CHAPTER XXX.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE SICK.

THOUGH the chief part of our preparation for death be in the time of

health, and it is a work for which the longest life is not too long;

yet because the folly of unconverted sinners is so great, as to forget

what they were born for till they see death at hand, and because there

is a special preparation necessary for the best, I shall here lay down

some directions for the sick. And I shall reduce them to these four

heads: 1. What must be done to make death safe to us, that it may be

our passage to heaven and not to hell. 2. What must be done to make

sickness profitable to us. 3. What must be done to make death

comfortable to us, that we may die in peace and joy. 4. What must be

done to make our sickness profitable to others about us.

_Tit. 1. Directions for a Safe Death, to secure our Salvation._

The directions of this sort are especially necessary to the

unconverted, impenitent sinner; yet needful also to the godly

themselves; and therefore I shall distinctly speak to both.

I. _Directions for an Unconverted Sinner in his Sickness._

It is a very dreadful case to be found by sickness in an unconverted

state. There is so great a work to be done, and so little time to do

it in, and soul and body so unfit and undisposed for it, and the

misery so great (even everlasting torment) that will follow so

certainly and so quickly if it be undone, that one would think it

should overwhelm the understanding and heart of any man with

astonishment and horror, to foresee such a condition in the time of

his health; much more to find himself in it in his sickness. And

though one would think that the near approach of death, and the

nearness of another world, should be irresistibly powerful to convert

a sinner, so that few or none should die unconverted, however they

lived; yet Scripture and sad experience declare the contrary, that

most men die, as well as live, in an unsanctified and miserable state.

For, 1. A life of sin doth usually settle a man in ignorance or

unbelief, or both; so that sickness findeth him in such a dungeon of

darkness, that he is but lost and confounded in his fears, and knoweth

not whither he is going, nor what he hath to do. 2. And also sin

woefully hardeneth the heart, and the long-resisted Spirit of God

forsaketh them, and giveth them over to themselves in sickness, who

would not be ruled and sanctified by him in their health: and such

remain like blocks or beasts even to the last. 3. And the nature of

sickness and approaching death doth tend more to affright than to

renew the soul; and rather to breed fear and trouble than love. And

though grief and fear be good preparatives and helps, yet it is the

love of God and holiness in which the soul's regeneration and

renovation doth consist; and there is no more holiness than there is

love and willingness. And many a one that is affrighted into strong

repentings, and cries, and prayers, and promises, and seem to

themselves and others to be converted, do yet either die in their sins

and misery, or return to their unholy lives when they recover, being

utter strangers to that true repentance which reneweth the heart, as

sad experience doth too often testify. 4. And many poor sinners

finding that they have so short a time, do end it in mere amazement

and terror, not knowing how to compose their thoughts, to examine

their hearts and lives, nor to exercise faith in Christ, nor to follow

any directions that are given them; but lie in trembling and

astonishment, wholly taken up with the fears of death, much worse than

a beast that is going to be butchered. 5. And the very pains of the

body do so divert or hinder the thoughts of many, that they can scarce

mind any spiritual things, with such a composedness as is necessary to

so great a work. 6. And the greatest number being partly confounded in

ignorance, and partly withheld by backwardness and undisposedness, and

partly disheartened by thinking it impossible to become new creatures,

and get a regenerate, heavenly heart on such a sudden, do force

themselves to hope that they shall be saved without it, and that

though they are sinners, yet that kind of repentance which they have,

will serve the turn and be accepted, and God will be more merciful

than to damn them. And this false hope they think they are

necessitated to take up. For there is but two other ways to be taken:

the one is, utterly to despair; and both Scripture, and reason, and

nature itself are against that: the other way is, to be truly

converted and won to the love of God and heaven by a lively faith in

Jesus Christ; and they have no such faith; and to this they are

strange and undisposed, and think it impossible to be done. And if

they must have no hopes but upon such terms as these, they think they

shall have none at all. Or else if they hear that there is no other

hope, and that none but the holy can be saved, they will force

themselves to hope that they have all this, and that they are truly

converted, and become new creatures, and do love God and holiness

above all: not because indeed it is so, but because they would have it

so, for fear of being damned. And instead of finding that they are

void of faith, and love, and holiness, and labouring to get a renewed

soul, they think it a nearer way to make themselves believe that it is

so already: and thus in their presumption, self-deceiving, and false

hopes, they linger out that little time that is left them to be

converted in, till death open their eyes, and hell do undeceive them.

7. And the same devil, and wicked men his instruments, that kept them

in health from true repentance, will be as diligent to keep them from

it in their sickness; and will be loth to lose all at the last cast,

which they had been winning all the time before. And if the devil can

but keep them in his power, till sickness come and take them up with

pain and fear, he will hope to keep them a few days longer, till he

have finished that which he had begun and carried on so far. And if

there be here and there one, that will be held no longer by false

hopes and presumption, he will at last think to take them off by

desperation, and make them believe that there is no remedy.

And indeed it is a thing so difficult, and unlikely, to convert a

sinner in all his pain and weakness at the last, that even the godly

friends of such do many times even let them alone, as thinking that

there is little or no hope. But this is a very sinful course: as long

as there is life, there is some hope. And as long as there is hope, we

must use the means. A physician will try the best remedies he hath, in

the most dangerous disease which is not desperate: for when it is

certain that there is no hope without them, if they do no good, they

do no harm. So must we try the saving of a poor soul, while there is

life and any hope; for if once death end their time and hopes, it will

be then too late; and they will be out of our reach and help for ever.

To those that sickness findeth in so sad a case, I shall give here but

a few brief directions, because I have done it more at large in the

first part and first chapter, whither I refer them.

[Sidenote: For examination.]

_Direct._ I. Set speedily and seriously to the judging of

yourselves, as those that are going to be judged of God. And do it in

the manner following. 1. Do it willingly and resolvedly, as knowing

that it is now no time to remain uncertain of your everlasting state,

if you can possibly get acquainted with it. Is it not time for a man

to know himself, whether he be a sanctified believer or not, when he

is just going to appear before his Maker, and there be judged as he is

found?

2. Do it impartially; as one that is not willing to find himself

deceived, as soon as death hath acquainted him with the truth. O take

heed, as you love your souls, of being foolishly tender of yourselves,

and resolving for fear of being troubled at your misery, to believe

that you are safe, whether it be true or false. This is the way that

thousands are undone by. Thinking that you are sanctified will neither

prove you so, nor make you so; no more than thinking that you are

well, will prove or make you well. And what good will it do you to

think you are pardoned and shall be saved, for a few days longer, and

then to find too late in hell that you were mistaken? Is the ease of

so short a deceit worth all the pain and loss that it will cost you?

Alas, poor soul! God knoweth it is not needlessly to affright thee,

that we desire to convince thee of thy misery! We do not cruelly

insult over thee, or desire to torment thee. But we pity thee in so

sad a case: to see an unsanctified person ready to pass into another

world, and to be doomed unto endless misery, and will not know it till

he is there. Our principal reason of opening your danger is, because

it is necessary to your escaping it: if soul diseases were like bodily

diseases, which may sometimes be cured without the patient's knowing

them, and the danger of them, we would never trouble you at such a

time as this. But it will not be so done; you must understand your

danger, if you will be saved from it: therefore be impartial with

yourself if you are wise, and be truly willing to know the worst. 3.

In judging yourselves, proceed by the same rule or law that God will

judge you by; that is, by the word of God revealed in the gospel. For

your work now is not to steal a little short-lived quiet to your

consciences, but to know how God will judge your souls, and whether he

will doom you to endless joy or misery: and how can you know this, but

by that law or rule that God will judge you by? And certainly God will

judge you by the same law or rule by which he governed you, or which

he gave you to live by in the world. It will go never the better or

worse there with any man, for his good or bad conceits of himself, if

they were his mistakes; but just what God has said in his word that he

will do with any man, that will he do with him in the day of judgment.

All shall be justified whom the gospel justifieth; and all shall be

condemned that it condemneth: and therefore judge yourself by it: by

what signs you may know an unsanctified man, I have told you before,

part i. chap. i. direct. 8. And by what signs true grace may be known,

I told you before, in preparation for the sacrament. 4. If you cannot

satisfy yourself about your own condition, advise with some godly,

able minister, or other christian that is best acquainted with you;

that knoweth how you have lived towards God and man: or at least, open

all your heart and life to him that he may know it; and if he tell you

that he feareth you are yet unsanctified, you have the more reason to

fear the worst. But then be sure that he be not a carnal, ungodly,

worldly man himself; for they that flatter and deceive themselves, are

not unlike to do so by others. Such blind deceivers will daub over

all, and bid you never trouble yourself; but even comfort you as they

comfort themselves, and bid you believe that all is well, and it will

be well; or will make you believe that some forced confession and

unsound repentance will serve instead of true conversion. But a man

that is going to the bar of God, should be loth to be deceived by

himself, or others.

[Sidenote: For humiliation and repentance.]

