is
now the proper time for thee to cast thy soul, thy sins, thine eter
nal estate, upon the infinite meritoriousness of the blessed Eedeemer.
Experience sheweth, that it is very easy for an unbroken sinner to
presume, but surely it is very hard for a humbled sinner that hath
had all his vileness and unworthiness displayed before his eye, and
the infinite wrath of God, like a mountain of lead, oppressing his
conscience, to believe, and therefore I have prepared some choice
cordials for such fainting spirits, which I shall give thee anon.
But my work now is to beseech thee, broken heart, that thou take
CHAP. XVI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 349
heed of thinking to lick thyself whole. I know the devil and thy
heart will be both busy and diligent to get thee to make a Christ
of thy contrition, and a Saviour of thy humiliation. Oh how un
willing is man, when he hath shipwrecked his soul, to commit him
self naked to the sea of Christ s blood ! how earnest is he to have
the chains and jewels of his earthly affections along with him, and
to swim out upon the rotten boards of his own works !
Header, now therefore especially, if thy soul be in a flame, be
careful out of what well thou drawest the water to quench it. 1
This is one of the chiefest, nay, the chiefest of all, fundamentals in
religion, and therefore it behoveth thee to be very tender. Now
thou art nigh drowning, near sinking in the ocean of divine fury,
thou hadst need to make sure that the bough or stake, or whatever
it be by which thou boldest, be strong enough, and able to bear
thy weight. It is likely, nay it is certain, if thou art humbled as
aforesaid, thou prayest, thou mournest, thou sighest, thou loathest
thyself for thy wickedness, thou admirest God for his forbearance,
thou longest after help and deliverance. Be sure that thou do not
look on these as so much money wherewith thou mayest purchase
thy pardon, and buy off thy guilt ; for believe it, if thou dost, as
white as thy silver is, it will draw black lines ; instead of wiping off
thy old score, thou wilt thereby run further into debt. Evangelical
humiliation is required, not so much to make thee acceptable to
Christ, as to make Christ acceptable to thee. It is a good evidence
of the beginnings of sanctification, but it is a bad advocate for thy
justification. It is as truly dangerous to appear before God in the
rags of thy own righteousness as in thy sinful nakedness.
If ever thou receive the blessing of pardon and love from thy
heavenly Father, it must be by appearing in the garments of thine
elder brother. He maketh his accepted, but it is in Christ the
beloved, Eph. i. 6. Nothing but perfect righteousness will pacify
God s anger, or satisfy his justice, please those eyes which are purer
than to behold the least iniquity. And this righteousness is only
in Christ, who was made sin for thee, that thou mightst become
the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21.
Do not therefore, when thou ceasest to be an atheist, begin to be
a papist, in relying upon thy good works ; for though God will not
save thee without them, yet he will never save thee for them.
Canst thou, saith an eminent minister now with Christ, 2 make
1 This spiritual life is a life of faith ; and indeed upon this the whole almost of
thy work dependeth. Fide regeneramur ; resipiscentia non solum fidem subsequitur,
sed ex ea nascitur. Calv.
2 Shepherd s Sincere Convert, p. 107, edit. 5.
350 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVI.
thyself a Christ for thyself ? Canst thou bear, and come from
under an infinite wrath ? Canst thou bring in perfect righteous
ness into the presence of God ? This Christ must do, else he could
not satisfy and redeem. And if thou canst not do this, and hast
no Christ, desire and pray till heaven and earth shake, till thou
hast worn thy tongue to the stumps ; endeavour as much as thou
canst, and others commend thee for a diligent Christian ; mourn in
some wilderness till doomsday ; dig thy nails, weep buckets full of
hourly tears, till thou canst weep no more ; fast and pray, till thy
skin and bones cleave together; promise and purpose, with full
resolution to be better; nay, reform thy head, heart, life, and
tongue ; and some, nay, all sins ; live like an angel, shine like a
sun, walk up and down the world like a distressed pilgrim going to
another country, so that all Christians commend and admire thee :
die ten thousand deaths, lie at the fire-back in hell so many millions
of years as there be piles of grass upon the earth, or sands upon the
sea-shore, or stars in the firmament, or motes in the sun. I tell
thee, not one spark of the wrath of God against thy sin shall be,
can be quenched by all these duties, nor by any of these sorrows,
for these are not the blood of Christ.
It is both unacceptable and unprofitable for thee to approach
God, either in himself or in thyself. I dare not meddle with an
absolute God, saith Luther. 1 God in himself is a consuming fire,
but in his Son a loving Father. Do thou, therefore, now thou
knowest thyself and sin, labour to know Jesus Christ, and him
crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2, and count all things dung and dross for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus thy Lord, Phil. iii. 8.
Read, and pray, and weep, and pant, and thirst, that thou mayest
be found in him : Not having thy own righteousness, which is
according to the law ; but that which is through the faith of him,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. iii. 9. Take a
view of him in the gospel, where he is crucified before thine eyes,
and behold him displayed in both his natures, and all his offices,
and therein his suitableness unto, and sufficiency for all the wants
and necessities of thy dying soul. Dost thou see a cloud of judg
ments gathering apace, and ready to pour down on thy head ? Run
to him for shelter ; he is both a shadow from the heat, and a shelter
from the storm, Isa. xxv. 4. Is thy conscience wounded with thy
sins ? Hasten to the wounds of the Saviour : by his stripes thou
mayest be healed, Isa. liii. Do the murdering pieces of the law s
curses threaten to destroy thee ? Fly like the distressed dove to
1 Nolo Deum absolutum. Luth.
CHAP. XVI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 351
the clefts of the Eock of ages, the bored hands and feet, the pierced
side of thy blessed Kedeemer ; there thy soul may be sure of safety.
He is the only ark wherein thou mayest be saved, when the whole
world that lieth in wickedness shall be drowned, shall be damned.
He is the little Zoar whither thou mayest retire, and thy soul shall
live, when fire and brimstone, yea, hell, shall be rained from heaven
on ungodly ones. 1 He is the true city of refuge, wherein thou
mayest assuredly escape the wrath of God, which, like the avenger
of blood, pursueth thee. A hearty, thankful acceptation of Jesus
Christ, as he is tendered in the gospel, will at the day of judgment
be a plea as acceptable unto God, and profitable unto thee, as per
fect subjection to all the commands of the law.
Consider how full his merits are ; he is a horn of salvation, Luke
i. 69, i.e., strong to save, the strength of the noble beasts lying in
their horns. There is no sinner so black but the blood of this
Saviour can make white, Rev. vii. 14. There are some diseases
which other physicians cannot cure, but he healeth all diseases.
All are dangerously, but none desperately sick whom he under-
taketh. Thou owest a vast debt to justice, but the Lord Jesus is
an able surety : He is able to save to the uttermost those that
come unto God by him/ 2 Heb. vii. 25.
Oh what is it that thou wantest, which perfect righteousness and
infinite meritoriousness cannot procure ? Dost thou want remission ?
God forgiveth sin for Christ s sake, Eph. iv. 32 ; the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin/ 1 John i. 7. He was
a great sinner, as Luther observeth, by imputation, that thou
mightst be innocent through condonation and pardon. 3 Dost thou
want reconciliation with God? He maketh peace through the
blood of his cross, Col. i. 20. God is in Christ reconciling the
world to himself, 2 Cor. v. 20. He endured his Father s frowns
and fury, that thou mightst enjoy his smiles and favour. Dost
thou want sanctificatiou ? His blood is sanctifying as well as justi
fying, Heb. ix. 14. He did not only buy off thy score of guilt, but
also purchased a new stock of grace for his bankrupt creature to set
up with again.
1 Gehenna e caelo. Salv.
2 It is a folly to think that an emperor s revenues will not pay a beggar s debts.
Christ hath undertook to satisfy, and he hath money enough to pay. Free grace
can shew you large accounts, and a long bill cancelled by the blood of Christ. Mr
Manton on James, p. ult.
3 Themistocles appeased the anger of king Admetus by holding the king s young
son in his arms ; so doth the Christian appease God by holding his Son in the arms
of faith.
352 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVI.
The oil of grace was abundantly poured on the church s head,
that it might fall down on the skirts and members. Of his fulness
thou mayest receive grace for grace, John i. 16. Dost thou want
salvation ? He hath the power and gift of eternal life, John x. 28,
and xvii. 24. He is the author of eternal salvation, Heb. v. 9. Thou
mayest have boldness, through the blood of Jesus, to enter into the
Holy of holies, Heb. x. 19, 20. He paid an infinite sum to pur
chase the Father s house for thine everlasting home. Whatever
thy need be, he is able to supply it, for he is a universal treasure
which can never be spent, a spring that can never be drawn dry :
In him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Col. ii. 9.
Consider also how free his mercy is, as well as his merits full.
Thou mayest drink of the water of life freely, Rev. xxii. 17. If
thou wilt buy his benefits, thou must leave thy money behind thee ;
his wine and milk is to be had without money and without
price, Isa. Iv. 1. Do not hold off, thinking to carry worthiness to
Christ, but believe on him, and thou mayest fetch worthiness from
Christ. The same free grace which gave Christ for thee without
thy prayer, will, at thy desire, give Christ to thee. Do not always
lie poring upon thy unworthiness, but if thou art sensible of it, and
sorrowful for it, believe it thou art worthy enough to divine accep
tation, though not to divine satisfaction. As his omnipotency an-
swereth thy weakness, and his fulness thy wants, so doth his free
grace all thy unworthiness. The natural sun doth not enlighten
more freely, than this Sun of righteousness doth enliven all that
come under the shadow of his wings.
Ponder how universal his offers of grace are. Jesus Christ, with
all his merits, are tendered to all. The proposals of divine mercy
and love are general and universal. Go preach the gospel, ob
serve, to every creature. He that believeth shall be saved. Ho
every one that thirsteth/ Isa. Iv. 1. If any man, let him be poor
or rich, high or low, thirst, let him come to me and drink, John
vii. 37.
It is a great encouragement that, in the offers of pardon and
life, none are excluded ; why, then, shouldst thou exclude thyself.
Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, Mat. xi. 28.
Mark, poor sinner, all ye. Art not thou one of that all ? Is not
thy wickedness thy weight, and thy corruption thy burden ? Then
thou art called particularly as well as generally. Jesus Christ
taketh thee aside from the crowd, and whispereth thee in the ear,
poor sinner, that art weary of the work, and heavy-laden with
the weight of sin, be entreated to come to me ; I will give thee rest.
CHAP. XVI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 353
Why doth thy heart suggest that he doth not intend thee in that
call ? Doth he not, by that qualification, as good as name thee ?
Ah, it is an unworthy, a base jealousy, to mistrust a loving Christ
without the least cause.
Once more, meditate how willing he is to heal thy wounded
spirit, and be not faithless, but believing. He is willing to accept
of thee, if thou art willing to accept him. What mean his affec
tionate invitations ? He seeketh to draw thee with cords of love,
cords that are woven and spun out of his heart and bowels : Cant.
iv. 8, Come away from Lebanon, my sister, my spouse; from the
lions den, from the mountains of leopards/ Christ s love is hot
and burning ; he thinketh thou tarriest too long from his embraces :
Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, Cant. v.
2. Christ stands begging for entrance : Lost man, do but suffer
me to save thee; poor sinner, suffer me to love thee. 1 These are
the charms of gospel rhetoric. None singeth so sweetly as the bird
of paradise, the turtle that chirpeth upon the church s hedges, that
he may cluck sinners to himself. What mean his pathetical ex
postulations, Why will ye die ? Ezek. xxxiii. 11. What reason
hast thou thus to run upon thy death and ruin ? What iniquity
have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me ?
Jer. ii. 5 ; what harm have I ever done them ? what evil do they
know by me, that they walk so contrary to me ? But one place for
all : Micah vi. 3, 4, my people, what have I done unto thee ?
and wherein have I wearied thee ? testify against me. For I brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house
of servants. my people, remember now what bowels of love
are here sounding in every line ; what fiery affection is there in such
sweet expostulations ! Oh admirable condescension !
What meaneth his sorrow for them that refuse him for their
Saviour ? He is grieved because of the hardness of men s hearts,
Mark iii. 5.
He shed tears for them that shed his blood. When he came
nigh that city, which was the slaughter-house of the prophets of
the Lord, and of the Lord of the prophets, he wept, Luke xix. 41 :
If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day. The brokeuness
of his speech sheweth the brokenness of his spirit. He is pitiful
towards their souls that are so cruel to themselves, and weepeth for
them that go laughing to hell.
What meaneth his joy at the birthday of the new creature, when
he is received with welcome into the sinner s heart ? The mother
1 Mr Manton on Jude, p. 75.
VOL. III. Z
354 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVI.
is as much pleased that her full breasts are drawn as the child can
be. The day of thy cordial acceptation of him will be the day of
the gladness of his heart. At such an hour he rejoiced in spirit,
saith the evangelist, Luke x. 21. He wept twice, and he bled, as
some affirm, seven times ; but we never read of his rejoicing, if I
mistake not, but in this place. And surely it was something that
did extraordinarily take the heart of Christ, which could, in the !
time of his humiliation, tune his spirit into a merry note, and cause
this man of sorrows to rejoice. Ah, sinner, believe it, he would
never so willingly have died such a cursed, painful death, if he had
not been willing that sinners should live a spiritual and eternal
life.
What mean, I say, his invitations, expostulations, grief upon
refusal, joy upon acceptance, his commands, entreaties, promises,
threatenings ; his wooing thee by the ministers of his word, by the]
motions of his Spirit, by his daily, nightly, hourly mercies, by his]
gracious providence, by his unwearied patience, but to assure thee]
that he is heartily willing to accept thee for his servant, for his son,]
if thou art heartily willing to accept him for thy Saviour and for!
thy sovereign ? He would never present thee with such costly gifts,]
if his offer of marriage were not in earnest. Besides, broken-hearted]
sinner, for it is to thee that all this while I have been speaking ;
how darest thou any longer entertain such a traitor against the
King of saints in thy breast, as a thought that the Lord Jesus can
be guilty in any of the forementioned particulars of the least in
sincerity ?
Do not, therefore, like the silly hart, go ever up and down moan
ing and bleeding with the arrow in thy side, thy sins sticking ia
thy heart, but desire his helping hand to pluck them out, and with^j
out question thou shalt have it. He had a special command and
commission from his Father to remember and redeem thee : Isa.
Ixi. 1-3, To bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to
comfort them that mourn ; and dost thou think it possible for him
to be unfaithful in his office or to his Father ? No certainly ; he
keepeth all his Father s commandments, and continueth in his
love, John xv. 10, 11.
When he was upon earth, like a physician, he was in fris element
when among sick and diseased persons, so much did he love to heal
and cure. And now he is in heaven, though he be free from pas
sion, yet not from compassion ; his heart pitieth thee most tenderly,
and his hand will help thee effectually. Cheer up at last, droop-
CHAP. XVII] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 355
ing soul, and look up with an eye of faith to this Lord of life, to
this brazen serpent. I may say to thee, as Martha to Mary, The
Master is come, and he calleth for thee. Hark how loudly he pro-
claimeth his general tender of grace : Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come to the waters, 1 Isa. Iv. 1 ; how lovingly he beseecheth : As
though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ s stead, be
ye reconciled to God, 2 Cor. v. 20. See how cheerfully he looks,
out of hope that thou wilt by believing receive him into thy heart :
His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth
is most sweet ; yea, he is altogether lovely, Cant. v. 15, 16. How
hastily he runs to meet thee more than half-way 1 love s pace is very
swift : Behold, he cometh leaping over the mountains, skipping
upon the hills ! Cant. ii. 8. Observe how bountifully he provideth
for thy entertainment : A feast of fat things, a feast of wines on
the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well re
fined, Isa. xxv. 6. Behold he standeth at the door and knocketh ;
if thou hear his voice, and open to him, he will come in and sup
with thee, and thou with him, Eev. iii. 20.
CHAPTER XVII.
The fourth help, Dedication to God.
Fourthly, Dedicate thyself, soul and body, and all thou hast, unto
the service and glory of Jesus Christ. If thou hast been unfeigned
in the practice of the former directions, I doubt not in the least thy
willingness to this. If thy sorrow for sin hath been sincere, like a
burnt child thou wilt dread that fire. The sense of former unkind-
ness to Christ is fresh in thy heart ; and a very glutton, in pain
under a distemper, dares not but forbear such meats as will feed it.
If thy marriage to Christ hath been hearty, thou hast given a
universal bill of divorce to other lovers, and hast accepted him for
thy head and husband, to govern and command thee, as well as to
protect and provide for thee, and instate heaven as a jointure upon
thee. 2 If thou expectest an immortal life from him, thou must con
secrate thy mortal life to him. I hope then thou art contented to
take Jesus Christ, for better, for worse ; with his shameful cross, as
1 Vocations and interjections speak very affectionate bowels toward the distressed ;
God lays his mouth, as it were, to the deaf ear of the unbeliever, and crieth aloud,
4 Ho, every one that thirsteth.
2 The jewel of faith must be laid up in the cabinet of a good conscience. Though
faith justify our persons, yet good works must justify our faith.
356 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVII.
well as his crown of glory ; with his trials, as well as his triumphs ;
with his gracious precepts, as well as his gracious promises : nay, I
hope thou seest so much equity in his commands, so much beauty
in his ways and worship, so much of thy soul s felicity wrapt up in
holiness, in order to its perfection and happiness, that thou wouldst
much rather choose the easy yoke, the light burden of Christ, than
the drudgery of the world, or the bondage of corruption. Truly
thus it must be with thee, if ever thou art saved; and thus I
thought to have found thee by this time, at least to leave thee.
One excellently compareth holiness and happiness to those two
sisters, Leah and Rachel. Salvation or happiness, like Rachel,
seems the fairer even the carnal heart may fall in love with that ;
but sanctification or holiness, like Leah, is the elder, and beautiful
also, though in this life it appears with some disadvantage, her
eyes being bleared with tears of repentance, and her face furrowed
with the works of mortification. But this is the law of that
heavenly country, that the younger sister must not be bestowed be
fore the elder. We cannot enjoy fair Rachel, heaven and happiness,
except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah, holiness, mortification, [
self-denial, and all those severe duties which the church s lawgiver j
enjoineth.
Friend, sit down and consider what it may cost thee to be a
Christian. It must cost thee the absolute denial of thy sinful,
carnal self, of the body of death and its earthly members, which !
are expressly forbidden in the word of God ; and thy main work
must be every day to crucify and mortify them. Sin must die,!
though it may be never so dear to thee, or thy soul cannot live. If j
thou lettest any sin go, since every one is appointed by God to de-]
struction, thy life must go for its life, as the prophet told AhabJ
1 Kings xx. 42. When Christ came in the flesh, sin crucified]
him ; but when Christ comes in the spirit, he will crucify it. As
Samson, an eminent type of Christ, pulled down the house upon]
the heads of the lords of the Philistines, that he might slay them,]
and so be avenged on them for his two eyes ; so Jesus Christ, if he]
be thy Saviour, is resolved to pull the house in which sin harbours i
itself down about its ears, and by its slaughter, to be revenged on]
it for his two eyes, for all the ignominy and shame, agony and^
pain, which sin put him to. He will teach thee better than to beg
the life of those Barabbases, those foul murderers and robbers of
God of his glory. And surely ingenuity will learn thee otherwise
than to expect such infinite favours from this King, and yet to en- .
tertaiii in thy heart any that are rebels against his Majesty.
CHAP. XVII.] HEAVEX AND HELL EPITOMISED. 357
Thus it will cost thee the absolute denial of thy sinful self. It
must cost thee the conditional denial of thy natural self, and all that
is outwardly dear unto thee. Nay, it may cost thee the actual loss
of relations, possessions, honour, pleasure, liberty, limbs, life, and all
these for Jesus Christ. Thou must resolve, whenever they come
in opposition unto, or competition with Christ, his glory, kingdom,
and command, to let them go. As when Levi s relations came in
competition with the glory of God, he did not know his father, nor
would he acknowledge his brethren, Deut. xxxiii. 9. When Moses
glory and pleasures came in competition with a precept of God,
he chooseth to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than
to enjoy the pleasures of the court, Heb. xi. 25. When Paul s
liberty and life come in competition with the kingdom of Christ,
he is ready, not only to be bound, but to die for the name of the
Lord Jesus, Acts xx. 24. They all willingly left their own com
forts to obey God s call and commands. In conversion, as one
well observeth, 1 the use and the property of all we have is altered.
All our vessels, all our merchandise must be superscribed with a
new title: Holiness to the Lord, Isa. xxiii. 18 ; Zech. xiv. 20, 21.
Then men s chief care will be to honour the Lord with their sub
stance, Prov. iii. 9 : to bring their sons, their silver, their gold, to
the name of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, Isa. Ix. 9. All we
are, or have, we have it on this condition : to use it, to leave it, to
lay it out, to lay it down, unto the honour of our Master, from whose
bounty we received it.
It was a notable saying of a noble lord of this land, 2 that that
person may be deceived, who thinks to save anything by his religion
more than his soul ; and surely he that saveth his soul, saveth all
that is worth saving. He meant that his religion might cost him
the loss of all other things. There is certainly, if thou wilt be a
Christian indeed, a necessity of laying thy health, strength, time,
estate, name, friends, interests in the world, thy calling and com
forts whatsoever, at the feet of Christ, to be employed wholly in his
service, and improved altogether for his glory, and to be denied
or enjoyed, in whole or in part, according to his call and command.
This may seem a hard saying to carnal minds, that rather than
break, and leave off all show of trading with God, to which their
stirred consciences will by no means yield, would willingly com
pound and give Christ a part, and the world and flesh the other
part ; but as Christ is worthy of, so he will have, all acceptation.
The gods of the heathen are good fellows, and share their honour
1 Dr Reyn. Sermon on Self-denial. 2 L. Brooks.
358 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVII.
among themselves ; but this Lord over all, who is God blessed for
ever, will not give his glory to others ; he will not suffer that super
lative esteem, trust, and love of the soul, to be bestowed on any
but himself, or to be divided betwixt himself and any other. He
will allow no superior, nay, no equal. As Alexander answered
Darius, when Darius sent to him about peace, because there were
empires enough in the world to satisfy them both, The whole world
could endure but one sun, but one Alexander. So the heart of man
must have but one general, but one commander-in-chief, and that
must be Jesus Christ.
Truly, reader, I hope that these things will not discourage thee
from the ways of God. Do but rationally consider them ; is it not
most just and equal, that since all these things come freely from him,
that they should be laid out purely for him ? Thou givest thy
servant a little meat, and drink, and money, or rather God by thee,
and what service dost thou require of him ? Thou art instrumental,
under God, to the birth and breeding of thy children, and what
duty dost thou expect from them ? Art not thou ten thousanc
times more engaged to Jesus Christ, for every bit of bread anc
breath of air, for every night s sleep and day s supply, for every
mercy that thine enjoy, for every moment s abode on this side hell,
for every soul-favour, and body-kindness.
In him thou livest, movest, and hast thy being ; the light dotl
not so much depend on the sun, as thy life and all thy comforts de
pends on Christ. Now, be thy own judge, what service, what
obedience, may the Lord Jesus look for at thy hands? If the
world or the flesh could do half so much for thee, thou wert more
excusable, than now thou art in doing so much for them.
Again, when the question ariseth, whether Christ or the flesh,
Christ or the world, should have thy greatest esteem, or love, or
trust, or the most of thy time, and strength, and talents. One
would think thou shouldst be ashamed to put such a question, or, :
at least, that the very mention of it would be a sufficient answer to
it. Alas ! what are all the honours and pleasures, riches and rela
tions, delicates and diadems, of the whole world to Jesus Christ, but
as pebbles to pearls, dirt to diamonds, dross to gold, nothing to all
things ? there surely is no comparison. The whole world of heaven
and earth doth not so far excel a feather, as Jesus Christ doth the
whole world.
Besides, this request of mine should rather encourage thee, in
regard this absolute resignation of thyself to Christ tendeth to the
perfection and happiness of thy soul. Thy misery by thy fall is
CHAP. XVII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 359
chiefly in this, that thou hast thereby lost the image of God. Thy
want of conformity to him, is the cause why thou hast not com
munion with him. Beasts do not converse with men, nor trees
with beasts, because they do not live the life of each other. Sense
must fit trees to converse with beasts, and reason must fit beasts to
converse with men, and grace and holiness must fit thee to converse
with God. When thou once livest the life of God, as this unre
served soul-resignation or sanctification is called, Eph. iv. 18, thou
mayest then bathe thy soul in his love.
Now this is the way to it. The life of Christianity consisteth in
a hearty dedication of thyself and all thou hast to Christ. When
thou hast done this, thou art a Christian indeed.
The excellency of everything standeth in two things: first,
The perfection of beauty in which it was made, and the perfection
of use for which it was made. Now the beauty of man consisteth
in this, that he was made like unto God, Gen. i. 26 ; and his end
and use is this, that he was made for God ; first to serve him, and
after to enjoy him, for the Lord hath set apart him that is godly
for himself; therefore to recover the image of God, which con
sisteth in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, to work to
the service and glory of God, to aspire to the possession and fruition
of God, must needs be man s greatest good. l
By what hath been largely spoken before in this use, thou mayest
perceive that there is no going to heaven per saltum, by leaping out
of a dirty and stinking jakes into the presence of the glorious God.
There is a being made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in light, Col. i. 12, which is by sanctification. 2 As
clothes are by lighter colours fitted to receive a deep scarlet dye,
so thou must, by this spiritual life of holiness, be fitted for the
eternal life of glory. Observe, 2 Cor. v. 5, the apostle tells us, He
that hath wrought us for the self-same thing (i.e., heaven) is God.
Man is a rugged piece of timber, an unhewn stone ; now the stone
must be polished, and the timber squared, before it can be fit for the
heavenly building wrought for it.
Joseph, when he was sent for to Pharaoh out of prison, changed
his raiment, and trimmed himself, and then appeared before the
king.
And as there must be regeneration, or the beginning of grace, so
there must be a proficiency or growth in grace, to prepare the soul
i Dr Reyn. on Hos. xiv., Sermon 7.
1 Operatione et acceptatione diviaa idonei constituimur ad participandam sortem
sanctorum. Davenant in loc.
3GO HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVII.
for the weight of glory. There is a double right which every child
of God hath to heaven. 1 1. Jus hcereditarium, a hereditary right,
and that is at regeneration, when he is put into Christ, and made
a co-heir with him of his inheritance, having grace begun in him,
which shall be perfected in glory, and was given as a principle
ordained to such a perfection. 2. Jus aptitudinarium, and that is
a right of fitness, whereby we are qualified to receive such a mercy ;
and that as an heir hath a right of inheritance in his non-age, but
he hath not a right of fitness till he come to years, and be able to
manage his estate when he hath received it. Header, in both these
respects there is a necessity that thou presently make a deed of
gift of thyself and thy all unto Jesus Christ ; and that thou never
more look upon thyself, or anything thou hast, as thine own,
but as a servant entrusted with them for thy Master s use and
advantage.
Well, reader, I suppose thou dost ere this fully understand the
conditions upon which thy soul may be contracted unto Christ.
My work is to treat with thee about this marriage. I am com
manded by the Lord, as Abraham s steward by his lord, Gen.
xxiv., to provide a wife for my Master s Son. I do here, in the
presence of the living God, by commission from his Majesty, tender
thee the most honourable, profitable, delightful match that was
ever offered to mortals. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
life and glory, the only-begotten of the Father, the fairest of ten
thousands, to be thy head and husband : hereby thou shalt have
the King of kings, the Lord of heaven and earth, for thy Father ;
a queen, the church, for thy mother ; the saints, those truly excel
lent, noble, illustrious ones, higher than the kings of the earth, for
thy brethren and sisters ; the covenant of grace, in comparison of
which all the gold of the Indies is but dirt and dung, for thy trea
sure ; glorious angels for thy servants, the flesh of the Son of God
for thy meat, and his precious blood for thy drink ; perfect right
eousness, which is more beautiful than the unspotted innocency of
Adam or angels, for thy raiment ; a palace of pleasures, a place of
glory, a building of God, a house not made with hands, but eternal
in the heavens, for thy habitation. And all this only upon these ,
terms, that thou wilt be a loving, faithful, and obedient wife, which
the poorest beggar in the country expects from his wife ; that thou
wilt heartily give up thyself and all thou hast to his service and
glory ; and this he desireth also for thy good and benefit, that he
may make thee a more excellent creature, and render thee more
1 Mr Strong, Holiness the Way to Happiness, p. 45.
CHAP. XVII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 3G1
acceptable to God, and more capable of his dearest love and eternal
embraces. As the rain is sent up from the earth in thick and foggy
vapours, but the heavens return it in pure and silver showers, so
though thou givest an unbelieving, hard, earthly heart unto Christ,
he will return it unto thee again, believing, tender, heavenly, such
a heart as shall be more pleasing both to God and thyself ; and for
this he is pleased though ten thousand suns united into one are
but darkness to him, so great is his glory to condescend to become
a suitor to thee, to beseech thee to accept of him, who knoweth thy
portion to be misery and beggary, who seeth thy person to be full
of ugliness and deformity, who gaineth no addition to his happiness
by thine acceptance of his love, nor suffereth the least diminution
by thy refusal. Well, what sayest thou to this match ? Art thou
heartily willing to take Jesus Christ for thy wedded husband, to
protect and direct thee, to purify and pardon thee, to sanctify and
save thee, to guide thee by his counsel, and afterwards to receive
thee to glory ? And wilt thou here, in the presence of the Lord,
and before thy conscience, which is as ten thousand witnesses,
promise and covenant to obey him universally, to love him un-
feignedly, to resign up thyself and all thou hast to his disposal
unreservedly ? What sayest thou ? Art thou willing or no ?
Take heed of dallying in a match that is so unquestionably and
infinitely for thy advantage. Believe it, thou shalt not have such
offers every day. Do not stick at any of his precepts, for he can
require nothing but what is equal, excellent, and honourable. Do
not trifle or defer it, if thou lovest thy soul, for this may be the
very last time of asking. If thou wilt deal kindly and truly with
my Master, tell me ; or, if not, tell me, that I may return an answer
to him that sent me, Gen. xxiv. 49.
These four directions which I have laid down already are without
question the whole of Christianity ; and that soul shall be certainly
saved by whom they are uprightly practised: yet there are two
special means which God hath appointed for the enabling the soul
to perform them, which I shall speak briefly to, and for method
sake join them altogether.
362 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Two other helps, the word and prayer.
Fifthly, If thou wouldst attain this spiritual life, be much con
versant with the word of God ; be often reading it, meditating on
it, but especially frequent it in public where it is preached ; by
losing one sermon, for aught thou knowest, thou mayest lose one
soul.
Death at first entered into the world by the ear, Gen. iii., and so
doth life. Faith comes by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Thou seest in the
gospel that faith and repentance are this spiritual life, Mark xvi.
16 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; and thou mayest see as clearly that they are both
the fruits of the ministry of the word ; for faith, that forequoted
place, Rom. x. 17, is full; and for repentance, that of Acts ii.
37 speaketh home, When they heard these things, they were
pricked to the heart: mark, When they heard these things. The
word of God is a hammer with which God is pleased to break the
stony heart, and a fire wherewith he melteth the hard metal, Jer.
xxiii. 29. In this respect it is that the minister is called the
father of some converts, namely, those whom he begetteth through
the gospel, 1 Cor. iv. 15.
There is a resurrection of souls at this day, when ministers lift
up their voice like a trumpet, Isa. Iviii. 1 ; Acts ii. 37, as well as
there shall be a resurrection of bodies at the last day by the trump
of the archangel. This is the net which God is pleased to cast
into the sea of the world, and wherewith he hath caught many a
soul, three thousand at one draught, 1 Acts ii. 41. Spiritual life is
the gift of God, as well as eternal : the gift of all grace is of grace ;
but ordinarily of his own will he begetteth souls by the word of
truth, James i. 18. If thou wilt have wisdom s dole, thou must
wait at wisdom s gate, for there it is given, Prov. viii. 34.
Grace is the law written in the heart, and usually the ministry
of the word is the pen wherewith the Spirit of God writes it.
That is the bed wherein the children of God are begotten, Cant.
i. 16 ; that is the school wherein the disciples are taught of God,
and learn the truth as it is in Jesus. The minister s commission
doth abundantly evince this : I send thee, saith God to Paul, to
1 Job. Isaac, a Jew, was converted by reading the 53d of Isaiah, Junius by the
first of John s Gospel, Augustine by the 13th of Romans : I will never forget thy
precepts, for by them thou hast quickened me, David, Ps. cxix.
CHAP. XVIIL] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 363
open the eyes of the blind, and to turn men from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan to the living God.
God indeed is a most free agent, and can work when and how he
pleaseth ; but it hath pleased him to make the gospel of Christ his
own power unto salvation, Bom. i. 16 ; and it pleaseth him by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor. i. 21.
Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, to the eye of sense may
seem better than all the waters of Israel ; but Jordan can cleanse
and heal when those cannot, because it hath a divine precept and
promise annexed to it. Nay, observe how God is pleased to dignify
his word, and to honour his own ordinance. When he hath begun
the work of conversion himself immediately, he will not perfect it
without the ministry of his word. He sendeth Paul to Ananias,
Acts ix. 15, to learn what he should do ; and biddeth Cornelius by
an angel for an angel must not do that work to send for Peter,
and from him to hear words whereby he and his house should be
saved, Acts x. 5, 6. David, who was wiser than the ancients, than
his enemies, than his teachers, lieth many months asleep on the
bed of security, in a most filtry ! pickle, till a prophet is sent to call
him up and awake him ; then, and not till then, he mindeth cleans
ing, as appeareth plainly by the title and body of the 51st Psalm.
So David s heart smote him for numbering the people : but mark
the means of it. For, saith the text, when David was up in the
morning, the word of the Lord came to Gad, and commanded him
to go to David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10-12.
Yea, the very honour of saving souls, the Most High ascribeth to
the ministry of his word, 1 Tim. iv. 16. Timothy is spoken of
as saving himself and them that hear him, i.e., instrumentally ;
thus highly God doth magnify his ordinances, though many men
vilify them. Do not thou therefore forsake the assemblies of the
saints, as the manner of some is, Heb. x. 25, but lie constantly at
the pool, praying and waiting for the troubling of the waters of
the sanctuary ; the angel of the covenant may move there, and thy
diseased soul thereby be healed. Some that have come to church
to sleep, as Mr Latimer saith, have been taken napping. As thou
wouldst learn that lesson whereby thou mayest be wise to salva
tion, do not play the truant, but frequent that school where the
prophet of the church teacheth. As thou wouldst not quench the
Spirit, despise not prophesying, 1 Thes. v. 19, 20. They that came
to catch the preacher, have been caught by the sermon, as Augustine
by Ambrose. 2 And they that come to see fashions, as Moses came
] Qu. filthy ? ED. z Aug. Confes., lib. v. cap. 1.
364 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVIII.
to the bush, may be called as he was. The soldiers or officers
that went to apprehend Christ were probably apprehended by
Christ, John vii. 46. When Henry Zatphen was preacher at
Breme, the papists sent their chaplains to hear, that they might
entrap him, but God converted by his ministry many of them.
Slead. Comment.
If thou wouldst have thy heart thoroughly humbled, make use
of the word ; you may read of a bad, hard, cursed heart indeed
humbled by this, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 19. Manasseh in his afflic
tion humbled himself greatly ; for God sent unto him prophets
and seers, that spake unto him in the name of the Lord ; so 2 Sam.
xxiv. 10-12.
Wouldst thou rest upon Jesus Christ for salvation ? Mind the
word : Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father
cometh unto me/ John vi. 45.
Wouldst thou have thine inward man renewed and changed ?
This may be done by the blessing of God accompanying his word ;
therefore it is called the ingrafted word, James i. 21. To teach
us that, as the scion of a good apple grafted into a crab tree
stock, hath virtue to change the nature of it ; so hath the word
preached, for of that he speaketh, as is manifest, ver. 19-23,
virtue to change the heart of man.
Header, let me persuade thee to have a reverent esteem of, and
to be very familiar with, the word of God, reading it constantly,
and hearing it frequently, as the Lord shall give thee opportunities ;
but take heed how thou nearest, Luke viii. 18, how thou readest.
Attend on the word, having first laid aside all superfluity of
naughtiness ; weeds must be rooted up before the ground of man s
heart is fit to receive the seed of the word. 1. With meekness
of spirit, James i. 21. The humble sinner is fittest to be Christ s
scholar. The meek he will teach his way; the meek he will guide
in judgment, Ps. xxv. 8, 9. When the heart is tender, it is most
teachable ; it is like white paper for any inscription, like soft wax
for any impression. A proud person is too good, in his own conceit,
to be taught ; he quarrelleth and rageth, either at the person that
preacheth, or at the plainness of the sermon, but to his own ruin.
He rejecteth the counsel of God, but it is against himself, to his
own hurt, Luke vii. 30. The weak corn, which yields to the wind,
receiveth no damage by it, but the proud, sturdy oak, which resisteth
it, is often broken in pieces.
2. Attend on the word, with a resolution to obey whatever the
Lord shall in his word command thee. Oh it is excellent to sit
CHAP. XVIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 365
at God s feet, hearing his voice purposely that thou mightst do
his will ; like a servant, to go to thy master and know his mind,
that thou mayest fulfil it ; when thou canst say, I am here present
before the Lord, to hear and do the things that are commanded
me of God, Acts x. 33 ; like the Komans, to deliver up thyself
wholly to that form of doctrine, et<? TVTTOV StSa^ry?, which God hath
delivered down unto thee, as metal for any stamp and mould, Horn,
vi. 17.
3. With self-application. Do not think this concerneth such a
man, and now the minister hitteth such a one ; but consider, now
God speaketh to my soul, and this truth doth nearly concern me. 1
If the word be not mixed with faith, it will not be profitable to
them that hear it, Heb. iv. 2. Whilst truths rest in generals,
little good will be done, but when they come to be particularly
applied, and to sink down into the heart, then they work effectu
ally for the soul s salvation. Truths generally received are like the
charging a piece, but the particular application of them dischargeth
it, and doth the execution upon sin.
4. With supplication before and after reading or hearing. Begin
with God : Lord, open mine eyes, that I may see the wonderful
things of thy law, Ps. cxix. 18. Begin duty with duty : The pre
paration of the heart in man is from the Lord, Prov. xvi. 1. And
after thou hast heard or read, pray, as the disciples after they had
heard, Lord, open to us this parable, Mat. xv. 15. This scripture,
Write thy law in my heart, and thy truth in mine inward parts ;
teach me thy way, lead me in thy righteousness. Give me under
standing, and I shall keep thy law ; yea, I shall observe it with my
whole heart, Ps. cxix. 33, 34.
Urge thy soul with the necessity of this duty, that thou must be
converted or condemned ; and it is the law of the Lord that is per
fect, converting the soul, Ps. xix. 7. That thou must know thy
misery, or feel it eternally ; and it is the precept of the Lord that
is pure, enlightening the mind, Ps. xix. 8. That thou must re
pent or be ruined ; and it is by hearing that men come to be
pricked at the heart, Acts ii. 37. That thou must believe or
perish ; and how shalt thou believe on him of whom thou hast not
neard ? Rom. x. As ships will ride a long time in a roadstead,
when they might be in the haven, for this end, that they may be
in the wind s way to take the first opportunity that shall be offered
1 Plato, as he walked in the streets, if he saw any dissolute or disordered, would
reflect on himself with Num ego tolls, Am I such a one as this man is? Diogen.
Latrt. in Vita.
366 HEAVEN AND HE LL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVIII.
for their intended voyage ; so do thou ride in the road of God s
ordinances, waiting for the gales of the Spirit. Thou knowest not
how soon that wind may blow on the waters of the sanctuary, and
drive the vessel of thy soul swiftly, and land it safely at the haven
of happiness, of heaven.
Sixthly, If thou wouldst attain this spiritual life, be frequent
and fervent at the throne of grace, that the God of all grace would
infuse grace into thee, and breathe into thy soul the breath of this
spiritual life. As Abraham pleaded for Ishmael, Gen. xvii. 18, Oh
that Ishmael might live before thee ! so do thou for thy soul, Oh
that my soul might live before thee ! And as the ruler for his son,
Lord, come down quickly ere my soul die, yea, ere it die eternally.
Go to God with a sense of thy own unworthiness and iniquities,
that though thou comest to his Majesty for the greatest favours,
yet thou art less than the least of all his mercies, acknowledging
that thou hast sinned heinously against heaven, and before him,
and art unworthy to be called his son. Confess thy original, actual,
heart, life sins, with their bloody aggravations, and entreat him to
pardon and purify thee. Oh with what humility, reverence, and
self-abhorrency should such a guilty prisoner approach the judge
of the whole earth ! Arraign, accuse, and condemn thyself and thy
sins, if ever thou wouldst have God to acquit thee.
Pray also with a sense of thy own impotency and weakness.
That though there be a necessity of humiliation, if ever thou
wouldst escape damnation, yet thou canst as soon fetch water out
of a rock, as tears from thine eyes, or sorrow from thine heart, for
thy sins ; till the wind of the Spirit bloweth, those waters will never
flow. It is God that must give to thee, a poor Gentile, repentance
unto life, Acts xi. 18. That thou must believe, or thou canst not
be saved ; yet thou canst as easily cause iron to swim, as thy soul
to believe in the Son of God. 1 Faith is the gift of God, Phil. i.
29 ; Zeph. iii. It is as hard a work to believe the gospel, as to
keep the law perfectly. Nothing less than omnipotency can enable
the soul to either. As thy first birth and generation, so is thy
second birth and regeneration, from the Lord. Men and means may
be instrumental and subservient, but their efficacy and success de-
pendeth on God.
When thou hast, through the strength of Christ, wrought thy
heart to some sense of thy weakness and unworthiness, then look
into the Scriptures, and fetch arguments from God s own mouth,
1 Non minus difficile est nobis velle credere quam cadaveri volare. Btza Confes.,
p. 22.
CHAP. XVIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 367
weapons from his own armoury, whereby thou mayest prevail with
him, and overcome him. Beseech him to consult his glorious name
and gracious nature ; mind him that he is the Lord, the Lord God,
gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth,
forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, Exod. xxxiv. 6. Tell
him that he delighteth not in the death of sinners ; that he taketh
more pleasure in unbloody conquests, in the cheerful services, than
in the painful sufferings of his creatures ; that he had much rather
have trees for fruit than for the fire. Say, Have mercy upon me,
God, according to thy loving- kindness ; and after the multitude
of thy tender mercies blot out mine offences, Ps. li. 1. thou
that art rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith thou lovest
souls, quicken me in Christ, that by grace I may be sanctified and
saved. Since thou delightest in mercy, be pleased, Lord, to delight
both thyself and thy servant, by extending thine hand of mercy to
pluck me out of this bottomless depth of misery. Entreat God to
consult his own honour, as well as his gracious nature. Mind him,
that if he condescend to convert and save thee, he shall have the
glory of his patience, in waiting thus long to be gracious ; the
glory of his providence, in causing all things to work together for
thy good ; the glory of mercy, in pitying and pardoning such a
grievous sinner ; the glory of his justice, in that noble satisfaction
it shall have from the death of his Son ; the glory of his power, in
bringing such a rebellious heart into subjection unto Jesus Christ.
Entreat his Majesty to consider, that he may pardon and cleanse
thee, through Christ, without the least diminution to his glory ;
nay, that far more revenues will come to his crown from thy sal
vation, than from thy damnation ; that the forced confessions of
them that perish, as of malefactors upon the rack, do not sound
forth his praises so much, nor so well, as the joyful hearty accla
mations of his saved ones. Say, Lord, if thou suffer me to continue
in my filth and pollution, and never wash me by the blood and
Spirit of thy Son, and suffer me to perish eternally, thou art right
eous ; but, Lord, if I perish I shall not praise thee ; thy glory will
rather be forced out of me with blows, as fire out of a flint. Thou
delightest to see poor creatures volunteers in thy service; the
damned do not celebrate thy praise, they that go into the infernal
pit give thee no thanks, Ps. xxx. 9. The living, the living, they
shall praise thee they that live spiritually, and they that live with
thee eternally, Ps. Ixxxviii. 10, 11 ; Isa. xxxviii. 19. Oh what
hosannas and hallelujahs ! What honour, and glory, and blessing,
and praise do they give to the Lord, and to the Lamb that sitteth
368 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XVIII.
upon the throne for ever ! Oh let my soul live, and it shall praise
thee. Thine is the kingdom and power, do thou work within me
by thy grace, and thine shall be the glory.
Desire God to consider his own promise as well as his praise.
Urge his own word, that they that ask shall receive, that seek
shall find, that knock shall have heaven opened ; that if men
know how to give good gifts to them that ask, how much more will
the Father in heaven give his holy Spirit to them that ask ; that
he will circumcise the hearts of men and women to love him, Deut.
xxx. 6 ; that he will put his fear into their hearts, and they shall
never depart away from him, Jer. xxxii. 40 ; that he will write
his law in their hearts, Jer. xxxi. 33. Go in to him when thou
art full of heaviness, as Bathsheba did to David, 1 Kings i. 17, 18,
and say, Did not my Lord promise thus and thus, and is it thy
mind that thy word should go unfulfilled ? Lord, are not these
thy own words, thine own handwriting ? Whose staff and brace
let is this ? If thou hadst not promised, I should not have found
in my heart to pray ; and if thou shouldst not perform, where
would be the glory of thy truth ? Thy mercy, Lord, is great
unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds, Ps. Ivii. 10. My
soul cleaveth unto the dust, quicken thou me according to thy
word, Ps. cxix. 25. Kemember thy word unto thy servant, upon
which thou hast caused me to hope, Ps. cxix. 49.
Beseech him to consider thy mercy. 1 Like a beggar, uncover thy
nakedness, shew thy sores and wounds to move him to pity. Tell
him, that in regard of thy spiritual condition thou art at present
wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, Kev. iii. 17 ; without
God, without Christ, without hope, an alien from the common
wealth of Israel, and a stranger from the covenants of promise ;
and that thine eternal state is like to be the worm that never dieth,
the fire that never goeth out, amongst devils and damned ones, in
blackness of darkness for ever. Say, Lord, open thine eyes, and see
thy poor creature weltering, wallowing, polluted in his own soul-
blood ; and now I am in my blood, open thy mouth and say unto me,
Live ; yea, now I am in my blood, say unto me, Live, Ezek. xvi. 6.
Since no eye pitieth me to do any good unto me, open thine heart,
and let thy bowels yearn towards me. Let this time be thy time
of love ; spread thy skirt over me, and cover all my nakedness.
Enter into a covenant with me, and enable me to become thine for
ever. Since thou beholdest all the wants and necessities of my
poor soul, open thine hand and supply all my spiritual need.
1 Qu. misery ? ED.
CHAP. XVIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 369
There is bread enough, and to spare, in the Father s house, oh let
not my dying soul perish for hunger. Open thine ears and hear
the prayers and supplications which thy servant poureth out before
thee night and day. Thou hast the key of David, and openest, and
no man shutteth ; open the iron gate of my heart, which will never
open of its own accord, that the King of glory may enter in. Thou
didst open the rock, and cause it to send forth water. Bow the
heavens and come down ; break open this rocky heart and come in,
and take an effectual, universal, eternal possession of my soul.
Consider thy bottomless mercy, Christ s infinite merits, my un
speakable misery, and let thine heart be opened in pity, and thine
hand in bounty, that my lips may be opened, and my mouth may
everlastingly shew forth thy praise.
Only in thy prayers be instant, constant, and look up to Jesus
Christ. Beg hard, though humbly, when thou art begging for
heaven.
Hast thou never heard a malefactor, condemned to he hanged,
begging for a reprieve or pardon ? With what tears and prayers,
what bended knees, watered cheeks, strained joints, he entreateth
for his mortal life ! Thou hast much more cause to be earnest
when thou art begging for spiritual life. Think of it ; thy soul,
thy eternal condition, are engaged and at stake in thy prayer. Oh
how should all the parts and faculties of thy body and soul work
and unite in prayers that are of such concernment ! What fer
vency shouldst thou use, considering that, if thou art denied, thou
art undone ! If thy prayers be lost, thy God is lost, thy soul is
lost, thy happiness is lost for ever.
Pray constantly ; resolve to give God no rest day nor night, till
he give thee rest in his Son. Besides set times every day, (for
which thou canst not oifer so little as two hours a day, it being
soul-work, God-work, eternity-work, and in which I would desire
thee to be as serious and solemn as is possible ;) thou mayest often
in the shop, or in the field, in thy journeying, on thy bed, thou
mayest turn up thy heart to heaven, in some ejaculations (it is thy
great privilege, wherever thou art, thou mayest find God out) such
as these, when wilt thou come unto me ? Ps. ci. 2. Hear me
speedily, my God, make no tarrying, Ps. xl. 17. Shall I never
be made clean ? good Lord, when shall it once be ? Save me,
Master, or I perish/
But be sure, in all thy addresses to God, thou look up to Jesus
Christ as thine advocate with the Father, as the only master of
requests, to present and perfume all thy prayers, and thereby make
VOL. in. 2 A
370 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
them prevalent. Through him we have access with confidence unto
the Father, Eph. ii. 18. It is possible thou mayest have seen a
child going to be scourged for its faults by a stern mother, the ten
der father sitting by ; and how the child, seeing the rod taken
down and the mother in earnest, casteth a pitiful, lamentable look
upon its father, both longing and expecting to be saved by his me
diation. Go thou and do likewise ; and know, for thy encourage
ment, that if David heard Joab, whom he loved but little, for rebel
lious Absalom, and if Herod heard Blastus, a servant, for those of
Tyre and Sidon who had offended him, then, without doubt, God
will hear the Son of his infinite love for thee. And if thou art but
sensible of thy soul-sickness, thou mayest be confident that thy
spiritual physician, who is authorised by his Father to practise,
and delighteth exceedingly in the employment, will come and heal
thee. Thy sickness shall not be unto death, but for the glory of God
and thine eternal good.
CHAPTER XIX.
Motives to mind this spiritual life : It is the most honourable,
most comfortable, most profitable life.
I shall, in the next place, only annex three properties of thi
spiritual life, as motives to encourage thee to a laborious endeavour
ing after it, and then leave both thee and this exhortation to the
blessing of God.
First, This spiritual life is the most honourable life. No life
hath so much excellency in it as the life of godliness. If I had my
wish, saith Luther, I would choose the homely work of a rustical
Christian before all the victories of Alexander the Great and Julius
Caesar. 1 The excellency and dignity of every life dependeth upon the
form which is its principle, and its specificating difference. There
fore the life of a man is more noble than the life of a beast, because
it hath a more noble form, a rational soul, which distinguished
it specifically from, and enableth it to act more nobly and highly
than a beast. And truly, therefore, the life of a Christian is more
honourable and excellent than the life of any other man, because
he hath a more noble form which is the principle of it, and dif-
ferenceth it specifically from the life of graceless men Jesus Christ,
1 Si daretur mihi optio, eligerem Christian! rustic! agreste opus, pr omnibus
victoriis Alexandri Magni et Julii Csesaris. Luth. in Gen. xxxii.
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 371
the Lord of life and glory, dwelling in his heart by his Spirit, as
the principle of his spiritual life. If there be an excellency in that
body which is united to a soul, what excellency is there in that
soul which is united to a Saviour ! It is called the life of God,
Eph. iv. 18. Surely no life can be more honourable than the life
of God ; yet in their measure the sanctified ones live the very same
life that the glorious God, the fountain of all true honour, liveth.
David, though a king, thought himself honoured by being God s
subject ; and therefore as others, before their works, mention those
titles which belong to them, and speak their honour, David styleth
himself, before the six and thirtieth Psalm, a servant of God, as his
most honourable title A Psalm of David, a servant of the Lord.
If it be such an honour to serve an earl, a king, what is it to serve
the King of kings and Lord of lords ! l
Godliness is called a walking with God, Gen. v. 24 ; a conversing
or having fellowship with the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son,
1 John i. 3. For God to walk and converse with us is his greatest
humiliation ; but for us to walk or converse with God is our highest
exaltation.
The righteous, saith the wise man who had judgment to set a
due price upon persons is more excellent than his neighbour,
Prov. xii. 26. Let him live by never so rich or great men, yet if
they want grace, they are not comparable to him.
The godly man hath the most honourable birth he is born of
God, John i. 13 ; the most honourable breeding he is brought up
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; the most honourable
tutor and teacher, the good Spirit of God, John xiv. 16 ; the most
honourable attendants, the glorious angels ; the most honourable
employment his main work is to wait upon and worship the most
high God. 2
The most honourable relations: a king for his father, 2 Cor.
vi. 18 ; a queen for his mother, Gal. iv. 26 ; the excellent of the
earth, Ps. xvi. 3 ; lords in all lands, Ps. xlv. 16 ; higher than the
kings of the earth, Ps. Ixxxix. 27 ; those worthies, of whom the
world is not worthy, for his brethren and sisters.
Numa, second king in Rome, though a heathen, could say that
he held it a higher honour to serve God than to rule over men.
The Jews say that those seventy souls which went down into
1 Constantino and Valentinian, two emperors, subscribed themselves Vassallos
>| Ckristi.Socr.
2 Sumus Domini non tantum in genitiro singular! ; sed etiam in nominativo
plurali. Luih.
372 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
Egypt were more worth than all the seventy nations of the world
beside. If the glorious angels in heaven are more honourable than
the devils, sure I am it is holiness that maketh the difference.
The most gaudy and goodly fruits of morality, springing from
the soil of nature, manured and improved to the utmost ; the
heavens bespangled with those glittering stars, and adorned with
that illustrious sun, are nothing glorious in comparison of the heart
of a poor Christian that is embroidered with grace. It is god
liness alone that addeth worth and value to all our civil and
natural things ; as the diamond to the ring. Nothing doth really
debase and degrade a man but sin; and nothing doth truly advance
or ennoble the soul but holiness. Job scraping himself on the
dunghill, and Jeremiah sinking in the mire, were more honourable
and glorious than Ahab and Ahaz on their thrones with their
crowns. If the respect we have from others makes us honourable,
then they that are most precious in God s sight are most honour
able, Isa. xliii. 4. If it be some internal excellency that makes men
honourable, then they that have the image of God must be most
honourable.
It is worthy our observation that sin is so ignoble and base, that
those wicked ones who love it most, are ashamed to own it openly ;
but because of the excellency of holiness, will set that forth for their
colours, their banners, though indeed they fight Satan s battles.
That forlorn hope for hell, 2 Tim. iii. 5, of covenant-breakers,
blasphemers, men without natural affection, yet they will have a
form of godliness ; though they do sin s drudgery, yet they are
ashamed of their base master, and therefore wear the saints livery,
having a form of godliness. Nay, the devil himself will appear in
Samuel s mantle, and transform himself into an angel of light.
But holiness is so excellent that God is pleased to esteem it as
his own beauty and glory. How often is he called the Holy One
of Israel ! The angels ascribe holiness to him by way of eminency :
Holy, holy, holy, Isa. vi. 3. We read not in Scripture of any of
God s other attributes thrice repeated, to shew that the dignity of
God consisteth in this. And so do the saints in heaven praise him
for it as his excellency, Kev. vi. 10, and the saints on earth, Exod.
xv. 11. Holiness is the character of Jesus Christ; the image of
the infinitely glorious God; nay, it is called the divine nature.
Surely, then, they that have most of it are most honourable ; and they
which want it, how full soever they are of all other excellencies, are
base and contemptible.
Secondly, As this spiritual life is most honourable, so it is most
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 373
comfortable. There is no life so pleasant and delightful as the
life of a saint. The merry grigs and jolly gallants of the world,
whose sinful mirth is worse than madness, will needs tell us, that
godliness makes men moppish and melancholy ; that when once we
salute religion, we take our leave of all delight and consolation ;
whereas, indeed, there never was true peace born, but it had purity
for its parent ; all other is spurious and illegitimate. But the world,
like the primitive persecutors, put Christians into the skins of
bears and bulls, and then bait them, as if they were really such.
And the hand of the devil is in all this, who, like the Indians,
maketh great fires to fright mariners from landing at such coasts
as would be most for their comfort and contentment. Believe,
reader, the true and faithful witness, His ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all his paths are peace, Prov. iii. 17. It is not
sanctity, but their want of it, or mistake about it, which maketh
them sorrowful.
It is confessed saints may be sad ; they do not cease to be men,
when they begin to be Christians. It was in thy company, it may
be, sinner. No wonder. Fish cannot sport themselves when
they are out of their element. Birds do not sing on the ground,
but when they are mounting on high towards heaven. And pro
bably their hearts were heavy out of compassion to thee, whom they
observed to be hastening to hell, and dancing merrily over the
very pit of destruction and easeless misery. Thou seest their
sorrows sometimes, thine eyes may behold their tears ; but thou
dost not see their joys, thy heartoannot conceive them.
St Augustine relateth concerning a heathen that shewed the
father his idol gods, saying, Here is my god, where is thine ?
and then pointing up to the sun, he said, Here is my god, but where
is thine ? I shewed him not my God, saith Augustine, not because
I had none to shew, but because he had no eyes to see him. 1 Thus
the joys of a saint are invisible to the wicked, because they are in
ward spiritual joys, though they are joys unspeakable and
glorious.
They have such joy as thou art not to intermeddle with, Prov.
xiv. 10 ; they have meat to eat which thou knowest not of. Their
life is a hidden life, Col. iii. 3, and their comforts are hidden
comforts. Their secret meals fatten their souls, and their bread
eaten in secret, how pleasant is it !
The kingdom of God, which is this spiritual life, consisteth not
in meats and drink, but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
1 Augustine Confess.
374 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
Holy Ghost, Kom. xiv. 17 ; and besides, it cometh not with
observation, Luke xvii. 20 ; the world taketh no notice of it. It
doth not consist in the laughter of the face, in the smiles of the
brow, but in the tranquillity of the mind, solid contentment in the
breast.
Christ takes his spouse apart from the crowd of the world, and
then gives her the sweetest kisses, the dearest embraces, yea, her
very fill of love. Many a loving visit hath the saint from the
Saviour ; when Christ came in at the back door, the neighbours
neither saw when he came, nor when he went away. A true
Christian hath the most heart-cheering wine, though he hangs out
no bush, maketh no show of it in the world ; the wealthy merchant,
that is worth thousands, doth not cry his commodities up and down
the city.
The parlour, wherein the Spirit of Christ entertains the Christian,
is an inner room, not next the street, for every one that goeth by to
smell the feast : The stranger doth not meddle with his joy,
Prov. xiv. 10. Christ and the soul may sit at supper within, and
thou not see one dish go in, nor hear the music that sounds so
sweetly in the Christian s ears. 1 Perhaps thou thinkest he wants
peace, because he doth not hang out a sign in his countenance of
that peace and joy within. Alas, poor wretch ! may not the saint
have a peaceful conscience, with a solemn, yea, sad countenance, as
well as thou and thy companions have a sorrowful heart, when
there is nothing but fair weather in your faces ?
Whether they have the greatest comfort or no, do thou judge.
Sure I am, there are none in this world that have so much ground
to be comfortable as they have. They have the most delightful
company ; they walk with God, they sup with Christ ; their fellow
ship is with the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, which is the only
good fellowship, 1 John i. 3. They have the most delightful food ;
they eat of the bread that came down from heaven, and drink of that
love which is better than wine. They are abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of God s house, and made to drink of the rivers of ;
his own pleasures, Ps. xxxvi. 8, and are bidden welcome with, Eat, :
friends, drink abundantly, beloved ! These are exceedings j
indeed ; but, if it be not their own fault, they have them often,
besides their every hour s fare of a good conscience, which is a con- .j
tinual feast. They have the most delightful music, they hear the ,
joyful sound of the gospel of peace, the glad tidings of pardon, ;
adoption, salvation, and so may rejoice in hope of glory ; many al
1 Mr Gurnal, Arm., 2d part, p. 343.
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 375
time surely their hearts are warmed, and their ears ravished, at the
hearing of the affection which Christ beareth to them, and the
benefits he hath bought for them. They have the most delightful
lodging ; they lie all night between Christ s arms, in the chamber
of the great King. They have the richest mercies, the special love
of the Father, the precious blood of the Son, and the divine graces
of the Spirit, when others have only the blessings of the footstool,
of the left hand, such giftless gifts, as one calleth them, as may
consist with an eternal separation from God. They have the mercies
of the throne, of the right hand, the blessings of his own children,
and such as do accompany salvation. No wonder that they sit
under Christ s shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet
unto their taste, Cant. ii. 3.
The child of God, by virtue of a good conscience, in the midst of
the waves of affliction, is as secure as that child which in a ship
wreck was upon a plank with his mother, till she awaked him then
securely sleeping, and then, with his pretty countenance sweetly
smiling, and by and by sportingly asking a stroke to beat the
naughty waves. At last, when they continued boisterous for all
that, sharply chiding them as if they had been his playfellows. 1 Oh
the innocency, oh the comfort, of peace of conscience !
It is likely, indeed, that when they wander from Christ, they may
come home by Weeping-cross, as outlying deer are full of fear, and
therefore, it is observed, seldom fat, but they run the ways of God s
commandments with enlarged hearts. And whatever be the cause
of their sorrow, whether their own sins, or thine, or others , or the
afflictions of the church, whatever it be, their mourning is better
than thy carnal mirth.
And this I dare undertake for them, that in their most discon
solate condition, they shall not change with the most prosperous
prince in the world that is out of Christ. Alas ! the comfort of a
sinner, as it is but short, like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so it is but shallow, skin-deep at most, like a sudden storm of rain
which wetteth the surface of the earth, but never sinketh to the
root. 2 Their joy may smooth the brow, but cannot warm the breast ;
their looks may be sometimes lively, but their hearts are always
heavy : For there is no peace to the wicked, saith my God, Isa.
Ivii. 21. Their mirth is like some juicy plums, which have stones
with a bitter kernel. It is not the great cage that maketh the bird
sing, nor the great estate that bringeth real comfort. The stateliest
1 Dr Stoughton.
2 Caeterse hilaritates non implent pectus, sed frontem remittunt. Sen., desapi. 23.
376 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
and best accommodated houses of unsanetified men, are but like
the nests of wasps, where there may be curious combs, but no honey,
many outward mercies, but no true inward mirth, no sweetness-
When the voice of joy and salvation is in the tabernacle of the
righteous, Ps. cxviii. 15, they only have the strong consolations,
Heb. vi. 18, the joy unspeakable and glorious, 1 Peter i. 8,
the peace of God which passeth all understanding, to garrison
their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, Phil. iv. 7.
As they have more afflictions than others the disciple of Christ
must take up his cross so they have more consolations than others ;
and their soul comforts are not seldom the sweetest, when their
bodily crosses are greatest, (as the sweetest roses grow nearest
the most stinking weeds,) although the blind world see them not.
As a man standing, saith a divine, upon the sea-shore, seeth a great
heap of waters, one wave riding upon the neck of another, and
heareth the loud roarings thereof, but though he seeth the waters, yet
he doth not see the wealth, the infinite riches, that lie buried in them ;
so wicked men see the waters, the afflictions, the conflicts, but not
the wealth, the comforts, the inward joy of the children of God.
Thirdly, As this spiritual life is the most honourable and com
fortable, so it is the most profitable life. No calling bringeth in
such advantage as Christianity : Godliness is profitable unto all
things, 1 Tim. iv. 8. There is a universal gainfulness in real god
liness. Plutarch telleth us that the Babylonians make above three
hundred several commodities of the palm-tree ; but there are many
thousand benefits which godliness bringeth. No merchant ever had
his vessels returned so richly laden, as he that tradeth heavenward.
Observe, reader, after the apostle s affirmation, his full confirma
tion of it : Godliness (saith he) is profitable unto all things ; it
hath the promise of this life, and that to come, i.e., It hath heaven
and earth entailed on it, and therefore it must needs be profitable.
It giveth the Christian much in possession the promise of this
life ; but infinitely more in reversion the life that is to come.
The promises of God are exceeding great for their quantity, and
precious for their quality, and they all belong to a godly man ;
he is called an heir of the promises, Heb. vi. 17. Whensoever the
tree of the Scripture is shaken, whatsoever fruit of those precious
promises falleth down, it falleth into the lap of a godly man. If at
any time that box of costly ointment be broken, and sendeth forth
its fragrant scent and virtue, it is to the refreshment only of the
saints.
Godliness is profitable to thyself : If thou art wise, thou art
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 377
wise for thyself; and if a scorner, thou alone shalt bear it,
Prov. ix. 12. The sinner is nobody s foe so much as his own ;
the murdering pieces of sin which he dischargeth against God
miss their mark, but do constantly recoil and wound himself.
The saint is nobody s friend so much as his own ; others fare the
better for his great stock of grace, but the propriety in all, the com
fort of all, and the profit by all, is his own. It enables him to give
away the more at his door, but how rich a table doth he thereby
keep for himself and his own family !
Godliness is profitable for thy children : The just man walketh
in his integrity, and his children are blessed after him, Prov. xx.
7. Personal piety is profitable to posterity, yet not of merit, but
mercy. Though grace come not by generation, but donation, and
though God hath mercy on whom he will, yet the seed of the saints
are visibly nearer the quickening influences of the Spirit, than the
children of others. When God saith he will be a God to the godly
man and his children, I believe he intendeth more in that pro
mise for the comfort of godly parents than most of them think of,
Acts ii. 36, Gen. xvii. 7. The children of believers are heirs-appa
rent to the covenant of grace in their parents right. Godliness is
profitable in prosperity ; it giveth a spiritual right to temporal good
things. A gracious man holdeth his mercies in capite, in Christ,
(that is his tenure,) as Christ is a joint-heir of all things, he being
married to him by this spiritual life is a joint-heir with him. He
enjoy eth earthly things by a heavenly title ; and one penny en
joyed by special promise is far more worth than millions which un
godly men enjoy by a general providence, as the beasts of the field do
their provender. It is godliness that causeth a sanctified improve
ment of mercies. Grace alone, like Christ, turneth water into wine,
corporal mercies into spiritual advantages. The more God oils the
wheels, the more cheerfully and swiftly he moveth in the way to
heaven. The more showers of heaven fall down upon him, the
more fruitful and abundant he is in the work of the Lord, as we
see in that gracious king Jehoshaphat : 2 Chron. xvii. 5, 6, The
Lord established the kingdom in his hand ; and all Judah brought
presents unto him, and he had riches and honour in abundance
And his heart was lift up in the ways of God. Mark, the more
God s hand was enlarged in bounty, the more his heart was en
larged in duty. The more highly God thinks of David, the more
lowly he thought of himself, 2 Sam. vii. 18. Outward mercies to a
believer are a ladder by which he mounteth up nearer to heaven.
