THE CURE OF THE FEAR OF DEATH. Showing the course Christians may take to be delivered from these fears about death, which are found in the hearts of the most. A Treatise of singular use for all sorts. By NICHOLAS BIFEILD, Preacher of God's Word at Isleworth in Middelsex. HEB. 2. 15. He died, that he might deliver them, who through the fear of death, were all their life time subject to bondage. LONDON, Printed by G. P. for Ralph Rounthwaite at the Flower de-Luce and Crown in Paul's Churchyard. 1618. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND NOBLE LADY THE LADY ANNE HARRINGTON, Grace and comfort from God the Father, and the LORD JESUS CHRIST be multiplied. MADAM, WHen I had seriously bethought myself in what doctrine especially to imply my Ministry, in the place in which the Lord had by so strong and strange a providence settled me: Amongst other things I was vehemently inclined to study the Cure of the Fear of Death; both because it may be usually observed, that the most men are in bondage by reason of these fears; as also because I am assured, that ourlives will become more sweet; yea, and more holy too, when the fear of death is removed: And the rather was I incited hereunto, because I have observed some defect about this point, in the most that have written about Death. I am not ignorant of the censure, which many may give of this project, as accounting it an impossible thing to be effected; but my trust is, that godly and discreet Christians will restrain censure, when they have thoroughly viewed my reasons. My unsaigned desire to do service unto GOD'S Church in relieving such Christians herein, as are not furnished with better helps, hath emboldened me to offer this Treatise also to the public view: I have presumed in your Honour's absence to thrust forth this Treatise under the protection of your Honour's name: and withal I desire heartily to testify my thankfulness for the many favours showed unto me and mine, while your Honour was pleased to be my Hearer. I should also much rejoice, if my testimony (concerning the singular graces God hath bestowed upon you, and the many good works in which you have abounded in the places of your abode) might add any thing, either unto your Honour's praises in the Churches of Christ, or unto the establishment of the comfort of your own heart in God, and his Son jesus Christ. I have not made choice of your Honour in this Dedication for any special fitness in this Treatise; for your Honour's condition, in respect of your age, or absence in a place so far remote. For my earnest trust is, that God will add yet many years to your happy life on earth; and beside I have had heretofore occasion to know how little you were afraid to die, when the Lord did seem to summon you by sickness. That God, which hath ennobled your heart with heavenly gifts, & so made you an instrument of so much good, and contentment, unto that most excellent Princess, with whom you now live, and towards whom you have showed so much faithful observance, and dearness of affection, and carefulness of attendance: Even the Father of mercy, and God of all consolations, increase in you all spiritual blessings, and multiply the joy of your heart, and make you still to grow in acceptation, and all well-doing: Humbly craving pardon for my boldness herein: I commit your Honour to God, and to the word of his Grace, which will build you up to eternal life: resting Your Honours in all humble observance, N. BIFEILD. Isleworth, july 14. 1618. The chief Contents of this Book. THE drift is to show, how we may be freed from the fear of death. Pag. 1. 2. First, it is proved by eight apparent Arguments, that it may be attained to, Page 4. to the 12. Secondly, it is showed by fifteen considerations, how shameful and uncomely a thing it is for a Christian to be afraid to die, Page 12. to 28. Thirdly, the way how this fear may be removed, is showed: where may be noted: An exhortation to regard the directions. p. 29. 30. Two ways of Cure: 1. The one by Meditation; 2. The other by practice, p. 31. The contemplations either serve to make us to like death, or else to be less in love with life. p. 32. Seventeen Privileges of a Christian in death. pag. 33. to the 52. The Contemplations that show us the misery of life, are of two sorts: for either they show us the miseries of the life of nature: or else the miseries that do avoidable accompany the very life of grace. p. 53, etc. The miseries of the life of nature, from pag. 54. to pag. 67. The miseries of a godly man's life are twofold: 1. which appears both in the things he wants; 2. and in the things he hath, while he lives, p. 67. etc. Six things, which every godly man wants, while he lives. p. 68 to 75. What should make a godly man weary of life, in respect of God. p. 75. to 85. And what in respect of evil Angels. p. 85, etc. And what in respect of the world. p. 88, etc. And what in respect of himself. p. 113, etc. Eight aggravations of God's corrections in this life, p. 78. Eight apparent miseries from the world. p. 89, etc. Fifteen manifest defects and blemishes in the greatest seeming felicities of the world. p. 98. to 113. Many aggravations of our misery in respect of corruption of nature in this life. p. 113, etc. The remainders of the first punishment yet upon us. Pag. 121. The removal of the objections men make about death, from whence their fear riseth, and these objections are answered. 1. About the pain of dying, where are ten answers, pag. 125. etc. 2. About the condition of the body in death. p. 133. 3. About the desire to live longer yet. p. 139. 4. About the pretence of desire to live long to do good. p. 145. 5. About casting away of ones self. p. 149. 6. About parting with friends. p. 153. etc. 7. About leaving the pleasures of life. p. 159, etc. 8. About leaving the honours of life. p. 162. 9 About leaving their riches. p. 168. etc. 10. About the kind of death. p. 171. The second way of curing the fear of death is by practice, where seven directions are given. From page 173. to the end. THE CURE OF THE FEAR OF DEATH. CHAP. I. Showing the Scope and Parts of this Treatise. THAT, which I intent in this Treatise, is to show, how a godly man might order The drift of the whole Treatise. himself against the fear of death; or, what course he should take to live so, as not to be afraid to die. This is a main point, and exceeding necessary: Life is thoroughly sweet, when The profit of following these directions death is not feared: a man's heart is then like Mount Zion, that cannot be moved. He can fear no enemy, that doth not fear death. As death is the last enemy, so it works the longest and last fears; and to die happily, is to die willingly. The main work of Preparation is effected, when our hearts are persuaded to be willing to die. Now in the explication The parts of the Treatise. of this point, I would distinctly handle three things. First, I will prove, that to live without fear of 1 death, is a thing may be obtained; one may be delivered from it as certainly, as a sick man may be cured of an ordinary disease. Secondly, I will show, how uncomely a thing it 2 is for a Christian to be afraid of death: that so we may be stirred up the more to seek the cure for this disease. Thirdly, I will show by what means we may be 3 delivered from the fear of death, if we use them. Of the two first more briefly: and of the last at large. CHAP. II. Proving that we may be cured of the fear of death. FOR the first: that the fear of death may be removed; and that we may Eight Arguments to prove we may be helped against the fear of death. attain to that resolution to be willing to die, without loathness, is apparent divers ways. First, it is evident: Christ died to deliver us, not only from the hurt of death, and from the devil, as the executioner: but also from the fear of death too. Now Christ may attain to the end of his death, unless we will deny the virtue of Christ, and his death, and think that notwithstanding it cannot be obtained, Heb. 2. 14, 15. And the more apparent is this, because in that place he shows, that there is virtue in the death of Christ, to cure this fear of death in any of the Elect, if they will use the means: For as our sins will not be mortified, though there be power in the death of Christ to kill them; unless we use the means to extract this virtue out of the death of Christ: so is it true, that the fear of death may be in some of God's Elect: but it is not because Christ cannot deliver them; but because they are sluggish, and will not take the course to be rid of those fears. The Physician is able to cure them, and usually doth cure the same disease; but they will not take his Receipts. 2. The Apostle entreating of the desire of death, saith, That God hath wrought us unto the self-same thing, 2. Cor. 5. 5. We are again created of God, that we might in ourselves aspire unto immortality; and are set in such an estate, as if we answered the end of his workmanship, we should never be well, till we be possessed of the happiness in another world: which he shows in those words of being absent from the body, and present with the Lord, ver. 8. 3. The Prophecies have run on this point. For it was long since foretold, that Christians knowing the victory of Christ over death, should be so far from fearing death, that they should tread upon him, and insult over him: O Death, Where is thy sting? etc. Isay 25. 8. Hos. 13. 14. 2. Cor. 15. 54, 55. 4. It is a condition, that Christ puts in, when he first admits Disciples, that they must deny their ownelives: and not only be content to take up their cross in other things, but their lives must not be dear unto them, when he calls for it, Luk. 14. 26. 5. We are taught in the Lord's Prayer, to pray That God's Kingdom may come: And by his Kingdom he means the Kingdom of Glory, as well as the Kingdom of Grace: Now in that we are taught to pray for the Kingdom, it shows we should desire it, and that by prayer we should be more and more heated in our desires. 6. We are borne again to a lively hope of our inheritance: Now if we be afraid of the time of our translation thither, how do we hope for it after a lively manner? A desire of going to heaven is a part of that seed cast into our hearts in our regeneration, 1. Pet. 1. 3, 4. 7. We have the example of divers men in particular, who have desired to die, and were out of fear in that respect: Gen. 49. 18. jacob waited for God's salvation: and Paul resolves, that to die, and to be with Christ, is best of all for him: Phil. 1. 21. Yea, in Rom. 7. 23. he is vehement; O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Simeon prays God to let him die, Luk. 2. 29. And the Prophet in the name of the godly, said long before Christ: O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion, Psal. 14. 7. And we have the example of the Martyrs in all Ages, that accounted it a singular glory to die: And in 2. Cor. 5. 2, 7. the godly are said to sigh for it, that they might be absent from the body, and present with the Lord; and so do the first fruits of the Holy Ghost, those eminent Christians mentioned, Rom. 8. 21. Last: not only some particular godly men have attained to this; but the whole Church is brought in, in the 22. Ch. of the Reu. praying for the coming of jesus Christ, and desiring too, that he would come quickly: And 2. Tim. 4. 8. The love of the appearing of Christ, is the Periphrasis of the child of God. Thus of the first point. CHAP. III. Showing how uncomely it is to fear death. FOR the second, how uncomely a thing it is in Christians to fear death, may appear many ways. 1. By the fear of death we shame our Religion; while we profess it in our words, we deny it in our works: Let Papists tremble at death, who are Fifteen Reasons why it is an uncomely thing to be afraid to die. taught, that no man ordinarily can be sure he shall go to heaven when he dies. But for us; that profess the knowledge of salvation, to be astonished at the passage to it, shows (at least) a great weakness of faith, and doth outwardly give occasion of disgrace to our Religion. 