_Direct._ II. If by a due examination you find yourself unsanctified,

bethink you seriously of your case, both what you have done, and what

a condition you are in, till you are truly humbled, and willing of any

conditions that God shall offer you for your deliverance. Consider how

foolishly you have done, how rebelliously, how unthankfully, to

forsake your God, and forget your souls, and lose all your time, and

abuse all God's mercies, and leave undone the work that you were made,

and preserved, and redeemed for! Alas, did you never know till now

that you must die? and that you had all your time to make preparation

for an endless life which followeth death? Were you never warned by

minister, or friend? Were you never told of the necessity of a holy,

heavenly life; and of a regenerate, sanctified state, till now? O what

could you have done more unwisely, or wickedly, than to cast away a

life that eternal life so much depended on; and to refuse your

Saviour, and his grace and mercies, till your last extremity? Is this

the time to look after a new birth, and to begin your life, when you

are at the end of it? O what have you done to delay so great a work

till now! And now if you die before you are regenerate, you are lost

for ever. O humble your souls before the Lord! Lament your folly; and

presently condemn yourselves before him, and make out to him for mercy

while there is hope.

[Sidenote: For faith in Christ.]

_Direct._ III. When you are humbled for your sin and misery, and

willing of mercy upon any terms, believe that yet your case is not

remediless, but that Jesus Christ hath given himself to God, a

sacrifice for your sins, and is so sure and all-sufficient a Saviour,

that yet nothing can hinder you from pardon and salvation, but your

own impenitence and unbelief. Come to him therefore as the Saviour of

souls, that he may teach you the will of God, and reconcile you to his

Father, and pardon your sins, and renew you by his Spirit, and

acquaint you with his Father's love, and save you from damnation, and

make you heirs of life eternal. For all this may yet possibly be done,

as short as your time is like to be: and it will yet be long of you,

if it be not done. The covenant of grace doth promise pardon and

salvation to every penitent believer whenever they truly turn to God,

without excepting any hour, or any person, in all the world. Nothing

but an unbelieving, hardened heart, resisting his grace, and unwilling

to be holy, can deprive you of pardon and salvation, even at the

last. It was a most foolish wickedness of you to put it off till now:

but yet for all that, if you are not yet saved, it shall not be long

of Christ, but you: yet he doth freely offer you his mercy, and he

will be your Lord and Saviour if you will not refuse him: yet the

match shall not break on his part: see that it break not on your part,

and you shall be saved. Know therefore what he is, as God and man, and

what a blessed work he hath undertaken, to redeem a sinful, miserable

world; and what he hath already done for us, in his life and doctrine,

in his death and sufferings, by his resurrection and his covenant of

grace, and what he is now doing at his Father's right hand, in making

intercession for penitent believers, and what an endless glory he is

preparing for them, and how he will save to the uttermost all that

come to God by him. O yet let your heart even leap for joy, that you

have an all-sufficient, willing, gracious Saviour, whose grace

aboundeth more than sin aboundeth. If the devils and poor damned souls

in hell were yet but in your case, and had your offers and your hopes,

how glad do you imagine they would be! Cast yourselves therefore in

faith and confidence upon this Saviour; trust your souls upon his

sacrifice and merit, for the pardon of your sins, and peace with God;

beg of him yet the renewing grace of his Spirit; be willing to be made

holy, and a new creature, and to live a holy life if you should

survive; resolve to be wholly ruled by him; and give up yourself

absolutely to him as your Saviour, to be justified, and sanctified,

and saved by him, and then trust in him for everlasting happiness! O

happy soul, if yet you can do thus, without deceit.

[Sidenote: For a new heart, and the love of God, and a resolution for

a holy, obedient life.]

_Direct._ IV. Believe now and consider what God is and will be to

your soul, and what love he hath showed to you by Christ, and what

endless joy and glory you may have with him in heaven for ever,

notwithstanding all the sins that you have done: and think what the

world and the flesh have done for you, in comparison of God: think of

this till you fall in love with God, and till your hearts and hopes

are set on heaven, and turned from this world and flesh, and till you

feel yourself in love with holiness, and till you are firmly resolved

in the strength of Christ to live a holy life, if God recover you: and

then you are truly sanctified, and shall be saved if you die in this

condition. Take heed that you take not a repentance and good purposes

which come from nothing but fear, to be sufficient; if you recover,

all this may die again, when your fear is over: you are not

sanctified, nor hath God your hearts, till your love be to him: that

which you do through fear alone, you had rather not do if you might be

excused; and therefore your hearts are still against it. When the

feeling of God's unspeakable love in Christ, doth melt and overcome

your hearts; when the infinite goodness of God himself, and his

mercies to your souls and bodies, do make you take him as more lovely

and desirable than all the world; when you so believe the heavenly

joys above, as to desire them more than earthly pleasures; when you

love God better than worldly prosperity, and when a life of such love

and holiness seemeth better to you, than all the merriments of

sinners, and you had rather be a saint, than the most prosperous of

the ungodly, and are firmly resolved for a holy life, if God recover

you, then are you indeed in a state of grace, and not till then: this

must be your case, or you are undone for ever. And therefore meditate

on the love of Christ, and the goodness of God, and the joys of

heaven, and the happiness of saints, and the misery of worldlings and

ungodly men; meditate on these till your eyes be opened, and your

hearts be touched with a holy love, and heaven and holiness be the

very things that you desire above all; and then you may boldly go to

God, and believe that all your sins are pardoned; and it is not bare

terror, but these believing thoughts of God, and heaven, and Christ,

and love, that must change your hearts and do the work.

These four directions truly practised, will yet set you on safe

ground, as sad and dangerous as your condition is; but it is not the

hearing of them, or the bare approbation of them, that will serve the

turn. To find out your sinful, miserable state, and to be truly

humbled for it, and to discern the remedy which you have in Christ,

and penitently and believingly to enter into his covenant, and to see

that your happiness is wholly in the love and fruition of God, and to

believe the glory prepared for the saints, and to prefer it before all

the prosperity of the world, and love it, and set your hearts upon it,

and to resolve on a holy life if you should recover, forsaking this

deceitful world and flesh; all this is a work that is not so easily

done as mentioned, and requireth your more serious, fixed thoughts;

and indeed had been fitter for your youthful vigour, than for a

painful, weak, distempered state. But necessity is upon you; it must

needs be yet done, and thoroughly and sincerely done, or you are lost

for ever. And therefore do it as well as you can, and see that your

hearts do not trifle and deceive you. In some respect you have greater

helps than ever you had before; you cannot now keep up your

hard-heartedness and security, by looking at death as a great way off.

You have now fuller experience, than ever you had before, what the

flesh and all its pleasures will come to, and what good your sinful

sports, and recreations, and merriments will do you; and what all the

riches, and greatness, and gallantry, and honours of the world are

worth, and what they will do for you in the day of your necessity. You

stand so near another world, and must so quickly appear before the

Lord, that methinks a dead and senseless heart should no longer be

able to make you slight your God, your Saviour, and your endless life:

and one would think that the flesh, and world, should never be able to

deceive you any more. O happy soul, if yet at last you are not only

frightened into an unsound repentance, but can hate all sin, and love

the Lord, and trust in Christ, and give up yourself entirely to him,

and set your heart upon that blessed life, where you may see and love

him perfectly for ever!

[Sidenote: Of late repentance.]

_Quest._ But will so late repentance serve the turn, for one that

hath been so long ungodly?

_Answ._ Yes, if it be sincere: but there is all the doubt; and

that is it that your salvation now dependeth on.

_Quest._ But how may I know whether it be sincere?

_Answ._ 1. If you be not only frighted into it, but your very heart,

and will, and love are changed. 2. If it extend both to the end, and

the necessary means: so that you love God and the joys of heaven,

above all earthly prosperity and pleasure; and also you had rather be

perfectly holy, than live in all the delights of sin. And if you hate

every known sin, and love the holy ways and servants of God, and this

unfeignedly: this is a true change. 3. And if this repentance and

change be such as will hold, if God should recover you, and would show

itself in a new, and holy, and self-denying life; which certainly it

will do, if it come not only from fear, but from love: but if you

renounce the world, and the flesh, against your wills, because you

know there is no remedy; and if you bid farewell to your worldly,

sinful pleasures, not because you love God better, but because you

cannot keep them, though you would; and if you take not God and heaven

as your best, but only for better than hell; but not as better than

worldly prosperity, which yet you would choose, if you had your

choice; this kind of repentance will never save you; and if you should

recover, it would vanish away, and come to nothing, as soon as your

fears of death are over, and you are returned to your worldly delights

again. Though now in your extremity you cry out never so confidently,

Oh I had rather have heaven than earth, and I had rather have Christ

and holiness, than all the pleasures and prosperity of sinners; yet if

it be not from a renewed, sanctified heart, that had rather be such

indeed, but from mere necessity and fear and against the habit of your

hearts and wills; this is but such a repentance as Judas had, that is

neither sincere at present, nor if you recover, will hold you to a

holy life.

II. _Directions to the Sanctified, for a safe Departure._

When the soul is truly converted and sanctified, the principal

business is despatched, that is necessary to a safe departure: but yet

I cannot say that there is no more to be done. They were godly persons

that were exhorted, 2 Pet. i. 10, "to give diligence to make their

calling and election sure;" which being (as the Greek importeth) not

only to make it known or certain, but to make it firm, doth signify

more than barely to discern it. These following duties are yet further

necessary.

_Direct._ I. Satisfy not yourselves that once you found yourselves

sincere; but if your understandings be clear and free, renew the

trial; and if you are insufficient for it of yourself, make use of the

help of a faithful, judicious minister or friend. For when a man is

going to the bar of God, it concerneth him to make all as sure as

possibly he can.

