CHAPTER XXXI.

DIRECTIONS TO THE FRIENDS OF THE SICK, THAT ARE ABOUT THEM.

_Direct._ I. When you see the sickness or death of friends, take

it as God's warning to you, to prepare for the same yourselves.

Remember that thus it must be with you: thus are you like to lie in

pain; and thus will all the world forsake you, and nothing of all your

honour or wealth will afford you any comfort. This will be the end of

all your pleasures, of your greatness, and your houses, and lands, and

attendance; and of your delicious meats and drinks; and of all your

mirth, and play, and recreations. Thus must your carcasses be forsaken

of your souls, and laid in a grave, and there lie rotting in the dark;

and your souls appear before your Judge, to be sentenced to their

endless state. This certainly will be your case: and oh how quickly

will it come! Then, what will Christ and grace be worth! Then, nothing

but the favour of God can comfort you. Then, whether will it be better

to you to look back on a holy, well-spent life, or upon a life of

fleshly ease and pleasure? Then, had you rather be a saint, or a

sensualist? Lay this to heart, and let the house of mourning make you

better, and live as one that looks to die.

_Direct._ II. Use the best means for the recovery of the sick,

which the ablest physicians shall advise you to, as far as you are

able. Take heed of being guilty of the pride and folly of many

self-conceited, ignorant persons, who are ready to thrust every

medicine of their own upon their friends in sickness, when they

neither know the nature of the sickness or the cure. Many thousands

are brought to their death untimely, by the folly of their nearest

friends, who will needs be medicining them, and ruling them, and

despising the physician; as if they were themselves much wiser than

he, when they are merely ignorant of what they do. As ignorant

sectaries despise divines, and set up themselves as better preachers,

so many silly women despise physicians; and when they have got a few

medicines, which they know not the nature of, nor how to use, they

take themselves for the better physicians, and the lives of their poor

friends must pay for their pride and folly. No means must be trusted

to instead of God, but the best must be used in subservience unto God.

And one would think that a small measure of wit and humility might

serve to make silly women understand, that they that never bestowed

one year in the study of physic, are not so likely to understand it,

as those that have studied and practised it a great part of their

lives. It is sad to see people kill their dearest friends in kindness;

even by that ignorance and proud self conceitedness, which also maketh

them the destroyers of their own souls.

_Quest._ But seeing God hath appointed all men's time, what good

can physic do? If God hath appointed them to live, they shall live;

and if he have appointed them to die, it is not physic that can save

them.

_Answ._ This is the foolish reasoning of wicked people about

their salvation. If God have appointed me to salvation, I shall be

saved; if he have not, all my diligence will do no good. But such

people know not what they talk of. God hath made your duty more open

and known to you, than his own decrees. And you separate those things

which he hath joined together. As God hath appointed no man to

salvation simply without respect to the means of salvation; so God

hath appointed no man to live but by the means of life. His decree is

not, Such a man shall be saved, or, Such a man shall live so long,

only; but this is his decree, Such a man shall be saved, in the way of

faith and holiness, and in the diligent use of means, and, Such a man

shall live so long, by the use of those means which I have fitted for

the preservation of his life. So that as he that liveth a holy life,

may be sure he is chosen to salvation, (if he persevere,) and he that

is ungodly, may be sure that he is in the way to hell; so he that

neglecteth the means of his health and life, doth show that it is

unlike that God hath appointed him to live; and he that useth the best

means is liker to recover (though the best will not cure incurable

diseases, nor make a man immortal). The reasoning is the same, as if

you should say, if God have appointed me to live so long, I shall live

though I neither eat nor drink; but if he have not, eating and

drinking will not prolong my life. But you must know, that God doth

not only appoint you to live, that is but half his decree, but he

decreeth, that you shall live by eating and drinking.

_Direct._ III. Mind your friends betimes to make their wills, and

prudently by good advice to settle their estates, that they may leave

no occasion of contending about it when they are dead. This should be

done in health, because of the uncertainty of life; but if it be

undone till sickness, it should then be done betimes. The neglect of

it oft causeth much sinful contending about worldly things, even among

those near relations, who should live in the greatest amity and peace.

_Direct._ IV. Keep away vain company from them, as far as you can

conveniently (except it be such as must needs be admitted, or such as

are like to receive any good by the holy counsel of the sick). It is a

great annoyance to one that is near death, to hear people talk to

little purpose, about the world, or some impertinencies; when they are

going speedily to their endless state, and have need of no more

impediments in their way; but of the best assistance that their

friends can afford them. Procure some able, faithful minister to be

with them, to counsel them about the state of their souls; and get

some holy, able christians to be much about them, who are fit to pray

with them, and instruct them.

_Direct._ V. Bear with their impatience, and grudge not at any

trouble that they put you to. Remember that weakness is froward, and

as you bear with the crying of children, so must you with the

peevishness of the sick; and remember, that shortly it is like to be

your own case, and you must be a trouble to others, and they must bear

with you. Be not weary of your friends in sickness; but loving, and

tender, and compassionate, and patient.

_Direct._ VI. Deal faithfully and prudently with them about the

state of their souls. Your faithfulness must be showed in these two

points: 1. That you do not flatter them with vain hopes of life, when

they are more likely to die. 2. That you do not flatter them with

false persuasions that their state is safe, when they are yet

unsanctified, nor put them in hopes of being saved without

regeneration.

Your prudence must be manifested, 1. In suiting your counsel, and

speeches, and prayers to their state; and not using the same words to

the ungodly, as you would to the godly. 2. In so contracting your

counsel for the conversion of the ungodly, as not to overwhelm them

with more than they can bear; and yet not to leave out any point of

absolute necessity to salvation. Alas, how much skill doth such a work

require! And how few christians (that I say not, pastors) are fit for

it!

_Quest._ I. But is it a duty when the sick are like to die, to

make it known to them?

_Answ._ Sometimes it is, and sometimes not. 1. Some sicknesses

are such, as will be so increased with fear, that the patient that

before was in hope of a recovery, will be put almost past hope. And

some sicknesses are much different, and are not like to be so

increased by it. And some are past all hope already. 2. Some are so

prepared to die, that they have the less need to be acquainted with

their danger; and some are unconverted, and in so dangerous a case,

that the absolute necessity of their souls may require it. When the

soul is in so sad a case, and yet the body may be endangered by the

fear of the sentence of death, it is the safest course to tell them,

that though God may recover them, yet their disease is so dangerous,

as calleth for their speedy and serious preparation for death; which

will not be lost, if God restore them. So that they may have so much

hope, as to keep their fear from killing them, and so much

acquaintance with their danger, as may put them upon their duty. But

in case there be already little or no hope, or in case the disease

will be but little increased by the fear, (which is the case of the

most,) the danger should not at all be hid.

_Quest._ II. Am I always bound to tell a wicked man of his sin

and misery, when it may exasperate his disease, and offend his mind?

_Answ._ If it were a sickness that is void of danger, in case his mind

be quiet, and be like to kill him if his mind be disturbed, then it

were the most prudent course to call him so far to repentance and

faith, as you can do it without any dangerous disturbance of him;

because it is most charity to his soul to help him to a longer time of

repentance, rather than to lay all the hopes of his salvation upon the

present time. But this is not an ordinary case; therefore ordinarily

it is a duty to acquaint the sick person, that is yet in his sin, and

unregenerate state, with the truth of his danger, and the necessity

of renovation. Alas! it is a lamentable kind of friendship, to flatter

a poor soul into damnation, or to hide his danger till he is past

recovery. When he is in a state of unexpressible misery, and hath but

a few days' or weeks' time left, to do all that ever must be done for

his salvation; what horrid cruelty is it then, to let him go to hell

for fear of displeasing or disquieting him!

_Object._ But I am afraid I shall cast him into despair, if I

tell him plainly that he is in a state of damnation.

_Answ._ If you let him alone a little longer, he will be in

remediless despair. There is no despair remediless, but that in hell.

But now you may help to save him, both from present and endless

desperation. He must needs despair of ever being saved without a

Christ, or without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, or without

true faith and repentance, and love to God, and holiness. But need he

despair of attaining all these, while Christ is offered him so freely,

and a full remedy is at hand? He must know his sin and misery, or else

he is never like to escape it; but he must also be acquainted with the

true remedy; and that is your way to keep him from despair, and not by

flattering him into hell.

_Quest._ III. But what should one do in so short a time, and with

dead-hearted sinners? Alas! what hope is there? If it were nothing but

their ignorance, it cannot be cured in a moment. And is there then any

hope in so short a space, to bring them to knowledge, and repentance,

and a changed heart, to love God and holiness; and that when pain and

weakness do disable them?

_Answ._ The case indeed is very sad; but yet while there is life,

there is some hope: and while there is any hope, we should do our

best, when it is for the saving of a soul; and the difficulty should

but stir us up to use our utmost skill and diligence. But as it is the

misery of such to delay conversion till so unfit a time, so is it too

frequently the sin of believers, that they delay their serious

endeavours to convert men, till such a time as they almost despair of

the success.

_Quest._ IV. But what shall we do in a doubtful case, when we

know not whether the person be renewed and truly penitent, or not;

which is the case of most that we have to deal with?

_Answ._ You can tell whether the grounds of your hope, or of your

fear concerning them, be the greater; and accordingly your speech must

be mixed and tempered, and your counsels or comforts given with the

conditions and suppositions expressed.

_Quest._ V. But what order would you have us observe in speaking

to the ignorant and ungodly, when the time is so short?

