DEFENCE Against the Dread of Death, OR, ZACH. CROFTON'S Meditations and Soliloquies concerning the stroke of death sounded in his ears, in the time 〈◊〉 his close Imprisonment in the Tow● of London, Anno. 1661., and 166●  
Digested for his own private satisfaction and support in the vale of the shadow of death.  
AND NOW Made public for the advantage of such as abide under God's present Visitation in London by the Pestilence.  
Printed in the Year 1●●●   

To the serious dying Christian Reader; Especially those in and about London; subjected to God's visitation by the present Pestilence; and under a daily expectation of an arrest by death.  
Christian and beloved Friends.  
WHat was lately mine, is now become your sad estate; viz. the dreadful expectation of death's stroke; in the multitude of my thoughts within me, the consolations of God did refresh and revive my soul: the kind of death which threatened me, is different from what impendeth you; but the object of dread was to me and you the same, (viz) Death: and the same apprehensions of its nature which did affect me, must affect you with fear and hope: the ensuing meditations ministered a check to my passions, and comfort to my spirit; by these, I persuaded my soul to be willing, and contented, though not desirous to part from my body; and to let me cheerfully lie down and die: these were digested on my personal account; for my private support and encouragement under the fears of death: they having done their work were by me condemned to death, at least to present darkness, but are now by your sad condition animated, and restored; and the publication thereof is extorted by the importunity of some special friends who had formerly seen and perused them; and in an affectionate sense of your sad condition subjected to the terrors of night; the Arrow which flieth by day; the Pestilence which walketh in darkness, and the destruction which wasteth at noonday: calling more loudly for Antidotes to the sting, then to the stroke of death; have restlessly solicited these papers to be put into your hands.  
The dread of death is as common, as natural to man; as is the stroke thereof: it never appeared with its pale face, to any subject of ●●●ht reason or true religion; but with a terrifying aspect: the Heathen accounted it, of terrible things the most terrible; they could no way render it comfortable; but by representing it the sum, the completion, and so the period of evil and misery: Cold comfort! The Scripture calleth it the King of terrors: which of God's Saints have not feared to die? David was beset with the terrors of death: Paul could not desire to be unclothed: The only begotten Son of God, had his soul heavy unto death, and in a fearful agony deprecated the stroke thereof: the Saints never cursed the day of their birth, and cried out for their death; but in the extremity of their perplexity, and in the prevalency of their passion; evidenced by this very character: men exempt from frenzy; and not miraculously, extraordinarily acted by a divine spirit, as were the three Children, and other Martyrs: must be the subjects of stoical Apathy, senseless stupidity, strong delusions, or a reprobate sense, if they fear not the stroke of death: I envy not some (who hav● I thought died too stoutly in su●h a cause) their courage and con●●dence in outfacing death: But this I must say to all; Christianun agere, is not, hominem exucre: Christians cease not to be men, nor is it fit they should so do. Bernard well noteth of Peter the Apostle, 
Bernardi Tract. de gratia & Libero Arbitrio.  that his sin was not in the simple fear of death, Mortem evadere voluit; quid istud criminis fuit? voluit mori; inculpabilis est: To be unwilling, afraid to die, is lawfully humane, and not blame-worthy in a Christian: It is equally monstrous in nature, and a judgement from the Lord not to fear to die: and not to mourn for the dead. I must say with the holy Greenham, They are as well to be liked who fear death, as those who joy at it: And I for my part fluctuating on the waves of violence and uncertainty, in an evil age and world; must say as this good man, 
Greenh. work. p. ●  Notwithstanding my many crosses which hinder the comfort of my life; I do not, I dare not desire to die.  
Death is in its nature most terrifying to the soul; yet it's dreadful circumstances and concomitants do ordinarily more affect the sense, and provoke the passions. Seneca placed the most dread in the Scaffold the Axe, the attendance, the spectators, the executioners, and march to execution, that pompa mortis: These were not meanly affecting circumstances to me in my expectation of a violent death; to you the suddenness, the solitariness, the certainty of the stroke, by an inevitable noisome contagion, may appear most grievous. He who dieth in due course of nature, meeteth with dread in death; but he that dieth by some special kind of death, as by sword or pestilence hath his dread aggravated; and more eminently needeth the defence of a lively faith, to repel the terrors of a lively sense, which can and must be the result of a rational and Christian apprehension of deaths changed nature and quality, with the sequels thereof through Christ the Lord of life; these will alleviate the burden, abate the strength, abstract the sting, and alter the countenance of death; of any kind of death.  
Familiarity breedeth contempt, and casteth out fear: the Fox by frequency playeth boldly with the lion. We read of an Hungarian Prince, who affected his youthful brother, rebuked his daily meditations of death, with an unexpected summons to execution: Men little think of dying therefore are the terrors of death so stinging. Plato persuading to thoughts of death, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  defined true Philosophy to be a meditation of death: Certain it is, that they who will truly Christianize, must be much in consideration of death; and careful to die well. When men are every moment obnoxious to the sudden and certain strokes of death, it is time (if ever they will be wise) to labour to represent death lovely to their souls: funeral Sermons ●ound best in the ears; spectacles of mortality is the most pleasing sight; and meditations of death the most delighting study, not only to the mortified Christian, but also to the dying man. Croesus the rich King of Lydia, when captivated, stripped, and tied alive to the stake which must make his funeral pile; could affectionately cry out, O Solon, Solon! and preach to Cyrus his Conqueror Solon's Dictates of Mortality, which in his prosperity he had despised. And Seneca declining in Nero's favour, and drawing nigh to his violent death, did best discern, and most clearly declare that man's felicity was after death. The profane men, which in health neglect and despise God's Ministers, and cannot endure to hear of death, or Jesus Christ; can on a sick bed send for them, gladly hear the Doctrines of Mortality; and cry out I must die, O Chest save me! O Christ save me! Nor is it marvel for every Balaam ready to curse Gods Israel on the sense of death's appraach, cannot but wish to die the death of the righteous.  
I would willingly hope, those who have now the charge of your souls, are tender of you as Nurses, and careful for you as Parents; and that with due affection and fidelity they labour to fit you for, and encourage you under the strokes of death: Never (I am sure) had you more need: never were you more likely to hear the Charmer, and to receive instruction, then in so sad a day of visitation from the Lord. I wish I were without any grounds of fear to the contrary. I lately travelling about my rustic affairs, met many Ministers from your City, among other Citizens, withdrawing from that place of danger: their recess I could not but observe with grief and anger; thinking who must minister to you ghostly council, now your souls are in the shadow of death; how must it sting your serious hearts to see your lovers and friends stand at a distance, and your Prophets all gone.  
I am not so uncharitable as to conclude the recess of any, not specially bound to stay in infected places, to be sin: I believe men that fly from the Pestilence, are no more Atheistical, or to be blamed as such, than those who fly from the Sword: I judge the recess of many, may be a prudential serving of God's providence, unto the withdrawing of the contagion, naturally communicating itself in vicinity: but, I cannot but judge Magistrates to keep order; Physicians to help nature; and Ministers to prepare for and encourage against death are bound to stay, and in the discharge of their duty to trust God with their lives.  
I cannot secure Ministers their lives in contagious places; I well know that Histories tells us some of the Ministers and Deacons which ministered to the Saints in Alexandria, 
Euseb. Hist. l. 7. c. 22.  in the great Plague which there raged, died thereof: And that the Families of Bullinger, and Beza were herewith infected, yet themselves escaped, and were preserved; yet God hath ordinarily saved the lives of those who in love to immortal souls, have adventured to lose them: Mr. Sam. Fisher, whose meditation on death in the time of the Plague in Salop, we have public among us; is yet alive to tell unto God's praise, how himself, and Reverend Mr. Blake were preserved in their Ministration to that place, in the time of a raging Pestilence: If despised I might be so bold, I would desire your present Ministers, to consider the late Bishop Hall's advice in this very case; he having justified the rece●●●f private persons; thus conculdeth concerning Ministers; You urge the instance of your Ministers, how unequally, 
Bp. Halls Epist. Dec. 4. Ep. 9  there is not more lawfulness in your flight, than sin in ours: you are your own, we are our peoples: you are charged with a body which you may not willingly lose, nor hazard by staying: we with all their souls, which to hazard by our absence, is to lose our own: we must love our lives, but not when they are rivals with our souls, or with others: how much better is it to be dead, then negligent? then faithless? if some bodies be contagiously sick, shall all souls be neglected? to run away from a necessary and public good, to avoid a doubtful and private evil, is to run into a worse evil then that we would avoid, etc.  
Whilst worthless I am dead as to my Ministry, I hope I may be alive as to my Meditations: And freely by an harmless Pen Minister them to you; especially on a subject so innocent, so necessary as is Death; It's Dread, and the Defence against it: I beseech you receive these as ministerial suggestions for the good of your souls: they were indeed only spoken to my dying self: Put your souls in my souls stead, and they will speak to you: the special kind of death which I dreaded, may make some things seem improper to your present state; but the general matter and scope of them, is to obviate death, as such in its general nature; and so they are applicable to any kind of death: I beseech you prepare yourselves to die, and thereby persuade your souls to be willing to die: you and I must die, it mattereth not what kind of death we die: be we careful to die in the Lord, and for the Lord: so shall death consummate our misery, and convey our fouls into the fullness of felicity. Austin well noteth, Quid interest an Febris (Let us say Pestis) an ferrum nos de corpore solverit? noli qua occasione, 
Aug. Epist. 122. ad victori.  sed quales ad se exeant, dominus attendit inservis suis: It mattereth not whether Sword or Plague kill us: Saints are subject to any, to every of them: God doth more regard the disposition of his Dying Servants, than the means of their death: the change of quality in us, changeth the quality of death unto us.  
Now that God may fit you for death, familiarize to you that King of fears; fix your souls on Christ, who is life in death: and so fill your hearts with those comforts, which may prevail with you to die willingly, until he please to accept an atonement: and call back the destroying Angel is and shall be the most affectionate, and constant prayer of,  
Yours in the Lord, fo● the good of you● souls, whilst he is, Z. C. July 20 th' 1665..   

A DEFENCE Against the Dread of DEATH; OR, Z. C. his serious Soliloquies, and Meditations of Death; under the alarms thereof, sounded in the time of his Imprisonment in the Tower of London, An. 1661.  

The PREFACE.  
THe wrath of the King, is the messenger of death; O sad messenger! O evil tidings! what is more unwelcome to man? what is more distasteful to nature? can it choose but dismay my soul, and affect my spirit? is not Death that, which nature hath determined to be of Terrible things the most Terrible? doth not the Scripture denominate it, 
Job 18.14  The King of Terrors? doth not the sense of death daunt the courage of the stoutest men of War? damp the comforts of this World? doth not this discompose the most composed Christian, and most serious Saint? were not the snares, the sorrows, the shade of Death, the things which David (that good, that stout man) did so passionately bewail, 
Ps. 18.4, 5. & 116.3.  and pray to be delivered from? the fear of Death made upright Hezekiah, 
Isa. 38.  To chatter like a Crane, and mourn like a Swallow; The Devil well knew what he said, 
Job 2.4.  when he said, All that a man hath he would give for his life: The Lord of life entered not the List, to encounter Death, without an heavy spirit; he needed some comfortable companions to watch with him under this conflict; he was not ashamed to profess, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death; 
Mat. 26.38, 39  and once, again, and a third time to pray, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.  
Shall I expect to be exempt from; Shall I be afraid or ashamed to express the passions which were existent in all God's Saints, and from which my Lord and Master himself was not freed? I am a Christian, but yet a man; I am a Minister, but yet a man; if I die, as I now fear, I die innocently; Lord thou knowest I die for righteousness sake; I shall be a Martyr, though of the lowest orb; this may mitigate dread; but it maketh no change in me, or in death, yet terrors attend it, and passions abide in me. The most resolved Paul, was so far from being ashamed, 
2 Cor. 1.8, 9  that he was desirous the Church should know he was pressed above measure; when he despaired of life, and received in himself the sentence of death, 
and 5.4.  the most desirous to be clothed with their House from Heaven, could never yet desire to be unclothed of their earthly Tabernacle; nature can be much more content to be changed, then to die.  
Death draweth me out of the bosom of the Wife of my delight; divideth me from my Children, the glory of my youth; driveth me from my Kindred, Acquaintance, Friends, and all humane society; Can I part from these with dry eyes? can men think I bear to these a natural affection, and expect I should bid adieu to them, not affected with natural passion? doth nature and religion direct me to love them? and will they not allow me to grieve when I leave them?  
Death doth discapacitate me for the service of my God and his Church; the grave cannot praise him; Death cannot celebrate him; They who go down into the pit cannot hope for his truth; will not Christianity, true Piety, teach me with dread to discern this estate? am I persuaded my life is more profitable for the Church? can I then avoid St. Paul's strait? 
Phil. 1, 21, 22, 23, 24.  and be easily resolved what to choose; though to me it is more profitable that I die?  
Death doth destroy my being; when I am dead I am not; can dissolution choose but dictate dread to sensible, much more to rational beings?  
Death is the wages of sin; the witness of God's wrath; and the curse of the Law, and by its circumstances made such with an emphasis; can then a man of Religion, receive the same without reluctancy and great remorse?  
Death is the inlet of mine immortal soul, into the Ocean of eternity; can I apprehend it without amazement, and great astonishment?  
Let malefactors outface; outdare this King of dread; and obtain to themselves the name and honour of Martyrs, by their only abandoning the fear of death; I dare not imitate, I must not justify, I cannot, I will not follow them; these fig-leaves will not hid their sin from the face of God.  
My soul! keep thy passions within bounds, then fear not to give them vent; and to express the same before God and Men; impossibile est hominem exuere; Christianity doth not require thee to turn stoic, and cease to be a man; Let the fear of Gods casting thee into hell, have the pre-eminence; then cease not to fear men's killing thy body; sell not thyself, to save a natural life; and then spare nothing to redeem the same from death; by the exception of this one thing thyself, make the Devil a liar, as did Job; and then be not troubled, to set thy seal to a truth spoken by the father of lies, (viz.) that all that a man hath he would give for his life; Let not the dread of death transport thee, to accept deliverance on terms of sinning against God; then be not afraid or ashamed to let men observe thee subjected thereunto; mourn not as without hope; then spare not to mourn that thou must part from them, whose duty it is to mourn over thy grave.  
I bless God, I see in nature much; in Scripture more abundant reason to make me willing; none to make me desirous to die; I look for those things, and that estate which I will not exchange for my natural life; but I could be glad to enjoy my life and them; The cup of death is bitter; my stomach riseth at, and against it; I cannot but pray, Oh my Father! If it be possible let this cup pass from me; If it be possible let this cup pass from me; Good Father, Let this cup pass from me; yet, I hope I shall never want grace to subjoin, not my will, but thy will be done; not my will, but thy will be done; not my will, but thy will be done: whilst Death is Death, and I a Man, I cannot but dread it; I cannot desire it; I will therefore endeavour to defend my soul against the dread thereof; and check my passions, by contemplating what may make me content to undergo, and cheerfully to stoop unto what I cannot, I dare not desire; any more than I can avoid, or dare decline it when directed by a righteous, yea, a gracious God to arrest me; my soul, silence; support thyself, considering,   