2 By that, which went before, we may see how uncomely it is to be afraid of death: For thereby we disable the death of Christ: we frustrate the end of God's workmanship: we stop the execution of the Prophecies: we renounce our first agreement with Christ: we mock God in praying that his Kingdom may come: we obscure the evidence of our own regeneration; and we transgress against the example of the godly in all ages. 3 Many of the Pagans greatly settled their hearts against the fear of death by this very reason: Because there was no being after death; and therefore they could no more feel misery then, then before they were borne: And shall we Christians, that hear every day of the glorious salvation we have by Christ, be more fearful than they were? Let them fear death, that know not a better life. Shall we be like wicked men? Their death is compelled▪ Shall ours be so too? They by their good wills, would not lose their bodies in this life, nor have their bodies in the next life: But since God hath made us unlike them in the issues of death; Shall we make ourselves like them in the loathness to die? Let Foelix tremble at the doctrine of death and judgement: Act. 24. 25. But let all the godly hold up their heads, because the day of their redemption draweth nigh, Math. 24, etc. 5. Shall we be afraid of a shadow? The separation of the soul from God, that is death, if we speak exactly: but the separation of the soul from the body, is but the shadow of death. When see we men trembling for fear of spiritual death? which is called the First Death; and yet this is far more woeful than that we call the bodily death. But as if the death of the body were nothing, the Scripture calls Damnation, The second death, never putting the other into the number. 6. This fear is called a bondage here in this text: And shall we voluntarily make ourselves Vassals? Or shall we be like slaves, that dare not come in our Master's sight? 7. If we love long life: Why are we not much more in love with eternal life, where the duration is longer, and the estate happier? Are not we extremely infatuated, that when God will do better for us, than we desire, yet we will be afraid of him? 8. Shall we be worse than children, or madmen? neither of them fear death; And shall simplicity, or Idiotism, do more with them, than reason or Religion can do with us? 9 Do not all that read the Story of the Israelites (in their passion desiring to be again in Egypt, and violently murmuring at the promise of going into the Land of Canaan) condemn them of vile ingratitude to God, and folly in respect of themselves? For what was it for them to live in Egypt, but to serve cruel Taskmasters about brick and clay? And was not Canaan the place of their rest, and a Land that flowed with milk and honey? Even such is the condition of all those, that wish Life, and are afraid to Die. What is this world but Egypt, and what is it to Live in this world, but to serve about brick and clay? Yea, the Church, that is separate from the world, can find it no better than a Barren Wilderness. And what is Heaven, but a Spiritual Canaan? And what can Death be more, then to pass over jordan; and victoriously overcoming all enemies, to be possessed of a place of matchless rest; of more pleasures than Milk or Honey, can shadow out? 10. Adam might have had more reason to fear Death, that never saw a man die an ordinary Death; but for us to be affrighted with Death, that see thousands die at our right hand, and ten thousand at our left, and that daily, is an inexcusable distemper. The gate of Death is continually open, and we see a press of people, that daily throng into it. 11. When Moses had cast down his Rod, it turned into a Serpent; and the Text, noting Moses weakness, saith, He fled from it: But the Lord commanded him to take it by the Tail; and behold, it became a Rod again: Even so Death at the first sight is terrible, like a new-made Serpent, and the godly themselves, through inconsideration, fly from it: But if at God's commandment, without fear, they would lay hold upon this seeming Serpent, it will be turned into a Rod again; yea, into a golden Sceptre in our hands, made much better by the change: Neither do we read, that ever at any after, Moses had any fear of this Serpent, when he had once known the experience of it: And have we often, by the eyes of faith, seen the experience of this great work of God, and shall we still be running away? 12. It is said, Rom. 8. 20. that all creatures groan, waiting for the liberty of the sons of God. And shall we be worse than bruit beasts? Doth the whole frame of nature, as it were, call for this time of change; and shall man be so stupid, or carried with such senseless fears, as to shun his own felicity? 13. Consider whether it be more commodious for us, that Death come to us, or that we go to Death: For one thing is certain; It is in vain to shun that, which cannot be avoided. For it is appointed unto all men once to die, Heb. 9 24. What man is he, that liveth, and shall not see death? Psal. 89. Death is the way of all flesh, josh. 24. Now this being granted, let us consider of it, Death is like an armed man, with whom we must once fight. Now if we be advised & will go to death, we may get on our armour beforehand, and so the encounter will be without danger to us, because the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God, & we are assured of victory through jesus Christ. Now on the other side, to tarry till Death come unto us, is as if a man that knows he must fight with a sore Adversary, would through slothfulness, go up and down unarmed, till he fall into the hands of his enemy: & must thou fight with him at such disadvantage? 14. It is most uncomely to fear that, which is both common and certain: death, of all afflictions is most common. For from other afflictions it is possible some might be free: but from Death can no man be delivered, and GOD of purpose hath made that most common which is most grievous, that thereby he might abate of the vigour, and terror of it. It is monstrous foolishness to strive in vain to avoid that which never man could scape. And to teach men their unavoidable mortality, the Lord clothed our first Parents with the skins of dead beasts, and feeds us with dead flesh: that as often as we eat of slain beasts, we might remember our own end: & shall we be ever learning, and never come to the knowledge of this truth? Is this such a lesson as cannot be learned? shall we be so stupid, as daily to pass by the graves of the dead, and hear their knells, and yet be untaught and unarmed? 15. Lastly, shall we be afraid of such an enemy as hath been overcome hand to hand, & beaten by Christ, and thousands of the Saints? especially if we consider the assurance we have of victory. In this combat every Christian may triumph before the victory, 1. Cor. 15. 55. And thus much of the two first points. CHAP. FOUR Showing that a Christian is many ways happy in death. NOW I come to the third point, which is the main thing to be attended; and that is the means how we may be cured of the fear of Death: and in this we had need all to attend with great carefulness. The disease is stubborn, and An exhortation to attend upon the means of cure. men are sluggish, and extremely loath to be at the trouble of the cure, and Satan by all means would keep us from remembering our later end; and the world affords daily distractions to pluck us away from the school of Christ herein, and our own hearts are deceitful, and our natures apt to be weary of the doctrine, before we put in practice any of the directions; and we are apt to a thousand conceits, that it is either unpossible, or unnecessary to attend this doctrine, or the like. Yea, it may be, it will far with many of us, as it doth with those that are troubled with the raging pain of the teeth, their pain will cease, when the Barber comes to pull out the tooth: so it may be you may find this deceit in your own hearts, that you will not feel the fear of Death, till the discourse of the medicine be over, and so let it be as water spilled on the ground. But let us all awake, and in the power and strength of Christ, that died to deliver us from the fear of death, let us all lay the plasters close to the sore, and keep them at it, till they be thoroughly whole. There be two ways Two ways of curing the fear of death. then of curing this fear of Death: 1. The one is by contemplation: 2. The other is by practice. There be some things if we did choose them out sound to think of them, would heal us wonderfully. There be some things also to be done by us, to make the cure perfect. If contemplation be not available, than practice will without fail finish the cure. The contemplations are of two sorts: 1. For either The ways of curing this fear by contemplation. they are such meditations, as breed desire of Death by way of motive: 2. Or they are such, as remove the objections, which cause in man's mind the fear of Death. For the first, there be two things, which if they be sound thought on, will work a strange alteration in our hearts. 1. The one is the happiness we have by Death. 2. The other, is the miseries we are in by Life. Can any man be afraid to be happy? If our heads & hearts were filled with arguments, that show us our happiness by Death, we would not be so senseless as to tremble at the thought of dying. Our happiness in Death may be set out in many particulars, & illustrated by many similitudes, full of life and virtue, to heal this disease of fear. 1. Death makes an end of all the tempests & continual The happiness of a Christian in death showed 17. ways. storms, with which our life is tossed. It is the Haven and Port of rest: and are we so mad, as to desire the continuance of such dangerous tempests, rather than to be in the haven whither our journey tends? 2. Death is a sleep. For so the dead are said to be asleep, 1. Thes. 4. 14. Look what a bed of rest & sleep is to the weary labourer, such is Death to the diligent Christian. In death they rest in their beds from the hard labours of this life, Esay 37. 2. Reu. 14. 13. And was ever the weary labourer afraid of the time, when he must lie down, and take his rest? 3. The day of Death, is the day of receiving wages, wherein God pays to every godly man his penny. And doth not the hireling long for the time, wherein he shall receive wages for his work? job. 7. 2. And the rather should we long for this time, because we shall receive wages infinitely above our work, such wages as was never given by man, nor can be, if all this visible world were given us. 4. In death the servant comes to his freedom, & the heir is at his full age and it is such a liberty as i● glorious: never such a freedom in the world, Rom. 8. 21. Shall the heir desire to be still under age, and so still under Tutors and Governors? or shall the servant fear the day of his freedom? 5. In death, the banished return, and the Pilgrims enter into their Father's house. In this life we are exiled men, banished from Paradise, and Pilgrims & Strangers in a far Country, absent from God & heaven. In death we are received to Paradise, and settled at home in those everlasting habitations in our Father's house, Luke 17. john 14. 2. Heb. 13. 11. And can we be so senseless as to be afraid of this? 6. Death is our birthday; we say falsely, when we call Death the last day. For it is indeed the beginning of an everlasting day: and is there any grievance in that? 7. Death is the funeral of our vices, and the resurrection of our graces. Death was the daughter of Sin, and in death shall that be fulfilled: The daughter shall destroy the mother. We shall never more be infected with sin, nor troubled with ill natures, nor be terrified for offending. Death shall The dissolution of the body, is the absolution of the soul. deliver us perfectly whole of all our diseases, that were impossible to be cured in this life, and so shall there be at that day a glorious resurrection of graces: Our gifts shall shine, as the Stars in the Firmament; And can we be so sottish as still to be afraid of Death? 