MEDITATIONS OF DEATH, Wherein A Christian is taught How to Remember And Prepare for his latter end: By the late able & faithful Minister of the Gospel, JOHN PAGET.    

To the most Illustrious & most Excellent Lady, ELIZABETH, Queen of Bohemia, Countess Palatine of the Rhine, etc.  
MOst Gracious Princess,  
Albeit to many there is not a more unpleasing sight and unwelcome message, then that which puts upon the thoughts of Death: yet your Majesty hath not so learned Christ in those large lessons which by Divine Providence have been dispensed, to teach & affect with what may be helpful to Mortification. These Meditations of my dear husband of blessed memory, I have much longed to see clad in such wise as might be most serviceable, & that I myself might hear him being dead yet speak unto me comfortable words, to solace my soul in his absence, and to prepare me for the joys into which he is entered before me. My desires herein being accomplished, I make bold to present the same in the first place to your Majesty's view, use and Patronage. The gentle & propitious respects your Majesty hath at sundry times manifested unto the Author & sometimes also to myself, give encouragement to presume that this testimony of thankful acknowledgement & devoted affection (though but a widow's mite) shall obtain your Highness' gracious acceptance. The Most High, who ruleth in the kingdoms of men & giveth them to whomsoever he will, He raise & establish your throne, & confirm it unto your Princely Progeny, that with His blessing the house of your Majesty may be blessed for ever. These are the unfeigned and earnest suits of  
The meanest of your Majesty's humble attendants at the throne of grace, BRIDGET PAGET.   

The Publisher to the Reader.  
I Shall do no more, Christian Reader, then is usually expected, if in the entrance unto the ensuing Meditations I give some brief advertisement touching the Author, & the setting forth of this his Treatise which is here offered unto thee. Concerning the Author, it may be expedient for thee to know somewhat of his life who teacheth thee to consider thine own end. Doubtless he had learned to live well, and his good course of life may be also exemplary for studious imitation, that could so well teach the art of dying. To say nothing of his younger but towardly days, giving great content and comfort to his pious parents & friends; to say nothing neither of his extraordinary piety & progress in good learning, not only in the Grammar-schooles, but also in the University of Cambridge, where he was esteemed for the most part to surpass his contemporanies: that which I will only touch upon, shallbe how he approved himself while he was employed in the Lord's Vineyard, into which he was timely sent. After some few years spent in places of less note, yet so as the learnedest & godliest Preachers thereabout took notice of him & embraced him with much love & true affection, he was called to the ministry of the Church of Christ at Namptwich a famous town in Cheshire, about the year 1598. The extraordinary diligence & pains he took there, both in public & private, with persons of all sorts, and the blessed success, hath been already witnessed by the lively Epistles of Christ ministered by him, and shall more evidently appear as a crown of rejoicing unto him in the presence of our Lord jesus Christ at his coming. But when the times would not bear his continuance in that place where his labours were so profitable, where he was then so beloved, & since that time so earnestly desired again and longed after, he followed the hand of God's providence guiding him into the Netherlands, in the year 1605 The two first years he attended the Army, ministering the word of grace unto the Regiments of our nation: and took such pains in catechising the soldiers as well as preaching unto them, that their benefit and his comfort therein became greater than is ordinarily found in such places. Then the English living at Amsterdam conformably unto the Dutch Reformed Church in the same city, whereof diverse of them stood members, requesting him according to order to perform the office of a Pastor unto them, he harkened unto that call of God, and was his chief instrument for the constituting & settling of that Church, wherein he did the work of a faithful shepherd above thirty years, until age & the infirmities thereof growing upon him the Magistrates of that city vouchsafed him the honour of an Emeritus, the favour that is wont to be given unto soldiers from their Prince in whose service they have spent the strength of their days. But shortly after, the Lord of the harvest that had made him his labourer in that Vineyard & crowned him with special blessings upon his endeavours in the course of his pastoral performances, having prepared him by the message of a lingering and languishing distemper, sometimes intermixed with grievous fits of the colic & gravel, and ever accompanied with rheums and catarrhs unto which he had been long subject, did by the fiery chariot of a double tertiam transport him unto the place of rest, where he enjoys the crown of righteousness, laid up for them that have fought a good fight, finished their course & kept the faith. Among other graces and virtuous courses adorning the hearts & lives of Christians, these two did most eminently shine in this faithful servant of Christ; the one respecting his converse with God, the other his communion with the Saints. The first was his exceeding delight in the Law of the Lord, apparent not only in his ordinary practice of those duties whereby the same is usually manifested; but more especially, first by his committing unto memory diverse select portions of H. Scripture, as most of the Psalms & sundry of the Epistles, in the original languages; wherein he took such pleasing pains, that sometimes in the night season also when he had any spare time from his natural rest he would employ it this way: secondly by his practice of that course which he doth more than once commend in the ensuing Treatise, in singling out sundry of the choicest passages in the word of God, reducing them to their several heads, having them ever about him & most constantly feeding upon the comforts thereof. The second sort of Christian duties wherein he excelled, was that which is noted to be the sum of the second Table his love & charity unto the fellow-members of Christ. The largeness of his dispensing to others in this kind, proportionably to his estate, will not easily be matched. I spare to mention the particulars, whereof the places of his abode and the bowels of the poor Saints by him refreshed (he withal drawing out his heart unto them as lovingly as men are wont to do unto their familiars) are lively witnesses. His ordinary discourse, seasoned with grace, always profitable & pleasing, in special manner did affect the hearers, insisting much upon these two themes; first the wonderful wisdom, power & goodness of God shining in his creatures, even the least of them, & the many profitable lessons which may be learned from them, whereabout he had many singular observations: and secondly the blessed condition of the Saints glorified, touching which he had many divine and heavenly speculations; & towards his end spoke so effectually of these things & what appertains thereunto, that to them that were with him he seemed to be in heaven already, insomuch as they wished themselves in the same way wherein he was carried on so cheerfully. His sufficiency & abilities for the work of the ministry, wherein he laboured above forty years; how mighty he was in the Scriptures, how skilfully profound in expounding difficult places, & applying them to the benefit of souls; with what evidence and power his preaching wrought into the consciences of his hearers; how clearly and fully he could refute & convince an adversary of the truth; how prudent and judicious he was in managing Church affairs, & giving counsel & advise in weighty businesses; these & the like pearls shining in that crown of pastoral endowments wherewith he was qualifyed above many others, are abundantly testified by those that have been most interessed therein, do in great measure appear in what is here and elsewhere published, & may be in like manner further manifested as occasion serves, & if need were could be confirmed by the testimonies of the learnedest of our age. For other main helps whereby men are fitted for the ministry, his skill was rare in the languages that conduce unto the understanding of the Original text of the Scriptures & the several interpreters thereof. Besides what is ordinarily required in this kind, he could to good purpose & with much ease make use of the Chaldean, Syriack, rabbinical, Thalmudicall, Arabic & Persian versions & commentaries. Now whereas the station which God had appointed unto him was for the chief & latter part of his time at Amsterdam; yet (as the godly learned have professed) none hath more sound oppugned that insolent sect for which that place hath been so much reproached by many in our native country. Witness his Arrow against the Separation of the Brownists, which yet sticks in the sides & heart of their cause, though some impenitent of their Schism, gnaw their tongues and cease not to blaspheme the Churches of Christ. If he had been as forward to send forth what he had done in those controversies, as they are to trouble the press with their pamphlets; the world had seen at least thrice so much as it hath already of his pains in this kind. As for the unhappy differences raised of later years in & about the Church committed to his charge, what ever some have deemed, they that have been rightly informed and impartially weighed what hath been done, have approved his wisdom, faithfulness & uprightness in the whole carriage of those businesses. We that have in great part been privy to his retiredest thoughts & demeanour at those times, have had assured evidence of the integrity of his heart therein, which he hath also witnessed unto the end. For the controversies themselves, God hath therein, greatly pleaded his cause sundry ways, both at the very time of their rising & since especially. And as opportunity shall require, others may in due time behold what he hath done in defence of himself & the truth against that which is published by others.  
But of those and the like his pains in their season: now somewhat must be said of this Treatise which is here put into thy hands. It contains the sum of that which was delivered in diverse sermons to his own flock in the year 1628. At the same time it was penned in such manner as we found it after his decease. Divers passages, especially towards the end, were reserved for second thoughts, when he might return to a further survey. Though he had been often importuned by others to publish these his Meditations; yet partly by his own slowness to come abroad in that manner & partly by the urgency of other occasions their desires could not then take place. But being moved again when his end drew near & his weakness would not suffer him to review it and perfect what was wanting, he was content I should set it forth in such manner as I could. Albeit I have had some trouble in bringing together what was scatteredly set down, & in some places extending into plain words what was left in concise notes and short intimations; yet I have purposely avoided the adding of any thing that was not in the Author's Manuscripts, though I should leave some abruptnes in the discourse and harshness in the phrase. I have only adventured to set down the contents at the beginning of every Chapter, so as thou mayest with ease possess thy mind with the whole matter of it, & readily turn unto what thou desirest. I need not here discourse of the excellency & usefulness of this Treatise. When thou hast read it attentively & without prejudice, than judge whether the matter intended be not carried along with all soundness of judgement and demonstration of the spirit of life & power; whether here be not pithily comprised the sum of what the Scriptures afford of life & death; whether most points of Christian Religion be not here illustrated with some singular observations; and in a word, whether the whole do not argue that he was a Scribe excellently instructed unto the kingdom of God. The God of all grace & glory make thee wise in closing thy thoughts with these Meditations, & happy in the enjoyment of that blessed end unto which they give directions.  
Thine in the Lord, R. PAGET.   

The order observed in this Treatise.  

The first part declareth  

How God calleth men to Remember  
Death in general, by the memorial of it in 

Gods shortening the days of man. Cham I. pa. 1  
Persons, times & places of all sorts. Cham II. pa. 18  
Man himself & what appertains to him. Cham III. pa. 44  
The approach of death & about the dead. Cha IU. pa. 72    
Particularly, the death & latter end of the 

Godly, the happiness of their condition: Cham V pa. 93 

compared with the primitive estate of the old world. Cham VI pa. 112    
, their woeful & wretched end: Cham VII. pa. 154 

beheld in the visible memorial of Hell. Cham VIII. pa. 188        

The second part prepareth for death by  

General instructions touching 

Life and happiness, the 

Well & fountain of it in God. Cham I. pa. 229  
Sure & only way unto it, by Christ. Cham II. pa. 269    
The motions of grace in the exercise of 

Mortification, the 

Nature, acts & enemies of it. Cham III. pa. 303  
Means, whereby it is wrought, 

Inward, the Spirit of grace. Cham IU. pa. 326  
Outward, the Ordinances & Works of God. Cham V pa. 349      
Vivification, the nature & working of it. Cham VI pa. 377    
Particular directions concerning 

Peculiar preparatives unto death. Cham VII. pa. 395  
The fear of death & helps against it. Cham VIII. pa. 413         

Meditations of Death. THE FIRST PART. Of the remembrance of Death.  

CHAP. I. How God calleth men to remember Death.  
How God is said to wish, & the efficacy of this wish. (a) Three Songs of Moses, & the arguments of them to reach men their end. (b) in Paradise man called to remember death, before, in, & after the fall. (c) The days of man shortened by halves at four several times. (d) Why since Moses his time they continue at a stay. (e) The multitude of violent & untimely deaths in the old world, the middle world, & this last age of the world.  
O That they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deu. 32.29. O what love and tender mercies doth the blessed God declare in this affectionate speech concerning miserable man! Though to speak properly, God be without affections & passions; for whatsorver he wills in heaven or in earth, that he doth, & that he hath, Psal. 115.3. 1. Chro. 29. 11. he needs not wish for any thing he wants: yet to show us what we most want, what we should chief wish for, & what most pleaseth him in us; he speaks as men, according to their sense & capacity. He useth a passionate phrase of longing & wishing, which in propriety of speech agrees not with the Deity; to show there is an unspeakable matter in it, which proper words cannot express to our understanding: and therefore stooping down unto us, and as it were putting on our humanity, speaks after the manner of men & propoundes his wish, to show thereby what is principally to be wished for, and what men would desire if they had the mind of God.  
Look what respect God shows for the keeping of all his Commandments, by wishing men had a heart to observe them always, Deut. 5.29. such respect he showeth, & by the like wish expresseth for the remembrance of their latter end, as being the way & means to bring them to a more diligent observation of them all.  
He saith not simply, Oh that they would think on their end: but withal he showeth their wisdom & happiness if they harken, by wishing that they were wise to do it. And by such an argument of coming to be accounted wise in the sight of God & men, he labours to draw his people even unto all obedience, Deut. 4.6.7.8.  
Neither is the Lord content to speak once, but doubling & trebling his words, with a loud voice he calls them, to be wise, to understand, to consider; as if he had said, be wise, be wise, be wise; remember, remember, remember your latter end. As the sheet was thrice let down from heaven to show the vision more plainly, & to imprint it more deeply in the mind of Peter, Act. 10 16. so is the call of God inculcate upon Israel in this place. Neither is the act only, but the object of this consideration is likewise repeated and pointed at by the finger of God with a double demonstrative, even this, their latter end.  
(a) Three special Songs were written by Moses the man of God; The main argument of each of them is a remembrance of the latter end. The first at the red sea & entering into the wilderness shows the latter end of their enemies, both from whence they came, Pharaoh & the Egyptians perishing in the waters; & to whom they went, the Canaanites & others melting away for fear; with the latter end of Jsrael to be planted in the mountain of God's inheritance. Exod. 15. 1-20. And this triumphant Song was heard again from heaven, & sung by them that had got the victory of the beast, whereunto the remembrance of our end may bring us also, to rejoice among them that have the harps of God. Rev. 15.1.2.3. The second Song shows the vain estate of all, the shortness of this present life, how they hasten to their end, that all might number their days, & apply their hearts to wisdom. Psal. 90. This is probably supposed to have been written when Israel being come to the borders of Canaan for their murmuring were turned back again into the wilderness, till their carcases were fallen, & their days consumed by the wrath of God. Numb. 13. & 14. This third & last was Moses Swan-song, spoken & written that self same day that he was commanded to go up & dye in the mount Nebo, for his farewell when he had one foot in the wilderness & an other in heaven. Deu. 32.48.49. ●0. and is by many arguments commended unto us, both before it was set down, Deut. 31. 14-30. and in the preface, Chap. 32.1.2. and after at the conclusion of it, vers. 46.47. And yet above all the sentences of this Song, this strain especially that calls us to the remembrance of our latter end, is commended unto us by the most earnest wish of God himself. And therefore if either the wish of God, and such a wish as is made for keeping all the commandments together; or if the finding of true wisdom; or if so many repetitions like so many knocks of the Lord upon our breast, be of any regard in our eyes, let us hereby conceive our own blindness & negligence in this point: let us awaken at this loud call, and double & triple our care in the remembrance of our latter end, to find that comfort, which the Lord sees is to be gotten thereby.  
(b) If we had no other call, such a divine wish might suffice to make us remember our end. And what godly heart would not answer to this call & say, Lord it is enough: I will never cease to think of my end? Yet the Lord sees it is not enough, and therefore besides this his wish, he calls again an hundred ways by his word, his works, his ordinances, & proclaims this lesson, Remember your latter end. And first of all, Man was called of God even in paradise to remember his end before the fall. Death was set before his eyes in the Tree of Death, as well as life in the Tree of life. Gen. 2.17. The first day he was called to think on the last day. So soon as sin was forbidden, death was showed before it was, to keep from sin; & the tree of death was a visible frontlet hung before the eyes of man to preserve him in the fear of God. If in the state of innocency, a law of mortality was made and a memorial of death was needful before it came; how much more in the state of corruption when death is come into the world, & walks on every side, have we need now to remember it & to watch?  
In the fall, while Evah yet stood she resisted the temptation by remembering of the death that was threatened. Gen. 3.3. but when the serpent insisted & removed the remembrance of death out of her mind than she fell. The voice of the serpent was, Ye shall not surely dye, vers. 4. they remembered not their latter end, & came down wonderfully. So the very fall itself being on this manner, serves for an other Call to warn every one that would stand in the evil day, never to forget their latter end.  
After the fall, than God calls again by a Sentence of mortality which he pronounced on man, Dust thou art, & to dust thou shalt return, Gen. 3.19. to make men with new care to think upon death. And this was a general day of judgement in the beginning of the world, as there shall be an other General judgement in the end of the world. Then were we all in Adam & Evah presented before the Tribunal & judgment-seat of God & received the sentence of the first death universally pronounced upon all men, righteous or unrighteous, elect or reprobate; as there shall be a sentence of second death pronounced on the reprobate at last.  
After this Sentence, the Lord calls again by the execution thereof from time to time, while death being entered into the world reigns among men, devouring all & bringing all to dust: yet so, that the execution of this Sentence is revealed in manifold & divers degrees, according to the great patience & long their language, but cut of their days from four or five hundred to two hundred & odd years. Gen. 11. 18-32. And so with the ruin of Babel, the life of man was ruinated. The lofty tower of man's age that before ascended to so great an height by the steps of so many years, was now thrown down & made lower by the half. The noise & crash of this downfall sounded through many generations from Peleg to Terah, warning all to be more watchful because the execution of this sentence of death with double speed was brought upon them.  
After this in the time of Abraham & the generations following, from two hundred & odd we find the years of the Patriarches brought to an hundred & odd. Gen. 25.7. & 35.28. & 47.28. etc. So was the reprieve of man shortened again. And when the Lord called Abraham & his seed into his covenant, he withal called both him & the world by a new summons, as by sound of trumpet, to repentance & amendment of life by remembrance of their latter end, which now pressed upon them with double haste to that it had done.  
And lastly in the time of Moses the Lord being provoked by a new rebellion did again half the age of man & reduced the number of his years to seventy or eighty, Psal. 90.10. Then was the execution of the Sentence of death hastened more than ever before, & thereby the Lord called them & still calleth us to remember our end. Lord let thy call be effectual unto us: bring our hearts to true wisdom; establish thou the work of our hands & fill us with thy mercy in the morning that we may seek thee early & be glad in thee all our days.  
(d) If God should once more have halfed the age of man as he did before, then can we not conceive how the world should have subsisted. If our days upon a new provocation had been shortened from seventy to five & thirty: if weakness of old age had prevailed as much upon us at thirty, as now it doth at sixty: if at fifteen year's men should have been at their full strength, & then have begun to decline as now many do at thirty, being then in the height & vigour of their age, how manifold defects in learning & practising would then have ensued? what wisdom & experience could men have learned in so short a time? how could liberal or mechanical arts & sciences have been learned, or what continuance of strength could have been to have wrought & exercised such trades & sciences? what a world of children & old folks; yea what a world of fools & impotent persons should we have had? though it be so already, yet how much more then? But the Lord will not contend for ever, though he be now provoked as much as ever before, for the spirit would fail before him, & the souls that he hath made. Esa. 57.16. Therefore hath the term of man's age continued at this stay from Moses to our time for about three thousand years together, so as it was never settled in the former generations. And therefore in special is this work of God to be considered of us, as being the last call & warning of God in this kind, to make us remember our latter end.  
Now though God do not again shorten & half the days of man by such certain & determinate limits as formerly he hath done; yet after another manner he doth not cease to cut them off & prevent the course of nature for our warning as effectually as in the former judgements. For still the Lord being provoked by the wicked cuts them off before their time, they are brought down to the pit, & they live not out half their days, Psal. 55.23. the number of their months is cut off in the midst. job, 21.21. as the vine shakes off his unripe grape & the olive his flower, job, 15.33. And not the wicked alone, but the elect, the beloved of God (as Henoch, Gen. 5.23.24.) are also taken away in the midst of their days: though sometime they live to seventy or eighty years, & come to their grave in a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season, job, 5.26: yet oft they are taken away before, Esa. 57.1. in infancy, childhood, youth, middle age, etc. Upon every step of life death waits, and thousands are daily translated on every year of man's life, some the first year that they are borne, some in the second, some in the third, & so forward, every year thousands & ten thousands even to the last; and so a thousand calls hereby we receyve from God to remember our latter end with greater haste.  
(e) The multitude & number of these uncertain & untimely deaths are innumerable. We may observe it in three worlds. The old world perished all together strong men with their women & children were smitten with the sword of joshuah, Ios. 11.4. How many did the sword of Gideon, of David, & other Kings of Israel devour? Who can recount how much flesh those four beasts or Monarchies devoured? Dan. 7.3. etc. Not to speak more of the heathens, what untimely deaths did overtake Israel? their infants were drowned in Egypt. Exo. 1.22. Six hundred thousand of their carcases fell in the wilderness. And as the children especially were before destroyed in Egypt; so now in the wilderness the men especially. A decree was made, & a bound set unto the murmurers, that they which were twenty years old should not live longer than sixty years, & accordingly for the rest; whereas their children might live to seventy or eighty years. Num. 14. 29-33. How many were slain in the time of their judges & Kings? In Ahaz his time an hundred & twenty thousand valiant men were slain in one day, & two hundred thousand captived. 2. Chron. 28.6.8. In jeroboams' time five hundred thousand chosen men fell down slain at once. 2. Chro. 13.17. And by innumerable such examples hath death reigned & raged in those times. In this last age of the world violent & bloody deaths seem to have abounded more than ever before, both on jew & Gentile, Pagan & Christian. What destruction & massacre from the beginning of the world unto that time might be compared with that of the jews by the Romans for the contempt of Christ & his Gospel? Mat. 24.21. How many rivers of Christian blood have been shed by Roman authority of Heathenish Emperors, & Antichristian Popes? The Harlot drunken with the blood of the Saints is still bloodthirsty. Rev. 17.6. The Kings of the earth drunken with the wine of her fornication, do give their strength & power unto her even to this day, and are become her butchers to kill & slay for her. Rev. 17.2.13. Whereas there are four beasts mentioned in Dan. 7.4.7. a lion, bear, leopard, monster with ten horns; the beast, Rev. 13.1.2. is compounded of all four, & so devoureth as many as all the former▪ what should we speak of Turks & Tartars, & other Barbarous nations among whom & by whom death reigns so strongly? Rev. 9.17 18. This all is well known, but not well regarded. In all this we have a call from God to remember our latter end. But we have eyes & see not, ears & yet hear not his call.  
resist sinners, by threatening death & by executing death on malefactors, Gen. 3.24. with Rom. 13.4. The Princes & judges of the earth are as Angels of God, set to keep the garden & watch the city of God & to cut off the workers of wickedness, Psal. 101.8. and so become the messengers of death unto wicked men. Prov. 16.14. Every judgement Hall is the Tabernacle of death: there Death dwells; there he oft shows his terrible countenance, & from thence utters his voice & roars as a Lyon. There be the monuments of death in many already dead & in others threatened. Every such place is a pillar of remembrance whereon Death's name is engraven.  
And if in time of peace the house of justice be such a monument of Death, much more is the Camp in time of War, as Hazarmaveth, the Court of Death. There Death displays his banner: the sound of Drum & Trumpet are the proclamations of death: the Mounts, Bulwarks & Batteries are the scaffolds where Death acts his part: the Trenches, Approaches, Galleries & Mines are the valleys of the shadow of death: and all the weapons & warlike Engines are so many darts of death, whereby the dead are multiplied. And seeing by divine providence, besides the many armies marching abroad in other countries; the Camp is now presently so near unto us, in our borders, by s' Hertogen-Bosch, our duty is to observe this Alarm of death from thence, & to hearken unto the special calling of God for remembrance of our latter end. The Lord's voice cries unto the City, Hear the Rod, & who hath appointed it, Mic. 6.9. and not only to the City besieged, that it may shake off the yoke of Antichrist, but unto us & our cities that are within the sound, that we may walk more worthy of Christ & his Gospel which we profess. He that regards not this call of God shall bear his iniquity.  
(b) In the calling of Ministers we have an other Memorial of death, & that many ways. Ministers are called of God to call others to remember their latter end. And this is noted as a main work of their calling, Esa. 40.6.7.8. A voice said, Cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, & all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely drawing out & shaking that sword against the breast of sinners: by making life or death to be evermore the foot or burden of their song. and the effect of all is, they are the savour of life or the savour of death to all that hear them. 2. Cor. 2.16.  
(c) And this which hitherto we have heard of Angels, Magistrates, & Ministers, is spoken of the good: come we now to speak of the evil. The Lord calls us as loud by them, to remember our end, that we may gather good out of evil. Evil angels, what are they else but professed murderers, & murderers from the beginning, going about as roaring lions, seeking whom they may devour? joh. 8.44. 1. Pet. 5.8. They have power of death, Heb. 2.14. & daily bring thousands to death of body & soul for ever. Wicked Magistrates & persecuting rulers that compel men to Idolatry & false religion, & force men to take the mark of the beast; as also the false teachers & blind guides that bring in damnable errors, even both these are like the servants that dance on the threshold, & fill their master's house with spoil & prey. Zeph. 1 9 Both these are the bloodhounds of the Devil, by which he hunteth souls. Hos. 5.1. Both these are as ranging bears & ravenous woolves that wory young & old, & drive them into the slaughter-house of Satan. Prov. 28.15. Mat. 7.15. These help him daily to thrust sinful men into the ditch, into the bottomless pit of Hell. All these therefore are the Grand-champions & standard-bearers of death, & have Death written in their foreheads. The sight of these or the mention of them & their enterprises should cause men with horror to think of death. And seeing the world is full of these, how many are the calls & warnings that God by them gives us to think of death, & to stand upon our watch?  
(d) As for the times, several also are the warnings, which are thereby given us to remember our end: sometimes by the red horse marching in our borders, trotting, galloping, & rushing into battle; sometimes the pale horse ambling up & down in our streets, Rev. 6.4.8. both war & pestilence bringing massacre upon massacre, calamity upon calamity, jer. 9.21. Ezek. 7.25.26. are as so many proclamations of death in our ears, sounding at some times more louder than other, according as these judgements are more grievous & universal. Who doth not see the axe laid unto the root of the tree in these days? both the bloody axe of war, & black axe of pestilence, in some times & places continued, in others threatened. Besides, time itself is a sith, an axe: Night & day are two axes at the root of our life, when one is up the other is down, without rest: every day a chip flies away, and every night a chip; and so our bones lie scattered at the graves mouth, as when one cutteth or heweth wood on the earth. Psalm 141.7.  
Though every day giving us so manifold examples of death do thereby serve to put us in mind thereof: yet in a special manner is the Sabbath-day set apart by the ordinance of God, that on it we should consider the latter end of man. That is the time especially, when the voice cryeth in the Congregation, All flesh is grass, etc. And therefore in the Psalm, that is entitled, of the Sabbath. Psa. 92. title. wherein the exercises of the Sabbath are described, there God calleth & teacheth his people to remember the latter ends, both the end of all the workers of iniquity, who though they spring as grass, & flourish for a season, shall yet in the end be destroyed & perish for ever: ibid. vers. 7.9. and again the latter end of the godly, whose horn, though it be abased to the dust for a while, yet in the end shall be exalted like the horn of an unicorn; their heads anointed with fresh oil, etc. vers. 10. etc. On the Sabbath therefore are we called of God to sit down & consider & talk, & sing of our latter end, and mutually to exhort and comfort ourselves with the remembrance of it.  
(e) Now for the place where we live, this whole world and every part thereof doth fitly represent unto us our transitory estate: for the fashion of this world passeth away, 1. Cor. 7.31. and we pass away with it. The mooveable heavens that are above us are tossed and swung round about the world every day, both the firmament of the fixed stars, & the spheres of the seven planets one under another are rolled about with their manifold variety of motions. The Sun in the midst of them goeth forth as a giant to run his race from one end of heaven to an other. Psa. 19.5.6. Eccl. 1.5. the circle of the earth which he daily compasseth  
(f) And as the heavens, so all under the heavens runs on wheels also. The comets & fiery meteores in the highest regions of the air are carried about the earth according to the motion of the Sun. The wind whirleth about continually, & returneth according to his circuits. Eccl. 1.6. The waters of sea & rivers run their courses as in a circle, from land to sea, & from sea to their springs again: vers. 7. & the sea in itself is tossed up & down, ebbing & flowing according to the course of the Moon, or violence of the winds. The earth though it remain in her station & change not her place, yet is it changed in estate more than the rest: insomuch that God hath made the sundry ranks of the creatures therein to be so many maps of mortality, pictures of our vanity, & similitudes of our transitory estate; that by the sight of each of them he might call us to remember our latter end. And which way so ever we turn us, the monuments of our vanity are presented unto us of God.  
(g) Stay we in the house & sit by the fire side, the sparks that fly up & are presently extinct, job, 18, 5. 2. Sam. 14 7. the smoke that goes out of the chimney & suddenly vanisheth, Hos. 13.3. the ashes that remain & are straightway cast out on the dunghill, job. 13.12. Gen. 18.27. are each of them apppointed of God, to show us what we are, & how soon we come to our end; while he hath compared our lives to each of these. The candle that is set upon the table to give light unto them that are in the house, is also ordained of God to represent our life, that shines for a time until it have consumed our native moisture, and then goeth out of itself. job, 18.6. And as we see the oil of this lamp decaying, the more are we to seek that oil of grace, that will not decay before the coming of the Bridegroom. Matt. 25.4. The earthen pots wherein our meat is sod & prepared at the fire; the earthen pots & dishes out of which we eat & drink at the table for preservation of our life, are noted by the holy Ghost to be types and similitudes of our brittle & frail life, jer, 19.1.11. Lam. 4.2. that so oft as we use them & eat & drink out of them we might remember our end. The shelves or benches whereon women for ornament of their kitchen do set up these pots & dishes are like fair pourtraiturs of humane fragility, the whole household itself & all the persons Esa. 37.27. hath thereby bound them as in a bundle for a wholesome posy or nosegay, that from thence we might learn to smell our mortality.  
Go we forth again from the garden into the corne-fields, look upon the corn & every part of it; by the root that comes of seed, which is not quickened except it die, God teacheth us to think of death, & to look for death before true life be found. 1. Cor. 15.36. joh, 12.14. By the top of the ears of corn cut down with sickles, the Lord calls us to consider of Death, by whose sickle we are all cut down in like manner. job, 24.24. Rev. 14.15 By the stubble, which is the middle of the stalk betwixt the root & the ear of corn, as being a most vain thing, easily scattered by the wind, jer. 13.24. Esa. 40.24. and devoured by fire, whereunto it is reserved, joel. 2.5. Esa. 5.24. the vanity of man perishing as stubble is often described unto us. And above the rest, when the Lord calls sinners to think of their end, he takes the light chaff upon the grains of corn in the ear, & shows that unto them, affirming that they also are but as chaff before the whirlwind or the fire; Psa. 1.4. job, 21.18. Esa. 17.13. yea & the multitude of them & their princes as the chaff of the summer threshing-floores, where it most aboundeth. Da. 2.35.  
(i) From the lesser plants let us go to the greater; from herbs to trees. The trees of the orchyard, & those in special, that were in election above others to reign as kings over the rest, judg. 9.8. etc. are called of God to call us to think of our latter end. In them & by them the Lord teacheth us how we pass away: as the vine shakes of his unripe grape; as the olive casts of his flower, job, 15.33. as the figtree casteth her untimely figs, being shaken of a mighty wind, Rev. 6, 13. as the bramble or thorns in the hedge of the orchyard, green or dry are taken away by force, Psa. 58.9. as the crackling of thorns under the pot, a flash and presently out, Eccl. 7.6. Psa. 118.12. so is the life and glory of sinners suddenly at an end: and these plants are memorials thereof unto us. From the trees of the orchyard proceed we on to the trees of the forest: and by the way consider the mists and morning clouds above our heads, and the morning dew under our feet, both suddenly vanishing away; Hose. 13.3. by them the swift when she hasteth to the prey, serves by the counsel of God herein to represent the swiftness of our days, & how we hast to our end, to be a prey for the grave. job, 9.26. The Moth as little & weak as the Eagle is great & strong, serves yet to teach us the same lesson as well as the king of birds. Though the moth be so frail that by touching it is consumed, & the substance left behind upon the fingers, yet mortal men are crushed before the moth, job 4.19. even their beauty consumes away like the moth. Psa. 39.11. the moth of consumption eats them up. Esa. 50.9. & 51.8. Hos. 5.12 As the Lord rides upon the Cherubims & flies abroad upon the wings of the wind: so upon the wings of the moth used for his service & made his Ambassador to deliver unto man a message of his mortality, that he might remember his end.  
(l) Thus do all kind of creatures made for man, serve to warn him of his vanity: And it is not simply the mere volubility of the heavens & instability of the earth, that give us this warning; but this whole globe of heaven & earth is created & given unto us of God for a Watch or Clock, whereby we might learn to number our times, & our passing away in them. The several lights of the firmament are ordained of God, for signs & for seasons, for days & for years, Gen. 1.14. The Sun by his height & motion doth plainly declare the time of the day, being looked on to that end; & by the variation of his shadow in the degrees of the dial, as in that of Ahaz, Esa. 38.8. doth more exactly distinguish & determine the hours unto us. Yea the window in every man's house standing against the Sun, serves for a dial to show the hour of the day more or less: and to them that are abroad in the streets or field in the sunshine; even the shadow of their own persons, the stature of their own body serving for the gnomon of a dial, doth show the difference of hours according to the variety of the shadow stretched out & declining in diverse degrees, jer. 6.4. Men that have been a while intent unto their work & eftsoons look up & see the declining of the shadow, the sight of this declination is as the sound of a voice unto them, saying, The Time passeth; The end draweth on; Man walketh in a shadow; & sleeth away as a shadow: job, 14.2. Psa. 109.23. and so giveth him occasion to try himself & his ways, what good he hath been doing that while. And as plainly do the stars also by sundry ways declare the hour of the night unto us, and teach us the same lessons.  
Neither do the lights of heaven declare unto us the hours of the day & night only, in regard of their diurnal motions; but the planets by an other obliqne motion entering into the signs of the Zodiac successively, & finishing that course some in a month, some in a year, & of the superior planets the highest in thirty years, the next in twelve, & the next in two years, do hereby very plainly distinguish both the months of the year & the years of longer periods of time, for which we have no proper names. As the Greeks of old had their Olympiads with other reckonings; and as the Prophets described their stories not only from the reign of their Kings after one reckoning, but from many different points & terms of time in respect of God's judgements or mercies, or men's defection or repentance. Exod. 12.41.1. Kin. 6.1. jer. 25.1. Ezek. 1.1. & 4.5. Amos. 1.1. Hag. 2.18.19. so the Lord in his unsearchable wisdom hath given unto us many heavenly dials & instruments of numbering our days; all of them witnesses how our time passeth: and God calleth us by so many, that if one or two signs would not prevail with us, yet more might, Exo. 4.9. one coming into our sight after another, & teaching us to examine ourselves & our estate both for shorter & longer times, & to be prepared for the work of God, as the Angels, for an hour, & a day, & a year. Rev. 9.15.  
But that which is yet more wonderful, these celestial bodies do not only declare & sign out the times unto us; but they altar & change the times & make the seasons to differ one from another. As the cartwheeles on the earth where they go, leave a tract or furrow behind them; so the wheels of these planets & stars in their conversions make a deep impression upon the earth, according to the diversity of their motions: and some of them bring the spring, some the summer, some autumn, & some duly draw on winter as with bands & cords. job. 38.31.32. & 9.9. This their operation is manifested in great variety, & in such manner that thereby they produce many new real dials upon the earth. And from hence in diverse flowers we have a plain distinction of the hours in the day; while some still turn their face unto the Sun, from the rising to the setting, as Heliotropium or Turnsol; some declare the approach of the evening by shutting their flowers before, as the Daisies, Marigold, Dandelion & others; some are so strangely affected that they show it to be high noon by closing up themselves just at that time, as we see daily in the flower that is called Goates-beard or the star of jerusalem. Others again distinguish the months of the year, some springing & flourishing in one month & some in others successively in order, as we see in the Primrose, Violet, Rose, Gillyflower & others which follow even unto the winter months. Thus the plants of the earth together with the planets of heaven become monitors of the time passing away.  
Neither is this to be observed in the plants only, but in the sensitive creatures also, the fowls, fishes, & fourfooted beasts: the birds show us the time of the day; some sing at a certain hour of the night before day; Mar, 13.35. some little birds at the daybreak; Eccl. 12.4. some at noon, & some nightbirds in the evening. They distinguish also the times of the year; sometimes revived, sometimes drooping and decaying again in great variety. They know the times of their coming and going, some in one month and some in another, as the Stork, the Turtle, the Crane, and the Swallow. jere. 8.7. and the fishes likewise have their appointed seasons, as is daily observed by the fishmongers. All these shall rise up in judgement against them that know not the acceptable time, nor learn to redeem it, though the Lord call them so many ways, and show them the time passing by so many devises.   