_Answ._ 1. Labour to awaken them to a lively sense of the change which

is at hand, that they may understand the necessity of looking after

the state of their souls. 2. Then show them what are the terms of

salvation, and who they are that the gospel doth judge to salvation or

damnation. 3. Next advise them to try which of these is their

condition, and to deal faithfully, seeing self-flattery may undo them,

but can do them no good. 4. Then help them in the trial; q. d. If it

have been so or so with you, then you may know that this is your case.

5. Then tell them the reasons of your fears, if you fear they are

unconverted, or of your hopes, if you hope indeed that it is better

with them. 6. Then exhort them conditionally, (if they are yet in a

carnal, unsanctified state,) to lament it, and be humbled, and

penitent for their sinful and ungodly life. 7. And then tell them the

remedy, in Christ and the Holy Ghost, and the promise or covenant of

grace. 8. And lastly, tell them their present duty, that this remedy

may prove effectual to their salvation. And if you have so much

interest or authority as maketh it fit for you, excite them by

convenient questions so far to open their case, as may direct you, and

as by their answers may show whether they truly resolve for a holy

life, if God restore them, and whether their hearts indeed be changed

or not.

_Direct._ VII. If you are not able to instruct them as you

should, read some good book to them, which is most suitable to their

case: such as Mr. Perkins's "Right Art of Dying Well;"--"The Practice

of Piety in the Directions for the Sick;"--Mr. Edward Lawrence's

"Treatise of Sickness;" or what else is most suitable to them. And

because most are themselves unable for counselling the sick aright,

and you may not have a fit book at hand, I shall here subjoin a brief

form or two for such to read to the sick that can endure no long

discourse. And other books will help you to forms of prayer with them,

if you cannot pray without such help.

_Direct._ VIII. Judge not of the state of men's souls, by those

carriages in their sickness, which proceed from their diseases or

bodily distemper. Many ignorant people judge of a man by the manner of

his dying: if one die in calmness and clearness of understanding, and

a few good words, they think that this is to die like a saint.

Whereas in consumptions, and oft in dropsies, and other such

chronical diseases, this is ordinary with good and bad: and in a fever

that is violent, or a frenzy or distraction, the best man that is may

die without the use of reason: some diseases will make one blockish,

and heavy, and unapt to speak; and some consist with as much freedom

of speech as in time of health. The state of men's souls must not be

judged of by such accidental, unavoidable things as these.

_Direct._ IX. Be neither unnaturally senseless at the death of

friends, nor excessively dejected or afflicted. To make light of the

death of relations and friends, be they good or bad, is a sign of a

very vicious nature; that is so much selfish, as not much to regard

the lives of others: and he that regardeth not the lives of his

friends is little to be trusted in his lower concernments. I speak not

this of those persons whose temper alloweth them not to weep: for

there may be as deep a regard and sorrow in some that have no tears,

as in others that abound with them. But I speak of a naughty, selfish

nature, that is little affected with any one's concernments but its

own.

Yet your grief for the death of friends, must be very different both

in degree and kind. 1. For ungodly friends you must grieve for their

own sakes, because if they died such, they are lost for ever. 2. For

your godly friends you must mourn for the sake of yourselves and

others, because God hath removed such as were blessings to those about

them. 3. For choice magistrates, and ministers, and other instruments

of public good, your sorrow must be greater, because of the common

loss, and the judgment thereby inflicted on the world. 4. For old,

tried christians, that have overcome the world, and lived so long till

age and weakness make them almost unserviceable to the church, and who

groan to be unburdened and to be with Christ, your sorrow should be

least, and your joy and thanks for their happiness should be greatest.

But especially abhor that nature that secretly is glad of the death of

parents, (or little sorrowful,) because that their estates are fallen

to you, or you are enriched, or set at liberty by their death. God

seldom leaveth this sin unrevenged, by some heavy judgments even in

this life.

[Sidenote: Help against excessive grief for the death of friends.]

_Direct._ X. To overcome your inordinate grief for the death of

your relations, consider these things following. 1. That excess of

sorrow is your sin: and sinning is an ill use to be made of your

affliction. 2. That it tendeth to a great deal more: it unfitteth you

for many duties which you are bound to, as to rejoice in God, and to

be thankful for mercies, and cheerful in his love, and praise, and

service: and is it a small sin to unfit yourselves for the greatest

duties? If you are so troubled at God's disposal of his own, what doth

your will but rise up against the will of God; as if you grudged at

the exercise of his dominion and government, that is, that he is God!

Who is wisest, and best, and fittest to dispose of all men's lives? Is

it God or you? Would you not have God to be the Lord of all, and to

dispose of heaven and earth, and of the lives and crowns of the

greatest princes? If you would not, you would not have him to be God.

If you would, is it not unreasonable that you or your friends only

should be excepted from his disposal? 4. If your friends are in

heaven, how unsuitable is it, for you to be over-much mourning for

them, when they are rapt into the highest joys with Christ; and love

should teach you to rejoice with them that rejoice, and not to mourn

as those that have no hope. 5. You know not what mercy God showed to

your friends, in taking them away from the evil to come, you know not

what suffering the land or church is falling into; or at least might

have fallen upon themselves; nor what sins they might have been

tempted to.[134] But you are sure that heaven is better than earth,

and that it is far better for them to be with Christ. 6. You always

knew that your friends must die; to grieve that they were mortal, is

but to grieve that they were but men. 7. If their mortality or death

be grievous to you, you should rejoice that they are arrived at the

state of immortality, where they must live indeed and die no more. 8.

Remember how quickly you must be with them again. The expectation of

living long yourselves, is the cause of your excessive grief for the

death of friends. If you looked yourselves to die tomorrow, or within

a few weeks, you would less grieve that your friends are gone before

you. 9. Remember that the world is not for one generation only; others

must have our places when we are gone; God will be served by

successive generations, and not only by one. 10. If you are christians

indeed, it is the highest of all your desires and hopes to be in

heaven; and will you so grieve that your friends are gone thither,

where you most desire and hope to be?

_Object._ All this is reason, if my friend were gone to heaven:

but he died impenitently, and how should I be comforted for a soul

that I have cause to think is damned?

[Sidenote: Helps to moderate our sorrow for the damned.]

_Answ._ Their misery must be your grief; but not such a grief as shall

deprive you of your greater joys, or disable you for your greater

duties. 1. God is fitter than you to judge of the measures of his

mercy and his judgments, and you must neither pretend to be more

merciful than he, nor to reprehend his justice. 2. All the works of

God are good; and all that is good is amiable; though the misery of

the creature be bad to it, yet the works of justice declare the wisdom

and holiness of God; and the perfecter we are, the more they will be

amiable to us. For, 3. God himself, and Christ, who is the merciful

Saviour of the world, approve of the damnation of the finally ungodly.

4. And the saints and angels in heaven do know more of the misery of

the souls in hell, than we do; and yet it abateth not their joys. And

the perfecter any is, the more he is like-minded unto God. 5. How glad

and thankful should you be to think that God hath delivered yourselves

from those eternal flames! The misery of others should excite your

thankfulness. 6. And should not the joys of all the saints and angels

be your joy, as well as the sufferings of the wicked be your sorrows?

But above all, the thoughts of the blessedness and glory of God

himself, should overtop all the concernments of the creature with you.

If you will mourn more for the thieves and murderers that are hanged,

than you will rejoice in the justice, prosperity, and honour of the

king, and the welfare of all his faithful subjects, you behave not

yourselves as faithful subjects. 7. Shortly you hope to come to

heaven: mourn now for the damned, as you shall do then; or at least,

let not the difference be too great, when that, and not this, is your

perfect state.

_A Form of Exhortation to the Ungodly in their Sickness (or those

that we fear are such)._

Dear Friend: The God that must dispose of us and all things, doth

threaten by this sickness, to call away your soul, and put an end to

the time of your pilgrimage; and therefore your friends that love and

pity you, must not now be silent, if they can speak any thing for your

preparation and salvation, because it must be now or never: when a few

days are past, they must never have any such opportunity more: if now

we prevail not with you, you are likely to be quickly out of hearing,

and past our advice and help for ever. And because I know your

weakness bids me to be but short, and your memory is not to be

burdened with too much, and yet your necessity must not be neglected,

I shall reduce all that I have to say to you, to these four heads: 1.

Of the change which you seem near to, and the world which you are

going to. 2. Of the preparation that must be made by all that will be

saved, and who they be that the gospel doth justify or condemn. 3. I

would fain help you to understand which of these conditions you are

in, and what will become of your soul, if it thus goeth hence: and, 4.

If your case be bad, I would direct you how you may come out of it,

and what is yet to be done while there remaineth any time and hope.

And I pray you set your heart to what I say; for I will speak nothing

but the certain truth of God, revealed to the world by his Son and

Spirit expressed in the Scripture, and believed by all the church of

Christ.

1. God knoweth the change is great, which you are near. You are

leaving this world, where you have spent the days of your preparation

for eternity, and leaving this flesh to corrupt and turn to common

earth, and must here converse with man no more: you are going now to

see that world, which the gospel told you of, and you have often heard

of, but neither you nor we did ever see. Before your friends have laid

your body in the grave, your soul must enter into its endless state,

and at the resurrection your body be joined with it. Either heaven or

hell must be your lot for ever. If it be heaven, you will there find a

world of light, and love, and peace; a world of angels and glorified

souls, who are all made perfect in knowledge and holiness; living in

the perfect flames of love to their glorious Creator, Redeemer, and

Regenerator: and with them you will be thus perfected yourself: your

soul will see the glory of God, and be rapt up in his love, and filled

with his joys, and employed triumphantly in his praises, and this for

ever. If hell should be your portion, you will there be thrust away as

a hated thing from the face of God, and there you will find a world

of devils, and unholy, damned, miserable souls; among whom you must

dwell, in the flames of the wrath of God, and the horrors of your own

conscience, remembering with anguish the mercy which you once

rejected, and the warnings and time which once you lost:[135] and at

the resurrection your soul and body must be reunited and live there in

torment and despair for ever. I know these things are but half

believed by the ungodly world, while they profess to believe them; and

therefore they must feel that which they refused to believe: but God

hath revealed it to us, and we will believe our Maker. You are now

going to see the great difference between the end of holiness and of

sin; between the godly and the ungodly; and to know by your own

experience those joys or torments, which the wicked will not know by

faith. And oh what a preparation doth such a change require!