8. In death the soul is delivered out of prison: For the body in this life is but a loathsome, and dark prison of restraint. I say, the soul is restrained, as it were, in a prison, while it is in the body, because it cannot be free to the exercise of itself, either in natural, or supernatural things: For the body so rules by senses, and is so fiercely carried by appetites, that the soul is compelled to give way to the satisfying of the body, and cannot freely follow the light either of Nature or Religion: The truth, as the Apostle saith, is withheld, or shut up, through unrighteousness, Rom. 1. 18. I say, it is a loathsome prison, because the soul is annoyed with so many loathsome smells of sin, and filthiness, which by the body are committed. And it is a dark prison; For the soul looking through the body, can see but by little holes, or small casements. The body shuts up the light of the soul, as a dark Cloud doth hide the light of the Sun; or as the interposition of the earth doth make it night: Now death doth nothing, but as it were a strong wind dissolve this Cloud, that the Sun may shine clearly, and pulls down the walls of the prison, that the soul may come into the open light. 9 The liberty of the soul in death may be set out by another similitude. The world is the Sea: our lives are like so many Galleys at Sea, tossed with continual Tides, or Storms: our bodies are Galleyslaves, put to hard service by the great Turk the devil, who tyrannically, and by usurpation, doth forcibly command hard things. Now the soul within, like the heart of some ingenuous Galleyslave, may be free, so as to loath that servitude, and inwardly detest that tyrant; but yet so long as it is tied to the body, it cannot get away. Now death comes like an unresistible Giant, and carries the Galleys to the shore, and dissolves them, and lets the prisoners free: And shall this glorious liberty of the soul be a matter of terror unto us? Had we rather be in captivity still? 10. In this life we are clothed with rotten, ragged, foul garments: Now the Apostle shows, that death doth nothing else but pull off those ragged garments, and clothe us with the glorious robes of salvation; more rich than the robes of the greatest Monarch, 2. Cor. Chap. 5. Vers. 2, 3. It is true, that the godly have some kind of desire to be clothed upon: They would have those new garments, without pulling off their old; But that is not decent: for a Prince to wear (without) gorgeous attire, and (underneath) base rags. To desire to go to heaven, and not to die, is to desire to put on our new clothes without putting off our old: and is it any grievance to shift us by laying aside our old clothes, to put on such rich garments? We are just like such slothful persons, that love well to have good clothes, and clean linen: but they are so sluggish, they are loath to put off their old clothes, or foul linen. 11. In the same place the Apostle compares our bodies to an old mud-walled house, and to a rotten Tent: and our estate in heaven to a most glorious and Princely Palace, made by the most curious Workman that ever was; and it is such a building too, as will never be out of repair. Now for a godly man to die, is but to remove from a rotten old house, ready to fall on his head, to a sumptuous Palace, 2. Cor. 5. 1. Doth that Landlord do his Tenant wrong, or offer him hard measure, that will have him out of his base Cottage, & bestow upon him his own Mansion house? No other thing doth God to us, when by Death he removes us out of this earthly Tabernacle of our bodies, to settle us in those everlasting habitations, even into that building made without hands, in heaven, joh. 14. 2. Luk. 17. 12. A man, that had never seen the experience of it, perhaps would have thought, that the seed cast into the ground had been spoiled, because it would rot there: but Nature having showed the return of that grain with advantage, a man can easily be cured of that folly: The Husbandman is never so simple, as to pity himself, or his seed; he says not, Alas, is it not pity to throw away and mar this good seed? Why brethren; what are our bodies, but like the best grain? The bodies of the Saints are God's choicest corn. And what doth Death more unto God's Grain, than cast it into the earth? Do we not believe, our bodies shall rise like the grain, better than ever they were sowed? and are we still afraid? Paul saith, he would be dissolved, that he might be with Christ, Phil. 1. 21. In which words he imports two things in death. First, that there is a dissolution of the soul from the body: and secondly, that there is a conjunction of the soul with Christ. Now which is better for us, to have the body, or to have Christ? The same Apostle saith elsewhere, that they are confident in this, they had rather be absent from the body, and so to be present with the Lord: then to be present with the body, and absent from the Lord: 2. Cor. 5. 7, 8. Now the true reason why men fear death, is, because they look upon the dissolution only, and not upon the conjunction with Christ. 14. In the 1. Cor. 9 24. our life is compared to a race, and eternal life to a rich prize not corruptible, but an incorruptible Crown: Now death is the end of the race, and to die is but to come to the goal, or race end. Was ever runner so foolish, as to be sorry, that with victory he was near the end of the race? And are we afraid of death, that shall end the toil, and sweat, and danger of the running; and give us with endless applause so glorious a recompense of reward? 15. In the Ceremonial Law, there was a year they called the year of jubilee; and this was accounted an acceptable year, because every man that had lost, or sold his Lands, upon the blowing of a Trumpet returned, and had possession of all again; and so was recovered out of the extremities in which he lived before. In this life we are like the poor men of Israel, that have lost our inheritance, and live in a manner and condition every way straightened: now Death is our jubilee, and when the Trumpet of death blows, we all, that die, return, and enjoy a better estate, than ever we sold, or lost: Shall the jubilee be called an acceptable time? And shall not our jubilee be acceptable to us? Esay 61. 2. 16. Death is the day of our Coronation; we are heirs apparent to the Crown in this life: yea, we are King's Elect, but cannot be crowned, till death, 2. Tim. 4. 8. And shall not that make us love the appearing of Christ? Is a King afraid of the day of his Coronation? To conclude this first part of Contemplation: If we did seriously set before our eyes the glory to come; could our eyes be so dazzled, as not to see, and admire, and haste to it? Ask Paul, that was in heaven, what he saw; and he will tell you, Things that cannot he uttered: Happiness beyond all language of mortal man. If there were as much faith on earth, as there is glory in heaven: oh! how would our hearts be on fire with fervent desires after it! But even this faith is extremely wanting: It is our unbelief that undoes us, and fills us with these servile and sottish fears. And thus of the meditations, taken from the happiness we enjoy by death: which should make us conclude with Solomon, Eccles. 7 1 That the day of Death is better, than the day when one is borne. CHAP. V. Showing the miseries of life in wicked men. NOW it follows, that I should break open the miseries of life; the consideration whereof should abate in us this wretched love of life. The miseries of life The miseries of life two ways considered. may be two ways considered; for they are of two sorts: First, either such miseries, as load the life of Nature: secondly, or such miseries, as do molest the very life of Grace. The miseries, that accompany The miseries of a natural life showed three ways. the natural life of man, while he remains in the state of Nature only, who can recount? I will give but a brief touch of some heads of them. First, think of thy sins: and so three dreadful Three dreadful considerations about sin. things may amaze thy thoughts: For first, thou art guilty of Adam's sin; For by that man sin came in upon all men, even the guilt of his sin: Rom. 5. 12. Secondly, thy nature is altogether vile, and abominable from thy birth, thou wast conceived in sin, Psal. 51. 4. And this stain and leprosy hangs on fast upon thy nature, and cannot be cured, but by the blood of Christ only, Heb. 12. 1. And this is seated in all the faculties of thy soul: For in thy mind there is ignorance, and impotency to receive knowledge; and a natural approving of evil and error, rather than the truth and sound doctrine. Those ways seem good in thine eyes, which tend unto death: 1. Cor. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 7. 2. Cor. 3. 5. Prou. 14. 12. And this thou mayst perceive by this, that thou art not able to think a good thought, but canst go free for days and weeks, without any holy cogitation; and beside, thy mind is infinitely prone to swarms of evil thoughts: Gen. 6. 5. Again, if thou behold thy conscience, it is impure, polluted, without light, or life, or glory in thee, shut up in a dungeon, excusing thee in many faults, and accusing thee for things are not faults, but in thy conceit: and when it doth accuse thee for sin, it rageth & falleth mad with unbridled fury and terrors, keeping no bounds of hope or mercy. Further, if thou observe thy affections, they are altogether impotent in that which is good, there is no lust in thee after that which is good, & yet they are all out of order, and prone to continual rebellion against God, ready to be fired by all the enticements of the world, or the Devil: Phil. 2. 13. Gala. 5. 24. Thirdly, unto these, add thy innumerable actual sins, which are more than the hairs of thy head, multiplied daily in thought, affection, word, & deed, the least of them deserving hell fire for ever, thy sins of Infancy, youth, old-age, sins of omission and commission: sins in prosperity and adversity; sins at home & abroad; sins of infirmity & presumption. If David looking upon his sins, could say, They have so compassed me, and taken such hold of me, that I am not able to look up? Oh then, if thou hadst sight, and sense! how mightst thou much more cry out of the intolerable burden of them; and the rather, if thou observe, that many of thy corruptions reign tyrannically, & have subdued thy life to their vassalage, so as thou art in continual slavery to them. Thus is thy life infested with these unspeakable inordinations: and thus of the first part of thy infelicity in life. Secondly, if thou observe, but how God hath avenged himself upon them, & what yet remaineth unto thee, how can thy heart sustain itself? For, 1. Thou art a banished man, exiled from Paradise, and made to live without hope to return thither: The best part of the earth thou shalt never enjoy. 2. The earth is cursed to thee, and it may be a woeful spectacle to see all the creatures subject to vanity, and smitten with the strokes of God for thy sin, and groaning daily round about thee. 3. Look upon thy most miserable soul; for there thy mind and conscience live shut up with darkness and horror. The Devils have within thee strong holds, and live entrenched in thy thoughts, Eph. 4. 17. 2. Cor. 10. 5. Thy heart is spiritually dead, and like a stone within thee, Eph. 2. 1. Ezech. 36. 27. 4. Thy body is wretched through deformities, and infirmities, diversly noisome to thee with pains that grieve thee, either in respect of labour, or diseases, unto which thou art so prone; & there is no part or joint of thee, but is liable to many kinds of diseases, Deut. 28. 21, 22. Gen. 3. 19 And of the labours of thy life, which is but the least part of thy bodily miseries, Solomon saith, All things are full of labour, who can utter it? And for that reason, life is but a vanity and vexation, Eccl. 1. 18. 5. If thou look upon thy outward estate in the world, with what fearful frights may thy heart be gripped? If thou consider 1. The common, or general, or public plagues with which God fights against the world, as wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilence, and yearly diseases, inundations of waters, and infinite such like. 2. The particular crosses, with which he vexeth thee in particular, either with losses of thy estate, or the troubles of thy family, Deut. 28. 