Thus godliness, like the philosopher s stone, turneth iron and every-
378 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
thing into gold ; but the want of this spiritual life causeth a cursed,
hellish use of mercies. Ungodly men, like the spider, suck poison
out of those flowers out of which the bees, the saints, suck
honey. Their mercies are like cordials to a foul stomach, which do
but increase the peccant humour. He feedeth on such plenty,
that he surfeits himself because of their abundance, Job xxi. 7-14,
Therefore they say unto the Almighty, Depart from us ; for we de
sire not the knowledge of thy ways. Like the Israelites, they make
of the jewels which God giveth, a golden calf, and worship that
instead of God.
Godliness is profitable in adversity ; it maketh a Christian, like a
rabbit, to thrive the better in frosty weather. The child of God
learneth the better for the rod : Before he was afflicted he went
astray, but now he keepeth God s word/ Ps. cxix. 67. Well may
grace be called the divine nature, for it can bring not only light
out of light, spiritual comfort and good out of outward good things,
but also light out of darkness, good out of evil, gain out of losses,
life out of death. It will, like Samson, fetch meat out of the
eater ; like the ostrich, digest stones ; like Mithridates, fetch nourish
ment out of poison ; when wicked men, like Ahaz, in their dis
tress sin more against the Lord. As fire, the more it is kept in in
an oven, the more it rageth, so doth corruption ; but godly men,
far otherwise, are by the fire of affliction the more refined and puri
fied for their Master s use.
Godliness is profitable to thee while thou livest. In doubts it
will direct thee, as a light to thy feet, and a lantern to thy paths ;
in dangers it will protect thee, by setting thee on high, and giving
thee for a place of defence the munition of rocks ; in wants it will
supply thee, by affording thee bread in the word, when thou hast
none on the board ; and money in the promise, 1 Tim. iv. 8, which
is by thousands the better, when thou hast none in thy purse ; in
thy pain it will ease thee ; in disgrace it will honour thee ; in
sorrows it will comfort thee ; in sickness it will strengthen, by
causing thee to count the crosses of this life as nothing, and
unworthy to be compared to the pleasures and glory which shall
be revealed ; in all distresses it will support thee, and make thee
more than a conqueror over all, through him that loveth us, Kom.
viii. 37.
Lastly, Godliness will be profitable to thee when thou diest.
Death, which is the terrible of terribles to others, will be the com
fortable of comfortables to thee. Thou needest never fear ill news in
thine ears, having Christ and grace in thy heart ; others shall not be
:
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 379
such unspeakable losers by death, but thou shalt be as great a
gainer.
When thou liest on thy death-bed, where all thy friends, and
riches, and earthly comforts will fail thee, this spiritual life is the
good part which shall never be taken from thee. Thou mayest
look upward, and see, as it were, God smiling on thee in the face of
Christ, and hear him call to his angels to go and fetch thee, his
child, who hast been all this while at nurse, home to the Father s
house. Thou mayest look downward on thy relations, and with
much faith and cheerfulness commit thy fatherless children to
God, and bid thy weeping widow trust in him, who will be infinitely
better to them than ten thousand of the richest, tenderest fathers
and husbands in the world. Thou mayest look without thee into
Scripture, and behold it as a garden full of sweet flowers, comfort
ing cordials, refreshing, heart-reviving promises ; and though it be
an enclosure to others, it is open and free to thee. Thou mayest
pick and choose, cull and gather, where thou pleasest, and needest
not fear to be children. In the multitude of those perplexing
thoughts which at that time may be within thee, thou mayest find
choice comforts there to refresh thy spirit. If thou look within
thee, thou shalt not have thy conscience, like an unquiet wife, frown
ing on thee, and scolding at thee; but thou shalt hear a little
bird singing merrily and sweetly in thy breast, Lord, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word ; for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation.
How joyfully mayest thou leave thy dearest wife, to go to thine
infinitely dearer husband ! How willingly mayest thou forsake thy
lovely children, to go to thy loving God and Father ! How freely
mayest thou part with all thy friends, honours, and pleasures, to
go to the congregation of the first-born, those rivers of pleasures,
and eternal weight of glory ! How cheerfully mayest thou bid
adieu to nothing for all things, to stars and streams at best, for a
full, immediate, eternal enjoyment of the Sun himself, and an im
mense ocean of happiness ! With what a lively colour in thy face,
and true comfort in thy heart, mayest thou behold that pale-faced
messenger death, the thought of whom, though afar off, is death to
others, entering into thy chamber, and coming up to thy bedside !
How heartily welcome mayest thou bid him, as knowing that he
cometh purposely to give thee actual possession of fulness of joy,
unspeakable delights, a kingdom of glory that is eternal in the
heaven ! Oh the gain of godliness, the profit of piety ! surely the
price of this pearl is scarce known in this world !
380 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XIX.
A merchant will in the morning gain five hundred pounds by a
bargain, whereas poor people work hard a whole day for a shilling.
Such a rich trade driveth the godly man. Godliness brings in
thousands and millions at a clap, when the moral and civil, yet un-
sanctified man, may work hard, and yet earn but some poor busi
ness, some outward blessing God may give them, and his eternal
wrath at last.
Now, reader, consider if here be not abundant encouragement
for thee presently and diligently to labour for this spiritual life.
Is it not the gainfullest calling that ever was followed, the richest
trade ever was driven ? Why dost thou spend thy strength for
what is not bread ? and thy labour for that which will not satisfy ?
hearken to me, and eat thou that which is good, and let thy soul
delight itself in fatness.
As Saul said to his servants, Hear now, ye Benjamites ; will the
son of Jesse give you fields and vineyards, and make you all cap
tains of thousands, and captains of hundreds ? 1 Sam. xxii. 7. So
say I to thee, Hearken, friend ; will a sensual, fleshly life give
thee such honour as to be the son of the infinite God, such comfort
as to drink of the pure rivers of God s own pleasures, and will it
make thee bold at death, and confident at judgment, an heir of
heaven, and so happy in every condition ? Can it do this ? Can
it give thee, as godliness can, so much in hand, and infinitely more
in hope ? If it can, I will give up my cause, and leave thee to thy
choice ; but if it cannot, as doubtless thou art convinced, so, un
less thou art a heathen amongst Christians, why dost thou labour
so much and so eagerly for the pampering and pleasing thy flesh,
for the food that perisheth, and so little and so lazily for this food,
which will endure unto everlasting life ?
It was an excellent answer of one of the martyrs, when he was
offered riches and honours if he would recant, Do but offer me
somewhat that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall
see what I will say to you.
Reader, could the world, or the flesh, shew thee anything that
were better, nay, equal, nay, that were but ten thousand degrees
inferior to Christ and godliness, thou mightst have some colour
for thy gratifying the flesh, and unwillingness to walk after the
Spirit ; but when the disproportion is so vast, that the one is not
worthy in the least to be compared with the other when the dirFer-
ence is as great as between a sea of honey and a spoonful of gall ;
a whole world of pearl, and a little heap of dirt ; a heaven of
happiness and a hell of horror is it not unconceivable madness,
CHAP. XIX.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 381
and inexcusable folly, to choose that life which is after the flesh,
and refuse that which is after the Spirit ?
Header, if thou wouldst be truly honourable in the esteem of
God himself, who is the fountain of all honour ; if thou wouldst
have those spiritual consolations, which can warm the heart in the
coldest night of affliction; if thou wouldst be profitable to thy
dear children, to thy own soul, be a real gainer in prosperity, in
adversity, while thou livest, when thou diest; if thou wouldst,
when thy wealth, and friends, and flesh, and heart shall fail thee,
have God in Christ to be the strength of thy heart, and thy portion
for ever ; if thou wouldst, in thy greatest extremity, when thy soul
shall be turned, naked of all earthly delights, out of thy body,
escape the fury of roaring devils, and unquenchable burnings ; if
thou wouldst in that hour of thy misery find mercy, and be received
into the place of endless bliss, then get this spiritual life, this true
wisdom, to fear God and depart from evil. Get wisdom, get
understanding ; forget it not ; above all thy gettings get wisdom.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth
understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the
merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is
more precious than rubies : and all the things thou canst desire are
not to be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand ;
and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to
all that lay hold upon her ; and happy is every one that retaineth
her, Prov. iii. 13-18.
And now, reader, I have done this large use of exhortation, which
is of such infinite concernment to thy precious soul ; but what thou
wilt do, or what use thou wilt make of it, I know not. Could I
have told what other holy bait to have laid, which had been more
likely to have caught thy soul, it is probable I should have laid it.
I appeal to thy conscience, whether there be not unspeakable
weight, and unquestionable truth, in the particulars which are laid
down. Well, what sayest thou to them, and what effect have they
wrought upon thee? Art thou resolved, through the help of heaven,
speedily and diligently to practise the directions which I have
from the almighty God enjoined thee ? Is it not a thousand thou
sand pities that such endless, matchless happiness should be so gra
ciously offered by God, and so unworthily neglected by men ? that
an empty, perishing world should be so eagerly pursued, and heartily
embraced, when the unsearchable riches in Christ, the image of the
blessed God, the eternal weight of glory, are basely undervalued,
382 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XX.
and wretchedly despised? Good Lord, what tears of blood are
sufficient to bewail this monstrous unthankf ulness ? Friend, if thou
art truly resolved to obey the counsel of God, thou wilt have cause
to bless that providence which called me to this task ; and I may
rejoice in thee, and thou in me, at the day of Christ. But if thou
either delayest the work till thou art more at leisure, or dalliest
about it, doing it as if thou didst it not, I am sure the greatest
wrong will be to thyself ; for, behold, thou sinnest against the Lord,
and be confident, thy sins will sooner or later find thee out.
CHAPTER XX.
Comfort to true Christians.
I come, in the next place, to my last use, which will be of conso
lation. If they who have Christ for their life, shall have gain by
their death, what comfort is here to the new-born creature ! Here
is wine indeed to make glad the heart of every one that is holy.
Reader, art thou sanctified and alive in Christ ? then thou art freed
from all the misery which is mentioned in the first use, as the por
tion of the ungodly. I may say to thee, as Gryneus, when he had
been reproving and threatening sinners, would, turning to the
saint, say, Bone vir, hoc nihil ad te ; Good man, all this is nothing
to thee. Though they are losers, thou shalt be a gainer by death.
Come but with the mouth of faith, and thou mayest suck much
honey from this comb, thou mayest draw much milk of consolation
from this breast ; to thee to die shall be gain. Surely here is
enough to ballast thy soul, and keep it steady, in the most
tempestuous condition, and to balance and weigh down the greatest,
the heaviest affliction.
Jerome comforted the hermit that was in a wilderness sad and
pensive, Meditare codum et tamdiu non eris in eremo.
If thou hadst hope only in this life, thou wert of all men most
miserable ; but because thou hast hope beyond this life, thou mayest
be of all men most comfortable.
Should such a man as I fly? Neh. vi. 11. Should such a
man as thou fear, that art heir to a crown, to a kingdom ? Luke xii.
32, Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father s pleasure to give you
a kingdom/ In thy greatest losses this may support thee, that
death will be thy gain, by giving thee possession of a life which
will make amends for all. If a heathen could say, it is unbecom-
CHAP. XXI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 383
ing a Koman spirit to cry out, I am undone, while Caesar was safe,
sure it is more uncomely for a Christian to complain, as if he were
undone, when his soul is safe, his eternal estate is secure.
For thy help, I shall digest this use into this method briefly.
First, To shew thee against what it is comfortable.
Secondly, Wherein it is comfortable.
CHAPTER XXL
Comfort against the ivorld s fury, and Satan s rage.
For the first, it is comfortable, first, Against the opposition of the
world: The world will hate thee, because thou art not of the world/
John xv. 19. She is a paradise to her children and lovers, but a
purgatory to aliens and strangers. Whilst thou art in the stormy
sea of this world, thou art a ship bound for the straits. He that
goeth towards the sun, shall have his shadow following him ; but
he that goeth from it, shall have it fly before. He that goeth
towards the Sun of righteousness, shall be sure to have these
shadows, these afflictions, at his heels.
Infinite wisdom seeth fit to imbitter the breasts of the creatures
to wean thee from them. Trouble upon earth is one legacy which
thy Saviour hath left thee: In the world ye shall have trouble,
John xvi. 33. The soldiers were to have his garments ; Joseph
was to have his body ; his Father was to have his soul ; he had
his cross left, and that he bequeaths to his disciples. But be of
good cheer, he did not only leave thee his cross, but hath also made
thee heir to a crown : I give to them eternal life.
He never looked over the threshold of heaven, that cannot more
rejoice that he shall be glorious, than mourn in present that he is
miserable. 1
Oppose thy future felicity to thy present misery, thy happiness at
death to the hardships thou meetest with in life ; this will be the
way to counterpoise the temptation, and to keep thee from fainting
in tribulation, whilst thou lookest not at the things which are seen,
which are temporal, but at the things which are not seen, which
are eternal, 2 Cor. iv.
I have read of one Giacopo Senzaro, an Italian, who having been
long in love, and much crossed about his match, filled a pot full of
black stones, only one white stone among them, and being asked
1 Bishop Hall, Heaven upon Earth, sec. 14.
384 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXI.
the reason, answered, There will come one white day (meaning his
marriage day) which will make amends for all my black days. So
whatsoever poverty, nakedness, hunger, cold, pain, shame, losses,
thou undergoest here in this world, how many soever thy black days
are of trials and troubles, of persecutions and opposition, thou
mayest say, There is one white day of death, one long day of eternity
coming, which will make amends for all.
It was a brave speech of Luther, when he was demanded where he
would be when the emperor should with all his forces fall upon the
elector of Saxony, who was the chief protector of Protestants ; he
answered, Aut in ccdo,aut sub ccelo ; Either inheaven,or under heaven-
Why shouldst thou be discouraged at any loss, considering thou
hast a treasure in heaven, a more enduring substance ? at any
disgrace, considering thou art heir to a crown of glory ? at any
pain or sorrow, when thou art entitled to fulness of joy and pleasures
for evermore.
No storm should disquiet thee, that shall shortly enjoy an ever
lasting calm. What a pitiful thing that was, that Alexander,
that was lord almost of the world, should be troubled that ivy
would not grow in his garden at Babylon ; and is it not a poor
thing for thee, that art a child of God, the spouse of Christ, the
temple of the Spirit, an heir of the most glorious, rich, and delight
ful kingdom that ever was, to lie whining and pining if thy head do
but ache, or thy estate decrease, or thy friend forsake thee ? For
shame ; remember who thou art, and to what thou art called, and say,
as the martyr, Hold out faith and patience, your work is almost at
end. Thou shalt ere long leave this world, and all its evils, and go
where there is neither sorrow nor sin, and indeed there can be no
affliction there, because there will be no corruption there, which is
the original of all miseries. As there cannot be any thunder or
lightning in the upper region, because the vapours which are the
materials of it cannot ascend so high ; so, because no unclean
thing can be there, therefore no sorrow, no suffering, can be there.
How may this comfort thee ! Basil tells us 1 how the martyrs,
that were cast out naked in a winter s night, being to be burned the
next day, solaced their souls with these words : Sharp is the cold,
but sweet is paradise ; troublesome is the way, but pleasant shall
be the end of our journey. Let us endure cold a little, and the
patriarch s bosom shall soon warm us ; let our feet burn a while,
that we may dance for ever with angels.
2. It is a comfort against the temptations of the devil. Whilst
1 Basil &s TOVS papr.
CHAP. XXI.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 385
thou livest in this world, thou art liable to his wiles. If thou wilt
go to heaven, so boundless is his malice that he raiseth all the
powers of hell against thee, and forceth thee to fight every foot of
the way. He is the strong man that hath full possession of carnal,
unregenerate ones, and therefore all is at peace with them, Mat.
xii. What need a captain bend his forces against a town which
hath delivered up itself into his hands ? What need he plant his
cannons and batteries against these gates which are already set open
to him ? This jailer doth not trouble himself much about those
prisoners which are fast in his dungeon, with his irons on their legs,
and are led captive by him at his will, 1 Tim. ii. 26 ; but for thee,
who hast by the help of Christ broken prison, and in part got out
of his power, he raiseth all the country with hue-and-cry to bring
thee back to thy old place of bondage. But be comforted, Christ
hath conquered him already in his own person as thy head ; is daily
conquering him in thee, his member, by his Spirit; and will shortly
crush him fully under thy feet, 1 Eom. xvi. 20. Some refer that
shortly to the day of judgment, which will come shortly, and
wherein Satan shall be utterly crushed under all the saints feet for
ever. And it is as true of the day of death, in reference to every
particular saint. As when a man dieth, all those vexatious law
suits, with which he was before molested, do cease ; so when the
believer dieth, all those false actions which Satan had commenced
against him in the court of his conscience, and all that inward
trouble which did arise thereupon, do all cease.
It is no sign now, Christian, if thou resistest, that thou art
assaulted by the wicked one. A thief will not break into a house
that is empty. A pirate will not fight but for some considerable
prize. A father will not seek to destroy his own children.
Temptation is no sign of God s hatred, but of the devil s. But let
this be thy solace, that within a few days thou shalt be at rest, not
only from thy own labours, but also from Satan s snares and sugges
tions. God doth thee much good by them now ; the noise of those
guns causeth the conies to hasten to their burrows, and the birds
to their places of refuge. The more the tops of sound trees are
shaken with the wind, the more deeply their roots are fixed in the
earth ; the more eagerly Satan followeth thee, the faster thou fliest,
and the closer thou clingest to Jesus Christ. But God will do thee
the greatest good without them ; and when that shall be, thou shalt
be wholly freed from them. Since the devils were cast out of
heaven, we read of their being sometimes in the sea, Mat. viii. 33 ;
1 Paraeus in loc.
VOL. III. 2 B
386 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXII.
sometimes in the earth, Job i. 7; and sometimes in the air, Eph. ii.
3 ; and they are called principalities and spiritual wickednesses in
high places, Eph. vi. 12, but never in heaven. They aspire to get
as high as they can, but they can get no further than the air ;
Satan and his angels find no more place in heaven, Eev. xii. 8.
Now what comfort is this, Christian, that thou shalt serve the
Lord without distraction, without temptations !
CHAPTEK XXII.
Comfort against our own corruptions, our own or other
believers dissolution.
3. It is comfortable against the corruptions of thine own heart.
What is it now that is thy greatest sorrow ? Is it not thy sin ?
These are the weights which hang on the clock of thy heart, and
will not suffer it to rest day or night. Well, rejoice in hope ; at
death all these Achans, which are the troublers of thy peace, shall
be stoned to death ; all these Jonahs, which cause such storms in
thy soul, shall be cast overboard ; all these Hamans, which seek
the ruin of thee and thy people, shall be executed.
Now it is thy great care in every ordinance to kill thy sins.
Dost thou not, like Joab, set the Uriah of thy beloved lust in the
forefront of every duty, and retire from it, out of pious policy, that
it may be slain ? And when at any time it pleaseth the captain
of thy salvation to send the supplies of his Spirit, and wound mor
tally thy corruption, that it lieth gasping and dying before thee,
dost thou not look up to Christ and say, as Cushi to David concern
ing dead Absalom, Would to God that all the enemies of my
lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, were
as that young man is. Lord, that all my sins might drink of the
same cup, and be served the same sauce ? Blessed be the Lord my
God, which hath avenged me this day of mine enemy. If God
should thrust the knife of mortification up to the haft in the very
hearts of all thy sins, that thou couldst see thy pride, distrust, un-
thankfulness, hardness of heart, and every corruption in a gore-
blood, fetching their last breath, would it not be a lovely sight to
thee ? Wouldst thou not look upon it with as much content as
Hannibal did upon a pitful of the blood of men, when he cried out,
formosum spectaculum ! beautiful sight ! Or as that queen,
that cried out, when she saw her subjects lie dead before her eyes,
CHAP. XXII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 387
the goodliest tapestry that ever she beheld ! At death all this
shall be done for thee. One touch of Jesus Christ at death will
quite dry up that issue of corruption. Death will give thee a writ
of ease from all those weights and sins which do so easily beset thee.
Thou shalt be without fault before the throne of God, Kev. xiv. 5.
Will it not indeed be a brave world with thee in the other world,
when thou shalt have as much holiness as thy heart can wish or
hold ? If God should grant thee such a request upon earth, that
thou shouldst have as much of his image and of his Spirit as thou
couldst desire, wouldst thou not think thyself the happiest man
alive ? I am confident thou wouldst ; and also that nothing less
than perfect purity would be thy prayer. Well, death will help
thee to this : When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness/
Ps. xvii. 15.
Now thou hast enough to stay thy stomach, but then thou shalt
have a full meal. When the Israelites went out of Egypt towards
Canaan, there was not one feeble person among them. When the
Christian entereth into the true Canaan, he that is feeble among
them at that day shall be as David, nay, as the angel of the Lord
before him.
When thy frame of nature shall be ruined, thy frame of grace
shall be perfected and raised to the height of glory.
4. It is comfortable against thy dissolution. To thee to die is
gain ; death will be thy passage into eternal life. Thou needest not
fear death as a foe ; it will be one of thy best friends. How did
this hope of happiness at death hold up the martyrs heads above
water, and carry them through those boisterous waves of violent
and cruel deaths, with the greatest serenity and alacrity of spirit.
Agesilaus, king of Sparta, used to say, that they which live virtu
ously are not yet blessed persons, but they had attained true feli
city who died virtuously. 1
What is there in death, that thou art so afraid of it ? Wilt thou
fear a bee without a sting ? Dost thou not know it had but one
sting for Christ and Christians, and that was left in Christ the
head ; whereby now, though it may buzz and make a noise about
their ears, yet it can never sting or hurt the members. The
waters of Jordan, though tempestuous before, yet were calm, and
stood still, when the ark was to pass over.
If thou hadst been banished many years from thy dear relations,
whom thou lovedst as thy own soul, and from thy rich possessions
and comforts, which might have made thy life pleasant and delight-
1 Xenophon.
388 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXII.
ful, into a place of bondage, a valley of tears, a prison where thy
feet were fettered with irons, and thy face furrowed with weeping ;
wouldst thou be afraid of a messenger that came to knock off thy
shackles, and fetch thee out of prison, and carry thee to those
friends and comforts ? * And why art thou afraid of death, which
cometh to free thee from thy bondage to Satan, sin, and sorrow,
and to give thee present possession of the glorious liberty of the
sons of God ? Art thou afraid to be rid of thy corruptions ? of
Satan s temptations ? of the world s persecutions ? Art thou afraid
to go to saints, where are no sinners, to Christ without his cross,
to the full, immediate, eternal fruition of the blessed God ? Then
why art thou afraid to die, and dost not rather desire to be dis
solved and to be with Christ, knowing that while thou art present
in the body, thou art absent from the Lord ? 2 2 Cor. v. 6. Well,
the best of it is, thou art more afraid than hurt.
It is well observed by a judicious expositor, that the periphrasis
of death, mentioned John xiii. 1, where it is called a departing out
of the world, and a going to the Father, doth belong to all the chil
dren of God ; it is to them but a going out of the world to their
dear and loving Father. And questionless this was that which
made the saints so desirous of death. Basil, when the emperor s
lieutenant threatened to kill him, said, I would he would, for then
he would quickly send me to my Father, to whom I now live, and
to whom I desire to hasten. Calvin, in his painful sickness, was
never heard to complain, but often lifting up his eyes to heaven, to
cry out, How long, Lord ! how long, Lord !
It is reported of a heathen, Epaminondas, 3 that when he was
wounded with a dart at Mantinea, in a battle against the Lacedae
monians, and told by the chirurgeons that when the dart was
drawn out of his body he must needs die, he called for his squire,
and asked him whether he had not lost his shield ? He told him
no; whereupon he bade them pull out the dart, and so died.
Surely, Christian, thou hast more cause to die with courage, when
thou hast not lost thy God, nor thy soul, nor anything that was
worth the keeping. 4
5. It is comfortable against the death of thy friends and rela
tions which die in the Lord : To die is gain. If it be their gain,
why should it be thy grief ? Nature will teach thee to mourn, but
1 Mors non vitam rapit, sed reformat. Prudentiv*.
* Calvin in loc. Jewel was offended at one that in his sickness prayed for his life.
1 Plutarch in Vit. Dicique beatus ante obitum nemo, &c.
4 Non aestimendum quod nos liberat ab omni timendo, Tertutt.
CHAP. XXII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 389
grace must moderate that mourning. We may water our plants,
but must not drown them. We may sorrow, but not as they which
have no hope, lest we sin.
When Anaxagoras was told that both his sons were dead, he
boldly answered the messenger, I knew that I begat mortal crea
tures.
The people were enraged and perplexed at the death of Komulus,
but were afterwards quieted and comforted with the news which
Proclus brought, that he saw him in glory riding up to heaven ;
so when thou art sorrowing for the death of thy child or husband,
or father or mother, or brother or sister, that sleep in Jesus, thou
shouldst hearken to the news which faith brings, that it saw them
filled with joy, mounting up to heaven, and there enjoying rivers of
pleasures and a weight of glory ; and surely if after such news thou
shouldst continue weeping, it should be for joy.
Friend, this text containeth choice sweetmeats for thee to feed
on at the funeral of thy dearest godly friend.
I suppose if thy relation died out of Christ, thou hast not a little
cause of sorrow ; 1 and probably that was the sharp edge of the
sword which wounded the soul of David for the death of Absalom,
that he died in his sins : his fear was that his son died, not only
in rebellion against .the father of his flesh, but also against the
Father of spirits. But when thy relation dieth in the Lord, thou
hast surely more cause to rejoice that thou ever hadst such a
friend, or relation, who shall to eternity be employed in the cheer
ful glorifying and beatifical vision of God, than to mourn that
thou hast lost him for a little tune. It was a memorable speech
of William Hunter s mother, when her son was to die a violent
death, (for he suffered martyrdom under Bonner:) I am glad,
saith she, that ever I was so happy as to bear such a child, that
can find in his heart to lose his life for Christ. And then, kneel
ing down on her knees, she said, I pray God strengthen thee, my
son, to the end ; I think thee as well bestowed as any child that
ever I bore.
Take the counsel of the Spirit, not to sorrow as others which
have no hope ; and know this for thy comfort, that those which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch
angel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise
first ; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to-
1 Lugeatur mortuus, sed ille quern gelienna suscipit, quern Tartarus devorat.
Jer.
390 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXIII.
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so
shall we ever be with the Lord: wherefore comfort one another
with these words/ 1 Thes. iv. 13 to the end.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The excellency of heaven.
I shall shew thee farther in what respects it is comfortable, and
then conclude.
First, It is comfortable if thou considerest the excellency of this
gain. As David said of Goliath s sword, so I may of this gain of a
saint by death, There is none like it. Nicephorus 1 tells us of one
Agbarus, a great man, that hearing so much of Christ s fame, by
reason of the miracles that he wrought, he sent a painter to take
his picture, and that the painter, when he came, was not able to do
it, because of the radiancy and divine splendour which sat on
Christ s face. Whether this be true or no I leave to the author ; but,
without controversy, there is such a radiancy on the glorified head
and members in heaven that none can conceive it, much less
describe it.
There are three things which will speak a little how great the
gain of every godly man is by death.
1. The foretastes of it do shew that it is excellent. Saints here
have the first-fruits, Eom. viii. 23, and they do speak what the
harvest will be.
The Jewish Rabbis report that when Joseph, in the years of
plenty, had gathered much corn in Egypt, he threw the chaff into
the river Nilus, that so, flowing to the neighbour countries, they
might know what abundance was laid up for themselves and others.
So God is pleased, that we might know the plenty k in heaven, to
give us some sign, some taste of it here upon earth. He enableth
us to conclude, if his ways are ways of pleasantness, how plea
sant will the end be ! If his people have songs in their pilgrimage,
in their banishment, surely they have hallelujahs in their country,
in their Father s house. If there be so much goodness laid out
upon them in this valley of tears, how infinite is that goodness
which is laid up for them in the Master s joy.
Christian, didst thou never taste and see that the Lord is gra
cious ? Didst thou never in thy closet enjoy fellowship with the
1 la Hist. Eccles.
CHAP. XXIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 391
Father, and with Jesus Christ his Son. Didst thou never find one
day in God s courts, nay, one hour, better than a thousand else
where ? Did the Lord Jesus never call thee aside from others, and
carry thee into his banqueting-house, and cause his banner over
thee to be love ? Did he never kiss thee with the kisses of his lips
and embrace thee in his dearest arms ? Hast thou not sometimes
seen ^the smiles of his face, and found them better than life ? and
hearing his voice, known thy heart burning toward him with love ?
Dost thou not remember at such a time he took thee up into his
chariot, and gave thee a token for good, shewing thee a glimpse of
thy future glory, solacing thy soul with a sense of his favour
ravishing thy heart with hopes of thy eternal happiness ; when thou
didst wonder exceedingly at the creature s emptiness, and befool
thyself for doting so much upon nothing ; when thou didst see sin
in its opposition and contrariety to the divine nature, and thy own
welfare, and didst curse thy lusts with the most bitter curses
whereby thou hadst offended so gracious a Lord ; when thou didst
behold the Lord Jesus in all his embroidery and glory; oh
how lovely was he in thine eyes ! how sweet was he to thy
taste ! how precious was he in thy esteem ! how closely was
thy soul joined to him! how largely was thy spirit drawn
out after him! how earnestly didst thou desire to be ever
with him, when thou thoughtest, What joy is there in being with
Christ, if there be so much in Christ s being with me ! How
happy are they that enjoy the fountain, if some small streams are
so pleasant ! when thou saidst, Master, it is good to be here let
us build a tabernacle. My soul is filled with marrow and fatness
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. One thing do
I desire of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever and ever. This is the foretaste of glory ; by this thou
mayest conceive what heaven will be. As Fulgentius, when he
beheld the beauty and bravery, the glory and gallantry, of Rome
cried out, If earthly Eome be so glorious, how glorious is heavenly
Rome !i So thou mayest gather, if thou hast so much joy when thou
hast heaven only in hope, what joy shalt thou have when thou
shalt have it in hand.
If the seed-time be so joyous, how great will the joy of harvest
be ! If the promise can stay one that is ready to die, surely the
performance will be better than life from the dead.
If Jerusalem below be paved with gold, then, questionless, Jeru
salem above is paved with pearl.
1 Si tails est Roma terrestris, qualis est Roma cajlestis.
392 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXIII.
2. The price paid for it speaketh the excellency of it. Where
there is honesty and righteousness in the seller, and wisdom in the
buyer, there the price of a thing will speak its worth. Now, here
there was infinite righteousness in God the seller, and the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge in Christ the purchaser ; therefore the
price laid down for heaven will speak the excellency of it. If the
price were very great, the place must be very glorious.
Heaven is called the purchased possession, Eph. i. 14, because
it was bought with the blood of the Son of God. Header, wonder
at this price, and at this place : We are bold to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus/ Heb. x. 19.
When thou nearest of a purchase on earth that costeth a hundred
thousand pounds or a million, wouldst not thou presently conclude,
Surely that must be an incomparable seat for delight ! what plea
sant springs, what stately rooms, what curious contrivances,
what unheard-of excellencies, must be there ! without question all
things imaginable for richness, glory, and comfort. But when thou
readest in Scripture of a purchase which cost the blood of God,
to which all the wealth in the world is as dirt, as nothing, sit down
and consider what a house, what a heaven that must be, if thou
considerest God did infinitely love his Son, and was not so prodigal
of his blood as to let one drop more be shed than heaven was worth.
Besides, canst thou think that the Lord Jesus would humble
himself to such a contemptible birth, live such a miserable life
die such a lamentable, painful death, to purchase low, mean things,
or anything less than eminent, excellent, unspeakable, uncon
ceivable happiness?
3. The titles given to it do abundantly speak the excellency of it.
The holy men of God do, as it were, strive for expressions and
words to set out the glory, richness, joy, magnificence of this gain.
To the weary it is rest, Isa, ii. 57 ; Rev. xiv. 13. To the
hungry, it is hidden manna, Eev. ii. 17. To the thirsty, rivers of
pleasures, Ps. xxxvi. 8. To the sorrowful, the joy of the Lord,
Mat. xxv. 21 ; fulness of joy, Ps. xvi. 11. To the disgraced,
glory, Rom. viii. 18 ; a crown of glory, 1 Pet. v. 4 ; a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. To them
that walk in darkness and see no light, it is the inheritance of
the saints in light, Col. i. 12. To them that are dying, it is life,
Col. iii. 3 ; yea, eternal life, John x. 28. It is a kingdom, Luke
xii. 32 ; a kingdom that cannot be shaken, Heb. xii. 28. Where
all the inhabitants are kings and queens, Rev. i. 5 ; with palms and
sceptres in their hands, Rev. vii. 9 ; crowns on their heads, James
CHAP. XXIII.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 393
ii. 5 ; sitting on thrones, Eev. iii. 21, and shall reign with Christ
for ever and ever, Rev. xxii. 5.