II. You are next to know what persons they are, and how they differ,

who must abide for ever in these different states. As we are the

children of Adam, we are all corrupted; our minds are carnal, and set

upon this world, and savour nothing but the things of the flesh; and

the further we go in sin, the worse we are; being strangers to the

life of faith, and to the love of God and the life to come, taking the

prosperity and pleasure of the flesh for the felicity which we most

desire and seek. The name of this state in Scripture is, carnal, and

ungodly, and unholy; because such men live in a mere fleshly nature or

disposition for fleshly ends, in a fleshly manner, and are not at all

devoted to God, and carried up to heavenly desires and delights; but

live chiefly for this life, and not for the life to come: and though

they may take up some kind of religion, in a second place and upon the

by, for fear of being damned when they can keep the world no longer;

yet is it this world which they principally value, love, and seek, and

their religion is subject to their worldly and fleshly interest and

delights. And though God hath provided and offered them a Saviour, to

teach them better, and reclaim and sanctify them by his word and

Spirit, and forgive them if they will believe in him and return, yet

do they sottishly neglect this mercy, or obstinately refuse it, and

continue their worldly, fleshly lives, till time be past, and mercy

hath done, and there is no remedy. These are the men that God will

condemn, and this is the true description of them. And it will not

stand with the governing justice, and holiness, and truth of God to

save them.

But on the other side, all those that God will save, do heartily

believe in Jesus Christ, who is sent of God to be the Saviour of

souls; and he maketh them know (by his word and Spirit) their grievous

sin and misery in their state of corrupted nature; and he humbleth

them for it, and bringeth them to true repentance, and maketh them

loathe themselves for their iniquities; and seeing how they have cast

away and undone themselves, and are no better than the slaves of

Satan, and the heirs of hell, they joyfully accept of the remedy that

is offered them in Christ: they heartily take him for their Saviour

and King, and give up themselves in covenant to him, to be justified

and sanctified by him; whereupon he pardoneth all their sin, and

further enlighteneth and sanctifieth them by his Spirit: he showeth

them by faith, the infinite love of God, and the sure, everlasting,

holy joys, which they may have in heaven with him; and how blessed a

life they may there obtain (through his purchase and gift) with all

the blessed saints and angels: he maketh them deliberately to compare

this offer of eternal happiness, with all the pleasures and seeming

commodities of sin, and all that this deceitful world can do for them:

and having considered of both, they see that there is no comparison to

be made, and are ashamed that ever they were so mad as to prefer earth

before heaven, and an inch of time before eternity, and a dream of

pleasure before the everlasting joys, and to love the pleasures of a

transitory world, above the presence, and favour, and glory of God:

and for the time to come, they are firmly resolved what to do; even to

take heaven for their only happiness, and there to lay up their hopes

and treasure, and to live to God, as they have done to the flesh; and

to make sure of their salvation, whatever become of their worldly

interest. And thus the Spirit doth dwell and work in them, and renew

their hearts, and give them a hatred to every sin, and a love to every

holy thing, even to the holy word, and worship, and ways, and servants

of the Lord: and in a word, he maketh them new creatures; and though

they have still their sinful imperfections, yet the bent of their

hearts and lives is holy and heavenly, and they long to be perfect,

and are labouring after it, and seek first the kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and live above the world and flesh: and shortly Christ

will make them perfect, and justify them in the day of their judgment,

and give them the glorious end of all their faith, obedience, and

patience. These are the persons, and none but these, (among us, that

have the use of reason,) that shall live with God.

III. Now this being the infallible truth of the gospel, and this being

the true difference between the righteous and the wicked, the

justified and condemned souls, oh how nearly doth it now concern you,

to try which of these is your own condition! Certainly it may be

known: for God will judge the world in righteousness, by the same law

or covenant by which he governeth them. Know but whom the law of

Christ condemneth or justifieth, and you may soon know whom the Judge

will condemn and justify; for he will proceed according to this law.

If you should die in an unrenewed state in your sins, your hopes of

heaven would all die with you; and if you should think never so well

of yourself till death, and pretend never so confidently to trust on

Christ and the mercy of God, one hour will convince you to your

everlasting woe, that God's mercy and Christ's merits did never bring

to heaven an unsanctified soul. Self-flattery is good for nothing, but

to keep you from repenting till time be past, and to quiet you in

Satan's snares till there be no remedy: therefore presently, as you

love your soul, examine yourself, and try which of these is the

condition that you are in, and accordingly judge yourself, before God

judge you.[136] May you not know if you will, whether you have most

minded earth or heaven, and which you have preferred and sought with

the highest esteem and resolution, and whether your worldly or

heavenly interest have borne sway, and which of them it is that gave

place unto the other? Cannot a man tell if he will, what it is which

his very soul hath practically taken for his chief concernment, and

what it is that hath had most of his love and care? and what hath been

next his heart, and which he hath preferred when they came to the

parting, and one was set against the other? Cannot you tell whether

you have lived principally to the flesh, for the prosperity of this

world, and the pleasures of sin? or whether the Spirit of Christ by

his word, hath enlightened you, and showed you your sin and misery,

and humbled you for it, and showed you the glory of the life to come,

and the happiness of living in the love of God, and hereupon hath

united your heart unto himself, and turned it from sin to holiness,

from the world to God, and from earth to heaven, and made you a new

creature, to live for heaven as you did for earth: surely this is not

so small and indiscernible a work or change, but he that hath felt it

on himself may know it. It is a good work to bring a sinner to feel

his unrighteousness and misery, and to apply himself to Christ for

righteousness and life: it is a great work to take off the heart from

all the felicity of this world, and to set it unfeignedly upon God,

and to cause him to place and seek his happiness in another world,

whatever become of all the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh. It is

thus with every true believer, for all the remnant of his sins and

weaknesses: and may you not know whether it be thus or not with you?

One of these is your case: and it is now time to know which of them it

is; when God is ready to tell you by his judgment. If indeed you are

in Christ, and his Spirit be in you, and hath renewed you, and

sanctified you, and turned your heart and life to God, I have then

nothing more than peace and comfort to speak to you (as in the

following exhortation): but if it be otherwise, and you are yet in a

carnal state, and were never renewed by the Spirit of Christ, will you

give me leave to deal faithfully with you, as is necessary with one in

your condition, and to set before you at once your sin and your

remedy, and to tell you what yet you must do if you will be saved.

IV. And first, will you here lay to heart your folly, and unfeignedly

lament your sinful life before the Lord? not only this or that

particular sin, but principally your fleshly heart and life; that in

the main, you have lived to this corruptible flesh, and loved, and

sought, and served the world, before your God, and the happiness of

your soul? Alas, friend, did you not know that you had an immortal

soul, that must live in joy or misery for ever? Did you not know that

you were made to love, and serve, and honour your Maker; and that you

had the little time of this life given you, to try and prepare you for

your endless life; and that as you lived here, it must go with you in

heaven or hell for ever? If you did not believe these things, why did

you not come, and give your reasons against them, to some judicious

divine that was able to have showed you the evidence of their truth?

If you did believe them, alas, how was it possible that you could

forget them? Could you believe a heaven and a hell, and not regard

them, or suffer any transitory worldly vanity to be more regarded by

you? Did you know what you had to do in the world, and yet is it all

undone till now? Were you never warned of this day? Did never

preacher, nor Scripture, nor book, nor friend, nor conscience, tell

you of your end? and tell you what would be the fruit of sin, and of

your contempt and slighting of Christ and of his grace? Did you know

that you must love God above the world, if ever you would be saved,

and that you must to that end be partaker of Christ, and renewed by

his Spirit; and yet would you let out your heart upon the world, and

follow the brutish pleasures of the flesh, and never earnestly seek

after that Christ and Spirit that should thus renew and sanctify you?

Do you not think now that it had been wiser to have sought Christ and

grace, and set your affections first on the things above, and to have

made sure work for your soul against such a day as this, than to have

hardened your heart against God's grace, and despised Christ, and

heaven, and your salvation, for a thing of nought? You see now what it

was that you preferred before heaven: what have you now got by all

your sinful love of the world? where now is all your fleshly

pleasure? will it all now serve turn to save you from death, or the

wrath of God, and everlasting misery? will it now go with you to

another world? Or do you think it will comfort a soul in hell, to

remember the wealth which he gathered and left behind him upon earth?