SECT. I.  
DEath is of all things most certain; 
Death is most certain.  most sure to overtake me; to befall me, dust I am, and to dust I must return; my life may be a while prolonged; but nothing is more certain than that death will ere long put an end unto it; man that is born of a woman, is but of few days.  
My natural constitution is corruptible; 
In man's natural constitution.  not only obnoxious to the assaults of violence from without; but also subject to innate corruption, principles destructive to itself; my body is at best but an earthly Tabernacle, always out of repair, and ready to fall; patched up by daily bread, which will not be able to sustain its being, when the grinders begin to fail; the Keepers of this my house do already tremble, my strong men begin to bow; many diseases now grow upon me; these are the Harbingers of mine approaching death; I do already bear in my back, the stone which will ere long most crrtainly batter in pieces the earthen vessel of my body; this Pitcher may a little while go to the Well, but it will at length come broken home.  
The contrary elements and qualities, whereof my body is compounded; and by which it doth now subsist, do conclude the certainty of my death; heat and cold, moisture and draught, are enemies each to other; by their opposition my being is upheld; and yet, the militation of these in me, tend to the annihilation of me: The hand of violence may indeed hasten on me that estate, which nature will most certainly, most speedily effect: the Plumb which is not plucked, will fall: the Grass which is not cut, will whither: the stoutest Oak, of longest growth, will at last come to dust, if it be not consumed to ashes: my strength is not the strength of stones, nor is my flesh ●rass; I am as a dried leaf; my life passeth away as a Weavers Shuttle, and withereth like the grass; the Axe or Halter can only hasten, what my study and labour is sure to produce in a little time; if Death could not otherwise destroy my being, these instrmuments (enforced by men's cruelty) should never do it, but it is an easy matter to break a bruised reed, and to force a dying life to breath out its last breath.  
My soul! my bodily constitution doth not more dispose me to die, than God's determination doth bind me unavoidably to undergo it; 
By God's determination. Heb. 9.27.  It is appointed unto all men, and so to me, once to die: The conclusion God made with man in Paradise (when he made with him a Covenant of life) was, 
Gen. 2.17.  In the day thou eatest of this fruit, thou shalt surely die: the sin was committed, the covenant was violated; this condition was judicially denounced, and duly executed; 
Rom. 5.12.  by one man, sin hath passed on all men, and death by sin; the severity of God, hath by a most righteous sentence, subjected all men to the stroke of death; am I a man, and expect to be exempted from the common fate of my nature?  
Immortality in the estate of innocency, 
Immortality not natural.  was of grace, not of nature: created, compounded man, was capable of dissolution;) that grace was once forfeited, never restored; nature therefore returned to its course, will inevitably work my ruin; and resolve me into the nothing, or the dust, out of which I was first made.  
The Lord Jesus Christ hath indeed, 
Christ redeemed not from the stroke of death.  undoubtedly redeemed me from death; but, it is from the sting, not from the stroke of death; he doth secure me from the curse, the consequences of death; but he stayeth not the returned course of nature, from passing on my being; hunger, cold, neakedness, sickness, sorrows, the assaults of violence, with all other man-destroying-accidents did befall himself, and are incident unto me; and are as certainly as effectually destructive to my being since, as before Christ's death and resurrection.  
I do most certainly believe, 
Some may be changed, yet not I 1 Cor. 15.51.  at the coming of our Lord in glory, all shall not die, some shall be changed: but I have no assurance that I am of that number; nor is it probable; for though I live in the last and worst days of the world, that last day is not so near me as my lives end; the great things which must be accomplished before that great and terrible day of the Lord come, cannot be effected in those few days nature will permit me to live; nor is it probable in this present age; I will not envy the Saints then living, the happiness of never dying, but my soul; I see no reason of hope, that I should partake thereof.  
Nature disposing me unto death; God having determined death to pass upon me; I cannot avoid it; it will with certainty overtake me at the last: It may overtake me sooner than I am ware or look for it; I have not the certainty of one days exemption from this most certain condition; I am subject to many casualties as well as diseases; a tile from an house, or a fall from my horse, might soon kill me if I were abroad; Death cometh on me where ever I am, as an armed man whom I cannot resist; and come to me the worst that can come, it is but death, which I can no way shun, or long avoid.  
My Soul! be wise; make a virtue of necessity; stoop quietly under that stroke from which thou canst not stir: Startle not in sense of that state, from which there is no starting: Whether I consume myself, or be cut down by others, it is but death; this estate doth unavoidably attend me: Let me be content cheerfully, submissively to bear the evil I am no more able to divert, then to desire; shall I stomach to entertain the guest, whom I daily expect, and who cometh with command, and  power; whose coming I cannot prevent or delay; who being come, will not be dismissed or sent back for one moment: I will bid welcome the certain unavoidable event, though hastened by an uncertain, unexpected stroke.   

SECT. II.  
DEath is not more certain to me, 
Death is a common state.  then common to men: this is the lot of all men; the man liveth not who shall not feel the stroke of Death; strong or weak, rich or poor, noble or ignoble, good or bad, must all die: 
Great men die.  The power of Princes may precipitate and hasten the death of others, but it cannot protect themselves from the stroke of death, no not for a moment; as for those who have riches, 
Ps. 49.7, 8.  there is not one of them can redeem his brothers, no, nor yet his own life from death; when I die I shall rest with Kings and Counsellors of the earth; 
Job 3.13, 14.  with Princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver: Death hath subdued the most dreadful Conquerors of the world, and devoured the most puissant Armies: 
Strong men die.  Where are now the Sons of Anack? what is become of the Giants of whom we read? are they not dead? could Sampsons' strength repel, or David's Worthies stand under and against the stroke of death? 
Best men die.  Piety is no privilege against the arrest of death; 
John 8.52, 53.  are not the Patriarcks fallen asleep? where are the Fathers of old? do the Prophets live for ever? the best that ever lived, died: death is an high way, a beaten road, this tract is trodden; Abel, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, Daniel, Peter, Paul, James, John, yea the Lord Christ himself are all dead; these with multitudes of all sorts, ranks, qualities, languages and degrees, have gone this way before me; why then do I fear to follow after them?  
Death is not more common in its general nature, 
The kind of death is also common.  then in its special kind: Violent death by all ways of ignominy, and instruments of cruelty are common to men; especially to Martyrs, and Gods most faithful Ministers: this way God's Prophets, Vrijah, Isaiah, Zechariah, and others: Christ's Disciples, Peter, Paul, James, John and others: The Primitive Fathers of the Church, Polycarpus, Ignatius, Justinius and others: And our first Reformers from Popish blindness, and abominations, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Bradford, Taylor, Saunders, and many others went out of the world: What day returneth without the death of men? what age of the world hath passed not stained with the blood of Martyrs, or violent death of holy men? what kind of death peculiar to malefactors, hath not God's Ministers and Martyrs, the zealous reprovers of public sin, been subjected to, and undergone?  
My Soul! be thy condition what it can, thou must conclude, there doth no temptation befall me but what is common to man, 
1 Cor. 10.13.  yea to the best of men, and to the chief of Martyrs: what if the way be dirty and dreadful, tedious and tiresome; shall I draw back? or not drive after so many, so good, such excellent men as are gone before me, Levius communia tangunt, say men by nature; how easy is a common yoke? whilst than mine is the common state of men, and good men; abate thy fears, advance thy courage; follow with cheerfulness and content: Let the motto of the happy, unhappy Lady Jane Grace give check to the admiring censures of the spectators of my death; Non aliena putes, homini qua obtingere possunt;  
Sors hodierna mihi, tunc erit illa sibi. I tread no untrodden tract; I am not the first, I shall not be the last that die; I go the way that many, most, and best have gone before me; and others must daily and hourly follow after me: whatsoever is my chance, death is the condition common to men; and the grave doth know no difference between them who run out the course of nature, and those who are cut off by violence; One dieth in his full strength, 
Job 21.23, 24, 25, 26.  being wholly at ease, and quiet, his breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow; another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure; these both lie down alike in the dust, and the worm shall cover them, without any difference or distinction; Let me die which way God hath determined, by sickness, or by sword, in my bed, or on a public stage, in old age, or in the prime of my days; in course of nature, or by the hands of violence, I can but die; and die I must, for I am a man; and death is common, certain, and natural unto man.   

SECT. III.  
DEath this common state, 
My death is decreed by God.  with all its circumstances is determined by the Lord: whatsoever doth relate unto this condition, is concluded in the counsels of the most high; these no man can alter, or avoid; God is of sovereign power; his purposes must and shall prevail against all powers whatsoever; what is by him decreed must stand most certainly to come to pass.  
My time is then in the hands of the Lord, he will preserve me from the force of any disease, and fury of the oppressor, until the date by him determined be expired; my time is appointed on the earth, 
Job 14.5.  my days are determined, the number of my months are with the Almighty; he hath set the bounds thereof; These I cannot, I must not expect to pass; nor can the distempers of nature, most violent diseases; or the fury, malice, or power of men, break in upon them, to anticipate their course, or accelerate their period; I cannot, I shall not be cut down before the time; nor any other way than that God hath decreed; shall not I be willing to go, when and how God will have me go?  
The decrees of Heaven are unalterable, and unavoidable; it is man's duty to submit to them without demur or debate; Shall I, can I profess a filial relation to God, and obedience to the will of him my Father, and not resign up myself, my time, and my life to be disposed by God? is a reluctancy in this case compatible with my prayer, thy will be done? or consistent with that my resolved supplication in this very case, not my will but thy will be done? men are but like diseases, executioners of God's decree upon me; they have against me no power but what is given them from above; though therefore I am loath to leave my cottage, and present sensible comforts, shall I dare to resist? or refuse cheerfully to yield unto, and resign them at the pleasure of mine absolute Lord and Sovereign, by which alone, I hold them?  
Consider, Oh my soul! it is the Lord (more righteous then to do me wrong, more gracious then to do me hurt) who doth dispose my time and state; Let him do what seemeth good unto him: There is a season to every thing under the Sun; 
Eccles. 3.1, 11.  there is a time to every purpose un-the Heaven: God's time is the set time to all things; and the best time to the Sons of men: every thing is beautiful in its time; so shall death be to me, when my time is come; when men's work is done it is fit they go to bed, lie down and sleep; man goeth forth to his work, and to his labour, 
Ps. 104.23.  until the evening: When Corn is ripe it must be cut done; I shall not fall without God's determinate counsel; shall I dare? can I desire to contradict that? I shall not be cut down until I be ripe; and my cutting down be seasonable; can I wish to stand longer? I have lived, shall I not now be content to die, according to God's determination?   

SECT. iv  
THe assaults of Death, are the assaults of an enemy, 
Death is an enemy, but conquered.  armed with power and irresistible. This is very true! but yet, Death is the last enemy I must encounter; and cannot be otherwise conquered then by my falling under its stroke: my whole life hath been a militation; and my death is but a military finishing of my course: my willingness to die; mine encountering this King of terrors with a Christian faith; with a calm, quiet, and composed Spirit; can only make my dying words trumpet with triumph, 
2 Tim. 4.7.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.  
I have all my life-time fought with Death, as Samson with the Philistines; it often assaulteth me by hunger, nakedness, cold, infant-weakness, sickness, natural diseases, and the assaults of violence: shall I think it strange to receive another onset, and to take one turn more with my constant enemy? Shall I fear by the power of grace, to vanquish him, whom I have by the strength of nature, and help of art, I many times resisted and repelled.  
O my soul! Sin my Dalilah, hath deceived me; and spoilt me of my natural strength; I cannot now, as formerly, fight with, and beat back this Philistine: mine only conquest of him, is to fall before, and with him: when he hath divided my body from my soul, he hath done his worst; and will soon find a few such victories will waste his strength, so that he shall not be able to keep the field; to appear in the world; or to assault the sons of men.  
My soul! consider thy present state; compose thyself; cry unto God for strength of faith; that thou mayst by dying, be at once revenged on thine enemy: I shall when dead, be for ever freed from that warfare, with Satan, Sin, and the World, which I have been constrained to wage all my life long: I shall then no longer fight for my strength, youth, growth, credit, comforts, and conscience, all which I have all my time defended with much difficulty, and great danger: Death mine enemy, shall then set me free from the Devil's temptation, the world's enticements, the outrage of men, the arrows of the Almighty, and the lustings of mine own flesh; all which have all my days stung my soul, and battered my body. My soul! take courage unto this last encounter; herein my willingness to die, is the victory; my fall is the fullest conquest that I ever did, or can make: be herein the more courageous, considering,  
Death is, though an enemy, yet a conquered, and disarmed enemy: Christ, that Captain of my salvation, hath tried the strength of death, and subdued it; he by dying did overcome death, and him who had the power of death, (viz.) the Devil: herein Satan was out shot in his own Bow, and caught in his own snare: what gained the Philistines by bringing forth Samson to make them sport; and to be insulted over, in the house of Dagon; but their own destruction? the very same hath death and the Devil gotten by bringing the Lord of life to die on the Cross; and to the Grave which could not hold him; these by getting, have lost the victory: O blessed Paradox! by this my faith, and my soul can outface, outbrave death; whilst my nature, and my body doth dread the assaults, and stroke thereof. Death struck the Lord of life with its sting; and lost its sting by striking him: and in him, all that are his, do ever since insult over death; with an, O death! 
1 Cor. 15.55.  where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? Since this foil death is befooled of its conquest over them whom it most insultingly strikes with success, and cutteth down with power; for it prevailing, looseth its design: The design of Death is to seal man under indelible guilt; to set him under the curse of the Law; and at everlasting distance from the Lord: 
vers. 56.58  The sting of Death is Sin; the strength of Sin is the Law; but thanks be unto God, who hath given us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord; for hereby death doth (to all that are in Christ Jesus) effect what is directly contrary to its design, it dischargeth that guilt under which they grieved all their days; and releaseth them from those curses of the Law, by which they were chastened in this life; and it transmitteth their souls unto the immediate and eternal enjoyment of God and Christ; and although it holdeth the body for some time, yet, it divideth it not from Christ, to whom it is inseparably united; and by whom it shall be raised up, to be reunited to the soul, and perfectly possess God for ever.  
My Soul! why art thou afraid of a Bee which hath lost its sting? why dost thou dread an enemy vanquished to thy hand, and sprawling at thy feet? Hath David killed Goliath, and shall not trembling, affrighted Israel up, and pursue the Philistines? hath the Lord Christ gotten and given me the victory over death, by discharging thy guilt, and bearing the punishment thereof in his own body, unto the satisfaction of the Law; and wilt thou fear to encounter the fiercest assaults thereof? What? shall a conquered enemy disanimate the Conqueror?  
My Soul! in the world thou hast tribulation; in death thou hast terror; but be of good comfort thou art now engaged in the last encounter with both; and the Lord Jesus hath overcome the world, and conquered death: Triumph in death; for thou shalt by dying, be made triumphant over Death, the World and the Devil: Thy warfare is now accomplished; let me now in my last act play the man, and show the valour of my Faith and Patience, unto the due restraint of my now provoked fear and passions: Then this shall be the matter of mine eternal happiness and honour, that I have warred a good warfare; I have fought a good fight, I have kept the Faith.   

