Harvest-Home: BEING The Sum of certain SERMONS upon Job 5.26.  

One whereof was Preached at the Funeral of Mr. 〈◊〉 Musson, an Aged godly Minister of the Gospel in the Royally Licenced rooms in Coventry; the other since continued upon the Subject, by J. B. D. D. Late Pastor of the Holy Trinity in that Ancient and Honourable City.  
The first part being a preparation of the Corn for the Sickle.  
The Latter will be the reaping, shocking and inning of that Corn which is so fitted.   
LONDON, Printed for the Author, 1674.   

The Preface.  
THis small Treatise concerning the happy and heavenly end of an holy life, the Author hath presumed to send to some of his noble and most worthy friends; as an Earnest and Token of his hearty thankfulness for sundry expressions of their bounty, in his now declining Age; humbly desiring of them to receive it as such; and of Almighty God, that they who have thus ministered to one of the Labourers of his harvest, may be (by this or other means) found wheat, meet to be laid up in the Garner of him, who is the great Husbandman, which will be the great rejoicing of him who is their bounden servant, and daily Orator at the throne of Grace  
J. B.   
job 5.26. Thou shalt come to thy Grave in a full; age like as a shock of Corn cometh in, in his season. 

SECT. I. The certainty and necessity of Death to all, the privileges of the godly; both in every State of life; and in death itself.  

THis Text presents to every heedful eye  
The unavoidable necessity  
Of dying naturally, or violently;  
There is not one   

That lives on Earth, but shall ere long be brought  
Unto the Grave: yet they may sing, that sought  
To God in truth; and righteousness have wrought:  
To God alone   

Committed have their cause; Ver. 17 resigning  
Themselves into his hands; not once repining  
At the Almighty's Chastning; nor declining,  
When God doth call:   

At least Endeavour with their utmost might,  
To seek, commit, submit, as in his sight  
Walking continually, with hearts upright:  
These surely shall   

Find, Ver 18 when God maketh sore, He bindeth up;  
Into their hands gives an all-healing Cup;  
And when he others wounds, they Dine, and Sup  
With bodies whole.   

In six, Ver. 19 and seven troubles he delivers;  
Each evil in those troubles breaks to shivers;  
At shapes whereof each ill man quakes and quivers:  
Also the Soul   

Of every godly man untouched stands;  
Free from the force of Body-killing bands;  
Their persons also scape their Enemy's hands;  
And they are hid   

By powerful providence from the scourge of tongue; Ver. 20  
Nor shall they fear destruction coming strong  
Upon them; but thereof, ere it be long  
Be fairly rid.   

At famine and destruction they shall smile; Ver 22 Ver. 23  
Yea laugh at both; for God shall reconcile  
Both beasts, and stones, within a little while,  
Friendly to them.   

Though for a while some Creatures may annoy  
And trouble them, yet shall they not destroy;  
Nor, when their forces all they do employ,  
Ever undo them.   

Ver. 24 And they shall know their Tabernacle shall  
Be in sweet peace; their habitation small  
Capacious enough to hold them all,  
And theirs, shall be;   

When they it visit; Ver. 25 nor shall they offend  
Sinningly: likewise shall their seed ascend  
To greatness; and as Spires of Grass, at end:  
Their Eyes shall see   

It spring, and flourish: the Posterity  
Of pious Parents have this honour high,  
They're under influences heavenly,  
Lastly, when fate   

Knocks at their door, they hearty are willing  
To open to it, Sith it is not killing;  
But opens to them Promises fulfilling;  
The glorious Gate   

That lets them into lasting happiness:  
They therefore hear Deaths call with joyfulness:  
Embrace him in their Arms with cheerfulness:  
they sigh, and groan   

To die, and be with God and Christ, at rest:  
From Sinful passions, which they much detest:  
From Travels, Troubles, wherewith sore oppressed  
They sadly moan:   

They come unto their Graves, Ver. 26 even as it were  
Upon their own Feet, without any fear  
Going into them; and while they are here,  
In life abiding,   

They shall have health, & strength, and wealth at will;  
And multitude of years their Age shall fill:  
A Comely burial also; nothing ill  
At all betiding.   

O Then, who would not be a godly man!  
When such a Troop of good does all it can,  
To make him happy! Let us further Scan  
His thriving Bliss:   

He shall ascend, come in, as doth a shock  
Of Corn into the Barn; there shall no Block  
Be laid to hinder his free pace; no Lock,  
No Bar there is   

To stop his passage thither; when the time  
That he must die is come, the bells shall Chime;  
Church-bells above the Stars, thus calling him,  
Come, come up hither.   

Angels, and blessed Saints crying aloud;  
Make haste to us, and leave the sinful crowd,  
That wraps poor Wights on earth, as in a ,  
Shut up together.   

An entrance in among the heavenly Choir  
Shall patent be, according to desire:  
And there with Love as hot as any Fire,  
His panting Heart   

Shall filled be; his tongue shall also sing  
The praises of his tenderhearted King;  
Who died that he might live: each one shall bring  
His several part;   

Joining together, Hallelujahs sound,  
To all eternity: and there sins round,  
Coursing it in a ring, shall not be found:  
Complete perfection   

Of holiness, and happiness, possessed  
By all alike, from greatest to the least:  
Both souls and bodies ever fed with blessed,  
And sweet refection:   

These Lessons two, thus taught i'th' Text;  
The certainty of death, and next,  
The promises of good to such,  
As pious are, we'll briefly touch.    

SECT. II. The certainty of Death proved by the joint Suffrages of Heathens, Testimony of Scripture, and Concurrence of Natural Causes: the time, place, means, and other circumstances of it unknown to us, are known only to God: And we are exhorted thereupon, not to search after the knowledge of them.  

ANd first that every Mother's Child must die; 
Serius aut citius metam properamus ad unam.   
Hear Heathens first, speaking thus seriously:  
We all do tend one way; and soon or late, 
Lanificas nulli tres exorare puellas Contigit—   
We clasp our Earth in Life's expired date.  
Th'impartial Fates, whom all mankind are under,  
With keenest Scissors snip life's thread asunder.  
Death's tract we all must tread; our lives fair light  
Must be obscured, and set in Death's dark night.  
Both crowned Kings, 
Non Ducis imperium non regia mitra.  and mitred Popes must yield  
To Death's subjecting Rod, and quit the Field. 
Corona Pontificis snmmi etc.   
Pale Death stands knocking at the lofty Towers  
Of Kings, as well as Beggar's Huts, all hours. 
Pallida mors equo pede pulsat pauperum Tabernas, Regumque Turres.   
With equal foot, this debt we all must pay  
Heathens thus heard; what sacred Scriptures say,   

Let us hear next: 
Psal. 89 48. 2 Sam. 14 14, Rom. 2.12.14.17. Eccl. 9.5. Job 30 23. Jos. 23.14. 1 Kings 2.2. Job 24.20.  What man is he that liveth  
And shall not feel the strokes death daily giveth?  
We must needs die, and be as water spilt  
Upon the ground; involved in Adam's guilt.  
That they shall die, the living know full well;  
The Grave's the house where all ere long must dwell,  
This is the way of all the earth, Decreed  
It is by God, the Worms on all shall feed.   

Natural Causes may be given, why  
All bodies perish necessarily;  
The elements striving daily to Supplant;  
Some one in time will be predominant:  
Next the first matter, burning with desire  
Of new forms, longs th' old subject may expire;  
And fresh succeed. Thirdly the Radical  
Moisture consuming still, threatens a fall;   

After it's passed the height of augmentation;  
And wasted, needs must follow dissipation.  
Fourthly the Blood, as it grows old grows thick,  
By slow degrees, and so corrupteth quick.  
The Spirits also, natural in the veins;  
And vital in the Arteries (by means  
Whereof the life's maintained) and animal  
In nerves (whereby Sensations made) these all  
By use and labour waste: These causes cry,  
All humane bodies must consume and die: 
2 Cor. 4.7. Eccl. 9 2. Heb. 13.2.   
Testaceous Vessels; and obnoxious  
To casualties, that are most various.   