Would it not now have been much more comfortable to you, if you could

say, My days were spent in holiness, in the love of my dear Redeemer,

and in the hearty service of my God; in praising him and praying to

him, in learning and obeying his holy word and will; my business in

the world was to please God, and seek a better world; and while I

followed my lawful trade or calling, my eye was chiefly on eternal

life; instead of pleasing the flesh, I delighted my soul in the love,

and praise, and service of my Redeemer, and in the hopes of my eternal

blessedness; and now I am going to enjoy that God and happiness which

I believed and sought. Would not this be more comfortable to you now,

than to look back on your time as spent in a worldly, fleshly life,

which you preferred before your God and your salvation? Christ would

not have forsaken you in the time of your extremity, as the world

doth, if you had cleaved faithfully to him. You little know what peace

and comfort you might have found, even on earth, in a holy life: how

sweet would the word of God have been to you! how sweet would prayer,

and meditation, and holy conference have been! Do you think it is not

more pleasant to a true believer, to read the promises of eternal

life, and to think and talk of that blessed state, when they shall

dwell with God in joy for ever, than it was to you to think and talk

of worldly trash and vanity? If you had used the world as a traveller

doth the necessaries of his journey, the thought of heaven would have

afforded you solid, rational comfort all the way. O little do you know

the sweetness of the love of God in Christ, and how good a christian

findeth it, when he can but exercise and increase his knowledge, and

faith, and love to God, and thankfulness for mercy, and hopes of

heaven, and walk with God in a heavenly conversation! Do you not wish

now that this had been your course? But that which is done cannot be

undone, and time that is past can never be called back: but yet there

is a sure remedy for your soul, if you have but a heart to entertain

and use it. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life."[137] Jesus Christ being God and man, is the

Mediator between God and man; his death is a sufficient sacrifice for

our sins; it is his office to save all those that come to God by him:

do but unfeignedly repent of your sinful life, and yet set your heart

upon the life to come, and love God and holiness better than the world

and fleshly pleasure, and trust your soul on Christ as your Redeemer,

and he will certainly forgive you, and reconcile you unto God, and

present you justified and spotless in his sight. Think of your sin

till you abhor yourself; and think of your sin and misery till you

feel that you are undone if you have not a Saviour; and then think

what love God hath showed you in Christ, in giving him to be incarnate

and die for sinners, and offering you freely to pardon all that ever

you have done, and to justify and save you, and bring you to endless

glory with himself, if yet at last you will but give up yourself to

Christ, and accept his mercy and return to God. What joyful tidings is

here now for a sinful, miserable soul! Yet this is the certain truth

of God. This is his very covenant of grace, which is founded in the

blood of Christ, and which he is now ready to make with you, and seal

to you by his Spirit within, and his sacrament without, if you do but

heartily and unfeignedly consent: believe in Christ, and turn to God,

from the world and the flesh, and resolve upon a holy life if you

should recover, and then I can assure you from the word of God, that

he will freely pardon you, and take you for his child, and save your

soul in endless glory. As late as it is, he will certainly receive

you, if you return to him by Christ with all your heart. And doth not

your heart now rejoice in this unspeakable mercy, which is willing to

save you after all the sin that you have committed, and after all the

time that you have lost? Do you yet love that God that is so abundant

in goodness and in love? and that Saviour who hath purchased you this

pardon and salvation? Is it not better, think you, to love, and

praise, and serve him, than to live in fleshly lusts and pleasures?

and is it not better to dwell in heaven with him, in endless joys,

than to live awhile in the vain delights of sinners, and thence to

pass to endless misery? O beg of God now to give you a new heart to

believe in Christ, and repent of sin, and love him that is most holy,

good, and gracious: and take heed that you slight not his grace any

longer; and that you do not now take on you in a fear, to be that

which you are not, or to do that which you would not hold to, if you

should recover. And to make all sure, will you now sincerely enter

into a covenant with Christ; I mean but the same covenant which you

made in baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper; and which

would have saved you, if you had sincerely made and kept it? Let me

therefore help you both to understand it, and to do it, by these

questions, which I entreat you to answer sincerely as one that is

going to the presence of God.

_Quest._ I. Do you truly believe that you are a rational

creature, differing from brutes, being made to love and serve your

Maker, and have an immortal soul, which must live in heaven or hell

for ever? and that there is indeed a heaven of joys, and a hell of

punishments, when this life is ended?

_Quest._ II. Do you believe that in heaven, the souls of the

justified at death, and the body also at the resurrection, shall be

joined with the angels, and shall dwell with Christ, and see the glory

of God, and be perfected in holiness, and filled with the sense of the

love of God, and with the greatest joys that our nature can receive,

and shall live in the most delightful love and praise of God for ever?

_Quest._ III. Seeing you are certain that all the pleasures of

this life are short, and will end in death, and leave the flesh which

desired them in corruption, do you not firmly believe that the joys of

heaven are infinitely better, and more to be desired and sought, than

all the pleasures and profits of this life? and that it is most

reasonable that we should love God above all creatures, even with all

our heart, and soul, and might?

_Quest._ IV. Seeing then that the love of God is both our duty

and happiness, is it not reason that we should be kept from the love

of any thing in the world, which would steal away our hearts from God,

and hinder us from loving him, and desiring, and seeking him? and that

we should mortify the love of worldly riches, honours, and delights,

so far as they are against the love of God?

_Quest._ V. Seeing God is the absolute Lord and Ruler of the world, is

it not reason that we obey him, whatsoever he commandeth us, though we

did not see the reason why he doth command it? And yet is it not

plainly reasonable, that he command us to love, and honour, and

worship him; and to love one another, and to deal justly with all, and

do as we would be done by, and to be careful of our souls, and

temperate for our bodies; and not to neglect or dishonour our Maker,

nor to neglect our own salvation, nor abuse our bodies by beastly

filthiness or excess; nor to wrong our neighbours, nor deny to do them

any good that is in our power? This is the sum of all God's laws: and

this is the nature of holiness and obedience. And do you not from your

heart believe, that all this is very reasonable and good?

_Quest._ VI. When the sinful world was fallen from happiness into

misery, by turning away from God and holiness to sensuality, and God

sent his Son to be their Redeemer and Saviour; to be a sacrifice for

sin, and a teacher and pattern of a holy and obedient life, and to

make a new covenant with them, in which he giveth them the pardon of

all sin, and everlasting happiness, if they will but give up

themselves to him as their Saviour, and Sanctifier, and by true

repentance turn to God; do you not verily believe that miserable

sinners should gladly and thankfully accept of such an offer? and

abundantly love that God and Saviour, that hath so tenderly loved

them, and so freely redeemed them from the flames of hell, and so

freely offered them everlasting life? And do you not believe that he,

who, after all this, shall slight all this mercy, and refuse to be

renewed by sanctifying grace, and shall neglect his God, and soul, and

this salvation, and rather choose to keep his sins; doth not deserve

to be utterly forsaken, and to be punished more than if a Saviour and

salvation had never been offered to him?

_Quest._ VII. Hath not this been your own case? Have you not

lived a fleshly, worldly life; neglecting God and your salvation; and

minding more these lower things? And have you not refused the word and

Spirit of Christ, which would have brought you to repentance and a

holy life? and consequently rejected Christ as a Saviour, and the Holy

Ghost as a Sanctifier, and all the mercy which he offered you on these

terms?

_Quest._ VIII. If this hath been your case, are you now unfeignedly

grieved for it? not only because it hath brought you so near to hell,

but also because it hath displeased God, and deprived you of that holy

and comfortable life, which you might all this while have lived, and

endangered all your hopes of heaven? Do you so far repent, as that

your very heart and love is changed; so that now you had rather have a

holy life on earth, and the sight and enjoyment of God in the heavenly

joys for ever, than to have all the pleasure and prosperity of this

world? Do you hate your sins, and loathe yourself for them, and truly

desire to be made holy? Are you firmly resolved, that if God do

recover you to health, you will live a new and holy life? that you

will forsake your fleshly, worldly life, and all your wilful sins; and

will set yourself to learn the will of God, and call upon him, and

live in the holy communion of saints, and make it your chief care to

please God, and to be saved?

_Quest._ IX. Are you willing, to these ends, to give up yourselves

absolutely now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as your

reconciled Father, your Saviour, and your Sanctifier, to be sanctified

and justified, and saved from your sins, and from the wrath of God,

and live to God in love and holiness? And are you willing to bind

yourself to this, by entering into this covenant with God, renouncing

the flesh, the world, and the devil? Either your heart is willing and

sincere in this resolution and covenant, or it is not. If it be not,

there is no hope that your sin should be pardoned, and your soul be

saved upon any other, or easier terms! And for all that God is

merciful, and Christ died for sinners, it was never his intent to save

one impenitent, unsanctified soul. But if your heart unfeignedly

consent to this, I have the commission of Christ himself to tell you,

That God will be your reconciled God and Father, and Christ will be

your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit will be your Sanctifier and

Comforter, and your sins are pardoned, and your soul shall be saved,

and you shall dwell in heaven with God for ever.[138] God did consent

before you consented; he showed his consent in purchasing, and making,

and offering you this covenant. Show your unfeigned consent now by

accepting it, and giving up yourself unreservedly to him, and you have

Christ's blood, and Spirit, and sacrament, to seal it to you. The

flesh and the world have deceived you; but trust in Christ upon his

covenant terms, and he will never deceive you.

And now, alas, what pity it is, that a soul that is in so miserable a

case, and is lost for ever, if it have not help, and speedy help,

should be deprived of all this grace and glory, and only for want of

repenting and consenting! What pity is it that a soul, that is ready

to go into another world, where mercy shall never more be offered it,

should rather go stupidly on to hell, than return to God, and accept

his mercy! Do but truly repent and consent to this covenant, and all

the mercies of it are certainly yours. God will be your God, and

Christ, and the Spirit, and pardon, and heaven, and all are yours. The

Lord open and persuade your heart, that you may not be undone and lost

for ever, for want of accepting the mercy that is offered you!