SECT. V  
DEath is a curse, 
The cursed nature of death is changed.  the punishment of man's sin, the expression of God's wrath, and the execution of the Law; and dreadful sentence pronounced against man. It is so, in its nature, and of itself: But it is not such to all that are thereto subjected: the voice from heaven hath proclaimed them Blessed, 
Rev. 14.13.  who die in the Lord, and hath rendered two reasons of the blessed state of their death: First, they rest from their labour; they then reap no punishment, 
Heb. 4.10  but are indeed blessed; for he that is entered into his rest, ceaseth from his own works (of sin and sorrow) as God ceased from his. Secondly, Their works follow them, unto their acceptance with, and recompense from the Lord.  
The nature of death is changed to such who are in Christ, 
Death to Christ's friends is a sleep.  and to such who die for Christ; the friends of Christ do not die, but sleep: 
Job 7.21.  I account sleep a special blessing of God, for the refreshment of nature: my sleep is the image the similitude of death: Death is the truest, the only sleep of a true Beleiver; when I sleep I am as dead; and when I die I shall but sleep: I shall indeed sleep longer in my grave, then in my bed; but I am sure I shall sleep more quietly; without affrighting fancies, or disturbing dreams, and I shall at length awake and arise: when my weary day is ended, how willing am I to lie down and sleep? My Soul! art thou not willing thy weary body should have rest? to die is to a Saint no more, then to undress and go to bed, to lie down and sleep; 
Joh. 11.11  Let what will become of Dives, our friend Lazarus sleepeth.  
The righteous when they die, are taken from evil to come: 
Isa. 57.1, 2 and 26.20  death is their defence from danger, distress and dread; their grave is God's pavilion and receptacle, into which they his jewels are gathered, 
Mal. 3.17.  lest they should be left in the commotions of the world; in which, they his trusty friends and confederates are secured from the storm and blast of the terrible ones, raised up by the Lord to shake terribly the earth: my Soul! what though the Chambers of death be dark; wilt thou deem it a curse to be gathered into them by God's special grace; that thou mayst not feel, hear or see the evil, which his wrath and vengeance is about to bring on the places of thy present abode? The just by death enter into peace, when the whole world is full of Wars; they rest in their beds when the house is all in an hurly burly, and unquiet tumult: Death is the Saints cessation from labour and travel; their security from lamentation and trouble: their estate of quiet and ease, and their entrance into rest and glory: The very wicked (who with Balaam, are ready to curse them whilst they live) would gladly share lots with them in their death: The worst of men are so apprehensive and affected that their latter end shall be exceedingly good, that they cannot but wish to die the death of the righteous.  
Death is indeed a curse to sinners; but the course of nature unto Saints: The direful executioner of God's wrath and law, to all who die in their sin; but a messenger of divine favour to all who die in the Lord; an harbinger of peace to all who walk in uprightness: A grim Porter to fetch home to their father's mansions, all that are Gods children. Death is indeed a dismal doom on the sons of the first Adam,; but the discharge of all sin, sorrow, pain, and travel to all the sons of the second Adam: death is in its nature vile and odious, 
Ps. 116.15.  but precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of all his Saints: death is exceeding dreadful to such who are obnoxious to its sting; but the stroke of death is , to all such who are acquitted from, and armed against its sting.  
Death by violence containeth in it a curse, 
A good cause, and conscience, make death a blessing.  with an emphasis; and increase: yet, a good conscience, righteousness towards God; and the testimony of Jesus; being the cause procuring the same; maketh the most base, ignominious, and cursed death, a condition of glory and blessedness: the blessing of them who die in the Lord; doth most certainly, eminently, and especially appertain to such who die for the lord 
Phil. 1.29.  It is a singular gift to believe in Christ; but to suffer, and that unto death, for Christ, is a peculiar gift, of special grace; all Saints share not in it; attain not the honour of it: Stephen stoned for enforcing the truth of Religion (by the strength of reason, 
Act. 7, 55, 56.  not to be resisted by the adversaries,) saw, Heaven open to receive him at his death: The slain for the Word of God, and testimony which they held, are lodged under God's Altar in glory; 
Rev. 6.9.10, 11.  and before the Throne of the Lamb; they are clothed in white robes, to attend the Lamb: the most cursed and ignominious death is changed and made glorious to just men, by having passed on God's best servants; most zealous and faithful Prophets; yea, the only and beloved Son of God, the Lord Jesus, our Saviour, hath made death, every, any kind of death the blessing of his people.  
My Soul! mistake not the nature of death, unto the increase of thy dread: mind the condition; make sure of the qualification which changeth its nature; and then death will lose its affrighting vizard, and have another aspect in thine eye; and thou wilt incline to give it a more free acceptance: am I in Christ? I am then redeemed from the curse of death; can I? dare I desire to divert the course of nature? Beware, O my soul! who am I? Shall the earth be removed for me? 
Job 18 4.  shall I think to alter God's purpose? or to change the course of God's providence towards men? shall I not be satisfied to be saved from the sting, unless I escape also the stroke of Death? God never purposed, Christ never promised to free me from this; why do I presume to dream of it, to look for it? Shall my dread of the stroke, darken the glory of Christ's love, or damp mine apprehensions, and esteem of the unspeakable, undeserved mercy of being saved from the sting of death? God forbidden. God hath extracted the poison; shall my stomach nauseate and rise against this cup, only because it is bitter? Oh no; I will rightthankfully take it, as the cup of salvation; and dismiss my dread; and dutifully submit myself to the Will of God, only wise; my most gracious Father: O my God, not my will but thy Will be done.  
God hath accounted poor, weak, worthless me, worthy of the Ministry of the glorious Gospel of his dear Son, he hath at this time culled me from among my brethren, to bear a special Testimony to his truth; to the power, plainness, purity, and simplicity of Christ's ordinances, worship and officers; and to those degrees of reformation in this Church and Nation, which have been protested and solemnly sworn to the most high God; herein I have believed; for these I have spoken, written, and disputed; and shall I now fear to suffer? shall I now dread death, the crowning act of all my zeal, diligence and fidelity? is not this part of the cross of Christ? and so, the glorious crown of a Minister of the Gospel? have I any thing wherein to glory, save the Cross of Christ? and shall I fear to be seen in my Master's Livery? the honour of my now expected death, is an high favour, a peculiar privilege, an effect of special grace; and therefore sufficient to persuade me to be, not only willing, but desirous to be offered up by death; to, and for him who accounted not his life dear for me: Death in, and for this cause, is not more my duty then my dignity; the more ignominious it is, the more glorious; it shall receive the due recompense of reward; 
2 Tim. 2.12.  If I suffer with Christ, I shall be glorified with him; and reign with him.  
I have all my days wandered in this world like a Pilgrim in a strange Country; it is now my Father's pleasure to call and send for me home; shall I refuse to go in the hand of a grim Messenger? because of his ghastly look, and affrighting countenance? may not the same bloody hand conduct me to my Father's House, which doth cut down mine and my Father's foes? what though the stroke of death be the same to good and bad? the sequels of Death are not the same to both: the Red Sea may pass Israel into the land of rest, and yet ruin the Egyptians: the same Sheriff who doth execute Traitors and malefactors, doth put good subjects into the possession of their proprieties; though he be dreadful in the one, his very posse comitatus is  to the other: Shall I foolishly draw back, fear to be possessed of mine inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, because I must be brought, and put into it with Halberds, Bills, Swords, and the Sheriff's train and power?  
My Soul; cheer up; reflect on thyself; Christ his love; and God's grace; notwithstanding my many slips, falls, and infirmities; I will presume to say, I have lived the life of the righteous; the Covenant of God is on my flesh; with God I have desired and endeavoured to walk; though I have sometimes wandered, and gone astray like a lost sheep: I have embraced Christ my Lord; and to him I will cleave, as to my dear Redeemer; I shall therefore die the death of the righteous: although I may be struck, I shall not be stung by death: Death may pass upon me as the course of nature, and as an expression of humane rage, but not as the curse of God; or execution of his Law: Let me make it my care to see my quality changed whilst I live; and then I am assured God will change the quality of my death when I die.   

SECT. VI  
IF I now die, as men's rage doth threaten; mine enemy's desire and hope; my friends fear and deprecate; and myself have cause to expect; I die as a Malefactor; and by the sentence of a righteous Law, well, and what then? 
Such is the Stat. of Ed. 3. the only law declaring Treason.  if I do thus die, my guilt is real or reputed.  
Suppose my guilt were real (for Lord thou knowest mine innocency wherein I stand defamed) to die a malefactor is not inconsistent with eternal salvation: I may die for my sin, and not die in my sin: I may be most justly punished by men (that others may hear, and fear, 
Deut. 13.11.  and do no more so wickedly) for that sin which may be pardoned by the Lord: I may be condemned in the world for that crime, which shall never be charged on me by my God: my present punishment may provoke my repentance; and my repentance will most certainly procure me Gods, if not the King's mercy: Divine grace is not barred by humane justice: the thief crucified with Christ, received (and confessed so much) the due reward of his evil; 
Luk. 23.41, 43.  yet this hindered not his souls being that night in Paradise with his Saviour and fellow-sufferer: The crime, not the condition, must divide between God and the soul; as it doth divide the soul from the body: but repentance is the sponge of guilt; where God giveth repentance, he denieth not remission of the most egregious crime; to the most heinous offendor: The hand of humane justice may be the help of the sinner's repentance; and than Tyburn, or Tower-hill may be as near, as good, yea, a much better way to Heaven then any other: Happy is the stroke of justice, 
2 Chron. 33.12.  which may save the soul from hell. Manassehs fetters made him see, confess, and abandon his sin: the Elect of God are not exempt from the greatest crimes; they may fall into and commit them: But this is their happiness, they are sure to repent thereof; and therefore they shall not be eternally condemned for them. I envy not some late condemned, executed malefactors, 
The murderous Judges of his late Majesty K. C. first.  their confidence of salvation, and eternal life; but I hearty wish that (for the glory of God, the honour of Christian martyrdom, credit of true Religion, the real comfort of their friends; as well as their own salvation) they had more freely and more openly owned their guilt (most odious in the light of nature, much more of Scripture) confessed their sin; and justified God and man by their contrition, and due confusion under the just sentence of a most righteous law: I cannot but think repentance had been more proper matter for their professions, than their insultation and rejoicing in their sufferings, as if in and for the Lord; and their peace, joy and courage, whereof their surviving friends boast; not observing the same abstracted from that humiliation, and pensive demeanour, most Christianly suitable to so just, and sad sufferings.  
If there be in me any real guilt, for which I have deserved to die; I pray God convince me of it (for I yet see it not) and affect me with it: if in any thing I have violated the Law, though through error, or ignorance, God give me grace to justify the righteousness of that law by which I may be condemned; and than if my suffering the sentence of the law work in me a sense of guilt, unto a penitential submission under the hand of God, through faith in Christ my Saviour, I shall see cause to confess Gods abundant goodness, in saving my soul, by the condemnation, execution, and loss of my body.  
But O Lord, thou knowest the crime by which I stand defamed; & for which, I may be unjustly condemned, is reputed and not real; for my heart never yet admitted, or entertained the least evil thought against the King, the Lords anointed: if then I die in mine innocency, and as a malefactor; my death may administer to me more joy than grief, more comfort than contrition, more confidence than confusion; for howsoever men may condemn me, God, and mine own conscience will acquit and justify me: Nor am I the first, the only one, that hath been oppressed in judgement; this is one of the common evils under the sun, belonging to God's immediate & peculiar vengeance: 
Eccles. 7.15. and 5.8.  there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness; if thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent perverting of justice and judgement in a Provinces marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth it, and he is higher than they. I pray God prevent England's King and Kingdom from slaying poor, 
In this God hath graciously answered my desire.  envied, and despised me; for mine innocent blood will hurt them, more than their stroke can possibly hurt me; they can but kill my body; work for me the glory of a martyr; send me to my place and state of rest: but this will hazard their souls, gall their consciences, cast them under the guilt, and odium of violence, persecution and murder by the sword of justice; slain the land with blood which will cry for God's vengeance and their repentance; As for me, I am in your hands, do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you; But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this City, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth the Lord hath sent me, and stirred me up to speak and write all the words which I have sounded in your ears.  
The reproach of my suffering as a malefactor, will indeed, and for a time cloud my credit; darken my sufferings, and deprive God of the honour of them, making them a stone of stumbling to many; a rock of offence to the weak and wicked: but they shall not in the least eclipse the glory of my sufferings, and innocency, in the sight of God and good men; or in the sense of mine own conscience: As for me; let all men know, I wait for a resurrection of names, as well, as certainly, as a resurrection of bodies, when the great Judge of all the Gods on earth, shall appear to call over the process, take cognizance of the error, and reverse the false judgement passed by the sons of the mighty. Whilst my God, and my conscience witness, true Religion, enforced by right reason, to be whole, the only, and the real cause of my suffering; why should I be troubled at the clamour, and seeming black charge of Treason, whilst the fulfilling my ministry, and the faithful discharge of my duty, is the real ground, and only cause of men's wrath, and my death; Shall I be dismayed, that I am Arraigned, Condemned, and executed so, as to be reputed a Malefactor? have not all God's Prophets and Apostles been presented to the World as evil doers? and as such, exposed unto, and derided in their sufferings? was not Jeremiah charged with Treason? 
Jer. 37.13, 15. Act. 24.5  and Paul with Sedition? and both as such imprisoned and afflicted: Elijah was the troubler of Israel; was not Amos expelled the Court as a Dangerous Preacher against the King; was not Michaiah carged by the King, to be one that bore ill will to the King? was not this the very lot of Christ himself? suffered not that righteous one, as a Blasphemer, and as an enemy to Caesar? shall I be deterred from following my Master? from drinking of the cup, whereof my dear redeemer hath begun? from travelling in the beaten road of all God's Prophets? the very way prescribed by the Lord himself? hath not the Lord Christ declared humane rage and reproach, to attend all who faithfully reveal his will, and men's sins? is not unjust reproach in my death, part of Christ's cross, and my Crown? why then do I dread and decline it? if I be reproached for the name of Christ, I am happy, 
1 Pet. 4.14  the spirit of glory, and of Christ resteth on me.  
It is the cause, not the pain, maketh the Martyr, or Malefactor, my soul, be not troubled at the kind, or clamoured cause of my death: were I indeed really guilty; did I receive the due reward of my sin, I must then have laid my mouth in the dust, confessed my sin; given glory to God, accepted the punishment of mine iniquity, and by an humble act of faith applied the blood of Christ to my soul; then I might rest assured that I was condemned in and by the world, that I might not be judged of the Lord. But whilst if I die, as I now dread, I die innocently, for a good conscience, and for the Testimony of the truth; Let me rejoice that God hath accounted me worthy to be reputed the off-scowring of this world, and enemy of mankind; for my judgement is of the Lord, who judgeth most righteous judgement; and though my brethren cast me out, 
Isa. 66.5.  and cry; Let the Lord be glorified; yet, he will appear to my joy, and they shall be ashamed; when Jesus Christ shall come to judge, clear, and crown me as his Martyr; it shall not repent me that men condemned and cut me off as a Malefactor.   