_Direct._ II. Review your lives, and renew your universal

repentance, for all the sins that ever you committed; and also let

your particular repentance extend to every particular sin which you

remember, but especially repent of your most aggravated, soul-wounding

sins. For if your repentance be universal and true, it will also be

particular; and you will be specially humbled for your special sins:

and search deep, and see that none escape you. And think not that you

are not called to repent of them, or ask forgiveness, because you have

repented of them long ago, and received a pardon: for this is a thing

to be done even to the last.

_Direct._ III. Renew your faith in Jesus Christ, and cast your

souls upon his merits and mediation. Satisfy not yourselves that you

have a habit of faith, and that formerly you did believe; but fly to

your trusty rock and refuge, and continue the exercise of your faith,

and again give up your souls to Christ.

_Direct._ IV. Make it your chief work to stir up in your hearts

the love of God, and a desire to live with Christ in glory. Let those

comforting and encouraging objects which are the instruments of this,

be still in your thoughts: and if you can do this, it will be the

surest proof of your title to the crown.

_Direct._ V. If you have wronged any by word or deed, be sure that you

do your best to right them, and make them satisfaction; and if you

have fallen out with any, be reconciled to them. Leave not other men's

goods to your heirs or executors: restore what you have wrongfully

gotten, before you leave your legacies to any. Confess your faults

where you can do no more; and ask those forgiveness whom you have

injured; and leave not men's names, or estates, or souls, under the

effects of your former wrongs, so far as you are able to make them

reparation.

_Direct._ VI. Be still taken up in your duty to God, even that

which he now calleth you to, that you may not be found idle, or in the

sins of omission; but may be most holy and fruitful at the last.

Though sickness call you not to all the same duties, which were

incumbent on you in your health; yet think not therefore, that there

is no duty at all expected from the sick. Every season and state hath

its peculiar duties, (and its peculiar mercies,) which it much

concerneth us to know. I shall anon tell you more particularly what

they are.

_Direct._ VII. Be specially fortified and vigilant against the

most dangerous temptations of Satan, by which he useth to assault the

sick. Pray now especially, that God would not lead you into

temptation, but deliver you from the evil one: for in your weakness

you may be less fit to wrestle with them, than at another time. O beg

of God, that as he hath upheld you, and preserved you till now, he

would not forsake you at last in your extremity.[126] Particularly,

_Tempt._ I. One of the most dangerous temptations of the enemy

is, To take the advantage of a christian's bodily weakness, to shake

his faith, and question his foundations, and call him to dispute over

his principles again, Whether the soul be immortal? and there be a

heaven, and a hell? and whether Christ be the Son of God, and the

Scriptures be God's word? &c. As if this had never been questioned,

and scanned, and resolved before! It is a great deal of advantage that

Satan expecteth by this malicious course. If he could, he would draw

you from Christ to infidelity; but Christ prayeth for you, that your

faith may not fail: if he cannot do this, he would at least weaken

your faith, and hereby weaken every grace: and he would hereby divert

you from the more needful thoughts, which are suitable to your present

state; and he would hereby distract you, and destroy your comforts,

and draw you in your perplexities to dishonour God. Away therefore

with these blasphemous and unseasonable motions; cast them from you,

with abhorrence and disdain: it is no time now to be questioning your

foundations; you have done this more seasonably, when you were in a

fitter case. A pained, languishing body, and a disturbed, discomposed

mind, is unfit upon a surprise, to go back and dispute over all our

principles. Tell Satan, you owe him not so much service, nor will you

so cast away those few hours and thoughts, for which you have so much

better work. You have the witness in yourselves, even the Spirit, and

image, and seal of God. You have been converted and renewed by the

power of that word, which he would have you question; and you have

found it to be owned by the Spirit of grace, who hath made it mighty

to pull down the strongest holds of sin. Tell Satan, you will not

gratify him so much, as to turn your holy, heavenly desires, into a

wrangling with him about those truths which you have so often proved.

You will not question now, the being of that God who hath maintained

you so long, and witnessed his being and goodness to you by a life of

mercies; nor will you now question the being or truth of him that hath

redeemed you, or of the Spirit or word that hath sanctified, guided,

comforted, and confirmed you. If he tell you, that you must prove all

things, tell him, that this is not now to do; you have long proved the

truth and goodness of your God, the mercy of your Saviour, and the

power of his holy Spirit and word. It is now your work to live upon

that word, and fetch your hopes and comforts from it, and not to

question it.

_Tempt._ II. Another dangerous temptation of Satan is, When he

would persuade you to despair, by causing you to misunderstand the

tenor of the gospel, or by thinking too narrowly and unworthily of

God's mercy, or of the satisfaction of Christ. But because this

temptation doth usually tend more to discomfort the soul, than to damn

it, I shall speak more to it under tit. 3.

_Tempt._ III. Another dangerous temptation is, When Satan would

draw you to overlook your sins, and overvalue your graces, and be

proud of your good works; and so lay too much of your comfort upon

yourselves, and lose the sense of your need of Christ, or usurp any

part of his office or his honour. I shall afterward show you how far

you must look at any thing in yourselves: but certainly, that which

lifteth you up in pride, or encroacheth on Christ's office, or would

draw you to undervalue him, is not of God. Therefore keep humble, in

the sense of your sinfulness and unworthiness, and cast away every

motion which would carry you away from Christ, and make yourselves,

and your works, and righteousness, as a saviour to yourselves.

_Tempt._ IV. Another perilous temptation is, By causing the

thoughts of death and the grave, and your doubts and fears about the

world to come, to overcome the love of God, and (not only the

comforts, but also) the desires and willingness of your hearts, to be

with Christ. It will abate your love to God and heaven, to think on

them with too much estrangedness and terror. The directions under tit.

3. will help you against this temptation.

_Tempt._ V. Another dangerous temptation is fetched from the

remnants of your worldly-mindedness; when your dignity, or honour,

your house, or lands, your relations and friends, or your pleasures

and contentments, are so sweet to you, that you are loth to leave

them; and the thoughts of death are grievous to you, because it taketh

you from that which you over-love; and God and heaven are the less

desired, because you are loth to leave the world. Watch carefully

against this great temptation; observe how it seeketh the very

destruction of your grace and souls; and how it fighteth against your

love to God and heaven, and would undo all that Christ and his Spirit

have been doing so long. Observe what a root of matter it findeth in

yourselves; and therefore be the more humbled under it. Learn now what

the world is, and how little the accommodations of the flesh are

worth, when you perceive what the end of all must be. Would you never

die? would you enjoy your worldly things for ever? Had you rather have

them, than to live with Christ in the heavenly glory of the New

Jerusalem? If you had, it is your grievous sin and folly; and yet you

know that it is a desire that you can never hope to attain. Die you

must, whether you will or not! What is it, then, that you would stay

for? Is it till the world be grown less pleasant to you, and your love

and minds be weaned from it? When should that rather be than now? And

what should more effectually do it, than this dying condition that you

are in? It is time for you to spit out these unwholesome pleasures;

and now to look up to the true, the holy, the unmeasurable, everlasting

pleasures.

_Tit. 2. Directions how to Profit by our Sickness._

Whether it shall please God to recover you or not, it is no small

benefit which you may get by his visitation, if you do your part, and

faithfully improve it, according to these directions following.

_Direct._ I. If you hear God's call to a closer trial of your

hearts, concerning the sincerity of your conversion, and thereby are

brought to a more exact examination, and come to a truer acquaintance

with your state, (be it good or bad,) the benefit may be exceeding

great. For if it be good, you may be much comforted, and confirmed,

and fitted to give thanks and praise to God; and if it be bad, you may

be awakened speedily to look about you, and seek for a recovery.

_Direct._ II. If in the review of your lives, you find out those

sins which before you overlooked, or perceive the greatness of those

sins which you before accounted small, the benefit may be very great;

for it helps to a more deep and sound repentance, and to a stronger

resolution against all sins, if you recover. And affliction is a very

great help to us in this: many a man hath been ashamed and deeply

humbled for that same sin, when sickness did awake him, which he could

make his play-fellow before, as if there had been neither hurt nor

danger in it.

_Direct._ III. There is many a deep corruption in the heart,

which affliction openeth and discovereth, which deceitfulness hid in

the time of prosperity; and the detecting of these is no small benefit

to the soul. When you come to part with wealth and honour, you shall

better know how much you loved them, than you could before. Mark

therefore what corruptions appear in your affliction, and how the

heart discloseth its deceits, that you may know what to repent of, and

reform.

_Direct._ IV. When affliction calleth you to the use and exercise

of your graces, you have a great help to be better acquainted with the

strength or weakness of them. When you are called so loudly to the use

of faith, and love, and patience, and heavenly-mindedness, you may

better know what measure of every one of these you have, than you

could when you had no such help. Mark therefore what your hearts prove

in the trial, and what each grace doth show itself to be in the

exercise.

_Direct._ V. You have a very great help now to be thoroughly

acquainted with the vanity of the world, and so to mortify all

affections unto the things below. Now judge of the value of wealth,

and honour, of plenty, and high places. Are they a comfort to a dying

man that is parting with them? Or is it any grief to a poor man when

he is dying, that he did not enjoy them? Is it not easy now to rectify

your errors, if ever you thought highly of these transitory things? O

settle it now in your firm resolution, that if God should restore you,

you would value this world at a lower rate, and set by it, and seek

it, but as it deserveth.