CHAP. III. Monitors of Death in & about a man's own self.  
His Breath. (a) Pulse. (b) Daily food, the necessity, & preparation of it, in the earth; (c) by the death of the creatures. (d) Apparel, the original, matter & necessity of it. (e) Labour in general, & sundry vocations in particular. (f) Sleep, a lively image of death. (g) Sin, the cause of death, feared of some, desired of others. (h) Extreme dangers threatening death. (i) Age & the changes thereof manifested by the face, & stature. (k) Old age described by the decay of strength, (l) of sense, (m) and of health.  
HItherto we have heard the call of God sounded out unto us in and by other creatures, by heaven and earth and the things therein that were made for man; now we are to consider how God comes nearer unto man, and from the state of man's own person, calling, and condition, calls him by the sight of himself to remember his latter end. And first, the Lord having made man of the dust of the earth, Gen. 2.7. and thereupon after his fall shown him his readiness to return to dust, Gen. 3.19. Eccl. 12.7. doth yet further call us to consider our frailty by ordaining that this house of clay is to be held upright by a puff of the air continually breathed in and out, and that this being stopped the house must presently fall down. Hereby our life hangs as it were lose before us, going in and out every moment: therefore is it called the breath of life, Gen. 2.7. & 7.15.22. our life being carried in & out upon the breath, & depending upon it. And as God tied life to our body by such a slender & weak thread, so he calls us oft to mark it & think on it & to remember our mortal estate by the breath of our nostrils so easily departing. Esa. 2.22. Psa. 146.4. & 104.29.  
(a) An other frail band of life, like unto our breathing, is the pulse, which ariseth from the heart & the arteries or beating veins, & this by a double motion of contraction & dilatation, whereby they are drawn in & out, both for the expelling of noxious fumes through the insensible pores of the flesh, & for the drawing in of cool air to refresh the heart & to feed the vital spirits. From the variety of the pulse are taken many signs of health & sickness, life & death: it is the character of our strength or weakness, & are we provoked to watchfulness.  
And as in the necessity of food, so in the quality thereof is our corruptible estate made evident unto us. Our food before it come into the body is diversely prepared; and the principal fruits for nourishment of man & comfort of his life, as corn, & wine, & figs, & the like, are ripened & made to grow more abundantly by the dung and excrements of beasts cast upon them: Luke. 13.8. from the juice of the dung is the fatness and sweetness of the fruits increased. And from hence is the strength of our corruptible life: hence we may say to corruption, Thou art my father. As once the meat of the miserable jews in their distress was prepared with dung; Ezek. 4.12, 13.15. so is our food daily in the growth of it, as it were seasoned, baked, and concocted with dung. The earth accursed for our sin is brought to this base condition that the fattest increase thereof is from excrements, and it yields fruit unto the mouth of man from the tail of the beasts. After it is in the body a great part of it by the alteration there, is turned into corruption, and received into diverse loathsome sinks and channels within the body till it be again expelled. By this perishing food, joh. 6.27. God doth admonish us of our perishing estate; & shows unto us, that meats are for the belly and the belly for meats, that he will destroy both it & them. 1. Cor. 6.13. Thus the staff of our strength & the very pillars of our life do carry in them the remembrance of destruction & corruption for our warning.  
(c) But this is not all: Our food is not only of corruption, but we feed even of death itself, & that by the allowance of God, Gen. 9.3. in taking away the life of other creatures to maintain our own; especially in these last times when he hath said unto us of them all, Rise, kill & eat, Act. 10.13. Whatsoever is sold in the shambleses, that eat, ask no question for conscience sake. 1 Cor. 10.25. herein we see death daily presented to us & set before us on our tables. This is seriously to be thought upon as a wonderful work of God: by the death of other creatures our life is preserved: our living bodies are sustained by their dead carcases: in their blood swims our life; and from their pangs of death spring the pleasures of our life, our feasts & ordinary food. As the savage Camniballes eat the flesh of men; so we eat the flesh of beasts that that which any creature may serve to be a witness of for convincing of sinners, that doth the Lord declare to be their cry & a denunciation of woe from them. Habac. 2.11. job. 31.38. jam. 5.2.3. and in like manner that misery which the creature enthralled by sin doth endure for man, that doth the Apostle expressly call their groaning and travelling together in pain with us, etc. Rom. 8.22. These groans & cries are then especially to sound in our ears, while we are eating of them: as the Hare newly taken cries in the mouth of the greyhound; so should we be affected as if the same cry were made when we eat thereof, & have their flesh betwixt our teeth. The Gentleman that sits at his table above in his dining chamber, and was not present in the kitchen or butchery, to see the execution, the convulsions of death, the sprinting & gasping of the slaughtered creatures, is yet by remembrance to represent the same and to make it present again in his eating: for eating & burying of them in our bellies is more than killing of them, & a further means to strike the heart with thought of death, procured for the eater. Our stupidity & blockishness must needs be very great, if we consider not this fearful & wonderful providence of God: and we shall be worse than the beasts themselves, if we harken not unto the call which God by them gives us, to awaken us out of our security, & to make us remember our frail condition.  
(d) An other help to preserve our frail bodies is our raiment and apparel which God hath given to cover and defend the body without, as food within. And from hence we have a double or triple memorial of Death; considering that our apparel was then first given unto us, when by our sin we first came into the state of death, & not before, Gen. 2.25. with c. 3.7. And then when God first gave our garments unto us, he took them out of Death's wardrobe, they being made with the death of the creatures from whence they were taken. God made coats of skins for Adam & his wife & his posterity: Gen. 3.21. Heb. 11.37. The skins of the poor creatures were plucked over their ears & torn from their backs to cover the shame of our skins, & to hide the nakedness of our hides. And what was said of joab in another case, are swifter than a post, job. 9.25. that we ride post as on dromedaries that run by the way in all haste to their journeys end. And the travel that men have by sea in the most swift ships is mentioned of God to represent the swiftness of our time that carries us night and day, sleeping or waking to the haven of death. job 9.26. And according to this wisdom of God and his example should men make right use of other trades and their labours therein, to set their latter end continually before their eyes thereby.  
(f) As labour & toil in the day, so sleep & rest from labour in the night season, is also a necessary help to preserve this mortal life. This sleep is a lively image of death. For in sleep men lie down as dead men, without sense and motion, ceasing from their works and taking no knowledge of the things that are done by others: and therefore the holy Ghost often describeth death by the name of sleep, or lying down to sleep. Genes. 47.30. Deuter. 31.16. 1. King. 2.10. job. 3.13. and ch. 14.12. Psalm. 76.5. Matt. 27.52. john. 11.11. Acts. 7.60. 1. Corinth. 11.30. 1. Thessaly. 4.13. By this marvellous work of God in breaking off the course of life, and making Sleep like an Half-death to invade us continually, to come upon us like an unresistable Giant every day and to throw us down; and then by his manner of speech in calling death a Sleep, he calleth us by consideration of our sleep to consider our death; & by the sight of our bed to remember our grave, to look upon it as a Tomb or Sepulchre, & every night before we go into it to labour for reconciliation with God, & at the end of the day to seek new sense of his love in Christ as we would do at the end of our life, that so we may lie down & sleep safely. Had any man some special disease, as of the falling sickness, Apoplexy, Palsy, Lethargy, or the like terrible passion, whereby at a certain time of the day he should duly fall down like a dead man, and lie snorting at the gates of death for an hour or two, until the malignant humour were discussed and the force of the fit were over; would we not think that man warned of God, thereby to remember his end 7.8.9. but with the faithful there is another remembrance of death by occasion of sins, as comfortable to them, as the former is terrible to the wicked. For in sight of sins that grieve them they call to mind what shall quite free them from those sins; and what is that but death? Thereupon they set death before their eyes, and are taught of God so to do, longing for their redemption, and desiring to remove out of the body, which is by death. Rom. 8.23. 2. Cor. 5.8. And how many ways than is death propounded unto us? which way can we look on the right hand or on the left, before us or behind us, but every way the memorials of death are before us? Transgressions past, sins present, fears of the wicked, desires of the godly, all lead to the thought of death, and to the remembrance of our latter end.  
(h) Again the afflictions, sicknesses & dangers, wherein death is threatened unto men, are likewise means of death, and by them also we are called of God to remember our latter end. It pleaseth God for the warning of secure men, to bring men to the gates of death before they enter: Psal. 19.13. and though he bring them back again, yet is this done of God for a memorial of death. God brings men into such extremity that they make full account to die, they receive the sentence of death in themselves, & despair of life, 2. Cor. 1.8.9. and are free among the dead in their own and others judgement; Psal. 88.4.5. and this many times, they are in deaths often: 2. Corint. 11.23. and such things God worketh oftentimes, that men might renounce the world, job. 33. 22-29. and set their house in order, & their heart in order to die, that being delivered they might then remember what thoughts & desires, what prayers & purposes they had in their souls, and recall them often, for their preparation against the time of their final departure out of this world. Esa. 38.1.15. etc. As jehosaphat having cried out in the danger of death, 2. Chron. 18.31. was bound to remember that very cry and disposition of his heart afterward: so forasmuch as there is almost no man which hath not seen the face of Death and his dart shaken against him in being pale, withered and wrinkled, & the shadow of death sitting upon their eyelids; and some in diverse degrees betwixt both: and especially in the sight of friends long absent and changed in that time, we are called to think how the fashion of this world passeth away.  
As the face so the stature of man growing up as a plant, according to the diverse measures and degrees of his growth appointed of God, Psalm. 144. 12. Luk. 1.80. and 2.52. is another testimony of his changeable estate, even from the child of a span long unto those that have their full growth. Lam. 2.20. Though some be of low stature, as Zaccheus Luke. 19.3. and some again higher than the common sort by the head, as was Saul; 1. Sam. 10.23.24. yet even in these compared with themselves the proportion of their growth is an evidence of their age to such as know them. Though men being come to their full stature stand at a stay, and lose not their stature by such degrees as they attained unto it in their youth; yet many times we see in experience that crooked old age bowing down their heads more & more to the earthward, they do hereby after a sort lose their stature by degrees, & grow into the ground again. And thus the wheel of man's age visibly & sensibly turning about according to the variation of his stature is another admonition to remember the latter end approaching.  
(k) Beside the face & stature, the Lord hath set sundry other marks upon the bodies of young and old, for memorials of their time passing away at the changes of their age. The younger people have the time of love described of God by diverse marks and tokens thereof: Ezech. 16.7.8. but especially old age hath the tokens of neere-approching death imprinted upon them, whereby they are warned of God to prepare for it. The decay of strength, the decay of sense, the decay of health, are all forerunners of death, and summon them to their end. Through decay of strength the arms and hands, the keepers of the house, begin to tremble. Ecclesi. 12.3. and the legs that are as pillars thereof do bow themselves; and the help of a staff as a third leg to rest on, is sought of the aged person, Zach. 8.4. and with that wooden leg at every step he goes, he strikes upon the earth & raps at the gate of the grave, until it be opened unto him. By this weakness death comes & puts his manacles upon their hands, & his shackles upon their legs, for remembrance of their end. This weakness is further signified by the ceasing of the grinders in the mill, Eccles. 12.3. both the upper & the neither millstone, which are called the life of man; Deut. 24.6. These teeth failing, life gins to fail. From this weakness the doors of the lips are shut without, the sound of the grinding is low, & the voice hoarse: and so whether the old persons work with their hands, or walk with their feet, or eat with their teeth, or speak with their lips, the memorial of death is in each of these set before them. And as in the outward parts of the body, so the like weakness & decay of strength is to be observed in the inward parts, and as a cause of that which is in the outward. The silver coards of the sinews, which carry the faculty of sense & motion from the head, in old age are loosed: Eccles. 12.6. that cable of the marrow in the backbone, which was wont so firmly to hold & stay the frail bark of our body tossed with so many motions, and by those many conjugations of nerves like so many pair of oars on each side did row the galley up and down, gins now to dissolve. The head which is the golden bowl, wherein is emboxed the brain that ministers that faculty of sense & motion, through age is broken & becomes crazy. The many pitchers of the veins, which carry the nourishing blood from the well of the liver unto each part of the body, become like unto broken vessels. And the wheel of the arteries, which by the reciprocal motions & pulses do convey the vital spirits from the cistern of the heart into the furthest coasts of the little world, for the quickening of the whole flesh, even to the toes & fingers ends, through languishing age gins to turn & return slowly & weakly. And all these faint operations are so many memorial of death, and do plainly portend the approach of our latter end, & every one of them admonisheth us to watch. Again from this weakness & decay of strength both in the outward and inward parts, ariseth an other memorial of death, to be seen in that which is esteemed no taste what he eats, or what he drinks: 2. Sam. 19.35. old Isaac by his touch cannot feel the difference betwixt the hands of his son & the skin of a beast: Gen. 27.16.21.22.23. old David is covered with clothes, & feels no heat: 1. Kings. 1.1. concupiscence departs; Eccle. 11.5. Abishag the fair virgin lies in his bosom & he knows her not. 1. Kin. 1.4. Yea the inward senses begin to fail also; memory decays; the understanding is diminished, & old men some times in their decrepit age come to be little children again, not able to discern betwixt good & evil. 2. Sam. 19.35. How inexcusable are they that live securely, & think not of death, whereof they have so many warnings before hand?  
(m) With decay of strength & sense comes the decay of health. Old age is many times a continual sickness, & when the days of man are multiplied, they are but labour & sorrow, even the strength of them. Psa. 90.10. Then is the time when the evil days approach, and the years of which man saith, I have no pleasure in them. Eccle. 12.1. Then is the light of Sun, Moon, & stars obscured: and then the clouds return after the rain; one infirmity after another. v. 2. Through decay of natural heat ariseth indigestion & crudity of stomach, & thereupon follow rheums, & catarrhs; and from thence comes ache in the bones, & manifold pains & diseases, whereby the Lord as with an iron pen writeth our lesson, & engraveth this sentence deep in our flesh & bones, Remember your latter end approaching. In all the pains of old age the finger of God nippeth & pincheth men, to make them think of his call & prepare for death.  
upon. God shows that then he exspects a special act of humiliation, when at our end he visits us with such pains; that we are to mourn for sins committed in the world before we depart out of it, when he sends such sorrow unto us at that time especially. Then are we called to stir up the grace of God within us, and to raise up our spirits with all love & reverence to meet the Lord, that we may receyve his blessing, and enter into his gates with joy & into his courts with thanksgiving.  
(a) Again this pain prevailing at the approach of death, causeth men to lie down & to fall flat along upon their beds, job. 33.19. Act. 5.15. and to let all the affairs of the world alone, with the works of their calling. Through infirmity of the body God forceth them to stoop, & calleth them to remember their frailty & their end; as if he should command them to couch down before him, and require them to prostrate their souls at his footstool in seeking his favour & mercy in christ, even as their bodies are prostrate by his hand. This very position of the body represents unto us how the grass withers & the flower falls, and admonisheth us in our souls to worship & fall down before the Lord our maker; and by faith to enforce our bodies also leaning on our staff, to worship upon the bed's head, Heb. 11.21. Gen. 47.31. and 48.2. that he may straightway lift us up for ever. As jacob bowed himself to the ground seven times, at the approach of his brother Esaw: Gen. 33.3. so the Lord himself by sickness thrusts us down seven times; we are often up & down; we lift up ourselves, but cannot hold up our heads: God teacheth us there by to come submissively creeping into his presence, & humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us. 1. Pet. 5.6.  
(b) An other warning to think of the end at hand, is that distaste of meat and want of appetite in sick persons; when their life abhorreth bread, & their soul dainty meat. job. 33.20. When the staff of bread fails & the stay of natural life is withdrawn, than God calls the sick persons to remember their end, to double their care for eternal life, to seek the hidden manna, unknown & unregarded of the world, Rev. 2.17. to feed upon the bread of God which cometh down for their end. This iron sleep is a black cloud of death, a nightshade & a particular darkness, of which in its measure is verified that more general saying of our Saviour, The night comes, when no man can work: joh. 9.4. and therefore while there is light & liberty of mind in the time of health, the end is to be remembered & provided for, before the hours of oppression do come upon the mind.  
(e) Sometimes in sickness, though sleep oppress not, there is a kind of raving distraction, caused by frenzy, or melancholy, or other distemperatures, which doth overwhelm the mind, as Nebuchadnezzars' once was by the stroke of God, Dan. 4. so that it is unfit to think of death, or to seek any comfort against the danger thereof. And from hence therefore it doth likewise appear how unwise they are that defer the time of their repentance unto the time of death, when it is uncertain whether they shall be masters of their own wits, & natural understanding, not to speak of supernatural grace which is further above the reach of man, & yet necessary to salvation.  
(f) Sometimes the very vehemency & extremity of pain doth trouble & disturb the mind, and disables it that it cannot orderly & quietly dispose itself unto godly & comfortable meditations; but being overcome with impatience frets & murmurs & is tossed up & down without fruit. Therefore are these extremities of anguish compared to a cup of intoxicating wine, making men as it were drunken with grief, Esa. 51.17. 21.22. Lam 4.21. and even mad with woe & sorrow, that they know not what to do. Deut. 28.34. jer. 25.16. Eccles. 7.7. And what folly is it then for men to be unprepared through forgetfulness of their latter end, & to remain drunken with security all their life till they be drowned in a gulf of misery? Perplexity & extreme anguish may justly come as a snare upon them that abuse their present peace & ease, promising themselves liberty & power to dispatch all that is needful for their salvation in one moment of their last distress.  
(g) And commonly when death approacheth, our adversary the devil, that prince of darkness, that hath gone about as a roaring lion watching to devour us at all opportunities before, doth them especially rage, knowing that his time is short, Rev. 12. 12. and withal seeks to take advantage by the present infirmity of the sick persons, insinuating himself into each of the former troubles, adding fearful dreams to their slumbers, strong fancies to their distraction, aggravating their pains with diverse terrors. Experience shows what great temptations many have undergone upon their deathbed. And therefore the consideration of this last great combat should warn every one betimes to arm themselves, to gather strength every day against the last day, to furnish themselves with grace, to seek truth & righteousness, faith & patience, store of comfortable promises out of the word of God laid up in their hearts & kept in readiness, to nourish themselves in hope, to watch & pray uncessantly; that having concluded this last combat & obtained the victory, they may then be translated from a state militant to a state triumphant for ever.  
(h)  
THese forewarnings are such as serve chief for the instruction of those that feel them, & on whose persons they are inflicted: but beside these forewarnings the dead leave unto the living many after-warnings of their mortality, which admonish the succeeding generation that they must follow their praedecessours. And here first of all observe, how it is ordered by divine providence, that in death the soul & body be separated one from the other. In this separation the Soul is carried away invisibly; no man knoweth how nor whither. No humane sense can discern the spirit of man ascending. Ecc. 3.21. The Lord in his unsearchable counsel would have the opening of the gates of the second world to be kept secret & close from us. If godly parents should see the souls of their children carried away to destruction in the claws of an hellish dragon, & crying unto them with a lamentable and desperate voice, what horror & woe would this be unto them, to make their days more uncomfortable so long as they should live on earth? God in great mercy conceals it from them. If wicked & ungodly men should see their children or companions souls haled away by evil spirits after they were separated from their bodies, & withal should hear them shrike & cry & curse their company, what a stroke of terror might this be unto them? but God in justice hides these things from them & will not satisfy the curiosity of profane men, that despise his Gospel and the means of life revealed therein. This secret manner of translating the separated souls in carrying some close prisoners to Hell, and transporting others in covered wagons & invisible chariots unto Glory, serves to warn and admonish us by the very form thereof, so much the more to remember the other evident monuments of our frailty. When secret things are restrained to the Lord, the things revealed are immediately thereupon the more enforced upon us to observe the same. Deut. 29.29. When the Spirit records how some persons, men or angels, have vanished out of the sight of those they had spoken withal, we are to observe how they were occasioned thereby to think the more of that which they had seen & heard from such, and not to pry into that which was withdrawn from them. Luke, 24.31.32. Act. 8.39. judg. 6.21.22. etc. Yea the Lord appointed that they should not be suffered to live, which went about to talk with the dead soul or to raise the spirits. Levit. 20.27. 1. Sam. 28.8 9 etc. But by all this we are so much the more led to observe the common visible memorial of mortality showed unto us in them that die before us.  
(i) It is further to be observed, that when the spirit is carried away presently to God that gave it, yet the body remains behind & returns to dust from whence it came. Eccles. 12.7. If God by death had taken away both the soul & the body together at the same time; if it had pleased God to take away all men as Henoch & Elias were; Heb. 11.5. Gen. 5.24. 2. Kin. 2.11.17. or to bury all men so as Moses was, Deut. 34.6. namely so that their bodies should be seen no more among men; yet even then, there were cause enough to remember that wonderful great & final translation: but now seeing every man departing this life leaves a piece of himself among his friends on earth, yea the one half of his person, and that half which is the visible part, even the body that was best known among men; the Lord by this fragment of man that is left, gives us occasion to think what is done with the rest, and to keep in memory the death past, to prepare us for death to come. As Elias ascending to heaven let his mantle fall, for a remembrance so much care for our bodies as we do for the souls; according to this example of God, who shows more love & respect to the souls, taking them first into his heavenly Kingdom & glory, when as he suffers the body so long a time after, to lodge in dishonour, & to remain in the pit of corruption. 1. Cor. 15.43.  
(l) The sequestration of the body from the place where the soul is, and the corruption of it being separate, are memorials wrought immediately by Gods own hand: beside these there are other after-warnings of death effected by the providence of God mediately by the services of men, that seek the honour of the dead & comfort of the living. For honour of the dead, holy men of old have showed great care to provide sepulchres, tombs, & monuments for them. Such were the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham; Gen. 40.30.31. and 23. the pillar on Rachel's grave that jaakob set up, Gen. 35.20. that continued so many generations to samuel's time; 1. Sam. 10.2. the title on the sepulchre of the man of God, that prophesied of josias; 2. Kin. 23.17.18. the sepulchre of David, that continued twice fourteen generations, from David to the Apostles time, Act. 2.29. having been preserved in the time of the Babylonian captivity, even then when both city & temple were destroyed, with many the like. These monuments are in Scripture called Memorials, Mnemeia, Matth. 23.29. john. 11.38. and 19.41. and 20 1. by which (whatsoever others intended) the godly are taught to remember their latter end. The garnished tombs and the sumptuous sepulchres are but so many scaffolds, stages & theatres of humane frailty, and so many pulpits out of which our mortality is preached: and all the common graves of the people are the coffers of death, the sight whereof should teach us to lay up our treasure in heaven. And thus, though the touch of a grave defiled the body with a ceremonial pollution in the time of the Law; Numb. 19.16. yet the sight of a grave may serve to cleanse the soul by a spiritual consideration of our end, even as the sight of the Leviathan raised up, did bring men to purify themselves, fearing lest the whale might be their grave. job. 41.25. with job, 3.8.  
(m) The grave being prepared for the dead corpse, than men proceed with their may obtain.  
(n) Having been at the grave & performed the last duty to the person of the dead, we then return & come from the dead to the living, to the friends of the dead, to mourn with them, to comfort them, and (as the kindred & special friends of old used) to eat & drink with them & give them the cup of consolation: Rom. 12.15. jer. 16.7.8. Gen. 37.35. 1. Chro. 7.22. joh. 11.19. and in this action we have an other call to remember our end. While we minister consolation to others, we are to take an exhortation to ourselves. The house of mourning is the school of mortification; and therefore better to enter into it then into the house of feasting: for there is the end of all men, which the living will lay unto his heart, & so be made better in his heart by the consideration of the dead & by the sadness of the countenances waiting on that consideration. Eccles. 7.2.3.4.  
(o) When the comforters of them that mourn are departed from the mourning house & gone every one to his own; yet still the friends of the dead, even while they live on earth, so often as they miss their friends departed, & want the help & benefit which they were wont to enjoy from them, so often are they called to remember death, that makes such separations. La. 4. 18-20. The widows, orphans, desolate parents, oppressed subjects, & scattered sheep, that are deprived of their loving husbands, parents, children, rulers, pastors, or any friend & neighbour that misseth the company of an other, are by this want called to remember both that death past which took away their friends, & that death to come which shall again restore them & bring them together. 1. Thess. 4.13.14. 2. Sam. 12.23. And in this remembrance they are withal warned to make themselves ready for death, & not to be glued unto this world from whence their comforts are taken away. When the shepherd takes up the young lamb, the ewe follows him of herself, and needs no more calling or driving: when the great shepherd of the sheep takes away the souls of young & old, & of dearest friends from one another, it is to make them run after the Lord & to long after his presence, in whom they shall find all & more than all that ever they lost in this world. So often as we think of a mother, a father, or other entire serve to make a deeper impression into the soul, and to keep the memory of itself in the mind more than a thousand other memorial beside. A strange thing it were, if a man that were to be judged the next day of life & death, and to receive sentence either of a most cruel & shameful death or of a rich & honourable estate during his life; if this man could not keep in mind the judgement approaching until the next morrow, without tying strings about his fingers for remembrance, or writing some caveats upon the posts of the prison, or procuring some watchmen to come every hour whispering in his ear to tell him of the danger imminent, of life or death: And as strange or more is it, that these great & main matters of Eternal Salvation or Eternal Condemnation should not by their own greatness press the heart of man with the weight thereof unto a continual remembrance of them, without other warnings; when as we know not whether we shall have one days respite before they come.  
(a) The last end of the godly is eternal life. This life consists especially in fellowship with God & the Saints. By fellowship with God men come to see God; Matt. 5.8. even to see him as he is; 1. joh. 3.2. to see his face which living man was never able to see on earth; Exo. 33.20. to see him, before whom the glorious Seraphims do cover their faces with their wings; Esa. 6.2. to see the holy Trinity, the blessed Father, Son, & H. Ghost, clothed with the sacred robes of their several beauty and majesty, shining distinctly as the pure jasper, the carnation Sardine, & the green Emerald. Rev. 4.3. Then the Son will show himself unto his elect, joh. 14.21. and they shall see his glory; joh. 17.24. and the Father shall be seen in him; joh. 14.9.10. and with them both the seven Spirits which are before the throne even that one and the same Spirit enlightening with his sevenfold graces and gifts that bright sevenfold lamp of his Church. Rev. 1.4. with. 4.5. 1. Cor. 12.11. With this vision shall the soul be satisfied when they awake Psal. 17.15. The pleasure of this surmounts the joy of all pleasant things seen by any eye. If all the pleasure that all the most ardent lovers received at any or at all times from all the most beauteous & amiable countenances of their dearest spouses & fairest loves in & the like promises. Therefore is that end ever to be remembered & longed after. Then especially shall it appear how the elect remain as lambs in the bosom of the Lord their shepherd. Esa. 40.11. Then will it be further revealed how God dwelleth in them & they in him; 1. joh. 4.15.16. & therefore need not fear being kept far off, as men on earth that were kept from the bodily presence of Christ being in the house, because of the throng at the door. Mar. 2.2.4. The incomprehensible Lord filling heaven & earth, jer. 23.24. is himself a house where they shall dwell, and they a mansion wherein he will make his abode: joh. 14.23. By this heavenly conjunction & cohabitation with God shall the elect be one, even as the Father & the Son are one; Christ in them and the Father in him, that they may be perfect in one. joh. 17.22.23. This thrice blessed & most glorious union is that green bed of Christ & his Spouse, Sol. song. 1.16. an eternal paradise of comfort and garden of pure delights. Oh what madness is it to forsake that green bed for any bed of pleasure in the world! By this communion the Lord embraceth his elect with both arms of his love, & putteth them in his bosom; Sol. song. 2.6. & 8.3. and in this divine embracement there is felt more happiness & heavenly joy, than all the love & fruits of love, or whatsoever went under the name of the tenderest and strongest affection in this world, could ever yield unto the heart of man. For if the first fruits of spiritual joy now at this present, in the mids of tribulation, be an hundred fold more than all the pleasure of houses & lands, fathers & mothers, wife & children, the most desirable things of this world; Mark. 10.29.30. then how can it be but more than an hundred thousand fold pleasure to enjoy the beauty & face of God in heaven, to inherit the fullness of joy in his presence, & pleasures for evermore at his right hand? If the infinite blessedness of the glorious persons in the holy Trinity doth appear in their mutual union, so that they were an all-sufficient & eternal delight unto themselves, in enjoying one an other continually before the world was, before men or angels were made; Prov. 8.30. then may we well think, how our vessels shall be filled and overflow with heavenly comfort, 1. joh. 1.4. when we come to drink of that divine fountain, and enter into our Master's able to bring to pass. And therefore as in the transfiguration of Christ, his face did shine as the Sun; Matt. 17.2. even so shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Matt. 13.43. As the raiment of Christ through the brightness of his body, did shine as the transparent light; Matt. 17.2. & was exceeding white as snow; Mark. 9.3. and withal white & glistering: Luk. 9.29. so the whole person of the elect made whiter than snow in their transfiguration, shall shine & glister & sparkle with a radiant beauty & heavenly brightness: yea then shall the Moon be abashed & the Sun ashamed before the Lord & his ancients, when the Lord shall reign in Zion; Esa. 24.23. when he shall be glorified in the Saints, and made marvellous in all them that believe. 2. Thes. 1.10. If the face of Moses, while he was yet clothed with corruption, when he had seen but the back parts of the Lord, and that but for a moment in one vision, did yet shine so gloriously, that men fled away amazed from him & durst not behold the brightness of his countenance; Exo. 34.30. with c. 33.23. what then shall be the glory of the faithful, when being clothed with immortality, they shall see God face to face, and that in a perpetual vision for evermore?  
(d) From this transfiguration of the Saints made so glorious by the sight of God & fellowship with him, ariseth the glory of their fellowship one with another, which is also an unspeakable felicity of the second life; to enjoy all the beauty & all the love of all the glorified souls & bodies in heaven. As jonathan seeing the grace of God in David, & his worthiness, was knit unto him & loved him as his own soul; 1. Sam. 18.1. so here the Saints beholding the glory of God revealed in each other, shall be linked together in the nearest bonds of entire affection. They that first give themselves to God, do then give themselves unto one an other by the will of God. 2. Cor. 8.5. They are all one in Christ jesus. Gal. 3.28. There is one body & one spirit: Eph. 4.4. all are gathered together in one, under one head, whether things in heaven or in earth, men & Angels, whether they be thrones, or principalities, or powers. Eph. 1.10.22. All things are the Saints; whether it be Paul, or Apollo's, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, of her and embraced in her arms for ever! The loving society of godly men even in their present weakness, is magnifyed as a good & pleasant thing, as a precious ointment, as the dew of Hermon & Zion: Psal. 133.1.2.3. how good & pleasant then is the heavenly conversation and cohabitation of the Saints? even as the dew of Paradise, where God hath appointed the blessing for ever to make those beauteous blossoms therein to flourish eternally. As ointment & perfume rejoice the heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel; Prov. 27.9. and what then is the sweetness and joy of that communion, where every heart is a several closet replenished with all store & variety of divine ointments & perfumes for the mutual delight of the Saints? The consolation of Christ is there most perfect, the comfort of love & fellowship of the spirit are complete & full; and so the joy of every one is fulfilled in being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord & of one judgement: Phil. 2. 1.2. there is no crying nor complaining; Rev. 21.4. no curse, no angry word; no countenance of dislike or disdain; no evil, no occasion of evil, no appearance of evil, no suspicion of evil; no want of good in themselves, no envy of good in others; but every man's joy doubled for another's salvation, and glorified in another's glory. The principal delight is that God is found in them all; each being the temple of God, and his love the fire burning upon the altar of every heart: in each of them there is a vision of God & an image of his glory: he is seen in each & shines in them, and so at every turn they meet with God who is all in all & in every one of them. 1. Cor. 15.28. And they never pour out their hearts to one another, but withal they pour out praise unto God with streams of pleasure to themselves. And how infinitely manifold are their pleasures, where there are so many spirits of just & perfect men, Heb. 12.22.23. so many millions of Angels, thousand thousands & ten thousand times ten thousand standing before the Lord? Dan. 7.10. Rev. 5.11. If Peter thought it so good to be there where but two of the Saints, Moses & Elias appeared in glory with Christ; Luk. 9. 30-33. how good is it to be there where all appear together in glory with Christ, where the glory of every one shall appear more clearly and be better discerned, where every one shall be the precious jewel and treasure of another? O who are they which remembering this end, will not be content to make an end of their sinful courses to enjoy this communion? How unworthy a thing is it that the thoughts of vanity should thrust out of our minds these pleasant remembrances of our latter end and the comforts therein? If I forget thee O jerusalem, let my right hand forget itself: if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not jerusalem above my chief joy. Psalm. 137.5.6.  
(e) It is further to be considered that in all the main parts & acts of Christian life we are taught every day continually to remember this our latter end. All duties both of doing good through faith, hope and love, or of suffering evil for doing good through patience, are so many memorial thereof. The end of faith is the salvation of our souls, which it believeth 1. Pet. 1.9. the object of hope is life eternal, which it embraceth: Tit. 1.2 & 3.7. & 2.13. the comfort of love is translation from death unto life, whereof it assureth us: 1. joh. 3.14.18.19. the reward of patience is rest in the kingdom of heaven and an eternal weight of glory, which it looketh for. Matth. 5. 10-12. 2. Cor. 4.17. And thus the comfort of this blessed end is ever carried in the eye of faith, in the arms of hope, in the bosom of love, & borne as it were upon the shoulders of patience. And as all that is done by men being well considered, should bring this latter end to their remembrance; so all the works of special grace that are wrought by God for his children, before this world, in this world, or after this world, if we look upon them with a right eye, they do every one carry in them a remembrance of this glorious end & provoke us to think thereof. We cannot be assured of our election, but we see it as a book of life wherein we read our happy end, Phil. 4.3. and behold the kingdom prepared for us before the foundation of the world. Mat. 25.34. We cannot rightly think of our calling, unless we behold that marvellous light & glory where unto we are called. 1. Pet. 2.9. & 5.10. 2. Pet. 1.3. We do not conceive sufficiently the comfort of our justification by faith, unless eye on this end, and for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, and finished his course & the work committed unto him. Heb. 12.2. Oh let us not break the band that drew on Christ himself. Oh forgive us Lord that we have been so profane & carnal to forget this end so often: from henceforth keep it in our minds & fix it in our memories that it never slip away.   