SECT. VII.  
IN death I shall feel pain; 
Death is painful, but puts an end to pain.  It is like I may; yet, God can make it easy: I feel more pain in the precursors, than I can feel in the stroke of death: the pain and extremity of a kill disease, is often, and ordinarily more, than the pain of death; it is usually such as maketh life a burden, and death defireable; how many in the burn of a Favour, a fit of the Stone, or Colic, have wished for death to ease them of their pain? my fear of pain in death is much greater, than what I shall feel in the stroke thereof; the pomp and passage unto death, doth, and will more perplex my soul, than the pain thereof can possibly pinch my sense: but suppose the worst; yet,  
The greatest pains of death are tolerable, and pass away in a moment: with how much ease did the Lord Jesus give up the Ghost, in that dying act, the dreadful expectation of which, made him sweat blood and water? how many of the Martyrs have with most calm and composed spirits, lain under the most cruel and exquisite torments; and as Lambs before the Shearer, breathed out their last breath in the greatest pains of death, that envy could devise, or enraged malice could inflict? Hawks (that holy Martyr, in our Marian Persecution) in the midst of the flames, did not forget to lift up his hands towards Heaven, before he gave up the Ghost; as a token to his Friends, that the raging pain of that fiery death was tolerable. All Gods Saints have lain on this rack; and sitten down on this little ease; and shall I give back because of a little tolerable pain? Be the pains of death never so piercing sharp, and intolerable; yet they are short, soon pass away; and are the Period of all pain; in respect of this, nature hath conceived, and Scripture hath expressly concluded, 
Eccles. 7.2.  better is the day of a man's death, than the day of his birth: all my life hath been nothing else but sorrow and pain; my days have hitherto passed in anguish, affliction, and anxiety; yea, my resting time, place, and state, hath scared me with Dreams, 
Job ●. 13, 14.  and terrified me with Visions in the night, so that strangling death, any kind of death, hath been more  than life; Shall I now fear that one stroke, which though it cut me to the heart, will at once cut off all my pain and grief? doth not nature teach men to choose the pain of cutting off an Arm or Leg, rather than to lie continually under a festering, burning, and incurable wound? Plotinus the Philosopher, accounted men's mortality, God's special mercy, as the expiration of their misery: Cato Major, that wise Roman, reflecting the pains he had endured, professed if he might be rendered young again, and renew his age, he would not desire it; he would refuse it: Did the pain of life, take away the pain of death to Heathens? and shall it not much more do so unto Christians, who have other, and better hopes of future happiness than they ever knew or expected?  
My soul! stir up thyself, make out a little faith and patience to endure this one pinch, and stroke of pain, which shall presently cease and be the period of all thy misery; the cure of all thy maladies; and will heal thee of all thy fears, griefs, cares, diseases, and distempers: the afflictions of my body, and anguish of my mind: though I walk through the vale of the shadow of death I will fear none ill; for Lord thou art with me: be with me O my God, that I may not over-passionately fear that little short pain I must feel; make thou a lively faith in me, to bear up under, prevail against, and triumph over a lively sense; that so my last little pain being past, I may possess eternal health and ease; and therein rejoice, for that although the stroke of death did for present cut, it did for ever cure my soul.   

SECT. VIII.  
DEath will deprive me of all sensible pleasure: it will so; 
Death depriveth of pleasures, but they are sensible.  and it is no matter; for this pleasure was at best but sensible; my soul found no pleasure in it; nor did it satisfy my very senses; these were tired in the possession, and use of these; 
Eccles. 1.8  The eye is not satisfied in seeing, nor the ear in hearing: The necessary novelty is an undeniable evidence of the vanity of these delights. 
Sinful.  It were well if I could say these pleasures were only sensible, my soul hath on woeful experience found them the pleasures of sin; 
Heb. 11.25.  not only the reward, but also the cause of sin: I never could possess them without sin; I have in this respect paid full dear for all the pleasures I have enjoyed under the sun; they have stolen too much of mine heart and affections, they have eaten into, and eaten up too much of my precious time; they have dulled my senses; stupefied my soul, and discomposed me unto the duties of holiness; they have been baits and snares, whereby I have been enticed unto, and entangled in sin, they have diverted my soul from seeking, and solacing itself, in more serious and satisfying delights: the sinfulness of my pleasure hath eaten out the sweetness of my pleasure.  
These pleasures of sin are but for a season; are often changing, 
Short.  and do soon vanish; will certainly expire; cannot endure for ever, and leave bitterness behind them when they go away; they have cost me more smart and grief when they have been ended, than they did afford me joy or content whilst they continued: I may willingly dismiss those pleasures, which I have bought at so dear a rate; possess so uncertainly, and for so short a season; and proved so vain, empty, and dissatisfactory.  
My Soul! Let me cheerfully, contentedly cease from my pleasure among the living on earth; whilst I shall therein cease from the sinning and sorrowing, necessarily attendant on, and inseparably annexed unto my pleasures: and yet consider, all joy is not at an end with me when I die; 
Joy succeedeth and yet remaineth  I pass not from all pleasure, when parted from these; I only leave what is sensible and sinful; but death shall transmit my soul into God's presence, in which are rivers of pleasures for evermore: 
Psal. 16.11  can I think the fullness of lasting joys, solacing my soul in the sight of God, will not compensate my loss of the sensible pleasures of sin, which are but for a season? did these cast the scales of Moses judgement and affections in his time of life, 
Heb. 11.25, 26, 27.  youth and strength, causing him to despise the Crown and glory of Egypt; and to choose affliction with the people of God, rather than to be called the son of Pharoah's Daughter? And shall not the sense and expectation thereof make me content to leave the delights, which I cannot longer enjoy? It was my duty to have refused them sooner; I may well be content to relinquish them now, I can enjoy them no longer. My soul! yield unto, rejoice in, and bless God for that necessity, which doth enforce thy duty; and willingly leave those pleasures, which would have left thee in bitterness, if thou should longer abide in the body, the only subject capable of these sensible pleasures.   

SECT. IX.  
DEath will deprive me of all my outward comforts, 
Death doth deprive me of outwardcomforts which I have long enjoyed to supply my necessity.  goods and possessions in the world, Wife, Children and Servants which ministered to me; Be it so; it is God's mercy I have enjoyed them for so long a time; I am in the possession of them a tenant at God's will, he doth not the least wrong to take them from me; so kind hath God been to me, he hath let me possess them, whilst they could do me good, and I had need of them: when I am dead they cannot minister to me; I shall have neither need nor use of any, or all these comforts: I may well be content to leave what I shall not lack, what I cannot use; it is I confess a mercy to have them; but it speaketh imperfection to have need of them: is it not much better to be in an estate of perfection without them, then to have these comforts to me continued, and myself abide imperfect?  
Death doth deprive me of some comforts; 
Such as content not nor continue.  but they are such which afford no true content; nor are they of any continuance: they are, though the best things under the sun; yet at the best, they are but things under the sun; 
Eccl. 1.1, 2  and all things under the sun are vanity and vexation of spirit: they give a little, and indeed but a little content to my sense; but not any to my soul; they were not obtained without care, retained without fear; nor will they now be relinquished without grief: I cannot deny them to be flowers, flowers of beauty and pleasure; but I must confess I ever found them fading, and full of pricks: I have not enjoyed them without vexation; and if I live longer, I shall ere it be long lose them, and have them taken from me; they all have the wings of the morning, and fly away in a moment. I can already say of some, what I shall soon say of the rest; I had servants, trusty and faithful to me; but they are gone: 
My means by my ministry.  I had goods yearly renewing my store, but it is taken from me; I had Children, sweet babes, the chief of nature's blessings; but my joseph's my Benjamins are not; mine outward enjoyments have been to me a Gourd of refreshment, and present delight; 
Jon. 4.6, 7  but a Jonahs' Gourd of vanity, in the root of which is a worm, which doth and will soon make it whither: if I pass not from my present comforts, they will pierce my soul with care and fear, and at last perish in mine hand; I may well be content to die from those comforts, which are sure to die from me; and leave me in sorrow, even in worldly sorrow which worketh death: 
2 Cor. 7.10.  What great difference is it for me to be parted from my comforts, or to have my comforts parted from me? can any thing but a childish temper, make me cry, when those pleasing toys are taken from me, which I freely leave when tired with them: or which I fling from me with fury when I feel myself hurt by them? what cause have I to be thus dismayed, to be divided from those comforts which I have thus long enjoyed, to supply my need yet with certain dolour, and uncertain durance? shall I so foolishly love, as not be content to leave what loadeth me with care and fear; yet cannot last; but will be gone from me, if I stay longer in this world?  
Death taketh me from my outward comforts; but yet, I leave them to, and for the comfort of my relations and friends, which stay behind me; they will have the use of them, they will do them good; though I leave them, they are not lost, my turn is served by them; shall I grudge that others have them to serve their turn, as they served mine? hath it not been my care to get goods, that I might leave them to my Relations? and shall I now be unwilling to leave them that little which I have gotten? and which can now do me no more good?  
Though death deprive me of some useless moveables; yet it leaveth me my most precious jewels, and chiefest substance: the graces of my soul, the glorious privileges of my faith, death cannot touch, or take from me; and these are more worth than all the world: My soul! play the Merchant, be content to see thy luggage, and empty cask cast overboard, to save thy choice commodities, and thy pearls of price: death may take me from riches, it cannot touch my righteousness; it may anticipate my pompous Funeral, but it cannot hinder my graces from going with me to Heaven; though I must at death leave my outward comforts, this is mine advantage I may retain, and carry with me mine integrity: My soul! death shall not meddle with thy best treasure; be therefore content to part with thy worst enjoyments; thine outward comforts: whilst thy tottering tabernacle must fall, thine earthly cottage must be burnt; rejoice, and bless God that thou canst save any thing; much more, that thy best goods, thy substance is escaped and secured; for being herewith stored, thou shalt possess an estate much more plentiful and pleasant, than what thou hadst in this life and world. 
Death cuts me off from my relations, but casteth them on God.    

SECT. X.  
DEath will cut me off from my dear Relations, whose dependence hath been on my care for them; but, it will then dispose them under the more immediate care, protection, 
Psal. 68.5. Hos. 14.3.  and providence of God, who is, judge of the Widow's case, and with whom the Fatherless find mercy. It peirceth my soul to hear the Wife of my bosom cry, Oh Husband! What shall become of me, when thou the covering of mine eyes art taken from me? and to hear my Children cry, What shall become of us, when our careful, compassionate Father is gone? be still my soul! submit, yield unto my God; even so father, for so it seemeth good unto thee: Is it not my duty by an act of faith, to cast my fatherless Children on the Lord? have I not taught, and often assured my Widow, she must trust in God? was it not the Lord who provided for them by me? in vain had I risen early, gone to bed late, & eaten the bread of carefulness, if God had not built my house: Shall I think the same God cannot, or shall I fear he will not provide for them without me? they may be put upon some more sensible straits, to exert some more special acts of faith; more eminently to exercise some graces; but they have the same assurance, and some better security, that they shall enjoy food convenient, the Fountain abideth full and flowing, though not by the same pipe and conduit which is cut off: it is God's property, and promise, to take care of the Widow and Fatherless: especially of such who are so made for the testimony of his truth: Why do I disquiet myself for the sadness of that condition, which setteth my dear Relations in a more special dependence on God; and secureth to them the more peculiar providence of God? I love them; I have looked after them whilst I lived; I will now leave the care of them to him, who expressed it by me; who can and will express the same without me; who is charged with them by his own property and promise; who is more immediately, more eminently bound to look after them, by taking, thus taking me from them.  
O my God give my Wife and Children a fear of thee; submission to thee; and faith in thee; be thou the Husband of my Widow; and the Father of my fatherless Children; that to the praise of thee who failest not, they may tell the world, the unbeleiving world; they lost nothing by losing, thus losing me: they traded to good advantage, by freely, willingly, cheerfully, contentedly, giving up a most loving Husband, and tender Father, to the pleasure of a gracious, faithful, never failing God; who stayeth with them, and careth for them, when he by death doth take me from them.   

SECT. XI.  
AFter death, 
Death hindereth me from knowing what is done under the sun; and so I shall know no evil.  I must lie down in the pit, I shall be covered with darkness; I shall not know what is done under the Sun; This will indeed be my state: but yet, whilst I lie down in the pit, I shall abide in safety, and be delivered from my brethren's rage and fury; My Brother Reuben proveth most faithful and affectionate, by letting me down into the pit; he thereby secureth, not only my life, but also my liberty against my brethren's malice; their hands cannot then reach me to do me hurt; they cannot draw me thence, to sell and enslave me to any Ishmaelite, their envy may inquire for me, but they shall not find me; I shall be preserved in safety, and preferred to glory, when their entangled state shall affect their hearts, and make them with bitterness to remember, and confess, they are verily guilty concerning their brother, in that they saw the anguish of his soul, 
Gen. 42.21.  when he besought them, and they would not hear him: my being put into the pit, is the passage to glory God hath determined for his beloved joseph's.  
If darkness cover me; it doth the better suit my sleeping state, and capacitate me thereunto; light is indeed pleasant to the eye, but it is perturbing, preventing, when men desire to sleep: my gracious God layeth me in the grave, as in an house of darkness; and as on a bed of silence; that my wearied body may the better sleep and take its rest; until it shall be awakened by his last trumpet; which shall summon me to meet my Lord in glory.  
I have no great cause to be troubled for that, 
Nothing but evil under the sun to be known.  I shall not know what is done under the Sun: for there can be little done against me, after I am dead; nothing that can hurt me: suppose men's foolish envy should dig up my stinking carcase, to burn or bury it under the Gallows; they may annoy themselves, they cannot afflict me: sure I am, they can do nothing under the Sun, which shall concern me when I am dead; why shall I be so curious, as to covet the knowledge of other men's affairs? I might possibly know some good by my life; but that will be but very little; but I were therein sure to know very much evil; and such evil as would and must afflict me: whilst I know nothing under the Sun, I shall not know the profaneness, blasphemies, impieties, injustice, oppressions, violence, superstitions, perfidies, perjuries, and persecutions which are done under the Sun, all which would call for, and constrain grief in my soul, and tears from my eyes; seeing I could not know a little good, without knowing so much evil; shall I not be content to be freed from a so vexatious burden as is the knowledge of things under the Sun; I hate life, 
Eccles. 2.17.  because the work which is wrought under the Sun is grievous unto me, for it is vanity and vexation of spirit.  
What if I do not know what is done under the Sun? 
After death I shall know much good.  I shall know much better things: my soul the seat and subject of mine understanding, shall be acquainted with, and fully apprehend the glories which are above the Sun: I shall then know the depths of divine mercy, the mysteries of man's salvation; 
1 Cor. 13.12.  I shall then know as I am known; I shall perfectly know God and Christ; shall I stick to entertain such an exchange of objects to mine understanding? is not my loss great, and greatly to be lamented? by which I only lose the knowledge of vanity, which would not make me happy; and iniquity which would make me miserable; but gain the knowledge, the perfect knowledge of good, much good, true and substantial good, only good, without the least mixture of evil; and that in an estate, in the enjoyment of perfect glory?   

SECT. XII.  
AFter death there shall be no remembrance of me: 
No remembrance of me after death, nor of my sin.  but it's no matter; a great name, foolishly purchased by the great precipitacie of some in the world; is nothing but a great bubble of vanity, which will wear out at last; time will eat it out of the strongest Cities, or marble Monuments: and I hope when I am forgotten, my sin & shame will also be forgotten: serious thoughts suggest unto me content, the little good I have done should be forgotten, so that my folly and wickedness may not be remembered: and yet,  
My soul! be not dismayed, the Scripture doth declare the memory of the just is blessed; 
Psal. 10.7. & 112.6.  and the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance; God hath provided that his people's names shall live, when their dead bodies shall consume in the grave: the Lord hath used me whilst I lived, as an instrument of his truth and honour; can I die, and be forgotten in his Church, or among his people? shall not my works follow me? shall not my works praise me in the gate? can the sinners by me reproved, or the Saints by me converted to, or confirmed in the truth, remember themselves, their sin, or duty, and forget me? God hath blessed me with many lasting memorials of nature; a fruitful progeny: I need not build tombs, or Cities and call them after my name: for when I am dead my sons will preserve the memory of my name: the rotting of the name is a curse, entailed on men of rotten lives, and is ordinarily effected by Gods cutting off the budding race, and hopeful progeny: whatever hath befallen me in this life, God hath not suffered this cause procuring, or producing this effect, to be my lot; I will not therefore torment myself with a fear that it should follow me when dead. Notwithstanding my sinfulness, my care shall be that my life and death may make it legible, that my name is written in the book of life; and therein I have cause to rejoice, more than if the devil's we●● subject to me: 
Luk. 10.20  I have laid ho●d on God's Covenant; he hath given me a place in his sanctuary, better than a name of sons and daughters: my name can never be blotted out of that book; mine interest and relation by that covenant shall ever be acknowledged, and remembered; I therefore cannot possibly be buried in oblivion.   