Two ranks of men there are; some good, some bad:  
Death's Cannon plays against them both: 'tis sad  
To think why these must die; that they may go  
To their own place, 
Acts 1.25.  to live in endless woe;  
Death is to them an entrance into Hell:  
Not so to those who study to do well:  
Yet they must die; that being freed from sin,  
And death, by death; they may have entrance in  
To heavenly mansions; and be ever there,  
With God and Christ, loving without all fear;  
Receiving their reward of God's free grace;  
With joy beholding his most glorious Face.   

The point is proved; the reasons rendered, why  
All, as well good, as bad must doubtless die.  
The circumstances where, and when, and how,  
Are only known to God; and we must bow  
To his good pleasure. First for time, it is  
Determined by a Decree of His;  
The critical, and punctual time; Before  
Which, none shall part with life, on any score;  
Beyond it shall not live a moment. Whether  
The term of life be fixed, or altogether  
Movable; Job hath stated: some i'th' womb,  
After a short, dark life do find a Tomb:  
(A thousand Sculls found in one Nunnery)  
Some born alive, die in their infancy  
In Childhood, Youth, and Man-age, very many:  
The rest filled with years. Death spares not any.  
The Poem styled Mortification,  
Transcribed, may prove edification.   

How soon doth man decay!  
When  are taken from a Chest of sweets  
To swaddle Infants, whose young breath  
Scarce knows the way;  
Those Clouts are little winding sheets;  
Which do consign and send them unto Death.   

When Boys go first to bed,  
They step into their voluntary Graves;  
Sleep holds them fast; only their breath  
Makes them not dead;  
Successive nights like rolling Waves  
Convey them quickly, who are bound for death.   

When youth is frank and free,  
And calls for Music, while his veins do swell;  
All day exchanging mirth and breath  
In Company;  
That Music summons to the Knell,  
Which shall befriend him at the hour of Death.   

When man grows stayed, and Wise;  
Getting a house and home, where he may move  
Within the Circle of his Breath;  
Schooling his Eyes;  
That dumb enclosure maketh love  
Unto the Coffin, that attends his death.   

When age grows low, and weak,  
Marking his Grave, and thawing every Year;  
Till all do melt, and drown his Breath;  
When he would speak;  
A Chair, or Litter shows the Bier,  
Which shall convey him to the house of Death.   

Man ere he is ware,  
Hath put together a Solemnity;  
And dressed his Hearse while he hath breath  
As yet to spare;  
Yet Lord instruct us so to die,  
That all these die may be life in Death.   

We all are full of holes, and take in Water  
At many breaches; made of brittle matter;  
At any time may be deprived of breath;  
We know not when: God knows our hour of death.   

And as the Time; the Place is known alone  
To God; scarce any of us, but can own  
The place where first we took our breath; but where  
We shall breathe last, this doth to none appear,  
But him, whose breath gave us both life and shape.  
The place assigned by him; none can escape  
That strives to shuned: Th'infant's of Bethlehem  
Crying in Cradles, Soldier's murder them.  
Eglon is killed in's Parlour. In the field  
King Saul is slain. His temple would not shield  
Sennach'rib from dying in't. Ishbosheth  
Upon his bed bereft is of breath.  
Joab at th' very Altar. As the place  
Uncertain is, where we shall end our Race;  
So is the manner how: A thousand ways  
There are, whereby men terminate their days  
By sicknesses most ordinarily;  
Of other ways there is infinity.  
The Children of Jerusalem do die  
By famine: Sodoms by Saturity:  
Some dye by Bears; 
2 Kin. 2.23, 24.  so Children that did jeer  
The new seen baldness of the Zealous Seer.  
And some by Lions; so that Prophet died, 
1 King. 13.24.   
Who did obey, not God, but him that lied.  
Herod by worms gave up the Ghost. 
Acts 12.23 Job. 1.18, 19  Jobs Sons  
And Daughters had their dissolutions,  
In midst of feasting, by the sudden fall  
Of that House, where they fed together all.  
Corah, 
Numb. 16.31, 32, 33.  and his Complices Swallowed were,  
By th' earth that opened (so they paid dear  
For their rebellion.) By a broken Stone  
Cast from a Tower, 
Judg. 9 53. 2 King. 16 18.  Abimelech is gone.  
Two Captains and their fifties were by Fire  
(Called for and sent from heaven) forced t'expire.  
Zimri was burnt in his own Palace, 
1 King. 16.18.  by  
A Fire himself did kindle wittingly.  
Some dye by Dogs, Euripides did so.  
Some by a Fly; a seeming silly foe:  
So did a Pope of Rome. A Counsellor  
Of the same City, strangled with an Hair.  
Tullus Hostillius was with lightning struck.  
Homer, because he at a riddle stuck,  
Proposed by Fishermen, died with grief:  
And Sophocles with joy, being judged chief  
By one voice only in a prize of learning:  
Wherein he showed a judgement best discerning  
A Raisin stone did stop Anacreon's breath.  
Thus numberless have been the ways of death.  
O by how small a thread does our Life hang!  
When such small things can give a deadly pang!  
In what shape death unto him will appear,  
No man can tell: these are to none made clear:  
Time, place, and manner of men's dying known  
Are unto God; and unto him alone.  
These being secrets, hid i'th' breast of God  
Let us not search them; but while our abode  
Is here below; and while we move within  
The circle of our breath, let us begin  
To school our eyes, and minds, at length, and try  
What use to make of death's necessity.    

SECT. III. An Enquiry why men decline fitting themselves for that Death, that is thus certain: Three Reasons of it assigned: directions how to overthrow any force that is in them: an Exhortation to die daily, and the way of its performance discovered: good men have no reason to fear death; and why.  

BUt first a question must be answered; why  
Men every where are found so brutishly  
Sottish, and stupidly irrational;  
That few do fit themselves against their fall.   

The reasons are; first they immersed are  
In businesses, and pleasures of this life;  
To manage, compass these is all their care;  
In this they strive, and dearly love the strife;  
These earthly things take up their thoughts; expel  
All serious minding either of Heaven, or Hell.   

As Aunts are toiling busily together,  
From morning until night, with strength so steady,  
To get provision in, in smiling weather;  
Regarding not at all the foot, that's ready  
To crush them; so do people generally;  
Considering not at all that they must die.   

A second reason is, Men look on Death,  
As far off; most presuming that they may  
Retain, till they be very old, their breath; 
Ver. 17.   
And that its time enough when their last day  
Is near approaching, to begin to live  
A life of Godliness; that God will give  
Them when they will, grace to believe, repent:  
They think it folly to forbear delights  
Of life, which is best spent in merriment;  
Eat, drink, sport, sleep; they will put away frights  
Of future judgement; these thoughts putting by;  
That th'only thing worth livings well to die;   

To learn how to the world to die; and then  
How to die out of it: and that the vast  
Concern of the eternal state of men  
Requires their freshest spirits, strength, and haste:  
They should think thus that not a dying sigh●  
Will waft them over to those joys on high:   

Bedrid devotion; Chimney prayers, the Name  
Of God brought forth in a Phlegmatic cough;  
And Lord have mercy on me, will be lame;  
Sickness-repentance will not be enough:  
Though likely signs of truth of grace begin  
To show themselves then, they will be too thin:   

Too weak to work scarcely a charity,  
In them that do survive: for if they die  
True Penitents, as any seemingly,  
Turning from vice to virtue, probably;  
Leave them to God (saith Austin) who can tell  
Whither they're gone? 
Non dien damnabitur, nec dico Salvabitua.  whether to heaven or hell?   