It is a being in Abraham s bosom, Luke xvi. 22 ; a being with
Christ, Phil. i. 23 ; a being ever with the Lord, 1 Thes. iv. 17 ; a
seeing God as he is, 1 John iii. 2 ; a seeing God face to face ; a
knowing God as we are known of God, 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; and many
more expressions doth the Spirit of God use to describe the excel
lency of the saints happiness, and why in such variety of phrases,
but to assure us that whatsoever is requisite or desirable in order
to happiness it is there ? The Holy Ghost doth gather, as it were, a
posy of the most sweet, beautiful, pleasant, choice flowers that grow
in the whole garden of this world, and telleth us this is heaven.
Do but abstract all the imperfections that attend the riches, and
honour, and pleasures of earthly kingdoms, and they may be dark
resemblances to shadow out the glory and excellency of the heavenly
kingdom. The philosophers could say, that happiness must con
sist in such a state wherein was an aggregation of all good things ;
so that though a man had all good things, and wanted but one, he
could not be called a happy man. Therefore in Scripture the
Hebrew word for happiness is in the plural number, because not
twenty or forty things can make a man happy, but there must be
all good things ; and for this reason the Holy Ghost useth such
variety of resemblances to represent this blessedness, to shew that
it hath all desirable good things.
Reader, when thou art feeding on all those glorious descriptions
of heaven that are set before thee on the table of the Scripture, do
not swallow them altogether, but chew them severally, and thou
mayest get much spiritual nourishment out of them. As, for ex
ample, it is called the joy of thy Lord, or the Master s joy, Mat.
xxv. 21. Now, what joy must that be ? What infinite, inconceiv
able joy hath the blessed God, the fountain of all joy, and the God
of all consolations ! Thou shalt partake of the very same joy ac
cording to thy capacity ; thou shalt sit at the same table, drink
of the same cup, and feed on the same dainties with his Majesty.
Can it then enter into thy heart to imagine either the pureness or
fulness of thy Lord s joy ? Is not the best joy of the servants on
earth sorrow, and their greatest mirth mourning, to the Master s
joy in heaven ? Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ; a joy too
big to enter into us, we must enter into it. A joy more meet for
the Lord than the servant ; yet such a Lord do we serve as will
honour his servants with his own joy.
Again, it is called a city whose builder and maker is God, Heb.
394 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXIV.
xi. 10; hence thou mayest gather, that structure must he beau
tiful indeed which hath such a builder. What a glorious fabric must
that be which hath such a workman as he is, who hath infinite
wisdom to contrive, who hath infinite richness to adorn, infinite
bounty to bestow, and infinite power to erect ! What a city must
that be ! If poor mortals can set up such stately buildings, what a
place, what a palace, must that be whose builder and maker is God !
Besides, it is called the Father s house. Here I might expatiate,
and tell thee that great princes have great seats often for their ser
vants, but they have glorious ones indeed for themselves. In their
own houses they manifest all their wealth and worth, their bounty and
bravery, their honour and magnificence. What a house, then, hath
the King of kings for his mansion-house ! If the several excellen
cies of all the princes palaces in the world were united in one ;
suppose it had the foundations of marble, the floors of pearl,
the ceilings of wrought gold, all the varieties of Babel, the glory of
Solomon s house, the richness of the temple at Jerusalem ; suppose
it had the stateliest rooms, the pleasantest music, the greatest dain
ties, the richest furniture, that this inferior world could afford ; sup
pose all the choice perfections of the whole creation here below
were extracted, and the quintessence of them all bestowed upon it }
yet after all this it would be but like a house of dirt made by chil
dren, in comparison of the Father s house, of that house not made
with hands, but eternal in the heavens. But, Christian, I leave
these titles to be considered and enlarged in thy own meditations.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The certainty that saints shall obtain heaven.
Secondly, It is comfortable if thou considerest the certainty of it.
It is not only excellent, but certain. Though it were never so
excellent, yet if it were not certain, it would be but little comfort ;
but know, to the joy of thine heart, that as heaven is a place of
unspeakable excellency, so thy enjoyment of it, new-born crea
ture, is of unquestionable certainty. It is worthy our admiration
how many ways the most high God, out of condescension to our
capacities, and compassion to our infirmities, doth confirm and
insure this gain by death to believers.
1. By his promise : Luke xii. 22, Fear not, little flock ; it is your
Father s pleasure to give you a kingdom ; so John iii. 16. Now all
CHAP. XXIV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 395
the promises of God are yea and amen, 2 Cor. i. 20 ; they are as good
as performances. Not one good thing faileth of all the good things
which the Lord promiseth, Joshua xxiii. 14. But mark, friend,
one place for many: Titus i. 2, In hope of eternal life, which God,
that cannot lie, hath promised. God s people are a people that will
not lie, Isa. Ixiii. 8, but God is a God that cannot lie ; it is impos
sible for God to lie. Every lie proceedeth either from weakness or
from wickedness. Some are weak they would be as good as their
words, but cannot ; others are wicked they can be as good as their
words, but will not. Neither of these can be charged on the blessed
God ; he is able to perform his promise, for he is the almighty
God, Gen. xvii. 1. I know that thou canst do all things, saith
Job, chap. xlii. 2. Omnipotency never met with a difficulty too hard
for it. The promises of God will eat their way through all the
Alps of opposition, because he is a God of infinite power ; and as
he is able, and free from weakness, so he is righteous and holy, and
so free from wickedness : There is no unrighteousness in him/ Ps.
xcii. 15. He is light, and in him is no darkness at all/ 1 John i. 5.
There is not the least spot in this sun ; his truth reacheth unto the
heavens, and his faithfulness is above the clouds.
2. By an oath God hath confirmed it: Heb. vi. 17, 18, Wherein
God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath : that by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we
might have strong consolation. Thou wouldst take the word of a
good man, and wilt thou not take the word of a God ? * But won
der at his goodness ; he tendereth further security by his oath, nay,
by the greatest oath imaginable. Having no greater to swear by,
he swore by himself, Heb. vi. 16.
3. By his seals. We have the broad seal of heaven, the seals of
the covenant, to confirm this to us. The sacraments are seals of
the covenant of grace, Kom. iv. 11 ; and we have the privy seal
of the Spirit, Eph. iv. 30. So that if the hand and seal of a God
will do it, heaven is insured to all that are sanctified.
4. By an earnest, that makes a bargain sure : Who hath sealed
us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts/ 2 Cor. i. 22.
When Christ went from us, he left his Spirit with us, to assure
us that he would come to us ; and took our flesh with him, to
assure us that we shall come to him.
1 Omnia verba Dei sunt juramenta quoad certitudinem, saith Philo; sed infirmi-
tatis nostrae causa, ut si non credamus D eo promittenti, credamus saltern pro nostra
salute juranti.
39 fi HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXV.
5. By first-fruits, Rom. viii. 23, which did assure the Jews of
their harvest.
6. By the death of Christ. Heaven is given to the holy by testa
ment, by will : John xvii. 24, Father, I will/ saith the then dying
Saviour, that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I
am, that they may behold my glory. Now, because a testament
or will is of no force whilst the testator liveth, therefore Christ died
to make his will valid, Heb. ix. 16, 17.
CHAPTER XXV.
" The eternity of the saints happiness in heaven.
Thirdly, It is comfortable if thou considerest the eternity of it.
Though it were never so excellent and certain, yet if it were for a
short time only, it would afford but little comfort ; nay, t the greater
our joy were in the possession of it, the greater our sorrow would
be in our separation from it. The very thought of ever losing
such incomparable happiness would be a deep wound to a Christian s
heart, and without question abate much of his joy whilst he did
enjoy it. Nothing less than eternity can perfect the saint s felicity.
And, lo, here it is ; thy gain is riot only of unspeakable excellency,
and unquestionable certainty, but also durable even unto eter
nity.
The pleasures of the saints are for evermore, Ps. xvi. 11. The
pleasures of the wicked on earth are like a standing pool, quickly
dried up by the scorching heat of God s wrath, leaving nothing be
hind save the mud of vexation ; but the pleasures of the godly in
heaven are rivers of pleasures, running over, and running ever, be
cause they flow from the fountain of living waters.
The joy of the sinner is like the crackling of thorns under a
pot it may make a bustling noise, but quickly goeth out ; but the
joy of a saint will be like the fire upon the altar, which never
goeth out, day nor night : Their joy shall no man take from them/
John xvi.
The glory of a Christian there will be an eternal weight of glory.
The shame of a Christian here is transitory, like a cloud upon the
face of the sun, which will soon be scattered ; and the honour of a
graceless man here is short, like a fleeting shadow; as Sejanus 1
was one day adored like a god, and a little after, with the greatest
1 Tacitus.
CHAP. XXV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. 397
ignominy, committed to the jail. But the honour of a Christian
there is an eternal noontide of glory. Heaven is an everlasting
home to the saints, Luke xvi. 9; 2 Cor. v. 1, when their earthly
tabernacles are dissolved, they enjoy the building of God, an house
not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens.
They enjoy the society of the good for ever ; they sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, Mat. viii.
11. Standing is a posture of going, or at least of but staying little;
but sitting is a posture of staying long. They shall enjoy God for
ever ; they shall ever be with the Lord, 1 Thes. iv. 17. The saints
shall in heaven be like angels, Mat. xx. 30. Now angels always
behold the face of their Father, 1 Mat. xviii. 10. Now God some
times sheweth himself unto, and sometimes hides his face from, his
children, that a godly man may say to Christ, as Jacob to his
wives, I perceive that thy Father s countenance is not towards me
as at other times, Gen. xxxi. 5. Some sin or other, like a cloud,
interposeth, and hindereth the light of his gracious countenance ;
but there will be no cloud, or mist of sin, and the Sun of righteous
ness will ever behold the soul with the same favourable aspect.
And therefore the joy and happiness of the saint will be ever like
the moon at the full, because that Sun will ever look upon him with
the same lightsome countenance.
Oh what a long day will eternity be to the damned, and what a
short day to be saved ! Eternal pain will make every moment
seem eternity; eternal pleasure will make eternity seem but a
moment ; the joys there will be so great and many, that the days
there will seem small and few ; the delights there will spring every
moment so fresh and full, that a Christian, like Jacob, will think
them but few days, for the love he will bear to them.
Reader, if thou art in Christ, ponder much in time the eternity
of pleasure which is prepared for thee. Consider, if there be so
much felicity in seeing the lovely face of God in the glass of his
ordinances for one hour, what will there be when thou shalt see
him face to face, and always behold the face of thy Father !
When Christ and thy soul meet sweetly in a duty on the Lord s
day, and thou sittest under his shadow with great delight, and his
fruit is sweet unto thy taste, thou thinkest the duty is done too
soon, and the Sabbath is too short ; thou couldst wish the sun would
stand still, as in the days of Joshua, and that day to be longer ;
but be encouraged, though thy Sabbaths now begin and end, yet
1 Angels, in the Syriac, have their name from a word which signifieth face, because
it is their honour and office always to behold God s face.
398 HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED. [CHAP. XXV.
within a few days thou shalt begin that eternal Sabbath which shall
never end.
Certain it is, saith Mr Kobert Bolton, in his epistle before Dis
course of True Happiness, that if a man were crowned with the
royal state, and imperial command of all the kingdoms upon earth,
if his heart were enlarged to the utmost of all created capacities,
and filled with all the exquisite and unmixed pleasures that the
reach of mortality and most ambitious curiosity could possibly
devise, and might without any interruption or distaste enjoy them
the length of the world s duration, they were all nothing to the
precious and peerless comforts of the kingdom of grace but for one
hour. I speak the truth in Christ, and use no hyperbole the
Spirit of all comfort, and consciences of all true Christians, bearing
me witness. What then will it be, my friend, to enjoy the uncon
ceivable comforts of the kingdom of glory for ever ? If one day in
God s courts on earth be better to thee than a thousand elsewhere,
how happy wilt thou be when thou shalt dwell in the heavenly
house of the Lord, and that for ever, ever ! when thou shalt be a
pillar in the temple of thy God, and shalt go no more out for ever !
Eev. iii. 12. Oh sweet word, ever, ever ! thou art music to the
ear, and honey to the taste, and melody to the heart indeed ; to be
free from all evil, both of sin and suffering, and to be for ever free
from them, to be with the Lord, enjoying all good imaginable, and
ever to be with the Lord. Oh how much worth doth this one word
ever add to the saints portion in the other world !
Mortality is a flaw in all earthly tenures, which abateth their
price, and embittereth their pleasures ; but eternity is a diamond
which sparkleth most radiantly in the crown of glory, and maketh
it beyond all expression or comparison weighty.
Christian, how may this persuade thee to be exact in thy walking
with God, when in doing of his commands there is such great re
ward ! Thy temporal obedience shall have an eternal recompense.
If Zeuxis, the famous painter, was so curious in drawing his lines,
because he painted for eternity, how exact shouldst thou be in all
thy duties, how curious in the whole course of thy life, when thou
dost all for eternity !
How may this support thee in the greatest dangers ! Thy suffer
ings are temporal, but thy solace shall be eternal. If Saul, when
called to an earthly kingdom for a short time, could hold his peace,
when men despised and derided him, surely thou mayest be steady
in the greatest storm, and in all hardships bear up thy spirit with
the lively hope of that heavenly eternal kingdom to which thou art
CHAP. XXV.] HEAVEN AND HELL EPITOMISED.
399
called. Dost thou not know that all the suffering of this life,
though all the sufferings of the mystical body of Christ were laid
on thy back, are not worthy to be compared to that far more ex
ceeding and eternal weight of glory, Rom. viii. 18.
Thus thy felicity in heaven will be complete felicity, and thy con
solation in the forethoughts of it may well be a full consolation,
since for its perfections it is unspeakable, thy fruition of it is un
questionable, and thy condition in it will be unchangeable and
eternal. When thou hast rilled thy heart with that fulness of joy,
and bathed thy soul in those rivers of pleasures, as many millions
of years as there have been minutes since the creation, and after
that as many thousand ages as there are creatures great and small
in heaven, earth, and sea ; and after that as many thousand millions
of ages as all the men in the world can reckon up all the time of
their lives ; yet, after all this, thou shalt not have one moment less
to continue in heaven, and enjoy that perfect happiness. The very
greatest and highest numerations and multiplications of time are
but drops, yea, ciphers, and nothing, to this boundless, bottomless,
ocean of eternity. For of eternity, as Drexelius saith, rightly, There
is no
FINIS.
THE FADING OF THE FLESH.
VOL. IIT. 2 C
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
To the Courteous Mrs JANE SWINNOCK, widow of Mr CALEB
SWINNOCK, late of Maidstone, deceased.
HONOUKED COUSIN, The whole world is fitly termed by the Holy
Ghost, a sea of glass, Kev. iv. 6. A sea for its tempestuousness ; all
the passengers who sail on it are sure to be driven to and fro with
the surging waves, and high winds of sorrows. Man entereth on this
stage of the world crying, goeth off groaning, and the part which
he acteth is chiefly tragical, his whole life being little else, from the
womb to the tomb, but a chain of crosses, and a circle of sufferings ;
he is tossed like a tennis-ball, from hazard to hazard, till at last he
fall to the earth. A sea of glass, for its brittleness ; glass is soon
broken, be it never so much gilded. The fashion of this world
passeth away ; all its carnal comforts perish with it. The posses
sions of it are corruptible ; gold and silver are liable to that rust
which will consume them. The relations in it are mutable ; whilst
we are refreshing ourselves with those pleasant flowers, and em
bracing them in our breast, and sticking them in our bosoms, they
wither. The Jews at this day have a custom, saith one, when
a couple are married, to break the glass wherein the bridegroom
and the bride have drank ; thereby to admonish them, that though
at present they are joined together, yet ere long they must be
parted asunder. The saints of God themselves are not privileged
from such arrests ; nay, those vessels which are most richly laden
go often deepest in these waters. The howling wilderness is the
direct way to the heavenly Canaan.
The late providence which removed your loving and beloved
husband (I hope to heaven) hath taught you the truth of these
particulars. The loss of such a relation must needs be a sore afflic
tion. The nearer the union is, the more difficult the separation.
Husband and wife are one flesh, therefore to part them cannot but
404 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOET.
be painful ; but grace will help you both to submit to that blow
which is so grievous to nature, and to be the better for it.
It was some comfort to me to observe your Christian carriage
under so great a cross. The hour of affliction is an hour of temp
tation. Satan loves to fish when the waters are troubled. He
would bring us to hard thoughts of God, by the hard things we
suffer from God ; touch him, and he will curse thee to thy face.
In such stormy weather, some vessels are cast away. A corrupt
heart in adversity, like water boiling over the fire, then most of all
discovereth its froth and filth, Isa. viii. 21. But though frosty
seasons are hurtful to weeds, yet they are helpful to good corn.
A sanctified person, like a silver bell, the harder he is smitten, the
better he soundeth. Faith is a special antidote against the poison
of the wicked one. It can read love in the blackest characters of
divine dispensation ; as by a rainbow we see the beautiful image of
the sun s light, in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud. God s
rod, like Jonathan s, is dipped in honey. Our daily bread, and our
sharpest rod, grow upon the same root. Every believer may say
in affliction, as Mauritius, when his wife and children were slain
before his eyes, Eighteous art thou, Lord, and in very faithfulness ,
hast afflicted me.
Dear Cousin, since God s rod hath a voice as well as his word,
and, like Moses s rod in Egypt, worketh wonders in and for his
people, let me beseech you to hear it, and to know him that hath
appointed it. Oh how highly doth it behove you to labour, that,
as Aaron s rod, it may bud and blossom with the fruits of holiness I
Two lessons principally God would teach you by it :
First, That your affections be taken off from earthly possessions.
Dying relations call for dying affections. When Israel doted on
Egypt as a palace, God made it an iron furnace to wean them
from it, and to make them weary of it. The creature is our idol
by nature ; we bow down the knees of our souls to it, and worship
it ; but infinite wisdom makes it our grief, that it may not be our
god. When children fare . well abroad, they are mindless of
home ; but when abused by strangers, they hasten to their parents.
The world is therefore a purgatory, that it might not be our para
dise. As soon as Laban frowned on Jacob, he talks of returning
to his father s house. Every rout the world puts us to, sounds a
retreat to our affections, and calls off our heart from the eager pur
suit of these withering vanities. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon
that which is not ? Prov. xxiii. 5 ; much less thine heart.
I have read of a young hermit, who, being passionately in love
with a young lady, could not by any art suppress the fury and
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 405
violence of that flame, till at last, being told that she was dead,
and had been buried about fourteen days, he went secretly to her
vault, and, with the skirt of his mantle, wiped the moisture from
the carcase, and still at the return of his temptation, laid it before
him, saying, Behold, this is the beauty of the woman which thou
didst so much desire ; and the man at last with that moisture of
the corpse put out the fire.
The godliness of the world, its whole glory and gallantry, is but
a curious picture drawn on ice, which affords no good footing ; for
whilst we are standing on it, we are sliding from it ; and who would
lay the stress of his felicity upon so slippery a foundation ? No wise
man ever put his chiefest goods and riches in such low, damp rooms,
where they will corrupt and putrefy.
Hippocrates affirmeth that all immoderations are enemies to the
health of the body ; sure I am they are to the health of the soul.
The amity of the world is enmity against God. All the water is
little enough to run in the right channel ; therefore none should
run beside. The time is short ; use the world as not abusing it,
1 Cor. vii. 29.
Secondly, That you choose the good part that shall never be
taken from you. Man s heart will be fixed on somewhat as its
hope and happiness. God therefore puts out our candles, takes
away relations, that we may look up to the Sun, and esteem him
our chiefest portion. When we are digging and delving in the
earth to find out content and comfort, he sendeth damps, purposely
to make us call to be drawn upward. Till the prodigal met with
a famine, he regarded not his father. If the waters be abated, the
dove is apt to wander and defile herself ; but when they cover the
face of the earth, and allow her no rest, then she returneth to
the ark.
I hope there is a good work begun in you, which shall be finished
at the day of Christ. But every one standeth or falleth to their
own master. Get Scripture on your side, and you are safe for ever.
The Komans, when they parted from the bones of their dead
friends, (for they burnt them,) took their leave in such language,
Vale, vale, vale, nos te ordine quo natura permiserit sequemur ;
Farewell, farewell, farewell, we shall follow thee in the time and
order which nature alloweth us. You may say of your husband,
as David of his child, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to
me. Prepare therefore for your dying hour.
Labour to be rich in godliness. Grace alone is special bail
against death ; it is such wealth as will be current in the other
world. Lay up your treasure in heaven, where neither thief nor
406 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
moth, neither men nor devils, can rob you of it. Take God in
Christ for your heaven, and you are happy in spite of the world,
death, and hell. You know the living comfort of your dying
husband was, that though his flesh and heart failed him, yet God
was the strength of his heart and his portion for ever. And it was
a memorable speech of his, when some friends came to him and
commended the richness and magnificence of Hampton Court,
newly trimmed and adorned for the reception of her Majesty, One
drop of the blood of Christ is more worth than all the world. I
must tell you there is no such cordial in a day of death as this
covenant-relation to the Lord of life.
The child may walk in that dark entry without fear if he have
but his Father by the hand : Though I walk in the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear none ill, for thou art with me. Death
indeed is strong ; it overcometh principalities and powers : but as
strong as it is, it cannot separate God and the godly person. It
may dissolve the natural union betwixt soul and body, but not the
mystical union betwixt God and the soul. The saints die in the
Lord, they sleep in Jesus.
cousin, be married to Christ, and you are made for ever.
Heaven is the jointure, and death one of the servants or slaves of
her that is the spouse of this Lord. Death is yours, ye are Christ s,
1 Cor. iii. 21. Other men are death s, (it hath dominion over them,)
but death is yours your servant to strip off your rags of sin and
misery, and to clothe you with the robes of joy and glory.
The ensuing discourse was, for the substantial part of it, delivered
at the funeral of your dearest relation on earth. You gave me the
text, and my indisposition of body allowed me then but little time,
which caused me now to make some enlargements and additions ;
but it is the same body, possibly in a, little neater, far from gaudy,
dress, which was prepared for the pulpit. I present it to you, not
doubting of its acceptance, for his sake whose death was the occa
sion of it. The good Lord bless it to you, requite your love to me
and them that fear him, make up the want of streams in the more
abundant enjoyment of the fountain, fill you with all the fruits
righteousness, enable you to persevere and increase in godlinesi
and so to live with a good conscience that you may die with much
comfort, and be a follower of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises ; so prayeth,
Your servant for Jesus sake,
GEORGE SWINNOCK.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
To the Eight Worshipful the Mayor, with the Kecorder, Jurats,
Common Council, and the rest of the inhabitants of his native
town, Maidstone, in Kent.
HONOURED AND BELOVED, It is a general observation, that all
creatures have propensity and inclination towards those places where
they receive their births and beings. Vegetatives which stand in
the lowest rank of life, thrive best, because they delight most, in
those grounds whence they first grow. Sensitives, as they have a
higher being, so a stronger inclination to those parts where they
are born.
The prince of philosophers telleth us that fish usually stay with
pleasure in those waters in which they are bred, and beasts in
those woods in which they are brought forth, and that neither of
them will remove without force and violence ; nature hath planted
in them both this principle of affecting their native places. 1 Hence
it comes to pass that even these creatures have manifested their
thankfulness after their manner. Trees acknowledge that sap
which they borrow from the earth in which they stand, in the
tribute of leaves which they pay back to the same in autumn.
The storks are said to leave one of their young in that part of the
earth where they are hatched. Men, as they have a nobler life, so
a greater love to their native country. 2 Heathen themselves have
been famous for this.
Pericles, the Athenian, did so affect his countrymen, that his
usual speech was, If none but myself should lead them to the
shambles, as much as lieth in me, they shall be immortal. 3 When
Cleomenes, king of Sparta, being greatly distressed, had a promise
1 Arist. Hist. Animal., lib. iv. cap. 8.
2 Patriam quisque amat, non quia pulchram, sed quia suam. Sen.
3 Plut. in Vit.
408 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOKY.
of help from Ptolemy, king of Egypt, upon condition that his
mother and son were sent to him as pledges ; Cratesiclea, for so
was his mother s name, as soon as she understood it, said to her
son, who was afraid and ashamed to mention it to her, How is it
that thou hast concealed it so long and hast not told me ? Come,
come, put me straight into a ship and send me whither thou wilt,
that this body of mine may do some good unto my country, before
crooked age consume it without profit. 1 Themistocles, notwith
standing his countrymen had banished him, drank the blood of a
bull, and poisoned himself, to keep Artaxerxes, who had sworn not
to go against it without him, from invading his country. 2 Codrus,
king of Athens, 3 Attilius Kegulus, general of the Komans, 4 and M.
Curtius, 5 are renowned in history for sacrificing their lives for their
country s liberty.
The Christian is 6//.oto7ra6%, a man of like passions, only he
acteth from higher principles, and aifecteth far holier purposes.
Keligion doth not break the string of natural affection, but wind it
up to such a pitch, as may make its strokes more true, and its
sound more melodious. Nehemiah was sad and pensive when
the city of his father was solitary, Neh. ii. 3. The Jews were
disconsolate when their native country lay desolate, Ps. cxxxvii.,
beginning. Paul could wish himself parted from Christ, that his
kindred and countrymen might be united to Christ, Eom. ix. 3.
Greg. Nazianzen and Jerome report that the Jews to this day come
yearly to the place where Jerusalem, the city of their fathers stood,
which was destroyed by Titus and Adrian, and upon the day of the
destruction of it, weep over it.
As it is natural to love, so not unusual in our kingdom for rich
persons to manifest their love to their native parishes by large gifts
to the poor. But though my respects to you be sincere, yet I may
say, in a sense, silver and gold have I none to speak my affections
by, only such as I have I give you ; a treatise which may, through
the blessing of God, help you to the true treasure.
Bucholcerus blessed God that he was born in the days, and bred
under the discipline of holy Melanchthon. 6 I must ingenuously
acknowledge, that it was a great mercy to me that I was born
amongst you, and brought up under as pious and powerful a mi
nistry there, as most in England. 7
In testimony of my unfeigned love, I present you with this brief
discourse, which was conceived in your pulpit, and through the
1 Plut. in Vit. " Diodor. Fez. Mel. Hist. 4 Tul. de Offic.
6 Livy. 6 Melch. Adam, 7 Mr Thomas Wilson.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 409
importunity of several of you, brought forth to the press. The
occasion of it, as is well known to you, was the death of your
neighbour, and my dear relation, Master Caleb Swinnock, who was
interred May 21, 1662, whose father and grandfather had three or
four times enjoyed the highest honour, and exercised the highest
office, in your corporation. I am much of his mind, who saith
that funeral encomiastics of the dead, are often confections of
poison to the living ; for many, whose lives speak nothing for them,
will draw the example into consequence, and be thereby led into
hope that they may press a hackney funeral sermon to carry them
to heaven when they die ; and therefore am always sparing myself,
though I condemn not the custom in others, where they do it with
prudence, and upon good cause. My friend s holy carriage in his
sickness, besides his inofFensiveness, for aught I ever heard, in his
health, commandeth me to hope that his soul is in heaven. I had
the happiness some time to be brought up with him in his father s,
Mr Eobert Swinnock s family, whose house, I cannot but speak it
to the glory of God, had holiness to the Lord written upon it. His
manner was to pray twice a day by himself, once or twice a day
with his wife, and twice a day with his family, besides singing
psalms, reading, and expounding Scriptures, which morning and
evening were minded. The Sabbath he dedicated wholly to God s
service, and did not only himself, but took care that all within his
gate should spend the day in secret and private duties, and in
attendance on public ordinances; of their proficiency- by the last,
he would take an account upon their return from the assembly.
His house indeed was, as Tremellius saith of Cranmer s, Palcestra
pietatis, a school of religion. I write this not so much for the
honour of him, of whose industry for the good of the souls com
mitted to him I was a frequent eye-witness, and whose memory is
blessed ; but chiefly for your good, that as some of you do already,
so others also may be provoked to follow such gracious patterns.
I must tell you, that what low thoughts soever any of you now
may have of holy persons, and holy practices, yet when you come
to look death in the face, and enter into your unchangeable estates,
a little of their grace and godliness will be of more worth in your
esteems than the whole world. Though the saint be marked for .a
fool in the world s calendar at this day, and the prosperous sinner
counted the wisest person, yet when the eyes of sinners bodies are
closed, the eyes of their souls will be opened ; and then, oh then,
they will see and say, according to that apocryphal place which
will be found canonical for the matter of it, We fools counted his
410 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
life to be madness, and his end to be without honour ; but now
he is numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among
the saints, Wisdom v. 4, 5.
The subject of this tractate is partly the true way to die well ;
which I am sure is of infinite concernment to your immortal souls,
and such a lesson that, if it be not learned, you are lost for ever.
The cynic 1 cared not what became of his body when dead ; and the
other heathen could slight the loss of a grave, a little earth; 2 but
without question it concerns you nearly to take care what becomes
of your souls, and you cannot so easily bear the loss of God and
heaven.
Men, indeed, are generally unwilling to hear of death, and the
minister who would urge them to it is as unwelcome as foul
weather, which usually comes before it is sent for. Whatsoever
hath a tendency to death is killing ; the telling them of it sounds
as mournfully in their ears as the tolling of a passing bell ; and
the making their wills, as frightful to them, as the making their
graves. Hence, when they are riding post in the broad way of sin
and the world, and conscience would check and rein them in with
the curbs of death and judgment, they presently snap them in
pieces, and stifle its convictions ; they dare not look into the book
of conscience, to see how accounts stand between God and them
selves, but, like hawks, are ever hooded within-doors, blind at home,
and never use their eyes but abroad, to the hurt and censuring of
others.
The Egyptian slaves drank wine freely, and wrapped their heads
in veils, that they might die without sight or sorrow. 3 I know
many drown the thoughts of their future mourning in carnal
pleasure and present mirth ; but such mirth, like Nabal s, will last
no longer than while they are drunk with ignorance and senseless
ness ; for they no sooner come to themselves, to understand the
state they are in, but their hearts die within them. Besides,
hereby they put themselves upon a necessity of perishing ; for,
alas ! how will they do to die, who consider not beforehand of their
latter end.
Naturalists tell us of a cockatrice, that if men see it first, that
dieth ; if that seeth a man first, the man dieth. It is most true of
death, if we see it first, by a holy preparation for it. we kill it it
cannot hurt us ; but if death see and seize us first, it kills us eter
nally. Oh believe it, sirs, it is another manner of thing to die well
1 Laert. 2 Facilis jactura sepulchri.
3 Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit. Cypr. de Mortal.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 411
than the sleepy world dreams of. The lustiest of you all must
expect that ere long death will trip up your heels, and give you a
fall ; ask your souls whether you are ready for it. Will it not
prove your downfall ? When death throweth you, will it not be
your eternal overthrow ? It is possible, ye think of preparing for
death hereafter, but why not now ? Do any of you say, To-morrow
I will repent ? What if God say, Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee/ Where are you then ? It is one of the
greatest stratagems of the devil, whereby he hath undermined mil
lions of souls, by prevailing with them to delay till it was too late.
Oh consider, death, like thunder and lightnings, blasteth the green
corn, andconsumeth the strongest buildings, Job. xxi. 23, 24. One
dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet : His
breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
The cock in the Arabic fable, having overcome another cock in a
battle, thought now that he had no enemy, and therefore got to the
top of a house, and began to crow and clap his wings in token of
triumph. When behold, on a sudden, a vulture cometh and snatch-
eth away his bragging champion and conqueror. 1 - If nature in any
of you have mastered one distemper, it gives you not leave to be
secure, for an outward accident or inward disease will on a sudden
master you.
It is observable in the days of Solomon, when Israel enjoyed the
greatest peace, they made strong preparation for war, 1 Kings iv,
25, 26, And Israel and Judah dwelt every man under his own
vine and fig-tree. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses
for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
Iphicrates, the Athenian general, in times of peace intrenched
his army, ordered his outworks, set his watch, kept his guards, and
observed all martial discipline, as if he had been in the height and
heat of war ; and being asked the reason by one of his familiars,
and what he feared ; he answered, To be surprised, and lest it should
so fall out that he should be constrained to say, I thought not on
it. Oh that we were as wise, who are listed under the captain of
our salvation, for that war wherein there is no discharge ! Beloved
friends, watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour
when the Son of man cometh, Mat. xxv. 13.
The Brachmanni had their graves before their doors. The
Sybarites at banquets had a death s head delivered from hand to
hand by every guest at the table. The emperor Ferdinand had
one appointed at certain times to salute him with Vive memor letJii,
1 Vide Locman.
412 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
Ferdinande ; Ferdinand, live as one that is mindful he must die.
Joseph of Arimathea had his tomb in his garden. When the blessed
Saviour was in his glorious transfiguration, in company with those
heavenly courtiers, they spake to him of his decease, Luke ix. 31.