SECT. XIII.  
DEath will remove me from my place, 
Death will remove me from my place, but it is movable.  that it shall know me no more: it will so: but shall this dismay me? am not I a pilgrim in this earth as all my fathers were? the Patriarches passed their time on earth in movable tents, Looking for a City whose founder and maker is God: 
Heb. 10.10.  the houses in which I have lived, have seemed to be more lasting structures; yet they never were to me any durable stations; I have not indeed removed my tents, but I have been often removed from my tents: I have ever been in a shifting state; moving from one house unto another; from one place to another; and this hath been to me very tedious and irksome: my Father did indeed raise many stately structures; 
In Dublin in Ireland.  not one of all his sons possessed them, or any of them; the brick walls may bear his name, none of his children do or can inhabit them: God hath made constant motion my condition; he hath wisely moved me from place to place, that I might be in love with no place under the sun: if I have liked mine house & place never so well, I have by one means or other been forced to leave it; and that either because it was none of mine, or else men's persecuting rage would not suffer me in peace to possess it; or because my Master's work hath been done in that place and called me to another: How often have I been forcibly removed from people whom I have dearly loved, and from places where I thought I had pitched my tent; and resolved to rest? I digged a grave for my children, wherein I intended to have been entombed myself; and yet my dead babes are dispersed; their graves are at a distance each from other; and 'tis very unlikely my grave should be with any of them. If Death remove me from my place; it doth nothing but what hath been common to me all my life, I will not therefore think it strange once more to remove my place; but will readily, contentedly pack up and be gone; for this remove shall be my last remove, for this remove shall be my best remove: for this remove shall move me from Earth to Heaven: and there I have an house of mine own; a better house than any this world affordeth; an house not made with hands; an eternal house; whose builder and maker is God; a Mansion house, prepared by Christ my precursor, for to entertain me, and wherein I must and shall abide for ever; an house which time cannot waste or ruin; nor humane force pull down, or raze; an house most pleasantly situated, accommodated with all conveniencies, exempt from all annoyances, and amply furnished with what may make it to me an happy habitation; an house it is for which I shall pay no rent, or taxes; in which I shall not live a tenant at will, but I shall possess this house fully, freely and for ever; being once settled in it, I shall not desire to leave it; I shall not be sequestered out of it; and (that which is worth all) this house is mine own house, mine inheritance, purchased for me by my Saviour, and passed unto by the gift of my gracious Father, none can dispute my title, or by an Ejectione firma, force me out of my house: My soul! Shall I not be willing to go to, and live in mine own house? and that being so well situate, so conveniently form, so well furnished; rather then in a strangers inconvenient house? Shall I not prefer an house of God's building, before the best of man's? shall I not choose an eternal, rather than a decayed, falling, ruinous habitation? My soul! be not troubled at this remove; thou beleivest in God, believe also in Christ; he hath said, in his Father's House are many mansions, 
John 14.1, 2.  if it were not so he would have told us; he is gone before to prepare a place for his removing people; shall I not up and after, such an harbinger? to possess the glorious mansions of his most gracious provision?  
Why is my remove by death my terror? my trouble? this remove will transmit me into a station, not more permanent than glorious: I am removing to a better house; yea, to possess a KINGDOM: A Kingdom, not like the Kingdoms of this world; not a narrow, empty, envied, distracted, divided, shaken, sinful, transient, and temporal Kingdom; not a Kingdom subject to wars, tumults, fire, famine, pestilence, ruin and desolation; and yet with ambition men do seek, with joy they remove into, with difficulty and danger they obtain these miserable earthly Kingdoms: but my Kingdom, to which I shall pass, is a spiritual, heavenly, unshaken, united, ample, abundant, undefiled, undisturbed, peaceable and everlasting Kingdom; not subject to any invasion or usurpation; to any confusion or commotions; to any mutations or violent revolution; to any alteration or danger.  
Seeing it is the will of my heavenly Father to give me a Kingdom; such a Kingdom; and my Kingdom is not of this world; why should I be unwilling to leave this world, and to go to my Kingdom? will any Prince desire to live out of that Kingdom to which he is heir? Since O my God thou hast given me a Kingdom; give me a spirit fit for, and desirous of this thy Kingdom; Let me live, and die worthy the hopes of thine heavenly Kingdom; let not this beggarly, and these base appendants make me draw back when called to pass into my Kingdom: Up my soul; enter this straight gate into thy royal Mansion; stoop under this cross that thou mayst receive the crown of righteousness, and life; the incorruptible crown of glory: ambition maketh men, whose portion is in this life, most desperately daring, to adventure their all for a poor Cottage-Kingdom, subject to commotion: shall not grace make me much more willing to put off my natural life; that I may put on this living immarcessible Crown, which cannot sit on a mortal head? and to pass from an house of bondage, through a red Sea, to a land of rest and pleasure; a station permanent; and to a Kingdom of glory? I will cheerfully remove this once; seeing I shall remove to so great advantage; and after this I shall remove no more.   

SECT. XIV.  
DEath will take me from off my work; 
Death will end my work yea and my day.  after it Christ's Church shall enjoy no benefit by my Ministry; I must now, no longer labour in the Lord's Vineyard: It is very true; and this cannot but reduce me to a straight, and put me to a stand what to choose; for if I live in the flesh, the Church will reap the fruit of my labour; that I abide in the flesh is for them more profitable; 
Phil. 1.22, 23.  nevertheless, for me, to die is gain; I shall be hereby eased of the charge and care of immortal souls; of the pains and burden of my Ministry; of the fear and dangers which attend my duty; of the toil and travel of all my labour; and of the tiring brunt of my working day; all which have made me often wish, my day were enden, and that my night were come; There are twelve hours in the day, 
Joh. 11.9.  wherein men work, and then cometh the night, wherein no man worketh: My day is not measured by my work, but my work is proportioned to my day; though I could by my natural strength; I cannot work longer for lack of time; when my day is done, my work is done; and shall I not be content with the end of both? if my Master ease me of my burden by ending my day, have I any cause to murmur? and yet,  
The hindrance of my work shall be no hindrance to my wages: 
Wages shall be sure.  my two talents, well improved for a little time, may approve me faithful when my master cometh; 
Matth. 25.22, 23. and 20.9.  and so will pass me into my Master's joy, as certainly, as if I had traded with ten talents, and for a longer time: he who worketh in my Lord's Vineyard but one hour, shall receive his penny, as well as he who hath endured the heat and brunt of the day: I have all my days stretched forth my hands to a stiffnecked and stuborn generation, who would not hear; men's obduracy hath made my ministry a work of difficulty and danger; I have in it been often tired, and willing to lie down and rest; yet I never durst look back, nor take my hand from the Plough, on which my God hath laid it; but I shall now find my recompense is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God, shall I repine to go to him to receive it? I will rejoice I have been so long serviceable in God's Church, and an instrument to glorify him on earth; and it shall be my joy, that I must now cease from my labour, go home to my Master, and be glorified with him in the heavens.  
I shall when dead, labour no more in the Lord's Vineyard; but I shall now drink myself drunk of the fruit of his Vine, with himself in his Kingdom: I shall no longer serve God on earth; but from henceforth I shall sing praises to him for ever in the heavens: though the Church militant must lose my labour; it shall not lose my master's care, he will thrust forth other labourers into his Vineyard; and the Church triumphant will enjoy my company to enforce their cry; 
Rev. 6.10  How long Lord, before thou wilt avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? come Lord Jesus, come quickly: I have done the work of my generation; what can I do, or desire to do more? I have dispatched the business charged on my hand; shall I be unwilling to sit still and take mine ease? I have delivered the embassy, to me committed; shall I not willingly return at my Lords command? My soul! bless God that he would employ weak, worthless me, and that I have done so much, and such work in his house, as I have done; Let me be no less willing to rest, and take my ease, then to work at my masters bidding.   

SECT. XV.  
DEath will dissolve my being; 
Death dissolveth my being, and dischargeth my burden.  when I am dead, I am not: but it will also discharge my burden; when I am not, I am not grieved: myself, my sin, and my sorrow, shall all cease together, and at once, better therefore is the day of my death, than the day of my birth: through all my life I have found little, very little that is ; but much, which I may well spare; very much whereof I may desire to be eased; for the discharge hereof I may well bid death welcome.  
What hath been my whole life, but an estate of sin, sorrow, of pain and travel; a condition, full of cares, fears, griefs, temptations, afflictions, crosses, losses, persecutions, reproaches, dangers, and great distresses, sicknesses and sinful weaknesses, and soul-perplexities? man that is born of a woman, 
Job 5.7.  is born unto trouble, a● the sparks fly upward: these are so natural to me, and inherent i● me, that they exist in, and subsist with my very self; I cannot be and be without them; I cannot lay them down, without laying myself aside: vanity, vexation, and trouble, qualify my life as inseparable to it; why am I perplexed with an apprehension that such a life draweth to a period? I have all my days been persecuted by humane rage and power, and so should be still if I live longer; I may well be contented to be resolved into an estate of peace: when men have killed my body, they have done their worst, their all; they have me not to insult over; they do much better for me then they are ware of; they give me a writ of ease from all my travel, and trouble; in the grave the wicked do and shall cease from troubling; 
Job 3.17, 18.  the weary shall be at rest; the prisoners do rest together, and they hear not the voice of the oppressor.  
My soul! were there no more in death, but this release from grief, pain, sorrow and travel; thou mayest well resign me up to the stroke of death; I may be content not to be, that so I may not be so miserable; well may death be sweet to me, to whom my whole life hath been so bitter: how many have desired death, because of the danger, distress, and dolour of their lives? how many have sinfully destroyed their lives, to deliver themselves from their cares, fears, griefs, wants, and woeful pains? I desire not, I dare not, I will not tempt God, and murmur against his providence, by hastening my death, by a violent, untimely, unlawful, unnatural act of self-violence; all the days of mine appointed time, I will wait till my change come; but I may very cheerfully, willingly, yield unto that stroke which is sent of God to ease me of so great a burden: the rather, because Death is my discharge from sin, as well as from sorrow; and death only can be the discharge thereof: In iniquity I was conceived, 
Psal. 51.5.  in sin did my Mother bring me forth; sin is to me as natural as myself; it is inherent in my being; it was born with me; it hath grown up with my ●ody; that will not, that cannot be divided from this; this corruptible body, is the uphold of the body of corruption; these two do stand, and will fall together: This dying flesh is not only the subject of sense, but also the seat of sin; the members of my body, are the instruments of sin, unto, and until death: how tormenting hath life been unto my soul, by reason of temptation unto sin? the constant militation of my flesh, hath made my life a continual conflict: how have I feared to nourish my body, because thereby I made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof? I could never yet tame sin, but by buffetting my flesh, and by abstracting from the supports of my being.  
I cannot be rid of sin, till I be released of life: Oh the care to avoid, fear to commit sin, to which I have been subject! how many times have I been forced to embrace sorrow, to shun sin? and to sit alone, exposed to scorn and misery, because I durst not run to the excess of riot with other men? Mortification of sin, hath been the main of my business, since I saw the sinfulness of sin: and yet do I what I could, it would and doth exist in me, and prevail upon me; to the often checking my comforts; hindering my communion with God; and wounding my conscience by omissions of, and defects in duty; by commission of heinous sins, and many abberrations from my heavenly father, forced to fetch me home by paternal castigation: though God's grace hath maintained in me a constant militation, tha● sin could not reign in my morta● body; and my Father hath ever kept me under the rod of correction; yet, the law in my members hath rebelled against the law in my mind; and led me captive unto sin: the best of my life hath been a candid confession, and a continual complaint, that the good I would do I do not, and the evil I would not do, that I do; and an affectionate outcry; Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? I must, I may whilst I live, make it my care to keep under my body, lest my sin overcome me; and yet whilst I abide in the body, I shall bear about a body of corruption; the death of this shall be, and it only can be the destruction of that: Only in the grave I shall cease to sin; when I am not, I shall not be sinful; I shall not be a sinner.  
My Soul! Dost thou desire to be freed from the suggestions, temptations, and inclinations to sin? and yet tremble at the thoughts of dissolution, which will, and only can deliver thee from them all? be assured after death thou shalt not be grieved for, because thou shalt not be stained with thy daily guilt: thy sinful nature shall then no more grieve the Spirit of thy holy God: Hast thou waged a mortal warfare against thy sin, all my life? and wilt thou now give back in the last mortal stroke? though this fall upon thyself with some violence, it will certainly give thee the full conquest over thy lusts with which thou hast so long contested; fall willingly under that fall, which will make thee full victor over these cursed Philistines.  
Come O my soul! be willing to stoop that thou mayst lay down thy load; submit freely to that stroke, which will for ever set thee free from all sin, and from all sorrow: cease to complain that thy life hath been tedious, and tiresome, troubleous and toilsome; or show thyself content and truly glad to be eased: desire to be dissolved, that thy burden of sin and sorrow may be discharged. Be still O my soul! the stroke of death is dreadful; but it once struck, doth for ever dismiss and destroy the suggestions of Satan, the motions of sin, the actings of unrighteousness, the apprehensions of God's wrath, and afflictions by men's rage and envy, with all other evils: who would not bear some dread to be delivered from so great distress; when I am dead, I shall cease from my labour; I shall rest from mine own works of sin and sorrow; these are indeed most properly mine own works; produced, procured by myself; created, continued by, and with myself; acted by, existent in, and with myself; to be only desolved and destroyed with myself: whilst I am, I am as, yea, above others of my brethren, the Butt of Satan's rage, and men's malice; the subject of strong passions and finful motions: whilst I have lived, I have not done duty to God without great defect; I have not delivered my Master's message among men, without great danger; Satan hath hunted me into sin, and wicked men hath hunted me into sufferings; they have lain in wait for me; they have laboured to make my tongue my trap, and to ensnare me by my words: but I may now be content, these can follow me no further; they shall now lose the sent; the grave shall be my burrow, in it I shall be quiet; I shall then be out of the reach of lust, care, trouble, sorrow, sickness, temptation and persecution; I shall now no more be heard to grieve or groan: I will therefore be willing to cease to be, that I may cease to be the subject of so bad, so sinful qualities.   