15, 16, etc. 3. The preterition of God, restraining many good things from thee, so as thou wantest many of those blessings of all sorts, which yet God doth bestow upon others, Esa. 59 1, 2. jere. 5. 25. 4. The cursing of thy blessings, when God blasts the gifts of thy mind, that thou canst not use them for any contentment of thy life, or makes thy prosperity to be the occasion of thy ruin, Mala. 2. 3. Eccles. 5. 13. This is a sore evil. Lastly, consider yet further what may fall upon thee, in respect of which thou art in daily danger. There are seas of wrath, which hang over thy head, john 3. 36. and God may plague thee with the terrors of conscience, like Cain, Gene. 4. 14. Or with a reprobate sense, or the spirit of slumber, joh. 12. 4. Rom. 11. 8. strong illusions, 2 Thes. 2. 11. or such other like dreadful spiritual judgements: Besides many other fearful judgements, which thy heart is not able to conceive of, as painful diseases in the body, or an utter ruin in thy estate, or good name: but above all other things, the remembrance of the fearful judgement of Christ, & the everlasting pains of Hell, with a miserable death, should compel thee to cry out, O men, and brethren! what shall I do to be saved, and get out of this estate? But because it is my purpose here chiefly to persuade with godly men, & not with natural men, and because death itself is no ease unto such men, that live in their sins without repentance, who have reason to loath life, and yet no cause to love death, I pass from them, & come to the life of godly men, and say, they have great reason to loath life, & desire the day of death. CHAP. VI Showing the miseries of godly men in life. NOW the miseries of the godly man's life are of two sorts: first, for either he may consider what he wants: secondly, or what he hath in life, for which he should be weary of it. I will give but a touch of the first. Consider of it: in this life there are six things, among the rest, we want, and can never attain, while we live here. The first, is the glorious presence of God, while Six things every godly man wants, while he lives here in this world. the body is present, the Lord is absent, 2. Cor. 5. 8. And is not this enough to make us loath life? Shall we more esteem this wretched Carcase, than our glorious God: whose only presence in glory shall fill us with eternal delight? O the Vision of God If we had but once seen God face to face, we would abhor that absence that should hinder the fruition of such unspeakable beauties, as would enamour the most secure heart to an unquenchable love. The second thing we want in life, is the sweet fellowship with our best friends: A fellowship matchless; if we either consider the perfection of the creatures, whose communion we shall enjoy; or the perfect manner of enjoying it: Who would be withheld from the Congregation of the first-born, from the society with innumerable Angels, and the Spirits of just men? Alas! the most of us have not so much, as one entire and perfect friend in all the world, and yet we make such friends, as we have, the ground of a great part of the contentment of our lives: Who could live here, if he were not beloved? Oh! what can an earthly friendship be unto that in heaven: when so many thousand Angels, and Saints shall be glad of us, and entertain us with unwearied delight? If we had but the eyes of faith to consider of this, we would think every hour a year, till we were with them? Thirdly, in this world we want the perfection of our own Natures: we are but maimed and deformed creatures here; we shall never have the sound understanding of men in us, till we be in heaven: our holiness of nature and gifts will never be consummate, till we be dead. Fourthly, in this world we want liberty: Our glorious liberty will not be had here: A thing, which the Spirits of the best men have, with much sighing, longed after: Rom. 8. 21. 22. O who would live in a prison, a dungeon, rather than a Palace of royal freedom? It hath been impliedly showed before, that we are many ways in bondage here. Fiftly, we shall ever want here fullness of contentment. If a man live many years, so that the days of his years be many, if his soul be not filled with good, Solomon saith, an untimely birth is better than he. And it is certain, if a man live a thousand years twice told, he shall never see solid good to fill his heart, his appetite will never be filled, Eccles. 6. 3, 6, 7. There is nothing in this life can give a man solid, and durable contentment: but a man finds by experience, vanity, and vexation of spirit, in what he admires orloves most: and shall we be so sottish as to forget those rivers of pleasures that are at God's right hand? Psal. 6. ult. 6. The sixth thing we want in this world, is our crown, and the immortal and incorruptible inheritance, bought for us with the blood of Christ: and shall not our hearts burn within us in longing after possession? Can we desire still to live in wants, & to be under age? What shall move us, if such an incomparable crown cannot move us? We that sweat with so much sore labour for the possession of some small portion of the earth: shall we, I say, be so sluggish, as not to desire, that this kingdom, which our Father hath given us, might come quickly upon us? or are we so transported with spiritual madness, as to be afraid to pass through the gate of death, to attain such a life? What Prince would live uncrowned, if he could help it, and might possess it without wrong or danger? and what great heir would be grieved at the tidings, that all his Lands were fallen unto him? CHAP. VII. The miseries of a Christian in respect of God in this life. THus, of what he wants in this life. Secondly, he ought to be as much troubled to think what he hath, and cannot avoid while he lives: and thus his life is distressed, and made unlovely, either if he respect God, or the evil Angels, or the world, or himself. For first, if he respect God, there are two things Life bitter in respect of God divers ways. should mar the taste of life, and make it out of liking. The first is the danger of displeasing of God: who would live to offend God? or grieve his Spirit? or any way to make him angry? Though this reason will move little in the hearts of wicked men; Yet it is of singular force in the heart of an humble Christian, who as he accounts Gods loving kindness better than life: so finds nothing more bitter, then that he should displease God: that God (I say) who is so great in Majesty, and hath showed himself so abundant in mercy to him. It would lie as a heavy load upon our hearts, to think of the displeasing of our best friend; specially if he were a great person, or a Prince. How much more should we desire to be rid of that condition, wherein we may displease our good God; and to be there, where we are sure never to anger him more? The second thing, that should make us look with less affection upon life, is, that God doth continually cross us in the things of this life: The Lord doth of purpose watch us, that when he sees us settle any contentment in life, he drops in some thing, that makes all extremely bitter: And those corrections of God should be the more noted, if we consider but divers aggravations about them, as Eight aggravations of the miseries of life, in respect of the corrections of God. 1. That God will correct every son, whom he loveth, none can escape, Heb. 12. 4. 2. That a man is usually most opposed & crossed in that he loves best. 3. That a man shall ever want, what he wisheth, even in such things, as other men do not want. There is a secret vexation cleaves unto man's estate, that their hearts run upon such things which cannot be had, but in the Callings of other men: The Countryman praiseth the Citizen's life; and the Citizen is full of the praises of the Country: And so is there in all men a liking of the Callings of other men, with a dislike of their own, Eccles. 6. 4. That there is no discharge in that war, but that a man must every day look for crosses. Every day hath his grief, Eccles. 8. 8. Luk. 9 24. Math. 6. ult. 5. That God will not let us know the times of our corrections, but executeth them according to the unchangeable purpose of his own counsel: so as they come upon us, as a snare upon a Bird. For this reason Solomon saith: That the misery of man is great upon him, because there is a time for every purpose, which cannot be avoided, nor can man know beforehand that, which shall be; for who can tell him, when it shall be? Eccl. 8. 6, 7, 8. & 9 12. 6. That no man knoweth either love, or hatred, by all that is before him: A godly man can have no such blessings outwardly, but a wicked man may have them in as great abundance, as he: nor doth there any misery fall upon the wicked in outward crosses, but the like may befall the godly. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked: to the clean, and unclean, to him that sweareth, & to him that feareth an oath, as is the good, so is the sinner. This, saith Solomon, is an evil among all things, that are done under the Sun, that there is one event unto all, Eccle. 9 1, 2, 3. 7. This bitterness is increased, because GOD will not dispose of things according to the means, or likelihoods of man's estate. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all, Eccles. 9 11. 8. That besides the present miseries, there are many miseries to come, so as it is an argument to prove the happiness of the dead, that they are taken away from the miseries to come, Esay 57 1, 2. which should likewise move us to love life the less, because we know not, what fearful alterations may come, either in our outward estate, or in matters of Religion. What case were we in, if war should come upon us, with all the desolations & terrors that accompany it? What if the Pestilence should come again, or we be left in the hands of the violent? or God fight against our estates by fire, or inundations, or the like? Who can tell what fearful alterations may be in Religion? And is it not best to be in heaven, and then are we safe? Besides, the miseries may fall upon our own bodies, or our children, or friends, etc. And these things should abate the love of life, as we respect God. CHAP. VIII. The misery of life in respect of evil Angels. NOW secondly, let us turn our eyes to the evil Angels, & then these things may affright us. First, that they are every The world full of devils. where up and down the world, in the Earth, air, Seas; no place free. Those fiery Serpents are every where in the wilderness of the world. We lead our lives here in the midst of innumerable dragons, yea they are in the most heavenvly places in this life: The Church is not free from them. A man can stand no where before the Lord, but one Devil or other is at his right hand, Ephe. 2. 2. & 6. 13. Zach. 3. 1. job 1. And sure, it should make us like the place the worse where such foul spirits are: the earth is a kind of Hell in that very respect. 2. Secondly, it should Our conflict with devils. more trouble us, that we must of necessity enter into the conflict with these Devils, and their temptations, and to be buffeted and gored by them. A man that knew he must go into the field to answer a challenge, will be at no great rest in himself. But alas! it is more easy a thousand fold to wrestle with flesh and blood, then with these Principalities and Powers, and Spiritual wickednesses, & great Rulers of the world, Ephe. 6. 13. 3. Besides, it adds unto the distress of life, to consider of the subtlety, and cruelty of these Devils, who are therefore like the crooked Serpent, and Leutathan, and Dragons, and roaring Lions, seeking whom they may devour. Though these things will little move the hearts of wicked men, yet unto the godly mind, the temptations of life are a grievous burden. Thus much of evil Angels. CHAP. IX. The misery of life in respect of the world. 