Could you think but one quarter of an hour every day, what a
searching, trying day, the day of death will be; ah! how holy
would you live ! how exactly would you walk ! Were death at
your doors, at your tables, in your gardens, in your shops, present
before your eyes in all your projects and pleasures, how would it
deaden your hearts to these sublunary vanities, and quicken your
affections to celestial felicities !
I have read of one that prayed six times a day, and being asked
the reason, said no more but this, I must die. If any argument in
the world will dissuade from wickedness, and persuade to godliness,
and abounding in the work of the Lord, death will. They who
steer the ship aright, sit in the hindermost part of it. They who
order their conversations aright, dwell in the thoughts of their dis
solutions. When our time is short, we must work the harder.
It is reported of the birds of Norway that they fly faster than the
birds of other countries, not because they have greater nimbleness
of wing, but by a natural instinct they knowing the day in their
climate to be very short, (not above three hours long, say some)
make the more haste to their nests. 1 Your time is little ; your
accounts will be great ; your work must be done now or never. Oh
work the work of him that sent you into the world, while it is
day, for the night cometh, when no man can work, John ix. 4.
I am bound to tell you that God hath committed many talents
into the hands of several amongst you ; ye are higher in place and
power ; ye have more opportunities than others to serve the interest
and honour of Christ, and therefore God expecteth that you should
do more for him than others. Indulge the drunkenness, and swear
ing, and uncleanness, and Sabbath-breaking of others, lest ye
should be counted busy-bodies, or precise persons, and you destroy
both your own and their souls. There is no such cruelty to men s
souls, as clemency to their sins. He loves his friend best, who
hates his lusts most. Besides the wrong your sinful compliance
doth to others, whilst ye bear the sword as women wear their arti
ficial teeth for show only, not for service ye treasure up wrath on
your own heads against the day of death; for as a reverend divine, now
with God, said truly, Nothing more saddens the heart when one
comes to die, than his neglect of those opportunities which God s
1 Olauf. Mag. Hist. Septentrion.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 413
providence, or his own place, have put into his hand of doing or
receiving good. Neither is there a sharper corrosive than the re
flection upon those days and times which have passed over him
male, aliud, niliil, agerttem.
It is chronicled of Philip the Third, king of Spain, 1 that though
he never committed gross sin all his lifetime, yet when he came
to die, he screeched out dreadfully, Oh that I had never reigned !
oh that I had never been king ! for then I should not have now to
answer for my neglect of doing the good I might, and my not
hindering the evil I ought in my government. Sirs, I beseech
you, give me leave to be faithful to you. Will it not be a dreadful
time with you, when you are tumbling on your dying beds, and near
your eternity, if conscience should fly in your faces for your false
ness and unfaithfulness in your places, and make you cry out, Oh
that I had never been mayor of Maidstone ! oh that I had never
been justice ! oh that I had never been jurat ! for then I should not
have now to answer before the dreadful tribunal of a righteous
God, for all the oaths, fornications, profanation of the Lord s day,
and other evils which I might have hindered, and did not ; and for
all the good which I might, by my holy pattern, and encouraging
others in piety, have done, and would not. Alas ! ye cannot ima
gine the dreadfulness of such a man s condition on such "a day.
Therefore now be terrors to evil-doers, and encouragements to them
that do well, if ye would find comfort then ; for as in philosophy, so
in divinity they who mind not the premises, make but mad, but
sad conclusions.
The naturalists assure us, that the ashes of a viper applied to
that part of the body which is stung, will draw the venom out of
it, natural attraction, as it were, calling home that poison which
injury and violence had misplaced ; the serious consideration that
you must die, and be turned into dust and ashes, will be a sove
reign medicine against the poison and pollution of sin ; it will make
you both good men and good magistrates.
The latter part of the treatise containeth the gracious person s
glorious portion. Therein I have endeavoured so to set forth the
vastness of the saints estate (though, I must confess, neither men
nor angels can cast up its total sum) that I might prevail with
you to desire the felicity of God s children, and the inheritance of
his chosen ones. This is the portion, which is, as the Spanish am
bassador said of his master s treasure in the Indies, without a
bottom. Though the seven streams of Nilus are known, yet the
1 Val. Max.
414 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
head of it was never found out. Much of the riches, and beauty,
and perfections of the ever-blessed God may be read in the book of the
creatures ; more may be seen in the glass of the Scriptures; but the
longest line of human or angelical understanding can never fathom
his boundless, bottomless nature and being ; yet there is so much
to be known of him even in this life, as may draw out your hearts
to choose and close with him. The world is ready to wonder what
the people of God see or enjoy in him, that they are so fearful of
his fury, and so joyful in his favour. As the ignorant wretch
could see nothing in the picture of Helena, why Nicostratus should
admire it so much, but, as Nicostratus told him, friend, if thou
hadst my eyes, thou wouldst wonder at it as much as I do ; so, had
the world but the saints eyes ; could they see what a crown of
glory, what a paradise of pleasures, what a mine of riches, what a
loving, able, and faithful friend God is ; could they but behold that
beauty and bounty, grace and peace, love and life, which are in
the infinite God, they would admire him too ; yea, their eyes would
affect their hearts, that they could not but love him, and delight in
him ; but Satan, with his black hand, like swallows dung, puts
out men s eyes, that they, not seeing so great a good, might not
desire him.
The Italians have a proverb, He who hath not seen Venice doth
not believe ; and he who hath not lived there some time, doth not
understand what a city it is. 1 This is most true of God : he who
hath not, with Moses, seen him that is invisible, doth not believe ;
arid he who never had fellowship with the Father, and Jesus Christ
his Son, cannot understand what a vast, all-sufficient, and infinite
portion the eternal God is. friends, did your eyes, with Isaiah,
see this Lord of hosts, or with Israel s magistrate, beheld but his
back parts ; or had you, with Paul, ever been caught up into the
third heavens, ye would quickly trample on all the honours, and
pleasures, and treasures of this lower world, as toys and trifles, and
say, with David, Whom have we in heaven but thee, and there
is none upon earth that we desire besides thee.
I have undertaken briefly, in the ensuing discourse, to shew also
the vast difference between the Christian s and the worldling s por
tion, by which you may understand, that if any one among you
could enjoy the wealth of Croesus, the wisdom and glory of Solo
mon, the beauty of Absalom, the strength of Samson, the plea
sures of Sardanapalus, and to all the long life of Methuselah, yet
in the midst of all these, his soul would be as beggarly as the body
of Lazarus, and as restless and unsatisfied as the stormy, tempes-
1 Qui Venetias non vidit, non credit, et qui aliquando ibi non vixit non intelligit.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 415
tuous ocean. No water, say naturalists, will quench the dragon s
thirst. No creature can fill the vast desires of a capacious immor
tal soul. As among all the beasts of the field there was not a meet
companion for man Adam was solitary and alone, notwithstanding
their numerous society ; so amongst all the creatures of the world
there is not a meet portion for the soul it is poor and beggarly with
out God, in the midst of all its possessions. Your heads may be
solicitous, and your hearts industrious, to heap up creature com
forts, and when ye have got what the world can give, ye would be
but as hungry men in a room full of stones or chips. That which
is unsuitable to the soul s nature, cannot be satisfying to the spirit s
desires.
There is a nourishment proper to every animal. Spiders feed on
flies, moles on worms ; the horse on grass, the lion on flesh. There
is also food proper to man s soul, spiritual meat, and spiritual
drink ; My flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed, (all
other is cibi etpotus tantummodo umbra ;) this, this is that which,
when the soul comes once to feed on it, it is filled, it is satisfied.
Philosophers observe that the matter of the heavens desireth
no other form, whereas in all sublunary things it constantly doth,
and the reason is, because of the actuality and perfection of that
heavenly form. While the soul fasteneth on any sublunary thing as
its happiness, it desireth more and better ; but when it doth once
choose the blessed God, it desireth no more, no better, because of
those infinite perfections which are in God. One God answereth
all the soul s desire and necessities.
To keep you no longer out of the body of the book, it is recorded
of Marcus Cato, 1 that after his return from Carthage, when he did
at any time deliver his judgment about any business in the senate,
he would conclude his speech with, Methinks Carthage should be
destroyed. Sirs, will you suffer me to tell you again and again,
Methinks a dying hour is not to be neglected ; methinks a living God
is worthy to be embraced. Though there may be some differences
among you, about things that are ceremonial and circumstantial,
yet ye are, I hope, generally agreed, I am sure all are, that have
the least savour of religion that man s greatest wisdom is to pre
pare for his dying hour, Deut. xxxii. 29 ; Ps. xc. 12. That the
heart of religion consisteth in taking, not the world, but God, for
your portion and happiness, Ps. Ixxiii. 25 ; Mat. xxii. 35 ; 1 John
ii. 15. That profaneness ought to be avoided in yourselves, 1 Cor.
vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19-21, and suppressed according to your
places and powers in others, Rev. ii. 2 ; 2 Chron. xv. 16; Ps. ci.
1 Plut. iu Vit.
41 G THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
7 ; 1 Tim. v. 22. That the power of godliness ought chiefly to
be minded and countenanced, 1 Tim. iv. 8 ; 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; John
iv. 24. That a holy, spiritual, not a fleshly, sensual life, is the
way to heaven, Horn. viii. 5, 13. That your children and servants
ought to be instructed in the knowledge of God and Christ, of their
misery and the means of their recovery, Gen. xviii. 19 ; Prov. xxii.
6 ; Eph. vi. 4. That your houses should be churches, praying,
reading, and singing families, Joshua xxiv. 15 ; Ps. ci. 2, 6, 7 ;
Col. iii. 16; Rom. xvi. 5; Jer. x. 25. And that the Lord s day
should be conscientiously observed, and devoted to the dearest Re
deemer by secret, private, and public duties, Exod. xx. 8; Is.
Iviii. 13 ; Acts xx. 7 ; Rev. i. 10. These things are written, as
with the beams of the sun, so clearly in the Scriptures, that if ye
deny them, ye deny yourselves to be Christians, and profess your
selves to be infidels ; I beseech you, therefore, in the name of the
blessed Saviour, who redeemed you from your vain conversations
with his own most precious blood, and for the sake of your immor
tal souls, which within a few days must throw their last cast for
eternity, that your practices be answerable to such principles. For,
believe me, it will be a dreadful thing another day, for your lives
to give your consciences the lie at this day.
I have but one request more to you pardon my freedom and
plainness of speech, for truly my heart is enlarged towards you
be pleased to peruse the following discourse, with serious considera
tion of the truth and weight of the particulars therein delivered,
and with supplication to God that the treatise may be serviceable
to your eternal salvations. If I write not what is agreeable to the
word of God, reject it ; but if I do, submit to it, lest ye subvert
your own souls. The Father of mercies and God of all grace
enlighten all your minds in the saving knowledge of himself; and
Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, bless this brief discourse to you,
infuse grace in every of you where it is wanting, increase grace where
it is ; bless you so in civil things that your town may be a habi
tation of justice, and so succeed you in spirituals, that it may be a
mountain of holiness ; and enable you all so to prepare for death,
that it may be to you the gate of life ; so to take him for your por
tion, that he may be your everlasting possession ; and so to glorify
him in your generations, that ye may be meet for, and heirs of, the
eternal weight of glory ; which is the prayer of
Your most affectionate servant,
GEORGE SWINNOCK.
THE FADING OF THE FLESH.
My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever. Ps. Ixxiii. 26.
CHAPTEK I
TJie preface, division of the psalm, and coherence of the text.
THE Holy Scriptures are famous above all other writings for their
verity. The works and books of men are like their bodies, liable
to many weaknesses. After their most correct edition, there may
frequently be found more errata in the copy than in the press.
But the word of God is like himself, full, without all imperfection ;
and faithful, without all falsehood or corrupfion. Its author is the
God of truth, for whom it is impossible to lie, and therefore its
matter must needs be the word of truth. Thy law is the truth
2 Pet. i. 21 ; Titus i. 2; Ps. cxix. 142.
Among all the books of Scripture, the Psalms of David are
famous for variety. Other books are either historical, doctrinal,
or prophetical; the book of Psalms is all, Ps. xxii. and xvi.
It describeth some histories of the church, foretelleth the passion
and resurrection of Christ, and declareth the duty of a Christian.
The Psalms, saith Gerrhard,! are a jewel made up of the gold of
doctrine, of the pearl of comfort, and of the gems of prayer. Basil
saith, 2 It is a common shop of remedies, a compendium of all
divinity, a storehouse of excellent doctrine for all persons and in
all conditions.
1 Jo. Gerr. Loc. Com. de Script, in Exegesi. 2 Basil in Psal
VOL. III. 2 D
418
THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. I.
In this seventy-third Psalm we may consider,
1. The title to it.
2. The substance of it.
Its title is, A Psalm of Asaph,l O r a Psalm for Asaph, saith
Ainsworth. The original bearing both, causeth some difference
among expositors whether Asaph were the penman of it, or only
the musician to whom it was directed to be set and sung with the
voice or instrument. That Asaph was a prophet or seer is plain,
2 Chron. xxix. 30 ; as also that he was a singer, 1 Chron. xv. 19.
Mollerus thinketh Asaph the compiler of it ; Calvin judgeth David.
The matter is not much ; for whosoever of the two were the pen,
the Spirit of Grod, which is called the finger of God, guided it, and
wrote the psalm.
For the substance of the psalm, it containeth the godly man s
trial in the former part of it, and his triumph in the latter part of
it. We have,
First, The grievous conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, to
the 15th verse.
Secondly, The glorious conquest of the Spirit over the flesh, to
the end.
In the beginning of the psalm he ingeniously pointeth at those
rocks against which he was like to have split his soul.
In the middle he candidly confesseth his ignorance and folly to
have been the chiefest foundation of his fault.
In the conclusion, he gratefully kisseth that hand which led him
out of the labyrinth.
Or we may observe,
First, The cause of his distemper.
Secondly, The cure of it.
Thirdly, The psalmist s carriage after it.
His disease was envy. The psalmist was much troubled with
the frets : I was envious at the foolish/ ver. 3.
First, The cause of it : When I saw the prosperity of the wicked,
ver. 3. His heart was pained because profane men prospered.
That weeds which cumbered the ground should be watered so
plentifully, and grow so exceedingly, when good corn was so thin
1 Le Asaph, i.e., Asaphi vel Asapho, cum le inservit turn genitive turn dativo. A
Lap. Existimant nonnulli Psalmum hunc et cseteros qui sequuntur a Davide composi-
tum. De ea re quanquam non dispute, tamen genus orationis in his Psalmis tale est
apparent alium esse canninum horum authorem quam Davidem. M oiler, in Tit.
.. Ixxiii. De.Psalmi authore non anxie dispute ; mihi verisimile est, quia canend
provmcia mandata fuerit ipsi Asapho, nomen ejus poni, praterito Davidis nomine
sicuti res per se note sappe taceri solent. Calvin in loc.
CHAP. I.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH.
419
and lean ; that the lion and raven, those unclean creatures, should
be spared, when the innocent lamb and dove were sacrificed ; that
the wicked should flourish like the bay-tree, enjoy a constant spring
and summer, be fresh and green all the year, though without fruit,
when saints, like good apple-trees, had their autumn and winter ;
this touched the good man to the quick; his sore eyes could
not behold the glorious sunshine of their prosperity without much
pain.
The heathen have, from the flourishing of such unholy persons
flatly denied all providence. Diogenes the cynic, seeing Harpalus,
a vicious fellow, increasing in wealth, whilst he wallowed in wicked
ness, said that the gods took no care how things were carried here
below. The Athenians, upon the defeat and death of their honest
general, Nicias, in Sicily, concluded that the divine powers were
wholly regardless of human affairs. And not only these blind
heathen who walked in the night of darkness, but even saints
themselves, who were able to see afar off , and who pondered the
paths of their feet, have stumbled at this stone, Jer. xii. 1, 2-
Hab. i. 13.
Secondly, The cure of his distemper. His disease was bad eyes.
An envious eye is an evil eye : Why is thine eye evil, because
mine is good, Mat. xx. 15. His remedy was this : his eyes were
anointed with some eye-salve out of the sanctuary, which helped
them. He saw the end of wicked men s prosperity to be no less
than endless misery ; that they did but like malefactors go up the
ladder above others to be turned off and executed ; and this satis
fied him.
The heathen, as they ascribe the subject of the disease to many
causes ; some naturalists to the principles of generation and corrup
tion ; the stoics to the necessary connexion of second causes ; the
astrologers to the motion and influence of the stars, undertaking to
shew us the very houses of prosperity and adversity ; the wiser sort
of those pagans, though also their foolish hearts were darkened,
to the will of Jupiter, who had his vessels of good and bad things by
him, out of which he gave to all persons according to his pleasure ;
so also they prescribe for its removal many cures, though generally
their medicines, like weak lenitives, did only move and stir, not re
move or purge away the distemper. Their receipts were all of kitchen
physic, such as grew in nature s garden, when those drugs which
do work the cure must be fetched from far. I confess the master
of moral philosophy, whom I most admire of all heathen, seemeth
to harp upon the same string with the psalmist. Those, saith he,
420 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. I.
whom God approveth and loveth, he exerciseth and afflicteth;
those whom he seemeth to spare, he reserveth for future sufferings. 1
But an ordinary capacity may perceive by the treatise, though
there be many excellent things in it, how far the moralist came
short of Christianity. It is also without question that his sight
was not so good as to look into the other world, and there to see
the eternal pains of the evil, and pleasures of the good, which vision
did allay the storm in the prophet s spirit. He tells us, indeed,
that vicious persons are not dismissed, only their punishment is
delayed ; but to him this life was the time, and this world the place,
of their execution.
That which did assuage those boisterous waves, which threat
ened to swallow up the soul of the psalmist, was the different con
clusion of the saint s and sinner s conversations. By faith he fore
saw that the whole life of a wicked man was but a tragedy : though
its beginning might be cheerful, yet its ending would be mournful ;
though their power were great on earth for a time, yet their portion
should be in the lowest hell to eternity. Until I went into the sanc
tuary of God ; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them
in slippery places : thou castedst them down into destruction. How
are they brought into desolation, as in a moment ! they were ut
terly consumed with terrors, ver. 17-19. They are but exalted,
as the shell-fish by the eagle, according to the naturalists, to be
thrown down on some rock and devoured. Their most glorious pro
sperity is but like a rainbow, which sheweth itself for a little time
in all its gaudy colours, and then vanisheth. The Turks, consider
ing the unhappy end of their viziers, use this proverb, He that is
in the greatest office, is but a statue of glass. Wicked men walk
on glass or ice, thou hast set them in slippery places ; on a sudden
their feet slip they fall, and break their necks. Oh the sad reck
oning which they must have after all their merry meetings ! Though
their sweet morsels go down pleasantly here, yet they will rise in
their stomachs hereafter.
The holy prophet saw also that saints, after their short storm,
should enjoy an everlasting calm. Thou shalt guide me by thy
counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory/ ver. 24. As the pillar
of fire by night, and cloud by day, thou wilt march before, and
1 HOB Dens quos probat, qnos amat indurat, recognoscit, exercet. Eos autem quibus
Igere videtur, quibus parcere, Venturis malis servat. Erratis enim si quern judi-
exceptum. Veniet ad ilium diu felicem 8 ua portio; quisquis videtur dimissus
BK i, dilatns eat. -Seneca in lib. Quare bonis viri* mala accidavt, cum sit provi-
aentta. Cap. 14.
CHAP. II.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 421
>
direct me through the wilderness of this world, till I come to
Canaan.
Thirdly, His carriage after it.
1. In a holy apostrophe or conversion to God : Whom have I
in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire besides
thee. What though ungodly persons abound in sensual pleasures,
yet I have infinitely the better portion. They have the streams,
which run pleasantly for a season, but will shortly be scorched up ;
but I have the fountain, which runneth over, and runneth ever. If
they, like grasshoppers skipping up and down on earth, have their
notes, what tune may I sing who am mounting up to heaven, and
enjoy him who is unspeakably more desirable than anything, yea,
than all things, either in heaven or earth !
CHAPTER II.
The interpretation of the text, and the doctrine, tJiat man s
flesh will fail him.
In a heavenly position, concerning his happiness in God : My
flesh and my heart faileth me : but God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever/
In reference to which I shall,
First, Open the terms.
Secondly, Divide the text.
Thirdly, Eaise the doctrinal truths.
My flesh and my heart faileth me. Some take the words in a
spiritual, others in a civil, others in a natural, sense. Amongst
them who take it in a spiritual sense, some expositors take it in an
evil, others in a good sense.
They who take the expression in a bad sense, 1 take it to be a
confession of his former sin, and to have relation to the combat,
mentioned in the beginning of the psalm, between the flesh and
the Spirit, as if he said, I was so surfeited with self-conceitedness
that I presumed to arraign divine actions at the bar of human
reason, and to judge the stick under water crooked by the eye of
my sense, when indeed it was straight ; but now I see that flesh is
no fit judge in matters of faith ; that neither my flesh nor heart
can determine rightly of God s dispensations, nor hold out uprightly
under Satan s temptations ; for if God had not supported me, my
flesh had utterly supplanted me : My flesh and my heart faileth
1 Abbot in loc.
422 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. II.
me : but God is the strength of my heart/ Flesh is sometime
taken for corrupt nature, Gal. v. 13. First, Because it is propa
gated by the flesh, John iii. 6 ; secondly, Because it is executed
by the flesh, Rom. vii. 25 ; thirdly, Because corruption is nour
ished, strengthened, and increased by the flesh, 1 John ii. 16.
They who take the words in a good sense, do not make them
look back so far as to the beginning of the psalm, but only to the
neighbour verse. The prophet, say they, having passionately fixed
his heart on God, as the most amiable object in heaven and earth,
(ver. 25,) was transported therewith so excessively, and carried out
in holy sallies after him so vehemently, that he was ready to sink
and swoon away ; his spirits were ready to expire through the exu
berancy of his love to, and longings after, the blesssd God. The
weak cask of his body was ready to break, and not able to hold
that strong and spiritual wine. \ My flesh and my heart faileth me.
I am so ravished with delight in, and so enlarged in desires after,
this infinitely beautiful object, that there is no more spirit in me.
I am sick ; yea, if God should not appear, the strength of my heart
should die for love.
2. They who expound the words in a civil sense, as I may say,
affirm the sentence to refer to the psalmist s sufferings.
He had a good rod instead of a good piece of bread for his break
fast every morning, and the table was covered with sackcloth, and
furnished with the same bitter herbs both at dinner and supper.
For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every
morning/ ver. 14. Now the weight of this burden was so great,
pressing his body, and oppressing his mind, that without an almighty
power, it had broke his back ; his flesh and his heart failed him. 1
3. Others take the words in a natural sense, as if the prophet
did neither intend by them his fault, as some who take them in a
spiritual sense ; nor his fear, as those who take them in a civil
sense ; 2 but only his frailty, as if he had said, My moisture con-
sumeth, my strength abateth, my flesh faileth, my heart faileth,
or at least, ere long, my breath will be corrupt, my days extinct,
and the grave ready for me. How happy am I therefore in having
God for the strength of my heart ! Ainsworth reads the words,
Wholly consumed is my heart and my flesh. 3
I shall take the words in this sense, as being most suitable to this
occasion.
1 Nam quicquid adversi accidit, aut carni accidit aut animo. Muscul. in loc.
* Sunt quibus praesens tern pus placet, aliis futurum magis arridet. Marl, in loc.
Deficit (conaumitur) caro mea et cor meum. Mollerus.
CHAP. II.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 423
So far the thesis, now to the antithesis.
But God is the strength of my heart/ 1 Though my flesh fail me,
the Father of spirits doth not fail me ; when I am sinking, he will
put under his everlasting arm to save me.
The Seventy read it, But God is the god of my heart, because
God is all strength God in the heart is the strength of the heart.
The Hebrew carrieth it, But God is the rock of my heart, 2 i.e.,
A sure, strong, and immoveable foundation to build upon. Though
the winds may blow, and the waves beat, when the storm of death
corneth, yet I need not fear that the house of my heart will fall, for
it is built on a sure foundation : God is the rock of my heart
The strongest child that God hath is not able to stand alone ; like
the hop or ivy, he must have somewhat to support him, or he is
presently on the ground. Of all seasons, the Christian hath most
need of succour at his dying hour ; then he must take his leave of
all his comforts on earth, and then he shall be sure of the sharpest
conflicts from hell, and therefore it is impossible he should hold out
without extraordinary help from heaven. But the psalmist had
armour of proof ready wherewith to encounter his last enemy. As
weak and fearful a child as he was, he durst venture a walk in the
dark entry of death, having his Father by the hand: Though I walk
in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear none ill, for thou
art with me, Ps. xxiii. Though at the troubles of my life, and my
trial at de,ath, my heart is ready to fail me, yet I have a strong cor
dial which will cheer me in my saddest condition : God is the
strength of my heart.
And my portion. It is a metaphor taken from the ancient custom
among the Jews, of dividing inheritances, whereby every one had
his allotted portion ; as if he had said, God is not only my rock to
defend me from those tempests which assault me, and thereby my
freedom from evil, but he is also my portion, to supply my necessi
ties, and to give me the fruition of all good. Others, indeed, have
their parts on this side the land of promise, but the author of all
portions is the matter of my portion. My portion doth not lie in
the rubbish and lumber, as theirs doth whose portion is in this
life, be they never so large ; but my portion containeth him whom
the heavens, and heaven of heavens, can never contain. God is the
strength of my heart and my portion for ever ; not for a year, or an
age, or a million of ages, but for eternity. Though others portions,
like roses, the fuller they blow, the sooner they shed; they are
worsted often by their pride, and wasted through their prodigality,
1 Robur cordis. Calv. 2 Petra cordis. Moller.
THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. II.
that at last they come to want-and surely death always rends then-
persons and portions asunder; yet my portion will be ever full with
out diminution. And, first, without alteration, this God will be my
God for ever and ever, my guide and aid unto death ; nay death
which dissolved so many bonds, and untieth such close knots, shall
never part me and my portion, but give me a perfect and everla
ing possession of it 1
The words branch themselves into these two parts :
First, The psalmist s complaint: My flesh and my heart faileth
me
Secondly, His comfort : But God is the strength of my heart,
and my portion for ever.
Or we may take notice in them,
1. Of the frailty of his flesh : My flesh and my heart faileth me.
2. Of the flourishing of his faith : But God is the strength of my
heart, and my portion for ever.
According to the two parts of the text, I shall draw forth two
doctrinal truths.
Doct. 1. That man s flesh will fail him.
The highest, the holiest man s heart will not ever hold out.
The prophet was great and gracious, yet his flesh failed him.
Doct. 2. That it is the comfort of a Christian, in his saddest
condition, that God is his portion.
This was the strong water which kept the psalmist from fainting
when his flesh and heart failed him.
I begin with the first :
That man s flesh will fail him. Those whose spirits are noble,
will find their flesh but brittle. The psalmist was great, yet death
made little, yea, nothing of him. Like the Duke of Parma s sword,
it makes no difference between great and small. This cannon hits
the great commanders as well as the common soldiers. Like a vio
lent wind, it plucks up by the roots, not only low trees, but also tall
cedars. They who lie in beds of ivory, must lie down in beds of
earth. Some letters are set out very gaudily with large flourishes,
but they are but ink as the other. Some men have great titles,
worshipful, right worshipful, honourable, right honourable, but
they signify no more with death than other men ; they are but
moving earth, and dying dust, as ordinary men are. Worship,
honour, excellency, highness, majesty, must all do homage to the
sceptre of this king of terrors. When Constantius entered in
1 Quicquid prater Deum possideas, non poteris dicere quod pars tua sit futura in
seculum. De Deo solo dicit fidelis, Pars mea Deus in seculum. Muscul. in loc.
CHAP. II.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 425
triumph unto Eome, and had a long time stood admiring the gates,
arches, turrets, temples, theatres, and other magnificent edifices of
the city, at last he asked Hormisda what he thought of the place.
I take no pleasure in it at all, saith Hormisda, for I see the end of
this city will be the same with all her predecessors. What he
spake of places, is as true of persons ; though men may admire them
for a while, yet the stateliest and most curious buildings of their
bodies will fall to the ground as their ancestors have done before
them, Job iii. 15. This storm will beat on the prince s court as
much as on the peasant s cottage. What man is he that liveth
and shall not see death ? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand
of the grave ? Selah. Ps. Ixxxix. 48. The interrogation is a
strong negation. The prophet challengeth the whole world to find
out a person that can procure a protection against death s arrest.
The psalmist was gracious, yet grace gave way to nature. Death
will, like hail and rain, fall on the best gardens, as well as the
wide wilderness. The wheat is cut dow T n and carried into the barn
as well as the tares. A godly man is free from the sting, but not
from the stroke, from the curse, but not from the cross, of death.
Holy Hezekiah could beg his own life for a few years, but
could not compound for his death ; he did obtain a reprieve for
fifteen years, but not a pardon. The best fruit will perish, because
it is worm-eaten. The gold and the dross (the good and the bad)
go both into this fire ; the former to be refined, the latter to be con
sumed. The whole world is a charnel-house, and the several in
habitants thereof so many walking carcases. The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth : because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it: surely the people is grass/ Isa. xl. 6, 7. The word
speaks man s mortality. He is grass, withering grass a flower, a
fading flower. Secondly, Its certainty. The voice said, Cry.
The prophet had a charge in a vision given him, to proclaim so
much from. God to his people. Surely the people is grass.
Thirdly, The universality ; the flesh of kings and counsellors, the
flesh of saints and martyrs, the flesh of high and low, rich and
poor All flesh is grass. Man is sometimes compared to the
flower for its beauty, but here for its frailty. A flower will quickly
fade ; if it be not cut down by an instrument of iron, nor cropped by
the hand, yet the gentle breath of wind quickly bloweth off its
beauty. Besides, an expositor observeth, it is to the flower of the
field, not of the garden. Flowers of the garden have more shelter,
426 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. III.
and are better looked to, than flowers of the field ; these are more
open to hard weather, and more liable to be plucked up or trod down.
Naturalists tell us of a flower called ephemeron, because it lasteth
but a day.* Man is such a flower ; his life is but a day, whether
longer or shorter a summer or a winter s day. How quickly do
the shadows of the evening stretch themselves upon him, and make
it night with him ! Pliny speaks of a golden vine, which never
withereth. The bodies of saints shall be such hereafter, but at pre
sent the best herbs wither as well as the worst weeds. Neither the
dignity of a prince, nor the piety of a prophet, can excuse from
entering the list with this enemy. Against this arrest there is no
bail.
CHAPTEK III.
The reasons of the doctrine, Man s corruptibility, God s fidelity,
and man s apostasy from God.
I shall only lay down, in the explication of the point, two or three
reasons, and then proceed to that which will be practical.
The first ground of the doctrine is the corruptibility of
man s body. It is called in Scripture a house of clay, Job iv.
18 ; and an earthly tabernacle, 2 Cor. v. 1. The body of man
at best is but a clod of clay, curiously moulded and made up.
The Greek proverb hath a truth in it, Kepapos 6 avdpwrro^^
Man is but an earthen vessel. Some indeed are more painted
than others in regard of dignity and place ; others are stronger
vessels than the rest in regard of purity of constitution ; but all
are earthen. Surely every man at his best estate is altogether
vanity, 2 Ps. xxxix. All Adam is all Abel. Man, nay, every
man, when most high in regard of his hopes, and most firm in
regard of his foundation, is even then the next door to, and but one
remove from, corruption. What the great apostle said in a proper,
every one may say in a common sense, I die daily. We carry our
bane every moment about us. The very food which preserveth our
lives, leaves that behind it which will force our deaths. It is
hold en for certain, saith one, 3 that in two years space there are in
the body of man as many ill-humours engendered as a vessel of a
hundred ounces will contain. Against some, these enemies appear
1 AvOpu-iroi tyfafpoi. Plut. ad Apol.
2 Profecto omnimoda vanitas. Jun.
3 The Netherland Cure.
CHAP. III.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 427
in the open field, often skirmishing with them ; but against all
others they lie in ambush, and wait for an opportunity to fall on
and destroy them. 1 In the best timbered body they are but like
fire raked under the ashes, and reserved to another day, when they
will flame out, and burn it down. We are all, like the apples of
Sodom, quce contacta cinerescunt, which, being touched, crumble
into dust ; or as the spawn of locusts, which, being handled, dis-
solveth, according to the philosopher. 2 God needs not bring
out his great artillery to batter down the building of man s
body ; a small touch will tumble it down, nay, it is every moment
decaying, and will at last fall of itself. 3 There is rottenness at the
core of the fairest fruits. Our flesh is no match for the Father of
spirits. An ordinary besom will sweep down the spider s web ;
though it hath accurate weavings and much curiosity, yet it hath
no stability. As it was with the gourd of Jonah, so it is with the
children of men, we breed and feed those worms which will devour
and destroy us. Every man s passing bell hangs in his own
steeple.
The second reason is, God s fidelity. The righteous and gracious
God hath threatened eternal pains to the wicked as the wages of
their sins, and hath promised endless pleasures to the godly, as
the reward of Christ s sufferings. Now the place of payment where
these threaten ings and promises shall be accomplished, is the other
world, to which death is the passage. Man dieth, that God s word
may live, and falleth to the earth, that God s truth may stand.