And now I know it would be comfortable to you, if you could be fully

assured that you are forgiven, and shall be saved. In a matter of such

unspeakable moment, how joyful would a well-grounded certainty be, to

any man that hath the right use of his understanding? I tell you

therefore from God, that there is no cause of your doubting on his

part, but only on your own. There is no doubt to be made, whether God

be merciful, nor whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour and sacrifice

for your sins; nor whether the covenant be sure, and promise of pardon

and salvation to all true penitent believers be true. All the doubt

is, whether your faith and repentance be sincere, or not: and for

that, I can but tell you how you may know it; and I shall open the

truth to you, that I may neither deceive you, nor causelessly

discomfort you.

If this repentance and change which you now profess, and this covenant

which you have made with God, 1. Do come only from a present fear, and

not from a changed, renewed heart; 2. And if your resolutions be such

as would not hold you to a holy life, if you should recover; but would

die and fade away, and leave you as you were before, when the fear is

past; then it is but a forced, hypocritical repentance, and will not

save you, if you so die.[139] Though a minister of Christ should

absolve you of all your sins, and seal it by giving you the sacrament

of the body and blood of Christ; for all this you are lost for ever,

if you have no more: for absolution and the sacrament are given you

but on supposition that your faith and repentance be sincere; and if

this condition fail in you, the action of the holiest minister in the

world will never save you.

But, 1. If your repentance and covenant come not only from a present

fear but from a renewed heart, which now loveth God, and Christ, and

heaven, and holiness, better than all the honours, and riches, and

pleasures of the flesh and world, and had rather have them, even on

God's terms; 2. And if this change be such, as if you should recover,

would hold you to a holy life, and not die, or dwindle into hypocritical

formality, when the fright is over; then I can assure you from the

word of God, that if you die in this repentance, you shall certainly

be saved. And though late repentance have so many difficulties that it

too seldom proveth true and sound, and it is an unspeakable madness to

cast our salvation on so great a hazard; and to defer that till such a

day as this, which should be the principal work of all our lives; and

for which, the greatest care and diligence is not too much: yet for

all that, when conversion is indeed sincere, it is always acceptable,

how late soever; and a returning prodigal shall find better

entertainment with God, than he could possibly expect; and never will

Christ cast out one soul that cometh to him, in sincerity of

heart.[140] The Lord give you such a heart, and all is yours. Amen.

Jer. xxxi. 34; Eph. i. 7; Acts v. 31; Eph. v. 26; Rev. i. 5; 2 Cor.

vi. 16; Mal. iii. 17; John i. 12; iii. 16; Eph. ii. 14; Rom. viii. 1, 17;

Luke iv. 18; Rom. v. 1, 5; Luke i. 74; John x. 28; Luke xxiii. 43;

1 Cor. xv. 8; Tit. iii. 3, 4; Acts iv. 4-6; 1 Tim. i. 13-16.

_A Form of Exhortation to the Godly in their Sickness._

Dear friend: Though nature teacheth us to have compassion on your

flesh, which lieth in pain; yet faith teacheth us to see the nearness

of your happiness, and to rejoice with you in hope of your endless

joys, which seem to be at hand. We must rejoice with you as your

friends that love you, and therefore are partakers of your welfare:

and we must rejoice with you as your fellow-travellers and

fellow-soldiers, that are going along with you to the same felicity;

and if we are left behind for a little while, yet hope ere long to

overtake you, and never to be separated from you more. This is the day

for which Christ hath been so long preparing you; and which you have

so long foreseen, and have been so long preparing for yourself. This

is the day which you thought on in all your prayers and patience, in

all your labours and sufferings, your self-denial and mortification,

since God did bring you to yourself and him. Now you are going to see

the things which you have believed; and to possess the things which

you have sought and hoped for; to see the final difference between the

righteous and the wicked; between a holy and a worldly life, between

the vessels of mercy and of wrath. Your time is hasting to an end, and

endless blessedness must succeed it. O now, what a mercy is it to have

a Christ! that you are not to encounter an unconquered death; nor to

go to God without a Mediator: but that death is by Christ disarmed of

its sting; and that you may boldly resign your soul into the hands of

your Redeemer, and commend it to him as a member of himself! Now, what

a case had your soul been in, if you had no intercessor! if you had

been to answer for your sins, yourself only; and had not a Saviour to

be your advocate, and answer for you! Now you may better perceive than

ever you have done, what God did for you when he opened your eyes, and

humbled, and changed, and renewed your heart; and how great a mercy it

is to be a penitent believer. You may now see more fully than ever

heretofore, what God intended for you, when he converted you; when he

forgave all your sins, and justified you by his grace, and adopted you

for his child, and an heir of life, and sealed you with his Spirit,

and sanctified and separated you to himself. Now what a case were you

in, if you were yet in your sins, and in the bondage of Satan, and

had not this evidence of your title to eternal life! if you had your

heart to soften, and to humble, and to convert, and your faith and

justification all to seek, and all your preparations for heaven to

make; if you had all this to do, with a pained body, and a distracted

mind, in so short a time, with God, and eternity, and death before

you, ready with terror to overwhelm your souls! if now you were to

seek for an interest in Christ, and for the pardon of all your sins,

and your peace with God were yet to make! if you had all your life

past to look back upon, as consumed in sin; and when time is at an

end, must cry out of all that is past, as lost! This is the case that

God in justice might have left you to. But what an unspeakable mercy

is it, that you have already been reconciled to that God that you are

going to! and that the sins which now would have been your terror, are

all forgiven through the blood of Christ! that you can look back upon

your time, since the day of your conversion, as spent in faithful

devotedness to God, and in a believing preparation for your endless

life; and in godly sincerity, notwithstanding your manifold sinful

imperfections, which Christ hath undertaken to answer for himself!

Though you have nothing of your own to boast of; and no works that

will justify you according to the law, at the bar of God; but you need

a Saviour, and a pardon, for the failings, even of the best that ever

you did; yet must you with thankfulness remember that grace which hath

begun eternal life within you, and prepared and sealed you to the fall

possession of it. For all the mercy that is in God, and for all the

glory that is in heaven, and for all the merits and satisfaction of

Christ, and for all the fulness and freeness of the promise;[141] if

God had not given you a believing, penitent heart, and sanctified and

sealed you by the Spirit of his Son, all this could have afforded you

little comfort, but would have aggravated your misery, as it did your

sin. Seeing then that, many of the wicked would be glad to die the

death of the righteous; and when it is too late, they would all be

glad if their latter end might be like his; how glad should you be,

that God, by such a life, hath prepared you for such an end! And

though a humble soul hath still an eye upon its own unworthiness, and

Satan is ready to aggravate our sins, in order to our discouragement

and fear; yet must you remember what an honourable victory grace hath

had over them; and look on them as Christ did, as the advantage of his

grace; that "where sin abounded, there grace hath super-abounded."[142]

You have had something to humble you, and to show you that you were a

child of Adam; and you have had something for grace to contend with,

and to conquer; and for Christ to pardon: bless him through whom you

have had the victory. Had you not deserved hell, Christ would not have

saved you from a deserved hell; and the song of the Lamb would not

have been so sweet to you, in the everlasting remembrance and

experience of his grace. You have sinned as a man, and he hath

pardoned as God; you have been weak and nothing, but his grace hath

been sufficient for you, and by his strength you can do all things. He

hath as dear a love to you now in his exaltation, as he had upon the

cross, when he was bleeding for your sins. And will he suffer a chosen

soul to perish, for whom he hath paid so dear a price? A Christ in

heaven that had never been on earth, would have seemed a stranger to

us, and one that never was acquainted with our miseries, nor had

testified his love at so dear a rate, as might have convinced, and

encouraged, and won our hearts. And a Christ on earth, that had not

passed for us into heaven, would have seemed to us but an insufficient,

conquered friend; and were unfit to provide us a mansion with the

Father, and to receive our souls, when they are separated from the

flesh. But "now we have a great High Priest that is passed into the

heavens, and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without

sin;" and therefore "can be touched with the feeling of our

infirmities; and therefore we may come boldly to the throne of grace,

that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,"

Heb. iv. 14-16. This is your time of need, and here is a supply for

all your needs. As we may come boldly through our High Priest to the

throne of grace, so may we boldly pass by his conduct into the

presence of God in glory. For he is purposely gone before "to prepare

a place for us, that where he is there we may be also," John xiv. 1-3.

Oh what a joy is it to our departing souls, that we have our Head and

Saviour already in possession of the kingdom which we are passing to!

What a support and joy is it, to receive this message from our

ascending Head, "Say to my brethren, I ascend to my Father, and your

Father; to my God, and your God," John xx. 17. What a joy is it to

read his promise, John xii. 26, "If any man serve me, let him follow

me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be." You have served

him, and are following him, and now are going to be with him where he

is.

There you shall be delivered from the darkness of this world. How

dimly did we see through the lantern of the flesh! how little did we

know! and how much were we ignorant of! and what pains did our little

knowledge cost us.! But there, one sight of the face of God will put

an end to this longsome night; and will show you that, which all the

reading and study of a thousand years could never satisfactorily have

shown you. There you shall understand the works of God: the frame of

the creation; the place, and office, and reason of all things, which

here you knew not. The mysteries of the gospel, which angels pry into,

will be there much more unfolded to you, than the clearest divines

were able to explain them.[143] All sciences there shall be one

pansophy; and all things knowable shall appear to you in their

wondrous, perfect harmony. What welcome will those blessed angels give

you that here disdained not to minister for you, and bear you up in

all your ways, and interested themselves in your concernments,

rejoicing before God at your conversion! How glad then will they be of

your safe arrival at the promised harbour of felicity with themselves!