Another reason of this  folly  
In most men putting off the thoughts of death;  
(Which makes them that they care not to be holy,  
Continue fruitless, as a Barren heath)  
It is the terror and the dread, that such  
Thoughts bring with them; frighting them overmuch:   

Death called is the King of terrors, which  
Is tended with a thousand fantasies;  
And Ghastly apparitions; when these pitch  
Their tents about men's souls, they shut their eyes,  
Dare not behold them; labour to expel,  
Will not permit such guests in them to dwell.   

The certain hope fullest assurance, both,  
Of heaven, is scarce sufficient to disarm  
Death of its terrors: Paul himself was loath  
To be unclothed, though he knew no harm  
Can come to him thereby, though he had been  
Rapt up, and things unutterable had seen,   

And knew assuredly that he should go  
To God, when he departed hence, 'tis hard  
To death to reconcile men; though they know  
As much as Paul did: yet their minds are scared,  
From serious thoughts of Death, how to resist  
These reasons, upon means we'll next insist.   

First, sigh we must, ere it belong  
Leave all these earthly things, wealth, honour, pleasures;  
Let us not have affections strong  
Unto them longer, make them not our treasures:  
Nor let us marry  
To that which will not tarry:   

To dying comforts, living Souls  
That cannot die; much less say each to other,  
Let us eat flesh, drink wine in Bowls,  
For we shall die to morrow: rather smother  
Such carnal motions,  
That smother true devotions.   

Let us be merry while we may,  
We never shall be younger: many such  
Are heard thus speaking, every day,  
In these our days; whose consciences no touch  
Of grace have felt,  
But into pleasures melt.   

All earthly comforts let us view,  
As they in truth are, Casks of happiness,  
Fugitive fancies, Errors hue,  
Embroidered lies, but gilded emptiness,  
And sugared Gall:  
Such poisons they are all.   

So upon riches, honours let  
Us look, and we shall find them nothing better.  
Unto our time a period's set,  
Which is but short (so saith the holy Letter)  
Let us therefore  
Be fooled by these no more. 
1 Cor. 7.29.30, 31.    

But use the world as not abusing  
It; any thing therein, though lawful; seeing  
The best thereof we judge worth choosing,  
At best is but a Scheme, a thing sans being;  
Which every day,  
Is posting fast away.   

Considering especially,  
The greatest Weight on smallest wire hangs:  
Upon time's point Eternity:  
O ponder what insufferable pangs  
Man's Conscience  
Will have for this offence!   

For a small moment of delight,  
To venture his souls everlasting state  
One would think this thought should affright  
From tampering with sin at any rate:  
Now let us turn,  
Else we shall ever burn.   

This is the first means to expel  
Those cursed reasons. Next let us not look  
On death as far off, knowing well  
What we find written in Gods holy Book,  
What? namely this,  
Our life a vapour is.   

The vanishing of which may be  
This day, before to morrow; 
Jam. 4.14.  this hour before  
The next: we are not sure to see  
Another day, or hour: we should therefore  
Make every day,  
(In a Religious way)   

Our last, our dying day, how this  
Is to be done, give Ear attentively:  
Because the danger if we miss  
Is very great; Dying eternally  
Will as our due,  
Most probably ensue.   

First break off Sin, and turn to God  
As seriously this present day, as if  
We should no longer make abode;  
Never another see: with godly grief,  
Bewailing sins;  
Leaving them favour wins.   

And when at any time, we are  
Tempted to any sin; then sadly think  
Soberly, saying, shall I dare  
To swear, to curse, to lie, to whore, to drink,  
Excessively?  
If I were sure to die   

This very day, the hour wherein  
I spoke or acted any of these Crimes?  
I would not so be found to sin;  
But rather choose to die a thousand times:  
Because to die  
So sinning certainly.   

Is to die damned: next embrace  
Occasions all offered of doing Good:  
Kiss opportunities fair face;  
Lay hold upon times forelock; giving food;  
When any need,  
Defer not them to feed,   

Ask for Christ his sake your alms:  
Whom you see naked, thin clad, give them cloth;  
To cover, warm them: likewise balms  
To sore, and wounded bodies: be not loath  
Your coin to lend;  
Forgive both foe, and friend.   

Delay not doing good; life's span:  
Makes not an Ell: 
Gal. 6.9.10. Prov. 3.28  let us do good to all;  
Chief to th' faithful, what we can:  
Not weary of well-doing: thus saith Paul.  
And Solomon  
In the same path goes on   

Say not unto thy neighbour, go.  
And come again, to morrow I will give  
Thee, when thou hast it by thee, no:  
Whether till then, thou knowst not thou shalt live:  
He giveth sickly,  
That cares not to give quickly.   

What ever it be that thy hand finds  
To do, do it with all thy might; there is  
No work, device, any man minds  
In grave, whither he goes; nor any bliss  
There to be had:  
Deferring therefore's bad.   

And as to matter we should look;  
So to the manner too: upon this ground  
Hypocrites doing good ' i'th' Book  
Of God (not to their good) are often found;  
No small pains taking;  
Marring good works i'th' making.   

Cain brought fruits, Esau lamented;  
Jehu reformed; Herod did many things;  
Pharisees fasted, Judas repent;  
Many such instances the Scripture brings,  
To let us know,  
More is required than so.   

And that God loveth Adverbs, better  
Than Adjectives: calls for sincerity  
In Spirit, resting not in letter:  
Yea that we do all duties fervently;  
Each service so,  
As we the last would do.   

Now would we hear, read, meditate,  
Confer, sing Psalms, receive, for blessings pray,  
Work in our callings, recreate  
Ourselves, if we knew we should die this day?  
Draw out at length,  
We would our utmost strength.   

So when thou readest a Chapter, read  
As if thou never shouldst read Chapter more:  
Every time thou hearest take heed;  
Attend, apply each word, open the Door,  
To let truth in,  
To mortify thy Sin:   

Make thee to live a life of grace;  
Hear as if this Sermon should be last:  
Let meditation run apace  
On heavenly things, this day: as if when past,  
Thine eye behold  
Another never should.   

So praise, and pray to God to day,  
As if thou never shouldst praise, pray again.  
So eat, and drink, and work, and play,  
And buy, and sell; with all thy might, and main  
Strive to do all,  
As if God should thee call   

Presently hence, to give account  
Of all these things that thou hast done: what care  
Wouldst thou take, higher much to mount  
Than a bare outward form, no labour spare,  
To be upright,  
Not playing th' hypocrite?   

Follows the third means of repelling,  
The reasons taking off men's minds from thinking  
Seriously on death; hold them rebelling  
Against right reason; which if it were sinking,  
into their hearts,  
They would act better parts.   

The Poem tit'led Virtue, teaching  
That many spectacles do death present,  
A Lecture of Great Herbert's Preaching,  
From his Theorbo's, let us be content,  
That should make way,  
To what we have to say.   

Sweet day so cool, so calm, so bright,  
The Bridal of the earth and sky:  
The dew shall weep thy fall to night;  
For thou must Die   

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave,  
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye;  
Thy root is ever in his Grave,  
And thou must Die.   

Sweet spring, full of sweet days, and Roses;  
A box where sweets compacted lie;  
My music shows you have your closes;  
And all must Die.   

Only a sweet, and virtuous soul,  
Like seasoned Timber never gives;  
But though the whole world turn to Cole;  
Then chief lives.  
Let virtuous pious men not fear this King  
Of frighting fearful terrors:  
Christ Jesus, rectifying errors, 
Heb. 2.14.15.   
Having death suffered for this very thing;  
This very end, to cure this fear of death;  
Which gracious hearts  
Was wont to pierce with poisoned darts,  
As with a sharp sword drawn out of its sheath;  
To wound them so, and work them such unrest;  
In bondage they  
With Israel served in brick and clay:  
But their Redeemers Death their wounds hath dressed;  
Delivered them from former Bondage; now  
They may, and aught  
To beds of ease and rest be brought:  
No fear of dying in themselves allow;  
But in triumphing wise with voices shrill,  
Merrily sing,  
O death where is thy mortal sting?  
There is in thee much good; nothing of ill.   