CHAP. VI The latter end of the faithful compared with the primitive estate of the old world.  
Of the communion which man had with God, being created after his likeness. (a) The image of God in the soul, though perfectly beautiful & excellent, (b) yet inferior to the image of Christ in the faithful, the perfection & perpetuity thereof in the world to come. (c) The body at first though naked, yet without shame & pain, erect & upright, in all the senses fitted for communion with God; (d) but hereafter endued with more noble & heavenly qualities, spiritual, transparent, light, agile, ever vigilant in seeing & communicating with God. (e) The dominion over the creatures given at first, illustrated by the remnants thereof yet apparent. (f) not to be compared with that which shall be, in regard of heaven & earth & all that is therein.  
Of their mutual fellowship with one another. (g) Marriage the first band of society & ground of all other, & to that end instituted & honoured of God for their mutual comfort: (h) yet nothing like the glorious bands of communion with Saints & Angels in heaven. (i) What blessed communion Adam & Evah might have had with their posterity living to this day, if neither had sinned: (k) In a right line descendent viewing the long race of their progeny, with great joy to themselves, (l) and no less happiness to their children, who though living at greatest distance, might then with ease, & abundance of comfort have visited them and communicated with them: (m) In the collateral line extended on each side to brethren & sisters, all rejoicing in one another, in their loving, easy & pleasant visitations: (n) Yet all this comes short of the heavenly communion in the world to come, the love of Christ, the manifold rivulets of sweet fellowship, the free & glorious motions in the kingdom of heaven.  
THat we may the better comprehend that happy communion, wherewith the latter end of the faithful shall be glorified, let us somewhile leave our speech of the world to come, as also of this present world, and let us look back into the world that is gone & passed; let us behold the glory that is lost, that by the greatness thereof first considered in itself & then compared with this to come, the glory hereof may more evidently appear. That we may the better observe the difference, we are to set ourselves as it were in a middle gate betwixt two worlds, the old and the new, where we may have an open and free prospect into them both; and from thence we are to cast a look first into the old world, then into the new; with one eye to behold the first paradise in Eden, and with another the second paradise in the third heavens; with one look to view the first Adam, his gifts & his children, and with an other look to behold the second Adam, Christ jesus, his gifts & his children, and so to compare the glory of their estates together. In such a middle gate or tower of prospect into these two worlds, the Prophets & Apostles did often set themselves when they compared them together, as appeareth in those texts, Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. 2. Cor. 5.17. Behold I create new heavens & a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into my mind. Esa. 65.17. The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 1. Cor. 15.45. so v. 49. etc.  
(a) The glory of the old world in the primitive estate thereof, consisted also in a blessed fellowship with God and fellowship with men. This blessed fellowship of God with man appeared first in that he communicated his image and similitude with man, the beauty of which image shined especially in that wisdom holiness & righteousness, which God imprinted in the soul. Gen. 1.26.27. with Eph. 4.24. Coll. 3.10. Eccl. 7.29. By that wisdom he knew God & saw his glory, by that holiness he did cleave unto him & embrace him with love, reverence & confidence, and so in both communicated with God. At the bestowing of this image, each Person in the holy Trinity did work together, & each gave precious & excellent gifts unto man, for the beautifying of his soul with variety of graces, such as might make him a lovely creature, in whom the Lord himself might take delight: Rev. 4.10.11. with joh. 1.3. Coll. 1.16. job, 33.4. and therefore is the Trinity described consulting about this work, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; all are noted with the title of creators or makers, Eccl. 12.1. boreêcha. job. 35.10. ghnosai. As upon the loss of this image, when Adam begat a son in his own likeness, Gen. 5.3. all hateful & ugly deformity of sin succeeded & every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually: Gen. 6.5. so had he retained the image of God, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart should have been only good and gracious continually, without any inclination to evil or the least looking awry to any thing that might have been displeasant in the sight of God. And this image of God had been such a beauty as the eye of man never saw in this corrupt world; such a perfect beauty, such a symmetry & harmony of grace as that Gods own judicious eye should have found no fault or dislike in it.  
(b) And yet even this perfect beauty given at the first creation, was fare inferior and not to be compared with the glory of the world to come: even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of that which excelleth. 2. Cor. 3.10. The first man is of the earth earthly, though made perfect, yet in a lower degree of perfection: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they that be earthly; and as is the heavenly, such are they that be heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, 1. Cor. 15.47.48.49. and shall be made conform to the image of the Son of God: Rom. 8.29. and that pleasant image of Christ is the highest degree of perfection, the sweetest mirror of beauty in heaven or earth, staining the glory of the former image. The innocency of Adam was a white robe & a glorious ornament unto him; but the righteousness of God in Christ is a white robe more pure & precious, of a finer thread, of a brighter white, of a more divine fashion to adorn the soul; and by that righteousness put on, the Lord himself becomes a diadem of beauty unto his people, Esa. 28.5. & 62.3. King's use to give gifts according to the state of kings, great, & royal; Esth. 2.18. and so did the heavenly King at the first creation: but the have been no distemperature of the air as is felt now adays, no afflicting storms or tempests, no excess of cold or heat, but that the naked body unclothed without any pain or trouble might well have endured the same. Now both the shame & pain of nakedness is very great; Esa. 20.4. 2. Sam. 10.4.5. Reu. 3.18. & 16.15. 1. Cor. 4.11. 2. Cor. 11.27. and such that men strive to cover the whole body so fare as necessity will permit, the hands & face being therefore excepted; the face left uncovered, lest the eyes should be blindfold & the breath stopped; & the hands lest the manifold works of man in his diverse callings should be hindered; and yet even they also so muffled sometimes with masks & muffs & mittens, that with great cumber & trouble they are often in the day covered & uncovered & covered again to avoid the injury of the weather. A great freedom it was to have been without care what to put on; when as they needed no such exhortations as are since given to us thereabout. Matth. 6.25.31. Again the special form of man's body erect & upright with his face upward, whereas other creatures are made with their heads hanging downward & with their faces prone to the earth, doth show that man is called to fellowship with the Lord dwelling on high. As the Lord when he still exhorts us to lift up our eyes & look up toward God, doth in that phrase call us to communion with him, to trust in him, to love him & to aspire unto him: Psal. 123.2. Esa. 17.7. & 45.22. so when he made Adam in such a form with his head and eyes lift up, even in that manner of work the Lord called him to look to his Creator, and to embrace him the author of all his good. Besides this what are all the senses of the body but so many instruments of our communion with God, or so many doors of the soul by which both the Lord enters in to show himself, and the soul goes out to behold him? By them his praise is heard, his glory is seen, his goodness & gifts are tasted, his sweetness smelled, yea & groaped or handled of us. Acts. 17.27. By them both faith & love & fear of God is learned. As by the senses of the body God communicated his goodness with Adam, so by the members of his body he was to communicate his heart with God, to serve the Lord, to render thanks unto him, & to glorify him; at first, could not without a change have inherited the kingdom of God, 1. Cor. 15.50.51. His eyes had never seen nor could have seen that face of God which is in the light unapproachable. 1. Tim. 6.16. with Exo. 33.20. If the eyes of holy men have failed in waiting for the comforts and deliverances promised in this life; Psa. 119.82.123. how much more should our eyes wait & our flesh long for that end, where even in our flesh we shall see God, so as Adam in paradise could not do? job. 19.26.27. Oh that the remembrance of this end were printed deeply in our hearts! that it might ever be retained, as the words that are written or ploughed and the furrows engraven with an iron pen filled with lead in stead of ink, & in the stony rock in stead of paper, all firm to endure; so as job wished that his hope of this same glorious end might be recorded. job. 19.23.24. etc.  
(e) Look we back again into the old world, & behold how God further communicated his image with the whole person of man, in that dominion & lordship which he gave unto man over the earth & all the creatures in it. Gen. 1.28. Thereby Adam was crowned with honour and dignity; set over the works of God's hand, all things being put under his feet, sheep & oxen, beasts of the field, fowls of the air, & fish of the sea. Psal. 8.5.6.7.8. God brought them all before Adam, as it were to do homage unto him as unto their king, & in sign of subjection to receive their names from him. Gen. 2.19.20. Even after the fall & since the rebellion of the creatures thereupon, the service which they yet perform unto man is very great. The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib. Esa. 1.3. The husbandman hath taught the strong horse to be obedient unto him; to draw his plough & his cart, if he say go, he goeth; if he say come, he cometh; at one word the horse goeth right forward, at another he stands still and stirs not; at one word he turns to the right hand, at another he turns to the left hand. The silly sheep are taught to know the voice of their own shepherd, to follow him & to distinguish betwixt his voice & the voice of a stranger which they will not follow. john. 10.3.4.5. Experience shows how the doves are taught to carry letters for men. The birds great & small are tamed & taught to come at the call of man; even the ravenous hawks at the voice and call of the falconer. The dogs are taught many arts of hunting in diverse kinds. It is strange to hear & see how the waterfoules in Friesland, Waterland and elsewhere are taught to entice other wild fowls & bring them into the snare, and then to give a watchword unto their master to seize upon them. If thus fare they be subdued unto man, even after the fall, what is that service which they should have performed before the fall, when both man should have had more understanding to teach & govern them & they a more inclinable & tractable disposition to have obeyed? As jehosaphat witnessed his fellowship with the kings of Israel, when he professed, My people are as thy people, and my horses as thy horses; 1. Kings 22.4. & 2. Kings 3.7. so hath the Lord hereby declared his communion with man by making his creatures our servants, his horses our horses, etc.  
It cannot be conceived or known of us how great pleasure & delight man should have had in this dignity communicated unto him of God. The earth itself & all the increase thereof was also subjected unto man: Gen. 1.28. paradise & all the pleasant fruits thereof; Gen. 2.8.16. whereas otherwise every one might have been as dangerous & pernicious to be eaten & tasted of as was the forbidden fruit: the green grass diversified with sweet flowers of sundry colours & shapes was spread as a pleasant carpet for man to tread upon; and by a special providence the ground was green, a colour wholesomest for the eyesight of man: the firmament above beautified with so many spangles of shining stars was spread out as a canopy over the head of man where ever he goes, Esa. 40.22. more glorious than those carried over the heads of Popes or Emperors. Even those heavenly bodies are communicated and distributed unto man for his benefit & comfort, Deu. 4.19.  
(f) And yet notwithstanding all this, if we cast our eye into the world to come the glory thereof will be found far to surmount all this. That which is now above our heads shall then be found to be under our feet. The visible heavens that now are, are not thought good enough nor pleasant enough for the elect: but they shall pass away with a noise; 2. Pet. 3.10. into singing; Esa. 44.23. the sea shall roar & the floods clap their hands, the field shall be joyful & all that is therein. Psal. 96.11.12. & 98.7.8. And yet all this is not enough; if every twig of all the trees in the world were a flute or sapwhistle; if every stalk of corn in the field or reed by the water's side were all pipes, blown by the wind; yet all would be too little to resound this incomprehensible glory. And in the mean time until this glory be revealed, until the sons of God be manifested, they wait & hold up their heads in expectation, they groan & travel in pain, longing for this blessed end: Rom. 8.19.22. and so do they that have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan & sigh within themselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of their bodies. vers. 23. This is the desired end which God calls us so oft to remember; how can men think of it without desiring it? how can they desire it aright without praying for it? how can men think they pray aright for it, unless they prepare themselves thereunto by denying the world? What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation & godliness, whiles we look for this end? with what care & diligence should we labour to be found of him in peace, without spot & blameless? 2. Pet. 3.11.14.  
(g)  
BEsides the fellowship with God in the old world, if we again look back into it, we may behold an other happiness of men in their mutual fellowship one with another. The first conjugation of humane society was that of man & wife by marriage; this was the original & ground of all other societies: from hence sprung the names & estates of father & mother, with their sons and daughters: out of this society in family sprung all the societies in Church & commonwealth. When God could have made men of new clods of the earth so as Adam was made at first, Gen. 2.7. and so have multiplied them abundantly, according to the abundance of spirit that was in him; Mal. 2.15. yet he thought it good to create not only one woman for one man, which he might have done in many couples of them, but also to make only one couple of them, and from them to draw all the lines of consanguinity & affinity, which should be so many bands of love to unite & bind all mankind new. Cast we our eye that way again, & behold how in the resurrection they neither marry nor give in marriage but are as the angels of God in heaven. Matt. 22.30. All the comforts of marriage shall be as it were swallowed up & overwhelmed of that heavenly glory, & vanish away in the sight of it. There shall be more glorious bands of communion with Saints & Angels, then is the matrimonial covenant; sweeter knots of loving fellowship, & faster than the knot of marriage; the bond of the Spirit uniting hearts & minds in one more than all the cords of consanguinity or affinity. All the faithful souls shall be presented unto Christ as pure virgins: 2. Cor, 11.2. they are & shall be ever his loves, his doves, his undefiled: Cant. 5.2. and he shall be their bridegroom, Matt. 25.1. fairer than the children of men; Psal. 45.2. white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand, wholly delectable & lovely: Cant. 5.10. etc. far above the first Adam. The heavenly paradise shall be an eternal wedding-chamber, and all the Angels of God shall rejoice for them to whom such honour is vouchsafed. Luke 15.10. What remaineth to be done of us until we come to that immortal & undefiled inheritance, but that we aspire unto it daily, that we have this end before us as the lodestar of our comfort & direction, that we be carried forward amain toward this price of our heavenly calling? one would think this should be a spur sharp enough, to make us run the race of godliness set before us, while we have such glory propounded & the call of our Bridegroom inciting us.  
(i) From Adam & Evah come we to their children, & look into the old world again. Had not sin come into the world by the transgression of Adam; had he & his posterity continued until this time in their uprightness, in the image of God wherein they were created; what a glorious & blessed communion should man have then enjoyed even upon the earth? If sin had been kept out of the world, than had not death entered: Rom. 5.12. with Gen. 2.17. & 3.17.19. then might Adam & Evah have been alive to this day, & seen their children's children, not unto the third & fourth, but to the thirtieth & fortieth or hundredth generation, & all of them fair & without blemish either of soul or body, without any had thirty renowned sons that road on thirty ass colts & ruled over thirty cities; judg. 10 3.4. of Ibzan having twice as many children, thirty sons and thirty daughters, living to see them all married; judg. 12.8.9. of Abdon that had forty sons & thirty nephews, all honourable, riding on seventy ass colts; vers. 14. ibid. then what must the honour of Adam & Evah have been in all their innumerable sons & daughters, being all Lords and rulers of the earth and all the creatures therein subdued unto them; to have seen all these come about them by course, & that with bowed knees to honour them; with stretched out arms to embrace them; with loving & cheerful countenances to rejoice them; with obedient hearts to serve them; such children as had never offended them nor any besides such as never had given any occasion of grief to them or of complaint to others? According to the proportion of the cause both in respect of their number & of their excellent graces, their joy must have been a thousand times greater than the joy of other parents, that yet have counted themselves happy in their children. Their days without decay should have been lengthened, and their years drawn out with comfort; their eyes never dimmed with age like Isaac that could not know one son from another: Gen. 27.1. etc. but their youth should have been renewed more than the Eagles, by eating the tree of life in the midst of the garden, & so with a quick sense and fresh memory ever have enjoyed a deligtfull conversation with their posterity.  
(l) To come from the joy of parents to mark the children's happiness; consider we again the love ascendent, by which the posterity of Adam should have had comfortable communion with their elders from the next parents upward for an hundred generations unto Adam: for according to the phrase of Scripture a man that lives an hundred year is said to see his children unto the third & fourth generation: and so according to this speech we may well reckon an hundred generations & more from Adam to our time.  
Now as children's children are the crown of old men; so the glory of children are their fathers: Prov. 17.6. and every one of the last generation having had an hundred fathers, one older than another to Adam, & all living together and all of them holy patriarchs, the oracles of God unto their children, full of wise counsel, holy instructions and divine consolations, & as full of love & tender affection, which could not but have yielded pleasant words, like the honey comb, sweetness to the soul & health to the bones: Prov. 16.24. what joy then in this state of innocency should have been to the children in such a communion; where every one should have had an hundred crowns of glory & more; every one of their father's being better unto them then any crown of the finest gold of Ophir or Vphaz? That we may the better conceive of this, let us suppose that which might have been according to the first foundation of the world, & let us set before our eyes Adam dwelling in paradise in Eden as in the centre of the habitable world, and all his children placed round about him; in this order that the next succeeding generations should inhabit in the next circle or climate, a little more remote from him, and the next ensuing generations should be planted yet a little further off, & so the next following still further and further unto the hundreth generation, reaching to the ends of the earth. And to speak now even of those that were furthest off, of the last generations, when they at any time should have desired to visit their first parent Adam & to have communicated with him; oh what comfort, what pleasant recreation and refreshing of their soul might that have been unto them! Suppose it had been an hundred days journey & more, yet no labour before the fall was painful; no travel should have been wearisome; no danger should have molested them in the way: in passing through an hundred countries a man should have met with no barbarian, while there was no confusion of languages in the world; every one they met should have blessed them in the name of the Lord, and have been ready to go with them a mile or more, & brought them on their way if they would. Matt. 5.41. Under every tongue there should have been honey & milk of gracious speech & of pleasant discourse, and their lips should have dropped as an honey comb. Cant. 4.11. At the end of every day's journey a man might have come to lodge at the mansion place of his own natural father or grandfather, though every day still with him that should be by one generation older than the former. Every harbour in each country should have been a delightful paradise, and their dear parents, their noble progenitors should there have entertained them with all the pleasantest fruits of their garden, rejoicing over them, putting them into their bosom, & pouring out their hearts unto them; & above all material food, their sweet conferences, according to the work of God's Spirit in his children; Psal. 44.1. & 78.3.4. their stories of old matters which they had seen, works of divine providence, the years of Gods right hand, & all of mercy & benefits, while no sin had been in the world; their narrations of divine visions, & their talk with God, according to that course which God had begun with Adam before the fall; these conferences should have been a spiritual banquet & their best cheer, more pleasant than the juice of the pomegranate & above any spiced wine to rejoice the heart. And thus as they proceeded in their journey they might still at every harbour have drunk older, sweeter and mellower wine of consolation, & still have been entertained by their more ancient fathers, which could tell them of things done before that patriarch was borne with whom they had lodged the night before. And when they had thus in order passed on along by an hundred patriarches, their own fathers, & in every station from day to day had been filled with more & more comfort; then at last coming to their first parent, old Adam, the patriarch of patriarches, to his garden in Eden, & finding him there in his integrity without any decay of God's image in him strong in body & mind, flourishing as a green olive tree, & increased abundantly in wisdom & in all the gifts of holiness & righteousness; oh what joy should it have been to have come before him, & seen him eye to eye, to have been hearty welcomed by him, & with all joy to be owned by him as his children, to have had him laid his hands upon them & blessed them; & in like manner to have saluted their most dear mother Evah, & to have been embraced & kissed by her! But especially it would then have been a principal comfort to have received the Sacrament with him; to have gone into the midst of the garden with him, whiles air: as God brought these to Adam to see how he would name them; Goe 2.19.20. so might Adam show them to his children, & according to the wisdom given him at the first, confer again of their natures & the reason of their names with those his children created in the same image of God with him & taught of God, that he might rejoice in them also as they with him. Though Solomon spoke of trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall; also of beasts & fouls, creeping things & fishes, & was wiser than all the philosophers in the degenerate & corrupt world: 1. Kin. 4. 29-34. yet was his wisdom but ignorance in comparison of that primitive estate & the wisdom given to Adam at the first. After this & a multitude of other pleasures they might have returned loaden with blessings, & filled with comfort as much as their heart could hold. And if at any time Adam & Evah would in like manner have gone abroad on progress to have visited their children, what comfort should this have been unto their children to have entertained that most royal & honourable person above all others, that right Catholic King or universal Monarch & father of the whole world, with Evah their Queen-mother, & therefore to have been reverenced, loved & obeyed by all? How would they have received him as an angel of God to the unspeakable joy both of him & them mutually?  
(m) And as the glory of this communion might thus be observed in the persons allied in a right line, both descendent & ascendent; so also in the collateral line extended on each side both fare & near to brethren & sisters, & an hundred other degrees of kindred further off: among all which (if man had continued in his estate wherein the Lord placed him) there should then have been a most loving & pleasant conversation, more than can be imagined. It had been as easy for these to have traveled a thousand miles to embrace their friends, as it is now for us to go one small dayes-journey. While there was no evil of sin, there should have been no evil of pain or trouble in any of their labours. And beside in the state of innocency, great help & comfort should have been afforded unto man by the service of other creatures, as hath been showed before. Even in this corrupt & degenerate estate of man & beast, all kind 2. Cor. 6.18. behold my spouse, my wife, my bride. joh. 3.29. Rev. 19.7. & 21.2. All the special bands of love & union, whether in the root of marriage, or in the branches of kindred, whether in the degrees ascending, descending, or any way extending themselves, either in the right line or in the side line, they are all found in Christ, all meet together & are combined in him. He alone, the new Adam is instead of all the fathers & mothers, brethren or sisters, sons or daughters; the comfort of all & more fruits of love then all the kindred of the old world could have afforded unto us, is to be enjoyed in the kingdom of Christ. And look how Christ esteems of his elect, so shall they be esteemed & loved of all others there where his word requiring it must needs be performed. joh. 13.34. & 15.12.13. And therefore look how many Saints & Angels there be in heaven, so many sweet fountains of loving communion there be for every soul to drink at, fare passing all the love of friends ever tasted in the lower world. From every one shall flow rivers of water of life, joh. 7.38. Christ jesus being the headspring of all; for than shall that & all the rest of his promises be fulfiled in the highest degree. It is matter of more joy even now to sit at the table of the Lord, to receive the Sacrament of the New Testament, than it was to pluck apples from the tree of life in paradise; greater benefits are sealed, even Christ is herein exhibited unto us, a gift more excellent than all those that were confirmed unto Adam by the tree of life: but then especially shall the difference appear, when the faithful shall partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven; when they shall be brought before the Lord, the ancient of days, the everlasting God, before whom Adam, though alive at this day, should be as a child of yesterday, a thousand years being but as one day in his sight; when they shall hear him speak & tell of his eternal love of us before the world, in his decrees of election and predestination so often pointed at in Scripture, and the like precious thoughts of his grace to us ward, this shall be the fullness of joy infinitely exceeding all the supposed delights of the old world. As for the pleasant journeys & motions, we may not think that the godly shall be there as in a prison. together in heavenly places in Christ jesus. Eph. 2.6.   