What joy will it be to you to be presently entertained, and welcomed

into the acquaintance of those blessed spirits, and of all the holy

souls that are delivered from this flesh and world; and to see their

order, and be numbered with their society, and to be employed in their

joyful work. Oh how much better company is that than the best below!

There is no ignorance, and therefore no error; no want of love, and no

contention; nor narrow, private interests to contend for, but all made

happy in perfect love in him that is their universal end and

happiness. There is no dissension, nor perverse disputes; no ignorant

zeal, nor blinding passions; no proud or covetous designs, and

therefore no hurtful means to prosecute them; no seeming necessity to

hurt our brethren, to advance, or enrich, or save ourselves; no

slanderers there condemn the souls whom Christ doth justify, nor take

away the righteousness of the righteous from him; no cruel mockings,

imprisonments, or banishments; no wandering, destitute, afflicted, or

tormented; nor more suffering for the sake of righteousness; but

having suffered with Christ they are now reigning with him; and those,

of whom the world was not worthy, are taken to God from an unworthy

world. There are no troublesome mutations or confusions; no wars, nor

rumours of wars, because no lusts to war in their members; but united

souls in the harmony of love, do without any discord praise the

Lord.[144] The church is not there divided into sects and factions,

either through the pride or peevishness of its members; none scrupleth

communion with the rest; none silence others from speaking the praises

of their Redeemer; nor drive away others from their brotherhood and

communion. There is neither unrighteous law, nor disobedient subject,

nor unpeaceable neighbour, nor unfaithful friend, nor hurtful or

malicious enemy! There is no afflicted friend to mourn for, nor any

disconsolate soul to grieve with; no ignorant person to instruct, nor

obstinate heart to persuade or pray for; no fearful, doubting

christian to be comforted, nor weak and wavering soul to be confirmed;

no imprudent, scandalous actions of the godly to be lamented; no

remnants of pride, self-conceitedness, or any delusion to keep out the

light; no blemishes in them for the enemies to reproach, nor any

malignant enemies to reproach them; no misrepresentations of things or

persons; no raising or receiving false reports; no sin of our own to

grieve for, or to strive against; and no sin of others to trouble the

society, or be lamented. There we shall have no suffering friend to

suffer with; none labouring of want, while you have plenty; nor any

groaning in pain and sickness, while you are well. As no want or pain

of your own will afflict you, so no suffering of your friends will

interrupt your joy. Your comforts shall not be turned into

lamentations, for the madness and obstinate wickedness of a

sodomitical generation about you; nor your righteous soul be vexed

with their filthy and sottish conversation.[145] You shall not dwell

in a world where the most part is drowned in heathenism and

infidelity, nor in a church defiled with papal tyranny, cruelty,

covetousness, or profaneness. The whole society will shine in light,

and flame in love, and none through any weakness or corruption will be

a clog or hinderance to another.

You shall above all this behold the person of your glorified Redeemer!

You shall see that body, in its glorious change, which once was

humbled to the virgin's womb, and to a life of poverty, and to the

scorns of sinners; to be spit upon, and buffeted, and crowned with

thorns, and first made a laughingstock, and then hanged up to die upon

a cross, at the will of proud, malicious persecutors. You shall there

see that Person whom God hath chosen to advance above the whole

creation; and in whom he will be more glorified than in all the

saints.[146] The wonderful condescension of his incarnation, and the

wonderful mystery of the hypostatical union, will there be better

understood.

And, which is all in all, you shall see the most blessed God

himself;[147] whether in his essence, or not, yet undoubtedly in his

glory, in that state or place, which he hath prepared to reveal his

glory in, for the glorifying of holy spirits. You shall see him whose

sight will perfect your understandings, and love him, and feel the

fulness of his love, which is the highest felicity that any created

being can attain. Though this will be in different measures, as souls

are more or less amiable and capacious, (or else the human nature of

Christ would be no happier than we,) yet none shall have any sinful or

troublesome imperfection, and all their capacities shall be filled

with God.

O dear friend, I am even confounded and ashamed to think, that I

mention to you such high and glorious things, with no more sense and

admiration! And that my soul is not drawn up in the flames of a more

fervent love; nor lifted up in higher joys, nor yet drawn out into

more longing desires, when I speak of such transcendent happiness and

joy! O had you and I but a glimpse with blessed Stephen or Paul of

these unutterable pleasures, how deeply would it affect us! And how

should we abhor this life of sin; and be weary of this dark and

distant state; and be glad to be gone from this prison of flesh; and

to be delivered from this present evil world![148]

This is the life that you are going to live; though a painful death

must open the womb of time, and let you into eternity, how quickly

will the pain be over! And though nature make death dismal to you, and

sin have made it penal, and you look at it now with backwardness and

fear; yet this will all be quickly past, and your souls will be born

into a world of joy, which will make you forget all your fears and

sorrows. It is meet that as the birth of nature had its pains, and the

birth of grace had its penitent sorrows; so the birth of glory should

have the greatest difficulties, as it entereth us into the happiest

state.[149] Oh what a change will it be to a humbled, fearful soul, to

find itself in a moment dislodged from a sinful, painful flesh, and

entered into a world of light, and life, and holy love, unspeakably

above all the expressions and conceptions of this present life. Alas!

that our present ignorance and fear should make us draw back from such

a change! that whilst all our brethren that died in faith, are

triumphing in these joys with Christ, our trembling souls should be so

loth to leave this flesh, and be afraid to be called to the same

felicity! Oh what an enemy is the remnant of unbelief, to our

imprisoned and imperfect souls! that it can hide such a desirable

glory from our eyes, that it should no more affect us, and we should

no more desire it, but are willing to stay so long from God! How

wonderful is that love and mercy, that brings such backward souls to

happiness! and will drive us away from this beloved world, by its

afflicting miseries! and from this beloved flesh, by pain and

weariness! and will draw us to our joyful blessedness, as it were,

whether we will or not! and will not leave us out of heaven so long,

till we are willing ourselves to come away!

You seem to be almost at your journey's end. But how many a foul step

have those yet to go, whom you leave behind you in this dirty world.

You have fought a good fight, and kept the faith; and shall never be

troubled with an enemy or temptation when this one concluding brunt is

over. You shall never be so much as tempted to unbelief, or pride, or

worldly-mindedness, or fleshly lusts, or to any defects in the service

of your Lord. But how many temptations do you leave us encompassed

with! and how many dangers and enemies to overcome! And alas! how many

falls and wounds may we receive! You seem to be near the end of your

race, when those behind you have far to run. You are entering into the

harbour, and leave us tossed by tempests on the waves. Flesh will no

more entice or clog your soul! You will no more have unruly senses to

command, nor an unreasonable appetite to govern, nor a straggling

fantasy, or wandering thoughts, or headstrong lusts, or boisterous

passions, to restrain. You will no longer carry about a root of

corruption, nor a principle of enmity to God. It will no more be

difficult or wearisome to you to do good. Your service of God will no

more be mixed and blemished with imperfections. You shall never more

have a cold, or hard, or backward heart, or a careless, customary duty

to lament. That primitive holiness which consisteth in the love of

God, and the exercise and delights thereof, will be perfected; and

those subservient duties of holiness, which consist in the use of

recovering means, will cease as needless. Preaching, and studying, and

books, will be necessary no more. Sacraments, and church discipline,

and all such means have done their work. Repentance and faith have

attained their end. As your bodies, after the resurrection, will have

no need of food, or raiment, or care, or labour; so your souls will be

above the use of such creatures and ordinances, as now we cannot be

without. For the glass will be unnecessary, when you must see the

Creator face to face.[150] Will it not be a joyful day to you, when

you shall know God as much as you desire to know him? and love him as

much as you desire to love him? and be loved by him as much as you can

reasonably desire to be beloved? and rejoice in him as much as you

desire to rejoice; yea, more than you can now desire? I open to you

but a casement into the everlasting mansions, and show you but a dark

and distant prospect of the promised land, the heavenly Jerusalem. The

satisfying sight is reserved for the time, when thereby we shall have

that satisfying fruition.

And is there any such thing to be hoped for on earth? Will health or

wealth, will the highest places or the greatest pleasures, make men

happy? You know it will not. Or if it would, the happiness would be so

short, as maketh it little worthy of our regard. Have you not seen an

end of all perfection? Have you not observed and tried what a deluding

dream, and shadow of felicity, the world puts off its followers with?

How they act their parts as players on a stage; and they that in a

dream, or mask, did yesterday seem princes, lords, or conquerors,

to-day are buried in a darksome grave! And they that yesterday seemed

great and rich, to-day have no more of their furniture, or possessions,

than a coffin and a winding-sheet, and a place to hide their loathsome

flesh! And they that yesterday were merry, and jovial, and in health,

and honour, to-day lie groaning in painful misery, are leaving their

dear-bought, beloved riches, never to be delightful to them any more.