Death thou wast once an uncouth hideous thing,  
Nothing but Bones:  
The sad effect of sadder groans:  
Thy mouth was open, but thou couldst not sing.   

For we considered thee as at some six,  
Or ten years hence;  
After the loss of life and sense:  
Flesh being turned to dust, and bones to sticks.   

We looked on this side of thee, shooting short,  
Where we did find  
The shells of fledg Souls left behind,  
Dry dust sheds no tears but may extort.   

But since our Saviour's death hath put some blood  
Into thy face,  
Thou art grown fair and full of Grace;  
Much in request much sought for as a Good.   

Therefore we can go die as sleep, and trust  
Half that we have,  
Unto an honest faithful Grave  
Making our Pillows either down or dust.  
The Dialogue Antheme's likewise worth our hearing  
The Christian first  
Questions with death, in't self accursed:  
Which questions too, but sans the Christians fearing.   

Alas poor death, where is thy Glory? 
Chr.   
Where is thy famous force, thy Ancient sting?  
Alas poor mortal void of story; 
Death.   
Gospel and read how I have killed thy King.  
Poor death, and who was hurt thereby? 
Chr.   
Thy curse being laid on him makes thee accursed.  
Let loser's speak, yet thou shalt die, 
Death.   
These arms shall crush thee. Chr. Spare not do thy worst:  
I shall be one day better than before; 
Chr.   
Thou so much worse, that thou shalt be no more.   

Death should be unto Godly men no more  
Terrible than  
Sleep is unto a weary man:  
A rest from labours, crosses many a Score,  
Unruly passions, which do vex them here:  
From winnowings  
Of Satan, dreadful buffet:   

They're freed from these by death, and from their fear.  
The day of death is unto them a day  
Of Liberty;  
Beginning of felicity;  
Ferfect in part, which after a small stay,  
Shall be consummate at the resurrection.  
When they shall be  
Rewarded for their industry;  
Have vision, and fruition in perfection.   

While they live let them make their lives as free  
From fears and griefs, as possibly they can;  
Eating and drinking; merry let them be;  
Singing cares, fears away, during this span:  
Let all clouds scatter:  
What shall befall hereafter, make no matter.   

The Lord's Prerogative royal it is,  
Future events to order as he pleaseth:  
Let come what will, nothing can come amiss,  
To those that love him; this the Spirit easeth  
When 'tis oppressed,  
In midst of cursed chances these are blest:  
Every wind blowing them profit; griefs  
The greatest, are, if taken in their way,  
Ready to prove themselves greatest reliefs;  
However every drooping Christian may  
Utter these words;  
Which by his Servant God to him affords.   

Awake sad heart whom sorrow ever drowns,  
Take up thine eyes which feed on earth,  
Unfold thy forehead gathered into frowns;  
Thy Saviour comes and with him mirth.  
Awake, awake,  
And with a healthful heart his comforts take.    

SECT. iv The several blessings and comforts comprised in the Text, for good men; instances of such as have enjoyed them. Objection, that experience tells 'tis otherwise, with many of the Godly; Several Answers put in to this.  

THe several comforts in this text held forth,  
To every pious person, we  
Will mention first, next prove, apply the worth  
Of each of them, that each may see,  
Who will take pains.  
Till he an interest in the promise gains.  
A healthful sound fresh lively constitution,  
Is the first blessing promised;  
He shall until his day of dissolution,  
From sole of foot to crown of head  
Free from attaches  
Of sickness weakness, in no part feel aches. 
Deut 34.7   
We read of Moses faithful in God's House,  
This promise was made good to him,  
He lived sixscore years: 'tis written thus,  
His eye at this age was not dim;  
Nor natural force  
Abated; if not bettered, nothing worse  
Than in his youth. Hear Caleb speaking; 
Jos. 14.10.11,  lo  
Fourscore and five years old I am,  
This day, as yet I am as strong as though  
But forty five; as when I came,  
From spying out  
(Sent on that errand) Canaan round about;  
As was my strength at that time so 'tis now,  
Both to go out, and to come in:  
These two examples strive to show us how  
Every Saint may comfort spin,  
And wove and wear it:  
Read promises of this first blessing quoted; 
Deut. 7.15.    

A body sick and weak they need not fear it,  
No sickness I will put on thee,  
Who hearknest to my words (let this be noted)  
The filial fear of God shall be  
Marrow to bones:  
Health to thy Navel, 
Prov. 4.20, 21, 22.  thou shalt fetch no groans.   

By reason of tormenting pain: Incline  
Thine ear unto my say; then  
Behold at hand preventing medicine;  
Thou shalt not be as Godless men,  
Who cry and roar;  
Their bodily distempers are so fore;   

Thy light like as the morning shall break forth, 
Is●. 58.8.   
Thy health shall spring forth speedily,  
New vigour thou shalt get (which is more worth  
Than world's wealth which is nought set by,  
When health is wanting,  
And men on beds are through diseases panting)   

The second blessing follows hard  
At th' heels of this (which is so much prized health)  
'Tis that which most men have in most regard,  
Even plenty of this worldly wealth:  
They happy are accounted who have store  
Of riches, give them these they'll ask no more.   

What pains is taken every where  
To get abundance? compass Sea and Land,  
Run upon Pikes of danger, without fear:  
No difficulties can withstand  
Them in their course, stick not at any evil;  
Willing for gain, to go unto the Devil.   

Now give thyself to Godliness  
In truth, not only show (as many do  
Resting in frozen forms) this happiness  
With it thou shalt inherit too:  
All sorts of outward blessings very much,  
Are very frequently promised to such:   

Who Piety in power embrace,  
God's hand in pouring forth will not be scanting;  
Those that possess his sanctifying grace;  
Silver and Gold shall not be wanting:  
With houses, cattle, corn, they shall be blest;  
And with all other earthly goods the best.   

The Patriarches: 
Gen. 13.2.24.35. & 26.12. to 17.  others after them  
Had also riches, fullness of Estate:  
The promise reacheth all of Abraham's stem:  
God's deed of gift bears the same date  
Who walk in Abraham's steps are sure to find  
His vast estate, a substance to their mind. 
2 Sam. 19.32.    

If they will my Commandments keep, 
Leu. 26.1. etc.   
They shall have fullness of these outward goods;  
For than I open will my treasures deep;  
Rain down from heaven enriching floods:  
Such store I'll give, that you shall lend to many; 
Deut. 28.11. etc.   
And have no need to borrow aught of any.   

If thou return to the Almighty, 
Job 22.23, 24, 25.  thou  
Shalt lay up Gold as dust, even Ophirs Gold,  
As the stones of the Brooks; and even now  
Such numbers as cannot be told,  
Of Silver pieces: take one Context more,  
Which proves the point as well as many a score;   

Blest is the man that fears the Lord, 
Psal. 112, 1, 2, 3.   
That greatly in his statutes doth delight;  
To make his seed great, heavens will accord;  
Riches and wealth shall be in sight  
Of him, and his; their houses shall stored be,  
That others shall with admiration see   

How God doth bless his holy ones,  
Not suffering one of them to want what's fit;  
In times of greatest drought makes fat their bones  
When wicked shall be hunger-bit:  
This is a second blessing, and we find  
A third succeed of the same blessed kind.   

Good men and women shall live long:  
The shortest term is full a hundred years; 
Isa. 65.20.   
This space God's promise hath set strong;  
Stronger than brazen pillars 'gainst our fears:  
None sooner shall  
Have Deadly fall: 
Gen 5 8, 11, 14.20.22, 27 31. & 9 29. & 25 7, 8. & 35.28. & 50.26. Deut. 34 7. 1 Chr. 23.1. & 29.28. Job 42 16, 17. Luk. 1.7. & 2.36, 37.   
If any sooner die, the clock goes wrong.   