CHAP. VII. How God calleth men to remember the latter end of Reprobates.  
The fearfulness & grievousness of the second death set forth by (a) The deserving cause, Sin, which is especially aggravated by the wisdom, authority, goodness, & other attributes of God: (b) The inflicting cause, the wrath of God, from which the whole misery & all the circumstances of the second death have their denominations; (c) compared unto fire, yet different from common fire, unquenchable, most piercing, largely extending itself, & taking hold on the greatest in the world: (d) This fire & the fierceness of it made plain by the observation of sundry fires already kindled in the bowels of the earth, in vegetative & sensitive creatures, in the body of man, in the air & firmament, in the angels, (e) but chief in the course of God's just indignation against sinners, seriously to be considered of all that desire to escape it. (f) The effects, doleful cries & lamentations of the tormented, of the Devils themselves, yea even of our blessed Saviour in his sufferings. (g) Particular manifestations of God's wrath against particular sins & transgressions of every commandment, both of the first & second table.  
THe end of all flesh hath been represented unto us of God by a basket of summer fruit, ripe for the harvest, ready to be gathered. The blessed end of the godly hath been showed in the basket of good figs, very good: there remains yet the basket of rotten figs, very naught, to be marked of us; for that sight is also propounded unto us of God & he calls us to remember the end of the wicked thereby, whiles that basket was in vision also set before the Temple of the lord jer. 24.1. It is an hideous & fearful sight to open the graves where the green carcases of dead men do lie, to behold the grieslines & loathsomeness of death in them, and who doth not fly from it? But much more horror it is to look upon the dead souls in Hell, their torment & loathsome estate being an hundred times more & worse to be endured then the sight of any rotten carcases in the grave: Yet are we called of God to remember same offences of striking or cursing committed against others were not so, though some children might happily have as much wisdom as their father & mother, yet their authority alone being despised, brought such woe. Now the authority of God the heavenly father over his creature being infinitely greater than the authority of any earthly father over his children; the contempt thereof doth accordingly procure an infinite woe unto those that disobey God, that reject his Law & make their own lust their law, & prefer the doing of their own vile wills before the obedience of his holy & heavenly will.  
So in like manner the infinite evil of sin appeareth distinctly in this, that it is committed against the infinite goodness & mercy of God. There are in creatures manifold degrees of love & kindness: & the love of one doth an hundred times exceed the love of some other, both in tenderness of affection & in multitude of benefits. And in such case the treachery of such as deal falsely & wickedly against their chiefest friends, becomes an hundredfold greater evil than the sin of some others. Now the Lord is love itself; 1. joh. 4.8.16. & herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us: vers. 10. his grace & the gifts of his eternal & free grace do infinitely exceed all other love; he gave himself to be our God & portion, his Son to be our ransom. And therefore to sin against this high & immeasurable grace; to contemn this love & to love that which is vanity of vanities more than God, doth make the sin of such to be out of measure sinful, & deserveth an infinite hatred & misery to ensue thereupon.  
And thus the grievousness of sin is to be considered & conceived in respect of the other divine attributes; whereby we may see as it were, ten infinites in one & behold many windows of contemplation opened before us, through which we may have a huge & vast prospect of the endless & unsearchable woe of sin, that is to be felt in the second death. Though there be many other aggravations of sin, yet this so fare exceeds the rest as if they all were nothing in comparison of this: therefore doth the Spirit often urge this consideration upon men, saying to the sinners, Ye have lied, not unto men but unto God: Act. 5.4. & he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given us his holy Spirit, 1. Thes. and it contains more than a world of books can express.  
(c) This fierce wrath of God is often in Scripture compared unto burning & devouring fire; Deut. 32.22. jer. 15.14. & 17.4. Ezek. 21.31. & 22.21. & 36.5. Zeph. 1.18. & accordingly is the torment in hell described unto us by the name of hellfire. Matt. 5.22. & 18.9. The smarting pain caused by fire is well known by the common use thereof among us: And yet above the nature of common fire, which is made for the comfort of man, to cheer him & to make him laugh, Esa. 44.16. this doleful fire of hell is propounded unto us of God by many strange descriptions. It is a fire not like unto ours that may be quenched, but an unquenchable fire; Esa. 66.24. Mark. 9.44 Rev. 14.11. an everlasting fire, Matt. 18.8. & 25.41. which so burns the wicked as that it doth not consume them, but keeps them alive in death, that they may burn for ever and ever. It is a fire that will not only burn stones, melt iron & brass, but a subtle, piercing fire, that burns even the spirits & souls of men; being a fire prepared for the devil & his angels, which are spirits, Matt. 25.41. Rev. 20.10. and therefore fare more terrible than our fire by which tyrants burn the bodies of martyrs, but cannot burn their souls. Mat. 10.28. For the greatness of it, it is a bottomless pit; Rev. 9.1.2. deep & large; Esa. 30.33. a lake or sea of fire, Rev. 20.14.15. for the names of lake or sea are sometimes in Scripture indifferently put one for another: Matt. 8.24. with Luk. 8.23. and this burning sea is withal called a lake of brimstone, Rev. 19.20. & 20.10. which makes the fire to burn more cruelly, to choke & strangle such as are plunged into this lake. And for the form of it, it is sometimes compared to an oven, or furnace of fire, Mal. 4.1. Mat. 13.42.50. in which the fire being kept close & straight, may be made seven times more hot & fierce than it was before. Dan. 3.19. To make this fire yet more abominable, it is compared unto Tophet, Esa. 30.33. where children were burnt in horrible & loathsome manner, being sacrificed unto devils: jer. 7.31. with Psa. 106.37. & so & more horrible would it be to see the souls sacrificed in Hell-fire. Were there now but a witch to be burned at a stake, how many thousands would flock together to behold the sight? how many would lose a day's work & be content to miss their dinners, rather than to miss the sight of it? But if it were to see a King or an Emperor burnt; to see a Pope or a Cardinal, which having burnt many martyrs should at length have their own flesh burnt with fire; how many fare and near would run and ride and spare no cost or labour to become spectators of such a judgement? how long, how often, how earnestly would men talk of it afterwards? And yet this fire of the second death is for such: by faith we see it; faith makes us spectators thereof, if we believe the Scriptures, which show us how Tophet is prepared for kings; Esa. 30.33. how the beast and the false prophet, the Popes, are to be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone; Rev. 19.20. & 20.10. and with them the multitude of their idolaters and other abominable persons Rev. 21.8. And how are men bewitched that they forget this latter end of sinners; that they more regard the light and momentany judgements of men, than the eternal and severe judgements of the everlasting God? This lake of fire is so forgotten and contemned of many which stand daily at the brink of the pit, ready to sink down into it for their sins, as if that fire were already quenched: yea the very common knowledge and confession thereof by all sorts, hath quenched the thought of it and extinguished the memory and mention of it with many, as if it were so well known, that it needed no more to be spoken of. And for this cause are many tumbled into it & overwhelmed in the depth of it before they be ware of it.  
(d) The power of God's wrath in kindling this fire may further be perceived, if we behold the great variety of strange fires which God in his works of creation & providence hath already kindled and set before us, to show what he is able to do. In the bowels of the earth below, the Lord hath as it were, sown the seeds of fire in the diverse minerals thereof, as in the mines of coals, in the veins of vitriol, of salt-peter, of lime, and diverse other things whereby from under the earth is turned up as it were fire: job. 28.5. and to show a most woeful burning it is said, The people shall be as the burnings of lime. Esa. 33.12. Above upon the face of the earth the Lord hath planted diverse growing fires in sundry hot herbs; some burning & blistering the skin outwardly by the very touch thereof, as the nettle with some other kind of thistles & venomous thorns, whose innumerable pricks show the infinite power of God to curse the wicked; some other herbs being taken inwardly, as Hellebore, Coloquintida (or the wild gourd that brought death into the pot, 2. Kin. 4.39.40.) Euphorbium & the like do cast the body into miserable pain & distress, burning, exulcerating, gnawing, grating & tearing the intrals, tossing and tormenting the body with vomits, purges, with swooning & fainting, with violent convulsions & fearful symptoms. In the sensitive creatures God hath kindled many kinds of living & going fire, walking to & fro in the earth, in the diverse poisons of sundry serpents, some creeping under our feet, some flying over our heads, as in the hornet, the snake, adder, aspe, cockatrice, & those fiery flying serpents that sting & burn men to the death. Num. 21.6. Esa. 14.29. To come nearer ourselves, in the body of man God kindleth many strange fires in the sundry diseases thereof, both by painful inflammations of particular parts, both outward & inward, & especially by that universal fire of the burning fevers flaming out of the heart into the whole body: Deut. 28.22. & this in great variety, some inflaming the spirits only; some the blood also; & some consuming the very substance of the solid parts also: some burning with a simple excess of heat; others consisting in rotten & corrupt humours do burn the body more cruelly: & of these again some burning continually, night & day without intermission, as the fire in glass houses & the furnaces where iron is melted; others by fits coming at appointed seasons & after certain periods of time, either every day, or each second or third day, like fire raked under ashes & kindled again upon occasion: some others again consisting of a malignant & poisonous fire, as in the pestilential fevers that burn more cruelly & deadly then the rest, these are like going or running fires through their contagion spreading abroad, walking in darkness, destroying at noon, & flying as poisoned arrows by their infection, & breaking out in boils & carbuncles like so many fiery furnaces or ovens coming up in the flesh. Psa. 91.3.6. Esa. 38 21. And by these with their compounds the Lord kindleth a burning lake within the body, maketh the veins which contain the inflamed blood & humours to be like so many rivers of pitch & brimstone, and so causeth an unquenchable thirst & an intolerable pain that follows it. In the air & clouds above our heads God kindleth terrible fires by thunder & lightnings, divideth the flames & shooteth abroad his fiery darts to consume his enemies. Psa. 18.12.13.14. Above the clouds in the firmament, God kindleth another fire by the Sun & some other stars, and smites the earth & her inhabitants with the beams thereof, so that they are scorched with heat & faint in themselves. Psal. 121.6. with Rev. 7.16. & 16.8.9. jon. 4.8. To go higher into the third heaven's God hath there also kindled many fires; he maketh his Angels to be flames of fire; Heb 1.7. to be horses & charets of fire; 2. Kin. 6.17. & 2.11. to be burning Seraphims, Esa. 6.2. expressed by the same name that is before given to the fiery serpents. Numb. 21.6. he maketh his Cherubims like coals of fire, as the appearance of lamps & as the flashes of lightning; & from them are scattered coals of fire over countries & cities for their punishment. Ezek. 1.13.14. with cha. 10.2.7.  
(e) But above all these, the Lord himself is a consuming fire; Deut. 4.24. & 9.3. Heb. 12.29. & an everlasting burning: Esa. 33.14. when he riseth up to judge the world & to plead with secure sinners, how can they stand before his angry face? His throne is a fiery flame, his wheels as burning fire; & a fiery stream issueth & cometh forth from before him, & consumeth round about: Dan. 7.9.10. Psa. 97.3. his face is burning; Esa. 30.27. his eyes flaming; Rev. 1.14. his nostrils smoking; Psa. 18.8. his tongue a devouring fire; his breath an overflowing stream, & as a river of brimstone to kindle Tophet: Esa. 30.27.28.33. from his loins upward & from his loins downward all as the appearance of fire: Ezek. 1.27. & when he shall be revealed from heaven, he is to come in flaming fire with his mighty angels round about him, all of them like so many shining beams of his glory, pointed with indignation & sparkling with wrath against the sinners that are frozen in their dreggs. 2. Thes. 1.7.8. jude. 14. And yet further to show the greatness of this wrath, we are to remember that each person in the H. Trinity burneth with a distinct flame of wrath against the wicked: The Lord from the Lord raines fire and brimstone; Gen. 19.24. The Son comes in the glory of his Father; Matt. 16.27. The holy Spirit is a spirit of judgement & a spirit of burning: Esa. 4 4. as the Spirit moved upon the waters in the beginning of the world, Gen. 1.2. so shall it move upon the fire of God's judgements in the end of the world for the consuming of sinners. All other fires in the creature are but sparkles & less than nothing in respect of this infinite wrath of God.  
This is the latter end of wicked men, never to be forgotten. When the Lord warned the jews of their destruction & of their end that was coming, it is wonderful to consider how earnestly he cries unto them, & how many repetitions he useth, worthy to be numbered & counted exactly of every one, whiles he calls upon them, An end, an end is come; the end is come: An evil, an only evil, behold it is come: An end is come, the end is come, it watcheth for thee, behold it is come. The morning is come unto thee; the time is come, the day of trouble is near, & not the echo of the mountains etc. Behold the day, behold it is come, the morning is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded etc. The time is come, the day draweth near etc. Ezek. 7.2.3.5.6.7.10.12. Thus doth the Lord spread out his hands unto sinners, to warn them of their end: & they are worthy to feel the smart of that eternal fire, that neither by the terror of his wrath propounded, nor by the careful love of God in admonishing thereof, will be drawn to look in this burning glass & to think upon this last end. Were we wise, we should run oftener to warm our souls with this fire by the meditation of it, than we bring our bodies to any other fire; to heat ourselves with zeal of the Lord, & to drive away that lukewarmness of our souls that is so abominable in the sight of God. Rev. 3.16. The Apostle teacheth us to make this use of the aforesaid considerations, for the change of our conversation unto all holiness & godly life. 2. Pet. 3.11. And from hence may we learn patience in suffering as well as obedience in doing the will of God, as the Spirit teacheth us: if the Lord be at hand; if the end of all things be at hand, & such an end, why should not our patiented mind, our moderation and sobriety be made known unto all upon all occasions? Phil. 4.5. 1. Pet. 4.7. Though injuries be done unto us, great & daily & in extraordinary manner, both unchristian & inhuman dealing, yet seeing the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, the judge is at the door, at the threshold and entrance of our house, and there is but a step betwixt us & him, but an inch of time betwixt our sufferings and his judgement, therefore he requireth of us that we be patiented & establish our hearts in him. jam. 5.8.9. Have we other losses & troubles in the world, whether we win or lose it skills not much; whether we purchase & buy with increase of gain or whether we sell for necessity, whether we be rich or poor it is no great matter, seeing the earth & all the works thereof are in a moment to be burnt up; 2. Pet. 3.10. & seeing the end hasteneth & the world passeth away, let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn. Ezek. 7.12. All the happiness of man stands in being delivered from this everlasting fire, kindled by the fierce wrath of God against sin. We have enough & may well be content while we have our soul saved as a prey from this great destruction.  
(f) If yet we be dull of hearing & cannot see the dreadfulness of this death in the causes thereof, the sin of man deserving it & the wrath of God inflicting it; if yet we desire a plainer evidence thereof let us then look upon the effects thereof & consider how the smart of this second death shall make the children of hell to cry & wail & take up eternal lamentations without any measure or end. By the effects of sorrow jeremy thus describeth the affliction of jerusalem in her captivity, that of a princess being become a desolate widow, she did weep sore in the night, that her tears were on her cheeks; that they run down as a river night & day, the apple of her eye never ceasing; that her elders & her infants, young men & virgins, did mourn together; that the priests & prophets did sigh, their eyes being dimmed & failing with tears, their bowels troubled, their liver poured thus roar & faint in themselves under this burden of sorrow, how can any men or Giants that are but flesh undergo the same? When the Lord shall plead against the proud & covetous, & cause his wrath to smoke against hypocrites & dissemblers, against profane men, drunkards, adulterers & malicious men; how can their heart endure, or their hands be strong? Ezek. 22.14. Though they were as stout as the devils, they shall be crushed & broken together with them. Now many skorners make a mock of religion: now the epicures make a sport of sin: now the obstinate persons despise admonition & hate to be reform; they set their faces as Adamants in their obstinacy: But though their bones were brass, & their strength of stones, & their heart as hard as the neither millstone; yet shall they be ground to pieces with this wrath of God that grinds the very Devils to powder & makes them to howl & yell before him.  
Above all other, the most terrible effect of God's wrath, was that which was showed upon Christ jesus, the Lord of men & angels, when as he being become our surety & bearing our sins; did groan under the burden; when he cried out with strong cries & tears; Heb. 5.7. when in the trouble of his soul, with great astonishment & fear he said, What shall I say? joh. 12.27. as if he had felt a sorrow not to be uttered; when in the sense of God's anger due unto us he not only cried day & night, but even with words of roaring; Psa. 22.1.2. & finally uttered the most sorrowful voice that ever sounded in the world, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Mat. 27.46. If all the doleful complaints & lamentations of all miserable men were laid together upon the balance, they would be found lighter than this complaint of Christ; because the iniquities of us all were laid together upon him; Esa. 53.6. & he bore the curse of them. Gal. 3.13. If we could see into the bowels of Hell, or could lay our ear to any low vault to hear the howling of the spirits in that prison; yet no woeful voice ought to move us so much, as these cries of our Saviour in his agony. No weeping & gnashing of teeth by those reprobates can so express the power & fierceness of God's wrath, as this weeping and sorrowful tears of the in the second commandment, the Lord threatens such a change that they shall be most ashamed of that which they adored; & shall cast their Idols to the Moles & to the Bats, Esa. 2.20. creatures that love darkness, the one for place living under the earth, the other for time coming abroad in the night. The Idolaters shall wish their idols were hidden in utter darkness for ever. But as Moses once despited the Idolaters by burning their Idol, grinding it to powder, strowing it on the waters & making them drink thereof to their further shame: Exod. 32.20. so shall the Lord force the Idolaters by remorseful remembrance evermore to drink the powder of their images & of their own inventions. The Lord through a secret antipathy of nature doth sometimes work such a strange terror in some men (as experience shows) that at the sight of some creatures or dishes of meat set before them on the table, though the creatures be good in themselves & lawful for use & to other men comfortable; yet these men quake & tremble, & sit astonished with ghastly countenances, full of perplexity & anguish, gaping & sweeting at the sight; their hair standing upright on their head, their spirits appalled, not able to speak a word nor to stir out of their place, but like men confounded remain bound in the chains of amazement, as terribly affrighted as was Belshazzar when he saw the palm of a hand writing his destruction upon the wall. Dan. 5.5.6. And hereby we may conceive the power of God's wrath for the torment of idolaters by representing unto their minds those unlawful images which they worshipped, to their eternal affright and horror. The Lord knoweth how to engrave all the sins of men with the point of a diamond upon the table of their heart, for their vexation & woe; and so in special to portray their images & idols upon the broad plate of their consciences, and to hang them as in a map before their eyes upon the wall of their memory, for an everlasting confusion and torment unto them. The name of God that is fearful, Deut. 28.58. shall in the end be fearful to them that have taken it in vain by swearing, blaspheming, or light usage of it.  
Though in their desperate torment before all by their evil words & actions, the fruits of their envy. And if the sight of so small good either outward or inward as is to be seen in this life, do yet stir up such a painful envy; what then shall be the pain of that envy in the wicked, when they shall behold the eternal glory & good things enjoyed by others in heaven? Look how much the heavenly prosperity exceeds the earthly; so much shall the pain of the hellish envy exceed all that ever hath been on earth. When the godly are exalted, their enemies shall see it; Rev. 11.12. the world shall know how God loves them; joh. 17.23. the wicked shall see & grieve & gnash with their teeth & pine away; Psal. 112.10. they shall be mad for the sight of their eyes; Deut. 28.34. yea their eyes shall consume in their holes & their tongue in their mouth; Zac. 14.12. & then shall be weeping & gnashing of teeth, when they see others in the kingdom of God & themselves thrust out. Luk. 13.28. There is a bitter end threatened unto them that follow harlots; Prov. 5.3.4.5. their doleful song at last shall be, How have I hated instruction, & my heart despised reproof? etc. vers. 12. etc. and the like woeful ditty is for them that follow wine or strong drink, whereby they are inflamed unto more sin: Esa. 5.11.22. their unlawful pleasure in the midst of their ungodly company shall at last bite like a serpent & sting like a cockatrice. Prov. 23.32. Then shall be woe to the mighty oppressors that oppress a man and his heritage, whereby they spoil themselves of their inheritance with God: they join house to house on earth, till they leave no place for the poor on earth, nor any place for themselves in heaven. Mic. 2.1.2. Esa. 5.8. and the like woe is due to the unmerciful rich men, who as they would not give a crumb; so they shall not obtain one drop of water from the tip of any finger to refresh them being tormented in the flame. Luk. 16.24.25. The false witness shall not then go unpunished; Prov. 19.5.9. the railers and slanderers shall then be excluded out of the kingdom of God: 1. Cor. 6.10. the lips of the flatterers & backbiters shallbe cut off, Psa. 12.3. & their own words shallbe a snare for their soul: Prov. 18.7. they shall then reap that which they have sown, they have   