How little doth it concern them, that must dwell in heaven or hell for

ever, whether they live in wealth or poverty, in honour or shame, in a

palace or a cottage, in pain or pleasure, for so short a time as this

transitory life, which is almost at an end as soon as it is begun! How

many millions of dying parents have cried out of the world as vanity

and vexation! and yet their besotted posterity admire it, and through

the love of it lose their souls and everlasting hopes! They boast or

rejoice in the multitude of their riches, as if their houses would

continue for ever; though in their honour they abide not, but are like

the beasts that perish, and death feedeth on them, when like sheep

they are laid in the grave; and though this their way is their folly,

yet their posterity approve their sayings, and follow them by the same

sin to the same perdition, Psal. xlix. 6, 7, 10-14, 17, 19, 20. And is

this a world for a holy soul to be in love with? Hath it merited our

affections? Doth it love us so much, or use us so well, that we should

be loth to leave it? John xv. 18-20. As it loved our Lord, it will

love his followers: as it used him, it will use us, if he restrain it

not. Is a blinded, bedlam world, a malicious, cruel, and ungodly

world, a false, perfidious, deceitful world, a place for a saint to be

loth to leave? O blessed be that love, that blood, that grace, which

hath provided better for us! And shall we be unwilling to go to so

sweet a feast? and to partake of a happiness which cost so dear?[151]

Come on then, dear friend, and faint not at the last; and fear not to

encounter with the king of fears! It is the last enemy, and it is a

conquered enemy! Conquer this, and you have no more to conquer. Lift

up your head, and look to your victorious, reigning Lord; gird up the

loins of your mind, and let faith and patience hold out yet a little

while, and play well this last part, and all is your own.[152]

If the tempter now assault your faith, and sinking flesh do give him

any advantage, abhor his blasphemies, and cry for help to him that

conquered him. Do you think yonder high and spacious mansions are

uninhabited; when every part of sea and land hath its inhabitants? Why

have those blessed angels been so long employed in ministering for

you, but to let you know, that your souls are not so distant from

them, but that they are glad of familiarity with you, and you may be

like them, or equal with them in felicity? Nature hath put you out of

doubt, that there is a God of infinite, eternal being, power, wisdom,

and goodness, who is the efficient, dirigent, and final cause of all;

the Creator and Governor of the world. And the same nature hath put

you out of doubt, that all that his creatures have, or can do, is due

to him from whom they have it; and that so far as you are capable to

know, and love, and serve him, that you should employ your faculties

herein: and nothing is more undeniable to you, than that it is our

duty to love and serve our God, with all our heart, and soul, and

might. And it is as clear to you, that neither are these powers given

us in vain, nor this duty required of us in vain, nor yet that man's

natural, highest duty is made to be the way of his misery and undoing.

And sure that way, which turneth the mind from sensual pleasures, and

casteth a man on the malice and cruelty of the world, and engageth him

in so much duty, which both the flesh and the world are utter enemies

to, would be his misery and torment, if there were no rewards and

punishments hereafter, and no future judgment to set all straight,

that seemed crooked in the judgments of men. If all the intrinsic

evidences of credibility, in the sacred word, were not sufficient; if

all the antecedent evidences of prophecy were too little; if the

concomitant evidence of all the miracles of Christ, and his apostles,

and other of his servants, with his own resurrection and ascension,

did seem too distant from you; yet mark what subsequent continued

evidences it hath pleased God to bring even to your very sense, to

assure you of the truth of this gospel, and of the life to come.

Whence cometh that universal, unreasonable enmity, which in all

generations and nations of the world, from Cain and Abel till this

day, is found in the carnal against the spiritual, holy seed? Even a

Seneca telleth us of it among heathens, against that remnant of

virtue, and temperance, and sobriety that was found in the better sort

of men. Could all mankind be thus infected, and hate a saint that

never hurt them, much more than those that themselves confess to be

most vicious, if the fall of Adam were not true? Have we a whole world

before our eyes, that are visibly polluted with that irrational

leprosy, and yet shall we doubt whether our common father was sick of

that disease? And do you not see that the gospel, wherever it is

heartily entertained, doth renew the soul, and change the life, and

make the man to be another man; not only amending some little things

that were amiss, but making us new creatures, and turning the bent of

heart and life another way? Though the carnal, nominal christian, that

never heartily received the gospel, do differ from a heathen but in

opinion and formality; yet serious christians are other men, and so

transformed, as that their holy desires and endeavours do contain the

seed of life eternal, and are such a preparation for it as cannot be

in vain. Would God concur thus with any word, which is not true, and

holy, and good, to make it effectual for the renovation of so many

millions of souls? Have you not found that his work of grace is

carried on by heavenly wisdom, love, and power? and is a witness of

his special providence? and containeth his own image upon the soul?

And shall we then question the author of the seal, when we see that

the image and superscription which it imprinteth is divine? And have

you not had such experiences yourself of the fulfilling of this word,

in the answer of prayers, manifest both on men's souls and bodies,

which are enough to confute the tempter, that would shake your faith,

when he seeth you in your weakness, unfit to call up all those

evidences, which at another time you have discerned? For my own part,

I must bear this witness to the truth, that I have known, and felt,

and seen, and heard such wonders wrought upon fervent prayer, as have

many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises, and the special

providence of God to his poor petitioners. I have oft known the acute

and chronical diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without

any natural means. Some of the most violent cured in an hour; and some

by more slow degrees. Besides the effects upon men's souls, and

estates, and public affairs, which plainly demonstrated the means and

cause. And shall a promise thus sealed to us, be ever questioned

again? Nay, have you not the witness in yourself, 1 John v. 10-12;

even the Spirit of Christ, which is the pledge and earnest of your

inheritance, and the seal and mark of God upon you? In a word, it is

an unquestionable truth, that the rational world neither is, nor ever

was, nor can be governed agreeably to its nature, without an end to

move and rule them, which is beyond this life; and without the hopes

and fears of a reward and punishment hereafter. Were this but taken

out of the world, man would no longer live like man, but as the most

odious, noxious creature upon earth. And it is as sure that it agreeth

not with the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God, to govern so

noble a creature by a lie, and to make a nature that must be so

governed. And it is as certain that all other revelation is

defective, and that life and immortality, the end and the way, were

never so brought to light, as they are in the gospel, by Christ, and

by his Spirit.[153]

Say then to the malicious tempter, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan!

even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee," Zech. iii. 2.

"O full of all subtlety and mischief! thou enemy of God and

righteousness! wilt thou not cease to be a lying spirit, and to

pervert the truth and right ways of the Lord?" Acts xiii. 10. Lift up

your soul to God, and say, I believe, Lord, help mine unbelief! Though

Satan stand to resist me at my right hand, am I not a brand plucked

out of the fire? Am I not thine? and have I not resigned this soul to

thee? and didst thou not accept it in thy holy covenant? O then defend

it as thy own! Plead thou my cause, and confirm thy work, and justify

both thy truth and me, against the malicious enemy of both. O let the

intercession of my Saviour prevail, that my faith fail not. And take

away the filthy garments from me, and cause mine iniquities to pass

away. And though my soul be troubled, what shall I say? Father, save

me from this hour? But then what passage shall I have into thy

presence? I was born a mortal wight, and go but the way as all

generations have gone before me; and follow my Lord and all his

saints: Father, receive and glorify thy servant, that thy servant may

glorify thy name for ever! Receive, O Father, the soul which thou hast

made! Receive, O Saviour, the soul which thou hast so dearly bought,

and loved to the death, and washed in thy blood! Receive the soul

which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit, and in some measure

quickened by the immortal seed! Behold, thou hast made my days as an

handbreadth; my age before thee is as nothing; and every man at his

best estate is vanity. When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity, thou

makest our beauty to consume as a moth. And now, O Lord, what wait I

for? is not my hope alone in thee? Deliver me from my transgressions,

and impute not to me the sins which I have done. Remember not against

me the sins of my youth; and forgive the iniquities of my riper years.

Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit, and neglects and

resistances of thy grace. Forgive my sins of ignorance and of

knowledge, my sins of slothfulness, rashness, and presumption,

especially those which I have wilfully committed, against thy warnings

and the warnings of my conscience. Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse thou me from secret sins. O pardon my unprofitableness, and

abuse of thy mercies, and my sluggish loss of precious time! that I

have served thee no better, and loved thee no more, and improved no

better the day of grace! Though folly and sin have darkened my light,

and blemished my most holy services, and my transgressions have been

multiplied in thy sight, yet is the sacrifice sufficient which thou

hast accepted from our great High Priest, who made his soul an

offering for sin. In him thou art well pleased: he is our peace: in

him I trust: he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from

sinners: he did no iniquity: he fulfilled all righteousness; and by

once offering of himself, he hath perfected for ever them that are

sanctified: he is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by

him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Accept me, O

Father, in him thy Well-beloved: let my sinful soul be healed by his

stripes, who bare our sins in his body on the cross. Let me be found

in him, not having any legal righteousness of my own, but that which

is through the faith of Christ; that being made conformable unto

his death, I may attain to the resurrection of the dead; and may by

him be presented without spot or blemish. My God, thou hast encouraged

my fearful soul, by the multitude of thy mercies, as well as by thy

promises, to trust thee, and yield itself to thee. Thou hast filled up

all my days with mercy: every place that I have lived in, and every

relation, and all that I have had to do with in the world, are the

witnesses of thy love and mercy to me. Thy eyes beheld my substance

being yet imperfect, and all my members were written in thy book. My

parents were instructed by thee to educate me, and all things

commanded by thee to serve for my preservation, comfort, and

salvation. Thou hast brought me forth in a land and age of mercies,

and caused me to hear and see the things which others have not seen or

heard. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; my life hath

not been spent in a howling wilderness, nor in banishment from thy

sanctuary, or the communion of thy saints; nor hath it been wholly

consumed in darkness, and sorrow, and unserviceable barrenness. But

often have I heard the joyful sound, and I have gone with the

multitude to the house of God, and there have seen the light of thy

countenance, and drank of the rivers of thy pleasure, even of the

waters of life, and have been solaced with the voice of joy and

praise. How oft have I cried unto thee in my trouble, and thou hast

delivered me out of my distresses! When for my folly and transgression

I was afflicted, thou broughtest me out of darkness and the shadow of

death.[154] Thou renewedst my age as Hezekiah's, and causedst the

shadow of my dial to go back! and hast set me at liberty to praise

thee for thy goodness, and declare thy works to the children of men.