How many longlived godly men  
De we read of? take an essay of some:  
In cited Scripture-Texts, and then  
See, and say if the point be proved home,  
And if it be,  
Conclude with me  
We all may safely say to it, Amen.   

The promise of long life is made  
To every Godly man, and woman; 
Deut. 4.40. & 5.33 & 6.2. and 11 8 9 and 17 20. and 25 15. and 32.46, 47.  look  
How much to prove this truth is said  
In the renowned lawgivers last Book;  
Who doth discover  
Over and over,  
This to our eyes lest he should be mistake.   

So doth the holy Psalmist speak,  
What man is he that life desireth, 
Psal 34.12, 13, 14.  and  
Loves many days, and not to break  
By some untimely act, lives holding band?  
Keep thou thy tongue  
From guile and wrong;  
Thy flesh shall not grow thin nor sinews weak.   

For very many years together,  
Thou shalt see good, no ill at all shalt feel:  
Not changed at all, at any weather;  
As fair as is the Moon; as firm as steel;  
Thou shalt continue;  
With thy retinue:  
When thousands round about thee fall together.   

Hear God himself to every truster.  
In his power, goodness, truth and providence,  
Thus speaking, giving such a cluster  
Of grapes unto them, as revives their sense,  
Reason, and faith;  
For thus he saith  
Of all my Angels having took a Muster;   

A charge is given them to keep  
My friends, 
Psal. 91.11, 12.  who know and love me; that no stone  
Do hurt their feet, and when they sleep,  
Sweetly to be their keepers: not a bone  
 shall so much  
As have a touch;  
Of evil enraged floods, and waters deep   

Shall not harm them: moreover I  
Who am their loving friend, mighty to save  
With long life will them satisfy;  
And show them that of my hand they shall have  
Salvation;  
And Vision  
Thereof, both here; and to Eternity.   

Three Angels have already sounded: Hear  
The fourth preparing is to sound; a call  
Is given to all Saints to lend their ear:  
You must remove from hence both great, and small  
Your bodies turned to a Clod;  
Your souls appearance make before your God:   

This call to die ungrateful is to most:  
O how unwilling worldlings are to leave  
Those loved things! whereof they make their boast  
Wealth, honours, pleasures, friends, death will bereave  
Of every one of these: a Dart  
Is that that galls them to the very heart.   

The godly on the other side shall be  
Most willing to leave all: nothing so dear  
Is unto them, which with alacrity  
They cannot part with: it is joyful cheer  
To them, to hear they're called away:  
'Twould be death to them to make longer stay   

O lose this frame: this knot of man untie;  
That our free souls forthwith may take their flight;  
Soa● up to God, and Christ: this is their cry;  
There, there, and no where else is our delight:  
They in their death are Volunteers:  
In the ungodly no such thing appears:   

Unwilling oft They are to live, but find  
No will to die; their life's thrust out of door  
With violent hand; not with a cheerful mind:  
Their shame poured out upon the open floor:  
Death welcome is unto them, why?  
Life is a burden through their misery:   

It's otherwise with godly men: attend,  
What Simeon says, 
Luk. 2.29.  Lord let thy servant now  
Depart; my life most joyfully I end.  
And so St. Paul had a desire to bow  
At th' feet of death: 
Phil. 1.23.  how did he thirst  
To be dissolved and to be with Christ!   

Thus shall it be with every godly one;  
(Truth having sealed it) and Christ having been  
Laid in the dark bed of corruption;  
Perfuming it; without corruption seen:  
T'undress themselves they all see cause  
And called to come they seldom use to pause:   

Nor without honour shall they thither come:  
This is the fifth good promised in these words.  
To good men; th' illustration following home  
No small addition of delight affords:  
But that a while must be suppressed  
Till application's made of all the rest.   

Yet a few words we'll speak t'it, though the dead  
Are not at all affected with what's done  
Unto their bodies, yet when we do read  
(Among the rest) this commination  
Against Jehojakim, that he  
Should have the burial of an Ass, and be   

Dragged and cast out beyond the Gates o'th' City; 
Jer 22.19. 2 Ch●o 35.24.25. Gen. 50.10. Acts 8.2.   
And find Josiah, Jacob, Stephen were  
Brought to their graves with a most doleful ditty;  
Great mourning made for them: it doth appear,  
'Tis necessarily inferred  
'Tis a great blessing to be so interred.   

To be with honour buried none shall miss,  
Of such a happy life and death as hath  
Described been; who ever godly is  
And persevereth in a pious path.  
Against these points objections lie:  
Experience seems to prove the contrary.   

Some very godly very sickly are; Object.  
Most of the best are very poor; and many  
Dye very young; nor is it very rare  
To find Saints loath to part with life; scarce any  
Have honour more than usual,  
When they are born unto their burial.   

I Answer, Answ. first, all is not gold that glisters;  
Many seem godly; really not so;  
No other than i'th' Church's body blisters:  
Who find by search themselves such, let them know  
These blessings are denied to them;  
Because they are not of the holy stem.  
The promise is not made to Hypocrites:  
If upright sincere hearted ones be sickly;  
In want; short lived; at sight of death have frights,  
Loath to departed; and meanly buried; quickly  
This answer is returned; though letter  
Be not made good to them, they have much better.  
In lieu of all: who hath the weight in Gold,  
For so much promised brass, will not complain  
Of breach of promise? were it good, God could  
Give every Saint all these in kind; maintain  
Health, wealth, long life: It's good some want  
Some of these outward goods; have measure scant:   

But all's made good in value, passing kind  
Abundantly: Communion with God,  
Is best ten thousand fold; content of mind  
Fully they have; though here under the rod  
Of sickness, poverty; they have  
In God, health, wealth, long life, all passing brave.    

SECT. V What is requisite to render us happy? where it is showed, that God is the Greatest and only happiness of a Christian: all things  are found in him: Reasons why nothing else can satisfy the mind of man; and that the promise of all good things is with advantage fulfilled to us in the enjoyment of God.  

A Pure, sufficient, satisfying good,  
Eternal also, must that good thing be,  
That can make happy: if but one of these  
Be wanting, it is understood,  
By all that have but half an eye,  
There's not enough to give man perfect ease.   

It must be pure; if any ill be in it,  
Sinful, or penal, it will never do it:  
Sufficiency is likewise requisite:  
And satisfaction too to win it:  
Eternity must be put to it:  
Else happiness will be far out of sight.   

Now God, and he alone these properties  
Of beatification hath in him:  
Light without any darkness: all sufficing:  
Abounding with abilities;  
An Ocean wherein man may swim;  
And in joys full, and true, without disguising.  
But nothing else is such a good: the best  
Of creature-comforts mixed with something which  
Is not good; else how could they vanity  
Be called? and with vexation dressed?  
Men honourable, healthful, rich,  
That this is truth, do by experience try.   

Again, all creatures in the world, if they  
Stand by themselves, so many Ciphers are;  
(Till God a solid number added be)  
Not to be valued but laid by;  
As light, as blasted Corn, or tore;  
Set God aside there's not sufficiency.   

For one Soul in the whole creation: who  
Hath most of this world's goods, hath not enough;  
He that hath least, he hath too much; unless  
He can (as Austin did) say so;  
All the abundance I pass through  
Is just nothing but want; doth not me bless   

At all, if it be not my God; in whom  
Is all the good that is in wife, child, friend,  
Health, beauty, learning, wisdom, wealth and power,  
Though not the same in kind; the same,  
And more in value doth extend  
Beyond them all; and on the owner shower.   

The world and God together put, are not  
More excellent than God alone, for if  
An excellency be in any creature  
More eminently every jot,  
Already 'tis in God, the chief:  
Nor does that adding give a fuller feature.  
What ever God is pleased to bestow,  
Upon me, let him take it all away;  
Give me himself; the bargain will be good  
Enough; (St. Austin) speaketh so,  
So should each pious person say;  
So saying, and so thinking breeds good blood.   