SECT. XVI.  
DEath will destroy my body: 
Death destroyeth the body but not the soul.  be it so: that is all it can do; it hath nothing to do with my soul, that remaineth immortal; it shall be saved, and set in Abraham's bosom, ●n eternal happiness, as soon as it is out of my body; it shall be associated to the spirits of just men made perfect: What need I care how it goeth with my worse, whilst I have secured, and it goeth so well with my better part? my soul is an immortal being; out of the reach of humane rage, and the stroke of death: What if men and death kill my body, if God will not cast my soul into hell, I escape well, and much better than I deserve; for sin had shipwracked me both soul and body; I had forfeited both to divine Justice: my soul being saved, I live in death: O blessed paradox! oh happy state I not to die in dying! My body is but an earthen vessel; I need not be much troubled if this be broken; so that my heavenly treasure be secured and preserved: my body is only the cabinet, I see no great cause to be troubled if that be lost, whilst the jewel of my soul is safe; Paul might well call on the Mariners to be of good cheer in the tempest, which tore their tackling and sunk their ship, being able to assure them, 
Acts 27.  no man's life should be lost but the ship only: I travel with my soul through briers and thorns, shall I wonder that I am pricked, and that my  are rend off me? My soul is of such value, that all is to be adventured and thrown overboard for its salvation; What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? 
Matth: 16.26.  my body is dear to me; I will do what I can to preserve it; but my soul is much dearer; this must be defended by exposing my body to danger and destruction; skin for skin, riches, honours, pleasures, peace, all my natural comforts, and outward blessings, I would give for my life, but these, and life and all will I give for my soul: 
1 Pet. 1.18.  My soul is redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ: Christ laid down his life to redeem my soul; and shall not I willingly lay down my life to keep my redeemed soul? O thou the Shepherd and Bishop of my soul, keep it within thy sheepfold, until thou shalt lead it unto thy glory; I will not then be solicitous, what may befall or become of my body, seeing I am under a necessity of suffering loss; I will rejoice that my loss is not greater; such as might have undone me for ever: welcome death to my body; temporal death which consisteth with the life and immortality of my soul; and passeth it into the fruition of eternal life: my soul may be saved by, and under the loss of my body; but my body could not be saved if my soul were lost: Oh strange! Oh blessed trade! the loss I am like to sustain, is mine infinite gain; this loss of my body shall save my soul; for in the cause of Christ and his Church, he who would save his life must lose it. 
Mat. 16.25    

SECT. XVII.  
DEath will separate my soul from my body; 
Death separateth soul and body, but not me and God.  it will so: but it cannot separate me from God; and that was the design of death; it cannot separate either the one or the other from the love of God in Christ Jesus; I am persuaded neither life, nor death, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
Rom. 8.38, 39  nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Chrict Jesus our Lord: shall not this inseparable love to me, meet with an answerable return of love from me? and make me with confidence and resolution conclude tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, shall not separate Christ from me? as it is written, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep to the slaughter; love is a principle of union; it cleaveth to, and looketh after its object, in its most low estate, and lost condition. Death shall not make me to be despised or forsaken by my God; This God is my God, 
Psa. 48.14.  my God for ever and ever, and he will be my guide unto death; yea, in, and through the vail of the shadow of death, his rod and his staff shall comfort me: 
and 23.4.  the Lord his esteem of, and relation to my soul and body, abideth as well, and as much, (though not by the same acts and expressions of affection) now they are separated from, as whilst they were united each unto other: God doth triumphantly observe the faith and patience, by which I endure the tearing of them each from other; for the testimony of his truth: he doth dispatch his Angels to attend my death; and to convey my soul into Abraham's bosom, to the immediate enjoyment of himself: nor doth he disregard my body, when divided from my soul; or disesteem the dust thereof; he causeth it to be mourned over by my friends, and natural relations, and to be buried with the greatest solemnity, poor, they can observe; yea, he loveth it, and looketh on it as united to Christ, though laid in the grave, or dispersed on the earth; all my members are written in God's book, 
Ps. 139.16  not one of them must be lost or miscarry; they shall not be neglected: my dust is precious in God's sight, not a grain of it shall be lost after it is sown in the earth it shall most certainly spring up as precious seed; watered with the dew of heaven; the word of the Lord to Zion, and all her sons doth assure them and me, that her dead men shall live; together with his dead body they shall arise; awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust, 
Isa. 26.19.  for thy dew, is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.  
My body remaineth God's Jewel, when it hath lost that lustre the soul did give it; God locketh it up in the grave as in his cabinet: God well knoweth my body is liable to danger, in the day of his wrath against the inhabitants of the earth: the grave is the receptacle from distress whereinto he doth gather it: know my soul and body, you when divided, do abide objects of God's compassion, complacency, and care; enter into your chambers, though dark; quietly shut your doors about you; the wise God is willing to hid you for a little moment, until his indignation be past.  
My soul and body are dear companions; it is not strange to see these two parted with dread, and grief: and yet, nearest relations, dearest friends must shake parting hands each with other in this world; brethren that have lived long together, and love most dearly, must leave each others company at their Father's pleasure; and for their future good: this is my case in death: my soul! be contented; take cheerful leave of thy body, thou art returning to the father of spirits. My body! consent willingly to shake hands, and shut out thy soul; thou must for a time be shut up by God, from falling under those desperate dangers, and deep distresses, which are more dreadful, and intolerable, then is death itself.  
The design of death, in dividing my soul from my body, was to divide both from God: but this is impossible: for union with Christ and with God in him, is inseparable; no case will make them cast me off; no condition can cut me off from them; whom they love once they love to the end, forever. 
Joh. 13.1.  Christ's union is with me; myself; my whole self; the whole, not any single part of man; no part of me, can therefore be by the power of death dismembered from him: death may militate against Christ's body, it may rend and mangle his members; but it cannot destroy his body, his mystical body; it cannot divide any his members, nor any part of his members from him: death shall ere it be long, by the sound of the last triumphant trumpet, at the glorious and general resurrection, know, and prove, that the union between Christ, and the bodies of his people, is as real, as inseparable; as the union between him and their souls: Christ will not lose any part of his purchase; he paid a price for man; for whole man; for our bodies; and for our souls; both are his: all enemies that interrupt the union; that intercept the communion which is between Christ and his members, must be destroyed, and the last enemy to be subdued is death: when the Grave, the Sea, and Hell shall give up the dead bodies which are in them, as in repositories for a time, I shall then find the design of death in dividing my soul, from my body, is failed, disappointed, and become frustrate; it never could divide either of them from God my Father, or from Jesus Christ my Redeemer: nor shall it be able long to keep these parts of me asunder, and at distance each from other; for my union with God and Christ, doth necessitate; and will most powerfully, irresistably effect the reunion of my soul and body, at the resurrection; that I, whole I, myself, out only part of myself, may enjoy them for ever.  
Let my God, and my Saviour, do with me what they please; so they will but please to be with me in life, and in death, whilst I am: and with my divided parts when I am not; I will then persuade, prevail with myself, contentedly to enjoy them in my divided parts; until the time return, that my parts reunied, my whole self, may be placed in an inseparable possession of them, in perfect glory, world without end.   

SECT. XVIII.  
When I am dead my body will be covered with worms; 
Worm's will eat me when dead, but conscience will not by't me.  and will feed upon me: but it is no matter; I shall not see their scrawling; I shall not feel their gnawing of my flesh: and if I did; yet that is nothing, whilst my soul shall escape the gnawings of an accusing conscience, that worm which never dieth: there is more mercy in being freed from this one worm, then from many thousands of those silly, weak, dying worms.  
Why should it trouble me to become the companion of worms? must not I say unto the worm, thou art my Mother, 
Job 17.14  and my Sister? what am I myself, but a worm? a weak creeping worm? 
Psa. 22.6.  David did apprehend himself a worm; a King and yet a worm; and Bildad, Jobs friend, noteth of man in general, 
Job 25.6.  that he is a worm: whilst I then am myself but a worm, let the worms feed sweetly upon their fellow: when I am dead I can do man no good; why should I not be glad any creatures can far the better for my death? the worms cannot cover me from the sight of God; they may crawl upon my body; but it is not thereby made loathsome to the Lord. They may devour my flesh; but the worm which never dieth, shall not distress my soul; I will not therefore appear so weak as to afflict myself, with the apprehensions of the power and prevalency of those silly creatures; to which I must be subject, but of which I shall not be sensible.   

SECT. XIX.  
IN Death I shall see corruption; 
In death I shall corrupt, but rise again.  my body will corrupt; be covered with dishonour; consume away to dust; moulder away to nothing: this I cannot deny; for it was peculiar to the holy one, the Lord Christ, and to him only, to die, and not to see corruption: but yet, I do believe the resurrection of my body: God can preserve my dust, and make my dead bones to live: my body is united unto Christ, death cannot destroy that union; my body united to Christ, shall by the power of his resurrection be most certainly raised up at the last day; that I may sit with him in heavenly places.  
God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
Mat. 22.32  and Jacob; he is the God of the living, and not of the dead: though therefore the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, be dead, and buried, and have seen corruption; and be dissolved into nothing; yet, they shall live again; they retain in the grave, an animating principle, which will produce its effect; they shall be raised up; and exist in their individual, specifical persons; and subsistencies: this was the Lord's Argument to convince the Sadduces of the resurrection of the body; this privilege was not peculiar to those Patriarches; for I also believe that my redeemer liveth; and that he shall at the latter day stand upon the earth; 
Job 19.25, 26, 27.  and though after this skin, worms destroy my body; yet in my flesh I shall see God; him I shall see for myself; whom mine eyes shall behold; and not another's, though my reins be consumed within me: My present life doth witness the first Adam to be a living soul; my resurrection from death, and the grave, must witness the second Adam to be a quickening spirit.  
My body is part of myself; it must not, it cannot be lost: its separation from my soul, maketh me cease to be; this separation continued, would continue me a nonentity for ever; myself is redeemed and related to the Lord; and my soul, or my body is related to him, but as parts of myself; these divided must be reunited, that myself may exist to enjoy my redemption by him, and my relation to him: though the Lords special care is for my soul, as my better and more noble part; he hath not excluded, he doth not despise, he will not neglect my body: My soul, and body are now joint subjects of grace, they must therefore hereafter be joint subjects of glory: they have in this world been joint agents o● duty to God; and joint patients in dolour for God; they must therefore in the world to come be joint heirs of dignity; and joint possessors of comfort from the Lord.  
After all the changes which shall or can pass, and return upon my body; God will gather up my dust; bring together my scattered bones; raise up this very body, and reunite it to this very soul: my body which shall corrupt and consume to nothing, shall be raised, the very same for substance, that it now is; but it shall then be clothed with more excellent qualities, most suitable to the excellency of my soul; in that estate of glory, it shall be raised up to enjoy: my body is now sown in corruption, 
1 Cor. 15.42, 43, 44.  but it shall be raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it shall be raised in Glory: it is sown in weakness, it shall be raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body: what then do I lose by having my body for a time resolved into nothing; consumed into dust? I lose nothing but the enjoyment of myself, for a little season; which being expired I shall return and re-enjoyn myself to very much advantage: doth not the Husbandman joy to see his seed rot in the ground? because he hopeth to receive the same body with better qualities: shall not I through grace, be willing to be resolved into nothing, that I may be restored better? O fool! 
1 Cor. 15.36.  no seed is quickened unless it first dye; my soul, resist not the pleasure, rebuke not the order of my Maker: if he kill to make alive; dissolve that he may restore my body, with the most blessed change of qualities, to the same substance; wilt thou dispute or decline his will? come, be content; cheerfully shake hands with my body; and let it go; leave it; look no more after it; though it be lost from thee, it is not lost from God or Christ; nor is it lost for ever: when Christ shall appear, I myself shall, my whole self, consisting of soul and body, 
Col. 3.4.  shall appear with him in glory, for he will raise me from the dead, 
Phil. 3.2.  and change my vile body; that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.  
I cannot but pray, that God would deliver me, my body; from wicked men, who are his sword, his hand, to cut it down, and reduce it into nothing; yet my father, not my will, but thy will be done; I will submit; I will be content; I will wait my appointed time, till my change shall come; and I will retain the confidence, and possess my soul in the comfortable expectation of my resurrection; for as for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; 
Psa. 17.15.  I shall be satisfied, when I awake, and arise in thy likeness.   