CHAP. VIII. Of the visible signs & memorial of Hell, whereby God calleth men to remember the end of the ungodly.  
The vain curiosity of them that desire to be informed of Hell-torments otherwise then by the word and works of God, which compared together afford us sundry Memorials of Hell, (a) In each of the four Elements, Fire, Aire, Water, Earth: (b) In the country of Eden: (c) In the land of Canaan, both in the four borders of it, (d) & within the land on both sides of the river jordan; (e) In the jews themselves, in the state of their rejection: (f) In the country of Italy: (g) In the Torrid or hot Zone of the world, the condition & actions of the inhabitants: (h) In the frozen Zones, the extremity of cold & other occurrences in those parts: (i) In the temperate Zones, in the public state of Antichristian & Romish religion with the appurtenances thereof; (k) In private houses, haunted with evil spirits, inhabited by witches; disordered inns & taverns: (l) In particular persons, possessed, excommunicate, terrified in conscience: (m) In particular sins, in thoughts, words, & actions.  
IT may be some will say or think in themselves, we hear many fearful things touching Hell-torments; if we might see the same & take a view thereof it would do us more good. To such I answer, they know not what they desire. When the bottomless pit was once at a certain time in especial manner opened very wide, there arose such a smoke out of the pit as had almost choked the whole world: the Sun & the air were darkened therewith; poisonous locusts came out of that smoke and tormented men that they were weary of their lives and sought death that fled from them. Rev. 9.1.2.3. etc. It were not safe for curious men to look with their carnal eyes into that bottomless pit, nor to wish that hell & destruction were naked & open unto them for their warning; neither should it be for their edification so much as the due remembrance and spiritual meditation thereof by help of the Scriptures. They that will not believe Moses & the Prophets would not be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Luk. 16.30.31. If Abraham or Noah, the ancient preachers of righteousness should come again into this world, clothed with angelical glory, & with a heavenly voice should call men to repentance; or if Angels should come and preach the kingdom of God: yet could we not world, do every one of them contain a vast gulf of destruction within them, insomuch that each of them hath seemed unto some to lay claim unto Hell, as having that prison within their bounds. The Fire by which Hell is so often described, is of a consuming & devouring nature: this operation of it is often compared to eating, & the fuel put unto it is the meat thereof; Esa. 9.19. the more it hath, the more hungrily it eateth, by burning more fiercely: it hath an insatiable belly & never saith, It is enough. Prov. 30.15.16. And so it is like unto Hell, which enlargeth herself & openeth her mouth wide & without measure to devour the wicked. Esa. 5.14. Whether we conceive it as the highest & greatest element, encompassing the air on every side, as in the proper place that is commonly assigned unto it, or whether we look upon it in the daily effects thereof on the earth, in those few sparkles & coals thereof scattered among us here below for our use, it carries in it both ways a resemblance of Hell, to make us remember the end of the wicked in the sight of it.  
The Air is noted as the seat or station of wicked spirits, where they soar over our heads as the ravenous fowls over the chickens, still ready to seize upon us. Therefore is the Devil called the prince of the power of the air, Eph. 2.2. & his angels are spiritual wickednesses in high places; Eph. 6.12. & Satan is said to fall down like lightning from heaven when his works are loosed. Luk. 10.18. So often as we look out into the air, so oft do we pass by the gates of Hell, by the Castles & Towers of the enemy from whence he shoots his fiery darts, from whence he watcheth his advantage to oppugn us & to make a prey of our souls. 1. Pet. 5.8. Wheresoever the Devil & his angels be there is an Hell; they being still at our right hand, Hell is in a manner always about us. Zacch. 3.1. So long as men converse & walk in this air, so long do they remain in that park or chase where the Devil with his hellhounds is continually hunting of souls to bring them to a miserable end for ever; which end therefore is daily to be thought on that they may prevent the enemy & escape the snares of the hunter, by putting on the whole armour of God & praying incessantly. Eph. 6.13. 1. Pet. 5.8.  
The Watery Element & Sea is another gulf of destruction, wherein multitudes have been & are daily drowned & swallowed up. The dragons of the deep and the manifold uncouth monsters of the sea do well declare what hell is there: & the great Leviathan according to that strange description of him, job 41. may well appear as Beelzebub, the prince of the devils in that hell. And if jonas being swallowed up of one of them did account himself in the belly of hell, jon. 2.2. then must there be many hells in one sea. Yea the very torments of Hell which our Saviour endured for us are represented by the deep whereinto he was plunged, & by the waters that entered into his soul: Psa. 69.1.2.15. & further the Abyss or bottomless pit, whereby Hell is named, Rev. 9.1. & 20.1. is the same word whereby the deep sea is commonly expressed. And thus is Hell resembled & set before the eyes of men both in the name & nature of this destroying element of the water.  
The Earth also being the common grave of all mankind, while they are daily resolved & turned unto dust, becomes another insatiable gulf to represent Hell. As in Corahs' time the earth opened her mouth & swallowed many at once; Num. 16.31.32.33. so doth it still every day; the difference is only in the manner, that there it opened of itself, here it is opened by the grave-maker. Yea & further the deep pits of mire & clay in the earth are likewise chosen by the holy Ghost to express the descending of our Redeemer into Hell, & the sorrows of the second death that he endured therein: Psa. 40.2. & 69.2. insomuch that many do contend that the proper place of Hell is within the earth; which though we neither affirm nor deny, but reprove their presumption which without warrant will peremptorily maintain the same; yet in the pits of this earth we have an hell resembled unto us even by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures. And thus in every one of the elements there is a mouth of Hell gaping upon sinners to make them remember & consider what shall be the latter end of the wicked.  
(b) After the material parts of the world we are now to consider of the diverse places thereof in respect of their different situation & estate. And here again the memorial of Hell & of the latter end of the ungodly are either such as be more peculiar for some particular nations, among whom he hath set his signs and wonders, as in Egypt, in Israel, in diverse others; jer. 32.20. or such as be more common to the world & to many nations therein. Among other particular nations & countries & above them all as the head & crown of the earth, let us in the first place look upon Eden & the paradise therein, from whence man was banished for his sin. The Lord as he had at first even in the state of innocency, planted a tree of forbidden fruit within the garden, as a memorial of death, even of the second death, & consequently of an Hell provided for transgressors; Gen. 2.9.17. so after the fall, without the garden in the border thereof he placed there on the East side a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Gen. 3.24. This flame of destruction was like another visible Hell in the eyes of Adam & his posterity, by the daily sight whereof they were warned not to presume against the commandment of God as they had done. This present fire was unto them a monument of that eternal fire which should consume the transgressors. As David was afraid when he saw the Angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over jerusalem. 1. Chron. 21.16.30. so the children of Adam here seeing the fiery chariot of the Cherubims, Ezek. 1.13.14. and the flaming sword brandished and shaken about the garden, were taught to fear & remember the latter end threatened to the presumptuous offenders, over all whose heads there hangeth continually a sword of vengeance ready to fall upon them, job, 19.29. Ezek. 21.9.10.  
(c) From the country of Eden, let us come to the land of Canaan, another Eden, the pleasant land, Dan. 8.9. where God planted another paradise, & set the second Adam to dress the same, for his Church is the garden of God. Cant. 4.12.16. And here in like manner God gave special warn to Israel, & set his marks in the holy land more than in others, both round about in the borders thereof & within the land also. In the borders on the East side along the coast of the tribe of judah God placed as it were, a visible on sinners, whose latter end was set before their eyes for a warning to avoid the sins that kindle such wrath. From the East border come we to the South, which was the border of Edom. Iosh. 15.1. Num. 34.3. & this land of Edom or Idumea is propounded by the H. Ghost, as another Hell visible to the eye of faith, being considered in the curse which God denounced against the same, that the rivers thereof should be turned into pitch, not to be quenched night nor day, the smoke ascending for ever; that it should be an habitation of dragons & Satyrs, & screech-owls, Zijm & Jijm, etc. Esa. 34.5.9.10.13.14. etc. In that South coast was also the wilderness of Zin, & Maaleh-hacrabbim, or the ascent of the Scorpions, & Kadesh-barnéa, Ios. 15.1.3. Num. 34.3.4. by the sight of which places they were called to the remembrance of God's judgements both by the fiery serpents & scorpions in the great & terrible wilderness, Deut. 8.15. & by their turning back from Kadesh when they were ready to have entered into the land. Numb. 14.25. Deut. 2.1. Their Western border was the great Sea, the store-house of God's judgements, compared unto the great deep. Psal. 36.6. Their North coast was Lebanon & Hermon: Iosh. 1.4. with 11.17. & 12.7. & 13.5.6. & there were the dens of the lions, & the mountains of the Leopards. Sol. song. 4.8. which creatures the Lord useth as instruments of his wrath, jer. 5.6. with Dan. 7.3.4.6. & by them the Lord describeth his own anger against sinners: Hos. 13.7. & so from every coast roared upon them, & by a flaming sword on every side called them to remember his judgements.  
(d) From the outward borders of the holy land teturne we to the inward parts; & these on both sides of the river jordan. On this side, above many other places jerusalem the city of the great king offers itself to our consideration, which though it were a type of heaven, Gal. 4.26. Heb. 12.22. yet round about it there were signs set of the fearful judgements of God, & of the last end of the wicked. And first of all by the entry of the East-gate, they had the valley of Hinnom, & the high places of Tophet therein, as it were a visible Hell, jer. 19.2. with Iosh. 15.8. They there burned their children in the fire unto Baal & Moloch with great impiety against God and cruelty to horns, their hooves & their hair: & well might that lake be this same pit. As by the descent of an Angel into the pool of Bethesda, those that first entered after the stirring of the waters, were made whole of what disease soever they had: joh. 5.4. so no wonder if after the stirring of these waters in Gadara by a legion of unclean spirits together, they were made unwholesome & caused disease to those that drank thereof. So often as men beheld or thought upon this devilish lake they had a spectacle of Hell before them, & they took the name of God in vain if they did not learn hereby to watch & fight against the wicked spirits, to seek the help of Christ that conquers them & not to love their swine more than Christ, nor to become as swine by wallowing in the mire of sin; 2. Pet. 2.22. left they also by the Devils should be carried headlong into the lake of brimstone prepared for those that harken not unto the call of God.  
(e) These were the marks & tokens given to the jews; but the jews themselves are given for signs & warnings unto us: for when these & many other memorial of the latter end were given unto the jews & despised of them, then at last they themselves by the righteous judgement of God were made as signs and wonders unto the believing Gentiles called into their place, & to this day they remain as memorials of Hell, under the power of darkness, their hearts being hardened, their eyes darkened, and covered with the spirit of slumber. Rom. 11.7.8.10. Their state of rejection wherein they presently are, is described in such phrase as the estate of those in Hell: they are now in utter darkness, while they are without Christ; & if they knew the misery of their estate, then should they weep & gnash their teeth. Matt. 8.12. In this hell of utter darkness have they continued now these sixteen hundred years, & are scattered abroad among all nations for a warning unto them. So often as we meet these obdurate jews in our streets, & consider how they are broken off from their olive, the kingdom of God being taken from them & given to others; Matt. 21.43. so often are we to be moved with compassion to them as if they did weep & howl before us: & as we are to pray for the day of their visitation; so are we to work the whole earth & turning round about it continually, even as the first flaming sword was about the garden of God in Eden. This middle Zone though in comparison of Tophet it be an heaven, yet in respect of other temperate Zones inhabited by us, it is in many things like unto Hell. As Hell is described by the burning heat that is therein: Esa. 30.33. Matt. 25.41. so in this Torrid Zone men are grievously afflicted & tormented with heat; men dwelling there under the Equinoctial line & the climates on each side near the same, the Sun burns them by day and the beams thereof beating directly upon their heads do strike them with a vehement heat round about the world, even from the East unto the Western India, & in Aethiopia betwixt them both, insomuch that some of them curse the Sun every morning that it riseth. As Hell is described by the blackness of darkness that is there reserved for reprobates; 2. Pet. 2.17. black being the colour of sorrow & fear, Psa. 38.6. in the orig. which make all faces to gather blackness: joel. 2.6. so under the hot Zone there dwell the black Moors, the Aethiopians or burnt-faces, as the word which the holy Ghost useth for them doth signify. Act. 8.27. Their bodies & visages are blacker than a coal, & some have been frighted at the fight of them as if they had come out of Hell. As in Hell men are under the vexation of the Devil that is called the prince of darkness, Eph. 6.12. & hath the power of death: Heb. 2.14. so it is generally testified that the Indians both East & West, & the Guineans between both in this hot Zone do both worship the Devil that often appears personally unto them, & are often beaten & tormented by the immediate hand of the Devil in those visible apparitions, with many other vexations to their unspeakable misery: & therefore in this regard there is not so much a shadow of Hell, as a very Hell itself & a kingdom of darkness. As the state of those in Hell is described by a worm that torments them & never dyeth: Esa. 66.24. Mark. 9.44.46.48. so those that live in this Torrid Zone in Guinea have often & ordinarily a worm of strange & incredible length that breedeth in their flesh, as those that travel thither have both seen and felt, and in their flesh have brought home apparitions are imagined to ascend up out of the earth: 1. Sam. 28.13. even so a man that should see these all-black naked imps come swarming up out of their holes from under ground, each of them both at mouth & nostrils breathing out the smoke of that Indian herb which is a part of their ordinary diet, it were no wonder if he thought the picture of Hell to be before him. In fine as many for Mammon or riches do sell themselves and lose their souls & go down to Hell for ever: 1. Kin. 21.20. even so many for the love of that treasure that is to be found in this hot Zone, are content to adventure their lives in travelling thither, & in this journey there be multitudes that from time to time do lose their mortal & temporary lives; and so in this regard also there is some consimilitude betwixt these two places. And now if we do well observe this strange work of God, we shall therein perceive how unsearchable his judgements are & his ways past finding out, in permitting this forlorn people that are so black in their bodies & more black in their souls through their worship of the Devil, to lie so long enthralled under the dominion of Satan & that for so great a compass round about the whole earth under the Equinoctial circle. Seeing the Lord hath made this visible Hell like a broad black belt or girdle to environ the very heart & middle of the world; how ought this to warn all the inhabitants of the earth on every side to tremble at this judgement, to awake out of the snares of the devil & to seek a redeemer by whom the works of the devil may be loosed, & they delivered from the tyranny of these wicked spirits in the everlasting Hell? If in this life there be such torments for sinners then what is that woeful distress & anguish which in the world to come waits for them? In this Torrid Zone though their miseries be great, yet have they many comforts: for the body they have sweet springs of water to refresh them, goodly rivers to bathe in, great & pleasant trees for shade, fruitful trees that yield both meat & drink, they have spices & sugarcanes, the cordial joice of lemons to quench their thirst, & the coolest fruits in the hottest countries; and for their souls their case is not desperate, while there is a time of repentance afforded, yea seas they have huge mountains of ice which dashing together make a fearful noise like the roaring of an hell to the astonishment of strangers that hear the same. As the black Zone aboundeth with serpents; so these snowwhite regions do abound with horrible & fierce white bears that roar about the country for their prey; and for a shield against the cold the inhabitants covering their skins with the beare-skinnes & muffled with other furs, do appear as if they were all Bears. The Sun every year hideth itself from them for diverse months together, & then have they no day but continual night; their land is like that which job speaks of, a land of darkness & of the shadow of death, a land of darkness as darkness itself. job, 10. 21.2●. But that which darkens it most of all & makes it to be a more lively image of Hell, is the great rudeness & ignorance of God that is among them, & in special their familiarity with the Devils & abundance of witches & wizards that by general testimony are said to be among them. Oh that those which are frozen in the dregges of their sin, Zeph. 1.12. could duly consider the unsearchable judgements of God in this frozen Zone. Extremity of cold doth sometimes rot off the flesh & outer parts of the body & extinguish the sparkle of natural life as well as fire. As in Island the mount Hecla & Helga are at the same time oft covered with frost & snow on the outside, & yet burn within casting out cinders & flames of fire many miles from the place: or as in the same Ague God sometimes afflicteth men both with a cold fit that crusheth the bones & maketh the teeth to gnash, that first makes the body to quake & shiver, & then kindles a burning heat therein; that first makes the lips & the finger's ends to be blue with cold & afterwards red with an hot inflammation: so God can as well torment sinners with an intolerable cold, with a freezing Hell, as with a hot frying Hell. It is no more wonder to see men live a painful life being frozen in the midst of an ice, then to see men live ever in the midst of a flaming fire. If Hell be described by the gnashing of teeth, Matt. 13.42.50. than this frozen climate where there is such continual cause of the teeth hacking in the head for cold may well serve for remembrance of the latter end of reprobates Devils & the cup of Devils; 1. Cor. 10.21. & seeing every habitation of the Devil is a kind of Hell, it follows that their Churches & Temples are mere Helles & houses of Devils. As it is with the places of their worship; so is it with the places of their jurisdiction & government; the spiritual courts of their Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Deans, Chancellors, Commissaries & Officials, with their Doctors & Proctors, being so many swarms of locusts that oppress, persecute, vex & sting men to make them weary of their lives. Rev. 9.3.5.6. And when the power of the seduced civil Magistrate is assumed unto them, like Pilate joined with Cajaphas', than their authority becomes as the Throne of Satan, Rev. 2.13. who by these instruments casteth men into prison & killeth them. vers. 10. Hereby the Harlot becomes drunken with the blood of the Saints, & with the blood of the Martyrs of jesus: Rev. 17.6. & thus their glorious Cathedral Churches and holy places, Courts & Consistories are made Hellish Slaughter-houses of Satan, & Babylon becomes the habitation of Devils, the hold of every foul spirit & a cage of every unclean & hateful bird; Rev. 18.2. & so are to be esteemed of all that pass by & look upon them. Thus also are all the assemblies & meeting-houses of Mahometists, Arrians, Anabaptists, & other Heretics to be accounted of in respect of their pernicious errors, & that by the verdict of Christ himself, who pronounceth such to be the Synagogue of Satan. Rev. 2.9. Hence may we conceive how many thousand intemperate Helles are to be found in this our Temperate Zone.  
(k) After these more public Helles, if we search into private houses, we may there find many habitations of Devils. Some houses, as experience shows and the Lord hath threatened, are haunted with evil spirits that affright those that dwell therein: Ohim & Zijm do lodge there & the Satyrs or devils do dance there. Esa. 13.21.22. with Leu. 17.7. orig. Hereby God calls men to think of the future Hell & of the terrors that shall come upon the wicked in their end. Another worse Hell than this is to be observed in the houses of witches & wizards which have familiar spirits, & do willingly entertain them, call for them & make a covenant with them. Levit. 20.27. 1. Sam. 28.7. etc. for whereas the other were haunted with them against their will & to their great grief; these voluntarily & eagerly seek them & keep them, & so their houses become like the Oracles of the Devil that men sought unto in old time. 2. Kin. 1.2.4. Such houses were and are wheresoever they be like so many porches & portals of Hell, or mouths of the infernal pit, which how abominable soever they be, yet do they serve for a conviction of atheists & desperate wretches, which either think or live as if they did think there were no Devil, no Hell.  
With these devilish houses are to be joined the disordered Inns & Taverns, that are the nurseries of all impiety & wickedness, the very stairs & traps by which men descend into Hell. For though there be a lawful use of Inns for the commodity of strangers & passengers, & for the necessity of some others: yet the disordered Harbours & inordinate ordinaries, which are the ordinary Rendezvouz of drunkards, of blasphemers & swearers, receptacles of skorners & mockers, of gamesters, of riotours, of wantoness, of idle persons & unthrifts, of thievish robbers of their own families, & the like; of these is verified the common saying, that Alehouses are Hell-houses. There haunt the clamorous Ohim & Zijm, & there do the lascivious Satyrs dance together; thither do the Gobbelines resort, the screech-owls, the night-ravens & nightwalkers together; & make a cage of unclean birds. When men pass by such houses they are to look upon them as the very Types of Hell & the dens of destruction where many are daily overthrown. They are as deep pits that swallow up soul & body, goods & good name of their bewitched guests; both health of body & wealth of estate, credit of name & salvation of soul do there consume & perish together. And therefore with many plucks doth the Lord seek to divert men from such places, Enter not into the path of the wicked, & go not in the way of evil men: Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, & pass away. Prov. 4.14.15.  
(l) From private houses come we to private & particular persons, to see how many Helles may be found among them. If we look upon God's judgements for sin, we see some possessed with Devil's persons that procure these judgements of God, in them also there are many Hells to be seen. Their thoughts, their words, their deeds & practices do represent the same unto us. The large heart of man & his capacious thoughts are like unto a huge vessel, wide & deep, greater than the whole Globe of the earth, which cannot fill the same. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Eccles. 1.8. Though a moat in the eye do trouble it; yet the world cannot fill it. The reason is, because the mind of man is an immeasurable gulf; & the outward senses are but tunnels or conduits leading into it. Immoderate desire, whether it be the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life, is an insatiable whirlpool that is still gaping & devouring, but never satisfied. Eccles. 5.9.10. Hab. 2.5. Esa. 56.11. The ignorance that is in the mind makes it to be as dark a dungeon as it is deep, Eph 4.18. Matt. 6.23. wherein the thoughts do blindly range & roam up & down with pernicious wanderings. The violence & fervency of inordinate lust inflames the heart & makes it to burn, Rom. 1.27. like the bakers oven that is overheated, till it burn as a flaming fire. Hos. 7.6.7. And to show that the wicked heart is a more complete Hell, it is said that Satan enters into it, joh. 13.27. & fills the heart, Act. 5.3. & dwells in it, Matt. 12.45. & reigns in it as a prince over his subjects, joh. 14.30. or as a God over his people. 2. Cor. 4.4. The mouth of a wicked man is like the mouth of Hell, whiles the envy, hatred & lust that is kindled in the heart doth break out in the words, & as it were, flame out at the mouth. The slanderous & evil tongue is a fire, & is set on fire of Hell, & setteth on fire the whole course of nature. jam. 3.6. The body & the whole person of wicked men is as it were the shop & workhouse of Satan, wherein the unclean spirits do work in the children of disobedience; Eph. 2.2. & all their members are the instruments & tools of the devils to work all manner of sin & unrighteousness therewith. Rom. 6.13.19.  
And now seeing the Lord hath set so many visions of Hell before us in this life, whereby he calls men to remember the latter end; let him that hath an ear to hear, harken to the call of God: let him that hath an eye to see, come & open his    


〈…〉 the godly would sometimes have him to be more severe: He is more desirous of the salvation of them that are saved than they themselves.  
AS God calls us many ways to remember our latter end; so the due remembrance of our end calls us to remember God: & the thought of death serves to urge & admonish us of seeking the way of life. True life is to be found with God alone. He is the living God. Iosh. 3.10. jer. 10.10. Hos. 1.10. He giveth unto all life & breath & all things. Act. 17.25. With him is the well of life. Psa. 36.9. From this well do flow a thousand rivers of life; of life natural; of life spiritual, of life eternal in the heavens.  
(a) With him is the fountain of natural vegetation, & the rivers of vegetative life are all propagated from him. In every plant & in every least seed of tree or herb, God hath planted a vital juice & digged a wellspring of life, from which spring life floweth out & flourisheth & is spread abroad; Gen. 1.11.12. Psa. 104.14. & the living things are multiplied according to their kind in such unspeakable abundance, that the increase thereof throughout the world might in few years serve to replenish an hundred worlds. The seeds that one garden in one year affordeth are so many as might in short time serve to fill an hundred garden-plots, while some one herb oft yields more than a thousand seeds at once. So a thousand akehornes that fall from one Oak, might serve to plant a whole grove of oaks. The apples of some one tree yield more than a thousand kirnels: & therefore the kirnels, together with the roots & grasses or shoots that one orchard affordeth in one year, might well serve to be the seminary of an hundred more. Thus have we yearly the matter of many worlds laid before us: though more new worlds be not daily form, yet the living God shows us hereby how easily he could do it.  
The glory of this well of life is to be considered not only in the abundance of life which gusheth out & floweth from it, but likewise in the excellency thereof, while the living things, the herbs & fruits that are thence produced, do not only live themselves, but serve to sustain & uphold the life of other creatures, both man & beast, both in the main & daily Gen. 1.22.28. as by a seed of seeds hath multiplied life, & as from a well of life hath made the streams of natural life to flow forth & with a continual current of succession to run freshly from the beginning of the world unto this day. Hereby we see how the Lord pours life out of his treasure: at his word life swims in the waters; flies in the air; walks on the earth, & scralles in the dust turned into living creatures at his command. Exo. ●. 16.17.  
A clear vision of this power of life that is in God, is showed unto us even in the least sort of creatures, in the Bees, the Flies, and in special in the manifold swarms of innumerable gnats in summertime suddenly produced in some countries, as if they were so many drops of life flying abroad round about us, as if the whole air were dissolved into living creatures: & not only living, but all endued with a most lively life, all nimble & active, mounting above our heads, and every one of them carrying with them a Trumpet wherewith they hum aloud & sound an Alarm to us, to awaken us unto the praise of their Creator, the living God. And because we are so blind & dull to discern & acknowledge the living God, the author of this life, therefore they approach near unto us & bite us; though it cost them their life for it, they will have us by the face or hands, sleeping or waking, night & day; & they will taste of our blood: & this by divine providence, that by these little monitors we might be roused up out of our senseless behaviour, to look unto that wellspring of life from whence they come. Though these creatures be small & contemptible in the eyes of many, yet do these small things carry in them the glorious evidences of the living God and as effectual for our instruction as are to be found in the great Ox, Elephant or Leviathan. Psa. 104.25. Exo. 8.18.19. He that raiseth these living souls out of the ditches & rotten ground, & sometimes maketh many of these lives to spring from one dead carcase; how easily can he raise our dead bodies out of the grave, & restore one life to one body, yea quicken the soul from the mire of sin? He that longeth after life let him look to this fountain.  
(c) Besides this ordinary flood of life flowing from that general word & come- maul spirits, & with them the faculty both of sense & motion over all. To preserve our being, he hath made the liver a fountain of blood & from thence drawn the veins, & dispersed them over the whole body to carry abroad the blood & the natural spirits therein to the nourishment of every part. With these living threads more precious than any golden wires, than fine twined linen, blue, purple & scarlet, the ornaments of the Tabernacle, hath God beautified the body of man, which is also compared to a Tabernacle. 2. Cor. 5.1.4. 2. Pet. 1.13.14. With these feeling, moving & nourishing strings hath the Lord covered & embroidered & curiously wrought the veil of our flesh. Psal. 139.15. job, 10.11. And each of these life-strings doth the living God still hold in his hand, maintaining their faculties & inspiring life & quickening virtue into them. And besides this, in the very tunicles or coats of each of these hollow strings hath the Lord wrought a curious network & woven together another sort of subtle threads & thousands of them, more fine & small than hairs; some of them drawn right along, of an attractive power; some round & circular crossing the other with right angles, of an expulsive virtue, others drawn athwart both the other with obliqne angles, of a retentive faculty, & all for the service of life in great variety: some draw, some hold, some drive out superfluities of nature; & all these held and upheld in their several functions by the finger of God, extending his quickening power unto every one of them. Neither are these particular streams and waves of the river of life flowing from God to be neglected of us, the works of God are to be sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psal. 111.2. Distinct knowledge and consideration hereof brings clearer comfort: and it is great sin, unthankfulness and contempt of God's glorious wisdom to look confusedly over those things that God propounds distinctly in many several forms and particular acts.  
To proceed therefore from these faculties and functions of life sensitive common to the brute creatures with man, we are to behold another well of life in that reasonable soul which God hath placed in men, when as he form the spirit of man within him. Zacch. 12.1. The stir, motions and acts of life flowing with vers. 30. the Lord even then offered unto him to have opened his well of life as wide for him, & to have made of him a greater & mightier nation than Israel was. Num. 14.12. Oh how great are the treasures of life which God hath in store for them that love him! even worlds of life to give to every one of them. Well might the Psalmist say of this God, With him is the well of life: and in his light we shall see light: Psa. 36.9. In which words David pointeth at two glorious works & gifts of God specially noted in the six days of the creation. In three days God beautified the world with light: the first day he created light; the second day he created a pure & transparent firmament, or an expansion through which the beams of the heavenly light being diffused & spread forth might so come to us; & without such a mean or middle passage our sight & the light could not have met together: the fourth day God created heavenly lights, the Sun, Moon & stars gathering abundance of light into them & by their motion distributed that light unto the diverse parts of the world successively for the greater benefit thereof. Gen. 1.3.6. etc. In three other days God created life in the diverse degrees thereof: the third day God opened a box of life & poured out that vegetative life which appeareth in the growing plants, herbs & trees; the fift day God opened another box & poured out a stream of sensitive life, such as appeared in the fowls & fishes; the sixth day God opened again another box, & beside the sensitive life in the beasts & cattles, poured out the treasure of an intellectual life which appeared in the reasonable soul of man which he then created. Gen. 1.11.12.20. etc. And from that first week unto this day both the beams of light & the streams of life have flowed out incessantly to his praise & the comfort of man.  
(f) And yet all this is but the little finger of God in respect of his mighty arm: all this is but the power of life natural vouchsafed even to his enemies, to the reprobats. There is a new life, a more high & precious life to be found in God; even a well of spiritual life, opened by him immediately after the fall. Then was made the promise of this life & of victory over death by breaking the serpent's head: Gen. 3.15. that word was the Gospel of Salvation preached instantly to Adam upon the kinds of life natural are made to serve as shadows of the life spiritual which God giveth to his elect. See it in the plants that do live a vegetative life. As the earth bringeth forth her bud, & as the garden causeth the things that are sown therein to spring forth: so the Lord God will cause righteousness & praise to spring forth before all the nations. Esa. 61.11. The Lord doth as easily make men to be trees of righteousness, as he maketh thorns or briers to grow. Esa. 61.3. with ch. 55.13. Yea the plants that exceed others in growth, the tall cedars, the flourishing palm, Psa. 92.12. the green olive, the fruitful lilies, Hos. 14.5, 6. the willows by the watercourses, Esa. 44.4. the flowing spices, Sol. song. 4.16. & the trees that bring forth new fruit according to their months, Ezek. 47.12. are all but shadows of this grace of life flowing from the Lord. See it in the creatures that live a sensitive life: The sheep that are said to bring forth thousands in our streets, Psa. 144.13. & do cloth the pastures with their multitude, Psa. 65.13. are made types of the flock of God that multiply by his blessing, Ezek. 34.11.31. & do every one bring forth twins, none being barren among them. Sol. song. 4.2. They are also likened to the doves that bring forth almost every month, & come by flights unto their windows. Esa. 60.8. See this also in the shadow of mankind endued with a reasonable life: As the fathers & mothers are called the fountains of life from whence the children do flow: Psa. 68.26. Esa. 48.1. so the Lord communicating spiritual life to his children is said to beget them again, jam. 1.18. & they are the dew of his youth; Psa. 110.3. & he is the living father of many children. joh. 6.57. Heb. 2.10. Yea God is able even of stones to raise up children to Abraham; Matt. 3.9. as once of old & at first he hewed them out of the dry & hard rock of Abraham's decayed body & Sarahs' dead womb, Esa. 51.1.2. Rom. 4.18.19. & after that again took the stony heart out of their bodies; Ezek. 11.19. & as in time to come he is yet once more of the stonyhearted & obstinate jews to raise up a new & holy generation. Rom. 11.7.8 24.25.26. And hereby it is evident what a power of life is in God & that the well of life is not elsewhere to be sought or found then in him alone.  
be with men, & he will dwell with them, & God himself shall be with them & be their God. Rev. 21.3. He will rejoice over them with joy & quiet or rest himself in his love; he will joy over them with singing or shouting, as the word also signifies. Zeph. 3.17. And what cause have they to sing & shout & clap their hands for joy eternally, for whom the Lord doth sing & shout joyfully? Esa. 12.6. Psa. 47.1. how honourable are they whom the Father doth honour, joh. 12.26. whom the Son doth confess before the Angels for ever? Luk. 12.8. And if these promises have their beginning here & be made unto men in their pilgrimage & be in part enjoyed in this life, what shall their compliment & full performance be when they come to the wel-head of all this life & glory hereafter, which for the present is hidden with God? Coll. 3.3.  
(i)  
What then remains for us to be done & what doth the Lord require of us, but that we come to this well of life? It is therefore showed unto us that we might desire it & in desiring seek it & in seeking find it to our everlasting happiness. And before we come unto it, even in the mean time by daily & comfortable meditation, we may behold & look upon it, yea taste it, walking upon the banks of this river of life & sometimes as it were sailing upon these waters, being carried with the Spirit of God blowing upon us by faith. If any despise this call of God & contemn the infinite felicity that is herein revealed unto them: if any will forsake the Lord, the fountain of living waters, & dig unto themselves cisterns, even broken cisterns that can hold no water; if they will rather run to the stinking puddles of sinful pleasures: mark what the Lord saith concerning their madness, O ye heavens be astonished at this & be horribly afraid & utterly confounded or very desolate, saith the lord jer. 2.12.13. And what then is that unspeakable astonishment, horror & confusion that shall come upon the despisers of this grace, when heaven & earth together shall be so affected at the sight of their miserable folly?  
And if any fearful hearts do either despair or doubt they can never obtain such a divine & glorious estate in respect of their baseness & unworthiness; if they  
(k) If any fainting spirits be still afraid, & though they will not speak it out, yet think thus within themselves: Not our poor & mean estate, but our wickedness & our sins that are both great & many, do deprive us of hope & take away our heart that we cannot look for a portion in that grace of life that is so great for many others: Let these consider how great & pernicious an error hath ensnared them; & let them labour with all care & speedy diligence to have this black cloud of death & infidelity hanging over their heads, remooved from them. It is indeed the uncomfortable estate of the greatest part of the world, & even of those licentious persons that seem to boast often of the mercy of God, yet not to believe his mercy; Esa. 53.1. Luk. 18.8. Psa. 78.22.32.35.36. they feel it not in their hearts when they glory outwardly of it: for had they faith, it would soon have purified their hearts & changed their lives & filled them with peace & joy unspeakable & glorious. Act. 15.9. Rom. 5.1. 1. Pet. 1.8. Let such consider that through unbelief men are broken off from God; Rom. 11.20. & they do him the greatest dishonour that may be in not believing: 1. joh. 5.10. & for the healing of this sore, let them set before them the rich & precious promises of God, by the meditation whereof they may be quickened & have faith wrought in their hearts. Psa. 119.25.28.49.50.93. Though their sins be many, that they cannot answer for one of a thousand, job, 9.3. there is mercy with God to blot out their sins as a thick cloud, & to take away their transgressions as a mist. Esa. 44.22. When the Lord proclaimed his glorious name, he manifested himself by this mercy, & used twice so many titles to express it rather than his justice, saying, The Lord, the Lord God merciful, and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin; that surely will not clear the wicked, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. Exod. 34.5.6.7. For though the Lord in regard of himself be equally infinite in respect of all his attributes, yet is it harder for men to believe his mercy then his justice; & as the event shows, it is a work more above the power of nature by true faith to apply the mercy of God with spiritual fornication, being carried away to dumb Idols; 1. Cor. 12.2. when they turned from Idols to serve the living God, 1. Thes. 1. 9, presently of most foul harlots they became the fairest among women, even the Churches of God & his most beauteous spouses: Sol. song. 5.9. They found mercy for all their sins which they confessed, & being baptised into the name of the Lord they arose up out of the water, & looked forth as the morning, fair as the Moon & pure as the Sun; Sol. song, 6.9.10. they shone in glory as the great wonder in heaven, like the woman clothed with the Sun & treading upon the Moon with her feet & crowned upon her head with the twelve stars. Rev. 12.1. Manasses that was not only an idolater but in the grossest manner, worshipping all the host of heaven, & setting their altars & his graven image in the house of the Lord; that was not only a witch but defiled with many kinds of witchcraft, leaving the Lord & flying to the devil, leaving the Prophets & running to wizards; that was not only a murderer but abounding in murders & filling jerusalem with innocent blood which he shed from one end thereof unto another; & all this after the education under his godly father Hezekias with contempt of many admonitions & godly examples; yet when he was humbled in his affliction & sought the Lord, he was not barred from the well of life, but he found mercy with God, who was entreated of him & forgave his sins. 2. Chro. 33. 12-16. And so also those that committed yet a more horrible murder in killing & crucifying the Lord of life & embruing their wicked hands in his precious blood, Act. 2. 23. and 3.15. when they were pricked in their hearts & sought grace, they found that which they sought, & obtained remission of sins & the gift of the holy Ghost, being united unto the Church of God, & were filled with unspeakable joy & glory. Act. 2. 37-47. And as the Lord dealt with these when they turned unto him: so hath he promised to deal with the wickedest alive whosoever do seek him. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. Zacch. 1. 3. In this divine & comfortable promise the Lord doth three times interpose & pawn the authority of his name to confirm his word, that it might 1.1. 2. and 2.20. &c, and 2. Sam. 7.15. Our Saviour tells Peter that he is to forgive his brother not seven times, but seventy times seven. Matt. 18. 21.22. And immediately after in the parable next following he shows how fare the mercy of God exceeds the mercy of men, & how many times the Lord forgiveth us more than we forgive men. And this he doth, by comparing our sins or debts unto God to ten thousand Talents, vers. 24. & the offences of others against us to an hundred pence. v. 28. Now that we may the better conceive the love of God in the pardon of many sins for the comfort of sinners taught in this parable, these two sums & the difference that is betwixt them is duly to be considered of us. And to this end it is to be observed that our Saviour speaks of the Roman coin, such as was then in use among the jews at that time subject to the Romans, as appeareth in that penny which Christ required the Herodians to show unto him, having upon it the image & superscription of Caesar the Roman Emperor. Matt. 22.19.20.21. And though our Saviour spoke in the jews language, & the Evangelists wrote in the Greek tongue, then most common in the world, yet the word that is here used for a penny, (denarion, Matt. 18.28. & 22.19.) is the Roman or Latin word, to show that he spoke of Roman coin. The Roman Talon (as our writer's witness) contained seven hundred & fifty ounces of silver, & the Roman penny was but the eight part of one ounce. Hereupon it follows by just computation, 750. being multiplied by 8. that one Talon contained precisely six thousand pence, & consequently ten thousand Talents contained six thousand times ten thousand pence, which is the great sum representing the many sins that God forgiveth unto men. And though our Saviour by a definite number intends an indefinite, yet is the proportion to be observed & while he hath chosen so exceeding great a number, he would thereby have us to conceive the infinite grace of God in pardoning innumerable sins & millions of transgressions, which the elect & faithful do daily commit, even after their conversion. The Lord is still ready to forgive the repentant, & will abundantly pardon, or as the words in the text are, will multiply to pardon. Esa. 55.7. His mercies fail not but are renewed sired they might be consumed with fire from heaven. Luk. 10.54.55.56. The spirit that is in man lusteth after envy, & even joshua repined at the mercy & grace of God, & the gifts of his Spirit upon Eldad & Medad. Num. 11. 27.28.2●. jonas in special was strangely vexed and fretted with an exceeding displeasure, being angry even to the death, and was therefore so hasty & swift to anger because God was so slow to anger & so merciful in sparing the Ninevites. jon. 4.1.2.3. And though this seem strange to those that read it, yet is the same passion common among men. What godly man is there at this day which doth not in some measure overrun the Lord to judgement in wishing the destruction of Antichrist, as though the Lord were too slow to anger? If they might have had their will, the Lord should not have waited with so great patience in calling them to repentance.  
But further, God is more merciful to men than men would have him to be even towards themselves. For all those that are saved, God is more willing to save them, than they themselves are to be saved. His willingness to give doth exceed ours in receyving by many degrees. First he had a will to save us, when we had no will, nor being at all; he loved us first & ordained us unto eternal life before the foundation of the world. 1. joh. 4.19. Act. 13.48. Eph. 1.4.5. Again when we came into this world being borne in sin, & had a will indeed but no will unto that which is good, a will only unto evil, Gen. 6.5. the Lord prevented us & called us & of unwilling made us willing, & gave us a mind & will to know him & seek him, as he did unto Paul in the mids of his wickedness. Acts. 9.1. 3. etc. And we should never have had a will to come unto the well of life except we had been drawn by him. joh. 6.44. And again, being called & made willing, it is he that of willing doth make us more willing and constantly willing, & daily gives unto his elect both the will & the deed of his good pleasure. Phil. 2.13. Our will & wish is bend unto evil, & we desire we know not what: Matt. 20.22. Our will is often eagerly set upon that which would wound our souls & be an hindrance to our salvation & comfort; jam. 4.3. but the Lord by his gracious will keeps away the evil we fain would have, & gives the good that we had no will unto. He beareth up & supporteth our will in good, which else presently declines unto evil: He holdeth our souls in life & suffereth not our feet to be moved. Psa. 66.9. And therefore his will is better to us then our own. Unto this living God that is so good & so fare exceeds our desires with his good will, let us ever run & fly unto him & we shall surely find the well of life with him & drink of the river of his pleasures. To him be praise for evermore.   