Sin, though it be finite in regard of the subject, as being the act
of a limited creature, yet it is infinite in regard of the object, as
being committed against a boundless Creator ; therefore it is
punished with the absence of all good, which is an infinite loss ;
and the presence of all evil, which is infinite in duration, though
not in intension, because of the incapability of the sinner. 4 The
infernal pit is the place of those punishments, into which, by the
ladder of death men descend, Mat. vii. 23, and xxv. 41 ; Mark ix.
49. Death is but the sinner s trap-door into hell. The English
1 Tertul. Apol. cap 40. 2 Arist. Hist. Animal.
3 Ipsa suis augmentis vita ad detriments impellitur, et inde deficit unde proficere
creditur. Greg.
4 In peccato duo sunt ; Quorum unum est aversio ab immutabili bono, quod est
infinitum, unde ex hac parte peccatum est infinitum. Aliud quod est in peccato est
inordinata conversio ad mutabile bonum, et ex hac parte peccatum est finitum.
Ex parte aversionis respondet peccato poena damni, quse enim est infinita. Est
enim amissio infiniti boni, solicet Dei. Ex parte conversions respondet pcena
sensus. Aquin., 1, 2, ques. 87, Art. 4.
428
THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. III.
capital malefactors, when cast, are carried into a dungeon, and
from thence to the gallows. Ungodly men being cast by the law
of God, and not suing out their pardon from the gospel, which is
an office set up for that purpose, do go through the dungeon of
death to the place of their dreadful and everlasting execution.
God hath also engaged to bestow on the members of Christ an in
comparable and unchangeable crown. It is your Father s pleasure
to give you a kingdom : but death is the young prophet that
anomteth them to it, and giveth them actual possession of it. They
must put off their rags of mortality, that they may put on their
robes of glory. It is in the night of death that saints go to their
blessed and eternal rest. The corn must first die before it can spring
up fresh and green : Israel must die in Egypt before he can be
carried into Canaan. There is no entrance into paradise but under
the flaming sword of this angel death, that standeth at the gate.
The soul must be delivered out of the prison of the body, that it may
enjoy the glorious liberty of the sons of God. This bird of para
dise will never sing merrily, nor warble out the praises of its Maker
in a perfect manner, till it be freed from this cage.
The sinner dieth, that, according to God s word, he might receive
the bitter fruits of his evil ways. Death is to him as the gate
through which condemned and piacular persons pass to their
deserved destruction. The saint dieth, that, according to God s
promise, he may enjoy the purchased possession. Death to him is
as the dirty lane through which Chrysostom passed to a feast a
dark short way through which he goeth to the marriage supper of
the Lamb. His body is mortal, that his sins and sufferings might
not be immortal.
The third ground of the point may be man s apostasy from God.
Death broke in upon man, by reason of man s breaking the com
mands of God. We had never fallen to dust, if we had not fallen
from our duties. Sickness had never seized on our bodies, if sin
had not first seized on our souls.
The Pelagians and Socinians say that death is not a consequent
of sin, but a condition of nature. 1 The blasphemous Jews tell us
that Adam and his posterity were therefore condemned to die,
because there was one to come out of his loins who would make
himself a God, meaning Christ ; but the God of truth hath resolved
the genealogy of death into another cause, even the first Adam s
aspiring to be like God, and ambition to cut off the entail, and hold
only from himself, Gen. iii. 15 ; Rom. v. 12. As a lethargy in the
1 Mora eat conditio naturae, non peccati argumentum vel peena. Sen. Suas., 7.
CHAP. III.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 429
head diffuseth universal malignity through the whole body, and
thereby corrupteth and destroyeth it ; the apple which Adam did
eat was poisoned, which entered into his bowels and being ; the
venom of it is transmitted all along, like Gehazi s leprosy, to his
seed. 1 Some tell us that he would often turn his face toward the
garden of Eden and weep, reflecting upon what he had done. Sure
I am it was not without cause, for we all got the infection from
him, and by him it is that the whole world is tainted and turned
into a pest-house. Whatsoever delight he had in the act, there
was death in the end.
It seemeth unquestionable that man in his estate of innocency
had a conditional, though not an absolute immortality. 2 It is true,
he was mortal, ratione corporis, being a compound of corruptible
elements ; but immortal, ratione fcederis, being free from the law of
death by virtue of the covenant. As before he fell he had a posse
non peccare, a possibility not to have sinned, but since, a non posse
non peccare, a necessity of sinning ; so in his estate of purity he
had a possibility of not dying, but in his estate of apostasy, a
necessity of it. If he had stood, he should, like Enoch, have been
translated that he should not see death ; he should have entered
into his Father s house, but not have walked thither through the
dark entry of death.
The flesh faileth us, because sin hath defiled it. Man s flesh at
first was fly-blown with pride, and is ever since liable to putre
faction, Ps. xc. 7 ; Rom. viii. Sin is therefore called a body of
death, because it causeth the death of the body. When one asked
who set up the stately edifices in Eome, it was answered, The sins
of Germany, meaning the money which the pope s agents received
for pardons granted to the Germans. If it be demanded, Who
pulleth down the goodly building of man s body? it may be
answered, The sins of man. It is sin which turneth such costly,
curious houses into confused, ruinous heaps. Draco the lawgiver
appointed death the punishment of every offence, for which cause
his laws are said to be written in blood ; and being demanded the
reason, he gave this answer, That though, when crimes were unequal,
he seemed to be unjust in making all equal in punishment, yet
herein his justice appeared, that the least breach of the law deserved
death. The light of nature taught them that those that sin are
worthy to die, Rom. i. 23. The estate of all sinners lieth in the
i
1 Ideo factum est per peccatum non mortale, quod erat ; sed mortuum, quod non
fieret nisi peccaret. Lumb. Sent., lib. ii. dist. 19.
s Vide Vossium Disputat. Theol. de Peccat. pr. horn, quaest. 3. p. 43.
THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. IV.
valley of the shadow of death. Wheresoever sin hath but a finger,
death will have a hand. Sin, though never committed, but only
imputed, did put to death the very Lord of life. It is like that
wild caprificus, which, if it get but rooting, though in the substance
of a stone in the wall, it will break it asunder.
CHAPTER IV.
First use, Discovering the folly of them that mind the flesh chiefly.
Having laid down these reasons in the doctrinal part of my dis
course, I shall now speak to that which is practical. The truth
may be useful, both by way of information and exhortation.
First, By way of information. If our flesh will fail us ; what
fools are they whose whole contrivance is to feed and please the
flesh. We laugh at the vanity and folly of children, when we see
them very busy and taking much pains to make up a house of cards,
or pies of dirt. The greatest part of men are but children of larger
dimensions, and are indeed more foolish, because they ought to be
more wise. What is their main work, but to make provision for
the flesh ? to provide fuel enough for the fire of its covetousness,
and pleasant water enough for the leviathan of its voluptuousness,
and air enough for the chameleon of ambition ; as if God had no
other design in sending them into the world, but that they might
be cooks to dress their bodies as well as possibly might be for the
worms. All their care is, What shall we eat ? and what shall we
drink ? and wherewith shall we be clothed ? and how shall we do
to live in these dear and hard times ? As vermin in dunghills,
they live and feed on such filth, never once asking their souls in
earnest, What wilt thou do for the bread which came down from
heaven, and how wilt thou do to put on the robes of Christ s right
eousness, that thy nakedness may not appear to thy shame, and oh,
what wilt thou do to be saved, to live eternally ? These things are
not in all their thoughts. Like flies, they are overcome with the
spirits of wine, and nourished with froth. It is enough, they think,
if, when they come to die, they bequeath their souls to God in their
wills, though it is a thousand to one if those wills be proved in
heaven ; I can tell them of unanswerable caveats, which the judge s
Son will put in against them, and therefore their whole lives must
l>e devoted to the service of their bodies. Like dying men, they smell
of earth, and carry its complexion in their very countenances. If a
CHAP. IV.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 431
man that had two houses in his possession, one whereof was his
own freehold for ever, and the other his landlord s, which he agreed
to leave at an hour s warning, should neglect his own house, let all
things there run to wrack and ruin, but night and day be mending
and adorning his landlord s house, as if he could never be at cost
enough, or make it neat enough, would not every one condemn this
man for a fool or a madman ? Truly this is the very case of most
men. The soul in the body is a tenant in domo aliena, saith the
orator. 1 The body is our house of clay, in which we are tenants at
another s will ; we may be turned out of its doors without so much
as an hour s warning. The soul is our own everlasting possession,
yet generally the immortal spirit is slighted, no time taken for a
serious view of its wants, no cost laid out for its supply, as if it
were an indifferent thing whether it swim or sink for ever, when
men are always plotting and studying to gratify and please their
fading flesh. Oh this is one of the dolefullest sights which eyes can
behold, the servant to ride on horseback, and the prince to gO on
foot ; the sensitive appetite to be the grave of religion, and the dun
geon of reason. It is reported of a certain philosopher, 2 that dying
he bequeathed a great sum of money to him that should be found
most foolish. His executor, in pursuance of his will, travelled up
and down to find out one that excelled others in folly, and so
might challenge the legacy. At last he came to Rome, where a
consul abusing his office was adjudged to death, and another,
sueing for the place, chosen, who cheerfully took it upon him. To
this man he delivered the money, telling him, That he was the
most foolish man in the world, who, seeing the miserable end of his
predecessor, was nothing therewith discouraged, but joyfully suc
ceeded him in his office. How much do most titular Christians
resemble this foolish consul ; they see in the world their sensual
companions, like sheep, as they are feeding in their fleshly pastures,
culled out by death, and called away from them ; nay, they may
see in the word, if they will believe God himself, the block on
which they are laid by that bloody butcher Satan, the knife with
which they are stuck, and which he runs up to the very haft in the
throat of their precious souls ; the heavy curse of the law, and the
infinite wrath of the Lord, which they must undergo for ever, and
yet they are therewith not the least affrighted, but merrily follow
them to the place of endless mourning.
Reader, if thou art one of these fleshpots of Egypt, what folly
and madness art thou guilty of. Is not thy spirit ovpaviov <j>vrov3
1 Cicero, Tusc. 2 Greg, de la Nuz. Tract. Evan. 3 Plato.
432 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. IV.
a heavenly plant, the immediate workmanship of the glorious God,
and thy flesh, like the first Adam, of the earth earthy, and art thou
not a fool to prefer dirt before that which is divine ? Is not thy
spirit the impress and image of God himself, in its immortality,
noble faculties, and capacity of honouring and enjoying his infinite
majesty ? and thy body the resemblance of beasts, nay, in many
things inferior to them, and art thou not unwise in esteeming that
which is brutish above that which is the picture of God s own per
fections ? Again, is not the wellbeing of thy body involved in the
welfare of thy soul ? As really as the branches depend on the root
for its flourishing, thy body dependeth on thy soul for its salvation.
How mad art thou, therefore, to let the vessel sink, and yet presume
to preserve the passenger that saileth in it ! Once more, shall not
the life of thy spirit run parallel with the life of God himself, and
the line of eternity ? and hath not God himself told thee that thy
flesh will fail thee ? Dost thou not find it now and then tottering,
and, as it were, telling thee that it must drop down ; and art not
thou a fool in grain, a fool in the highest degree, to place all thy
happiness for ever, to set all thy stress and weight for thine un
changeable estate, on this rotten bough, which will certainly break
under thee, when thou mightst have sure footing, and lay up a
good foundation, by a hearty regarding thine heaven-born soul. Oh
consider it, and give conscience leave to call thee fool once, that
thou mayest be wise for ever. Attilus, king of Swethland, made a
dog king of the Danes, in revenge of some injuries received from
them. What wrong hath thy soul done thee, that to be revenged
on it, and to spite it to purpose, thou makest its slave its sove
reign, that part by which thou art kin to the beasts, its lord and
king?
-The truth is, were not men drowned in sensuality, as he whom
Seneca speaketh of, that knew not whether he stood or sat, till his
slave told him, and their consciences seared and made senseless by
them, as young gallants, being arrested for debt, make the sergeants
drunk, and thereby escape at present, it would be impossible for
men to live thus after the flesh. But as some cunning thieves, if
there be a mastiff belonging to the house which they intend to rob,
give it some morsels which will keep it from barking, that so they
may^steal the inhabitant s wealth, and they not have the least
warning either to hinder or recover it ; so the devil hath an art to
make men s consciences dumb, whilst he robs them of their inesti
mable souls. Poor foolish creatures, they are lazing on their beds
of carnal security, and delighting themselves in their dreams of
CHAP. IV.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 433
lying vanities, and in the interim he rifleth their houses, and taketh
away all that is of any value. Yet, as fast as conscience is now
asleep, it will shortly awake, as the jailer at midnight, and then
what fears and frights will possess them ! Ah, how clearly will
they see their folly, in sowing to the flesh, and trusting to that
which was never true to any ! Then they will roar out, If we had
served our spirits as . faithfully as we have served our flesh, they
would not have failed us thus.
When Pausanias desired Simonides to give him some grave
apophthegm, by which he might apprehend his great wisdom, for
which he was so renowned, Simonides smiling, spake this, Esse te
hominem, ne exciderel tibi ; Remember that thou art a man, that
your flesh will fail you. Pausanias puffs at this, but in a short
time after, being almost pined to death with famine, he began to
think of Simonides saying, and cried out, Simonides, magnum
quiddam erat oratio tua, sed prce amentia esse nihil opinabar ;
Simonides, thy speech was full of weight, but I, mad wretch,
thought it of no worth. Friends, ministers, nay, the chief master
of sentences himself, delivered thee this as the masterpiece of wis-
dom, to remember that thy flesh will fail thee: Hear counsel,
receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise for thy latter end/
Prov. xix. 20. But possibly thou, like Gallio, carest for none of
these things. It is death to thee to think of death ; thou hatest it,
as Ahab did Micaiah, because it never speaketh well of thee ; thy
voice to it is as Pharaoh s to Moses, Get thee hence, let me see
thy face no more. It is said of Vitellius in Tacitus, that he was
one hour trepidus, dein temulentus, fearful, the next drunken, in
the very approach of his fatal ruin, striving to drown his fears in
his cups. Thou art resolved to riot and revel, and therefore canst
not endure to think of a reckoning. Well, put off the thoughts of
it, as far and as much as thou canst ; make as light of it as thy
hardened heart will give thee leave, yet be confident, it is on its
way riding post towards thee with a warrant from the God of
heaven for thy execution ; and oh then, when thou seest its grim
face, how will thine heart tremble ! and when thou hearest its
dreadful voice, how will thine ears tingle ! The flesh which thou
now pamperest will then wax pale, and the vessels which now
thou drawest thy comforts from will then run dregs ; and then, oh
then, how mournfully wilt thou screech out, pastors, teachers,
the counsel which you gave me was of infinite weight and conse-^
quence, but I, fool, madman, had not the wit to follow it.
VOL. III. 2 E
434 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. V.
Carolus, king of Sicily, did on his death-bed, Alas, alas ! I am
going to die, and yet have not begun to live.
I shall conclude this use with that sad relation which Athenaeus
makes of a great monarch s life and death, in which, as in a
looking-glass, thou mayest see that flesh-pleasing vanities will
end in soul-piercing miseries, and that, as wise as such a man
may be counted by the world, yet in his latter end he is but a
fool.
Ninus, the Assyrian monarch, had an ocean of gold and other
riches, more than the sand in the Caspian Sea ; he never saw the
stars, he never stirred up the holy fire among the magi, nor touched
his god with the sacred rod according to the law; he never offered
sacrifice, nor worshipped the deity, nor administered justice ; but
he was most valiant to eat and drink, and having mingled his
wines, he threw the rest on the stones. This man is dead, behold
*
his sepulchre. And now hear where Ninus is : Sometimes I was
Ninus, and drew the breath of a living man, but now am nothing
but clay. I have nothing but what I did eat ; and what I served on
myself in lust, that was and is all my portion. The wealth with
which I was esteemed blessed, my enemies meeting together shall
bear away, as the mad Thyades carry a raw goat. I am gone to
hell, and when I went thither, I carried neither gold, nor horse,
nor silver chariot. I, that wore a mitre, am now a little heap of
dust.
CHAPTER V,
Second use, An exhortation to sinners to prepare for death, ivith
three quickening motives : Death will come certainly ; it may
come suddenly ; ivhen it comes, it will be too late to pre
pare.
The second use shall be by way of exhortation, which will run
in two distinct channels, partly to the sensual worldlings, partly to
the serious Christian. I shall speak one word to the wise, but in
the first place, two words to the wicked.
If the flesh will fail you, mind the salvation of thy spirit. When
one leaf falls in autumn, we conclude that all will follow after ; by
the death of others, thou mayest conclude thy own dissolution.
When men s leases of the houses wherein they dwell are near ex
pired, they think of providing another habitation, that they may
CHAP. V.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. . 435
not be exposed to the injury of the wind and weather in the naked
streets. Reader, I am come to thee with a message this day from
the faithful God, and it is to acquaint thee that the lease of thy
life is almost worn out, the time of thy departure is at hand ; what
house wilt thou provide for thy precious soul, that it may not be
obnoxious to the roarings of damned spirits, and to the rage of tor
menting devils ? The Roman gladiators designed to death, were
very careful so to contrive and carry themselves that they might
fall handsomely. Sure I am, thou art one appointed for the dust ;
where, oh where is thy solicitousness to die comfortably ? Possibly
thou art one who hast often spoken of dressing thy body neatly for
the coffin ; thy wedding shift, the finest sheet ; thy handsomest head-
clothes must all adorn thy clod of clay, and grace thy carcase, to
entertain the worms at their feast, with clean and fine -.linen.
But, in the meantime, thou hast no thoughts of dressing thy im
mortal soul against the coming of the bridegroom.
When thou diest, thou throwest thy last cast for thine everlasting
estate ; thou shalt never be allowed a second throw. An error in
death, is like an error in the first concoction, which cannot be
mended in the second. Where thou lodgest that night thou diest,
thou art housed for ever. That work which is of such infinite
weight, and can be done but once, had need to be done well. God
hath given thee but one arrow to hit the mark with ; shoot that
at random, and he will never put another into thy quiver. God
will allow no second edition to correct the errata of the first,
therefore it concerns thee with all imaginable seriousness to con
sider what thou doest when thou diest.
One would think, thou shouldst take little comfort in any crea
ture, whilst thy eternal state is thus in danger. Augustus won
dered at the Roman citizen, that he could sleep quietly when he
had a great burden of debt upon him. What rest canst thou have,
what delight in anything thou enjoyest, who owest such vast sums
to the infinite justice of God, when he is resolved to -have full satis
faction either in this or the other world ? When David offered
Barzillai the pleasures and preferments of his own royal palace, he
refused them, because he was to die within a while. How long
have I to live, that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem ?
Let thy servant turn back that I may die, 2 Sam. xix. 34, 35, 36
i.e., Coutt me no courts, I have one foot in the grave, my glass is
almost run, let me go home and die. Without controversy, thou
hast more cause to wink on these withering comforts, and to be
take thyself wholly to a diligent preparation for death. The The-
436 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. V.
bans made a law, that no man should build a house before lie had
made his grave.
Every part of thy life may mind thee of thy death. The moral
ist speaks true : Thou livest by deaths/ l Thy food is the dead car
cases of birds, or fish, or beasts ; thy finest raiment is the worm s
grave before it is thy garment. Look to the heavens : the sun
riseth and setteth ; so that life which now shineth pleasantly on thee
will set. How much doth it behove thee to work the work of him
that sent thee into the world while day lasteth, that thou mayest
not set in a cloud, which will certainly prognosticate thy foul weather
in the other world ! Look down to the -earth ; there thou beholdest
thy mother, out of whose womb thou didst at first come, and in
whose bowels thou shalt ere long be laid. The dust and graves of
others cry aloud to thee, as Gideon to his soldiers, Look on us, and
do likewise. Oh trim thy soul against that time ! If thou risest up,
and walkest abroad in the streets, thou seest this house and that
seat, where such a woman, such a man dwelt, and lo, the place
which knew them shall know them no more ; they are gone, and
have carried nothing with them but their godliness or ungodliness.
If thou liest down, thy sleep is the image of death ; thou knowest not
whether thou shalt awake in a bed of feathers, or in a bed of flames ;
but art certain, that shortly thy body shall lie down in the grave,
and there remain till the resurrection. Look on thy companions,
thou mayest see death sitting on their countenances ; it is creeping
on them in the deafness of their ears, in the dimness of their eyes,
nay, it is posting towards them in the very height and zenith of their
natural perfections. Look on thy own house of clay ; death possibly
looks out at thy windows, however it looks in at thy windows ; thou
wearest it in thy face, thou bearest it in thy bones, and doth it not
behove thee to prepare for it ? Naturalists tell us, that smelling
of earth is very wholesome for consumptionate bodies. reader,
a serious thought of thy death, that thou art but dust, would be
very wholesome for thy declining and decaying soul !
Hard bones steeped in vinegar and ashes grow so soft that they
may be cut with a thread. Give me leave for one half hour to
steep thy hard heart in such a mixture; possibly it may be so
softened through the operation of the Spirit with the word, that
thou mayest become wise unto salvation. It is reported of one
Guerricus,2 that hearing these words read in the church, And all
the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and
he died. All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years:
J MortibuB vivimus. Senec. s Drexel., Eternit.
CHAP. V.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 437
and he died. And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five
years : and he died. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hun
dred sixty-nine years : and he died, Gen. v. 5. He was so strongly
wrought upon by those words, and he died, and he died, that he gave
himself wholly to devotion. Friend, if thou hast any drachm of true
love to thy soul, and its unchangeable condition in the other world,
the consideration of death would make a deep impression upon thee.
But that I may awaken and rouse thee while there is time and
hope, and then help and heal thee, I shall in the prosecution of this
exhortation,
First, Speak to thee somewhat that may be persuasive.
Secondly, Offer to thee somewhat that is directive.
First, I shall offer thee some thoughts which may quicken thee
to a diligent provision for this time.
First, Dost thou not know that death will come certainly ? As
the young prophet said to Elisha, Dost thou know that the Lord
will take thy master from thy head to-day? 2 Kings ii. 3.
Keader, dost thou know that the Lord will take thy soul out
of thy body, and send it to the unknown regions of the
other world, where thou shalt see such things as thou never
sawest, hear such things as thou never heardest, and under
stand such things as thou didst never understand ? Possibly thou
wilt answer me, as Elisha then, I know it, hold your peace. But
truly 1 am ready to urge it again, being assured that thy knowledge
is, as Cicero speaks of the Athenians, like artificial teeth, for show
only ; thou dost not yet know it for thy good ; therefore give me
leave to enforce it still. Dost thou know that God will bring thee
to death, and to the house appointed for all the living ? Dost thou
know that thy ruddy countenance will wax pale, thy sparkling eyes L
look ghastly, thy warm blood cool in thy veins, thy marrow dry up
in thy bones, thy skin shrivel, thy sinews shrink, nay, thy very heart
strings crack ? And hast thou provided never a cordial against
this hour ? Dost thou not read in the writings of God himself,
that no man hath power in the day of death, and there is no dis
charge in that war, Eccles. viii. 8. No man hath power, either to
resist death s force, or to procure terms of peace. The greatest
emperor, with the strength of all his dominions, cannot withstand
death. The most eloquent orator, by his strongest reasons, and
most pathetical expressions, cannot persuade death. The deepest
counsellor, by all his policy, cannot outwit or cozen death.
mighty death, saith the historian, 1 thou hast drawn together
1 Sir Walter Kaleigh s Hist. World, infne.
438 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. V.
all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition
of man, and covered it with these two words, Hie jacet There is
no discharge in that war. Every one must go in person ; there is
no appearing by a proxy. Though the tenant would serve for his
landlord, the subject for his sovereign, the father for his child, as
David for Absalom, yet it will not be accepted. All must in their
own persons appear in the field, and look that grim Goliath, death,
in the face : It is appointed for all men once to die, Heb. ix. God
hath decreed it, and man cannot disannul it. The grammarian, as
one observeth wittily, who can decline other nouns in every case,
can decline death in no case. Death is every moment shooting its
arrows abroad in the world, and doing execution ; and though it
shoots above thee, slaying the superiors ; below thee, taking away
thy inferiors ; on thy right hand, killing this friend ; on thy left
hand, causing that acquaintance to drop ; yet it will never cease
shooting till thou art slain. Thy life for a while may be kept up,
like a ball by the rackets, and tossed from hazard to hazard, yet at
last it wiy. fall to the earth. When once death, this son of a
murderer, sin, comes to take away thine head, there will be none
to shut the door, or hold him fast. Now men that must travel,
arm themselves for all weather. Women that cannot escape their
appointed sorrows, provide bezoar and amber powders, against that
time. But oh what a madman art thou, who knowest certainly of
the coming of this enemy, and that when he cometh he can both
kill and damn, destroy both body and soul, yet takest no care to
arm thyself for that hour !
In other things thou providest for what may be, and wilt thou
not for that which must be ? In summer thou layest in fuel and
food, because it may be thou mayest live to spend it in winter.
Thou workest early and late to increase thy heaps, and to add to
thy hoards, because it may be thy children may come to enjoy it.
Where is thy reason, then, to toil and moil for an uncertainty, and
thus foolishly to neglect that which is of necessity ?
Secondly, Dost thou know that death may come suddenly ? Some
diseases do no sooner appear, but we disappear. Death, like a flash
of lightning, hath on a sudden burnt down many a body. It some
times shoots white powder, doth execution without giving warning.
Diodorus died with sudden shame ; Sophocles with sudden joy ;
Nabal with sudden fear; Pope Alexander was choked suddenly
with a fly; Anacreonthe poet with the kernel of a grape ; ^Eschylus
was killed by the shell of a tortoise, which the eagle let fall on his
bald head, mistaking it for a rock ; the Cardinal of Lorraine was
CHAP. V.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 439
lighted to the chambers of death by a poisoned torch ; a Duke of
Brittany pressed to death in a crowd ; King Henry the Second of
France was killed at tilting ; Senecio Cornelius had his breath stopped
by a quinsy. I might name very many others, who took a short cut
to their long homes. Belshazzar s carousing in his bowls drunk his
bane ; Amnon, merry at his dainties, meets with death ; Zimri
and Cozbi unload their lusts and their lives together ; Korah and
his companions find the earth opening her mouth and swallowing
them up quick, though she stay for others till they are dead ;
Herod scarce ends his proud speech before he is sent to the place
of silence ; Ananias and Sapphira finish their lies and their lives at
the same time. Scarce a week but, nigh those parts we live in,
some or other, by violent or natural means, are suddenly sent into
the other world. That which hath been one man s case may be any
man s case. Header, when thy breath goeth out, thou art not sure
of taking it in again ; thou mayest, like the fool, be talking of many
years, when that God whose word must stand, may say, This night
thy soul shall be required of thee; and oh what will thembecome of
thee ? Thy eternal condition, that estate which is to be for ever
and ever, dependeth on this uncertain life, and art not thou mad to
be revelling and roaring, dallying and delaying, when thine
unchangeable estate is in danger ? Thieves, after the commission of
their robberies, frequently repair to inns, where they drink joyfully,
and divide their booty, when on a sudden the hue-and-cry arriveth
at that town ; the -constable entereth their room, attacketh their
persons, marreth all their mirth, and carrieth them to the jail,
whence, after their trial for their felonies, they are carted to
Tyburn. Many a sinner in the midst of his carnal triumph hath
been haled to eternal torments, like that filthy adulterer mentioned
by Luther, who went into hell out of the embraces of his harlot.
The philosophers say that the weather will be warmish before
a snow. When the sky is most clear, then the great thunder
cometh ; Sodom had a fair, sunshiny morning, but a storm of fire
and brimstone before night. Sure I am, thou hast no promise to
excuse thee in thy greatest pleasures from such a sudden punish
ment. Thou art already a condemned person, and thou wantest
nothing but the messenger death ; nothing but a hurdle, a horse,
and a halter, as Judge Belknap in Richard the Second s time said of
himself, to carry thee to thy deserved execution : l Ps. Ixiv. 7, God
shall shoot at them with an arrow ; suddenly shall they be wounded.
When the pie is priding herself on the top of a tree, little
1 Speed.
440 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. Y.
thinking of a fowler so near, she is fetched down by a sudden
shot.*
It may be thou trusteth to thy youth and strength; because thou
feelest no infirmity, therefore thou fearest no mortality. Thou
thinkest death should go to the dead bones and dry breasts, to such
as see with four eyes, and go on three legs ; but dost thou not know
that death never observeth the laws of nature. As young as thou
art, thou mayest be rotten before thou art ripe ; thy sun may set
at high noon. The Jews have a proverb, that the old ass often
carrieth the young ass s skin to the market ; blossoms are liable to
nipping, as well as full-grown fruit to rotting. Have not several
been married and buried in the same week ; nay, dressed by the
same hands in one day for their weddings and their coffins ?
Bensirah the Jew hath a good saying, The bride went into her
chamber, and knew not what should befall her there : Prov. xxvii.
1, Therefore boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forth. Is it thy strength thou trustest to ?
alas ! the leviathan of death laughs at the shaking of that spear ; he
counts thy strength but as straw, and thy youth but as rotten wood ;
he maketh a leak in a strong new vessel, and it presently sinketh.
Though thy body be never so strong a fort, death, to take it, needeth
not besiege or block, it up with lingering diseases, but can under
mine it, and blow it down in a moment. Think therefore with
thyself : This day may be the last day that ever I shall see; this hour
may be the last hour that ever I shall spend ; these words may be
the last words that ever I shall speak. Oh what a fool am I to live
thus contentedly without fear, next door to the eternal fire ; there is
but one step betwixt me and hell, and for aught I know, the very
next step that I take may be thither, and then, wo and alas, I am
gone for ever! Surely this consideration, like a hectic fever,
might cause an irrecoverable consumption of all thy carnal joy.
Death is called war, Eccles. viii. 8: thou knowest not but orders
may come from the Lord of hosts for thy sudden march ; thou
mayest not have an hour s warning to put on thy armour or pre
pare thyself.
Invasions are judged far more dangerous than pitched battles,
because those are sudden, and usually take men unprovided. I
must tell thee that, whenever death cometh, it will be dreadful and
dangerous ; for, continuing as thou art, it will surprise thee unpre
pared, and unable to make any resistance. Oh, how it will tear thy
1 Maximum vivendi impedimentum est expectatio quse pendet ex crastino. Senec.
de Brevitat. Vita., cap. 9.
CHAP. V.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 441
soul like a lion, renting it in pieces, whilst there is none to deliver
it ! No chapman comes amiss to him whose shop is ever furnished ;
but every enemy will foil him who goeth always unarmed and
naked. Death to a sinner is always sudden ; they go down quick
into hell, Job xxi.
Thirdly, Dost thou not know that, whensoever death comes, it
will be too late to prepare for it ? The ship must be rigged in the
harbour ; it will be too late to do it in the main ocean in a storm.
Probably enough, though now thou canst spend thy days de
lightfully without Christ and grace, yet, when the bridegroom
cometh by death, thou wilt, as the foolish virgins, talk of getting
oil, because thy lamps will be then gone out ; but, alas ! then it will
be too late ; only such as are ready enter in with him. I have
read of a woman in Cambridge, who, lying on her death-bed,
was visited by persons of worth and piety, and heard much
heavenly discourse from them ; but they could hear nothing from
her, save this, Call time again, call time again. But time runs
swiftly, and being once past, is irrecoverable. Time, saith Bernard,
were a good commodity in hell, if it could be bought up at any
rate. Ah, when thou comest to die, a week, a day, nay, an
hour, would be more worth to thee than all the world. But it
will be impossible to put off the trial which death hath with
thee for thy soul till another time, till another term. When
death calleth, at leisure or not at leisure, ready or unready,
willing or unwilling, thou shalt not deny, but must go the way
whence thou* shalt never return.
The tide will not stay for the greatest merchant s goods ; they
must be shipped before, or left behind. Death will not stay for any
man to freight his heart with grace ; he must do it before death
cometh, or it can never be done. If our spiritual change be not
before our natural change, we are miserable unchangeably.
Petronius speaks of one Eumolpus, who in a desperate storm was
composing verses, and when the ship split upon a rock, and they
called to him to shift for himself, he answered, Let me alone till
I have finished one verse, which I perceive to be lame. Death will
not wait whilst thou finishest the most serious works.
It is said of Demetrius, after that though he lived a slave all his
lifetime, yet when he lay on his death-bed he earnestly desired
manumission, that he might descend into his grave in freedom.
Eeader, I doubt not but, though thou livest a slave to sin and Satan,
yet thou wouldst die the Lord s freeman ; but God himself tells
thee, that if thy life be in bondage to thy lusts, when death
442 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
comes, there is no getting thy liberty, Eccles. ix. 10. Either now
mind thy soul, and ensure thy salvation, or it can never be done ;
there is no doing it in the place whither thou art going. Life
is death s seed-time, and death is life s harvest ; expect thy crop,
both for quality and quantity, answerable to thy seed which thou
now sowest. Cicero saith of Hercules, that he had never been en
rolled among the gods in heaven, if he had not laid out his way
thither whilst he lived. Neither canst thou live with God here
after, unless thou livest to God here.