_Direct._ VI. Also you have now a special help to raise your

estimation of the happiness of the saints in heaven, and of the

necessity and excellency of a holy life, and of the wisdom of the

saints on earth; and to know who maketh the wisest choice.[127] Now

you may see that it is nothing but heaven that is worth our seeking,

and that is finally to be trusted to, and will not fail us in the hour

of our distress; now you may discern between the righteous and the

wicked; between those that serve God and those that serve him not,

Mal. iii. 17, 18. Now judge whether a loose and worldly life, or a

holy, heavenly life be better? And resolve accordingly.

_Direct._ VII. You have also now a very great help to discern the

folly of a voluptuous life, and to mortify the deeds and desires of

the flesh: when God is mortifying its natural desires, it may help

you in mortifying its sinful desires. Now judge what lust, and plays,

and gaming, and feasting, and drunkenness, and swaggering, are worth?

You see now the end of all such pleasures. Do you think them better

than the joys of heaven, and worthy the loss of a man's salvation to

attain them? Or better than the pleasures of a holy life?

_Direct._ VIII. Also now you have a great advantage, for the

quickening of your hearts that have lost their zeal, and are cold in

prayer, and dull in meditation, and regardless of holy conference. If

ever you will pray earnestly, sure it will be now; if ever you will

talk seriously of the matters of salvation, sure it will be now. Now

you do better understand the reason of fervent prayer, and serious

religion, and circumspect walking, than you did before; and you can

easily now confute the scorns, or railings of the loose, ungodly

enemies of holiness; even as you confute the dotage of a fool, or the

ravings of a man beside himself.

_Direct._ IX. You have a great advantage more sensibly to

perceive your dependence upon God alone; and what reason you have to

please him before all the world, and to regard his favour or

displeasure more, than all the things or persons upon earth. Now you

see how vain a thing is man; and how little the favour of all the

world can stand you in stead in your greatest necessity: now you see

that it is God, and God alone, that is to be trusted to at last; and

therefore it is God that is to be obeyed and pleased, whatever become

of all things in the world.

_Direct._ X. You have now a great advantage to discern the

preciousness of time, and to see how carefully it should be redeemed,

and to perceive the distractedness of those men, that can waste it in

pastimes, and curiosity of dressings, and needless compliments and

visits, and a multitude of such vanities, as rob the world of that

which is more precious than gold or treasure. Now what think you of

idling and playing away your time? Now do you not think that it is

wiser to spend it in a holy preparation for the life to come, than to

cast it away upon childish fooleries, or any unnecessary worldly

things?

_Direct._ XI. Also you have now a special help to be more serious

than ever in your preparations for death, and in your thoughts of

heaven; and so to be readier than you were before; and if sickness

help you to be readier to die, and more to set your hearts above,

whether you live or die, it will be a profitable sickness to you.

_Direct._ XII. Let your friends about you be the witnesses of

your open confessions and resolutions, and engage them, if God should

restore you to your health, to remember you of all the promises which

you made, and to watch over you, and tell you of them whenever there

is need. By these means sickness may be improved, and be a mercy to

you.

[Sidenote: Directions to them that recover.]

I might next have given some special directions to them that are

recovered from sickness; but because I would not be needlessly

tedious, I refer such to what is here said already. 1. Let them but

look over these twelve directions, and see whether these benefits

remain upon their hearts. 2. Let them call to their lively

remembrance, the sense which they had, and the frame they were in,

when they made these resolutions. 3. Let them remember that sickness

will come again, even a sickness which will have no cure. And, 4. Let

them bethink themselves, how terribly conscience will be wounded, and

their souls dismayed, when the next sickness cometh, to remember that

they were unthankful for their last recovery, and how falsely they

dealt with God in the breaking of their promises. Foresee this, that

you may prevent it.

_Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death._

Comfort is not desirable only as it pleaseth us, but also as it

strengtheneth us, and helpeth us in our greatest duties. And when is

it more needful than in sickness, and the approach of death? I shall

therefore add such directions as are necessary to make our departure

comfortable or peaceful at the least, as well as safe.

_Direct._ I. Because I would make this treatise no longer than I

needs must; in order to overcome the fears of death, and get a

cheerful willingness to die, I desire the sick to read over those

twenty considerations, and the following directions, which I have laid

down in my book of "Self-denial." And when the fears of death are

overcome, the great impediment of their comfort is removed.

_Direct._ II. Misunderstand not sickness, as if it were a greater

evil than it is; but observe how great a mercy it is, that death hath

so suitable a harbinger or forerunner: that God should do so much

before he taketh us hence, to wean us from the world, and make us

willing to be gone; that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain;

and that the senses and appetite languish and decay, which did draw

the mind to earthly things: and that we have so loud a call, and so

great a help to true repentance and serious preparation! I know to

those that have walked very close with God, and are always ready, a

sudden death may be a mercy; as we have lately known divers holy

ministers and others, that have died either after a sacrament, or in

the evening of the Lord's day, or in the midst of some holy exercise,

with so little pain, that none about them perceived when they

died.[128] But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down

and weakened by painful sickness, to help to conquer our natural

unwillingness to die.

_Direct._ III. Remember whose messenger sickness is, and who it

is that calleth you to die. It is he, that is the Lord of all the

world, and gave us the lives which he taketh from us; and it is he,

that must dispose of angels and men, of princes and kingdoms, of

heaven and earth; and therefore there is no reason that such worms as

we should desire to be excepted. You cannot deny him to be the

disposer of all things, without denying him to be God: it is he that

loveth us, and never meant us any harm in any thing that he hath done

to us; that gave the life of his Son to redeem us; and therefore

thinketh not life too good for us. Our sickness and death are sent by

the same love that sent us a Saviour, and sent us the powerful

preachers of his word, and sent us his Spirit, and secretly and

sweetly changed our hearts, and knit them to himself in love; which

gave us a life of precious mercies for our souls and bodies, and hath

promised to give us life eternal; and shall we think, that he now

intendeth us any harm? Cannot he turn this also to our good, as he

hath done many an affliction which we have repined at?

_Direct._ IV. Look by faith to your dying, buried, risen, ascended,

glorified Lord. Nothing will more powerfully overcome both the poison

and the fears of death, than the believing thoughts of him that hath

triumphed over it. Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the

body? So it did by our Lord, who yet overcame it. Is it terrible as it

layeth the body in the grave? So it did by our Saviour; though he saw

not corruption, but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead. He died

to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death. He was buried,

to teach us not over-much to fear a grave. He rose again to conquer

death for us, and to assure those that rise to newness of life, that

they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory; and being made

partakers of the first resurrection, the second death shall have no

power over them. He liveth as our head, that we might live by him; and

that he might assure all those that are here risen with him, and seek

first the things that are above, that though in themselves they are

dead, "yet their life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ who

is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in

glory," Col. iii. 1, 2, 4, 5. What a comfortable word is that, John

xiv. 19, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Death could not hold

the Lord of life; nor can it hold us against his will, who hath the

"keys of death and hell," Rev. i. 18. He loveth every one of his

sanctified ones much better than you love an eye, or a hand, or any

other member of your body, which you will not lose if you are able to

save it. When he ascended, he left us that message full of comfort for

his followers, John xx. 17, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I

ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God."

Which, with these two following, I would have written before me on my

sick bed. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am,

there also shall my servant be," John xii. 26. And, "Verily, I say

unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," Luke xxiii. 43.

Oh what a joyful thought should it be to a believer, to think when he

is a dying, that he is going to his Saviour, and that our Lord is

risen and gone before us, to prepare a place for us, and take us in

season to himself, John xiv. 2-4. "As you believe in God, believe thus

in Christ; and then your hearts will be less troubled," ver. 1. It is

not a stranger that we talk of to you; but your Head and Saviour, that

loveth you better than you love yourselves, whose office it is there

to appear continually for you before God, and at last to receive your

departing souls; and into his hand it is, that you must then commend

them, as Stephen did, Acts vii. 59.

_Direct._ V. Choose out some promises most suitable to your

condition, and roll them over and over in your mind, and feed and live

on them by faith. A sick man is not (usually) fit to think of very

many things; and therefore two or three comfortable promises, to be

still before his eyes, may be the most profitable matter of his

thoughts; such as those three which I named before. If he be most

troubled with the greatness of his sin, let it be such as these: "God

so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John

iii. 16. "And by him all that believe are justified from all things,

from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts

xiii. 39. "For I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness, and

their sins and iniquities will I remember no more," Heb. viii. 12. If

it be the weakness of his grace that troubleth him, let him choose

such passages as these: "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and

carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with

young," Isa. xl. 11. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the

Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other; so

that ye cannot do the things that ye would," Gal. v. 17. "The spirit

is willing, but the flesh is weak," Matt. xxvi. 41. "All that the

Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will

in no wise cast out," John vi. 37. "The apostles said unto the Lord,

Increase our faith," Luke xvii. 5. If it be the fear of death, and

strangeness to the other world, that troubleth you, remember the words

of Christ before cited, and 2 Cor. v. 1-6, 8, "For we know, that if

our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a

building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our

house which is from heaven. For we that are in this tabernacle do

groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed

upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.--We are confident,

and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the

Lord." "For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart,

and to be with Christ, which is far better," Phil. i. 23. "Blessed are

the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the

Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do

follow them," Rev. xiv. 13. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave,

where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. xv. 55. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,"

Acts vii. 59. Fix upon some such word or promise, which may support

you in your extremity.