CHAP. II. Of the sure & only way to the Well of life.  
No way to life but only by Christ. In the knowledge of Christ we are to consider (a) His calling unto the whole work of Redemption, & the gifts wherewith he was abundantly furnished for this calling: (b) The offices laid upon him for this work, when he became our Prophet, to teach & instruct, both in his own person & by his ministers; (c) Our Priest, in his sufferings & obedience on earth, & intercession for us in heaven; (d) Our King, to bring us unto the possession of life, subduing all his & our enemies: (e) The visible signs & seals of his grace, Baptism & the Supper of the Lord: (f) The dignity of his person, being both very God & true man, requisite unto the discharge of each of his three offices. (g) The comforts arising from these considerations, specially when men thirst after life, & are careful to have in store a select number of the promises of salvation. (h) A direction how to apply the promises unto ourselves by the due consideration of Christ his natures & offices.  
I Am the way, the truth & the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me, saith Christ, joh. 14.6. He is the Lamb that leads unto the living fountains, Rev. 7.17. & the good shepherd that gathers the lambs with his arm, & carries was called thereunto of his Father. Christ is the signet of his Father's right hand, & him hath God the Father sealed by designing & appointing him to be the Mediator▪ joh. 6.27. He is the elect of God, Esa. 42.1. fore ordained before the foundation of the world, 1. Pet. 1.20. and again manifestly called in time, chiefly at his Baptism & Transfiguration, when that glorious voice came from heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. Matt. 3.17. & 17.5. This calling of Christ is especially noted in the Gospel of john & more than forty times in exact number, under the phrase of sending him; joh. 5.23.24.30. ●6. 37.38 etc. & yet forty times again in other equivalent phrases of being sealed, & given, & coming down from heaven, & come in the Father's name & the like. Our Saviour himself doth ever & anon repeat this calling & rejoice in it & teach others to comfort themselves in it; & therefore the afflicted conscience that seeks to be strengthened in faith should often remember this calling of Christ: yea forty & forty times to run unto it & after the example of Christ never to have done with it, that so the meditation thereof may lead them to the well of life.  
Christ being thus called of his Father is thereupon also furnished with all gifts meet for his calling, anointed with the oil of joy & gladness above his fellows, H●b. 1.9. with the spirit above measure, joh. 3.34. that of his fullness we all might receive, even grace for grace, or grace over against grace, grace renewed in us according to his image; grace according to our need of grace & according to his abundance able to supply all our wants. joh. 1.16. All his garments smell of myrrh, aloes & cassia out of his ivory palaces whereby they have made him glad & whereby he hath made us glad, giving the oil of joy for mourning & the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Psa. 45.8. Esa. 61.3. His name is an ointment poured out; therefore the virgins love him: Sol. song. 1.3. and they sing lovesongs of him and their heart boileth out his praise. Psal. 45. title, & vers. 1. Being thus anointed & called of his Father, he comes promptly at his call, Lo I come to do thy will O God; Heb. 10.7. with Psa. 40.7.8. & he is as willing as he is able, to be a for have found the well of life, for there is none that understandeth, Psa. 53.1.2. but he is the light of them that sit in darkness & in the shadow of death, he maketh the eyes of the blind to see out of obscurity & darkness. Esa. 29.18. In his breast is that Vrim & Thummim by which the counsel of God was made known unto men: Exod. 28.30. Num. 27.21. for he is the substance of the shadows that went before. Coll. 2.17. As from the Oracle; (debir, 1. Kin. 6.19.20.) the inmost place of the Sanctuary, God was wont to speak of old & to send forth a voice; Exo. 25.22. Num. 7.8.9. so now hath he spoken unto us in his Son, that is in his bosom. Heb. 1.1. joh. 1.18. There is no labyrinth of error but he gives a thread of direction to come out of it. There is no perplexity or difficult case of conscience but he resolveth it. God hath given him the tongue of the learned to know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Esa. 50.4. He leads the simple in a way that the fools shall not err therein. Esa. 35.8. Many complain of the many religions and opinions in the world, & that they know not which to take; but such are not acquainted with this Prophet, who teacheth the humble & revealeth his secret to them that fear him. Psal. 25.9.14. Christ is not like a stern austere master, of whom the poor scholars dare not ask a question: but he is gentle & loving & calls them to learn of him & persuades them to come to him because he is meek & lowly, & shows them how to find rest unto their souls in all their doubts & difficulties. Matt. 11.29.  
And further as in the days of his flesh he was a minister of the circumcision, Rom. 15.8. going about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues & preaching the Gospel of the kingdom; Matt. 4.23. so now by his ministers & servants, Eph. 4.11.12. the maidens of his wisdom, Prov. 9.3.4. he calls all nations to the knowledge & fellowship of his grace. Mat. 28.19. As of old he preached to the spirits now in prison by Noah a preacher of righteousness; 1. Pet. 3.19. so still at this day he preacheth peace to them that are afar of. Eph. 2.17. Hereby his voice is as the sound of many waters, Rev. 1.15. a sowed that is gone out into all the earth unto the ends of the world▪ Rom. 10.18. And thus the spirit even in the waters of the great deep: Exod. 14. Esa. 51.10. so there being a burning lake & a red sea of wrath prepared for sinners, our holy high Priest hath made a way for us, he wading first through the same & the waters thereof entering into his soul and overwhelming him that we might be delivered. Psal. 69.1. 2. His suffering & satisfaction is become a strong bridge of translation to carry us out of the state of wrath and condemnation into the state of grace and salvation, and to transport us safely over this gulf of destruction and curse in which for our sins we had deserved to have been plunged & drowned for ever. Gal. 3.13. Col. 1.13.14. To bring us on in this journey to the well of life when we like wand'ring sheep had gone astray perniciously, he sought us & found us & laid us on his shoulders: 1. Pet. 2.25. Luk. 15.4. He hath borne our griefs & carried our sorrows, Esa. 53.4. he bore our sins in his body on the tree, 1. Pet. 2.24. & under the burden of our iniquities he was bruised, Esa. 53.5.10. he was sore amazed, he groaned, Mark. 14.38. & cried out with strong cries & supplications, Matt. 27.46. Heb. 5.7. he did sweat great drops of blood that trickled down to the ground: Luk. 22.44. and there was no remedy but that to save others he must go down to the gates of death, he was abased unto the death of the cross; & as Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so was our Mediator lift up; joh. 3.14.15. & as men deal with a toad or serpent so they hanged him upon a stake (stauros) & set him upon a pole & he became as it were a monster unto many, Psa. 71.7. & 22.13. that he might make us glorious by deliverance & bring us unto life.  
He was further abased when he was left for a time under the condition of death, free among the dead, Psa. 88.5. while he made his grave with the wicked, Esa. 53.9. & hereby was as it were swallowed up of the whale in the heart of the earth. Matt. 12.40. And yet above all this & before his burial he descended into Hell, to the gates of the second death, into the deepest degree of humiliation, in his agony both in the garden and upon the cross: Matt. 27.46. Psal. 88.6. there the sorrows of hell compassed him about, there he drunk the cup of the red wine of the wrath of God, Matt. 20.22. & 26.39.42.44. a cup whereinto all our vile and deadly sins were grated, God laying upon him the iniquities of us all. Esa. 53.6. At the tasting of this cup his strength was poured out like water, his heart did melt like wax in the mids of his bowels; Psa. 22.14. a greater matter than if the whole world beside had melted away to nothing for ever. The very thought of this filled the heart of our Mediator with perplexity & fear long before it came, I have a baptism (saith he) to be baptised withal; & how am I pained until it be ended? Luk. 12.50. And how was he then pained in the finishing of it? But hereby are many sons brought unto God & delivered from the bondage & fear of death for ever. Heb. 2.9.10.14.15.  
Having passed himself and led us through the first gate of justice by suffering, there remained a second by fulfilling the law for us, & this also necessary for our entrance into life; & therefore besides the sacrifice of his death, he also offered up himself in a holy life unto God, & sanctified himself for us. joh. 17.19. For being made under the Law, Gal. 4.4. he fulfilled all righteousness, Matt. 3.15. & was an immaculate lamb, 1. Pet. 1.19. holy, harmless, undefiled, Heb. 7.26. whom no man could convince of sin: joh. 8.46. & even in the midst of his sufferings his active obedience & willing subjection to the will of his Father, Phi. 2.8.9. joh. 10.17.18. & 18.6.11. was for us a sacrifice of sweet odour, as well as the suffering itself, & so led us through the second gate of God's justice. Thus by the obedience & righteousness of one many are made righteous, even partakers of the righteousness of God in Christ. Rom. 5.17.18.19. 1. Pet. 1.2. 2. Cor. 5.21.  
And further, as all that he did then on earth was for our comfort; so all that he now doth in heaven is also for the increase of our comfort: for he is still a priest and sacrificer in heaven. As Aaron bore the names of the children of Israel both upon his two shoulders engraven in two Onyx stones set in ouches of gold, Exod. 28. 9-12. & likewise in the breastplate of judgement upon his heart, in twelve other precious stones, when he went into the holy place for a memorial continually before the Lord: vers▪ 17-29. so our Mediator hath not only carried us on his of the promised inheritance in Canaan, we see what enemies in the way rose up against them to hinder them & to destroy them. Pharaoh & his host with charets & horsemen pursues after them to bring them back again into bondage or to destroy them utterly, Exod. 14.5.9 & 15.9. Then Amalek when Israel was faint & weary in the way, came out and smote the feeblest & hindmost of them. Deut. 25.17.18. Exod. 17.8. Edom their brother denied them passage. Num. 20.21. King Arad took some of them prisoners. Numb. 21.1. Balak the King of Moab calls Balaam the soothsayer to curse Israel. Numb. 22.4. and 23.13. The Midianites vexed them with their wiles and brought thousands of them to destruction. Num. 25.4.9.17.18. Sihon and Og the giant with all their forces came out to stop them in their way. Deut. 2.32. & 3.1. And the Kings of Canaan with an host like the sand upon the sea shore in multitude, were gathered together to fight against Israel and to keep them from their inheritance promised. Iosh. 11.4.5. And in like manner to stop and hinder the faithful in the way of life armies of enemies rise up on every side. The world generally hates them. joh. 15.19. Matt. 24.9. The nations rage & the princes conspire against the Lord and his anointed. Psal. 2.1.2. The mighty men, the Giants of our time cease not to war against them. The Romish Balaam much worse than the old soothsayer curseth them incessantly. The Babylonian harlot is drunken with the blood of the Saints. Rev. 17.6. The manyheaded Beast blasphemes God and his Tabernacle; Rev. 13.6. and the second Beast forceth men for fear to receyve his mark. vers. 16. The Dragon and his angels fight. Rev. 12.3.7. The Devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and cast out from the inheritance of the Lord. 1. Pet. 5.8. And our own flesh like a serpent in the bosom lusteth and fighteth against the soul. Gal. 5.17. 1. Pet. 2.11. Now for the resisting and conquering of all these Christ is given unto us as a victorious King and Prince of peace: He is exalted above every name that is named in this world or in the world to come▪ Eph. 1.21. He hath overcome the world; joh. 16.33. cast out the wicked spirit confirm his afflicted people in their expectation of future glory and dignity by Christ the Branch, God appointed his Prophet to take silver & gold from them of the captivity & to make Crowns, to set them first upon the head of Jehoshua, and then to keep them for a memorial in the Temple of the Lord: Zach. 6. 9-15. so in the use of these ordinances of Baptism & the Lords-Supper given to his Church & left for memorials of our glory in Christ, we ought to be affected as if there were two golden crowns hung up in the congregation before our eyes, & sometimes set upon our heads as witnesses and pledges of the glorious kingdom to be enjoyed hereafter. In Baptism is represented both the washing away of our sins, Act. 2.38. & our fellowship with the holy Trinity, whose names are put upon us: Matt. 28.19. The names of the Father, Son, & H. Ghost are set like three pearls shining in our crown of glory set upon our heads. Esa. 28.5. In the Supper of the Lord being called unto his Table & to the participation of the body & blood of Christ, we are thereby set together in heavenly places with him, Eph. 2, 6. like olive plants round about his Table, as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, Esa. 62.3. even a crown about our head Christ in the mids of his Church. As the children of Israel in the wilderness to guide & support them in the way were led by a pillar of cloud, & fed with manna & water out of the rock; so by a like favour for the same spiritual use hath Christ our King given us the Sacraments of the new Testament: 1. Cor. 10.1.2.3.4. & therefore look what joy & comfort the most faithful in Jsrael had, when they saw the cloud of the Tabernacle going before them; such joy & comfort ought we to be filled withal at the administration of Baptism: and look with what joy and thankfulness they went forth to gather Manna, with as great ought we to be affected in going to the Table of the Lord, giving thankes unto Christ for such a staff of comfort to quicken & strengthen us in our journey & way unto the Kingdom of Heaven.  
(f) But for a further view of this unspeakable grace & comfort exhibited in these three offices of Christ, we are to look upon the dignity of his person whereupon depends the virtue, power & 33.15.16. When for sin the Lord threatened a departure of this presence, & yet offered to send an Angel with them to destroy their enemies; Exod. 33.2.3. that would not content him▪ no presence of prophets or angels would serve the turn without this divine presence united to the Tabernacle for their guidance. And even so according to this type, when the word was made flesh, he dwelled among us as in a Tabernacle, as the word signify: joh. 1.14. escenose. His body, was the true Tabernacle which the Lord pight and not man. Heb. 8.2. In him dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Coll. 2.9. Out of this Tabernacle he spoke; Heb. 1.1. and wrought miracles; Matt. 4.23. Act. 10.38. and remooved up and down, and conversing among men led his sheep in the way of life. joh. 10.27.28. No man nor angel had been sufficient for this work: but he being very God as well as man, & bearing up all things by his mighty word, Heb. 1.3. caries along his sheep unresistably and safely unto the glory expected. He is Lord of all, and at his right hand we may see all his blessed angels attending, to whom he hath given charge to watch over his sheep in this way and to carry them in their hands that they dash not their feet against a stone. Psal. 91.11.12. At his left hand he hath the Devil & his angels in a chain and binds them at his pleasure, Rev. 20.1.2. 2. Pet. 2.4. so that they cannot hurt a swine or any unclean beast without his permission, Matth. 8.31. and much less can they hurt them that are washed in his blood: and he having given commandment to prepare the way of his people, to cast up an high way, to gather out the stones, and to remove the stumbling blocks; Esa. 62.10. & 57.14. they shall go in the way of life, as Israel marched out of Egypt, with an high hand; Exod. 14.8. a dog shall not move his tongue against them, Exod. 11.7. further than is for their good: Rom. 8.28. and in due season they shall come to the Lord the wellspring of all glory, life & comfort in heaven.  
(g) The comfort which ariseth from this consideration of Christ is marvellous great for all the faithful and in special for afflicted consciences that desire to be established and confirmed in faith. for't out of his fullness. Thus the souls that come daily to Christ as their Prophet may daily be refreshed by him.  
(h) If any through weakness of faith cannot lay hold on the promises of God touching the pardon of sin and the free gift of salvation set before us, let them bring these promises to the ground of them even to Christ, applying them first to Christ & then to themselves: for in him all the promises of God are Yea and in him they are Amen; 2. Cor. 1.20. not only in their own nature & truth, but also in respect of our apprehension. He that cannot assent unto the promise, looking on the promise only, may better assent & sooner believe, when he looks on Christ the ground of the promise: for example, God promiseth unto the repentant that their crimson & scarlet sins shall be taken away, and they made white as snow & wool: Esa. 1.18. now the troubled soul that cannot say Yea to this promise by particular application, let the same look upon the sacrifice of Christ bearing their sins, satisfying the justice of God, & behold his blood poured out to wash them, & so they shall sooner conceive & apprehend their sins to be done away and their souls to be cleansed and made white as snow.  
There is a promise, that where sin abounds, there grace aboundeth much more: Rom. 5.20. The perplexed consciences that fain would but cannot say Amen unto this promise by applying it unto themselves; let the same look upon Christ, and behold the dignity of his person, his deity & divine majesty, being the brightness of glory, the character or engraven form of his Father's person, his equal and his fellow; Heb. 1.3. Phil. 2.6. Zach. 13.7. when they see his eternal Godhead and almighty power, to whom nothing is hard or impossible, & withal consider how he stoops down to help and puts his hand to this work, to give worth & price unto the sacrifice for sin, to make the blood of redemption more precious & meritorious to redeem the vilest sinners; then shall they more easily receive the promise of abundant grace, & with more faith say Amen unto it.  
There is a promise that God will be merciful to the sins of his people, Heb. 8.12. & receive them with everlasting kindness, Esa. 54.8. & pity them as a father merit of life to justify us; v. 54. the spirit of life for our sanctification, Rom. 8.10. & the crown of life for our glorification. Rev. 2.10. He is all in all; Coll. 3.11. and therefore we are to be nothing in ourselves but all in him, and wholly renouncing ourselves & our own righteousness we are to cast ourselves altogether upon him for the hope of eternal life. To him be praise for ever. Amen.   

CHAP. III. Of Mortification or the death of sin.  
The nature & necessity thereof in general. (a) Six special degrees of mortification: 1. In several passions of the mind troubled at the apprehension of sin; 2. In resisting & refraining of sinful actions, 3. of wicked purposes, 4. tickling desires, 5. wand'ring imaginations, 6. habitual concupiscence. (b) The said acts of mortification like so many battles in our spiritual warfare, & as many parts of that contrition which is acceptable unto God & hath the promises. (c) The example of David mortifying sin in each of the particulars afore named. (d) The chief evils of sin that are to be mortified, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes & the pride of life. (e) By these Satan works his temptations, & by the mortifying of these he is conquered, as it is showed in the examples of Adam, (f) Christ, (g) Antichrist.  
HAving heard of the love of God, which is the spring of life, & of the grace of our Lord jesus Christ, who is the way unto that life; it remains that we seek the communion of the H. Spirit, as the conclusion of our comfort for the assurance of that life. 2. Cor. 13.14. Hereby we know that we have fellowship with God, that he abideth in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 1. joh. 3.24. shall be comforted. Matt. 5.4.  
II. After this follows an other degree of Mortification, whereby the faithful according to the measure of grace given, do turn from the practice of sin which they have bewailed. They do not live any longer therein, Rom. 6.2. they cease to do evil, Esa. 1.16. and eschew evil: job 1.1.8. they forsake their own ways and courses, and break of their sins, Esa. 55.7. and refrain their feet from every evil way. Psalm. 119.101. By this resisting of wicked actions men are said to mortify or kill the deeds of the body and thereupon is life promised unto them. Rom. 8.13. They therefore that love life everlasting must every day die this death also in casting off the works of darkness. Though it be a death to the flesh to leave them, yet must this death also be undergone; else is there no hope of life, no assurance that God dwelleth in us by his Spirit.  
III. An other death of the old man is when not only the outward act of sin, but the will and purpose of sinning is mortified. The will of the flesh and the will of man is noted as a thing opposite to God and his Spirit, procuring his wrath & making men the children of wrath; joh. 1.13. Eph. 2.3. 1. Pet. 4. 2.3. and many that want the power to perform many evils, do not yet want the will thereunto; and therefore this will is to be mortified. If he that had no stain in his will, could yet say unto his Father, Not as I will but as thou wilt; Not my will but thy will be done: Matt. 26.39. Luk. 22.42. and again, I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me; john. 5.30. & 6.38. how much more should we make it our daily exercise to break our own corrupt wills, to cast away our own purposes and to wait on God all the day long, saying and praying continually, Not my will but thy will be done? At the first act of Paul's conversion, so soon as Christ was made known unto him, we see this mortification of his will which he renounced, & resigning himself to the will of God said, Lord what wilt thou that I do? Act. 9.6. When the will is thus mortified, though men do sometimes the things that they would not; yet then is this comfort afforded; it is no more they that do it but sin that dwelleth in them. Rom. 7. 15.16.17.19-20. It shall not be imputed unto them.  
iv Besides this it comes to pass many times that when the will is subdued & restrained from some evil, yet the affections are not mortified: though a sinner in the purpose of his will, will not consent to the practice of some evil, yet the heart is tickled with delight therein, and could wish it were lawful, and it is a pain unto them that they may not consent to seek it. This evil concupiscence & lust of the heart, these affections of the flesh are distinctly condemned, & we are commanded to mortify & to avoid such inordinate passions; even as they are lusts, though consent of the will be not with them. Gal. 5.24. Coll. 3.5. Rom. 7.5. Exo. 20.17. In the kill & abandoning of these lusts the faithful endure many deaths from day to day, & the acts of Mortification are multiplied according to the strength of the spirit ministered unto them.  
V Again the mind of man is daily annoyed & pestered with evil thoughts & wand'ring imaginations arising partly from the flesh & partly from the suggestion of Satan; and these though they neither be delighted in nor approved of, yet the very entertainment of them and their residence in the mind though for a short while, doth pollute the soul with sin. For God requireth the whole soul and the whole mind with all the strength thereof; Deut. 6.5. Luk. 10.27 he requireth a pure heart, free from all straggling conceits. Matt. 5.8. Our eyes should ever be towards the Lord & his glory: Psal. 25.15. Lot's wife for looking backward was smitten of God and turned into a pillar of salt; Gen. 19.17.26. & though more evil might be in her mind, yet that very look alone being forbidden of God made her culpable: and so for a side look unto vanity, when the eye of the mind rolls up and down we become guilty of condemnation. These idle thoughts take up the place in the soul, even the seat wherein God should sit; and while they keep out the thought of God, though but for a moment, they are in that respect condemnable. And therefore these motions of the mind are to be resisted, repelled & mortified. As Abraham hushed away the fowls that came down upon his sacrifice; Gen. 15.11. so are these flying thoughts to be dispelled and driven away from our minds. God requireth that the wicked should forsake his imaginations; Esa. 55.7. God would have his children to cast down imaginations and to bring every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ, 2. Cor. 10.5. which cannot fully and perfectly be done without this mortification of them. By mortification of them the heart is purged, & then the promise of mercy multiplied. jam. 4.8.  
VI Lastly the faithful do yet in a further degree die unto sin, when as that habitual concupiscence which is the seedplot and root of all other sins is mortified and subdued within them. For besides all the motions, affections and other fruits of sin before noted, there is in man a corrupt disposition, whereby he is inclined to all evil. This disposition & proneness to sin, considered apart from the fruits thereof, is condemned in the Scripture, & is called the old man, the body of sin, the law of sin & the law of the members; Rom. 6.6. Eph. 4.22. Col. 3.2. Rom. 7.23. it is called the flesh which lusteth against the spirit, and therefore is to be crucified as well as the lusts and affections thereof. Gal. 5.17.24. This is that hateful and poisonous Cockatrice egg, to be crushed before serpents creep out of it. The godly therefore knowing this their own corrupt disposition must labour to have it changed and weakened daily within them: and to this end they are to watch their heart with all diligence, Prover. 4.23. and even before they feel any stirring or motion of the flesh, to be exercising of themselves in all godliness and in all holy meditations and prayer, to keep under their rebellious nature, and by the help of the Spirit to bring it into subjection, 1. Corint. 9.27. to bind the very stump of this tree with an iron band of mortification, that the forbidden fruits do not bud forth.  
(b) The life of a Christian in this world is a continual warfare, in which they fight the battles of the Lord every day and hour. 2. Cor. 10.4. 1. Tim. 6.12. These spiritual combats according to the acts and degrees before named, are six in special. First they conquer the Adamantine Rock, Zach. 7.12. when their hard hearts are softened to again by the banishment of wand'ring thoughts & motions; & most of all broken when the sinful disposition of the flesh is broken & mortified. All these contritions & break are so many pleasant sacrifices of sweet odour unto God: & to them that undergo so many deaths he hath made many precious promises; that he will revive the spirit of the humble, & give life unto the contrite ones; that he who is high & excellent, inhabiting eternity on high will dwell here below with him that is lowly; that he whose name is the Holy One, will dwell with the contrite sinner: Esa. 57.15. & 66.1.2. and therefore if the presence & conversation of God with us be of any regard with us, if the glory & life that God gives be of any account in our eyes, let us give ourselves daily to these works of mortification, that by these foregoing deaths we may be made ready to leave this world, & may in the end find him & with comfort come before him that is the well of life.  
(c) For the illustration of this point, to omit others, consider we the example of David alone, how he was exercised in all these acts of contrition & thereby died unto sin. The diverse degrees of mortification were so many steps of the stairs by which he descended into the death of sin, dying as it were a several death upon each one of them. 1. After knowledge & conviction of sin committed, as for the numbering of the people, his heart smote him for it, 2. Sam. 24.10. and that was a blow or stroke of mortification which the spirit gave unto the flesh; he mourned exceedingly, and in a revengeful indignation against his own sin was content & desired that the hand of God might be against him & against his father's house, that he might bear the smart of his own transgression. vers. 17. this was a death of sin in him. And so it was also with the sin he conmitted in the matter of Urias, for which his bones were broken, Psal. 51.8. and for which he made himself a public example, by the confession of his sin & making a doleful song thereof to the shaming of himself & warning of others. The title of Psal. 51.11. David went a step lower, when he mortified & resisted the act of sin, though occasion & opportunity of revenge was given unto him, though counsel was given him by others to that If I say, I will judge thus: Behold I should offend against the generation of thy children. verse. 15. VI Lastly David came down to the lowest step of the stairs, when in the mortification of his sin he struck upon the root thereof, by bewailing his original corruption & seeking to subdue that sinful disposition received from his parents, while he complaineth, Behold I was borne in iniquity & in sin hath my mother conceived me. Psalm. 51.5. This old nature he labours to mortify, when he desires to be renewed in the spirit of his mind; vers. 10. for as the Apostle reasoned in respect of the covenant, Heb. 8.13. in that he mentioneth a new estate he desires the abolishing & decay of the old. Thus true mortification never ceaseth till it bring men from & by the hatred of actual sins to find out the original, the cause & mother of all, by which all men together are become unprofitable & filthy; Psal. 53.3. with Rom. 3.12. that they may kill & crucify the same. This mortification of the old man is also comprehended in that speech of David when he saith, I kept me from mine iniquity: Psal. 18.23. for though it be true that he kept himself from his wickedness & from his sin that dwelled in him by bewailing sins already committed, by resisting the present actions, by breaking his will, by renouncing his affections, by casting down his imaginations; yet in special manner he kept himself from his wickedness, by mortifying his very disposition to evil, while he laboured to change his nature & to have a new disposition created within him. These are the deaths that David died; & these are the deaths to be undergone of all that would not dye eternally. This daily dying unto sin by so many lesser deaths, is a main preparative unto the great day of our translation out of this world which ought evermore to be remembered of us.  
(d) After the acts of mortification & the diverse degrees thereof, it is expedient that we consider the special enemies or evils of sin that are to be mortified. These the holy Ghost informs us to be the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life; 1. joh. 2.16. that is to say, voluptuousness, covetousness, & ambition or vainglory. To these three may be reduced the principal works of the flesh or old man, considering that for these and from these do arise the contentions, hatred, envy, lying, slandering & manifold other iniquities, jam. 4.1.2. which are therefore noted & described as companions waiting upon the forenamed lusts, which are the three seditious captains & leaders unto all mischief. Gal. 5.19.20.21. Col. 3.5.8.9. Eph. 5.22.31. These lusts are the root of all evil, not only of all wrong, injustice & cruel dealing towards men, but of all irreligion & impiety against God. The cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches, & the lusts of other things as the pleasures of this life, choke the word of God & make it unfruitful: Mark. 4.19. Luk. 8.14. the fruits of holiness & righteousness are blasted and destroyed thereby. And some through these lusts have erred from the faith, being ensnared with foolish and absurd conceits, noisome also and hurtful in respect of all graces weakened by them, piercing the heart with present sorrows, and finally casting men into eternal destruction and perdition. 1. Tim. 6.9.10. These are of the world & not of God, and if any man be a lover of the world and of these things of the world, then is not the love of the Father in him; 1. joh. 2.15.16. then is he made the enemy of God, for his entertainment of these lusts and his amity with them; jam. 4.4. and consequently cannot look for the fruits of that blessed friendship with God: but for such remaineth a fearful expectation of judgement & death in the day of God's wrath. Therefore men die for ever because they live after the flesh & do not die betimes to these sinful lusts. Rom. 8.13.  
(e) As the world, so the Devil also, by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life both worketh his chief temptations & by the mortifying of those he is conquered, & by men's yielding unto them he overcommeth & devoureth them. This appeareth in three most memorable examples, of Adam, Christ, and Antichrist. At the temptation of our first parents the Devil used these three baits & thereby ensnared them. The forbidden tree by his suggestion appeared good for meat, Gen. 3.6. to bring them to covetousness not content with all the other trees of paradise, as though there had not been meat enough for them without this also; it appeared pleasant to the eyes, to kindle the lust of false and vain pleasure in them; and by his suggestion it appeared as a tree desirable by which the Devil works so effectually in him and in others by him, are those three forenamed lusts: for by these three is Antichrist often described. In respect of the lust of the flesh, the habitation and den of Antichrist is a spiritual Sodom, Rev. 11.8. abounding with lusts of monstrous uncleanness; the Romish city is compared to a great Harlot & the mother of harlots, having in her hand a great cup full of abominations & filthiness of her fornication, Rev. 17.1.4.5. and living deliciously in pleasures. Rev. 18.7. In respect of the lust of the eyes & love of riches, she is decked with gold & precious stone & pearls: Rev. 17.4. & 18.16. and for increase & maintenance of that wealth her servants & ministers through covetousness and with feigned words do make merchandise of men. 2. Pet. 2.3. And as for the pride of life this man of sin doth exalt himself above all that is called God & shows himself that he is God; 2. Thes. 2.4. and hath a mouth speaking great things & blasphemies, & is wondered at & worshipped throughout the world. Rev. 13.3.4.5. And when he is crossed in any of his lusts than he makes war with the Saints & overcomes them & is drunken with their blood. Rev. 13.7. & 17.6. & suffers them not to buy or sell that will not receive his mark. Rev. 13.17. Hereby it appears that the spirit of Antichrist and the breath of his life is lust: these worldly lusts are as it were the bridle and saddle wherewith Satan rides upon him: with the spurs of these lusts he drives him on to commit so great abominations. By lust is the greatest sin wrought in the world; and therefore is every one to be warned hereby to fight continually against these lusts that fight against the soul and make it a slave to Satan. 1. Pet. 2.11. They must either mortify these lusts of the old man, or else for ever be a spoil & prey unto the old serpent that worketh by them.   