Friend, think of it seriously ; thy preparation for death must
be now or never. Bees work hard in summer, flying over this
and the other field, sucking this and the other flower, and all to lay
i in provision against winter, at which time else they must starve,
no honey being then to be made. The shell-fish opens and takes
in moisture whilst the tide floweth in upon them, that they may
be supplied when the waters ebb ; and wilt thou, like a drone, now
sleep and then starve ? Let thy reason judge, is it a fit time to
dress thy soul for the marriage feast of the Lamb in the dark night
of death ? or what canst thou think to do in that dismal hour ?
Conscience will tell thee thou hadst thy candle of life set up to
have wrought by, and that is burned to the snuff whilst thy work
is still undone ; the day is past, thy soul is lost, because thou,
unworthy wretch, didst defer it till it was too late. Wilt thou call
to the sun of thy life, as Joshua did, Stand still for one hour, that
I may be avenged of these fleshly lusts, which hinder me of the
heavenly Canaan ? Alas, alas ! it will not hear thee, it cannot
obey thee, for time shall be no more with thee ; thou art entering
upon thy eternity. Remember that thou art warned of it, and do
not, as Caesar, being warned by Artemidorus of a conspiracy to
slay him suddenly, pocketed up the paper, and was very busy in
saluting the people, till at last he was slain, so trouble thyself with
trifles, as to compliment away thy soul and salvation.
CHAPTER VI.
Three motives more : A dying hour ivill be a trying hour ;
the misery of the unprepared; the felicity of the prepared.
Fourthly, Dost thou not know that thy dying hour will be a
trying hour ? When grapes come to the press, they come to the
proof. The mariner s skill is seen in a storm. The soldier s cour-
CHAP. VI] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 443
age is known when he comes to the combat ; while he lieth in
garrison he may boast much, but then he fighteth only with his
words, but in a battle it will appear how he can handle his sword.
Many flourish with their colours, when they know their enemies to
be far enough off, who change their countenances when they meet
them in the field. In thy lifetime thou art walled in, and liest
warm in the confluence of creature comforts, no visible enemy
appeareth against thee ; but when this champion sheweth him
self, bidding thee defiance, and offering to fight with thee for
thy soul, and Saviour, and heaven, and happiness, at the sight
of whom the hearts of kings and captains have melted like
grease before the sun, then, then thou wilt perceive what metal
thou art made of ; whether thou hast the faith and spirit of a David,
and canst encounter him ia the Lord or no. Now thou art a
vessel in the harbour, and so art kept above water, though several
things are wanting ; but when thou launchest into the ocean, the
boisterous waves, and tempestuous winds, will soon discover thy
leaks, and tell thee what is lacking.
It is like enough thou hast some armour with which thou hopest
to defend thyself against the strokes of death ; but know, for a truth,
that death will stab thee through all thy paper shields of profes
sion, privileges, and performances, since thou art a stranger to
Christ and the power of godliness.
Thy life is like the letting down a fisherman s net ; thy death
as the drawing up of this net. While the net is down a man cannot
tell certainly what he shall catch, for the nets may break, and the
fish may escape ; whilst thou livest, it is not so evident what thine
aim is, or what thine end shall be ; but at thy death, when the net
shall be drawn up, then thou wilt see what draught thou hast
made. Though godly men at their deaths may look up to the
Lord of life, and say, At thy word we have let down our nets and
caught abundantly ; we fished for holiness, and have caught happi
ness, fished for grace, and have caught glory, and honour, and
immortality, and eternal life ; yet when the net of thy life cometh
to be drawn up, thou mayest say with Peter, Lord, I have fished
all night, all my lifetime, and hav6 caught nothing ; I fished for
honours, and pleasures, and riches, and I have caught nothing but
the weeds of wrath and damnation. I blessed myself many a time,
like the vain, confident husbandman, in the goodly show which
my corn made on the ground ; but now the threshing time is come,
I find nothing but straw and chaff, vanity and vexation.
It must needs be a trying hour, upon this twofold account ;
444 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
1. Because all thy temporal mercies will then leave thee. When
the hand of death shakes the tree of life, all those fair blossoms will
fall off. We brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that
we shall carry nothing out of this world, 1 Tim. vi. 7. The hedge
hog gets up to a pile of apples, and gathers as many as she can upon
her prickles ; but when she comes to her resting-place her hole-
she throweth them all down, and carrieth not one in with her.
Thus men walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet themselves in vain ;
heaping up riches which die with them ; naked they come into the
world, and naked they go out of the world. Plutarch wisely com-
pareth great men to counters, which one hour stand for thousands,
and the next hour for nothing. Hermocrates, being unwilling that
any man should enjoy his estate after his death, made himself in
his will his own heir. Athenasus reports of a covetous wretch, that
on his death-bed swallowed many pieces of gold, and sewed up
others in his coat, commanding that they should be buried with
him ; but who doth not laugh at such folly ?
In that storm of death, all thy glory and riches, which thou hast
taken such pains, and wrought so hard for, must be thrown over
board. As the great Sultan hath an officer to search all persons
that come into his presence, and take away all their weapons, so
the great God, by his messenger death, will search thee, and take
away all thy wealth. In that day the crowns of princes and
shackles of prisoners, the russet of beggars and scarlet of courtiers,
the honours and offices of the highest, the meat, and drink, and
sleep, and mirth of the lowest, must be laid by.
As it was said of Sarah, it ceased to be with her after the former
manner ; so the time will come that it may be said of thee, it ceaseth
to be with him after the former manner. Now thou canst relish
thy food, and delight in thy friends, ravish thine ears with melo
dious sounds, and thine eyes with curious sights, rejoice in things
of naught, and be titled l with vanity and nothing ; but when death
comes, it will cease to be with thee after the former manner. Now
thou pleasest thyself in thy lovely relations, and pridest thyself in
thy stately possessions ; these weak props preserve thy spirit from
sinking at present ; but ah ! what will become of thee, when they
shah 1 all be taken away from thee, when thou shalt bid thy wife,
and children, and friends, farewell for ever ? and say to thy house,
and lands, and credit, and sports, and pastimes, adieu to eternity ;
or as dying Pope Adrian did, my soul, the loving companion of
my body, thou are going into a solitary place, where thou shalt
1 Qu. tickled ? ED.
CHAP. VI.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 445
never, never more take pleasure. At the hour of death thy most
costly jewels, and most pleasing delights, will be as the pearl in an
oyster, not thy privilege or perfections, but thy disease and destruction.
When those carnal comforts are gone, thy spiritual comforts, if
thou hast any, will be known. When the hand which held thee up
by the chin, and kept thee above water, is taken away, thy own skill
in swimming will be discovered. When the virtue of those cordials
which supported thy spirits for a time is spent, it will appear whether
nature hath any strength or no.
2. Because thy spiritual enemies will then assail thee. Those ad
versaries which before were hid, and lay lurking, as it were, under the
hedge, will then appear openly, and wound thee to the very heart.
Thy sins will then assault thee. When the prisoner appeareth
before the judge, then the evidence is produced, and the witnesses,
which were never before thought of, shew themselves. When thou
goest to stand before the judge of the whole earth, thy sins will bear
thee company. In the night of death, those frightful ghosts will
walk. Thy lusts, which are now lying dormant, will then be ram
pant. Thou mayest say to death, as the woman to the prophet,
Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance, and to slay my son?
Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance, and to slay my
soul?
While the hedgehog walketh on the land, she seemeth not so
uncomely, but when she sprawleth in the waters, her deformity ap
peareth. Whilst men walk up and down, they usually look in false
glasses, and judge themselves fair, because some may be found who
are more foul ; but death will pluck off their masks, present them
with a true glass, in which all the spots, arid dirt, and wrinkles in
the faces of their hearts and lives will be visible. Men flatter them
often, but death never flattered any.
It is observable that Haman, the day that he died, was called
and named according to his desert : The adversary and enemy is
this wicked Haman, Esther vii. 6. Haman probably had many a
title given him before. Some had styled him Haman the great,
Haman the magnificent, Haman the prince, Haman the virtuous ;
all before nicknamed him ; but when he comes to die, it is Haman
the enemy, it is wicked Haman ; then he is called by his proper
name. Since he was born, he never heard his right name till now.
The enemy and adversary is this wicked Haman. So it may be, in
thy lifetime, thou art styled great or gracious, because in place
higher than others ; but when death comes, those gaudy colours will
be washed off, and thou shalt hear, not the King of heaven s
446 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
favourite, but his fool ; when thou art nigh thy execution, as he
was, it will not be the worshipful, but the wicked, Hainan.
Satan will then play hardest upon thee with his biggest guns ;
when his time is but little, his rage is greatest. This is his hour,
and the power of darkness. As the Turkish emperor, when he hath
blunted the edge of his enemies weapons, and wearied their
arms with thousands of his ordinary soldiers, then falls on with his
janizaries the pride and power of his kingdom ; when thou,
through pain of body and perplexity of mind, are least able to
resist, then the devil cometh with his fiercest assaults. If on thy
death-bed thou shouldst think of turning to God, he hath a thousand
ways to turn thee off from such thoughts ; when there is but one
battle for a kingdom, what wounds and work, what fighting and
striving, is there ! When the devil, who knoweth thee to be his
own already, hath but a few hours to wait on thee, and then thou art
his for ever, be assured he will watch by thy sick-bed night and
day, and if all the power and policy of hell can prevent it, neither
cordial shall benefit thy body, nor counsel thy soul.
Will not this be a trying hour to thee, when the cloth shall be
drawn, and thy bodily comforts all taken off the table ? Will not
death search thee to the quick, when those thieves, in their frightful
vizards, all thy sins, in that night will break in upon thee ? As the
elders of Samaria said of Jehu, when he sent to them to prepare and
provide to fight with him, Two kings stood not before him, and
how shall we ? Adam and angels could not stand before sin, (it laid
them both low,) and how wilt thou ? Believe it, those that have
been lions in peace, have carried themselves like harts in this war.
Brutus, whose blood seemed as warm, and to rise to as great a
degree of courage, as any since the Koman consuls, yet when Furius
came to cut his throat, he cried out like a child. Heathen, who
saw nothing almost in death, save rottenness and corruption accom
panying the body, who look no farther than the grave, have es
teemed death the king of terrors, the terrible of terribles, and have
been frighted into a fever upon the sight of its forerunner. But
death is not half so terrible to a moral heathen as it will be to thee,
wicked Christian! Thou knowest that thy death s-day is thy
doom s-day ; that the axe of death will cut thee down as fuel for the
unquenchable fire ; that as soon as thou art carried from the earth,
thou art cast into hell. Thou presumest that thou shalt behave
thyself like a man in the onset with this enemy, but I dare be the
prophet to foretell that thy courage will be less than a woman s in
the issue ; for man, man, dost thou not know, as Pilate said to
CHAP. VI.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 447
Christ, that death hath power to kill thee, as well as to release thee ?
it can send thy body to the grave, and thy soul to the place of end
less misery and desperation.
Fifthly, Dost thou not know the misery of every carnal man at
death ? In thy lifetime thou doest the devil s work, and when
death cometh he will pay thee thy wages. Sin at present is a bee
with honey in its mouth, but then the sting in its tail will appear
and be felt. Now thou hast thy savoury meat and sugared draughts,
but then cometh the reckoning. Some tell us that sweetmeats,
though pleasant to the taste, are very heavy in the stomach. Sure
I am the sweet morsels of sin, which now thou feedest so merrily
on, will then lie heavier than lead on thy heart, and be more bitter
than gall and wormwood. Thou mayest see now and then in this
world, through the flood-gates, some drops of wrath leaking in upon
thy soul ; but when death cometh, the flood-gates will be all pulled
up, and then, oh then, what a torrent of wrath will come pouring
down upon thee ! Here thou sippest of the cup of the Lord s fury,
but then thou shalt drink the dregs thereof. The pains which thou
sufferest here are only an earnest-penny of thy eternal punishment.
It was a cruel mercy which Tamerlane shewed to three hundred
lepers, in killing them to rid them out of their misery ; but death
will be altogether merciless and cruel to thee, for it only f reeth thee
from the jail, to carry thee to the gallows ; it will deliver thee from
whips, but scourge thee with scorpions ; its little finger will be in
finitely heavier than the loins of this miserable life. When God
saith to death concerning thee, as Judas to the Jews concerning
Christ, Take him and lead him away safely ; who can tell the-
mockings, bufferings, piercings, scourgings, the cursed, painful,
and shameful, eternal death which will ensue ?
Suppose, for thy soul s sake, in earnest, as Turannius did in jest
who would needs be laid in his bed as one who had breathed out his
last, and caused his whole family to bewail his death 1 that thou wert
ascending up to thy chamber, whence thou shouldst never come
down, till carried on men s shoulders, betaking thyself to thy dying
bed. Thou lookest on thy body, and beholdest death s harbinger,
sickness, preparing his way before him. Oh how thy colour comes
and goes, at the sight of this axe, which the hand of death hath
laid at the root of thy tree of life ! Like the locust, thou art ready
beforehand to die at the sight of this polypus. Now thou art laid
down on that bed whence thou shalt never rise more, thy next
1 Componi se in lecto et velut exanimem, a circumstante familia plangi jussit.
Senec., de Brevit. Vitce, cap. ult.
448 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
work is to seek for some shelter against this approaching storm.
Thou lookest upward, and seest that God, full of fury, whom thou
didst many a time dare to his very face, and resolved, since thou
- wouldst live without his counsels, thou shalt die without his com-
- forts ; thou lookest downward, and seest Satan, who formerly was
thy flatterer and seeming friend, now thy tormentor and desperate
foe, waiting, like the jailer, to drag thee to his own den ; thou lookest
inward, and conscience presents thee with a black catalogue of thy
bloody crimes, and in the name of God, whose officer it is, arresteth
thee for them, and chargeth thee to answer them at his dreadful
tribunal, to which thou art even now going ; thou lookest without
thee, among thy friends and relations, and earthly comforts, and
I seekest the living among the dead, as the angel said to the woman
living comforts amongst dead creatures but, alas ! it is not there.
Thy wife, and children, and neighbours may weep with thee, but
cannot ease thee of one tear ; they may give thee occasion to call to
mind thy sins, but not abate the least of thy sorrows. Miserable
comforts are they all, physicians of no value. I have read of one
in Holland, that being condemned for killing her bastard, when
the messenger was dragging her away to execution, looks pitifully
on her father, a person of quality then present, and casts a doleful
v eye on her mother. Will ye not help me ? Where are your bowels ?
Can ye find in your hearts to let your own child be thus cruelly
dealt with ? But, alas ! they might not, they could noi , help her.
Such truly is thy case ; thou lookest on thy right and left hand,
on thy father, or mother, or husband, or house, or land, and dost, as
it were, call for help, but, alas ! they cannot give thee any comfort
in this groaning hour, in this thy dreadful conflict ; they may be
about thy body, as ravens about a carcase, to devour it, to get
something from thee, but they cannot defend it.
Well, now the screech owl of death, which all this while clawed
about thy windows, is entered thy chamber, flieth towards thy bed
side; the messenger by this time is come to thee, and sheweth thee
the warrant for thy speedy and immediate execution. Now, now
is the beginning of thy sorrows. Live thou canst not, and die thou
darest not ; fain wouldst thou be rid of thy pain, but fearful lest
thou shouldst go to a worse place ; thou dislikest thy dirty, nasty
dungeon, but dost not like to exchange it for a gibbet; thou
choosest to stay, but death will not be denied thou must go. Thou
sayest, thou art not at leisure, thou hast such worldly affairs of
concernment to finish, thou art not prepared, thou hast the busi
ness of thy soul, a work of infinite weight, to begin, as they for
CHAP. VI. ] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 449
their farms, so thou, I pray thee, have me excused. Thou beggest
one week, one day, nay, one hour, death will not wait one moment ;
death pulls thee, as Benaiah did Joab, towards the place of thy
eternal punishment. Thy soul clings about thy body, as he about
the altar, and still sings loath to depart; death, like Solomon s
officer, renteth thee in pieces by force, and slayeth thee there.
Now thy soul standeth quivering upon thy pale lips, ready to take
its flight to its everlasting home ; thou seest devils looking and
longing, like so many ravening and roaring lions, for thee their
prey. Thy past sins trouble thee ; oh how thou cursest thy pastimes
and pleasures, thy companions and possessions, which stole away
thy time and affections, and hindered thy preparation for such a
dreadful hour ! Thy future sufferings terrify thee ; and ah, thinkest
thou, Whither am I going? Where must my soul lodge this
night ? In what place, with what persons, must I dwell for ever ?
Oh that I had provided for this beforehand ! How many a time did
God wish me, ministers persuade me, Christ beseech me, and con
science warn me ; but fool that I was, I rejected the entreaties of
Christ, stifled the convictions of conscience, scorned the counsels of
men, set at nought the commands of God, trampled on Sabbath
and sermons, and seasons of grace, as things of no worth ; and now
my day is past, my soul is lost, heaven s gate is shut, and, woe and
alas, it is too late. The blessed God, in whose favour is life, to- 3
whom I, wicked wretch, said, Depart from me, hath now fixed my
doom, to depart from him for ever. Oh what unconceivable evil is
there in the loss of so great a good ! ten thousand hells are included
in my banishment from that heaven. The frightful and cruel
devils, whom I defied in my words, but deified in my heart and
works, whose lust were my laws, and whose wills were my warrant,
shall be my masters, tyrants and tormentors to all eternity. My
own spirit (oh that I could flee from myself !) is infinitely more
grievous and painful, than ever sword was to any flesh. What wolf
in the breast, what pangs of the stone, what pain of the teeth,
what cancer in the bowels, ever caused the thousandth part of that
torture, which the worm in my conscience causeth ! but it is as
impossible for me to avoid it, as for the wounded deer to run from
the arrow that sticks in his side. The fire burns me, yet consumes
me not; gives heat to scorch me, but no light to refresh me. Here
is blackness of darkness, yet I can see the heart-cutting frowns
of an angry God, and can see myself to be infinitely miserable. I
enjoy a long night, but no rest ; I must always complain, but have
no relief ; here is crying without compassion ; all pain without the
VOL. III. 2 F
450 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
least pity ; sorrow without the smallest drachm of solace, or the least
drop of succour. If my misery were ever to end, though after so
many millions of ages as all the men in the world could number, my
heart would have some hope; but, alas, alas ! as it is intolerable, so
it is unchangeable. As long as God is God, I must fry in these
flames ; all my tears shall not quench the least spark of this fire ;
though I must weep for ever, all this fire will not dry up the least
tear, though it will burn for ever. Oh that I had never been ! oh that
I might never be ! What ! must I ever live, and yet never live ?
must I ever die, and yet never die ? Consider this, all ye that pass
by, Is there any sorrow like unto our sorrows, wherewith the Lord
afflicteth us in the day of his fierce wrath ; for who can dwell in such
everlasting burnings ? and who can abide such devouring flames ?
Oh that the mountains would fall on us, and the hills cover us, from
the presence of him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath
of the Lamb, because the day of his wrath is come, and who can
stand ! Oh what a dreadful sunset of life will it be,which brings
such a dismal night of eternal death !
friend, think of this now, how wilt thou do to die ? If thou
shouldst leave this life in the service of thy lusts, thou art thus
irrecoverably lost ; thou art miserable beyond all expressions, be
yond all conceptions. If Job, because of some temporal calamity,
cursed the day wherein he was born, and the messenger that brought
tidings of his birth, and desired to die rather than to endure it, whom
wilt thou curse, or rather, whom wilt thou not curse, when under
the sense of eternal misery; surely thou wilt seek for death, but not
find it, dig for it, but it will flee from thee. Though Judas could
make himself away out of the hell he had on earth, yet he cannot
out of the hell he hath in hell. When thou diest, thou art stated
by God himself, and there is no appeal from this judge, nor revers
ing of his judgment. It is the observation of the schoolmen, that
what befell the angels when they sinned, that befalls every wicked
man at death. The angels, upon the first act of sin, were presently
by God himself stated in an irrecoverable condition of misery ; so
wicked men, upon the last act of their lives, are fixed as to their
eternal woeful estates : It is appointed for all men once to die, and
after death the judgment.
Sixthly, Dost thou know the felicity which upon thy death thou
shouldst enter into if thou wert prepared for it ? As the good
housewife looketh for winter, but feareth it not, being prepared for
it with double clothing ; so thou mightst expect death" but not
fear it, being prepared for it with armour of proof. Sirens, some
CHAP. VI.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 451
write, screech horribly when they die, but swans sing then most
sweetly. Though sinners roar bitterly when they behold that sea
of scalding lead in which they must swim naked for ever, yet thou
shouldst, like the apostle, desire to depart, wish for that hour
wherein thou shouldst loose anchor and sail to Christ, as the word
signifieth, l Phil. i. 23. Thy dying day would be thy wedding day,
as the martyrs called theirs, wherein the fairest of ten thousand
and thy soul, now contracted, should be solemnly espoused to
gether. As frightful a lion as death is to others, that their souls
are fain to be torn from their bodies, thou mightst, like a weary
child, call to be laid to bed, knowing that it will send thee to thine
everlasting happy rest. If it be a happy death to die willingly,
as the moralist affirmeth, 2 thou shouldst give up the ghost, and
be a volunteer in that war. Nature teacheth that death is the
end of misery ; but grace would teach thee that death would be
the beginning of thy felicity it could not hurt thee. Death
among saints drives but a poor trade ; it may destroy the body, and
when that is done, it hath done all its feats ; like a fierce mastiff
whose teeth are broken out, it may bark and tear thy tattered
coat, but cannot bite to the bone. This bee fastened her sting
in Christ s blessed body, and is ever since a drone to his members.
Though the wicked are gathered at death as the Eabbins sense
that place, Gather not my soul with sinners, let me not die their
deaths, Ps. xxvi. 9 as sticks that lie on the ground for the fire, or
as grapes for the winepress of God s fury, yet thou shouldst be
gathered, according to the Hebrew, Isa. Ivii. 2, as women do cordial
flowers to candy and preserve them.
Nay, death would exceedingly help thee. Plutarch saith that
strong bodies can eat and concoct serpents. Thou mayest, like
Samson, fetch meat out of this eater, and out of this strong lion
sweetness. Death, ever since it walked to mount Calvary, is turned,
to believers, into the gate of life. A heathen could say, Life is not
taken away from me by the immortal gods, but death is given to
me ; 3 meaning, as an act of grace and favour. Much more may a
Christian esteem death, which puts an end to his trials, and sins,
and troubles, a privilege rather than a punishment. Blessed are
they that die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours, Kev. xiv. 13.
1 Aj>d\v<rat, Solvere anchoram, a metaphor from a ship at anchor, importing a sail
ing from this present life to another port. So the Syriac, Chrysostom, Beza, Eras
mus, and others take it.
2 Bene mori est libenter mori. Senec., Epist. 61.
3 Mihi noa a diis immortalibus vita erepta est, sed mors donata est. Cicer., lib.
iii. de Oral.
452 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VI.
When sickness first gives thee notice that death is at hand, thou
mightst make the servant welcome for bringing thee the good
news of his approaching master. Thy heart may leap to think
that though thou art, like Peter, now bound in the fetters of sin,
and imprisoned amongst sinners, yet the angel is coming who will,
with one blow on thy side, cause thy shackles to fall off, open the
prison doors, and set thy soul into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. When this Samuel is come to thy gate, thou needest not,
as the elders of Bethlehem, tremble at his coming, for if thou askest
the question, Comest thou peaceably ? he will answer, Yea, peace
ably ; I am come to offer thee up a sacrifice of a sweet smelling
savour, acceptable to God in Jesus Christ ; the pale face of death
would please thee better than the greatest beauty on earth. When
thou liest on thy dying bed, and physicians had given over thy
body, Christ would visit and give thy soul such a cordial that
thou mightst walk in the valley of the shadow of death and
fear none ill. How willingly mayest thou part with the militant
members of Christ for the triumphant saints ! How cheerfully
mayest thou leave thy nearest relations for thy dearest Father and
elder brother ! How comfortably mayest thou take thy leave of
all the riches, honours, and pleasures of this life, knowing that
though death cometh to others with a voider to take away all their
fleshly comforts and carnal contentments, nay, all their hopes, and
happiness, and heaven, and hereby, when they break at death, they
are quite bankrupts for ever ; yet it is to thee only a servant, to
remove the first course of more gross fare, of which thou hast
had thy fill, and to make way for the second, which consisteth of
all sorts of dainties and delicates.
When thy soul was ready to bid thy body good-night, till the
morning of the resurrection, thou mightst joyfully commit thy
body to the grave, as a bed of spices, and shouldst see glorious
angels waiting on thy soul, and carrying it, as Elijah, in a triumph
ant chariot into heaven s blessed court. There thou shouldst be
saluted by the noble host and celestial choir of saints and angels,
welcomed by the holy Jesus and gracious God, in the fruition
of whom thou shouldst be perfectly happy for ever and ever. If
there were so much joy in heaven at thy repentance, when thou
wert but set into the way, what joy will there be when, through
so many hazards and hardships, thou art come to thy journey s
end ! Thus, friend, wert thou but prepared, death would be to
thee a change from a prison to a palace, from sorrows to solace,
from pain to pleasure, from heaviness to happiness. Thy winding-
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 453
sheet would wipe off all tears from thine eyes ; all thy sins and
sorrows should be buried in thy grave ; and the vessel of thy soul,
which in this life is weather-beaten, tossed up and down with the
boisterous billows of temptations, and the high winds of the world s
wrath and the devil s rage, would there arrive at a blessed and ever
lasting harbour. Death would sound a retreat, and call thee out
of the field, where the bullets fly thick and threefold in thy combat
with the flesh, world, and wicked one, to receive a crown of life.
Hence that ancient custom of placing a laurel crown at the head
of the dead man s coffin in token of victory and triumph.
CHAPTEK VII.
What is requisite to preparation for death. A change of state
and a change of nature, with a most gracious offer from
the most high God to sinners.
If anything, or all that I have written, hath wrought thee to
a resolution to prepare for thy dissolution ; if these motives,
which thy conscience must needs confess to be weighty, have
melted thee and made thee pliable for a divine stamp and mould,
I shall acquaint thee with the means and way how thou mayest
die well. Having finished what is persuasive,
Secondly, I shall offer thee somewhat that is directive. And
know, reader, further, that there is no other medicine in the world
which can possibly cure thy wounded dying soul, but that which
I have from God to prescribe thee ; throw away this, or neglect the
rules in applying it to thy sores, or advise with flattering mounte
banks, and thy lamentable condition will be irrecoverable, thy
dreadful estate will be desperate. I shall not, like an empiric,
try new tricks or remedies on thy bleeding, gasping soul, but give
thee that receipt, consisting but of two ingredients, which the great
physician hath left in writing under his own hand, and which
thousands have experienced to be effectual for their cure, whose
souls are made thereby at this hour, as his body in the Gospel,
every whit whole.
Pride, or an ambitious desire of self-sufficiency, and self-subsist
ence, was the stone at which man at first stumbled, and fell into
the bottomless pit of matchless misery it was the fatal knife which
cut the throat of his glorious hopes and happiness ; the wise God
therefore, like a tender father, in man s recovery, takes special care
4,~4 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
to lay these weapons out of the children s way, by which they had
wrought themselves such woe. Hence it is that he hath chosen
thosetwo graces to make us happy, and carry us to himself, which
speak us to be most beggarly, and carry us most out of ourselves,
faith and repentance. Faith teacheth us to deny ourselves, as
utterly weak ; and repentance causeth us to abhor ourselves, as
altogether unworthy. Repentance discovereth our nakedness, and
obnoxiousness thereby to shame and suffering; and faith telleth
that our own rags come infinitely short of hiding it, and that we
must fetch our garments out of another s wardrobe. The whole
globe of Christianity divideth itself into these two hemispheres.
As the bodily life consisteth in natural heat and radical moisture,
so the life of the soul in faith and repentance.
Therefore, reader, if thou wouldst die well, undergo that great
change with comfort ; it is absolutely and indispensably necessary
that thou mind these two changes beforehand : a change of thy
state or condition, which is wrought by faith ; and a change of thy
nature or disposition, which is wrought by repentance.
The door of thy happiness hangs on these two hinges : the merit
of Christ without thee, and its acceptation with God for the justi
fication of thy person ; and secondly, the Spirit of Christ within
thee, and its operation for the sanctification of thy nature.
First, There must of necessity be a change of thy state by faith
in Christ, or thou canst never put thy head into the other world
with comfort. There is no such shroud, such a winding-sheet, for
the departing soul to be wrapt in, as the righteousness of a Saviour ;
Paul s care was that he might not be found naked, 2 Cor. v. 3. Oh
it is sad indeed for thy soul to be summoned to appear before the
jealous God, and to have nothing to cover thy nakedness. Adam,
knowing that he was naked, fled from God. Guilt cannot but be
shy of a judge ; sore eyes will not endure the sight of the sun. God
is a consuming fire to all who have not Jesus Christ for their
screen. He seemeth 1 to every person, as Joseph to the patriarchs,
Thou shalt not see my face with joy, except thou bringest thy
brother with thee. It is alone in the garments of thine elder
brother that thou canst have a sound hope to receive the blessing.
Every one who dieth out of Christ, dieth in his sins, John viii. 21.
And were not men s hearts desperately hard, it were impossible that
any should die in their senses who die in their sins ; all would die
distracted who die thus defiled.
By nature thou art under the covenant of works, and so bound
to earn happiness by thy fingers ends, if ever thou wilt have it ; in
: Qu. sayeth ? ED.
CHAP. VII] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 455
which sailing, for no mere man ever sailed to bliss in that bottom,
thou art liable to the curse of the law, a bond-slave to thy jailer
Satan, and an heir of hell. If ever, therefore, thou wouldst arrive
at heaven s blessed port, there is a necessity of embarking in
another vessel, and that is the covenant of grace, by which thou
niayest be freed from all the former crosses and curses, and filled
with all the special comforts and rich cordials of the gospel. Now
it is faith in Christ by which thou comest to be shipped in this
covenant, and surely it concerns thee then to get this grace. Many,
nay, millions, are drowned and cast away, sailing through the bois
terous billows of death, in the broken bottom of the first covenant,
when others, in the second, ride in triumph, with top and top
gallant, to their desired haven.
Header, if thou art out of this covenant, thou art like a man in
the midst of the sea, without any boat or bottom ; though some in
vessels at the same time are safe, yet he is sure to sink. It is
related of one that, being at the point of drowning in a river, and
looking up and seeing a rainbow in the sky, the sign of God s cove
nant that he would never more drown the world, he made this conclu
sion: What if God save the whole world from a deluge of waters, and
suffer me to perish in this river, what good will that covenant do
me ? So say I to thee, Though thousands escape a deluge of wrath
through God s promise to Christ, and in Christ to his purified ones,
what good will it do thee if thou perishest ?
An interest in this covenant was the living comfort of dying
David : He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure : for this is all my salvation, and all my
desire, although he make not my house to grow, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
Mark how the pious king draws all the wine which made his heart
glad, in one of his last hours, from this pipe. Death is one of the
sourest things in the world, and such things require much sugar to
make them sweet. David found so much honey in the covenant,
that therewith he made death itself a pleasant, a desirable dish.
If you observe the beginning of the chapter, you will find that his
end was near. Now these be the last words of David/ But this,
this was the quiet and ease of his heart, that God s covenant with
him was everlasting and without end. As death is famous for its
terror, being king thereof, so also for his power, it brings down the
mighty princes and potentates of the earth. Samson was but a child
in death s hands ; hence we read, when Scripture would draw strength
in its full proportion and length, as strong as death, Cant. viii. 6;
but as strong as death is, David knew it could not break in sunder the
456 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
covenant between God and him, nor dissolve the union betwixt his
Saviour and his soul. The firmness of this covenant being sure
footing for faith to stand on, is that which puts life into a dying
Christian. As death, though it parted the soul and body of Christ,
parted neither of them from the divine nature ; they were as a
sword drawn by a man, the sword is in one hand separated from
the sheath in the other hand, but neither of them separated from
the man ; so though death break the natural union between the
believer s soul and body, it cannot break the mystical union between
Jesus Christ and the soul; therefore saints are said to sleep in Jesus,
1 Thes. iv. 14. And truly, by the virtue of this cordial, this cove
nant, they are so far from flying back at the sight of their foe death,
that they can look him in the face with courage and confidence.
See how they triumph over him, as if he were already under their
feet, death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ?
1 Cor. xv. 57, 58. The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which hath given us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hark, they speak as
challengers, daring their disarmed enemy to meet them in the field ;
and they speak as conquerors, being assured, through the captain of
their salvation, of the victory before they fight. Epiphanius saith that
Adam was buried in Calvary, where Christ was crucified. Sure it
is, that Christ at Calvary did somewhat which made the Christian s
bed soft and easy ; that whereas it would have been a bed of thorns,
he turned it into a bed of down, and thereby the believer comes to
lie on it so contentedly, and to sleep so sweetly and comfortably.