_Direct._ VI. Look up to God, who is the glory of heaven, and the

light, and life, and joy of souls, and believe that you are going to

see his face, and to live in the perfect, everlasting fruition of his

fullest love among the glorified. If it be delectable here to know his

works, what will it be to see the cause of all? All creatures in

heaven and earth conjoined, can never afford such content and joy to

holy souls, as God alone! Oh if we knew him whom we must there behold,

how weary should we be of this dungeon of mortality! and how fervently

should we long to see his face! The chicken that cometh out of the

shell, or the infant that newly cometh out of the womb, into this

illuminated world of human converse, receiveth not such a joyful

change, as the soul that is newly loosed from the flesh, and passeth

from this mortal life to God. One sight of God by a blessed soul, is

worth more than all the kingdoms of the earth. It is pleasant to the

eyes to behold the sun; but the sun is as darkness and useless in his

glory. "And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine

in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light

thereof," Rev. xxi. 23. "And there shall be no more curse: but the

throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall

serve him: and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their

foreheads: and there shall be no night there: and they need no candle,

nor light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they

shall reign for ever and ever," Rev. xxii. 3-5. If David in the

wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before God, the living

God, in his sanctuary at Jerusalem, Psal. xlii. how earnestly should

we long to see his glory in the heavenly Jerusalem! The glimpse of his

back parts, was as much as Moses might behold, Exod. xxxiv. yet that

much put a shining glory upon his face, ver. 29, 30. The sight that

Stephen had when men were ready to stone him, was a delectable sight,

Acts vii. 55, 56. The glimpse of Christ in his transfiguration

ravished the three apostles that beheld it, Matt. xvii. 2, 6. Paul's

vision which rapt him up into the third heavens, did advance him above

the rest of mankind! But our beatifical sight of the glory of God,

will very far excel all this. When our perfected bodies shall have the

perfect glorious body of Christ to see, and our perfected souls shall

have the God of truth, the most perfect uncreated light to know, what

more is a created understanding capable of? And yet this is not the

top of our felicity; for the understanding is but the passage to the

heart or will, and truth is but subservient to goodness: and

therefore though the understanding be capable of no more than the

beatifical vision, yet the man is capable of more; even of receiving

the fullest communications of God's love, and feeling it poured out

upon the heart, and living in the returns of perfect love; and in this

intercourse of love will be our highest joys, and this is the top of

our heavenly felicity. Oh that God would make us foreknow by a lively

faith, what it is to behold him in his glory, and to dwell in perfect

love and joy, and then death would no more be able to dismay us, nor

should we be unwilling of such a blessed change! But having spoken of

this so largely in my "Saints' Rest," I must stop here, and refer you

thither.

_Direct._ VII. Look up to the blessed society of angels and

saints with Christ, and remember their blessedness and joy, and that

you also belong to the same society, and are going to be numbered with

them. It will greatly overcome the fears of death, to see by faith the

joys of them that have gone before us; and withal to think of their

relation to us; as it will encourage a man that is to go beyond sea,

if the far greatest part of his dearest friends be gone before him,

and he heareth of their safe arrival, and of their joy and happiness.

Those angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and

guardians, and entirely love us, better than any of our friends on

earth do! They rejoiced at our conversion, and will rejoice at our

glorification; and as they are better, and love us better, so

therefore our love should be greater to them, than to any upon earth,

and we should more desire to be with them. Those blessed souls that

are now with Christ, were once as we are here on earth; they were

compassed with temptations, and clogged with flesh, and burdened with

sin, and persecuted by the world, and they went out of the world by

sickness and death, as we must do; and yet now their tears are wiped

away, their pains, and groans, and fears are turned into inexpressible

blessedness and joy: and would we not be with them? is not their

company desirable? and their felicity more desirable? The glory of the

New Jerusalem is not described to us in vain, Rev. xxi. xxii. God will

be all in all there to us, as the only sun and glory of that world;

and yet we shall have pleasure, not only to see our glorified

Redeemer, but also to converse with the heavenly society, and to sit

down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and to love

and praise him in consort and harmony with all those holy, blessed

spirits. And shall we be afraid to follow, where the saints of all

generations have gone before us? And shall the company of our best,

and most, and happiest friends, be no inducement to us? Though it must

be our highest joy to think that we shall dwell with God, and next

that we shall see the glory of Christ, yet is it no small part of my

comfort to consider, that I shall follow all those holy persons, whom

I once conversed with, that are gone before me; and that I shall dwell

with such as Enoch and Elias, and Abraham and Moses, and Job and

David, and Peter and John, and Paul and Timothy, and Ignatius and

Polycarp, and Cyprian and Nazianzen, and Augustine and Chrysostom, and

Bernard and Gerson, and Savonarola and Mirandula, and Taulerus and

Kempisius, and Melancthon and Alasco, and Calvin and Bucholtzer, and

Bullinger and Musculus, and Zanchy and Bucer, and Paræus and Grynæus,

and Chemnitius and Gerhard, and Chamier and Capellus, and Blondel and

Rivet, and Rogers and Bradford, and Hooper and Latimer, and Hildersham

and Amesius, and Langley and Nicolls, and Whitaker and Cartwright,

and Hooker and Bayne, and Preston and Sibbes, and Perkins and Dod, and

Parker and Ball, and Usher and Hall, and Gataker and Bradshaw, and

Vines and Ash, and millions more of the family of God.[129] I name

these for my own delight and comfort; it being pleasant to me to

remember what companions I shall have in the heavenly joys and praises

of my Lord. How few are all the saints on earth, in comparison of

those that are now with Christ! And, alas, how weak, and ignorant, and

corrupt, how selfish, and contentious, and froward, are God's poor

infants here in flesh, when above there is nothing but holiness and

perfection! If knowledge, or goodness, or any excellency do make the

creatures truly amiable, all this is there in the highest degree; but

here, alas, how little have we! If the love of God, or the love of us,

do make others lovely to us, it is there and not here that these and

all perfections flourish. Oh how much now do I find the company of the

wise and learned, the godly and sincere, to differ from the company of

the ignorant, brutish, the proud and malicious, the false-hearted and

ungodly rabble! How sweet is the converse of a holy, wise, experienced

christian! Oh then what a place is the New Jerusalem; and how pleasant

will it be with saints and angels to see and love and praise the Lord.

_Direct._ VIII. That sickness and death may be comfortable to

you, as your passage to eternity, take notice of the seal and earnest

of God, even the Spirit of grace which he hath put into your hearts.

That which imboldened Paul and such others to groan after immortality,

and to "be most willing to be absent from the body and present with

the Lord," was because God himself "had wrought or made them for it,

and given them the earnest or pledge of his Spirit," 2 Cor. v. 4, 5, 8.

For this is God's mark upon his chosen and justified ones, by which

they are "sealed up to the day of their redemption," Eph. iv. 33;

i. 13, "In whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy

Spirit of promise." 2 Cor. i. 21, 22, "God hath anointed us, and

sealed us, and given us the pledge or earnest of his Spirit into our

hearts." "This is the pledge or earnest of our inheritance," Eph. i. 14.

And what a comfort should it be to us, when we look towards heaven, to

find such a pledge of God within us! If you say, I fear I have not

this earnest of the Spirit; whence then did your desires of holiness

arise? what weaned you from the world, and made you place your hopes

and happiness above? whence came your enmity to sin, and opposition to

it, and your earnest desires after the glory of God, the prosperity of

the gospel, and the good of souls? The very love of holiness and holy

persons, and your desires to know God and perfectly love him, do show

that heavenly nature or spirit within you, which is your surest

evidence for eternal life: for that spirit was sent from heaven, to

draw up your hearts, and fit you for it; and God doth not give you

such natures, and desires, and preparations in vain. This also is

called "The witness of the Spirit with (or to) our spirit, that we are

the children of God; and if children then heirs; heirs of God, and

joint heirs with Christ," Rom. viii. 15-17. It witnesseth our

adoption, by evidencing it; as a seal or pledge doth witness our title

to that which is so confirmed to us. The nature of every thing is

suited to its use and end; God would not have given us a heavenly

nature or desire, if he had not intended us for heaven.

[Sidenote: So Hezekiah.]

_Direct._ IX. Look also to the testimony of a holy life, since grace

hath employed you in seeking after the heavenly inheritance. It is

unlawful and perilous to look after any works or righteousness of your

own, so as to set it in whole or in part instead of Christ, or to

ascribe to it any honour that is proper to him; as to imagine that you

are innocent, or have fulfilled the law, or have made God a

compensation by your merits or sufferings, for the sin you have

committed; but yet you must judge yourselves on your sick beds as near

as you can as God will judge you. And "he will judge every man

according to his work;" and will recompense and reward men according

to their works. Matt. xxv. 21, 34, &c. "Well done, good and faithful

servant! thou hast been faithful over a little, I will make thee ruler

over much. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared

for you--for I was hungry and ye fed me," &c.--Heb. v. 9, "He is the

author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." Matt. vii.