Holy Ghost, they are again taught upon the new consideration of this honour done unto them, & in reverence of this divine guest, to proceed unto a further degree & care of their mortification, to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, to subdue the old man with his lusts & affections, lest they grieve this Spirit that is come to dwell with them. 1. Cor. 6.19.20. 2. Cor. 6.16. & 7.1. Eph. 4.30.  
(a) The manner how the Spirit doth mortify sin is by bringing the sinner unto Christ & by him unto the Father. As the Father for communicating of life unto men hath sent his Son to merit life, joh. 7.16. & 3.16. & both the Father & the Son have sent the Holy Spirit for our assurance of that life: joh. 15.26. so the Spirit again brings us both to Christ & to the Father and first teacheth us to embrace Christ; he testifies of Christ and glorifies him & takes of his & shows it unto us. joh. 16.13.14.15. The manner how the Spirit brings us unto Christ is by working in us the graces of Faith, Hope & Love of Christ. These are the most sweet breathe of the Holy Ghost: & by each of these he works mortification in them that are so brought unto him.  
I. Faith in Christ serves to kill sin in us many ways. First of all by the death of Christ there is merited for us not only the pardon of our sin, but also a power of subduing sin; by his death he hath merited the gift of the spirit, even of the spirit of sanctification. Of this gift we are made partakers by faith, which engraffes us into Christ & into the fellowship of his death & of all the merit thereof. Therefore is it said that we are planted together with him into the likeness of his death; and hereupon we know that the old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Rom. 6.5.6.7 8. Thus being by faith united to Christ, the spirit of mortification as well as the gift of reconciliation is bestowed upon us: & in this regard should we the more earnestly seek that precious faith which procures so great grace unto us. Therefore did Christ bear our sins in his body on the tree, that we might become dead unto sins; 1. Pet. 2.24. that by the merit of his death sin might be mortified in us. And hereupon we come to say with the Apostle that we are crucified with Christ, Gal. 2.20.  
we may stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Gal. 5.1.  
iv Moreover as our Mortification depends upon that which Christ merited for us; so that which Christ by his death obtained for himself doth further lead us thereunto. For to this end Christ both died & rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead & living. Rom. 14.9. And as we believe that he is become our Lord, so we are to believe that we are become his servants, being bought with a price, to wit by his blood; & therefore are not our own but his, 1. Cor. 6..19.20 & 7.23. & therefore may not do our own wills nor follow our own affections & lusts but are to mortify them that we may do his will. Thus the faith of Christ's dominion over us purchased by his death, doth serve for an help of our mortification, while it apprehends that the redeemed of Christ are redeemed from the earth, from among men to follow the Lamb, being the first fruits unto God & to the Lamb. Rev. 14.3.4.  
V Again, being in part mortified & contrite for sin, by another act of faith we do further apprehend that in Christ we shall be accepted notwithstanding the weak measure of mortification that is in us. And this faith of acceptance is a great encouragement for us to proceed further in the subduing & mortifying of the flesh with the lusts thereof, & to abound daily therein, when as we know that our weak labour in the Lord is not in vain; 1. Cor. 15.58. when this persuasion abides within us, that the day of small beginnings is not to be despised; Zech. 4.10. that the Lord doth both accept the willing mind notwithstanding many wants, 2. Cor. 8.12. & will also in due season perfect & accomplish that which he hath begun in us. Philip. 1.6.  
(b) That we may the better apprehend the comfort of this acceptance through faith, there are diverse points to be observed touching the nature of true Mortification which is yet acceptable to God.  
1. First, that it is still imperfect in this life even in the most excellent servants of Christ, who confess themselves wretched transgressors of the law of God, feeling in themselves another law & power of sin rebelling against the law of their mind, & leading them into captivity to the law of sin that is in their members. Rom. 7.23.24.  
II. Secondly, true mortification of sin as it is imperfect, so it is nnequall; every man having a portion of grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Eph. 4.7. The same measure of the spirit is not to be expected in all. All have not the same measure of sorrow for their sins that some others have; yet it may be true and unfeigned, and so accepted of God. The fruits of repentance are in some thirty, in some sixty, in some an hundred-fold. Matt. 13.23. Though every true believer have the spirit of God, Rom. 8.9. & be a spiritual person; 1. Cor. 2.14.15. yet some truly spiritual are so weak that in comparison of others they are not spiritual. 1. Cor. 3.1. And therefore ought not any for this to be discouraged if they find themselves inferior unto others.  
III. Thirdly, true Mortification as it is unequal, so it is in some respects unlike in the faithful: as there are diverse measures thereof, so are there diverse manners of it. The gifts & graces of God are not only many but manifold or diverse & of different kind in diverse persons: 1. Pet. 4.10. and therefore some that have not mortified the outward actions of sin may have striven more in the mortifying of their inward lusts & affections. Some that have not mortified the more heinous sins, but have sometimes fallen into notorious scandals, may yet in their ordinary course of life fare exceed those in true mortification which yet never fell into such gross outward offences. 1. Kin. 15.5. 2. Sam. 24.3.4. etc. And some that proceed further unto daily mortification of the actions of sin, may yet want that great contrition & sorrow for sin which is in others that fall oftener & do less abstain from the ordinary practice of sin. It is hard for any to determine whether it was greater grace in joseph a servant resisting the temptation & not committing adultery with his mistress; or in David after his fall to humble himself so fare as being a glorious king to shame himself by public confession of his adultery. Psa. 51. title. For as God magnifies his mercy by sin in forgiving it, more than if no sin had been: Rom. 3.4. & 5.20. so the godly may sometime manifest their grace and godliness by open and effectual repentance, more than if that special sin had not been committed by them. Luk. 7. 38-34.  
FOUR Fourthly, that Mortification which ariseth from the liveliest faith and feeling of God's favour in Christ is most acceptable unto God; rather than that which hath the extremest grief, fear and terror joined with it, or then that which hath a greater restraint of sinful actions. For as by faith men please God; Heb. 11. 5.6. so according to the measure of faith in any action men do more or less please God therein. Though the degrees of mortification be many; though the working of faith be sometimes revealed more at one degree then at another; yet whatsoever is wrought at any degree, is still by faith; whether it be at the change of the disposition, the motion, affection, will, or action, or in contrition after the sinful action; whether it be in diverse men according to their different measure of grace, or in the same men according to their diverse assistance at several times, it is all by faith. Faith is the root of other graces. Col. 2.7. & every act of mortification is a branch springing from this root; & no branch may boast against the root that beareth it. Rom. 11.18. This is the victory that overcommeth the world, even our faith: 1. joh. 5.4. by it mortification is wrought; & by it each act of mortification becomes most acceptable to God. And therefore above all things we are to labour that this blessed grace of faith may be stirred up within us; that though it have as it were slept at one assault of sin, it may yet be awakened at another degree of mortification in the progress of our spiritual combats. And seeing the spirit of God is the spirit of faith, 2. Cor. 4.13. therefore should we seek to be filled with the spirit, Eph. 5.18. that by it we may both become strong in the Lord & in the power of his might, & may withal in the mids of our weaknesses be comforted & encouraged through this faith of being made acceptable unto God in Christ.  
(c) Furthermore besides this working of faith for the mortification of all kind of sin in general, there is yet also a more particular consideration of the power of faith for the mortification of some special sins against God & man. By faith the spiritual pride of nature is subdued, and confidence in a man's own self is overthrown: whiles such a way of salvation by free grace, without our own works & merits is taught us by faith. Thus is humility & utter denial of a man's self wrought in the soul, as the Spirit declareth by that threefold emphatical interrogation & the answer thereof, when as he saith, Where is boasting then? it is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Rom. 3.27. And so also in respect of men it may in like manner be demanded. Where is hatred & revenge? it is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Faith teacheth men to be kind, merciful, tender hearted, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if they believe the pardon of their own sins, and that God in Christ hath forgiven them. Eph. 4.32. Col. 3.13. Though the law of works require both humility in respect of God & meekness in respect of men, though it condemn both boasting & revengefulnes; yet it is the law of faith that works these graces required & mortifyes the contrary sins.  
(d) Having heard how the Spirit by faith brings us unto Christ for the mortification of sin, it follows that we consider how the same is done by Hope also, through the assured expectation of the glory that is to come. Christ is our Hope & the Hope of glory. 1. Tim. 1.1. Col. 1.27. And from this Hope there ariseth a double act of mortification by two especial graces of Sobriety & Patience that are exercised therein.  
Sobriety is an act of mortification which consists in the subduing of inordinate joy & delight of all earthly pleasures, honours and profits wherewith so many are as it were drunken & overcome. By looking for that blessed Hope & the glorious appearing of the great God & our Saviour jesus Christ, we are taught to deny ungodliness & worldly lusts, & to live soberly and temperately in the moderate use of all outward comforts. Tit. 2.12.13. The godly do know that when the Lord shall appear in glory they shall be made like unto him, when they shall see him as he is. And every one that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure. 1. joh. 3.2.3. This purification of the soul from unclean pleasures and lusts is the mortification of them. As a greater light doth obscure & dim the less, & both the stars in the firmament & the candles lighted on earth below do cease to shine when the light of the radiant Sun doth arise upon them: so all the brightest lamps of worldly pleasure are as it were extinguished suffer with joy the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they have in heaven a better & an enduring substance, Heb. 10.34.  
(e) After the consideration of Faith & Hope it remains that we proceed to the third grace of Love, whereby the holy Spirit doth work a further mortification in the elect. And first of all, by the love of Christ men are brought to the love of death, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Phil. 1.23. This desire of death cannot be in a man until he be dead unto the world, & until the love of the things that are in the world be dissolved within him. Until a man be content to departed from all other vanities he cannot desire to go unto Christ. And therefore ought the godly to labour to find in themselves this desire of being translated out of the world to be with Christ, that thereby they may find more assurance of their mortification. We see how the tender & fervent love of some friends makes them willing & desirous to die with their friends & doth after a sort mortify the world unto them. jacob having lost joseph refused to be comforted & resolved to go down mourning into the grave unto his son: Gen. 37.35. & fearing the loss of Benjamin, both he & others thought he should die with him, his life being bound up in his son's life. Gen. 42.38. & 44.22.30.31. It is recorded by diverse historians touching the barbarous Indians in some parts both of the East & the West, & some Blackmoors in Guinea in the midst betwixt them both; that many of the subjects do willingly die with their kings and many women with their husbands: that the Prince being drowned many of the people have willingly drowned themselves with him: that some men give their wives, some their children, some their servants to be buried alive in the grave with their king, to serve him in another world: that some women do cheerfully & by the encouragement of their friends cast themselves into the fire, wherein according to their manner of burial in some places, the dead bodies of their husbands are consumed together. If these so wickedly and resolutely leave this world before they be called, and blindly cast away their lives for the love of a wretched creature; what shame is it unto Christians if the love of their glorious prince & heavenly bridegroom do not mortify them declared, it remaineth yet to be showed how the Spirit having brought us to Christ doth bring us thereby to the eternal Father: for in Christ through the Spirit we have access or entrance to the Father; Eph. 2.18. and are reconciled to God & saved; and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord jesus Christ. Rom. 5.11. And then all the attributes that are in God absolutely considered, besides the other comforts to be had by them, do in special serve for our mortification by the Spirit of Christ teaching us the right life of them. God is light: 1. joh. 1.5. and all his glorious attributes are so many divine beams of light, whereof every one of them by shining upon us doth further our mortification. The eye of God's infinite wisdom looking down upon us may well strike us with shame of our vain behaviour and forgetfulness of God, and make us mourn as Peter, when at his third denial Christ turned and looked upon him. Luk. 22.61.62. And therefore are wicked men the further from mortification, because they say in their hearts, Tush, God seethe not; Psal. 10.11. job 22.14. & the eye of man restrains them more than the eye of God. job 24.15.17. The sight of God's infinite power may well cast us down and make us seem less than grasshoppers in our own eyes, when Israelites were so stricken with the sight of the mighty and tall Anakims'. Num. 13.33. His infinite goodness & mercy communicated with us should affect us more than david's did Mephibosheth, & cause us rather to say, What are we that the Lord should look upon such dead dogs as we are? 2. Sam. 9.8. His infinite wrath against sin, before which the mountains quake and melt, Nah. 1.5.6. may well strike us with godly sorrow for the same sins which in the reprobate are punished with unrecoverable destruction though they be pardoned in us. The incomprehensible majesty & glorious beauty of his face cannot be looked upon by living men; Exod. 33.20. & some sparkles thereof appearing have brought men to the fear of death. jud. 13.22. His unmeasurable eternity being duly thought upon may well mortify the love of this transitory world that passeth away; 1. Cor. 7.31. he alone being unchangeable & abiding for ever the same. jam. 1.17. Psa. 102.26.27. His unconceivable ubiquity or presence in every place may well serve for an hedge or wall of mortification, to keep us in awe of him & in the denial of ourselves for him, seeing we can go no whither from his spirit & presence. Psa. 139.7. etc. And thus all the rest of his attributes being reverently thought upon, may serve to subdue the vanity of our minds & work a death of sin within us by the help of his Holy Spirit. By this means we may be prepared for our latter end, to leave this world with comfort. The Heremites & Anachoretes that shut up themselves in walls or wildernesses, & do every day with their own hands dig & with their fingers scratch & rake up the moulds, making their own grave aforehand & lying down therein, do not in so right a manner think of their end, as those that thus do mortify their sins; making their own spiritual meditations the graves wherein to bury their lusts.   

CHAP. V Of the outward means of Mortification,  
The ordinances & the works of God. (a) The primary ordinances, the Word, Prayer, Sacraments & Discipline. (b) The secondary ordinances, Fasting & Watching. (c) Ordinances of a third degree, Vows &c Covenants. (d) The Sacraments & Sacrifices of the old Testament. (e) Legal purifications: there was more pollution by the touching of an unclean or dead man then by the touch of any unclean beast in seven respects. (f) The Law of the Nazarite. (g) The works of Creation both in general & particular. (h) The works of Providence: all the good that is done for us or performed by us: (i) all the evils either of sin committed by ourselves or others; (k) or of punishment suffered by ourselves or others, (l) The due consideration of Death serves to mortify all kinds of lust.  
THe Spirit of God working inwardly is the principal means of our mortification; yet ordinarily he chooseth those times for this his work, when as we observe the outward means which he hath apppointed to this purpose. These means are either the use of his ordinances, or the consideration of his works. The primary ordinances of God whereby the Spirit kills sin are his Word, Prayer, Sacraments & Discipline that he hath apppointed. These are the weapons of our warfare, not carnal, but mighty through God to cast down strong holds. 2. Cor. 10.4.  
(a) His Word is the Hammer of Mortification, that breaks the stony heart & makes it contrite. jer. 23.29. As he himself is, so is his word, lively & mighty in operation, & sharper than any two-edged sword, that pierceth deep & cuts the soul & spirit, Heb. 4.12.13. and hews the old man in pieces, as Samuel once hewed king Agag in pieces before the lord 1. Sam. 15.33. This sword of the Spirit is to be taken into the hands of every Christian, that would obtain the victory over the world. Eph. 6.17. This word is to be heard publicly, to be read privately, to be meditated upon continually: & out of it a store of divine sentences, commandments, promises and threatenings is to be gathered & kept in readiness, Col. 3.16. & according to every man's necessity and special temptations so to be applied against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes & the pride of life, for the mortification thereof. These divine testimonies & words of God are like so many sharp nails, Eccl. 12.11. to be fastened into the hands and feet of the old man, that so he may be crucified. As it was the honour of jael, & she was blessed above women, because she put her hand to the nail and her right hand ro the hammer, and smote Sisera and stroke through his temples till the enemy of God's people was slain: judg. 5.24.26.27. so shall they be blessed above other men and women that having furnished themselves with store of divine oracles, do then put their hands to the nails & hammer of the Spirit, & so strike down every lust & sinful motion as soon as it begins to lift up the head and to stir within them, by applying the counsel of God against the same.  
By Prayer the spirit of mortification is obtained both when it is desired by petition, according to the precept & promise, Luk. 11.13. Matt. 26.41. as also by the very act & exercise of prayer, though this grace in particular be not desired but other things; in as much as the very coming into God's presence and the very presenting of the soul before him doth strike down proud thoughts & set the soul in a way of mortification. Gen. 18.27. Psa. 59. 2-7.  
The Sacraments being due lie administered and received serve also in special manner to mortify the old man. In Baptism there is as it were a grave of mortification, when being baptised into the death of Christ we are buried with him by baptism. Rom. 6.3.4. Col. 2.12. 1. Cor. 15.29. The reverend and due meditation of this ordinance & the beholding of the administration thereof is more effectual for the mortifying of sin, then travelling to jerusalem to behold the sepulchre of Christ, as many have done. In the Supper of the Lord the body and blood of Christ is so lively represented unto us, that with Thomas we do put our fingers into the hands and side of Christ, into the print of the nails & spear; joh. 20.27. & in the due consideration thereof we cannot but crucify our own flesh with the affections and lusts.  
In the exercise of Discipline, by admonitions & rebukes for sin the heart is humbled and broken; Psal. 69.20. with Zech. 13.6. and the censures are administered for the destruction of the flesh & shaming of the offendor, 1. Cor. 5.5. 2. Thess. 3.14. that by such means he might be truly mortified. They serve also for the mortifying and humbling of the persons by whom they are administered, giving them just cause of mourning & bewailing both their own & others miseries by reason of sin: 1. Cor. 3.2. 2. Cor. 7.8. and 12.21. even as under the Law he that did that which tended to the cleansing of others became unclean himself. Num. 19.7.8.10.21.  
(b) The secondary ordinances of God are such means of mortification as serve to help & further us in the use of the former; as namely Fasting & Watching, that we may be better prepared to pray, to meditate, to hear the word, to receive the Sacraments, to perform other religious duties. By fasting we understand either abstinence from meat altogether, for a shorter time; as in David & others, 2. Sam. 1.12. & 3.35. or abstinence from pleasant meat for a longer time; as in Daniel, Dan. 10.2.3. with vers. 11.12.13. The use of both is to humble the soul, that it may be better fitted for the exercise of mortification: to this end are we called thereunto of God, joel 2.12. and for the same purpose are the examples of the Saints that have been frequent therein, commended unto us in Scripture. Dan. 9.3. Psa. 35.13. & 69.10. 2. Cor. 11.27. & either to cast off their sins or themselves to be cast out of the Church: they say in that covenant conditionally as jonas said when he offered himself to be cast into the sea, jon. 1.12. binding themselves at their entrance into the Church either to beware of offences disturbing the peace thereof, or to yield unto those courses whereby themselves deserve to be troubled.  
(d) Having considered the ordinances of the New Testament & the subordinate helps whereby we are furthered in the exercise of mortification, let us now see what may be observed to this purpose from the ordinances of the old Testament. Though the practice of them cease in the ceremony, yet not the meditation of them, nor the practice of those duties which are signified by the ceremonies. And all of them in special manner preach mortification unto us and call us thereunto. The ordinary Sacraments of the old Testament were Circumcision & the Passeover. In circumcision there was a painful cutting off of the foreskin, & a mark for the mortification of the flesh printed in the body of man, for a perpetual memorial of this duty: so that the Holy Ghost under the phrase of circumcision doth oft describe our mortification unto us, as Deu. 30.6. jer. 4.3.4. Rom. 2.28.29. Col. 2.11. Godly sorrow is a knife of mortification to circumcise the heart, to cut off the foreskin & superfluities of sinful lusts. In the , the separation of the lamb from the tenth day unto the fourteenth day, the kill of it & sprinkling of the blood, the roasting of it, & eating it with sour herbs & unleavened bread, Exod. 12.4.6.7.8. etc. did represent the deadlines of sin purged in such manner, even by the blood of Christ the undefiled lamb slain for us, & to be applied unto us & sprinkled upon us, to be eaten with sour herbs of godly sorrow for sin, & a purging out of the old leaven of maliciousness & putting off the old man & his works that we might be a new lump. 1. Cor. 5.7.8.  
That which the Sacraments represented unto them was in like manner signified by the Sacrifices of the old Testament; by laying hands upon the head of the beast that was slain & burnt for sacrifice, Leu. 1.4.5. etc. and these of many kinds & in great number every day, upon diverse occasions, and especially upon their feast days, when many thousands were sometimes sprinkled him with water to make him clean; Num. 19.14.21.22. but a dead beast did not defile all that came into the tent or stable where it was. IU. Not the carcases of all beasts, but only of those that were unclean beasts did defile men: not the carcases of sheep, oxen, goats, doves, hearts, hinds, roes, etc. but the carcases of swine, camels, vultures, etc. Leu. 11. but for men the carcases of all men whosoever, clean or unclean, good or bad, did defile all that touched them. Num. 19.11. V The bodies of unclean beasts did not defile but only when they were dead; otherwise it was lawful to ride upon horses, mules, camels and asses, as Christ did according to the prophecy: Zech. 9.9. with Matt. 21. 2-7. but the bodies of unclean men, while they were living did defile other men many ways; as we see in the lepers and such as were defiled with other natural uncleannesses: Levit. 13.46. & 15.5. etc. 2. Cor. 6.17. To have touched a venomous toad had less defiled than the touch of a most glorious king, or the touch of the fairest woman, though but the hem of their garments, & without the least motion or lust of evil, when they were but ceremonially polluted. VI He that was defiled with the carcase of an unclean beast was not required to wash more than his clothes: but he that was defiled with the carcase of a dead man or some other unclean persons was required to bathe himself in water also. Num. 19.19. Leu. 15.13. VII. Those that touched the carcases of unclean beasts were purged with common water: Leu. 11.25.28. those that were defiled by touching of the dead were not to be purged but by water and blood; to wit, by a special water of purification made with the ashes of a red heifer. Num. 19. 2-9.17. By all this it appears how marvellous great the pollution of man's sin is, which God would have him so many ways to be put in mind of, to avoid the tent and company of wicked men, that by so many exercises of mortification he might learn to touch no unclean thing. As David in detestation of himself said unto the Lord I was as a beast before thee: Psal. 73.22. so we are here taught to consider and confess that we are worse than beasts, as it is also elsewhere noted for our mortification. Esa. 1.3. jer. 8.7. Prov. 6.6. etc.  
(f) Moreover whereas it is a special very sight of the creation which way soever we turn us might serve to abase and humble men before the Creator. To this end are they propounded by the Spirit of God unto us; the height of the heavens, the depth of hell, the length of the earth & breadth of the sea. job 11.8.9. The terror even of some creatures is such, that man is ready to die and perish at the sight of them. The sight of an Angel made the watchmen and keepers of the grave to quake and become as dead men. Mat. 28.4. When the Disciples thought they saw a spirit, they were troubled and cried out for fear. Matt. 14.26. At the sight of the Leviathan men are cast down; & when he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid, & because of break and terrors begin to purify themselves, to confess their sins, to pray for the pardon of them and to seek reconciliation with God. job 41.9.10.25. This hath God ordained for the mortification of sinners, that hereby they might conceive how unable they are to stand before him. When the Lord would make job to be vile in his own sight and to abhor himself in dust & ashes, he sets before him the glory of the creation and his majesty shining therein, and leads him along in the spirit to behold the chief of them ranked in order before him. job 38. & 39 & 40. & 41. ch. with ch. 41.4. & 42.6. And even unto this day God doth sometimes speak unto us as it were out of the whirlwind and by the sight of the heavens, the earth & the seas doth call us unto mortification. The Lord sometime giveth days of darkness and gloominess, of clouds and thick darkness; Zeph. 1.15. he clothes the heavens with blackness and makes sackcloth their covering, Esa. 50.3. & in their mournful countenance they call us to think what cause of mourning we have. Yea in them the wrathful countenance of God is as it were portrayed before us; a smoke is said to come out of his nostrils and devouring fire out of his mouth, when he thunders from heaven & sendeth forth his lightnings, for the terror of sinners and for the mortification of their corrupt and wicked lusts. Psal. 18. 8-14. & 29.1. etc. &. 97.2.3.4. 1. Sam. 12.16.17.18. By the sight of the raging & roaring sea bounded within the sands the Lord calls men to fear before him & to tremble at his presence. jer. 5.22. And whereto serve the storms upon the sea, if not for the mortification & contrition of heard-hearted serve to humble them, and call to their mind their own unworthiness, which then especially by comparison of God's free love with their contrary deserts doth more appear unto them. So it was with David, humbling himself before God in the consideration of his mercies, 2. Sam. 7.18.19. even as Mephibosheth had done to him in another case; 2. Sam. 9.7.8. & so did Elizabeth, Luk. 1.43. If Abigail might say of her marriage with David, Let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord: 1. Sam. 25.41. & David himself of his marriage with saul's daughter, Seemeth it to you to be a light thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed; 1. Sam. 18.23. then what may we say of our exaltation and of the divine benefits bestowed upon us? All the mercies and blessings which we receive from God, if we compare them with our sinful nature, are like so many coals of mortification, coals of indignation heaped on our heads: Rom. 12.20. and therefore doth God let us know how good he hath been unto us even when we were his enemies, that by that means we might be mortified, and burn in just hatred and indignation against ourselves, Rom. 5.10. with 2. Sam. 12.7.8. Esa. 5.1.2. Deut. 32. 6-15. And in sum, even the least good done to us should make us think how little we are, and ever less than the least of God's mercies, & fare unworthy of them, Gen. 32.10. & so take occasion thereby of being humbled before the Lord.  
As all the good that by divine providence is done to us; so all the good done by us should ever give us occasion of further mortification & of abasing ourselves in the sight of God. Thus it was with David in his free offerings for the Temple, 1. Chron. 29.14. & Solomon when the Temple was built. 1. Kin. 8.27. Such is the greatness of the Lord above our works, that in respect of the infinite reward we may say as Barzillai to David, Thy servant will go a little way with the King, & why should the King recompense it me with such a reward? 2. Sam. 19.36. All that we have and do for God, is of his own that he hath first given us, 1. Chron. 29.14.16. & these gifts of his in our best use of them, in the best works we do are still so polluted, that we have ever cause to acknowledge with shame the filthiness of our righteousnesses; Esa. 64.6. Phi. 3.8.9. & ever have a gracious respect unto them that sigh & cry for the abominations committed by other men. Ezek. 9.4. This was observed by Lot; 2. Pet. 2.7.8. by Moses; Exod. 32. 19-32. Num. 16.4. and others with him; Num. 14.5.6. by David, Psal. 119.136.139.158. by Ezra, chap. 9.2.3. by Nehemiah; ch. 13.7.8. by Paul; Rom. 9.1.2.3. 2. Cor. 11.29 & 12.21. by Christ jesus, Mark. 3.5. Luk. 19.41.42. And the contrary is made a sign of a wicked man: no man is truly greeved for his own sin, that is not touched with grief for the sins of others; for seeing God is dishonoured & our neighbour wounded thereby, it must needs be a sign that such have neither love of God nor pity of their neighbour. jer. 36.23.24.25. Prov. 14.9.  
(k) Thus do the evils of sin call for grief and sorrow: besides these the evils of punishment, the afflictions, calamities & tribulations in the world do also lead unto mortification. Thereby God breaks the pride of man & withdraweth him from his evil course: job 33.16.17. by his chastisements God humbles the heart of men & makes them submit unto his yoke: jer. 31.18.19. & then is the case most miserable when they are least regarded. Prov. 27.22. Men are warned of God to mortify sin not only by greater afflictions but even by the lesser sort also; for there are two kinds of them, a light touch & a heavy hand. Esa. 9.1. There is a wonderful variety in God's dealings this way: sometimes the touch is so easy & gentle that it is scarce felt; men are scarce able to say whether there be a pain in it or no; they have such light aches of the head, the belly, the bones, such small reproaches and losses that they are hardly sensible of them. As a loving mothersmites her child sometimes so softly & gently, that it doth not appear whether she be angry or not; even so doth our most loving God deal oftentimes with his children; job 33.14.15. with ch. 7.14. Mat. 10.30. but though the stroke be most mild & gentle, yet they that are wise will make use of it. Prov. 17.10. Though there be an hundred degrees of difference in God's visitations; some of them like a fillip only, or a lifting up of the hand & yet no stroke; a striking but yet no smart or easy to be borne, as it were with a rod of rushes: yet all of them are a push or thrusting with the finger for our admonition, and at every such thrusting or pinching we are called unto the acts of pride of life? Look upon death, see how it lays the heads of the proudest men in the world; they that were before as stars the sons of the morning, have then the worms spread under them & over them & become like broken vessels in the land of oblivion. Esa. 14.11.12. What availeth it to be praised a while by the stinking breath of flatterers, when afterwards their names shall rot among men? Pro. 10.7. like those bones of the great men in Israel that should be for dung upon the face of the earth: jer. 8.1.2. or if they be praised by men after their death in their writings & chronicles, what will this profit them when their sins are written with a pen of iron & with the point of a diamond? jer. 17.1. when those books shall be opened in the second death? Rev. 20.12. what though their sepulchres be painted & covered with golden letters, when at the second death their souls shall be cast into the bottomless pit & into the oven of hell, where the proud & they that do wickedly shall be burned up & consumed? Mal. 4.1.   