3. THirdly, consider but what the World is, in which thou livest; and that either in the apparent miseries of this world, or in the vexations, that accompany the best things the world hath to offer or give thee. First, for the apparent miseries; 1. It is exquisitely like a wilderness, no man but 9 Apparent miseries of life in this world. for innumerable wants, lives as in a Desert here. 2. It is a true Egypt to the godly, it continually imposeth hard tasks, and servile conditions. Life can never be free from grievous burdens, and inexorable molestations. 3. This world is verily like Sodom, full of general and unspeakable filthiness: all the world lieth in wickedness, scarce one Lot to be found in a whole City, or Parish. If God would seek but five righteous men, that are truly or absolutely godly, they are not to be found in the most assemblies in the world, nay in the Church too. 4. Yet more; this world is a very pest-house, spiritually considered. Every man that a godly man comes near, hath a mischievous plague-sore running upon him; yea the godly themselves are not without the disease: so as there is a necessity as it were, to infect, or be infected still in all places, or companies. Oh! who would love to live in a pest-house, that may dwell in a place for ever free from all infection? 5. Yet more, this world, why, it is a very Golgotha, a place of dead men, we live amongst the graves: Almost all we see, or have to deal with, are but men truly dead. Alas! what should we reckon of the life of men's carcases, when In this world the dead bury the dead. their souls are dead? and both soul and body sentenced to eternal death? Almost all that we meet with, are malefactors, under sentence, ready to be carried to execution, the wrath of God hanging over their heads, and unquenchable fire kindled against them; & shall we be so besotted, as to love the dead more than the living? or the society of vile and miserable malefactors in a prison, rather than the fellowship of the glorious Princes of God, in their Palace of endless and matchless bliss? 6. Sixtly, why should we love the world that hateth us, and casts us off, as men dead out of mind? Are we not crucified to the world? Gala. 6. 14. and do not wicked men hate us, and envy us, and speak all manner of evil sayings of us, because we follow good? The World loves her own, but us it cannot love, because we are not of this world. Can darkness love light? or the sons of Belial oar for the sons of God? In this world we shall have trouble; and if we found not peace in Christ, we were of all men most miserable, joh. 15. 19 Ecclos. 4. 4. joh. 17. 14. 2. Cor. 6. 17. joh. 16. 33. And if they hate us for well-doing, how will they triumph if our foot do but slip? We should desire death, even to be delivered from the fear of giving occasion to the World to triumph, or blaspheme in respect of us. Yea, so extreme is the hatred of the World, that a just man may perish in his righteousness, when a wicked man prolongs his days in his wickedness, Eccl. 17. 16. and 8. 14. 7. Do we fall into any special misery in this world? Why, behold the tears of the oppressed, & there is none to comfort them. We are either not pitied, or not regarded: or the compassion of the world is like the morning dew, it is gone as a tale that is told, our misery will last, but there will soon be none to comfort us. Miserable comforters are the most that can be had in this world; and for this reason Solomon praised the dead, that are already dead, above the living, that are yet alive, Eccles. 4. 1, 2. 8. There is usually no Christian, but in this world he hath some special misery upon him, either poverty, or debt, or disease in his body, or the like, etc. 9 We daily suffer the loss of our friends, that were the companions of our life, and the causes of contentment to us. Now who would tarry behind them, or esteem of this world, when they are gone from us? And thus much of the apparent miseries of this world. CHAP. X. The vanities of the seeming felicities of the world. NOW it followeth, that I should entreat of the vanities, that cleave to the seeming felicities of the world: and prove, that there is no reason to be in love with life for any respect of them. The best things the world can make show of, What the seeming felicities of the world are. are Honours, Credit, Lands, Houses, Riches, Pleasures, Birth, Beauty, Friends, Wit, Children, Acquaintance, and the like. Now there be many things, which apparently prove, there can be no sound contentment, or felicity in these: For, 1. All things be full of labour, who can utter it? Fifteen Arguments to prove the vanity of the best worldly things. Ecclesiastic. 18. Men must gain the blessings of the earth with the swear of their brows; there is seldom any outward blessing, but it is attained with much difficulty, pains, or danger, or care, or grievance some way. 2. How small a portion in these things can the most men attain? If the whole world were possess said, it would not make a man happy; much less those small parcels of the world, which the most men can attain: Eccl. 1. 3. 3. It is manifest, men cannot agree about the chief good in these things. Life is therefore apparently vain in respect of these things, because there are almost infinite projects, and variety of opinions: And in all these successions of ages, no experience can make men agree to resolve: Which of these things have felicity in them? Who knows what is good for a man in this life, all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow, Eccle. 6. 12. 4. In all these things here is nothing new, but it hath been the same, or the like to it. Now things that are common, are out of request, Eccl. 1. 9 10. & 3. 15. 5. The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. If a man live many days, his soul is not filled with good; the desire after these things will vanish; men cannot love them still: Our life is spent in wishing for the future, and bewailing of the past; a loathing of what we have tasted; and a longing for that we have not tasted: which, were it had▪ would never more satisfy us, then that which we have had. Hence it is, that men weary themselves in seeking variety of earthly things, and yet cannot be contented. The vexation, that cleaves unto them still, breeds loathing; We are like men, that are Sea▪ sick, that shift from room to room, and from place to place, thinking to find ease; never considering, that so long as the same Seas swell, and Winds blow, and Humours are stirred, alteration of place will not profit: So it is with us; so long as we carry with us a nature so full of ill Humours, and that the pleasures of the world have so much vanity in them, no change of place, or delights can satisfy us: Seeing there are many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? Eccl. 6. 13. 6. How can these earthly things satisfy, when the nature of them is so vile and vain? They are but blasts; a very shadow, which is some thing in appearance, but offer to lay hold upon it, thou graspest nothing. Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain. He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver, Eccl. 〈◊〉. 9 Psal. 39 7. Besides: There is a The amity of the world, is the enmity with God. snare in all these earthly things, they are like pitch to defile a man; there is ever one temptation or other lodged under them: and the fruition of them, and desire after the, breeds many no isome lusts in the soul, 1. Tim. 6. 9 8. These outward things are also all uncertain, and transitory: Riches have wings, and will suddenly All subject to vanity or violence, Mat. 6. 19, 20. They may be lost at the very seat of judgement, Eccl. 3. 16, 18. & 4. 1, 2 fly away; and Fame is but a blast: and the glory of man is but as the flower of the field, which is to day, and to morrow withereth: The fashion of this world passeth away: And at the last day, they shall all be burnt and consumed in the fire: I mean these senseless things, we now set our hearts upon, Esay 40. 6. 1. Cor. 7. 31. 9 There is no support in these things; in the evil day they cannot help us, when the hour of temptation comes upon us. 10. A man may damn his own soul by too much liking of these things, the abuse of them may witness against men in the day of Christ: jam. 5. 1. & Philip. 3. 18. 11. In these things there is one condition to all; as it falleth to the wise man, so doth it to the fool, Eccl. 2. 14. 12. All things are subject to God's unavoidable disposing: Let man get what he can, yet God will have the disposing of it; and whatsoever God shall do, it shall abide: To it can no man add, and from it can no man diminish, Eccl. 3. 1. 13. A man may have all abundance of these things, and yet not have a heart to use them: Evil is so set in the hearts of the sons of men, and such madness cleaves unto them here, that they cannot take the contentment of the things they have; and so they be worse than an untimely fruit, Eccl. 6. 1, 7. & 9 3. 14. Every day hath his evil; and afflictions are so mingled with these outward things, that their taste is daily marred with bitterness, which is cast into them; no day without his grief: and usually the crosses of life are more, than the pleasures of living; so as they that rejoice, aught to be as though they rejoiced not. 15. Lastly, If all these considerations may not suffice, then remember, that thou art mortal; thy life is short, it passeth as a dream, it is but as a span long thy days are few and evil; all these things are ged with a necessity of dying: Life was given thee with a condition of dying, Gen. 47. 9 job. 14. 1. thy life passeth like the wind: job 7. 7. Yea, our days consume like smoke, Psalm. 102. 3. All flesh is grass, Esay 40. 6. And hence arise Our mortality aggravated by 4. considerations. many considerations deduced from this head of our mortality: For 1. All these things are but the necessaries of thy Inn: Thou art a stranger, and a pilgrim, and canst enjoy them, but as a passenger, thou canst carry nothing out of this world, but in all points, as thou cam'st into the world, so must thou go hence, Eccl. 5. 13, 14, 15. 2. The time, place, and manner of thy death is uncertain, there is no time nor place, but man may die in it; the Court, the Church, the Camp: yea the very womb is not excepted. There is but one way to come into the world, but there are a thousand ways to go out; and therefore the possession of all things is wonderful uncertain. 3. When thou diest, all will be forgotten, there is no more remembrance of former things, nor shall there be any remembrance of things which are to come, with those that shall come after, Eccl. 1. 11. That which was, in the days to come, shall be forgotten, 1. Chr. 2. 16. Yea, a man shall be forgotten in the City where he hath done right, Eccles. 8. 10. For this very reason, Solomon hated life, Eccles. 2. 17. 4. When thou diest, thou shalt die either without issue, or leave children behind thee. If thou die without issue, how hast thou been infatuated in seeking these outward things with so much care and toil, and couldst never say to thine own soul, For whom do I travel, & defraud myself of pleasure? Thou gatherest these things, and knowest not who shall enjoy them, Eccles. 4. 8. If thou die and leave issue, thou mayst be frighted and amazed with one of these things. For either thou mayst be despised while thou livest, of those for whom thou endurest sore travail, so as they that shall come after thee, do not rejoice in thee, Eccles. 4. 15, 16. Or else thou mayst leave the fruit of thy labours to a fool, or a wicked wretch. For who knoweth, whether he that shall rule over thy labours, shall be a wise man, or a fool? This very consideration made Solomon hate all his labour, which he had taken under the Sun; and he went about to make his heart despair of all his labours, that he should use all his wisdom and knowledge for attaining of great things, and yet might be in danger to leave all for a portion to him, that hath not laboured in wisdom: and all this is vexation of spirit, Eccles. a. 18. to 24. Or else, thou mayst beget children, & thy riches perish before thy death, & then there is nothing in thine hand to leave them, Eccles. 