24, 25, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will

liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock--." Rev. xxii.

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right

to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gate into the city, for

without are dogs," &c. "Thus must you rejoice in the cross of our Lord

Jesus Christ," not only as he was crucified on it for you, but also

as you are "crucified by it to the world, and the world to you," Gal.

vi. 14. He that as a benefactor will give you that glory which you

could never deserve of him, on terms of commutative justice, (for so

no creature can deserve any thing of God,) will yet, as a righteous

governor and judge, deliver it you only on the terms of his paternal,

governing, distributive justice; and all shall receive according to

what they have done in the body. And therefore you may take comfort in

that evangelical righteousness, which consisteth in your fulfilling

the conditions of the new covenant, though you have no legal

righteousness, (which consisteth in innocency, or freedom from the

curse of the law,) but only in the merits and sacrifice of Christ. If

you are accused as being impenitent, unbelievers, or hypocrites,

Christ's righteousness will not justify you from that accusation; but

only your repentance, faith, and sincerity (wrought in you by the

Spirit of Christ). But if you can but show the evidence of this

evangelical righteousness, Christ then will justify you against all

the other accusations of guilt that can be charged on you. (Of which

more anon.) Seeing therefore the Spirit hath given you these

evidences, to difference you from the wretched world, and prove your

title to eternal life, if you overlook these, you resist your

Comforter, and can see no other ground of comfort, than every

graceless hypocrite may see. Imitate holy Paul: 2 Cor. i. 12, "For our

rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity

and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,

we have had our conversation in the world--." 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, "I have

fought a good fight; I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;

henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the

Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day: and not to me

only, but to all them also that love his appearing." To look back and

see that in sincerity you have gone the way to heaven, is a just and

necessary ground of assurance, that you shall attain it. If you say,

But I have been a grievous sinner! I answer, so was Paul that yet

rejoiced after in this evidence! Are not those sins repented of and

pardoned? If you say, But I cannot look back upon a holy life with

comfort, it hath been so blotted and uneven! I answer, hath it not

been sincere, though it was imperfect? Did you not "first seek the

kingdom of God and his righteousness?" Matt. vi. 33. If you say, My

whole life hath been ungodly, till now at last that God hath humbled

me; I answer, it is not the length of time, but the sincerity of your

hearts and service, that is your evidence. If you came in at the last

hour, if now you are faithfully devoted to God, you may look with

comfort on this change at last, though you must look with repentance

on your sinful lives.

_Direct._ X. When you see any of this evidence of your interest

in Christ, appeal to him to acquit you from all the sin that can be

charged on you; for all that believe in him are justified from all

things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.

"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk

not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 1. Whatever sin

a penitent believer hath committed, he is not chargeable with it;

Christ hath undertaken to answer for it, and justify him from it; and

therefore look not on it with terror, but with penitent shame, and

believing thankfulness, as that which shall tend to the honour of the

Redeemer, and not to the condemnation of the sinner. He hath borne our

transgressions and we are healed by his stripes.[130]

_Direct._ XI. Look back upon all the mercies of your lives, and

think whence they came and what they signify. Love tokens are to draw

your hearts to him that sent them; these are dropped from heaven, to

entice you thither! If God have been so good to you on earth, what

will he be in glory! If he so blessed you in this wilderness, what

will he do in the land of promise! It greatly imboldeneth my soul to

go to that God, that hath so tenderly loved me, and so graciously

preserved me, and so much abounded in all sorts of mercies to me

through all my life. Surely he is good that so delighteth to do good!

And his presence must be sweet, when his distant mercies have been so

sweet! What love shall I enjoy when perfection hath fitted me for his

love, who have tasted of so much in this state of sin and imperfection!

The sense of mercy will banish the fears and misgivings of the heart.

_Direct._ XII. Remember (if you have attained to a declining age)

what a competent time you have had already in the world. If you are

grieved that you are mortal, you might on that account have grieved

all your days; but if it be only that you die so soon, if you have

lived well, you have lived long. When I think how many years of mercy

I have had, since I was near to death, and since many younger than I

are gone, and when I think what abundance of mercy I have had in all

that time, ingenuity forbiddeth me to grudge at the season of my

death, and maketh me almost ashamed to ask for longer life. How long

would you stay, before, you would be willing to come to God? If he

desired our company no more than we do his, and desired our happiness

in heaven no more than we desire it ourselves, we should linger here

as Lot in Sodom! Must we be snatched away against our wills, and

carried by force to our Father's presence?

_Direct._ XIII. Remember that all mankind are mortal, and you are

to go no other way than all that ever came into the world have gone

before you (except Enoch and Elias). Yea, the poor brute creatures

must die at your pleasure, to satisfy your hunger or delight. Beasts,

and birds, and fishes, even many to make one meal, must die for you.

And why then should you shrink at the entrance of such a trodden path,

which leadeth you not to hell, as it doth the wicked, nor merely to

corruption, as it doth the brutes, but to live in joy with Christ and

his church triumphant?

_Direct._ XIV. Remember both how vile your body is, and how great

an enemy it hath proved to your soul; and then you will the more

patiently bear its dissolution. It is not your dwelling-house, but

your tent or prison, that God is pulling down. And yet even this vile

body, when it is corrupted, shall at last be changed "into the

likeness of Christ's glorious body, by the working of his irresistible

power," Phil. iii. 20, 21. And it is a flesh that hath so rebelled

against the spirit, and made your way to heaven so difficult, and put

the soul to so many conflicts, that we should the easilier submit it

to the will of justice, and let it perish for a time, when we are

assured that mercy will at last recover it.

_Direct._ XV. Remember what a world it is that you are to leave,

and compare it with that which you are going to; and compare the life

which is near an end, with that which you are next to enter upon. Was

it not Enoch's reward when he had walked with God, to be taken to him

from a polluted world? 1. While you are here, you are yourselves

defiled; sin is in your natures, and your graces are all imperfect;

sin is in your lives, and your duties are all imperfect; you cannot be

free from it one day or hour. And is it not a mercy to be delivered

from it? Is it not desirable to you to sin no more? and to be perfect

in holiness? to know God and love him as much and more than you can

now desire? You are here every day lamenting your darkness, and

unbelief, and estrangedness from God and want of love to him. How oft

have you prayed for a cure of all this! And now would you not have it,

when God would give it you? Why hath God put that spark of heavenly

life into you, but to fight against sin, and make you weary of it? And

yet had you rather continue sinning, than have the victory and be with

Christ? 2. It is a life of grief as well as sin; and a life of cares,

and doubts, and fears! When you are at the worst, you are fearing

worse! If it were nothing but the fears of death itself, it should

make you the willinger to submit to it, that you might be past those

fears. 3. You are daily afflicted with the infirmities of that flesh,

which you are so loth should be dissolved. To satisfy its hunger and

thirst, to cover its nakedness, to provide it a habitation, and supply

all its wants, what care and labour doth it cost you! Its infirmities,

sicknesses, and pains, do make you oft weary of yourselves, so that

you "groan, being burdened," as Paul speaketh, 2 Cor. v. 3, 4, 6. And

yet is it not desirable to be with Christ? 4. You are compassed with

temptations, and are in continual danger through your weakness: and

yet would you not be past the danger? Would you have more of those

horrid and odious temptations? 5. You are purposely turned here into a

wilderness, among wild beasts; you are as lambs among wolves, and

through many tribulations you must enter into heaven. You must deny

yourselves, and take up your cross, and forsake all that you have; and

all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution; in

the world you must have trouble: the seed of the serpent must bruise

your heel, before God bruise Satan under your feet! And is such a life

as this more desirable than to be with Christ? Are we afraid to land

after such storms and tempests? Is a wicked world, a malicious world,

a cruel world, an implacable world, more pleasing to us than the joy

of angels, and the sight of Christ, and God himself in the majesty of

his glory? Hath God on purpose made the world so bitter to us, and

permitted it to use us unjustly and cruelly, and all to make us love

it less, and to drive home our hearts unto himself? and yet are we so

unwilling to be gone?

_Direct._ XVI. Settle your estates betimes, that worldly matters

may not distract or discompose you. And if God have endowed you with

riches, dispose of a due proportion to such pious or charitable uses,

in which they may be most serviceable to him that gave them you.

Though we should give what we can in the time of life and health, yet

many that have but so much as will serve to their necessary

maintenance, may well part with that to good uses at their death,

which they could not spare in the time of their health: especially

they that have no children, or such wicked children, as are like to do

hurt with all that is given them above their daily bread.

_Direct._ XVII. If it may be, get some able, faithful guide and

comforter to be with you in your sickness, to counsel you, and resolve

your doubts, and pray with you, and discourse of heavenly things, when

you are disabled by weakness for such exercises yourselves. Let not

carnal persons disturb you with their vain babblings. Though the

difference between good company and bad, be very great in the time of

health, yet now in sickness it will be more discernible. And though a

faithful friend and spiritual pastor be always a great mercy, yet now

especially in your last necessity. Therefore make use of them as far

as your pain and weakness will permit.

_Direct._ XVIII. Be fortified against all the temptations of

Satan by which he useth to assault men in their extremity: stand it

out in the last conflict, and the crown is yours. I shall instance in

particulars.

_Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan, in the time of

Sickness._

_Tempt._ I. The most ordinary temptation against the comfort of

believers, (for I have already spoken of those that are against their

safety,) is to doubt of their own sincerity, and consequently of their

part in Christ. Saith the tempter, All that thou hast done, hath been

but in hypocrisy; thou wast never a true believer, nor ever didst

truly repent of sin, nor truly love God; and therefore thou are

unjustified, and shalt speedily be condemned.

Against this temptation a believer hath two remedies. The first is, to

confute the tempter by those evidences which will prove that he hath

been sincere (such as I have often mentioned before); and by repelling

these reasonings, by which the tempter would prove him to have been a

hypocrite. As when it is objected, Thou hast repented and been humbled

but slightly and by the halves; _Answ._ Yet was it sincerely; and

weak grace is not no grace. _Object._ Thou hast been a lover of

the world, and a neglecter of thy soul, and cold in all that thou

didst for thy salvation. _Answ._ Yet did I set more by heaven

than earth; and I first sought the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

as esteeming it above all the riches of the world. _Object._ Thou

hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of religion.

_Answ._ I had no sin but what in the habitual, ordinary temper of

my soul, I hated more than I loved it, and had rather have been

delivered from it, than have kept it, and none but what I unfeignedly

repented of. _Object._ Thou didst not truly believe the promises

of God, and the life to come; or else thou wouldst never have doubted

as thou hast done, nor sought such a kingdom with such weak desires.

_Answ._ Though my faith was weak, it overcame the world: I so far

believed the promise of another life, as that I preferred it before

this life, and was resolved rather to forsake all the world, than to

part with my hopes of that promised blessedness: and that faith is

sincere (how weak soever) that can do this. _Object._ But thou

hast done thy works to be seen of men, and been troubled when men

have not approved thee, nor honoured thee; and what was this but mere

hypocrisy? _Answ._ Though I had some hypocrisy, yet was I not a

hypocrite, because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree:

though I too much regarded the esteem of men, yet I did more regard

the esteem of God. Thus if a christian discern his evidences, the

false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted.

2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course, which

is, at present, to believe, and repent, and so confute Satan that

saith you are not penitent believers.[131] But then you must truly

understand what believing and repenting are; or else you may think

that you do not believe and repent when you do. Believing in Christ,

is a believing that he is the Saviour of the world, and a consent of

will that he be your Saviour, to justify you by his blood, and

sanctify you by his Spirit. To repent, is to be so sorry that you have

sinned, that if it were to do again, you would not do it (as to gross

sin and a state of sin); and the smallest infirmities, your will is so

far set against, that you desire to be delivered from them. Believing

to justification, is not the believing that you are already justified,

and your sins forgiven you; and repenting consisteth not in such

degrees of sorrow as some expect; but in the change of the mind and

will, from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness. When you know

this, then answer the tempter thus: If I should suffer thee to deprive

me of the comfort of all my former uprightness, yet shalt thou not so

deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity, and of my hopes; I

am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone. Past

actions are now known but by remembering them; and they are seldom

judged of, as indeed they then were, but according to the temper and

apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them; and I am now so

changed and weakened myself, that I cannot tell whether I truly

remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that is past

or not. Nor doth it most concern me now, to know what I have been, but

to know what I am. Christ will not judge according to what I was, but

according to what he findeth me; never did he refuse a penitent,

believing soul, because he repented and believed late; I do now

unfeignedly repent of all my sins, and am heartily willing to be both

pardoned, and cleansed, and sanctified by Christ, and here I give up

myself to him as my Saviour, and to this covenant I will stand; and

this is true repenting and believing. Thus a poor christian in the

time of sickness, may ofttimes much easier clear up to himself, that

he repenteth now, than that he repented formerly; and it is his surest

way.

_Tempt._ II. And yet sometimes he cometh with the quite contrary

temptation, and must be resisted by the contrary way. When he findeth

a christian so perplexed, and distempered with sickness, that his

understanding is disabled from any composed thoughts, then he asketh

him, Now where is thy faith and repentance? If thou hast any, or ever

hadst any, let it now appear. In this case a christian is to take up

with the remembrance of his former sincerity, and tell the tempter, I

am sure that once I gave up myself unfeignedly to my Lord; and those

that come to him, he will in no wise cast out; and if now I be

disabled from a composed exercise of grace, he will not impute my

sickness to me as my sin.

_Tempt._ III. Another ordinary temptation is, that it is now too late;

God will not now accept repentance; the day of grace is past and

gone; or at least, a death-bed repentance is not sincere. To this the

tempted soul must reply, 1. That if faith and repentance were not

accepted at any time in this life, then God's promise were not true,

which saith, that "whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but

have everlasting life," John iii. 16. So Luke xxiv. 47; Acts v. 31;

xi. 18; xx. 21; 2 Tim. ii. 25; 2 Pet. iii. 9. There is a time in this

life, in which some resisters of the truth are given up to their own

lusts, to the love of sin, and hatred of holiness, so that they will

not repent; but there was never a time in this life, in which God

refused to justify a true repenting sinner upon his belief in Christ.

2. That if a death-bed repentance do truly turn the heart from the

world to God, and from sin to holiness, so that the penitent person,

if he should recover, would lead a new and holy life, then that

repentance hath as sure a promise of pardon and salvation, as if it

had been sooner; and yet delay must be confessed to be dangerous to

all, and casteth men under very great difficulties, and their loss is

exceeding great, though at last they repent and are forgiven.

_Tempt._ IV. Sometimes the tempter saith, Thou art not elected to

salvation; and God saveth none but his elect; and so puzzleth the

ignorant by setting them on doubting of their election. To this we

must answer, That every soul that is chosen to faith, and repentance,

and perseverance, is certainly chosen to salvation; and I know that

God hath chosen me to faith and repentance, because he hath given them

me; and I have reason enough to trust on him for that upholding grace,

which will cause me to persevere.

_Tempt._ V. But, saith the tempter, Christ did not die for thee;

and no one can be saved that Christ did not die for. To this it must

be answered, That Christ died for all men, so far as to be a

sufficient sacrifice for their sins, and to make a promise of pardon

and salvation to all that will accept him and his gift; and he

entreateth all that hear the gospel to accept it; and accordingly he

will save all that consent unto his covenant. I am a sinful child of

Adam, and therefore am one that Christ became a sacrifice for; and I

consent unto his covenant, and therefore I am one that Christ by that

covenant doth justify, and will save.

_Tempt._ VI. Sometimes the tempter troubleth the soul with

temptations to blasphemy and infidelity; and asketh him, How knowest

thou, that there is a God, or a life to come, or that souls are

immortal, or that the Scripture is true? Of this I spake before. To

this we must then answer, I abhor thy suggestions; these things I have

seen proved long ago, and I will not so far gratify thee in my

weakness and extremity, as to question and dispute these sealed

fundamental truths, no more than I will dispute whether there be a sun

or earth.

_Tempt._ VII. Sometimes the tempter will say, At best, thou hast

no assurance of salvation, and how canst thou choose but tremble to

think of dying, when thou knowest not whether thou shalt go to heaven

or hell? To this the soul, that hath not assurance, must answer, It is

my own mistake or weakness that keepeth me unassured; and I will

neither take part with my infirmities, nor increase them by their

effects: my hopes are such as should draw up my desires, though I want

full assurance: the child delighteth in the company of the mother, and

every man of his friend; though he is not certain, that the mother or

friend will not hurt him, or take away his life. Why should I trouble

myself with improbabilities? or fear that which I have no sound reason

to fear? Rather I should be glad to die, that death may perfect my

assurance, and put an end to all my doubts and fears.

_Tempt._ VIII. But, saith the tempter, How strange art thou to

God, and the life to come! Thou never sawest it: is it not dreadful to

enter upon an unchangeable life, in a world which thou art so great a

stranger to? _Answ._ But Christ is not a stranger to it; he seeth

it for me, and I will implicitly trust him. Where should my eyes be,

but in my head? I shall never see it till I come thither. When I have

been there a while, this darkness, and fear, and strangeness will be

gone. I was as strange to this world before I came into it, and more;

and all those holy souls in heaven, were strange to it once, as well

as I. I should therefore long to be with Christ, that I may be strange

to him no more.

_Tempt._ IX. But, saith the tempter, thy fear and unwillingness

is a sign that thou hast no love to God, nor heavenly mind; and how

then canst thou hope to come to heaven? _Answ._ My fears come

from strangeness, and weakness of faith, and a natural enmity to

death. If I could come to Christ in joy and glory, and be perfected in

holiness, without dying, I should not be unwilling of it. God looketh

not that my nature should be willing to die; but that grace make me

willing to be with Christ; and patiently submit to so dark a passage.

Even Christ himself prayed, "that if it were possible, that cup might

pass from him."

_Tempt._ X. But what will thy wife and children do, when thou art

gone? _Answ._ God hath more interest in them than I have; he will

look to his own without any care: doth all the world depend upon him,

and is he not to be trusted with my wife and children?