Satisfactoriness, sufficiency  
Fellow: no happiness without content,  
And quietness of mind; if what we have  
Do not delight, and fill; stand by,  
Say sense and reason: merriment  
Cannot be had, if th' appetite shall crave.   

Now leave out God; what ever we take in;  
The heart will still be capable of more:  
The world with all its stock; which cannot fill  
The narrowest soul: let us begin  
To search the reason, why such store  
Cannot make silent, but here's craving still:   

Some say because the world is spherical,  
The heart triangular: others do drill it  
To the concupiscible faculty,  
Whose size so large is, that not all  
The earth being a globe can fill it,  
But there will still be some vacuity.   

Others say th' object is not suitable  
Unto the faculty: none fill a Chest  
With wisdom, nor a Bag with virtue can:  
Even so things gross, and mutable  
Have no conveniency at best,  
With spirits: no fit food for th' heart of man.  
Another reason's given; namely this:  
The appetite is raised by having; as  
A fire's increased by fuel, it is fed  
Withal: Some say the reason is  
Because we running in our race,  
Are after our perfection carried;   

And cannot terminate desires in aught  
That's short of that which all the Creatures are.  
What ever is the cause, we are most sure,  
That's true which Solomon hath taught  
(And we must ponder on with care)  
Who loveth silver (by the fire made pure.) 
Eccl. 5.10    

Cannot be satisfied with Silver, nor  
Who loves abundance with increase; As nought  
Can be the Souls perfection; so nothing  
Can be its satisfaction; for  
These are concurrent in our thought.  
What wants the first, cannot the second bring.   

Nothing (I say) but he that made the soul;  
None but the chief good can suffice it: El  
Shaddai; beyond whom nought's imaginable,  
Can give a satisfying Bowl:  
(The way unto it who can tell?)  
Beyond whom nothing is desirable.   

Add lastly all is nothing, if it be  
Not always: now there's nothing in this world,  
That changeth not; but God the same for ever  
Of whom all Saints have full and free  
Enjoyment; and are never hurled  
Into unhappiness: blessed ones persever.   

Th' objection's answered: all these blessings are  
Made up abundantly in God;  
Possessed by every one,  
Who hath in truth Religion;  
No robber meets on th' road;  
Enjoying all these goods in manner rare.   

Or if he seem to be robbed of health, wealth;  
In lieu of lead, he gainth gold:  
Even sanctifying grace  
Takes up those common blessings place;  
Which he doth firmly hold  
Esteems it therefore a most blessed stealth.   

Am I not better to thee (saith the Lord)  
Than all these outward worthless things?  
Thy Christian-patience I  
By these afflictions prove, and try:  
Sickness health; want wealth brings:  
These seeming evils real goods afford   

One grain of faith a thousand worlds is worth:  
Take comfort then in this, that thou  
In tears repentant sowing;  
And in all saving graces growing;  
Joy springs thou knowst not how;  
Shalt shortly reap when th' blessed fruits brought forth   

Cast all thy care on me for time to come:  
Mind only what thou hast to do:  
Seek to me and submit:  
With even foot I'll make thee fit,  
Upright to come, and go,  
Until like Corn shockt up thou art brought home    

SECT. VI Reasons why Good men are sometimes unwilling to die. some grounds of their desires of longer life, in several objections and their invalidity discovered; those objections answered: Three things further discovered, for the cure of this unwillingness to die.  

THe illustration of these Promises,  
By this similitude i'th' text,  
Will to our taste be sweet;  
And meditation not unmeet,  
Is to be handled next;  
Will bring the soul to everlasting ease.   

Before I come unto this illustration;  
Job's coming to his grave in a full age  
Comes fresh again into my meditation;  
Deserves to come again upon the Stage;  
To act its part a little longer, I  
With this desire, without regret comply.   

Come on then; let us see what can be said,  
For and against Saint's willingness to die;  
And leave this life; it cannot be gainsaid,  
But that some practisers of Piety  
Expressed have themselves loath to departed, 
1 Sam 16.2.   
To God and men with Phrases pretty smart. 
Jer. 37.20.    

As Lot did linger when he was to go, 
2 Pet. 2.8.   
Out of that sinful City; where his Soul  
Was daily vexed with hearing, seeing; So  
It fares with other Lots who cannot roll  
Off from their hearts this load; for so they find  
This lothness to departed, is to their mind.   

What should the reason be? Death is a parting  
Of two most dear, inward and ancient friends:  
David and Jonathan found this most smarting: 
1 Sam. 20.41.   
Besides the best believe in part: grace rends  
Not all corruption out, till heartstrings break  
The spirit's willing, 
Mat. 26.41.  but the flesh is weak.   

Moreover there are seeming reasons, why  
Some Saints so willing are longer to live;  
Form them into objections, by and by  
We will; to each of them an answer give:  
No real force in any we will prove,  
To make good men unwilling to remove.   

Loath I am to part with friends: Obj. 1  
Wife and children t'leave unsettled:  
Pleasures profits honour ends:  
With loss of these my heart is nettled:  
And of my body specially,  
Which in a loathsome grave must lie.  
I would live but to such an age;  
To fourscore or a hundred years;  
Then willing to go off the Stage  
I would be; and without all fears:  
More service unto God, and men  
I fain would do; fain live till then.  
To the first allegation Ans. 1  
This answer I return: where is  
In any habitation,  
One friend with any Emphasis?  
Though David had his Jonathan,  
Scarce such a one hath any man   

If any such, yet mutable, 
Psal. 146.3.4.   
Mortal at best, they are: and Saints  
By death get friends delectable,  
Of whom they'll never make complaints:  
As for thy Wife and Children left,  
God's promises to them bereft.   

Of thee, are made that they shall be, 
Psal. 68.5.   
Provided for, when thou art gone:  
Father of fatherless is He;  
The good man's widows portion;  
Settle thy heart in this belief.  
They shall not fail to find relief.   

Thou leave'st them better husband, father  
Than any that could look to them,  
In this world; to be chosen rather  
Ten thousand times of more esteem:  
Lastly it is but for a while,  
That thou shalt be without their smile.   

As for the worldlings Trinity,  
Of Riches, Honours, Pleasures, these  
Are such poor nothings; vanity  
Thou canst not part with but with ease:  
Especially considering  
Death will all these redoubled bring.   

As for thy body; which thou sayest  
Thou art so loath to lay down; think  
What it in truth is; then thou mayest  
Be satisfied; and not shrink:  
It's not the man: the Soul is so;  
The bodies but the Casket. Know   

Moreover it a Prison is,  
A rotten, ragged, garment, and  
If thou enamoured be with this;  
Then to thy comfort understand,  
It shall ere long restored be,  
(When by the grave refined) to thee.   

As for thy stint of time; be sure  
Death the same to thee will appear  
Then, as it doth now: to endure  
A little longer, thou wilt hear  
Thy heart crave hard; O might I spend  
But some few months before my end:   

Who tossed on Seas, is troubled that  
He's got so soon to th' Haven? if  
Desire be served, contemplate  
What cares, disgrace, distempers, grief,  
In days to come thou'rt like to find;  
Who sees not storms will rise, is blind.   

What fears of sin falling away  
Will daily seize upon thee? then  
Consider, death's a debt to pay:  
Due first or last to God or men  
It's every whit as good, its best  
To pay this, than thou'lt be at rest.   

The last is only a pretence:  
However this may Satisfy;  
God will not call for any hence,  
Until their work be done, till he  
Provided be his business  
To do, without them, more or less   

Again its best give over, while  
We're doing well; and if god● pay  
For half a day our penny, smile;  
We may and aught to praise him: pray  
That these objections thus removed,  
What follow's next may be improved.   

Three things I shall commend for cure  
Of this unwillingness in Saints to die:  
First the great●●● evils that  
Are in it; nothing that is pure  
Is to be found; but what doth putrify,  
And much contaminate:   

We do disable Christ his death; 
Heb. 2.14.15.   
Obscure the evidence of our new birth;  
Transgress against example,  
Of such as wished to part with breath;  
To be translated from this wretched earth  
On which they long to trample.   