SECT. XX.  
DEath is that dreadful gulf, 
Death entereth m● into eternity; bu● it is of good.  which once shot, lancheth mine immortal soul into the ocean of Eternity: Eternity! what is that? a word of astonishment! an estate of amazement! I cannot look into it without heart-sinking thoughts, soul-troubling apprehensions: It is a depth unfathomable; a length and breath immeasurable; an height undiscernible; a continuance undeterminable, and unexspirable: but yet, Eternity is in all these respects, an estate most proper to mine immortal soul: herein an eternal subject, shall solace itself, in its eternal object unto all Eternity.  
Time's return hath been the lamentation of my life, 
Time's return is troublesome.  because it was the limitation of my comforts: were mine estate never so pleasant to me in respect of my health, wealth, plenty, peace, friends and familiars, or the like enjoyments; the discernible approaching period of them, hath bidden a stand to my delight in them; and damped mine affections towards them: The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal: 
2 Cor. 4.18.  sensual pleasures have the wings of the morning, they pass away with time; but Eternity is an adjunct, a property which stampeth no mean degree of excellency, on those glorious invisible objects, which are proposed to our faith; to counterpoise those visible but temporal good things, which captivate our sense.  
My soul! in Eternity thou shalt not be tired, with telling the fleeting hours; with observing the rerurning days, months or years: thine expectation of good or evil shall not then be tedious: thou shalt be by death transported and resolved into perfect, full, and for ever enjoyment of perfect good: and that without alteration, or degree; without increase or diminution; without consumption or expiration: Thou shalt now possess an everlasting noon day; thy sun shall no more rise, nor set; time shall be to thee no more; thine autumn shall abide fresh and green, fair and fruitful, without the least change by the increasing reviving spring, or by the chilling, clouding, kill winter: thy stars shall not be clouded, thy moon shall know no changes in this estate of Eternity: There shall be no Sun, Moon or Stars; thou shalt not need, and therefore thou shalt not have those directions, and determinations of time; for thy day shall abide in its perpetual brightness, without any dawning, or the least approach of night.  
Eternity existeen not in itself: 
Eternity an adjunct to the best things.  it is a property which passeth on some condition: 〈◊〉 adjunct quality which standeth not alone, but existeth in its subject. My soul look unto, and secure the subject, then wilt thou soon see, that Eternity is a quality greatly desirable; an adjunct unto thy great advantage; when death shall determine thy days it shall launch thee into; but it shall not leave thee fluctuating on the uncertain waves of Eternity; for the spirit goeth unto God who gave it; and as the tree falleth so it lieth; thou shalt most certainly be set in that estate, which must be thine Eternal estate, without any possibility of alteration, or expiration: thou by death sailest into the sea of Elernity; or rather thou passest through the red sea, unto the resting, refreshing shores of eternal salvation, an eternal inheritance, eternal glory, and eternal life: these are the blessed subjects in which thin● Eternity must and shall exist: Ha●● thou not in this life tasted the sweetness of those objects? hast thou not proposed these as that silver bell, for which thou hast run the race of righteousness? are not these the recompense of reward at which thou hast looked, as thine encouragement to all thy travel, and in all thy trouble; in expectation of these, I have despised the shame, and endured the cross: can I choose but desire these should be? can I choose but leap for joy to know that these invisible things are eternal? My soul, stand still upon thy dying shore, take a second, a serious view of eternity, as affixed to thy salvation to thine inheritance, to thy glory, and to thy life, and tremble, be troubled at the thoughts thereof if thou canst; thou wilt be more ready to tumble thyself headlong into, then once to turn back from thine Eternity.  
First then, 
Eternal salvation.  Death determineth all my woe; it giveth me an immunity from all evil; it passeth me into the possession of salvation: salvation from sin, from sorrow, from weakness, from sickness, from all defects, and deformities, from all infirmities and imperfections, from diseases of body, disgrace unto my name, and distempers of mind; from all the envy of Satan, rage of men, and wrath of God; is the happy and certain sequel of my death through Christ my Lord. Can it possibly grieve or amaze me to see, and to know that this salvation is eternal? or that I am going to possess and enjoy it for ever? shall my heart ache to appprehend it shall never ache more? shall I blear mine eyes with weeping, because God is about to wipe all tears from mine eyes for ever? Have not I believed and preached this salvation, and the eternity thereof? shall now mine entrance thereinto, be mine affliction? I have professed, myself did and would, and I have earnestly persuaded others, to persevere in piety, pressing to salvation, and waiting for the time when there should be no more weeping or woe, no more pain or grief; no more fear or sorrow; no more distress, death, or danger: and shall I now give back, when God hath brought me to that time? shall I dread the discharge of evil, which I have all my days desired and groaned for? or shall the eternity of this immunity, embitter mine expectation, or enjoyment of it; do I retain the sense of evil, and can I desire to return to it again? have not the Paroxysms of a Fever; the Fits of an Ague, of the Stone, or Colic, perplexed me, and made my strength to fail? have not the threats of humane rage filled my soul with terror, and exceeding dread? have not mine apprehensions of God's wrath, and eternal woe, which my sin hath deserved, filled my heart with horror, my soul with fear and grief, and my bones with trembling? shall I now fear to be put into that estate, wherein all these evils shall end for ever? wherein I shall never more feel it, I shall never more fear it? Oh blessed Eternity! annexed unto so great salvation!  
2. 
Mine Inheritance is eternal.  Death putteth my soul into the possession of mine inheritance: the inheritance which Christ hath purchased for me; which God hath promised to me; the inheritance among the Saints; the inheritance of the Saints in light; the inheritance of an house in heaven; the inheritance of the blessed mansions of God; the inheritance of a Kingdom; the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God; in this inheritance I shall inherit the confluence of all honour and happiness; in this inheritance I shall sit down a Co-heir with Jesus Christ, the only begotten, the only beloved Son of God: shall it grieve me that this inheritance is eternal? is not Eternity the Emphasis, the excellency of this inheritance? my soul could never be so much ravished with the plenty, pleasure, situation, society, greatness, and glory of this mine inheritance, as it would be damped and deadened, discouraged and discomfited with the vanity, the transiency of the same: what a cutting consideration would it be, to think there were but a possibility of a cutting off from this inheritance? or of my being cast out of it, though but for a time? unto this inheritance I have been called by the glorious Gospel; I have been sealed by the blessed spirit of adoption; I have received in myself the earnest, the first fruits of this inheritance; I have been thereby encouraged in mine expectation, and inflamed in my desire of a full possession thereof; shall I now draw back, and decline mine inheritance, and the enjoyment of it, because it is incorruptible and fadeth not away? because it is eternal, without end? I have ever deemed and determined the most rich and honourable inheritance on the earth, a pompous vanity; because it is temporal and transient: Shall I now dread to enter into the possession of that inheritance which is Real, because Eternal? can I be so foolish as to desire the worm of time should eat into my fair estate, and make my flourishing inheritance to fade; I have all my days lived a child in nonage, longing for, and looking at, but kept out of mine inheritance, but I am now at age, I shall now become a man, a grown man, and enter upon and into mine estate: and this is my comfort, mine advantage, I shall abide a man, a perfect man for ever; the second childhood of old age shall not overtake me, to deprive me of, or discapacitate me to enjoy this my heavenly inheritance: Oh! how have I longed and laboured? how have I panted and prayed? how have I pleaded with God? how have I pressed against the power of men and Devils, to get into the possession of this inheritance? now I am come to the door, shall I stand at the Threshold? shall I dread to enter in, sit down, and possess mine inheritance, because it is eternal? will eternity be the burden of my heavenly estate?  
My soul! embrace death, the door, the dark entry which passeth thee into thine inheritance; proceed with joy, with courage; praise God for the eternity of thy future state: is not this my substance, much better, because more enduring then all my worldly goods? hath not the hope of this, made me content with the loss, and to take joyfully the spoiling of those? shall , delight, eternity dismay my soul entering into the possession of what I have so much esteemed, so long expected? who would not exchange a Lease for life, for an inheritance to be enjoyed for ever? who would not part with all, to purchase, to possess such an inheritance, a Royal, Heavenly, holy inheritance? and shall I not gladly breathe out a dying life, to affix, and secure eternity to this mine inheritance?  
3. 
Eternity is affixed to glory.  Death shall invest my soul with GLORY: Eternity must needs be the sparkling lustre of GLORY: mine Inheritance shall be a Glorious Inheritance; and so much more glorious by being eternal; mine inheritance is a palace, not a poor cottage; a mansion, not a movable Tent; a Kingdom, not a Country Village; an Heavenly, not an Earthly Kingdom; a Kingdom of God, not of men; and is not this a Glorious Inheritance? would not any man desire to enjoy this for ever? Mine Inheritance, or estate in this world hath ever been poor, vile, and base; but my soul shall now pass into Glory; and be invested with nothing but Glory; I shall when dead know by experience, what I have long desired, earnestly prayed, and industriously laboured to know by the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; (viz) What is the Riches of the glory of the inheritance of the Saints; 
Eph. 1.18.  Now I have finished my course on earth, I must go to Heaven; that I may there receive my Crown; may course here hath been the continual exercise of Grace; my condition hereafter must be the constant enjoyment of Glory: the place in which my soul must now abide; the business in which my soul shall be employed; the company with which my soul shall associate; and the qualities with which my soul shall be endowed, are all glorious; these things are all transcendently glorious; I cannot but desire they should be; my soul cannot but leap for joy to think these glories are Eternal.  
The place in which my soul shall abide whilst parted from; 
Heaven a glorious place.  yea when reunited to my body, is glorious, transcendently glorious; for it is Heaven: My constant future residence must be in the Court of Heaven; the Heaven of heavens; the third heavens; the Paradise of God; the place into which the Apostle Paul was taken up; in which he heard words not fit to be uttered; 
2 Cor. 12.2, 4.  and in which he saw Glories which he could not declare; the Court of the great King; the King of Saints; and the King of Kings; the peculiar Palace of Gods most glorious presence; the holy, the heavenly Jerusalem; 
Rev. 21.  the great City, whose gates are pearl; whose pavement is gold; and whose foundations are precious stones; unto which the Kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour; in which there is no need of Sun, or Moon; for the glory of God doth lighten it; and the Lamb is the light thereof; into which there shall in no wise enter any thing which defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they only whose names are written in the lambs book of life. My soul! Dost thou linger to go unto, or dost thou fear too long continuance in this place of glory? How have humane senses been ravished with the glory of the structures raised by humane Art? how much have I admired the glorious workmanship of God in the bespangled firmament, the most curious enamelling the same with the Sun, Moon and Stars? and yet these are but dark shadows; most imperfect representations of Heaven's glory? and how far? how freely did the Queen of the South travel to see? with what ravishing observation did she admire? how blessed did she esteem the men who did reside in the state of Solomon's structures? wilt thou my soul flock to God and see, yea and fit down in the place prepared by the Lord, for his blessed ones, before the foundation of the world was laid? the glimpse of this glorious Kingdom, when the Lord Jesus was transfigured, did so ravish the three Disciples, that they thought it was good to be there, and began to cast how to build tabernacles, 
Matth. 17.2, 3, 4.  that they might there abide: Can I choose but long to see, and to set down my station in the very place its self where our Lord is ever in the truth and fullness of his glory? Come my soul! go forth with joy, and thou shalt at once possess that place of glory, from which thou canst no more remove, nor wilt desire to do it: in which the eternity of thy residence, is and will be the excellency of thine enjoyment; it would more grieve thee to go from, than not at first to have come to Heaven.  
The business in which my soul shall be employed in this glorious place, is also glorious: 
In heaven the work is glorious.  for after death attendance on, and acclamation of praise to God and Jesus Christ, shall be the whole the only employment of mine immortal soul; beatifical vision shall be its business: I shall then know God, as I am known of God; I have here believed in him whom I have not seen, rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory: but shall then see him, in whom I have believed; I shall see the Lord Jesus Christ, not darkly, as in a glass, but face to face; how full? how unspeakable? how glorious must needs be the joy which reflecteth from my sense? how must it needs transcend that which was only the result of faith? my soul when parted from my body shall (as the glorious Angels now do) minister continually in Gods immediate presence; and behold his glory: Happy were Solomon's servants who stood continually before him, and heard his wisdom; Behold my soul! a greater than Solomon is here; thou shalt attend on, minister before, and hear the wisdom, and behold the glory of the God of Solomon's wisdom, and glory.  
The souls which come out of great tribulation, are arrayed in white robes, and advanced unto continual attendance on the throne of God; to serve him in his Temple night and day; where the whole of their business is, and for ever shall be to sing hallelujahs unto the Lord; to admire the majesty, wisdom power & goodness of God; to ascribe wisdom blessing, honour, power and glory unto God, for ever and ever; to him who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever: God's service was on earth my perfect freedom; it must needs be much more such in Heaven: when I am once arrived at this estate of Glory, I shall be indeed, and for ever delivered from all mine enemies; that I may serve him without fear all my days, which shall never end.  
Oh the honour of relation to such a Master! oh the happiness of employment in such business! It is a good thing to sing praise unto our God; it is pleasant, and praise is comely: Oh the glory of attendance on so glorious Majesty! my soul, canst thou wish thy time in a relation so honourable; in an employment so happy; in an attendance so glorious, were as the days of an hireling? God forbidden: Lovest thou the service of thy God? shall the length of thy servitude dismay thee? Wilt thou not consent, yea desire to be boared through the ear, that thou mayst abide in this thy master's service for ever? Dost thou long to turn thy faith into sense? thy hope into fruition? thy prayers into praises? thine apprehensions of God and Christ, into immediate attendance on them? is it possible thou shouldst dread the eternity of this estate, thou so much, so earnestly desirest? art thou my soul capable of surfeiting with spiritual joys? dost thou not love and long to drink thy fill, to be drunk with the rivers of pleasure which flow continually in God's presence? how have I mourned under the withdrawings of God's presence! shall I now fear to approach his presence, only because I shall never more be banished from his Court & presence?  
My soul! cheer up; in Heaven, the frowns and frettings of thy Master, shall not make thee weary of waiting on him; his terrors shall no more make thee afraid, the splendour of his Majesty shall not dazzle thine eyes, nor discapacitate thy vision of him; thy work shall not there be tiring; thy service shall not then waste thy strength; wear thy ; or dull thy spirits; that thou shouldst wish for a return of time, wherein to take thine ease, obtain refreshment, or renew thine apparel: so eminent is this relation; so easy, so excellent is this employment; that the Eternity hereof is mine exceeding, mine infinitely great advantage; I long to enter upon it; I shall never desire to leave it; mine eternal enjoyment of it, is mine only hope, my Glory.  
The Company with whom my soul parted from my body, 
In Heaven I shall have glorious company.  shall associate, is no less glorious than the place of my future residence; or the business of my future employment: when I die I shall be admitted into, and entertained by the assemblies of the first born; whose names are written in heaven; and the spirits of just men made perfect; and the glorious Angels: those shall henceforward be my companions for ever: Oh blessed company! who would not long to be with them? who would not gladly go to them? who can with any possible content think of parting from them? how foolishly loathe am I to leave my friends on earth? yet I have not enjoyed their company without a cross; many of them have scorned me; many of them have slighted me; many of them have failed me; many of them have fallen out with me; many times they have provoked my passion, grieved my soul, and vexed my spirit; all of them have one way or other given a check to my comfort and content in their society. I now parting from them, shall pass into, enjoy and never more be parted from much better, more , and more pleasurable company.  
I shall now associate with Angels, those glorious creatures, the beauty of whose feet mortal eye can hardly look upon and live: those holy spirits, who wait immediately on God; and with all power and speed perform, the pleasure of the most high; those active spirits which are sent of God, to minister unto the heirs of salvation, these are now attendant on me, though I see them not; they do me many good turns, though I perceive it not; by them I am guarded in many dangers; they keep me in all my ways; they pitch their tents about me; they do me much good, and yet I understand not their nature, office, or ministry; but now my Soul! they attend my death, to perform their last work to me; to receive thee, and carry thee into Abraham's bosom, and to place thee in fellowship with themselves: thou shalt thenceforward know them, their natures and offices; thou shalt familiarly converse with them, and not be affrighted by them; nor shalt thou be weary of their company; these will not scorn thee; these will not vex and grieve thee; but as fast and faithful friends they will with freedom and fullness communicate themselves unto thee; to the abundant increase of thy joy, which will be the more abundant by the eternity of thy abiding with them.  
My soul! though at death thou art taken from among men, and made a mate for Angels; yet thou shalt not only converse with these glorious creatures, different in nature, and seemingly above thee; thou shalt now also associate with the spirits of just men made perfect: thou shalt sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God: thou shalt now be placed under the Altar, among the souls of them who were slain for the Testimony of Jesus: I have taken abundant pleasure in the fellowship of the Saints on earth; yet there infirmities have many times occasioned to me great vexations: Oh how pleasurable will their company be, now they are made perfect? I have had reverend thoughts of the Saints departed; the Fathers of Old; and the Martyrs of latter days: how precious do I account the memory of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachariah, Peter, Paul, James, John, Ignatius, Polycarpus, Justin, Athanasius, Wickliff, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Glover, Rogers, Laurence, Bradford, with many others; of these I have only heard, and read, I never yet knew them: but now my soul shall go to them; now my soul shall know them; it shall dwell in house, and be most familiarly, most intimately acquainted with them; and not only with these, but also with all the elect of God, whose names I have not yet heard of: this blessed society shall so much increase the joy of my soul, as to make Eternity the height of its desire, of its delight: who would not live for ever in so good a Neighbourhood? it hath often grieved me to part from good men on earth; I now lament that I must leave my godly friends on earth, and go to Heaven without them; and yet this my loss is made up by the enjoyment of others as good, yea, much better: and I have an assurance, that those I leave behind me, shall come to me; though I cannot come back to them: but Oh what an hell would it be, if time could cut me off from the blessed fellowship of these glorified Saints and Angels! My soul! put out; pass freely into the Ocean of Eternity; seeing thy voyage is made so comfortable, by sailing in such blessed company. 
corious qualities ●all en●ow my ●●ul.   
The Qualities of my soul shall be suitable to this heavenly place, work and company; for these also shall be Glorious: after death, conformity to God; and exact similitude to the Lord, 
1 Joh: 3. 2●  shall be the endowment of my soul: we are now the Sons of God; it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is: Oh blessed vision, which transformeth its subject! the sight of God and Christ by faith, as they are represented to us in the Gospel, doth on earth begin that change in man's soul, which is completed by the beatifical vision of their real existency in themselves: there can be no symmetry, without similitude; no communion without conformity; two cannot walk together except they be agreed; there can be no satisfying apprehension of the object, but by a suitable organ; Like to like, is the formal reason of all true, and full content; they that will see God and live, must be holy, as God is holy; and perfect, as God is perfect.  
My soul! passing into immediate communion with, must be made conformable to God: his image stamped on man in his creation, was the principle and capacity of communion with God: this defaced by sin, man was driven, and hath been kept at a distance from God; but this shall be now restored to, and completed in my soul; that it may return into constant communion with God: all that disparity and disproportion which rendered God dreadful and destructive to my being; and therefore deterred mine approach to him; shall at death be utterly and for ever discharged: My soul shall then indeed be holy as God is holy; and perfect as God is perfect: it shall not only have perfect qualities, the principles of union; but also those degrees of perfection which shall capacitate it for full communion with my God, Christ, and his Holy Angels, and glorified Saints; even the utmost degree of perfection such a creature is capable of; and an estate of so glorious communion doth call for, and require.  
The faculties of my soul shall be enlarged, unto the perfection of knowledge and affection: I shall after death, be able to pry into the deepest mysteries of man's fall, and salvation; of the glorious unconceivable subsistency of the Trinity in unity, three persons, in one undivided essence; of the miraculous hypostatical union of the two natures, God and Man in one person; of the blessed incarnation, and whole work of redemption, which is nothing but a Cabal of mysteries: I shall then comprehend incomprehensible glory, without the least defect, doubting, or difficulty; I now know but in part, I shall then know perfectly; knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, those parts of the new man, shall then attain to a perfect virile strength and stature; the divine nature whereof I here partake shall then be in me complete: I shall then know all things fully, and with full content: mine affections will then most freely close with, and take full complacency in those glorious objects, mine understanding shall then know & comprehend my: mind shall not know more of God and Christ, than my soul shall admire, mine affections embrace, unto the fullness of my comfort, forcing out the loud hallelujahs, and acclamations of joy and thanksgiving to God for ever: the imbicility of the natural man, which could not; the enmity of the natural man, which would not discern and savour the things of God, shall now be discharged, destroyed for ever; for now the natural man itself, shall expire and cease to be.  
Such shall be the changed estate, quality and endowments of my soul, that the things which were to it tiring, dulling & difficult, because supernatural; irksome, grievous and hateful, because contranatural; shall become easy and encouraging; lovely, acceptable and delightful, because connatural; the very, proper and only element in which my soul can live and enjoy itself: in this respect nothing could be so dismaying, afflicting and tormenting to my soul, as interruption, intermission, or expiration of enjoyment by the return of time; Oh folly! to dread Eternity, which must exist in the exercise and enjoyment of these glorious qualities of my soul! the disparity and disproportion which keepeth my God and me at a distance, shall now be discharged, and quite removed; can I desire the time in which they shall again return upon me? hath not the loss of God's image in me, and thereby the loss of his presence with me, cost me dear enough already? I cannot enjoy God for ever, unless I be like God for ever; my perfect proportion to God must fit me for perfect possession of God: welcome then Eternity in conformity to God, my only capacity of eternal communion with God.  
4. 
My future life is eternal.  Though I die, I shall die but once; my death shall be mine entrance into life; and my life shall be eternal; the second death shall have no power on me: seeing I must once die, oh how happy am I that I do not live to die the second death! the first death divideth my soul from my body; but the second death would have dividid my soul and body from God, and that for ever: but this death shall not befall me; for there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus; 
Rom. 8.1.  the Lord hath justified me; who shall condemn me? he hath delivered me from the dread of the first, by redeeming me from the power of the second death: I may be of good comfort, I shall not die, but live; I shall live in death; I shall pass through death to life; and whilst life is the subject, who would not desire to have eternity the adjunct? My soul, canst thou choose but joy, to know that thy life is eternal life? do I dread to die, and tremble to think of Eternity in life? O strange contradiction! the result of a weak faith, and of a clouded reason: nature hath taught me to desire and endeavour the preservation, and if it were possible the perpetuation of my natural, sinful, sorrowful life; shall not grace much more make me to rejoice, that my holy, happy life endureth for ever? that I shall eternally live in the salvation of God, to enjoy mine inheritance among the Saints and Angels in light; to attend on, contemplate, and have communion with God and Christ? were not eternal life affixed to these enjoyments, what would they avail me? what? should I delight to tantalise in the waters of life? Eternity abstracted, I do but catch at the happiness I cannot hold; I do fall under Moses his chance, Moses his curse; he led Israel to the banks of Jordan, to the borders of Canaan; he went up to mount Nebo, and saw the goodly land, but he entered not into it; he enjoyed it not; he died in the mountain: I have preached Eternal life; I have persuaded men to pursue it, to press after it; I have led them to the brink of the grave, and am ready to lie down and die, & now I dread the eternal life that attendeth me. O my folly! but blessed be God he hath not been provoked; he will not be by me persuaded to blot my name out of the book of life; but having purposed, purchased for me, and promised to me salvation, an inheritance, an estate of glory; he hath secured me my life in, and unto the possession thereof; and made eternity the blessed, inseparable property of them all.  
My soul! where art thou? what? art thou launched into? lost in eternity before out of my body? return; recover thyself before thou go hence, and be no more seen; look back on thine own thoughts; survey the land which the prospect of thy faith hath descried in the ocean of eternity: O the immensity! O the depth of eternity! this is an astonishing ocean; an amazing sea; whilst I stand on the banks of a temporal life, how do I tremble to look upon eternity, in its abstracted nature? but stay my soul! let us be wise; let my faith follow this flood; and deliberately observe how it streams itself in the Paradise of God; into eternal salvation; oh wonderful! Eternal inheritance; O this is desirable! how do I long for it? Eternal glory; that is delightful! the rays thereof ravish my heart: And Eternal life; O the emphasis, the excellency of all the rest! shall I dread to shoot this gulf of death? shall I fear to launch out into the depth of this eternity? can these blessed, desired, never enough desired things be abstracted from? be enjoyed without eternity? if they could, would they be so good? would they be such things? is not eternity the very formality of them? is not eternity that massy substance, affixed to the exceeding weight of glory, which counterpoiseth, weigheth down, and witnesseth the levity of those afflictions which we now suffer for a moment? Eternity is the sting of sorrow, but the strength of joy; the horror of damnation, but the honour of salvation; the dread, the dolour of the reprobate: but the desire & delight of the Elect; the plague, the sting of the gnawing worm, and tormenting not consuming fire; but the pleasure, the lustre of the wedding garment, and of the cooling, refreshing streams of the waters of life: My soul; Christ my Saviour hath redeemed me from the one, and sealed me to the other of these conditions; fear not therefore to go out of this body, to pass through this red Sea; this dark, dreadful, dismaying gulf into the Ocean of thine Eternity; remember, consider thy Lord long since declared, straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life: I will by God's grace stoop at this straight gate; I will press through this narrow way; seeing life, so rich, so glorious, so blessed life is the end thereof; to be enjoyed for ever.   