By this time, reader, I hope thou understandest the necessity and
benefit of this relative change. With this covenant thou art armed
cap-d-pie with armour of proof, with the righteousness of Christ,
which is law-proof, death-proof, and judgment-proof, and lea vest
death wholly disarmed and naked. Without this thou hast no
weapons, and findest death a man of war. In the forequoted place,
thou seest that sin is the sting of death, and the strength of sin is
the law. The law binds the soul over for disobedience to its pre
cept, to its malediction and punishment, passeth a sentence of
condemnation already upon the creature, and beginneth its execu
tion in that bondage and fear, as flashes of the unquenchable fire,
which seize on men in this life, Eom. vii. 6 ; John iii. 18 ; Heb. ii.
14. And as sin hath its strength from the law, the law making it
so powerful to curse and condemn; so death has its strength and
sting, its venom and virtue, to kill and damn, to destroy soul and
? Epiph., lib. i. cap. 33.
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 457
body for ever, from sin. Sin makes death so deadly, that it is the
poison in the cup which makes it so mortal and loathsome a
draught. Thy work and wisdom therefore is, as the Philistines,
when they heard that the great strength of Samson, the destroyer
of their country, lay in his hair, were restless till they had cut it
off, and he became weak ; so now thou hearest wherein the strength
of death, the great destroyer and damner of souls, consisteth, to be
unquiet night and day, to follow God up and down with sighs and
sobs, strong cries, and deep groans for pardon of sin, and to give
thyself no rest till thou attainest an interest in this covenant
through Jesus Christ. Pious Job, though not in thy case, was for
this cause exceeding importunate for a sense of this pardon : And
why dost thou not pardon mine iniquity, and take away my trans
gressions ? for now shall I sleep in the dust ; and thou shalt seek
me in the morning, and I shall not be/ Job vii. 21. He crieth out,
as one fallen into a deep dirty ditch, or one whose house is fired,
Water, water for the Lord s sake, to cleanse this defiled soul, and
to quench this scorched conscience ; Lord, why doth the messenger,
who useth to come post to me, a poor condemned prisoner, with a
pardon, linger so long ? Alas ! I wish he may not come too late.
But what is the reason of this importunity for expedition ? Why,
Job in his own thoughts was going to appear before his judge,
and he durst not venture without a pardon in his hand ; for now
shall I sleep in the dust. The child did not dare to go to bed at
night till he had asked his father s blessing, and begged and
obtained forgiveness of his disobedience in the day.
Nothing in the whole creation can pacify the conscience awakened
with the guilt of sin, and frighted with the fear of death, but a
pardon in the blood of this covenant ; for want of this it was that
the heathen were either desperate or doubtful in their deaths, and
their orator ingeniously confesseth, that notwithstanding all the
medicines they could gather but of their own gardens, the disease
was still too strong for the remedy. But a plaster spread with the
blood of Christ, and applied by faith to the sore, is a sovereign and
certain cure. Faith in Christ is such a shield, that under its pro
tection a Christian may stand in the evil day of death, keep his
ground, and secure himself from all the shot which the law, Satan,
or conscience can make against him : I am the resurrection and
the life ; he that liveth and believeth in me shall live, though he
die, John xi.
The death of the King of saints is the only comfort and help
against death, the king of terrors. It is a strange property which
458 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
some report of the charadrion, that if any man have the jaundice,
and look on the bird, and the bird on him, the bird catcheth the
disease and dieth of it, but the man recovereth. 1 Christ took man s
disease and died, that all who look on him with an eye of faith
might recover and live. The red sea of his blood is the only way
through which thou canst pass into Canaan. Header, since there
is a flood, and vengeance, and wrath upon the face of the world,
fly, as the distressed dove, to this ark of the covenant ; see how
Jesus Christ, the true Noah, a preacher of righteousness, puts forth
his hand to take thee in. He is the Son of David, to whom souls
that are in debt and in distress may flee, and seemeth to speak to
thee, as David to Abiathar, Abide thou with me, fear not : for they
(the world and devil) that seek thy life, seek mine : but with me
thou shalt be in safeguard, 1 Sam. xxii. 23.
Secondly, There must of necessity be a change of thy nature by
repentance, or death can never be thy passage into the undefiled
inheritance. The new man is the only citizen of the new Jerusalem.
It is bad venturing a voyage to the Happy Islands in an old leaking
bottom. In the art of navigation it was a law, and formerly seriously
observed, that none should be a master or master s mate, that had
not been first a sculler, and rowed with oars, and from thence been
promoted to the stern. None are fit to reign with God, who have
not wrought for God ; others are more unfit for it than a carter for
a prince s court. Men must be bound apprentices on earth to that
high and holy trade of worshipping and glorifying the blessed God,
and know the art and mystery of it, (which the purblind eyes of
nature cannot discern,) before they can set up for themselves, and
enrich themselves by it in heaven. Men that are wholly strangers
to a country, and no whit acquainted with the language and car
riage of the natives, would find, if in it, but a solitary place. He
whose eyes are so bad that he cannot see God with the help of the
spectacles of ordinances, will be much more unable to see him face
to face. Alas ! what would an earthly man do in heaven ?
Till thou art converted, and hast a sense of thy sins and miseries,
thou art a rebel in actual arms against God ; if death finds thee in
such a condition, God takes the fort of thy soul by storm, with thy
weapons in thy hands, and therefore thou canst expect nothing less
than death eternal without mercy. There is no peace to be thought
of with God, whilst thou maintainest war against him. The sinner,
instead of disarming, armeth death against himself; the life of sin
is the life of death, and enableth it to kill the soul. Till thy nature
1 Willet. Hexapl. in Levit., c. xi.
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 459
be renewed, thy heart is full of enmity against God, and thy life
nothing else but a walking contrary to him, and therefore thou canst
have no delight or joy in him, which is the very heaven of heavens.
There must be conformity to him, before there can be communion
with him. God and man must be agreed before they can walk
or dwell together : Except ye be converted, ye can in no wise
enter into the kingdom of God ; and again, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God/ Mat. xviii. 3 ; John iii. 3 ;
which negatives, can in no wise, and cannot enter, speak not only the
impossibility of it on God s part, because he is fully resolved against it ;
but also the incapacity on man s part, because he is wholly unpre
pared for it. Swine are not fit for a rubbed room, or a presence-
chamber. As timber must be laid out and shrunk, before it is fit for
building, otherwise it will warp ; so God humbleth and draweth out
self-sap and self-indisposition, before they become the temple of
the Holy Ghost. That building which reacheth up to heaven
must have a low foundation.
They that would turn pewter, by alchemy, into silver, first
dissolve the pewter, or otherwise their labour is in vain. Thy
heart must be melted by godly sorrow for sin, and hatred of sin,
before thou canst be a vessel of silver for thy master s use. The
angel troubled the waters before they were healing, John v. 4.
Kepent, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts iii. 19. Kepent-
ance and remission are ever twins. It is observable that nature
hath made the roots of many trees bitter, whose fruits are -very
sweet. They that in life sow in tears, at death shall reap in joy ;
it is the wet seed-time that hath the sunshiny harvest. God is re
solved that all the sons of men shall feel sin, either in broken bones
on earth, or broken backs in hell.
When sin hath its death wound before, it will expire at death ;
for though sin brought death into the body, death will cast sin out
of the body. "When grace is before budded and blossomed, at
death it will ripen into glory. Holiness is the raiment of needle
work, in which thou art to be brought to thy Lord and husband,
Ps. xlv. 14 ; but it is necessary that, like Abraham s ram, thou be
perplexed in these briers, before by death thou art offered up as a
peace-offering to God. They are foolish who dream of being carried
to heaven in a feather bed. None but such as are weary of the work,
(as a sick man of his bed,) and heavy laden with the weight, of sin,
(as a porter can be of his burden), shall enter into the everlasting rest.
Naturalists observe that the Egyptian fig-tree being put into the
water, presently sinketh to the bottom, but being well soaked, con-
460 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
trary to the nature of other trees, it buoys itself up to the top.*
Till thy mind is enlightened, to see sin s deformity ; thy will re
newed, to refuse it as thy only enemy ; and thy affections purified,
to grieve for it, and loathe it, as it is contrary to the blessed God
and thy own felicity ; till thy soul is soaked in these bitter waters,
never expect to be lifted up to the rivers of pleasures at God s right
hand. This howling wilderness is the only way to Canaan. The
path to Zion lieth by Sinai ; God poureth the oil of gladness into
the broken vessel. Some philosophers tell us that feeling is the
foundation of natural life no feeling, no life. It is true, I am
sure in divinity, no feeling, no sense of sin, no spiritual, no eternal
life ; impenitency, like a lethargy, is deadly, is damning.
God doth qualify all whom he intendeth to dignify. Saul is
qualified, by receiving another spirit than he had before, to reign
over men ; much more must they be qualified, by receiving a new
heart and a new spirit, who are to reign with God. The sun
never leaped from midnight to midday, but first sendeth forth
some glimmerings of light, in the dawning of the day, then looketh
upon us with some weak and waterish beams, after that beholds
us with open face, and even then hath many miles to run before he
can arrive at his meridian glory. God never carried a soul from
hell to heaven, from a natural condition to the beatifical vision,
but through the door or gate of conversion.
Header, to conclude this use, and sum up these two particulars,
which are more worth than the whole world, that thou mayest see
how willing I am to be instrumental for thy welfare, I shall
come up a little nearer and closer to thee. Oh that I did but
know what savoury spiritual meat thou lovest most ! if possible,
I would provide it for thee, and set it before thee, that thou
mightst eat, and thy soul might bless God before thou diest.
In order to thy eternal good, I have a special offer to make to
thee from the blessed God, and that is of a marriage with his only
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am this day sent to thee, as his am
bassador, with full instructions to woo in his behalf, that I might
present thee a chaste virgin unto Christ ; thou needest not doubt
of my authority, for in the Scriptures thou mayest read my com
mission and credential letters, which may give thee full security
and ^satisfaction against all jealousies and suspicions which can
possibly arise in thy breast. Thou needest not question God s
reality in the tender of so great a fortune to thee, notwithstanding
all thy unworthiness ; for he sent his Son so great a journey, as from
1 Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. xiii. cap. 7.
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 461
heaven to earth, to marry thy nature, on purpose that he might be
married to thy person ; and hath caused him already to be at in
finite cost in providing glorious attire, and precious jewels, out of
heaven s wardrobe and cabinet, that thou mightst be adorned as
is fit for the spouse of so great a Lord ; nay, he himself hath sent
thee his picture, of greater value than heaven and earth, drawn at
length, and to the life, in the gospel, in all his royalty, beauty, and
glory, to try if thou canst like and love his person. Friend, look
wishly on him, consider his person ; he is fairer than the children
of men ; he is the express image of his Father s person. Thy be
loved (oh, shall I call him so!) is white and ruddy, the fairest of ten
thousands, he is altogether lovely; nothing but amiableness; none
ever saw him, but were enamoured with him. View his portion ;
he is heir of all things ; all power is given to him in heaven and
earth. I know thy poverty, but there are unsearchable riches in
Christ, yea, durable riches and righteousness. Thou art infinitely
in debt, and thereby liable to the arrest of divine justice, and eter
nal prison of hell ; but I must tell thee, the revenues of this em
peror are able to discharge the debts of millions of worlds, and to
leave enough, too, for their comfortable and honourable subsistence
to all eternity. Behold his parentage ; he is the only-begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth ; the eternal Son of God. As
there is incomparable beauty and favour in his person, and inesti
mable riches and treasure in his portion ; so there is unconceivable
dignity and honour in his parentage ; for he is the only natural
Son and heir of the most high God. For thy further quickening,
he is thy near kinsman, bone of thy bone, and flesh of thy flesh,
Gen. xxiv. 4, 5, and so hath right to thee. God hath given his
stewards a command, as Abraham his servant, not to take a wife
to his son of the daughters of the Canaanites, from among the
evil angels, but to go to his Son s own country and kindred, and to
take a wife for him among the children of men. Friend, thou
hast heard the errand about which I am sent to thee. I hope
there is such an arrow of love darted into thy heart from the
gracious eyes and looks of this Lord of glory, that thou art
wounded thereby, and beginnest of a sudden to be taken with him,
and to wish, Oh that I might have the honour and happiness to
become the bride of so lovely a bridegroom ; that this king of saints
would take me, a poor sinner, into his bed and bosom. Thou sayest,
as Abigail when David sent to take her to wife, Behold, let thine
handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord ;
I am unworthy to be his spouse. If it be thus with thee, I see
462 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
that thy affections are already entangled, and for thy comfort,
know that he is not of the number of them, who, when they have
gained others good-will, then cast them off ; only it will be need
ful that thou understand what he requires of thee, to avoid all
future jars and differences. Plain dealing is never more necessary
than in marriage ; those that by daubing have huddled up matches
in haste, have found cause enough to repent at leisure.
I shall propound two arguments for thy encouragement, and then
demand thy agreement to two articles, upon which and no other
this match can be concluded/
First, Consider the necessity of thy acceptance of Christ for thy
husband. It is impossible to obtain heaven for thy jointure,
but by marrying with him who is the heir. It may be, like
him in Ruth, chap. iv. 2-4, whom the Spirit of God thought
unworthy to be named, thou art ready for the band l the portion
but unwilling to marry the person ; thou art forward to be pardoned,
adopted, and saved, but backward to take Jesus Christ for thy hus
band, lest thou shouldst lose thy sinful pleasures, and thereby mar,
in thy opinion, a better inheritance. But know of a certain, as
Boaz told him, what day thou buyest the field, thou must marry
the owner of it ; what day thou gainest the invaluable privileges
of the gospel, thou must match with Christ, the purchaser and
owner of them. There is no gaining the precious fruit, but by get
ting the tree that bears it. Indeed thy marriage with him is so
fruitful a blessing, that thou needest no more. Forgiveness of sins,
the love of God, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, eternal
life, every good thing, all good things, are in the womb of it ; thou
canst not imagine what a numerous posterity of Barnabases of
sons of consolation would be the effect and issue of such a wedding ;
but it is so needful a blessing, that without it thou art completely
and eternally woeful. Beware, oh beware, how thou refusest so good
an offer ; for thou art in the same condition with the woman taken
captive by the Jews, Deut. xxi., either to marry or die ; either to
match with Christ, or be damned for ever.
Secondly, Consider God s clemency and condescension, in tender
ing to thee so great a fortune. Kings on earth will not stoop so
low, unless necessity force it, as to match their only sons with their
subjects, though he and they are of the same make and mould ; if
they do, it is with the highest families, with such among them as
sparkle most with the diamonds of birth, breeding, beauty, riches,
and glory. But hear, heavens, and be astonished, earth !
wonder, reader, at this low stoop of the infinite God ; he is willing,
1 Qu. land ? ED.
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 463
nay, earnest, that his only Son and heir, the King of kings, should
marry with his creature between whom and him there is an in
finite distance and disproportion ; nay, not with the noblest house
among those creatures ; not with angels, those heavenly courtiers,
(he is their head, not their husband,) though by matching with
them he had matched somewhat more like himself ; but with sinful
polluted dust and ashes. That our spiritual souls should be joined
to our earthly bodies is much, yet here is some proportion both
are limited created beings ; but that God should marry with man
is infinitely more. It is said of the king of Babylon, that he lifted
up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison, and spake kindly to him,
and changed his prison garments, and set his throne above the throne
of the kings that were with him, 2 Kings xxv. 27-29. Man was a poor
prisoner, bound and fettered with his own corruptions, kept up close
by the devil, his jailer, and condemned to suffer the pains of eternal
death ; but, lo, the philanthropy and kindness of God ! He sendeth
his only Son to open the prison doors having first satisfied the
law, for the breach of which they were cast in, and removed its curse,
which was as a padlock on the prison gate to keep it fast set the
poor captives at liberty, change their nasty prison weeds, and to
exalt their nature above the nature of glorious angels, by marrying
it to himself. Canst thou find in thy heart, friend, to abuse such
matchless grace and favour ? Is not that beggar mad that should
refuse the real offers of a match from a gracious emperor ? Shall
majesty thus stoop to misery in vain ? I must tell thee, it is infinite
abasement in God thus to make suit to thee, but it is the highest
preferment thou art capable of nay, such as it had been blasphemy
to have desired it, had not God oifered it to close with him.
I come now to the articles of this marriage, which truly are no
more than thou requirest of thy own wife (if thou hast any,) and
therefore thou canst not but think them reasonable. I shall pro
pound them to thee in these two questions.
First, Art thou heartily willing to take Jesus Christ for thy
Saviour and Sovereign? Canst thou love him with the hottest
superlative love as thy husband ? It is one thing to love a man as
a friend, and another thing to love him as thy husband. Canst thou
give him the keys of thy heart, and keep thy affections as a fountain
sealed up from others, and opened only for him, and in subordina
tion to him ? Wilt thou honour him with the highest honour as
thy Lord, submitting to his Spirit as thy guide, and to his laws as
thy rule ? Is thy soul so ravished with the beauty of his person,
the excellency of his promises, and the equity of his precepts, that
THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VII.
thou darest promise, through his strength, to be a loving, faithful,
and obedient wife ? Have the hot beams of that love, which have
been darted forth from this Sun of righteousness, as the rays of
the sun united in a glass, turned thee into a flame, that thy heart
is now ascending and mounting to heaven where thy beloved is, and
thou canst no more live without him, than thy body without thy
soul ? Art thou willing to be sanctified by his Spirit, that thou
mightst be prepared for his bosom and embraces, and to be saved
alone by his merits, as the only procuring cause of all thy hopes
and happiness ? Wilt thou take him for better and for worse, for
richer and for poorer ; with his cup of affliction, as well as his cup
of consolation ; with his shameful cross, as well as his glorious
crown ; choosing rather to suffer with him, than to reign without
him ; to die for bim, than to live from him ? Such as marry,
thou knowest, must expect trouble in the flesh. Christianity, like
the wind Ccecias, doth ever draw clouds and afflictions after it, but
thy future glory and pleasure will abundantly recompense thee for
thy present pain and ignominy.
Secondly, Wilt thou presently give a bill of divorce to all other
lovers, and keep the bed of thy heart wholly for him ? Shall the
evil of sin never more have a good look from thee ; but, as Amnon
served Tamar, shall the hatred wherewith thou hatest those filthy
strumpets with whom thou hast had cursed dalliances, and com
mitted spiritual fornication be greater than the love wherewith
thou hast loved them ? Canst thou pack away the bondwoman
and her son, and these things not at all be grievous in thy sight ;
that thy whole joy and delight may be in, and all that thou art
worth preserved for, the true Isaac ? Shall this Sun reign alone
in the heavens of thy heart without any competitor ? As when a
dictator was created at Kome, there was a supersedeas to all other
authority; so if Christ be exalted in thy soul, there must be a
cessation of all other rule and power. Christ will not be a king
merely in derision, as the Jews made him ; nor as the stump of
wood was to the frogs in the fable, whom every lust may securely
dance about and provoke.
These are the terms upon which this match, so honourable and
profitable, is offered to thee. Give up a hearty yea to these two
equitable articles, and thou art made for ever ; refuse it, and thou
art miserable above all apprehensions, and beyond millions of ages,
even to all eternity. What sayest thou to it? Shall I put the
same question to thee which they put to Kebekah : Wilt thou go
with this man ? In thy denial there is no less than eternal death.
CHAP. VII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 465
Methinks the thoughts of that fire and brimstone should force thee
to fly to this Zoar. In thy unfeigned hearty acceptance there is no
less than heaven and eternal life. What wouldst thou not do to
continue natural life ? What then shouldst thou not do or suffer
for eternal life ? It may be thou desirest time to consider of it ;
as Kebekah s mother, thou art willing to the match, but wouldst
not have it yet concluded. Augustine bewails it in himself, that
when God was drawing him to Christ, his carnal pleasures repre
sented themselves before his eyes, saying, What ! wilt thou leave us
for ever, and shall we be no more with thee for ever ? And then
he threw himself down, and weeping, cried out, Lord, how long,
how long shall I say to-morrow ? why not to-day, Lord ? why not
to-day ? Why should there not be an end of my sinful life this
hour ? But believe it, delays are dangerous, especially in works of
such weight.
If thou answerest, as Kebekah did, I will go ; cheer up, poor
soul. Whatever thy course or carriage hath been, thy husband is
able and willing to pay all thy scores, were they a million for a
mite ; and come forth, behold thy beloved in his embroidery and
glory; see how his arms are stretched out to embrace thee; his
lips are ready to kiss thee ; oh what a look of love he giveth thee.
Sure I am thou art more in his heart than in thine own. Little
dost thou think what rings and robes, what dainties and delicates,
what grace, and mercy, and peace he provided on purpose against
the return of thee, a wandering prodigal. Thou needest now no
longer run a score with the world for any of its coarse, carnal fare ;
thy beloved will entertain thee at his own table with curious and
costly feasts ; thou shalt have bread to eat which the world knows
not of. If dangers and evils pursue thee, thou hast thy city of
refuge at hand, wherein thou mayest be secure from the fear and
fury of men and devils.
It will be life to thee now to think of death ; thou inayest lift up
thy head with joy when that day of thy redemption draweth nigh.
Death will give thee a writ of ease both from sin and sorrow ; then
thy indentures will expire, and thy soul be at liberty. Thou hast
now taken in thy full lading for heaven, and mayest therefore call,
like a merchant that hath all his goods on shipboard, to the master
of the vessel, to hoist up sail, and be gone towards thy everlasting
harbour. Oh how may thy heart revive, with old Jacob s, to see
those waggons which are sent to fetch thee to thy dear Jesus, for
thou knowest that he is lord of the country, and able to make thee
welcome when thou comest thither. Now thou art present in the
VOL. III. 2 G
466 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VIII.
body, and so absent from the Lord ; but then thou shalt ever ever
be with the Lord. But if thou refusest so great and so good an
offer, choosing slavery to the flesh before this Christian liberty, and
resolving, as many wicked ones do, rather to be free for many har
lots than to take one wife, rather to love and serve divers lusts and
pleasures than to be wedded to Jesus Christ, go on, take thy course,
but be confident that thy fleshly life, like the head of Polypus,
though pleasant at present, will afterwards cause troublesome
sleep and frightful dreams. If thou intendest to launch into the
ocean of eternity without this pilot, the blessed Saviour, who alone
can steer the vessel of thy soul amidst those dangerous shelves and
sands aright, and the ballast of grace, not regarding what passage
thou hast, nor at what port thou arrivest in the other world, whether
heaven or hell, prepare thyself to take up thine eternal lodging
amongst frightful devils, and to bear thy part in the endless yellings
and bowlings of the damned ; and know withal to thy terror that
this very tender of grace will one day, like Joab s sword to Abner,
stab thee under the fifth rib, cut thee to the very heart, and, like a
mountain of lead, sink thee deep into that ocean of wrath, when
thou shalt have time enough to befool thyself for refusing so good
an offer, and where thou shalt be tormented day and night for ever
and ever.
1 1 have this day set before thee life and death, blessing and
cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may
live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou
mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him : for
he is thy life, and the length of thy days, Deut. xxx. 19, 20.
CHAPTER VIII.
The second exhortation to the serious Christian, shelving hoiu a saint
may come to die with courage.
^ I shall now speak in this use of exhortation to the serious Chris
tian.
^ If thy flesh will fail thee so, fortify thy spirit, that thou mayest
give the flesh a cheerful farewell. Thy care must be to die with
courage. A good soldier, in all his armour, may be daunted at the
sight of that enemy whom he meeteth on a sudden. Mary was
troubled at the sight and sayings of that angel which brought the
CHAP. VIII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 467
best news that ever the world heard, Luke i. It is true thou
canst never die before thou art ripe for heaven, but thou mayest
die, in some sense, before thou art ready, in thy own apprehen
sions, to leave the earth. Many go to heaven certainly, who go not
to heaven comfortably.
It was Tertullian s character of the Christians in his time, that
they were Expeditum morti genus, A sort of people prepared for
death. When a son hath loitered in the day, he may well be
afraid to look his father in the face at night ; but when he hath
laboured faithfully, he may come into his presence without fear. 1
Though he that is sober at home be more ready to put off his
clothes and go to sleep, than he that is drinking and vomiting in a
tavern, yet even this man may think of some business which he.
neglected, in the day-time, that may make him unwilling to lie
down. Surely somewhat is the cause that the children of God
are so unquiet when night cometh, and so many of them go
wrangling to bed.
Christian, I would in a few words direct thee how thou mayest
put off thy earthly tabernacle as cheerfully as thy clothes, and lie
down in thy grave as comfortably as ever thou didst in a bed of
down. It is thy own fault, if thou dost not keep such a good fire
all day I mean grace so flaming on the hearth of thy heart that
thou mayest increase it at night, and so go warm to bed, even to thy
eternal rest.
The first means.
Take heed of blotting thy evidences for heaven. Darkness, we
know, is very dreadful; when men, by great or wilful sins, have so
blurred the deeds which speak their right to heaven, that they
cannot read them, no wonder if, being thus in the dark, they
are afraid to leave the earth.
It is reported of good Agathon, 2 that when death approached,
he was much troubled ; whereupon his friends said unto him,
What dost thou fear? He answered, I have endeavoured to
keep the commandments of God ; but I am a man, and how do I
know whether my works please God or no ? for other is the judg
ment of God, and other is the judgment or! men. He must needs
be troubled to be removed from present pleasures, who knoweth
not that he shall go to a better place. Twenty pounds a-year cer
tain is counted better than and a man will be unwilling to part
1 Tertul. de Spectac., cap. i. a Doroth., doct. 2.
468 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VIII.
with it for forty pounds a-year that is doubtful. It is assurance
only of a better life which will carry the soul with comfort through
the bitter pangs of death. Hence it was that Job called so fre
quently, and cried so earnestly, to be laid to bed : Oh that I might
have my request ; that God would grant me the thing that I long
for ! even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let
loose his hand, and cut me off ! then should I yet have comfort.
Let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy
One, Job vi. 8-10. Job had lived with a good conscience, and
therefore feared not to die with great comfort. His fidelity to God
encouraged him to expect mercy from God. He had not concealed
nor shut up God s faithfulness from men, and therefore knew that
God would not conceal his loving-kindness from him. But David,
on the other hand, when night, in his own thoughts, drew near,
was as importunate to sit up longer. God seemed to call him to
bed, but he begs hard, spare me, that I may recover strength,
before I go hence, and be no more, Ps. xxxix. 13.
Now mark the reason of this petition. David, as it is generally
conceived, was now persecuted by Absalom. The unnatural son
forced his father to fly. He in his suffering reads his own sin,
and God s indignation, and so dreads an appearance in the other
world in such a condition. He who, when things were clear be
twixt God and his soul, could walk in the valley of the shadow of
death and fear none ill, could even give death a challenge, now,
when things are cloudy and dubious, runs back like a coward. He
had lost the sense of God s favour, and therefore could not think of
venturing into his presence without much fear. The train of his
corruptions threatened to wait on him to the highest court, and he
durst not appear before the Lord with such company. He had
been declining in his grace under a sad distemper, and, as a weak,
consumptionate man, he was afraid to travel so great a journey, as
the way whence he should never return. The tenant who wants
his rent, loves not to hear of the quarter-day.
Friend, if thou wouldst leave the world cheerfully, live in the
world conscientiously ; take heed of those fiends which will fright
thee in the night of death ; choose suffering before sin, and punish
thy body to keep thy soul pure. The ermine, some say, will die be
fore she will go into the* dirt to defile her beautiful skin ; and the
mouse of Armenia will rather be taken and slain, than preserve
and pollute herself in a filthy hole. As the white is always in the
archer s eye, so let thy death be in thine, that it may quicken thee
to diligence and exactness in thy life.
CHAP. VIII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 469
Logicians who regard not the premises, infer wild conclusions ;
so if thou art careless of thy conversation, expect but an uncomfort
able dissolution. As when God looked on all his works, and saw
that they were good, then followed his Sabbath of rest ; so when
thou canst reflect upon the several passages of thy life, and see that
through Christ they are good, and thou hast not been guilty of enor
mities, though of infirmities, after this thou wilt joyfully by death
enter into thy everlasting Sabbath. Thy evidence will be clear, if thy
conscience be kept clean; but the truth is, many, even amongst Chris
tians, wound their souls by venturing on sin, and then flinch and
start back when they come to be searched ; besides, they neglect
casting up their accounts so long, that they know not whether they
are worth anything or nothing, and so may well be unwilling to
have their estates ransacked into.
If thou shouldst fall, (I would not sad any saint,) take heed of
lying there ; but be as speedy as is possible in calling to Christ to
raise thee up. If thy conscience be raw with the guilt of any sin,
a light affliction (much more death) will make thee kick and fling,
and unwilling to bear it. But when thy flesh is sound, (thy spirit
healed by the blood of Christ,) death itself will be but a light bur
den on thy back. How merrily mayest thou, though thou hast not
a penny in thine own purse, go the way of all the earth, travel into
the other world, when thou art sure of Christ in thy company, who
will bear thy charges all the way.
The second means.
Secondly, Mortify thy affections more to the world and all its
comforts. They who love the world most, leave it worst. Lot s
wife lingered in Sodom so much, and was so loath to depart, be
cause she loved it overmuch. When boards lie close one upon an
other they are easily parted, but when they are glued one to another
it will cost some trouble and pains. If thy heart be loose to the
world, it will be a small matter to thee to leave it, but if thou art
fastened to it in thy affections, it will not be done without much
reluctancy and opposition.
The wife who hath been so faithful to her husband as to keep
her heart wholly for him, is ready always to open the door to him ;
when she that entertaineth other lovers, though her husband knock
at the door, dares not run presently to open it, but first makes a
shuffling and bustling up and down to hide, or get them out of the
way. The more thy affections are set on Christ, thy true husband,
470 THE FADING OF THE FLESH. [CHAP. VIII.
the more the world is taken out of thee ; and so the more easily
wilt thou be taken out of the world. He who hath laid up his
heart in heaven will comfortably think of laying down his head in
the earth. When the pins of the watch are taken out, which held
it together, how easily doth it fall in pieces ! When thy affections
from these things below are removed, how quickly, how quietly
will thy soul and body fall asunder ! If the world be as loose to
thee as thy cloak, thou canst put it off at pleasure ; but if it be as
close to thee as thy skin, they shall have somewhat to do who shall
persuade thee to part with it. We read of some who were unwill
ing to die, for they had treasure in the field, Jer. xli. 8. Where
their treasure was, their hearts were also.
Make it thy work, therefore, by considering the world s vanity
and deceitfulness, and by pondering heaven s glory and happiness,
to wean thy heart from sublunary things ; hereby thou wilt as will
ingly leave them as ever infant did those breasts which long ago it
was weaned from.
The third means.
Use thy heart to the frequent thoughts of death. When chil
dren are frightened at a dog or a cat, we do not give way to their
foolish fears, but bring the brute to them, and get them to touch
and handle it, and shew them that it is not such a frightful thing
as they imagine ; and hereby in time they are so far from being
frighted, that they can play with it familiarly. Dost thou dread
this king of terrors, death ? give not way to this fear, but bring
death up to thy spirit, handle it, feel it, there is no such hurt in it
as thou imaginest, nothing which should terrify thee ; hereby at
last thou mayest come to play upon the hole of this asp.
One ground I suppose why Job made no more of dying, was be
cause he was so well acquainted with death. Strangers are startled
at many things in a place, which they that are home-born and used
to can delight in. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father ;
and to the worms, Thou art my brother and sister, Job xvii. 14.
Job was as familiar with death, as if it had been his father ; and
made no more of dying, than of falling into the arms and embraces
of his mother or sister. Moses at first started back at the sight of
the serpent ; but when he had handled it a little, it was turned into
a rod, and nothing frightful to him.
There is a story of an ass, called Cumanus ass, which, jetting up
and down in a lion s skin, did for a time much terrify his master,
CHAP. VIII.] THE FADING OF THE FLESH. 471
but afterwards, being descried, did much benefit him. Thou art
fearful possibly, reader, of this beast, supposing it to be a roaring
lion ; but come up to it, and thou wilt find it but an ass in the skin
of a lion, and such a one as will be no way hurtful, but many ways
helpful to thee. What is this bugbear death which thus frights
thee ? Is it not the paranymphus, which presenteth thy faithful
soul to thy beloved husband ? Is it not a leaving the world, and a
going to thy Father ? Is it less than a kiss of God s lips ? The
indulgent parent will take the babe into her arms, and with many
kisses lay it in her lap, when it is falling asleep.
The Chaldee paraphrase tell us, Moses died with a kiss of the
Lord s mouth, Deut. xxxiv. 5. Will it not be the funeral of all
thy corruptions and crosses, and the resurrection of all imaginable
delights and comforts ? Didst thou but know this, friend, more,
thou wouldst not be so shy of its company.
The Koman used their youth to gladiatory fights, and bloody
spectacles, that acquaintance with them beforehand might make
them less troubled in wars with their enemies. Philostrates lived
seven years in his tomb before his death, that his bones might be
the better known to his grave. Accustom thyself to the thoughts
of death, thy change, thy translation to bliss, thy entrance into
heaven, and when it comes, his errand being known so well before,
he will be welcome.
Mithridates, by accustoming his body to poison, turned it into
good nourishment; use thy soul to the thoughts of death, and
though it be worse than poison to others, it will be pleasant and
profitable to thee.
END OF VOL. III.
BALLA.XTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDIKBUKOH.
409061