We shame much our Religion  
Which doth not fright with purgatory-fire:  
Are worse than Heathens were;  
Who did embrace death coming on  
With cheerfulness, and very great desire:  
Without all show of fear.   

We do resemble wicked wights,  
Who use to tremble when they hear of dying:  
So Felix did: yea worse  
Than children, mad men, whom no frights  
Of death possess; nor make them think of flying  
From it as from a Curse:   

All creatures groan and call for change:  
We are below them all, if that we fear it  
This is a shameful thing,  
And a disease that us doth range  
Below the beasts; let none be loath to hear  
The first Peal thus to ring.   

The second sounds the little reason  
Which godly men can see why they should wish  
To live one half hour longer;  
And not to think this instant season  
The best wherein to feed upon death's dish:  
To make their courage stronger.   

To do this let them ponder well,  
The utter insufficiency of all  
Things here to contribute,  
To make man unto happy swell;  
To be thus kindly beneficial  
They move no foot.   

So far I say from comforting,  
In time of need; that sore vexations  
They prove themselves to be,  
The Preacher doth strong reasons bring,  
To work in all men's hearts convictions,  
That this is verity:   

The third means for the cure of this  
Unwillingness to die in godly ones;  
Is seriously to muse,  
That very great reason there is,  
Why they should send for death with sighs and groans;  
And not its stroke refuse:   

The miseries of this present life:  
The life of nature, and the life of grace:  
And then the happiness  
They have by death: evils are rife  
That load the life of nature; all the space  
They live here comfortless.   

Reduced to sins, and punishments,  
Sins are of two sorts, one without them roars;  
Adam's transgression,  
Justly imputed conscience rents:  
Others inherent like a Piercer boars,  
With sharp compunction:   

These are of two sorts; some defile  
Our nature; which are called Original:  
Others our actions; these  
Are called actual; all the while  
We live on earth the best into such fall;  
Thereby their God displease:   

These are committed several ways,  
By thoughts, and words, and deeds of ignorance,  
Error, infirmity,  
Presumption also all our days,  
We guilty make ourselves, by choice; by chance;  
In some a long time lie.   

By every one of these we are  
Subject to debt, and danger, both divine:  
Bound over to God's ire:  
The punishments which sinners bear,  
Arithmeticks not able to define:  
Lastly Eternal fire.   

The second sort of miseries  
Molest the life of grace: How many wants!  
God's presence; fellowship  
Of best friends; liberty, and ease:  
For want of these each Christian-spirit pants,  
Till these rich wines they sip.   

Add to these wants; how many evils?  
The danger of offending God is one;  
Daily corrections;  
Dangers from creatures, men, and Devils:  
Danger of stumbling at full-many a stone:  
State alterations:   

All these and thousands more death frees  
Us from: great reason therefore there is why  
we should not long to live:  
Longer one day; with cold to freeze;  
With scorching fires to burn uncessantly:  
See next what death doth give:   

Admission into happiness  
Ineffable, and unconceivable:  
Angels, men's tongues, and hearts  
Cannot conceive, much less express:  
Neither are of this matter capable:  
In any of its parts.   

Yet so much of the heavenly glory;  
Into which every Saint doth pass at th' point  
Of death revealed is  
Unto them, in the sacred story;  
To make them (if they will their eyes anoint)  
See death their choicest bliss.    

SECT. VII. Whether good men may not only be willing, but desirous to die: five cases wherein death may be lawfully desired. Objection touching the painfullness of Death answered, proposals to remove such apprehensions from us. A second objection about sudden or violent Death; a way of cure for such fears.  

MAy godly men desire  
As well as willing be to Die?  
Many we read of did conspire;  
And to the question put did answer, Ay   

Moses, Elias, and  
Samson, Paul, David, Jonah, Job,  
Simeon, and others, who do stand  
Shining in the Celestial glorious Globe.   

Some of these prayed to God  
To take away their lives; but why?  
They would no longer make abode,  
To bear so many a martyring misery.   

This was not a good ground:  
Self love and discontentments swaying:  
To recantation they were bound;  
Such passionate infirmity bewraying:   

But in five cases, we  
May lawfully desire, and pray  
For death; If we may glorify  
God most thereby. Next to be taken away.  
From lewd men's company;  
Who daily grossly break God's Laws:  
From sinfulness especially:  
That we no more make in our conscience flaws;   

Grieving the holy Spirit:  
And that we may be rid of grief,  
And crosses; which our Sins do merit:  
Yet with submission to our Soveraign-chief   

Finally for the full  
Accomplishment of Union  
With Christ, (from whom sin would us pull)  
By death we gain perfect communion.   

Nor to be rid of Sin,  
And be with Christ, may we desire  
To die, unless we compass in  
God's will; who doth on pain of death require.   

Us in our Station,  
Like Soldiers obedient,  
To tarry till dismission  
Be given to march from this low regiment,   

Unto the higher: but yet  
It is a grace we should strive for;  
As for departure to be fit;  
So to be willing ever more, and more,   

To quit our Station here:  
And to rejoice at warning given  
By sickness, that our end is near;  
Death being the porch through which we pass to heaven  
The chiefest reason why  
With full cry of affection, we  
Should gallop after Death: thereby  
We are from sinning any more made free.   

While this life lasts we never  
Give over sinning, no man knows  
Whether he shall one hour persever  
In doing well, a spite the devil owes   

Us; and the greatest spite  
He can us do, is to allure  
Good to omit; Sin to commit;  
That we shall not be foiled we are not sure;   

Having in us a Source  
Sending streams forth continually;  
Setting us running in a Course  
Of all impiety, inquity;   

A root of bitter gall,  
And wormwood, never stocked up wholly  
Ready at every pin to fall,  
And to be more, and more, each hour unholy:   

Never cured perfectly  
Of our disease Hereditary,  
That loathsome cursed leprosy,  
Which whilst we live on earth will with us tarry.   

And little do we know  
How far we may fall ere we die:  
It's therefore best for us to go  
Thither, where there's no possibility.   

Of sinning; falling more:  
And willingness to die is one  
Effectual means to wound, and gore,  
And kill original corruption.   

But some may yet object Object. 1  
The painfullness of death; this terrifies.  
To cure this fear, Answ. 1 let them reflect  
Upon worse pains which do from life arise,  
From day to day: nor is there pain in death,  
But life gives pain at parting with its breath.   

No sting in death being found;  
It cannot hurt at all; though it may pain:  
There's pain in curing of a wound:  
The Mariner,  he the Haven gain,  
Takes no small pains, and thinks it well bestowed;  
Though it was painful, all the time he rowed.   

All wounds by death are cured:  
Who would not bear a little, for so great  
A happiness? a Haven being procured?  
Thereby an everlasting resting seat.  
But yet there is another senseless thing,  
Which doth to some Saint's sense of terror bring.   

Namely some kind of dying: Object. 2  
Sudden, and violent death they cannot look  
On, with a smile; nor without crying:  
Nor can they bring their hearts these deaths to brook.  
Sith we must die, Answ. it matters not what kind  
Of death we die, this should not move our mind:  
Matter we should not how  
We go from hence, so much as whither we  
Shall go: remember Christ did bow  
His head; and died a cursed death, to free  
Each kind of death from being a curse to his;  
That every kind of death should be their bliss.    

SECT. VIII. Reasons why some good men in prospect of death have petitioned for a Reprieve: Practical directions to make us both willing and fit to die. Self-murder shown unlawful, and probably damnable.  

WHat may the reason be  
(May some demand) that sundry precious Saints Quest.  
Begged living light longer to see;  
When they saw death at hand? made sad complaints?  
Their love of life proceeded from the love Answ.  
Of honouring God below; not yet above.   

From lawful self-love too;  
Having not yet attained assurance full;  
They prayed for a previous view  
Of th' heavenly Canaan; before the Pull  
Of soul from flesh: desired some short abode;  
More quietly to render up to God.   