5. 14. CHAP. XI. The miseries of life in respect of ourselves. THus have we cause to be weary of life in respect of GOD, the evil Angels, and the World. Now, if there were none of these to molest us, yet man hath enough in himself to mar the liking of this present life. For 1 The remainders of corruption of nature still The causes in ourselves why we should not be in love with life. lie like a poison, a leprosy, a pestilence in thee, thou art under cure indeed, but thou art not sound from thy sore: thou art Lazarus still. This very consideration made Paul weary of his life, when he cried out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death! Rom. 7. And if in this respect we be not of Paul's mind, it is because we want of Paul's goodness & grace. And this corruption of nature is the more grievous, if we consider either the generality of the spreading the infection, or the incurablenes of it, or the ill effects of it. 1. For the first, this is a Leprosy that spreads all over. There is no sound part in us, our minds, our memories, our wills, and affections; yea, our very consciences are still impure within us, there is no good nature in us in any one faculty of our souls, but there is a miserable mixture of vile infection. 2. Secondly, this is the worse, because this is incurable. There lieth upon us a very necessity of sinning, we cannot but offend. Of the flesh it was well said, I can neither live with thee, nor without thee. The flesh is an inseparable ill companion of our lives, we can go no whether to avoid it, etc. Thirdly, if we consider but some of the effects of this corruption in us, as 1. The civil war it 4. Effects of corruption of nature in us. causeth in our souls, there is no business can be dispatched, that concerns our happiness, without a mutiny in our own hearts. The flesh is a domestical Rebel, that daily lusts against the Spirit, as the Spirit hath reason to lust against the flesh, Gal. 5. 17. 2. Secondly, the insufficiency it breeds in us for our callings. The greatest Apostle must in this respect cryout, Who is sufficient for these things? Though Gods work be all fair work, yet we see, that every man is extremely burdened with the defects, and mistake, and insufficiencies, which befall him in his course of life. 3. It works a perpetual madness in the heart of a man, in some respects worse than that of some lunatics: For they are mad at some times of the year, only, or chiefly; but man is seldom, or never free from this inward madness of heart. Solomon saith, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead. Now this madness appears in this, that men can never bring their hearts to a settled contentment in the things they enjoy, but Death comes upon them, before they know how to improve the joy of their hearts in the blessings they enjoy, whether Temporal or Spiritual. This vile corruption of nature diffuseth gall into all that a man possesseth; so as it marreth the taste of every thing. 4. It fills our hearts and lives with innumerable evils; it engenders, & breeds infinitely, swarms of evil thoughts, and desires, and abundance of sins in men's lives and conversations, so as godly David cries out; Innumerable evils have compassed me about, and I am not able to look up. They were more than the hairs of his head, therefore his heart failed him, Ps. 40. 12. 5. It is continually mad to betray us to Satan and the world, in all the occasions of our life. 6. It will play the Tyrant, if it get any head, and lead us 〈◊〉, and give wretched Laws to the members: yea, every sin, which is the brat bred of this corruption, is like a fury to fright and amaze us: there is a very race of deuis' br●● in us, when Satan and the Flesh engender together in us. 2. And as we are thus miserable in respect of the remainders of corruption, so are we in respect of the remainders of the punishment of sin upon our spirits: Our hearts were never fully free, since the first transgression, our minds are yet full of darkness; that even godly men do seriously cry out, They are but as beasts; they have not the understanding of men in them: And in many passages of life they carry themselves like beasts, Prou. 3. 3. Ps. 139. Eccl. 3. 18. The joys of God's presence are for the greatest part kept from us: our consciences are still but in a kind of prison: when they go to the seat of judgement to give sentence in any cause, they come forth with fetters upon their legs, as prisoners themselves; besides the many personal scourges light upon our souls in this life. 3. Lastly, the very condition of our bodies should not be over-pleasing to us: our deformities, and infirmities, and the danger of further diseases, should tyre us out, and make us account it no lovely thing to be present in the body, while we are absent from the LORD. And thus of the miseries of our lives also. Now it remains, that I should proceed to the second sort of contemplations, that is, those that are removals: namely such meditations, as take off the objections, which are in the hearts of men. CHAP. XII. Comforts against the Pain of death. THere are in the minds of all men certain Objections, which if they could be removed, this fear of Death would be stocked up by the very roots. I will instance in some of the chief of them; and set down the answers to them 1. Ob. Some men say they should not be afraid of death, considering the gain of it, & the happiness after death, but that they are afraid of the pain of dying: It is the difficulty of the passage troubles them. Sol. For answer hereunto divers things would be considered of, to show men the folly of this fear. First, thou lik'st not Ten reasons to show the folly of men in pretending the fear of the pain of death. death, because of the pain of it. Why, there is pain in the curing of a wound, yet men will endure it. And shall death do so great a cure, as to make thee whole of all thy wounds and diseases, and art thou so loath to come to the cure. Secondly, There is difficulty in getting into a Haven. Hadst thou rather be in the Tempest still, then put into the Haven? Thirdly, thou likest not Death, thou sayest, for the pain of it: Why then likest thou life, which puts thee to worse pain? Men object not at the pains of life, which they endure without death. There is almost no man, but he hath endured worse pains in life, than he can endure in death, and yet we are content to love life still: Yea, such is our folly, that whereas in some pains of life we call for death to come to our succours: yet when we are well again, we love life, and loath Death. Fourthly, we are manifestly mistaken concerning death: For the last gasp is not death. To live, is to die: For how much we live, so much we die; every step of life is a step of death. He that hath lived half his days, is dead the half of himself: Death gets first our infancy, than our youth, and so forwards: All that thou hast lived, is dead. Fifthly, it is further evident, that in death there is no pain; it is our life, that goeth out with pain: We deal herein, as if a man after sickness, should accuse his health of the last pains. What is it to be dead, but not to be in the world? and is it any pain to be out of the world? Were we in any pain before we were borne? Why then accuse we death, for the pains our life gives us at the parting? Is not sleep a resemblance of Death? Sixthly, if our coming into the world be with tears: Is it any wonder, if our going out be so too? Seventhly: Besides, it is evident that we make the passage more difficult, by bringing unto death a troubled and irresolute mind: It is long of ourselves there is terror in parting. Eighthly, Consider yet more, the Humours of the most men! Men will suffer infinite pains for a small living, or preferment here in this world: Yea, we see soldiers for a small price will put themselves into unspeakable dangers, and that many times at the pleasures of others that command them, without certain hope of advantage to themselves. Will men kill themselves for things of no value; and yet be afraid of a little pain to be endured, when such a glorious estate is immediately to be enjoyed in heaven? Ninthly, Let not men pretend the pains of death, that is but a fig leaf to cover their little faith: For they will languish of the Gout, or Stone, a long time, rather than die one sweet death with the easiest conditions possible. Tenthly, if none of these will persuade, yet attend, I will show thee a Mystery: Fear not the pains of death: For first, Death is terrible, when it is inflicted by the Law; but it is easy, when it is inflicted by the Gospel: The curse is taken off from thee, thou art not under the Law, but under Grace: And beside, for this cause did Christ die a terrible and a cursed death, that every death might be blessed to us. And further: God that hath greatly loved thee in life, will not neglect thee in death. Precious in the sight of the LORD, is the death of his Saints. What shall I say against the terror of death, but this Text of the Apostle? Thanks be to God that hath given us victory through jesus Christ. He hath pulled the sting out of death: O Death, where is thy sting? 1. Cor. 15. 55. Lastly, thou hast the Spirit of Christ in thee, which will succour and strengthen, and ease thee, and abide with thee all the time of the combat. Why should we doubt of it, but that the godly die more easily than the wicked? Neither may we guess at their pain, but the pangs upon the body: for the body may be in grievous pangs, when the man feels nothing, and the soul is at sweet ease in preparing itself to come immediately to the sight of God. CHAP. XIII. Comforts against the loss of the body in death. 2. Ob. OH! but in death a man is destroyed, he loseth his body, and it must be rotten in the earth. Sol. 1. It hath been showed before, that the separation of the soul from God, is properly death, but the separation of the soul from the body, is but the shadow of death, & we have no reason to be afraid of a shadow. 2. The body is not the man, the man remains still, though he be without the body. Abraham, Isaac, and jacab, are proved to be living still by our Saviour Christ, though their bodies were consumed in the earth, and GOD was their God still. It is true, Death seizeth on the body, but a Christian, at the most, suffers, but aliquid mortis, a little of death. Death is like a Serpent; the Serpent must eat dust: now death therefore can feed upon no more, but our dust, which is the body, it cannot touch the soul: whereas wicked men suffer the whole power of death, because it seizeth both upon body and soul too, and in their case only it is true, that death destroys a man. 3. Grant that we lose the body in death, yet that ought not to be terrible: for what the body is, it hath been before showed. It is but a prison to the soul, an old rotten house, or a ragged garment. It is but as the bark of a tree, or the shell, or such like; now what great loss can there be in any of these? 4. This separation is but for a time neither; we do not for ever lose the body, we shall have our bodies again, they are kept safe for us till the day of Christ. Our graves are Gods chests, & he makes a precious account of the bodies of his Saints, they shall be raised up again at the last day: GOD will give a charge to the earth to bring forth her dead, & make a true account to him, reve. 20. And God hath given us the assurance of this, not only in his Word by promising it, but in his Son, whom he hath raised from the dead. If any say, What is that to us, that Christ's body is raised? I answer, It is a full assurance of the safety, and of the resurrection of our bodies. For Christ is our head. Now cast a man into a River, though all the body be under water, yet the man is safe, if the head be above water. For the head will bring out all the body after it. So it is in the body of Christ, though all we sink in the river of death, yet our Head is risen, and is above water, and therefore the whole body is safe. 5. It should yet more satisfy us, if we thoroughly consider, that we shall have our bodies again much better than now they are. Those vile bodies we lay down in death, shall be restored again unto us glorious bodies, like the body of Christ now glorified, Phil. 3. 