In the day of trouble I called upon thee, and thou didst deliver me

that I might glorify thee. Thou causedst me to receive the sentence of

death, that I might trust in God that raised the dead. My Shepherd

hath led me in his pleasant pastures, by the silent streams; he

restored my soul, and conducted me in the paths of righteousness. How

precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of

them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.

And will that mercy now forsake me, which hath abounded to me, and

supported me so long? Thou hast said, I will never fail thee nor

forsake thee. Having loved thy own, that are in the world, thou wilt

love them to the end; for thy mercy is great and reacheth to the

heavens, and it endureth for ever. O therefore when I awake, let me be

with thee! And as thy loving-kindness is better than life; and to

depart and be with Christ, is far better than the best condition upon

earth; so let thy servant depart in peace, his eye of faith beholding

thy salvation: and when my earthly house of this tabernacle is

dissolved, let me have that building of God, the house not made with

hands, eternal in the heavens. Let my present burden of sin and

suffering make me more earnestly to groan, not to be unclothed, but to

be clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life; that

being absent from the body, I may be present with the Lord.[155] And

seeing this cup may not pass from me, and I must not look for the

chariot of Elias, to carry me unto heaven; let thy will be done, and

let me rest therein, and let death be the gain and advantage of my

soul; and while this outward man is perishing, let the inner man be

renewed from day to day: for what am I better than my fathers, and all

thy saints, and the generations of mankind, that I should think of

another passage, than this of death, to the world of immortality?[156]

O let this fainting heart be glad, and let my glory rejoice, and in

love and joy, in thankfulness and praise, let me pass into the world

of love and joy, where thanksgiving and praise shall be my work for

ever. And though my flesh and heart will fail, be thou the strength of

my heart, O God, and my portion for ever.[157] Though I must walk

through the valley of the shadow of death, let me fear no evil; but be

thou still with me, and let me be comforted by thy rod and staff: let

the goodness and mercy which hath followed me thus far all my days,

receive me at the last, that I may dwell with thee for ever. For it is

the will of my Redeemer, that those which thou hast given him, be with

him where he is, to behold the glory which thou hast given him. And

that his servants should follow him, that where he is, there also may

his servants be. Amen, Lord Jesus! good is thy will and the word which

thou hast spoken! Into thy hands I commend my spirit which thou hast

redeemed. Receive it, and let me be with thee in paradise. O thou that

hast called us thy brethren, when thou didst ascend to thy Father and

our Father, and to thy God and our God, take up this poor unworthy

soul to the mansions which thou hast prepared for us, that I may be

with thee where thou art.[158] And though this flesh must perish, let

it rest in hope, and be but sowed as a grain of wheat; till thy

powerful call shall raise it from the dust, and this corruptible shall

put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and

this natural body shall be raised a spiritual body, and death shall be

swallowed up in victory.[159] For though I be dead, my life is hid

with Christ in God; and when thou appearest who art my life, then let

me appear with thee in glory. O hasten that appearance, and come with

thy holy, glorious angels, to be glorified in thy saints, and admired

in and by believers! When thou wilt change our vile bodies, and make

them like to thy glorious body, by the mighty working, by which thou

canst subdue even all things to thyself. Hast thou not said, "Behold,

I come quickly?" Even so come, Lord! and let the great marriage day of

the Lamb make haste, when thy spouse shall be presented spotless,

unblamable, and glorious; and the glory of God in the New Jerusalem,

shall be revealed to all his holy ones, to delight and glorify them

for ever. In the mean time, remember, Lord, thy promise, "Because I

live, therefore shall ye live also:" and let the dead that die in thee

be blessed: and thou that art made a quickening Spirit, and art the

Lord and Prince of life, and hast said that not a hair of our heads

shall perish; gather our departing souls unto thyself, into the

heavenly Jerusalem and mount Sion, the city of the living God, and to

the myriads of holy angels, and to the general assembly and church of

the first-born, and to the perfected spirits of the just; where thou

wilt make us kings and priests to God, whom we shall see, and love,

and praise for ever. For of him, and through him, and to him are all

things; and for his pleasure they are, and were created. And O thou

the blessed God of love, the Father of spirits and King of saints,

receive this unworthy member of thy Son, into the heavenly choir which

sing thy praise! who rest not saying, night and day, Holy, holy, holy,

Lord God Almighty, who is, and was, and is to come! For thine is the

kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.[160]

[134] Isa. lvii. 1, 2; Phil. i. 21, 23.

[135] Matt. xiii.; 2 Thess. i. 6-11.

[136] Matt. xviii. 3; Heb. xii. 14; John iii. 3, 5, 6.

[137] John iii. 16, 18.

[138] Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; 2 Cor. vi. 16-18.

[139] Matt. xiii. 19-23; Rom. viii. 7-9; Heb. xii. 14; John iii.

3, 5, 6; Matt. xviii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 17; Eph. vi. 24; 1 Cor. xvi. 22;

Luke xiv. 26, 27.

[140] Luke xv. 19-22; John vi. 37.

[141] Gal. iv. 4, 6; Rom. viii. 16, 17; viii. 9; 1 Pet. iii. 7.

[142] Rom. viii. 25, 36; Eph. i. 6, 7; ii. 5, 7, 8; Tit. iii. 3, 5, 6, 7;

Rom iii. 24; 2 Cor. xii. 9; Luke xv. 4, 6, 24; Matt. xviii. 11;

2 Pet. iii. 9; John iii. 15, 16; Matt. xviii. 14; Luke xxi. 18; John

xviii. 9; vi. 39.

[143] Heb. xii. 22; i. 14; Psal. xxxiv. 7; Luke xv. 10; xvi 22; xx. 36;

Phil. iii. 10, 20, 21.

[144] Heb. xi. 35-38; Matt. xxiv. 6; Psal. xlvi. 9: James iv. 1, 2.

[145] Zeph. iii. 17, 18; Ezek. ix. 4; 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8.

[146] John xvii. 2, 4; Phil. ii. 7-10.

[147] Matt. v. 8; Heb. xii. 14.

[148] Acts vii. 56; 2 Cor. xii. 3-5; Gal. i. 4.

[149] John xvi. 21; iii. 3, 5, 7, 8.

[150] 2 Cor. iii. 18; iv. 6; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

[151] 1 John ii. 15: John xv. 17-20.

[152] Post illam pugnam triumphabimus victores cum nostro signifero in

vita æterna: diu in Christum credidi: desidero jam finem fidei, ut non

amplius credam in eum, sed videam eum in quem credidi: ut gustem quam

suavis fit Dominus, palpem manibus Dominum meum, et Deum meum. Ibi

vocabor Abraham, qui lastatur videns diem Christi: expertus sum quod

in hac vita peccatum sit omnia in omnibus: experiar etiam aliam vitam,

ubi est Dominus omnia in omnibus. Abr. Bucholtzer, referente Abr.

Sculteto in Curric. vitæ suæ, pag. 15.

[153] 2 Tim. i. 10.

[154] Zech. iii. 3, 4; John xii. 23, 27, 28; xvii. 1; Acts vii. 59;

Psal. xxxix. 5, 7, 8, 11; xxxii. 1-3; Rom. iv. 7, 8, 24; Psal. xxv. 7;

xix. 12, 13; 1 Pet. ii. 27; Matt. iii. 15; Heb. ix. 26; Isa. liii.

10, 3, 4, 6-9; Matt. iii. 17; xvii. 5; xii. 18; Rom. v. 1-3, 5, 10;

Eph. ii. 14; Heb. x. 10, 12, 14, 18; vii. 25, 26; Eph. i. 6, 7, 11, 13;

1 Pet. ii. 24; Phil. ix. 3, 10, 11; Eph. v. 26, 27; Psal. cxxxix. 16-18;

xvi. 6, 7; lxv. 9; xlvi. 4; xlii. 3, 4; lxxxix. 15; xxxvi. 8; John iv.

10, 13, 14; Psal. xlii. 4; cvii. 6, 13, 14.

[155] Psal. cvii. 8, 15; l. 15; 2 Cor. i. 9, 10; Psal. xxiii.; cxxxix.

17, 18; Heb. xiii. 5; John xiii. 1; Psal. lvii. 10; cviii. 4; xxxvi. 5;

ciii. 17; cxxxvi.; lxiii. 3; Phil. i. 23; Luke ii. 29, 30; 2 Cor.

v. 1-8.

[156] Phil. i. 21; 2 Cor. iv. 16, 18; 1 Kings xix. 4.

[157] Psal. lxxiii. 26.

[158] Psal. xxiii. 4-6; John xvii. 24; xii. 26; Acts vii. 59; Luke

xxiii. 43; John xx. 17; xiv. 1-3; Psal. xvi. 11.

[159] 1 Cor. xv. 53-55.

[160] Col. iii. 3-5; 2 Thess. i. 10, 11; Phil. iii. 21; Rev. xxii.

20, 27; Eph. v. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xv. 45; Acts iii. 5; John xiv. 19; Rev.

xiv. 13; Matt. x. 30; Luke xxi. 18; Heb. xii. 22, 23; Rev. i. 6; Rom.

xi. 36; Rev. v. 9, 10; iv. 11, 8; xv. 3; Heb. xii. 9; Matt. vi. 13.