CHAP. VI Touching Vivification or quickening of the new man.  
The nature & necessity thereof in general. (a) Six degrees of vivification: 1. A new disposition or habit of quickening grace; 2. Motions of spiritual life in the understanding, judgement & memory. 3. Affections of love, joy, desire etc. 4. Renewing of the will; 5. Works of righteousness & true holiness; 6. joyful thanksgiving in the apprehension of all the former graces of life. (b) The inward means of vivification: The Spirit of God bringing us unto Christ & working in us the graces of Faith, Hope & Love. (c) The outward means: The primary ordinances; the Word, Prayer, Sacraments & Discipline; (d) The secondary; a holy Feast and a holy Watch; (e) Ordinances of a third degree, Vows and Covenants. (f) The works of Creation & Providence.  
FRom the Mortification of the old man come we now to the Vivification of the new man. It is not possible that these two can be severed: if any man be in Christ he must be a new creature, 2. Cor. 5.17. Gal. 6.15. borne again of the Spirit, & by this new birth made partaker of a new spiritual life. joh. 3.3.5. The Lord that is rich in mercy through his great love wherewith he loveth his elect, quickeneth them together in Christ. Eph. 2.4.5. The feeling of this new life is a preparative unto death and a preservative against all the terrors thereof, and leads men with comfort through the gates of death, overcomes the pangs thereof, ferries & conveys men over all the floods of sorrows.  
(a) This grace of Vivification is to be considered in six especial degrees, answerable to those six degrees of Mortification before noted, & each of them may better be understood when they are mutually compared together.  
I. The first degree of Vivification is a new disposition or habit of quickening grace infused by the Spirit of God, whereby they are inclined to embrace Christ, to glory in his merit & to live unto him. This new disposition is like a new borne babe, or at least as a babe newly conceived in the womb of the soul, & is called the new creature, Gal. 6.15. the new man, Eph. 4.24. the inward man, Rom 7.22. the law of their mind, vers. 23. the newness of spirit: vers. 6. & the consideration of this gift is cause of great joy & thanksgiving unto the faithful, that do therefore break out into the praise of God and bless him that hath begotten them again. 1. Pet. 1.3. As it is matter of joy unto a mother to have a living child borne, though for that present it lie bound in swaddling clothes without stirring hand or foot; so it is great joy unto the regenerate to have this new habit of life, though they do not always feel it actually stirring within them. Yea this is a comfort that supporteth the godly in the midst of manifold temptations, when notwithstanding their great imperfections & present impotency unto good, they yet can remember this habit of spiritual life formerly discerned in themselves by sundry joyful apprehensions & fruits of faith in time past. This is that seed of God which remaineth & abideth ever in those hearts where it is once sown. 1. joh. 3.9. This is that heavenly drop of divine grace which being once distilled into the soul is never dried up, but becomes a fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life, john. 4.14. This is that precious spark of spiritual life, which though it be sometimes raked under the ashes of worldly cares and fears, yet is it never extinguished, but upon occasion breaks forth & burns more bright than before.  
II. A second degree of vivification of the new man consisteth in the motions of new life and in the stir of the spirit, which are a further comfort & demonstration of spiritual life. As the mother that hath conceived in her womb & yet for a long time together feels not her child to stir within her, doth then begin to fear and to doubt of the life thereof: so the godly having been long without the lively motions of the spirit begin to fear sometimes and to doubt of their estate. But upon the new motions of the spirit they are filled with comfort, & thereby feel their sweet babe, the new creature as it were to spring in their womb again. These motions are divine inspirations whereby the mind is illuminate to discern and know the will of God, to give assent and approbation unto it when it is known and to remember it also when it is approved Eph. 1.17.18, Phil. 1.9.10. Col. 1.9. Without these gracious operations of the spirit many having the truth propounded unto them do not apprehend it; others apprehending the meaning thereof approve not of it; others approving of it do yet forget the same, and so it vanisheth and is lost. As the Spirit of God is said to move Samson at certain times and to ring in his ear like a bell, as the original word imports: jud. 13.25. with Exod. 28.33.34.35. so these motions and impulsions of the spirit in the godly are as the sound of an heavenly bell ringing them many peals of consolation and exhortation for their warning night & day. These are the counsels of God and whisperings of the H. Spirit, like divine cymbals and high sounding cymbals tinkling and ringing in the ears of the regenerate; Psal. 16.7 and 51.6. Esa. 30.21. for which they give thankes to God that illuminateth & wakeneth their dead & dark hearts thereby, when as of themselves they are not sufficient to conceive or think any thing that is good & holy. 2. Cor. 3.5. Pro. 30. ●. 3. As wicked motions are the messengers of Satan to buffet us; so these are the messengers of God to quicken us, & therefore as welcome guests are to be welcomed & entertained with all thankfulness.  
III. Besides the motions of spiritual life in the understanding, judgement and memory, there is a third degree of vivification to be observed, when as this life is further spread abroad into the affections. worship and care for the poor Saints, harmless life and innocency in respect of all men and bowels of compassion towards them in necessity. Esa. 5.2.4.7. Hereby men show that they are not strangers from the life of God; but being rich in good works, the works of spiritual life, they do hereby lay up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. 1. Tim. 6.18.19.  
VI Lastly, it is a further manifestation of spiritual life when after the former degrees of vivification the new creature beholding this grace of God in itself doth with all joyful thanksgiving acknowledge the same continually. As David & his people considering how God had opened their hearts & quickened them to his service rejoiced with great joy because they had offered willingly, & praised God because he had moved them to praise him: 1. Chron. 29.9.10.13.14.17.20. so the regenerate that are borne of God can rejoice in the Lord & do know the joyful shout; they do therefore again rejoice because they rejoice. Psal. 89.15.16. And as one Rainbow by the reflection doth often beget another, & that other sometimes begets a third, so that three Rainbows have sometimes appeared at once: so in the new creature one joy begets another, & one light begets another, and one grace is the seed of another, Rom. 5.4.5. When Paul saw the constancy of the Thessalonians it quickened him; when he saw their faith & joy in the holy Ghost, it made him give thankes for them and to conceive great joy; 1. Thes. 1.2.3.6. and when he considered the comfort of his own joy for them, it made him give new thankes again unto God for that joy. 1. Thes. 3.8.9. And thus is spiritual life propagated & multiplied in the faithful when as both by the sense of quickening grace in themselves, Coll. 1.12. & by the sight of it in others, they take new occasion of glorifying God for his unspeakable gift. 2. Cor. 9. 12-15.  
(b) The means whereby this grace of vivification is wrought in the elect, is principally the Spirit of God which quickeneth and giveth life. joh. 3.5. Rom. 8.10.11. 2. Cor. 3.6. By it we are brought unto Christ, joh. 16.14.15. & 15.26. & coming unto him as unto a living stone we also are made living stones, full of life. 1. Pet. 2.4.5. We come unto him when we quicken us further by applying unto us the merit of his sufferings. Then as the child sneezed seven times, so the new creature, the converted soul doth manifest the truth of life received by several degrees; at the first sneezing a new disposition appears; at the second new motions; at the third new affections; at the fourth new will & purpose; at the fift new fruits and works; at the sixth new thanksgiving and praise in joy of the holy Ghost & so much in this life: at the seventh sneezing the old man is utterly abolished, the flesh shaken quite off, and the spirit carried into a heavenly kingdom, clothed with a white robe of perfect righteousness in Christ the fullness of spiritual life. Therefore all is to be sought principally in Christ.  
(c) The outward means whereby the Spirit quickeneth, are the ordinances and works of God. The primary ordinances of God are his Word, Prayer, Sacraments and Discipline. The word of God is the word of life, Deut. 32.47. joh. 5.25. & 6.63.68. Act. 5.20. a tree of life, Prov. 3.18. the immortal seed, 1. Pet. 1.23. that quickeneth the soul which cleaves unto the dust & melteth for heaviness. Psa. 119.25.28. By prayer men find life for themselves, joel. 2.32. Rom. 10.13. Esa. 38. 2-5. & give life to others. 1. joh. 5.16. Baptism shows us the laver of regeneration or new birth; Act. 2.38. with Tit. 3.5. joh. 3.5. and the dead-harted are quickened by meditation of the grace represented & sealed thereby. By the Table of the Lord the fainting spirits are relieved & revived, through that spiritual food which is there exhibited. 1. Cor. 11.24. The admonitious of Discipline are the corrections of life, Prov. 15.31. & therein is consolation for those that are ready to be swallowed up of sorrw. 2. Cor. 2.7. By these things men live, & in all these is the spirit of life & vivification: Esa. 38.16. & therefore as we would have the life of the new creature to be daily increased within us, so are we to attend upon that word of life night and day; to pray incessantly & to watch thereunto with all perseverance and thanksgiving; to sanctify ourselves for an holy use of the Sacraments from time to time, to submit unto Discipline for mutual edification, & so to wait for spiritual life thereby to be ministered unto us.  
(d) The secondary ordinances of God for vivification of the new man, are an holy Feast & a holy Watch unto the Lord. As mirth is compared to the song in the night when a holy solemnity was kept. Esa. 30.29. Paul & Silas sang together at midnight: Act. 16.25. & till midnight did Paul continue his speech unto the disciples at Troas Act. 20.7. And such means are the godly still upon occasion to use for their quickening in their spiritual life, sitting under the shadow of him that is the true vine, joh. 15.1. drinking the wine of his promises & plucking the grapes of his consolation, comforting the poor & heavy hearted, communicating their joy one to another, & using his gifts in all sobriety and thankfulness for their mutual support in this time of their pilgrimage.  
(e) After these, follow the tertian ordinances, so to speak, means of an inferior order & rank, to wit, Vows and Covenants for the helps of spiritual life. As a religious feast and watch serve for the quickening of the soul in the use of the first and primary means; so these in the third degree serve to bind us to the use of the secondary, each supporting an other. Vows & promises to God serve to bind us to the observance of other godly exercises at a certain time: & we see how the godly upon occasion vowed to offer unto God a bullock, a ram, a lamb or goat, male or female, more or less; insomuch that the sacrifices are sometimes called by the name of vows; & the Lord accepted that vow of so small a matter. Leu. 7.16. & 22.18. & 23.38. Num. 15.3. & 18.14. & 29.39. Psa. 116. 12-19. Mal. 1.14. with Act. 5.2.3. & ch. 21.23.24.26. And so now when men vow unto the Lord and bind themselves unto any particular work of mercy towards the poor, or to keep a love-feast, or any watch, or to perform any labour of love unto the Lord for the quickening of themselves & others, the same is a sacrifice of sweet odour unto the Lord. Phil. 4.18. 2. Cor. 8.4.5. Heb. 13.15.16. In like manner the covenants & promises made unto men, whereby they bind themselves to one another for the performance of some duties of religion or mercy together, are also approved means of mutual comfort and vivification. David bound himself by covenant to jonathan; 1. Sam. 18.3. to the Elders of Israel; 1. Chro. 11.3. & to other worthies. cap. 12.17.18. And what his covenant was with the man of his covenant that profaned it, we see in the Psalm of his complaint, namely to be as guides to one another, to take sweet of this way & application of the former truth, the Lord hath in his word given further light and direction by certain peculiar works which himself hath commended unto us as having pregnant & special reference to our latter end, to procure some more distinct & certain comfort by the particular observation & practice of them. And therefore whereas some godly and christian friends do mutually desire of one another some direction & counsel for their preparation to their end: to such, besides a general & resolute purpose to have respect unto all the commandments of God & in all things to keep faith & a good conscience, I would commend these duties following.  
I. In the first place a daily invocation of the name of God for his help and assistance in this particular point, that they may be prepared to die, to leave this world & come with comfort into the presence of God & to stand undismayed before the throne of his grace. The comfort of a happy end is worthy a special prayer every day for that particular benefit. The main blessing that Paul could wish unto Onesiphorus that had so oft refreshed him, was this, that the Lord would grant unto him that he might find mercy of the Lord in that day, 2. Tim. 1.18. And this he prays for the Thessalonians, that their hearts might be established unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord jesus Christ with his Saints. 1. Thes. 3.13. & again, that their whole spirit, soul & body might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord jesus Christ. 1. Thes. 5.23. Now that which Paul so earnestly desired for his dearest friends, that is also worthy to be desired of us for ourselves every day. If Paul prayed night and day exceedingly to see the faces of his godly friends, 1. The. 3.10.11. and that by any means he might have a prosperous journey coming unto them, for their mutual comfort; how much more cause have we to pray night & day with exceeding longing to see the Lord face to face, to behold the glory of all his angels & to taste of the pleasures of his right hand? If David prayed so often and so earnestly that he might enjoy the presence of God in his earthly sanctuary, to behold the beauty of his ordinances there; Psa. 27.4. and 42.1.2. & 84.1. etc. how much more ought we to pray constantly for our entrance into his heavenly sanctuary, to enjoy the glory that 5.7 Leu. 5.16. Every man therefore that would have comfort in death & peace in his conscience at his latter end, must labour according to his utmost power to make clear with the world by restitution & satisfaction for wrong done, for debts undischarged, for fraudulent bargains & overreaching of his neighbour, for any other injuries by word or deed against the person or credit of his neighbour. He that would find his soul reconciled to God must labour betimes & without delay to see himself reconciled with men.  
III. As there is a needful Reconciliation, so there is a holy & zealous Revenge necessary to be sought before death, that men may die with more comfort. Neither let it seem strange that seeking of revenge should be reckoned among the special preparatives unto death. Though to take the sword for carnal revenge, to satisfy the private lust of the flesh, be oft forbidden of God; Rev. 13.10. Mat. 26.52. Rom. 12.19.20. Pro. 25.21.22. & 24.17.18 & 20.22. yet is there a just & glorious revenge of sin commanded of God, both upon others & upon ourselves. Moses a little before his death is commanded to avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites, that then he might be gathered unto his people. Num. 31.1.2. One of his last works was to be a work of revenge: that being done he was to die with more comfort. The remembrance of that revenge wrought by Phinehas could not but comfort him at his last hour. Num. 25.11.12.13. Saul therefore had extreme anguish & discomfort in death, for not executing a revenge upon Amalek; as it was told him of the Devil, because he would not learn it of God. 1. Sam. 28. 15-20. with ch. 15. 1-35. David on his deathbed could not die quietly, till he had commended that work of revenge unto his son upon joab & Shimei, which himself had deferred & omitted in his life time. 1. Kin. 2. 1-9. And all Magistrates having the sword committed unto them of God shall die with more comfort when according to their power they have so used it, & besides common justice have on some special occasions manifested some special zeal for the suppressing & rooting out of the main evils reigning in their times. They that have the sword of the Spirit committed unto them of God are to have revenge in readiness against all disobedience, by admonitions, rebukes & spiritual censures of sin, then, Now I know that thou lovest me, because thou hast not spared thy wealth from me etc. And therefore beside daily & common works of mercy, the H. Ghost commends unto us some extraordinary works of mercy upon special occasion either of mercy received by us or affliction laid upon others. When the kingdom of heaven was opened after the ascension of Christ & the Spirit poured out & many converted & spiritual joy abounded, the comfort thereof produced extraordinary fruits of love, as when joses or Barnabas & others that had lands & houses sold them & distributed to the poor Act. 4. 34-37. such gifts could not be given every day; yet though it were done but once in their life, the comfort thereof might well last so long as they lived. Zacheus that in the day of his joyful conversion & calling stood forth & gave at once the half of his goods to the poor, though he could not every week make such distributions; yet the comfort of that one act approved & accepted of Christ as a fruit of his faith & token of his salvation could not but be a perpetual consolation to be thought on even to death. For earthly blessings received special offerings were to be made at solemn times appointed of God: such were the feast in Abib, of the first fruits of barley harvest, the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, & the feast of tabernacles or of gathering in the fruits of the land in the end of the year: Exo. 23.16. & 34.22. Leu. 23. to teach us that new blessings call for new expressions of thankfulness, that we may honour God with our substance and with the first fruits of all our increase. Prov. 3.9. And as upon occasion of special comforts we are to be moved unto the works of mercy, so also at the consideration of the special afflictions and wants of others. In the time after the captivity, when the necessity was great and the bondage heavy upon the jews, than did godly Nehemias forbear to take the bread of the Governor, the stipend of former rulers, and shown extraordinary love & compassion, in which he comforts himself, praying the Lord to think upon him for good according to all the kindness that he had done for his people. Nehem. 5. 14-18.19. When with extreme need there appear in persons lively tokens of faith and godliness, them especially should take place the counsel of john Baptist, that we should abridge ourselves of our food & raiment rather than see others want. Luk. 3.10.11. Such good works cannot but follow the godly to the grave and minister comfort at the last. Rev. 14.13. Act. 9.36.39. It is a shame unto the disciples of Christ that so many and great purgatory-gifts have proceeded from the false faith of merit-mongers; when the faith of his most glorious Gospel doth not work the like in true believers: a shame that an idle dream & servile fear of imagined purgatory should do more than the assured and certain persuasion of the love of God in Christ.  
V With the work of mercy is to be joined the work of humility & meekness, as a special preparative for a comfortable death & translation out of this world. For as with those that are translated out of this world into heaven there is no respect of persons; poor Lazarus is carried first in the bosom of an Angel, and then in the bosom of Abraham the Father of the faithful: Luk. 16.22. so those that would begin a heavenly life here & in the end with comfort be translated, are in like manner to make themselves equal with them of lower estate, Rom. 12.16. to converse with the poor, to carry them in their bosom; not only to give a few pence of silver, but to pour out their heart and their love unto them. Esa. 58.10. This was prophesied of as a fruit of Christ's kingdom; Esa. 11.6.7.8. & such correspondence with the poor Christ commends unto us with promise of a large recompense, Luk. 14.12.13.14. We are to walk by faith & not by sight: 2. Cor. 5.7. now by faith we see the Angel's ministering unto them who shall be heirs of salvation; Heb. 1. l. Rev. 22.9. & therefore if we perform the like offices of love & respect unto the poor servants of Christ we shallbe fitter to go with comfort into the society of Angels. They that thus go out of the world beforehand by leaving the fashions thereof & become children again, shall have a more comfortable entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18.3. As new borne babes here on earth are first taken up by one & then by another, & are delivered from one friends arms to another, every one striving to have them in their arms to kiss them: so the souls that are borne into heaven, are translated by death first into the bosom of Angels carrying them, then into the bosom of Abraham & the Saints receiving them, every one embracing them with kisses of heavenly love, & above all into the bosom of the Lord of glory, there to be satisfied with his love in fullness of joy for evermore. Esa. 40.11. Psal. 16. l.  
VI Another work whereby men are prepared to die with comfort is the visitation of the sick & others that are in misery. For the promise is that he that considers the poor or visits the afflicted shall himself be preserved and delivered in time of trouble: the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; he will make all his bed in his sickness. Psal. 41.1.2.3. By visiting the sick men both minister comfort unto others & receive comfort themselves. First they give comfort and minister a blessing unto those that are in distress. Thus to visit the fatherless & the widows in their affliction is pure religion & undefiled before God and the Father. jam. 1.27. Onesiphorus is commended for this, & Paul prays hearty for him, because he sought him out when he was in prison, refreshed him & ministered many things unto him. 2. Tim. 1.16.17.18. job noteth the excellency of this when he joineth him that comforteth the mourners with a king, even in the army, when he useth greatest authority. job 29.25. Whatsoever is done unto the least member of Christ in this kind, he takes it as done unto himself; & therefore such shall be remembered & honoured by him at the last day. Matt. 25. 34-40. Secondly by visiting those that stand in need of comfort men do also receive instruction & comfort unto themselves. Eccl. 7.2.3.4. 2. Kin. 13.14.15. etc. Though we may not inquire at the dead, Deut. 18.11. yet at the dying we may learn many wholesome lessons, as of repentance from their complaints of their sins bewailed, of faith from their joyful professions of their hope & the examples of their constancy, and of our own mortality & frailty from their strength languishing, their pale countenances, their dim eyes, their faltering tongue, their rattling throat, their panting heart, their short breaths, their painful convulsions, the last pangs & sneckes of death; all the symptoms of death are so many warnings unto the living to watch and prepare for their end. Whosoever would be well prepared for death, let them often repair to such mourning houses, let them so visit others in these cases that withal they see & learn themselves that which God doth there so plainly teach them. That which Elias said unto Elisha, when he had prayed for a double portion of his spirit, If thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee: 2. Kin. 2.9.10. may in some measure in another respect be said unto us, when seeing others taken away, that very act with the circumstances of their departure is a means to increase the spirit in us, yea to double our care & comfort in looking for our end.  
VII. Lastly, it is also a work preparatory unto death to have our testament & Will in readiness, that we need not be troubled therewith at last. When the message of death was sent unto Hezekias, he was called upon to set his house in order. Esa. 38.1. Abraham was careful to settle the affairs of his house and family before his death, as appears by his disposing of Isaak in marriage, Gen. 24.1.2. etc. & his giving gifts to the sons of Keturah his second wife & sending them away. Gen. 25.6. But the chief part of testaments & legacies are godly exhortations, charges and blessings which parents give unto their children. This was Isaaks care long before his death though he forgot the oracle that had assigned the blessing unto the younger. Gen. 27. 14. Isaak was then an hundred years old, Gen. 25.26. with ch. 26.34. & he lived in all an hundred & fourscore years, Gen. 35.28. so that his testament, his blessing was given fourscore years before he died. jacob gave special charges & blessings unto his sons before he died. Gen. 47.29. & 48. & 49. ch. Thus did Moses with the children of Israel: Deut. 33.1. etc. and joshua: Iosh. 23. & 24. ch. Thus David also in a solemn assembly exhorteth the people & especially his son Solomon to fear the Lord, & encourageth him unto the work that was to be done after him. 1. Chron. 28.1.8.9.10. Solomon had also received instructions from his mother to the same purpose, which he himself hath recorded, Prov. 31. ch. In special the more to affect children & friends by exhortations, promises and comforts, I would commend unto fathers & friends the example of Elijah the Prophet, who in his life time made a writing which he procured to be delivered unto jehoram after his death: 2. Chron. 21. 12-15. with 2. King. 3.11. thus there may still be a prophesying after death, though not by way of foretelling things to come, yet by charges, admonitions & consolations, which being left with executours or special friends together with other devises noted in the Scriptures, together with the grounds thereof, their faith, hope & love. Simeon rejoiceth at the approach of his end▪ Luk. 2.29.30. where we may observe the reasons before named moving him thereunto; his faith, in having seen the salvation of the Lord, which was grounded upon the word of promise & produced peace of conscience; his hope, when he calleth death a departing or losing from bonds, for it is the same word that elsewhere signify to lose or release a prisoner; Mat. 27.15.17. his love of God when he calls himself his servant. Paul also had a desire to departed upon these three grounds; his hope, Phil. 1.23. his faith & love. 2. Tim. 4 6.7.8. And as these, so other faithful servants of Christ have also for the same causes earnestly desired to be absent from the body & to be present with the lord 2. Cor. 5.1.2.8. 2. Tim. 4.8. with Rev. 22.20.17.  
(a) Yet for the better understanding of this point somewhat must be further considered to prevent a double danger, both of some that seem not to fear death & of others that confess they fear it. The first sort are those that despise their life & cast it away without being called of God. These deny the Lordship of Christ, because that as no man should live to himself, so none should die to himself but to the Lord, that whether we live or die we may be the Lords. Rom. 14.7.8.9. This murder of a man's self is a grievous sin, of which are guilty not only such as lay violent hands on themselves, but even those also that rashly expose themselves to unnecessary dangers; combatants, rash adventurers, such as without a calling or any necessity go to infectious places, which are as the shadow of death. As soldiers set to keep watch may not leave their station till the time appointed of their Captain: no more may we offer to departed hence until we be dismissed or called away of our Commander. Every man is bound to preserve life so long as by good means he can do it, or else he breaks the sixth commandment. In like manner do many offend by impatience & vain wishes of death: jon. 4.3.8.9. whether they do it without sense having obdurate and feared consciences, or with extremity of sense without faith, as in thoughts of despair.  
(b) Secondly this point of doctrine touching the fear of death is wisely to be considered in respect of many weak and infirm persons, which have true faith, hope & love, and yet are not so ready to selves, feeling some present unpreparedness, & for the recovery of their strength, that they may in better manner be fitted to appear before God. Psa. 39.13. As a faithful & loving wife having had her husband long absent in a fare country, or a spouse her bridegroom, though she cannot but long for his return; yet if it should so fall out that about the time of his return she should have the yellow jaundice or some grievous sore and deformity in the face, would wish that her bridegroom might stay a week or two longer, till her sores were healed & her strength recovered; or as a Nobleman that unfeignedly desires that his Prince should come to his house, may yet in respect of some want of reparations in his house desire and wish in his heart that the Kings coming might be deferred a while till his house were repaired: even so the spouse of Christ and his faithful servants though they love him dear & desire nothing so much as to enjoy his presence to the full; may yet sometimes wish that his coming might be prolonged for some space of time, till they be in better plight to entertain him. Secondly they may be loath to departed this life in respect of others & for their benefit; insomuch that though for their own part they have an unfeigned desire to be dissolved, yet for the good of others they are content & desirous to live, as a parent for his children's education, a Prince for the reformation & a Minister for the instruction of the people in dangerous times. Thus it was with Hezekiah, Esa. 38.18.19. & Paul. Phill. 1. 21-24.  
(d) And yet even in all these distresses, when death approacheth & God calls men away, there is comfort against every want: Christ makes supply of all; if there be any blemish, sore or deformity, he is such a bridegroom as suddenly heals all and presents us to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing: Eph. 5.27. He is the father of the fatherless, the great Shepherd of the sheep: Heb. 13.20. he will gather, feed & defend his flock, he hath abundance of spirit whereby to fulfil all his good pleasure, he is all in all. Hezekias had great desire to live to see his children & to teach them: and yet behold when God had prolonged his life & added unto his days fifteen years, presently he offends & hears a woeful threatening of judgement, Esa. 39.6.7. Yea Manasses his son whom he got three years after his recovery, and who entered into the kingdom when he was twelve years old, Hezekias his fifteme years being expired, became a most abominable Idolater, murderer, witch, etc. 2. Kin. 21.1.2 etc. Had Hezekias known so much when he desired to live longer to teach his children, it is not likely that he would have been so desirous of life. Therefore if God call us away we must be content to departed, whatsoever inconveniences be in the way: & consider how great a fault & sin it is to be unwilling to go at his call.  
(e) To this end it will be profitable to think often of the greatest hindrances and encumbrances in death, yea to consider of them as if we were now upon our deathbed & lay presently a dying & gasping for breath; that we may learn to arm ourselves against all lets & difficulties that make men unwilling to leave this world. For example:  
Obj. I. Some are happily loath to leave the world because of their friends, kindred, children, acquaintance etc. whose company they still desire to enjoy.  
Ans. For one friend whom we leave here we find a thousand in heaven. For I. Of men in this world we see but one, as it were, our own generation; and of this generation not the thousandth person: we never saw all the countries of the world, scarce heard of them, much less their cities, towns, particular persons. II. Of those we have seen we know not one city, much less are we acquainted with all the inhabitants; there are many from whom we receive no love nor any fruits of love, yea some that prove our enemies & from whom much evil is received. III. For that small number of those that are our true friends indeed, how weak are they in comparison? not so amiable in soul or body by an hundred degrees as those to whom we go. iv If men on earth were as gracious, virtuous & unblameable as in heaven; yet in this earthly condition our communion with them is most imperfect defective & lame, in respect of present necessities laid upon us, as 1. Our drossy nature, whereby we are like snails & cannot travel about the world in such swift and glorious motions as in heaven. 2. Our many trades and vocations binding men like prisoners to sit the whole week at their work, & confining them to their several employments. The world is like a Rasp-house or Bridewell, where by the rod of necessity men are made to work; the twigs or cords of this whip are hunger, thirst, cold & nakedness; the smart and shame of these doth scourge & force men to labour: thus it is with men here in respect of heaven, where there is no hindrance from continual making of acquaintance. 3. Our weariness & sleepy nature making us spend our nights in the shadow of death, as dead men; whereas in heaven there is no night, no shadow of the earth, which reacheth little further than the sphere of the Moon; and therefore is fare from causing any darkness in the third heavens, in the paradise of God. What darkness or night can approach thither, where all the righteous shine as the Sun for ever? Matt. 13.43. 4. The weakness of our senses & bodily communion, whereas here two souls sitting together cannot impart their minds to one another without the outward organs & instruments of sense; there the spirits without the body are like angels, go without feet, embrace without hands, see without eyes, hear without ears, & speak without tongues, for all these we leave in the grave. But above all friends, we then see God face to face, whom here we could not behold: Exod. 33.20. here we are as in a dungeon, than we begin to look about us. Is there any loss in this change?  
Ob. II. Others are troubled to think that they must leave house & lands.  
Ans. He that teacheth bees to make such cabins & closerts for themselves, will not suffer his own children to be destitute of comfortable mansions: nay the Lord hath promised & they know it to be so, that glorious pavilions & chambers are provided for them. joh. 14.1.2. 2. Cor. 5.1 Every heart shall then be a pavilion & chamber of rest & delight unto each other: yea the Lord himself shallbe their house & mansion for ever, 1. joh. 4.15.  
Ob. III. Another saith happily, I care not so much for any outward things, as to see the good of God's Church in the accomplishment of his promises. Among these there are three special things which a Christian might well desire above all other things to be seen & enjoyed in this world: viz. 1. The fall of Babylon & destruction of Antichrist; Rev. 18.20. 2. The destruction of Gog & Magog, the Turkish monarchy; 3. The full conversion of the jews, as a new jerusalem coming down from heaven, as a bride trimmed for her husband. It may well be counted a happiness to wait and come unto the sight of such days. Dan. 12.12. 1. Cor. 15.56.57. II. The freeness of God's grace unto infants is applied by the H. Ghost unto men of years, that they also may depend on the same grace through faith. Rom. 9.11.16.30. III. Many are called at the eleventh hour, and God doth by such means greatly set forth the freeness of his mercy in pardoning sinners. Matth. 20. 6-9. Rom. 5.20. The sight of Christ by faith gives title unto all comfort & happiness. Luk. 2. 30-32. And therefore the thief on the cross seeing Christ at last, was suddenly translated into glory. Luk. 23.43. Neither let any say, That is but one example; for in effect there are many very like unto that even in the conversion of many thiefs in prison, in the hands of justice, yea after they have received the sentence of death; when they die better & give more signs of true repentance than multitudes that die in their beds. And beside, every man's conversion is in a certain hour or moment, suddenly as well as the thiefs on the cross, though it be not marked: and it is as great a work & the same in substance, to be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace by true conversion, as to be translated out of this world into heaven, the one following infallibly upon the other. So Paul's sudden conversion from a blasphemous persecutor of Christ to be a member and minister of Christ, was as great as the thiefs translation from the cross or gibbet to paradise, or rather greater. The same may be said of those thousands of murderers of Christ, suddenly converted at Peter's sermon: Act. 2. the conversion of each of these was as great as that of the thief, and may as well serve for the comfort of sinners. Christ is the door: whosoever knocks by faith & whensoever, is sure to enter.  
Ob. VI Besides this the pain and pangs of death are objected by many as a cause of their fear & why they are loath to die.  
Ans. I. We have commandments, comforts, and promises from Christ, to arm us against such fears. john. 14.1. Revelat. 2.10. The fear of death is one of the greatest pains in death and yet a fear not to be feared. II. If the pain of death be sharp, yet it is quickly over: it is but one stride, and at one leap it transports a man over the gulf of all sorrow into everlasting glory. III. To God. Our Samson tears this Lion as a kid, destroys death, & out of the carcase of death brings life, honey & honey combs of eternal comfort. Let us therefore be cheerful in the expectation of this happy conquest, & with comfort entertain the signs of death drawing near unto us, as dimness of sight, deafness of ears, weakness of limbs, whiteness of head & hoar hairs: Oh how welcome should these & the like be unto the faithful? As the children in our streets, when they first see the stork, the messenger of the Spring, do welcome the same & testify their pleasure with manifold & joyful acclamations: so should the godly congratulate themselves when they see the forenamed messengers of their Winter past & Summer approaching; or else both children and the very storks in the air, knowing the times of their coming, shallbe witnesses against us. When the figtree putteth forth his leaves the Summer is nigh: Matt. 24.32. when the almond-tree flourishes, them it hastens the coming of other fruits: Eccl. 12.5. jer. 1.11.12. when the heralds of death approach; then is it time for us to lift up our heads, knowing that our redemption is near. When the eyes of the body, the windows of our prospect into the world begin to be dark, then must we so much the more open the eyes of our mind, the windows of the soul for our prospect into heaven, to see things otherwise invisible. When the daughters of singing are abased, then especially we should labour to open the ears of faith that we may hear afar off the songs of the virgins that have the harps of God, ready to entertain us into the fellowship of their sweet melodies. When the grinders are flow & begin to cease, let us then be more frequent in grinding the wheat of heaven, chewing the cud & ruminating the manna of the Evangelicall promises: that should be the old man's milk & the old man's wine, sweeter than that of the muscadel grape, to warm his cold breast & to revive his decayed spirits. Having thus entertained the messengers of death, we shallbe the readier to welcome death itself. The nearer we grow to our journey's end, the greater will be our desire and longing to arrive at that Rendezvous of friends after a long march, that general meetingplace after a wearisome wand'ring over hills and dales in this our pilgrimage. As the diligent husbandman ploughs & harrows, sows his seed & waits for the first & latter rain, is glad when it gins to grow, when the blade, the stalk, the ear appears, & gladder when it is full grown, when the regions are white unto the harvest, when  & sickle are taken into the hand; but is then especially filled with joy when the last load of corn is brought home with shouring & singing, like to the custom that seems to have been in Israel in their harvest & vintage: Esa. 16.9.10. so in like manner they that have broken up their fallow ground, have sowed in righteousness, have not been weary in well doing, but steadfast & unmooveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, shall then know & see that their labour hath not been in vain in the Lord, shall then have cause to shout & sing for joy, when the Angels, that are called reapers, Matt. 13.39. shall gather these wheat sheaves into the heavenly barn, where the righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father. O that we were wise, that we understood this; so should we ever with comfort remember our latter END.    

Printed at DORT. BY HENRY ASH. M.DCXXXIX.