21. And therefore death loseth by taking away our bodies; we have a great victory over death. The graveis but a Furnace to refine them, they shall come out again immortal and incorruptible. CHAP. XIIII. The desire of long life confuted. 3. Ob. OH! but if I might live long, I would desire no more, if I might not die till I were fifty, or threescore years old, I should be contented to die then. Sol. There are many things may show the vanity & folly of men, in this desire of long life: For 1. If thou art willing to 9 Arguments to show the vanity of men, in desiring to live long. die at any time, why not now? Death will be the same to thee then, it is now. 2. Is any man angry & grieved when he is at sea in a tempest, because he shall be so quickly carried into the Haven? Is he displeased with the wind, that will soon set him safe in the harbour? If thou believe, that death will end all thy miseries, why art thou careful to defer the time? 3. Till thy debt be paid time will not ease thee, thy care will continue, and therefore thou wert as good pay at the first, if thou be sure it must be paid at all. 4. In this world there is neither young, nor old: When thou hast lived to that age thou desirest, thy time past will be as nothing. Thou wilt still expect that, which is to come, thou wilt be as ready to demand longer respite then, as now. 5. What wouldst thou tarry here so long for? There will be nothing new, but what thou hast tasted: and often drinking will not quench thy thirst, thou hast an incurable Dropsy in thy heart, and those earthly things have no ability to fill thy heart with good, or satisfy thee. 6. wouldst not thou judge him a Sot, that mourns because he was not alive a hundred years ago? And thou art no better: thou mournest, because thou canst not live a hundred years here. 7. Thou hast no power of the morrow, to make it happy to thee. If thou die young, thou art like one that hath lost a die, with which he might as well have lost, as won. 8. Consider the proportion of time thou desirest to thyself, reckon what will be spent in sleep, care, disgrace, sickness, trouble, weariness, emptiness, fear; and unto all this add sin: and then think, how small a portion is left of this time, & how small good it will do thee. What can that advantage thee with such mixtures of evil? It is certain, to live long, is but to be long troubled, and to die quickly, is quickly to be at rest. 9 Lastly, if there were nothing else to be said, yet this may suffice, that there is no comparison between time and eternity. What is that space of time to eternity? If thou love life, why dost thou not love eternal life? as was said before. CHAP. XV. Of them that would live to do good. 4. Ob. BUT I would live long to do good, and benefit others, and to do God service, & to benefit others by mine example. Sol. 1. Search thine Six reasons against their pretence that would live long to do good, as they say. own heart: it may be, this pretence of doing good to others, is pleaded only, because thou wouldst further thine own good: Thou wouldst not seek the public, but to find thine own particular. 2. God, that set you to do his work, knows, how long it is fit for thee to be at the same: he knows, how to make use of the labours of his workmen. He will not call thee from thy work, till he be provided to dispatch his business without thee. 3. It may be, if thou be long at thy work, thou wouldst mar all; thy last works would not be so good as thy first; it is best to give over, while thou dost well, etc. 4. If God will pay thee as much for half a day, as for the whole: art thou not so much the more to praise him? 5. It is true, that the best comfort of our life here, is in a religious conversation: but thy Religion is not hindered by going to heaven, but perfected: There is no comparison between thy goodness on earth, and that in heaven: For though thou mayst do much good here; yet it is certain, thou dost much evil here too. 6. Whereas thou persuadest thyself, that by example thou mayst mend others, thou art much mistaken: A thousand men may sooner catch the plague in an infected Town, than one be healed. It is but to tempt God to desire continuance● in this infectious world, longer than our time; for the best way is to get far from the contagion. If divers fresh waters fall into the Sea; what doth that to take away the saltness of the Sea? No more can two or three Lots reform a world of Sodomites. CHAP. XVI. Why men may not make away themselves, to be rid of the miseries of life. 5. Ob. BUT than it seems by this, that it were a man's best course to cast away life, seeing so much evil is in life, and so much good to be had in death. Sol. 1. I think the most of us may be trusted for that danger. For though the soul aspire to the good to come, yet the body tends unto the earth, & like a heavy clog weighs men downwards. 2. That is not the course, Against self murder. we must cast the world out of our hearts, not cast ourselves out of the world. It is both unseemly, and extremely unlawful. It is unseemly; for it is true, we ought willingly to depart out of this world, but it is monstrous base, like cowards to run away out of the battle▪ Thou art God's soldier, and appointed to thy standing, and it is a miserable shame to run out of thy place. When Christ, the great Captain sounds a retreat, then is it honourable for thee to give place. Besides, thou art God's tenant, and dost hold thy life as a Tenant at will: the Landlord may take it from thee, but thou canst not without disgrace surrender at thy pleasure; and it is extreme slothfulness to hate life, only for the toils that are in it. 2. And as it is unseemly, so it is unlawful, yea damnable. It is unlawful: for the soldier that runs away from his Captain, offends highly: so doth the Christian that makes away himself: and therefore, the commandment is not only, Thou shalt not kill other men, but generally, Thou shalt not kill, meaning, neither thyself, nor other men. Besides, we have no example in Scripture of any that did so, but such as were notorious wicked men, as Saul, Achitophel, judas, and the like. Yea, it is damnable: for he that leaveth his work before God calls him, loseth it, & beside, incurs eternal death. As the soldier that runneth away, dieth for it when he is taken: so the Christian that murdereth himself, perisheth; I say, that murdereth himself, being himself. CHAP. XVII. Why we should not be troubled to part with our friends. 6. Ob. MIght some other say, I could more willingly die, but me thinks it is grievous unto me to part with friends, & acquaintance, I cannot willingly go from my kindred, and my familiars, life is sweet in respect of their presence, and love, and society. Sol. It is true, that unto some minds this is the greatest contentment of life of any thing, but yet many things must be considered: For First, amongst a hundred men, scarce one can 6. Reasons about parting with our friends in death. by good reason plead that, I mean, cannot say, that he hath so much as one sound friend in the whole world, worthy to be reckoned, as the stay of his life. 2. Those, that can plead felicity in their friends; yet what is it? one pleasing dream hath more in it, than a month's contentment which can be reaped from thy friends. Alas! it is not the thousand part of thy life, which is satisfied with delight from them. 3. Thou seest thy friends drop away from thee from day to day; for either they die, or they are so far removed from thee, that they are as it were dead to thee; & sith they are gone, who would not long to go after them? 4. The friends that are left, are not sure to thee: men are mutable, as well as mortal; they may turn to be thy foes, that now are dearest unto thee: or if they fall not into terms of flat enmity, they may grow full, and weary of thee, and so, careless of thee. 5. If none of these would satisfy thee, yet what are thy friends on earth, to thy friends thou shalt find in heaven? This is an answer beyond all exception. 6. Lastly, by death thou dost not lose thy friends neither, for thou shalt find them, and enjoy them in another world to all eternity; and therefore thou hast no reason for thy friend's sake to be loath to die. 7. Ob. But might some one say, All my grief is to part with my wife & children, and to leave them, especially in an unsettled estate. Sol. 1. Hast thou forgotten the consolation that saith, God will be a father to the fatherless, and a judge, and a Protector of the widows cause? He will relieve both the fatherless and the widow, as many Scriptures do assure us, Psal. 146. 9 & 68 6. Prou. 15. 25. 2. Thou leavest them but for a time; God will restore them to thee again in a better world. 3. Thou 'gainst the presence of God, and his eternal conjunction, who will be more to thee, than many thousand wives, or children could be. He can be hurt by the loss of no company, that findeth God in heaven. CHAP. XVIII. Why we should not be sorry to leave the pleasures of life. 8. Ob. BUT might some other say, My heart is sorely vexed, because in death I must part with the pleasures of life. Sol. There are many things might quiet men's minds in respect of this objection: For thy pleasures are either sinful pleasures, Five Arguments against the pleasures of life. or lawful pleasures: If they be sinful, thou showest thy hatred of God by loving them, and heapest up wrath upon thine own soul, by living in them. But say, thy pleasures be lawful in themselves: yet consider, 1. That the pains of thy life are, and will be greater both for number and continuance, than thy pleasures can be: No pleasure at once, ever lasted so long, as the fit of an Ague. 2. Thou forgettest, what end they may have: For thy pleasures may go out with gall. For either shame, or loss, or evil sickness may fall upon thee: or if not, yet thine own heart will loathe them; as they are vanity, so they will prove vexation of spirit: Thou wilt be extremely tired with them. 3. Thou art far from giving thy life for Christ, that wilt not forego the superfluity of life for him. 4. That in thy delights thou showest the greatest weakness, so as thou mayst say of Laughter, Thou art mad, Eccl. 2. 2. 5. That death doth not spoil thee of pleasures: For it bringeth thee to the pleasures, that are at God's right hand for evermore, Psal. 16. ult. CHAP. XIX. Why we should not be loath to leave the honours of the world. 9 Ob. IF any other object, the lothnes to leave his honours, or high place in the world: I may answer divers things. Sol. 1. Why shouldest thou be so in love with the honours of this world, if thou but consider how small thy preferment is, or can be? The whole earth Five observations about the honours of this world. is, but as the full point or centre, in comparison with the circumference of the whole world beside. Now in true judgement, it is almost impossible to discern, how a man should rise higher in a Centre. If thou hadst all the earth, thou wert no more exalted, then to the possession of a full point: a little spot in comparison, and therefore how extremely vain is thy nature, to be affected with the possession of less, than the thousand thousand part of a little spot or point? 2. Consider seriously the thraldom, which thy preferment brings thee unto: Thou canst not live free, but still thou art fettered with the cares, and fears, and griefs, that attend thy greatness. There is little difference between thee and a prisoner; save that the prisoner hath his fetters of iron, and thine are of gold; and that his fetters bind his body, and thine thy mind: He wears his fetters on his legs, and thou thine on thine head; and in this thou art one way less contented, than some prisoners: for they can sing for joy of heart, when thou art dejected with the cares and griefs of thy mind. If thou hast a Crown, it were but a Crown of thorns, in respect of the cares it would put thee to, etc. 3. Say thou shouldest get never so high, thou canst not protect thyself from the miseries of thy condition, nor preserve thyself in any certainty from the loss of all thou enjoyest. If thou wert as high as the top of the Alps, thou canst not get such a place, but the clouds, winds, storms, & terrible lightnings may find thee out, so as thou wouldst account the lower ground to be the safer place. Thou standest as a man on the top of a pinnacle, thou canst not know, how soon thou mayst tumble down, and that fearfully. 