The Conclusion.  
§. MOst blessed Jesus! thou art the Lord of life and glory: of thine own good will in compassion and pity to lost man; thou didst leave the delights of Heaven, and of thy father's bosom; and wast clothed with man's mortal nature.  
Thou hast subjected thyself to death; to the most violent, shameful, and cursed death; that thou mightest sweeten and sanctify this cup; in which all thine elect and Saints must pledge thee: thou hast tasted death for all men.  
Thou having felt the sting, and encountered the strength of death; didst conquer and triumph over the grave: thou hast gotten; thou hast given all that believe in thee the victory over death: thou art in thy Church, and to thy Saints, the first fruits from the dead; thy glorious resurrection is our pledge, and assurance that we shall not be always held under the power and dominion of death; but that we shall be raised up, to reign with thee for ever.  
§. I thy weak and worthless servant, am under the expectation of death; and (if thou restrain not the wrath that is in man) it may be a violent, and shameful death: under the dread hereof, I look unto, and desire to encourage myself in thee, the captain of my salvation.  
Be not far from me my God, and my Saviour, in this hour of my temptation; but let thy grace support me under the stroke; and save me from the sting of death; strengthen my faith unto the full apprehension, & due application of thy death, and resurrection; to the curbing of my passions, and check of my fears; that I may willingly, cheerfully, follow thee through the vale of the shadow of death: O be my God my God and my Guide unto, & under death.  
§. Death is natural to man; common to all men; but its nature is changed unto some, and but to some of the sons of men; this dreadful Executioner of thy vengeance on the wicked; is but a grim messenger to fetch thy children home; this thy Sheriff, executing Malectours; putteth the heirs of salvation into the possession of that inheritance thou hast purchased for them, and appointed to them; the wicked dye, when thy friends do but sleep and rest in their beds.  
Be pleased O my Redeemer! to know me, and make me know myself to be one of that number, to whom the nature of death is changed; to whom it may not, it cannot be apprehended, or appear so dreadful: evidence and clear up to my soul and conscience, that real, supernatural change of quality in myself; which may convince me of, and secure unto me, the contranatural change of the nature and quality of death, to and upon me.  
§. Union with thy glorious self, can only secure against the sting, and encourage under & against the terrifying apprehension of the stroke of death: unite me O Lord unto thyself! communicate to me thy grace; that only evidence of my union with thee; that assurance, that only; that full assurance that death shall not divide between thee and me; death shall not separate my soul from thee; death shall not separate my body from thee; but my dust shall be regarded by thee; my death shall be precious in thy sight: make (O my God) the graces of thine holy spirit so legible in me; that I may thereby make my calling and election sure; and read readily that name that none can read but he who hath it: and that I may be certainly resolved in myself that my name was written in thy book of life, before the foundations of the world was laid.  
§. Thy grace (O Lord) hath been extended to me; make me to see it; teach me seriously to reflect it, unto thy praise and the encouragement of my soul under, and against the terrors of the dread of death.  
I am through thy grace and abundant mercy, called by the name; I have been born within the pale of thy Church, and under the Covenant of thy salvation: I was dedicated to thee and thy service as soon as I was born; thy covenant was then set on my flesh by baptism, and I now bear it on my flesh; I dare not with profane Esau, despise this my birthright; but must, and by thy grace I will rejoice, that I partake of the fatness of the Olive; and that I am a branch from an holy root, sanctified by, and unto God.  
Thou didst bless me (O Lord) with Christian nurture and education; I have known thy word from my childhood; thou hast seasoned me with, and sanctified me by thy truth; thy word is truth; it hath been the delight of my soul; and the direction of my life and faith.  
Thy spirit hath been and is in me, the spirit of conviction and of burning, by it I see the finfulness of sin; and possess with grief & shame the iniquities of my youth, and the evil of my ways and do: it lusteth against my flesh; and draweth, disposeth my mind to serve the Law of God, when my flesh is forced to serve the Law of sin.  
Thy glorious Gospel, thy gracious spirit (O Lord) hath convinced me of, and affected my soul with mine own guilt; thy father's wrath and justice, and the salvation wrought out by thee, and by thee alone; I do believe there is no name by which men can be saved, but thy name most blessed Jesus; thou art the true Messiah; the only Mediator between God and man; the all-sufficient Saviour of all that come unto thee: unto thee (O Lord) I come, weary and heavy loaden with my sin; Oh give me easy! pressed with a dread of thy father's wrath; plead my cause, satisfy for me his offended justice; be the propitiation for my sins: oppressed with my lusts; Oh save me from my sin; subdue corruptions in me; change my nature; be to me a perfect Saviour, for to thee I run, on thee I rely; thee I embrace with all my soul, to be my Lord and my King; refuse, reject me not, O God of my salvation.  
I have resigned up my whole man to thy most holy word and will; and desire to walk in thy most holy ways: thy love shed abroad in my heart, hath inflamed me with a love to thy name, to thine ordinances, thy people, and thine house; the zeal of thy house hath consumed me; I have through thy spirit, embraced, esteemed thy truth in the love thereof; and thy people for the truth's sake which is in them.  
For thy sake I have denied all outward comforts; I have taken up my cross and followed thee; Consider, remember (O Lord) my present bonds; for thy sake I am killed all the day long; I am accounted as a Sheep for the slaughter; the reproaches of them who reproach thee, are fallen upon me; all this is come upon me, yet have I not departed from thee; nor dealt falsely in the Covenant, in which thy glory is concerned.  
§. These things O Lord I do reflect, not as matters of merit in me; or as engagements on thy justice to do me good; for I well know they are not mine own; and if they were, and were perfect; yet, I must (when I have done the best I can) acknowledge, I am an unprofitable servant; all I can do is due to thee; the best of my actions are but the debt I owe thee: but alas, my best actions are full of sin, my righteousness is as a filthy rag, & a menstruous garment, which needeth thy propitiation and thy father's pardon; and must be perfumed by the incense, which is on the censer, in the right hand of thee my high Priest. Yet O my Savour! I reveiw these things in me, as the effects of thy grace to me; & of thy spirit in me, and as infallible evidences of thine union to me; for flesh and blood could not reveal, nor work these things in me: by thy grace sanctifying my nature, my soul is and shall be saved: o refuse me not! deny me not to be thine! O let thy spirit of adoption seal up my relation to thee! and mine interest in thee! let me not remain in the dark, or be deceived in a matter of so great concernment to me, clear up to me by certain premises, the truth, the realty of mine inseparable union with thee! else I am undone, & have said nothing to my soul, in all that I have said against the dread of death.  
§. Grant unto me O Lord; the remission of all my sins; the sense of the guilt thereof doth sting my soul; under the apprehensions of mine approaching death: Whatsoever doth befall me in this life, I beseech thee suffer me not to die in my sin; Oh convince me of, humble me for, and turn me from all iniquity, and every reigning lust: but graciously cast it behind thy back; blot it out of thy remembrance, that in the day it is sought for it may not be found against me: sin hath passed on me, and death by sin; but deliver me, O my Saviour, from falling by & under the second death, from which there is no possibility of redemption.  
Secure unto my soul thy sufferings, as the full ransom of my soul, and the satisfaction to thy father's law, and justice for mine offences; and for my many great transgressions, so shall I be able to meet death with boldness; I shall then insult over that King of terrors, with on O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory; I shall then triumph over death; and him who hath the power of death, the Devil: If my heart deceive me not, I would not sin that grace ●hould abound; but now (blessed Saviour) that I have sinned, I do, I dare not but earnestly beg thy grace may abound, that I may in my death through the pardon of sin, sing unto thy praise, thanks be unto God who hath given met he victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.  
§. O thou the only high Priest of my profession! thou canst be touched with mine infirmities; thou knowest the power the prevalency of my natural passions, under the apprehensions of mine approaching death: thou ever livest to make intercession for me: graciously rebuke my passions, restrain my fears, revive my faith, renew my hope, and establish my heart under and against all those amazing, affrighting apprehenfions of death, which nature dot● conceive, sense doth dictate, or Satan doth suggest unto my dread. Compassionately grant me the comfortable supports of thy presence, grace and spirit, whilst I walk in the vale of the shadow of death; that I may with all patience and meekness lie down, and receive that stroke of death which I cannot avoid, and yet cannot be willing to receive. That I may with submission drink that bitter cup thou puttest into my hand, concerning which; my nature not corrupted with sin could not but pray, Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me: give me an heart groaning to be clothed on, with my house from heaven; whilst I cannot desire to be unclothed of this earthly tabernacle: and seeing my presence in the flesh, is mine absence from thee O Lord; persuade me to be willing to be dissolved, that I may be with thee, which is best of all.  
§. As a man I cannot desire, I cannot but fear to die: be pleased (O my Saviour) to convince me of, and afflict me with, the happy sequels of my death; that the sense thereof may make me contrary to the power & property of my nature desirous to die: let not the dread of death drive me to accept on sinful terms the deliverance from the most violent, and shameful stroke thereof: enable me to live, the last breath of this my dying life in the ways of thy truth and holiness, to the praise of thy grace, and in this last act to play the man, courageously evidencing myself affected with a clear sense that all the evils of death are discharged, and assured that I am united to thee who art the resurrection and the life; through whom, though I die, I shall live again; and having fought the good fight of faith, and finished my course of nature; I shall escape the curse of death, and be received into eternal life and glory with thyself, thy blessed Saints and Angels for ever; guide me all my days by thy counsel, and at last receive me into thy glory: Into thy hands I commit my spirit, it is thine own thou hast redeemed it, and thou wilt keep it until thy glorious appearance, blessed Jesus, my Lord and my Redeemer. Amen, Amen, Amen.   
FINIS.