_Tempt._ XI. But thou wilt never more be serviceable to the

church: all thy work will for ever be at an end; and there are many

things which thou mightst have done before thou diest, which will all

be lost. _Answ._ 1. I shall have higher, and holier, and sweeter

work: whether it will any thing conduce to the good of those on earth,

I know not; but I know it will more conduce to the highest, most

desirable ends. 2. As my work will be done, so my trouble, and

weariness, and fears, and sufferings from a malignant, unthankful

world will all be done. 3. And when my work is done, my reward and

everlasting rest begin. 4. And God needeth not such a worm as I! the

work is his, and it is reason that he should choose his workmen.

_Tempt._ XII. But when thou hast said all, death will be death,

the king of terrors. _Answ._ And when thou hast said all, God

will be God, and heaven will be heaven, and Christ will be Christ,

that hath conquered death, and hath the keys or power of death and

hell: and the promise will be sure; and those that trust on him shall

never be ashamed or confounded. And therefore "the spirit is willing,

though the flesh be weak."[132]

_Tit. 4. Directions for doing good to others in our Sickness._

The whole life of a christian should be a serving of his God; and

though his body in sickness seem to be unserviceable, yet it is not

the least or lowest of his services, which he is then at last to do:

partly by his holy example, and partly by his speeches; which are both

more observed in dying men, than in any others. For now all suppose,

that if there were before any mask of hypocrisy, it is laid aside, and

the soul that is going to the bar of God will deal sincerely. And now

it is supposed, that we are delivered much from all the befooling

delusions of prosperity, and therefore fitter to be counsellors to

others. And every christian should be very desirous to do good to the

last, and be found so doing.

_Direct._ I. Show not a distempered, impatient mind. Though pain

will be pain, and flesh will be flesh, yet show men that you have also

reason and spirit: and that it calmeth your soul, though it ease not

your body. Speak good of God, as beseemeth one that indeed believeth

that it is good for us when we are afflicted by him, and that all

shall work together for good to us.[133] Speak not a repining word

against him. Job i. 22, "In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God

foolishly." And speak not too peevishly and impatiently to those about

you; though weakness incline you to it, yet let the power of grace

appear.

_Direct._ II. Let those that are about you see, that you take the

life to come for a reality, and that you verily expect to live with

Christ in joys for ever. Let them see this in your holy joy and

confidence, and your thankfulness to God for the grace and hopes which

he hath given through Christ. I know that a pained, languishing body,

is undisposed to express the comforts of the soul: but yet as long as

the soul is the commander, they may be expressed in some good measure,

though not with such vivacity and alacrity as in health. Behave

yourselves before all, as those that are going to dwell with Christ.

If you show them that you take heaven for a real felicity, it will do

much to draw them to do so too; show them the difference between the

death of the righteous and of the wicked; and that may so draw them to

desire to die the death of the righteous, that it may draw them also

to resolve to live their lives. How many souls might it win to God, if

they saw in his dying servants such confidence and joy as beseemeth

men that are entering into a world of joy, and peace, and blessedness!

If we went out of the body, as from a prison into liberty, and from a

tedious journey to our desired home, it would invite sinners to seek

after the same felicity, and be a powerful sermon to convert the

inconsiderate.

_Direct._ III. Now tell poor sinners of the vanity of the world,

and of all its glory, wealth, and pleasure; and of the mischief and

deceitfulness of sin. Say to them, O sirs, you may see in me what the

world is worth: if you had all the wealth and pleasure that you

desire, thus it would turn you off, and forsake you in the end: it

will ease no pain: it will bring no peace to a troubled soul: it will

not lengthen your lives an hour: it will not save you from the wrath

of God: it maketh your death the sadder, because you must be taken

from it: your account will be the more dreadful. O love not such a

vain, deceitful world! sell not your souls for so poor a price!

Forsake it before you are forsaken by it! O make not light of any sin!

Though the wanton flesh would have you take it for a harmless thing,

you cannot imagine, when the pleasure is gone, how sharp a sting is

left behind. Sin will then be no jesting matter, when your souls are

going hence into the dreadful presence of the most holy God.

_Direct._ IV. Now tell those about you of the excellency and

necessity of the love of God, of heaven, of Christ, and of a holy

life. Though these may be made light of at a distance, yet a soul that

is drawing near them, will be more awakened to understand their worth.

Say to them, O friends, I find now more than ever I did before, that

it is only God, that is the end and happiness of souls: nothing but

his favour through Jesus Christ, can comfort and content a dying man;

and none but Christ can reconcile us to God, and answer for our sins,

and make us acceptable; and no way but that of faith and holiness will

end in happiness. Opinions and customary forms in religion will not

serve the turn; to be of this or that party, or church, or communion,

will not save you. It is only the soul that is justified by Christ,

and sanctified by his Spirit, and brought up to the love of God and

holiness, that shall be saved. Whatever opinion or church you are of,

without holiness you shall never see God to your comfort, as without

faith it is impossible to please him, Heb. xii. 14; xi. 6; Rom. viii.

6, 7, 9. O now what a miserable case were I in, if I had all the

wealth and honour in the world, and had not the favour of God, and a

Christ to purchase it, and his Spirit to witness it, and prepare me

for a better life. Now I see the difference between spending time in

holiness, and in sin; between a godly, and a worldly, fleshly,

careless life. Now I would not for a thousand worlds, that I had spent

my life in sensuality and ungodliness, and continued a stranger to the

life of faith. Now, if I had a world, I would give it to be more holy!

O sirs, believe it, when you come to die, sin will be then sin indeed,

and Christ, and grace, will be better than riches, and to die in an

unregenerate, unsanctified state, will be a greater misery than any

heart can now conceive.

_Direct._ V. Endeavour also to make men know the difference

between the godly and the wicked. Tell them, I now see who maketh the

wisest choice. O happy men, that choose the joys which have no end,

and "lay up their treasure in heaven, where rust and moths do not

corrupt, and thieves do not break through and steal, and labour for

the food that never perisheth," Matt. vi. 19, 20; John vi. 27. O

foolish sinners, that for an inch of fleshly, filthy pleasure, do lose

everlasting rest and joy! "What shall it profit them that win all the

world and lose their souls?"

_Direct._ VI. Labour also to convince men of the preciousness of

time, and the folly of putting off repentance, and a holy life, till

the last. Say to them, O friends, it is hard for you in the time of

health and prosperity, to judge of time according to its worth: but

when time is gone, or near an end, how precious doth it then appear!

Now if I had all the time again, which ever I spent in unnecessary

sleep, or sports, or curiosities, or idleness, or any needless thing,

how highly should I value it, and spend it in another manner than I

have done! Of all my life that is past and gone, I have no comfort now

in the remembrance of one hour, but what was spent in obedience to

God. O take time to make sure of your salvation, before it is gone,

and you are left under the tormenting feeling of your loss.

_Direct._ VII. Labour also to make them understand the sinfulness

of sloth, and of loitering in the matters of God and their salvation;

and stir them up to do it with all their might. Say to them, I have

often heard ungodly people deride or blame the diligence, and zeal,

and strictness of the godly; but if they saw and felt what I see and

feel they could not do it. Can a man that is going into another world,

imagine that any thing is so worthy of his greatest zeal and labour,

as his God and his salvation? or blame men for being loth to burn in

hell? or for taking more pains for their souls than for their bodies?

O friends, let fools talk what they will, in their sleep and phrensy,

as you love your souls, do not think any care, or cost, or pains too

great for your salvation! If they think not their labour too good for

this world, do not you think yours too good for a better world. Let

them now say what they will, when they come to die, there is none of

them all, that is not quite forsaken of sense and reason, but will

wish that they had loved God, and sought and served him, not formally,

in hypocritical compliment, but with all their heart, and soul, and

might.

_Direct._ VIII. Labour also to fortify the minds of your friends,

against all fears of suffering for Christ, and all impatience in any

of their afflictions. Say to them, The sufferings as well as the

pleasures of this life are so short, that they are not worthy once to

be compared with the durable things of the life to come. If I have

passed through a life of want and toil, if my body hath endured

painful sickness, if I have suffered never so much from men, and been

used cruelly for the sake of Christ, what the worse am I now, when all

is past? Would an easy, honourable, plentiful life, have made my death

either the safer or the sweeter? O no! it is the things eternal that

are indeed significant and regardable. Neither pleasure nor pain that

is short, is of any great regard. Make sure of the everlasting

pleasures, and you have done your work. O live by faith, and not by

sense; look not at the temporal things which are seen. It is not your

concernment, whether you are rich or poor, in honour or dishonour, in

health or sickness, but whether you be justified, and sanctified, and

shall live with God in heaven for ever. Such serious counsels of dying

men, may make their sickness more fruitful than their health.

[126] Hic labor extremus, longarum hæc meta viarum est. Virgil.

[127] Luke x. 42; Phil. i. 19, 23.

[128] Mr. Vines, Mr. Capel, Mr. Hollingworth, Mr. Ashurst, Mr.

Ambrose, Mrs. Burnel, &c.

[129] Reader, bear with this mixture: for God will own his image when

peevish contenders do deny it, or blaspheme it; and will receive those

whom faction and proud domination would cast out, and vilify with

scorn and slanders.

[130] Isa. liii. 10-12.

[131] John i. 10-12: iii. 16, 19, 20; Rom. vii. 20-25, 9; Psal. xi.

1-5.

[132] Matt. xxviii. 19, 20, 2; John xvii.; Rev. i. 18; Rom. x. 9-12.

[133] Heb. xii. 7-9; Rom. viii. 28.