4. If thou shouldst be sure to enjoy thy greatness of place in the world: yet thou art not sure to preserve thine honour: For either it may be blemished with unjust aspersions, or else some fault of thy own may mar all thy praises: For as a dead fly may mat a whole box of ointment: so may one sin, thy glory, Eccl. 10. 1. 5. Thou losest not honour by dying: for there are Crowns of glory in heaven, such as shall never wither, nor be corrupted; such as can never be held with care, or envy, nor lost with infamy. CHAP. XX. Why it should not trouble us to part with riches. 10. Ob. IF thou be infected with the love of riches, and that thou art loath to die, because thou wouldst not be taken from thy estate, and outward possessions; then attend unto these considerations. Sol. 1. Thou camest naked into the world; and Seven more ●ue to leave the love of riches. why should it grieve thee to go naked out of the world? 2. Thou art but a steward of what thou possessest: and therefore why should it grieve thee to leave, what thou hast employed, to the disposing of thy master? 3. Thou hast tried by experience, and found hitherto, that contentment of heart is not found, or had by abundance of outward things. If thou hadst all the Pearls of the East, and wert Master of all the Mines of the West, yet will not thy heart be filled with good: by heaping up of riches, thou dost but heap up unquietness. 4. Riches have wings, thou mayst live to lose all by fire, or water, or thieves, or suretyship, or injustice, or unthrifty children, or the like. 5. They are riches of iniquity. There is a snare in riches, and nets in possessions, thy gold and silver is limed, or poisoned. It is wonderful hard, and in respect of men, impossible for thee to be a rich man, but thou wilt be a sinful man, especially if thy heart be grown to love money, and to haste to be rich. 6. Thou must leave them once, and therefore why not now? Thou canst not enjoy them ever, & therefore why shouldest thou trouble thy heart about them? 7. By death thou makest exchange of them for better riches, & shalt be possessed of a more enduring substance. Thou shalt enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ, thou canst never be fully rich, till thou get to heaven. 11. Ob. Might some one say, I should not fear death, were it not, that I know not, what kind of death I shall die: I may die suddenly, or by the hands of the violent, or without the presence, or assistance of my friends, or the like. Sol. Sith we must die, it is the less matter what kind of death we die; we should not so much look how we die, as whither we shall go when we are dead. 2. Christ died a cursed death, that so every death might be blessed to us. For he that lives holily, cannot die miserably. He is blessed that dieth in the Lord, what kind of death soever it be. CHAP. XXI. Showing the cure of this fear of death by practice. HItherto of the way of curing this fear of death by meditation. It remains now, that I proceed to show how the cure is to be finished, and perfected 7. Things that cure the fear of death in practice. by practice. For there are diverse things to be heeded by us in our daily conversation, which serve exceedingly for the extinguishing of this fear, without which the cure will hardly ever be sound wrought for continuance. 1. The first thing we must frame our lives to for this purpose, is the contempt of the world: we must strive earnestly with our own hearts, to forego the love of worldly things. It is an easy thing to be willing to die, when our hearts are cleansed of the love of this world. We must leave the world, before the world leave us, and learn that lesson heartily, To use the world, as if we used it not. Neither ought this to seem too hard a precept. For they that strive for mastery, abstain from all things, when it is but to obtain a corruptible crown: how much more should we be willing to deny the delights of this world, and strive with our natures herein, seeing it is to obtain an incorruptible crown? 1. Cor. 9 24. We must learn of Moses, who brought himself to it willingly, to forsake the pleasures of Egypt, and to choose rather to suffer affliction with God's people, then to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, Heb. 11. 26. And to this end we should first restrain all needless cares, & business of this world, and study so to be quiet, as to meddle with our own business, & to abridge them into as narrow a scantling, as our callings will permit. Secondly, we should avoid, as much as may be, the society with the favourites and minions of the world, I mean such persons, as admire nothing but worldly things, and know no other happiness than in this life: That speak only of this world, and commend nothing, but what tends to the praise of worldly things, and so to the enticing of our hearts after the world. And withal, we should sort ourselves with such Christians, as practise this contempt of the world as well as praise it, and can by their discourse, make us more in love with heaven. 3. Thirdly, we should daily observe, to what things in the world our hearts most run, and strive with GOD by prayer, to get down the too much liking, and desire after these things. 4. Fourthly, we should daily be pondering on these meditations, that show us the vanity of the world, and the vileness of the things thereof. Thus of the first medicine. 2. Secondly, we must in our practice, sound mortify our beloved sins: our sins must die, before we die, or else it will not be well with us. The sting of death is sin, and when we have pulled out the sting, we need not fear to entertain the Serpent into our bosom. It is the love of some sin, & delight in it, that makes a man afraid to die, or it is the remembrance of some foul evil past, which accuseth the hearts of men: and therefore men must make sure their repentance, and judge themselves for their sins, and then they need not fear Gods condemning of them. If any ask me, how they may know when they have attained to this rule, I answer, When they have so long confessed their sins in secret to God, that now they can truly say, there is no sin they know by themselves, but they are as desirous to have GOD give them strength to leave it, as they would have God to show them grace to forgive it. He hath sound repent of all sin, that desires from his heart to live in no sin. And unto this rule I must add the care of an upright & unrebukable conversation. It is a marvelous encouragement to die with peace, when a man can live without offence, and can justly plead his integrity of conversation, as Samuel did, 1. Sam. 12. 3. and Paul, Act. 26. 26, 27. and 2. Cor. 1. 12. 3. Thirdly, assurance is an admirable medicine to kill this fear; & to speak distinctly, we should get the assurance first of God's favour, and our own calling and election. For hereby an entrance will be ministered into the heavenvly kingdom, and therefore have I handled this doctrine of the Christians assurance, before I meddled with this point of the fear of death. Simeon can die willingly, when his eyes have seen his salvation. Fear of death is always joined with a weak faith, and the full assurance of faith, doth marvelously establish the heart against these fears, and breeds a certain desire of the coming of Christ. Paul can be confident when he is able to say, I know whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him, 2. Tim. 1. 12. Besides, we should labour to get a particular knowledge and assurance of our happiness in death, and of our salvation. We should study to this end, the Arguments that shows our felicity in death: And to this purpose it is of excellent use to receive the Sacraments often: For Christ by his Will bequeathed Heaven to us, joh. 17. and by the death of the Testator this Will is of force, and is further daily sealed unto us, as internally by the Spirit, so externally by the Sacraments. Now if we get our Charter sealed and confirmed to us, how can we be afraid of the time of possession? He is fearless of death, that can say with the Apostle; Whether I live or die, I am the Lords, Rom. 14. 8. 4. That charge given to Hezekiah, concerning the setting of his house in order, Esay 38. is of singular use for this Cure: Men should with sound advice settle their outward estates, and dispose of their worldly affairs, and according to their means provide for their wife, and children. A great part of the fear and trouble of men's hearts is over., when their Wills are discreetly made: but men are loath to die, so long as their outward estates are unsettled, and undisposed. It is a most preposterous course for men to leave the making of their Wills to their sickness; For besides their disabilities of memories or understanding, which may befall them, the trouble of it breeds unrest to their minds, and beside, they live all the time in neglect of their duty of preparation for death. 5. We may much help ourselves by making us friends with the riches of iniquity: we should learn that of the unjust Steward, as our Saviour Christ showeth, since we shall be put out of the Stewardship, we should so dispose of them while we have them, that when we die, they may receive us into everlasting habitations, Luke 16. An unprofitable life is attended with a servile fear of death. 6. It would master this fear, but to force ourselves to a frequent meditation of death: To learn to die daily, will lessen, yea, remove the fear of dying: Oh this remembering of our latter end, and learning to number our days is an admirable rule of practices: It is the forgetfulness of death, that makes life sinful, & death terrible, Deut. 32. 19 Psal. 90. 12. Lam. 1. 9 And we should begin this exercise of meditation betimes; Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, Eccl. 12. 1. This is that is called for, when our Saviour Christ requires us, and all men, so to watch: and herein lay the praise of the five wise Virgins, Math. 25. 3. Thus job will wait, till the time of his change come, job 10. 14. And of purpose hath the Lord left the last day uncertain, that we might every day prepare. It were an admirable method, if we could make every day a life to begin and end, as the day begins, and ends. 7. Lastly, because yet we may find this fear cumbersome, and our natures extremely deceitful: there is one thing left, which can never fail to prevail as far as is fit for us; and that is hearty prayer to God for this very thing. Thus David prays, Psal. 39 4. and Moses, Psal. 90. 12. and Simeon, Luk. 2. 32. And in as much as Christ died for this end, to deliver us from this fear, we may sue out the privilege, and by prayer strive with God to get it framed in us: It is a suit God will not deny them, that ask in the name of Christ, because it is a thing that Christ especially aimed at in his own death. To conclude then: we have proved, that it is possible to be had, and most uncomely to want it; and likewise the way hath been showed, how both by meditation & practice, this Cure may be effected: If then it be not wrought in any of us; we may here find out the cause in ourselves: For if we would hereby be sound advised and ruled, we might attain to it all the days of our life, to sing with the Saints that triumphant song, mentioned both in the Old and New Testament: Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh hell, where is thy victory? Death is swallowed up into victory: so as we are now the conquerors through him that loved us, and gave himself to death for us: even jesus Christ the righteous: To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost be all praise in the Churches, throughout all ages for ever. Amen. FINIS.