Their spirits, with submission  
To his good pleasure: another reason may  
Be rendered, why they feared dismission  
Because the old man still in part bore sway.  
Best but in part are sanctified; but  
Before their end their fears are all out shut.   

Considerations working willingness  
In Christians all to die, premised thus:  
Pass we to things in Practice: nothing less  
Effectual to work this will in us  
Provided we be righteous.   

First we must cleanse our hearts from carnal love,  
Of earthly things; the worldlings Trinity  
Must be renounced; we must get above  
The Moon: 
Rev. 12.  wealth, pleasures, honours tie  
The soul to them too steadfastly:   

It cannot with good will be loosed from them:  
The means to cut this Gordian knot, must be  
Carefully learned by all of Abraham's stem:  
First leave they must evil Society;  
And sort with godly company.   

Next needless cares, and business restrain:  
Then strive with God by prayer; and believe  
That he will give, what they would compass fain,  
And every day they must not fail to grieve;  
For Sin; and regularly live.   

Our sins must die before us; else we are  
Sure to die damned: who can willing be  
To die in such estate? but if we care  
To rid our hearts of damned hypocrisy;  
We shall departed then cheerfully.   

These are the motives, and the means to get  
This grace: if still we find a reluctation,  
And that we are loath to departed, as yet;  
Let's not despond; but live in expectation,  
Our end shall be endless complete salvation.   

That we should always willing be to die,  
Hath been so proved, that none can it deny,  
To be a duty, and a privilege,  
Promised to Saints, of which nought shall abridge  
Them: but whether it's lawful to desire  
Death is a doubt to which we have given fire  
Determined th' affirmative; in case  
God's name thereby more glory may embrace  
Than by our life. See in the Margin places, 
Judg. 16.29.30.   
Evincing this one of the lawful cases. 
Exod. 32. Rom. 9 Psal. 120.6, 7. 2 Pet. 2.7, 8.   
Another is that we may be set free  
From wicked men's vexing Society.  
A third that we may make an end of sinning.  
A fourth prevention of more crosses winning. 
Gen. 27, 46. 1 King. 19.3, 4. Rom. 7.23, 24. Psal. 38.3, 41 Phil. 1.21. to 24. Psal. 73.25. Quest.   
With this proviso; not immoderately  
Desiring ease; but most submissively.  
Lastly, to be with Christ, and to enjoy  
Entire communion, without mixed alloy.  
May one in any case (may some demand)  
His own life take away with his own hand?  
I answer roundly in no case we may Answ.  
By poison, halter, knife, or other way  
To Make ourselves away attempt, we must  
Cast the world out of us (this is most just)  
But not ourselves out of the world, its base  
To run away like cowards; our short race  
We ought to run; staying till God doth call  
Us hence: and then most gladly farewell all.  
Till then abide the battle we are bound.  
None but most wicked are in Scripture found,  
Who killed themselves: Achitophel did so:  
And Saul: and Judas: (as for Samson; though  
He pulled the house upon him; this was done  
In zeal for God by inspiration)  
It's damnable to leave our work, before  
God bid us leave it, upon any score.  
Who is himself; and breaks the jail, must die,  
For such a breach and that eternally.  
Yet pass not sentence upon such a soul;  
It may repent in parting: sans control  
The act is heinous, hideous, killeth both  
Body, and Soul; unless repentance doth  
Suddenly interpose itself: and grace  
Step in a moment into justice place:  
Neither of which will probably be given;  
This sin beyond all others forfeits heaven:  
A sin most Criminous, and borders most  
Near to the sin against the Holy Ghost.    
FINIS.   

Postscript.  

I finished have  
The first part of this quickening Text,  
Presenting to all good men death and grave,  
Passing desirable: the next  
Part, I must crave   

Leave to delay  
The presentation of it, till  
More strength of spirit, body gain I may  
Which when God granteth; then I will  
make an Essay.   

The illustration  
Of what's there promised to unfold  
Humbly commend it to your meditation,  
And for a closure shall make bold  
some Consolation   

To annex, by  
Mentioning a doctrine which  
Hath in it truth in probability,  
Containing treasure very rich  
(Pray lend the eye)   

Gives hope to all  
Who virtuous, pious, patiented are  
That they in the first resurrection shall  
Have part, with blessedness most rare.  
Holy withal,   

Transcendently  
Their souls, and bodies both shall be  
These raised, from the dead primarily;  
Those to them reunited by  
Omnipotency:   

And live in bliss  
A thousand years; during which space  
They shall bless Christ their head with Emphasis  
For merit, mercy and free grace  
vouchsafed them: this   

Work of thanksgiving  
Will be the only, or the chief  
Employment of the raised Saints, who living  
Shall all those years find fresh relief:  
together striving,   

Who shall outstrip  
Another in this glorious work  
Of praising Jesus with one joyful lip  
For treading down the Pope and Turk;  
Smiting thigh, hip,   

They all shall join,  
In singing Hallelujahs to their King,  
From whom none shall dominion purloin;  
Nor from his Saints, whom he shall bring  
With him: conjoin   

Coheirs in face  
Of all the World, who shall behold,  
Each of them Kings over the total mass  
Subdued unto them uncontrol'd  
And in th'end as   

Commissioners  
Of Oyer and of Terminer  
With him: Apostles; Gospel-Ministers  
Shall highest sit; much statelier  
Each one appears   

Than Earthly Lords;  
Next these to pious private men  
A power of Judging also Christ affords  
ill spirits; their carnal offspring; when  
Of death the cords   

Are loosed which  
detained in grave, till the last day  
Of general judgement poor and rich  
Who wicked were; all cast away  
into the ditch,   

And Lake of fire  
Burning with Brimstone; sentenced hither  
By them whom then the whole world shall admire  
Assessors with their King together,  
Here counted mire.   

O then rejoice  
At thoughts of reigning upon Earth  
A thousand years; which ended with great noise;  
Yea who have had a second birth  
While here; a choice   

Tranquillity  
Moore Millions of years' the sands,  
On shores of Seas, even to Eternity  
You shall enjoy safe in his hands,  
Who did both dye   

And rise again,  
Ascended, sits, and reigns above,  
Hath purchased for them freedom from all pain,  
Embraceth you with arms of Love;  
By him you'll gain   

A Kingdom that  
Is apthartal, amiantal,  
Amarantall beyond the reach and hate  
Of persecuting enemies all,  
Who at no rate   

Without, within,  
Shall neves vex them more; mutations  
There shall be none in heaven; nor unto sin  
any the least temptations  
as first have been.   

Shall ere be there  
But fellowship with God and Christ  
Uninterrupted; not the smallest fear  
of ever having loosed the twist  
Of grace made here   

This doctrine of  
The raised, reigning Saints of God  
A thousand years, hath proof enough  
In holy writ, and their abode,  
By Earthly stuff.   

Inheritance.  
Of the whole earth is frequently  
Promised unto them, and as now all France,  
is England's Kings titularly,  
who seem to dance   

Aftered alone,  
Possessing not a foot of ground  
Of that fair Realm: but as they shall anon  
Possessors of it all be found;  
really own   

That wholly; as  
They have done, do, these kingdoms three:  
Thus it in time shall probably come to pass:  
Though haply our eyes shall not see  
save in a glass.   

This wished event  
Right so, though Saints at present have  
Little or nought besides bare aliment  
And raiment; both too far from brave,  
yet well content;   

They, ere't be long  
As Abraham, Isaac, Jacob shall  
Inherit actually (as by faith strong  
Those did, while living) Canaan all:  
which did belong   

To them and theirs  
By God's donation: so with them,  
We being (as they were) of this world heirs,  
(which plain appears.)   

Shall really  
Possess a thousand years together  
This Earthly Globe with each commodity  
It doth produce, and serene weather,  
Let's then leap for joy.   
FINIS.